***************************************************************** 07/16/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.169 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Guardian Unlimited Dan Plesch: Missing link 2 Guardian Unlimited Politics: 'A stronger verdict wasn't to be expect 3 Guardian Unlimited: There is now no doubt that Blair misled the Comm 4 US: The Nation: Capital Games - Bashing Joe Wilson 5 UK Independent: The Damning Evidence (Iraq NBC) 6 UPI: Iran at or near nuclear 'no return' 7 Xinhuanet: Iran renews pledge of peaceful nuke plans 8 US: America's silent WMD! tvnl 9 U.S. Newswire: US and Romania to Sign Agreement on Non-Proliferation NUCLEAR REACTORS 10 US: [NukeNet] [Fwd: [JerseyShoreNuclearWatch] Check out APP.COM - 11 US: [NukeNet] Dry Cask Charade At Indian Point 12 US: NRC: Updates Public on Indian Point Spent Fuel Storage Plans 13 US: New York Daily News:Groups blast nuke plants' storage plan 14 US: NRC: NRC Approves Power Uprate for Palisades 15 US: BBC: Homer helps teaching about energy 16 US: NRC: AmerGen Energy Company, LLC, Oyster Creek Nuclear Generatin 17 US: Sun Sentinel: FPL plans to invest $1 billion in Turkey Point, St NUCLEAR SAFETY 18 [du-list] "Tasteless, colorless, odorless" .... 19 [du-list] High levels of uranium in group of British Troops 20 [DU-WATCH] High levels of DU in British Troops 21 [du-list] News at ICBUW: Richard 'Nibby' David sues Honeywell 22 The St. Petersburg Times: PM speaks about nuclear-powered shipbuildi 23 US: StarNewsOnline.com: Explosion at GE (possible nuclear) 24 MosNews: Greenpeace Sues St. Petersburg Atomic Smelting Company 25 Xinhuanet: UK defense ministry gags Gulf war research - paper 26 US: Hawk Eye:DOE contractor's work on claims spurs audit 27 Expatica: 'No radiation exposure' after airplane crash 28 asahi.com: NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE: Nuke spill NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 29 Yucca Mt. Situation, Ongoing Industry Lies/Distortions 30 [NukeNet] Yucca Mt. Situation, Ongoing Industry 31 Interfax: Russia launches 1st radioactive waste processing plant 32 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Is anybody listening? 33 Las Vegas SUN: Porter accepts donations from Yucca supporters 34 RGJ: Nuclear panel sets hearing on Yucca documents flap 35 US: Bradenton Herald: Superfund unlikely in Tallevast cleanup 36 US: JOURNAL NEWS: NRC official: Nuclear storage system is safe 37 Nevada Appeal: Yucca offers Hollywood ending 38 US: SWN: Gov. Johanns, Attorney General Bruning Discuss Low-Level Wa 39 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus State: WIPP violating regulations 40 AJ: Israeli Scientific Research: Negev and Arava Aquifer Radiation 41 US: Morgan Hill Times: Pombo perchlorate bill passes House panel 42 US: Gilroy Dispatch: Olin's well filled with responsibility 43 Pahrump Valley Times: Surveyors begin Caliente rail corridor groundw 44 AU ABC: Australian government urged not to use Nauru as 'dumping gro 45 AU ABC: Democrats say NT more likely for nuclear dump. 46 AU ABC: NT Opposition says no to national waste dump. 47 US: The Signal: City Eyes Toxic Agency Shakeup 48 Pahrump Valley Times: Kerry, Edwards against Yucca repository 49 US: press-citizen.com: Answer to Hills' water woes may be years away 50 US: Guardian Unlimited: Neb. Wants Nuke Judgment to Be Overturned NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 51 UC orders halt to classified work at Los Alamos 52 DenverPost.com: "Goodbye" to Flats' Building 771 53 Daily Camera: Talbott: Bit by bit, nuke plant is history 54 Daily Camera: Building 771 coming down 55 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Energy Dept. seeks $935,000 fine for Flu 56 Las Vegas RJ: LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY: Breach brings lab lock 57 BBC: US nuclear lab loses secret data 58 Tennessean: Federal appeals court rejects two Oak Ridge lawsuits 59 ABQjournal: Slowing of Science Innovation at LANL Seen as Dangerous 60 SF Chronicle: UC lab halts classified research / 61 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Fernald 62 Colorado Daily: 771 walls start tumblin' down 63 Oak Ridger: Plans unveiled for new Toxco site 64 Oak Ridger: Safety forum focused on hoists 65 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Rocky 66 Oak Ridger: Appeals court dismisses toxic exposure claims 67 Daily Texan: UT regents to hear case against Los Alamos - 68 Guardian Unlimited: History Meets Trouble at Los Alamos Lab OTHER NUCLEAR 69 Google News Alert - nuclear ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Guardian Unlimited Dan Plesch: Missing link The role played by US intelligence has been predictably omitted from the Butler report Friday July 16, 2004 The Guardian The Butler report is a report in two dimensions. It is concerned with the relationship between British intelligence officials and British politicians. The missing third dimension concerns the relationship of the British with their American counterparts. On this matter, Butler, Hutton, Blair, most members of parliament and the media are silent. In general terms, the government is proud of the special intelligence relationship, and we are told that British ministers spoke to their American counterparts almost daily during the run-up to war. But Butler and his colleagues produced a report with just eight references to the United States, and several of these are to US publications. On the other side of the Atlantic, meanwhile, British intelligence material is discussed in public. The most recent report from the US Senate even had a section blacked out that discussed a British spy. Butler does mention in passing that members of the Australian, Canadian and US intelligence communities take part in joint intelligence committee (JIC) discussions. In reality, several former officials have told me that the CIA sits in the JIC almost as a matter of course. So, were there any CIA or other US officials in the JIC when the dossier was being compiled or any other discussion on Iraq took place? The Butler committee does not appear to have looked at whether any of the invalid material was sourced in the US. Once a comparative analysis of what the British and American services were saying is undertaken, it will become far clearer that the case for war was fabricated. The Pentagon's defence intelligence agency (DIA) has a close relationship with the MoD's defence intelligence service (DIS). And interestingly, both the DIA and the DIS concluded that they had no firm evidence that Saddam had chemical or biological weapons. This then brings us to the mysterious evidence that Brian Jones, the head of the relevant team in the DIS, never saw. The obvious question is if the "information" prepared by Donald Rumsfeld's office of special plans - cherry-picked from unanalysed reports and tailor-made by Iraqi expatriates - was ever shared with the UK. Perhaps this intelligence was fed to MI6 or to No 10. Perhaps it was only seen by one civil servant and the prime minister; perhaps that might have been the permanent secretary with responsibility for security and intelligence, Sir David Omand. By concentrating on the work of the JIC, Butler conveniently ignores information that reaches No 10 without going through the JIC. Even a reading of public sources reveals American information that Butler and his colleagues ought, by any common-sense understanding of the public interest, to have discussed in their report. Just turn to Bob Woodward's book, Plan of Attack, page 173. He quotes General Tommy Franks, the officer responsible for planning the attack on Iraq, as saying, on September 6 2002 (just two weeks before the British dossier was published), that: "Mr President, we've been looking for Scud missiles and other weapons of mass destruction for 10 years and haven't found any yet, so I can't tell you that I know that there are any specific weapons anywhere. I haven't seen Scud one." Now Franks believed that Saddam had WMDs, and he prepared to fight them. It is just that he, with all the intelligence resources at his command, could not find any. The next question is why Whitehall officials and ministers cannot ever mention the information provided from the US? Is it provided under rules that say the British can never mention it, while US officials can say what they please about duff British intelligence? Or is it that nothing must be done either to upset the Americans, or to reveal the extent of Britain's dependency on the US to the British public or even to most Whitehall officials? The UK's dependency consists of the supply of intelligence and also, critically, of the supply of WMDs. All through the Iraq debates there was another secret negotiation hanging over the British state. This was the renewal of the agreement under which the US and the UK trade in WMDs and through which the British retain the pretence of independent nuclear status. Are we expected to believe that the American officials at no point made any linkage or applied any leverage on the UK? That they were happy to help out Tony Blair with a 10-year deal on the supply of nuclear arms and missiles without any conditions? The reality is that in our two-dimensional world, the British will continue to march in step with Washington into future adventures, and will find themselves accepting a new generation of nuclear power plants and Star Wars missiles on the Yorkshire Moors, to keep the supply of weapons of mass destruction from being interrupted. But these are matters for the grown-ups, while the public and the press can be kept happy with the pomp and circumstance of a report from a committee of Her Majesty's privy councillors. · Dan Plesch is the author of The Beauty Queen's Guide to World Peace, published next month by Politico's danplesch@aol.com [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited Politics: 'A stronger verdict wasn't to be expected' The world is not impressed with Britain's inquiry Jenny Kleeman Friday July 16, 2004 The Guardian "Only the British can manage inquiries like this that admit to errors that absolutely no one committed," fumed Arab News, one of many papers around the world that was frustrated by the Butler report. "Only a British committee of inquiry can manage to conclude that a policy that was based on a series of what its American counterpart described as 'catastrophic intelligence failures' was nevertheless entirely justified," said the Saudi daily, which concluded that the report "suggests in essence that all the British government should be now saying is: 'Whoops! We mistakenly invaded Iraq. Sorry.'" In Qatar, the Gulf Times was shocked that John Scarlett would still become head of MI6, even though Lord Butler said he had "presided over significant failings" as chairman of the joint intelligence committee. The paper described his retention as "nothing short of endorsing the wrong candidate for the right job". It judged that Tony Blair's credibility rating - "once the envy of the world's most powerful leaders" - had been irreparably damaged. "When people look at the end result of his actions, they only find the loss of thousands of lives, massive damage to property and the turmoil and violence that is prevalent in Iraq." The French papers were also unsatisfied with the report. "Is 'Teflon Tony' going to get out unscathed once again?" asked Libération. "It seems he will." Le Figaro argued that even if Mr Blair had accepted flawed intelligence in good faith, he still could not evade the responsibility of taking his country to war on a false premise: "How then can it be explained that, in France, Jacques Chirac refused any part in the Iraq war, when his own intelligence services gave him similar information to that which Mr Blair and George Bush used to support their case?" Elsewhere in Europe, many were baffled by perceived contradictions within the report. "It is not easy to understand the consistency of all these observations," said Madrid's El País, bemused at the gap between Lord Butler's insistence there was no culpable negligence and the doubts his report raised about intelligence procedures. In Germany, the Süddeutsche Zeitung was not surprised at the report, arguing that "in view of the pillars of the establishment making up the Butler commission, and in view of its soft investigating brief, a stronger verdict was not to be expected". Yet the paper was unwilling to imagine Mr Blair escaping unscathed, as his judgment, if not his integrity, had been called into question. The Berliner Zeitung declared the prime minister's credibility was "in tatters" and his "stubborn insistence" that the war was justified "is merely an act of desperation". The British decision to go to war "looks like blind allegiance" to the US, without Mr Bush's excuse of the September 11 attacks to cloud his political judgment. Across the Atlantic, several papers made comparisons between the Butler report and the findings of the US Senate committee published last week. The New York Times thought the Butler report was "far kinder to British intelligence" than the Senate inquiry had been to the American intelligence community. The New York Post agreed, but added that the Butler report had done the US some favours in concluding that British intelligence had passed the CIA "credible data about Iraqi efforts to obtain uranium from the African nation of Niger" which, in effect, absolved Mr Bush from accusations that he knowingly lied in his 2003 state of the union address. The Post was not alone in concluding that the most worrying issue arising from the report was not the failings of Mr Blair but the inadequacy of British intelligence. The German Münchner Merkur was "shocked" that "huge budgets did not enable the secret services to send a single spy to Baghdad". Hungary's Nepszabadsag agreed that "the total failure of British intelligence is obvious" and berated MI6 for its inability to detect or digest the available data. "James Bond and his mates" may have lost the trust of the international community forever, said the paper. "It will really be a weapon of mass destruction if the data provided by the double-O agents is reduced to zero." [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 3 Guardian Unlimited: There is now no doubt that Blair misled the Commons Even when we're nice, they don't like us Like Jeeves, this Butler's first language is Euphemism After Butler's damning report, he should search his conscience again Jackie Ashley Thursday July 15, 2004 The Guardian Damp squib or smoking gun? The conclusions from Lord Butler's report seem, at first sight, to provide the expected establishment support for the government. Lord Butler proves himself no patsy Hutton. He's shrewder than the judge, a real player. He makes several trenchant criticisms. But he decides, in the end, that no one's actually to blame. Everyone's acted honourably and in good faith, so we should all just work hard to make sure it doesn't happen again. So there it is. The intelligence about weapons of mass destruction was wildly wrong. Warnings about the unreliability of the evidence were not included in the dossier the government presented to parliament. We went to war against the wishes of the majority of the UN. At least 11,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed. Islamist terrorists, who had no foothold in Iraq before, are more dangerous than ever. A bloody insurgency still burns in the country, punctuated by car-bombings and grisly videotaped beheadings. Yet the prime minister continues to insist that it was right to go to war. Never mind if the original reason - the legal reason - for doing so has been utterly discredited. Suddenly, he finds the real reason for sending in the troops was to topple a very nasty dictator and make the world a safer place. So far, so convenient. Now we can just move swiftly on, after two Commons inquiries and the reports from Lords Hutton and Butler. Let the line be drawn. But closer reading of the report presents us with one stunning and inescapable fact: the prime minister knew, from the evidence supplied to him and published yesterday by Lord Butler, that there were many doubts and uncertainties about the intelligence: to say it was dodgy is an understatement. Yet, in his forward to the September dossier, Tony Blair wrote: "What I believe the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt [my italics] is that Saddam has continued to produce chemical and biological weapons, that he continues in his efforts to develop nuclear weapons, and that he has been able to extend the range of his ballistic missile programme." Lord Butler describes as a "serious failing" the fact that the dossier did not contain warnings and caveats about intelligence known to the joint intelligence committee (JIC). If this does not add up to misleading parliament and the public, then I don't know what the word "mislead" means any more. Much has been made of the conclusion by Lord Butler and the insistence from Tony Blair himself that he acted in good faith. I'm sure he did. But whatever he believed about the merits of taking action against Saddam, there can be no doubt that he gave us all a misleading impression of the reasons for going to war. Thanks to Lord Butler, we have seen the original intelligence, and we know that the dossier was not a fair representation of it - it was sexed up. Actually, I don't think Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell and the rest of them huddled together and twisted John Scarlett's arm behind his back. It wasn't necessary. Simply, as Lord Butler says, "the JIC was put under strain" and the decision then to let the JIC take ownership of the dossier was a "mistaken judgment". What is pretty obvious is that the decision to go to war was taken in Washington. Blair felt he had to go along with it for reasons of politics. He'd decided to stand alongside the biggest boy in the playground and it was too late to go skulking in the toilets. The facts were distorted by desire. They ended up so distorted, they were a deception. It may have been self-deception as well as the deception of the rest of us: but two deceptions don't cancel out to make the truth. The fact that the prime minister misled parliament and the people about taking the country to war is a matter of law, and international order, too. The invasion of a sovereign country, however vile its regime, is something we would normally only contemplate as a last-ditch matter of self-defence. What the Butler report confirms, yet again, is that the war against Iraq was not a war of self-defence. It was not launched, first and foremost, to protect us. Those wretched weapons of mass destruction matter as an issue because they were the reason the Commons voted to go to war; they, we were told, threatened British bases and British interests directly. Well, they didn't. They didn't, because they didn't exist. In his statement to the Commons yesterday, Mr Blair accepted personal responsibility for any mistakes made. Yet he proposes cheerfully to carry on, as if he'd done nothing more serious than forget the orange juice when sent out on a Tesco run. Of course, he can hold things together if he chooses. Whatever today's byelections bring, he cannot be removed except by a cumbersome and unlikely procedure. He has the awesome power and patronage of Downing Street. He has the backing of most of the cabinet. He has, not least, his own extraordinary personal resilience, his chirpy self-belief and optimism. Mr Blair told MPs yesterday that he'd "searched his conscience" to see whether the war was justified. Now he should search it some more, to consider what effect this damning report will have on Labour's chances at the next election, and, just as important, on democratic engagement in general. How can the public be expected to vote, to get involved, to think politics changes anything, if some one can lead a country into war on a false premise, and not be held to account? Lord Butler may not have put any heads on stakes outside parliament but he has tried, and found guilty, the pals' act way of doing business in Downing Street. He calls instead, in effect, for a return to traditional governance, with its checks and balances and its clear demarcations between officials and politicians. He wants government by cabinet, not cabal. That seems to me to be quite a verdict. Lord Butler may not have meant it this way, but it is a guilty verdict on the Blair way of using power. Mr Blair has been a phenomenon. Whatever the political despair and anger engendered by the Iraq war and his collaboration with George Bush, Labour owes him a vast debt. He helped make the party electable. He won two landslides. Under him, we have had a government that has redistributed some wealth, which has expanded employment, tamed inflation and started to put some serious investment back into the welfare state. But a real leader knows when he's done what he can do, and when it would actually strengthen his party to stand down. His good faith may not be in question, but his credibility most certainly is. After Iraq, Labour and the country need some healing. Lord Butler's report is not a healing moment. The gun is still smoking, it isn't closure. That can only come from the man at the top. jackie.ashley@guardian.co.uk [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 4 The Nation: Capital Games - Bashing Joe Wilson 07/16/2004 @ 11:58am The Senate intelligence committee's report on prewar intelligence demonstrates that George W. Bush launched a war predicated on false assertions about weapons of mass destruction and misled the country when he claimed Saddam Hussein was in cahoots in al Qaeda. But what has caused outrage within conservative quarters? Passages in the report that they claim undermine the credibility of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Wilson, if you need to be reminded, embarrassed the Bush administration a year ago when he revealed that he had traveled to Niger in February 2002 to check out the allegation that Hussein had been shopping for uranium there. In his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush had referred to Iraq's supposed attempt to obtain uranium in Africa to suggest Hussein was close to possessing a nuclear weapon. When Bush's use of this allegation become a matter of controversy last summer, Wilson went public with a New York Times op-ed piece in which he noted his private mission to Niger--which he had taken on behalf of the CIA--had led him to conclude the allegation was highly unlikely. After Wilson's article appeared, the White House conceded that Bush should not have included this charge in his speech. A week later, Wilson received the payback. Conservative columnist Robert Novak, quoting two unnamed administration sources, reported that Wilson's wife, Valerie Wilson (nee Plame), was a CIA operative working in the counterproliferation field. Novak revealed her identity to suggest that Wilson had been sent to Niger due to nepotism not his experience. The point of Novak's column was to call Wilson's trip and his findings into question. The real story was that Novak's sources--presumably White House officials--might have violated the law prohibiting government officials from identifying a covert officer of the United States government. Outing Valerie Wilson was a possible felony and--to boot--compromised national security. Two months later, the news broke that the CIA had asked the Justice Department to investigate the Wilson leak. And a US attorney named Patrick Fitzgerald has been on the case since the start of this year, leading an investigation that has included questioning Bush. But now Wilson's detractor on the right claim the critical issue is Wilson's credibility on two points: whether his wife was involved in the decision to send him to Niger and whether he accurately portrayed his findings regarding his Niger trip. And they have made use of the Senate intelligence report--particularly additional comments filed by committee chairman Pat Roberts and two other Republican members of the committee, Kit Bond and Orrin Hatch--to pound Wilson. But not only does the get-Wilson crusade ignore the main question--did White House officials break the law and damage national security to take a swing at a critic?--it overstates and manipulates the material in the Senate report. The first shot at Wilson actually came from The Washington Post. The day after the Senate report was released, Post reporter Susan Schmidt did an entire piece on the portion of the report related to the Niger episode. (By the way, the Post devoted more space to the Wilson affair than to the report's conclusion that there was no intelligence to back up Bush's assertion that Iraq and al Qaeda had maintained a working relationship.) In this story, Schmidt claimed that Wilson was "specifically recommended for the [Niger] mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly." She also reported that the intelligence committee "found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts." Schmidt added, "The report may bolster the rationale that administration officials provided the information not to intentionally expose an undercover CIA employee, but to call into question Wilson's bona fides as an investigator into trafficking of weapons of mass destruction." Within days, Tim Graham, an analyst at the conservative Media Research Center, wrote a piece for The National Review pointing to the Schmidt article and decrying the "truth-telling problems" of Wilson, whose recent best-selling book is titled The Politics of Truth. Then Novak, returning to the scene of the (possible) crime, cited the committee report and the Republicans' additional comments to prove that he had been right to report in his original column that Wilson's wife had been behind the move to send Wilson to Niger. And Novak approvingly quoted Senator Roberts blast at Wilson: "Rather than speaking publicly about his actual experiences during his inquiry of the Niger issue, the former ambassador seems to have included information he learned from press accounts and from his beliefs about how the Intelligence Community would have or should have handled the information he provided....Time and again, Joe Wilson told anyone who would listen that the president had lied to the American people, that the vice president had lied, and that he had 'debunked' the claim that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. . . . [N]ot only did he NOT 'debunk' the claim, he actually gave some intelligence analysts even more reason to believe that it may be true." (In this column, Novak did not explore the ethics or legality of White House officials identifying CIA officers.) And then, of course, The Wall Street Journal's editorial page piled on. So did the Republican National COmmittee. Wilson has written a response to Roberts that addresses many of the criticisms being hurled at him. (See it here. And read Roberts comments hereand decide who makes the better case.) But let's sort out some of the various claims. First, what the report says about Valerie Wilson's role in this business. In his book, Wilson writes, "Apart from being the conduit for a message from a colleague in her office asking if I would be willing to have a conversation about Niger's uranium industry [with CIA counterproliferation experts], Valerie had had nothing to do with the matter. Though she worked on weapons of mass destruction issues, she was not at the meeting I attended where the subject of Niger's uranium was discussed, when the possibility of my actually traveling to the country was broached. She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip." So what if she had? A week in Niamey for no pay was hardly a junket. What would have been wrong with a CIA officer telling another CIA officer, hey my husband, a former ambassador, is an Africa expert with experience in Niger, perhaps you should send him to Niger to see what he can learn? But because Wilson is on record saying it did not happen this way, the question is whether he has been truthful. The intelligence committee report says, "Some [CIA Counterproliferation Division] officials could not recall how the office decided to contact the former ambassador, however, interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicate that his wife, a CPD employee, suggested his name for the trip. The CPD reports officer told Committee staff that the former ambassador's wife 'offered up his name' and a memorandum to the Deputy Chief of the CPD on February 12, 2002, from [Valerie Wilson] says, 'my husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.'...The former ambassador's wife told Committee staff that when CPD decided it would like to send the former ambassador to Niger, she approached her husband on behalf of the CIA." The report also notes, "On February 19, 2002, CPD hosted a meeting with the former ambassador, intelligence analysts from both the CIA and INR [the State Department's intelligence unit], and several individuals from the [Directorate of Operations'] Africa and CPD divisions. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the merits of [Wilson] traveling to Niger. An INR analyst's notes indicate that the meeting was 'apparently convened by [Wilson's] wife who had the idea to dispatch [him] to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger uranium issue. The former ambassador's wife told Committee staff that she only attended the meeting to introduce her husband and left after about three minutes." This is not what ex-CIA chief George Tenet would call a slam-dunk case against Wilson. Sure, some of the evidence seems to contradict his account. But Valerie Wilson could have "offered up" his name as a handy person to contact about allegations concerning Niger's uranium trade without suggesting he get on a plane to Niger. And it is certainly imaginable that an INR analyst sitting in a meeting in which there is talk of dispatching a CIA officer's husband to Africa could have received the impression that his wife had initiated the mission. But if that was the case, why did Valerie Wilson attend for only a few minutes? If Valerie Wilson's account of this meeting is not accurate, where are the contradicting accounts from the other participants? Why does the report not quote them on this topic? Since only a week elapsed between the time Valerie Wilson "offered up" her husband and a meeting was held to consider sending him to Niger, it is possible that someone participating in the matter might have thought that Valerie Wilson's original advice--talk to my husband--was related to question of sending an unofficial envoy to Niger to seek out additional information. When Wilson returned from Niger two CIA officers debriefed him. "The debriefing," the Senate report says, "took place in the former ambassador's home and although his wife was there, according to the reports officer, she acted as a hostess and did not participate in the debrief." If Valerie Wilson had played a key role in sending Joseph Wilson to Niger, would she have skipped out on this debriefing? Perhaps. But this scene reinforces Wilson's claim that she was not deeply involved in his Niger trip. It may be that in some of his public remarks, Wilson underplayed his wife's involvement in his trip. After all, according to the Senate intelligence committee's report, she did write at least one memo on the subject. But it is not clear from the report that she specifically advocated he be sent to Niger. Again, it makes little difference--or it should make little difference--whether Valerie Wilson said to her CIA colleagues "contact my husband" or said to them "you should put him on a plane to Niamey immediately." The report notes that the CIA people in charge of investigating the Niger allegation deliberated over what to do and then reached the decision to ask Wilson to perform a pro bono act of public service. And he said yes. He had the experience for the job. His trip was not a boondoggle arranged by his wife for his or their benefit. Now on to the claim that Wilson's report to the CIA actually provided more reason to believe Iraq had been seeking yellowcake uranium. In his debriefing Wilson reported that former Nigerian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mayaki had told him that in 1999 he had been asked to meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Niger and Iraq. Mayaki said he assumed the delegation wanted to discuss uranium sales. But he said that although he had met with the delegation he had not been interested in pursuing any commercial dealings with Iraq. The intelligence report based on Wilson's debriefing also noted that the former minister of mines explained to Wilson that given the tight controls maintained by the French consortium in charge of uranium mining in Niger, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to arrange a shipment of uranium to a pariah state. What did this report mean to the intelligence community? A CIA reports officer told the Senate intelligence committee that he took it as indirect confirmation of the allegation since Nigerian officials had admitted that an Iraqi delegation had traveled there in 1999 and since the former prime minister had said he believed Iraq was interested in purchasing uranium. But an INR analyst said that he considered the report to be corroboration of INR's position, which was that the allegation was "highly suspect" because Niger would be unlikely to engage in such a transaction and unable to transfer uranium to Iraq due to the strict controls maintained by the French consortium. But the INR analyst added, the "report could be read in different ways." ****************************** After you read this article, check out David Corn's NEW WEBLOGby going to www.davidcorn.com. ****************************** Wilson's work was thrown into the stew. The CIA continued to disseminate a report noting that a foreign intelligence service had told US intelligence that Niger had agreed to supply Iraq with hundreds of tons of uranium. And in the National Intelligence Estimate produced in October 2002, the intelligence community reported that Iraq had been trying to strike a uranium deal with Niger in 2001. But the NIE noted that INR strongly disagreed with this assessment. And when the National Security Council drafted a speech for Bush in October 2002 the CIA recommended the address not include the Niger allegation because it was "debatable" whether the yellowcake could be obtained from Niger. In a follow-up fax to the NSC, the CIA said "the evidence is weak" and "the procurement is not particularly significant to Iraq's nuclear ambitions because the Iraqis already have a large stock of uranium oxide in their inventory." Still, in late January 2003--after the INR's Iraq analyst had concluded that papers recently obtained by US intelligence related to the supposed Iraqi-Niger uranium deal were "clearly a forgery"--Bush went ahead and accused Iraq of seeking uranium in Africa. But on April 5, 2003, the National Intelligence Council issued a memo that noted, "we judge it highly unlikely that Niamey has sold uranium yellowcake to Baghdad in recent years." It added that the government of Niger was unlikely to proceed with such a deal. And on June 17, 2003, the CIA produced a memo that said, "since learning that the Iraq-Niger uranium deal was based on false documents earlier this spring, we no longer believe that there is sufficient other reporting to conclude that Iraq pursued uranium from aboard." So Wilson's assessment ended up being accepted by the CIA. His reporting may not have been conclusive. But as we have been told repeatedly this past week, such is often the case in intelligence collection. After coming back from Niger, Wilson's view--which he did not express publicly for nearly a year and a half--was different from that held by CIA analysts. Yet his conclusion--that the Niger allegation was probably bunk--was in line with the thinking of the State Department's lead analyst on this matter. And Wilson's reasoning came to prevail and to be shared by the intelligence community. For some reason, Novak does not mention this in his recent column. Finally, let's address Schmidt's claim that the Senate intelligence committee's report "may bolster" the defense of the leakers--whoever they are. Whether their motivation was to punish Wilson for speaking out or to try to undermine his credibility by suggesting his only bona fides for the Niger trip was his marriage license, blowing Valerie Wilson's cover still was a possible crime and an odious act. The law does not allow a government official to reveal a CIA officer--and jeopardizing the officer, her contacts, and her operations--to score political points. What Wilson told his CIA contacts, what he told reporters, what he said in public--accurate or not--did not justify disclosing Valerie Wilson's identity. Nor did it justify the subsequent White House effort to encourage other reporters to pursue the Valerie Wilson story. The leak was thuggish and possibly felonious. And the Wilsons and others are waiting to see what comes from Fitzgerald's investigation. (NBC News reported recently that the probe had expanded to examine possible acts of perjury and lying to investigators.) There is no telling if the investigation will end with indictments or whitewashing. It has been a mostly leak-free probe, and even senior people at the Justice Department say they have no idea where Fitzgerald is heading--if anywhere. Whatever Fitzgerald's criminal investigation produces, the Wilsons were wronged. And Bush and his White House crew did nothing to seek out or punish the Novak-enabled leakers who placed politics ahead of national security and decency. Instead, White House officials peddled the leak further to discredit Wilson, and GOPers have been seeking to blast him ever since. Roberts and other Republicans are using the intelligence committee's report to whack Wilson, a prominent opponent of the Iraq war and a foreign policy adviser to Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. If only Roberts' committee had applied as much time and energy into investigating the Wilson leak (and how the White House reacted to the leak) as it did to the actions of Valerie Wilson. But the leak is a subject that, for some odd reason, has escaped the attention of Roberts' investigators. And Roberts and his ideological comrades are exploiting the release of the committee's report to blame the victims of the leak. They are far more angered by alleged (or trumped-up) inconsistencies in Wilson's account than by Bush's misrepresentation of the prewar intelligence. Talk about overstating a problem. **************** DON'T FORGET ABOUT DAVID CORN'S BOOK, The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception(Crown Publishers). A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! An UPDATED and EXPANDED EDITION is NOW AVAILABLE in PAPERBACK. The Washington Post says, "This is a fierce polemic, but it is based on an immense amount of research....[I]t does present a serious case for the president's partisans to answer....Readers can hardly avoid drawing...troubling conclusions from Corn's painstaking indictment." The Los Angeles Times says, "David Corn's The Lies of George W. Bush is as hard-hitting an attack as has been leveled against the current president. He compares what Bush said with the known facts of a given situation and ends up making a persuasive case." The Library Journal says, "Corn chronicles to devastating effect the lies, falsehoods, and misrepresentations....Corn has painstakingly unearthed a bill of particulars against the president that is as damaging as it is thorough." And GEORGE W. BUSH SAYS, "I'd like to tell you I've read [ The Lies of George W. Bush], but that'd be a lie." For more information and a sample, go to the official website: www.bushlies.com. And check out Corn's blogon the site. ************ OLDER WMD Report Whacks CIA Back to top Washington--a city of denials, spin, and political calculations. They may speak English there, but most citizens still need an interpreter to understand its ways and meanings. David Corn, the Washington editor of The Nation magazine, has spent years analyzing the policies and pursuing the lies that spew out of the nation's capital. He is a novelist, biographer, and television and radio commentator who is able to both decipher and scrutinize Washington. In his dispatches, he takes on the day-by-day political and policy battles under way in the Capitol, the White House, the think tanks, and the television studios. With an informed, unconventional perspective, he holds the politicians, policymakers and pundits accountable and reports the important facts and views that go uncovered elsewhere. Check out David Corn's new bestselling book, The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception (Crown Publishers). For information, visit www.bushlies.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Enter your e-mail address for free advisories from The Nation. ----------------------------------------------------------------- also by David Corn Kerry: No W. (& No Bill) 08/2/2004 issue Senate WMD Report Whacks CIA, Not Bush 07/19/2004 (web) Edwards Journal 07/19/2004 (web) Al Qaeda Disconnect 07/5/2004 issue 66 Things to Think About When Flying Into Reagan National Airport 03/2/1998 issue Election Matters: Kerry's War Strategy 06/21/2004 issue Stonewalling on Wilson 05/24/2004 issue Rumsfeld's Police Secret 05/10/2004 (web) more... ----------------------------------------------------------------- RSS FEED Privacy Policy Copyright © 2004 The Nation ***************************************************************** 5 UK Independent: The Damning Evidence (Iraq NBC) Revealed: Government witnesses knew September dossier was unsafe - but did not tell Hutton By Kim Sengupta and Andrew Grice 16 July 2004 Crucial doubts about Iraq's ability to produce chemical weapons were withheld from two inquiries which examined the Government's case for war. Lord Hutton's investigation into the death of David Kelly and Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, which monitors the intelligence services, were not told that information which helped Tony Blair claim that Saddam Hussein posed a "serious and current" threat had already been discredited and withdrawn by MI6. The disclosure put new pressure on John Scarlett, the former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), who is being urged to resign from his new post as head of MI6 following the criticism of the pre-war intelligence in the Butler report published on Wednesday. Three out of five key sources for the most sensational claims in the Government's September 2002 dossier on Iraqi weapons proved to be so untrustworthy that MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service) officially withdrew their contributions. According to paragraph 405 of the Butler report, "in July 2003 ... SIS withdrew the two reports [about ongoing production of chemical weapons] because the sourcing chain had by then been discredited". The Hutton inquiry began taking evidence in August 2003. The withdrawals fatally undermine the case for war and would undoubtedly have had a significant bearing on the Hutton report. But they were not revealed to Lord Hutton by any of the government witnesses, who included Mr Blair, Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, Mr Scarlett, and Sir Richard Dearlove, the outgoing head of MI6. All stood by the claims in the dossier, although it is not clear how many were aware that the intelligence had been withdrawn. Dr Brian Jones, a leading expert on chemical and biological weapons at the Defence Intelligence Staff who was not allowed to see the new intelligence, said last night: "This is very significant. Either the Prime Minister knew, when he gave his evidence to the Hutton inquiry, that the information from this source had been withdrawn in July 2003, in which case the question must be asked why didn't he mention it? Or, he was not told. In that case, surely, he must ask why he wasn't told, and whose decision was it not to tell him." The discredited informants had provided "intelligence" that formed the basis for some of the most alarming charges in the dossier - that Saddam had an active chemical and biological weapons programme. It is also at the heart of the claim that Iraq could deploy such weapons "within 45 minutes". Lord Butler found that the two sources whose credibility is deemed to remain intact produced far less alarming reports about Iraq's supposed capabilities. The discredited information was the only material at the time suggesting that Saddam had "an ongoing chemical production facility", intelligence sources said. The intelligence was withdrawn by MI6 in July 2003, after agents visiting Iraq found the secondary "sub-source", who had supposedly supplied their main source with intelligence, denied ever doing so. The Butler report concluded that "the two reports from this source, including one which was important in the closing stages of the production of the Government's September [2002] dossier, must now be treated as unsafe". The fact that the intelligence had been withdrawn did not emerge in the Hutton inquiry, which began in August 2003. It also appears that the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) was not told, even though it was taking evidence about Iraq's weapons in July and August. In a report in September, the committee backed the Government's case that Iraq had an active WMD programme. As late as February this year the Government was still insisting that the dossier provided a balanced view. Mr Blair will be questioned about the new controversy in a Commons debate next week. Michael Ancram, the shadow Foreign Secretary, said: "This is yet another example of Blair's statements not matching the reality of the intelligence. This is yet another unanswered question the Prime Minister should come clean about ... This is yet another body blow to the Prime Minister's waning credibility." Sir Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said: "Those who knew this information had been withdrawn - and who had previously provided it as being authentic and supportive of the dossier - had an obligation to tell others whose judgements were affected by it, as soon as it came to their notice that it couldn't be relied upon." He was "very surprised" that the ISC was not told and suggested that it might have reached a different conclusion. He added: "No attempt was made either before that committee or indeed, as I understand it, before the Hutton inquiry, to say 'look we had this piece of information, it was very important from the point of view of the dossier but we have had to withdraw it now because we cannot regard it as reliable'. That inevitably inhibits and undermines the work of Parliament's scrutiny committee of the intelligence services." On each of the three occasions where intelligence was withdrawn, MI6 told the JIC and Mr Scarlett of its decision. According to MI6, it was up to the JIC to pass this on to Downing Street. The Cabinet Office refused to comment yesterday on whether this was done, or when MI6 informed the JIC. UK Independent Ltd. ***************************************************************** 6 UPI: Iran at or near nuclear 'no return' - (United Press International) July 16, 2004 Washington, DC, Jul. 16 (UPI) -- Iran may have passed the point of "political no return" in the development of nuclear capabilities, a leading scholar told a Washington conference Friday. Ray Takeyh, professor of National Security Studies at the National Defense University, told a panel discussion held by the Center for American Progress the prospect of negotiation was fading "as every day passes." He stressed Iran was developing weapons for the purpose of deterrence, particularly against the United States and a politically unpredictable Iraq. There is now a common nationalist unity in Iran against capitulation to outside intervention, he said, pointing out that even the usually progressive Iranian students demonstrated against the signing of additional protocols put forward by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Engagement, along the lines of bilateral negotiations with Iran is crucial, Takeyh said. An Iran that feels "safe" and has the prospect of expanding relations is more likely to relinquish nuclear ambitions than a threatened and isolated one, he said. [UPI Perspectives] ***************************************************************** 7 Xinhuanet: Iran renews pledge of peaceful nuke plans www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2004-07-16 20:39:30 TEHRAN, July 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi pledged that Iran's nuclear plans are completely peaceful, the official IRNA news agency reported Friday. "The propaganda against Iran's nuclear energy activities is meant to deprive the Islamic Republic of its legitimate right to exploit peaceful nuclear technology," Kharazi was quoted as saying during his visit to Tunis. Iran's nuclear plans has always been peaceful, Kharazi said, adding that Iran, initiating the idea of a Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction, would continue to promote that policy. Iran has been repeatedly denying the US accusation of secretly developing atomic weapons, claiming that its nuclear research is fully peaceful and the US accusation is politically motivated. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 America's silent WMD! tvnl Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 00:47:41 -0500 (CDT) HEADLINES and NEWS LINKS Courtesy of TvNewsLies.org July-14-04____________________________________________________ WAR - http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#war * CIA Official: Iraq War Helping al-Qaida * Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction *** Depleted Uranium: America's Silent Weapon of Mass Destruction - * NATO Aided U.S. Vigilantes running a private jail in Afghanistan * 'Serious flaws' in Iraq intelligence: Does Blair have any credibility left?" * Car bomb rocks centre of Baghdad * Philippines starts Iraq troop withdrawal * Blair takes blame for use of WMD intelligence * Bulgarian hostage reportedly killed in Iraq * THE TRAIL OF DISINFORMATION - Let's start with a simple fact. The United States invaded and conquered Iraq on the basis of * Iraqi police detain over 500 criminals * Saudi Arabia acknowledges its militants may be fighting in ECONOMY - http://www.tvnewslies.org/news#economy * Retail Sales See Biggest Drop in 16 Months * Hiring Freeze Starts, Layoffs Possible at Bureau of Prisons 9/11 - http://www.tvnewslies.org/news#911 * Saudi al-Qaida suspect surrenders CONGRESS - http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#congress * McCain: Same-sex marriage ban is un-Republican * Senate Intelligence Committee Lets the Bush Administration Off the Hook on Iraq * Some in Congress Rethinking War Vote Based on False Data * GOP Vows to Push Gay-Marriage Amendment DOMESTIC - http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#domestic * US 'needs terror policy debate' * Medicare Law Is Seen Leading to Cuts in Drug Benefits for Retirees * Voting Machine Critics Rally Across U.S. ENVIRONMENT - http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#environment * Bush Administration Steps Up Pressure on EU to Weaken Proposed Chemical Laws INTERNATIONAL - http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#international * Israeli army fires on U.N. convoy * US apologises over body search - The United States has apologised to former Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes after he was body searched during visits to the US last year. * Mubarak swears in new government - * Martin to make decision on missile defence MILITARY & VETERANS - http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#military * US soldiers seek asylum in Canada * Navy, Army, And Coast Guard Units Get New Commanders EDITORIAL - http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#editorial * Slipping Towards Armageddon - Israel in Iraq * Paul Krugman: What Republicans keep in the closet * Liberty, Vigilance and the Writing on the Wall : Will the 2004 election be called off? * Whitewash! - The real purpose of a government report is to place the blame where it does the least damage to the political party in office. JOURNALISM & MEDIA- http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#media * Former Army Scientist Sues New York Times, Columnist * Matt Drudge, a Gay Who Backs the Gay Bashers HEALTH & SCIENCE - http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#health * US Spurns Annan's $1 Bln Plea for Global AIDS Fund * US AIDS chief heckled at summit * Annan Says AIDS Fight Must Match War on Terror * Doctors Say Pact Threatens AIDS Progress * Experts in Sex Field Say Conservatives Interfere With Health and Research * Anger at US ban on Aids scientists ________________________________________________________________ Dont forget to check out todays smile! http://tvnewslies.org/html/smile_.html Please help us fight corporate media deception! Select a premium gift for any donation! ***************************************************************** 9 U.S. Newswire: US and Romania to Sign Agreement on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Materials 7/16/2004 3:32:00 PM To: Assignment Desk and Daybook Editor Contact: Jeanne Lopatto, 202-586-4940, or Drew Malcomb, 202-586-5806, both of the U.S. Department of Energy News Advisory: On Monday, July 19, U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and Romanian Minister Delegate Sebaran Valeca will sign the Romanian "Implementing Agreement Concerning Cooperation in the Area of Countering the Proliferation of Nuclear Materials and Technologies." This marks another step in accelerating the repatriation of Russian-origin nuclear materials under the Bush Administration's Global Threat Reduction Initiative. The signing will be witnessed by the Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase. WHO: -- Secretary Abraham -- Minister Delegate Sebaran Valeca WHAT: Signing ceremony WHEN: Monday, July 19 from 4:15 to 4:45 p.m. WHERE: The Romanian Consulate, 200 East 38th Street, New York, N.Y. -- Phone number: 212-682-9120 http://www.usnewswire.com/ ***************************************************************** 10 [NukeNet] [Fwd: [JerseyShoreNuclearWatch] Check out APP.COM - Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:34:08 -0700 -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [JerseyShoreNuclearWatch] Check out APP.COM - Governor will take stand on Oyster Creek Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 00:52:04 EDT From: Jpaws2000@aol.com Reply-To: JerseyShoreNuclearWatch@yahoogroups.com To: jerseyshorenuclearwatch@yahoogroups.com Click here: APP.COM - Governor will take stand on Oyster Creek Governor will take stand on Oyster Creek Published in the Asbury Park Press 7/14/04 By NICHOLAS CLUNN MANAHAWKIN BUREAU TRENTON -- Gov. McGreevey, facing criticism for not taking a stand on the proposal to keep the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey open for 20 more years, said yesterday he will make his views known on the controversial issue.McGreevey will announce his stance after reviewing a recommendation from Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell, who has called for the plant's closure unless deteriorating equipment is replaced and security enhanced.AmerGen, the plant's owner, wants the 650-megawatt reactor to continue in business after 2009, when its current 40-year operating license expires. The utility will apply to the federal government for a 20-year license renewal in mid-2005.The governor did not say when he would make his decision public.McGreevey's stance will become an issue among Ocean County voters in the 2005 gubernatorial election, when McGreevey is expected to seek a second term, said state Sen. Leonard T. Connors Jr., R-Ocean."If he wants Ocean County to vote for him when he comes up, he better take a stand opposing it," Connors said.Oyster Creek says it produces 9 percent of New Jersey's electricity, enough to power 600,000 homes. The plant employs 420 workers and last year pumped $52 million into Ocean County's economy, according to plant figures.At 34 years old, Oyster Creek has operated longer than any other commercial reactor in the United States, which has 103 nuclear power plants.Clout could be key Critics of the renewal -- interest groups, state lawmakers and 17 Ocean County municipalities -- have for months called on McGreevey to come out against the plan. McGreevey, they say, is powerful enough to negotiate with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that oversees the renewal process."The governor is clearly the best messenger, being the leader of the state," said Emily Rusch, an energy advocate for the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group.The group wants Oyster Creek closed in 2009. Some have called for the plant's immediate decommissioning. Other critics, meanwhile, said they would endorse a license renewal only if the plant undergoes an independent risk assessment.In Maine, then-Gov. Angus King's efforts in persuading NRC officials to allow an independent risk assessment at the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant show what effect McGreevey could have on Oyster Creek's future.The state-funded Maine assessment, which cost about $12 million, revealed serious flaws at the plant. Instead of making costly repairs, plant management decided to decommission the reactor in 1997, said Raymond Shadis, executive director of Friends of the Coast, a citizens group that called for Maine Yankee's decommissioning.King, an independent, played a major role in convincing NRC officials to allow the assessment. He telephoned former NRC Chairwoman Shirley Ann Jackson several times to lobby for a closer look at the plant, he said."It would have never happened if the governor hadn't gotten involved," said Shadis, who lives about a mile from the plant in Wiscasset, a small village off Maine's mid-coast region.Resolutions of opposition Ocean County towns have made smart political moves by passing resolutions critical of the license renewal plan, Shadis said. McGreevey, he said, should feel pressured by the resolutions.The governor on July 2 initiated a conference call with 12 Ocean County mayors to hear their thoughts on the license renewal issue.Lacey's John C. Parker was the only mayor who applauded the renewal plan. Parker said he trusts the NRC to guarantee plant safety. A plant closure, meanwhile, would devastate the township's economy, he said.An annual $11.5 million state subsidy that Lacey gets for having a power plant makes up about a quarter of the municipal budget. Under state law, the township would continue to receive the subsidy if the plant closed. Parker, however, worries lawmakers could change that."If you want another bankrupt town you want to take care of, fine," Parker said he told McGreevey. Nicholas Clunn: (609) 978-4597 or nclunn@app.com John Pawlowski Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, PO Box 4283, Brick, NJ 08723 Phone 732-830-6565 www.jerseyshorenuclearwatch.org Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT lrec_companion_043004.gif rand=649993528.gif ---------- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: * http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JerseyShoreNuclearWatch/ * * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: * JerseyShoreNuclearWatch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com * * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. -- 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 Attachment Converted: lrec_companion_043004.gif: 00000001,603bedc7,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: rand=649993528.gif: 00000001,603bedc8,00000000,00000000 ***************************************************************** 11 [NukeNet] Dry Cask Charade At Indian Point Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:34:03 -0700 Here's Democracy & Homeland Insecurity for you courtesy of NRC and Entergy: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/16/nyregion/16indian.html Regulators Meet With Critics of New Storage for Indian Point By KIRK SEMPLE Published: July 16, 2004 EEKSKILL, N.Y., July 15 - Federal regulators, in a meeting here on Thursday with local residents, activists and government officials, sought to placate critics of a plan to build new storage for highly radioactive waste at the Indian Point nuclear power plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees the plant, organized the meeting to give the public a chance to ask questions - and vent - about a plan to transfer spent fuel rods from storage pools at the two reactors to a set of storage silos, or "dry casks," made of concrete and steel. Advertisement The company that operates the plant, in nearby Buchanan, says the move is needed to free up space in the storage pools, now nearing capacity. The company, Entergy Nuclear Northeast, has already received the approval of federal regulators to use the dry casks, so it seemed doubtful that the four-hour meeting, held in a conference room of a marina on the Hudson River, would have any effect on the plan. Still, a commission panel, in a series of presentations and in a sometimes feisty question-and-answer session, insisted that it would subject the dry casks to rigorous inspections. "While we believe the systems today are safe and secure, we don't stop there, and we won't stop there," said Larry W. Camper, deputy director of the agency's licensing and inspections directorate. A lobby led by the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, a group of civic organizations that wants to shut down the plant and its two reactors, has faulted Entergy for its choice of dry casks, saying the current model has design faults. The groups also insist that Entergy spread the dry casks out and conceal them within bunkers and containment buildings. Entergy says that its plan is safe and in compliance with federal regulations, and that the dry casks are secure enough to prevent radiation leaks and survive terrorist attacks. "The casks, we believe, will withstand a commercial airliner crashing into them," Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy, said in an interview on Thursday. Each cylindrical cask is 20 feet tall and 11 feet in diameter and has walls two feet thick. Commission officials said the type of dry cask selected by Entergy was already in use at eight American nuclear power plants. Entergy and federal regulatory officials say the dry casks will remain at Indian Point only as long as it takes to open a federal storage area for spent fuel rods. But a long-sought government effort to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada hit a major snag last Friday when a federal appeals court said the government standards for protecting the public from radiation leaks there were inadequate. Kyle Rabin, senior policy analyst for Riverkeeper, a Hudson River environmental group, said officials should honestly regard the dry casks not as a temporary measure but as something permanent, particularly with Yucca Mountain in doubt. Indian Point, he warned, was being converted into "a nuclear waste dump on the banks of the Hudson." _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 12 NRC: Updates Public on Indian Point Spent Fuel Storage Plans News Release - Region I - 2004 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I No. I-04-037 July 15, 2004 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: a dry cask storage facility for spent fuel planned for the Indian Point nuclear power plant will be subject to rigorous reviews by the agency before it is allowed to operate. In addition, NRC officials said inspections will be conducted to ensure the facility meets stringent agency requirements with regard to safety and security of the units. The NRC takes very seriously its responsibility of protecting public health and safety, said Larry W. Camper, Deputy Director of the Licensing and Inspection Directorate in the NRCs Spent Fuel Project Office. We will be vigilant in our regulatory oversight of the Indian Point dry cask storage facility and make sure the units are in compliance with all relevant requirements before being placed into service. Indian Points owner, Entergy, notified the NRC late last year of its intention to build a dry cask storage facility at the Buchanan, N.Y., plant. The company plans to install the facility under a general license, an option that permits a plant to make use of certain evaluations, such as environmental impact or seismic reviews, conducted when the plant was originally licensed. Provided that a dry cask storage system already certified by the NRC is used, plant owners do not need a separate approval from the agency. Nevertheless, such facilities are subject to a series of reviews by the NRC. The type of dry cask unit that Entergy plans to use at Indian Point is already in service at eight U.S. nuclear power plant sites. Other facilities are also considering using that model. The NRC has certified the safety of the model, the Hi-Storm 100 vertical cask, after detailed technical and engineering evaluations. Prior to NRC certification of the Hi-Storm 100 for use under a general license in May 2000, there was an opportunity for members of the public to raise any concerns they might have about the models safety. Camper said the NRC will independently evaluate the plants ability to safely operate a dry cask storage facility. In the long term, the NRC will continue to check on the qualifications of personnel assigned to dry cask operations, security of the facility, environmental monitoring and maintenance. He also noted that the NRC has been proactive in ensuring the security of spent fuel storage facilities, including dry cask storage units. This has been achieved through compliance with existing NRC security standards, the issuance of security orders and advisories, regular inspections and the performance of vulnerability assessments. Collectively, these measures ensure that spent fuel can be stored safely and securely. In addition to Camper, several other NRC officials spoke at the meeting, held at Crystal Bay on the Hudson. Ron Bellamy, an NRC branch chief who oversees inspections of dry cask facilities, addressed specific areas that would be reviewed by the agency before the facility is used, including oversight of the design of the units, their fabrication, pre-operational demonstrations and operational activities. Dry cask storage is currently in use at about 30 nuclear power plant sites across the nation. The NRC considers both dry cask storage and spent fuel pools to be safe and acceptable alternatives for the storage of spent fuel. With the dry cask storage option, fuel is removed from a circulating-water spent fuel pool after a sufficient period of cooling time has elapsed and placed inside robust stainless-steel casks. Those casks are then sealed, filled with an inert gas and placed inside specially designed storage overpacks, in the case of Indian Point cylindrical vaults made of steel-reinforced concrete. Convective air flow through vents at the top and bottom of the units helps ensure that the fuel remains properly cooled. The units must be capable of resisting floods, tornadoes, projectiles, temperature extremes and other unusual scenarios. Last revised Friday, July 16, 2004 ***************************************************************** 13 New York Daily News:Groups blast nuke plants' storage plan BY JIM FITZGERALD THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A coalition of organizations seeking the shutdown of the Indian Point nuclear power plants is charging that a new plan for storing radioactive waste on the site creates "another bull's-eye on the Hudson River." "They're just adding to the risk" of contamination from an accident or attack at the plants, said Kyle Rabin, a policy analyst for Riverkeeper, one of the organizations in the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition. "They say they're doing what we're asking, but they're not." A spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, owner of the plants in Buchanan, defended the plan. Entergy plans to move some of the 12-foot rods of spent fuel that are now kept in pools and embed them in stainless steel and concrete containers. These "dry casks" would then be held on a concrete platform about the size of a football field. Though opponents have said in the past that dry casks are safer than the pools, they pointed out at a news conference on Wednesday that the casks at Indian Point would not replace the pools but supplement them, allowing Entergy to put more spent fuel into the pools, now crowded with more than 1,400 tons of waste. They also criticized the brand of cask being used, saying questions had been raised about its durability, and they criticized the absence of earthen berms that could protect the casks. They said that although the NRC calls the casking a "temporary storage solution," a court decision last Friday raised doubts about when permanent storage - inside Yucca Mountain in Nevada - would be available. They said the best way to minimize the risk of radiation from spent fuel was to close down the two reactors, thereby ending the production of spent fuel. "There's no good way to deal with something that's so toxic for so long," said Marilyn Elie of the Westchester Citizens Awareness Network. Entergy spokesman Jim Steets acknowledged that "the point is not to reduce the volume in the pools, but to make room so we can add new fuel." But he said the casks "will provide safe and secure storage regardless of when Yucca Mountain can begin to receive spent fuel." He defended the safety and reliability of dry cask storage, saying it "meets all the NRC requirements and addresses all the issues associated with safety and security, including those concerns raised post-9/11." Originally published on July 16, 2004 All contents © 2004 Daily News, L.P. ***************************************************************** 14 NRC: NRC Approves Power Uprate for Palisades News Release - 2004-08 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 04-087 July 15, 2004 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved a request by the Nuclear Management Co. to increase the generating capacity of the Palisades nuclear power plant by 1.4 percent. The NRC staff determined that the licensee could safely increase the power output of the reactor primarily through increased feedwater flow measurement accuracy. The power uprate at the plant, located near South Haven, Michigan, increases the net generating capacity of the plant from 780 to 792 megawatts electric. The licensee intends to implement the uprate by the end of September. The NRC previously published a notice about the power uprate application in the Federal Register providing the public an opportunity to comment or request a hearing. No comments or hearing requests were received by the NRC. The NRC's safety evaluation of the requested power uprate for the plant focused on several areas, including nuclear steam supply systems, instrumentation and control systems, electrical systems, accident evaluations, radiological consequences, operations, and technical specification changes. Last revised Friday, July 16, 2004 ***************************************************************** 15 BBC: Homer helps teaching about energy Last Updated: Friday, 16 July, 2004 [Homer Simpson] Homer Simpson characteristically conserving energy Cartoon character Homer Simpson's job in the nuclear industry apparently can help explain the process of electricity generation to children. Homer's cavalier work practices might alarm real-life safety inspectors, but at least youngsters have heard of the Springfield power station, according to the Science Museum in London. Researchers questioned a sample of 10 and 11 year olds and found that traditional descriptions of energy generation "drew yawns and blank looks". Children found many standard terms confusing. They thought "fossil fuels" must be something to do with dinosaurs, for example. 'Playground' Coal was "history" - seen as "dirty" because, they said, "miners got sick". Electricity was "clean" but "dangerous". The research was carried out as part of preliminary work on the Museum's new free gallery, Energy - fuelling the future, which opens on 23 July. The museum describes it as an "energy playground", intended to provide a stimulating environment for children aged seven to 14 to learn about energy. In that regard it is in step with other research which suggests children and especially girls tend to be turned off by theoretical science teaching, but engaged by the issues. So it asks questions about the political, social and environmental aspects of energy production and use. Children can play at being a global energy minister, for instance. 'Adventure' Science Museum content manager Emily Scott said the work with focus groups of children had been an eye-opener in helping her team to understand their thought processes. They had little or no familiarity with many aspects of energy production. They did not know what solar panels or wind turbines were. Homer does not feature in the exhibit - unless you count an interactive "Doh!" if you get a quiz question wrong. But fundamental to the organisers' approach was that tapping in to any aspect of popular culture - such as a TV cartoon - could help engage children's interest. "Our exhibition has been described as 'education by stealth', which is something we can be quite proud of," Dr Scott said. "It's more like an adventure in a playground than reading a text book." ***************************************************************** 16 NRC: AmerGen Energy Company, LLC, Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating FR Doc 04-16155 [Federal Register: July 16, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 136)] [Notices] [Page 42783-42784] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr16jy04-139] Station; Exemption 1.0 Background AmerGen Energy Company, LLC (the licensee), is the holder of Facility Operating License No. DPR-16, which authorizes operation of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station (OCNGS), a boiling-water reactor facility, located in Ocean County, New Jersey. The license provides, among other things, that the facility is subject to all rules, regulations, and orders of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, the Commission) now or hereafter in effect. 2.0 Request/Action Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) part 50, paragraph 50.71(e)(4) requires that licensees provide the NRC with updates to the Updated Final Safety Analysis Report (UFSAR) annually or 6 months after each refueling outage provided the interval between successive updates does not exceed 24 months. The revisions must reflect changes up to 6 months prior to the date of filing. This regulation would require the licensee to submit the next OCNGS UFSAR update by April 25, 2005, which is 24 months after the most recent update (April 25, 2003). By letter dated March 26, 2004, the licensee requested a one-time schedular exemption from the requirements of 10 CFR 50.71(e)(4), extending the filing date by ``approximately 6 months.'' This one-time schedular exemption would [[Page 42784]] thus extend the 24-month interval between the last and next filing to be 30 months. Since the licensee last submitted an update on April 25, 2003, this proposed one-time, 6-month extension would permit the next update to be as late as October 25, 2005. The requirement to reflect changes up to 6 months prior to the date of filing is unaffected by this exemption, and would still apply. The licensee also requested a permanent schedular exemption to allow filing of all future UFSAR updates up to 12 months, instead of 6 months, after completion of a refueling outage. Thus, accordingly to the licensee's current refueling schedule, this would permit the licensee to file future updates in the fall of odd-numbered years. 3.0 Discussion In its March 26, 2004, application, the licensee stated that following the schedular requirements of 10 CFR 50.72(e)(4) literally means that the licensee has to file both OCNGS and Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station (PBAPS, owned by the licensee's parent company, Exelon) UFSAR updates in the same time frame (i.e., spring) of odd-numbered years. Such filing schedule for both OCNGS and PBAPS constitutes a hardship for the licensee and its parent company Exelon; additional temporary resources would have to be employed in order to simultaneously prepare both OCNGS and PBAPS updates. Such additional resource expenditure does not contribute to increased nuclear safety. Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.12, the Commission may, upon application by any interested person, or upon its own initiative, grant exemptions from the requirements of 10 CFR part 50, when (1) the exemptions are authorized by law, will not present an undue risk to public health or safety, and are consistent with the common defense and security; and (2) when special circumstances are present. Section 50.12(a)(2)(iii) of 10 CFR part 50 indicates that special circumstances exist when compliance with a regulation would result in undue hardship significantly in excess of those contemplated when the regulation was adopted, or that are significantly in excess of those incurred by others similarly situated. In the licensee's case, a special circumstance exists because of the hardship described above, and the special circumstance requirement of section 50.12(a)(2)(iii) of 10 CFR part 50 is satisfied. The requested schedular exemptions are administrative and would not affect plant equipment, operation, or procedures. The UFSAR is simply a repository document that contains the analysis, assumptions, and technical details of facility design and operating parameters. Until the UFSAR is updated, the recent design and operational changes are documented in the licensee's safety analysis reports, and in the Commission's Safety Evaluations for changes requiring prior approval. Changes to a facility or its operation are effected through processes defined in regulations other than 10 CFR 50.71, such as, 10 CFR 50.90, 10 CFR 50.59, and 10 CFR 50.54. These regulations provide the basis for evaluating proposed changes and ensuring that the changes will not present an undue risk to the public health and safety, and are consistent with the common defense and security. The UFSAR, and its periodic updates, only reflect changes that have already been implemented under various processes prescribed by other NRC regulations such as those cited above. Consequently, extending the due date for the filing of UFSAR updates does not present an undue risk to the public health and safety. 4.0 Conclusion Accordingly, the Commission has determined that, pursuant to 10 CFR 50.12(a), the exemptions are authorized by law, will not endanger life or property or common defense and security, and are, otherwise, in the public interest. Therefore, the Commission hereby grants the licensee exemptions from the requirements of 10 CFR part 50, paragraph 50.71(e)(4) for OCNGS. Specifically, the licensee is granted a one-time exemption to delay the next UFSAR update to 30 months after the last update, instead of the 24 months allowed by the regulation, to October 25, 2005, and a permanent exemption to file all future UFSAR updates up to 12 months after completion of a refueling outage, instead of the 6 months allowed by the regulation. Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.32, the Commission has determined that the granting of this exemption will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment (69 FR 40989). This exemption is effective upon issuance. Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 9th day of July, 2004. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Ledyard B. Marsh, Director, Division of Licensing Project Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. 04-16155 Filed 7-15-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 17 Sun Sentinel: FPL plans to invest $1 billion in Turkey Point, St. Lucie nuclear plants: South Florida Sun-Sentinel [Sun-Sentinel.com] By Joseph Mann Business Writer Posted July 16 2004 Florida Power & Light Co. will invest about $1 billion over the next five to seven years as it renews the licenses on its Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear power plants, said J. A. Stall, FPL's senior vice president for nuclear operations. Stall and other top executives of FPL's nuclear operations gave six members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission a technical status report on the group's three nuclear power complexes Thursday in Juno Beach. They stressed improvements made over the past 18 months in preventive maintenance programs and plant upgrades as well as changes in training programs, personnel and communications with employees. FPL, a unit of Juno Beach-based FPL Group Inc., owns and operates nuclear plants at Turkey Point and St. Lucie, and its sister company, FPL Energy Inc., operates the Seabrook nuclear generating facility in New Hampshire. FPL outlined plans for investments in new equipment and plant upgrades, including the temporary shutdown of Turkey Point reactor No. 3 this fall for a scheduled refueling and replacement of its reactor vessel head, a key component. In addition, it plans to replace two other reactor vessel heads, one at Turkey Point Unit No. 4 and the other at St. Lucie Unit No. 1, during scheduled refuelings over the next 18 months. FPL nuclear officials, who invite members of the NRC to a briefing each year, pointed to gains such as a lower incidence of reportable work-related accidents this year, the successful refueling of St. Lucie's No. 1 unit and increased efforts to lower preventive maintenance backlogs. FPL also improved training and oversight of security personnel contracted from Palm Beach Gardens-based Wackenhut Corp. Earlier this year, four Wackenhut security guards working at the St. Lucie plant were placed on leave and three resigned after FPL discovered the personnel failed to complete their patrols. The NRC team was headed by two regional administrators: William Travers, administrator for Region II, which covers Florida, and Hubert Miller, administrator for Region I, which includes New Hampshire. Copyright 2004, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive, ***************************************************************** 18 [du-list] "Tasteless, colorless, odorless" .... Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:34:17 -0700 Uranium is tasteless and odorless only for those who don't know its taste and smell. Many hundreds of thousands to millions have tasted and smelled uranium and plutonium, among other radioactive and non- radioactive heavy metals. If you don't have experience with it or if its not pointed out to you at the time, you can't identify it when you encounter it. Knowing if there is and if so, recognizing/describing correctly, the taste and odor of urnaium is a secret handshake. Urnaium oxides and corroding urnaium metals have their own color characteristics, too. Knowing the kinetic recoiling behavior of powdered uranium is another test of the credibility of those claiming to know and have worked with alpha emitters in radioisotope labs. Anyone who says alpha emitters' oxides stand still and remain in place if left alone reveals their basic ignorance. Anyone who says that washing your body and clothing cleans away the toxin is revealing their ignorance. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 19 [du-list] High levels of uranium in group of British Troops Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:34:06 -0700 http://www.traprockpeace.org/tedd_weyman_15july04.html Unusually high levels of non-depleted and depleted uranium in Op TELIC British troops has been ignored by MoD and the British press. Tedd Weyman of the Uranium Medical Research Center http://www.umrc.net provides analysis of the contamination figures revealed in minutes of the Depleted Uranium Oversight Board. Chris Busby, Ph.d., DUOB member who was present during the meeting in question, provides additional commentary. Mr. Weyman wrote this about 3 months ago but I was unable to post earlier due to having been away for most of May and June. My apologies. Charles Jenks, attorney at law President of the Core Group Traprock Peace Center 103A Keets Road Deerfield, MA 01342 413-773-1633; Fax 413-773-7507 charles@mtdata.com http://traprockpeace.org To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT 52e7328.jpg 52e736c.jpg ---------- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: * http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ * * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: * du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com * * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. Attachment Converted: 52e7328.jpg: 00000001,43a8efff,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: 52e736c.jpg: 00000001,43a8f000,00000000,00000000 ***************************************************************** 20 [DU-WATCH] High levels of DU in British Troops Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 19:28:41 -0500 (CDT) http://www.traprockpeace.org/tedd_weyman_15july04.html Unusually high levels of non-depleted and depleted uranium in Op TELIC British troops has been ignored by MoD and the British press. Tedd Weyman of the Uranium Medical Research Center http://www.umrc.net provides analysis of the contamination figures revealed in minutes of the Depleted Uranium Oversight Board. Chris Busby, Ph.d., DUOB member who was present during the meeting in question, provides additional commentary. Mr. Weyman wrote this about 3 months ago but I was unable to post earlier due to having been away for most of May and June. My apologies. Charles Jenks, attorney at law President of the Core Group Traprock Peace Center 103A Keets Road Deerfield, MA 01342 413-773-1633; Fax 413-773-7507 charles@mtdata.com http://traprockpeace.org [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/Sj.0lB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: ***************************************************************** 21 [du-list] News at ICBUW: Richard 'Nibby' David sues Honeywell Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:34:15 -0700 International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) http://www.bandepleteduraniumweapons.org 16 July 2004 Richard 'Nibby' David sues Honeywell for poisoning him with Depleted Uranium by Carolyn d'Hesse Rogers | NDDU Support Group Nibby David is bringing a court case against his former employers, for exposing him to depleted uranium (DU). See: http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=134 Donate to Nibby: mailto:nibby@david54.fs.life.co.uk International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) http://www.bandepleteduraniumweapons.org e-mail: info@bandepleteduranium.org ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70 http://us.click.yahoo.com/Z1wmxD/DREIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 22 The St. Petersburg Times: PM speaks about nuclear-powered shipbuilding RBC, 16.07.2004, Arkhangelsk 16:56:06.Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov advocates the idea of establishing a center for nuclear-powered shipbuilding in the Russian North-West Federal District. This idea has been discussed for a long time, Fradkov, who is on a working visit in the Russian city of Arkhangelsk, reported to journalists. At the same time, the Prime Minister stressed that the center should be created through mergers of design, shipbuilding and other enterprises. "If these enterprises decide to merge, the government will support them," Fradkov declared. All rights reserved. © 1995-2003 RosBusinessConsulting (095) 363-11-11 Dow Jones Indexes data provided by Dow Jones, Inc. Terms and Conditions of Access Send your notes and suggestions to max@rbc.ru All rights reserved © 1995-2000 RosBusinessConsulting ***************************************************************** 23 StarNewsOnline.com: Explosion at GE (possible nuclear) The Voice of Southeastern North Carolina Last updated: July 16. 2004 12:38PM From staff reports An explosion this morning at the GE plant in Castle Hayne has sent one woman to New Hanover Regional Medical Center with severe burns. The plant on Castle Hayne Road contains an aircraft engine division and a nuclear division. It's unclear at this moment whether the explosion was in either of those facilities or how it occurred. Warren Lee, New Hanover County's emergency management director, was on his way to the scene shortly after 10:30 this morning but was told the incident was over. "They assured me it did not involve radioactive material," he said. However, he could not say what material was involved. The woman who was burned was in serious condition, and a New Hanover Regional Medical Center spokeswoman said she is expected to be airlifted to the burn unit at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill today. Mr. Lee said the plant is usually "a very safe facility" and things happen sometimes. The Star-News will update this story as facts become available. All material ©2004 Wilmington Star-News ***************************************************************** 24 MosNews: Greenpeace Sues St. Petersburg Atomic Smelting Company MOSNEWS.COM The nuclear energy plant in the Leningrad region near St. Petersburg / Photo: V. Kantor, www.greenpeace.ru Created: 16.07.2004 15:13 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:25 MSK The international organization Greenpeace filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Russian Ekomet-C company, which smelts radioactive metals at a nuclear energy plant in the Leningrad region surrounding St. Petersburg. The environmental group claims the nuclear energy plant was licensed by Russia’s Ministry of Atomic Energy even though checks on the company’s work have yet to prove conclusive. Greenpeace says functioning without expert approval is against the law. The group hopes to shut down the company’s activities at the plant, but is not very optimistic about its lawsuit. “The courts are all working in the interests of the Atomic Ministry,” Vladimir Chuprov, energy coordinator at Greenpeace’s Russian department, told MosNews. He says the secrecy surrounding the plant’s activities testifies to the Atomic Ministry’s commercial interests in the plant, regardless of its risks to the surrounding population. Chuprov expects a decision to be made on whether the courts will accept the lawsuit in two or three weeks. Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM ***************************************************************** 25 Xinhuanet: UK defense ministry gags Gulf war research - paper www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2004-07-16 19:09:05 LONDON, July 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Scientists paid for illnesses research in veterans of the 1991 Gulf war have been asked by the British Ministry of Defense not to reveal ongoing findings to an unofficial independent inquiry into the health of the former troops, the British Guardian newspaper reported on Friday. According to the paper, other advisers, including retired officers, as well as those monitoring the health of the troops involved in last year's invasion of Iraq, have also been asked in a letter to "observe the confidentiality" of pre-publication findings. Presenting such work before it has been reviewed by other scientists might put the credibility of the research at risk, the paper quoted the ministry as saying. The paper quoted Shaun Rusling, the vice-chairman of the Gulf War Veterans and Families Association as calling the ministry's move "despicable" after the ministry sent the letter to researchers on Wednesday. The ministry's letter came as the independent inquiry led by Lord Lloyd of Berwick revealed that Sir Peter de la Billiere, the British commander in the 1991 Gulf war, would give evidence next week, as would Lord Bramall, a head of the defense staff during the 1980s. The three-week hearing headed by the former law Lord aims to gather evidence from 30 ex-servicemen, medical experts and government representatives to establish the facts about Gulf war illnesses and resolve the long-standing dispute over their causes. Thousands of British veterans say they have suffered from unexplained ailments including kidney pains, memory loss, chronic fatigue and mood swings. They blame the cocktail of tablets and vaccinations they were given to protect them against nerve agents,anthrax and botulism. Exposure to Depleted Uranium munitions has also been identifiedas a possible cause of the illnesses. However, it has never been accepted that the illnesses have a common cause arising from the Gulf war, meaning that hundreds of veterans have not been able to claim compensation. The British government, which has funded several studies of Gulf war veterans, has always denied the existence of the so-called Gulf War syndrome and has not agreed to hold an inquiry into the illnesses. The Ministry of Defense maintains that the illnesses are so varied there can be no distinct syndrome or a specific cause. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 26 Hawk Eye:DOE contractor's work on claims spurs audit Friday, July 16, 2004, Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST src="http://www.thehawkeye.com Firm's work may have gone beyond intended scope. By MATTHEW LeBLANC mleblanc@thehawkeye.com Federal officials are investigating a Department of Energy contractor some lawmakers say may have overstepped its authority in helping to process thousands of claims filed under a workers' compensation program. Eight binders labeled "business confidential" or "proprietary" related to the case are being reviewed by investigators at the General Services Administration, which hires private contractors for government agencies. Daniel R. Levinson, inspector general at GSA, states in a letter to Sen. Charles Grassley that his staff will examine whether New Orleans–based information technology firm Science &Engineering Associates acted outside specified parameters when it began working to process claims filed by ailing nuclear weapons workers nationwide. "I have asked our Regional Inspector General for Auditing, Greater Southwest Region, located in Fort Worth, Texas, to review the matter as expeditiously as possible," Levinson said in a letter to the Iowa Republican June 17. Energy officials hired the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command to help file and keep track of more than 24,000 claims filed under its section of the compensation program. The Navy then hired SEA, which took over claims processing duties — duties that Grassley and other lawmakers have argued is beyond the scope of the original agreement. SEA managers have charged the government up to $400,000 annually for the work. "GSA–listed contractors doing work outside of the scope of their contract is an important management and accountability issue," Grassley said in a June 2 letter seeking an investigation. "I am concerned that the work SEA is performing for DOE is outside the scope of its contract with the Navy, which was arranged through the GSA schedule." Richard Miller, senior policy analyst at Government Accountability Project, estimates that only 20 percent of SEA's efforts have been focused on information technology. Also at issue is the pace at which claims are being processed. Congressional and Energy Department data show that a majority of claims filed under the DOE portion of the program have not been completely processed. Even if they are processed completely, claimants in some states, including Iowa, will not receive compensation payments under that portion because there is no one designated to pay. None of the nearly 600 former Iowa Army Ammunition Plant employees who have filed claims under the DOE program have received compensation payments. A bill was pushed through the Senate last month that would move the claims process to the Department of Labor, which also operates a portion of the compensation program. Labor officials, according to figures compiled by the General Accounting Office, have seen much higher claims processing rates. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Jim Bunning, R–Ky., and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D–N.M., is expected to be met with opposition from the Bush administration when House and Senate leaders meet to discuss it in an upcoming conference, despite bipartisan support for the bill. Also, the investigation does not mark the first time SEA's relationship to the Energy Department and the compensation program has been questioned. The company played a role in defeating a 2003 measure that would have moved control of claims under the compensation program to the DOL. That measure was defeated after Sens. Mary Landrieu and John Breaux, both Democrats from Louisiana, asked a Senate committee chairman to consider leaving SEA — identified then only as "a key employer in our state" — with the contract. SEA also has been discussed in Senate hearings dating back to September. "Only in a government contract can people make so much money and perform so poorly," Grassley said. "If this were the private sector, these people would get canned and be out on the street." Workers at IAAP in Middletown manufactured, test–fired and disassembled components of nuclear weapons at the 19,000–acre plant from the 1940s to the mid–1970s. Work at some areas of the plant has been linked to cancers and other work–related illnesses. Labor's portion of the compensation program has paid out about $3.3 million to former IAAP workers, according to a federal Web site. Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of an acknowledgment by Congress that nuclear weapons workers contracted illnesses related to their work. In 2000, lawmakers passed the Energy Employees Illness Compensation Program Act, which made arrangements for the first time to pay them. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 Toll Free ***************************************************************** 27 Expatica: 'No radiation exposure' after airplane crash 9 July 2004 AMSTERDAM  An investigation has determined that emergency personnel and members of the public involved in the Bijlmer airplane crash in 1992 were not exposed to radioactivity or other dangerous materials. Leiden University Medical Centre specialists examined 20 firefighters and other emergency service personnel and Bijlmer residents in Amsterdam, but did not discover any health problems, news agency ANP reported on Friday. An Israeli El Al cargo plane crashed into a Bijlmer apartment complex in October 1992, killing 43 people. The plane had depleted uranium on board and there were suggestions after the crash that some of the uranium might have been burned, releasing it into the atmosphere. In 2002, Amsterdam fire brigade and the Health Ministry resolved to test 20 people involved in the disaster for possible long-term health affects. The inquiry was launched in response to ongoing concerns expressed by firefighters and residents. [Copyright Expatica News 2004] Subject: Dutch news ***************************************************************** 28 asahi.com: NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE: Nuke spill By TOSHIHIDE UEDA, The Asahi Shimbun Five years after the disaster in Tokaimura, a report blames the nation's policies. `Japan is obligated to provide the world all accurate information about the accident.' KENJI SUMITA Osaka University professor emeritus The nation's biggest nuclear gaffe, which killed two and exposed more than 660 residents to radiation, was the result of lax safety control measures brought on by a shaky national policy, according to the Atomic Energy Society of Japan. The 1999 accident at JCO Co.'s nuclear-fuel processing plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, was due to compromised quality-control procedures. The nation's plutonium-usage plan was destabilized, leading to an order for large quantities of fuel at the plant that caused the entire fuel-processing procedure to be shortened, the society's investigative committee said recently. The committee will publish its full report on the deadly accident this fall, which marks the fifth anniversary of the tragedy. A committee investigative team studied roughly 15,000 articles of trial documents, examining the steps that led up to the accident. The final report, also to be sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency, will include an evaluation of the safety measures. The lessons learned will be used as reference in future disaster prevention guidelines. At the time of the accident, the JCO's Tokaimura plant was manufacturing liquid uranium for use as nuclear fuel in the Joyo reactor at the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC), formerly the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp., or Donen. It had been operating the experiential fast-breeder reactor using liquefied uranium mixed with liquefied plutonium. In January 1993, one change was added to the final stage of making liquefied uranium-Donen's on-site inspections were canceled at the JCO plant. A series of illegal activities by JCO began in 1993, coinciding with the timing of the changes implemented in the JCO's fuel-processing procedures. In the fall of 1992, many nations decried a shipment of reprocessed plutonium aboard the Akatsukimaru ship en route from France. They opposed it because the ship passed near their coasts and the plutonium can also be used to make nuclear weapons, according to Fumiya Tanabe, committee member and head engineer at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. To assuage international concerns, Donen's chairman told a Dec. 8, 1992, Diet session that the one-ton shipment would be used only as fuel for the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture, Tanabe said. Tanabe said that the commitment meant the JCO would have no other means of securing plutonium. Because this excluded use of plutonium from France to the Joyu, the only way to make fuel for the Tokaimura reactor was to mix liquefied plutonium with the liquefied uranium JCO produces. According to records, Donen began meeting with JCO officials about obtaining liquefied uranium more than 10 days before the chairman's statement in the Diet. Donen then ordered 200 kilograms of liquefied uranium from JCO by August 1993. JCO officials asked that the quality-control inspection be simplified to meet the deadline. That's how the two sides decided to skip the on-site inspection by Donen officials. ``The one ton (of plutonium) aboard Akatsukimaru was to be used for Monju from the beginning, and nothing had changed overnight,'' said Masashi Kanamori, deputy director of the Safety Promotion Project for JNC. ``Safety is an issue both businesses should take very seriously.'' Tanabe disagrees. ``If Donen had continued its inspections, it could have noticed the illegal work procedures at JCO,'' he said. In the Tokaimura accident, two workers died of extreme radiation exposure in making liquefied uranium. The accident is the worst in the history of Japan's nuclear development. The government's cap on the amount of uranium to be used for each processing round was 2.4 kilograms. The JCO workers used seven times that amount, resulting in the accident. JCO workers there also resorted to other shortcuts, including melting powdered uranium in stainless-steel buckets. The committee report also cites shoddy government oversight. In November 1983, JCO asked the government for permission to manufacture liquefied uranium and other substances for its Joyo reactor in Tokaimura. The government approved the request as soon as June 1984. The then Science and Technology Agency was to conduct an initial screening, and the Nuclear Safety Commission was to check that screening. But the agency did not even check JCO's proposed process for liquefying uranium in its initial screening. And there are records of a Nuclear Safety Commission subcommittee debating the issue, Tanabe said, but the commission should have returned the inspection results to the agency for a re-evaluation. At the time, Donen was manufacturing fuel for its Joyo and Monju reactors as well as the Fugen prototype advanced-thermal reactor. The processes for those reactors were intricately overlapped. Because there was no oversight of the entire process, Tanabe said, each factory had no choice but to make its own decisions based on their judgment when problems like meeting a delivery date arose. That is the biggest cause of this accident, he said. ``The government investigation into the accident came up with a conclusion in just three months. But the goal of that investigation was policy-making and so it lacked fact-finding efforts,'' said Kenji Sumita, professor emeritus of Osaka University who was president of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan in October 2000, when its probe started. He added that the new report is essential. ``Japan is obligated to provide the world all accurate information about the accident. Some members of the society were critical of government policy and so the society can make an overall assessment,'' Sumita said. ``In addition to physical and immediate damage, nuclear accidents have a very strong political and social impact. The investigation should also contribute to educating the world about the lessons learned through Tokaimura.''(IHT/Asahi: July 16,2004) (07/16) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 29 Yucca Mt. Situation, Ongoing Industry Lies/Distortions Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 06:06:24 -0400 The problem for the Energy Department is that it has predicted that the waste will produce doses of radiation, in the case of the highest possible exposure, that will be 10 to 80 times higher than the rules allow. But this will happen only if Congress feels strongly enough to change the rules, and say that it does not matter what happens to public safety more than 10,000 years down the road. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/15/politics/15yucca.html Ruling on Nuclear Site Leaves Next Move to Congress By MATTHEW L. WALD Published: July 15, 2004 ASHINGTON, July 14 - Can the United States ever bury its nuclear waste? And does it still want to, or need to? Even though an appeals court has found that the government's plan for a repository in the remote Nevada desert is inadequate because it provides protection for only 10,000 years, experts say the answer to the first question is yes, it can. But this will happen only if Congress feels strongly enough to change the rules, and say that it does not matter what happens to public safety more than 10,000 years down the road. Advertisement It is not clear that Congress wants to do that. At the moment, Congress cannot even muster the votes to keep financing the development of the repository, at Yucca Mountain, leading to the prospect that in October the Energy Department will have to lay off 70 percent of the 2,400 government and contract workers there. "I cannot envision this Congress legislating on the disposal standard," said a Senate aide, who asked not to be named because he was involved in the discussions to end the budget impasse. Changing the standard, he predicted, would take years. The court implied that an acceptable standard would have to last for several hundred thousand years, but even the 10,000-year standard is mind-boggling. "In thinking about those issues, these times are so far out that they don't have any real meaning to anybody," said Paul Craig, a former member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Advisory Board, which was established by Congress to give advice about the repository. "Even 10,000 years is like two Abrahams ago," Mr. Craig said, referring to the era of the biblical patriarch. The problem for the Energy Department is that it has predicted that the waste will produce doses of radiation, in the case of the highest possible exposure, that will be 10 to 80 times higher than the rules allow. And even at 10,000 years, leak rates become unpredictable because rainwater, the main mechanism for spreading the contamination, is also unpredictable. The ruling last week, by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, accepted Nevada's argument that the criteria by which Yucca should be licensed should be consistent with a 1995 report by the National Academy of Sciences, which said the period covered by the rules should include the period of peak risk. But even the National Academy was ambivalent on this point. Perhaps, it said, the generation that got the benefit of nuclear power and weapons should provide the same protection to future generations that it would want provided for itself. Or perhaps not. "The principle of intergenerational equity is a matter for social judgment," the academy said. "Social judgment" means that the scientists and engineers do not want to answer the question. Congress, however, may. It has already spoken several times on this subject. In 1982, it decided that waste should be buried, and in 1987, it said waste should be buried at Yucca, one of three sites the Energy Department was then considering. There was no presumption that Yucca was best, only that it was a site on which everybody outside Nevada could agree, and was better than leaving the waste at reactor sites around the country. Congress has made other decisions that substitute policy for science. It alone decides what high-level waste is. It is considering a bill that would redefine some waste as not being high level, so the waste could stay where it is, in old steel tanks in South Carolina, rather than being solidified for burial at Yucca. Congress has shown no immediate enthusiasm for passing a law that would reverse the court ruling. "Has Congress ever taken up a major nuclear waste issue during an election year?" said Allison Macfarlane, a nuclear waste expert at M.I.T. "They're not even touching the energy bill." Meanwhile, the waste is being moved into "dry casks," concrete and steel silos designed to last for decades. Earlier this year the owners of the Maine Yankee plant, in Wiscasset, Me., finished moving the fuel that had run the plant for its 28-year life into 60 such casks that are designed to last "indefinitely," said a spokesman, Eric T. Howes. "We're set up for the long haul," he said. The casks cost about $90 million to build, and about $7 million a year to maintain, including security costs. This week, a court here began a trial that is supposed to last seven weeks to determine how much the Energy Department owes the owner of Maine Yankee and other defunct reactors, for breaking its contract to begin taking the fuel in 1998. And in Utah, a private company hopes to win a license soon to build similar casks and store 40,000 tons of spent fuel (more than half the spent fuel that Yucca would hold) on an Indian reservation where it has leased 820 acres. Its casks are designed to last indefinitely, too, and will be needed whether or not Yucca opens, since many reactors are running out of space, say its sponsors. ***************************************************************** 30 [NukeNet] Yucca Mt. Situation, Ongoing Industry Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:34:05 -0700 The problem for the Energy Department is that it has predicted that the waste will produce doses of radiation, in the case of the highest possible exposure, that will be 10 to 80 times higher than the rules allow. But this will happen only if Congress feels strongly enough to change the rules, and say that it does not matter what happens to public safety more than 10,000 years down the road. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/15/politics/15yucca.html Ruling on Nuclear Site Leaves Next Move to Congress By MATTHEW L. WALD Published: July 15, 2004 ASHINGTON, July 14 - Can the United States ever bury its nuclear waste? And does it still want to, or need to? Even though an appeals court has found that the government's plan for a repository in the remote Nevada desert is inadequate because it provides protection for only 10,000 years, experts say the answer to the first question is yes, it can. But this will happen only if Congress feels strongly enough to change the rules, and say that it does not matter what happens to public safety more than 10,000 years down the road. Advertisement It is not clear that Congress wants to do that. At the moment, Congress cannot even muster the votes to keep financing the development of the repository, at Yucca Mountain, leading to the prospect that in October the Energy Department will have to lay off 70 percent of the 2,400 government and contract workers there. "I cannot envision this Congress legislating on the disposal standard," said a Senate aide, who asked not to be named because he was involved in the discussions to end the budget impasse. Changing the standard, he predicted, would take years. The court implied that an acceptable standard would have to last for several hundred thousand years, but even the 10,000-year standard is mind-boggling. "In thinking about those issues, these times are so far out that they don't have any real meaning to anybody," said Paul Craig, a former member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Advisory Board, which was established by Congress to give advice about the repository. "Even 10,000 years is like two Abrahams ago," Mr. Craig said, referring to the era of the biblical patriarch. The problem for the Energy Department is that it has predicted that the waste will produce doses of radiation, in the case of the highest possible exposure, that will be 10 to 80 times higher than the rules allow. And even at 10,000 years, leak rates become unpredictable because rainwater, the main mechanism for spreading the contamination, is also unpredictable. The ruling last week, by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, accepted Nevada's argument that the criteria by which Yucca should be licensed should be consistent with a 1995 report by the National Academy of Sciences, which said the period covered by the rules should include the period of peak risk. But even the National Academy was ambivalent on this point. Perhaps, it said, the generation that got the benefit of nuclear power and weapons should provide the same protection to future generations that it would want provided for itself. Or perhaps not. "The principle of intergenerational equity is a matter for social judgment," the academy said. "Social judgment" means that the scientists and engineers do not want to answer the question. Congress, however, may. It has already spoken several times on this subject. In 1982, it decided that waste should be buried, and in 1987, it said waste should be buried at Yucca, one of three sites the Energy Department was then considering. There was no presumption that Yucca was best, only that it was a site on which everybody outside Nevada could agree, and was better than leaving the waste at reactor sites around the country. Congress has made other decisions that substitute policy for science. It alone decides what high-level waste is. It is considering a bill that would redefine some waste as not being high level, so the waste could stay where it is, in old steel tanks in South Carolina, rather than being solidified for burial at Yucca. Congress has shown no immediate enthusiasm for passing a law that would reverse the court ruling. "Has Congress ever taken up a major nuclear waste issue during an election year?" said Allison Macfarlane, a nuclear waste expert at M.I.T. "They're not even touching the energy bill." Meanwhile, the waste is being moved into "dry casks," concrete and steel silos designed to last for decades. Earlier this year the owners of the Maine Yankee plant, in Wiscasset, Me., finished moving the fuel that had run the plant for its 28-year life into 60 such casks that are designed to last "indefinitely," said a spokesman, Eric T. Howes. "We're set up for the long haul," he said. The casks cost about $90 million to build, and about $7 million a year to maintain, including security costs. This week, a court here began a trial that is supposed to last seven weeks to determine how much the Energy Department owes the owner of Maine Yankee and other defunct reactors, for breaking its contract to begin taking the fuel in 1998. And in Utah, a private company hopes to win a license soon to build similar casks and store 40,000 tons of spent fuel (more than half the spent fuel that Yucca would hold) on an Indian reservation where it has leased 820 acres. Its casks are designed to last indefinitely, too, and will be needed whether or not Yucca opens, since many reactors are running out of space, say its sponsors. _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 31 Interfax: Russia launches 1st radioactive waste processing plant Updated: Jul 17 2004 6:25AM (MSK) Ðóññêàÿ âåðñèÿ Jul 16 2004 4:13PM MURMANSK. July 16 (Interfax-Northwest) - The first facility for the primary processing of radioactive wastes in Russia has been put into operation at the shipbuilding plant in Polyarny on the Kola Peninsula, Viktor Frolov, the plant's chief engineer, told Interfax. The facility was constructed for the Russian navy under the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation program "to ensure the radiological environmental safety of work involving the treatment of radioactive wastes," he said. The enterprise's annual throughput capacity is at least 500 cubic meters of solid radioactive waste before processing, and it can handle 200 cubic meters of such wastes after processing a year. Its temporary storage platform can hold 416 containers, or 629 cubic meters of solid radioactive waste. The plant's temporary storage facilities hold the solid radioactive waste remaining after the disposal of 15 nuclear submarines. These are mainly rubber and plastic components and light metal bulkheads, whose radioactive contamination is relatively low. About 800,000 cubic meters of solid radioactive wastes are stored in the Murmansk region. The Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) program was signed by the U.S., Norway, and Russia in September 1996. It is aimed at establishing the basis for resolving environmental problems caused by military activities that affect the Arctic region. Norway has invested $10 million, the U.S. $25 million, and Russia $6.5 million in various AMEC projects. For more details, see the Interfax-Military News Agency newswire. © 1991-2004 Interfax ***************************************************************** 32 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Is anybody listening? Today: July 16, 2004 at 9:01:22 PDT LAS VEGAS SUN Last week Nevadans were more optimistic about their chances of stopping the Yucca Mountain project after the state had secured an important legal victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency hadn't followed the law, which laid out a scientific framework to set safety standards for a proposed dump at Yucca Mountain so that radiation couldn't be released and harm the public. The federal government is back to square one in setting these standards, which, if they are rewritten based on real science and not on political considerations, should spell the project's demise because it's impossible to guarantee that radiation won't be released for several hundred thousand years. We are, however, troubled that soon after the federal court ruling, officials from the Energy Department (tasked with building the dump) met secretly with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (which will decide whether to give the Energy Department a license to open the dump). Bob Loux, executive director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects, has informed the NRC and the EPA that it shouldn't leave Nevada out of these discussions in the future. Further, Loux added, the meetings should be public to "avoid suggestions that new rules specifying radiation standards have been trimmed to fit the needs of the Energy Department." It's outrageous these federal regulators would leave Nevada officials out of these talks, as if being the potential home for 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste wouldn't warrant an invitation. But Nevada, at nearly every turn in the Yucca Mountain project, has been treated with contempt by federal agencies that ostensibly are supposed to protect the public and are not supposed to be shills for the nuclear power industry. Apparently not even a federal court decision in Nevada's favor hasn't yet provided these agencies with the immediate -- and necessary -- jolt that tells them it's no longer business as usual. ***************************************************************** 33 Las Vegas SUN: Porter accepts donations from Yucca supporters Today: July 16, 2004 at 10:59:59 PDT By Kirsten Searer and Suzanne Struglinski LAS VEGAS SUN Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., has just over $1.1 million on hand for his re-election campaign and has accepted donations from people leading the effort to put the Yucca Mountain project in Nevada. Porter raised about $530,000 this quarter for his effort to keep his Third District seat in Congress. And according to Federal Election Commission records filed Thursday, he has received $5,000 from the Texas Freedom Fund, a political fund-raising group controlled by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, and $1,500 from former Nevada Gov. Bob List, who now lobbies for the nuclear industry in favor of Yucca Mountain. Barton heads the House Energy and Commerce Committee and has been leading the effort in the House this year to change the funding rules for the Yucca Mountain project. The Energy Department wants the rule changes so it can funnel $750 million a year into the nuclear waste storage project at the site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, without affecting other federal programs. Porter has said he has been fighting the project for 20 years and his campaign says the money will not diminish his fight. Politicians who support Yucca Mountain and gave Porter money know that Porter will continue fighting the project, Porter campaign consultant Mike Slanker said. "If you go down the list of energy companies, legislators, PACs and lobbyists, you'll find pro-Yucca people in one way shape or form on just about every financial list for every federal elected official in Nevada," Slanker said. "The bottom line is they know we're going to fight them. We've fought them from Day One." While Porter and Barton disagree on Yucca Mountain, Barton helped Porter push through grants to the Clark County School District, Slanker said. They also worked together on issues such as tax cuts and employment bills, he said. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who isn't up for re-election until 2006, raised $70,025 this quarter, bringing his total amount of cash on hand to $513,019, a sizeable amount for someone whose re-election campaign isn't due for two years. "It probably ranks him in the top three or four or five who aren't up," said Slanker, who also is working on the Ensign campaign. "If you plan to run for re-election, no matter what office you hold, raising money is full time." Meanwhile, the campaign team for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced on Thursday that it "couldn't be in a better position" with $4.8 million in cash on hand for the upcoming election, including $766,165 Reid raised this quarter. The quarterly fund-raising report for Reid's Republican opponent, Richard Ziser, has not yet been posted on the Federal Elections Commission Web site. Ziser's campaign did not return phone calls seeking comment this morning. Other incumbent congressional members from the state also have been raising money quickly. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., has $662,669 in cash on hand. He raised $207,148 this quarter. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., raised $190,365 this quarter, giving her almost $1.1 million in cash on hand. ***************************************************************** 34 RGJ: Nuclear panel sets hearing on Yucca documents flap RGJ.com | Jul 16, 2004 Reno Gazette-Journal] Nuclear Regulatory Commission: www.nrc.gov. Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects: www.state.nv.us/nucwaste. ASSOCIATED PRESS LAS VEGAS — A Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel has scheduled oral arguments later this month on Nevada’s complaint that Energy Department documents supporting a national nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain are incomplete. NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre said Thursday the commission’s three-judge Pre-License Application Board is scheduled to hear oral arguments July 27 in Rockville, Md. Nevada officials filed a challenge Monday of the Energy Department’s June 30 declaration that it made public the information needed to support its Yucca Mountain plan six months before applying for an operating license from the NRC. The Energy Department said it satisfied the law by putting the documents on its Web site while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission processes the documents. Nevada officials argue the law requires the documents to be fully accessible at NRC’s online database, the Licensing Support Network. If the judges declare the database insufficient to meet Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements, it could delay the Yucca Mountain licensing process, said Joe Egan, a lawyer representing Nevada on Yucca Mountain. That could delay the department’s plan to submit a Yucca Mountain license application to the commission in December, and might stall the department’s plan to open the repository in 2010. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 35 Bradenton Herald: Superfund unlikely in Tallevast cleanup | 07/16/2004 KEVIN O'HORAN Herald Staff Writer Florida regulators have weighed the idea of seeking Superfund status for cleaning contamination from the former American Beryllium Co. plant but discarded the move as both unnecessary and too time-consuming to help residents. Florida Department of Environmental Protection officials said it would take a year or more to get the Tallevast project in the federal cleanup program - which typically targets abandoned sites - and months or years more for the actual cleanup work. "We really feel that the site can be best served, and the community can be best served, by pursuing immediate cleanup," said Merritt Mitchell, a DEP spokeswoman. "And we have a responsible party, in Lockheed Martin, who has indicated that they are financially able and willing to address this particular site." Lockheed Martin Corp. crews discovered contamination at the plant in January 2000, setting off a chain of events that resulted in an uproar nearly four years later when residents first learned toxic solvents had tainted drinking wells in their small community. Many residents, alarmed that leaders at DEP and Lockheed had failed to warn of the cancer-causing poisons until pressed by community members in November 2003, asked for federal help in clearing the site and assuring their safety. And, thanks to recent inquiries and entreaties from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Sarasota, they'll get some help in the form of technical expertise and advice lent to the project by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists. But that stopped short of rolling work on and around the 1600 Tallevast Road plant under the auspices of Superfund, the common moniker for 1980's Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. That act gave the federal government the go-ahead - and hefty financing, or super fund - to clean up dangerously polluted sites either abandoned or where the polluter lacked the money to do the work. Less common but also under the Superfund program, EPA has authority to conduct a speedy, though abbreviated, cleanup at sites that pose immediate, short-term dangers. "For those, we're generally looking at sources and concentrated materials we could take out very quickly to eliminate the further spread of contamination," said Mike Norman, chief of EPA's site evaluation section for the southwest district. Either approach would come by request from a variety of sources, including state officials, he noted. Sixty-four times in the past, Florida has made such a request, Mitchell said. Or, residents themselves. "There is nothing that I'm aware of that would preclude the citizenry from petitioning" for a Superfund review, said Thomas Mason, a professor of epidemiology with the University of South Florida in Tampa. "There is no reason to believe that the door is closed to pursue, in effect, a second opinion." No reason, except the constant tick of the clock. Just getting a spot on the Superfund list for full-scale cleanup - not starting work, but just getting a listing - could take two years, Norman said, while an abbreviated cleanup still could take a year or so. "Oh, boy," said a surprised Laura Ward, president of the Tallevast support group, Family Oriented Community United, Strong. "That is a long time." And the idea of using Superfund dollars to move residents temporarily or permanently out of the area, while popular among some Tallevast community members, isn't likely under either scenario. "There has been some relocation done under Superfund, but it's really rare," said Winston Smith, waste management division director in EPA's Atlanta office. Only slightly less rare is the idea of rolling into Superfund an ongoing cleanup project with an identified responsible party and a regulating government agency. As in Tallevast, where Lockheed has worked for four years on a cleanup program, work overseen by Florida regulators given authority to administer pollution control efforts spelled out in the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. "For an active, potentially responsible party that's cleaning under RCRA, that's very uncommon," to obtain Superfund status, Norman said. Which leaves it in the hands of DEP, DEP officials have maintained. As Nelson and Harris each noted after their separate meetings Tuesday with EPA top brass. And as even Tallevast residents seem ready to accept, if not embrace. "I don't care how it gets done now," Ward said, "as long as it goes ahead and gets done." ***************************************************************** 36 JOURNAL NEWS: NRC official: Nuclear storage system is safe By MICHAEL RISINIT THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: July 16, 2004) PEEKSKILL — A planned storage system for radioactive waste at the Indian Point nuclear power plants can survive a terrorist attack and prevent contamination of the environment, federal nuclear authorities explained last night. "Our primary objective is to tell you why we believe (the system) results in a safe and secure storage of spent fuel," said Larry Camper, a deputy director for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Spent Fuel Project Office. Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the owner of the plants in Buchanan, wants to transfer about 1,300 tons of used radioactive fuel from water-filled pools to "dry casks." The concrete and steel silos — 30 inches thick and each weighing up to 180 tons when loaded — would free up space in the pools for additional spent fuel. The facility, an essentially preapproved system subject to inspection and certification by the NRC, would sit on the north end of the plants' property. Entergy plans to rest the casks on a concrete pad about the size of a football field, which would be fenced in and guarded. But in a world viewed through the events of Sept., 11, 2001, organizations calling for the plant's shutdown want stricter protective measures employed — both over the pools containing the spent fuel and around the casks. Residents, activists and local officials in the conference room at the Crystal Bay restaurant questioned the casks' strength and whether allegations about possible manufacturing flaws were valid. NRC representatives and Entergy dismissed the contentions and calls for stricter measures. "We presently exceed the safety requirements," Entergy spokesman Jim Steets said. "The casks have been very stringently tested and scrutinized. They meet all the federal requirements, including those that have been added since 9/11." The environmental group Riverkeeper and the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition want soil berms, above-ground bunkers and containment buildings surrounding the casks, and fortified structures, capable of repelling terrorist attacks, built over the pools. Troops are not clustered in a war zone, and the president and vice president are separated during a national threat, said Mark Jacobs, a coalition spokesman. Likewise, he said, the spent fuel should be dispersed to make it an unattractive target for terrorists. "(Such methods) don't add costs, and they would absolutely increase the safety margin," Jacobs said. Shutting down the two reactors and ending the production of spent fuel, however, remains the best way to minimize the risk of radiation from the used fuel, critics maintain. Mayor Robert Elliott III of Croton-on-Hudson said the plants need to be decommissioned to "prevent the generation of additional waste." Last night's forum came about a week after a federal court deemed inadequate the U.S. government's plan to store nuclear waste in a desert repository in Nevada. The ruling last Friday by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the Yucca Mountain repository, where some of Indian Point's spent fuel will be shipped when the facility opens, must be constructed to protect the public against radiation releases for more than 10,000 years. The federal storage facility isn't expected to open until at least 2010. "Even if Yucca Mountain were to open in 2010, (Entergy) would still have to proceed with this," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said. The casks can store the spent fuel for up to 100 years, according to the NRC. Ron Bellamy, a regional NRC chief, said the agency would spend close to 700 hours on site at Indian Point inspecting the casks before radioactive waste was placed in them. "Our focus here is we're going to make sure the storage system can be used safely at this site," Bellamy said. Copyright 2004 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. Use of this site indicates your agreement to the Terms of Service(updated 12/17/2002) ***************************************************************** 37 Nevada Appeal: Yucca offers Hollywood ending July 16, 2004 by J.L. Smith I'm thinking of writing a story. It's about a hole in the ground in the middle of nowhere way out in Nevada. The story begins a quarter century ago with a plan to create the hole. Officially, the hole would be used as a place to store radioactive waste collected from around the country. In reality, the hole was a metaphor for the blind power and limitless greed of the men who became wealthy beyond our dreams but in the process created a waste so deadly it was capable of killing our children's children thousands of years into the future. Those powerful men decided to make billions first and fret the consequences later. When the future arrives, they use their vast political contacts to force the hole upon politically puny Nevada, a state which possesses an outlaw reputation, initially has only three representatives in Congress, and hasn't enough juice to light a 20-watt bulb. The state is targeted from the outset. Conventional wisdom, which is seldom wise, makes the hole's destiny a foregone conclusion. In short, it's all over but the shouting, the digging, and the paperwork. The people of Nevada don't want the hole, but their voices are drowned out by the sound of digging. Not just the physical kind, but the political kind as well. In an effort to soothe the fears of the citizens, expensive advertising campaigns are produced to wear them down. Lobbyists are hired to soften up politicians. Those digging the hole invite skeptics, the curious, and the media to visit it, don hard hats, and decide for themselves whether it's safe. Forget for a moment that common citizens, and especially reporters, aren't competent judges of such scientific questions. Remember, this isn't about science. Just when Nevadans had all but given up hope, a twist ending: Federal judges sitting 3,000 miles from the hole hear that the science of the project is flawed, and agree. For the first time in a quarter century, science trumps politics. The court ruling promises the project will be delayed for many years, so many in fact that work on the hole will cease. It is Bobby Thomson's home run, Michael Jordan's jump shot, and Rocky Balboa's comeback all rolled into one. Nevada, the underdog's underdog, the flyweight among sumo wrestlers, prevails. The hole only looks empty. In reality, it is crowded with many things. First, there's money. Through the years, the government spends billions of dollars studying the hole, preparing to dig it. This money comes from taxpayers and electric power consumers. Billions that could have been frittered away on poor children, ailing veterans, health care for the elderly, or even wider interstates, are poured into the hole. Then, there's the paperwork. By the government's own count, it has created 5.6 million pages of documents about the hole, far more than has been written about the Kennedys, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis combined. Those pages also flow into the hole. It remains far from filled. There's still enough room in the hole for a sitting president, who conned Nevadans into believing he was sincere when he promised that science, and not politics, would rule the process. Those who had followed the story believed that politics would always rule the process. He would be joined by some members of his party, including a former Nevada governor, who were only too eager to sell out for shekels in the name of the "inevitability" of the project. In the end, billions are spent. Political careers rise and fall. Columnists make fools of themselves misreading the landscape. The hole in the ground goes down as one of the greatest boondoggles in the history of a nation whose politicians pride themselves on their fiscal foolishness. As the credits roll in the movie version, the project is silent. Tumbleweeds roll past the hole. A curious coyote sniffs at the entrance, cocks his head at the incomprehensible waste, and trots off into a golden Nevada sunset. Yes, I'm thinking of writing a story about a hole in the ground in the middle of nowhere way out in Nevada. But who would believe it? John L. Smith's column appears Fridays in the Nevada Appeal. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.comor call (702) 383-0295. All contents © Copyright 2004 nevadaappeal.com Nevada Appeal - 580 Mallory Way - Carson City, NV 89701 ***************************************************************** 38 SWN: Gov. Johanns, Attorney General Bruning Discuss Low-Level Waste Negotiations Southwest Nebraska News - from the Republican Valley Media Group, McCook, NE http://www.swnebr.net Article Posted: 07/16/2004 10:44:45 AM (Lincoln, Neb.) Gov. Mike Johanns and Attorney General Jon Bruning today released a proposal provided to the state of Texas by the state of Nebraska and the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Commission and announced the filing of Nebraska’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of a $151 million judgment against the state. Nebraska is asking the High Court to hear the appeal on three grounds: first, to review whether the state waived its immunity from the lawsuit for monetary damages filed by the Compact Commission; second, was the state entitled to a jury trial; and third, did the lower court award too much prejudgment interest. The Texas proposal is part of an effort to settle the Compact Commission’s lawsuit against Nebraska. In 2004, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court judgment that found that Nebraska’s previous administration had acted in bad faith in the licensing process to build a low-level waste site in the state. The interest on that $151 million judgment has been accumulating at a federal rate of 1.68 percent since September 2002. As of today, Nebraska owes approximately $156 million with interest. If Nebraska loses its appeal and cannot immediately pay the judgment, the applicable interest rate will increase. Nebraska believes that applicable rate would be 3 percent while the Compact Commission contends that it is 10 percent. If the Court agrees with the Compact Commission, the state could owe as much as $202 million by August of 2005. Separate from the judgment, the Compact Commission contends that Nebraska is obligated to host a low-level site in addition to paying the judgment. The Compact Commission also contends that Nebraska generators should be barred from accessing that site. Gov. Johanns said, “I want to be very clear about the fact that there is more at stake than the judgment that we owe. The Compact claims that we owe the full judgment with enhanced interest and that we have an obligation to host a site. We are strongly disputing these claims, but it is very important for Nebraskans to understand what is potentially at stake. The worst case scenario forces Nebraska to both pay the $202 million judgment and host a site that our own generators could be barred from accessing.” Attorney General Bruning said, “As we have said all along, we will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to protect the state from having to the pay this enormous amount of money. If the Texas proposal is accepted, any amount paid to Texas must be credited toward the judgment. It is important to recognize that an agreement with Texas does not resolve all of the issues between Nebraska and the Compact. Even if we don’t reach agreement with Texas, there are other options for resolving this case. Any agreement with Texas is subject to Nebraska and the Compact resolving all low-level issues in a full and final settlement.” I cannot stress enough the complexity and sensitivity of the ongoing negotiations. While the Governor and I understand the interest in the terms of our negotiations, any premature release of information could impede the process. Nebraska cannot afford to let that happen. Therefore, we will not be able to discuss this matter in further detail until it is resolved.” Copyright ©2004 SWNEBR.NET (Southwest Nebraska News) All Rights ***************************************************************** 39 Carlsbad Current-Argus State: WIPP violating regulations Updated: July 16, 2004 - 02:36:04 By Stella Davis/Current-Argus Staff Writer CARLSBAD — A state Environment Department official said the U.S. Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plan violated state and federal requirements when it accepted a shipment of radioactive waste Wednesday. The shipment came from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Environment Secretary Ron Curry said WIPP received the shipment of mixed waste from the laboratory’s advanced mixed waste treatment facility in the early morning hours Wednesday and was offloaded and stored in WIPP’s waste handling building. “I am extremely disappointed in the DOE’s leadership failure,” Curry said in a statement. “I believe that this mistake is another symptom of the poor communication at the highest levels of DOE.” Curry said his department was notified of the problem Wednesday evening after another waste shipment headed to WIPP from Idaho was turned around in Trinidad, Colo. He said WIPP officials notified his agency that they could not be sure that the waste shipment met all the required WIPP criteria because the proper solid sampling has not been completed. He said his agency was also notified that a shipment of the same waste had already been offloaded Wednesday morning. Curry said it’s the state’s belief that DOE may have been making the shipments since March. “WIPP’s permit specifically lays out which wastes are allowable for disposal at the site,” Curry said. “These safety precautions are designed to protect the people of Carlsbad and citizens living along the state’s WIPP routes. DOE’s failure in this case calls into question their ability to consistently follow permit requirements.” Paul Detwiler, acting manager of the DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, said he agrees with Curry that failure to comply with permit requirements is a serious matter, but he believes the situation does not pose a significant risk to public health or the environment. Detwiler said he takes exception to Curry’s allegation that the requirement violations are a result of leadership failure. “It’s a serious matter,” Detwiler said. “But I don’t see it as a failure of DOE leadership. It’s the failure of the contractor. However, WIPP and the Idaho program are there to ensure the contractor complies with the law.” Detwiler said a team from WIPP has been sent to Idaho. When the team returns it will make some comprehensive recommendations to him on how to remedy the situation and avoid future violations. He said while he was at the WIPP site — 27 miles east of the city — a team from his Carlsbad office was already on the ball. He said Ava Holland, quality assurance manager; Kerry Watson, office director for waste characterization; and Reinhard Kneer, transuranic waste certification team leader, made travel arrangements to Idaho on their own initiative as soon as they learned about the problem. “I would like to thank them,” he said. “They were ready to get going and address the situation and put some procedures in place to assure that this won’t happen again.” Curry said the state and federal requirements are in place to ensure that all waste shipped to WIPP can be disposed of safely. He said Wednesday’s mistake follows closely on the heels of a similar problem reported in June. On June 9, the DOE ordered a waste shipment to WIPP be turned around in Pecos, Texas, because of concerns about a waste container’s content. The DOE was concerned that the shipment from the Savannah River site in South Carolina may have contained a large sealed container prohibited at WIPP. Once the truck was returned to South Carolina, the DOE determined that no prohibited items were present in the shipment. “A pattern seems to be emerging from these repeated failures,” Curry said. “I sincerely hope DOE will take swift action to improve their waste analysis procedures. In the future, DOE must be 100 percent certain of what is in these trucks before they hit the road.” The state permit gives WIPP five days to submit a detailed written report on Wednesday’s incident. Curry said the DOE must also put in place an accelerated corrective action plan to solve the problem. In addition to these actions, Curry said his agency will review all information received, investigate the matter and possibly take further enforcement action, including issuing a compliance order with monetary penalties. “While there does not appear to be any increased danger to health or the environment because of these DOE mistakes, NMED still feels a strong responsibility to make this information public,” Curry said. “This breakdown of waste certification procedure is especially concerning given DOE’s effort to change WIPP’s waste analysis plan,” he added. “A permit modification currently pending with NMED would limit state oversight of waste analysis activities, in essence, asking us to simply trust DOE on what’s in these drums. That doesn’t appear to be something the state can afford to do.” Top of Page Copyright © 2004 Carlsbad Current-Argus, a Gannett Co., Inc. ***************************************************************** 40 AJ: Israeli Scientific Research: Negev and Arava Aquifer Radiation Caused by "Dimona" Waste News, July 2004, GAZA, July 15, 2004 (IPC + WAFA)-- An official Israeli scientific research asserted that a significant amount of radioactive material has leaked to the aquifer reservoirs in the areas of Negev and Arava, south of historical Palestine, due to the activity and increased nuclear waste production of the "Dimona" reactor, in the Negev Desert. The research, which was jointly conducted by the Israeli Ben Gurion University, the Water Authority and the Center for Atomic Researches in Wadi Sureek, published its findings yesterday, in which it was revealed that there was a significant level of radiation in the aquifer reservoirs located in the Negev and Arava areas. The researched noted that the radioactive water were not used for drinking, but used mainly in the fields of agriculture and fish-raising pools, which would mean there were fears of having contaminated fish or agricultural products. The "Dimona" reactor, which operates under the name of "the Center for Nuclear Researches" at the heart of the Negev Desert, is surrounded by thick tall trees and bushes to keep it out of scene, not to mention the electrified barbed wire around it, the military patrols and anti-aircraft batteries. Scientific reports and satellite images of the "Dimona" reactor indicated that this 40-year-old facility has entered the phase of strategic danger, as its assumed age has already expired ten years ago, and this has clearly resulted in the cracking of the reactor's core, and increased nuclear waste leakage. Scientists have warned that if the Israeli government continued to operate this reactor, it might eventually become a second "Chernobyl", claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands or even millions, if any malfunction in its systems resulted in a meltdown. Experts have mentioned that the infestation of carcinogenic tumors among the nearby inhabitants and personnel of this reactor has mainly resulted from the leaking of its nuclear waste to the surrounding environment, mainly the aquifer reservoirs. While a report prepared by the Israeli Channel 2 TV revealed that dozens of "Dimona" personnel have actually died of different cancers due to the radioactivity leakage, the Israeli government and the reactor's administration refused to connect the deaths of those employees and their work at the reactor, as well as between their causes of death and the leaking radioactive materials from "Dimona". Dimona Reactor… a Mystery Threatening the Middle East International Press Center (IPC) September 18, 2003 Preface “The Israeli nuclear reactor of Dimona is vulnerable to meltdown, like the Russian reactor of Chernobyl two decades ago, which caused a humanitarian and ecological catastrophe. If Dimona melts down, it would affect an area 500 aerial kilometers in radius, reaching Cyprus and the entire neighboring region”, warned Dr. Yousef Abu Safiya, Head of the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority. A recent study conducted by the Jordanian authorities after a request from the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority revealed that the Israelis are aware of the possibility of a meltdown in Dimona reactor, which in turn would affect the whole region, mainly the Jordanian southern city of Tafila. The study also showed that radioactive substances are leaking from the Dimona reactor in a way that has increased rates of cancer diseases among nearby populations, particularly those of Tafila City. What make these assumptions largely based on solid ground are the latest satellite images of the Dimona reactor, which showed that its walls have cracks, which cut its assumed age into half. With thorough investigation into Dimona Israel’s nuclear plant, one can observe the following facts: Location: The location of Dimona's reactor in the Negev desert is a delicate one, situated between Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority's territories. The reactor was built in 1963, as part of a deal with France, who pledged to build the reactor in exchange for helping it and the United Kingdom in attacking Egypt in what was known as the 1956-tripartite. As for funding the reactor's driving material, the United States took care of that, in addition to giving assistance with moving quantities of enriched Uranium to Israel. The area on which the Dimona reactor is built on includes nine buildings, including the reactor building itself. Each building is tasked with producing a certain type of materials used to produce weapons of mass destruction, such as Plutonium, Lithium and Beryllium, used to manufacture nuclear bombs, in addition to producing radioactive Uranium and Triennium. The Dimona reactor is considered to be the most mysterious secrets of the "nuclear world", as Israel categorically refused, since its establishment in 1948 and after building the reactor, any routine inspection that other reactors around the world goes through, which "forcibly" open their reactors' doors in fear of the American waving of the "club" of international resolutions. No Inspection Beyond this Point! Israel might be considered the only state that opposes to the inspection visits conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) all over the world, added to its rejection, until this very day, to sign the treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which was signed by all Arab states. In spite of the complete American support for the Israeli policy, the Americans have expressed their concern over the reactor, as news revealed an American attempt to send some of its nuclear-program officials to inspect Dimona reactor apart from those working in the IAEA, but Israel refused to allow them in, continuing the reactor's legacy of being "visitation-proof", as only Israelis are allowed in. The Fifth Nuclear Power Israel is considered the fifth nuclear power in the world. In addition to owning nuclear bombs that can be dropped from the air, its nuclear arsenal includes also nuclear warheads that can reach a distance of 1,500 kilometers, using the Israeli-made "Jericho" missiles. Estimations show that Israel is in possession of 200 nuclear bombs, but Arab sources indicate that Israel own massive quantities of Uranium and Plutonium that enables it of producing an additional 100 bombs. Israel, in the meantime, seeks to increase the production efficiency of its reactor to about three times its current efficiency –from 28 to 100 megawatts. According to recent reports, the Israeli nuclear reactor consumed 1,400 tons of Uranium last year, which indicates that its efficiency might have reached 150 megawatts. Dimona's Hazards In a study requested by the Palestinian Ministry of Environment Quality from the Jordanian authorities, it was revealed that the average manifestation of cancer in the Al Tafila governorate, south of Jordan, is higher than the other Jordanian governorates and surrounding Arab countries. According to Dr. Abu Safiya, high cancer rates were recorded in all the southern Jordanian governorates, which confirmed the possible direction of nuclear dust that might be leaking from Dimona. It was recently revealed that five Israeli families lost their sons who worked in Dimona reactor, and they filed charges in the Central Court in Tel Aviv against the Israeli government and the reactor's administration, demanding compensations for the cancer that killed those workers due to radiation exposure. According to the lawsuit, the prosecutors are relatives to five Israelis who worked for a long time in the nuclear "village": Ze'eiv Schforn, born in 1931 and started working in Dimona in 1962 as the head of the supply crew. He was diagnosed with abdominal caner in 1966 and died in 1967. The second employee was Simon Dray, born in 1942 and worked in Dimona from 1966 until 1992 in the cleaning and decontamination unit. In 1996 he was diagnosed with pharyngeal cancer, and died in 1998. The third was Moshe Zegori, born in 1947, and worked in the reactor from 1965 until 1985, also in cleaning and decontamination. Before he left his job he found out that he had a malignant tumor in his head, and died in 1987. The fourth employee was Yousif Cohen, born in 1938, and worked in the reactor from 1970 until 1995, in maintenance. In 1997 he was diagnosed with several malignant tumors, and died in 1998. The fifth employee is still suffering from cancer in his body, and is constantly under treatment. He worked in the reactor from 1969 until 1996, in maintenance and mechanical engineering. The prosecutors of those victims are demanding the Israeli government to take responsibility for their deaths, due to the radiation exposure they suffered inside the reactor, which caused fatal malignant tumors. At the same time, they claim that the reactor's administration didn't take enough precaution measures and never warned the employees about the radiation hazard. Worn-out Reactor As reports indicate, the reactor has become old now, as its isolation walls have worn-out, which might cause the leakage of some radiation from the reactor, a thing that will lead to devastating health and ecological damages to the surrounding area. According to the reports also, the reactor suffers from a dangerous crack caused by "neutron" radiation, which caused structural damage, as neutrons cause small gas bubbles inside the concrete support, making it fragile and susceptible to cracking. The United Arab Emirates-based "Al Bayan" newspaper revealed recently that a serious debate was going on now about whether to stop working in the reactor before the catastrophe occurs or not. Additionally, a report made the by Israeli second TV channel mentioned that dozens of the reactor's employees died of cancer, and that the reactor's administration refuses to reveal the true number of casualties and fatalities. The Dimona reactor wasn't also immune to many working accidents that happened inside it, including the burning of hazardous and poisonous materials without providing the employees with suitable protective equipment, as many of them died because of that. As well, quantities of radioactive heavy water and nuclear waste leaked into a natural geographical hill extending along the reactor. Expired! By continuing to maintain and operate Dimona reactor, Israel is committing a crime against humanity that will be added to the atrocities it perpetrated along its history. Since 1971, the reactor has never been provided with new cooling towers, even though the reactor's efficiency has increased since then. Dr. Abu Safiya pointed out that the most dangerous hazards of Dimona reactor is in the element producing Plutonium, which is used to make nuclear bombs. It's one of the resultant elements of Uranium DK dissipation, and it can be used to synthesize enriched Uranium. It contains 20% out of the 0.05% Uranium, which is the highly radioactive substance that can be used in nuclear fission to manufacture either nuclear bombs or atomic fuel. Abu Safiya warned that there's a regional and long-term threat in Dimona reactor, represented in the presence of these nuclear bombs in the possession of a country such as Israel, a thing that raises questions about the inspection visits in Iraq and demanding Iran to be inspected too, as well as surprise inspections by the IAEA officials, while Israel publicly admit to possessing nuclear weapons. In response to that, Shimon Peres, temporary chairman of the Israeli Labor party, claimed that there's no comparison between Iraq and Israel, because, according to his claims, Iraq is ruled by a "dictator", while Israel is a "democratic" state! Right after this statement, Israel used poisonous gases in the city of Khan Younis, which caused dozens of Palestinian citizens to suffer from unconsciousness and severe illnesses, added to the spasms and hysterical conditions some of them suffered from after inhaling such internationally-banned gases. Commenting on this incident, Dr. Abu Safiya said that "we ascertained that these are nerve gases, by analyzing a specimen of the Israeli bombs that didn't burn completely. Through analysis, we revealed that it is composed of a group of nerve gases, due to which affected citizens suffered from spasms… this is an evidence against the state that Peres say it's "democratic", which used internationally-banned weapons against the Palestinian people." Noteworthy that exposure to small amounts of radiation on the long run might pose a serious threat to embryos and children, as well as causing cancer. Israel Least Damaged Dr. Abu Safiya demanded the IAEA "if they truly seek integrity" to run checks in order to discover the level of radiation in the region around the Dimona reactor. "If we conduct, for example, a Contour Survey for all directions to see the level of radiation and who's affected the most, we would find that Israel is the safest, having its population localities in the north far from the reactor. In addition, 95% of the wind direction in Palestine is northwestern, which is opposite to the Israeli population localities," Dr. Abu Safiya said. The simplest radiation leak resulting from Dimona reactor is that of the depleted Uranium, which is of catastrophic implications, as it is considered one of the heavy elements that ruin kidney, liver and respiratory system functions, leading to death. Only one atom of radioactive Uranium is enough to cause fatal cancer. What About the Reactor's Waste? As for the waste products resulting from nuclear enrichment operations in Dimona reactor, Dr. Abu Safiya said that it's buried in areas near the Palestinian Authority controlled territories, as well as Jordanian and Egyptian ones, especially in those areas where the flow of aquifer water and direction of the wind is not in Israel's favor. A report by Israel's second TV channel revealed that Dimona reactor's waste products are buried in the areas east of the Al Bureij refugee camp and the town of Deir El Balah. Currently, the Palestinian Authority for Environment Quality is trying to get a permission to get water analysis equipment inside Gaza Strip to check these areas, but Israel is refusing. "During the current Intifada, Israelis have buried nearly 50,000 tons of industrial chemical waste in Gaza Strip, only 30 meters deep, on an area of 5,000 square meters, as they stole the arable soil and moved it inside Israel and buried industrial waste in its place. This means that there's 150,000 cubic meters of poisonous waste buried in Gaza, which is a catastrophe. Moreover, Israel isn't affected by this waste because it was buried opposite to the flow of aquifer water," Abu Safiya narrated. In the West Bank, most of what's buried is in the direction of the eastern hills, because it's not included in the Israeli-controlled lands, unlike the western hills. Now, the eastern hills are polluted with chemical waster and pesticides. Covering Up for Their Crimes In Ramallah and Hebron, the Palestinian Authority had some basic equipment to measure radiation and environmental pollution. These equipment didn't only check radiation, but pollution in general, such as soil, water, air and chemical pollution. In this subject, Dr. Abu Safiya said that small devices were discovered inside helicopters, which is used to regulate the fan's rotation, as well as providing the pilot with some technical data. These devices, if exposed to a person or played with by children, might lead to death or blood and gene mutations, as it contains radioactive materials. The Minister added that "after these devices wore out, the Israelis dump them in the Palestinian controlled lands, and we found three of these devices in Ramallah, one of which was in President Yasser Arafat's office 'Al Moqata'a'." Such devices were also found during the Israeli invasion of Ramallah City on March 29, 2002, after the Authority received warnings of suspicious radioactive materials. When specialists from the Authority of Environment Quality reached the area and checked these parts, they found out that it contained glowing radioactive materials. The instruments those specialists had indicated that radiation levels exceeded the maximum limit. When the manufacturing company was contacted concerning that, the company replied that these parts were sold to the Israeli Air Force, and that it's used in helicopters of the type CH53. As soon as the Israeli occupying forces invaded Ramallah, the radiation checking equipment were destroyed, including those equipment used to check the radioactive parts. Additionally, IOF blew up the environment laboratory in Hebron and Ramallah, and destroyed all the equipment by throwing them from the fifth floor. Lately, a cargo of Israeli waste was uncovered in the city of Hebron, which was composed of 80 barrels, in addition to 120 others in the town of Al Ezareya, Jerusalem district. Furthermore, IOF moved in a cargo of 2,500 tons of radioactive base coarse, and the radiation was further confirmed when it was checked. The shipment was coming from Italy, and when the Israeli Ministry of Environment discovered that the radiation level of the base coarse was four times higher than that internationally allowed, the shipment was illegitimately diverted to Gaza City. Unveiling the Hidden The Israeli government has recently decided to boycott the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) after the latter made a documentary film about the Israeli nuclear weapons. Sources in the Israeli Foreign Ministry explained that the film is Anti-Semitic –an accusation used by Israel to anyone or anything that they don't like. The BBC had broadcasted previews of the documentary film, in which the narrator's voice is heard on the background of the Israeli reactor core in Dimona and the photo of Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed the Israeli nuclear secrets, and the narrator asks: Which country in the Middle East possesses nuclear weapons without declaring that? Which country in the Middle East possesses the chemical and biological ability without declaring that? Which country in the world throws away the revealer of its nuclear secrets in jail for 18 years? As for the producer of the documentary, he interviewed several senior Israeli officials, including that chairman of the Israeli Labor party, Shimon Peres, who is also considered the godfather of the Israeli nuclear program, and the man who created the nuclear reactor in Dimona. The producer asked Peres why Iraq aren't allowed to possess nuclear weapons while Israeli can, and the answer was clearly not satisfactory, and Peres found a claim to justify this question. As for Mordechai Vanunu, who is staying in Israeli jails since 1986, as the Israeli court indicted him of espionage, treason and selling Israeli nuclear secrets to the "Sunday Times" British newspaper, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Now, he spent 16 years of it. Vanunu said that the Israeli authorities prevented him from meeting his British lawyers. "Now, Peres won't be able to lie to [Ronald] Reagan about not owning nuclear weapons. Now everybody knows that," Vanunu said. Israel Protecting Itself Israel surrounds itself with all means of protection. For example, every Israeli citizen has a pill of "stable Iodine", and can be taken anytime, as it gives radiation protection. It was revealed that Israeli provided all its citizens with such a pill, under the pretext of fearing an Iraqi nuclear strike, but the truth confirmed that they dispensed it because of fearing the meltdown of their own reactor, not only Dimona, but the other research facilities around Israel. On the Palestinian level, the Authority of Environment Quality has tried to take some kind of protection, and sent a letter to the IAEA and Arab Ministers of Health, considering that the Palestinians are the weakest point and closest to the reactor, as Palestinian controlled lands are only 50 aerial kilometers away from Dimona reactor, but all these letters were rejected! Among the examples that might be shown to indicate the amount of damage caused to the Palestinians due to any nuclear meltdown, the explosion that occurred in the pesticide factory in the city of Al Majdal (Ashkelon), where the stench of the pesticides reached Palestinian cities and towns due to thermal turnover and wind. Here, Dr. Abu Safiya pointed out to the danger that might happen in case an amount of radiation leaks from Dimona reactor, which will jeopardize the entire surrounding region and on a large geographical scale. Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's. editor@aljazeerah.info ***************************************************************** 41 Morgan Hill Times: Pombo perchlorate bill passes House panel www.morganhilltimes.com Friday, July 16, 2004 - Staff Reports Legislation that would provide $25 million to the Santa Clara Valley Water District so it can more quickly deal with perchlorate contamination in a groundwater basin serving south Santa Clara County has won approval of a key Congressional committee. The legislation - approved Wednesday by the House Committee on Resources - would fund projects to restore clean, safe drinking water to thousands of people whose wells have been affected by perchlorate, a chemical used to manufacture road flares and rocket fuel, before completion of what is expected to be a decades-long cleanup of the groundwater basin. Authored by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Stockton, the legislation is in response to discovery 18 months ago of an underground perchlorate plume that originated from a former Olin Corp. road flare-manufacturing site in Morgan Hill. Pombo’s district includes Morgan Hill. The plume stretches 10 miles south through the unincorporated area of San Martin and to the northern boundary of Gilroy’s city limits. “We know Olin will live up to its responsibility to clean up the contamination, but it’s going to take several years, even decades,” said Joe Judge, chairman of the water district board of directors. “From the day we found the plume, the water district’s focus has been, and continues to be, on restoring use of the nearly 800 wells affected by perchlorate. “Through Mr. Pombo’s generous efforts, we can jumpstart the process of cleaning up and restoring the groundwater basin now, rather than decades from now.” State water officials are working with Olin to draft a long-term plan for extracting perchlorate from the groundwater basin. In the meantime, the water district continues working with officials of Morgan Hill, Gilroy, the county, and with community leaders to identify steps that could be taken in the near future to restore use of nearly 800 wells affected by contamination in the Llagas Groundwater Basin. Potential actions identified by the community include investment in technology to remove contamination from water pumped through domestic wells serving about 2,000 South County residents; a comprehensive health risk analysis to measure the short- and long-term effects of perchlorate on humans, animals, livestock and agricultural crops, and a stronger community based campaign for a federal drinking water standard for perchlorate established on the best scientific information available. The Llagas Reclamation Groundwater Remediation Initiative, as Pombo’s bill is known, still faces final approval by Congress. President Bush would have to sign the fill for it to become law. If authorized, it would create a fund administered by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, through the Bureau of Reclamation, to finance groundwater-remediation efforts. It provides 65 percent of total funding from the federal government and requires 35 percent from state and local agencies, or private entities. Although treatment systems have been installed on two small water systems in San Martin serving about 450 people, some 1,000 homes and businesses continue to rely on bottled water for drinking and cooking needs. PCAG, the Perchlorate Citizens Advisory Group will meet 7-9 p.m. Thursday, July 22, at the San Martin Lions Club, 12415 Murphy Ave. Chair Sylvia Hamilton will report on her testimony before the House Subcommittee on Water. PCAG also will meet the second Friday at 2 p.m. in August and October. The meetings are open to the public. Details: www.smneighbor.org, www.valleywater.org or Sylvia, 683-2667. ***************************************************************** 42 Gilroy Dispatch: Olin's well filled with responsibility www.gilroydispatch.com Thursday, July 15, 2004 Once again, Olin Corp.’s actions don’t match its words. A company employee, Rick McClure, said this shortly after the perchlorate groundwater contamination caused by the company’s now-closed Morgan Hill road flare factory was discovered: “We take our commitment as an environmentally responsible company and a good neighbor very seriously.” If that’s true, then we fail to understand how Olin officials can possibly justify appealing a state order that requires they supply water to South Valley well owners whose wells have tested between four and six parts of perchlorate per billion. Yes, we know that the California Department of Health Services in March established a public health goal of six ppb for perchlorate. Four ppb is the lowest level at which perchlorate can be detected. Given that there’s seasonal fluctuation in test results of perchlorate-contaminated wells, that there’s a 20 percent margin of error in perchlorate tests and that there’s widespread disagreement over what level of perchlorate is safe, of course Olin should be required to deliver bottled water to wells testing between four and six ppb for perchlorate. And it ought to be delivered to any well owner with the smallest trace of perchlorate contamination. In fact, Olin ought to be required to install perchlorate-removing filters on every contaminated well in South Valley. Of course, this point would be moot if the Environmental Protection Agency would establish a maximum safety level for perchlorate in water. But the Bush Administration’s EPA, bowing to defense industry pressure, refuses to establish such a level, creating an unacceptable and irresponsible perchlorate information vacuum. Doctors have known since the 1950s that perchlorate damages thyroid function and water regulators have been worried about the chemical polluting the groundwater. Yet, despite decades to conduct studies, the EPA announced last year that it needs another seven years to find out how much perchlorate in our water is too much. But, until we have a White House that is willing to let the EPA look at decades of research and make an informed decision about an acceptable perchlorate level, we’ll have to fight these silly battles over two ppb of perchlorate with a company that is clearly not going to keep its promise to be a good corporate neighbor. We’ve said it before and it bears repeating, in light of Olin Corp.’s latest attempt to dodge its responsibility. We’ll keep an eagle eye on Olin’s every move and to hold them accountable for cleaning up the mess they’ve made of our aquifers. ***************************************************************** 43 Pahrump Valley Times: Surveyors begin Caliente rail corridor groundwork July 16, 2004 By PHILLIP GOMEZ PVT SPECIAL TO THE PVT This map supplied by the Department of Energy details what current land uses might be impacted by the proposed Caliente corridor rail route planned to haul the nation's high-level radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain in Nye County. Government surveyors have been in the field in northern Nye County measuring grades, mapping terrain and marking landforms in an effort to lay the engineering groundwork for the railroad to build from Caliente, near the Utah state line. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the natives are getting restless. Pahute Mesa. Cactus Flat. Stone Cabin Valley. It all sounds like the trappings of a script for a Western movie. But instead of Indians, outlaws or a greedy banker as the villain, in this updated version it's the distant federal government that wears the black hat. The high desert terrain, with its evocative heritage of pioneer and Indian place names comes straight out of yesteryear's newspapers chronicling the advance of the nation's Manifest Destiny to spread the blessings of civilization across the continent. But the current action stems from the scientific research of the Department of Energy to provide for the permanent disposal at Yucca Mountain of the nation's nuclear waste, both commercial and defense related. As steward of the nation's future energy needs and of its past nuclear defense infrastructure, the department's primary mission is the promotion of a diverse supply of affordable and environmentally sound energy. Thus the congressional mandate to develop a reliable solution to nuclear waste disposal. Five "scoping" meetings with affected stakeholders have been held on the proposed Caliente corridor route for the special railroad, proposed as the best means to deliver high-level radioactive nuclear waste to the still uncertain Yucca Mountain Repository on the Nevada Test Site. The railroad's price tag is $880 million. The squirrelly and circuitous route proposed zigzags across 300 plus miles to avoid traversing the Nevada Test and Training Range. Instead, it will cross at least three mountain ranges in Lincoln County, while managing to skirt around all but the Kawich Range in Nye County. Final alignments have not yet been settled upon, but at its widest the right-of-way will be 200 feet; at its narrowest, 60 feet. That's the briefing presented by the DOE's Robin Sweeny to the Nye County Commission last week in Tonopah. Aerial mapping, cut-and- fill, bridge and culvert planning, grade gauging, archeology and hydrology analyses, drilling for 63 temporary wells to supply construction crews with water and - oh yes, political concerns about mining and Nevada's No. one agricultural industry, cattle. These and other humble tasks the surveyors are now beginning in the drive to push the railroad westward, Sweeny said. "Opinion right now is that this is an attempt to make a water grab and then send it to Las Vegas," said Commissioner Joni Eastley, whose district takes in the lower reaches of the would-be railroad. After talking to constituents in the past few weeks, Eastley said the main concern of ranchers and other stakeholders was rights of way - how to get across the railroad grade to access private property. Commissioner Midge Carver had much the same concern from a segment of her constituency in northern Nye County. "The issues are access and water rights," Carver said. With a 36-inch high gravel bed, she said, "A cow is going to stand there and say, 'What did you do to my water?'" Other traditional economic land uses, such as mining, would likewise be affected, she said. Some 900 patented and non-patented mining claims exist along the proposed route, which would prevent them from being developed, she said. Round Mountain Gold Corp. has plans to expand its operations into Gold Mountain in the Smokey Valley. The rail route would affect those plans, said Carver, as well as Nye County insofar as the opportunity for greater revenue is concerned. One third-generation rancher Carver knows has over $1 million invested in water pipeline improvements. In the modern rendition of Manifest Destiny, the railroad plans to build over the improvements. Bureau of Land Management grazing allotments are water-based, not land-based, she added, implying a more basic economic tie to locale than that of the federal rail route. Carver also objects to the proposed route as the longest and the most costly of the ones considered. It's also the route impacting the greatest number of people, she said. It's only 81 miles from Caliente direct to Yucca Mountain, across the grounds of the Air Force's Training Range, she said. Other routes have not been given adequate consideration, she added. For comment or questions, please e-mail Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2003 ***************************************************************** 44 AU ABC: Australian government urged not to use Nauru as 'dumping ground' The minor opposition Australian Democrats Party says the Pacific island of Nauru should not become a dumping ground for issues that the Australian government considers too difficult. Nauru houses an immigration detention centre under Australia's 'Pacific Solution' policy, which was devised in 2001 to keep asylum seekers from Australian shores. Another minor party, the Greens, has expressed fears that Australia's nuclear waste could be shipped to Nauru now that plans to send it to South Australia have been abandoned. The Democrats leader, Andrew Bartlett, has visited asylum seekers detained on Nauru and says dumping waste on the island nation would be the worst environmental and political option. "Nauru has a lot of problems, it is basically bankrupt," Senator Bartlett said. "From visiting there I saw up-front the difficult economic, social and political problems they have to wrestle with, but the fact that they're vulnerable is all the more reason not to mistreat them further," he said. 16/07/2004 17:38:12 | ABC Radio Australia News src="http://www.abc.net.au ***************************************************************** 45 AU ABC: Democrats say NT more likely for nuclear dump. 16/07/2004. ABC News Online "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> The Australian Democrats believe that the Northern Territory could become the home of a low-level radioactive waste repository by default if the states keep refusing to cooperate with the Commonwealth. The Federal Government has abandoned plans to build the repository in South Australia and has told the states and territories they will need to look after their own waste. Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett says the Northern Territory is politically weaker than other jurisdictions and could still be the site for a national dump. "I think the territory in particular is especially vulnerable not just because there's always the prospect of being overridden by Canberra in the territory, that doesn't apply in the states, but also the territory is politically vulnerable," he said. "So if all of the states take an attitude which they are at the moment of just, well we all support a national repository but not in our backyard, then the territory's really at risk of being the one left holding the garbage." © 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 46 AU ABC: NT Opposition says no to national waste dump. 17/07/2004. ABC News Online "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> Northern Territory Opposition leader Terry Mills says he does not want to see the Territory become a national dumping ground for nuclear waste. Mr Mills says the Country Liberal Party would be prepared to deal with any of the Territory's own radioactive waste but says Commonwealth waste is a separate matter. "I will stand up for Territorians while I have breath in me to resist this very point," he said. "I would make sure that the best interests of Territorians are maintained and at this point it is not on my agenda and I don't believe it's on the agenda of any Territorians to see a national problem solved in the Territory." © 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 47 The Signal: City Eyes Toxic Agency Shakeup 7/15/2004 Leon Worden City Editor City officials are hoping the departure of the man who made the Whittaker-Bermite cleanup a high priority for his Sacramento agency won’t leave a gap. Ed Lowry left his post as chief of the Department of Toxic Substances Control on Monday after learning his replacement was likely. A Democrat, Lowry was appointed by former Gov. Gray Davis in 1999. The Associated Press reported that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to give his job to a fellow Republican, B.B. Blevins. Lowry’s chief deputy, Blevins is a newcomer to DTSC. He has held the No. 2 spot since March 29 when Schwarzenegger moved him over from the California Energy Commission. City officials have credited Lowry’s personal involvement for recent progress in the effort to rid the 996-acre Bermite property of contamination. “What he did is, he made it so that DTSC made it a high priority,” City Manager Ken Pulskamp said Wednesday. “He came to Santa Clarita, toured the site and let (his) staff know it was an important project (that) he was concerned about and would follow through personally,” Pulskamp said. Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills, helped the city develop a rapport with Lowry at a time when the cleanup effort appeared to be stalling. Under Lowry’s administration, DTSC obtained a legally binding order compelling the last polluter, Whittaker Corp., to pay for the cleanup of the groundwater beneath the property. Whittaker subsequently agreed to pay nearly $9 million to the Castaic Lake Water Agency for groundwater studies and to reimburse other costs. A DTSC official pointed to the legally binding agreements when asked Wednesday how Lowry’s resignation might change things. “Regarding Whittaker-Bermite, there are consent decrees and enforceable agreements as to how that cleanup will actually take place. The progress of the cleanup should not change,” agency spokesman Ron Baker said. Pulskamp said he is “comfortable that we will be able to explain” the importance of the cleanup effort to Lowry’s eventual replacement. “The fact of the matter is, it’s very much a team effort,” he said. “There are so many people involved in it.” Five municipal water wells were taken off line when they were found to contain perchlorate, a rocket fuel component that can inhibit the thyroid gland when ingested. Whittaker and its predecessor, Bermite Powder Co., tested and manufactured weapons and rocket engines for the military at the Saugus facility from about 1934 to 1987. Copyright 2003 The-Signal.com - Site powered with ***************************************************************** 48 Pahrump Valley Times: Kerry, Edwards against Yucca repository July 16, 2004 By CHRISTINA ALMEIDA The Associated Press LAS VEGAS - Democrats took a strong position Saturday against a planned Southern Nevada nuclear waste repository, approving a plank in the national platform that says the Yucca Mountain project is unsafe. During a meeting in Hollywood, Fla., the party's platform committee approved the plank proposed by member Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "It sends a very strong message that the Democratic Party is solidly behind the state of Nevada in its fight against Yucca Mountain," Berkley said in a telephone interview. "It draws a line in the sand and a distinction between the two parties' positions when it comes to the safety of Nevada families." The platform, which will be presented to delegates later this month at the national convention in Boston, includes party principles on social and economic issues and closely resembles Sen. John Kerry's campaign agenda. Kerry, the presumptive presidential nominee, voted against the federal government's plan in 2002 and has said, "Yucca Mountain will not be a repository" if he wins in November. "It will take a Democratic president to stop this process dead in its tracks, and John Kerry has already promised to do that," Berkley said. Yucca Mountain has become a key election-year issue in Nevada, with Democrats pushing Kerry's longtime opposition and citing President Bush's approval of the plan. Republicans have been somewhat divided. During their state convention, several rural county delegates called for a plank urging negotiations for federal dollars and other benefits in exchange for accepting the dump - an unpopular idea among the state's top Republican leaders. The Democratic position was somewhat clouded with Kerry's selection of Sen. John Edwards as his running mate. Edwards had voted for the Yucca Mountain project in 2002. But Edwards has assured state party leaders that he backs Kerry's opposition to the plan - something Republicans say is indicative of the political complexities of the issue. "The Democrats hardly agree on this issue as evidenced by the last vote when 15 senators and 102 members of Congress voted for this project, including Senator Edwards," said Yier Shi, spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "The president has always said that the decision on Yucca Mountain would be based on sound science, and we have invested 20 years researching this topic." The plank reads: "We will protect Nevada and its communities from the high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain which has not been proven to be safe by sound science." In announcing the plank, Berkley cited last week's appellate court decision saying radiation standards for the site were inadequate and would have to be strengthened. But the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia was not a complete victory for Nevada. The court upheld the government's decision to single out the state as the designated site. Officials with the Energy Department expressed confidence the radiation issue would be resolved and the plan would move forward. For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2003 ***************************************************************** 49 press-citizen.com: Answer to Hills' water woes may be years away Friday, July 16, 2004 Feds to supply bottled water for time being By Deidre Bello Iowa City Press-Citizen HILLS - A federal official told Hills residents Thursday that the government expects to supply bottled water to the community for at least another year as an investigation continues into the cause of groundwater contamination. Details • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing bottled water to 24 homes in Hills with perchlorate contamination greater than 18 parts per billion. That year could extend to a second year, but city officials should start pursuing other resources, said Craig Smith, project leader with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 7. "We want to find the source to help pay for groundwater cleanup efforts," Smith said. Officials with Region 7 and specialists with the Iowa Department of Public Health and Iowa Department of Natural Resources had a three-hour community meeting at the town community center to update residents about ongoing groundwater and soil sampling efforts, which will resume next week. About 30 people attended the meeting. EPA scientists have been trying to find the source of a plume of perchlorate contamination in shallow groundwater in Hills since August 2003. The plume is moving eastward, but its speed is unknown. The EPA is providing bottled water for 24 homes with levels exceeding 18 parts per billion. Perchlorate is the main ingredient in the production of solid rocket fuel. Levels of about 180 to 200 parts per billion can interfere with iodine intake by the thyroid gland, which can affect metabolism and cause thyroid tumors. While data presented at the meeting concluded consumption of levels as low as 18 parts per billion of perchlorate would have no negative effects on humans, EPA officials said their actions were meant as preventative measures. Smith said the agency legally is required to provide bottled water for one year but could ask for a one-year extension until another entity is put in place to resume the responsibility. City officials already conducted a feasibility study to determine possible water solutions. They recently hired an engineering firm to further the efforts. The firm could begin work this month, City Councilor Scott Hebl said. The next sampling is expected to last 10 days, Smith said. EPA scientists will resample homes and do soil sampling on the south half of city park, the south half of the school grounds and at the north half of a grain field east of Old Highway 218. In addition, scientists will conduct a pump test that near a local business. Officials hope to determine the source of the plume, track its speed, collect aquifer characteristics and determine whether a deeper water source is suitable for drinking. During the last sampling, scientists discovered the highest level of perchlorate at 108 parts per billion in the southwest corner of the city park. The second highest level is at 90 parts per billion in a field at the southeast corner of Lassie and Iowa streets, EPA records show. Scientists also mapped out more definite plume parameters, which are not likely to change dramatically, Smith said. Theories that the contamination is a result of fireworks remnants, a railroad car spill or that Eldon C Stutsman Inc. is to blame have proven false, Smith said. Hills resident Heather Haug, 29, said she supports the city's efforts. "There is enough concern about this that there needs to be a permanent solution," Haug said. Although she is eight months pregnant, Haug said she is not really worried about possible health effects because her sample level tested low. She continues to drink bottled water but cook with well water. Copyright 1999-2004 Iowa City Press-Citizen online@press-citizen.com ***************************************************************** 50 Guardian Unlimited: Neb. Wants Nuke Judgment to Be Overturned From the Associated Press [UP] Friday July 16, 2004 11:31 PM By KEVIN O'HANLON Associated Press Writer LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to overturn a $151 million judgment against the state for refusing to host a nuclear waste dump. Attorney General Jon Bruning was not optimistic that the high court will agree to hear the case, let alone rule in Nebraska's favor. ``Look at the track record in this litigation - we haven't won anything yet,'' Bruning said. ``That's not to say we have no chance. But let's be realistic - it's a long shot.'' U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf of Lincoln ruled in 2002 that former Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson, now a U.S. senator, engaged in a politically motivated and orchestrated plot to keep the regional dump from being built in Nebraska. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in February. Nebraska officials argued that they refused to license the dump for low-level waste because of concerns about pollution and a high water table at the proposed site in Boyd County in the northeast part of the state. The dump was to take waste from the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact, which consists of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. Nebraska doesn't have the money to pay the court judgment because of an ongoing budget crunch and has been trying to negotiate a settlement. The compact earlier rejected a settlement offer and said it would offer a counterproposal. Compact officials are scheduled to discuss negotiations at a meeting next week. The Associated Press reported last week that Gov. Mike Johanns had approached Texas Gov. Rick Perry about storing nuclear waste there. As part of the deal, Nebraska has offered to pay Texas a flat fee of $25 million to take the waste from the group of five states. Nebraska also offered to pay an additional $5 million to Texas to cover any unforeseen expenses for storing the waste. Such a deal would not release Nebraska from the court judgment unless the five-state group agreed. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 51 UC orders halt to classified work at Los Alamos Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 16:33:07 -0500 (CDT) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/a/2004/07/15/national1552EDT0684.DTL The most recent security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory prompted the lab to halt all classified work Thursday while officials conduct a wall-to-wall inventory of sensitive data. The stand-down began at noon, and the inventory of CDs, floppy disks and other data storage devices is expected to be completed within days, lab spokesman Kevin Roark said. Last week, the lab reported that two items containing classified information were missing. The items were identified only as removable data storage devices. The incident was the latest in a series of embarrassments that have prompted federal officials to put the Los Alamos management contract up for bid for the first time in the 61-year history of the lab that built the atomic bomb. Lab officials are searching for the items and investigating how they disappeared. Individuals who had access to the items are being allowed to enter their workplace under escort only, and work has been shut down in part of the unit involved, the Weapons Physics Directorate, while the investigation continues, lab officials said. The National Nuclear Security Agency, the federal agency overseeing the labs, sent a team to Los Alamos this week to investigate the loss. The University of California, which has operated Los Alamos from its beginnings during the World War II race to build the bomb, has not decided whether to compete for the contract when it expires next year. But UC President warned on Thursday: "These types of incidents are unacceptable and they really do have to come to an end." Pete Nanos, director of the northern New Mexico lab, briefed the UC Board of Regents on the incident, saying: "It's time for all the employees at Los Alamos to take a stand and ask themselves what do I believe in. The challenge before them is clear." Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' project on government secrecy, applauded the stand-down. "It's what they have to do to confront this recurring problem," he said. Similarly classified material was reported missing in May. Lab officials later said they believe the material was destroyed, as intended, but that the paperwork was faulty. Besides the latest security lapse, Los Alamos has been under fire since 2002 after allegations arose about purchasing fraud, equipment theft and mismanagement. Separately, Sandia National Laboratories reported Thursday it is missing a computer floppy disk marked classified. Officials said they do not believe it contains any weapons information or any other information that could harm national security. Chris Miller, spokesman for the Albuquerque lab, said the disk was not used often. Sandia's Security Incident Management Program was notified June 30 it was gone. The Albuquerque lab said the disk came from a military organization but it did not identify the item further. Federal agencies were notified and Sandia officials said they were working with them to investigate. ***************************************************************** 52 DenverPost.com: "Goodbye" to Flats' Building 771 Article Published: Friday, July 16, 2004 By Erin Cox Denver Post Staff Writer Post / Andy Cross A sign warns visitors as heavy machinery does its work on the site of Rocky Flats Building 771 on Thursday. Once highly radioactive, the site will become a wildlife refuge. Golden - It was known as the most dangerous building in America. Now, it's a gutted, hollow memory of the Cold War. Piece by piece Thursday, growling machinery clawed apart Rocky Flats Building 771 - condemned as the most hazardous plutonium facility in the U.S. just a decade ago. "Our state can finally bid goodbye and good riddance," said Nancy Tour, president of Kaiser-Hill, the company contracted to safely dismantle the entire nuclear-weapons plant by 2006. Eventually, the state will reclaim the site as a wildlife refuge. Building 771 housed the infamous infinity room - a storage area so contaminated with radioactive waste that probes couldn't measure it. "If you would have put a radiological instrument in here six months ago, it would still be the infinity room," said Chris Gilbreath, project manager for the building. Nestled against a hillside, the two-story building was a plutonium processing plant built in 1951, where radioactive material was purified to make triggers for nuclear bombs. More than 10 miles of pipeline snaked through 771's ceiling, holding acid and radioactive waste. Production stopped in 1989 after a raid by the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency, but the chemicals sat in the aging building until after the end of the Cold War. In 1995, crews drained 15,000 liters of radioactive liquid from pipelines and tankers inside the building, Tour said. VIDEO 9NEWS' Jinah Kim reports on the destruction of Rocky Flats building 771 Thursday. Because the contaminants were in liquid form, the material could instantly emit a lethal amount of radiation, making its safe removal all the more impressive, said Sarah Roberts, a radiological safety manager at Building 771. To clean the radioactivity from the floors, ceilings and walls, workers blasted the concrete with pressurized water. The radioactive water was collected, processed and sent to a plant in South Carolina - the same plant that provided much of the plutonium that 771 processed for 38 years. Today, you can safely stroll through the building's remnants. "A few short years ago, you couldn't go in this building without a respiratory (bubble) suit," Roberts said. "Up until a few weeks ago, it was still necessary to have a respirator." The Rocky Flats cleanup costs about $2 million a day, said Steven Gunderson of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Officials say the initiative remains ahead of schedule. Many workers who helped dismantle Building 771 first worked at the site when it was still an active plutonium processing plant. Ray Rodriguez began working at the plant in 1987. He returned in 1998, knowing that he would eventually work himself out of a job. Thursday, he took a long look at the building and could not find the words, so he deferred to co-worker Alan Solano. "It's emotional for him," Solano said. "He spent a lot of years down here. It's the end of an era out here." Staff writer Erin Cox can be reached at 303-820-1474 or ecox@denverpost.com. --> All contents Copyright 2004 The Denver Post or other ***************************************************************** 53 Daily Camera: Talbott: Bit by bit, nuke plant is history July 16, 2004 The "most dangerous building in America" didn't fall with a bang. It didn't drop with a whimper. But on Thursday, Rocky Flats Building 771 began collapsing in small pieces, at the insistence of two gargantuan hydraulic arms. About 10:40 a.m., after the obligatory speeches noting the historical significance of the day, a voice crackled out the command to "proceed with demolition." Two pieces of heavy equipment, one Caterpillar and one Hitachi excavator, obeyed. They pulled down metal stairways. They yanked off external walls. They crushed sections of the roof. Workers sprayed each collapsing area with water, keeping down the dust. Visually, it was underwhelming, especially considering that Building 771 was central to the U.S. nuclear-bomb-making apparatus. Fifty-one years ago, workers in this heavily guarded and reinforced 175,000-square-foot structure, partially dug into the side of a hill, began processing plutonium for nuclear weapons. Here, people shaped plutonium into hockey-puck-sized spheres. These "pits" were key components of nuclear "triggers," which would ignite America's weapons of mass destruction. The triggers were devastating nuclear weapons in their own right. They typically had 20 kilotons of explosive power, about 5 kilotons more than that of the bomb that exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945. But the bombs that were fitted with triggers from Rocky Flats were incomprehensibly larger; their power was measured by the megaton — the explosive power of a million tons of TNT. These newer nukes composed the arsenal of the Cold War, during which the United States and the Soviet Union feverishly fought for decades to build more and bigger bombs. In the end, though, Kruschev did not bury us. The Cold War is history, and so is the Soviet Union. If there is a fitting memorial to the end of the Cold War, it is the piece-by-piece demolition of Building 771. That's the opinion of Frazer R. Lockhart, manager of the U.S. Department of Energy's Rocky Flats Project Office. It was a view expressed Thursday by Gary Schuetz, a DOE project director who once worked in the Building 771 offices that were, at that moment, being transformed into rubble by the Flats' clean-up contractor, Kaiser-Hill. Before demolition began, Flats officials led journalists through the cavernous interior of Building 771, which workers have been cleaning for nine years. During the clean-up, workers have removed 240 plutonium-contaminated "gloveboxes," 251 contaminated tanks containing 12,000 liters of contaminated liquids, 11 miles of piping that contained 2,500 liters of plutonium-tainted liquids and more than 50 kilograms of plutonium "holdup" waste. That's no longer here, removed and shipped to waste-disposal sites across the country. Concrete pillars and walls, and little else, remain in 771. Yet this is the scene of the infamous fire of 1957, which started when a can of plutonium residue ignited, spread to the exhaust filters and to the second floor of the building. Flammable vapors in the main exhaust duct exploded, spreading toxic and radioactive plutonium throughout the building and even outside. On Thursday, people in street clothes stood on concrete that lay under what once was dubbed the "infinity room," a room so contaminated with radioactive material that workers sealed it off 25 years ago. People gazed at the ceiling that was scorched by the'57 fire. And they walked back into the sunlight to observe the beginning of the end of Building 771. Thursday was a historic day. But it wasn't a memorable scene. At least not like many nuclear-era images now burned into our memory. Consider these scenes: The bright mushroom cloud rising over the desert of New Mexico on July 16, 1945 — 59 years ago today. The skeletal dome of a building at ground zero in Hiroshima. The carbonized remains of a lunch box carried by Reiko Watanabe, a 15-year-old Hiroshima girl, who was doing fire-prevention work 500 meters from ground zero and whose body was never found. A 15-megaton mushroom cloud dwarfing Bikini Island in the South Pacific during a U.S. nuke test on March 1, 1954. Such are among the most awesomely hellish images of the past six decades. By comparison, the commencement of the gradual, methodical dismantling of an old bomb plant seems less than striking. But it is nonetheless significant. And in these times of fear, war and death, it is a welcome symbol of hope. Reach Clint Talbott at (303) 473-1367 or talbottc@dailycamera.com. The Daily Camera and the E.W. Scripps Company. All rights ***************************************************************** 54 Daily Camera: Building 771 coming down DailyCamera.com Christopher Gilbreath with Kaiser Hill lifts a barrier sign on Thursday while a radiological control technician waits in the background for a tour of Rocky Flats Building 771, once considered the most dangerous building in the United States. Demolition of Building 771 began Thursday after nine years of cleanup work. Structure Rocky Flats' most dangerous By Todd Neff, Camera Staff Writer July 16, 2004 ROCKY FLATS — At 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, the jaws of excavators tore into the heart of the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Facility, marking the beginning of the end of what was once deemed America's most dangerous building. Demolition should be complete by the fall. By next spring, what was Rocky Flats Building 771 should look like just another hill, said Steven Gunderson, the Rocky Flats cleanup coordinator for the Colorado Department of Health and Environment. Beneath it will remain at least some contaminated concrete. Building 771 is the largest and most complex plutonium-processing structure ever demolished in this country, the U.S. Department of Energy says. From 1954 to 1989, the building was Rocky Flats' main plutonium processing site, creating radioactive metal for tens of thousands of grapefruit-sized triggers for nuclear weapons. The triggers — also known as cores or pits — packed a destructive force of about 20,000 tons of TNT. Through the years, there were countless spills and fires. In 1957, a catastrophic fire led to the release of unknown quantities of plutonium into the local skies as it baked contamination into the building itself. Infrared aerial images of the Building 771 incinerator in December 1988 showed it to be illegally operating. The images, in part, led to a June 1989 FBI raid that resulted in the plant's temporary shutdown, which became permanent with the end of the Cold War. The cleanup of Building 771, led by Kaiser-Hill Co., has taken hundreds of workers nine years. Because nuclear-weapons workers had expected production to restart, they left thousands of gallons of toxic and plutonium-contaminated solutions in 11 miles of corroding piping and 251 decaying tanks. The presence of such liquids so close to population centers led the Department of Energy in 1994 to place Building 771 atop its list of most vulnerable nuclear weapons facilities. It became America's most dangerous building. Tuesday, Christopher Gilbreath led a troop of journalists and others into Building 771's first floor. Those inside wore only hard hats, safety glasses and flashy orange vests as protection. Gilbreath is Kaiser-Hill's project manager for Building 771. When he first walked into the plant in the 1990s, he looked up to the ceiling's network of contaminated pipes and saw "a spaghetti." "It was like eating an elephant, one bite at a time," he said. "We had to take it apart piece by piece, glovebox by glovebox, to get it to this state." The 240 stainless-steel gloveboxes — through which workers reached into the plutonium assembly line — had been badly contaminated by decades of use. Steelworkers cut them apart with plasma-arc torches to fit into nuclear-waste containers, an effort that took years. Inside, the 175,000-square-foot structure was a vast concrete catacomb lit by an occasional construction torch. Its reinforced concrete floor, ceiling and pillars were scarred by the repeated passes of hydrolyzers. Designed to peel away contaminated concrete, hydrolyzers use bursts of water compressed at up to 50,000 pounds per square inch. "It can take off your arm," Gilbreath said. The word "HOT," spray-painted in red on the rafters, indicated an area that would have to be either hydrolized yet again or cut out and removed. Temporary pillars of steel pipe surrounded a patch of roughly poured and whitewashed concrete. Surrounding concrete pillars were gone, and a draped plastic tarp served as a ceiling. The area had once been an "infinity room," an internal pump house whose leaks had so contaminated the former Room 141 that radiation levels were unmeasurable. The room had been sealed for 25 years until 2002, when crews began to remove it like a decayed tooth. Gary Schuetz, a supervisor for the Department of Energy, watched as a Caterpillar excavator's red claw ripped apart what was the former building cafeteria. He said initial estimates to clean and demolish the building had ranged from 30 years to 50 years, and it hadn't surprised him. "I came from nuclear shipyards, and I thought that was tough," he said. "In terms of scale, in terms of risk and hazard, nobody's done anything quite like this." Contact Camera Staff Writer Todd Neff at (303) 473-1327 or nefft@dailycamera.com. The Daily Camera and the E.W. Scripps Company. All rights ***************************************************************** 55 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Energy Dept. seeks $935,000 fine for Fluor [seattlepi.com] Friday, July 16, 2004 SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES The U.S. Energy Department is proposing a $935,000 fine for one of its contractors for alleged safety deficiencies at a project to remove radioactive sludge from Hanford Nuclear Reservation storage basins. If the amount stands, it would be the largest civil penalty ever levied at Hanford, according to the department's Office of Price-Anderson Enforcement. The preliminary notice of violation, which was issued yesterday, alleges significant design and management flaws by Fluor Hanford Inc. in the company's plans for removing 50 cubic meters of sludge from the K Basins, which are two 1 million-gallon pools holding spent nuclear fuel rods. That plan was scrapped after an Energy Department review in April 2003. The company has not decided whether to challenge the proposed penalty, spokesman Geoff Tyree said. "We just got notice of this enforcement action," Fluor Hanford President Ron Gallagher said in a statement yesterday. "We want to go through it carefully to make sure we fully understand this enforcement action. "We are disappointed with the civil penalty, particularly the level of the fine, because we have completely turned this project around in the past year." But the Government Accountability Project, a watchdog group, alleges that safety problems at the K Basins persist. In March, a 200- pound hoist fell off its track and hit the ground. Two weeks ago, a crane used to move containers filled with fuel rods stopped working. No one was injured in either incident. The Government Accountability Project is providing legal representation for a worker they say was laid off after blowing the whistle on safety issues while working last year on a project to remove fuel from the basins. "The fine that they got is part and parcel of the same safety problems that they have when they harass whistle-blowers with safety concerns," said Tom Carpenter, an attorney with the group. The enforcement action involves planning in spring 2003 for removal and treatment of radioactive sludge that remains in the bottom of the pools after the fuel rods are removed. Tyree said that the recent incidents are "completely unrelated" to the problems associated with the proposed fine. "We've corrected the problems that we had going into April 2003," he said. "We're focusing on making progress and doing it safely." The Energy Department's Office of Environmental Safety and Health raised concerns when the contractor declared that it was ready to begin the sludge-removal project, yet was unable to complete its own operational review. The agency found that Fluor Hanford employees were not adequately trained, that documents and records were inadequate and incomplete, and, in some cases, that safety equipment was not safe enough. The department also found management and quality-improvement flaws in the company's original plan. Because of those and other concerns, the plan for collecting and processing the sludge was never implemented. The Energy Department said the company was being fined for its failure to pass a federal "readiness review," a failure that constituted violation of nuclear safety standards. Fluor Hanford revised its plan, passed two reviews last spring, and began retrieving sludge from the K East Basin on June 17, Energy spokeswoman Colleen Clark said. Fluor's Gallagher said major changes were made after the spring 2003 review: The company corrected design and safety problems, replaced personnel, increased oversight and made other improvements. Fluor Hanford said the nuclear safety issues raised by the Energy Department investigation posed no danger to workers, the public or the environment. HEADLINES No more transfers to UW More than a ride, Seattle-to-Portland is a tradition Heinz Kerry visits the Hutch Premera's for-profit bid denied Hearing final pleas of slain deputy tears at family, jurors as trial opens An apology and -- it is hoped -- healing on Bainbridge In The Northwest: We should be wary of environmental optimists Sound Transit won't appeal Tukwila parking deal Critic rips Sound Transit bus audit Man killed in fall at Hanford Other Voices: Bride came through in the clutch Police arrest third suspect in beating of Seattle gay man Energy Dept. seeks $935,000 fine for Fluor Body of climber is found on Rainier At 81-plus, climber sets age record for scaling Rainier UW donations drop, but still ahead of schedule Alben leads fund raising in race for Jennifer Dunn's seat Fire caused by lightning spreads to 900 acres Woman, two children killed in I-90 wreck Murder conviction upheld in teen's death No death penalty for mother in slayings Burkheimer case prosecutor now a judge Missing hiker rescued near Snoqualmie River Local NAACP chapter wins national award Puget Sound-Off: Should Ralph Nader drop out? King County Deaths [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com ©1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Terms of Service/Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 56 Las Vegas RJ: LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY: Breach brings lab lockdown Friday, July 16, 2004 Nuclear facility, which built the atomic bomb, under fire for security leaks By LESLIE HOFFMAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., is shown in a 1995 aerial photo. Another security breach at the lab prompted a halt all classified work Thursday while officials conduct a wall-to-wall inventory of sensitive data. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The most recent security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory prompted the lab to halt all classified work Thursday while officials conduct a wall-to-wall inventory of sensitive data. The stand-down began at noon, and the inventory of CDs, floppy disks and other data storage devices is expected to be completed within days, lab spokesman Kevin Roark said. Last week, the lab reported that two items containing classified information were missing. The items were identified only as removable data storage devices. The incident was the latest in a series of embarrassments that have prompted federal officials to put the Los Alamos management contract up for bid for the first time in the 61-year history of the lab that built the atomic bomb. Lab officials are searching for the items and investigating how they disappeared. Individuals who had access to the items are being allowed to enter their workplace under escort only, and work has been shut down in part of the unit involved, the Weapons Physics Directorate, while the investigation continues, lab officials said. The National Nuclear Security Agency, the federal agency overseeing the labs, sent a team to Los Alamos this week to investigate the loss. The University of California, which has operated Los Alamos from its beginnings during the World War II race to build the bomb, has not decided whether to compete for the contract when it expires next year. Pete Nanos, director of the northern New Mexico lab, briefed the UC Board of Regents on the incident, saying: "It's time for all the employees at Los Alamos to take a stand and ask themselves what do I believe in. The challenge before them is clear." Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' project on government secrecy, applauded the stand-down. "It's what they have to do to confront this recurring problem," he said. Similarly classified material was reported missing in May. Lab officials later said they believe the material was destroyed, as intended, but that the paperwork was faulty. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 57 BBC: US nuclear lab loses secret data Last Updated: Friday, 16 July, 2004 [Los Alamos National Laboratory] Los Alamos has suffered other security lapses One of America's largest nuclear weapons research laboratories has suspended its activities after secret information went missing. Officials are not saying what data has disappeared from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, but it is thought to be highly sensitive. The laboratory was temporarily closed four years ago as forest fires got dangerously close to it. Several security breaches have hit the birthplace of the first atomic bomb. Its closure comes on the anniversary of the first atomic bomb test in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Its head, John Browne, resigned in January last year, following allegations of theft and fraud, including allegedly questionable purchases and the disappearance of computers and other equipment from the complex. These breaches of nation security will not be tolerated Gerald Parsky Chairman of governors managing Los Alamos A few months later, the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was instructed by the government to make "aggressive and far-reaching" changes to tighten security at all nuclear weapons laboratories in the US. Security lapses at all three major US nuclear weapons labs - Sandia and Los Alamos in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore in California - have included the loss of keys, laptops and even a van, as well as the two-year disappearance of two vials of plutonium oxide. Investigation As yet there is no evidence of any deliberate act to steal the data at Los Alamos - probably CDs - which was reported missing last week from a unit known as the Weapons Physics Directorate. LOS ALAMOS LABORATORY [Los Alamos Nationa Laboratory] Isolated site chosen by J Robert Oppenheimer, 'father' of atomic bomb Facility built first atomic bomb, nicknamed 'The Gadget' and tested on 16 July 1945 Produced 'Little Boy' and 'Fat Man' atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Aug 1945 Part of US Dept of Energy and managed by University of California Involved in nuclear weapons development and defence, energy and environmental projects [ src=] Nuclear fuel cycle One official is quoted as saying there is no evidence yet that the missing data has even left the facility, although that may be difficult to prove one way or another. However, the shutdown is a sign of how sensitive the data is and how seriously the matter is being taken, says the BBC's Pentagon correspondent, Nick Childs. "These breaches of national security will not be tolerated," Gerald Parsky, chairman of governors of the University of California which manages Los Alamos, told Reuters news agency. Officials are currently conducting a detailed inventory of sensitive data at the lab, logging CDs and floppy discs. That work is expected to take several days. Staff who had access to the items in question are being allowed into the plant under escort only. The NNSA, the federal agency which oversees the industry, has sent a team to Los Alamos to investigate the disappearance. Other lapses The incident is doubly embarrassing because it comes at a time when concerns about nuclear weapons proliferation are becoming more prominent and governments and other experts are calling for heightened safeguards to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons technology, our correspondent says. SECURITY INCIDENTS Los Alamo Scientist Wen Ho Lee detained on spying charges in 1999 and later released - the lab's head John Browne resigned in 2003 amid allegations of theft and fraud Lawrence Livermore: Three security managers suspended in June 2003 after loss of electronic key went unreported for six weeks Sandia: Van stolen from a secure area and driven through a fence before being left in a car park - a classified computer went missing from the same area It is also the latest in a series of embarrassments that have prompted federal officials to put the Los Alamos management contract up for bidding. Those include the disappearance of similar classified material two months ago. The laboratory has also been tarnished by the controversy involving Wen Ho Lee - a Taiwan-born scientist who was kept in solitary confinement for nine months, after being accused of passing nuclear secrets to China. He denied any wrongdoing, and pleaded guilty to a single charge after the government's case collapsed in September 2000. Founded during World War II by a small group of scientists and military personnel who were seeking to develop atomic weapons, the Los Alamos laboratory now has more than 12,000 employees working on a site roughly 70sq km. It is now involved in studies on modifying some warheads, but much of the activity there and at other labs is now focused on maintaining the safety of the US nuclear stockpile and working on other non-nuclear research. ***************************************************************** 58 Tennessean: Federal appeals court rejects two Oak Ridge lawsuits 07/16/04 tennessean.com By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press KNOXVILLE — A federal appeals court yesterday rejected two lawsuits seeking compensation for potentially thousands of people who might have been exposed to toxic substances from the Oak Ridge nuclear weapons complex during the past half-century. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati affirmed a 2002 ruling by U.S. District Judge James Jarvis that the lawsuits came too late to meet Tennessee's one-year statute of limitations and failed to show enough common interest between the plaintiffs to support a class action. The appeals court didn't rule out that some individual claims may be ''still viable.'' ''It is possible the weaker claims have obscured the stronger claims,'' Judge Judith Barzilay wrote for the three-member panel. ''From this vantage point, however, it is impossible to discern.'' The appeals court upheld Jarvis' summary judgment favoring the Energy Department and 13 firms or institutions that have run the weapons complex since it opened in 1942 as part of the bomb-building Manhattan Project of World War II. Defendant contractors included the University of Chicago, Monsanto Co., Union Carbide Corp., Eastman Chemical Co., Martin-Martin Energy Systems Inc., Bechtel Jacobs Co. and the University of Tennessee-Battelle. One lawsuit, brought by Stephen Heiser and others, sought to represent everyone ever to live in Oak Ridge who either had cancer or was at risk of cancer or other diseases linked to the weapons complex. At least four plaintiffs, including Heiser, developed thyroid cancer they say was caused by radioactive emissions. A companion lawsuit brought by Fannie Ball and other residents of the historically black Scarboro community sought compensation on the grounds of racial discrimination. The community began as a government-created blacks-only trailer park for laborers and domestics near the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. The court noted Scarboro was integrated by the 1950s, that there was no allegation contractors ''initiated the segregation'' and that the plaintiffs couldn't rely on rulings in school desegregation cases to require contractors now to pay for cleanup and medical monitoring. The lawsuits stemmed from an eight-year, $14 million government study released in January 2000 that documented a history of toxic releases from the nuclear weapons complex. The report concluded that some people probably were hurt by the releases. The most likely groups were children in the early 1950s who drank milk from ''backyard'' cows or goats that ate grass contaminated by radioactive iodine, and fetuses of women who routinely ate fish from mercury-contaminated creeks in the 1950s and 1960s. The plaintiffs filed suit a year after the study was released. But the court said that was too late, noting that the ''possible connection between emissions and health risks near Oak Ridge'' was widely publicized before and during the preparation of the study. ''We recognize that when a government project such as Oak Ridge is shrouded in secrecy, it may be difficult to collect the necessary facts to make a case,'' the appeals court wrote. The judges said the plaintiffs failed to show they made any effort to support their claims that the government and contractors withheld information. ''We find nothing in the record of this case that exhibits any concealment motivated by bad faith on the part of the defendants. We further note that the duty to inquire applied even when the government may have engaged in concealment of facts,'' the judges said. © Copyright 2004 The Tennessean y ***************************************************************** 59 ABQjournal: Slowing of Science Innovation at LANL Seen as Dangerous July 15, 2004 By Richard Benke The Associated Press As Los Alamos National Laboratory scrambles for answers to security lapses, shutting down classified research in the process, key science goals may have to be scaled back, scientists and lab officials say. One retired Los Alamos physicist suggests a slowdown of scientific discovery and innovation, if it persists, may be the most dangerous development of all. It's the speed and prowess of the lab that helps keep the country safe by outperforming foreign rivals, Chick Keller said. "I can imagine people taking actions that are so restrictive . . . that it would actually hinder the rate at which we make scientific discoveries," said Keller, former director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, who retired in 2001. "The way to stay ahead of them is to be moving so fast that even if they do get ahold of something, it's usually old stuff." Lab spokesman Kevin Roark acknowledged that the stand-down at the lab is going to slow down the ability to meet certain milestones. The Energy Department has announced that Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow and Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, have been ordered to personally oversee the lab probe. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said he told McSlarrow to use "all available mechanisms" to find the missing items, including polygraphs. Even if the missing devices are found, Abraham said the lab still needs to "correct the systemic flaws that allowed this problem to occur." Steven Aftergood, head of the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, suggested a more thorough diagnosis of the problem may be needed before it can be truly fixed. "I'm not sure that the root of the problem has been identified — is it a cultural problem, a lack of respect for security, an excess of classified documents or materials, all of the above?" Aftergood said. Congress is again talking about oversight hearings and a bill to preclude the University of California from bidding on renewal of its Los Alamos lab management contract. U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, on Tuesday had cross-examined Brooks about Los Alamos during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. On Thursday, Strickland expressed shock that Brooks didn't seem shocked by the Los Alamos lapses, which involve missing data storage devices that are kept in vaults. "These vaults or safes, they don't have any security cameras on them. They do an inventory only once a year," Strickland said. Committee chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, said: "It keeps happening and happening and happening." "(A) number of people are going to have to resign over this, and it's possible a number of people may have to go to prison over this," Barton said. He added: "There's probably better security at the . . . public library over CDs and videos that are on the Blockbuster top-ten list." Strickland said he opposes UC winning renewal of its 61-year-old contract but that Congress should stay out of the replacement process. "I don't want political influence being involved," he said. Other comment from the hearing: — Rep. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said UC gets "a zero, not an F — they get a zero." — Rep. Jim Greenwood, R-Pa., cited "an ongoing pattern of business management failure and security problems." — Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., said to Brooks: "Let me just say I'm a little bit frustrated with your lack of knowledge about these matters to which you are entrusted." Scientists who were sought for comment at the lab about the classified stand-down that began at Thursday asked not to be interviewed. Computer scientist Patrick McCormick, for example, was "too busy" implementing stand-down directives and attending to the non-classified portion of his work to talk to a reporter, Roark said. In February 2003, McCormick was among proponents for retention of the UC management contract. At that time, he forecast that perhaps 30 percent of the lab's scientific work force would leave if UC failed to win contract renewal. Copyright Albuquerque Journal ***************************************************************** 60 SF Chronicle: UC lab halts classified research / Regents blast Los Alamos director over security lapses Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer Friday, July 16, 2004 All classified research was halted Thursday at the University of California-run Los Alamos National Laboratory as investigators entered the eighth day of a frustrating search for two missing computer data storage devices. Hundreds of miles away at a meeting in San Francisco, the University of California Regents and other UC officials -- in unusually emotional language -- blasted the Los Alamos administrator and his staff at the New Mexico weapons laboratory for what lab officials themselves called a "very serious" security lapse. In turn, the lab director told the regents he had just bawled out his own staff at an "all hands" meeting at which he threatened firings. The disappearance of the storage devices is the latest in a series of security breaches that, some fear, might cost UC its prestigious contract to run the lab where the atomic bomb was born in 1945. In a worst-case scenario, the lapses might lead to the secret information -- which lab officials refuse to describe but might concern super-weapons -- falling into the hands of the United States' enemies. The latest violations occurred not because of innocent procedural mistakes but because individuals deliberately and knowingly flouted security rules, Los Alamos chief Pete Nanos told the regents. He said he had held the meeting with Los Alamos staff to demand compliance with security procedures, and he told the regents that he is investigating who was to blame for the incidents. "I've drawn a line in the sand," Nanos said. "I started out by telling them (the staffers), 'You really don't know how the American people view your actions (in mishandling classified materials). ... I have a stack of applications for retirement and resignation, and you can fill them out.' " Regent Richard C. Blum, calling the latest scandal "just like a stab at your heart," warned the Los Alamos director that "we clearly haven't done what we need to get done" in improving the lab's security. Comparing the screw-up to the U.S. intelligence failures that preceded the nation's invasion of Iraq in 2003, Blum snapped: "Damn it, we need to fix this. ... This (lost material) is among the most sensitive intelligence material we have in the nation." Even angrier was Regent Ward Connerly: "This is the third (security) incident in eight months, and part of me wants to say: 'Get rid of these labs. ... Fire everybody. ... We don't need the grief.' " UC manages both Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory nuclear weapons labs under contract to the U.S. Energy Department. "But," Connerly immediately added, "I'm an American citizen, and I want to do what's right for the country." That requires that the labs remain in the scientifically most capable hands -- the hands of UC scientists, he said. Blum added that "our competitors are going to be using this against us in spades," an allusion to a forthcoming competition for the next management contract at Los Alamos. Potential competitors range from think-tanks such as Battelle and corporations such as Lockheed-Martin, to the giant University of Texas system. UC's present lab contract runs out in late 2005. UC officials haven't yet decided whether to risk a humiliating defeat by competing for the next contract with outside bidders. Last year, after mounting scandals -- among them the firing by the then- lab chief of two outside investigators who had originally been hired to investigate financial mismanagement -- U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham decided to open future Los Alamos contracts to outside bidders. Abraham issued this statement Thursday: "The investigation to date indicates widespread disregard of security procedures by laboratory employees. This is absolutely unacceptable. While our first priority must be to locate the missing material, the government will insist that the University of California, which operates Los Alamos, ensures that the laboratory take strong measures to correct the systematic flaws that allowed this problem to occur. .. ." At the packed UC regents meeting, the only two who sounded madder and talked tougher than the regents were the lab officials: Nanos and his immediate boss, Bob Foley, the UC vice president of laboratory administration. Both men were hired to fix the Los Alamos mess, which began brewing amid financial, security and managerial scandals two years ago. Thursday, both men expressed dismay that their work remains unfinished. But the regents reacted sharply when Foley warned them that a similar security lapse might happen again over the next year or so while he and Nanos struggle to clamp down on wayward CREMs -- Classified Removable Electronic Media, an umbrella term that refers to a wide range of electronic devices that can store computer data -- and other classified materials. "I'm not prepared to accept that there will be more incidents of this nature at the laboratory," Regent Judith L. Hopkinson shot back. Nanos told the regents that all classified research at Los Alamos has been halted while investigators look for the missing CREMs. Such research will not be resumed until the security situation is safe, even if the "stand-down," as he called it, impedes the lab's vital research activities. A stand-down is unusual at any time, but especially now, when the nation is at war, the CIA has an acting chief, and the White House is warning about possible high-tech terrorist attacks on the nation. During a Sept. 11-style terrorist attack involving weapons of mass destruction, military and federal officials would likely rely on Los Alamos and Livermore scientists for scientific advice. Asked what he would do in case of a terrorist attack, Nanos said "that will be immediately brought to my attention and we'll deal with it then." Los Alamos officials continue to refuse to say whether the missing CREMs contain information about nuclear weapons. "I can't tell you what's on those (CREM) disks," Nanos told reporters after the regents session. When reporters pressed him again, he insisted "I can't tell you directly or indirectly" because the information is part of what he called the nation's "mainline," or primary, archives of classified data. E-mail Keay Davidson at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com. Page A - 1 ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ ***************************************************************** 61 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Fernald FR Doc 04-16185 [Federal Register: July 16, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 136)] [Notices] [Page 42707-42708] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr16jy04-55] AGENCY: Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting. SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Fernald. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of these meetings be announced in the Federal Register. DATES: Tuesday, August 3, 2004 6:15 p.m.-9 p.m. ADDRESSES: Fernald Closure Project Site, 7400 Willey Road, Trailer 214, Hamilton, OH 45253. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Doug Sarno, The Perspectives Group, Inc., 1055 North Fairfax Street, Suite 204, Alexandria, VA 22314, at (703) 837-1197, or e-mail; djsarno@theperspectivesgroup.com. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of the Board is to make recommendations to DOE in the areas of environmental restoration, waste management, and related activities. Tentative Agenda 6:15 p.m.-Call to Order 6:15-6:30 p.m.--Chairs Remarks, Ex Officio Announcements and Updates 6:30-7:30 p.m.--Silos Projects 7:30-8:30 p.m.--Site Tour 8:30-8:45 p.m.--Preparation for September Retreat 8:45-9 p.m.--Public Comment 9 p.m.--Adjourn Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public. Written statements may be filed with the Board chair either before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements pertaining to agenda items should contact the Board chair at the address or telephone number listed below. Requests must be received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provision will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer, Gary Stegner, Public Affairs Office, Ohio Field Office, U.S. Department of Energy, is empowered to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of business. Each individual wishing to make public comment will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present their comments. Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public review and [[Page 42708]] copying at the Freedom of Information Public Reading Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC, 20585 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday-Friday, except Federal holidays. Minutes will also be available by writing to the Fernald Citizens' Advisory Board, % Phoenix Environmental Corporation, MS-76, Post Office Box 538704, Cincinnati, OH 43253-8704, or by calling the Advisory Board at (513) 648-6478. Issued at Washington, DC on July 13, 2004. Rachel Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer. [FR Doc. 04-16185 Filed 7-15-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 62 Colorado Daily: 771 walls start tumblin' down By RICHARD VALENTY Colorado Daily Staff Writer To say that the demolition of Rocky Flats Building 771 began "not with a bang, but a whimper" would be a stretch -there was plenty of noise Thursday as cranes began tearing 771 down, but the bang some envisioned for the end of the building could have been much, much worse. Building 771 was once used to process and purify plutonium into buttons used in the production of nuclear weapons. The building was informally dubbed "the most dangerous building in America" for a number of reasons besides the presence of plutonium. Purifying plutonium for use required hydrochloric acid, hydrogen fluoride and nitric acid, among other chemicals used inside 771. The use of these corrosive chemicals caused numerous leaks in overhead piping, posing direct danger to Flats workers. After nine years of work stripping 771 of old piping, tanks, gloveboxes and contaminated sections of flooring and walls, the lower floor of the building is literally a concrete shell of walls and columns. On Thursday, Chris Gilbreath, project manager for Flats cleanup contractor Kaiser-Hill Company, led a group of people on a tour through what is left of 771. Upon entering the building, a scribbled message of "Bye-bye, 771" on the wall illustrated that very few people will be unhappy to see the building gone. AD (_middle) Gilbreath said there were literally miles of piping removed from the building, and described the former appearance of the piping as similar to "spaghetti." Any concrete walls and flooring left in 771 must test at radiation levels of less than 100 disintegrations per minute (DPM) before the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) would allow "free release" demolition, according to Steve Gunderson, CDPHE project coordinator. On Thursday, some existing 771 concrete sections were still marked in red with the word "hot," and hot sections will have to be removed before final building demolition. Some contaminated concrete was already removed with a process called "hydrolazing," an extremely high-pressure spray of water that can break concrete loose. According to Gilbreath, a typical power washer operates at 2-3,000 pounds per square inch (PSI), while hydrolazing works at 30-50,000 PSI. Gunderson said some sections of 771 concrete were so contaminated that several passes of hydrolazing would not decontaminate the concrete enough to pass the tests. These sections would have to be cut out before final building demolition. Gilbreath led Thursday's crowd to the shell of a 20-by-30-foot 771 room called the "Infinity Room" because radiation readings inside the room would "peg out," or reach the highest readings possible on a test meter. Most of the Infinity Room had to be cut out in large chunks, and on Thursday, people were standing on a new floor where the room once was, wearing no safety equipment other than hardhats and safety glasses. Upon leaving 771, workers scanned the bottom of visitors' shoes with test equipment. After the building tour, Kaiser-Hill President &CEO Nancy Tuor and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) manager Frazer Lockhart gave speeches praising the workers responsible for "decommissioning" the building. Lockhart finished his portion of the speech, and Gilbreath said "Proceed with demolition." Cranes began ripping out metal guardrails around second-story doors as a crowd of Kaiser-Hill, DOE and other Flats employees applauded. Crews used targeted water spraying to keep demolition dust from spreading. Thursday's demolition activity was only a beginning, as Gunderson said the entire 771 operation could take two months. The building is built into a hill on the north side of the site "industrial zone," and when 771 demolition is completed, workers will fill the hole in the hill and revegetate the area in an attempt to make it look as if 771 never existed. The history books say that in 1957, spontaneous plutonium combustion inside what was then called Building 71, caused a fire inside gloveboxes. The fire spread into the building's filter system, burning and smoldering for hours. A 1999 CDPHE document suggests that the fire could have released between 2.9 and 36 curies of radiation into the air. To fast-forward for major contrast, the Flats site could become a National Wildlife Refuge as soon as late 2006, and parts of the site could be open for human recreation, although the 771 gravesite and other industrial areas will not be used for trail construction. Congressman Mark Udall, D-Colo., called Thursday's event a "critical milestone" in the site cleanup effort. "I have toured this facility and seen first-hand the enormity of the project," said Udall in a press release. "The destruction of this building gives me great confidence that workers will be able to tackle other buildings with equal care and safety, and that we will stay on course to cleaning up and closing Rocky Flats by 2006 and turning it into a wildlife refuge." ***************************************************************** 63 Oak Ridger: Plans unveiled for new Toxco site Story last updated at 1:05 p.m. on July 16, 2004 By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff Officials with Toxco Inc. have revealed some plans for the Oak Ridge facility the company recently purchased from American Ecology Corp. The facility, located at 109 Flint Road, will provide a "strategic expansion of Toxco's existing metal recycling and reuse operations," according to a news release issued Thursday afternoon. The company has been conducting similar work in space leased at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge K-25 site, but officials declined to say if Toxco would continue to do so. The recently purchased facility - to be operated as the Toxco Materials Management Center - will offer various services oriented around the repair and reuse of equipment and materials that are currently contaminated, according to the news release. The operation avoids prematurely burying items as waste before the useful life is over. Altogether, Toxco's new site encompasses approximately 16 acres, with 115,000 square feet of building and operating space. At the site, the company will also offer recycling services for batteries. Last week, American Ecology officials announced that the transaction allowed the company to "exit this and other non-core businesses, allowing us to focus on our core hazardous and radioactive waste treatment and disposal business." ***************************************************************** 64 Oak Ridger: Safety forum focused on hoists Story last updated at 1:05 p.m. on July 16, 2004 By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff What could have been a fatal accident last month at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has spurred officials to choose hoisting and rigging activities as the topic of an upcoming safety forum. The early-June accident involved a 2,000-pound hoist dropped 12 feet and landing 5 feet from two workers. Though no one was severely injured, it was reportedly the third accident involving lifting within a year. "The incident at ORNL is a concern to the business community; and next week's safety forum will focus our attention, not only on hoisting and rigging as an activity, but also on planning the work and sticking to the plan," explained Jenny Freeman, executive director of the East Tennessee Environmental Business Association. Freeman's organization is one of the groups hosting Wednesday's forum through what's known as the Oak Ridge Business Safety Partnership. Other participants in the partnership include the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Operations office and the National Nuclear Safety Administration as well as their prime contractors in addition to some local labor unions and UT. Wednesday's forum is the second in a series of bi-monthly events on safety. The program is 8 to 10:15 a.m. at the American Museum of Science and Energy. Presentations will be given by UT-Battelle, which manages ORNL for DOE, and Bechtel Jacobs Co., the federal government's Oak Ridge cleanup contractor. An ORNL spokesman was unable to provide details on the lab's presentation. As for Bechtel Jacobs, Lynn Nolan of the company's Environmental Safety and Health organization will discuss actions following the ORNL incident. According to Freeman, the goal of the partnership is to raise awareness of safety issues among the business community currently working on DOE's Oak Ridge sites and to focus on safety issues, as individuals and companies, in order to reach and maintain a goal of a zero accident or injury rate at the work site. She said Wednesday's forum is open to the general public. ***************************************************************** 65 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Rocky FR Doc 04-16186 [Federal Register: July 16, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 136)] [Notices] [Page 42708] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr16jy04-56] Flats AGENCY: Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting. SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Rocky Flats. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of these meetings be announced in the Federal Register. DATES: Thursday, August 5, 2004 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. ADDRESSES: College Hill Library, Room L268, Front Range Community College, 3705 West 112th Avenue, Westminster, CO. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ken Korkia, Board/Staff Coordinator, Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, 10808 Highway 93, Unit B, Building 60, Room 107B, Golden, CO, 80403; telephone (303) 966-7855; fax (303) 966-7856. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of the Board is to make recommendations to DOE in the areas of environmental restoration, waste management, and related activities. Tentative Agenda 1. Update on Environmental Restoration Projects 2. Discussion and Approval of Recommendations on the Draft Rocky Flats Public Participation Plan 3. Other Board business may be conducted as necessary 4. Public Comment Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public. Written statements may be filed with the Board either before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements pertaining to agenda items should contact Ken Korkia at the address or telephone number listed above. Requests must be received at least five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provisions will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of business. Each individual wishing to make public comment will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present their comments. Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public review and copying at the office of the Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, 10808 Highway 93, Unit B, Building 60, Room 107B, Golden, CO 80403; telephone (303) 966-7855. Hours of operations are 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Minutes will also be made available by writing or calling Ken Korkia at the address or telephone number listed above. Board meeting minutes are posted on RFCAB's Web site within one month following each meeting at: http://www.rfcab.org/Minutes.HTML. Issued at Washington, DC on July 13, 2004. Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer. [FR Doc. 04-16186 Filed 7-15-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 66 Oak Ridger: Appeals court dismisses toxic exposure claims Story last updated at 1:13 p.m. on July 16, 2004 The Associated Press KNOXVILLE - A federal appeals court Thursday rejected two lawsuits seeking compensation for potentially thousands of people who might have been exposed to toxins from the Oak Ridge nuclear weapons complex during the last half century. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati affirmed a 2002 ruling by U.S. District Judge James Jarvis that the lawsuits came too late to meet Tennessee's one-year statute of limitations, and failed to show enough common interest between the plaintiffs to support a class action. The appeals court didn't rule out some individual claims may be "still viable." "It is possible the weaker claims have obscured the stronger claims," Judge Judith Barzilay wrote for the three-member panel. "From this vantage point, however, it is impossible to discern Š" The appeals court upheld Jarvis' summary judgment favoring the Energy Department and 13 firms or institutions that ran the weapons complex since it opened in 1942 as part of the bomb-building Manhattan Project of World War II. Defendant contractors included the University of Chicago, Monsanto Co., Union Carbide Corp., Eastman Chemical Co., Martin-Martin Energy Systems Inc., Bechtel Jacobs Co. and the University of Tennessee-Battelle. One lawsuit, brought by Stephen Heiser and others, sought to represent everyone to ever live in Oak Ridge who had cancer or was at risk of cancer or other diseases linked to the weapons complex. At least four plaintiffs, including Heiser, developed thyroid cancer they say was due to radioactive emissions. A companion lawsuit brought by Fannie Ball and other residents of the historically black Scarboro community sought compensation on the grounds of racial discrimination. The community began as a government-created blacks-only trailer park for laborers and domestics near the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. The court noted Scarboro was integrated by the 1950s, that there was no allegation contractors "initiated the segregation" and that the plaintiffs couldn't rely on rulings in school desegregation cases to require contractors now to pay for cleanup and medical monitoring. The lawsuits stemmed from an eight-year, $14 million government study released in January 2000 that documented a history of toxic releases from the nuclear weapons complex. The report concluded that some people likely were hurt by the releases. The most likely groups were children in the early 1950s who drank milk from "backyard" cows or goats that ate grass contaminated by radioactive iodine, and fetuses of women who routinely ate fish from mercury-contaminated creeks in the 1950s and 1960s. The plaintiffs filed suit a year after the study was released. But the court said that was too late, noting the "possible connection between emissions and health risks near Oak Ridge" was widely publicized before and during the preparation of the study. "We recognize that when a government project such as Oak Ridge is shrouded in secrecy, it may be difficult to collect the necessary facts to make a case," the appeals court wrote. The judges said the plaintiffs failed to show they made any effort to support their claims that the government and contractors withheld information. "We find nothing in the record of this case that exhibits any concealment motivated by bad faith on the part of the defendants. We further note that the duty to inquire applied even when the government may have engaged in concealment of facts," the judges said. ***************************************************************** 67 Daily Texan: UT regents to hear case against Los Alamos - | 7/16/2004 Four opponents of plan to speak at meeting today By Clint Johnson The UT System Board of Regents will hear arguments this morning against its possible fall bid for a contract to manage Los Alamos National Laboratory. The agenda for today's open meeting includes a discussion about the bid led by Chancellor Mark Yudof, but the System task force on the issue is not scheduled to give its recommendation until August. Board Chairman James Huffines will also allow four opponents of the bid to address the regents. Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, who is against System management of Los Alamos, will argue that the task force has not been honest enough in its evaluation of the Los Alamos contract, said Burnam spokesman Colin Leyden. "We think there hasn't been enough open discussion," Leyden said. "There is tremendous possibility for downside and negative aspects." Austin Van Zant, a member of activist groups UT Watch and UT Nuke Free, said he will also speak. Van Zant said he plans to tell the regents the System would not gain from a bid. "Some people are saying UT could benefit economically and could see increased research opportunities if it manages Los Alamos," Van Zant said. "But if you look at it, this is not true." He said he plans to show that Los Alamos has had a negative effect on its manager, the University of California System, as well as New Mexico, and argue that the same would happen to the UT System. Stefan Wray, a UT alum and anti-nuclear weapons activist, said he will also address the regents. He said he plans to focus his speech on the lab's nuclear production capabilities. "A lot of people don't realize this is the only facility to produce plutonium pits, which are at the core of a nuclear weapon." The System sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy declaring its interest in a bid to operate the lab on June 29. The Board of Regents is not expected to officially decide whether to bid until late August. Van Zant and Wray said they appreciate the opportunity to speak, but need more than three minutes to explain their positions. "I think this is a step in the right direction," Wray said. "It will be difficult to make a case in three minutes, though." The board will also hear a recommendation from Regent Robert Estrada about appointing an independent accounting firm to audit System finances beginning in September. According to the agenda, the regents decided to hire an auditor as a way to "manifest financial accountability and compliance in the public sector," and plan to approve a proposal from one of five accounting firms. In addition, the regents will decide whether to commit an extra $60 million for faculty recruitment and research at System institutions. According to the agenda, the money would be distributed to seven of the nine universities, including UT-Austin. The open session will be held at 10:30 a.m. today on the ninth floor of Ashbel Smith Hall, 201 W. Seventh St. A webcast of the meeting will be available at the UT System Web site. ***************************************************************** 68 Guardian Unlimited: History Meets Trouble at Los Alamos Lab From the Associated Press [UP] Friday July 16, 2004 11:46 PM AP Photo NMLM801 By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Steeped in history going back to the birth of the nuclear bomb, the government's Los Alamos National Laboratory has been dogged in recent years by one embarrassment after another, from credit card fraud and allegations of espionage to disappearing files and safety lapses. The latest flap: two missing computer disks containing nuclear secrets. All classified work at the laboratory in the hills of northern New Mexico has been ordered stopped as some of the country's smartest nuclear weapons scientists and engineers search for the missing disks. At the Energy Department, senior officials are steaming at what they view as yet another security foul-up at the facility where 61 years ago scientists put together the world's first atomic bomb. Investigators have been stymied on the whereabouts of the two computer disks, known to the scientists as ``classified removable electronic media.'' Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the disappearance reflects ``a widespread disregard for security'' by lab officials. ``This is absolutely unacceptable,'' he fumed, ordering his top deputy, Kyle McSlarrow, to the laboratory to get to the bottom of it all. Stretched across 43 square miles, the Los Alamos weapons lab employs more than 10,700 people, two-thirds of them working for the University of California, which has managed the facility since it was created as part of the World War II Manhattan Project that launched the age of nuclear weapons. It's been 18 months since Peter Nanos, a retired vice admiral, took over as lab director after a scandal involving lab employees using laboratory credit cards to buy personal items including - as alleged but still in some dispute - a new Mustang automobile. ``We are not a bunch of crooks,'' Nanos told lab workers his first day on the job. ``The trouble is I can't prove it.'' Last week, faced with the latest computer disk flap, Nanos blamed ``a small number'' of people who cannot follow the rules and who again have ``brought disrepute to Los Alamos.'' No one has said what is on the disks and it's possible they may have been destroyed without anyone bothering with the required paperwork. To increase security, the lab has begun a program to phase out the use of removable disks from all its classified computers. But it is far from the first embarrassing incident at the lab. The Los Alamos nuclear weapons program was at the center of a 1999 espionage controversy involving lab scientist Wen Ho Lee. Though never charged with espionage, Lee was fired for security violations. He pleaded guilty to a felony count of mishandling classified information and admitted copying classified files. He said he disposed of them on site, but they were never found. A year later, two computer hard drives containing nuclear secrets disappeared from a guarded vault at Los Alamos only to turn up behind a copy machine. The mystery has yet to be solved. Last December, an inventory couldn't account for 10 computer disks, also used in the nuclear weapons program, prompting - as was the case this week - a brief suspension of classified work. Another disk was reported missing in May. Lab officials believe that in both cases the materials were destroyed with no records kept. The repeated security flaps as well as the scandal over fraudulent use of credit cards prompted the Energy Department last year to put its lab management contract up for bid when it expires in 2005, possibly ending the University of California's 61-year involvement. ``We have a huge number of exceptionally bright people here,'' Los Alamos spokesman Kevin Roark said Friday in a telephone interview. ``But we still have what appears to be a small number of knuckleheads who ruin it for everybody.'' But others suggest there are systemic problems at the heart of the lab's frequent flirtation with trouble. And it doesn't always involved security. The credit card fraud scandal in 2002 brought charges of an attempted cover-up after the lab fired two investigators it had assigned to get to the bottom of the case. One of them eventually received a nearly $1 million settlement with the university. Auditors found $4.9 million in questionable credit card expenses over four years, although lab officials said all but $195,246 had been accounted for. Twice in four months last year two Los Alamos workers were contaminated from exposure to plutonium. The more recent case last August prompted a $770,000 fine from the Energy Department. But the fine will never have to be paid because by law the University of California, as a DOE contractor, is immune from such penalties. Steve Aftergood, director of the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists' project on government secrecy, says a key question is whether the security flaps stem from sloppiness or willful disregard for the rules. ``Why would they do such things?'' he wondered, noting that the lab is the workplace of some of the country's smartest scientists - many of them long involved in highly classified defense work. ``These are brilliant scientists,'' added Danielle Brian, executive director of Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group that has worked closely with whistle-blowers at Los Alamos. ``They are told daily they are brilliant scientists. That creates a hubris ... almost a defiance. ... They believe the work they are doing is so important that it supersedes everything else.'' In truth, problems are not new at Los Alamos. In 1945, Klaus Fuchs, a German-born physicist involved in the Manhattan Project, gave the Soviet Union the main elements of the design of the atomic bomb. He later admitted the espionage and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was released after nine years and went immediately to East Germany. ^--- On the Net: Los Alamos National Laboratory www.lanl.gov Energy Department: www.energy.gov Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 69 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 17:07:53 -0700 (PDT) SECURITY breach at top US nuclear arms plant Straits Times - Singapore SAN FRANCISCO - All secret work at a top US nuclear weapons facility, Los Alamos National Laboratory, has been halted after classified data went missing in a ... 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