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Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject
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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 BBC: UK atomic shutdown 30 years early
2 US: Las Vegas SUN: Nevada GOP putting aside internal differences sin
3 US: Las Vegas RJ: Reid backs GOP energy bill in trade-off
4 asahi.com: Energy policy under harsh spotlight
NUCLEAR REACTORS
5 US: [NukeNet] Lower Alloways Planning Board approves Hope Creek
6 US: NRC: South Carolina Electric & Gas Company, Virgil C. Summer Nuc
7 US: Brattleboro Reformer: NRC rejects request to halt VY fuel moveme
8 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Hard questions asked about energy options
NUCLEAR SAFETY
9 US: [DU-WATCH] NY Daily News: Depleted Uranium
10 US: [DU-WATCH] NO MONEY FOR VET TESTING
11 US: [DU-WATCH] Evidence grows against depleted uranium weapons
12 Bellona: Thieves make off with 14 tonnes of titanium from Sayda Bay
13 Bellona: Northern fleet commander faces 4 years for sinking of K-159
14 Bellona: Nuclear-powered strategic submarines worldwide—a comparison
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
15 US: Anti-Nuclear Weapons Protest in Mercury NV
16 Persistent Problems Re Yucca Mt. Could Delay It's Opening
17 [NukeNet] Persistent Problems Re Yucca Mt. Could Delay It's
18 Pahrump Valley Times: Report: DOE sloppy
19 Pahrump Valley Times: Gibbons wants YMP security details regarding s
20 Pahrump Valley Times: Nuclear waste and Nye County: Part I
21 US: ITAR-TASS: Kazakhstan, France to develop uranium deposit
22 Physics Today May 2004: Yucca Mountain Workers Exposed to Dangerous
23 US: KVBC: Caliente, NV, Split Over Shipping Of Nuclear Waste
24 UPI: Yucca Mt. nuke depot facing permit delay? -
25 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: DOE hires for licensing
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
26 Tri-City Herald: Atomic author speaks in Richland
27 KIFI: INEEL and DOE Team Up to Prepare For Possible Terrorist Attack
28 DAILY BRUIN: Nuclear lab denies security concerns
29 Shorthorn Online: Groups protest Alamos lab bid
30 lamonitor.com: LANL loses water appeal
31 Pahrump Valley Times: DOE in town Monday to discuss YMP transportati
OTHER NUCLEAR
32 Google News Alert - nuclear
33 [NukeNet] GAO Report On Yucca Mtn
34 Today's GAO Reports - April 30, 2004
35 sacbee.com -- Opinion -- Editorial: A hydrogen tomorrow?
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 BBC: UK atomic shutdown 30 years early
Last Updated: Friday, 30 April, 2004
By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent
[Winfrith site A Kirby]
Nature prepares to reclaim the site
The UK's Atomic Energy Authority is to decommission a former
nuclear research site 30 years earlier than planned.
The site, at Winfrith in Dorset, is due to be cleared completely
by 2020, and much of the area will revert to nature.
The UKAEA says it is the government's financial rules rather than
engineering that have made the speed-up possible.
It is also selling part of the Winfrith site to the national
regeneration agency, English Partnerships, to try to bring more
jobs and homes to the area.
Role change
The site was built in the late 1950s for research and development
into generating electricity from nuclear power.
By showing the world there an endgame to nuclear power stations
we're keeping open the options for the next generation Alan Neal,
Winfrith site manager
One of its nine reactors, the steam-generating heavy water
reactor, used to produce enough electricity for a town the size
of nearby Dorchester.
But work on the development of civil nuclear power gave way in
the 1990s to research on decommissioning, after the government
ended fast reactor research and accepted that the cost of nuclear
liabilities was becoming prohibitive.
Now the UKAEA plans to spend £30m a year until about 2020, when
the entire site will be decommissioned, thanks entirely to a
change in the financial rules under which it operates.
[Sludge disposal drum A Kirby]
How radioactive sludge will be removed from Winfrith
Discounting is a technique to compare costs and benefits that
occur in different time periods, and is used to convert them to
"present values".
Alan Neal, the site manager, told BBC News Online: "The discount
rate has changed from 6% to 3.5%.
"On a site like this it costs a lot of money to stand still, with
all the maintenance and security involved. The change in the rate
means I can now increase the ratio of money going into actual
work, not infrastructure.
"It's really incumbent on the developed world to go for
non-fossil fuel technologies, with electricity consumption
worldwide forecast to double by 2050.
"By showing the world there's an endgame to nuclear power
stations we're keeping open the options for the next generation."
Danger ended
Despite the switch from pioneering research to ending the lives
of their reactors, many Winfrith workers are positive about their
prospects.
Andy Staples of Womad (Winfrith Operations Maintenance and
Decommissioning) told BBC News Online: "In two to three years
we've reduced part of the site from something that would kill you
in a few hours to somewhere you can walk through in safety."
[Reactor chamber entrance A Kirby]
The tunnel into the reactor
Part of the site, already designated the Winfrith Technology
Centre, has now been sold to English Partnerships for £7.54m.
Among about 50 companies based there is QinetiQ, described as
Europe's largest science and technology organisation.
Winfrith was built on Egdon Heath, featured in many of Thomas
Hardy's novels, and the UKAEA is proud that the decommissioning
will benefit wildlife.
It has already sold 250 acres to the Dorset Wildlife Trust, and
expects to make more available.
Joined-up heathland
Chris Barrett, a landscape manager working on the restoration,
told BBC News Online: "We've got Dartford warblers here, common
and sand lizards, grass snakes, smooth snakes and adders - you've
got to watch out for them when they're basking.
"The threat of a new reactor here has gone, and there'll
obviously be a gain to several species. But there won't be any
restoration of the Dorset heathland, or any addition to it.
"What there will be is more heathland corridors linking some of
the existing patches, and that really will be a gain."
*****************************************************************
2 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada GOP putting aside internal differences since 9-11
Today: April 30, 2004 at 18:06:22 PDT
By SCOTT SONNER ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Nevada Republicans say they're putting aside
differences over issues that have divided the GOP in order to
re-elect President Bush and help emphasize the importance of
winning the war on terrorism.
Divisions between moderates and conservatives over a number of
social platform planks at the 2000 state convention have
diminished significantly since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11,
2002, GOP leaders said Friday.
"After 9-11, everything changed," said Earlene Forsythe, the new
chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party.
"There's a lot of unity in the party because we're all behind our
president," she said.
"Especially at a time of war, we don't want to come out against
any fellow Republicans," she said in an interview at the state
convention, which continues in Reno through Saturday at the
Peppermill hotel-casino.
Ex-state treasurer Bob Seale, a former chairman of the Nevada GOP
serving as chairman of this week's convention, agreed that "9-11
has changed the focus."
"People are less concerned about some of those other issues,"
Seale said. "I think we're focussing more on getting Republicans
elected."
That was evident two years ago when the GOP swept all six
statewide constitutional offices for the first time in 112 years,
including Gov. Kenny Guinn's re-election by a landslide, Seale
said.
State Attorney General Brian Sandoval, chairman of the
Bush-Cheney campaign in Nevada, said "it's the beauty of the
Republican Party."
"Everybody comes with different perspectives. But at the end of
the day, we all work together to elect Republicans," he said.
Guinn told 292 state delegates at a convention luncheon Friday he
expects Bush to carry Nevada again in November because of
"security and jobs."
"To lose, we cannot accept," he said.
"In George Bush, I feel we have a steady hand, a calm voice, a
commander in chief who has refused to give in to the threat of
terrorism. Since 911, he has taken action that has kept us safe
and secure," Guinn said.
"Nevada's economy is strong. Over 80,000 new jobs have been
developed in Nevada since George W. Bush took office a short 3.5
years ago," the governor said.
Jon Summers, spokesman for Nevada's Democratic Party, said
Republicans are "trying to sell the idea that only George W. Bush
can protect the nation."
But Bush "is up against a celebrated war hero - someone credited
with saving lives. It's silly to imply John Kerry wouldn't have
the ability or the drive to protect the nation," he said.
As far as employment nationally, Bush is the only president since
Herbert Hoover to witness a reduction in U.S. jobs under his
watch, Summers said.
"If our economy is so great here (in Nevada), then why did the
number of people enrolling in state food stamp programs increase
105 percent under Bush? Why are there 419,000 people who don't
have insurance in Nevada?"
"It is not as rosy as they want people to think it is," Summers
said.
Republican leaders said it's worth noting the state GOP platform
to be voted on Saturday is significantly smaller, with fewer,
less controversial planks than have been present in the past.
"One of the problems we have had in the past is that we had a
platform which none of the elected officials would put in their
back pocket and run on. I certainly wouldn't," Seale said.
Past internal disputes over GOP platform planks revolved around
the strength of the language on such issues as abortion, Yucca
Mountain and gun rights, he said.
"Now we have a platform that says what we are about without
excluding anybody and without getting nit-picky. I think it will
look very much like the national platform," he said.
The proposed platform includes a plank supporting the "Protection
of Marriage" amendment to the Nevada constitution which states,
"Only a marriage between a male and female person shall be
recognized and given effect in this state."
It calls for the establishment of English as the state's official
language, supports the repeal of legislation infringing on the
right to keep and bear arms and encourages the development of
America's natural resources.
But the proposed platform published Friday takes no stand on
abortion. It does not specifically mention the proposed nuclear
waste dump at Yucca Mountain, saying instead:
- "We encourage the state of Nevada to negotiate with the
federal, state and county governments and other entities to
minimize negative impacts from federal control and exploitation
of federally managed lands," and,
- "We support the enforcement of environmental regulations for
the purpose of solving scientifically demonstrated problems using
methods that have undergone peer review and with consideration
for the effects on individual private property rights and the
economies of affected communities."
GOP leaders said Nevada's Democratic Party continues to expand
its platform. Seale said one plank calling for the impeachment of
President Bush is "close to being idiotic," he said.
"That will cost them more votes than it will get them, that's for
sure," Seale said.
Robert Uithoven, an aide to U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, said many
parts of the GOP platform "enjoy bipartisan support" while most
of the Democrats' do not.
"You don't find bipartisan support for impeaching the president
or repealing the No Child Left Behind Act or repealing the
Patriot Act or removing `under God' from the Pledge of
Allegiance," he said.
--
*****************************************************************
3 Las Vegas RJ: Reid backs GOP energy bill in trade-off
Friday, April 30, 2004
Geothermal, solar, wind tax credits in deal By SAMANTHA YOUNG
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid cut a deal on Thursday, trading
his vote on a Republican energy bill in exchange for support of
tax credits he is seeking for geothermal, solar and wind energy
companies.
The Nevada Democrat had opposed the Republican energy bill in
the past. But when the Senate cast a procedural vote on the bill
Thursday, he backed it.
In return, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate
Energy Committee, promised to support a provision Reid has in a
separate bill granting $5 billion in tax credits over 10 years
to companies that produce energy from renewable sources.
Reid said other Republicans agreed to support his measure,
which promoters say will draw energy investment to Nevada.
"The honey, the good for the state of Nevada in all this energy
legislation, is the production tax credit for geothermal, sun,
wind and biomass," Reid said. "It will bring billions of dollars
for the state of Nevada."
Reid would not name the other Republicans he said are backing
him. Even with support from Reid and 15 other Democrats,
Republicans fell short of the 60 votes they needed to move their
energy bill past a threatened filibuster.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., voted against the energy bill,
keeping a promise he made to environmental groups earlier this
year. Ensign drew criticism from environmentalists last
November, when the energy bill was last before the Senate. At
the time, he said he opposed the bill, but voted in its favor on
a procedural motion.
Ensign said Thursday the energy bill, which was scaled back from
last fall, still "is too expensive. It still has nuclear and
ethanol provisions. When you put it all together, the bad
outweighs the good."
Although environmental groups criticized Ensign for his vote
last year, they did not condemn Reid this week.
Dan Geary, Nevada director of the National Environmental Trust,
said the situation was different this year, because the energy
bill has fewer supporters.
Even though he opposed the energy bill on its merits, Reid said
he felt safe making a deal with Domenici, because "everybody
knows that we are not going to pass this."
Reid wouldn't say if he would have made the deal if his vote
would have made a difference in advancing the bill.
Reid is proposing to give geothermal, wind, biomass and solar
energy generators a 1.8-cent per kilowatt hour tax credit that
supporters say will make the industry competitive with natural
gas plants. Geary said the tax breaks will spur energy
production in the state.
"Clark County is a nonattainment ozone now. It's time to start
developing these resources," Geary said.
Supporters said the tax credits also would complement Nevada's
renewable portfolio law that requires public utilities to buy 15
percent of their power from wind, geothermal, solar and other
renewable sources by 2015.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
4 asahi.com: Energy policy under harsh spotlight
[asahi.com]
The Asahi Shimbun
Despite a green light for shipments of spent nuclear fuel to the
Rokkasho reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture, signals urging
caution-if not outright stop signs-are flickering over national
energy policy.
With the Rokkasho plant slated to go into operation in July
2006, there are growing calls to review the wisdom of recycling
spent nuclear fuel. The Rokkasho facility, linchpin of the
program, extracts plutonium from spent fuel to burn it again in
nuclear reactors.
But critics, and there are many, point out that once the plant
is operative-or undergoes even one test using radioactive
materials-the cost of scrapping the program and dismantling the
facility would be onerous.
On Wednesday, Aomori Governor Shingo Mimura gave his approval to
a resumption of shipments of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear
power stations around the nation to the storage facility at
Rokkasho.
Shipments were suspended after water leaked at a storage pool in
July 2001. Faulty welding by a subcontractor was found to be the
cause of the incident the following year. The plant has been
plagued with problems, about 300 at last count.
Despite misgivings, Mimura gave the go-ahead to Masashi Sasaki,
president of Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL), which operates the
Rokkasho plant. But he insisted on tighter safety measures.
Mimura also made clear to the JNFL president that the
prefectural government would study steps to conclude a safety
agreement for preparatory tests at the Rokkasho plant using
depleted uranium.
The uranium tests are essential before the plant goes into
operation. JNFL has already conducted tests using water and
chemicals to see how the equipment holds up.
In a statement, the Federation of Electric Power Companies of
Japan welcomed the resumption as ``a great step forward to
promote the nuclear fuel cycle program.''
But that didn't stop persistent calls for a sweeping review of
the nation's nuclear policy.
Even members of the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and
Energy, which studies power-generation costs, say the Atomic
Energy Commission should review the need for reprocessing before
Rokkasho operations kick off.
There is also dissent from within the ruling Liberal Democratic
Party. Some members at a joint meeting of energy-related panels
called Wednesday for a comparison of costs between spent fuel
recycling and simple disposal before going any further.
Aside from Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture hosts many fuel
cycle-related facilities.
``Energy policy is up to the state to decide,'' Mimura is fond
of saying. Be that as it may, it is often governors, not the
central government, who are required to decide on specific
steps.(IHT/Asahi: April 30,2004) (04/30)
[Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction
or republication without written permission ]
*****************************************************************
5 [NukeNet] Lower Alloways Planning Board approves Hope Creek
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 15:27:37 -0700
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
NUCLEAR COMPLEX GETS APPROVALS TO EXPAND STORAGE
Date: 040429
From: http://www.nj.com/news/sunbeam/
By Bill Gallo Jr., Today's Sunbeam Staff Writer, April 29, 2004
Lower Alloways Creek Twp. - The operator of the three nuclear
reactors here won two key approvals Wednesday night which would allow
the company to expand its storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel
using the "dry cask" method at the Artificial Island complex.
The action by the Lower Alloways Creek Township Planning Board came
after nearly two and a half hours of review of the plan and questions
from board members, and some of the handful of the members of the
public present.
The board voted 6 to 3 to grant approval for conditional use and 6 to
3 for preliminary site plan approval. A request for final site plan
approval was withdrawn by PSEG Nuclear, operator of the Hope Creek,
Salem 1 and Salem 2 nuclear units, at Wednesday's meeting. That
request is expected to be taken up by the board when it meets again
May 26.
Among those voting against the approvals was LAC Mayor Jeff Dilks,
who also sits on the planning board. He said there shouldn't be a rush
to approve PSEG's request.
"I don't see what difference a couple of months would make," Dilks
said. "Give us a chance to digest what we've heard here tonight.
"This is an issue that is long-term," Dilks said. "It is an issue of
great security."
The approvals granted Wednesday are just one step in the lengthy
process to begin use of the "dry cask" storage method for spent
nuclear fuel. The spent fuel assemblies are now stored in pools of
water when they are taken from the core of a nuclear reactor. In these
pools the used fuel assemblies are cooled by the water which also acts
as a shield preventing the release of radiation.
With the dry cask method, the assemblies are stored in large metal
canister-like containers outdoors on a concrete pad. The giant
canisters are filled with helium and stored in an upright fashion.
There they are cooled by the circulating air.
Roy Anderson, president and chief nuclear officer for PSEG Nuclear,
said the utility wouldn't be requesting expanded storage capabilities
at the Island if the federal government had made good on its promise
to have a national waste storage facility up and running by 1998.
With many deadlines past for the opening of the national depository
at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, many of the more than 100 operating
nuclear plants around the U.S. are close to running out of room to
store spent fuel, including the three plants here at the Island.
Anderson said the utility has already paid $400 million into a fund
to help pay for the off-site storage at a central location.
"Until that time we are committed to store fuel safely," Anderson
said.
Not all in the audience felt the plan was a good idea.
"The current proposal for dry cask storage facility just adds one
more terrorist target to the Island," said Norm Cohen, coordinator for
the Unplug Salem Campaign, the group which has advocated the closing
of the nuclear plants.
With the expectation of a large crowd, the board moved the meeting to
the gymnasium at the Lower Alloways Creek Township School in Canton.
But of the approximately 40 people who turned out, less than 10 were
members of the public. The rest were either township officials or part
of the contingent from PSEG or representatives from the state
Department of Environmental Protection or the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
The Hope Creek reactor is scheduled to run out of room to store spent
fuel in 2007, just three years away. Salem 1 is expected to run out of
room in 2011 and Salem 2 in 2015, according to PSEG Nuclear.
The need for additional fuel storage is one nuclear plant operators
around the country are grappling with.
The government now says its target date for opening Yucca Mountain
for receipt of waste is 2010.
And nuclear plant operators note that with more than 100 plants
around the U.S. each operator will have to take their turn to ship the
waste to Yucca Mountain.
Brian Gustems, PSEG project manager for the dry cask project, offered
a detailed presentation on how the dry cast storage system would work.
In his presentation, he said the pad site will be designed to hold up
to 200 casks.
One of the stipulations imposed when the conditional use was granted
was that the approval was for a five-year period and during that time
only 20 casks from Hope Creek may be stored on the site.
The action Wednesday night granted approval for PSEG Nuclear to use
the pad area for spent fuel storage only for the Hope Creek nuclear
reactor. Additional approvals will be needed to use the site for spent
fuel storage at the two neighboring units, Salem 1 and Salem 2,
officials said.
The pad site, however, will be built with enough room for use by all
three plants.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the need for alternative storage
began to grow when pools at many nuclear reactors began to fill up
with stored spent fuel. Utilities began looking at options such as dry
cask storage for increasing spent fuel storage capacity.
The first dry storage installation was licensed by the NRC in 1986 at
the Surry Nuclear Power Plant in Virginia.
* * *
Copyright 2004 Today's Sunbeam.
Top
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::
--
Coalition for Peace and Justice
(http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org);
and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign
(http://www.unplugsalem.org); 321 Barr Ave.,
Linwood, NJ 08221; 609-601-8583/37;
ncohen12@comcast.net. The Coalition for Peace
and Justice is a chapter of Peace Action
(http://www.peace-action.org). "You can say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one" (Lennon). "Don't be late for your
life" (Mary Chapin Carpenter).
_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings at:
http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net
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6 NRC: South Carolina Electric & Gas Company, Virgil C. Summer Nuclear
FR Doc 04-9812
[Federal Register: April 30, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 84)]
[Notices] [Page 23824-23825] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr30ap04-115]
Station, Unit 1; Notice of Issuance of Renewed Facility Operating
License No. NPF-12 for an Additional 20-Year Period Notice is
hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the
Commission) has issued Renewed Facility Operating License No.
NPF- 12 to South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (the licensee),
the operator of Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station, Unit No. 1 (V.
C. Summer, Unit No. 1). Renewed Facility Operating License No.
NPF-12 authorizes operation of Virgil C. Summer, Unit No. 1, by
the licensee at reactor core power levels not in excess of 2900
megawatts thermal in accordance with the provisions of the Virgil
C. Summer renewed license and its Technical Specifications.
The Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station, Unit No. 1 is a
Westinghouse pressurized water nuclear reactor located in
Fairfield County, South Carolina.
The application for the renewed license complies with the
standards and requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as
amended (the Act), and the Commission's regulations. As required
by the Act and the Commission's regulations in 10 CFR Chapter 1,
the Commission has made appropriate findings, which are set forth
in the license. Prior public notice of the action involving the
proposed issuance of the renewed license and of an opportunity
for a hearing regarding the proposed issuance of the renewed
license was published in the Federal Register on October 4, 2002
(67 FR 62272).
For further details with respect to this action, see (1) the
South Carolina's Electric & Gas Company's license renewal
application for Virgil C. Summer, Unit No. 1 dated August 6,
2002; (2) the Commission's safety evaluation report dated March
2004 (NUREG-1787); (3) the licensee's updated safety analysis
report; and (4) the Commission's final environmental impact
statement for Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station (NUREG-1437,
Supplement 15, dated February 2004). These documents are
available at the NRC's Public Document Room, One White Flint
North, 11555 Rockville Pike, first floor, Rockville, Maryland
20852, and can be viewed from the NRC Public Electronic Reading
Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html]
.
[[Page 23825]] Copies of Renewed Facility Operating License No.
NPF-12 may be obtained by writing to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Director,
Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs. Copies of the safety
evaluation report (NUREG- 1787) and the final environmental
impact statement (NUREG-1437, Supplement 15) for Virgil C. Summer
may be purchased from the National Technical Information Service,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, Virginia 22161
(http://www.ntis.gov
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ntis.gov] ), (703) 605-6000, or
Attention: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
Office, P.O. Box 371954 Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954
(http://www.gpoaccess.gov
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.gpoaccess.gov] ), (202)
512-1800. All orders should clearly identify the NRC publication
number and the requestor's Government Printing Office deposit
account number or VISA or MasterCard number and expiration date.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this the 23rd day of April, 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Pao-Tsin Kuo, Program Director, License Renewal and Environmental
Impacts Program, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs,
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 04-9812 Filed 4-29-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
7 Brattleboro Reformer: NRC rejects request to halt VY fuel movement
[http://www.reformer.com/]
April 30, 2004 Brattleboro, VT
By CAROLYN LORIÉ Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- It's too late to stop the movement of fuel at
Vermont Yankee, the New England Coalition learned on Wednesday,
because there's no more moving to be done.
The outage is almost over, the reactor sealed and the plant is
ready to start back up early next week.
Following Vermont Yankee's announcement that two segments of
fuel rods were missing from a container in the spent fuel pool,
the coalition filed a petition with the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. The coalition has asked that the movement of all fuel
should stop until a full inventory is conducted at the plant.
But in a phone conference with the NRC on Wednesday, coalition
staff advisor Ray Shadis and expert witness Paul Blanch were told
that the reactor, which has been opened for refueling, was now
closed.
"This is typical. We ask for expedited action and they move at
snail's pace, hoping that the problem will go away," said Shadis.
The petition was filed on April 23. According to Shadis, the NRC
received the petition prior to the sealing of the reactor.
Neil Sheehan, NRC spokesman for region 1, said that the agency
responded as quickly as it could.
"There wasn't any effort on our part to delay discussing it with
them," he said, adding that the petition was received only a few
days prior to Wednesday's meeting.
The call, said Shadis, was arranged by petition manager Allen
Wong. There will be a follow-up phone call next week between the
NRC petition review board and the coalition, which members of the
public are invited to listen in on but not contribute to.
Shadis said that Entergy has been invited to take part in the
meeting. Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams said that the
company had not yet been notified about the meeting.
On Wednesday, Blanch and Shadis also requested that the NRC
provide the documents detailing the 1980 incident that led to
breaking of the rod in question.
"They were somewhat taken aback," said Shadis. "They want us to
walk in with the evidence so that they could put staples in it
and dismiss it."
Blanch, who worked in the industry for 35 years, said that
record-keeping in the late 1970s and early 1980s was often
lacking, so the documents may not even exist.
The NRC also agreed to turn over the paperwork related to a 1992
incident that the coalition learned about through a
whistleblower. Shadis said that he was concerned that there may
be fuel fragments in the spent fuel pool, which is being searched
with a robotic camera, but it may not be the segments missing
from the canister.
Williams said that the 1992 incident did not result in broken
fuel rods. Although there are other containers in the spent fuel
pool, they contain items such as irradiated metal, control rods
and filters, not spent fuel.
"NEC has no basis for its claim," said Williams.
Shadis said that although it was too late to stop the movement
of fuel, Entergy, with NRC supervision, should still be required
to account for its inventory.
"We want NRC oversight to be stringent enough that the NRC can
certify that inventory is accurate and complete," said Shadis.
Next week's meeting has not yet been scheduled but will be
announced publicly prior to taking place.
Ed Anthes of Nuclear Free Vermont said that public interest in
taking part will most likely be high.
"Everybody is talking about it. At first, people were quite
scared because there was no good explanation of what happened.
People are less scared but no less concerned," said Anthes, who
said he hopes to listen in on next week's phone call.
Copyright ©1999-2004 New England Newspapers, Inc., a
*****************************************************************
8 Brattleboro Reformer: Hard questions asked about energy options
[http://www.reformer.com/]
April 30, 2004 Brattleboro, VT
By CAROLYN LORIÉ Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- People asked a lot of hard questions at Thursday's
renewable energy forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of
Vermont.
But there were no easy answers.
"At the end of the day there are some real challenges to making
the right choice," said David O'Brien, commissioner of the Public
Service Department.
With Vermont Yankee possibly closing in 2012 when its license
expires, and the contract with Hydro-Quebec coming to end in
2016, Vermonters are faced with the daunting task of finding new
sources of power for more than half of their energy needs.
"We're going to be exposed 60 percent to what the market has to
offer," warned David Farnsworth, staff attorney for the state
Public Service Board. "It makes sense to look ahead and see how
you are going to land on your feet."
The trouble is this: Wind power is renewable but are the
ridgelines expendable? Solar power works but is it dependable?
Hyrdo power is good but are the dams too expensive?
And with 600,000 people in the state is consensus possible?
As O'Brien pointed out, wind energy seems like an ideal
alternative but as developers explore potential sites around the
states there is "a collision course of interests."
A neighbor of Glebe Mountain said that initially she was
receptive to Catamount Energy Corp.'s bid to plant 27 wind
turbines on the ridgeline but grew disillusioned the more she
learned.
"The further away you live from the site the more romanticized
you can be about it," she said, voicing her concern about the
noise pollution and potential harm to wildlife.
James Brown, manager of energy resource planning at Green
Mountain Power, said alternative energy needed to be approached
cautiously.
"There is popular outcry for renewable energy but to do our job
right, we need to do it one step at a time," said Brown.
According to Farnsworth, on average Vermont utilities have
roughly 15 percent renewable energy in their mix. They are
mandated to maintain those levels and increase them by 1 percent
each year, over the next 10 years, unless they can prove that not
doing so is in the best interest of the state, which may or may
not be a good idea, depending on who you ask.
Among the many complex questions posed was a rather simple one
that seemed to be on the minds of many -- namely how is it that
the lights stayed on with Vermont Yankee down for its fuel
outage?
And the not-so-simple answer is a fixed-for-floating swap.
It works like this: Green Mountain Power agrees to sell some of
its power from its fossil fuel plants in Maine and Massachusetts
to Morgan Stanley, an investment firm. Morgan Stanley agrees to
sell a specific amount of power back to GMP at a fixed price --
the time and price decided way in advance.
Morgan Stanley profits from selling the fossil fuel power on the
open market. Green Mountain Power profits because they don't have
to absorb all the risk associated with the fossil fuel market.
They are also guaranteed power in times of need, such as Vermont
Yankee's outage. The risk for GMP comes if the nuclear power
plant doesn't stay on schedule and the utility has to buy power
at the market rate.
That's just one of the factors that make the smooth running of
the grid an extraordinary balancing act.
"The more I learn about electricity the more I am amazed that we
keep the lights on everyday," said O'Brien.
About 30 people attended the forum.
Copyright ©1999-2004 New England Newspapers, Inc., a
*****************************************************************
9 [DU-WATCH] NY Daily News: Depleted Uranium
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:54:58 -0500 (CDT)
From: UMRC Marlene Liden [mailto:marlene@umrc.net] Sent: April 29,
2004 11:18 AM
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Pentagon's uranium denial
Tuesday, April 27th, 2004
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.
** New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Hil takes brass on and G.I.s win
By RICHARD SISK in Washington and MAKI BECKER in New York DAILY
NEWS STAFF WRITERS Wednesday, April 21st, 2004
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.
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10 [DU-WATCH] NO MONEY FOR VET TESTING
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:53:16 -0500 (CDT)
Despite Their Denials, Republicans Support Veterans Benefit Cuts
Dear Democratic Colleague:
House Republicans are attempting to hide their efforts to cut
veterans benefits by accusing Democrats of distorting their record.
But the facts speak for themselves.
On March 12, Republicans on the Budget Committee all voted for a
ten-year budget resolution cutting mandatory veterans benefits by
$14.5 billion and appropriated veterans programs by $15.0 billion
below current services. Then on March 21, Republicans voted on the
House floor for a budget resolution containing cuts of nearly equal
sizebcuts to mandatory veterans benefits of $14.1 billion and cuts
to appropriated veterans programs of $14.2 billion below current
services. Not only were these cuts less than the amount needed to
maintain current services, they were also less than what the President
asked for in his budget.
Fact: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that in order
to provide the same services provided in 2003, appropriated veterans
programs require $316.7 billion for the ten-year period (2004-2013).
Mandatory veterans programs require $381.7 billion over ten years
to provide services required under current law.
Fact: The House Republican budget cut nearly $30 billion from
veterans programs for 2004-2013: $14.2 billion in appropriated
funding (such as medical care and burial benefits) and $14.1 billion
in entitlement spending (such as compensation and pensions). CBO
Says Veterans House Republicans Provide Programs Require In Committee
On House Floor 2004-2013 Appropriations $316.7 billion $301.7 billion
($15.0 billion cut) $302.6 billion($14.2 billion cut) 2004-2013
Entitlements $381.7 billion $367.2 billion ($14.5 billion cut)
$367.6 billion($14.1 billion cut) The budget resolution conference
report includes $6.2 billion over ten years in cuts to appropriated
veterans benefits, but it drops the earlier cuts to mandatory
veterans programs. While the House Republican budget resolution
claimed these mandatory cuts were needed to reduce bwaste, fraud,
and abuse,b the proposal generated widespread opposition. On April
1 the House voted overwhelmingly (399-22) to pass a Democratic
motion instructing conferees to drop the mandatory cuts. Even most
Republicans reversed their earlier votes by supporting the Democratic
motion.
In this context, this weekbs renewed Republican effort to cut
mandatory veterans benefits in the name of bwaste, fraud, and abuseb
seems especially misguided. The Senate Veteransb Affairs Committee
has been instructed to identify $3.9 billion in budget cuts to
veterans programs over the 2004-13 period; the House Veteransb
Affairs Committee will likely be issued a similar instruction.
Cutting veterans benefits to pay for oversized tax cuts simply
reflects the wrong priorities for our nation.
Sincerely, /s/ John M. Spratt, Jr. Ranking Democratic Member
http://www.house.gov/budget_democrats/congressional_budgets/fy2004/vetscuts_ma
y2103.pdf
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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11 [DU-WATCH] Evidence grows against depleted uranium weapons
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:55:21 -0500 (CDT)
Evidence Grows Against Depleted Uranium Weapons
Katherine Stapp, April 28, 2004 Institute for Policy Studies
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=23515
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.
--
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12 Bellona: Thieves make off with 14 tonnes of titanium from Sayda Bay submarines
ST. PETERSBURG—Fourteen tonnes of titanium metal was stolen from
laid up submarines at the Kola Peninsula’s Sayda Bay—where
approximately 50 irradiated hulls, some still loaded with spent
nuclear fuel, bob and rust at dockside—by a well organized group
that could have included local shipyard workers and even police,
officials said Wednesday.
Irradiated submarine reactor compartments docked at Sayda Bay.
Bellona
Rashid Alimov, Charles Digges, 2004-04-30 14:59
The total financial loss in the valuable scrap metal and other
damages incurred during the break in amount to 1.7m roubles about
$55,000, a spokesman for the Murmansk Regional Police Department
said in a Thursday telephone interview with Bellona Web.
According to the spokesman, who asked not to be identified, the
stolen titanium scrap should fetch between 50 and 70 roubles per
kilogram, judging by local black market prices.
Both the Murmansk Regional Prosecutor’s office and the police are
investigating dozens of leads, the police spokesman said.
Most of the titanium was taken from the upper sections of
submarine bulkheads, said Vladimir Panyov, head of safety at the
nearby Nerpa shipyard, who is closely associated with the Sayda
Bay case. He said in a telephone interview with Bellona Web that
the buoyancy of the submarine hulls hit by the thieves was not
affected.
He also said that the submarines selected by the thieves had
already had their nuclear fuel removed and were located in what
he called Sayda Bay’s “safe zone” where submarine hulls that have
been unloaded of their nuclear fuel and are emitting radiation at
acceptable norms are stored.
No radiation danger “We have no information that the stolen metal
exceeded acceptable radiation norms. High radiation levels are
just not possible in the ‘safe zone.’ Our experts have made
certain of this,” said Panyov. “There is also no danger that
anything is going to sink. The stolen material came from the
upper sections of the submarines’ bulkhead, which will have no
effect on their buoyancy.”
Until the massive theft, though, the “safe zone” was poorly
guarded, Panyov said. Security consisted of fences and occasional
patrols by Sayda Bay security staff—which unlike the so-called
“danger zone,” is secured around the clock by several guard-posts
and reinforced fencing.
Panyov said that the “safe zone” was now outfitted with its own
guard post and that security measures were being taken “to ensure
that nothing like this is ever repeated.”
Germany signs off on ˆ300m to clean up Sayda Ba
Germany has signed a ˆ300m deal to help Russia safely store
floating submarine reactor compartments located in the Kola
Peninsula’s Sayda Bay, where approximately 50 irradiated
hulls—some still loaded with their spent nuclear fuel—bob and
rust at dockside while the navy awaits a safer storage solution.
Read on »
[http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/navy/co-operation/
31480.html]
Sayda Bay, which will receive EUR300m worth of repairs and safety
upgrades funded by Germany that will eventually enclose the
ailing and rusted out submarines under a roof-like facility.
Energiewerke Nord GmbH, or EWN, the German contractor selected
for the work will also be supplying special cranes so submarines
can be de-fueled on land. Though EWN officials would not comment
on the thefts, it is apparent that security upgrades what will
come with the German project are all the more imperative.
Details of the theft and the search for suspects The theft, which
according to prosecutors occurred in early April, may have
involved as many as four groups of professionally trained naval
and law enforcement workers—from welders, to people to load the
stolen metal, to a group to transport the material, to a group to
unload the precious titanium metal on the black market,
prosecutors were quoted as saying in the Murmansk edition of the
Russian Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
According to Alexander Golubev of Murmansk Regional Prosecutors’
Office division of special cases, the thieves concentrated on the
titanium bulkheads of the docked submarine hulls, he told the
paper.
Golubev said the suspects supposedly reached the
submarines—which, as per usual practice, are stored in sawed-up
sections that are held afloat by pontoons—in boats in which they
brought portable welding material. He also alleged that the Sayda
Bay guard units turned a blind eye to the crime in progress, the
paper reported.
Though no suspects are in custody, the police source told Bellona
Web on Thursday, Golubev nonetheless told Komsomolskaya Pravda
that his office had managed to establish that no fewer than four
groups were involved in the theft, each with specialized tasks,
such as welding, loading the stolen material, transporting it,
and selling to local scrap metal buyers for 50 to 55 roubles per
kilogram.
Efforts to locate the suspects are therefore being concentrated
in the nearby closed naval cities of Gadzhiyevo and Snezhnogorsk,
Golubev told the paper. Golubev also said that several criminal
cases have been opened in connection with the theft, and that two
of the cases are investigating unspecified police officers in
Gadzhiyevo.
“This investigation will not be complete in a month,” Golubev
said, according to Komsomolskaya Pravda. “Based on the
information we have, we have to question an enormous number of
people.” Of paramount importance, he said was “to understand
whether these people were working alone, or if their work was
organised by someone and concisely organised.
When contacted by phone on Wednesday by Bellona Web, Golubev
refused to answer any questions about the case except by fax,
which he still had not returned by Friday. On Friday he refused
to answer the faxed questions over the telephone, but said he
would answer them by regular mail.
Charles Digges reported from Oslo and Rashid Alimov reported from
St. Petersburg.
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
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13 Bellona: Northern fleet commander faces 4 years for sinking of K-159
According to Moscow Times daily, military prosecutors have asked
a court to sentence the suspended commander of the Northern Fleet
to four years in prison for negligence leading to the sinking of
a decommissioned submarine that killed nine sailors in August.
2004-04-29 14:59
Prosecutor Igor Murashov asked the Severomorsk Fleet Court
yesterday to send Admiral Gennady Suchkov to a prison village,
where convicts work and live in their own homes but cannot leave,
and to forbid him from holding a high-ranking post for three
years after his release.
The trial, which opened Jan. 12, has been dragging on for months.
After repeated delays due to Suchkov's health and appeals from
relatives of the perished sailors, the trial was postponed again
yesterday when Suchkov was hospitalised with heart problems, a
court spokesman told Interfax. The Navy's commander, Admiral
Vladimir Kuroyedov, told the court last month that Suchkov's
negligence had led to the sinking. Suchkov maintains his
innocence. He has received the support of Murmansk Governor Yury
Yevdokimov and 11 Navy captains, who, among others, signed an
open letter to President Vladimir Putin on his behalf, Kommersant
reported.
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
*****************************************************************
14 Bellona: Nuclear-powered strategic submarines worldwide—a comparison
Per today, five countries operate nuclear-powered ballistic
missile submarines. Analyst Zackary Moss gives a summary of post
Cold War ballistic submarine deployment worldwide.
Zackary Moss, 2004-04-30 12:26
Introduction
The introduction of the first nuclear-powered ballistic missile
submarine (ship submersible ballistic nuclear, SSBN) in 1959
changed the course of naval doctrine and strategic weapons system
(SWS) development during the Cold War. The idea that developed
into the modern fleet ballistic missile (FBM) SWS—designed to
fire a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM)—is derived
from a German invention in the Second World War. Captured Nazi
documents reveal the proposal to mount mortar tubes on the deck
of a U-boat. The plan was then to fire the mortars while the
tubes attached to the U-boat’s deck were partly submerged. Based
on this concept, the present-day SSBN was born.1
The role of the SSBN
SSBNs are designed to have two roles: a strategic nuclear
offensive (first strike) role, and a nuclear deterrent role. The
SSBN provides a nation’s most survivable and enduring strategic
nuclear offensive capability, which was especially true for the
superpowers during the Cold War. Today, it is one of more
survivable legs in the triad of strategic nuclear offensive
forces of the United States and Russia, because of extended
endurance, quieter propulsion, advanced and secure and constant
at-sea communications, radar and long-range FBM SWS. In fact, the
most modern of today’s SSBNs armed with a full complement of
SLBMs can be deployed for between 70-120 days at sea, remaining
submerged, in any single operational mission. Each ship typically
has two fully trained crews on rotation.
The world’s first SSBNs
In December 1959 the world’s first SSBN, USS George Washington,
SSBN-598, a George Washington class FBM submarine, was
commissioned into the US Navy. The launch of a Polaris A1 SLBM in
July 1960 from SSBN-598 was the first from a submerged submarine.
On November 15th 1960, SSBN-598 deployed on operational patrol
with 16 x 2,200km-range Polaris A1 SLBMs.
The development of the first Soviet FBM submarine started with a
governmental order in the early 1950s for the adaptation of a
Project 611 (Zulu) diesel-electric submarine, B-611, to be
equipped with the D-1 launch system and two 250km-range R-11FM
(Scud) missiles—when armed with a nuclear warhead its range is
150km. B-611 received the tactical designation B-62, a Project
611 A (Zulu IV) with a single R-11FM. In September 1955 the first
Soviet SLBM was launched from B-62. From 1955-1958 further
testing of the D-1 launch system was carried out. In 1959 B-62
was converted to carry out the first underwater missile firing.
The first Soviet SSBN, Project 658 (Hotel I), K-19, was not
commissioned until November 1960, however. Project 658 was a
modification of the first Soviet nuclear-powered submarine,
Project 627 (November). Unlike Project 627, Project 658 was
equipped with a missile compartment that had been previously used
on the Project 629 (Golf). Project 658 employed the D-2 lunch
system and carried three R-13 (SS-N-4 Sark) 550km-range
single-stage storable liquid-propellant SLBMs which could only be
fired when surfaced. From 1963-1967 the Project 658 SSBNs were
upgraded with the D-4 launch system for submerged firing.
Operationally deployed SSBNs in the declared nuclear weapons
sates
The five officially recognised nuclear weapons states, which are
signatories to the 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT),
all deploy SSBNs. France, the People’s Republic of China and the
United Kingdom followed the US and Soviet/Russian lead and have
all developed SSBNs as part of their military doctrines to give
them strategic nuclear forces and a credible nuclear deterrent.
The United States
As of January 2003 the US Navy, or USN, deployed 15 Ohio class
SSBNs with 360 Trident SLBMs with multiple independently targeted
re-entry vehicles, or MIRVs. In spring 2003, the Nevada returned
to service, increasing the number of operational Ohio to 16. Of
the 18 Ohio built, four are slated for conversion to
cruise-missile (SSGN) configuration. The Ohio, commissioned in
November 1981, is designed for extended deterrent patrols and
provides the sea-based leg of the triad of strategic offensive
forces. Each Ohio is at sea at least 66% of the time. One combat
cycle includes a 70-day patrol and a 25-day transfer period to
the second crew and for re-loading supplies. Ohio is powered by
one pressurised water reactor (PWR), can dive to 300m, has a
speed of 20-25 knots submerged, a displacement of 16,764 tons
submerged, a length of 171m and a crew of 155.
12 Ohio class SSBN-734 are deployed with the USN’s newest SLBM,
the Trident II D5. Each SSBN-734 has 24 three-stage, solid
propellant 7,360km-range D5 SLBMs. The D5 Mk-5, deployed in 1990,
is downloaded to eight 475-kiloton (kt)-yield MIRVs, whereas the
Mk-4, deployed in 1992, is downloaded to eight 100kt- yield
MIRVs. Data is not available on the exact deployment of Mk-4/5
warheads.
4 Ohio class SSBN-726 are deployed with the Trident I, the C-4,
deployed in 1979. Each SSBN-726 has up to 24 three-stage,
solid-fuel 7,360km-range UGM-93 Trident I C4 SLBMs. Each C4 is
currently loaded with 6 100kt-yield MIRVs.
Nearly 50% of the US’s total strategic warheads are
sea-based–after the Nevada returns to service in 2003, the Ohio
boats have a total of 2,884 MIRVs—288 D5 with 2,308
100kt-475kt-yield MIRVs and 96 C4 with 564 100kt-yield MIRVs.
Although Trident SLBMs have no pre-set targets when each Ohio
goes out on patrol, the SSBNs are capable of rapidly targeting
their Trident missiles.
The current US administration plans to field 1,700-2,200
operationally deployed strategic warheads by 2012; though the
lower number is derived by no longer counting the warheads on
SSBNs in overhaul as being “operationally deployed.” Two Ohio,
with 192 warheads each, are usually in overhaul at any given
time.
The Russian Federation
As of January 2003, the Russian Navy is thought to have 14
operationally deployed SSBNs with a total of 232 SLBMs containing
1,072 MIRVs. But the Russian Navy is in a serious state of
decline and there are serviceability doubts regarding the SSBN
fleet. In fact, the bulk of the SSBN fleet is slated for
elimination by 2010 and it is likely that Russia will deploy only
seven SSBNs (all Delta VI) by then. Still, the primary mission of
Russia’s SSBN fleet is to provide strategic nuclear deterrence
and these SSBNs remain the most important (and most survivable)
leg of Russia’s triad of strategic offensive forces.
Russia’s most modern SSBN, Project 667BDRM (Delta IV), was
commissioned in 1986 and is powered by two PWR. It can dive to
400m, has a speed of 22-24 knots submerged, a displacement of
18,200 tons submerged, a length of 167m, a crew of 130 and an
endurance of 80 days. Each of the six operational Project 667 is
fitted with the D-9RM launch system and carries 16 R-29RM
(SS-N-23 Skif) SLBMs. Deployed in 1986, the 8,300km-range
three-stage liquid-propellant R-29RM SLBM carries four
100kt-yield MIRVed warheads.
The world’s largest SSBN, Project 941 (Typhoon), was commissioned
in December 1981. It has two PWR, can dive to 500m, has a speed
of 25-27 knots submerged, a displacement of 33,800 tons
submerged, a length of 170-172m, a crew of 150 men and an
endurance of 90-120 days. Each of the two operational Project
941s with the D-19 launch system carries 20 R-39 (SS-N-20
Sturgeon) SLBMs. Deployed in 1983, the 10,000km-range three-stage
solid-fuel propellant R-39 carries ten 100kt-yield MIRVed
warheads. Project 941 does not have to go to sea to launch, as it
can fire its salvo of R-39s while tied up at its dock.
Project 667BDR (Delta III) SSBN was commissioned in 1976. It is
powered by two PWR, can dive to 400m, has a speed of 22-24 knots
submerged, a displacement of 10,600 tons submerged, a length of
155m, a crew of 130 men and an endurance of 80 days. Each of the
six Project 667 with the D-9R launch system carry 16 R-29R
(SS-N-18 M1 Stingray) SLBMs. Deployed in 1978, the 6,500km-range
liquid-propellant R-29R carries three 200kt-yield MIVRed
warheads. This is in compliance with the START-1 Treaty.
France
France currently operates four SSBNs in two classes: two
Triomphant class and two L’Inflexible class. Of the SSBNs
currently in France’s strategic submarine force FOST, four are
always operational and two are at sea. France has 64 SLBMs and
384 MIRVs in 4 SSBNs, each carrying 16 SLBMs with 96 MIRVs.
Triomphant, commissioned in 1997, is powered by one PWR, has a
speed of 25 knots submerged, a displacement of 12,640 tons
submerged, a length of 138m and a crew of 111 men. Each of the
two vessels in this class carries 16 M45 SLBMs. Deployed in 1996,
the 6,000km-range three-stage solid-fuel M45 SLBM is loaded with
six 150kt TN 75-type MIRVed warheads.
L’Inflexible, commissioned in 1974, is powered by one PWR, can
dive to 250m, has a speed of 25 knots submerged, a displacement
of 8,920 tons submerged, a length of 129m and a crew of 114
submariners. Each of the two vessels in this class carries 16
M-4A/B. Deployed in 1985, the 6,000km-range three-stage
solid-fuel M4 is loaded with six 150kt TN 71-type MIRVed
warheads.
The United Kingdom
The Royal Navy’s first Vanguard class SSBN, HMS Vanguard, was
commissioned in December 1994. Vanguard provides the UK’s
strategic and sub-strategic nuclear deterrent and forms the
cornerstone of UK defence policy.
Each of the UK’s four Vanguard class SSBNs currently in service
is powered by one PWR, has a displacement of 15,900 tons
submerged, a length of 150m and a crew of 135 submariners. Each
Vanguard has a16-tube missile compartment—which is based on the
design of the 24-tube system deployed on the US Navy’s Ohio—for
16 Trident II D5. The Trident II D5 is a three-stage solid
propellant missile with a 7,400km-range and was first deployed on
HMS Vanguard in 1994. Each D5 can carry 8-12 MIRVed warheads,
although up until 1998 each Vanguard SSBN had a maximum of 96
warheads loaded into 16 D5 SLBMs.
The 1998 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) confirmed that the UK’s
new nuclear force structure would consist solely of the four
Vanguard class SSBN, only one of which is on active patrol duty
at any one time. Moreover, D5 took over the sub-strategic role of
the WE-177 nuclear-gravity aircraft bomb, as the last WE-177
bombs were dismantled in 1998. By 1998, Trident II became the
UK’s sole nuclear weapon. As part of the SDR’s recommendations,
the maximum load of D5 warheads carried on each Vanguard SSBN was
reduced from 96 to 48 and each D5 was downloaded to three
100kt-yield MIRVed warheads.
The People’s Republic of China
China’s one and only SSBN was commissioned in 1988. It is
powered by a single PWR, has a speed of 22 knots submerged, a
displacement of 8,000 tons submerged and a length of 120m. The
Xia carries 12 JL-1 (CSS-N-3) 1,700km medium-range
200kt-300kt-yield two-stage solid-propellant SLBM, which became
fully operational in 1988. It has never sailed outside China’s
territorial waters and presents no credible threat at present to
either the USA or Russia.
Operationally deployed SSBNs
Country
SSBN class
No
Commissioned
SSBN compliment:
number, type, range
MIRV, warhead-yield
Specifications
Total
Warheads per boat
Crew
USA
Ohio SSBN-734
12
1981
24 7,360km-range UGM-133ATrident II D5 with 8 100kt-475kt
MIRV
192x100kt-475kt
155
16
Ohio SSBN-726
4
1981
24 7,360km-range UGM-93Trident I C4 with 6 100kt MIRV
144x100kt
155
Russia
667BDRM (Delta IV)
6
1986
16 8,300km-range R-29RM (SS-N-23) with 4 100kt MIRV
64x100kt
130
14
Project 941 (Typhoon)
2
1981
20 10,000km-range R-39 (SS-N-20) with 10 100kt MIRV
200x100kt
150
667BDR
(Delta III)
6
1976
16 6,500km-range R-29R (SS-N18 M1) with 3 200kt MIRV
48x200kt
130
France
Triomphant
2
1997
16 6,000km-range M45 with 6 150kt TN-75 MIRV
96x150kt
111
4
LInflexible
2
1974
16 6,000km-range M-4A/B with 6 150kt TN-71 MIRV
96x150kt
114
UK
Vanguard
4
1994
16 7,400km-range Trident II D5 with 1-3 100kt MIRV
Max 48x100kt
135
4
PRC
Type 92 Xia
1
1988
12 1,700km-range JL-1 (CSS-N-3) with a 200kt-300kt warhead
12x200kt-300kt
N/A
1
Footnotes:
1 All information on SSBNs and SLBMs taken from The
Federation of American Scientists, WMD, Nuclear Forces Guide,
(http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/index.html
[http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/index.html] ); Cirincione, J;
Wolfsthal, J.B; and Rajkumar, M. Deadly Arsenals: Tracking
Weapons of Mass Destruction, Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, 2002, Washington DC, The Brookings
Institution Press; the International Institute for Strategic
Studies, The Military Balance 2002-2003, 2002, OUP; and the
Stockholm Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Yearbook 2003:
Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, 2003, OUP.
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
*****************************************************************
15 Anti-Nuclear Weapons Protest in Mercury NV
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:55:35 -0500 (CDT)
---------Action Alert! Action Alert! Action Alert! Action
Alert!------------
Please support the Western Shoshone and Goshute Shoshone Resistance against
U.S. Nuclear Weapons and waste dumping programs on Shoshone Ancestral Land.
When: May 7-10th 2004
Where: Peace/Action Camp at the Nevada [Nuclear] Test Site Near Mercury,
Nevada. 65 Miles northwest of Las Vegas, off Nevada Highway 95.
For a map and directions to the site, check on the web- www.shundahai.org
Link to "Mothers Day Gathering" at the top of the homepage.
What: During this weekend, May 7-10, we will support the Western Shoshone
Nation and the Treaty of Ruby Valley, signed between the Western Shoshone
and the United States Government, during the Mothers Day Gathering for All
Life across from the main entrance to the Nevada Test Site. This will be a
weekend of Ceremony, Education, Planning and Nonviolent Direct Action to
challenge the Test Site's existence and "Reclaim the Land for All Life."
These events are being organized with the guidance of the Western Shoshone
National Council and have a strict policy prohibiting alcohol, drugs, and
weapons. Please be respectful of the traditional customs of Western Shoshone
hosts. There will be daily sunrise ceremonies and sweat lodges open to all.
Please go to shundahai.org for information about Western Shoshone customs
and protocol-
There will also be posters outlining camp protocols displayed at the
registration tent located near the camp entrance. As well, we will be
distributing information packets at the registration tent for participants
to keep for reference. Camp staff will also be on hand to answer questions
and help the event go smoothly.
Why: This past year the U.S. Government has made moves to resume full scale
nuclear weapons testing and to open the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in
Newe Sogobia, the Western Shoshone Nation, and to move forward with the
world's largest "temporary" high-level nuclear waste dump on Goshute
Shoshone land in Utah.
Newe Sogobia is already the most bombed nation on earth. Since 1951 over
1000 full-scale nuclear weapons explosions have shook the desert here.
Sub-critical nuclear weapons testing continue here, and the Nevada Test Site
has become the US Government's largest low-level nuclear waste dump.
The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is located in the heart of Western
Shoshone land. It is mired in conflict. It has been proven time and again to
be scientifically infeasible, continues to generate widespread opposition,
and is in serious violation of international law- to the point of seriously
violating standing international human rights agreements signed by the
United States.
As well, a tragedy continues to play out under the shadow of the world's
largest proposed "temporary" high-level nuclear waste dump. This is located
on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation, 45 miles upwind of Salt Lake
City, Utah. This project is linked to the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste
Project on Western Shoshone lands in Nevada. Both proposed dumps exploit
Indigenous Nations and threaten everyone downwind and downstream of their
operations.
Western Shoshone people suffer from the Nevada Test Site and the Yucca
Mountain dump. Traditional Goshute Shoshone people are struggling every day
to survive against the Skull Valley project. Your help is needed.
How: Please be prepared for camping in a high desert environment, where the
climate can be either hot or cold, dry or wet.
For Elders and people with special needs, please email
shundahai@shundahai.org or call 1-800-471-4737, and we will discuss
accommodations.
To volunteer for camp staff positions, also contact us at the info indicated
above.
We will be asking for a $10 per day registration fee to offset the cost of
camp logistics, food, special accommodations, etc. No one will be turned
away for lack of funds- all are encouraged to participate.
To pre-register please call 801-533-0128 or 1-800-471-4737 and we will send
you a registration form and Participant's Information Packet.
Thank you, and we hope to see you in May!
In Peace,
The Shundahai Network
*****************************************************************
16 Persistent Problems Re Yucca Mt. Could Delay It's Opening
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 13:39:47 -0400
And if Yucca ever comes to "fruition" the
remaining nuke reactors will crank out enough
waste so that another Yucca will be needed.
Orwellian.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Yucca-Mountain.html
GAO Criticizes Feds Over Nuclear Dump
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 29, 2004
Filed at 4:27 p.m. ET
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.
Advertisement
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/
General Accounting Office: http://www.gao.gov/
NIRS: http://www.nirs.org
*****************************************************************
17 [NukeNet] Persistent Problems Re Yucca Mt. Could Delay It's
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 15:27:43 -0700
And if Yucca ever comes to "fruition" the
remaining nuke reactors will crank out enough
waste so that another Yucca will be needed.
Orwellian.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Yucca-Mountain.html
GAO Criticizes Feds Over Nuclear Dump
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 29, 2004
Filed at 4:27 p.m. ET
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.
Advertisement
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/
General Accounting Office: http://www.gao.gov/
NIRS: http://www.nirs.org
_______________________________________________________________________
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18 Pahrump Valley Times: Report: DOE sloppy
April 30, 2004
By STEVE TETREAULT PVT WASHINGTON BUREAU
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 key 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 begin burying nuclear waste in Nye County by 2010.
Ultimately, they said, technical weaknesses could undercut the
government's ability to show that 77,000 tons of highly
radioactive nuclear waste can be safely stored within the
mountain ridge.
"Despite working three years to address recurring quality
assurance problems, DOE lacks evidence to show that their actions
have been successful," the GAO says 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 today, highlights a component of the Yucca Mountain
Project that DOE has worked to get its arms around for years.
Officials for the state of Nevada, congressional investigators
and NRC evaluators have aimed criticism at Yucca quality
assurance in reports dating to 1988.
Most recently, an NRC audit disclosed earlier this month
described shortcomings that have led the Energy Department to
commit about 100 workers to review a range of technical
documents, forcing changes in license preparations.
The Energy Department is protesting the latest GAO audit, saying
the agency mischaracterized its efforts and overlooked
improvements that new managers put in place starting in 2002.
"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 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 signal 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, saying 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 painstakingly 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
action process is initiated that traces and dissects errors,
fixes them and checks they have been properly corrected.
But audits over the years revealed quality assurance to be a
thorn for the Yucca project, according to the GAO.
Program auditors identified significant software and science
model problems in 1998 that prompted DOE to take corrective
actions. But, the GAO noted, the problems resurfaced in 2001
during 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 says in its draft, its performance goals lack objective
measurements and timetables to determine whether corrective
actions are successful.
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
[webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley
Times, 1997 - 2003
*****************************************************************
19 Pahrump Valley Times: Gibbons wants YMP security details regarding shipments
April 30, 2004
PVT WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., is seeking details on
security safeguards the government is planning to handle nuclear
waste shipments to a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain.
Gibbons said in a letter disclosed Monday he wanted to know
whether the Energy Department has consulted yet with the
Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, nuclear safety
officials and state managers on strategies to guard shipments.
He also requested information on what steps have been taken to
design training for emergency responders in 43 states that
shipments would pass through en route to Nevada.
"What type of training will they receive and what type of
real-life drills will these groups perform?" asked Gibbons, who
is chairman of the House homeland security subcommittee on
intelligence and counterterrorism
Gibbons added he wanted to know if first responders will be
trained to a federal security level or to safety levels set by
individual states.
"A highly trained team of first responders and a foolproof
contingency plan is not only appropriate, but necessary" to guard
against possible terrorist attacks or sabotage of railcars and
trucks expected to carry radioactive spent fuel to the burial
site, Gibbons said.
Gibbons sent the letter late Friday to Margaret Chu, director of
DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Nils Diaz,
chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Transportation
Secretary Norman Mineta.
Copies also were sent to Transportation Department officials who
oversee research and hazardous material safety.
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
[webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley
Times, 1997 - 2003
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20 Pahrump Valley Times: Nuclear waste and Nye County: Part I
April 30, 2004
NYE COUNTY HISTORY
(Editor's note: The following is part one of a three-part series
on the history of the Yucca Mountain Project.)
There are two reasons for the study of history. The first is
that it is almost always interesting. The second is the
possibility - however remote - that we can learn from it and
avoid repeating mistakes of the past.
This applies as much to looking at the history of the effort to
store high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain as it does to
the study of cotton farming in Pahrump or mining silver ore in
Tonopah. The fact is, Yucca Mountain is potentially the biggest
thing to ever happen in Nye County, surpassing by far all the
discoveries of gold and silver as well as nuclear weapons testing
at the Nevada Test Site. It is even beginning to look like Yucca
Mountain could be one of the most important events in human
history. The future of our civilization may in no small way
depend on the solutions to problems that Yucca Mountain
represents.
The idea of storing high-level nuclear waste at a designated
site in Nye County just celebrated its 21st birthday. Let's take
a look back and see where we have been. The nuclear age was born
out of research in atomic physics in the 1920s and 1930s. Early
on, physicists recognized the potential of the power of the atom
for both weapons development and production of electricity.
Between 1945 and 1992, the United States conducted 1,149 nuclear
test detonations, most of them weapons related. Of those tests,
1,028 took place in Nevada, 1,021 at the Nevada Test Site.
z In the late 1950s, utilities began to build and operate
commercial nuclear power plants. As of 2003, 104 were in
operation in the United States, accounting for about 20 percent
of our electric power. Thirteen nations currently produce nuclear
power, and nine are more reliant on nuclear energy than is the
United States.
From the beginning of the nuclear age, there was the problem of
what to do with the waste left over from nuclear power and
weapons production. By the late 1970s, it became clear that
serious waste storage problems were going to emerge. In 1982
Congress passed, and on Jan. 7, 1983, President Ronald Reagan
signed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which set out a procedure
for selecting a site for the permanent storage of the nation's
high-level nuclear waste. The legislation provided states with
candidate sites a strong voice in the site selection process.
Initially, six potential sites in the United States were
considered; the list was narrowed to three; then, in 1987, the
Nuclear Waste Policy Act was amended in the so-called "Screw
Nevada" bill, and the list was reduced to one candidate - Yucca
Mountain. (Currently, high-level nuclear waste from civilian and
defense sources is held in temporary storage at 131 sites in 39
states.)
The first public meeting in Nevada on Yucca Mountain was held by
the U.S. Department of Energy at UNLV on March 30, 1983. I
attended that meeting. Its purpose was to provide an overview of
the Yucca Mountain Project and solicit public comment. The first
speaker was then-Nevada Gov. Richard Bryan, who, accompanied by
his entourage, dramatically marched into the auditorium and
forcefully announced that he was, and would remain, "unalterably
opposed" to the project. "It is unfair in my view," he said, "for
the rest of the nation to ask Nevada, in light of its past and
present commitment in the nuclear field, to assume this new
burden." Congressman Harry Reid was scheduled to speak, but
didn't show up. A spokesman for Reid, Reynaldo Martinez, said the
congressman supported Gov. Bryan's position. Martinez said, "He
[Reid] feels the Las Vegas Strip should not become the Love Canal
of the nation. Who would want to take a vacation to the Love
Canal?" (The Love Canal was a former industrial site in upstate
New York that had become highly contaminated with toxic
chemicals. Ironically, it has since been cleaned up.) Both Bryan
and Reid are Democrats.
The Las Vegas Sun publisher, Hank Greenspun, a longtime opponent
of the Nevada Test Site and all things nuclear in Nevada,
asserted that if the "dirty dump" were built at Yucca Mountain,
it would result in a truck hauling nuclear waste coming through
Nevada every "10 minutes on a 24-hour basis." He suggested,
"There would be no room for pleasure cars - upon which the
tourist industry depends - on Nevada roads." Most comments at the
meeting were negative, at least to some degree. Only one person
from Nye County was on the meeting's agenda - James E. Owen, from
the Amargosa Valley Water Users Association. We have no record of
what he said. Several days later, the Las Vegas Review-Journal
came out against Yucca Mountain editorially: "Irreversible harm
may be so pervasive as to be disastrous," the editors wrote, and
any economic gain would not be worth it.
In 1983, I was living in Tonopah. As a result of my work as a
history and social science consultant, I spent considerable time
talking with Nevadans from all walks of life. I was especially
familiar with rural Southern Nevadans, having lived in the area
off and on since 1953. Looking back, I would describe Nevadans'
attitude toward Yucca Mountain in those first years after the
initial meeting at UNLV as soft. For the most part, people didn't
see Yucca Mountain as a big negative. Their minds tended to be
open, with the view that nuclear waste storage was basically a
wait-and-see situation - what's in it for us?
Some of the strongest support for Yucca Mountain in those early
years was in Nye County. Residents there had had firsthand
experience with nuclear weapons testing since 1951, and knew well
the economic benefits that big government-sponsored projects
could bring to communities. They were well aware that nuclear
radiation could be dangerous, but also knew that fears of
radiation could be easily overblown. In the late 1980s, many in
Nye County saw Yucca Mountain as a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity. Amargosa Valley residents, who would be the
facility's closest neighbors, were especially supportive. They
resented the use of the word "dump" for Yucca Mountain. It was a
repository! Gov. Bryan was seen as a "silly man." Lincoln County
residents were also supportive, especially in Caliente. If this
talk about Nevadans being open-minded when it came to a nuclear
waste repository in their state seems a little unbelievable, here
is the kicker: In 1975, only eight years before that first
meeting at UNLV, the Nevada Legislature passed a resolution
urging Congress to direct the Department of Energy to dispose of
high-level nuclear waste at the Nevada Test Site.
So what happened? If public opinion in Nevada on Yucca Mountain
was generally soft, perhaps even favorable, early on, with strong
support in Lincoln and Nye counties, how did Nevada and the
federal government wind up at the existing impasse, with Nevada
in a hardened position, "unalterably opposed," to use Bryan's
words, to a huge government-funded project worth more than $50
billion, by most recent estimates, a facility most experts say is
badly needed?
(McCracken is the author of A History of Pahrump, Nevada and 11
other books about Nye County published by the Nye County Press.)
For comment or questions, please e-mail
[webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley
Times, 1997 - 2003
*****************************************************************
21 ITAR-TASS: Kazakhstan, France to develop uranium deposit
30.04.2004, 13.52
ASTANA, April 30 (Itar-Tass) - Kazakhstan’s company Kazakhatom
and France’s AREVA signed in Paris on Thursday an accord on
beginning the industrial use of the uranium deposit Moinykum in
the Central Asian republic.
The Kazakh-French joint venture KATKO, which was set up in 1996,
will implement the project, the press service of Kazakhstan’s
Foreign Ministry told Itar-Tass on Friday.
The accord envisages 90-million dollar investment in industrial
uranium extraction at the deposit that is located in the Suzyk
district, southern Kazakhstan.
© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
store in any medium (including in any other website),
distribute, transmit, re-transmit, broadcast, modify or show in
public any part of the ITAR-TASS website without the prior
written permission of ITAR-TAS.
*****************************************************************
22 Physics Today May 2004: Yucca Mountain Workers Exposed to Dangerous Dust
Digging techniques designed to protect the "scientific integrity"
of a test tunnel at the US Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain
project exposed more than a thousand workers to dangerous silica
dust between 1992 and 1996, according to a DOE safety official.
As many as 1500 workers may have been exposed to the dust, which
can cause silicosis, a progressive and potentially fatal lung
disease.
Yucca Mountain
The problem first came to light last September when a former
worker at Yucca Mountain told DOE's Office of the Inspector
General that workers had been overexposed to silica dust during
mining operations in the early to mid1990s. An investigation
found that for several years after digging began on the
fivemilelong test tunnel, water suppression of dust was not
routinely used. According to Gene Runkle, a safety official with
DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM),
"to ensure scientific integrity of the tests that would be
performed there," the suppression technique was not used.
Moisture is a critical issue in Yucca Mountain, which is slated
to become the federal government's permanent repository for tens
of thousands of tons of highlevel radioactive nuclear waste.
Pending approval from the Nuclear Regulatory CommissionDOE
plans to submit its license application in DecemberYucca
Mountain could begin to receive waste in 2010. Standards call
for the waste to be isolated from the surrounding environment
for at least 10 000 yearsand that requires, among other things,
an extremely dry facility.
Former employees have also claimed, and DOE officials have
conceded, that tunnel workers weren't required by the DOE mining
contractor to wear respirators or even facemasks during the
first several years of tunneling. After a 1996 safety review by
OCRWM, respirators were made mandatory and ventilation was
significantly improved in the tunnel, according to testimony
Runkle gave at a recent hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on
Energy and Water Development held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Runkle
also said that a protection program established in 1998 has
actively monitored workers and discovered only two confirmed
cases of silicosis.
Gene Griego, the former tunnel worker who first alerted DOE to
the problem, contends that there are scores of people affected
by silicosis. He has filed a classaction lawsuit against the DOE
contractors who oversaw the early tunneling.
DOE officials responded in January to complaints about the
silica overexposure by setting up a medical screening program,
which is run by the University of Cincinnati under the direction
of OCRWM. Letters have been mailed to about 2400 current and
former employees informing them of the program. Yucca Mountain
workers who might have been exposed to high levels of silica
dust and other potentially toxic materials are offered free
silicosis screening. As of late March, 300 people had responded
to the letter.
Senator Harry Reid (DNV), a staunch opponent of the Yucca
Mountain project since its inception in 1987, is highly critical
of DOE's handling of the silicosis issue. In announcing the
Senate hearing in Las Vegas, Reid said DOE "sent workers into
that mountain knowing full well of the presence of silica and
knowing full well that exposure to silica can cause death." He
added that DOE knew the exposure was "100% preventable, but did
nothing that would have protected these workers. At best, DOE's
actions are negligent and at worst criminal, and I intend to use
this hearing to get to the bottom of this." Reid is particularly
passionate about the issue because, according to his staff, his
father was a miner who suffered from silicosis.
At one point during the hearing, Reid interrupted Runkle and
said, "DOE ignored the threat. What has taken place here is just
absolutely wrong."
Runkle later said project administrators were trying to "balance
operations and the safety requirements at the time. There were
safety processes in place and they were taken into
account."
Reid has promised the former workers that his office will
closely monitor the safety and screening programs at the
mountain. Meanwhile, a DOE staff member said, a departmental
investigation is under way into allegations that air monitoring
numbers were altered by project managers in the mid1990s to
cover up the extent of the dust problem. Jim Dawson
© 2004 American Institute of Physics
[http://www.aip.org/copyright.html]
[http://www.physicstoday.org/
*****************************************************************
23 KVBC: Caliente, NV, Split Over Shipping Of Nuclear Waste
April 30, 2004
It's been a plan since the 1970's, and that's how long people
have talked about a radioactive storage site at Yucca Mountain.
It became official in 2002. That's when President Bush signed the
law selecting Yucca Mountain as the repository site. Then earlier
this year, the Department of Energy said it wanted to bring most
of the waste into Nevada by rail. That decision has now put many
Nevada towns and cities near the tracks which will carry
radioactive waste. As News 3's Mitch Truswell
[mtruswell@kvbc.com] reports, for many people, that is not a
comforting thought.
Caliente is a town of about 12 hundred people. If the Yucca
Mountain project goes through as planned, Caliente would be front
and center. How would hauling radioactive waste through the town
affect it? That's up for argument. In many ways, Caliente is a
town divided.
Marge Detrez is obsessed with the Yucca Mountain project. She is
a one woman clearinghouse for information on the hazards of
storing radioactive material. "It's the wrong thing to do. If 50
other states don't want it, why does Nevada have to take it?"
She's spent her own money for signs outside her home, and the
homes of others in Caliente.
"This is my mother. I come from a family of 13 children." Marge,
born and raised in Caliente, spent the last decade as an advocate
for the health of this town, because her own family's health was
put in danger. Many of her sisters and brothers were the
so-called down winders from the above ground nuclear tests in
Nevada. Leukemia, colon and throat cancer killed many of them.
The Caliente rail corridor would haul radioactive material from a
transfer site somewhere in the state, then onto a 319 mile
railway, from Caliente to the Yucca Mountain repository. The DOE
says the rail line would carry up to five shipments of
radioactive material every week for at least 24 years. It's too
big a risk for Ruth Dewey, who was born in this area and came
back here a few years ago. "We've got all these terrorists going
on, the whole idea is crazy. Bringing it to Nevada, you have to
go clear across the country. All of these places are unprotected.
It makes me sick."
George Davis can see railcars out his front window. He's also
concerned. "Do you have enough trust in the government to carry
out this plan?"
"No, I don't. They said all this stuff 50 years ago was safe.
Soldiers were next to the explosions. All these guys get
diseases, cancer ... there's no telling what from nuclear
fallout, and the government said it was safe." Caliente was built
in part by the railroad. The tracks run right through the center
of town. There is a group of people here who say the railroad can
bring jobs here again, through the Department of Energy's
Caliente rail corridor.
One big supporter is the town's mayor of 11 years, Kevin
Phillips. "The case is pretty much in the county, that we raise
our kids, then they have to leave. That was not always the case.
Mines were booming. There should be an opportunity if we're smart
and fortuitous and create jobs for the next generations." Besides
jobs created by hauling nuclear waste, there's also an
opportunity for the town's future industrial park, giving it
access to railroad transportation and new markets.
But for Marge, it's all a dangerous step back. "They haven't gone
through the 40's and 50's when we lost all these people. They
don't understand how serious this is. This stuff will kill
people." Mayor Phillips says dangerous things are already coming
through Caliente by rail, things like sulfuric acid and ammonium
nitrate, which are compounds also considered life threatening if
there were an accident.
The Department of Energy is holding several meetings to get input
from the public on the plan to transport waste by rail on the
Caliente corridor. The meetings are planned for May 3, 4 and 5th
in Amargosa Valley, Goldfield and Caliente, respectively. There
is also a meeting planned in Las Vegas at Cahsman Center on May
17th, from 4 to 8 pm.
Caliente corridor meetings + May 3, Amargosa Valley, Nevada + May
4, Goldfield, Nevada + May 5, Caliente, Nevada + May 17th,
Cashman Center, Las Vegas
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content © Copyright 2000 -
2004 WorldNow and KVBC. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
24 UPI: Yucca Mt. nuke depot facing permit delay? -
(United Press International)
April 30, 2004
Washington, , Apr. 30 (UPI) -- The ambitious project to create a
national nuclear waste depository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain
could face future obstacles in the critical permitting process.
The General Accounting Office said Friday there remained
"lingering quality problems" and "management weaknesses" with the
collection of data to be used in the process of obtaining the
necessary permits from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Energy Department launched a program in 2002 to correct a
number of problems it said didn't so much effect the technical
basis for the controversial project, but might cause difficulties
in the permit process.
The report said the remaining issues were generally revealed by
audits that could not trace data back to its source, found
questions about computer models and instances in which procedures
weren't followed.
Environmentalists and the state of Nevada aren't convinced Yucca
Mountain is geologically stable enough to handle material that
will be radioactive for centuries.
*****************************************************************
25 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: DOE hires for licensing
Friday, April 30, 2004
Ex-member of nuclear agency to consult on preparing repository
application By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy has hired a former member
of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to help prepare its license
bid for a nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
Greta Joy Dicus signed a one-year consulting contract on Feb.
20 for $24,940, according to a contractor list the Energy
Department has published on its Yucca Mountain Project Web site.
Dicus is advising DOE managers putting together a repository
application that will be judged by regulators at the NRC, where
she was one of five commissioners from 1996 until June 2003,
when her second term expired.
Dicus said Thursday she expects to play a limited role advising
the Yucca program. She said her contract might be extended
beyond a year but said she doubted whether she would appear at
public hearings to support the project.
Dicus said she received written clearance from NRC ethics
lawyers after the Energy Department sought to hire her. An
official in the NRC Office of General Counsel said Dicus was in
compliance with federal employment law.
The job involves advising the Energy Department "on technical
issues that come up and process issues," Dicus said. "With DOE
never having been a (NRC) licensee, it's more along those lines.
"It's obviously a challenging project," Dicus said. "It is the
first of its kind for the NRC and the DOE. Everyone recognizes
that and is working very diligently to have processes and
procedures in place."
Joe Egan, Nevada's lead nuclear waste attorney, said, "It's not
surprising that DOE applying for a license would consult with a
former NRC commissioner. We have as well."
Among members of the state's legal team are former NRC
Commissioner Victor Gilinsky, and Martin G. Malsch, a former
acting general counsel at the agency.
Energy Department officials have said they plan to file a
license application in December, starting a three- or four-year
NRC review. Their goal is to start accepting government nuclear
waste and radioactive spent fuel from commercial power plants in
2010.
The department's license preparations have been criticized in
recent reports by the General Accounting Office and NRC staff
reviewers.
Dicus said that she did not have a view on the criticisms and
that her work will focus more on matters of NRC process.
"We just got started," she said.
Commission members and staff members leaving the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission are limited in the work they can perform
for nuclear utilities or other NRC licensees at least for a year
or longer depending on their level of responsibility.
No post-employment restriction prevents working for another
government agency, as Dicus is doing, an NRC spokesman said.
Nevada officials and attorneys who are preparing to contest the
Yucca Mountain Project license have bristled that DOE has
broader access to former government experts than the state,
whose consultants must comply with the revolving-door rules.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
26 Tri-City Herald: Atomic author speaks in Richland
This story was published Friday, April 30th, 2004
By John Trumbo Herald staff writer
The first time Richard Rhodes tried to visit Hanford's nuclear
facilities in 1979, he was dismissed as a nobody.
But the prolific author was to be much more. His book, The Making
of the Atomic Bomb, earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for
nonfiction.
On Thursday, Rhodes was at the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory in Richland at the invitation of the Nonproliferation
and Arms Control Programs.
And on this visit, Rhodes, who recently moved from Connecticut to
Half Moon Bay, Calif., finally got to see the 60-year-old B
Reactor at Hanford, where plutonium was made for the bomb dropped
on Nagasaki in 1945, ending the war with Japan.
"The first thing that struck me was the sheer scale, the space
and separation of the place," Rhodes said, referring to the wide
open spaces of the 586-square-mile Hanford Reservation. "It
comments on the scale of the energy involved."
Rhodes said seeing B Reactor forced him to think "about the
people who did this." He added, "I had a chill going up my
spine."
During an hourlong talk at the Battelle Auditorium on Thursday
morning, Rhodes shared some of his nuclear stories and described
his interview with Dr. Robert Teller, Emeiio Segre who worked
with Enrico Fermi, and with Luis Alvarez.
Rhodes was a magazine journalist who worked for Newsweek and
wanted to be a novelist when he got the idea of writing a fiction
piece about a nuclear scientist.
"There was too much to tell. The book wouldn't hold together,"
said the author, who today has 20 published books.
"Then it dawned on me. This is not the way to write the story.
I'd have to tell it as a work of nonfiction."
That book did publish, and it brought him the highest honor an
author can receive.
His next book, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb also did
well, making the short list for the Pulitzer in history.
Both books were based on his extensive research and personal
interviews with the people who worked on the projects at Hanford,
Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Los Alamos, N.M.
Rhodes has another nuclear history book in the making. He calls
it Endgame, the theme being how to learn to coexist with the bomb
by getting rid of all the bombs while keeping the bomb-making
know-how and raw materials.
Soon to be published is a biography of John James Audubon, the
19th century French-American artist and naturalist. And Rhodes
has investigated and written about the roots of private violence
in Why They Kill and Masters of Death, The SS-Einsatzgruppen and
the Invention of the Holocaust.
Rhodes said he began his sojourn into nuclear history a quarter
of a century ago by immersing himself in documents, including
declassified materials and memoirs of "200 of the most important
people in the 20th century."
"By writing a book I thought I might uncover alternatives to
nuclear war," he said.
He's still searching for the answer to that problem with Endgame.
His research has taken him across the United States and to Russia
and Germany. He has placed his body in the cockpit and
bombardier's seat of the B-29 that dropped the "Fat Boy" bomb on
Nagasaki and he's swung from the bombing hook on the Enola Gay
that released the nuclear age on the world in a most terrible way
at Hiroshima.
Rhodes also has seen the flotilla of candle rafts done each year
at Hiroshima on the anniversary of that bombing. Each candle
represents a life snuffed out.
Niels Bohr, the Danish theoretical physicist who worked on
development of the atomic bomb, "saw it all from the beginning,"
said Rhodes. "Bohr said this will be a common danger to
everyone," he said.
The path to the future needs to be nonviolent, Rhodes said,
emphasizing that there is no way to get away from the technology.
"The only way to deal with the bomb is to have virtual
deterrents. I know it sounds utopian, but I believe it isn't," he
said.
Rhodes said virtual deterrents can be created by dismantling the
bombs, but keeping the technology and mothballing the components.
The key is in monitoring countries that have nuclear capability,
he said.
"We are the authority figures. We have to model whatever we
choose," he said. "Peace studies and technology need to be
linked.
"Science will save us, if anything will," he said.
Rhodes was able to schedule the Hanford visit because he had
arranged an interview with Hans Blix in Seattle earlier this
week. Blix was the leader of the international team charged with
searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
27 KIFI: INEEL and DOE Team Up to Prepare For Possible Terrorist Attack
www.localnews8.com
April 29, 2004
Terrorism and Homeland defense; they're not just topics for big
cities. It's a concern right here in Eastern Idaho.
That's why the Idaho National Environmental and Engineering
Laboratory and the Department of Energy are teaming up to
practice how they would respond to an attack. They want to make
sure everyone works together if something bad happens.
They're doing a few hands-on exercises, including a drill where a
terrorist incident is being simulated. They have to figure out if
any radiation is leaking and how to protect people in the area.
"The significance of this is learning what to expect from each
other. No false expectations. How to bring it together in a
successful mission," says Regional Response Coordinator Steve
Morreale, DOE.
There're about 15 groups involved in this, including the
Department of Homeland Security and the National Nuclear Security
Agency from Washington D.C.
They call this conference “Radiation Roundup.” This is the first
one, but they say, there'll be one next year too.
*****************************************************************
28 DAILY BRUIN: Nuclear lab denies security concerns
[http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/]
Friday, April 30, 2004
By Richard Clough DAILY BRUIN REPORTER rclough@media.ucla.edu
A battle between intellectual advancement and national security
concerns in Northern California may result in significant changes
in the research capabilities of one University of
California-managed laboratory.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the primary
nuclear weapons labs in the United States, has been criticized
recently for its perceived vulnerability to terrorist attacks and
has been urged to move its store of plutonium and highly enriched
uranium to a more secure location.
The lab has resisted this measure because the removal of the
nuclear material would hinder its research efforts. Livermore
officials maintain that the lab's security, which is constantly
reevaluated, is adequate to combat potential terrorist threats.
"Security has never been better than it is right now," said Bryan
Wilkes, a spokesman for the Energy Department, which oversees
research labs across the country, including Livermore.
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the lab has
instituted a number of security upgrades. But a report released
Tuesday by the General Accounting Office, the investigative wing
of Congress, admonished the lab and four others for their
lingering vulnerabilities.
The report also cited the labs' proposed time frames to update
their security procedures as unrealistic.
Concern has arisen over the prospect of a terrorist group
infiltrating the labs and constructing and detonating a makeshift
nuclear device within minutes.
The Design Basis Threat is a program instituted by the labs that
will require them to be able to defend against a "larger
attacking force" by 2006. The GAO report said the labs will
likely not be ready by then.
"They (the GAO) don't think we can meet our own standards that we
laid out for ourselves but that's absolutely not true," Wilkes
said.
"Sept. 11 changed a lot of things and since Sept. 11, we have
been doing a lot of things to improve security at all of our
sites," he said.
The security concerns surrounding Livermore, located about 45
miles southeast of San Francisco, are derived largely from the
lab's vicinity to residential communities.
Testifying before the House Subcommittee on National Security on
Tuesday, Danielle Brian, executive director of independent
watchdog group, Project on Government Oversight, said the lab
"will not be able to comply with the new directives" and poses a
serious threat to its neighboring communities.
"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 said.
Brian recommended the nuclear materials at Livermore be moved to
the Energy Department's Nevada Test Site.
Moving the materials will make them more secure, but researchers
at Livermore question whether this outweighs the benefits of
their research.
"If all the nuclear securities in the United States were in one
area, it would make security much easier," said David Schwoegler,
a spokesman for Livermore.
"You have to strike a balance between what's in the best interest
of national security from a research standpoint and what's in the
best interest of national security from a materials protection
standpoint," he said.
A large portion of the research done at Livermore is
environmentally friendly, Schwoegler said, as it study methods to
dismantle, immobilize and store nuclear weapons that create as
little nuclear waste as possible.
Contact Us Email News at news@
media.ucla.edu
[news@media.ucla.edu] for questions or concerns about this
article.
Copyright 2004 ASUCLA Student Media
[http://www.studentmedia.ucla.edu]
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29 Shorthorn Online: Groups protest Alamos lab bid
[The Shorthorn] [UT-Arlington]
News Editor: Josh Bohling [news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu]
817-272-3661
NEWS | april 30, 2004
Organizations such as UT Watch continue to oppose the UT
Systems plans to gain control of the nuclear research facility.
By Caren
M. Penland [cmp7381@exchange.uta.edu]
The Shorthorn Staff
Ten students walked into a UT System Board of Regents meeting
Thursday wearing Drop tuition, not bombs T-shirts to show
their discontent with the systems plans to bid for Los Alamos
National Laboratories.
The group, members of the student-run watchdog organization UT
Watch, requested permission to speak about the plans but was
denied an opportunity because the issue was not on the regents
meeting agenda. The group also held a press conference in the
morning to state its reasons why the system shouldnt continue
to pursue the bid.
The regents approved plans to bid for the management of the
facility, which is near Santa Fe, N.M., on Feb. 4. The lab
developed the first atomic bombs, which were dropped during
World War II. Eighty percent of its budget went to nuclear
programs and disposal in 2002. Los Alamos also spear-headed
recent research advances, including super computers, rocketry
and the human genome mapping.
System officials have said UTA would benefit from system control
of the lab by putting students and faculty here at the front of
national research.
Nick Schwellenbach, a UT-Austin history senior and watch group
member, said an industrial firm should manage the facility, not
a university. Ecological concerns of nuclear projects aside, he
said, professors conducting research should be able to share
their findings with the academic world something they might be
unable to do with the labs many classified projects.
And I think thats a problem it contradicts the hallmark of
the academic world, he said.
System spokesman Anthony DeBruyn said the regents are gathering
additional information from the Department of Energy to
determine the best course of action. He said system officials
are aware of the watch groups stance on the issue and will take
that point of view into consideration.
We want to make the right decision based on facts, and that
wont be until later this year, he said.
State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Tarrant County, spoke at the press
conference and has been working with the watch group to dissuade
system officials from pursuing the bid. He met with several
officials Thursday to assess the situation and convince them
that the system should not get involved.
As long as I can live and breathe, I will be fighting these
plans, he said. But the atmosphere of inevitability that they
were trying to convey is simply not the case. There are many
private sectors vying for an opportunity, like Lockheed Martin,
to get their hands on it.
[http://www.theshorthorn.com]
© Copyright 2001. All Rights Reserved. Corrections | Webmaster
[online-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu]
*****************************************************************
30 lamonitor.com: LANL loses water appeal
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
[http://www.lac-nm.us]
MONITOR STAFF REPORT
A unanimous decision by the New Mexico Water Quality Control
Commission has been upheld by the state Court of Appeals,
rejecting Los Alamos National Laboratory's arguments that a
"human-health-based" standard was too stringent. A spokesperson
for the lab said today, "We're carefully reviewing the decision
and then we'll determine our path forward."
The EPA guidelines, adopted by the commission in May 2002,
applies human health standards - meant to protect people from
persistent toxic pollutants in fish - to tributaries such as
arroyos that contain water only infrequently.
The Court of Appeals, in a ruling issued Wednesday by a
three-judge panel, said the Water Quality Control Commission's
decision to adopt the standard was "both reasoned and rational,"
and not, as the lab had alleged, arbitrary and capricious.
The court also said it found "ample evidence" to affirm the
commission's action. The standard applies to 15 pollutants that
the Environment Department says should not be released into any
watershed. They include PCBs, dioxin, arsenic and DDT, considered
persistent because they accumulate as they rise through the food
chain.
"Using human health based standards on these 14 persistent toxic
pollutants in tributaries makes perfect sense. It is NMED's job
to protect the health of New Mexicans and these standards are
specifically designed to do just that. Also, by protecting the
arroyo and the tributary, you protect the river," Environment
Secretary Ron Curry said in a statement Wednesday. The lab
objected that the human health standards shouldn't be applied to
ephemeral tributaries, which generally contain water only after
storms and can't support fish populations.
Existing programs, including the issuance of storm water permits,
can be effective in protecting downstream fishery waters if
they're fully utilized, the lab said.
The state Environment Department argued the pollutants adhere to
sediments in ephemeral streams, and are transported downstream to
waters containing fish.
The standard was designed to ensure that the toxins don't reach
fishery waters, it said.
According to the court's opinion, the department presented
findings at a commission hearing of high levels of PCBs and
dioxin in ephemeral storm waters on LANL property and in fish
caught in Cochiti Reservoir - an indication that pollutants exist
in both ephemeral streams and in fishery waters, the department
argued.
A lab official pointed out that the decision might have
consequences for other entities in the state.
"The decision affects more than just the lab, but also
municipalities or companies that may discharge into a dry stream
bed or arroyo," said the spokesperson in the lab's public affairs
office.
Curry said he was very pleased with the court decision.
"This approach will allow NMED to be proactive in protecting our
state's water quality all over New Mexico," he said.
"We won't have to wait for the pollution to get out of the barn
from a site like Los Alamos before it can be cleaned up. This
will help to ensure that there are adequate, safe water resources
for future generations of New Mexicans."
An agreement between NMED and DOE resolved many major
disagreements between the state and federal authorities
concerning environmental issues at LANL, taking them out of the
courts.
The lab's appeal of the Water Quality Control Commission's
decision was a separate matter, said Jon Goldstein, a department
spokesman.
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
31 Pahrump Valley Times: DOE in town Monday to discuss YMP transportation issues
April 30, 2004
A public scoping meeting to gather input on the proposed rail
line from Caliente to Yucca Mountain is scheduled from 4 p.m. to
8 p.m. Monday at the Longstreet Inn and Casino in Amargosa
Valley.
The hearings move to the Goldfield Community Center the next
night and the Caliente Youth Center on Wednesday.
The meeting, scheduled by the U.S. Department of Energy Office
of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, is designed to solicit
public input for the environmental impact statement. The DOE
published a record of decision in the Federal Register announcing
it intends to build a 318-mile rail line to ship high-level
nuclear waste from the Union Pacific tracks at Caliente, west
around the Nellis Air Force Training Range to just south of
Tonopah, then roughly paralleling U.S. Highway 95 south to Yucca
Mountain, near Lathrop Wells.
Members of the public who can't attend may submit their comments
in writing before May 24 to: Ms. Robin Sweeney, EIS Document
Manager, Office of National Transportation, Office of Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management, U.S. Department of Energy, 1551
Hillshire Drive, M/S 011, Las Vegas, 89134. The fax number is
1-800-967-0739. Comments may also be sent via e-mail to:
http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/.
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
[webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley
Times, 1997 - 2003
*****************************************************************
32 Google News Alert - nuclear
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 13:44:20 -0700 (PDT)
NUCLEAR waste and Nye County: Part I
Pahrump Valley Times - Pahrump,NV,USA
... This applies as much to looking at the history of the effort to store
high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain as it does to the study of
cotton farming in ...
See all stories on this topic:
SERVICE life of Ukraine ’ s nuclear reactors may be extended 15 ...
ITAR-TASS - Moscow,Russia
KIEV, April 30 (Itar-Tass) -- The service life of Ukraine’s nuclear power
plants may be prolonged by 10-15 years, the director of the service life
department ...
See all stories on this topic:
MEETINGS set to resume nuclear talks
Chicago Tribune (subscription) - Chicago,IL,USA
NORTH KOREA -- The six nations negotiating the North Korean nuclear standoff
will hold low-level meetings May 12 in Beijing to lay the groundwork for
the next ...
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PAKISTAN would not accept inspections to nuclear assets: Munir ...
GEO - World
... UN Security Council that declared before the world that Pakistan would
not accept any demand for access, much less inspections, of its nuclear
and strategic ...
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NUCLEAR lab denies security concerns
The UCLA Daily Bruin - Los Angeles,CA,USA
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the primary nuclear
weapons labs in the United States, has been criticized recently for its
perceived ...
See all stories on this topic:
OP-ED: Rescuing nuclear non-proliferation —N Hassan Wirajuda
Daily Times - Pakistan
As a declared non-nuclear weapon state, Indonesia has always striven for
nuclear non-proliferation — indeed, for a world free of nuclear weapons.
...
See all stories on this topic:
CONFLICTING Results on a Long-Lived Nuclear Isomer of Hafnium ...
PhysicsToday.org - USA
... Collins (University of Texas at Dallas) has been reporting evidence
for the x-ray induced release of energy stored in an unusually long-lived
nuclear isomer of ...
MAYORS of 582 cities campaign to abolish nuclear weapons
Japan Times - Tokyo,Japan
UNITED NATIONS (AP) Led by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leaders
of 582 cities worldwide are campaigning to abolish nuclear weapons by
2020. ...
See all stories on this topic:
PPL Susquehanna Names Vice President-Nuclear Site Operations
Yahoo News (press release) - USA
BERWICK, Pa., April 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Britt T. McKinney, a 29-year
veteran of the nuclear power industry and currently site vice president
at Wolf ...
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33 [NukeNet] GAO Report On Yucca Mtn
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 15:27:46 -0700
6. Yucca Mountain: Persistent Quality Assurance Problems Could Delay
Repository Licensing and Operation. GAO-04-460, April 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-460
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04460high.pdf
--
Coalition for Peace and Justice
(http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org); and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign
(http://www.unplugsalem.org); 321 Barr Ave., Linwood, NJ 08221;
609-601-8583/37; ncohen12@comcast.net. The Coalition for Peace and Justice
is a chapter of Peace Action (http://www.peace-action.org). "You can say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one" (Lennon). "Don't be late for your
life" (Mary Chapin Carpenter).
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34 Today's GAO Reports - April 30, 2004
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 12:21:52 -0400
The General Accounting Office (GAO) today released the following
reports, testimonies, and correspondence:
REPORTS
1. Department of State: Nonproliferation, Anti-Terrorism, Demining, and
Related Programs Follow Legal Authority, but Some Activities Need
Reassessment. GAO-04-521, April 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-521
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04521high.pdf
2. District of Columbia: Status of Reforms to the District's Mental
Health System. GAO-04-387, March 31.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-387
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04387high.pdf
3. Grants Management: EPA Needs to Better Document Its Decisions for
Choosing Between Contracts and Grants. GAO-04-459, March
31.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-459
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04459high.pdf
4. Homeland Security: Selected Recommendations from Congressionally
Chartered Commissions and GAO. GAO-04-591, March 31.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-591
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04591high.pdf
5. Security Clearances: FBI Has Enhanced Its Process for State and
Local Law Enforcement Officials. GAO-04-596, April 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-596
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04596high.pdf
6. Yucca Mountain: Persistent Quality Assurance Problems Could Delay
Repository Licensing and Operation. GAO-04-460, April 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-460
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04460high.pdf
7. Medicaid and SCHIP: States' Premium and Cost-Sharing Requirements
for Beneficiaries. GAO-04-491, March 31.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-491
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04491high.pdf
CORRESPONDENCE
1. Additional Posthearing Questions Related to Proposed Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) Human Capital Regulations. GAO-04-617R, April
30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-617R
2. Independent Counsel: Breakdown of Expenditures for David M. Barrett.
GAO-04-732R, April 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-732R
3. Responses to Posthearing Questions Related to GAO's Testimony on the
U.S. Government's Consolidated Financial Statements for Fiscal Year
2003. GAO-04-624R, April 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-624R
TESTIMONIES
1. Government Printing Office: Technological Changes Create
Transformation Opportunities, by Linda D. Koontz, director, information
management, before the Committee on House Administration. GAO-04-729T,
April 28.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-729T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04729thigh.pdf
2. Terrorism Insurance: Effects of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of
2002, by Richard J. Hillman, director, financial institutions and
community investment, before a joint hearing of the Subcommittee on
Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises and the
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, House Committee on
Financial Services. GAO-04-720T, April 28.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-720T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04720thigh.pdf
Some products now have a link to Highlights (the link ends with
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Access GAO on the web at http://www.gao.gov
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35 sacbee.com -- Opinion -- Editorial: A hydrogen tomorrow?
/> [http://www.sacbee.com]
Promises, challenges, risks are considerable
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, April 30, 2004
The Ford Motor Co.'s decision to test a fleet of experimental
hydrogen cars in the Sacramento region is good news. In
California's decades-long quest for clean cars and the nation's
pursuit of energy independence, hydrogen is the latest big, new
idea.
The flammable, colorless, odorless gas is the most abundant
element on Earth, potentially a boundless source of clean energy.
When used to power a car, it produces no tailpipe emissions.
Still, the technological challenges are significant. Hydrogen
has promise, but it's very expensive to produce and remains
unproven. Under the most common process in use today, hydrogen is
"mined" from fossil fuels, usually nonrenewable and increasingly
expensive natural gas.
Over the long term, environmentalists who support hydrogen
research and development rightly insist that government should be
looking toward renewable sources of hydrogen, such as waste from
dairy cows, other agricultural waste, wood chips and eventually,
the most abundant and obvious source, water.
But even water is not necessarily a clean energy source.
Stripping hydrogen molecules from water requires large amounts of
electricity. If the electricity is generated by dirty coal-fired
power plants or nuclear power, a strategy the Bush administration
seems to be pushing, the environmental benefits would be
substantially diminished, if not lost entirely.
That's why California needs to do more than build the hydrogen
highway, those 200 fueling stations Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
wants to establish throughout the state. California also must
expand investment in solar, wind and other nonpolluting and
renewable sources of electricity. While more expensive now, in
the end those clean, renewable sources would produce a hydrogen
fuel that is zero polluting - not just from car tailpipes, but
also throughout its production cycle.
In any event, most scientists believe it will be at least
another decade before hydrogen cars show up in large numbers on
automobile showroom floors. The state can't afford to neglect
other promising clean technologies available right now. That
means vigorous enforcement of regulations that call for more
efficient and cleaner burning diesel and gasoline engines. It
means putting pressure on automakers to keep producing hybrids
and low-emission vehicles. It means pushing for fuel-efficiency
standards that reduce production of harmful greenhouse gases.
Hydrogen may be the fuel of the future, but California needs an
effective interim strategy that will move us forward while we
wait for the future to arrive.
[ The Sacramento Bee ] - Get the whole story
Contact sacbee.com [webmaster@sacbee.com]
Copyright © The Sacramento Bee
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