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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 US: [NukeNet] Action: Put the Brakes on the Energy Bill! [Public
2 U.S. complicity in the development of Israel's nuclear arsenal
3 US: TOMPAINE.com - Wasting Energy
4 US: FOXNews.com: Nuclear Fallout
5 US: CBS News: Public Vs. Private In Cheney Fight
6 US: CBS News: Scalia Vows To Hear Cheney Case
7 US: CBS News: Cheney Energy Flap Goes To Court
8 US: CBS News: U.S. Tracking Nuke Wannabes
9 US: United Press International: GAO questions U.S. nuclear security
10 Avnery: Vanunu: The Terrible Secret
11 AFP: NKorea working meeting to be held May 12: Russian report
12 Bellona: 'Peter The Great' financier jailed for graft
13 Bellona: Half a million dollars missing from Russian Northern Fleet'
14 BBC: UN nuclear chief to visit Israel
15 BBC: UN bans WMD sales to terrorists
16 KAVKAZ CENTER: Vanunu recalls about Zionist nuclear threat
17 Mos News: Nuclear Flagship Financier Jailed for Fraud -
NUCLEAR REACTORS
18 US: NRC: NRC Issues Regulatory Issue Summary Concerning Electric Gri
19 US: NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to Meet May 6
20 US: projo.com: Tiny budget provision could be key to nuke plant's fu
21 US: Valley News: Aglow Somewhere
22 Pravda.RU: Chernobyl Block 4 will be encased in 2nd sarcophagus by 2
23 US: JOURNAL NEWS: NRC deems plants secure
24 US: TCPalm: St. Lucie nuclear plant guards removed from duty
25 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Subcommittee Meeti
26 US: NRC: Documents Containing Reporting or Recordkeeping Requirement
27 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Fin
28 US: NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for th
29 US: Southern Illinoisan: NUCLEAR PLANT GETS GO-AHEAD TO RESUME PRODU
30 US: Patriot Ledger: Death blamed on power plantBy Rich Harbert
31 US: PRN: PPL's Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant Returns to Normal Ope
NUCLEAR SAFETY
32 IPS-English RIGHTS: Evidence Grows Against Depleted Uranium
33 US: Banning Irradiated Food from School Lunch Programs
34 UK ITV: Sailors quit nuclear sub on safety grounds
35 US: IPS: Evidence Grows Against Depleted Uranium Weapons
36 Scotsman: Greenpeace Urges Safety Checks on UK's Nuclear Subs
37 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear sub's crew in safety protest
38 US: NRC: NRC Proposes $6,000 Fine Against All Tech Corp., of Pocatel
39 US: NRC: NRC Proposes $12,000 Fine for High Mountain Inspection Serv
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
40 Las Vegas SUN: Report cites 'persistent' data problems on Nevada
41 Guardian Unlimited: Radioactive Wastewater Spills Into Rhine
42 Las Vegas RJ: Group's meetingunder scrutiny
43 Las Vegas RJ: Quality problems remain, audit says
44 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Yucca talks should not be closed
45 Las Vegas SUN: GAO report criticizes Yucca methods
46 Pahrump Valley Times: Who's on our side?
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
47 Guardian Unlimited: EU Resolves Expansion Issues With Russia
48 US: ST: Robert Mcnamara and Helen Caldicott: More perilous than terr
49 Japan Times: Mayors attend nonproliferation meet in New York
50 US: Q and A: No Nukes Is Good Nukes
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
51 DOE: Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee
52 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Paducah
53 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Oak Ridg
54 DOE: Comment Period Extension and Additional Public Scoping Meetings
55 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Hanford not safe on terror front
56 Seattle Times: Ex-Hanford-case attorney sues state bar, 2 lawyers
57 Las Vegas RJ: DESTINATION: TEST SITE: All weapons-grade nuclear mate
58 Tri-Valley Herald: Lab expansion ignites debate
59 BBC: Safety fears see sailors quit sub
60 Tri-City Herald: Waste reclassification talks stall
61 Tri-City Herald: Report critical of DOE
62 Las Vegas SUN: Uranium planned for Test Site
63 Contra Costa Times: Activists share lab expansion concerns
64 Daily Texan: Anti-Los Alamos bill introduced -
65 SF Chronicle: Livermore lab assailed for holes in security
66 Chicago Sun-Times: Argonne reactor's shell to be hauled away
67 KPVI: DOE announces new contractor rules at INEEL
68 The Daily Texan: Los Alamos good for U.S. and UT System -
69 Oak Ridger: ORNL technology gives new access to living cells
70 Oak Ridger: Cleanup method sticks like glue
71 Oak Ridger: Security upgrades years away
72 lamonitor.com: LANL enterprise project cited by feds in report
73 SHN: A proposal to add Manhattan Project sites to park system
OTHER NUCLEAR
74 [DU-WATCH] DU Press Release & Daily News Articles
75 Google News Alert - nuclear
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1 [NukeNet] Action: Put the Brakes on the Energy Bill! [Public
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 14:40:57 -0700
*** Apologies for cross-posting ***
!!! A C T I O N A L E R T !!!
Tell Your Senators to Stop Latest Attempt to Pass the Energy Bill!
April 28, 2004
Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) has once again resurrected his forlorn
energy bill (S. 2095, the "Energy Policy Act of 2003") in the form of a
"second-degree" amendment -- that is, an amendment to another amendment.
Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) offered the "Renewable Fuels Standard"
portion of the energy bill as an amendment to a bill restricting
taxation on internet usage (S. 150, the "Internet Tax Freedom Act").
Sen. Domenici then seized the opportunity and added the comprehensive
energy bill as an amendment to Sen. Daschle's amendment. The cloture
votes on these amendments are scheduled for Thursday morning.
WE MUST STOP THIS UNDERHANDED MANEUVER! Tell your senators to oppose
Sen. Domenici's energy bill amendment! CONNECT to your senators via the
U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Tell your senators to oppose "cloture" -- a truncation of debate -- on
Sen. Domenici's energy bill amendment! We must stave off this
despicable legislation!
While Sen. Domenici's amendment doesn't include the $10.5 billion in
tax breaks for the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear industries (which are
attached to the foreign sales corporation bill) or a liability waiver
for MTBE producers, it is still packed with anti-consumer and
anti-environment provisions, including the repeal of the Public Utility
Holding Company Act (PUHCA) -- which would lead to further Enron-type
activities -- and exemptions from the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water
Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. The Bush Administration's own
Energy Information Administration has concluded that the energy bill
will do nothing to lower gas prices or reduce the country's dependence
on foreign oil.
LEARN MORE about the reprehensible contents of the energy bill here:
http://www.citizen.org/energybill
For the LATEST UPDATES on actions you can take to prevent the infamous
Bush energy policy from becoming law, go here:
http://www.stopenergybill.org
_______________________________________________________________________
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Change your settings at:
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2 U.S. complicity in the development of Israel's nuclear arsenal
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 01:52:42 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2004/0404vanunu.html
Foreign Policy in Focus April 22, 2004
The release of Mordechai Vanunu and U.S. complicity in the development of
Israel's nuclear arsenal
By Stephen Zunes
The recent release on April 22 of Mordechai Vanunu from an Israeli prison
provides an opportunity to challenge the U.S. policy of supporting Israel's
development of nuclear weapons while threatening war against other Middle
Eastern states for simply having the potential for developing such weaponry.
Vanunu, a nuclear technician at Israel's Dimona nuclear plant, passed along
photographs he had taken inside the plant to the Sunday Times of London in
1986. His evidence demonstrated that Israel had developed up to two hundred
nuclear weapons of a highly advanced design, making it the world's
sixth-largest nuclear power. For his efforts, agents from the Mossad,
Israels intelligence service, kidnapped him from Rome and brought him to
Israel [1] to stand before a secret tribunal that convicted him on charges
of espionage and treason and sentenced him to eighteen years in prison under
solitary confinement.
Though labeled a spy and a traitor, he was in fact simply a whistle-blower
who became "a martyr to the causes of press freedom and nuclear
de-escalation."[2] He never received any money for this act of conscience,
which he took upon recognizing that Israels nuclear program went well
beyond its need for a deterrent and was likely offensive in nature. A former
strategic analyst at the Rand Corporation observed that Vanunu's revelations
about Israels nuclear program demonstrated that: "Its scale and nature was
clearly designed for threatening and if necessary launching first-use of
nuclear weapons against conventional forces."[3] Prior to Vanunu's
revelations, many suspected that Israel's nuclear program was limited to
tactical nuclear artillery and naval shells.
Israel is one of just four countries--the others being Pakistan, India, and
Cuba--that has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. UN Security
Council resolution 1172 urges all countries to become parties of the
treaty.[4]
It is noteworthy that Israel finds whistle-blowing more threatening than
actual spying. None of the half dozen spies convicted in Israel for nuclear
espionage served as much time in prison as has Vanunu.[5]
Vanunu, who has been referred to by Daniel Ellsberg as "the pre-eminent hero
of the nuclear era,"[6] has been awarded the Sean McBride Peace prize, the
Right Livelihood Award, and an honorary doctorate from a Norwegian
university. He has also been repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The European parliament, former President Jimmy Carter, the Jewish Peace
Fellowship, the Federation of American Scientists, and many other prominent
individuals and organizations have long called for Vanunu's release. By
contrast, with few notable exceptions--such as the late Senator Paul
Wellstone of Minnesota --there has been virtually no support in Congress.
The four administrations in office during Vanunu's confinement have been
even less supportive. For example, in response to an inquiry by Tom
Campbell, the former Republican Congressman from California, Clintons
assistant secretary of State, Barbara Larkin, claimed that Vanunu had had a
fair trial and was doing well in prison.[7]
This lack of U.S. support for Vanunu is just one part of the longstanding
U.S. acquiescence of Israels nuclear program.
Israel has long stated that it would not be the first to introduce nuclear
weapons into the Middle East, which is a rather disingenuous commitment
given that U.S. planes and warships have been bringing nuclear weapons into
the region since the 1950s. Israel is generally believed to have become a
nuclear power by 1969. The newly elected President Richard Nixon and his
chief foreign policy adviser, Henry Kissinger, privately endorsed Israel's
program that year. They quickly ended the regular U.S. inspections of
Israel's Dimona nuclear center. This was of little consequence, however,
since these "inspections" were pro forma and not taken seriously. (President
Lyndon Johnson demonstrated his lack of concern over the prospects of Israel
becoming a nuclear power by rejecting calls that one of the early major
weapons sales to Israel be conditioned on Israel signing the NPT.) The Nixon
administration went to great lengths to keep nuclear issues out of any talks
on the Middle East. Information on Israeli nuclear capabilities was
routinely suppressed. The United States even supplied Israel with krytrons
(nuclear triggers) and supercomputers that were bound for the Israeli
nuclear program.[8]
Under the Carter administration, which took the threat of nuclear
proliferation somewhat more seriously than other administrations, the issue
of Israels development of nuclear weaponry was not raised publicly. When
satellite footage of an aborted nuclear test in South Africa's Kalahari
Desert gave evidence of a large-scale presence of Israeli personnel at the
test site, the Carter administration kept it quiet.[9] Two years later, when
a U.S. satellite detected a successful joint Israeli-South African atomic
bomb test in the Indian Ocean, the Carter administration rushed to squelch
initial media reports. According to Joseph Nye, then-Deputy Under Secretary
of State, the Carter administration considered the Israels nuclear weapons
program a low priority.[10]
Top officials in the Reagan administration made a conscious effort to keep
information on Israels nuclear capability from State Department officials
and others who might have concerns over nuclear proliferation issues.[11]
The senior Bush administration sold at least 1,500 nuclear "dual-use" items
to Israel, according to a report by the General Accounting Office, despite
requirements under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that the existing
nuclear powers like the United States not help another country's nuclear
weapons program "in any way."[12]
The Israeli media reported that President Clinton wrote rightist Israeli
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu in 1998 pledging that the United States
would continue to protect Israels nuclear program from international
pressure. According to Haaretz, "the United States will preserve Israel's
strategic deterrence capabilities and ensure that Middle East arms control
initiatives will not damage it in the future. The Clinton letter provides
written--if secret--backup to the long-standing agreement between Jerusalem
and Washington over the preservation of Israel's nuclear capabilities if
Israel maintains its policy of 'ambiguity' and does not announce publicly
that it has the bomb.[13]
Meanwhile, Congress has for many years made it clear to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission and other responsible parties that it did not want to
have anything revealed in an open hearing related to Israels nuclear
capability. A major reason is that there are a number of laws that severely
restrict U.S. military and technical assistance to countries that develop
nuclear weapons. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. arms exports, which
are highly profitable for the politically influential arms industry.
Outside of Washington, top Israeli nuclear scientists have had open access
to American institutions and many leading American nuclear scientists had
extended visits with their counterparts in Israel, in what has been called
"informational promiscuity" in the seepage of nuclear intelligence.[14]
In addition, given the enormous costs of any nuclear program of such
magnitude, it would have been very difficult for Israel to develop such a
large and advanced arsenal without the tens of billions of dollars in
unrestricted American financial support. More than simply employing a double
standard of threatening perceived enemies for developing nuclear weapons
while tolerating development of such weapons by its allies, the United
States has, in effect, subsidized nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.
In order to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush,
Senator John Kerry, and others argued that Iraq had an ongoing nuclear
weapons program in violation of UN Security Council resolution 687. (In
reality, the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency had
determined in 1998 that Iraq's nuclear program had been completely
dismantled and IAEA inspections in the months immediately prior to the U.S.
invasion and exhaustive searches by U.S. forces subsequently have confirmed
that assessment.) What both Republican and Democratic leaders have failed to
observe, however, is that Israel remains in violation of UN Security Council
resolution 487, which calls on Israel to place its facilities at Dimona
under IAEA trusteeship. Despite bipartisan efforts in Congress to seek
repeal of that resolution, it is still legally binding. Bush and Kerry,
however, believe that UN Security Council resolutions, like nuclear
non-proliferation, do not apply to U.S. allies.
Within Israel, however, there was much debate among Israeli elites regarding
the wisdom of developing nuclear weapons. Some Israeli leaders--ranging from
former Labor Prime Ministers Golda Meir and Yigal Allon to former Likud
Defense Minister Raful Eitan--argued that a nuclear Israel would increase
the possibility of Arab states developing weapons of mass destruction and
launching a first strike against Israel.[15] Give the country's small size,
Israel might not have a credible second-strike capability. There is also the
fact that most of Israels potential nuclear targets are close enough so
that a shift in wind could potentially send a radioactive cloud over Israel.
Furthermore, while one could make a case for an Israeli nuclear deterrent up
through the mid-1970s, Israel's qualitative advantage in conventional forces
relative to any combination of Arab states developed subsequently--resulting
in large part from a prodigious amount of taxpayer-funded arms transfers
from the United States--would appear to weaken the case for a nuclear
weapons development. Furthermore, Israel has an extensive biological and
chemical weapons program that far surpasses those of any potential hostile
power and--combined with vastly superior delivery systems--would constitute
a more-than-adequate deterrent.
Vanunu was forced to remain in solitary confinement until 1998, when ongoing
pressure from human rights groups forced the Israelis to end his
segregation, though he was still not allowed to talk with fellow prisoners.
Amnesty International, for example, observed that the prolonged isolation of
Vanunu constituted cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and violated
international human rights law.[16] The eleven and a half years in solitary
confinement has reportedly taken a psychological toll, raising concerns that
he may not be a credible voice in the cause of nuclear non-proliferation
upon his release.
It appears, however, that Israels U.S.-backed rightist government may not
give him a chance. On March 9, Israeli Attorney General Mordechai Mazuz said
that Vanunu's release from prison "will create a significant danger to state
security" and that there will likely be major restrictions placed upon his
movements and what he can say without the risk of returning to prison.[17]
Though the Moroccan-born Vanunu had decided to leave Israel prior to his
1986 kidnapping, he had converted to Christianity during an extended stay in
Australia the previous year, and has stated that he would like to emigrate
to the United States, the Israeli government will reportedly bar him from
leaving the country.[18]
Like Israel, the United States has acknowledged its willingness to use
nuclear weapons against non-nuclear adversaries. And, like in Israel, there
is an obsession with secrecy that allows the government to get away with
dangerous and destabilizing nuclear policies that risk a nuclear
catastrophe. It is not surprising, then, that the United States has failed
to challenge the Israeli government's policy toward this courageous nuclear
whistle-blower.
As Ellsberg has observed, "The cult and culture of secrecy in every nuclear
weapons state has endangered and continues to threaten the survival of
humanity. Vanunu's challenge to that wrongful and dangerous secrecy must be
joined worldwide."[19]
Stephen Zunes is a professor of Politics and chair of the Peace & Justice
Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. He serves as Middle East
editor for Foreign Policy in Focus (online at www.fpif.org) and is the
author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism
(Common Courage Press, 2003). He is currently conducting research in Israel
and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
----
End Notes
1. The woman who lured Vanunu was an American working for the Mossad.
2. The Sunday Times, December 27, 1992.
3. Daniel Ellsberg, Mordechai Vanunu's Meaning for the Nuclear Age,
Blaetter fuer deutsche und internationale Politik, April 2004.
4. UN Security Council Resolution 1172 (1998), article 13.
5. P. R. Kumaraswarmy, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March/April 1999.
6. Ellsberg, op. cit.
7. http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/archive/f99howstatedept.html.
8. Seymour Hersch, The Sampson Option, New York: Random House, 1991, p.
209-214.
9. Ibid., p. 268.
10. Cited in Ibid., p. 283.
11. Ibid., p. 291
12. Jane Hunter, A Nuclear Affair, Middle East International, 24 June
1994, pp. 12-13.
13. Aluf Benn, A Presidents Promise: Israel Can Keep its Nukes, Haaretz,
May 14, 2000.
14. Helena Cobban, Israels Nuclear Game: The U.S. Stake, World Policy
Journal, Summer 1988, pp. 427-428.
15. David Twersky, Is Silence Golden? Vanunu and Nuclear Israel, Tikkun,
(Vol 3, No. 1).
16. Amnesty International, October 1991.
17. Gideon Alon, AG Mazuz: Vanunu significant danger to state security.
Ha'aretz, March 9, 2004.
18. Yossi Melman, Security sources: Vanunu applied for passport,Ha'aretz,
March 10, 2004.
19. Ellsberg, op. cit.
===========
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3 TOMPAINE.com - Wasting Energy
Home [http://www.tompaine.com/]
Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes legal issues for CBS News and
CBSNews.com.
It is easy to think both too much and think too little of the
White House's fight with the federal courts over who told what to
whom before, during, and after meetings of the National Energy
Policy Development Group.
It's easy to overestimate the dispute because, in the end, it
involves highly technical matters of legal procedure. But it's
easy to underestimate the April 27 battle before the Supreme
Court because the showdown represents a (so far) high-water mark
of executive branch arrogance toward the judiciary.
The Justices must decide whether to order Vice President Dick
Cheney to disclose the identity of any private citizens (hello
there, Ken Lay) who may have participated in any meetings of the
Energy Group. Two private groups from opposite ends of the
political spectrum, the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, have sued
to gain those disclosures and to try to find out whether and to
what extent the Energy Group was influenced by such private
considerations. Arguing that this is a case involving separation
of powers principles, the White House says that only government
employees attended the meetings and that, anyway, the information
sought is none of anyone else's business.
So far, the two federal courts that have looked at the case both
have sided with the plaintiffs and against the White House. If
the Court affirms those rulings, the White House will be forced
either to turn over the information (whatever it is) or assert
executive privilege over them (which, of course, would generate
another huge legal mess).
If the Supreme Court overrules the lower courts, the White House
will be able to similarly avoid turning over such information in
the future. So, like many cases that come before the Justices,
this is a case about governmental boundaries; about who gets to
make whom do what and when in the grand and eternal contest
between the branches. It's a case about judicial deference and
political prerogatives. It's a case about raw power.
Cheney In The Spotlight
The vice president is in the thick of the fight because he was
ordered by President George W. Bush in 2001 to run the Energy
Group. Given the vice president's background in the oil
industry—in particular his affiliation with giant Halliburton—the
assignment made sense.
But it is those very same close ties to big oil that has
generated the controversy here. Judicial Watch and the Sierra
Club say they have reason to believe private individuals have
influenced the Energy Group. There is nothing inherently wrong
with that but, if it is true, then the White House so far has
failed to comply with federal reporting requirements.
Which brings us to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, an
otherwise obscure piece of legislation enacted years ago to curb
"specific ills, above all the wasteful expenditure of public
funds for worthless committee meetings and biased proposals."
Now, you would think that language would apply to virtually
everything Congress itself does, but the lawmakers, being the
humorous gang that they are, made the law apply only to the
executive branch, imposing upon their sisters and brothers in
government the obligation to publicly disclose loads of
information about meetings and groups that fall within the
Committee Act's definitions. You can keep private meetings when
only federal employees attend, the Act mandates, but when you
open up the doors to private individuals you also have to
eventually open information up to the public.
The White House says it doesn't have to disclose more than it
already has under the Act because there were no "private"
citizens who served as members of the Energy Group. If that's
true, the White House is correct and the case would be over. Only
there is a factual dispute about whether that assertion is true.
The two plaintiffs, who normally wouldn't be able to agree upon
whether the sun is shining or not, seem to think that there were
private influences on the Energy Group.
Stuck In Discovery
Judicial Watch, for example, claims "that private executives and
lobbyists representing the energy industry 'regularly attended
and fully participated' in non-public meetings of [the Energy
Group] as if they were members 'of the advisory committee.'" If
that allegation is true, then the Committee Act's reporting
requirements would require the White House to disclose more than
it already has.
Clearly, the stories don't match and, so, like tens of thousands
of other litigants each year, the parties have taken their case
to court. The going has been slow. Judicial Watch's case is
nearly three years old and still the parties are fighting over
the information-gathering process called "discovery." The
plaintiffs say they want to get access to the information in
order to better evaluate what kind of Committee Act claim they
have on the merits. They say that the Act's reporting
requirements would be meaningless if the White House could avoid
those requirements simply by refusing to turn over gateway
information. So they sent nine "interrogatories" (requests for
information) and eight requests for documents—hardly an
overwhelmingly broad inquiry.
Typically, there is no dispute over a judge's ability to manage
discovery disputes between parties. Except in this case, the
White House says the courts have no authority to permit the
plaintiffs to look behind the barest of explanations of the
workings of the Energy Group. Moreover, the White House even has
refused to permit the judges in the case to undertake a private
review of the material in order to determine what to do with it.
The mere act of turning over the information to the plaintiffs,
the White House argues, would be virtually the same as giving up
on the merits of the case. Politics ain't beanbag, folks, and
this is truly hardball between the branches.
So the Justices have to figure out whether they have a right even
to poke into the case at this time. They have to figure out
whether and to what extent the Committee Act applies. They have
to figure out whether the Act, if it is applied, is
unconstitutional. They have to figure out whether the lower
courts properly limited the scope of the discovery requests made
to the White House. They have to keep in mind the government's
looming executive privilege claims in the case—the White House
hopes to knock the case out on separation-of-powers grounds in
order to avoid the politically messy notion of claiming a
privilege where none may exist. The vice president has the better
of the technical arguments. The plaintiffs have the better "big
picture" claims. Interpreting, in part, Congress' will, the
Justices get to decide.
Of course, a cynic might say the whole mess serves the White
House right. Everyone knows this administration is tight with big
oil and gas interests. Everyone knows that both the president and
vice president owe a lot to that particular industry. No one
would be surprised to learn that "Kenny Boy" and perhaps other,
less notorious, energy honchos helped developed policy. So if, in
spite of all that, the administration is hiding behind the
doctrines of "separation of powers" and "executive privilege" in
order to keep its dirty laundry hidden, then it is no less
shortsighted and imperious than its predecessors have been. And I
reckon it likely will be no more successful in fending off the
other two branches now that they've gotten a whiff of the scent.
Editor's Note: This piece originally appeared on CBSNews.com
[http://www.cbsnews.com] on April 27, 2004.
[http://www.tompaine.com/subscribe.cfm] and get the latest on
Published: Apr 27 2004
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4 FOXNews.com: Nuclear Fallout
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
By Greta Van Susteren
Tuesday night as I walked to the set I suddenly got hit with a
realization: our scripts were wrong.
The tease into the segment on the lack of security at nuclear
weapons sites and the read that started the segment said nuclear
power plants -- a huge difference.
The realization was one of those things that just sort of hit
me randomly as I walked into the studio. I had read the scripts
and studied the segment hours apart so I had not put "two and
two" together until almost the show starting.
I immediately went to the phone and called my New York
producer and asked her if the scripts said "plants" and not
"weapons sites." She said she would check it out. She talked to
me minutes later -- by then I was "miked up" and had my earpiece
in -- and said there was indeed a mistake. She said she would
fix them.
I thought, "That's lucky. That is a stupid mistake I don't
want to make -- and certainly not in front of our more than one
million plus viewers." (Not that I am incapable of making a
mistake in front of a million plus viewers...) But, alas, I was
not that clever in catching our mistakes. Read on:
E-mail No. 1
A storage facility for nuclear weapons material is not a
nuclear power plant. They aren't even close. Showing pictures of
nuclear power plants while discussing nuclear weapons storage
facilities (as you did) is like discussing Mad Cow disease and
showing footage of a dog show. You are playing on the public's
fears and exhibiting extreme ignorance when you do that.
E-mail No. 2
Greta,
Why did you show Nuclear Power Plants while talking about
government nuclear weapons facilities?
As luck would have it, I "caught" the script mistake, but did
not know what video would be put to the show. Frankly, since the
video decision is done in New York, it did not occur to me to
check it. Since I try and be a "quick learner," next time I
will.
And if you think my night was "complete" with the video
mistake, it was not. During the show and I don't mention this in
anyway to minimize the seriousness of the underlying topic, I
said something to the effect of "the husband of the hairdryer"&
and then immediately corrected my error and said "hairdresser."
I was hoping that no one would notice. I guess if you have a
million plus people watching, chances are you will get caught
for such a gaffe. I was not fast enough correcting my mistake...
my husband (and others) heard it. When I got to my office after
the show, the phone rang and my husband was laughing. He said,
"This is your hairdryer."
It occurred to me as I drove home that the poll question on
our Web page I would like to do today is: Based on the foregoing
call from a husband, what is your opinion: (a) Divorce; (b) Get
more sleep so you don't make those mistakes late at night; (c)
Divorce; (d) Divorce and (e) All of the above.
And, to show you that my husband was not the only one who
heard this, check out this e-mail:
E-Mail No. 3
Greta, I heard that... "The husband of a hair-dryer!" ROFLMAO
Shani S.
NYC
The great thing about a daily show is that you get to 'get
back up on the horse.' I am hoping tonight to do better.
Also, for those of you who listened closely last night and
heard me saying good-bye to Dan Senor (search
in Baghdad and mentioning that he was headed back to the U.S.
right after the interview, you might wonder how I knew he is en
route home today. Here is how I know: He is one of my guests at
the White House Correspondents' dinner this weekend. Fox learned
yesterday that he was coming back to the U.S. and passed it on to
me that no one had invited him to the dinner -- so I did.
Finally, for those of you asking for information about the
ongoing jury selection in the Scott Peterson case, here is the
daily note from Valerie (a citizen in the courtroom who e mails
us daily): E-mail No. 4: Aside: Geragos looked like a chipmunk on
one side - bad tooth abscess is my guess, Before court started
today, Geragos talked about the last juror who was excused
yesterday: (From yesterday's write up) Juror No. 29774 - A
retired Hispanic woman with shoulder length brown hair was
excused when she stated that given the crime, if Peterson was
guilty, she could only vote for the death penalty.
This juror's questionnaire stated that she had not formed an
opinion and could be fair, but when this juror sat through voir
dire, she was dismissed from saying that she would only vote for
the death penalty if she found Peterson guilty of the crime of
murdering Laci and Connor. However, when the reporters caught up
to her leaving the courtroom, she stated on camera (pool video)
that Peterson was guilty. This juror's flip to stating opposing
opinions from what she wrote on her questionnaire lead Geragos
to state to the court for the record that this pool video will
be used in his argument for the change of venue.
Juror No. 4650 - This juror was a red-headed, Caucasian,
chunky woman in her late 50's, who works at Children's Hospital
(she handles the paperwork for surgical authorizations and she
works off site), sent up red flags by changing her questionnaire
answers during voir dire.
The first sign something was amiss was when she failed to
fill in information in question #20, about the loss of child
(her sister lost a child as an adult.) This woman stated that
she was in the very first jury pool and the questionnaire was
overwhelming like an Evelyn Wood test. She stated that she was
so appalled by the news coverage of the Peterson case that she
cancelled her newspapers. She stated that both penalties (death
penalty and LWOP - life without parole) were a waste of
taxpayer's money, but backpedaled by saying that prisoners
should earn their keep, with the economy the way it is.
As Geragos chipped away at this woman's stance on the "waste
of taxpayer's money" statement, the woman tripped up on question
82, the question about rush-to-judgment asking if the juror
thought police are likely to quickly arrest someone in a high
profile case. This woman changed her answer on the stand, from
strongly disagree to strongly agree. When Geragos pressed this
woman for her stance on law enforcement, she stated that she was
partial to firemen, but that police treated her fairly. In fact,
yesterday, she got a traffic ticket, and the cop was adorable.
Then this woman slipped up again and said: "I've been a victim,
and they (police) helped me.") Geragos was taken aback, and
asked the woman if she listed that fact in the questionnaire.
Then Geragos asked her to discuss the details about her being a
victim. The woman burst into tears and wanted to go into
chambers to discuss it. The woman was escorted from chambers
after 17 minutes, dabbing her eyes and blowing her nose into a
tissue while seated in the jury box.
About 3 minutes later, the prosecution emerged. It was
another 2 minutes before the defense emerged with the judge. The
judge then stated to the woman: "After discussing (the matter)
with counsel, we decided to let you go. Thank you for your
time."
Greta
Copyright 2004 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
5 CBS News: Public Vs. Private In Cheney Fight
| April 27, 2004 20:59:39
"The question is what happened at those meetings."
Alan Morrison, the attorney for the Sierra Club
Associate Justice Antonin Scalia refused to bow out of the case,
saying if a duck hunt could buy a Supreme Court justices vote,
'the nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined.' (Photo:
AP)
The trans-Alaska pipeline. Cheney's 2001 report called for
drilling in the Arctic wildlife refuge. (Photo: AP)
(CBS/AP) The Constitution gives presidents and vice presidents
power to gather advice and make decisions without being forced
to reveal every detail of how those decisions are made, the Bush
administration's top Supreme Court lawyer argued Tuesday.
"This is a case about the separation of powers," Solicitor
General Theodore Olson told the justices at the start of lively
arguments about privacy in White House policy-making.
The nearly three-year fight over access to records of Vice
President Dick Cheney's work on a national energy strategy came
to the high court after a federal judge ordered what Olson
called a broad, unconstitutional release of White House
documents.
The White House is framing the case as a major test of executive
power, arguing that the forced disclosure of confidential
records intrudes on a president's power to get truthful advice.
Environmental and other interest groups claim the records will
show whether the energy industry got special access or favors.
Justices were told that former Enron chairman Ken Lay and others
were players, but until the government produces records, it
won't be clear if they actually drafted the government's
policies.
"The question is what happened at those meetings," said Alan
Morrison, the attorney for the Sierra Club.
In a signal of the importance of the case, the Supreme Court was
taking the rare step of releasing an audiotape of the oral
arguments, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Fuss.
The legal issues in the case have been almost overshadowed by a
political controversy involving Justice Antonin Scalia. He has
refused to step down despite a controversy over a hunting trip
he took with Cheney, an old friend, weeks after the high court
agreed to hear Cheney's appeal.
Scalia took his seat behind the court's high bench as usual
Tuesday, and almost immediately posed a hard question to the
administration lawyer. Since the case concerns whether outsiders
influenced the outcome of the task force's work, why not release
voting records of the energy task force, Scalia asked.
Told that such a disclosure would raise privacy concerns, Scalia
sounded skeptical.
"All I'm saying is, why would that be such an intrusion … just
to know whether anybody who voted on any of the recommendations
was a nongovernment employee?" he asked.
But later, Scalia fired question after question at Morrison, at
one point telling him his arguments were implausible.
The high court is expected to rule by July. The case began in
July 2001 when a government watchdog group sued over Cheney's
private meetings. The case has never gone to trial, but a
federal judge ordered the White House to begin turning over
records two years ago.
The Bush administration has lost two rounds in federal court. If
the Supreme Court makes it three, Cheney could have to reveal
potentially embarrassing records just in time for the
presidential election.
The case requires the court to clarify a federal open-government
law.
Watchdog group Judicial Watch and the environmental group Sierra
Club sued to get the task force papers. The Sierra Club accused
the administration of shutting environmentalists out of the
meetings while catering to energy industry executives and
lobbyists.
Documents from the task force already handed over to Judicial
Watch include maps of Middle Eastern countries — including Iraq
— and catalogues of current oil exploration and extraction
projects, including one document titled "Foreign Suitors for
Iraqi Oilfield Contracts."
Olson told the justices in court filings that no energy industry
officials participated improperly in meetings.
The Supreme Court also is known for private meetings.
"The court utilizes the process of confidential deliberation
just as the executive branch does. Memos are drafted,
deliberations occur and drafts of opinions are circulated — all
behind closed doors," said Kris Kobach, a constitutional law
professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. "In both
branches, deliberation is more candid, honest and valuable if it
sometimes is sheltered from public scrutiny."
Kobach is running for Congress as a Republican in Kansas' 3rd
District.
Martin Shapiro, a Supreme Court expert at the University of
California, Berkeley, said while the court engages in private
consultation, "the justices are used to themselves making
decisions on the basis of what they hear from two sides
publicly."
Most of the talk among spectators who began lining up the night
before was about Scalia, not the case.
"The big deal is Scalia," said 23-year-old law student Peter
Stockburger of Austin, Texas. "It was dumb that he went on the
hunting trip. It was stupid, but it wasn't illegal."
Scalia had said he did not discuss the case with Cheney when
they flew together on a government jet to Louisiana for the duck
hunt at a camp owned by an oil rig services executive.
"If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court justice can
be bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had
imagined," Scalia wrote in rejecting the Sierra Club's request
that he disqualify himself.
The National Energy Policy Development Group, chaired by Cheney,
was formed by President Bush in January 2001 to develop a
national energy policy. The task force submitted its final
report in May 2001.
The Cheney energy plan called for expanded oil and gas drilling
on public land and easing regulatory barriers to building
nuclear power plants. Among the proposals: drilling in the
Arctic wildlife refuge and possibly reviving nuclear fuel
reprocessing, which was abandoned in the 1970s as a nuclear
proliferation threat.
The nonprofit groups suing to get the documents have picked up a
fight abandoned by the General Accounting Office, the
investigatory arm of Congress.
In February 2003, GAO dropped a suit aiming to force Cheney to
hand over the documents after a federal court indicated it did
not wish to intervene in a dispute between two branches of
government.
Last year, the GAO said it was unable to determine how much the
White House's energy policy was influenced by the oil industry
because they were denied documents by Cheney.
©MMIV CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
[http://www.cbsnews.com]
*****************************************************************
6 CBS News: Scalia Vows To Hear Cheney Case
| April 27, 2004 07:13:11
"If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court justice can be
bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had
imagined." Justice Antonin Scalia
(AP) A defiant Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia refused
Thursday to remove himself from a case involving his good friend,
Vice President Dick Cheney, dismissing suggestions of a conflict
of interest.
In an unusual 21-page memorandum, he rejected a request by the
Sierra Club. The environmental group said it was improper for
Scalia to take a hunting trip with Cheney while the court was
considering whether the White House must release information
about private meetings of Cheney's energy task force.
Scalia said the remote Louisiana hunting camp used for a duck
hunting and fishing trip "was not an intimate setting."
The justice said he was guilty only of hunting with a friend and
taking a free plane ride to get there. "If it is reasonable to
think that a Supreme Court justice can be bought so cheap, the
nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined," Scalia wrote.
"My recusal is required if ... my impartiality might reasonably
be questioned," Scalia wrote. "Why would that result follow from
my being in a sizable group of persons, in a hunting camp with
the vice president, where I never hunted with him in the same
blind or had other opportunity for private conversation?"
Given the circumstances of the trip, Scalia wrote, the only
possible reason for recusal would be his friendship with Cheney.
"A rule that required members of this court to remove themselves
from cases in which the official actions of friends were at issue
would be utterly disabling," Scalia wrote.
Many Supreme Court justices get their jobs "precisely because
they were friends of the incumbent president or other senior
officials," he wrote.
Supreme Court justices, unlike judges on other courts, decide for
themselves if they have conflicts, and their decisions are final.
The Sierra Club is suing to get information about private
meetings of Cheney's energy task force. The court agreed in
December to hear the case, and three weeks later Scalia and
Cheney flew together on a government jet to the hunting camp of a
multimillionaire oil-services tycoon.
Pressure on Scalia to stay out of the case had mounted, with
calls from dozens of newspapers for the conservative Reagan
administration appointee to recuse himself to protect the court's
image of impartiality.
The Sierra Club asked for Scalia's recusal in February, pointing
to the "American public's great concern about the continuing
damage this affair is doing to the prestige and credibility of
this court."
There was no obligation for Scalia to explain his decision, but
he did in the 21-page memo. He said he will recuse himself when
"on the basis of established principles and practices, I have
said or done something which requires this course." He said the
hunting trip to Louisiana was planned before the energy case
reached the court.
Those "established principles and practices" do not require or
even permit him to step aside in the Cheney case, Scalia wrote.
The Supreme Court arguments in the case are scheduled for April
27.
In addition to the Sierra Club, Democrats in Congress and some
legal ethicists have called on Scalia to stay out of the case.
Scalia noted in his memo that he has stepped aside in another
case this term — one testing the constitutionality of the Pledge
of Allegiance in public schools. The decision came after he
criticized the lower court ruling during a speech at a religious
rally.
For the first time, Scalia revealed details of his trip with
Cheney.
Scalia said he was the go-between to invite Cheney to hunt with a
Scalia friend, Wallace Carline, who owns an oil rig services
firm, Scalia wrote. Scalia and Cheney are friends from their days
working in the Ford administration, Scalia noted.
"I conveyed the invitation, with my own warm recommendation, in
the spring of 2003 and received an acceptance," Scalia wrote.
When the time came for the trip, Scalia and Cheney flew together,
accompanied by one of Scalia's sons and a son-in-law, Scalia
wrote.
©MMIV The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
[http://www.cbsnews.com]
*****************************************************************
7 CBS News: Cheney Energy Flap Goes To Court
| April 27, 2004 12:43:18
"They don't want anybody to know anything. What they are
advocating is a view of the imperial presidency that we have not
seen since the worst days of Watergate." David Bookbinder, Sierra
Club
(CBS/AP) A nearly three-year fight over privacy in White House
policy-making is going before a Supreme Court known for guarding
its own secrecy.
Justices were being asked by the Bush administration Tuesday to
let it keep private the records of Vice President Dick Cheney's
work on a national energy strategy.
The White House is framing the case as a major test of executive
power, arguing that the forced disclosure of confidential records
intrudes on a president's power to get truthful advice.
"The case is another confrontation in a series of recent
confrontations between the judicial and executive branches," says
CBSNews.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "The federal courts have
ordered the White House to turn over this information. Not only
does the White House say it won't — it says the courts have no
right to ask in the first place. But the Supreme Court gets the
last word on that question and now they'll begin to answer it."
The dispute began in July 2001 when a government watchdog group
sued over Cheney's private meetings. The case has never gone to
trial, but a federal judge ordered the White House to begin
turning over records two years ago.
The Bush administration has lost two rounds in federal court. If
the Supreme Court [http://www.supremecourtus.gov] makes it three,
Cheney could have to reveal potentially embarrassing records just
in time for the presidential election.
Watchdog group Judicial Watch [http://www.judicialwatch.org] and
the environmental group Sierra Club [http://www.sierraclub.org]
want the task force papers made public to see what influence
energy industries had in outlining national energy policy.
"They don't want anybody to know anything. What they are
advocating is a view of the imperial presidency that we have not
seen since the worst days of Watergate," David Bookbinder, the
Sierra Club legal director, told CBS News. "This is not an issue
of principle. The only principle that the Bush administration is
expounding here is that no one is entitled to know anything about
how it conducts its business."
The Sierra Club accuses the administration of shutting
environmentalists out of the meetings while catering to energy
industry executives and lobbyists.
"The vice president invited in the coal industry, the oil
industry, the nuclear industry, to write the administration's
energy policy," said Bookbinder. "If you look at the policy
itself, it reads as if it were written by the oil, coal and
nuclear industries."
Solicitor General Theodore Olson told the justices in court
filings that no energy industry officials participated improperly
in meetings. He maintains that forcing information about the
sessions into the open violates the separation of powers among
the branches of government.
"We don't think that our requests are burdensome," said
Bookbinder. "All we're asking for is who attended the meetings."
The case requires the court to clarify a federal open-government
law.
"It's hard to see much room for middle ground in this case," said
Cohen. "Either the Justices are going to order the vice president
to turn over this information or they won't. Either the concept
of separation of powers applies to protect the White House from
this requirement or it doesn't."
All nine members were hearing arguments, despite a controversy
over a hunting trip Cheney took with Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia, an old friend, weeks after the high court agreed
to hear Cheney's appeal.
Scalia, the vice president and two of Scalia's relatives flew
together on a government jet to Louisiana for the duck hunt at a
camp owned by an oil rig services executive.
CBS News Correspondent Barry Bagnato reports Scalia refuses to
step down, insisting he will be impartial.
"If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court justice can be
bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had
imagined," Scalia wrote in rejecting the Sierra Club's request
that he disqualify himself.
The case is Cheney v. U.S. District Court, 03-475.
©MMIV CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material
[http://www.cbsnews.com]
*****************************************************************
8 CBS News: U.S. Tracking Nuke Wannabes
| April 28, 2004 07:36:56
Nuclear experts say the U.S. proposal would keep Iran from
building nuclear enrichment and reprocessing plants.
(AP) Several countries in addition to Iran and North Korea may be
trying to develop nuclear weapons, and Washington is pursuing the
customers of an underground Pakistani network, U.S.
Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton said Tuesday.
He said he wasn't prepared to name any of the other countries
because U.S. officials are still seeking information.
"There are several others," Bolton said. "There's a lot of
information that we don't necessarily have corroboration for, but
we are pursuing our concerns where we do have information, trying
to get additional information, learning from others, and trying
to assess the exact magnitude of the threat."
"Certainly one of the things that we're very interested in is
finding out if A.Q. Khan's network had other customers, and we're
pursuing that in cooperation with a number of other states," he
said.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, set
up an underground network that supplied nuclear technology to
Iran, Libya and North Korea. In February, he admitted being the
mastermind of the scheme and was pardoned by Pakistan's
president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
"There's more out there than we can discuss publicly," Bolton
said, "and it's one of the reasons why the depth of our concern
about the international market black market in weapons of mass
destruction and related materials is as substantial as it."
Bolton spoke to reporters after accusing "at least" four
countries that have ratified the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
of using its provisions "as cover for the development of nuclear
weapons," either currently or in the past.
"States like Iran are actively violating their treaty
obligations, and have gained access to technologies and materials
for their nuclear weapons programs. North Korea violated its NPT
obligations while a party, and then proved its strategic decision
to seek nuclear weapons by withdrawing from the treaty entirely,"
he said.
In the past, Iraq and Libya also violated the treaty, Bolton told
a meeting of the committee preparing for next year's U.N.
conference to review the 1968 pact, which is considered the
cornerstone of international efforts to prevent the spread of
nuclear weapons.
Declaring that "there is a crisis of NPT compliance," Bolton said
President Bush "is determined to stop rogue states from gaining
nuclear weapons under cover of supposed peaceful nuclear
technology."
Under the treaty, countries that ratify and give up the pursuit
of nuclear weapons are allowed to obtain fissile material and
nuclear technology for peaceful uses such as power plants. But in
February, President Bush made a series of proposals to address
what the United States sees as loopholes in the treaty.
Bolton said there was "very broad consensus" to limit nuclear
enrichment and reprocessing plants to countries that now possess
them, though "how exactly it's done is still the subject of
discussion."
The United States wants to ban the Nuclear Suppliers Group -
which provides fissile material under the treaty - from selling
enrichment and reprocessing equipment and technology "to any
state that does not already possess full-scale, functioning
enrichment and reprocessing plants." The suppliers would have to
ensure a regular supply of nuclear fuel at reasonable prices to
countries in compliance with the treaty.
Nuclear experts say the U.S. proposal would keep Iran from
building nuclear enrichment and reprocessing plants.
Bolton noted that Iran has expressed interest in buying up to six
additional nuclear power plants and has informed the U.N. nuclear
agency it is pursuing a heavy-water research reactor at Arak, "a
type of reactor that might be well suited for plutonium
production."
Stressing that Iran has oil and gas reserves that will last
several hundred years, he claimed the only role of Iran's nuclear
power program is provide material and technology for covert
nuclear weapons development.
Tehran has repeatedly denied it is pursuing a nuclear weapons
program.
Bolton said the United States has not decided whether it will
seek to have the International Atomic Energy Agency's board cite
Tehran for noncompliance at its June meeting.
The best thing Iran can do now is "come clean" and open its
nuclear program "to transparent inspections," Bolton said.
As for North Korea, he said the United States hopes six-party
talks will achieve "a peaceful, diplomatic end to North Korea's
nuclear programs." But he cautioned that "simply continuing to
talk ... is not progress."
Libya has said it has given up its weapons programs.
By Edith M. Lederer ©MMIV The Associated Press. All Rights
[http://www.cbsnews.com]
*****************************************************************
9 United Press International: GAO questions U.S. nuclear security
By Thom J. Rose UPI Correspondent Published 4/27/2004 6:29 PM
WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- The Department of Energy
acknowledges that defending U.S. nuclear facilities is a vastly
different project than it was before Sept. 11, 2001, but some
observers say the department is changing its methods much too
slowly.
The threat of organized suicide attackers has turned nuclear
security on its ear, Robin Nazzaro, a director at the General
Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm, told a Tuesday
hearing of the House Committee on Government Reform.
"In the past we had determined that someone would have to get in
and out (of a nuclear facility to do damage), and now we've
determined that all they have to do is get in," Nazzaro said.
Department of Energy weapons experts told a 2002 Senate hearing
that if terrorists were able to breach a nuclear site containing
the proper materials, they might be able to assemble and detonate
a 1 kiloton bomb capable of killing thousands in several minutes.
That possibility has precipitated fundamental changes in the way
nuclear sites are required to be protected.
A directive issued April 5, 2004, orders sites containing the
most dangerous class of nuclear materials to assume a heightened
"denial" level of defense designed not only to prevent terrorists
from stealing material, but also to keep them from even entering
the sites, Danielle Brian, Executive Director of the Project on
Government Oversight told the committee.
That directive comes in addition to a new "Design Basis Threat"
nuclear security standard that the Department of Energy created
after Sept. 11 in response to changing security concerns.
That new standard has attracted controversy, however, and is
strongly criticized in a GAO report released Thursday.
The report begins by questioning the two years the Department of
Energy took to create the standard after Sept. 11.
"During this extended period, (the department's) sites were only
being defended against what was widely recognized as an obsolete
terrorist threat level," the GAO report says.
"We certainly said that 2 years is a long time to do this,"
Nazzaro added.
The report goes on to question the content of the new Design
Basis Threat standard, which Government Reform Committee Chairman
Christopher Shays, R-Conn., said some observers think "might be
more accurately called the 'Dollar Based Threat,'" since some
believe it compromises security to save money.
The GAO report also says the new standard does not pay enough
attention to the improvised nuclear bombs the department's
weapons experts said terrorists might be able to put together in
minutes.
It says the new standard should put more emphasis on the
potential for radiological, chemical and biological sabotage as
well.
"We're really concerned that (the Department of Energy) is not
treating nuclear materials in the way they are treating nuclear
weapons," Nazzaro said.
Linton Brooks, the administrator of the energy department's
National Nuclear Security Administration disagreed, saying, "We
believe that the highest level of defense should be reserved for
nuclear weapons."
The GAO report goes on to say that some U.S. nuclear sites will
not be able to meet the new standards for up to several years and
should be required to put in place additional provisional
measures in the meantime.
Both the existence of sites that won't be able to meet the news
standards and the implementation of provisional security measures
have attracted controversy.
Brian said some nuclear sites were built when security concerns
were completely different and will have to be completely rebuilt
or abandoned in response to current threats.
"It's simply impossible for these facilities, as they exist, to
implement these requirements," Brian said.
Shays said, "Faced with the new security imperative to deny
access, not just contain or catch intruders, it should have been
immediately obvious (the department) has too many facilities
housing nuclear materials, and those facilities are old, above
ground, scattered and cluttered World War II-era plant
configurations not buffered by adequate setback space."
Consolidating U.S. nuclear materials in more secure sites is a
stated Department of Energy goal, but Shays said the department
has so far made little progress in that direction.
The department's latest plans to improve nuclear security
include moving nuclear material out of one Nevada test site and
possibly from further sites, but the efforts have met with
continued resistance.
Brian said some of that resistance comes from site operators who
fear their importance will diminish when their most dangerous
material is gone.
"The people in charge of implementing (the Nevada move) seem to
have a different agenda than" Secretary of Energy Spencer
Abrahams, who ordered the move, Brian said.
While consolidation and fortification efforts remain incomplete,
sites are increasing their use of guards.
That practice, which was widespread after Sept. 11 and continues
at sites that are more difficult to protect, worries some
observers, who say the additional guarding capacity comes mainly
in the form of overtime worked by current employees. Too many
hours of overtime, especially for guards expected to remain
vigilant, can lead to substandard performance, Brian and others
say.
Brooks said his department does face a range of challenges in
protecting nuclear sites, but added that he believes all nuclear
material in the United States is adequately protected.
"The people looking for soft spots would be ill-advised to come
to the facilities for which I am responsible," Brooks said.
(Please send comments to nationaldesk@upi.com.)
Copyright © 2001-2004 United Press International
*****************************************************************
10 Avnery: Vanunu: The Terrible Secret
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 01:59:46 -0500 (CDT)
and now.. The American Connection...
-----------
24thApril 2004
Vanunu: The Terrible Secret
By Uri Avnery
In the darkness of a cinema, a womans voice: Hey! Take your hands off! Not
you! YOU! This old joke illustrates the American policy regarding nuclear
armaments in the Middle East. Hey, you there, Iraq and Iran and Libya, stop
it! Not YOU, Israel! The danger of nuclear arms was the main pretext for
the invasion of Iraq. Iran is threatened in order to compel it to stop its
nuclear efforts. Libya has surrendered and is dismantling its nuclear
installations. So what about Israel?
This week it became clear that the Americans are full partners in the
creation of Israels nuclear option. How was this exposed? With the help
of Mordecai Vanunu, of course. Throughout the week, a festival was being
celebrated around the prisoner, who was released on Wednesday. The Security
Establishment has not stopped harassing him even after he has sat in prison
for 18 years, 11 of them in complete solitary confinement a treatment he
himself described on leaving the prison as cruel and barbaric. After he
was set free, far-reaching restrictions were imposed on him (e.g. he is
forbidden to leave the country, is restricted to one town, cannot go near
any embassy or consulate, may not talk with foreign citizens). All this
under the colonial British emergency regulations that were condemned at the
time by the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine, as worse then the
Nazi laws.
Not, God forbid, because of any desire for revenge! The security people
declared from every podium that this is not revenge for all the shame Vanunu
caused the security services, and is by no means just more persecution, but
an essential security requirement. He must not be allowed to leave the
country or to speak with foreigners and journalists, because he is in
possession of secrets vital to the security of the state.
Everybody understands that he has no more secrets. What can a technician
know after 18 years in jail, during which technology has advanced with giant
steps? But gradually it becomes clear what the security establishment is
really afraid of. Vanunu is in a position to expose the close partnership
with the United States in the development of Israels nuclear armaments.
This worries Washington so much, that the man responsible in the State
Department for arms control, Under Secretary John Bolton, has come to
Israel in person for the occasion. Vanunu, it appears, can cause severe
damage to the mighty super-power. The Americans are afraid of sounding like
the lady in the dark cinema.
(By the way, this John Bolton is an avid supporter of the group of Zionists
neo-cons who play a central role in the Bush theater. He opposes arms
control for the United States and its satellites, and was installed in the
State Department against the wishes of the Secretary of State himself.) In
the short address Vanunu was able to make to the media immediately on his
release, he made a strange remark: that the young woman who served as bait
for his kidnapping, some 18 years ago, was not a Mossad agent, as generally
assumed, but an agent of the FBI or CIA. Why was it so urgent for him to
convey this?
>From the first moment, there was something odd about the Vanunu affair. At
the beginning, my first thought was that he was a Mossad agent. Everything
pointed in that direction. How else can one explain a simple technicians
success in smuggling a camera into the most secret and best guarded
installation in Israel? And in taking photos apparently without hindrance?
How else to explain the career of that person who, as a student at
Beer-Sheva University, was well-known as belonging to the extreme left and
spending his time in the company of Arab fellow-students? How was he allowed
to leave the country with hundreds of photos? How was he able to approach a
British paper and to turn over to British scientists material that convinced
them that Israel had 200 nuclear bombs? Absurd, isnt it?
But it all fits, if one assumes that Vanunu acted from the beginning on a
mission for the Mossad. His disclosures in the British newspaper not only
caused no damage to the Israeli government, but on the contrary,
strengthened the Israeli deterrent without committing the government, which
was free to deny everything. What happened next only reinforced this
assumption. While in London, in the middle of his campaign of exposures,
knowing that half a dozen intelligence services are tracking his every
movement, he starts an affair with a strange women, is seduced into
following her to Rome, where he is kidnapped and shipped back to Israel.
How naive can you get? Is it credible for a reasonable person to fall into
such a primitive trap? It is not. Meaning that the whole affair was nothing
but a classic cover story. But when the affair went on, and details of the
year-long daily mistreatment of the man became public, I had to give up this
initial theory. I had to face the fact that our security services are even
more stupid than I had assumed (which I wouldnt have believed possible) and
that all these things actually had happened, and that Mordecai Vanunu was an
honest and idealistic, if extremely naive, person.
I have no doubt that his personality was shaped by his background. He is the
son of a family with many children, who were quite well-to-do in Morocco but
lived in a primitive transition camp in Israel, before moving to
Beer-Sheva, where they lived in poverty. In spite of this, he succeeded in
getting into university and got a masters degree, quite an achievement, but
suffered, so it seems, from the overbearing attitude and prejudices of his
Ashkenazi peers. Undoubtedly, that pushed him towards the company of the
extreme left, where such prejudices were not prevalent.
The bunch of security correspondents and other commentators who are
attached to the udders of the security establishment have already spread
stories about Vanunu imagining things, his long stay in solitary
confinement causing him to convince himself of all kinds of fantasies and
to invent all kinds of fabrications. Meaning: the American connection.
Against this background one can suddenly understand all these severe
restrictions, which, at first sight, look absolutely idiotic. The Americans,
it seems, are very worried. The Israeli security services have to dance to
their tune. The world must be prevented by all available means from hearing,
from the lips of a credible witness, that the Americans are full partners in
Israels nuclear arms program, while pretending to be the worlds sheriff
for the prevention of nuclear proliferation. And the lady cried: Not you!
YOU!
*****************************************************************
11 AFP: NKorea working meeting to be held May 12: Russian report
[http://www.spacewar.com/
MOSCOW (AFP) Apr 28, 2004
The six nations trying to resolve North Korea's nuclear dispute
with the United States will hold a working group meeting on May
12 in Beijing, an unnamed Russian foreign ministry official was
quoted Wednesday as saying by Interfax.
The meeting at the level of experts is aimed to pave the way for
a third round of talks between the six nations' foreign
ministers, which is tentatively scheduled to be held before the
end of June.
Russia has attempted to play a role of a neutral mediator between
North Korea and the United States in their nuclear weapons
dispute, although its role has been overshadowed by that of
China.
Yet Russia remains one of the few nations that has access to
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, with Russian President Vladimir
Putin meeting him three times since his own election in 2000.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
12 Bellona: 'Peter The Great' financier jailed for graft
The Severomorsk garrison court sentenced the financier of Russian
nuclear flagship /Peter The Great/ to five years of prison for
fraud, Interfax news agency reported today.
2004-04-28 13:17
Denis Dolgachev will have to spend five years in a low security
prison colony. The court also sentenced him to pay a fine of 9
million roubles (around $313,500), the agency said. The financial
aide of the flagship's commander was charged for theft by raising
sums for the purchase of provisions and fabricating documents on
paying of allowances and salaries to the personnel. Dolgachev had
reportedly stolen more than 12 million rubles (around $418,000).
Some money was seized from him during his arrest, the Mosnews.com
website reported.
In 2003, embezzlement of finances and property on the ship
amounted to 14 million rubles (almost $500,000), the RIA Novosti
Russia news agency reported yesterday, citing a source in the
financial directorate of the Northern Fleet's headquarters. The
Peter the Great was put into dry dock last month on the orders of
Navy Chief of Staff Vladimir Kuroyedov after he said the boat
could "explode at any moment," causing world wide panic.
Kuroyedov later retracted the statement, saying poor housekeeping
had prompted him to sent the boat to port. The Russian Navy
checked the boat two weeks ago.
Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President:
Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no
[info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no
[webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22
38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
13 Bellona: Half a million dollars missing from Russian Northern Fleet's
flagship
Embezzlement of finances and property on the Peter the Great
nuclear cruiser amounted to 14 million rubles (almost $500,000)
in 2003, the RIA Novosti news agency reported yeserday, citing a
source in the financial directorate of the Northern Fleet's
headquarters.
2004-04-28 13:18
"We are puzzled by the ship command's inability to control the
observation of order on board and lack of responsibility for the
hardware commissioned to them. More than that, over the past
months of 2004, hardware worth about 400,000 rubles (over
$13,000) was embezzled," the source was quoted by RIA Novosti as
saying.
The Peter the Great has been put into dry dock after the
commission of the Main Headquarters of the Russian Navy checked
her two weeks ago. The inspection followed a statement by the top
Russian Navy commander who said that the condition of the nuclear
cruiser was so poor it could blow up at any moment. He later
softened his remarks--which caused widespreaed alarm--saying the
boat was taken off the water for routine housekeeping checks.
Publisher: [bellona@bellona.no] , President:
[frederic@bellona.no] Information: [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00
Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo,
Norway Menu
*****************************************************************
14 BBC: UN nuclear chief to visit Israel
Last Updated: Wednesday, 28 April, 2004
[Mohamed ElBaradei]
Mr ElBaradei's trip to Israel will be his first in six years
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Mohamed
ElBaradei, is to visit Israel later this year.
A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
said he was likely to travel to the country in July although an
agenda was not finalised.
Israel has never confirmed or denied it has nuclear weapons,
although it is widely believed to possess them.
In December, Mr ElBaradei urged Israel - a member of the IAEA -
to surrender its alleged nuclear weapons.
He said in an Israeli newspaper that the IAEA operated on the
assumption that Israel did have nuclear weapons.
He told Haaretz that such weapons were not "an incentive for
security" and urged Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT).
Israel's permanent representative to the IAEA, Gabriella Gafni,
described Mr ElBaradei's visit as routine.
"He has had an open invitation from us for some time now," she
said.
An IAEA statement said: "[Mr ElBaradei] would intend to use such
a trip to... promote non-proliferation and a nuclear weapon-free
zone in the Middle East as well as to discuss bilateral
co-operation in nuclear sciences and applications."
Although Israel is a member of the IAEA, it has never signed the
NPT, designed to prevent the global spread of nuclear weapons.
As a result, Israel is not subject to inspections and the threat
of sanctions by the IAEA.
'Double standards'
Israel has said simply that it would not be the first to
introduce nuclear weapons to the region.
Some experts believe it to be the world's sixth largest nuclear
power.
[Dimona plant in Israel (aerial photo)] Vanunu revealed that the
Dimona plant built and housed nuclear weapons
Its Arab neighbours have frequently accused the international
community of double standards - for requiring them to be free of
nuclear weapons while doing little, in their eyes, about Israel.
In December, Mr ElBaradei said the belief that Israel would be
safer because it possessed such weapons was false, as other
Middle Eastern countries felt threatened by their presence.
"My fear is that, without such a dialogue, there will be
continued incentive for the region's countries to develop weapons
of mass destruction to match the Israeli arsenal," he said.
Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who revealed the
extent of Israel's nuclear weapons programme in the mid-1980's,
was released from jail on 21 April having served an 18-year
sentence.
On release he called for Mr ElBaradei to come to Israel to
inspect Israel's controversial nuclear site at Dimona.
The BBC's Matthew Price in Jerusalem says that, on his last trip
to Israel six years ago, Mr ElBaradei did not tour Dimona. It is
not yet known if he will do so this time.
*****************************************************************
15 BBC: UN bans WMD sales to terrorists
Last Updated: Thursday, 29 April, 2004
By Susannah Price BBC, at the United Nations
[Explosion cloud]
The UN hopes to keep WMDs and terrorists apart
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously passed a
resolution aimed at keeping weapons of mass destruction out of
the hands of terrorists.
It means all UN member states will have to pass laws to stop
terrorists and black market traders from buying, selling or
developing such weapons.
Last year, at the General Assembly, President Bush called for a
resolution to tighten international legislation.
Until now it has dealt mainly with weapons proliferation by
governments.
This resolution also calls for governments to account for all
such weapons, and to develop border controls to prevent illicit
trafficking.
The US deputy representative to the United Nations, James
Cunningham, said the Security Council was responding to a clear
and present threat to global peace and security, namely the
proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
A Security Council committee will be set up for two years to
report on the implementation.
However, the resolution does not outline any sanctions against
states that do not comply.
*****************************************************************
16 KAVKAZ CENTER: Vanunu recalls about Zionist nuclear threat
29 04 2004 Thu. 04:47 on Djokhar [Ðóññêèé] [English]
kavkaz.tv [http://www.kavkaz.tv]
kavkaz.uk.com [http://www.kavkaz.uk.com]
Mordechai Vanunu -- the Israeli nuclear whistleblower, has been
released after serving 18 years in prison. He was jailed for
spilling the beans about Israel's nuclear weapons program back in
1986.
For his efforts, agents from the Mossad, Israel's intelligence
service, kidnapped him from Rome and brought him to Israel to
stand before a secret tribunal that convicted him on charges of
espionage and treason and sentenced him to eighteen years in
Shikma prison (city of Ashkelon) under solitary confinement.
In 1986 Vanunu was sentenced to a long prison term for passing
along photographs he had taken inside the Dimona nuclear plant to
the Sunday Times of London. Israel still denies any accusations
of possessing nuclear weapons, even though the facts including
Vanunu’s testimony prove otherwise.
Back in the early ‘80s the newspapers started publishing reports
that nuclear tests had been conducted by Israel for quite a
while. The reports mentioned mysterious nuclear explosion in the
Atlantic, disappearance of uranium transported by trucks in UK
and France, disappearance (of uranium) from West German vessel
Scheersberg, as well as strange thefts from an American plant
belonging to Newman company in the city of Apollo, when 342
kilograms of uranium disappeared.
All traces of the thefts were pointing at Israel. The footage
made back in 1960 by a US spy plane was showing a strange
facility in the Negev Desert. Soon some US Congressmen came to
Israel and were shown that concrete facility. They were told that
it was allegedly a textile mill.
The US was quite satisfied with that explanation, and the US did
not demand to enter the facility, however strange it may sound.
In 1986 Sunday Times released a sensational report that a
top-secret secret plant manufacturing nuclear bombs was disguised
as a 'textile mill'. The plant has six underground levels. The
author of the article with photos that confirmed that the report
was true was Israeli engineer Mordechai Vanunu, who had worked at
the plant for ten years. He reported that Israel possessed 100 to
200 nuclear warheads.
On top of having weapons of mass destruction, Israel also
developed delivery systems. And the US helped Israel in it as
well. Today Israel is capable of launching missiles with nuclear
warheads from land, sea and air. The Israelis also improved
US-made cruise missiles and can now launch these missiles with
nuclear warheads from submarines.
Thus, Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East, which
is capable of launching missiles with nuclear warheads from land,
sea and air. At the same time the US totally overlooks the threat
coming from Israel, and is not even trying to make Israel sign
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while other countries
(Islamic states, as a rule) are being constantly blackmailed and
threatened by Washington when the US is carefully watching for
non-proliferation of nuclear technologies. The war against Iraq
was launched when Iraq was accused of making an attempt to
develop its own nuclear bomb. And now similar accusations are
heard against Iran.
In order for Israel to avoid economic or military sanctions, the
US intelligence services tend not to mention Israel in their
systematic reports to the Congress where they list the countries
that develop weapons of mass destruction. And the Clinton
Administration even banned selling satellite photos of Israel in
order to defend the secret of Zionist nuclear facilities.
From the materials of Internet mass media
Department of Cooperation and Mass Media,Kavkaz-Center
2004-04-29 00:36:30 print version |
Copyright © 1999-2004. "Kavkaz-Center" News Agency
*****************************************************************
17 Mos News: Nuclear Flagship Financier Jailed for Fraud -
NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM
Created: 28.04.2004 10:59 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:16 MSK
Severomorsk garrison court sentenced the financier of Russian
nuclear flagship Peter The Great to five years of prison for
fraud, Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.
Denis Dolgachev will have to spend five years in a low security
prison colony. The court also sentenced him to pay a fine of 9
million rubles (around $313,500).
The financial aide of the flagship’s commander was charged for
theft by raising sums for the purchase of provisions and
fabricating documents on paying of allowances and salaries to the
personnel. Dolgachev had reportedly stolen more than 12 million
rubles (around $418,000). Some money were seized from him during
his arrest.
In 2003, embezzlement of finances and property on the ship
amounted to 14 million rubles (almost $500,000), Russian
Information Agency Novosti reported on Tuesday citing a source in
the financial directorate of the Northern Fleet’s headquarters.
The Peter the Great has been put into dry dock after the
commission of the Main Headquarters of the Russian Navy checked
her two weeks ago.
The inspection followed a statement by the top Russian Navy
commander who said that the condition of the nuclear cruiser was
so poor it could blow up at any moment.
Write us: info@mosnews.com [info@mosnews.com]
Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM
*****************************************************************
18 NRC: NRC Issues Regulatory Issue Summary Concerning Electric Grid Reliability
News Release - 2004-05
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov
No. 04-050 April 27, 2004
As part of the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions response to the
blackout of Aug. 14, 2003, the NRC has issued a regulatory issue
summary to remind nuclear power plant licensees of how the
availability of offsite power can affect nuclear power plant
operations and safety. In addition, the agency plans to conduct
focused inspections of all licensed plants to assess their
compliance with these requirements.
Some of the regulations discussed in the summary deal with
assessing the impact that maintenance activities could have on
plant operations if offsite power becomes unavailable. The
summary suggests licensees evaluate grid reliability when
contemplating upcoming maintenance. The summary also suggests
utilities should consider rescheduling, when possible,
maintenance during periods when offsite power is determined to
be unavailable. The summary recommends reliable communications
between plants and their transmission system operators, in order
to increase awareness of overall grid conditions.
NRC staff intend to complete their inspections by the end of
this spring. A temporary instruction for these inspections,
based on the regulations outlined in the summary, will be issued
in advance.
The regulatory issue summary is available electronically through
the NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS) on the NRC web site at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html, by entering
accession number ML040990550. Help in using ADAMS is available
from the NRCs Public Document Room at 800/397-4209 or
301/415-4737.
Last revised Tuesday, April 27, 2004
*****************************************************************
19 NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to Meet May 6 - 8 in Rockville, Maryland
News Release - 2004-05
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov
No. 04-051 April 28, 2004
The Nuclear Regulatory Commissions Advisory Committee on
Reactor Safeguards will hold a public meeting May 6 - 8 in
Rockville, Maryland. The committees discussions will include,
among other items, the proposed use of mixed-oxide lead test
assemblies at the Catawba nuclear power plant, and potential
adverse effects from power uprates at nuclear power plants.
The meeting will be held in Room T-2B3 of the agencys Two White
Flint North building, at 11545 Rockville Pike. It will begin at
8:30 a.m. each day. The meeting will be open to the public.
A complete agenda is available on the NRCs Web site at this
address:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acrs/agenda/2004/ag
enda-512.pdf [PDF Icon] . For additional information, please
contact Dr. Sher Bahadur, at 301-415-7362, between 7:30 a.m. and
4:15 p.m.
Last revised Wednesday, April 28, 2004
*****************************************************************
20 projo.com: Tiny budget provision could be key to nuke plant's future
Providence, R.I. | AP's The Wire
04.27.2004 9:25 P.M.
By DAVID GRAM
Associated Press Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Four little words on page 30 of a
134-page budget bill could be key to the Vermont Yankee nuclear
plant's plans to boost its power output, add new radioactive
waste storage and renew its license in 2012.
The words were added by the Senate Appropriations Committee at
the behest of a Vermont Yankee lobbyist without the chairs of
the two Senate committees that normally oversee the plant having
seen them.
"Who told you it was added in?" asked Sen. Virginia Lyons,
D-Chittenden and chairwoman of the Senate Natural Resources
Committee. "We haven't taken any testimony on this section of
the appropriations bill."
At issue is a three-decade-old state law that requires the
Legislature to approve the construction of any facility in
Vermont designed for storing radioactive waste.
An exemption was added later, saying that the law "does not
apply to any temporary storage by Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power
Corporation of spent nuclear fuel elements or other radioactive
waste at its present site."
That corporation is no longer in the business of splitting
atoms, having sold out nearly two years ago to Mississippi-based
Entergy Nuclear. There is no exemption identified in the law for
the corporation that now operates the plant, Entergy Nuclear
Vermont Yankee.
The failure to formally transfer the right to the exemption when
the plant was sold has heartened the plant's critics, who say
Vermont Yankee's plan to begin storing high-level radioactive
waste - spent nuclear fuel rods - in concrete casks on the
plant's Vernon property could be thwarted.
Vermont Yankee lobbyist Gerard Morris said Tuesday that the
plant's owners plan to apply this summer to the Public Service
Board for permission to build the concrete casks it would need
to accommodate additional high-level waste.
Without dry cask storage, Vermont Yankee would run out of space
in its spent fuel pool by 2008 at its current power level,
forcing the shutdown of a plant "that produces a third of the
power for the state of Vermont," said plant spokesman Robert
Williams.
Meanwhile, Vermont Yankee has won conditional approval from the
Public Service Board to increase its power output by 20 percent.
Williams said that would move the pool's capacity date up to
2007 - three years from now.
The change in the Senate budget bill adds the words "its
successors or assigns," after the words "Vermont Yankee Nuclear
Power Corporation" - which would effectively grant Entergy the
same exemption from the ban on new radioactive waste storage
that the plant's previous owners enjoyed.
Both Morris and Williams called the change a "clarification,"
designed to reflect the Legislature's intent.
"It is the Public Service Board that the Legislature intended
would decide whether to allow nuclear plants to build temporary
storage sites," Morris said.
Sen. John Campbell, D-Windsor, was button-holing fellow
lawmakers Tuesday to urge them to support the change. He said it
"makes common sense" to fix a problem caused by the fact that
lawmakers who passed the standing law "didn't take into account
a possible sale of the plant."
A former legislator who played a key role in nuclear policy
through the late 1980s and 1990s said the Legislature was
emphatic that the current spent fuel pool was OK, but it wanted
no more radioactive waste storage.
State Auditor Elizabeth Ready, former chairwoman of the Senate
Natural Resources Committee and member of the Vermont State
Nuclear Advisory Panel, noted that lawmakers had appointed a
commission to look into options for storing low-level
radioactive waste.
That commission found Vermont Yankee's property geologically and
hydrologically unsuitable for any additional waste storage and
recommended the state enter into an arrangement to ship its
low-level waste to Texas, Ready recalled.
Ready also noted that it would be difficult to transfer
legislative intent from the 1980s to the present day. No one
back then had entertained the notion of Vermont Yankee being
sold to an out-of-state corporation, boosting its power output
or seeking to extend its operating license beyond 2012, she
said.
"And there was always the promise that there was going to be a
permanent site" for disposal of high-level waste, like the one
currently planned for Nevada's Yucca Mountain but tied up in
lawsuits. "And as you know, that hasn't happened," Ready said.
*****************************************************************
21 Valley News: Aglow Somewhere
Published 4/24/2004
Those two missing nuclear fuel-rod pieces from the Vermont Yankee
nuclear power plant? The ones that are lethally radioactive and
would be the prized possessions of terrorists wishing to fulfill
this country's worst nightmares?
Not to worry, say officials from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, the federal agency responsible for keeping Americans
safe from the obvious hazards of using radioactive material to
produce energy.
The fact that the pieces are missing “does not pose a threat to
public health and safety as it is highly unlikely that the
material is in the public domain. Given the extensive array of
radiation detectors at the site, it is very probable that the
potentially missing fuel fragments are in a location designed to
deal with radioactive waste.”
A more concise statement might read: We don't have a clue, but we
are keeping our fingers crossed. A phrase such as “highly
unlikely” offers some measure of reassurance when talking about
the potential for, say, a jet crash, but it provides no comfort
when talking about something as potentially catastrophic as a
missing chunk of highly radioactive material.
For the last 25 years, it has been assumed that the two pieces --
one about the size of a pencil and the other 17 inches long --
were sitting in a container at the bottom of the pool where the
Yankee reactor stores spent fuel rods. The pieces had once been
part of a 12-foot-long rod that was pulled from the reactor core
when the fuel rod was discovered to be leaking. It's not that
regulators had completely forgotten about the pieces. Four years
ago, after it was discovered that nuclear fuel was missing from a
Connecticut plant, the NRC conducted a survey at all nuclear
power plants to account for spent fuel. The Yankee inspection
apparently included a visual confirmation of the existence of the
container where the fuel-rod pieces were supposedly stored.
Nobody bothered to look inside, though.
Until Tuesday, when an NRC inspector decided to take a peek via a
remote camera.
The missing fuel from the Connecticut plant was never found. NRC
officials say they hope to discover Vermont Yankee's missing
fuel-rod pieces in some other place in the storage pool but
concede that they may never turn up, either. They may have been
accidentally shipped to a low-level radioactive storage site,
officials say, or perhaps were shipped out for testing.
As any number of elected officials have pointed out in recent
days, it is downright stunning to realize that the NRC and plant
officials have lost track of the plant's inventory of radioactive
fuel. If regulators don't strictly account for a plant’s
radioactive material, they can’t meet their most fundamental
responsibility of safeguarding the public’s safety. Critics of
nuclear power have often been ridiculed as hysterics, but even
they have never dared to suggest that the NRC would be this
negligent.
The discovery comes at a time when federal regulators have been
resisting the state's request that an independent assessment of
plant safety be conducted before Vermont Yankee receives
permission to boost power production by 20 percent. That
independent evaluation seems all the more imperative now that the
NRC has demonstrated that it can't be trusted. And it would need
to be done even if Entergy, the plant’s current owner, were to
drop its plan to increase power production. Thanks to the NRC's
abysmal performance, it’s foolish to assume anything about the
plant’s safety. Back to the story index
Valley News Home
[http://www.vnews.com/
*****************************************************************
22 Pravda.RU: Chernobyl Block 4 will be encased in 2nd sarcophagus by 2008
[PRAVDA.RU]
12:27 2004-04-28
'The sarcophagus that was hurriedly put in place over
Chernobyl's Block 4 in 1986 was built in the face of monstrously
high levels of radioactivity,' Leonid Bolshov declared at a press
conference here this week. 'And it was known at the time that it
would have to be improved and reinforced 10 to 15 years down the
road.' Bolshov heads the Nuclear Safety Institute of the Russian
Academy of Sciences. He said the sarcophagus has long been known
to be porous and insufficiently strong.
'The deficiencies have been analyzed by scientists. It is clear
that there will be emissions of radioactive dust, but that will
not endanger the territory around the nuclear power plant,'
Bolshov said. 'It is clear that a second sarcophagus needs to be
raised over the ruined energy block.'
He said the work could be done 'a great deal faster if there
didn't have to be long negotiations with the world community.'
And, he noted, 'this is not a Russian question any longer. It is
a problem for an independent Ukraine.' He noted that the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development has
earmarked funds for the work, which is expected to be completed
in 2008.
© RosBalt
Copyright ©1999 by "Pravda.RU [http://www.pravda.ru/]
*****************************************************************
23 JOURNAL NEWS: NRC deems plants secure
By ROGER WITHERSPON
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: April 28, 2004)
PEEKSKILL — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded
after its own secret studies that there is little chance of
contamination of the region around a nuclear power plant
following a successful terrorist attack using a commercial jet,
officials said last night.
"We believe that these plants are safe and secure," said Hubert
Miller, the NRC's regional director for the Northeast. "The
enhancements we have made in all areas, including security and
emergency planning, give us confidence that the potential
radiological consequences of terrorism up to and including an air
attack are very low."
And in the event there was an escape of radiation following the
crash of a jet into one of the operating reactors at Indian
Point, Miller said, "We have confidence that the emergency plan
provides reasonable assurance the public would be protected."
Miller's comments came during the public portion of the agency's
annual review of operations at the two Indian Point plants in
Buchanan. The review drew about 180 people to the Crystal Bay
Marina.
The review was, in many ways, one of the most upbeat in years for
the power plants, owned by Entergy Nuclear Northeast since 2001.
For the first time, both plants are rated as among the best
performing in the country, and the NRC has reduced its level of
oversight.
The plants will continue to have heightened oversight, Miller
said, because of the difficulties Entergy is having in merging
what had been separate companies into one cohesive work force.
Indian Point 2 was purchased from Consolidated Edison and Indian
Point 3 was purchased from the New York Power Authority.
Miller asserted, however, that "the reduction in oversight is
based on improved performance at the plant, but that does not
mean we have stepped back from our responsibilities. Indian Point
still has the highest level of oversight in the country."
But the 90-minute review of operations at the site was greeted
with a silent protest by about 30 members of the Indian Point
Safe Energy Coalition. The group held up green glow sticks,
representing missing highly radioactive fuel rods from Entergy's
Vermont Yankee plant, and toy dogs.
"We are angered that the NRC has been the lapdog of Entergy,"
said Mark Jacobs, co-founder of the Westchester Citizens
Awareness Network.
"The NRC has yet to make a sound case that the plant could
withstand a suicide plane attack, a ground attack, or an attack
from the river," he said.
Entergy Vice President Fred Dacimo, who led the presentation of
the company's progress during the past year, said the protest was
not justified.
"These people should realize," Dacimo said, "that because of
Indian Point they don't need to have those little green glow
sticks because we provide enough power for electric lights."
Westchester Legislator Mike Kaplowitz, D-Somers, was critical of
the "chummy relationship" between Entergy and the NRC, and
berated the regulators for not meeting with county legislators to
discuss problems with the emergency plans for the region.
"You pretty much turned us down," Kaplowitz said. "You say we
should have confidence in the redundant safety designs of the
plant. But many of us don't believe it." He said Entergy's plan
to move spent fuel into dry casks "and stack them like bowling
pins out in the open are just inviting trouble. Please hold them
to a higher standard."
Rockland County Legislator David Fried, D-Spring Valley, said
that in an era of terrorism it was wrong to reduce oversight of
the nuclear plants. "To put the interests of a commercial entity
above the interests of our people goes against our national
character," Fried said.
Send e-mail to [rwithers@thejournalnews.com]
[http://www.thejournalnews.com] -
Copyright 2004 The Journal News, [http://www.gannett.com/] .
*****************************************************************
24 TCPalm: St. Lucie nuclear plant guards removed from duty
(April 27, 2004)
An audit showed that Wackenhut guards took shortcuts during their
rounds at the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant.
By Eve Modzelewski staff writer
HUTCHINSON ISLAND — Six security guards and a supervisor have
been removed from duty at the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant after a
Florida Power &Light Co. audit found the guards failed to
complete their patrols, a Wackenhut Corp. official said Tuesday.
The audit revealed the guards skipped parts of their rounds at
the plant, taking shortcuts during patrols designed to detect and
prevent fires, for example.
"Those who were identified as not fulfilling their
responsibilities are no longer at the plant, and by that I mean
they were let go," FPL spokeswoman Rachel Scott said.
Four of the Wackenhut employees resigned within the past month,
and three — including the supervisor — were placed on
administrative leave, according to the Palm Beach Gardens-based
security company, which handles the plant's security.
"Nobody has been terminated yet. As far as I know, the
investigation is still ongoing," Wackenhut spokesman Marc Shapiro
said. Wackenhut, which employs more than 100 at the plant,
expects to finish its inquiry in a couple of weeks.
"At no time was any security at the plant put in jeopardy,"
Shapiro said.
Audit began in March
FPL launched its audit in March, after a security officer told
plant managers certain guards were not completing their patrols,
Scott said. FPL examined computer records tracking the location
of guards and discovered some had not covered all their assigned
areas.
Scott said FPL had "no tolerance" for such oversights. Because
the plant uses many different security measures, including
electronic and video surveillance, Scott said the lapses did not
compromise security.
Since March, FPL has installed a more sophisticated
patrol-monitoring system that tracks the location of guards in
real-time. It also clarified its expectations and requirements of
Wackenhut guards, Scott said.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has launched its own
investigation into security at the plant, but NRC spokesman Roger
Hannah would not say if it was related to the recent failures.
Earlier this month, the Service Employees International Union
released a report called "Homeland Insecurity" that raised
concerns about Wackenhut's security practices at nuclear plants
across the country, including the St. Lucie plant.
Shapiro said the report detailed incidents that had been fixed by
the NRC and that the union was trying to pressure Wackenhut to
sanction its elections.
- eve.modzelewski@scripps.com [eve.modzelewski@scripps.com]
Contact TCPalm.com at feedback@tcpalm.com
*****************************************************************
25 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Subcommittee Meeting on
FR Doc E4-952
[Federal Register: April 28, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 82)]
[Notices] [Page 23230] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28ap04-91]
Planning and Procedures; Notice of Meeting The ACRS Subcommittee
on Planning and Procedures will hold a meeting on May 5, 2004,
Room T-2B1, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.
The entire meeting will be open to public attendance, with the
exception of a portion that may be closed pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
552b(c)(2) and (6) to discuss organizational and personnel
matters that relate solely to the internal personnel rules and
practices of the ACRS, and information the release of which would
constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows:
Wednesday, May 5, 2004--8:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. The Subcommittee
will discuss proposed ACRS activities and related matters. The
Subcommittee will gather information, analyze relevant issues and
facts, and formulate proposed positions and actions, as
appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee.
Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or
written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official,
Mr. Sam Duraiswamy (telephone: 301-415-7364) between 7:30 a.m.
and 4:15 p.m. (e.t.) five days prior to the meeting, if possible,
so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Electronic
recordings will be permitted only during those portions of the
meeting that are open to the public.
Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by
contacting the Designated Federal Official between 7:30 a.m. and
4:15 p.m. (e.t.). Persons planning to attend this meeting are
urged to contact the above named individual at least two working
days prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes
in the agenda.
Dated: April 20, 2004.
Medhat El-Zeftawy, Acting Associate Director for Technical
Support, ACRS/ACNW.
[FR Doc. E4-952 Filed 4-27-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
26 NRC: Documents Containing Reporting or Recordkeeping Requirements:
FR Doc E4-954
[Federal Register: April 28, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 82)]
[Notices] [Page 23228] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28ap04-88]
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Review AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC). ACTION: Notice of OMB review of
information collection and solicitation of public comment.
SUMMARY: The NRC has recently submitted to OMB for review the
following proposal for the collection of information under the
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35) 1. Type of submission, new, revision, or extension:
Revision. 2. The title of the information collection: 10 CFR Part
9, ``Public Records.'' 3. The form number if applicable: N/A. 4.
How often the collection is required: On occasion. 5. Who will be
required or asked to report: Submitters of information containing
trade secrets or confidential commercial or financial information
who have been notified that the NRC has made an initial
determination that the information should be disclosed.
6. The estimated number of annual responses: 10. 7. The estimated
number of annual respondents: 10. 8. An estimate of the total
number of hours needed annually to complete the requirement or
request: 100 hours (10 hours per response).
9. An indication of whether Section 3507(d), Pub. L. 104-13
applies: Applicable.
10. Abstract: 10 CFR Part 9 is being revised to provide a
submitter of information who has designated that information to
be trade secrets or confidential commercial and financial
information, the right to be notified prior to the NRC disclosing
that information, and given the opportunity to object to the
disclosure and to provide a written statement that specifies all
grounds why the information is a trade secret or commercial or
financial information that is privileged or confidential. Section
9.28(b) would provide that if the submitter objects to the
disclosure, he must provide within15 days a written statement
that specifies all grounds why the information is a trade secret
or commercial or financial information that is privileged or
confidential. This provision implements a requirement of
Executive Order 12600, Predisclosure Notification Procedures for
Confidential Commercial Information (52 FR 23781), issued June
23, 1987.
Submit, by May 28, 2004, comments that address the following
questions: 1. Is the proposed collection of information necessary
for the NRC to properly perform its functions? Does the
information have practical utility? 2. Is the burden estimate
accurate? 3. Is there a way to enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be collected? 4. How can the burden
of the information collection be minimized, including the use of
automated collection techniques or other forms of information
technology? A copy of the submittal may be viewed free of charge
at the NRC Public Document Room, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Room 0-1-F21, Rockville, MD 20852. The proposed
rule indicated in ``The title of the information collection'' is
or has been published in the Federal Register within several days
of the publication date of this Federal Register notice. The OMB
clearance package and rule are available at the NRC worldwide Web
site:
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comm
ent/omb/] for 60 days after the signature date of this notice and
are also available at the rule forum site,
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://ruleforum.llnl.gov] .
Comments and questions should be directed to the OMB reviewer by
May 28, 2004: OMB Desk Officer, Notice of Information and
Regulatory Affairs (3150-0043), NEOB-10202, Office of Management
and Budget, Washington, DC 20503.
Comments can also be submitted by telephone at (202) 395-3087.
The NRC Clearance Officer is Brenda Jo. Shelton, 301-415-7233.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 15th day of April, 2004.
For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Brenda Jo. Shelton,
NRC Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E4-954 Filed 4-27-04; 8:45 a.m.] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
27 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding
FR Doc E4-955
[Federal Register: April 28, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 82)]
[Notices] [Page 23229-23230] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28ap04-90]
of No Significant Impact for an Exemption From Certain Control
and Tracking Requirements in 10 CFR Part 20 Appendix G Section
III.E for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Diego
County, CA I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) is considering the issuance of an exemption from certain
control and tracking requirements in 10 CFR part 20 for the San
Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The SONGS site
consists of two operating reactors and a permanently shutdown
nuclear reactor facility located in San Diego County, California.
Inherent to the decommissioning process, large volumes of
slightly contaminated rubble and debris are generated and require
disposal. On January 26, 2004, Southern California Edison (the
licensee) requested an exemption from the requirements in 10 CFR
part 20, appendix G section III.E to investigate and file a
report to the NRC if shipments of low-level radioactive waste are
not acknowledged by the intended recipient within 20 days after
transfer to the shipper. This exemption would extend the time
period that can elapse during shipments of low-level radioactive
waste before the licensee is required to investigate and file a
report to the NRC from 20 days to 35 days. The exemption request
is based on a statistical analysis of the historical data of
low-level radioactive waste shipment times from the licensee's
site to the disposal site using rail or combination truck/ rail
shipping methods. The NRC staff has prepared an environmental
assessment (EA) in support of this action, in accordance with the
requirements of 10 CFR part 51. The conclusion of the EA is a
Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the proposed action.
II. EA Summary The proposed action would grant an exemption to
extend the 20-day investigation and reporting requirements for
shipments of low-level radioactive waste to 35 days. Since 1999,
the licensee has made over 150 shipments of low-level radioactive
waste as part of the decommissioning efforts at the facility. MHF
Logistical Solutions (MHF) is the rail broker company used by the
licensee to perform these shipments. MHF
[[Page 23230]] Logistical Solutions has a tracking system that
monitors the progress of the shipments from their originating
point at SONGS until they arrive to their final destination at
Envirocare in Clive, Utah.
The shipments are made by either rail or combination truck/rail.
According to the licensee, the transportation time alone by
either rail or combination truck/rail took over 16 days on
average, with one shipment taking 57 days to arrive at
Envirocare.
In addition to this time, administrative procedures at Envirocare
and mail delivery could add up to 11 additional days. Based on
historical data and estimates of the remaining waste at SONGS
Unit 1, the licensee could have to perform over 100
investigations and reports to the NRC during the next five years
if the 20-day shipping criteria is maintained. The licensee
affirms that the low-level radioactive waste shipments will
always be tracked throughout transportation until they arrive at
their intended destination. The licensee believes that the need
to investigate, trace, and report to the NRC on the shipment of
low-level radioactive waste packages not reaching their
destination within 20 days does not serve the underlying purpose
of the rule and it is not necessary. As a result, the licensee
states that granting this exemption will not result in an undue
hazard to life or property.
The NRC has examined the licensee's proposed exemption request
and concluded that it is procedural and administrative in nature.
There are no significant radiological environmental impacts
associated with this exemption, and it will not result in
significant nonradiological environmental impacts.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact NRC has prepared the EA
(summarized above) in support of the licensee's application for
an exemption request. 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.
IV. Further Information The EA and the documents related to this
proposed action, including the request for the exemption, are
available for inspection at the NRC Public Electronic Reading
Room at the following address:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/pdr.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/pdr.html] .
The ADAMS accession number for the licensee's exemption request
letter dated January 26, 2004 is ML040330945. The ADAMS accession
number for the EA is ML040780782. Persons who do not have access
to ADAMS, or who encounter problems in accessing the documents
located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC Public Document Room
(PDR) reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or
301-415-4737. They can also be reached via e-mail at pdr@nrc.gov
[pdr@nrc.gov] . Documents may also be examined, and/or copied for
a fee, at the NRC PDR, located at One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. Any questions with respect
to this action should be referred to Mr. William C. Huffman,
Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection, Office
of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. He can be reached at
(301) 415-1141. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 21st day of April, 2004.
Daniel M. Gillen, Deputy Director, Decommissioning Directorate,
Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection, Office
of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. E4-955 Filed 4-27-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
28 NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for the
FR Doc E4-957
[Federal Register: April 28, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 82)]
[Notices] [Page 23228-23229] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28ap04-89]
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Review; Comment Request
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
ACTION: Notice of the OMB review of information collection and
solicitation of public comment.
SUMMARY: The NRC has recently submitted to OMB for review the
following proposal for the collection of information under the
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C.
chapter 35). The NRC hereby informs potential respondents that an
agency may not conduct or sponsor, and that a person is not
required to respond to, a collection of information unless it
[[Page 23229]] displays a currently valid OMB control number.
Information pertaining to the requirement to be submitted: 1.
Type of submission, new, revision, of extension: Revision. 2. The
title of the information collection: Policy Statement for the
``Criteria for Guidance of States and NRC in Discontinuance of
NRC Regulatory Authority and Assumption Thereof by States Through
Agreement,'' Maintenance of Existing Agreement State Programs,
Request for Information through the Integrated Materials
Performance Evaluation Program (IMPEP) Questionnaire, and
Agreement State Participation in IMPEP.
3. The form number if applicable: Not applicable. 4. How often
the collection is required: There are four activities that occur
under this collection: information collection activities required
by the IMPEP questionnaire in preparation for an IMPEP review
conducted no less frequently than every four years; while the
following activities are all collected on an annual basis--policy
statement addressing requirements for new Agreement States;
participation by Agreement States in the IMPEP reviews; and
annual requirements for Agreement States to maintain their
programs.
5. Who will be required or asked to report: 33 Agreement States
who have signed Section 274b Agreements with NRC.
6. An estimate of the number of annual responses: For States
interested in becoming an Agreement State: approximately one
State per year. For Agreement State participation in IMPEP
reviews: 11 (9 State, 1 NRC Region and 1 Follow-up Review per
year). For maintenance of existing Agreement State programs: 33
States. For Agreement State response to IMPEP questionnaires: 9
States. The total number of annual responses is 54.
7. The estimated number of annual respondents: 33. 8. The number
of hours needed annually to complete the requirement or request:
For States interested in becoming an Agreement State:
Approximately 4,300 hours. For Agreement State participation in
11 IMPEP reviews (9 State, 1 NRC Region and 1 Follow-up Review):
396 hours (an average of 36 hours per review). For maintenance of
existing Agreement State programs: 252,000 hours (an average of
approximately 7,636 hours per State for 33 Agreement States). For
Agreement State response to 9 IMPEP questionnaires annually: 477
hours (an average of 53 hours per program). The total number of
hours expended annually is 257,173 hours.
9. An indication of whether section 3507(d), Pub. L. 104-13
applies: Not applicable.
10. Abstract: States wishing to become an Agreement State are
requested to provide certain information to the NRC as specified
by the Commission's Policy Statement, ``Criteria for Guidance of
States and NRC in Discontinuance of NRC Regulatory Authority and
Assumption Thereof by States Through Agreement.'' Agreement
States need to ensure that the Radiation Control Program under
the Agreement remains adequate and compatible with the
requirements of Section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act (Act) and
must maintain certain information. NRC conducts periodic
evaluations through IMPEP to ensure that these programs are
compatible with the NRC's, meet the applicable parts of the Act,
and are adequate to protect public health and safety.
A copy of the final supporting statement may be viewed free of
charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White Flint North,
11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F21, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
OMB clearance requests are available at the NRC World Wide Web
site:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/index.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comm
ent/omb/index.html] . The document will be available on the NRC
home page site for 60 days after the signature date of this
notice.
Comments and questions should be directed to the OMB reviewer
listed below by May 28, 2004. Comments received after this date
will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance of
consideration cannot be given to comments received after this
date. OMB Desk Officer, Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs (3150-0183), NEOB-10202, Office of Management and Budget,
Washington, DC 20503.
Comments can also be submitted by telephone at (202) 395-3087.
The NRC Clearance Officer is Brenda Jo. Shelton, (301) 415-7233.
Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 22nd day of April, 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brenda Jo. Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief
Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E4-957 Filed 4-27-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
29 Southern Illinoisan: NUCLEAR PLANT GETS GO-AHEAD TO RESUME PRODUCTION
Wednesday, Apr. 28, 2004
thesouthern.com
(618) 351-5000
1-800-228-0429
BY Ken.Seeber
METROPOLIS -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given
approval for the Honeywell International plant near Metropolis to
resume its production of uranium hexafluoride gas.
The plant has been shut down since a Dec. 22 leak sent 7 pounds
of the radioactive gas UF-6, used to make fuel rods for nuclear
power plants, into the air. No one was injured, but the NRC
ordered Honeywell to address safety procedures at the plant.
"As we were going through our commitments to the NRC and to
ourselves, we weren't satisfied with the level of training that
had been completed and we didn't have the mechanical and
electrical improvements fully completed," said Honeywell plant
manager Rory O'Kane.
Improvements made since the leak include upgrades to equipment
and working procedures, as well as the addition of a new system
to more quickly alert local emergency responders.
The NRC gave its approval March 27 for Honeywell to begin the
first of three phases in UF-6 production. The second went online
April 14.
O'Kane said that despite the long shutdown, Honeywell has not
only avoided any layoffs, the plant has hired 40 new employees.
It had 310 employees before.
"Prior to the event, our business was projecting some pretty
substantial growth in terms of volume in that product line,"
O'Kane said. "As a result we were scheduled to increase our
workforce by about 10 percent."
An investigation by the NRC determined human error during the
installation of equipment to increase the plant's production
capacity led to the gas leak.
& images, copyright © The Southern Illinoisan, a
*****************************************************************
30 Patriot Ledger: Death blamed on power plantBy Rich Harbert
SouthofBoston.com
MPG Newspapers 9 Long Pond Rd. Plymouth, MA 02360 (508) 746-5555
PLYMOUTH (April 28) - A federal judge's ruling will test claims
that radiation exposure killed a former Pilgrim nuclear plant
worker.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns ruled Friday the family
of Thomas Smith, of Hanson, can take their claim to jurors.
Smith worked at the nuclear plant between 1972 and 1988. He died
of complications from chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a rare
form of leukemia, in June 1992.
His widow and two children claim Smith's chronic exposure to
low-level radiation while working at the plant caused the
disease.
The suit names NStar and General Electric Co. as defendants.
NStar, as Boston Edison, owned the plant in the years Smith
worked there. General Electric made the reactor.
The suit, filed before Smith died in 1992, alleges ionizing
radiation penetrated Smith's bones, causing the rare disease. CML
largely affects adult males in later stages of life, but is very
rare. The disease rarely strikes more than 1 in 100,000 people a
year.
Studies of survivors of World War II atomic bomb attacks on Japan
suggest an association between massive, instantaneous bursts of
radiation and the disease. But there are no definitive answers
about the risk of long-term exposure to low-level radiation.
Expert witnesses for the defense acknowledged some emissions
migrate to the bones, but maintained they were too weak to reach
bone marrow stem cells. The likelihood of emissions causing the
disease was "infinitesimally small," the defense argued.
Stearns noted qualified experts testified for both sides in a
hearing on the suit's merits. He noted the science they presented
shows too little is known about the association between ionizing
radiation and diseases like CML.
Stearns said that while he has no doubt scientific opinion
supports the defendants, jurors must ultimately make that
decision.
Stearns noted he could not dismiss the plaintiff's witnesses as
"poseurs or witnesses for hire." "They are serious scientists
with controversial views that are in many respects on the
periphery of the main stream, but views that are not so divorced
from a scientific method of investigation that they can be
dismissed as quackery or armchair conjecture," Stearns concluded.
The Smith family's attorney, Edward Dangel of Boston, could not
be reached this week.
Nstar spokesman Mike Durand said Tuesday the power company had
not yet reviewed the ruling and could not comment on ongoing
litigation.
"This issue has been in the courts for many years," Durand said.
"We know it's been a long and difficult process for all sides."
No trial date has been set.
[http://oldcolony.southofboston.com/extras/contact.shtml]
MPG Newspapers, 9 Long Pond Rd., Plymouth, MA 02360
Telephone: (508) 746-5555
*****************************************************************
31 PRN: PPL's Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant Returns to Normal Operation
> [http://www.prnewswire.com/] [
[http://www.pplweb.com]
BERWICK, Pa., April 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PPL's
Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Luzerne County declared an end
to an "unusual event" at 3:52 p.m. EDT on Wednesday (4/28), and
plant operators have begun to return the Unit 2 reactor to full
power.
The plant entered the lowest of the four emergency
classifications for nuclear power plants at 1:25 p.m. EDT
Wednesday because of an electrical failure in a power
distribution panel located in the Unit 2 reactor building. As a
result, the unit's power was reduced to about 80 percent.
"Plant equipment and personnel reacted as expected for this
type of situation," said Herbert D. Woodeshick, special assistant
to the president for PPL Susquehanna. "Workers isolated the
electrical failure and restored power to the affected systems
through an alternate electrical supply."
The damaged distribution panel supplied power to the cooling
system for the main generator and to the system that removes
certain gases from the turbine's main condenser, without which
the unit cannot operate at full power.
"The plant was in a stable condition throughout the event,
and Unit 1 remains at full power," Woodeshick said.
Unit 2 now has been operating for 374 consecutive days.
PPL notified Luzerne and Columbia county emergency management
agencies, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Susquehanna plant, located about seven miles north of
Berwick, is owned jointly by PPL Susquehanna LLC and Allegheny
Electric Cooperative Inc. and is operated by PPL Susquehanna.
PPL Susquehanna LLC is a member of the PPL Corporation family
of companies. Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., PPL Corporation
(NYSE: PPL
[http://alliance.marketwatch.com/custom/alliance/interactivechart
.asp?symb=PPL&astyle=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,10,0,0&c=179&urlpull=&logourl=
&post=0] ) controls about 11,500 megawatts of generating capacity
in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and
delivers electricity to customers in Pennsylvania, the United
Kingdom and Latin America. More information is available at
http://www.pplweb.com [http://www.pplweb.com] .
SOURCE PPL Corporation Web Site: http://www.pplweb.com
[http://www.pplweb.com]
Copyright © 1996-2004 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights
*****************************************************************
32 IPS-English RIGHTS: Evidence Grows Against Depleted Uranium
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 16:15:51 -0700
ROMAIPS NA IK HE HD IP=20
RIGHTS: Evidence Grows Against Depleted Uranium Weapons
By Katherine Stapp
NEW YORK, Apr 27 (IPS) - Washington's insistence that depleted uranium (D=
U) munitions are not toxic has been undermined by revelations that four U=
.S. soldiers recently home from Iraq are suffering from radiation poisoni=
ng.=20
A by-product of the uranium enrichment process, DU is prized by the milit=
ary for its use in ammunition that can punch through walls and armoured t=
anks. The main problem, experts say, is that DU munitions vaporise on con=
tact, generating dust that is easily inhaled into the lungs.=20
Several months ago a dozen soldiers from the National Guard's 442nd Milit=
ary Police Company, stationed south of Baghdad, began suffering from dizz=
iness, diarrhoea, blurred vision and other symptoms. Independent tests ca=
rried out by a New York newspaper found that four had high levels of depl=
eted uranium in their systems.=20
The news does not come as a surprise for doctors working in parts of the =
world that have been bombarded with DU weaponry, such as Iraq, Afghanista=
n and the Balkans.=20
=94If it is true, it will be a great problem for the Pentagon,=94 said Dr=
Jawad al-Ali, a cancer specialist at the Oncology Centre in Basra, Iraq.=
=20
Al-Ali says that the number of cancer patients he treats has increased mo=
re than 10-fold since the 1990 Gulf War, and that many of the cases are s=
uggestive of heavy metal poisoning.=20
=94The Iraqi people are the victims of the Pentagon policy,=94 he told IP=
S. =94And clean-up is impossible because they used DU on so many local ar=
eas.=94=20
Washington admitted to using some 300 tonnes of DU munitions during the 1=
990 Gulf War, although independent experts estimate that the real number =
is more like 1,700 tonnes.=20
In Afghanistan, U.S.-led forces in =94Operation Enduring Freedom=94 likel=
y fired thousands of DU armour-piercing shells, although no hard numbers =
have been released.=20
And in the most recent Iraq war, the Pentagon and the United Nations esti=
mate that U.S. and British forces used 1,100 to 2,200 tonnes of DU during=
attacks in March and April 2003.=20
Last October, Tedd Weyman of the Toronto-based Uranium Medical Research C=
entre (UMRC), a non-profit scientific organisation that studies radiation=
contamination in war zones, led a field investigation to Iraq that found=
elevated radiation levels, even in the air.=20
=94It was quite unusual because radiation tends to persist for a while in=
the soil and groundwater, but it usually disperses quickly in the air,=94=
he said.=20
The UMRC team surveyed U.S. and British-controlled combat areas and bombs=
ites in southern Iraq, including Baghdad, al Nasiriyah, al Suweiriah and =
Basra.=20
Weyman told IPS that about 30 percent of the civilian residents the team =
interviewed complained of symptoms consistent with DU exposure. Of that n=
umber, one-third had DU excretions in their urine.=20
Although the team was in Iraq for only 13 days, two members, including We=
yman, became contaminated with DU.=20
=94When you know what to look for, you can actually taste it,=94 he said.=
=94You get numbing and splitting of the lips, coughing up blood, redness=
of the throat.=94=20
His own radiation levels, he said, are about four to five times higher th=
an normal.=20
Weyman also made two trips to Afghanistan, the last in October 2002, to c=
ollect urine samples from residents of Jalalabad and Kabul. His report fo=
und that =94without exception, at every bomb site investigated, people ar=
e ill.=94=20
Entire neighbourhoods complained of flu-like illnesses, and up to one-fou=
rth of all newborn infants suffered from congenital and post-natal health=
problems, the UMRC researchers found.=20
Some residents experienced nosebleeds within minutes of bomb attacks, aft=
er giant plumes of dust kicked up from the detonation craters drifted thr=
ough their neighbourhoods.=20
The UMRC findings are corroborated by other doctors with experience in th=
e region.=20
=94Afghanistan is a disaster in the making,=94 said Mohammed Daud Miraki,=
an Afghan doctor based in the United States who is trying to raise funds=
to clean up his home country. =94I have seen children in the south and e=
ast of the country born with monstrous deformities, including huge tumour=
s, and even no skin.=94=20
=94Reconstruction is a paradox when you have sentenced a whole population=
to death,=94 he said.=20
Miraki and other experts believe the magnitude of DU contamination in Afg=
hanistan is even worse than in Iraq, because more weaponry was deployed i=
n a smaller area.=20
Although the Pentagon recently announced that it would pay to test any so=
ldiers who ask for it, and is reportedly conducting further tests on the =
recently returned troops, officials have not budged from their stance tha=
t DU is perfectly safe.=20
=94What they've done is an interesting exercise in hair-splitting,=94 Wey=
man said. =94They say that the effects of uranium have been adequately st=
udied, but not depleted uranium, when the two elements are chemically and=
radiologically identical.=94=20
=94And despite the fact that we essentially created the methodology to fi=
nd DU in urine samples, we've never received a single solitary phone call=
from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the U.N. Environment Programme=
(UNEP) or the Department of Defence,=94 he added.=20
Both UNEP and the WHO support Washington's stance that DU is not an immed=
iate health threat, although UNEP's post-conflict assessment unit recomme=
nded this month that further studies be conducted in Iraq, =94as soon as =
conditions permit=94.=20
=94Politics is muffling science,=94 said Ross Mirkarimi, who travelled to=
Iraq with scientists from Harvard University to conduct environmental as=
sessments of the first Gulf War.=20
=94Despite anecdotal reports of numerous DU-contaminated hot zones in Ira=
q, its impacts on the flora and fauna, coupled with reports of our troops=
exhibiting signs of DU exposure and sickness, any formal disclosure abou=
t the insidious effects of DU would be a liability to the Bush administra=
tion.=94=20
=94DU decontamination and mitigation measures amid an urban environment i=
s uncharted science, making Iraq the petri dish,=94 he said in an intervi=
ew.=20
Some experts, including the United Nations subcommission on human rights,=
argue that DU weapons violate the Geneva Conventions on the rules of war=
, because they have an ongoing killing effect, they are not contained to =
the legal field of battle, they cause undue suffering, and they harm the =
natural environment.=20
Maj Doug Rokke, the former head of the Pentagon's depleted uranium projec=
t and now a leading critic of DU, believes deploying the weaponry is a wa=
r crime.=20
=94I was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Army depleted uranium assessment team a=
s the health physicist and medic,=94 Rokke says in an interview. =94What =
we found can be explained in three words -- oh my God.=94=20
=94After we returned to the United States, we wrote the 'Theatre Clean-up=
Plan', which reportedly was passed through the U.S. Department of Defenc=
e to the U.S. Department of State and consequently to the Emirate of Kuwa=
iti,=94 he said.=20
=94Today, it is obvious that none of this information regarding clean up =
of extensive DU contamination ever was given to the Iraqis,=94 added Rokk=
e.=20
=94Iraqi, Kosovar, Serbian and other representatives have asked numerous =
times for DU contamination management and medical care procedures but thi=
s information has not been provided.=94=20
Due to his work, Rokke currently has 5,000 times the normal levels of rad=
iation in his body. At least 30 members of his DU clean-up team have died=
prematurely.=20
*****
+Uranium Medical Research Centre (www.umrc.net)
+U.S. Navy Documents on Toxicity of DU (http://traprockpeace.org/depleted=
_uranium_milner.html)
+Afghan DU Fund (http://www.afghandufund.org/)
(END/IPS/NA/IK/HE/HD/IP/KS/ML/04)
=20
=3D 04290023 ORP001
NNNN
*****************************************************************
33 Banning Irradiated Food from School Lunch Programs
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 18:13:48 -0500 (CDT)
Hi All,
We had another good win yesterday, when the SF School
District voted to ban irradiated foods from the
children's diet. Note, it is not a permanent ban, but
it can be.
Following is the press release from one of the lead
organizers. Perhaps it can also be done in your
schools and local institutions. Feel free to contact
Tracy and she can find a local organizer where you
live.
My Best,
David Grace
////\\\\\
San Francisco Unified School District Bans Irradiated
Food!
Last night, the SF Board of Education voted
unanimously to ban irradiated foods in all of their
school meal programs, for five years. This vote came
after months of organizing parents, community groups,
teachers, and students. San Francisco is now the
sixth school district in California (and the 8th in
the country) to pass such a ban. Read the press
release below.
Pass a ban in your school district! To download a
free organizing kit, visit www.safelunch.org Contact
Tracy Lerman tlerman@citizen.org or 510-663-0888 x 103
for more info.
PUBLIC CITIZEN * PARENT VOICES
NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: April 27, 2004
Contact: Tracy Lerman, (510) 663-0888 x 103
San Francisco School Board Bans Irradiated Food from
School Lunch Program Concerned Parents and Consumer
Groups Praise Decision
SAN FRANCISCO - In a unanimous vote last
night, the seven members of the San Francisco Board of
Education followed five other California school
districts by passing a resolution that forbids the
116-school system from purchasing irradiated food for
any of its meal programs for five years. This
resolution follows a USDA decision to include
irradiated ground beef in the National School Lunch
Program, which provides free or reduced price school
lunches to 27 million children annually; 61% of
SFUSD's students qualify for the federally subsidized
meal program.
California is leading the country with a new
trend of banning irradiated food from their school
cafeterias in order to safeguard students who would
otherwise have no way to protect themselves from
eating meat that has been treated with the
controversial irradiation technology. Federal law
states that while irradiated meat must be labeled in
grocery stores, it does not have to be labeled when
served in cafeterias, restaurants, or hospitals.
"The USDA clearly ignored the will of the
public when it approved irradiated foods for the
National School Lunch Program," said Mark Sanchez,
school board commissioner and co author of the
resolution. "San Francisco's ban will send the USDA a
message that they can't use our children as guinea
pigs for this questionable technology."
In May 2003, the USDA decision to approve
irradiated meat for the school lunch program was
controversial because the federal agency sided with
industry over parental concerns. More than 400
comments from Californians were submitted during the
open comment period. Of the thousands of comments in
total, 93% opposed the proposal to include irradiated
meat in children's lunches. In March, the Parent
Advisory Council to SFUSD voted 14-1 in favor of
banning irradiated meat from San Francisco schools.
The Student Advisory Council and the United Educators
of San Francisco, the union representing San Francisco
public school teachers, also support the ban.
"The growing number of school districts
banning irradiated foods is evidence of an increasing
demand for wholesome, healthy, and nutritious food in
schools," said Tracy Lerman, an organizer for Public
Citizen's safe lunch campaign based in Oakland, Calif.
"I applaud the San Francisco school board for
prioritizing the health of their students by banning
this nutritionally bankrupt food."
Irradiation exposes food to a dose of ionizing
radiation to kill bacteria; however, research has
shown that it depletes essential nutrients and
vitamins from the food and also produces chemicals
that are known or suspected carcinogens. Last year,
the Los Angeles Unified School District passed a
similar ban on irradiated meat, calling it "ludicrous"
to use children as a test group for eating irradiated
food when the long-term health effects are unknown.
To date, no school district has purchased
irradiated meat through the USDA for the 2004-2005
school year.
###
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.
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover
*****************************************************************
34 UK ITV: Sailors quit nuclear sub on safety grounds
[http://www.itv.com]
Wed Apr 28 2004
An MoD spokesman denied any suggestions of a "mutiny" on board
Sailors quit nuclear sub on safety grounds 10.40AM, Wed Apr 28
2004
Eleven sailors have been allowed to leave a Royal Navy nuclear
submarine after complaining it was unsafe.
The crewmen on HMS Trafalgar raised their concerns with the
commanding officer, who agreed to let them off the boat.
An MoD spokesman denied any suggestions of a "mutiny" on board
and said no individual refused to sail with the submarine.
The incident took place before the sub was due to begin
operational tests following minor repairs at the Faslane nuclear
base in Scotland.
HMS Trafalgar has been out of service since it ran aground off
the Isle of Skye in November 2002. Three sailors were injured in
the incident which caused £5 million worth damage.
A temporary replacement crew joined the other 109 members last
week after the 11 men spoke of their safety fears last Friday.
Nov 7, 2002: HMS Trafalgar runs aground
Contact Us | [http://www.itv.com/about/] | advertise with us
Content © ITV Network Limited. All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
35 IPS: Evidence Grows Against Depleted Uranium Weapons
IPS [http://www.ips.org]
Katherine Stapp
NEW YORK, Apr 28 (IPS) - Washington's insistence that depleted
uranium (DU) munitions are not toxic has been undermined by
revelations that four U.S. soldiers recently home from Iraq are
suffering from radiation poisoning.
A by-product of the uranium enrichment process, DU is prized by
the military for its use in ammunition that can punch through
walls and armoured tanks. The main problem, experts say, is that
DU munitions vaporise on contact, generating dust that is easily
inhaled into the lungs.
Several months ago a dozen soldiers from the National Guard's
442nd Military Police Company, stationed south of Baghdad, began
suffering from dizziness, diarrhoea, blurred vision and other
symptoms. Independent tests carried out by a New York newspaper
found that four had high levels of depleted uranium in their
systems.
The news does not come as a surprise for doctors working in parts
of the world that have been bombarded with DU weaponry, such as
Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.
"If it is true, it will be a great problem for the Pentagon,"
said Dr Jawad al-Ali, a cancer specialist at the Oncology Centre
in Basra, Iraq.
Al-Ali says that the number of cancer patients he treats has
increased more than 10-fold since the 1990 Gulf War, and that
many of the cases are suggestive of heavy metal poisoning.
"The Iraqi people are the victims of the Pentagon policy," he
told IPS. "And clean-up is impossible because they used DU on so
many local areas."
Washington admitted to using some 300 tonnes of DU munitions
during the 1990 Gulf War, although independent experts estimate
that the real number is more like 1,700 tonnes.
In Afghanistan, U.S.-led forces in "Operation Enduring Freedom"
likely fired thousands of DU armour-piercing shells, although no
hard numbers have been released.
And in the most recent Iraq war, the Pentagon and the United
Nations estimate that U.S. and British forces used 1,100 to 2,200
tonnes of DU during attacks in March and April 2003.
Last October, Tedd Weyman of the Toronto-based Uranium Medical
Research Centre (UMRC), a non-profit scientific organisation that
studies radiation contamination in war zones, led a field
investigation to Iraq that found elevated radiation levels, even
in the air.
"It was quite unusual because radiation tends to persist for a
while in the soil and groundwater, but it usually disperses
quickly in the air," he said.
The UMRC team surveyed U.S. and British-controlled combat areas
and bombsites in southern Iraq, including Baghdad, al Nasiriyah,
al Suweiriah and Basra.
Weyman told IPS that about 30 percent of the civilian residents
the team interviewed complained of symptoms consistent with DU
exposure. Of that number, one-third had DU excretions in their
urine.
Although the team was in Iraq for only 13 days, two members,
including Weyman, became contaminated with DU.
"When you know what to look for, you can actually taste it," he
said. "You get numbing and splitting of the lips, coughing up
blood, redness of the throat."
His own radiation levels, he said, are about four to five times
higher than normal.
Weyman also made two trips to Afghanistan, the last in October
2002, to collect urine samples from residents of Jalalabad and
Kabul. His report found that "without exception, at every bomb
site investigated, people are ill."
Entire neighbourhoods complained of flu-like illnesses, and up to
one-fourth of all newborn infants suffered from congenital and
post-natal health problems, the UMRC researchers found.
Some residents experienced nosebleeds within minutes of bomb
attacks, after giant plumes of dust kicked up from the detonation
craters drifted through their neighbourhoods.
The UMRC findings are corroborated by other doctors with
experience in the region.
"Afghanistan is a disaster in the making," said Mohammed Daud
Miraki, an Afghan doctor based in the United States who is trying
to raise funds to clean up his home country. "I have seen
children in the south and east of the country born with monstrous
deformities, including huge tumours, and even no skin."
"Reconstruction is a paradox when you have sentenced a whole
population to death," he said.
Miraki and other experts believe the magnitude of DU
contamination in Afghanistan is even worse than in Iraq, because
more weaponry was deployed in a smaller area.
Although the Pentagon recently announced that it would pay to
test any soldiers who ask for it, and is reportedly conducting
further tests on the recently returned troops, officials have not
budged from their stance that DU is perfectly safe.
"What they've done is an interesting exercise in hair-splitting,"
Weyman said. "They say that the effects of uranium have been
adequately studied, but not depleted uranium, when the two
elements are chemically and radiologically identical."
"And despite the fact that we essentially created the methodology
to find DU in urine samples, we've never received a single
solitary phone call from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the
U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) or the Department of Defence,"
he added.
Both UNEP and the WHO support Washington's stance that DU is not
an immediate health threat, although UNEP's post-conflict
assessment unit recommended this month that further studies be
conducted in Iraq, "as soon as conditions permit".
"Politics is muffling science," said Ross Mirkarimi, who
travelled to Iraq with scientists from Harvard University to
conduct environmental assessments of the first Gulf War.
"Despite anecdotal reports of numerous DU-contaminated hot zones
in Iraq, its impacts on the flora and fauna, coupled with reports
of our troops exhibiting signs of DU exposure and sickness, any
formal disclosure about the insidious effects of DU would be a
liability to the Bush administration."
"DU decontamination and mitigation measures amid an urban
environment is uncharted science, making Iraq the petri dish," he
said in an interview.
Some experts, including the United Nations subcommission on human
rights, argue that DU weapons violate the Geneva Conventions on
the rules of war, because they have an ongoing killing effect,
they are not contained to the legal field of battle, they cause
undue suffering, and they harm the natural environment.
Maj Doug Rokke, the former head of the Pentagon's depleted
uranium project and now a leading critic of DU, believes
deploying the weaponry is a war crime.
"I was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Army depleted uranium assessment
team as the health physicist and medic," Rokke says in an
interview. "What we found can be explained in three words -- oh
my God."
"After we returned to the United States, we wrote the 'Theatre
Clean-up Plan', which reportedly was passed through the U.S.
Department of Defence to the U.S. Department of State and
consequently to the Emirate of Kuwaiti," he said.
"Today, it is obvious that none of this information regarding
clean up of extensive DU contamination ever was given to the
Iraqis," added Rokke.
"Iraqi, Kosovar, Serbian and other representatives have asked
numerous times for DU contamination management and medical care
procedures but this information has not been provided."
Due to his work, Rokke currently has 5,000 times the normal
levels of radiation in his body. At least 30 members of his DU
clean-up team have died prematurely. (END/2004)
+ Uranium Medical Research Centre [http://www.umrc.net]
+ U.S. Navy Documents on Toxicity of DU
[http://traprockpeace.org/depleted_uranium_milner.html]
+ Afghan DU Fund [http://www.afghandufund.org/]
Send your comments to the editor
[ipsnoramcarib@ipsnews.net.?Subject=IPS%20Story%20RIGHTS:%20Evide
nce Grows Against Depleted Uranium Weapons]
Copyright © 2004 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
36 Scotsman: Greenpeace Urges Safety Checks on UK's Nuclear Subs
[http://www.scotsman.com/]
Wed 28 Apr 2004
By Laura Elston and Kim Pilling, PA News
Environmental campaigners called for the majority of nuclear
submarines to be withdrawn today for urgent safety checks to
prevent a Kursk-style tragedy.
The demands came after 11 sailors were allowed to leave HMS
Trafalgar when they expressed fears over its safety.
Their departure took place before the nuclear-powered vessel was
due to begin operational tests following minor repairs at the
Faslane nuclear base in Scotland.
Greenpeace warned that all of Britain’s Trafalgar and Swiftsure
class “hunter killer†submarines should be brought back to
port and assessed.
The pressure group’s nuclear spokesperson Jean McSorley said:
“This submarine poses a real threat to the Irish Sea and the
North East Atlantic.
“If an accident happened it would not only put the lives of the
crew at risk, but if radioactive material escapes from the
submarine it could threaten human health and contaminate whole
swathes of marine life.â€
She added: “We urge the Government to withdraw HMS Trafalgar
and all submarines of a similar design for urgent safety checks,
to ensure a Kursk-type accident, or worse, does not happen
here.â€
All 118 crew members of the Russian Kursk submarine died in
August 2000 after an on-board explosion caused it to sink.
Ms McSorley said there should be an official inquiry into the
condition of the submarines and called for the Government to
review its policy of using nuclear technology at sea.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “We have said that we
would not send to sea any submarine unless we were totally sure
it was safe.
“Safety is of paramount importance.â€
HMS Trafalgar has been out of service since it ran aground off
the Isle of Skye in November 2002, injuring three sailors and
causing £5 million damage.
The MoD said a number of system defects had been identified but
all had been checked and passed fit before the sub was allowed to
sail from Devonport dockyard, where it had undergone 15 months of
major repairs following the grounding.
The MoD denied any suggestions of a “mutiny†on board and
said no individual refused to sail with the submarine.
A temporary replacement crew joined the other 109 members last
week after the 11 men spoke of their safety fears last Friday to
commanding officer Mark Williams, who agreed to release them from
duty.
HMS Trafalgar is now continuing its shake-down in Scotland where
testing of the vessel and training of the crew will be stepped up
in preparation for operational deployment.
The crew was also involved in a minor incident in recent weeks
where diesel fumes briefly entered the sub’s ventilation system
while at Devonport.
A court martial hearing last month reprimanded Commander Robert
Fancy and Commander Ian McGhie, both 39, for their part in
causing the sub to ground on the seabed while on a training
mission.
The two pleaded guilty to a charge of negligence causing the
grounding of the sub on November 6, 2002.
Naval prosecutor Lieutenant-Commander Alison Towler said the sub,
at a depth of 50 metres and travelling at 14.7 knots, ploughed
into the seabed off a small island called Fladda-Chuain as the
vessel changed direction, injuring three sailors.
The Royal Navy has 12 SSN (Ship Submersible Nuclear) or Fleet
Submarines of the Trafalgar and Swiftsure class.
It also has four Trident Ballistic Missile Submarines.
*****************************************************************
37 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear sub's crew in safety protest
Colin Blackstock
Wednesday April 28, 2004
The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]
Sea trials of the repaired nuclear submarine HMS Trafalgar were
postponed after 11 crew members expressed their concerns over the
safety of the ship, the navy said.
The sailors raised their concerns with the captain of the ship -
which had run aground off the Isle of Skye in November 2002 -
just hours before it was due to leave Faslane on the Clyde to
begin its "shake-down" last Friday.
The crew members were then put ashore by their commanding officer
after discussing their concerns with him, and were replaced with
other sailors.
Although there were reports that the men had refused to serve on
the submarine, a Ministry of Defence spokesman said last night
that was not the case.
"They did not refuse orders. They expressed concerns and their
commanding officer felt it prudent to land them," he said.
The nuclear submarine began its shake-down on Saturday night, a
process which tests the vessel and steps up pressure on the crew
to prepare for operational deployment.
The crew was involved in a minor incident in recent weeks where
diesel fumes briefly entered the sub's ventilation system while
at Devonport dockyard, which is thought to have led to the
sailors' concerns.
A court martial hearing last month reprimanded Commander Robert
Fancy and Commander Ian McGhie, both 39, for their part in
causing HMS Trafalgar to ground on the seabed while on a training
mission, causing damage costing £5m.
The two pleaded guilty to a charge of negligence causing the
grounding of the sub on November 6 2002.
During the court martial it emerged that Post-it notes, a gloomy
command room and a distracted commanding officer were behind the
accident.
As part of a training exercise, the yellow notes were covering
the display screens of the navigational systems the officer in
charge of the vessel normally relies on, and charts were
difficult to read because of the poor lighting.
Useful links
British army [http://www.army.mod.uk/]
Royal Navy [http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/]
RAF [http://www.raf.mod.uk/]
Ministry of Defence [http://www.mod.uk/]
Nato [http://www.nato.int/home.htm]
United Nations [http://www.un.org/]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
38 NRC: NRC Proposes $6,000 Fine Against All Tech Corp., of Pocatello, Idaho
News Release - Region IV - 2004-02
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region IV
No. IV-04-020 April 28, 2004
CONTACT: Victor Dricks
Phone: 817-860-8128
E-mail: opa4@nrc.gov [opa4@nrc.gov]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a $6,000
fine against All Tech Corporation of Pocatello, Idaho, for a
willful violation of NRC requirements.
In a letter to the company, Bruce S. Mallett, Administrator of
the NRCs Region IV office in Arlington, Texas, said the
companys General Manager deliberately failed to provide
complete and accurate information to an NRC inspector in
February 2002 when asked to account for the gauges containing
radioactive material in the companys possession.
The NRC must be able to rely on licensees and their employees
to conduct their activities in accordance with NRC requirements,
and to provide complete and accurate information to the NRC
during its inspections, Mr. Mallett said. In this case, the
actions of your employee prevented the NRC from carrying out its
responsibility to ensure that All Tech was storing and securing
radioactive material in accordance with NRC requirements.
All Tech officials met with NRC officials in Pocatello on
September 15 to discuss the violation. At the conference, All
Tech officials described corrective actions taken to ensure its
inventory of gauges and record keeping would be accurate.
The NRC has proposed a $6,000 fine against All Tech for the
proposed violation, which it characterized as a Severity III
violation. The agency uses a four-level severity scale on which
Severity Level I is the most serious. Because the violation was
committed willfully, the base penalty of $3,000 was doubled.
The NRC letter, its enclosures, and the companys response will
be made available to interested members of the public through
the agencys electronic reading room at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.
Help in accessing these documents is available from the NRC
Public Document Room at (301) 415-4737 or at 1-800-397-4209. The
company has 30 days from receipt of the letter to either pay the
civil penalty or to protest its imposition.
Last revised Wednesday, April 28, 2004
*****************************************************************
39 NRC: NRC Proposes $12,000 Fine for High Mountain Inspection Service
News Release - Region IV - 2004-02
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region IV
No. IV-04-021 April 28, 2004
CONTACT: Victor Dricks
Phone: 817-860-8128
E-mail: [opa4@nrc.gov]
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a fine
of $12,000 against High Mountain Inspection Service, Inc., of
Mills, Wyoming, for violating NRC requirements.
In a letter to the company, Bruce S. Mallett, Administrator of
the NRCs Region IV Office in Arlington, Texas, said that as a
result of an NRC inspection and subsequent investigation
completed in January, the agency determined that the company
violated NRC security and training requirements for the
possession and use of radioactive materials. The violations
involved the failure to maintain adequate security of a
radiographic exposure device (used to x-ray welds), and failure
to administer a written test to a newly hired individual prior
to using him as a radiographers assistant.
The NRC acknowledges that there were no actual safety
consequences as a result of these violations, Mr. Mallett said.
However, he said, each had the potential to impact the safe use
of radioactive materials.
NRC staff met with company officials on February 18 to discuss
the issues. The company said it has taken corrective actions to
prevent recurrence.
The NRC has classified the violations at Severity Level III,
each carrying a $6,000 civil penalty. The agency uses a
four-level severity scale in which Severity Level I is the most
serious. The company has 30 days to either pay the proposed
civil penalty or challenge it.
The NRCs letter, its enclosures, and the companys response
will be made available to interested members of the public
through the agencys public electronic reading room at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Help in accessing
these documents is available from the NRC Public Document Room
at (301) 415-4737 or at 1-800-397-4209.
Last revised Wednesday, April 28, 2004
*****************************************************************
40 Las Vegas SUN: Report cites 'persistent' data problems on Nevada
nuclear dump
Today: April 28, 2004 at 15:01:25 PDT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Failure by the Energy Department to fix
"persistent" problems in the way it backs up scientific findings
could delay the opening of a national nuclear waste dump in
southern Nevada, according to a preliminary federal report.
A draft report by the General Accounting Office in Washington,
D.C., criticizes the Yucca Mountain Project's quality assurance
program, which is designed to verify science and safety issues.
In the report, auditors said the Energy Department is not ready
to demonstrate to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that its
quality assurance program can "ensure the safe construction and
long term operation of the repository."
The report by the congressional watchdog agency said the
problems could delay licensing for the repository, which the
Energy Department wants to open in 2010.
Margaret Chu, chief of the Yucca Mountain Project and the Energy
Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management,
cited "major deficiencies" in the draft report.
"Where GAO sees 'continuing problems,' we see a measurable
record of progress to date and a commitment to continuing
improvement in the future," Chu said.
The project is still on track to submit a licensing application
to the NRC in December, Chu said.
The report cited problems with computer software, models
scientists use to show how the repository will work and the
origin of the data used to make the conclusions.
Auditors said technical weaknesses could undercut the
government's ability to show that 77,000 tons of the nation's
most radioactive waste can be stored safely inside Yucca
Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The Energy Department has used more than a thousand data
sources, almost 60 computer models and more than 400 computer
codes to simulate how the repository will perform.
Engineers say special metal alloy casks containing spent fuel
can be placed in a grid of mined tunnels 1,000 feet underground,
to remain for tens of thousands of years under temperatures hot
enough to roast a turkey.
A separate NRC evaluation released two weeks ago reached a
conclusion similar to the GAO. It said the licensing process
would be delayed if the Energy Department did not improve
technical documentation.
A final copy of the GAO report is expected to be released by
Friday to Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., who
requested it last year.
---
On the Net:
Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov/
[http://www.ymp.gov/]
General Accounting Office: http://www.gao.gov/
[http://www.gao.gov/]
--
*****************************************************************
41 Guardian Unlimited: Radioactive Wastewater Spills Into Rhine
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday April 28, 2004 9:01 PM
KARLSRUHE, Germany (AP) - About 8,000 gallons of radioactive
water poured into the Rhine river in southwestern Germany after a
pump malfunctioned at a nuclear plant, a power company said
Wednesday.
The water leaked into the river Saturday night when a valve was
mistakenly left open, but he said the health risk was minimal,
said Dirk Ommeln of Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany's
third-largest energy company.
``The water was lightly contaminated,'' said Ommeln, who likened
the radioactivity exposure of drinking a gallon of the water to
having a dental X-ray.
The 7,900-gallon leak was not reported to the state Environment
Ministry until Monday, prompting criticism from the local
government, which requires immediate reporting for all incidents.
The ministry also said the contamination was not strong enough to
pose a health risk.
The spill occurred during testing of high-speed valves that move
wastewater into tanks. An unexpected increase in pressure blew
out one valve, allowing the contaminated water to enter the
Rhine.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
42 Las Vegas RJ: Group's meetingunder scrutiny
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Complaint says officials' session to discussYucca Mountain rail
line violated state law By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
The Nevada attorney general's office is investigating a
complaint that elected officials from rural counties and
Caliente violated the state open-meeting law when they met
behind closed doors last week to discuss a rail corridor to the
planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site.
A spokesman for Attorney General Brian Sandoval said the
complaint was filed Monday by Las Vegas Sun reporter Stephen
Curran against the Central Nevada Community Protection Planning
Working Group for a meeting held April 21 in Pahrump.
"It's an open inquiry. Until we conclude either to bring some
charge forward or drop the matter, there's nothing I can say,"
said the spokesman, Tom Sargent.
The group includes Nye County Commissioners Henry Neth and
Candice Trummell; Esmeralda County Commissioner Ben Viljoen;
Lincoln County Commissioners Spencer Hafen and Tommy Rowe;
Caliente Mayor Kevin Phillips and City Councilman Ashley Moore.
Phillips said Moore and Viljoen did not attend.
Other local officials and consultants attended the meeting at
the Pahrump Community Library.
Phillips dismissed the allegation that the law was violated:
"This is a very informal working group."
He said the group is "no more than less than a quorum of folks
talking about what issues relate."
"We have had allegations made before over a whole host of
things, and they don't have any merit to it," he said.
The session was the fourth time the group has met, with
previous meetings held in Goldfield, Las Vegas and Caliente.
The group was formed for dealings with the Energy Department,
which wants to build a 319-mile rail line from Caliente across
rural Nevada to move spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste to
the planned Yucca Mountain repository, 100 miles northwest of
Las Vegas.
Mark Waite, a reporter for the Pahrump Valley Times, said he
walked into the meeting while it was in session, but a recess
was called to discuss whether the media should be allowed to
attend. The Times is published by the Stephens Media Group, the
same company that publishes the Review-Journal.
"The mayor of Caliente said he'd like to close it to the
public. The commissioner of Lincoln County said ditto," Waite
recalled in a telephone interview Tuesday.
"They said kind of nicely, 'We're going to have to ask you to
leave,' " said Waite, who then left the meeting.
Waite said the group's members did not post an agenda for the
meeting, which lasted more than an hour.
Peggy Maze Johnson, executive director of Citizen Alert, a
statewide environmental group opposed to the Yucca Mountain
Project, bemoaned the closed-door meeting.
"I think they're trying to cut backroom deals, and I think
people in this country are tired of backroom deals," she said
Tuesday.
"Here they are in a public library using public money," she
said, referring to federal oversight funds that are given to
local governments affected by the Yucca Mountain Project.
"They can do the public's business in front of the public," she
said.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
43 Las Vegas RJ: Quality problems remain, audit says
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
DOE protests Yucca Mountain criticism By STEVE TETREAULT
© Copyright 2004, REVIEW-JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- A major report set for release this week says the
Energy Department is failing to fix persistent technical and
management problems on the Yucca Mountain Project, according to
a draft copy obtained Tuesday.
Eight months before the Energy Department plans to apply for a
nuclear waste repository license, investigators from the General
Accounting Office said the project's safety underpinnings
continue to be nagged by weaknesses.
Auditors said problems with Yucca Mountain quality controls
could delay Nuclear Regulatory Commission repository licensing
and DOE's plan to start burying nuclear waste in Nevada by 2010.
They said technical weaknesses could undercut the government's
ability to show that 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent
nuclear fuel can be stored safely within the mountain ridge, 100
miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"Despite working three years to address recurring quality
assurance problems, DOE lacks evidence to show that their
actions have been successful," the GAO said in the 37-page
draft.
The department "is not yet in a position to demonstrate to NRC
that its quality assurance program can ensure the safe
construction and long term operation of the repository,"
auditors said.
The GAO report, which the agency has scheduled to send to
Congress on Friday, highlights a component of the Yucca Mountain
Project that DOE has worked to get its arms around for years.
Nevada officials, congressional investigators and NRC evaluators
have criticized Yucca quality assurance in reports dating to
1988.
Most recently, an NRC audit disclosed earlier this month
described shortcomings that has led the Energy Department to
commit about 100 workers to review technical documents, forcing
changes in license preparations.
The Energy Department is protesting the latest GAO audit and
argues the agency mischaracterized its efforts and overlooked
improvements that new managers put in place starting in 2002.
Yucca managers said their repository science is not being
questioned, rather the clarity and completeness of how that work
is documented.
"We have demonstrated steady and significant progress," Yucca
Mountain Project director Margaret Chu told the GAO in an April
19 letter.
Chu said DOE remains on schedule for a December license
application, "and we have an effective quality assurance program
in place that will enable us to meet that objective."
But Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the GAO findings signals the
repository program "is a mess."
"Quality assurance is supposed to verify that experiments were
done right, but they have spent decades on this and spent
billions of dollars, and it's a mess," he said. "They can't back
up their science."
Officials from the Nuclear Energy Institute defended the Energy
Department and said quality controls have grown effective over
time. The institute is the political arm of the nuclear industry
, which supports the repository program.
"We are confident the QA program will be in the right shape when
they file a license application," said Steve Kraft, NEI waste
management director.
Quality assurance is a key element of nuclear programs that must
pass muster with the NRC.
Scientists and technicians must follow rigid procedures to
document their work. In-house auditors must verify thousands of
pieces of information, tracking chains of evidence for data
sources and software codes, plus the analyses that tie them
together into the building blocks for a project application.
When problems are found, an elaborate and formal corrective
process is started that traces and dissects errors, fixes them
and checks that they have been fixed.
But audits over the years revealed quality assurance to be a
thorn for the Yucca project, the GAO said.
Program auditors identified significant software and science
model problems in 1998 that prompted DOE to take corrective
actions. But, the GAO said, the problems resurfaced in 2001 in a
follow-up audit.
When Chu became project director in 2002, she put in place an
initiative to overhaul the quality assurance program. But, the
GAO said in its draft, its performance goals lack objective
measurements and timetables to determine whether corrective
actions are successful.
Steve Tetreault is the chief of the Stephens Washington Bureau.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
44 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Yucca talks should not be closed
LAS VEGAS SUN
A group of public officials, including those representing the
Caliente City Council and the Nye, Esmeralda and Lincoln county
commissions, have met four times this year to discuss the Energy
Department's plans for Yucca Mountain. The officials have closed
all of their meetings to the public, on the grounds that
Nevada's open-meeting law does not apply to their group.
Whenever public officials are asked why they aren't following
the open-meeting law, one of these excuses is sure to be heard:
Citizens would interrupt our meetings; We make no policy
decisions; We're only a working group; Our meetings are held in
various, oftentimes remote, locations; Our group does not
represent a quorum of any elected body.
This particular group of public officials, who meet as The
Central Nevada Community Protection Planning Working Group, is
resorting to all of these excuses in defending its decision to
bar the public from its meetings. They even came up with a novel
line when questioned by Sun reporter Stephen Curran. The
meetings are "neither closed nor open," several members said.
Huh?
Attorney General Brian Sandoval's office is checking on the
group to determine whether its closed meetings have violated the
open-meeting law. We agree with Kent Lauer, executive director
of the Nevada Press Association, who said, "The so-called
working group, made up almost entirely of elected officials, has
no legal right whatsoever to close its meetings." The
open-meeting law requires all public bodies to meet openly, and
defines public bodies as "any administrative, advisory,
executive or legislative body of the state or government," which
either spends or disburses taxpayer money or advises a
government body that does. The group, whose meetings are paid
for with taxpayer money, passed a resolution in January stating
that its members will "make recommendations on policy ..." to
their respective boards.
In the past, elected officials in Nye, Esmeralda and Lincoln
counties, and the mayor of Caliente, have spoken favorably about
burying high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, which we
strongly oppose. But this group's agenda is not our immediate
concern. We believe government officials, no matter where they
stand on the issues, should respect the right of citizens to be
informed about decisions affecting them.
*****************************************************************
45 Las Vegas SUN: GAO report criticizes Yucca methods
Problems with data cause concerns
By Suzanne Struglinski
SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has failed to fix
"persistent" problems in the way it backs up its science, which
could cause a delay in the Yucca Mountain project, according to
a draft copy of a General Accounting Office report.
The 40-page report, which was obtained by the Sun, criticizes
the project's quality assurance program, which is supposed to
verify the science backing up the department's reasoning and
safety of the project.
The GAO found that the backup work, which documents all of the
evidence scientists use to reach technical conclusions, has
incomplete data or is missing the source of data that the Energy
Department is basing some of its conclusions on, among other
problems.
"An ineffective quality assurance program runs the risk of
introducing unknown errors into the design and construction of
the repository that could lead to adverse health and safety
consequences," according to the draft report.
Contractor Bechtel and subcontractor Navarro Quality Services
is supposed to check and double-check that all the scientific
data, models and technical information can be traced back to
support its conclusions.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to use the quality
assurance work to verify the science and technical research
behind the Energy Department's license application, which the
department plans to submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
this year.
This is how the department expects to prove to the commission
it can safely store 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear
waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Problems with quality assurance for the Yucca Mountain project
have been around since 1988 and although the department has
attempted to fix things, the GAO report said five years of
internal department assessments and comments by the NRC show
that the department still has not made all of the necessary
improvements. The GAO cited problems with computer software, the
models the scientists use to show how the repository will work
and the origin of the data used to make the conclusions.
As of September, the department could not show how some data
had been collected or trace it back to its source.
"DOE (Energy Department) officials stressed that the problems
have not affected the technical content or validity of the
scientific basis for the safety of waste disposal at Yucca
Mountain," the report says. "They explained that the problems
all relate to documentation, clarity, completeness or
transparency supporting the technical information."
But the GAO report said proving the adequacy of its work is
"one of DOE's most important tasks" since it is depending on
more than a thousand data sources, close to 60 computer models
and more than 400 computer codes to simulate how the repository
will work.
A separate evaluation by the commission released two weeks ago
reached a similar conclusion, saying the licensing process would
be delayed if the department did not improve its technical
documentation. The NRC evaluation was still going on at the time
of the GAO investigation, according to the report.
The department is in the midst of reviewing technical documents
to see how it can improve them before submitting them to the
commission.
Margaret Chu, head of the Energy Department's Office of
Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said there were "major
deficiencies" in the draft report. She said the GAO did not look
at "some highly pertinent information" during its investigation
that had positive conclusions.
"Where GAO sees 'continuing problems,' we see a measurable
record of progress to date and a commitment to continuing
improvement in the future," Chu said.
In an April 19 letter sent to the GAO, Chu said the quality
assurance program "has made significant progress and is
operating effectively."
She said the report does not "acknowledge the clear QA (quality
assurance) improvements we have made," including strengthening
an environment where employees can raise concerns on the quality
or safety of the work.
Chu also emphasized the department solved problems with data
management software in March and problems with models should be
rectified in the next four months.
"It is understood by the department, by the NRC, and by
knowledgeable outside observers that the repository program must
meet rigorous quality assurance expectations for our license
application to be acceptable to the commission," Chu wrote.
The project is still on track to submit the license in
December, Chu said.
Joe Egan, of Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch and Cynkar, the Virginia
law firm hired by Nevada to handle Yucca legal issues, said the
Quality Assurance problems are what led to the commission's
conclusion.
"It is clear they don't understand the culture of the NRC,"
Egan said. "Quality assurance is a hot-button issue at the NRC,
so the outcome is predictable. With these types of Quality
assurance problems, NRC could not approve this application."
The General Accounting Office press office said a final copy of
the report would be released by Friday to Sens. Harry Reid,
D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., who requested the report last
year. Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said a full copy of the
report would be released to the public after the office receives
it.
Reid, who has seen an advance copy of the report, said the
results did not surprise him but that this time he has proof
from Congress' watchdog on problems with the project.
"If this was a test that GAO gave, the Department of Energy
failed it and has to take it over," Reid said. "They (Energy
Department officials) have to study real hard. They haven't
studied but thought they could bluff their way through this
exam."
Egan called the report "devastating" for the department and
something a project developer would not want to see, especially
with just seven months to go before the license submission.
But Steve Kraft, director of waste management at the Nuclear
Energy Institute, said the department is already on track to
make further improvements in how it manages its data and knows
where the problems exist.
Kraft, who had not seen the report Tuesday, said it is not too
late in the game to make changes since work can continue even
after the application goes to the commission. He also said the
department has made "tremendous improvement" in quality
assurance and the industry is comfortable that it will be in the
right shape when the license gets filed.
Rod McCullum, NEI senior project manager for waste management,
said recent correspondence between the commission and the
department has shown improvement in the documentation and,
although it has adjusted its schedule, will still complete the
work on time.
"The project is making the right transition forward at the
right time," McCullum said.
*****************************************************************
46 Pahrump Valley Times: Who's on our side?
April 28, 2004
The recent field hearing hosted by Congressman Porter was a good
example of theatrics at its best - or worst. It's almost a shame
that the Academy Awards have passed because Congressman Porter
and Congresswoman Shelley Berkley had a good shot at best
producer because that hearing was so scripted and orchestrated
that I almost left when Chairman Quinn left. And I was the only
one who noticed he never came back to the hearing and let
Congressman Porter chair the rest of the hearing after Sen. Bryan
testified.
It's time our elected officials deal with this important issue
responsibly and they can start by using some common sense. The
field hearing was a little premature in that the Department of
Energy hasn't even announced a specific corridor or mode of
shipping the waste to Yucca Mountain. If Clark County doesn't
want the waste coming through the valley, and if the DOE has
designated a preferred corridor in rural Nevada, why does Clark
continue to spread the word that waste will be coming through
downtown Las Vegas?
Our leaders need to be watching out for rural Nevada. Counties
like Nye and Lincoln need to be taken care of, and by that I mean
they need to have the best emergency response training and
equipment available, since they are going to bear the burden of
this shipping campaign.
Are the votes in rural Nevada not worth our elected officials
looking out for them? Because I wonder who is looking out for the
health and safety of all of us when it comes to Yucca Mountain.
REBECCA WAMSLEY
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
[webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley
Times, 1997 - 2003
*****************************************************************
47 Guardian Unlimited: EU Resolves Expansion Issues With Russia
[UP]
Wednesday April 28, 2004 5:01 AM
By ROBERT WIELAARD
Associated Press Writer
LUXEMBOURG (AP) - Five days before its historic eastward
expansion, the European Union resolved lingering disputes with
Russia about the EU absorbing former Soviet satellites and
republics.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and EU officials signed an
accord extending the EU-Russia partnership accord to Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta, which join May 1.
The accord removes final Russian misgivings about the EU
embracing former allies.
Under the deal, the EU drops customs duties on cargo shipments
between Russia and Kaliningrad which becomes a Russian Baltic Sea
enclave in the EU.
It also lowers trade tariffs, raises Russian steel quotas, eases
the impact of antidumping duties and leaves intact existing
contracts for the supply of nuclear materials with the new EU
states.
The EU also pledged to guarantee language rights for Russian
speakers in Estonia and Latvia in a joint declaration issued
after Lavrov met with Brian Cowen, the Irish foreign minister
whose country holds the EU presidency.
``The EU and the Russian Federation welcome EU membership (for
the newcomers) as a firm guarantee for the protection of human
rights and the protection of persons belonging to minorities,''
the declaration said.
Officials from both sides hailed the extension of the EU-Russia
accord to the new EU members as an important stepping stone to
ever closer relations.
Lavrov told reporters that ``as of May 1 the transport of cargo
to and from Kaliningrad will be simpler and cheaper.'' He added
he was confident EU expansion will not lead to a loss of business
for Russian exporters due to the trade concessions in the new
agreement.
The Kaliningrad cargo transit deal follows a modified visa regime
for passenger travel through the region that will be surrounded
by the EU when Lithuania and Poland join Saturday.
The reaction in Estonia and Latvia, two countries Moscow has
accused of mistreating their sizable Russian-minority
populations, was positive.
``Latvia congratulates this partnership pact between the EU and
Russia and is very satisfied with the way it was organized,''
Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said.
``We are very happy,'' Estonian Foreign Minister Kristiina
Ojuland said.
The EU will now focus on a May 21 EU-Russia summit to launch
closer cooperation in four key areas: economic matters, justice
and home affairs, external security and research and education.
Lavrov said he looked forward to visa-free travel between the EU
and Russia. That, however, is not an priority for the EU which
wants Russia to first tighten controls on its long, porous
borders first and make Russian passports harder to forge.
The EU is also pushing Russia to join the World Trade
Organization and ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N. global
warming treaty.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
48 ST: Robert Mcnamara and Helen Caldicott: More perilous than terrorism
[http://www.startribune.com
Last update: April 28, 2004 at 7:29 PM
As we continue to grapple with the United States' vulnerability
to terrorist attack, we fail to recognize the most serious
danger, one that is overlooked by politicians and
emergency-management agencies alike. Thousands of Russian nuclear
warheads are targeted on the United States.
How can this be, after the end of the Cold War nearly 15 years
ago? Unfortunately, the targeting strategy of Russia and the
United States has changed little, despite a profound change in
relations between these two nations.
Most people believe that the threat of nuclear attack -- whether
by accident, human fallibility or malfeasance -- has disappeared.
Yet a January 2002 document from the U.S. Foreign Military
Studies Office, titled "Prototypes for Targeting America, a
Soviet Military Assessment," states that New York City, for
example, is the single most important target in the Atlantic
region after major military installations.
A U.S. Office of Technology Assessment report, commissioned in
the 1980s, is still relevant. It estimated that Soviet nuclear
war plans had two 1-megaton bombs aimed at each of three airports
that serve New York, one aimed at each of the major bridges, two
at Wall Street and two at each of four oil refineries. The major
rail centers and power stations also were targeted, along with
the port facilities.
It's also instructive that a recent Federal Emergency Management
Agency report on nuclear-attack preparedness contains a map that
depicts New York City obliterated by nuclear blasts and the
resulting firestorms and fallout. Millions of people would die
instantly. Survivors would perish shortly thereafter from burns
and exposure to radiation.
And New York would not be the only devastated city. According to
a report on nuclear war planning by the Natural Resources Defense
Council, Russia aims most of its 8,200 nuclear warheads at the
United States, and the United States maintains 7,000 offensive
strategic warheads in its arsenal, most of which are targeted on
Russian missile silos and command centers. Each of these warheads
has roughly 20 times the destructive power of the bomb dropped on
Hiroshima.
Of the 7,000 U.S. nuclear warheads, 2,500 are maintained on
hair-trigger alert, ready for launching. In order to effectively
retaliate, the commander of the Strategic Air Command has only
three minutes to decide if a nuclear-attack warning is valid. He
has 10 minutes to find the president for a 30-second briefing on
attack options. And the president has three minutes to decide
whether to launch the warheads and at which targets, according to
the Center for Defense Information. Once launched, the missiles
would reach their Russian targets in 15 to 30 minutes.
A nearly identical situation prevails in Russia, except there the
early-warning system is decaying rapidly. As always, the
early-warning systems of both countries register alarms daily,
triggered by wildfires, satellite launchings and solar
reflections off clouds or oceans. A more immediate concern is the
difficulty of guaranteeing protection of computerized
early-warning systems and command centers against terrorists or
hackers. The two nuclear superpowers still own 96 percent of the
global nuclear arsenal of 30,000 nuclear weapons. It is clear
that their nuclear planning and ongoing targeting are the major
threats to national security.
The Senate and House armed services committees and foreign
relations committees must address these ongoing and unresolved
threats to the people of the United States and, indeed, the
planet.
Russia and the United States are now self-described allies in
their fight against global terrorism. Their first duty in this
effort should be immediate and rapid bilateral nuclear
disarmament, accompanied by the other six nuclear nations
(France, Britain, China, India, Pakistan and Israel), along with
U.N. Security Council action to ensure that no other nations --
particularly Iran and North Korea -- acquire nuclear weapons.
According to Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, a clear roadmap for nuclear disarmament
should be established. Time is not on our side.
Robert McNamara was secretary of defense for Presidents John
Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson; Helen Caldicott is a pediatrician and
president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute. They wrote
this article for the Los Angeles Times.
Copyright 2004 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
49 Japan Times: Mayors attend nonproliferation meet in New York
Thursday, April 29, 2004
NEW YORK (Kyodo) The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki attended a
nuclear nonproliferation meeting at the United Nations
headquarters Tuesday and urged countries to abolish all atomic
weapons by 2020.
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito
spoke at a session for nongovernmental organizations of the
preparatory committee for the 2005 review conference of the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Akiba said the global community should set a clear goal to
abolish all nuclear arms by 2020, while Ito said that even for
atomic bomb survivors who were more than 10 km from the Nagasaki
atomic bombing hypocenter, many still suffer from posttraumatic
stress disorder that also affects their physical health.
"It is a heartbreaking reality that can't be obliterated," Ito
said.
Representatives from about 190 countries have been in New York
since Monday for the two-week preparatory committee meeting to
prepare steps to strengthen the NPT. It is the third and final
such meeting prior to the treaty's review conference in 2005.
The Japan Times: April 29, 2004 (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
50 Q and A: No Nukes Is Good Nukes
Helen Caldicott has devoted her life to fighting nuclear
development.
by James Thompson
Dr. Helen Caldicott wants to save the worldfrom total
annihilation. For 30 years, shes been one of the worlds leading
anti-nuclear activists. Caldicott founded Physicians for Social
Responsibility, Womens Action for Nuclear Disarmament and the
Nuclear Policy Research Institute (NPRI), and has been nominated
for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Australian physician has given
countless lectures, made several films and written a few books,
tooher most recent, 2002s The New Nuclear Danger: George W.
Bushs Military-Industrial Complex, was reissued earlier this
year.
Caldicott was in Fort Collins earlier this month to speak about
the horrors of nuclear development, and to raise money for
completion of the film Conviction: U.S. v. Gilbert, Hudson and
Platte about the three nuns who spilled their blood on a Weld
County missile silo in October 2002 in protest of nuclear
weapons.
Last week, Caldicott spoke with the Bullhorn from NPRI in New
York. Here are some excerpts from that interview.
Rocky Mountain Bullhorn: In the film trailer for Conviction, you
said that we are at a nuclear crossroads. What exactly do you
mean by that statement?
Helen Caldicott: Americas putting up the national missile
defense. Its specifically designed to be used against Russia,
not North Korea, and as Russia sees that as a threat, she has
said&they will build many more nuclear weapons to saturate your
[Americas] missile defense shield, and China has intimated that
shell do the same. So that creates a new vertical nuclear arms
race between Russia, China and America.
Meanwhile, the nuclear weapons labs in this country are
designing, testing, building up to 500 new hydrogen bombs a year,
which will encourage a lateral proliferation. As other countries
look at America, they say, Well, why shouldnt we have nuclear
weapons?
So thats a sort of nuclear cross, and as we proceed at a pace
with no halt to what is happening, prognostically, things look
very grim in terms of a possibility of a wide-scale, worldwide
nuclear war between Russia and America.
RMB: You claim the U.S. is designing new weapons in violation of
the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. What kind of new weapons are
we looking at?
HC: The weapons they are designing and building are bunker
busters, little ones for little bunkers, and great big onesone
megatonto take out two mountains in the Urals in Russia, where
they have what is called the dead hand.
In other words, America strikes Russia first, knocks out the
satellites, knocks out the command center and goes to knock out
all their missile silos before the missiles are launched. This
center in the middle of the Urals will launch a single rocket
called a dead hand, which will send a signal to all the Russian
missiles to be launched automatically by computer.
So one-megaton bombs are being designed to take out those
mountains, so America can fight and win a first-strike nuclear
war, which is really the policy of the United States.
Theyre also designing neutron bombs again, which is the ultimate
capitalist bomb, because it leaves many buildings standing&
RMB: You write that the Clinton presidency resulted in a more
volatile nuke situation than the Reagan buildup of nukes before
the end of the Cold War. How so?
HC: Well, Reagan was doing more weaponshe actually spent more
money than all past presidents combined building weapons. But he
started working at the end of his presidency with Gorbachev. & I
think he deserves credit for helping to end the Cold War with
Gorbachev.
When Clinton got into power, he set up a committee to investigate
why Russia and America still target each other with thousands of
weaponsincidentally, there are 40 hydrogen bombs targeted, as I
speak, on New York, let alone the other major citiesand Clinton
never went near this nuclear posture view&so the weapons are
still in place.
Americas got over 3,000 H-bombs targeting Russia, and Russias
got about 2,500 targeting America. The weapons on the missiles
only take about half an hour to go from launch to land, and the
whole event between the two countries is over in about one hour.
Its very difficult to get the media to attend this particular
situation at the moment.
RMB: Do you think depleted uranium (DU) weapons caused the
mysterious Gulf War Syndrome?
HC: Yes, we actually had a press conference this morning at the
National Press Club with two of the soldiers who are excreting
uranium. And many of the symptoms theyre experiencingskin
rashes and headaches and the likecan be explained by the side
effects of uranium. In fact, the Pentagon outlined those symptoms
in a pre-1991 report on DU.
RMB: What do you think is the biggest flaw in the missile defense
program?
HC: Well, A, it will never work; B, theyre giving fraudulent
test data on the tests theyre doing; C, Rumsfeld has closed down
on the test data and wont let anyone know what theyre finding
when theyre testing missile defense; D, it will provoke a
massive nuclear arms race with Russia and China and America and
probably lead to a nuclear war. Apart from that, its a fine
idea.
Also, it might cost over $1 trillion over the next 20 years to
constructthats your money. If you spent a million dollars a
minute since Jesus was born, you would have just about got to a
trillion dollars.
RMB: What is your impression of the three nuns, Jackie Hudson,
Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte?
HC: I think theyre wonderful; I think they walk in the shoes of
the fisherman. Thats what Jesus would do if he came back.
Theyre trying to prevent the annihilation of Gods creation.
*****************************************************************
51 DOE: Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee
FR Doc 04-9602
[Federal Register: April 28, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 82)]
[Notices] [Page 23178-23179] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28ap04-46]
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Nuclear Energy
Research Advisory Committee. The Federal Advisory Committee Act
(Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770), requires that public notice of
the meetings be announced in the Federal Register.
DATES: Tuesday, May 18, 2004, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday, May
19, 2004, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
ADDRESSES: Marriott Georgetown University Conference Center, 3800
Reservoir Road, NW., Washington, DC. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT: Mr. Mark Roth, Designated Federal Officer, Nuclear
Energy Research Advisory Committee, U.S. Department of Energy,
NE-20, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585,
telephone number (301) 903-5501, e-mail: mark.roth@hq.doe.gov
[mark.roth@hq.doe.gov] .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Meeting: To provide
advice to the Director of the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science
and Technology (NE) of the Department of Energy on the many
complex planning, scientific and technical issues that arise in
the development and implementation of the Nuclear Energy research
program.
Tentative Agenda: Tuesday May 18, 2004: Welcome Remarks; Status
of Nuclear Energy's FY 2004 Budget Request; Subcommittee Reports
and Organizational Issues.
Wednesday, May 19, 2004: Subcommittee Reports and Organization
Issues (continued), Open Discussion, Public Comment.
Public Participation: The day and a half meeting is open to the
public on a first-come, first-serve basis because of limited
seating. Written statements may be filed with the committee
before or after the meeting. Members of the public who wish to
make oral statements pertaining to agenda items should contact
Mark Roth at the address or telephone listed above. Requests to
make oral statements must be made and received five days prior to
the meeting; reasonable provision will be made to include the
statement in the agenda. The Chair of the committee is empowered
to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the
orderly conduct of business.
Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public
review and copying at the Freedom of Information Reading Room,
1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday,
except holidays.
[[Page 23179]] Issued in Washington, DC on April 22, 2004.
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-9602 Filed 4-27-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
52 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Paducah
FR Doc 04-9603
[Federal Register: April 28, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 82)]
[Notices] [Page 23177] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28ap04-42]
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Paducah. The
Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770)
requires that public notice of these meetings be announced in the
Federal Register.
DATES: Thursday, May 20, 2004, 5:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
ADDRESSES: 111 Memorial Drive, Barkley Centre, Paducah, Kentucky.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William E. Murphie, Deputy
Designated Federal Officer, Department of Energy
Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, 1017 Majestic Drive, Suite
200, Lexington, Kentucky 40513, (859) 219-4001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE and its regulators in
the areas of environmental restoration and waste management
activities.
Tentative Agenda 5:30 p.m. Informal Discussion. 6 p.m. Call to
Order; Introductions; Approve April Minutes; Review Agenda.
6:05 p.m. DDFO's Comments. 6:25 p.m. Ex-officio Comments. 6:35
p.m. Federal Coordinator Comments. 6:45 p.m. Public Comments and
Questions. 6:55 p.m. Break. 7:05 p.m. Task Forces/Presentations:
Waste Disposition; Water Quality; Long Range
Strategy/Stewardship; Community Outreach.
8:05 p.m. Public Comments and Questions. 8:15 p.m. Administrative
Issues: Review of Work Plan; Review of Next Agenda; Review of
Chairs Meeting.
8:35 p.m. Review of Action Items. 8:50 p.m. Subcommittee Reports:
Executive Committee.
9:15 p.m. Final Comments. 9:30 p.m. Adjourn. Copies of the final
agenda will be available at the meeting.
Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public.
Written statements may be filed with the Committee either before
or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral
statements pertaining to agenda items should contact David
Dollins at the address listed below or by telephone at (270)
441-6819. Requests must be received five days prior to the
meeting and reasonable provision will be made to include the
presentation in the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer
is empowered to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will
facilitate the orderly conduct of business. Each individual
wishing to make public comments will be provided a maximum of
five minutes to present their comments.
Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public
review and copying at the Freedom of Information Public Reading
Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC 20585 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday-Friday,
except Federal holidays. Minutes will also be available at the
Department of Energy's Environmental Information Center and
Reading Room at 115 Memorial Drive, Barkley Centre, Paducah,
Kentucky between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Monday thru Friday or by
writing to: David Dollins, Department of Energy Paducah Site
Office, Post Office Box 1410, MS-103, Paducah, Kentucky 42001 or
by calling him at (270) 441-6819.
Issued in Washington, DC on April 22, 2004.
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-9603 Filed 4-27-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
53 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Oak Ridge
FR Doc 04-9606
[Federal Register: April 28, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 82)]
[Notices] [Page 23177-23178] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28ap04-43]
Reservation AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Oak Ridge.
The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770)
requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the
Federal Register.
DATES: Wednesday, May 12, 2004; 6 p.m.
ADDRESSES: DOE Information Center, 475 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak
Ridge, TN.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Pat Halsey, Federal Coordinator,
Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations Office, P.O. Box 2001,
EM-90, Oak Ridge, TN 37831. Phone (865) 576-4025; Fax (865)
576-5333 or e- mail: halseypj@oro.doe.gov [halseypj@oro.doe.gov]
or check the Web site at http://www.oakridge.doe.gov/em/ssab
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.oakridge.doe.gov/em/ssab] .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE and its regulators in
the areas of environmental restoration, waste management, and
related activities.
Tentative Agenda: Presentation on the Capacity Assessment
Remedial Action
[[Page 23178]] Report, developed as part of the Oak Ridge Federal
Facility Agreement to track Accelerated Closure Program wastes
slated for disposal at the Environmental Management Waste
Management Facility in Bear Creek Valley. The document is
scheduled for publication in early May 2004 and yearly
thereafter.
Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public.
Written statements may be filed with the Committee either before
or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral
statements pertaining to agenda items should contact Pat Halsey
at the address or telephone number listed above. Requests must be
received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provision
will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. The
Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to conduct the
meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of
business. Each individual wishing to make public comment will be
provided a maximum of five minutes to present their comments.
Minutes: Minutes of this meeting will be available for public
review and copying at the Department of Energy's Information
Center at 475 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, TN, between 8 a.m.
and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or by writing to Pat Halsey,
Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations Office, P.O. Box 2001,
EM-90, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, or by calling her at (865) 576-4025.
Issued at Washington, DC, on April 22, 2004.
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-9606 Filed 4-27-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
54 DOE: Comment Period Extension and Additional Public Scoping Meetings
FR Doc 04-9719
[Federal Register: April 28, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 82)]
[Notices] [Page 23177] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28ap04-41]
for an Environmental Impact Statement for the Alignment,
Construction, and Operation of a Rail Line to a Geologic
Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada; Correction
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of Comment Period Extension and Additional Public
Meetings; correction.
SUMMARY: The Department of Energy published a document in the
Federal Register of April 26, 2004, concerning the additional
scoping meetings to be held in support of the Rail Alignment EIS.
The document contained an incorrect date and location for the Las
Vegas, NV scoping meetings.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robin Sweeney at 1-800-967-3477.
Correction In the Federal Register of April 26, 2004, in FR Vol
69, No.
80, on Page 22496, in the first column, correct the date and
location for the Las Vegas, NV scoping meeting to read: Las
Vegas, Nevada.
Cashman Center, Rooms 103-106, 850 Las Vegas Blvd. North, May 17,
2004, from 4- 8 p.m. Dated: April 26, 2004.
Margaret S.Y. Chu, Director, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management.
[FR Doc. 04-9719 Filed 4-27-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
55 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Hanford not safe on terror front
[seattlepi.com]
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Nuclear reservation isn't fortified against possible attack,
GAO reports
By CHARLES POPE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON -- Because of internal disputes and cost concerns, the
Hanford Nuclear Reservation and other Energy Department nuclear
weapons plants are unlikely to be fully fortified against modern
terrorist threats for at least five years, federal investigators
said yesterday.
The assessment, issued by the non-partisan General Accounting
Office, found that the Energy Department has not moved in an
efficient and coordinated manner to address security concerns
raised by the 9/11 attacks. It said inventories of weapons,
plutonium and highly enriched uranium could be vulnerable.
While the department is lumbering along, potential terrorists are
looking for weak points, Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., told
Energy officials at a hearing yesterday.
"We know the terrorists will not wait that long to try to exploit
lingering vulnerabilities in our nuclear complex defenses," said
Shays, chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee
dealing with nuclear security.
Shays and other critics wanted to know why it took nearly two
years after the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon for the
Energy Department to develop its revised May 2003 assessment of
the kinds of terror attacks security forces probably would have
to defend against. He also wanted to know why it would take
another two to five years to deal with the increased risks.
"Our concern is that it takes (the Energy Department) so long to
move and our adversaries move very quickly," said Robin Nazzaro,
the GAO official who wrote the report.
Although the GAO and even the department's critics acknowledged
that security has been improved, it hasn't gone far enough to
safeguard nuclear weapons and materials from a new array of
terrorist threats and tactics. DOE facilities must now protect
against a suicide attack in which a terrorist breaches the
facility, obtains a weapon or nuclear material and detonates on
site. That is a sharp departure from earlier plans that assumed
an attacker would have to enter and leave a facility, allowing
security forces to capture the terrorist as he or she leaves.
Energy officials defended the agency's performance and insisted
that nuclear facilities are well-protected and that the
probability of a successful attack is exceptionally low. They
declined, however, to go into much detail, citing the classified
nature of much of the security arrangements.
"The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have resulted in a strong,
effective security posture at all nuclear weapons research and
production facilities," Linton Brooks, Energy undersecretary of
nuclear security, told the subcommittee. "Today no nuclear
weapons, special nuclear material or classified materials are at
risk anywhere within the nuclear weapons complex."
While GAO auditors acknowledged that some steps had been taken to
improve security, "they are not sufficient to ensure that all of
the ... sites are adequately prepared to defend themselves
against the higher terrorism threat present in the post-Sept. 11,
2001, world."
At the root of the problem, GAO auditors said, was the
department's formulation of a "design basis threat," a classified
document that outlines the protective standard that weapons
facilities must meet. The document is based on data supplied by
intelligence agencies and tries to predict the most serious
terrorist assault. It identifies the potential size and
capabilities of terrorist forces.
Historically, the security blueprint adopted by the department
matches the profile developed by the intelligence agencies.
This time, despite taking two years to write the new blueprint in
the wake of 9/11, the threat identified in it is less than the
threat that the intelligence community postulated, according to
the GAO report.
The report said the threat assessment was weakened out of
concerns that providing more complete security would cost too
much. The process that led to the document was also gripped by
internal disputes and a bumpy relationship with the intelligence
services.
"DOE officials at all levels told us that concern over resources
played a large role in developing the 2003 (design basis threat),
with some officials calling (it) the 'funding basis threat,' or
the maximum threat the department could afford," the report said.
The Energy Department says the new standards won't be achieved
until 2006. The GAO, however, doubted that that deadline could be
met, estimating that it would be 2009 before the upgrades are in
place.
The department's uneven record has drawn criticism in Congress
and beyond by those who fear the nuclear stockpiles, as well as
tons of nuclear materials, are prime targets for terrorist
attacks. Hanford has 18 metric tons of plutonium, a spokeswoman
said. Four tons of that total is purified, meaning it is suitable
for weapons. The remaining 14 metric tons has impurities but even
that material could be used for a crude improvised nuclear
device.
Additional warheads and tons of materials are scattered across
the nation, with large amounts in Idaho, New Mexico, California,
Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina.
Hanford has tightened security by hiring more guards and
increasing the number of canine units trained to sniff out
explosives. Spokeswoman Colleen Clark said Hanford has also
completed physical upgrades such as improved fencing and more
surveillance cameras.
Hanford also plans to transfer its 14 metric tons of plutonium
scrap to another Energy facility. The department plans to
consolidate some of its material as a way to improve security,
but lawmakers and some experts have said the programs needs to be
accelerated and broadened.
Whether that happens is uncertain. "There does seem to be an
emotional attachment to these materials," Danielle Brian,
executive director of the watchdog group, Project on Government
Oversight, told the subcommittee. "They feel less important if
they don't have them." P-I Washington correspondent Charles Pope
can be reached at 202-263-6461 or charliepope@seattlepi.com
[Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA
98119 (206) 448-8000
Home Delivery: (206) 464-2121 or (800) 542-0820
Send comments to [newmedia@seattlepi.com] ©1996-2004 Seattle
Post-Intelligencer Terms of Service/Privacy Policy
*****************************************************************
56 Seattle Times: Ex-Hanford-case attorney sues state bar, 2 lawyers
Wednesday, April 28, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
By Christine Clarridge Seattle Times staff reporter
A former attorney for Hanford downwinders — who claims she lost
her practice, her clients and her reputation when she was yanked
from the nuclear-radiation case — has sued the state bar and two
lawyers she claims unfairly "hunted" her.
Nancy Malee Oreskovich claims she was the victim of a witch hunt
that caused her to lose her role as a plaintiff's lawyer in the
lawsuit against the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a case that
after more than 13 years still has not gone to trial.
Oreskovich was an attorney for 2,000 people who lived downwind of
Hanford, which emitted radiation between 1944 and 1956, when
plutonium work at the government weapons plant was in its
infancy.
She was removed from the case in 1996 by a judge who claimed she
had misbilled clients, missed court deadlines and violated court
orders.
The Washington State Bar Association also investigated the
charges against her, and in 2001 dismissed all the allegations
against her.
Oreskovich, who now lives out of state and is not practicing law,
filed a lawsuit this month in King County Superior Court against
the state bar and two attorneys, seeking damages resulting from
the loss of her legal career.
"When an attorney with a spotless record and thousands of clients
is stripped of her clients and subjected to a five-year bar
investigation caused by a bar president who wants her clients,
then the state bar is broken and must be fixed," Oreskovich said,
"and that's why I'm filing this lawsuit."
In the suit, Oreskovich claims that former bar president Richard
Eymann and bar's counsel Robert Welden lied to have her
discredited and disbarred.
Eymann, who worked with Oreskovich on the case, accused her of
malpractice, including misbilling her clients.
Eymann said yesterday that he had no involvement in the bar's
investigation into Oreskovich.
"If there was anyone who was kept away from the investigation of
her, it was me," he said. "I had no involvement whatsoever and I
respectfully disagree with the allegations and the complaint."
A spokeswoman for the bar refused to comment on the suit.
Oreskovich had been representing the Hanford downwinders, who
believe their health problems stem from their exposure to the
released radiation. She was dismissed from the case by U.S.
District Court Judge Alan McDonald after representing her clients
for six years.
McDonald said Oreskovich ran a substandard practice, violated
court orders, missed deadlines and overcharged her clients.
The judge also believed that Oreskovich had leaked to the press a
sealed report supporting some of the downwinders' claims.
Oreskovich and others said her dismissal was the culmination of
problems with the judge that began two years earlier when she
refused to go along with the other plaintiff's attorneys and
dismiss Westinghouse Hanford Co. as a defendant in the case.
A number of Oreskovich's clients stood by her and said they saw
her removal from the case as unjust and unfair.
They said that Oreskovich was targeted because she wanted to hold
the government and contractors accountable.
"I am absolutely convinced that they were out to get her," said
former client Lois Camp. "They brought against her a despicable
list of petty wrongdoings and I think it's all borderline
criminal not only to Nancy but also to those of us who relied on
her."
After the charges against Oreskovich were dismissed unanimously
by the bar, she petitioned the federal court to allow her back on
the case. A federal judge ruled that her motion, made more than
nine months after the bar decision, was too late. The 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals agreed.
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company More local news
*****************************************************************
57 Las Vegas RJ: DESTINATION: TEST SITE: All weapons-grade nuclear materials
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
moving
Official denies that Los Alamos will ship only half of
plutonium, uranium By TONY BATT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- An Energy Department official denied Tuesday that
only half of 2 tons of weapons-grade nuclear materials will be
moved from New Mexico to a more secure Nevada Test Site facility.
"We will move all of that material," said Linton Brooks, chief
of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Testifying before a House Government Reform subcommittee,
Brooks also rejected the idea of transferring nuclear materials
from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco
to the test site as a matter of security. Brooks was responding
to comments by Danielle Brian, executive director of a nonprofit
watchdog group called the Project on Government Oversight.
Brian told the House panel that Everet Beckner, the NNSA
official in charge of the nuclear weapons complex, said the
agency intends to transfer only 50 percent of the plutonium and
highly enriched uranium from Technical Area 18 at the Los Alamos
National Laboratory to the test site.
Brian said that contradicts plans by Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham to move all of the nuclear materials from Technical Area
18 by 2005 to the Device Assembly Facility at the test site.
"The people in charge appear to have a different agenda from
the secretary," Brian said.
In August 2002, Beckner said the transfer might not occur
because of expenses. Less than two weeks later, Energy
Department documents revealed the transfer must occur because of
national security concerns.
NNSA decided not to begin the transfer last year after projected
costs tripled to more than $310 million.
On March 31, Brooks announced the NNSA would begin transferring
50 percent of the New Mexico materials to the test site in
September. The rest of the material would be transferred within
18 months of the first shipment.
The statement did not include a cost estimate.
The Device Assembly Facility is a 100,000-square-foot bunker
located about 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Originally
designed for underground nuclear tests, it is considered one of
the most secure facilities in the world and is being redesigned
to store all of the nuclear materials from Technical Area 18.
On the other hand, Technical Area 18 is regarded as highly
susceptible to terrorists because of security breaches that
occurred there during a series of war games.
Brian said the encroaching residential community surrounding
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has made it nearly impossible to
properly protect the nuclear materials stored there.
"In light of the facility's vulnerabilities, (the Project on
Government Oversight) recommends that all weapons quantities of
plutonium and highly enriched uranium should be de-inventoried
from Livermore immediately and sent to the Device Assembly
Facility at the Nevada Test Site," Brian said.
Besides increasing security, the move would save $30 million
annually, Brian said.
Brooks disagreed, saying, "I don't believe it's correct that
the challenges at Lawrence Livermore will preclude adequate
security."
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
58 Tri-Valley Herald: Lab expansion ignites debate
4/28/2004
Security, creation of nuclear arsenal has made Livermore focus
of argument
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER
LIVERMORE -- In an age of terrorism, the nation's nuclear-weapons
agency wants Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to handle
twice as much weapons-grade plutonium and tritium -- a
radioactive gas -- as lab scientists explore new and modified
H-bomb designs, including smaller, more portable ones.
"My question is, do we need the nuclear weapons?" said Stuart
Bunstock of Davis. In spirit at least, "we've removed ourselves
from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and that's a bad thing
whether you live here or in Europe or in Arabia."
In hearings Monday, scientists and activists said the Bush
administration's plans for Livermore over the next decade pose
risks to human health and run afoul of international curbs on the
world's largest nuclear arsenals. They asked the National Nuclear
Security Administration to go back to the drawing board on a
two-year study of the future of Livermore.
The plans -- more than 2,000 pages of proposals that are the
subject of continuing hearings today in Tracy -- include using
exotic lasers to separate vaporized plutonium into its rarer
isotopes that are useful for full-scale weapons experiments;
building a prototype, robotic factory line for making plutonium
atomic-bomb cores; building a biodefense lab to explore genetic
manipulations of biowarfare agents; and using weapons materials
inside of a gargantuan Livermore laser, the National Ignition
Facility, in experiments that scientists say could lead to a new
class of nuclear arms.
"I urge you to think very hard about the Pandora's box (that) you
are opening if we have an earthquake during plutonium
vaporization or a terrorist attack," said Loulena Miles, staff
attorney for a lab watchdog group, Tri-Valley CAREs.
The U.S. Department of Energy and its weapons arm -- the National
Nuclear Security Administration -- were under fire Monday in
Congress and in Livermore for keeping plutonium and highly
enriched uranium at a half-dozen locations, such as the suburban
East Bay lab, despite evidence that contract security forces may
not be capable of repelling terrorist attackers.
Congress' investigative arm, the General Accounting Office,
reported that even though the Energy Department upgraded the
terrorist threat to its weapons facilities in 2003, the agency
still is guarding against a "significantly smaller" terrorist
force than intelligence agencies say might attack and try to
steal or detonate a bomb's worth of nuclear material.
Those familiar with the Energy Department's preparations for
terrorist attack say intelligence analysts have estimated that
al-Qaida or other terrorists might send as many attackers after a
nuclear weapon as hijackers on Sept. 11. Yet weapons facilities
such as Livermore that handle weapons materials instead of fully
assembled H-bombs are staffing and arming for half that number.
Based on whistleblowers' accounts and Livermore's ability to
repel mock assaults, the Project on Government Oversight is
pressing Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to remove the lab's
entire plutonium and enriched uranium inventory -- enough for
more than 100 nuclear weapons and proposed to double over the
next decade -- into an impregnable fortress in the Nevada desert.
Squatting half underground between two gun towers, the Device
Assembly Facility, or DAF, was built about 20 years ago at the
Nevada Test site for$100 million, yet it has been barely used.
Its extra-thick, reinforced-concrete walls and doors open into a
shooting gallery from which defenders in protected alcoves can
unleash a flood of firepower toward attackers. U.S. special
forces teams have tried assaults on DAF and never succeeded in
taking it.
"We have essentially the most defensible building in the world
and it's empty now, while we have nuclear-weapons materials
stored in the middle of a neighborhood," said Danielle Brian,
POGO's executive director.
Houses around Livermore have curtailed the lab's ability to use
heavy firepower, such as high-powered sniper rifles and machine
guns, to repel a terrorist assault, Brian told a congressional
committee Monday.
The nation's top nuclear-weapons executive, Linton Brooks,
challenged that assertion and suggested his agency will oppose
moving plutonium and enriched uranium out of Livermore.
"Our judgment is that such a step would preclude our carrying out
important stockpile-stewardship assessments," said Brooks, head
of the NNSA, referring to experiments on plutonium to gauge the
effects on aging on weapons.
Tri-Valley Herald All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
59 BBC: Safety fears see sailors quit sub
Last Updated: Wednesday, 28 April, 2004
[Trafalgar class submarine]
HMS Trafalgar has undergone 15 months of repairs
A group of Royal Navy submariners have been given permission to
leave HMS Trafalgar, after they expressed fears over their
safety.
The commanding officer agreed to the 11 sailors leaving the
submarine before operational tests, following repairs.
HMS Trafalgar has been out of service since it ran aground off
the Isle of Skye in 2002 during a training mission.
The Ministry of Defence has said there were some faults, but not
enough to stop the vessel going to sea.
And it has denied there was any radiation leak.
The MoD also dismissed reports in the Daily Mirror that the refit
at the Devonport yard in Plymouth had cost £60m.
The Royal Navy would not se officers to sea if it was not totally
confident about the safety of a boat MoD spokesman
They also stressed that there had been no mutiny, with no sailors
refusing to sail, and that there would be no disciplinary action.
BBC defence correspondent Paul Adams said the men could never
have been accused of mutiny or disobeying a direct order, as the
order to sail had yet to be given.
The officer in charge of the Royal Navy's submarine flotilla
based at Devonport, Plymouth, denied HMS Trafalgar was unsafe.
Captain Simon Martin said: "The submarine has now dived, and I
know for a fact that the commanding officer has had other members
of the ship's company knocking on his door and saying they are
100% happy."
Capt Martin said the 11 men might be suffering from post
traumatic stress disorder following the 2002 collision and the
diesel leak.
He added: "They said they were worried about being at sea in a
dived submarine. The last thing you want on board is someone who
feels unstable."
An MoD spokesman later said that five sailors had now returned to
the submarine, three were still being medically assessed and two
had been cleared fit but had not as yet returned and were to be
interviewed again.
One man had refused to return to vessel.
Reactor problem
Although some repairs were made after the original refit, at
Faslane nuclear base on the Clyde, the majority of the
crewmembers' concerns were unfounded, the MoD added.
Some allegations, such as that the sub's anchor could not be
lowered, or that a nose cone had been welded on wrongly, were
simply not true, the MoD insisted.
A problem with a single control rod in the ship's reactor was
minor, it said.
The November 2002 collisions injured three sailors and caused
damage initially estimated at £5m.
Last week three crew members were treated after diesel fumes
entered the sub's ventilation system during a training exercise
at Devonport.
Breathing masks had to be worn when Freon, a refrigerant gas,
escaped in another incident.
All clear
All the Trafalgar's crew had been asked if they had any concerns
about the vessel's operating systems.
Last Friday, commanding officer Mark Williams released the 11
from duty and temporary replacements joined the other 109
members, currently being trained in preparation for operational
deployment.
The submarine had been given the all clear before it left
Devonport.
"The Royal Navy would not send officers to sea if it was not
totally confident about the safety of a boat," an MoD spokesman
said.
"There was no question of a mutiny or that any individual refused
to carry out orders."
Last month, a court martial hearing reprimanded Commander Robert
Fancy and Commander Ian McGhie, both 39, for their part in
causing the vessel to ground in 2002; both pleaded guilty to
negligence.
*****************************************************************
60 Tri-City Herald: Waste reclassification talks stall
This story was published Wednesday, April 28th, 2004
By Annette Cary Herald staff writer
Talks appear to have stalled between the Department of Energy and
Washington state in a yearlong disagreement over reclassifying
high-level waste in Hanford tanks and at other DOE sites.
"We're at odds," said Sheryl Hutchison, spokeswoman for the
Washington State Department of Ecology. "Talks have been
unfruitful."
DOE has said it is seeking clarification and confirmation from
Congress to continue to be able to classify nuclear waste at
Hanford and elsewhere.
But the state believes proposed legislation to allow DOE to
reclassify nuclear waste is unnecessary and could leave the state
with too little authority.
At issue is how much waste could be left in the bottom of huge
underground tanks that hold waste from processing plutonium
produced at Hanford for weapons during World War II and the Cold
War.
Through reclassification, more of the most difficult to remove
waste might be left in the tanks rather than be removed and
treated.
The matter could be settled through the courts. A federal judge
last July ruled that DOE cannot reclassify high-level radioactive
wastes on paper as being something less dangerous. The ruling is
being appealed.
Alternately, DOE, Washington or other states involved in the
dispute could persuade Congress to take action in their favor.
But in January, the Washington congressional delegation urged
state leaders to take the initiative to establish high-level
talks with DOE to resolve the issue.
The two sides appear to be little closer to reaching an agreement
three months later.
"Some progress has been made, but some individuals on both sides
seem a little too willing to let the courts resolve something the
state and DOE should have worked out," said Jessica Gleason,
spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash.
Hastings urged the state to initiate talks in January and
continues to believe the state and DOE have a responsibility to
discuss the issue and work toward an agreement, Gleason said.
"Our sense is that DOE is going back to Congress with the
language they want," Hutchison said.
A resolution of the court case could be years away, and the issue
of closing underground tanks is too important to wait, said Joe
Davis, spokesman for DOE headquarters.
"It is critical to find a solution," he said. "We have projects
that will be jeopardized related to tank waste."
A legislative fix is possible that would give the state a say, he
said.
"What DOE is proposing is allowing us with the state to move
forward to close tanks," he said. "We would like the involvement
of the state."
The state says DOE's proposed legislation calls for rulemaking to
manage waste. It anticipates that under the rulemaking, DOE would
shift oversight from a combined state and federal effort to an
emphasis on federal oversight, according to the state.
"It seems to be a move to get the state out of its hair,"
Hutchison said.
Longterm, the state's authority on reclassifiation of waste would
be "diminished or eliminated," she said.
The state does not agree any legislation is needed. But if any is
passed it wants it to give deference to the Tri-Party Agreement,
a legally binding pact among the state, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and DOE.
DOE says it is not proposing anything different than what is in
the Tri-Party Agreement.
"We're not trying to leave anyone out of the decision," Davis
said. "We do not want to leave the impression that DOE does not
want to work with the states."
© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
61 Tri-City Herald: Report critical of DOE
This story was published Wednesday, April 28th, 2004
By Les Blumenthal Herald Washington, D.C., bureau
WASHINGTON -- Despite some progress, the Department of Energy has
failed to develop adequate plans to defend the Hanford
reservation and other federal nuclear sites against terrorist
attacks, congressional investigators said Tuesday.
In a new report, the General Accounting Office said the
department had taken a series of immediate actions in the wake of
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to protect the sites.
"While each of these actions have been important, in and of
themselves, we believe they are not sufficient to ensure that all
of DOE's sites are adequately prepared to defend themselves
against the higher terrorist threat present in the post-Sept. 11,
2001, world," the report concluded.
The GAO criticized the department for taking two years to develop
what has been dubbed a design basis threat, a classified document
that analyzes the potential size and capabilities of terrorist
forces that might attack nuclear sites. The department requires
contractors at its nuclear sites to provide a large enough force
and enough equipment to defend against such a threat.
However, the GAO said the department disregarded estimates from
intelligence agencies about the potential threat and decided to
prepare for "significantly smaller" terrorist assaults.
The report mentions Hanford only in passing, though investigators
visited the site to review security precautions.
Hanford has not produced nuclear materials since the late 1980s.
But more than 4 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium still are
stored there along with another 14 metric tons of materials that
contain plutonium.
The report was released as part of a hearing before the national
security subcommittee of the House Committee on Government
Reform.
"Without question, DOE's nuclear warhead production plants, test
facilities, research labs, storage locations and decommissioned
sites are attractive targets for terrorists determined to turn
our technology against us and willing to die while doing so,"
said the subcommittee's chairman, U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays,
R-Conn.
Despite being asked, Shays said, the department declined to allow
a security official from its environmental management office to
testify. The environmental management office is in charge of
Hanford and other former production sites where the focus now is
cleanup.
Security at Hanford and other environmental management sites will
be discussed at a separate hearing in the future, Shays said.
Even so, several other DOE officials defended the department's
security programs.
"Today no nuclear weapons, special nuclear material or classified
materials are at risk anywhere within the nuclear weapons
complex," said Linton Brooks, the department's undersecretary for
nuclear security.
Shays, who believes the nuclear materials should be consolidated
at several high-security sites rather than be spread through
facilities across the nation, said he wasn't convinced.
"You are basically saying the design basis threat is inadequate,
doesn't capture the threat and the cost is enormous?" Shays asked
in questioning Robin Nazzaro, GAO's director for natural
resources and the environment.
"Correct," Nazzaro replied.
Nazzaro said the GAO report concluded it was unlikely the
department could meet its deadline and implement the new security
procedures over the next two years. Instead, the report found
most sites estimated it would take two to five years to implement
the security requirements if adequate funding was available.
"We know the terrorists will not wait that long to try to exploit
lingering vulnerabilities in our nuclear complex defenses," Shays
said.
The GAO also said department officials indicated funding had
played a large role in developing the threat analysis, with some
officials calling it the "funding basis threat," or the maximum
threat the department could afford.
"This tension between threat size and resources is not a new
development," the GAO said, adding that "political and budgetary
pressures" had been factors in preparing earlier threat analysis.
© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
62 Las Vegas SUN: Uranium planned for Test Site
By Suzanne Struglinski
SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
Meeting change
+ The Energy Department issued a correction today for its
recently announced scoping meeting for the potential rail line
to Yucca Mountain.
+ The meeting will take place from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on May 17 at
the Cashman Center, Rooms 103-106, 850 Las Vegas Blvd. North,
officials said Tuesday.
+ The department had originally listed May 10 as the meeting and
had said the location would be the Yucca Mountain Information,
4101 B Meadows Lane.
+ The Energy Department has extended the comment period on the
rail line to June 1.
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department plans to move all of its
plutonium and enriched uranium from New Mexico to the Nevada
Test Site, an official said Tuesday, but authorities refuse to
say how much material will be moved to Nevada.
Critics of security at department facilities had been worried
that only half would be moved, but Linton Brooks, head of the
National Nuclear Security Administration said at a House
Government Reform hearing: "It is our intention to move all of
that."
Earlier this month, the National Nuclear Security
Administration announced its plans to start shipping the first
half of its "special nuclear material" from the Technical Area
18, known as TA-18, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New
Mexico to the Test Site. Shipments are to start in September and
last 18 months.
Brooks explained Tuesday that the rest of the material will be
shipped to the Test Site sometime after that 18-month timeframe.
The Test Site is 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"Special nuclear material" consists of plutonium and enriched
uranium that could be used in nuclear weapons. The specific
total amount of the material is classified, said NNSA spokesman
Brian Wilkes.
This material is more dangerous than the low-level radioactive
waste, such as contaminated gloves, soil and equipment the Test
Site stores in Area 3 and Area 5 of the Test Site.
The Test Site will store the materials at the Device Assembly
Facility, where the federal government conducts underground
explosion experiments that do not sustain a nuclear chain
reaction.
*****************************************************************
63 Contra Costa Times: Activists share lab expansion concerns
| 04/28/2004 |
[http://www.contracostatimes.com
By Guy Ashley
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
LIVERMORE - More than 100 people, most opposed to nuclear weapons
research at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, turned out Tuesday for
a hearing on plans to expand lab use of plutonium and other
highly radioactive weapons materials.
Citizens blitzed the lab's 10-year environmental plan from many
directions. Some focused on details of the 2,000-page draft plan,
while others raised fundamental questions about a national
expansion of the weapons research that drives it.
The afternoon hearing, the first of five this week on the
Livermore plan, came amid a new wave of controversy about the
security of federal facilities like Livermore and concerns in
Congress that they may be vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
Investigators from the federal General Accounting Office reported
to a House committee Tuesday that security upgrades at nuclear
weapons sites ordered after the Sept. 11 attacks may not be
achieved by a 2006 deadline -- and that it might be necessary to
remove plutonium and weapons-grade uranium from Livermore and
other facilities due to terrorism fears.
At the Livermore hearing, an official from the Department of
Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration told
participants the 10-year plan focuses on the needs of the federal
stockpile stewardship program. That program aims to maintain the
country's nuclear weapons through experiments and computer
simulations rather than underground nuclear tests.
"Implementation of stockpile stewardship requires increased
operations at LLNL," said Tom Grim, who is overseeing the
environmental statement for the NNSA.
Proposals that go above and beyond the lab's current programs
include housing twice the plutonium on the lab site -- up to
3,300 pounds of plutonium to be stored at the lab at any one time
-- and working with nearly 10 times the radioactive tritium it
does now, according to lab officials.
The lab also would start research on how to make new plutonium
"pits," the nuclear core of nuclear weapons and use tritium in
testing the world's largest laser, now under construction.
Critics of a program expansion at the lab dominated the public
comment period of Tuesday afternoon's meeting. Many in the
audience held signs and offered boisterous expressions of
opposition.
"We're the most powerful nation on earth, with the most military
might. Why do we need more?" said Ellie Gilbert of Walnut Creek,
who said she went to the meeting because she was concerned about
her children and grandchildren who live near the lab.
"We believe it would actually enhance our security as a nation to
ramp down" weapons research, said Marylia Kelley, executive
director of the watchdog group Tri Valley Communities Against a
Radioactive Environment.
"And we believe it will increase our security as a community if
the (Department of Energy) removes plutonium from Livermore."
In Washington on Tuesday, the chairman of a house subcommittee
examining nuclear security said the government "has too many
facilities housing nuclear materials" and that consolidation is
needed.
"We know the terrorists will not wait that long to try to exploit
lingering vulnerabilities in our nuclear complex defenses," said
Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., responding with alarm to reports
that it may take as many as five more years to achieve mandated
security updates at nuclear facilities.
Security fears have long focused on Livermore, because it is the
closest to dense residential areas of the approximately seven
facilities nationwide handling weapons-grade nuclear materials.
But singling out Livermore amid the crush of concern about
facilities nationwide is misleading, said David Schwoegler, a lab
spokesman.
"Our protection strategy takes into account the entire spectrum
of feasible threats," Schwoegler said, adding that the federal
Energy Department's annual security review at the lab was
recently concluded and resulted in the highest rating possible.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
IF YOU GO
What: Hearing on Livermore lab's 10-year environmental review
When: 1 p.m. today
Where: Holiday Inn Express, 3751 N. Tracy Blvd., Tracy
About The Contra Costa Times |
*****************************************************************
64 Daily Texan: Anti-Los Alamos bill introduced -
http://www.dailytexanonline.com]
The University of Texas at Austin since 1900
| 4/28/2004
Resolution opposing facility bid authored by non-SG members
By Rachna Sheth
Former representative Ben Durham returned to Student Government
on Tuesday to help introduce a resolution, authored entirely by
non-SG members, opposing the UT System's controversial bid on
the Los Alamos nuclear facility.
"Think of it as the stock market. There are two kinds of stocks
you look at - stocks that go up and stocks that go down - and
this is a stock that's going down," Durham said.
Durham and other members of campus watchdog group UT Watch
condemned the University's desire to be involved with a nuclear
facility, because they said their research on the lab's history
and potential contributions to the University reveal no apparent
benefits.
The group said if something goes wrong at Los Alamos, such as a
national security breach, the University will be held
accountable, despite having little or no control over what
actually goes on at the lab.
"I've come to the conclusion, after talking to a lot of
professors, that there will be no new research opportunities,"
said Dominique Cambou, a UT Watch member and physics senior.
"Also, financially, there's no benefits. The problems that come
with management [of the Los Alamos facility] include national
security issues, and we will be held accountable for what goes
on there."
Another hindrance to control over the laboratory, said UT Watch
member Nick Schwellen-bach, is the federal Department of Energy,
an entity that has stifled and gagged whistleblowers from the
University of Califor-nia System.
Some SG representatives contested the group's claim that there
will be no benefits to the University acquiring management of
the facility.
Representative Matt Stol-handske said, opinions regarding Los
Alamos aside, it would be inaccurate for SG to say in a
resolution on behalf of constituents that no benefits would come
from supporting the bid.
The only benefit the Univer-sity administration has offered, the
group countered, was the possibility of added prestige to the
University's name.
Young Conservatives of Texas member Brian Bodine said he read
the resolution and believes it is based more on ideology than
actual facts.
"I think that they're mis-taken in thinking there's a widespread
opposition to Los Alamos - I think it's a small fraction of
students," Bodine said. "The United States is a very responsible
nuclear power ... so there should be no problem of the
University managing or co-managing a facility that provides
security and protects the United States."
UT Watch also said the AFL-CIO has voiced opposition to the
System's takeover of management, because Texas labor laws will
not be able to provide benefits equivalent to those of the
University of California System. They said the workers at the
lab are also opposed to the UT takeover.
"I think it's important to know that the workers don't want us
there," said Austin Van Zant, a French senior. "They're taking
an active stance against UT as far as I can tell."
*****************************************************************
65 SF Chronicle: Livermore lab assailed for holes in security
Investigators call radioactive cache vulnerable
Edward Epstein, Keay Davidson and James Sterngold, Chronicle
Staff Writers [eepstein@sfchronicle.com] Wednesday,
April 28, 2004
Washington -- Congressional investigators charged Tuesday that
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the country's
most sensitive nuclear facilities, can no longer adequately
protect weapons materials from potential terrorist threats and is
moving too slowly to increase security.
Now an independent watchdog group says the lab should not be
permitted to maintain stores of the weapons-grade plutonium,
uranium and other radioactive materials at the heart of nuclear
warheads.
Testifying before the House Government Reform Subcommittee, the
group argued that with the lab in the midst of rapidly growing,
heavily populated suburbs, the radioactive materials present too
much of a risk to the community and cannot be protected properly.
Officials from the Department of Energy, which owns the lab,
rejected many of the criticisms of Livermore and other weapons
facilities, arguing that security was being improved rapidly and
that they have been sharply increasing spending to provide
protection against possible terrorist attacks.
Even as critics called for the lab to relinquish its radioactive
materials, the Department of Energy held a public hearing Tuesday
in Livermore to outline a proposed 10-year expansion of the lab's
nuclear weapons research functions.
Lab spokesman Tom Grim said the plan would roughly double, from
700 to 1,500 kilograms, the amount of plutonium stored at the
lab. Lab scientists and technicians also would research new
methods of forming the so-called plutonium "pit," the
billiard-ball-sized fissionable component of a nuclear bomb.
The hearing drew more than 100 people, many of whom denounced the
proposal as a threat to the surrounding communities and to the
environment.
"I really am beginning to believe that the government is not
friendly to the people," one speaker, Annie Griffin, told lab
officials.
Responding to the critics in Washington, Rep. Ellen Tauscher,
D-Walnut Creek -- whose district includes the lab and who has
been a critic of its security in the past -- flew to Livermore's
defense.
"I'm not going to tell you security is perfect, but, because of
criticisms, they have made dramatic improvements and have
invested sizable amounts of money to increase security," she said
in an interview. "In a perfect world, there will be plutonium at
Livermore."
The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress,
released a report Tuesday that strongly criticized the Department
of Energy for being too slow after Sept. 11 to improve security
at Livermore and four other weapons facilities and for setting
unrealistic goals for improvements.
The report said the guards at the sites were overworked and
poorly trained; the Energy Department was resisting intelligence
community assessments of what kind of terrorist attacks it had to
defend against; and the department was likely to miss its own
deadline for improving some security measures, fiscal 2006, by
three years.
Although the report, 2 1/2 years in the making, discussed
security lapses at five nuclear facilities, many of its
conclusions fell squarely on Livermore and the special problems
it confronts.
When the lab, owned by the Department of Energy but managed by
the University of California, was founded in the early 1950s to
design a new generation of nuclear warheads, it was surrounded by
ranches with few inhabitants nearby. Today it is in the middle of
a thriving suburban enclave in Alameda County.
In fact, the extremely sensitive Superblock building, where the
most important weapons-grade materials are kept, is only about a
quarter-mile from some homes, according to the Project on
Government Oversight, a private watchdog group.
Danielle Brian, director of the group, told the House
subcommittee that the site is simply no longer compatible with
certain kinds of weapons research because of the suburban
encroachment.
"We can say that the encroaching residential community
surrounding Lawrence Livermore has made it nearly impossible to
properly protect the weapons quantities of plutonium and highly
enriched uranium stored there,'' Brian testified.
"Clearly, (Livermore) will not be able to comply with the new
directives,'' tougher security requirements that will be in place
by 2006, Brian added.
She suggested that all the nuclear materials at Livermore be
moved to the Nevada Test Site, which is 65 miles from Las Vegas
and was the site of government underground nuclear testing until
a ban was put in place in 1992.
Livermore officials have said the lab could continue to fulfill
its primary mission, testing and maintaining the reliability of
the current stockpile of nuclear weapons, even if the materials
were moved, but it would be more expensive and difficult.
That is why some have raised concerns that moving the materials
out of Livermore -- which houses about 880 pounds of plutonium,
according to a lab official -- would result in changes in its
historic mission and possibly a reduction in its size, something
the lab and the Department of Energy would fight.
Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security
Administration, which oversees all weapons work, rejected Brian's
charges.
"It is not correct that the physical security challenge at the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory resulting from residential
encroachment makes adequate protection nearly impossible,'' he
told the House subcommittee.
Brooks said Livermore's security preparations were tested in
February and were ruled satisfactory.
"People looking for soft spots would be ill-advised to come to
sites for which I am responsible because they are not soft
spots,'' he said.
Tauscher said that the lab was essential to the local economy and
that, though security had to improve, it needed to maintain the
stocks of bomb materials to conduct its work.
"It's always smarter to consolidate materials in fewer sites to
protect them,'' she said after the hearing. "But in order for
Lawrence Livermore to fulfill its mission, it has to have some
material.''
Tauscher stressed that security has been increased since the
Sept. 11 attacks and "remains at its highest level ever.'' She
also called on Congress to fund the department's security plan so
improvements can continue.
The critical report comes as the Energy Department is preparing
to open to competition for the first time the management
responsibilities at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore labs. Both
labs have been run by the University of California, but their
management contracts will be up for bid for the first time in the
next few years.
Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., chairman of the House
subcommittee, didn't single out any of the five DOE sites with
supplies of plutonium or enriched uranium, but he made it clear
at the hearing that he felt the lab system is overstretched.
"I believe we have too many sites. They are so antiquated they
pose a risk,'' he said.
Shays said that taking two years to revise the security plan,
which is what the DOE envisions, is "an inexplicably and
inexcusably long time.''
Experts have raised concerns in the past that a band of
well-armed terrorists might try and break into a weapons facility
to steal material to make a nuclear bomb, or might even assemble
a bomb at the site and detonate it there.
The current DOE timetable calls for dealing with an attack on
Livermore by a small group of terrorists who might want to steal
nuclear material, disperse radioactive material, use a truck bomb
to attack a lab or set off what's called an improvised nuclear
device. It envisions having the new security mechanisms in place
by the end of fiscal 2006.
However, U.S. intelligence agencies believe that the DOE faces a
potential threat from a larger and better armed terrorist group,
requiring even more stringent defensive measures.
Brooks stressed that the future plans go beyond traditional
security measures.
"While I am pleased with the progress we have made, our long-term
security must be based on more than guns, gates and guards,''
Brooks said. "Over the long term, we are committed to harnessing
the power of technology to improve security.''
Lab security
A GAO report on security at the nation's nuclear weapons labs,
including Livermore, found that:
-- Personnel: The Department of Energy has heightened security
readiness at the labs, but the increased effort has led to
fatigue, turnover and less training for security officers at many
sites.
-- Delays: The development of new security plans took almost two
years because of bureaucratic delays, and the 2006 target date
for completion may not be realistic.
-- Attacks: The security measures fail to contemplate a
large-scale terrorist attack.
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle
*****************************************************************
66 Chicago Sun-Times: Argonne reactor's shell to be hauled away
April 28, 2004
BY STEVE SCHMADEKE
The radiation-contaminated concrete shell of a former nuclear
reactor at Argonne National Laboratory is slated to be taken
apart and shipped away within the next year, under a $4 million
U.S. Energy Department plan for one of the last remaining
nuclear-waste cleanups at the lab near Lemont.
The radioactive waste, which it's estimated will amount to 18
truckloads, will be sent to a federal facility in Washington
state or to a privately run operation in Utah.
"We will choose a place where it's safe to dispose of the waste
but also where it's the least expensive because we're using
taxpayers' money," Energy Department spokesman Brian Quirke said.
Finances also played a role in delaying the project since the
1970s, when the nuclear reactor was shut down after eight years
of operation.
In its heyday, the small nuclear reactor was used by Argonne
scientists to test how materials responded to neutron
bombardment.
After it was closed and the nuclear reactor removed in the late
1970s, Energy Department administrators took a simple step in
rendering the concrete shell safe -- they had it painted. Quirke
said radioactive specks of material were all that remained, and
the danger was that workers in the building would inhale the
particles. The paint kept them in place and prevented unsafe
levels of radiation from escaping, he said.
After nearly 30 years, those particles are much less
radioactive, he said, which makes their removal now much less
expensive.
Besides the radioactive particles, workers also will have to
contend with asbestos. Plastic sheeting will be used to keep
asbestos or radioactive dust confined, and the work will be done
indoors.
Lab workers will continue to use half of the building on the
south side of Argonne.
The cleanup project is being done by a California business and
should be finished by next summer, the Energy Department said.
Ten other cleanup projects have been done at Argonne, and two
are scheduled after this one is finished. All of the work is
scheduled to be completed in 2009.
Daily Southtown
Copyright 2004, Digital Chicago Inc.
*****************************************************************
67 KPVI: DOE announces new contractor rules at INEEL
After many months of deliberation the U-S Department of Energy
announced new changes that will be implemented for contractors
who will manage the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory next year.
One of the changes is the base term for the contracts will be
ten years instead of five, with an option for an additional five
years. And contractors must include a plan to establish a joint
laboratory-university center for advanced studies in the state.
Energy officials say that their goal is to make Idaho the
epicenter in the efforts to expand nuclear energy use world
wide.
The City of Idaho Falls will benefit economically from these new
proposals. Dale Thompson of Reality Executives says this is good
news for the real estate business.
Dale Thompson/Reality Executives Broker--
"I think that we will have people that are more stable when they
buy a home. They may choose to buy a home instead of rent a home
because they may not know how long they'll be here. An if they
have 5-10 years of stability it will be good for economy and the
housing market in general."
The Department of Energy has scheduled the release of the final
proposals for next month.
[http://www.nbcnews6.com/index.cfm?page=weather/content3.cfm]
Today's High:
[http://www.kpvi.com/index.cfm?page=MostWanted/Most.cfm]
Newschannel 6 Team Contacts/Comments
©Copyright 2004 Oregon Trail Broadcasting KPVI
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68 The Daily Texan: Los Alamos good for U.S. and UT System -
Opinion
University of Texas at Austin
Opinion | 4/28/2004
By Brian Haley
UT Watch recently challenged the UT System's decision to study a
possible bid to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In
response to their criticism, I ask: Why not?
Since its establishment in 1943, Los Alamos has supplied cutting
edge research in the realms of national defense, counter
terrorism, supercomputers, nanotechnology, aeronautics,
superconductivity, human genetics and virology. A few of the many
yields that have resulted from such research include medical
advancements that are assisting to find the cure to HIV and AIDS;
the development of technology that monitors the theft and
movement of illegal nuclear and chemical materials; the success
of NASA's Genesis Probe; the production of a new superconducting
tape, that will one day be used to help with environmental
pollutant cleanups; and the development of a computer program
that can predict climate change.
Through a strategic partnership with Los Alamos, the UT System
would be able to increase its leadership in these cutting edge
advancements, thus bringing enormous prestige to our faculty and
researchers. Such an alliance would also afford our graduate and
post-doctoral students the most advanced research opportunities
in the country, making them more desirable to future employers.
Such a management opportunity would also bring tremendous
economic benefits to the UT System. In addition to funding the
over $2.1 billion budget of Los Alamos, as well as compensating
for an annual reimbursement of more than $9 million in overhead
costs, the Department of Energy currently pays more than $8.7
million a year to the University of California System for their
management services. It is likely that these financial incentives
will only increase as the contract undergoes the bidding process.
Regardless of how one feels about the research being done at Los
Alamos or the potential impact it could offer the UT System, the
laboratory will continue to operate. I would hope that UT Watch
recognizes the downfall of having a private corporation, which is
only interested in increasing its bottom line, managing the
facility. It is paramount that an institution whose core mission
is to teach, research and provide public service be involved in
the management of Los Alamos.
It is clear that the UT System must be involved in order to
progress the integrity of such a valuable national asset. It is
my opinion that the regents should aggressively continue in their
pursuance of this bid.
Haley is a government senior and the 2003-2004 SG President.
*****************************************************************
69 Oak Ridger: ORNL technology gives new access to living cells
Story last updated at 12:04 p.m. on April 28, 2004
By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff
[paul.parson@oakridger.com]
A new nanoscale technology will enable scientists to physically
probe inside a living cell without destroying it.
Tuan Vo-Dinh, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory Corporate Fellow
who works in the Life Sciences Division, is leading the team of
researchers who are developing what's being called a
nanobiosensor.
According to information released by ORNL, the nanobiosensor "is
a tiny fiber-optic probe that has been drawn to a tip of only 40
nanometers across-a billionth of a meter and 1,000 times smaller
than a human hair." A nanometer is a unit of spatial measurement
that's one billionth of a meter.
This image shows a nanoprobe, with a tip 1,000 times finer than a
human hair, penetrating a cell. The probe can enter, perform a
measurement in situ and be withdrawn without destroying the cell.
The nanobiosensor technology provides researchers who study cell
systems at the molecular level a valuable tool for monitoring the
health of a single cell.
Lab officials said the new technology will allow access to basic
information critical to understanding the cell's molecular
processes. Additionally, researchers should be able to use the
new tool for understanding how toxic agents are transported into
cells and how biological pathogens trigger responses in the cell.
"There is a need to explore uncharted territory inside a live
cell and analyze the molecular processes," Vo-Dinh explained.
"This minimally invasive nanotechnology opens the door to explore
the inner world of single cells."
According to Vo-Dinh, the nanobiosensor will allow researchers to
detect only the molecules that they target, "without all the
other background noise from the myriad other species inside the
cell." The new instrument is not expected to be lethal to cells
like some other conventional analytical methods.
In addition to Vo-Dinh, the nanobiosensor team includes
postdoctoral researchers Paul M. Kasili and Joon Myong Song as
well as research staff biochemist Guy Griffin.
*****************************************************************
70 Oak Ridger: Cleanup method sticks like glue
Story last updated at 11:56 a.m. on April 28, 2004
OFFICIAL: Material has been successfully used in cleanup
projects at Rocky Flats, a former nuclear weapons facility
located about 16 miles northwest of Denver, Colo.
By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff
paul.parson@oakridger.com [paul.parson@oakridger.com]
Bechtel Jacobs Co., the federal government's Oak Ridge cleanup
contractor, is examining three types of foam that essentially
act as a bonding agent, and might prove useful in efforts to
remediate two large World War II-era buildings.
The foam could be used to immobilize contamination or other
elements that might be located in various building components,
including piping and convertors. The foam is injected into the
pipes and other equipment, where it expands to as much as 25
times its original size, officials said.
"That way we could fill up a 16-inch line," said Greg Eidam, a
Bechtel Jacobs project manager. "We could cut those lines and
not have to worry about the spread of contamination."
Bechtel Jacobs Co.
Workers with North Carolina Foam Industries use a polyurethane
foam on a mock-up of a compressor and converter. Foam at top
shows the compressor mock-up was completely filled. The foam is
injected into the pipes and other equipment, where it expands to
as much as 25 times its original size, immobilizing the
contaminants.
Officials said the material is being eyed for possible use in the
cleanup of the K-27 and U-shaped K-25 buildings at the Oak Ridge
K-25 site. The massive K-25 building covers more than 40 acres
while K-27 takes up around 374,000 square feet at the site.
Bechtel Jacobs officials recently completed a series of
demonstrations on three types of foam: polyurethane, ceramic and
cement, according to Eidam.
During the tests, which were conducted at Oak Ridge's Tower
Shielding Reactor Facility - an old nuclear reactor, officials
filled a mock-up of a piping system with various elements like
sand, slag, gravel, metal turnings and corn starch that was
supposed to represent contamination and other loose material.
"We wanted to see how the foam would behave to that material,"
Eidam said. "Would the foam run over the material, grab the
material and displace the material, move it along the pipe? Would
it encapsulate that material?"
Using the polyurethane foam as an example, Eidam said this
substance totally encased the sand and did practically the same
with the slag and gravel. However, he said the metal turnings did
move a couple of inches.
Eidam said officials also looked at how flame retardant the foam
was as well as how it would stack up against security criteria.
For example, could the foam properly conceal the material inside
the building components and not be easily removed?
"It is very difficult to remove," Eidam said. "It takes a lot of
work."
One other foam test involved using shears to cup the mock piping
system - an action that would likely happen during a cleanup
project.
"None of the foam broke free," Eidam said. "It didn't chip off or
anything of that nature."
While the results of the demonstrations are still being
evaluated, Eidam said Bechtel Jacobs officials are pleased with
how the foam performed. But, it could be July before the company
knows if it will use the foam or which type or types it might
choose.
If Bechtel Jacobs opts to use the foam, the company would issue a
request for proposals from companies that offer this type of
material. Eidam suggested that there could be a cost savings
associated with the foam, but he didn't know how much.
Eidam said foam has been successfully used in cleanup projects at
Rocky Flats, a former nuclear weapons facility located about 16
miles northwest of Denver, Colo.
*****************************************************************
71 Oak Ridger: Security upgrades years away
Story last updated at 11:21 a.m. on April 28, 2004
AUDIT: Operating at the increased security condition levels has
resulted in between $18,000 to $200,000 in unplanned costs per
week at each site - primarily the result of overtime costs for
the protective forces.
By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff paul.parson@oakridger.com
[paul.parson@oakridger.com]
While the federal government took immediate steps to improve
physical security at its nuclear weapons facilities in the
aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a just-released
audit states that protective upgrades are years away from being
fully in place at these sites.
The General Accounting Office - the investigative arm of Congress
- conducted the audit at the request of the House Subcommittee on
National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations.
Oak Ridge's Y-12 National Security Complex was one of the sites
reviewed for the document.
Within a matter of hours after the terrorist attacks in New York
and Washington, D.C., the Department of Energy and National
Nuclear Security Agency went from a then-normal level 4 security
condition - meaning a low level of terrorist threat - to level 2,
which is a higher level of threat. The NNSA is the
quasi-independent agency within DOE that oversees the nuclear
weapons complex.
As part of the heightened security condition, sites were required
to increase, among other things, the number of vehicle
inspections and badge checks, the distance between public and
sensitive areas to protect against large truck bombs, and the
number of protective forces on duty.
"Increased SECON (security condition) levels have been expensive
in both their financial cost and their toll on the readiness of
the protective forces," the GAO audit states. "Specifically,
operating at the increased SECON levels has resulted in between
$18,000 to $200,000 in unplanned costs per week at each site -
primarily the result of overtime costs for the protective
forces."
In fact, a June 2003 DOE Inspector General report also noted that
the large amounts of overtime needed to meet the higher security
condition requirements have resulted in fatigue, reduced
readiness, retention problems and less training for protective
forces.
While the increased security conditions have increased the
visible deterrence at the federal sites, the GAO also reported
that the federal government must press forward with additional
actions to ensure that it's fully prepared to provide a timely
and cost effective defense. A similar message has also been
touted by the watchdog group known as the Project On Government
Oversight.
To manage potential risks, DOE essentially updated last year
what's known as its "design basis threat," a classified document
that identifies the potential size and capabilities of terrorist
forces. However, it took the federal agency almost two years to
develop the update, according to the GAO audit.
"DOE is unlikely to meet its own fiscal year 2006 deadline for
full implementation of the requirements of the new DBT (design
basis threat)," the GAO audit noted. "Specifically, some sites
estimate that it could take as long as five years, given adequate
funding, to fully meet the requirements of the new DBT.
"Because some sites will be unable to effectively counter the
threat contained in the new DBT for a period of up to several
years, these sites probably are at higher risk under the new DBT
than they were under the old DBT."
The GAO report did not specify if Y-12 was one of the sites that
would have a problem meeting the full requirements of the new
design basis threat document. Y-12 is a storehouse for bomb-grade
uranium.
When contacted for comment, BWXT Y-12 officials were initially
unaware the GAO report had been released. Officials with the Oak
Ridge NNSA office were unavailable for comment this morning.
Plutonium and weapons-useable uranium are stored at nearly a
dozen facilities within the DOE weapons complex. And, The
Associated Press quoted Linton Brooks, the NNSA's administrator,
as saying that officials are reviewing the weapons complex to
determine where material can be consolidated, either in more
secure areas within facilities or at other sites.
In addition, the AP reported that Brooks said moving material
from Y-12 could take decades, probably cost billions of dollars
and accomplish little in the short term. Y-12 plans to build a
new storage site for highly enriched uranium.
However, the watchdog group POGO and DOE's Inspector General have
both voiced concerns about the design of the new Y-12 facility.
BWXT Y-12, which manages the plant, has opted to go with a
non-berm storage facility instead of one covered with an earthen
berm on the top and three sides of the facility.
If the facility were constructed as currently designed, the
Inspector General said it would be costly and pose some security
issues. In addition, Danielle Brian, POGO's executive director,
said: "All the security experts we have interviewed conclude that
a berm facility would be far more secure."
*****************************************************************
72 lamonitor.com: LANL enterprise project cited by feds in report
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
[http://www.lanl.gov/worldview] [http://www.lac-nm.us]
ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor
The multimillion-dollar centerpiece of Los Alamos National
Laboratory's business improvement plan has drawn criticism from
the Department of Energy's chief auditor. And Lab officials say
they had complied with all of the recommendations before the
Inspector General's report was issued.
The Enterprise Project had been under way more than a year before
a series of revelations about financial vulnerabilities at the
laboratory were publicized at the end of 2002.
The Enterprise Project was intended precisely to avoid similar
problems by providing a comprehensive computerized business
system, integrating a number of separate information systems
throughout the laboratory.
Now, the Enterprise Project itself top lines the IG's list of
examples of poor planning and cost overruns in the department's
information systems. "Los Alamos National Laboratory's Enterprise
Project development did not include critical mission elements and
has been projected to cost about $150 million, $80 million more
than initial estimates," wrote Inspector General Gregory H.
Freedman to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Thursday.
The full report, titled "System Development Activities at
Selected Management Contractors," became available on the IG's
web site Monday. It cites other projects as well, including a
cost overrun at Sandia National Laboratories, but LANL's
Enterprise Project seemed to lead the list of systems considered
delinquent by the IG. The Enterprise Project began in August 2001
as a replacement for LANL's separate accounting and management
systems and was supposed to take five years to put in place
But, the report said, in January 2003, "Los Alamos determined
that essential components were missing from the planned system,
and that significant cost, schedule, and scope adjustments to the
project would be necessary." That's when the project costs more
than doubled.
The IG does not mention that was also when former Director John
C. Browne agreed to resign and an Interim Director G. "Peter"
Nanos was installed.
At the time and very shortly thereafter, Congress, the National
Nuclear Security Administration, the University of California,
along with the IG's office, were urgently calling for the
laboratory to get a handle on its procurement and property
management difficulties.
These difficulties, as it turned out, were more apparent than
real, but they nonetheless motivated the laboratory to begin a
significant revision of its plans for the Enterprise Project.
"It wasn't just repair and assess, but building the foundation
for the twenty-first century," said Carolyn Zerkle, principal
deputy in the administration division.
Linda Lambrecht, deputy project director for the Enterprise
Project, who has worked on seven previous system-wide integration
programs, said the cost was not out of line with a system of this
scope, that allows everyone across the enterprise to have nearly
real-time access to reliable, efficient and accurate information.
The expanded project grew to include not only financial issues,
procurement and human resources, but also manufacturing, property
and facilities management, project management and other business
activities.
The refocusing effort was concluded in January and earlier this
month Nanos signed a set of baseline documents formalizing the
full scope of the project.
"The baseline package was the first of its type," Zerkle said.
"We need that document to manage the project."
The IG's investigation, concluded in February, did not discuss
the details or context of the project, saying only, "During our
review, a laboratory official indicated that the project has now
been re-baselined for the second time and a specific
determination as to overall project cost has not been completed."
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
73 SHN: A proposal to add Manhattan Project sites to park system
By JAMES W. BROSNAN
Scripps Howard News Service
April 28, 2004
WASHINGTON - The places where Manhattan Project scientists
once worked in secret to create the atomic bomb could someday
become national parks.
The Senate Energy Committee on Wednesday unanimously
approved a bill to authorize a study of whether to add older,
unused sections of national laboratories at Los Alamos, N.M., Oak
Ridge, Tenn., and Hanford, Wash., to the national park system.
Under the proposal, the National Park Service would
conduct the study.
Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said, "My hope
is that this can help Americans to better understand the project
and its impact on history and mankind."
The Manhattan Project was one of the biggest secrets of
World War II. For three years, up to 130,000 workers carved out
factories in three rural areas - Los Alamos, where the bombs were
designed and built; Oak Ridge, where the first uranium-enrichment
facility was built; and Hanford, where the first large-scale
reactor for producing plutonium was built.
The two bombs they produced - Little Boy, using uranium,
and Fat Man, using plutonium - devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This forced Japan to surrender and thus ended the war.
The older buildings at the three sites already are on the
National Register of Historic Places, but the Department of
Energy has made it clear to lawmakers that it is not in the
caretaker business.
The cash-strapped Park Service would prefer that sponsors
find another backer for managing the sites. The study alone could
cost as much as $700,000, the service testified at an earlier
hearing.
But no nonprofit has the resources to tackle the job,
said Cynthia Kelly, president and founder of the Atomic Heritage
Foundation.
Kelly was a Clinton administration Energy Department
official who, in 1997, helped stop plans to bulldoze six Los
Alamos buildings where scientists worked. (Ironically, four of
them burned down three years later in the Cerro Grande fire.)
"I realized we needed to get more public awareness of
this period," said Kelly, who started the foundation in 2002.
Additional hurdles could be safety and security.
Kelly said the Department of Energy already is paying to
clean up waste at the sites so any properties turned over to the
Park Service would be safe to visit, or at least be encased in
hard plastic.
The labs are still top-secret. Just on Tuesday, the
congressional General Accounting Office warned it could take five
years to bring security at the labs up to the level necessary to
prevent any terrorist attack.
But Domenici said he is confident some tourist visits
could be accommodated.
On the Net: www.atomicheritage.org.
(E-mail James W. Brosnan at BrosnanJ(at)shns.com.)
*****************************************************************
74 [DU-WATCH] DU Press Release & Daily News Articles
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 23:03:37 -0500 (CDT)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
4/27/04
CONTACTS: Michelle Riddell 845 255-5482
michelka52@yahoo.com
Sue Zimet 845 255-2117
zauerbach1@aol.com
Leuren Moret- 510 845-3139
NY COALITION TO HALT DEPLETED URANIUM ASKS SENATOR
CLINTON ,WHAT PART OF RADIOACTIVE DONT YOU
UNDERSTAND?
Following disclosure of the DU contamination of 4
soldiers from the 442nd Police Unit returning from
Iraq (NY Daily News 4/4/04), a NY coalition of alarmed
citizens (with the support of over 30 organizations),
met in Washington yesterday with Senator Schumer and
Clinton reps.
Scientist Asaf Durokovic, who positive tested these
soldiers for the NY Daily News when the military
refused to do testing, scientist Leuren Moret, an
expert in DU, who works with the Radioactive Public
Health Project, and Army Major Doug Rokke, in charge
of cleanup of depleted uranium for Gulf War 1 (half
of his cleanup crew are dead), were available via
telephone to speak to the issue.
Over 3,000 tons of DU munitions have been used
extensively in Iraq Wars l and 2, Afghanistan, the
Balkans, and Vieques, and have even affected civilians
near National Lead Industries in Colonie, New York.
In a productive meeting with Senator Schumers office,
staffer Kevin Riley confirmed that Schumer had
demanded answers from the Department of Defense in
regards to the testing, use, handling and impacts of
DU. He knows that someone has dropped the ball on
this issue. Schumer and Sen. Clinton are jointly
drafting legislation concerning the testing of
soldiers. The group also asked for help in testing
cancer stricken citizens near National Lead Industries
where DU munitions were produced. Similiarly in
Vieques, where DU munitions were tested for 20 years,
an exponential increase in incidence of cancer has
been seen.
Leuren Moret, provided government documentation,
including military directives, revealing that the
military should have been training soldiers on DU ,
and also testing and giving health care to
contaminated soldiers all along. Especially revealing
was the 1993 AEPI report, an investigation called by
congress to figure out a way to reduce the harmful
radioactive effects of DU. The report says that there
is no way to clean it up, and no way to reduce the
harmful radioactivity. Moret explains the military
knew that DU was a weapon of mass and indiscriminate
destruction, and used it anyway. She also feels that
calling for more scientific research is just a
delaying tactic. This is a coverup. The Pentagons
own research shows that DU is linked with cancers,
leukemias and DNA damage.
When the coalition met with Clintons staff ,
scientists Durokovic, Moret and Major Rokke were
denied telephone access. We were upset about this,
Sue Zimet, the Ulster County Legislator stated, but
were promised that the senator would be in contact
with them. At the request of the coalition, Charles
Sheehan Miles of Nuclear Policy Research Institute
and Tara Thornton of Military Toxic Project also
attended to discuss the dangers of DU. When asked
what Senator Clintons current position on DU was, LA
Andrew Shapiro, said that she was reviewing all the
facts before she would answer. The group has been
asking that question for over one year. Angela Morano
of Saugerties Committee for Peace and Social Justice,
responded, What part of radioactive dont you
understand?
While the coalition is very glad that Clinton has told
Rumsfield she wants testing for all soldiers returning
from Iraq, Michele Riddell of SAFE Legacy feels that
testing is only the very tip of the nuclear iceberg.
We need an immediate HALT to the use, manufacture,
selling and a cleanup of this weapon of maternal
destruction NOW! We are killing our future-
soldierschildren and Iraqi children are being born
deformed. This is a radioactive gift that keeps on
giving.
The coalition left information with more than 15 other
Senators, including Kennedy and is setting up a
meeting with Senator Kerrys staff to speak about DU.
.
Headline: PENTAGON'S URANIUM DENIAL
Byline: BY JUAN GONZALEZ
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Pentagon says Jerry Wheat, a former tank driver
with the 3rd
Armored Division, is not sick from exposure to
depleted uranium.
Neither is Mark Zeller, who once loaded depleted
uranium tank-busting
shells onto Apache helicopters.
And Doug Rokke, a retired Army major who first
assessed the dangers of
depleted uranium after the Persian Gulf War, is
scientifically
off-base, the Pentagon says.
All three men proudly served their country in the Gulf
War. All three
came home with inexplicable illnesses.
Before going to the gulf, they had never heard of
depleted uranium, a
metal used to make shells that are capable of piercing
even the
strongest armor.
First used in the Gulf War, it is now commonly used in
Iraq, and
returning veterans from that conflict have tested
positive for depleted
uranium contamination.
Wheat says he experienced its awesome impact firsthand
when his Bradley
tank was hit twice by friendly fire.
"It blew off my helmet and knocked me into the front
of the vehicle,"
Wheat said. "Afterward, my gear and clothes were
covered with black
dust."
The explosion also left several tiny pieces of
shrapnel lodged in his
head and body.
"No one told us we'd been hit with [depleted uranium]
at the time,"
Wheat said. "I slept in my tank for a few nights.
There was never any
concern to scrub anything."
A few weeks later, Wheat was shipped to a base in
Germany, where his
wife and 3-month-old son were living.
Then his problems began - terrible headaches, severe
abdominal and
joint pains, respiratory problems and chronic fatigue.
He couldn't keep
food down, and his weight plummeted from 220 to 160
pounds. Discharged in
November 1991, he returned home to Las Cruces, N.M.,
but couldn't hold
a job.
The following year, his father arranged for testing of
the shrapnel
doctors had removed from his body. Only then did Wheat
learn he'd been
hit with a radioactive shell.
He fought for the Army to check him for depleted
uranium contamination.
Independent tests showed he had been exposed to
depleted uranium, but
Wheat said Army doctors tested him in 1993 only for
natural uranium, and
they informed him he was on the high end of normal.
Ever since then, Wheat has been part of an ongoing
Army study of a
small group of the thousands of Gulf War veterans who
were exposed to
depleted uranium.
Zeller served in the 229th helicopter battalion of the
101st Airborne
Division. He spent time in southern Iraq in areas he
believes were
contaminated with radioactivity.
"My hair started falling out when I got back," Zeller
said. "My tongue
is always swollen, I have head and neck pains, all
kinds of intestinal
problems, and can't eat very much."
Zeller said he also suffers from short-term memory
loss, and blood
tests have revealed chromosome damage to his red
cells.
Army doctors tell him he's suffering from chronic
fatigue.
Zeller, who lives in Georgia, did not suffer physical
wounds in the
war, but he, too, has been admitted to the Army's
depleted uranium
monitoring program.
And there's Rokke. In March 1991, the Army sent him to
Saudi Arabia to
supervise cleanup of U.S. vehicles that had been
struck and
contaminated by depleted uranium shells.
Rokke found soldiers cleaning radioactive vehicles
"in T-shirts and
cutoff pants, with no protection," and sleeping next
to potentially
contaminated areas. He brought in proper gear, and
cleaned up the tanks and
trucks.
Despite all their precautions, Rokke said he and
several members of his
team became contaminated.
"We all got respiratory and kidney problems right
away," Rokke said. He
says Army officials did not tell him for two years of
his high
radiation levels. He claims crucial records
disappeared.
"I honor the service he [Rokke] gave to the nation,"
said Michael
Kilpatrick, deputy director of deployment health
support at the Pentagon.
But Kilpatrick says that Rokke has exaggerated his
role in the Gulf War
battle-damage assessment team.
"Rokke does create a great deal of fear and anxiety in
people,"
Kilpatrick said. "Science doesn't bear out what he
says."
As for the group of veterans the Army continued to
study, Kilpatrick
said, there have been no "clinically significant
health effects," even
for soldiers found to have high uranium levels in
their body.
E-mail: jgonzalez@edit.nydailynews.com
ID: 1196390 Pub_Date: 04/21/2004 Pub_Day: Wednesday
Edition: SPORTS FINAL Section: NEWS Page: 2
Word_Count: 354
Keywords: IRAQ, WAR, MILITARY, HEALTH, URANIUM,
RADIATION, WEAPON,
HILLARY CLINTON, INVESTIGATION, CONGRESS, HEARING
Caption: AP Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen.
Richard Myers vowed to
upgrade uranium tests for Iraq G.I.s.
Headline: HIL TAKES BRASS ON & G.I.S WIN
Byline: By RICHARD SISK in Washington and MAKI BECKER
in New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S. military's top general pledged yesterday
to shake up the
system to improve the screening and tracking of troops
who may have been
exposed to uranium dust in the Iraq war.
"We've got to do a first-class job for our troops,"
said Gen. Richard
Myers.
Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made his
pledge when
pressed on the issue by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.)
at a congressional
hearing.
"You're certainly right," the general told Clinton,
who demanded that
the military upgrade its methods of "medical tracking
and surveillance"
to clear up the backlog in testing returning troops.
"We need to monitor to make sure we don't overlook
things," Myers said.
The shortcomings in the system were exposed in a
series of exclusive
reports in the Daily News after nine soldiers with the
442nd Military
Police Company of the New York Army National Guard
came forward saying
they were suffering from unexplained illnesses since
their tour in Iraq
last year.
An independent test conducted at The News' request
found that four of
the men tested positive for depleted uranium, which
because of its
heaviness is used to make shells and coat armored
vehicles.
A study by the Army in 1990 linked depleted uranium to
"chemical
toxicity causing kidney damage."
The soldiers were heartened to hear that the
military's top brass were
finally taking their complaints seriously.
"I think it's great," said Sgt. Agustin Matos, who has
tested positive
for depleted uranium. "It's great she [Clinton] is
getting us
attention."
But Sgt. Juan Vega said, "I'll believe it when I see
it."
Myers seemed taken aback when Clinton told him of the
backlog of
hundreds of troops on medical hold at Fort Dix, N.J.,
awaiting testing from
possible contamination.
"I don't believe I've seen those reports," said Myers,
promising to
investigate the backlog.
"Our troops deserve better," Clinton lectured Myers.
At Clinton's urging, Myers said he also would look
into methods of
testing used in Japan and Germany that might pick up
traces of depleted
uranium that were being missed in the U.S. military's
tests.
ID: 1195928 Pub_Date: 04/20/2004 Pub_Day: Tuesday
Edition: SPORTS FINAL Section: NEWS Page: 10
Word_Count: 185
Keywords: HEALTH, TEST, URANIUM, HILLARY CLINTON,
MILITARY, DAILY
NEWS, INVESTIGATION, IRAQ, WAR, RADIATION, NY,
NATIONAL GUARD
Caption: Hillary Clinton
Headline: CLINTON TO PUSH G.I. HEALTH TESTS
Byline: BY TAMER EL-GHOBASHY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sen. Hillary Clinton will call today on Pentagon
officials to beef up
programs that track radiation levels in soldiers
returning from Iraq.
Clinton's move follows a Daily News investigation that
showed four of
nine soldiers from a New York Army National Guard unit
serving in Iraq
have tested positive for depleted uranium.
At a Senate Arms Services Committee hearing today,
Clinton (D-N.Y.) is
expected to ask Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz why soldiers
were not properly screened before and after tours in
Iraq.
"To be surrounded by toxic substances and have ongoing
exposure that
leads to positive results for depleted uranium raises
serious questions,"
Clinton said yesterday.
The nine G.I.s, all members of the 442nd Military
Police Company, based
in Orangeburg, Rockland County, say they and other
members of their
company became sick last summer while stationed in the
Iraqi town of
Samawah.
Clinton is expected to introduce legislation that
mandates
before-and-after screenings and stricter health
tracking once a problem is
identified.
"Until we take the process seriously, we're not going
to know what
causes the symptoms that they have," she said.
-----Original Message-----
From: Michele Riddell [mailto:michelka52@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 2:23 PM
To: Gonzalez, Juan
Subject: Testing+
Dear Juan,
We talked about proper testing that they dont test
right so they never find out the truth, and about the
first scottish soldier that just won a lawsuit using
chromosomal testing ( his 3 kids tested psoitive too.)
Clinton wouldnt let Moret talk so I said everything
she had told me abouthe documents.
I am pasting the press release- tell me if you need
the documents- Leuren or I could give them to u. You
probably have them already.
IMPORTANT what do you know about Dr. Rom?-he was at
the meeting he looked dangerous and said that he had
been talking with Durocovic and when I checked D. said
he had never been in contact!!
Michele
Keep up the good work.Michele
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
6/27/04
CONTACTS: Michelle Riddell 845 255-5482
michelka52@yahoo.com
Sue Zimet 255-2117
zauerbach1@aol.com
Leuren Moret- 510 845-3139
NY COALITION TO HALT DEPLETED URANIUM ASKS SENATOR
CLINTON ,bWHAT PART OF RADIOACTIVE DONbT YOU
UNDERSTAND?b?
Following disclosure of the DU contamination of 4
soldiers from the 442nd Police Unit returning from
Iraq (NY Daily News 4/4/04), a NY coalition of alarmed
citizens (with the support of over 30 organizations),
met in Washington yesterday with Senator Schumer and
Clinton reps.
Scientist Asaf Durokovic, who positive tested these
soldiers for the NY Daily News when the military
refused to do testing, scientist Leuren Moret, an
expert in DU, who works with the Radioactive Public
Health Project, and Army Major Doug Rokke, in charge
of bcleanupb? of depleted uranium for Gulf War 1
(half of his cleanup crew are dead), were available
via telephone to speak to the issue.
Over 3,000 tons of DU munitions have been used
extensively in Iraq Wars l and 2, Afghanistan, the
Balkans, and Vieques, and have even affected civilians
near National Lead Industries in Colonie, New York.
In a productive meeting with Senator Schumerbs
office, staffer Kevin Riley confirmed that Schumer had
demanded answers from the Department of Defence in
regards to the testing, use, handling and impacts of
DU. He knows that someone bhas dropped the ballb?
on this issue. Schumer and Sen. Clinton are jointly
drafting legislation concerning the testing of
soldiers. The group also asked for help in testing
cancer stricken citizens near National Lead Industries
where DU munitions were produced. Similiarly in
Vieques, where DU munitions were tested for 20 years,
an exponential increase in incidence of cancer has
been seen.
Leuren Moret, provided government documentation,
including military directives, revealing that the
military should have been training soldiers on DU ,
and also testing and giving health care to
contaminated soldiers all along. Especially revealing
was the 1993 AEPI report, an investigation called by
congress to figure out a way to reduce the harmful
radioactive effects of DU. The report says that there
is no way to clean it up, and no way to reduce the
harmful radioactivity. Moret explains the military
knew that DU was a bweapon of mass and
indiscriminate destructionb?, and used it anyway. She
also feels that calling for more scientific research
is just a delaying tactic. bThis is a coverup. The
Pentagonbs own research shows that DU is linked with
cancers, leukemias and DNA damage.b?
When the coalition met with Clintonbs staff ,
scientists Durokovic, Moret and Major Rokke were
denied telephone access. bWe were upset about
this,b? Sue Zimit, the Ulster County Legislator
stated, bbut were promised that the senator would be
in contact with them.b? At the request of the
coalition, Charles Sheehan Miles of Nuclear Policy
Research Institute and Tara Thornton of Military Toxic
Project also attended to discuss the dangers of DU.
When asked what Senator Clintonbs current position
on DU was, LA Andrew Shapiro, said that she was
reviewing all the facts before she would answer. The
group has been asking that question for over one year.
Angela Morano of Saugerties Committee for Peace and
Social Justice, responded, bWhat part of radioactive
donbt you understand?b?
While the coalition is very glad that Clinton has told
Rumsfield she wants testing for all soldiers returning
from Iraq, Michele Riddell of SAFE Legacy feels that
btesting is only the very tip of the nuclear
iceberg. We need an immediate HALT to the use,
manufacture, selling and a cleanup of this weapon of
maternal destruction NOW! We are killing our future-
soldiersbchildren and Iraqi children are being born
deformed. This is a radioactive gift that keeps on
giving.b?
The coalition left information with more than 15 other
Senators, including Kennedy and is setting up a
meeting with Senator Kerrybs staff to speak about
DU. .
--- "Gonzalez, Juan"
wrote:
> Michele:
>
> I'd suggest you hammer away at the issue of proper
> testing for returning soldiers and, given how many
> problems there have been in the past with army
> testing of Gulf War soldiers, that the testing be
> done by independent, non-military labs. I'm finding
> that the initial results of DU testing done by the
> military only reinforce the view that they are not
> using state-of-the art equipment and don't really
> want to find out if there is a problem. Detection
> limits for U-235 in some of the equipment the army
> uses are not very low, so they can't come up with
> u-235/--238 ratios unless they start with a very
> high level of overall uranium in urine. Needless to
> say, even with a low amount of uranium in urine, if
> a portion of that is depleted uranium and the
> soldiers have not been wounded in combat that means
> they have DU in their lungs, and it will stay there
> for a long time.
>
> In addition, I know you will be pushing the issue of
> a total ban on DU use. While I think that is
> important to press, I also think it unlikely that
> Schumer will take that stand, and less sure that
> Clinton would do so.
>
> Juan Gonzalez
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michele Riddell [mailto:michelka52@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 11:32 AM
> To: Gonzalez, Juan
> Subject: RE: HELP FOR THURSDAYS MEETING WITH SENATOR
>
>
CbC/B?B=oCb9C"b,B
Cb&CB8rCB"C"bB,CB!CbCB6CB"C"bB,CB!CFCB#CB"C"bB,CB!CbCB
nCbC/B?B=A
>
> As a person, not as a reporter, do you have any
> suggestions for 4/26 meeting DU with schumer &
> Clinton office?
>
> Thanks so much,
>
> Michele....
>
> like if you had 5 things to ask or say what would
> they
> be?
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for
> 25CbCB"
> http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/print_splash
>
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75 Google News Alert - nuclear
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 14:38:46 -0700 (PDT)
IRAN Cautions World Against Israeli Nuclear Arms
Tehran Times - Tehran,Iran
UNITED NATIONS (Dispatches) -- Iran's Deputy Foreign Ministry for legal
and international affairs Gholamali Khoshroo criticized the nuclear powers
for their ...
See all stories on this topic:
ENERGY Department Seeks to Avert Nuclear Plant Break-Ins
NPR (audio) - USA
Description: The Department of Energy is taking steps to improve defenses
against terrorist break-ins at US nuclear weapons facilities. ...
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REPORT: US Raises N. Korean Nuclear Weapons Estimate
NPR (audio) - USA
Description: US intelligence officials reportedly plan to announce that
North Korea may be harboring at least eight nuclear weapons. ...
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UNUSUAL Event' Declared at PPL's Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant
PR Newswire (press release) - USA
BERWICK, Pa., April 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PPL's Susquehanna nuclear
power plant in Luzerne County declared an "unusual event" at 1:25 pm EDT
on ...
US: Nuclear network widespread
Washington Times - Washington,DC,USA
28 (UPI) -- More countries than just Iran, Libya and North Korea obtained
nuclear technology from Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, the US officials
said. ...
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SECURITY Council Closes Nuclear Terror Loophole
The Scotsman - Edinburgh,Scotland,UK
... resolution requires all member states to adopt laws to prevent “non-state
actors” from manufacturing, acquiring or trafficking in nuclear, biological
or ...
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IRAN has no more nuclear secrets to reveal - envoy
Reuters AlertNet - London,England,UK
... April 28 (Reuters) - Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna
said on Wednesday Tehran has no more secrets to reveal to the UN nuclear
watchdog and ...
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ARIZONA retiree lauded for pioneer work in nuclear power
AZ Central.com - AZ,USA
TUCSON - A self-taught nuclear engineer now living in retirement in southern
Arizona will receive the $300,000 Global Energy International Prize Award
for his ...
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SAFETY checks urged on nuclear subs
ic Scotland.co.uk - Scotland,UK
Environmental campaigners have called for the majority of nuclear submarines
to be withdrawn for urgent safety checks to prevent a Kursk-style tragedy.
...
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WEN: US, N.Korea Want Nuclear-Free Peninsula
Reuters - USA
BEIJING (Reuters) - Washington and Pyongyang have both told China they
hope to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis peacefully with the ultimate
goal of a ...
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