***************************************************************** 04/05/05 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 13.77 ***************************************************************** 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 Las Vegas SUN: IAEA to Hold Meeting on Leader's Future NUCLEAR REACTORS 2 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: North seeks nuclear power plant talks 3 US: JS Online: Two of state's 3 nuclear plants now closed 4 US: NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collecti 5 US: NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collecti 6 US: The News-Herald: NRC: Plant must do more 7 US: NRC: NRC Announces Availability of License Renewal Application f 8 US: NRC: Sunshine Act Meeting; Notice NUCLEAR SECURITY 9 US: Coalition asks NRC for EPZ backup power system 10 US: [CMEP] Public Citizen Criticizes Latest Energy Bill 11 US Says Israel Must Give Up Nukes 12 Guardian Unlimited Iran: Nuclear Talks With Europe Progress 13 Guardian Unlimited: Rice Warns of Nuclear Weapons Threats 14 Xinhua: Nigeria, US sign agreements on nuclear security 15 Asia Times Online: Guarding Pakistan's nuclear estate 16 Political Affairs Magazine: WMD Commission -- Yet Another Intelligen 17 Korea Times: NK Official Returns From China Visit NUCLEAR SAFETY 18 US: Atomic Sirens Failing: Public Demands NRC Act 19 US: Pollution Online: MTBE Perchlorate conference 5-26 20 US: Alamogordo News: Department of Energy employees could be entitle 21 US: Deseret news: Doctor says CDC ignored effects of fallout in Idah NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 22 [du-list] Uranium - 75,000 cubic metres in UK with nowhere to 23 US: [shundahaialerts] Skull Valley Nuclear Waste Dump Update 24 [shundahaialerts] Is the Yucca Mountain nuke dump ready for 25 US: [du-list] Judge: Army taking too long on JPG plan 26 US: Independent: Feds interested in mining uranium again 27 Guardian Unlimited: Official: U.S. May Not Build Waste Dump 28 Nevada Appeal - Opinion: Nuclear waste has to be stored somewhere 29 reviewjournal.com -- Opinion - EDITORIAL: Yucca 'science' 30 US: Bradenton Herald: More workers add new boost to Tallevast tests 31 Las Vegas RJ: Agency pursued damage control 32 www.GovExec.com: Charges fly over Yucca Mountain e-mails 33 US: Las Vegas SUN: Opposition to Utah site growing 34 Las Vegas SUN: Top Yucca scientist opts for early retirement 35 Las Vegas SUN: DOE had knowledge of Yucca e-mails in December 36 BYU NewsNet: E-mail fraud fuels nuclear waste debate 37 Las Vegas SUN: Fraud Allegations Probed at Yucca Mountain 38 ICT: Energy secretary admits Yucca Mountain data fabricated 39 Jim Gibbons: Gibbons will Demand Answers on Alleged Yucca Document F 40 Jim Gibbons: Gibbons Blasts DOE for Allegations of Falsifying Yucca 41 Ensign: ENSIGN TESTIFIES: WE CANNOT AFFORD TO CONTINUE THIS PROJECT 42 US: Public Citizen: Opposition to Private Fuel Storage Mounts from 43 KVBC: Yucca Hearing on Alleged Falsified Emails 44 klastv.com: Senators Reid and Ensign Send Letter to Secretary of Ene 45 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada lawmakers fund fight again Yucca waste dump 46 KVBC: Yucca Mountain E-mails Subject of Investigation 47 ABC News: Reid Accuses GOP of Arrogance on Courts 48 US: Deseretnews.com: Foes of Goshute nuclear waste plan take case to PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 49 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: U.S. plan for Hanford reactor questioned 50 UC Daily Bruin: UC makes preparations to bid on Los Alamos lab ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Las Vegas SUN: IAEA to Hold Meeting on Leader's Future Today: April 05, 2005 at 11:30:32 PDT By GEORGE JAHN ASSOCIATED PRESS VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency Tuesday set a special meeting for later this month to vote on whether its present head can run for a third term over U.S. objections. Ingrid Hall, the Canadian diplomat chairing the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, announced the decision in a letter dated April 5 and made available to The Associated Press. The April 27 meeting was called at the request of developing nations on the 35-nations board of governors, who support the reappointment of IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei for a third term. The Americans, and some allies, are opposed to his reappointment. With the agency spearheading international attempts to squelch nuclear proliferation, who controls the IAEA is key for the Washington. It wants someone who shares its view of which countries represent nuclear threats and what to do about them. ElBaradei has challenged those views - particularly over Iran and prewar Iraq, both labeled part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea by President Bush. ElBaradei first disputed U.S. assertions that Saddam Hussein had an active nuclear weapons program - claims that remain unproven. He then refused to endorse assertions by Washington that Iran was working to make nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is for generating electricity. A direct U.S. attempt to unseat ElBaradei fizzled, with the Americans unable to find anyone to challenge him for a third term by the Dec. 31 deadline, shortly after the Bush administration called on him to step down after completing a second term last summer. -- ***************************************************************** 2 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: North seeks nuclear power plant talks April 6, 2005 KST 14:14 April 06, 2005 ¤Ñ The Japanese Asahi Shimbun reported yesterday, quoting a senior U.S. official, that North Korea sent a document to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization office in New York at the end of last month, which stated that it could not guarantee the safety of 120 KEDO employees still in North Korea. As the nuclear crisis heightened, KEDO exchanged a document with the North in March last year guaranteeing its employees' safety. The North also suggested a high-level meeting to further discuss the construction of a light water reactor, which was part of the 1994 Agreed Framework with the United States. This secured Pyongyang's agreement to dismantle its existing nuclear program in exchange for a modern nuclear power plant. Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use | ***************************************************************** 3 JS Online: Two of state's 3 nuclear plants now closed Scheduled shutdown of reactor at Point Beach follows unplanned closure at Kewaunee plant By THOMAS CONTENT tcontent@journalsentinel.com Posted: April 4, 2005 Only one of Wisconsin's three reactors is generating power after one of the two reactors at the Point Beach plant was shut down over the weekend. The shutdown, which began Saturday, is planned down time to refuel the reactor and replace the reactor's vessel head, or cover. The other reactor at Point Beach is still generating at full power, but the nearby Kewaunee plant remains out of service due to an unplanned shutdown. Wisconsin relies on its nuclear plants for 20% of its power supply, with coal-fired power plants accounting for nearly 60%. Shutdowns typically occur during the spring and fall to make sure the major power plants are available during the summer months. The vessel head replacement at the Point Beach Unit 2 reactor is projected to cost $27 million. The plant is run by Nuclear Management Co. of Hudson and owned by Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Energy Corp. Kewaunee's owners, Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay and Madison-based Wisconsin Power &Light Co., said last month they expected the reactor to return to service in time to be operating at full power by the middle of April. More than 500 contractors will be at Point Beach for the shutdown to help Nuclear Management Co. personnel inspect and perform maintenance, company spokeswoman Sara Cassidy said. Point Beach employs nearly 700 people. Last month, We Energies increased customers' bills by 4.8% to account for higher use of natural gas this year, including the need to replace electricity generated by Point Beach this spring and fall. The second reactor at Point Beach is scheduled to be shut down this fall when another vessel head is replaced. Together, both shutdowns at Point Beach are responsible for one-fifth of the $114.9 million increase in prices, the utility said. The recent increase added $3.34 a month to a typical residential customer's bill, bringing the monthly electricity charges to $72.31. Meanwhile, another cog in Wisconsin's power infrastructure also went out of service Monday, when a high-voltage transmission line connecting Minnesota and Wisconsin was knocked offline because of a pole fire. A power pole east of Eau Claire caught fire Monday, and the 345,000-volt line is expected to remain out of service until 6 p.m. today, said Maripat Blankenheim, spokeswoman for Pewaukee-based American Transmission Co. The simultaneous outages of both major power plants and a key power line importing electricity from other states are what energy industry leaders seek to avoid on hot summer days when electricity demand soars. From the April 5, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ***************************************************************** 4 NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection: FR Doc E5-1518 [Federal Register: April 5, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 64)] [Notices] [Page 17268-17269] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05ap05-78] Comment Request AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). ACTION: Notice of pending NRC action to submit an information collection request to OMB and solicitation of public comment. SUMMARY: The NRC is preparing a submittal to OMB for review of continued approval of information collections under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). Information pertaining to the requirement to be submitted: 1. The title of the information collection: 10 CFR Part 31, General Domestic Licenses for Byproduct Material. 2. Current OMB approval number: 3150-0016. 3. How often the collection is required: Reports are submitted as events occur. Registration certificates may be submitted at any time. Changes to the information on the registration certificate are submitted as they occur. 4. Who is required or asked to report: Persons receiving, possessing, using, or transferring byproduct material in certain items. 5. The estimated number of annual respondents: Approximately 6,600 NRC general licensees and 26,400 Agreement State general licensees. 6. The number of hours needed annually to complete the requirement or request: 15,118 (2,474 hours for NRC licensees [1,650 hours recordkeeping and 824 hours] and 12,644 hours for Agreement State licensees [6,600 hours recordkeeping and 6,044 hours reporting] or an average of 0.4 hours per response and .25 hours per recordkeeper). 7. Abstract: 10 CFR Part 31 establishes general licenses for the possession and use of byproduct material in certain items and a general license for ownership of byproduct material. General licensees are required to keep records and submit reports identified in Part 31 in order for NRC to determine with reasonable assurance that devices are operated safely and without radiological hazard to users or the public. Submit, by June 6, 2005, comments that address the following questions: 1. Is the proposed collection of information necessary for the NRC to properly perform its functions? Does the information have practical utility? 2. Is the burden estimate accurate? 3. Is there a way to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected? 4. How can the burden of the information collection be minimized, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology? A copy of the draft supporting statement may be viewed free of charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F21, Rockville, MD 20852. OMB clearance requests are available at the NRC worldwide Web site: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/index.html. The document will be available on the NRC home page site for 60 days after the signature date of this notice. Comments and questions about the information collection requirements may be directed to the NRC Clearance Officer, Brenda Jo. Shelton, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, T-5 F53, Washington, DC 20555-0001, by telephone at 301-415-7233, or by Internet electronic mail to infocollects@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 29th day of March 2005. [[Page 17269]] For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Brenda Jo. Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer, Office of Information Services. [FR Doc. E5-1518 Filed 4-4-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 5 NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; FR Doc E5-1519 [Federal Register: April 5, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 64)] [Notices] [Page 17269] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05ap05-79] Comment Request AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). ACTION: Notice of pending NRC action to submit an information collection request to OMB and solicitation of public comment. SUMMARY: The NRC is preparing a submittal to OMB for review of continued approval of information collections under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). Information pertaining to the requirement to be submitted: 1. The title of the information collection: 48 CFR 20, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Acquisition Regulation (NRCAR). 2. Current OMB approval number: 3150-0169. 3. How often the collection is required: On occasion; one time. 4. Who is required or asked to report: Offerors responding to NRC solicitations and contractors receiving awards from NRC. 5. The number of annual respondents: 355. 6. The number of hours needed annually to complete the requirement or request: 26,265 (25,462 hours reporting [7.3 hours per response] + 803 hours reporting [2.3 hours per recordkeeper]). 7. Abstract: The mandatory requirements of the NRCAR implement and supplement the government-wide Federal Acquisition Regulation, and ensure that the regulations governing the procurement of goods and services within the NRC satisfy the needs of the agency. Submit, by June 6, 2005, comments that address the following questions: 1. Is the proposed collection of information necessary for the NRC to properly perform its functions? Does the information have practical utility? 2. Is the burden estimate accurate? 3. Is there a way to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected? 4. How can the burden of the information collection be minimized, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology? A copy of the draft supporting statement may be viewed free of charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F23, Rockville, MD 20852. OMB clearance requests are available at the NRC Worldwide Web site: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/index.html. The document will be available on the NRC home page site for 60 days after the signature date of this notice. Comments and questions about the information collection requirements may be directed to the NRC Clearance Officer, Brenda Jo. Shelton (T-5 F53), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, by telephone at 301-415-7233, or by Internet electronic mail at infocollects@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 30th day of March 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Brenda Jo. Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer, Office of Information Services. [FR Doc. E5-1519 Filed 4-4-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 6 The News-Herald: NRC: Plant must do more News - 04/05/2005 Perry remains under scrutiny despite being operated safely, regulators say The Perry Nuclear Power Plant continues to operate safely, say Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials, but more needs to be done to improve plant performance and decrease the level of regulatory scrutiny. Representatives from the NRC met Monday with FirstEnergy officials for the plant's annual end-of-cycle performance evaluation - the first such meeting since the plant was moved into the NRC's second-highest category of scrutiny in August 2004. "Perry operated safely, but they have some performance problems that they have to address before they can move out of column four," said Steven Reynolds, NRC oversight manager for the plant in North Perry Village and the Davis-Besse plant in Oak Harbor. Its place in the five-column classification system means the NRC is effectively doubling the number of inspection hours for the plant this year, said NRC Senior Public Affairs Officer Jan Strasma. Baseline inspections amount to 2,100-2,200 hours a year, and additional inspections of 1,800-2,000 hours will be conducted in 2005. Perry is one of only two plants in the country under the NRC's column-four classification. Perry Vice President Richard Anderson assured the commission that safety remains the plant's top priority, but acknowledged there is much work to be done to improve performance. Equipment problems from 2002 to 2004 were the primary factor leading to increased NRC oversight, and FirstEnergy spokesman Todd Schneider said the plant has already addressed seven of the plant's top 10 equipment issues. First Energy Nuclear Operating Co. President Gary Leidich said the company put an additional $10 million into facility improvements at Perry in 2004, and will double that amount this year. This amount is in addition to the plant's normal operating budget of just less than $100 million, Leidich said. The plant is currently in a refueling state, and Schneider said improvements to the plant's emergency service water system, feedwater digital control system and more than 80 electrical circuit breakers will improve operation reliability when the plant goes back online. The NRC also cited concerns of failure to follow procedures and inattention to detail by plant staff. Anderson said FirstEnergy has not yet done enough to avoid "consequential errors," and that staff need to better understand underlying reasons for procedures to ensure that they're followed at all times. NRC and FirstEnergy officials agreed that the plant has a long way to go in addressing issues raised by recent inspections, and in the meantime, Perry will remain a plant of "national focus," NRC Regional Administrator James Caldwell said. The NRC is in the final phase of a five-month inspection period to be completed in May, which officials say will mark the end of the beginning of getting Perry back to where it needs to be. The NRC will issue a report once the inspection is complete, and another public meeting will be held at that time to address the results. İThe News-Herald 2005 ***************************************************************** 7 NRC: NRC Announces Availability of License Renewal Application for Palisades News Release - 2005-06 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 05-060 April 5, 2005 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced today that an application for a 20-year renewal of the operating license for the Palisades nuclear power plant is available for public review. The Palisades plant is located approximately five miles south of South Haven, Mich., and its current operating license expires on March 24, 2011. The licensee, Nuclear Management Company, submitted the renewal application March 31. It is available on the NRC Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati ons.html. The NRC staff is currently conducting an initial review of the application to determine whether it contains enough information for the required formal review. If the application has sufficient information, the NRC will formally docket, or file, the application and will announce an opportunity to request a public hearing. For further information, contact Michael Morgan, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop O-11F1, Washington, D.C. 20555; Telephone (301) 415-2232. Last revised Tuesday, April 05, 2005 ***************************************************************** 8 NRC: Sunshine Act Meeting; Notice FR Doc 05-6746 [Federal Register: April 5, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 64)] [Notices] [Page 17269-17270] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05ap05-80] Agency Holding the Meeting: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Dates: Weeks of April 4, 11, 18, 25, May 2, 9, 2005. Place: Commissioners' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. Status: Public and Closed. Matters To Be Considered Week of April 4, 2005 Tuesday, April 5, 2005 9:30 a.m. Briefing on Office of Research (RES) Programs, Performance, and Plans (Public Meeting) (Contact: Alix Dvorak, 301-415- 6601). This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address--http://www.nrc.gov . Wednesday, April 6, 2005 9:30 a.m. Briefing on Status of New Site and Reactor Licensing (Public Meeting) (Contact: Steven Bloom, 301-415-1313). This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address--http://www.nrc.gov . Thursday, April 7, 2005 1:30 p.m. Meeting with Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) (Public Meeting) (Contact: John Larkins, 301-415-7360). This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address--http://www.nrc.gov . Week of April 11, 2005--Tentative There are no meetings scheduled for the Week of April 11, 2005. Week of April 18, 2005--Tentative Tuesday, April 19, 2005 9:30 a.m. Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1) (Tentative). Wednesday, April 20, 2005 9:30 a.m. Meeting with Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes (ACMUI) (Public Meeting) (Contact: Angela McIntosh, 301-415- 5030). This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address--http://www.nrc.gov . 1:30 p.m. Briefing on Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) Programs, Performance, and Plans (Public Meeting) (Contact: Laura Gerke, 301-415-4099). This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address--http://www.nrc.gov . Thursday, April 21, 2005 9:30 a.m. Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1) (Tentative). Week of April 25, 2005--Tentative Tuesday, April 26, 2005 9:30 a.m. Briefing on Grid Stability and Offsite Power Issues (Public Meeting) (Contact: John Lamb, 301-415-1446). This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address--http://www.nrc.gov . Week of May 2, 2005--Tentative There are no meetings scheduled for the Week of May 2, 2005. Week of May 9, 2005--Tentative Wednesday, May 11, 2005 10:30 a.m. All Employees Meeting (Public Meeting). 1:30 p.m. All Employees Meeting (Public Meeting). The schedule for Commission meetings is subject to change on short notice. To verify the status of meetings call (recording)--(301) 415- 1292. Contact person for more information: Dave Gamberoni, (301) 415- 1651. * * * * * The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the Internet at: http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-making/schedule.html. * * * * * [[Page 17270]] The NRC provides reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in these public meetings, or need this meeting notice or the transcript or other information from the public meetings in another format (e.g. braille, large print), please notify the NRC's Disability Program Coordinator, August Spector, at 301-415-7080, TDD: 301-415- 2100, or by e-mail at aks@nrc.gov. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. * * * * * This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred subscribers; if you no longer wish to receive it, or would like to be added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 (301-415-1969). In addition, distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic message to dkw@nrc.gov. Dated: March 31, 2005. Dave Gamberoni, Office of the Secretary. [FR Doc. 05-6746 Filed 4-1-05; 9:22 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M ***************************************************************** 9 Coalition asks NRC for EPZ backup power system Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 15:43:34 -0700 NEWS FROM NIRS & TMI-Alert FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 05, 2005 Contact: Paul Gunter, NIRS, #202-328-0002 www.nirs.org Eric Epstein, TMI-Alert, Inc. #717-541-1101 tmia.com Public Demands NRC Require Power Backup Systems as Emergency Notification Sirens Around Atomic Reactor Sites Continue to Experience Widespread and Recurring Failures (Washington, DC) Every time the power goes out, nuclear reactor sites around the country are simultaneously losing power to their siren systems within the 10-mile radius Emergency Planning Zones. Moreover, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) does not currently know all of the sites where these periodically failures can occur nor does it require reactor operators to do anything about it. Public petitioners including New York county legislators, national nuclear watchdog groups and a host of statewide environmental and public safety organizations met with a NRC review board today to further demand the federal regulator address the widespread and recurring failure of emergency notification systems. The petitioners want NRC to require all nuclear utilities to equip emergency notification systems with backup power sources independent from the electrical grid so that in the event of an accident or an act of terrorism accompanied by a collapse of the grid there is reasonable assurance that the public can be promptly notified of a radiological emergency. ³Itıs unacceptable that when the electric grid fails emergency sirens around many nuclear power stations simultaneously lose power,² said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watchdog Project for Washington, DC-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service. ³In this day and age, all emergency notification systems around nuclear stations must be required to install independent power systems,² added Eric Epstein, Chairman, Three Mile Island Alert, Inc. a safe-energy organization based in Harrisburg, PA and founded in 1977. Seventeen environmental and public interest groups as well as three New York county legislative assemblies around Indian Point petitioned NRC for emergency enforcement action at the nationıs reactors on February 23, 2005. [See petition http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/emergency/ep2206petitionsirens02232005.pdf] While some nuclear power station operators have battery back up systems for emergency notification sirens in the event of collapse of the electrical grid, a review of NRC event reports documented in the petition reveals that a significant number of sites have repeatedly lost power to portions and even entire emergency siren systems as in the case of Indian Point. NRC does not currently require that operators provide emergency back up power systems or batteries to assure operable public notification systems as required under federal law. Instead, NRC allows for licensees to alternately rely on ³mobile route alerting² where police patrol cars and other first responders would drive around the emergency planning zones with loud speakers or bull horns to alert populations to an accident or act of terrorism. The petitioners charge that under a fast breaking accident, adverse weather or act of terrorism this relaxation of emergency planning is inadequate and unacceptable. The public has initiated the formal process under federal law (10 CFR 2.206) with NRC where if the petition is accepted the federal agency would convene hearings with affected nuclear licensees on the requested emergency enforcement action. In this case, the petitioners have requested that NRC first identify and quantify the number of nuclear power station emergency planning zones where emergency notification systems lose power during grid failure due to adverse weather, mechanical failure or potentially an act of sabotage in advance of an attack on a nuclear power station by terrorists. The petitioners have further requested that all of the affected licensees then be required to back fit emergency siren systems with backup power systems, preferably solar power, to assure the operation of the system to notify the public throughout a radiological emergency corresponding with the lose of grid power. The list of known nuclear power stations that with grid failure simultaneously lose power to the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone notification systems include; Indian Point, Nine Mile Point and Ginna (NY), Diablo Canyon (CA), Summer ( SC), Braidwood and Clinton (IL), Peach Bottom (PA), Hope Creek (NJ), Calvert Cliffs (MD), Surry (VA), Point Beach and Kewanee (WI), and Brunswick (GA), Watts Bar (TN). -30- Siren Problems at Peach & Three Mile Island ˆ On January 11, 2002, siren testing at Three Mile Island (TMI) encountered numerous problems: all 34 sirens in York County failed to activate and one siren failed in Lancaster County. AmerGen attributed the failures to computer malfunctions; ˆ On March 3, 2002, a siren malfunctioned in York County again; ˆ On June 25, 2002, ³...station emergency preparedness personnel [at TMI] discovered that the emergency planning siren base station at the site, was unable to communicate with the off site sirens, due to external radio frequency noise in the area² (IR-50-277/02-05; 50-278/02-05); ˆ On December 12, 2002, TMI sirens malfunctioned in Cumberland and York counties. In Dauphin County, 28 sirens malfunctioned due to the ³inadvertent² discharge of the ³space bar² by a computer operator; ˆ On August, 15, 2001, the NRCıs Office of Investigation documented criminal behavior by two of Exelonıs Emergency Preparedness personnel. The NRC found that the ³technicians fabricated siren testing maintenance records, performed deficient siren tests on the off site EP response sirens and intentionally installed jumper wires in the siren boxes disabling important system functions.² (Wayne D. Lanning, NRC, Director of Reactor Safety.) ˆ August 22, 2001, the NRC determined that a white ³finding² (Violation) was warranted for the following infractions relating to the plants Public Address (PA) system and evacuation alarm/siren (EA) system. Hubert J. Miller, NRC, Regional Administrator concluded: 1. From 1992 to December 19, 2000, approximately 47% of the PA systemıs speakers were either inaudible or degraded to the point that personnel were not able to clearly hear instructions; 2. From January 19, 2001 to February 13, 2001, and again from March 20, 2001 to April 17, 2001, the plant PA system was operated only on the backup power breaker, which would have tripped after about 49 seconds of evacuation alarm actuation on the first sequence (The primary breaker had tripped following the monthly test the beginning of each period); and, 3. On February 13 and April 17, 2001, the plant PA/EA system would not properly function in that both the primary and the backup breakers were tripped for periods of 4.5 hours and 1.5 hours resulting in no system capability to provide instruction or sound the evacuation alarm. (Hubert J. Miller, NRC. Regional Administrator.) - October 5-9, 2001, at TMI, ³Licensee sirens in Lancaster County were inoperable October 5 through October 9, 2001, due to a radio transmitter being deenergized at the county facility. The transmitter is part of the siren actuation system. This issue is unresolved pending further investigation into the lines of ownership and maintenance of the actuation system² (IR 50-289/01-07.) - May 2, 2000 - ³...a supervisor at the York County Œ911ı center inadvertently activated the York County portion of the alert and notification sirens² (IR 05000277 & 278/2000-002). ***************************************************************** 10 [CMEP] Public Citizen Criticizes Latest Energy Bill Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 11:31:10 -0500 (CDT) This e-mail contains two items: (1) A statement from Public Citizen's president, Joan Claybrook, on the federal energy bill, with a hyperlink to our critical analysis of the draft version of the bill. (2) A press release from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), which, in concert with Public Citizen, is petitioning the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to require the emergency notification sirens around nuclear power plants to be equipped with backup power systems. ========== *** P R E S S R E L E A S E *** April 5, 2005 Contact: Tyson Slocum (202) 454-5191; Valerie Collins (202) 588-7742 It's Time for a Knockout: Round III of the Energy Bill Features More of the Same Giveaways to Corporations, Does Not Protect Consumers or the Environment STATEMENT by Joan Claybrook, President, Public Citizen: [Note: Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee holds a full mark-up of the draft energy legislation.] The latest energy bill -- this one a draft released by House Energy Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) -- offers more of the same failed proposals that have doomed energy legislation in the past two Congresses. It showers nuclear and oil companies with subsidies, gives polluters a break from protecting the environment and promotes further electricity deregulation while doing nothing to protect consumers from high energy prices. Indeed, oil prices continue to soar despite Congress passing a billion-dollar subsidy in October 2004 to encourage more domestic energy production and its March 16 budget vote to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. You would think that such a radical change in federal oil production policy (the successful Senate vote represented the first time in 24 years that the Senate has approved the measure) would send a clear signal to oil traders in New York. But the prices of oil and gasoline have only skyrocketed since the vote, raising doubts about the claim by the Bush administration and Congress that giving energy producers what they want will somehow lower prices for consumers. Energy prices are at record highs because recent mergers have left domestic oil and gas markets uncompetitive (this week's proposed merger of ChevronTexaco and Unocal certainly won't help) and the energy traders that set prices are left largely unregulated. The bill not only lacks any requirement for strong fuel economy standards to cut back on overconsumption, but it attempts to undercut strong standards in the future by limiting the basis for issuing them. It also extends -- rather than ends -- a harmful credit to auto companies that sell dual-fuel vehicles, whose tanks in fact are usually filled only with gasoline. In addition, the draft energy bill ends the ability of states to have adequate input in the siting of controversial Liquefied Natural Gas facilities. Public Citizen's analysis of the bill is at: http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/electricity/energybill/2005/articles.cfm?ID=13247 ### Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org ========== NEWS FROM NIRS Nuclear Information and Resource Service 1424 16th Street NW, #404, Washington DC 20036 202.328.0002; f: 202.462.2183; nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 05, 2005 Contact: Paul Gunter, NIRS, 202-328-0002; Brendan Hoffman, Public Citizen, 202 454 5130 Public Demands NRC Require Power Backup Systems as Emergency Notification Sirens Around Atomic Reactor Sites Continue to Experience Widespread and Recurring Failures WASHINGTON, DC -- Public petitioners including New York county legislators, national nuclear watchdog groups and a host of statewide environmental and public safety organizations met with a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) review board today to demand the federal regulator address the widespread and recurring failure of emergency notification systems at commercial nuclear power plants. Every time the power goes out, nuclear reactor sites around the country lose power to their siren systems within the 10-mile radius Emergency Planning Zones. Moreover, the NRC does not currently know all of the sites where these periodic failures can occur nor does it require reactor operators to do anything about it. The petitioners want NRC to require all nuclear utilities to equip emergency notification systems with backup power sources independent from the electrical grid so that in the event of an accident or an act of terrorism accompanied by a collapse of the grid there is reasonable assurance that the public can be promptly notified of a radiological emergency. "It's unacceptable that when the electric grid fails emergency sirens around many nuclear power stations simultaneously lose power," said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watchdog Project for Washington, DC-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service. "In this day and age, all emergency notification systems around nuclear stations must be required to install independent power systems, preferably solar powered," said Gunter. "Its no secret that NRC has allowed the nuclear industry to operate with inadequate emergency plans for the public," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's national energy program. "The fact that many of these siren systems won't work when the grid fails is one glaring example that can no longer be tolerated," said Hauter. Seventeen environmental and public interest groups as well as three New York county legislative assemblies around Indian Point petitioned NRC for emergency enforcement action at the nation's reactors on February 23, 2005. [See petition http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/emergency/ep2206petitionsirens02232005.pdf ] While some nuclear power station operators have battery back up systems for emergency notification sirens in the event of collapse of the electrical grid, a review of NRC event reports documented in the petition reveals that a significant number of sites have repeatedly lost power to portions and even entire emergency siren systems, as in the case of the Indian Point nuclear plant thirty miles north of New York City. NRC does not currently require that operators provide emergency back up power systems or batteries to assure operable public notification systems as required under federal law. Instead, NRC allows for licensees to rely on "mobile route alerting" where police patrol cars and other first responders would drive around the emergency planning zones with loud speakers or bull horns to alert populations to an accident or act of terrorism. The petitioners charge that under a fast breaking accident, adverse weather or act of terrorism this relaxation of emergency planning is inadequate and unacceptable. The public has initiated the formal process under federal law (10 CFR 2.206) with NRC where if the petition is accepted the federal agency would convene hearings with affected nuclear licensees on the requested emergency enforcement action. In this case, the petitioners have requested that NRC first identify and quantify the number of nuclear power station emergency planning zones where emergency notification systems lose power during grid failure due to adverse weather, mechanical failure or potentially an act of sabotage in advance of an attack on a nuclear power station by terrorists. The petitioners have further requested that all of the affected licensees then be required to back fit emergency siren systems with backup power systems, preferably solar power, to assure the operation of the system to notify the public throughout a radiological emergency corresponding with the loss of grid power. The list of known nuclear power stations that with grid failure simultaneously lose power to the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone notification systems includes: Indian Point, Nine Mile Point and Ginna (NY), Diablo Canyon (CA), Summer (SC), Braidwood and Clinton (IL), Peach Bottom (PA), Hope Creek (NJ), Calvert Cliffs (MD), Surry (VA), Point Beach and Kewaunee (WI), Brunswick (GA), and Watts Bar (TN). ********** To SUBSCRIBE to the CMEP ListServ, visit https://www.citizen.org/email/enteremail.cfm If you would like to be removed from the CMEP ListServ, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "unsubscribe CMEP" in the message. Questions about the CMEP ListServ can be directed to CMEP-request@LISTSERVER.CITIZEN.ORG. To learn more about this and other Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program campaigns, visit our website at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/ -Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program ***************************************************************** 11 US Says Israel Must Give Up Nukes Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 16:56:21 -0500 (CDT) Thanks GB: ============ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/560047.html Haaretz (Tel Aviv) April 5, 2005 By Amir Oren The State Department yesterday called on Israel to forswear nuclear weapons and accept international Atomic Energy Agency safeguards on all nuclear activities. This is the second time in about two weeks that officials in the Bush administration are putting the nuclear weapons of Israel, India and Pakistan on a par. The officials called on the three to act like Ukraine and South Africa, which in the last decade renounced their nuclear weapons. The similar phrasing used by the officials refers to Israel's military nuclear capability, as distinct from "nuclear option," which is to be rolled back, although not necessarily in the "foreseeable future." The rare use of these terms contradicts the custom of senior administration officials to avoid any possible confirming reference to Israeli nuclear weapons. The officials, who hold middle-level and lower ranks, are Jackie Wolcott Sanders, ambassador, Conference on Disarmament and special representative of the president for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and Mark Fitzpatrick, acting deputy assistant secretary for nonproliferation. Sanders was quoted yesterday in the State Department's Electronic Journal, published ahead of the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference scheduled in New York at the beginning of May. Fitzpatrick spoke on March 17 at a security conference of the Organization of American States (OAS). On March 7 President George Bush called for a strengthening of the NPT regime and thwarting the efforts of rogue states and terrorists to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Bush devoted his statement to enforcing NPT clauses on treaty regime members (like North Korea and Iran) and ignored non-member states (India, Pakistan, Israel and Cuba). In the past six years, since the Wye conference in 1998, presidents Clinton and Bush repeatedly promised then prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak and also Ariel Sharon that Israel's strategic capability to protect itself will not be harmed. Israeli experts on Bush's nuclear policy say that the president is focusing on objecting to the nuclear process of North Korea and Iran, and even approves aid to India - in nuclear energy among other things - and to Pakistan (selling F-16 planes), while far lower ranks abound with verbal formulas to excuse the withdrawal of the NPT regime during the Bush era. Sanders and Fitzpatrick refrained from calling on Israel, India and Pakistan explicitly to renounce their weapons. The expectation of these three states was phrased in terms of a vow - a verbal pledge to forswear, rather than real action. Nor was this demand accompanied by a time table, conditions and sanctions. An official known for his sympathy for Israel, Robert Joseph, has been nominated undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, and has been serving in a similar position on the staff of the National Security Council. His predecessor in the post is UN ambassador-designate John Bolton, also known for his sympathy for Israel. Sanders and Fitzpatrick hold more junior ranks in the administration. In her statement yesterday Sanders said: "The Conference should also reinforce the goal of universal NPT adherence and reaffirm that India, Israel and Pakistan may join the NPT only as non-nuclear-weapon states. Just as South Africa and Ukraine did in the early 1990s, these states should forswear nuclear weapons and accept IAEA safeguards on all nuclear activities to join the treaty. At the same time, we recognize that progress toward universal adherence is not likely in the foreseeable future. The United States continues to support the goals of the Middle East resolution adopted at the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference, including the achievement of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction." According to the Israeli experts, the American administration does not want to expand nuclear proliferation to additional states in the region and agrees that in time it would be preferable to have the Middle East nuclear free, but disagrees with the immediate adoption of a policy which would prevent American forces like the Sixth Fleet ships and airplanes from carrying nuclear warheads in bombs and missiles as well. This is the seventh time that the Review Conference is convening, to mark the 35th year of the NPT's establishment. The conference, held every five years, will end at the end of May, shortly before the IAEA governing council meets in Vienna in June to elect a director general. The U.S. has not decided yet whether to support incumbent IAEA Director General, Mohammed ElBaradei for another term. ***************************************************************** 12 Guardian Unlimited Iran: Nuclear Talks With Europe Progress From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday April 6, 2005 12:16 AM AP Photo PAR130 By ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press Writer PARIS (AP) - Iran's president said Tuesday that talks with European nations about its nuclear program were ``closer to a solution,'' and he predicted more progress in upcoming negotiations. The United States suspects Iran of using its once-covert nuclear program to produce weapons and wants it shut down. Tehran says its nuclear technology is only to produce electricity. France, Germany and Britain are trying to negotiate a permanent suspension of Tehran's efforts to enrich uranium, which can be used both as fuel for energy or in nuclear weapons. Iran says its current freeze is short-term. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, speaking at a U.N. conference in Paris, he was ``certain that today we are closer to a solution than we were a while back.'' ``We have taken some positive steps,'' he said, expressing hope for ``even more significant progress'' at further talks at the end of this month. Khatami said Iran had proposed ``an overall plan'' to resolve the nuclear issue, and ``the European reaction, particularly that of France, has been very open.'' Although the United States fears Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing weaponry, it has softened its tone to see if the European diplomatic approach can work. In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told The Associated Press the world may never know precise details about nuclear efforts in Iran and North Korea, but it must not ``under-react'' because of incomplete intelligence. ``There are no guarantees where intelligence is concerned,'' Rice told the AP, ``particularly when you're dealing with opaque and difficult societies like the ones that tend to want weapons of mass destruction undercover.'' The interview was her first public remarks about last week's scathing report by a presidential commission studying U.S. spy agencies. The report blamed intelligence agencies for knowing ``disturbingly little about the nuclear programs of many of the world's most dangerous actors.'' In an interview published Tuesday in the French daily Le Figaro, Khatami reiterated Iran's refusal to renounce the peaceful use of nuclear technology. ``We are ready to give an objective guarantee that we are not trying to develop nuclear weapons,'' he was quoted as saying. He said he took seriously the possibility of an American strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, ``but that appears to us to be unlikely. Such an attack would not only be bad for Iran but also for the attackers.'' He said he hopes the Americans ``remain rational.'' ``But in the face of any form of irrationality, we are ready to defend ourselves,'' Khatami said. Khatami was in Paris at the behest of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which was holding an international conference on promoting dialogue among peoples of the world. He also met President Jacques Chirac for talks on Iran's nuclear program and Lebanon. Syria has begun withdrawing its troops from Lebanon under pressure from the United Nations and the United States. Khatami called the U.N. conference the Sept. 11 attacks ``terror in its most horrendous form.'' But alluding to Washington, he condemned pre-emptive war ... by a power with all the resources in its hands that entitles itself to attack a nation, as we've seen in Iraq.'' ``War and terror are from the same roots,'' he said. Both seek ``goals that are restricted, limited,'' and both are ``evil,'' he said. Khatami, who came to Paris from Austria, was making what he said was his last foreign trip before leaving office when his second, four-year term ends. He was first elected in 1997. Khatami, who is considered a moderate, has been hampered by hard-liners of the Islamic Republic in his ability to bring about reforms. Several hundred protesters demonstrated in Paris against Khatami's visit, with some holding posters showing faces of political prisoners and signs reading: ``Welcoming Khatami is to encourage stonings and executions in Iran.'' --- Associated Press reporter Christine Ollivier contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited İ Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 13 Guardian Unlimited: Rice Warns of Nuclear Weapons Threats From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday April 5, 2005 10:46 PM AP Photo WX107 By ANNE GEARAN AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The world may never know precise details about nuclear efforts in Iran and North Korea but must not ``under-react'' because of incomplete intelligence, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press. In her first public remarks about last week's scathing report by a presidential commission studying U.S. spy agencies, Rice said she could not guarantee that U.S. intelligence was on the mark now, as the Bush administration seeks international cooperation to end suspected or declared nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. ``There are no guarantees where intelligence is concerned,'' Rice said, ``particularly when you're dealing with opaque and difficult societies like the ones that tend to want weapons of mass destruction undercover.'' The report blamed intelligence agencies for knowing ``disturbingly little about the nuclear programs of many of the world's most dangerous actors.'' In a wide-ranging interview, Rice also said that: - The United States will move cautiously in releasing terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because of the risk that they may do further harm. - The presence of U.S, troops in Iraq is not itself the cause of continuing violence. The notion that attackers are motivated only by anger at the United States ``just isn't right.'' - Syria must go beyond its stated intention to withdraw troops and security forces from Lebanon, and remove ``undeclared'' security forces as well. - The government of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has turned away from Islamic extremism. - Tighter control of the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico is justified to ``help you to prevent people who are trying to come in to hurt us.'' Rice declined to say whether anyone should be fired as a result of the intelligence panel's findings. As President Bush's national security adviser, she relied on flawed intelligence about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction to help make the administration's case for an invasion two years ago. She succeeded Colin Powell as America's top diplomat in January. ``We have very good intelligence analysts who were doing their best, but obviously the president's intelligence has to be better than what we got on Iraq,'' she said Tuesday. International suspicions about Iran and North Korea go far beyond what U.S. intelligence may have found, Rice suggested. North Korea has announced it already has nuclear weapons, and it has refused to return to international arms talks. Iran says it is not hiding a weapons program behind a legitimate drive for civilian nuclear energy, ``but they've been caught in a number of suspicious activities,'' Rice said. ``I don't think that there's any doubt worldwide that there is a lot of concern about the nuclear weapons capabilities of these states. And while we may never know the exact nature of any of these programs, we also have to be very careful not to under-react to the fact that you have closed societies that are ambitious in their policies, that are trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction.'' On the Guantanamo detainees, Rice said that in a few cases where prisoners were released, ``we met them again on the battlefield.'' The Bush administration initially classified all the more 600 foreign-born men it held at Guantanamo as ``enemy combatants'' ineligible for full protection as prisoners of war and outside the ordinary civil liberties guarantees of U.S. criminal law. The Pentagon has conducted military tribunals to review the circumstances of each Guantanamo detainee's capture and to determine whether the person was properly held. It says that of the roughly 200 already released, at least a dozen have returned to the battlefield. More than 300 additional cases are still being reviewed. At the same time, Rice said, ``if there is a case to release them, we don't just want to permanently imprison people either.'' On Iraq, Rice rejected the idea that continuing attacks on U.S.-led forces were due to American troops' presence in the country two years after Saddam Hussein was toppled. As democracy spreads in Iraq, she said, ``you will see more and more, these are very violent people. They are very ruthless people. They are clearly able to wreak chaos but they actually don't have a political platform.'' Rice credited Pakistan with making a shift of ``150 degrees'' from almost four years ago when it was one of three countries that recognized the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Pakistan and India were on the verge of open conflict. ``It's really night and day,'' she said. ``The Musharraf government has done a lot.'' The Bush administration announced last month that it will sell sophisticated F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan over India's objections. ^--- On the Net: State Department: http://www.state.gov Guardian Unlimited İ Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 14 Xinhua: Nigeria, US sign agreements on nuclear security www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2005-04-06 03:03:25 LAGOS, April 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Nigeria and the United States have signed an agreement to facilitate the security and safety of nuclear installations and radioactive sources in the west African country. "The signing of ... with the US government marks the beginning of a collaborative and cooperative effort between the two countries in the area of nuclear security and safety," said Nigeria's Justice Minister Akinlolu Olujimi, who witnessed the signing ceremony. The agreement was signed by Shamsudeen Elegba, director generalof the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) and Jay Wertenberger of the US Department of Energy, the News Agency of Nigeria said Tuesday, citing a statement issued by the NNRA. Elegba said that the agreement would ensure the security upgrades of various nuclear-related installations and other high-risk radioactive facilities either currently in use or abandoned in parts of the country. He promised that all necessary efforts would be made to controlthe entry, movement and exit of radioactive sources in the country. The US delegation was reportedly in Nigeria for five days, during which they met with relevant ministries and other government agencies on issues relating to nuclear security and theregulation of high-risk radioactive sources. The delegation, which had visited some of the radioactive sitesin Nigeria, described the measures taken by the Nigerian nuclear authority to ensure the security and safety of radioactive materials as "commendable and in conformity with international standards." Enditem Copyright İ2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Asia Times Online: Guarding Pakistan's nuclear estate : South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan By Kaushik Kapisthalam Even as media and public attention in the United States and South Asia has focused on the issue of nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets going to Pakistan, there has been a series of interesting developments within the US regarding policy toward Pakistan's nuclear program. Public nonchalance Publicly, Bush administration officials have been remarkably guarded, and even nonchalant, about Pakistan's leaky nuclear program, even as one revelation after another came out regarding nuclear proliferation from Pakistan to Iran, Libya, North Korea and other unnamed countries. After exerting pressure behind the scenes on Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, the US has quietly accepted his explanation that all proliferation acts were the responsibility of one man, Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, and lent its blessings to Khan being pardoned and kept under house arrest in Pakistan. The official Washington spin is that the administration of President George W Bush has persuaded Pakistan to end its nuclear trade once and for all and that it is better to move forward than dwell on the past. Despite this public posture, many experts and former government officials in Washington and elsewhere are not so sanguine. Virtually every report on nuclear security from major US and Western think-tanks, such as the Carnegie Endowment, the Monterrey Institute and the Cato Institute, consistently raise the issue of the leaky nature of Pakistan's nuclear assets. The Congressional Research Service, the advisory arm of the US Congress, has issued numerous reports on Pakistan's nuclear program highlighting the need to do something. However, until recently, Bush administration officials had in effect stonewalled on this issue and avoided talking about it on or off the record, other than a few cryptic remarks on occasion. That has slowly begun to change. The curtain lifts? In testimony to the Senate on March 17, Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, who is the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, spoke at length about the fragility of Pakistan. After the usual platitudes about Musharraf's virtues, Jacoby noted in his submitted statement, "Our assessment remains unchanged from last year. If Musharraf were assassinated or otherwise replaced, Pakistan's new leader would be less pro-US. We are concerned that extremist Islamic politicians would gain greater influence." Interestingly, it was former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts who was one of the first to talk about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal openly. In a January 2004 debate with other contenders from his Democratic Party, Kerry said that if he were elected president, he would get tough with Pakistan on nuclear safety, noting that past Pakistani leaders had lied to him and the US quite blatantly on the nuclear issue. Kerry added that failing to protect Pakistan's nuclear weapons from falling into the wrong hands was "one of the most glaring weaknesses in this [Bush] administration's entire foreign policy". More curious, Kerry said the US should work with India to make a plan for taking out Pakistan's nukes in case of an emergency. Another Democratic senator, Barack Obama of Illinois, went a step further and said the US should launch surgical strikes on Pakistan in a nuclear leak eventuality. After the re-election of Bush, it was Kerry who once again raised the issue. During the Senate hearing to confirm Bush's appointment of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state, Kerry had a fiery exchange with Rice, which needs to be quoted in full for readers to appreciate its significance. Kerry: And what about any initiatives or discussions with President Musharraf and the Indians with respect to fail-safe procedures in the event - I mean, there have been two attempts on President Musharraf's life. If you were to have a successful coup in Pakistan, you could have, conceivably, nuclear weapons in the hand of a radical Islamic state automatically, overnight. And to the best of my knowledge, in all of the inquiries that I've made in the course of the last years, there is now no failsafe procedure in place to guarantee against that weaponry falling into the wrong hands. Rice: Senator, we have noted this problem, and we are prepared to try to deal with it. I would prefer not in open session to talk about this particular issue. Kerry:Okay. Well, I raise it again. I must say that in my private briefings as the nominee I found the answers highly unsatisfactory. And so, I press on you the notion that, without saying more, that we need to pay attention to that. Rice: We're very aware of the problem, Senator, and we have had some discussions. But I really would prefer not to discuss that.In essence, Kerry noted that as a presidential candidate, the US "secret plan" for Pakistan's nukes as conveyed to him was unsatisfactory. But Rice hinted that while the plan might not be perfect, the administration was working on it. There are some signs that this may already be happening. Follow the money In Washington it is said that all plans stay on paper until Congress appropriates funds for them. There are a variety of agencies and bureaus in the US government that deal with various aspects of the nuclear cycle. One such agency is the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The official budget presented by the NRC for the upcoming 2006 fiscal year includes US$800,000 for "initiatives supporting nuclear safety cooperation with India and Pakistan". One Washington insider noted that while the NRC's cooperation with India was in the realm of providing advice on emergency procedures, fire safety issues and the safety of ageing plants, as well as collaborative nuclear research, the initiatives with Pakistan were likely focused on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and its safety. "American non-proliferation laws and international treaty commitments may severely restrict direct assistance to the safety of Pakistan's warheads and fissile material, you can wager good money that the Bush administration is not going to let global treaties to compromise American security interests," noted the insider. The source insisted that it is highly likely that such cooperation is already under way behind the covers, but the NRC budgeting makes it possible on a larger scale with congressional oversight. One possible option is the provision of Permissive Action Links (PALs). A PAL is basically a box with sophisticated cryptography electronics inside that prevents unauthorized access to a nuclear weapon by disarming or disabling the triggering mechanism if the wrong code is entered or if the box is tampered with in any manner. PAL locks could make a nuclear warhead unusable in the wrong hands. Interestingly, after the two successive assassination attempts on Musharraf in December 2003, NBC News reported that the US had installed PAL locks on Pakistani nuclear warheads. The report quoted former US ambassador to Pakistan Robert Oakley confirming the cooperation behind the scenes. About this time Bush was asked in a press conference whether Pakistan's nukes were secure. Bush replied, "Yes, they are secure," and changed the subject immediately. However, not everyone agrees that providing PAL locks to Pakistan is a wise choice. Leonard Weiss, a prominent non-proliferation expert and former Senate staffer who helped author many US non-proliferation laws, feels that it is a "hoary idea" and compared it to "providing clean needles to drug addicts, thereby making proliferators seem like helpless victims of uncontrollable physiological appetites". He cautions that PALs may make it easier for a Pakistani leader to consider using a nuclear weapon. Despite this, the Washington insider tells Asia Times Online that PALs and other safety devices are likely to be in the cards for guarding Pakistan's nuclear weapons, if they are not in place already. Damage control It is a known fact that foreign governments use seminars and sponsored studies by private and quasi-government think-tanks to explain or elaborate on their country's policies. In recent months, many serving and retired Pakistani military officials and diplomats have launched a seemingly coordinated campaign in the US and Western strategic-policy circles. The goal of this campaign seems to be to reassure the power brokers and academics who often go on to become key players in the US and Western governments that Pakistan's nuclear estate is safe and that Pakistan will take its nuclear non-proliferation commitments seriously, after the Khan scandal. One such effort was by retired Pakistani army Major-General Mahmud Ali Durrani at the Sandia Labs in New Mexico. It is to be noted that Sandia Labs is owned by defense contractor Lockheed Martin and is affiliated with the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. Durrani states in his report titled "Pakistan's Strategic Thinking and the Role of Nuclear Weapons" that he was able to tour many sensitive Pakistani nuclear facilities and found the safety procedures to be credible, though there was room for improvement in certain security aspects. But not everyone who read the Durrani study was convinced. One former US security official, who did not want to be identified, told Asia Times Online that he had more questions about Pakistan's nuclear safety procedures after reading the Durrani report than before. He noted that Durrani highlighted the claim that Pakistan has a "three-man rule" for nuclear-weapon safety that it claims is superior to the "two-man rule" in practice in the US. What that means in essence is that three people are supposed to enter codes before a nuclear weapon can be deployed, but he pointed out that the three people can sometimes be at a lower level in the military hierarchy, such as the base commander and unit commander. He wondered whether that was really a safe procedure, given that Pakistan has already acknowledged that al-Qaeda has penetrated lower levels of the military forces. The expert also highlighted that the Durrani report's stated exception to the "three-man rule" is in the case of a Pakistani air force pilot who can solely be given the full weapon-arming code in certain situations. "This is not comforting to anyone [who] does not know what those 'special situations' are and what if any fail-safes are there to prevent a rogue pilot from taking off with a nuclear weapon," the expert cautioned. It is to be noted that the Durrani report includes a sobering note about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear installations, while dismissing the possibility of Islamist radicals being on the inside. "There is an urgent need to improve the technical skills of personnel charged with the security of [Pakistan's] nuclear installations and develop an institutional security culture," the report warns. Coming from a Pakistani insider, this must be alarming to some within the US government, the expert surmised. Making the plan Soon after September 11, 2001, American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh wrote in The New Yorker magazine of a supposed secret US-Israeli plan to take control of Pakistan's nuclear facilities in the case of an Islamist coup there. In a book by Washington Post's Bob Woodward, President Bush is quoted as telling Musharraf that "Seymour Hersh is a liar" after the Hersh story came out. Whether the US had a secret plan for Pakistan's nukes in 2001 or not, there is evidence that the US government and Congress are beginning to accept the reality that a US military action plan is needed to prepare for taking over and managing a state-failure situation in a country that possesses mass-destruction weapons. In a public hearing in March conducted by the US Senate's Armed Services Committee on plans for the US Army's transformation, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut raised the question of whether the US military was ready for a "contingency" situation in Pakistan or Iran. In response, General Richard A Cody, the US Army's vice chief of staff, said that such questions were the ones US Army leaders "grapple with every day", without going into details. The timeframe for these plans mentioned a requirement to be ready by as early as 2007. The US Military Force Structure Review Act of 1996 directed the secretary of defense to conduct a Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) of the strategy, force structure, force modernization plans, infrastructure and other elements of the defense program and policies with an intent of establishing a revised defense program. It is therefore interesting to note that the next QDR, planned to be released this autumn, reportedly includes plans for scenarios such as a rogue commander getting hold of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. "The more the scenarios hit a nerve ... the more I know I am onto something," a Pentagon official working on the QDR 2005 was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal recently. The significance of these hearings and the QDR plans is that the normally secretive US Defense Department does not make its ideas public for the purposes of public relations. These plans are made public to pressure Congress into releasing massive funds to the US military to be able to realize the plans. They also signify that the US considers the eventualities being planned for in the QDR to be realistic enough to happen in the next four years. Previous QDRs had plans for a conventional combat operation against the likes of Iraq. It may very well turn out that the US State Department, always sensitive to Pakistan's concerns, steps in to force the Pentagon to omit any references to Pakistan in the public QDR version, but if the Pentagon wants debate on the matter, a well-timed leak could do the trick. Islamabad must be watching these developments with a wary eye, but any protestations it might choose to express are unlikely to deter the US from making plans to slowly yet deliberately cast a net around Pakistan's nuclear estate. Kaushik Kapisthalam is a freelance defense and strategic affairs analyst based in the United States. He can be reached at contact@kapisthalam.com. (Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Head Office: Rm 202, Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110 ***************************************************************** 16 Political Affairs Magazine: WMD Commission -- Yet Another Intelligence Failure By Rahul Mahajan Published: 04/05/2005 09:10 The “Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction” has done reasonably well what it was created to do. Unfortunately, it was created to provide political cover for the Bush administration in the middle of a scandal that dwarfs Watergate, Iran-contra, and even Lewinsky-gate, but that, in contrast to those events, has led to no in-depth investigation, minimal television coverage, and hardly any calls for the heads responsible to roll. Think back to late January 2004 and the preliminary report of the Iraq Survey Group, which concluded that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq. This came on top of what was by then a mounting wave of revelations that the Bush administration had repeatedly and deliberately deceived the American public -- and attempted to deceive the world -- about the evidence it claimed to have regarding Iraq’s WMD. Post-war, those revelations started with Joseph Wilson’s account that, acting for the Bush administration, he had debunked the claims that Iraq was buying uranium from Niger. It included the British government’s apology for its “dodgy dossier,” in which it plagiarized 12-year-old information from a graduate student’s paper and passed it off as current intelligence, and the revelation that Tony Blair’s claim that Iraq could deploy its nonexistent chemical and biological weapons in 45 minutes was known to based on a single uncorroborated statement by an untrustworthy defector. It included a comprehensive accounting in the Washington Post showing that Iraq was not and could not have been using its famous aluminum tubes for uranium enrichment. It also included a comprehensive debunking in the Associated Press of virtually every element of Colin Powell’s February 5, 2003, presentation to the U.N. Security Council. It even included a description of the role of Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their Office of Special Plans in pressuring the CIA, distorting their conclusions, and even setting them aside in order to create the most urgent and compelling justification for war. This wave, and the wave of political discontent with the Bush administration, crested when David Kay’s report came out. Yet, within days of its issuance, the administration, with the help of prominent Democrats like Jane Harman on the House Intelligence Committee, had already spun the issue around from administration deception to something called “intelligence failures,” shifting blame from the coterie of top officials who had lied us into a war to the intelligence agencies had been pressured to come up with those lies. The creation of this commission was the final step in the process, and helped to head off any chance of a serious investigation into those lies. Instead of impeachment proceedings for Bush, we saw a very skillful bureaucratic maneuver that killed two birds with one stone -- deflection of attention and also an attack on the CIA, seen as an institutional obstacle to implementation of the Cheney-Rumsfeld-neoconservative foreign policy agenda. The check provided by the CIA is a pragmatic, not a moral one, but if heeded might have kept the administration out of embarrassing adventures like support for the military coup attempt in Venezuela and perhaps even out of the more than two-year-long occupation of Iraq. Although the commission was specifically not tasked with considering the administration’s use of intelligence, it still went out of its way to opine that political pressure from the administration played no part in the “intelligence failures,” because “The analysts who worked Iraqi weapons issues universally agreed that in no instance did political pressure cause them to skew or alter any of their analytical judgments.” Of course, not only would such an admission be tantamount to saying one didn’t do one’s job properly, in the current political climate intelligence analysts had to know that they would be punished for any such claim. Similarly, the commission reserves particularly harsh criticism for the way the President’s Daily Brief is prepared, characterizing them as “more alarmist and less nuanced” than longer reports like the famously flawed October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (heavily worked over by the Office of Special Plans). Their “attention-grabbing headlines and drumbeat of repetition” supposedly gave top officials the impression that dramatic claims were much better sourced and heavily corroborated than, in fact, they were. The commission is clearly trying to imply that some sort of scaremongering from the intelligence community stampeded the administration into war. And yet, there is no mention of another “attention-grabbing headline” from the August 6, 2001 PDB -- “Bin Laden Determined to Attack in US.” To the uninitiated, this might well seem alarming, yet it didn’t grab enough attention for Bush to cut short his vacation at Crawford or to bring back other top officials to Washington DC. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the administration got “alarmed” by claims that supported its pre-existing plans, like the invasion of Iraq, but couldn’t be bothered by claims that had little to do with an imperial agenda, but, of course, the commission escapes it with ease. Much of what the commission concludes about the shortcomings of the intelligence community is true and recapitulates what thoughtful critics on the inside like Richard Clarke and Michael Scheuer have been saying. In a sense, it is the fault not so much of the commission but of the Bush administration that created it as a diversion and of political figures from across the spectrum who allowed themselves to be diverted. The most alarming thing about the report is that the sections on intelligence regarding Iran and North Korea have been kept classified. The justification given is that there’s no reason for the U.S. government to tip its hand to the remaining members of Bush’s “axis of evil.” But, given the administration’s saber-rattling and consideration of regime change attempts in both countries, the public’s right to know is a far more compelling consideration. If the slightest move is made toward any military aggression against Iran (the more likely scenario of the two), the first thing we should demand is declassification of those pages. After that, perhaps we can take up that question of impeachment again. --Rahul Mahajan is author of Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond, publisher of the blog Empire Notes, and can be reached at rahul@empirenotes.org. ***************************************************************** 17 Korea Times: NK Official Returns From China Visit Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation BEIJING (Yonhap) - The North Korean official in charge of six-party talks over the North's nuclear weapons program left for Pyongyang Tuesday after a four-day visit to China. The delegation led by North Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Suk-ju arrived at the Beijing airport early in the morning in two North Korean embassy vehicles. The North Korean vice minister entered the airport via a passageway reserved for special guests. He refused to answer any inquiries about his meetings with Chinese officials. Kang reportedly met with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and his deputy Ning Fukui after arriving in Beijing on Saturday, according to sources here. Five to six other North Korean officials, including Ri Gun, deputy chief of North Korea's delegation to the six-party talks, had accompanied the highest North Korean official in charge of the nuclear disarmament talks over the North's nuclear weapons program, according to the sources speaking on condition of anonymity. The visit had prompted hopes for a resumption of the stalled nuclear disarmament talks as it also followed a recent trip by the North's Premier Pak Pong-ju on March 22-27. China has hosted three rounds of six-party talks also attended by the United States, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas to bring a peaceful end to the latest nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula. The country has been working to host a fourth round since the last one ended in June without any significant progress, but the North has been refusing to return to the negotiating table citing what it calls ``hostileĦŻĦŻ U.S. policy. Kang was also scheduled to meet with China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and senior Communist Party official Wang Jiarui on Monday for discussions on reopening the stalled talks, according to the sources. 04-05-2005 17:54 ***************************************************************** 18 Atomic Sirens Failing: Public Demands NRC Act Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 11:59:53 -0400

 

NEWS FROM NIRS

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

1424 16th Street NW, #404, Washington DC 20036

202.328.0002; f: 202.462.2183; nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE            Contact: Paul Gunter, NIRS, (202) 328-0002

April 05, 2005                                                    Brendan Hoffman, Public Citizen, (202) 454-5130

 

Emergency Sirens at Atomic Reactor Sites Continue to Experience Widespread Failures:

Public Demands NRC Require Power Backup Systems

 

WASHINGTON, DC – Public petitioners including New York county legislators, national nuclear watchdog groups and a host of statewide environmental and public safety organizations met with a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) review board today to demand the federal regulator address the widespread and recurring failure of emergency notification systems at commercial nuclear power plants. Every time the power goes out, nuclear reactor sites around the country lose power to their siren systems within the 10-mile radius Emergency Planning Zones. Moreover, the NRC  cannot currently identify all of the sites where these periodic failures can occur, nor does it require reactor operators to do anything about it.  The petitioners want NRC to require all nuclear utilities to equip emergency notification systems with backup power sources independent from the electrical grid. This would ensure that in the event of an accident or an act of terrorism accompanied by a collapse of the grid, there is reasonable assurance that the public can be promptly notified of a radiological emergency.

            “It is irresponsible of the NRC to leave the public both literally and figuratively in the dark  about a potential radiological emergency during a power outage,” said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watchdog Project for Washington, DC-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service. “Worse still, the NRC is also in the dark about which sirens would fail. This problem can and must be fixed immediately by installing independent and preferably solar-powered siren systems.”

            “Its no secret that NRC has allowed the nuclear industry to operate with inadequate emergency plans for the public,” said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s national energy program. “The fact that many of these siren systems won’t work when the grid fails is one glaring example that can no longer be tolerated.”

            Seventeen environmental and public interest groups as well as three New York county legislative assemblies around Indian Point petitioned NRC for emergency enforcement action at the nation’s reactors on February 23, 2005.

[See petition http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/emergency/ep2206petitionsirens02232005.pdf]

Background:

Some nuclear power station operators have battery back up systems for emergency notification sirens in the event of collapse of the electrical grid. However, a review of NRC event reports documented in the petition reveals that a significant number of sites have repeatedly lost power to portions, and even entire emergency siren systems. One such example is the Indian Point nuclear plant thirty miles north of New York City. NRC does not currently require that operators provide emergency back up power systems or batteries to assure operable public notification systems as required under federal law. Instead, NRC allows for licensees to rely on “mobile route alerting” where police patrol cars and other first responders would drive around the emergency planning zones with loud speakers or bull horns to alert populations to an accident or act of terrorism. The petitioners charge that under a fast breaking accident, adverse weather or act of terrorism this relaxation of emergency planning is inadequate and unacceptable.

            The public has initiated the formal process under federal law (10 CFR 2.206) with NRC where, if the petition is accepted, the federal agency would convene hearings with affected nuclear licensees on the requested emergency enforcement action. In this case, the petitioners have requested that NRC first identify and quantify the number of nuclear power station emergency planning zones where emergency notification systems lose power during grid failure due to adverse weather, mechanical failure or potentially an act of sabotage in advance of an attack on a nuclear power station by terrorists. The petitioners have further requested that all of the affected licensees then be required to back fit emergency siren systems with backup power systems, preferably solar power, to assure the operation of the system to notify the public throughout a radiological emergency corresponding with the loss of grid power.

            The list of known nuclear power stations that simultaneously lose power with grid failure to the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone notification systems includes: Indian Point, Nine Mile Point and Ginna (NY), Diablo Canyon (CA), Summer (SC), Braidwood and Clinton (IL), Peach Bottom (PA), Hope Creek (NJ), Calvert Cliffs (MD), Surry (VA), Point Beach and Kewaunee (WI), Brunswick (GA), and Watts Bar (TN).

 

-30-

 

 

 

Linda Gunter is Director of Development and Media Relations at NIRS. She can be reached at: 202-328-0002 ext. 23.

 

 ***************************************************************** 19 Pollution Online: MTBE Perchlorate conference 5-26 News for pollution control professionals The National Ground Water Association Announces MTBE-Perchlorate Conference -->4/5/2005 Westerville, OH — The National Ground Water Association (NGWA) will hold a special conference on engineered solutions for handling perchlorate and MTBE contamination in ground water on May 26-27, 2005 in San Francisco, California at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins hotel. The meeting will include representatives from the engineering and environmental consulting, military, industrial and regulatory sectors. To learn more about the conference, visit this web page address: http://info.ngwa.org/servicecenter/Meetings/Index.cfm The conference will feature extensive sessions on the fate, transport and treatment of perchlorate and MTBE plus cover hotly debated questions such as how much of the perchlorate is naturally occurring and caused by fertilizer? Lawyers will present a session covering current perchlorate litigation. The event features an industry display area, concurrent sessions, a reception and luncheon. NGWA will convene a regulator roundtable breakout session covering the implications of the National Academy of Science (NAS) reference dose for perchlorate. MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) is an oxygenate compound added to gasoline to meet oxygen requirements under the Clean Air Act. Underground storage tanks, many of them containing gasoline with MTBE, are the number one source of ground water contamination in the United States. MTBE has been banned in a number of states and has been at the center of the debate over the Federal Energy Bill. Perchlorate is a strong oxidizer used in rocket fuels, air bags and road flares as ammonium perchlorate and sodium perchlorate. It has been detected in ground water in more than 20 states from a variety of releases. A minimum contaminant level has yet to be established for perchlorate. However, the conference is particularly timely with the U.S. EPA’s adoption in February of a reference dose for perchlorate. The EPA’s action is consistent with a National Academy of Sciences finding in mid-January, which places the reference does at a level 23 times higher than U.S. EPA’s original number. On Wednesday May 25, NGWA will offer a special ½ -day pre-conference workshop on TBA (tertiary butyl alcohol) and MTBE Remediation which will be taught by Ellen Moyer, Editor of the Handbook of MTBE Remediation. The conference begins each morning with a keynote session and then provides concurrent sessions on MTBE and perchlorate. A sampling of the conference’s offerings include: + John Gibbs of Kerr-McGee Corporation, who will speak on Thursday, May 26 from the industry perspective on perchlorate in his talk, Emerging Science with Implications for Perchlorate Risk Assessment and Science Policy Decisions. + Stephen Kalkhoff of the U.S. Geological Survey, the first keynote speaker on May 26, who will discuss his paper, Perchlorate Occurrence in Ground Water in the North Central United States: Do Agricultural Practices Contribute Perchlorate to Shallow Aquifers? + A NGWA Regulatory Roundtable chaired by U.S. EPA’s Kevin Mayer on May 26 focusing on scientific and policy issues surrounding perchlorate. + Shannon Cunniff, Special Assistant for Emerging Contaminants from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, who on Friday, May 27 will present, U.S. Department of Defense's Overall Efforts to Proactively Address Emerging Contaminants. Source: MGWA İ 1996-2005, VertMarkets, Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 Alamogordo News: Department of Energy employees could be entitled to up to $150,000 : April 5, 2005 - 11:37:08 ALBUQUERQUE (AP) _ President Bush has appointed a former Holloman Air Force Base commander to the commission that will determine military base closings. Department of Energy employees, contractors, subcontractors or their survivors may be entitled to up to $150,000 for having suffered an illness as a result of employment at a DOE facility. Karen Martinez, manager for the Española-based Energy Employees Compensation Resource Center will be in Alamogordo on Wednesday to meet with citizens with questions about the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. Workers may receive medical benefits and/or financial compensation and survivors could be eligible for compensation through the act. Covered illnesses include radiaogenic cancer, chronic beryllium disease, and silicosis Martinez said. Uranium workers can also be covered. Survivors can apply on behalf of the employee. “Twenty-two kinds of cancer could be covered,” Martinez said. “They include leukemia, lung, bone, multiple myeloma, thyroid, breast, pancreas and ovarian.” The program has given out more than $55 million in New Mexico and $1 billion nationwide so far, Martinez said. “I think there is a lot (more people affected) because we are going back to the 1940s,” Martinez said. “Historically I don’t believe anyone from the resource center has gone to Alamogordo.” Appointments for Martinez’s Otero County visit will be held at the CAPPED Building at 907 New York Ave. For an appointment call the Resource Center toll free at 1-866-272-3622. Hours the representative will be meeting people in Alamogordo are 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Staff members at the center are available for questions and to assist individuals with the application process, so even if a Wednesday appointment can’t be made, those interested in finding more about the claims can call the Resource Center. DOE facilities in New Mexico: • Accurate Machine & Tool in Albuquerque (1987-2002) • Albuquerque Operations Office (1942-present) • Chupadera Mesa (1945) • Los Alamos Medical Center (1952-1963) • Los Alamos National Laboratory (1942-present) • Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in Albuquerque (1960-present) • Ore Buying Station in Grants (1956-1958) • Ore Buying Station in Shiprock (1952-1954) • Project Gasbuggy Nuclear Explosion Site (1967-1973; 1978; 1992-present in Farmington (remediation)) • Project Gnome Nuclear Explosion Site in Carlsbad (1960-1962) • Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque (1949-present) • South Albuquerque Works (1951-1967) • Trinity Nuclear Explosion Site in White Sands (1945) • Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad (1999-present) Staff writer Joan Price contributed to this report. Copyright İ 2004 Alamogordo News, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. ***************************************************************** 21 Deseret news: Doctor says CDC ignored effects of fallout in Idaho [deseretnews.com] Tuesday, April 5, 2005 By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News It's no surprise to Dr. Peter Rickards that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is refusing to continue paying for a study of fallout health effects on Utahns who lived near the Nevada Test Site. Earlier studies showed thyroid abnormalities among the Utahns, and scientists from the University of Utah have been doing follow-up examinations. But citing the $8 million already spent and two extensions of deadlines, the CDC says it will end funding on Aug. 31. Dr. Joseph L. Lyon, who heads the U.'s study, says the project was slowed by CDC bureaucracy and cost more because of overhead. The CDC's apparent failure to dig hard for fallout facts sounds like old news to Rickards, an Idaho Falls podiatrist. In the 1990s and earlier this decade, he was part of a citizens advisory committee for a CDC-funded study — the INEEL Dose Reconstruction Project. The study was supposed to compute radiation doses to residents living near the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, now known as the INL or the Idaho National Laboratory, in southeastern Idaho. The lab has experimented with nuclear material for decades and, according to the CDC, it is known to have released radiation. After seven years of involvement with the project, Rickards said, he has come to believe the CDC wants to "downplay the overwhelming impact of the Nevada Test Site on Idaho and the rest of the country." Telephone messages left Monday with the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes CDC, and with authors of a radiation study at the Idaho laboratory were not immediately returned. When the CDC agreed to sponsor a dose reconstruction effort to determine radiation doses to Idahoans, Rickards was delighted. The study began in 1992. He helped advise the study starting in 1993 and was officially made a member of the panel in 1995. "I was removed from the panel in 2002, so I officially served seven years, but actually served and worked with CDC for nine years," he noted. Now, Rickards said bitterly, he thinks the panel was established "to provide the illusion of openness and honesty." "It basically took two years . . . before I could see they actually had no intention of reviewing real doses," he said. One issue that concerned him involved how much radiation area residents received from fallout drifting into Idaho after open-air atomic bomb blasts at the Nevada Test Site, in addition to the lab's releases. "I had been told that the alarms used to go off frequently" in the lab. "They would check the equipment and nothing had melted down or anything at that moment." The cause was fallout. Other fallout data were gathered in the period, he said. Weekly samples of Iodine-131 were taken from dairies around the lab from 1957 onward. "They have spikes in that data from Nevada Test Site," he said. Exposure to the thyroid gland could be via contaminated milk. If a child drank a great deal of milk with radioactive Iodine-131, the exposure would be more hazardous. But researchers claimed they could only use fallout data from 100 gummy strips, like flypaper, that supposedly caught contaminated dust or droplets. Rickards wonders how researchers could ignore what were sure to be spikes from fallout in the milk studies. In 1997, the National Cancer Institute released a 14-year study showing nationwide exposure to radioactive iodine from fallout. Four of the five hardest-hit counties were in Idaho; the fifth was in Montana, he said. Montana and Idaho were hit harder than the rest of the country by fallout, says the study — even more heavily dosed than southeastern Utah. Part of Utah's Washington County was listed ninth on the list, while part of Kane County was 14th and another part of Washington County was 20th. In 1999, the advisory panel passed a resolution "to basically add the Nevada Test Site doses" to the INEEL doses. Yet when a draft study was released, it depended on the 100 gummy strips. As far as solid data about fallout, he said, the study just had what he calls "fuzzy estimates" and footnotes citing lack of data. "No use of specific spikes from the Nevada Test Site," Rickards said. Another conflict concerned calculating doses to a fetus whose mother may have eaten a duck exposed to radiation at INL ponds. Researchers said the cesium dose to the woman would be about 12 millirems, "or a little over (the dosage from) a chest X-ray," he said. "But they claimed that the dose to a fetus was only 0.3 millirem" when in fact the fetus could also have a 12 millirem dose. It took six months to get the erroneous information corrected, he added. "Not long after that, they basically said that the funding for the dose reconstruction was cut, and we would no longer study the whole picture, with all the accidents and the total releases." The focus would be on only three incidents at the laboratory. Fallout was not to play a role, he said. "It became obvious to our panel that the Nevada Test Site dose was overwhelmingly larger than the accidental and intentional release of radiation" from the laboratory, he said. After the panel passed its resolution advocating use of the Test Site doses and specific information gathered at the laboratory, "the CDC promised to follow through but never did." E-mail: bau@desnews.com İ 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 22 [du-list] Uranium - 75,000 cubic metres in UK with nowhere to Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 15:43:09 -0700 Warning on nuclear waste disposal http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4407421.stm ---------- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.1 - Release Date: 4/1/05 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/RzSHvD/UOnJAA/79vVAA/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/ ***************************************************************** 23 [shundahaialerts] Skull Valley Nuclear Waste Dump Update Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 15:43:45 -0700 Foes of Goshute nuclear waste plan take case to D.C. By Jerry Spangler Deseret Morning News WASHINGTON — Having thus far failed to make their case in the courts, opponents of storing 40,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste on Goshute tribal lands in Tooele County took their cause to the nation's capital Monday, calling the proposal "environmental racism" and "nuclear colonialism." Environmental organizations and Native American environmental justice organizations called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject a license application by Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear power utilities, to store the waste in canisters above ground on lands owned by the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes. "Locating high-level radioactive waste facilities on Indian lands violates the trust responsibility of the U.S. government, federal laws and treaties, and is an extreme example of the continuing environmental racist policies against Indian people," said Tom Goldtooth, executive director of Indigenous Environmental Network. "PFS must be stopped." Click to learn more... Environmental justice issues, such as the impacts of the waste facility on traditional tribal values, were not considered by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board when it voted 2-1 to recommend the NRC grant PFS a license. But those issues will certainly be the focus of litigation should the NRC grant the license, participants said. Margene Bullcreek, who has spearheaded Goshute opposition in Utah through her group Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia Awareness, said the issue for Goshutes is not about how much money the 130 band members would get from the deal, but "who we are" as Native Americans. "This waste will destroy who we are," she said. Anne Sward Hansen, a Utahn with the Environmental Justice Foundation, called for congressional oversight of Goshute tribal officials and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who all approved the PFS lease in a deal that Hansen and others now say was fraught with corruption and illegalities. "The merits of this case need to be heard in some judicial or oversight venue before the NRC commissioners grant approval for a PFS license," Hansen said. If the issues are not addressed, she added, "the NRC decision could become historically the greatest act of environmental racism and injustice in America." According to opponents, tribal members have never voted on the proposal, and tribal chairman Leon Bear, who negotiated the PFS deal, has thwarted such attempts and changed tribal election rules to remain in power after his term expired last November, Bullcreek said. Goshutes opposed to PFS, led by Bullcreek, have been fighting for years to have Bear removed from office, but their case has been rejected by the courts, which ordered the matter resolved by the BIA and the tribe. Even if Bear were to be removed from office, the band would probably be legally bound to the PFS deal under terms of the contract, and it could take years and years of litigation to resolve any attempt to pull out, Goldtooth said. PFS opponents are trying to raise public awareness of the PFS proposal in light of a hearing scheduled Wednesday on an appeal by the state of Utah of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board's decision. The full NRC will then make a decision on whether to accept or reject the recommendations of the board. Utah officials have been fighting the PFS proposal for years, but so far all attempts to challenge the project in court have failed and the state's contentions before nuclear waste regulators that the project posed insurmountable risks were rejected by the licensing board, a quasi-judicial body within the NRC that advises the commissioners. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is continuing the opposition efforts, and last week he sent a letter to the organizers of Monday's event, saying "your unified message on behalf of the millions of people your collective organizations represent is both heartwarming and overwhelming." Some 350 different organizations have now signed on to a letter to the NRC opposing the PFS license. "Shipping nuclear waste to Utah does not eliminate terrorism or radiological risks at operating nuclear power plants, but extrapolates those serious risks to the Skull Valley band of Goshute Indians, residents of Utah and communities along the transportation route," Huntsman wrote. If that fails and PFS is licensed, Kevin Kamps with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service predicted an outpouring of nonviolent civil disobedience as tens of thousands of Americans seek to stop the shipments of waste through thousands of communities — just as 20,000 Germans turned out to block waste shipments there. Kamps predicted people "will be doing everything in their power" to stop the waste shipments. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SHUNDAHAI NETWORK--Dedicated to Breaking the Nuclear Chain Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and Harmony with all Creation" Shundahai Network PO Box 1115 Salt Lake City, UT 84110 Office: 801.533.0128 Fax: 801.533.0129 mailto:Shundahai@shundahai.org http://www.Shundahai.org ======================================================== It's in our back yard... it's in our front yard. This nuclear contamination is shortening all life. We are going to have to unite as a people and say no more! We, the people, are going to have to put our thoughts together to save our planet here. We only have One Water...One Air...One Mother Earth." Corbin Harney -Newe (Western Shoshone) Spiritual leader, Founder & Chairman of the Board of The Shundahai Network |<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|< Shundahai Network Action Alerts You have received this e-mail because you either signed up on the Shundahai Network list, or are considered someone who is interested in these types of issues. If you would like to be removed from this list, please send an e-mail to nationaloutreach@shundahai.org with the word "Remove" in the subject line. IF you were forwarded this email by a friend and would like to sign up to this list to receive monthly updates please reply to nationaloutreach@shundahai.org with "Subscribe Action Alerts" in the subject heading. |<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|< ***************************************************************** 24 [shundahaialerts] Is the Yucca Mountain nuke dump ready for Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 20:49:54 -0700 Requiem for Yucca Mountain Barring a major change, the government's plans to store nuclear waste at the Nevada site appear over by BOB LOUX | posted 03.24.05 Bob Loux is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). He is the executive director of Nevada's Office for Nuclear Projects, based in Carson City. ---------------------------------------------------- Without a miracle of some sort, it is all over. Yucca Mountain, the federal government's choice for storing nuclear waste from Cold War-bomb production and power plants, will never open. The project that began with a congressional mandate 22 years ago seems perennially stalled, even though $8 billion has already been spent on everything from scientific studies and modeling to the building of a railroad deep within Yucca Mountain. Back in the early 1980s, when Congress selected Nevada as the final resting place for high-level radioactive debris, most Nevadans vehemently opposed the plan. Our resistance, summed up in the frequently seen bumper sticker: "Nevada is not a wasteland," seemed futile to some people. Not any more. What's changed, is first of all, the science. What began two decades ago as a trickle of evidence suggesting that Yucca Mountain was incapable of isolating deadly radioactive waste has become a deluge. But instead of acknowledging what its own scientists and research were showing -- that the geology of Yucca Mountain was so seriously flawed that the site should be disqualified -- the Department of Energy turned the concept of geologic isolation on its head. The agency set about changing rules, regulations and guidelines so as to cover up site deficiencies and permit the program to go forward in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. That was borne out last July, when the U. S. court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the state of Nevada's legal challenge to the radiation health-protection standards for the Yucca site. The ruling meant that guaranteeing public safety for 10,000 years wasn't enough; instead, radiation coming from the dump must be safe for as long as 1 million years, the expected lifetime of the dump. This will be a difficult feat for both the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department, and a license to open Yucca Mountain depends on it. But there have been other signs that Yucca Mountain may be one of the nation's costliest boondoggles: > The Energy Department has pushed back Yucca Mountain's opening from 2010 to 2012 to 2015 to 2017, all within a few months.The Bush administration cut Yucca Mountain's 2006 budget in half, to $651 million. > Ted Garrish, Yucca Mountain's acting director, has said that the program will need more than $1.5 billion a year for the next decade in order to open. > The National Association of Regulatory Utility commissioners recently resurrected a proposal to take the nuclear-waste management program away from the Energy Department and turn it over to a quasi-governmental corporation. > Some industry representatives now delink the repository at Yucca Mountain from the notion that new power plants can't go forward unless Yucca Mountain goes forward. Previously, the industry insisted that getting Yucca Mountain open was essential for building new reactors. > And, a report by the National Commission on Energy Policy calls for interim, aboveground spent-fuel storage as a backup to Yucca Mountain. This is a startling turn of events. As the Los Angeles Times put it recently in a news story: "The state has stunned federal officials with its tenacity, legal skill and evolving political acumen, scoring key victories in federal court and in Congress that have repeatedly stalled the project." The U.S. Congress probably chose Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the nation's nuclear dumping ground because it thought Nevada had neither the will nor the clout to fight back. These days we are surprising everyone -- and maybe even ourselves. From Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Gov. Kenny Guinn, Attorney General Brian Sandoval, and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who even promised to lay his body down in front of any truck carrying nuclear waste headed for Yucca Mountain, we've shown our smarts and our power. Now, it is no longer a question of whether Yucca Mountain will crumble, but when. The project is on track to meet the same fate as other major Energy Department projects of the last few decades, such as the super-colliding superconductor and the Clinch River breeder reactor. Despite billions invested, those projects became so weighted down with mismanagement, cost overruns and political opposition that they simply became impossible. So it is with Yucca Mountain. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SHUNDAHAI NETWORK--Dedicated to Breaking the Nuclear Chain Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and Harmony with all Creation" Shundahai Network PO Box 1115 Salt Lake City, UT 84110 Office: 801.533.0128 Fax: 801.533.0129 mailto:Shundahai@shundahai.org http://www.Shundahai.org ======================================================== It's in our back yard... it's in our front yard. This nuclear contamination is shortening all life. We are going to have to unite as a people and say no more! We, the people, are going to have to put our thoughts together to save our planet here. We only have One Water...One Air...One Mother Earth." Corbin Harney -Newe (Western Shoshone) Spiritual leader, Founder & Chairman of the Board of The Shundahai Network |<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|< Shundahai Network Action Alerts You have received this e-mail because you either signed up on the Shundahai Network list, or are considered someone who is interested in these types of issues. If you would like to be removed from this list, please send an e-mail to nationaloutreach@shundahai.org with the word "Remove" in the subject line. IF you were forwarded this email by a friend and would like to sign up to this list to receive monthly updates please reply to nationaloutreach@shundahai.org with "Subscribe Action Alerts" in the subject heading. |<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|< ***************************************************************** 25 [du-list] Judge: Army taking too long on JPG plan Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 15:43:38 -0700 A federal administrative judge says that Save the Valley and the people who live around Jefferson Proving Ground have had to wait too long to find out what the Army intends to do about the radioactive depleted uranium it left behind after testing munitions. for the complete story go to: http://www.madisoncourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=253&ArticleI D=23183 Richard Hill President, STV visit our website at: www.savethevalley.org ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EA3HyD/3MnJAA/79vVAA/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/ ***************************************************************** 26 Independent: Feds interested in mining uranium again April 2, 2005: By Kathy Helms Diné Bureau FORT DEFIANCE — During spring session, Navajo Nation Council delegates will be asked to consider the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005 which would place a ban on conventional uranium mining and a lengthy moratorium on uranium processing. Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., at a meeting last weekend in Shiprock, told a crowd of more than 500 gathered at the chapter house that the federal government is once again interested in mining uranium and may turn to the Navajo Nation as a source. "We're at a critical point in the country regarding the use of uranium," he said, adding that the war in Iraq has generated a need for oil, coal, natural gas and uranium. The president was speaking to Navajos who worked in underground uranium mines during the Cold War era of the 1950s and '60s, as well as surviving spouses and dependent children who had come to hear about the federal government's plans to kick in an extra $125,000 to 100 percent-disabled uranium workers and their qualifying survivors. At the same time, President Bush's proposed 2006 federal budget shows a sharp decline in the amount of money to be appropriated to the Radiation Exposure Compensation (RECA) Trust Fund for downwind victims and onsite participants during the 1950s-60s atomic weapons tests at Nevada Test Site. However, the budget provides $8.5 million to continue studies on the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, or "bunker buster"at Nevada Test Site. In a March 21 letter to University of Utah researcher Joseph Lyon, the federal Centers for Disease Control announced it was yanking funding for his long-term radioactive fallout study begun in 1977 which looked at the connections between thyroid disease and fallout from the above-ground nuclear tests. Lyons has been following a group of 4,000 residents of Washington County, Utah, and Lincoln County, Nevada, who were schoolchildren during the early years of testing, according to Preston Truman, president of Utah Downwinders. In 1993, the study found that fallout-related thyroid tumors increased 3.4 times over the expected rate among school children exposed to the highest doses. The CDC already had invested $8 million in the study, which was in its third segment. "A lot of us are cynical about the whole thing,"said Truman, one of the original members of a thyroid study in the 1960s."Maybe the CDC didn't like that Lyon's study was investigating other health effects caused by fallout exposure,"he said. Other downwinders say they believe the government is trying to get away from helping downwinders because they want to start nuclear testing again. Mary Dickson of the Downwinders group said the government is still funding at least two major studies of the health effects of fallout from Chernobyl. "Apparently U.S. citizens don't rank as high as Russian citizens, which is hard for me to understand. "Maybe the government doesn't really want to know what the health effects of testing were on our population." Gallup Independent. ***************************************************************** 27 Guardian Unlimited: Official: U.S. May Not Build Waste Dump From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday April 5, 2005 9:31 PM AP Photo DCLS101 By ERICA WERNER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The planned nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada won't be built unless the Energy Department is confident of the supporting science after investigating e-mails that showed workers discussing fabricating data, an official said Tuesday. Under angry questioning from Nevada lawmakers, deputy director Theodore Garrish said the department was preparing to apply for a license to run the dump, but ``we have not made a final decision yet as to when or whether to file those documents, and some of that will be based on this investigation.'' ``I can assure you we will not go forward unless we can have the feeling ourselves first that this repository will be safe,'' said Garrish. Reassurances from Garrish and Charles Groat, the director of the U.S. Geological Survey, didn't satisfy the Nevadans. They have seized on the e-mails, written by USGS employees, as the latest reason to kill the dump planned for 90 miles north of Las Vegas. Officials from Gov. Kenny Guinn on down expressed outrage Tuesday during a House Government Reform subcommittee hearing. ``The fact that data may have been intentionally fabricated in service of shoring up predetermined and politically driven conclusions calls into question the very legitimacy of this entire program,'' Guinn said. The Energy Department disclosed March 16 that e-mails written between 1998 and 2000, principally by two USGS scientists, suggested the workers might have falsified documents. Porter's committee has released redacted versions of dozens of the e-mails that show workers discussing concocting facts and keeping two sets of figures, one for themselves and one to show quality assurance officers. In one e-mail a USGS scientist wrote: ``I don't have a clue when these programs were installed. So I've made up the dates and names. ... This is as good as it's going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff.'' The workers were studying how water moved through the desert site where the government wants to store 77,000 tons of commercial and defense nuclear waste for at least 10,000 years. The USGS validated Energy Department conclusions that water seepage was relatively slow, so radiation would be less likely to escape. In written testimony, Garrish downplayed the significance of the e-mails. ``This appears to be a lapse in quality assurance protocol and, at this time, we have no evidence that the underlying science was affected,'' his written testimony said. He seemed to soften his position when he addressed the subcommittee, suggesting more study was needed. ``The impact of this issue is yet to be determined, and yes, we are concerned about the integrity of the data, and what was done was inexcusable,'' Garrish said. The inspectors general of the Energy and Interior departments are conducting criminal investigations with help from the FBI, and the Energy Department is studying the impact on the scientific underpinnings of the planned waste dump site. But Nevada lawmakers called Tuesday for additional reviews. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who chaired Tuesday's hearing, said he wanted an independent commission similar to the presidential commission that investigated the 1979 accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island. Porter also said he was summoning the two main USGS workers who wrote the e-mails to testify at a hearing next week. Their identities have not been released. Groat said Tuesday they are no longer on the Yucca project but are still employed by USGS. John Mitchell Jr., president and general manager of Bechtel SAIC, the Energy Department's managing contractor on the Yucca project, also testified Tuesday. He said the e-mails were originally discovered by Bechtel workers in early December and were discussed by high-ranking company officials, but weren't turned over to the Energy Department until March. Porter was the only member of the House Government Reform federal work force and agency organization subcommittee to attend Tuesday's panel. He invited Nevada's other two House members, Republican Jim Gibbons and Democrat Shelley Berkley, to join him in questioning witnesses. That turned the three-hour hearing into a face-off between Nevadans adamantly opposed to Yucca and government officials committed to it, and there was little budging on either side. A planned completion date of 2010 for the Yucca project was recently abandoned by Energy Department officials. A new date has not yet been set. ^--- On the Net: Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: http://www.ymp.gov Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov Guardian Unlimited İ Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 28 Nevada Appeal - Opinion: Nuclear waste has to be stored somewhere April 5, 2005 "Nevada is winning at Yucca," reads the caption over the column by the governor. Well, for every winner, there must also be a loser, which in this case is the United States of America, and all just to solve the political lives of those foolishly elected by the citizens of this state. The politicians and blow-hard tree huggers have used the term "nuclear" to frighten the uninformed in the same manner that they misstate the fraud called global warming, but that case requires a much further expansion. Read the book "State of Peril" by Michael Crichton. The author does not dismiss the thought of cyclical climatic aberrations nor does he poo-poo the notion that humanity may have a temporary influence on our immediate atmosphere. He does, however, give the subject a proper perspective. We urgently need the same with respect to nuclear waste storage, something one can never get from politicians. If Yucca Mountain was 30 miles west, it would rest in California - which is still part of the USA - and one wouldn't hear a peep out of Guinn, Reid et al. California offered a site in the Mojave Desert for the storage but it was rejected in favor of the more suitable Yucca. It must be stored somewhere. Have any of our protesters offered an alternative? VERNON M. LATSHAW Gardnerville All contents İ Copyright 2005 nevadaappeal.com Nevada Appeal - 580 Mallory Way - Carson City, NV 89701 y ***************************************************************** 29 reviewjournal.com -- Opinion - EDITORIAL: Yucca 'science' Apr. 05, 2005 Copyright İ Las Vegas Review-Journal When Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., presides over a congressional hearing today on the fabrication of quality assurance data for the Yucca Mountain Project, there will be much gnashing of teeth about the science behind the federal government's effort to bury nuclear waste northwest of Las Vegas. But when Department of Energy and U.S. Geological Survey officials testify about the damning e-mails that effectively destroy the integrity of their scientific models, they might as well adapt the line made famous by Alfonso Bedoya's bandit in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre": "Science? We ain't got no science. We don't need no science. I don't have to show you any stinking science!" The arrogance of the message is as astounding as the falsifications. "I've made up the dates and names. ... If they need more proof I will be happy to make up more stuff," one e-mail message said. Members of the House subcommittee on federal work force and agency organization will learn today what Nevadans have known for two decades: the Yucca Mountain Project has never been about science. How could it be when, by federal edict, there exists no alternative to the multibillion-dollar drive to entomb tons of waste inside a ridge? Geologists, hydrologists and engineers have toiled in tunnels at the Nevada Test Site for years knowing they work not to answer crucial questions about the mountain's suitability, but to support a predetermined outcome. Such an environment can't possibly yield "good" science. Rather, it's the perfect petri dish for fraud -- a word we've heard plenty of times before at Yucca Mountain. Copyright İ Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2005 Stephens Media GroupPrivacy Statement lasvegas.com ***************************************************************** 30 Bradenton Herald: More workers add new boost to Tallevast tests | 04/05/2005 | DONNA WRIGHT Herald Staff Writer BRADENTON - The U.S. Department of Energy will hire two workers to research what government contracts Loral American Beryllium Co. might have had during the four decades it was in operation, Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Sarasota, announced Monday. The results of that research could open free screening for a serious lung disease as well as eligibility for a federal government benefits program to more former American Beryllium workers, Harris said. Currently, only those workers employed during 1967, 1968 and from 1980 through 1989 - the known years the company had Energy Department contracts - are eligible for the free blood tests and a federal compensation program if those tests show they have beryllium sensitivity or disease. Assistant Energy Secretary John Shaw confirmed that researchers will also be cleared to look at classified documents in government warehouses at Rocky Flats, Colo., and Oak Ridge, Tenn., to determine what secret work American Beryllium might have performed on Energy Department contracts. "We can't say this is a guarantee," said Shaw by telephone Monday. "But it's just a matter of good government policy that if such records continue to exist, we should examine them to make sure all workers get the benefits they are due." Dozens of former American Beryllium Co. workers rolled up their sleeves Monday for blood tests to determine if their past exposure to beryllium dust had made them sick. The speciality blood test, which can cost as much as $600, was free, compliments of the of the Energy Department. Harris was on hand for the first day of tests at US Healthworks Clinic, 1105 53rd Ave. E. She assured workers that she is working to make sure they get the compensation and medical benefits they deserve. Tops on her list is lobbying the Department of Health and Human Services to review whether residual contamination might have put all workers at risk from the date of the first government contract onward. The dust remained, Harris said, even though the contract period may have expired. The expanded screening program is a step in the right direction to find those affected, Harris said. Shaw lauded Harris for her lobbying efforts to expand an existing beryllium screening program to vendor companies who worked on atomic weapons and nuclear projects for the Energy Department during the Cold War. "It's a matter of good government policy," Shaw said. "DOE has made a pledge of commitment to Cold War Warriors." The Tallevast plant was closed in 1996 when Lockheed Martin Corp. bought out Loral American Beryllium. The plant never operated again, but an estimated 1,500 workers who toiled on government projects for both Department of Energy and the Department of Defense still live with the legacy of their exposure to toxic beryllium dust. Harris and Sen. Bill Nelson went to bat for the workers, asking the Energy Department to open a screening program for its own workers and those formerly employed at American Beryllium. Those lobbying efforts, Harris said, proved to be the catalyst that opened the screening program to vendor companies nationwide. James Reedy, who worked at the Tallevast plant from 1965 to 1990, was one of several dozen workers screened Monday. Reedy, 79, described a work environment loaded with dust. The former precision machinist said there was no exhaust system to take the dust away from his work area. His hands and clothing were coated with dust, Reedy said. "I would go home and my kids would ask, 'Dad, why are your hands so black?' The dust on my hands was so thick that when I buttered my bread for a sandwich the bread would be black." While Reedy will not know until he receives the results of the blood test whether he is at risk of beryllium disease, he has already been diagnosed with bladder cancer, which he said his doctors have traced back to the chemicals used at the plant. Now he has to worry about what beryllium dust might have done to his lungs. Beryllium dust when inhaled can cause a sensitivity in some people that can lead to a chronic and sometimes fatal lung disease if not treated. More than 93 workers have been scheduled for blood tests through Wednesday. The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) in Tennessee oversees the screening program. Each worker is receiving two blood tests that will be sent to different speciality labs, said Donna Cragle, director of the ORISE Center for Epidemiologic Research. Workers who test positive will be referred to a compensation program offered through the U.S. Department of Labor that may cover medical benefits and direct compensation, Cragle said. It's not too late for former workers to sign up for the tests, Cragle said. She and her team expect to return to Bradenton later this month or the first of May to offer another round of tests. She is also sending out test kits to former American Beryllium workers elsewhere in the country so they can participate in the screening. Any worker who tested negative in the current round of tests can ask for a repeat within three to five years if they feel they are developing symptoms, Cragle said. Terry Owen, the last union president at American Beryllium, said the risk of past exposure extends far beyond workers. She said she is concerned about the community of Tallevast, where many residents worked at the plant and tracked the dust home. Owen said that the exposure risk also goes right to the top of the military. "We had generals walking through that plant inspecting the parts we were working on," Owen said. "They breathed that dust. They need to be tested, too." Donna Wright, health and social services reporter, can be reached at 745-7049 or at . Eligibility: Workers employed anytime in 1967, 1968 or between 1980 and 1989. Where: U.S. Healthworks Clinic, 1105 53rd Ave. E., Bradenton. When: By appointment only. Call (866) 219-3442 to schedule an appointment. Herald watchdog HeraldToday.com ***************************************************************** 31 Las Vegas RJ: Agency pursued damage control Tuesday, April 05, 2005 Documents show how DOE coped with e-mails about Yucca Mountain By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Although they were bracing for a big black eye, Energy Department officials believed initially that reports of possibly falsified documents would not affect the science supporting the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site, documents made public on Monday show. Three dozen pages of newly released memos and other internal documents show how federal officials scrambled to weigh the effect after discovering a cache of e-mail messages in which scientists discussed using "fudge factors" and fabricating quality assurance of computer models used for climate and water studies. The e-mails were brought to the department's attention on March 11 and were announced on March 16. In the days between their discovery and the announcement, officials dissected the e-mail messages written between May 18, 1998, and March 20, 2000. They prepared an initial assessment and talking points to be discussed with Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and used in public disclosures, memos show. According to a memo prepared by a Yucca manager in Las Vegas, Bodman was to be told the information in the e-mails "does not impact the (Yucca) site recommendation, and we do not believe that the questionable data has any meaningful effect" on the science supporting the site as a nuclear waste repository. During the same period, officials started a more detailed investigation, the documents show. They also show the Energy Department was sensitive to how the disclosures would reflect on the Yucca Mountain Project, which has been criticized for its quality controls and has met other legal and budget setbacks. "Depending on the current status of the work to which he contributed, these e-mails may create a substantial vulnerability for the program," said a document that discussed the messages written by one scientist. DOE spokeswoman Anne Womack Kolton said internal reviews continue. "If in the course of the ongoing review any work is found to be deficient, it will be replaced or supplemented with analysis and documentation that meets appropriate quality assurance standards," she said. The redacted e-mail documents were made public by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who leads a House subcommittee that at a hearing today will examine the fraud allegations. Porter's subcommittee Friday released a set of e-mail messages in which federal workers discussed making up dates and names and taking other shortcuts in their disgruntlement over quality assurance rules. Among the documents the Energy Department gave the subcommittee to support its initial conclusions about the e-mails were parts of a June 2002 radiation dose study. The study compared water infiltration data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey with "worst case" estimates of rainfall at the site. "The result of that study showed that repository performance was not significantly affected," according to one document. The study was cited several times in the released material. The documents provide a possible preview of how federal officials will respond when questioned about the e-mails at today's subcommittee hearing. Officials representing the Energy Department and the U.S. Geological Survey are scheduled to testify before the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization. Inspectors from DOE and the Interior Department who have started an investigation of the e-mails also will testify, with John Garrick, chairman of the independent Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, which monitors Yucca Mountain science matters. Porter said Monday he does not accept government statements that downplay the potential damages to the repository from the e-mails. "Of course they are going to say that," said Porter, who, with most other Nevada elected leaders, has battled Yucca Mountain. "This is the fox guarding the henhouse. "These internal documents are saying there was a deliberate failure of quality assurance," Porter said. "I think they have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and they are now trying to come up with excuses." Porter said the subcommittee is scheduling a follow-up hearing on April 13 in which he plans to invite the e-mails' authors to testify. The documents made public Friday suggested the most provocative messages were exchanged among a handful of U.S. Geological Survey scientists. Porter said the panel has not yet worked out details in connection with the workers, who have not been publicly identified and who are the subject of an investigation that involves the FBI. "We need to know how far and how high this goes," Porter said. The Government Accountability Office, which has been critical of Yucca Mountain quality assurance in several reports, also will be invited, he said. Gov. Kenny Guinn, Attorney General Brian Sandoval and Nevada's senators are scheduled to testify today. They are expected to urge Congress to shut down the Yucca program until multiple investigations run their course. Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., said in a letter to Bodman on Monday that the fraud allegations amount to "scientific malpractice." "Fundamental questions about the quality, validity and integrity of the scientific review and quality assurance processes associated with the Yucca Mountain Project must first be answered" before work is resumed, the senators said. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 32 www.GovExec.com: Charges fly over Yucca Mountain e-mails (4/5/05) By David McGlinchey dmcglinchey@govexec.com Nevada lawmakers said Tuesday that federal employees might have falsified scientific evidence relating to the development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site to further political goals. "The recent disclosure by Secretary of Energy [Samuel] Bodman that scientists working on the Yucca Mountain project may have falsified data is nothing short of criminal behavior," said Nevada's Republican governor, Kenny C. Guinn. "The fact that data may have been intentionally fabricated in service of shoring up predetermined and politically driven conclusions calls into question the very legitimacy of this entire program." The contentious statements came during a House Government Reform subcommittee hearing to examine whether alleged falsified government research documents compromised the scientific justification for storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nev. In 2002, President Bush signed legislation authorizing a single storage facility for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain - consolidating more than 100 sites nationwide. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that he believes the controversial product will now be delayed indefinitely. "It should be obvious to everyone now that Yucca Mountain isn't going anywhere," Reid said. "It is abundantly clear that there is no such thing as sound science at Yucca Mountain." Jon Porter, R-Nev., chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization, called the hearing after a March revelation that federal employees might have falsified scientific information on the impact of the nuclear waste site. On March 16, Energy Secretary Bodman said department employees had "learned that certain employees of the U.S. Geological Survey at the Department of the Interior working on the Yucca Mountain project may have falsified documentation of their work." The controversy is focused around e-mails sent from federal employees between 1998 and 2000. An internal Energy Department memo says, "these e-mails describe deliberate failures to follow quality assurance procedures and irreproducible results related to the infiltration of water into the repository ... Depending on the current status of the work ... these e-mails may create a substantial vulnerability." One of the Geological Survey employee e-mails, dated March 20, 2000, discussed the installation of software being used in the Yucca evaluation. "I've made up the dates and names," the USGS employee wrote. "This is as good as it's going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff." USGS Director Charles G. Groat said his agency is taking the allegations seriously. "We have a 125-year reputation for sound, unbiased science," Groat said. "Anything that casts aspersions on that reputation disturbs us greatly. We, as do you, look forward to the completion of the ongoing investigations to fully determine the impacts and appropriate responses." ***************************************************************** 33 Las Vegas SUN: Opposition to Utah site growing Today: April 05, 2005 at 9:39:36 PDT By Suzanne Struglinski SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Opposition to the proposed Private Fuel Storage nuclear waste site in Utah grows stronger as its critics fear a temporary agreement will turn into a permanent one. The nation's nuclear waste is supposed to end up at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, but as recent allegations of falsified documents have made that permanent dump's fate even more uncertain, attention could shift to a proposed storage site in Skull Valley, Utah. "Yucca Mountain's future becomes cloudier every day," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Energy Program. Hauter called the recently revealed e-mails that indicate work had been falsified "one more nail in the coffin of Yucca Mountain." Work continues on the Yucca Mountain dump and its supporters have said they will not comment on the e-mails' potential effect due to ongoing investigations by the FBI and the inspectors general of the Energy and Interior departments. Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of eight nuclear utilities, aims to construct the above-ground temporary storage site at the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. It is up to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to grant a license for the consortium to be able to receive and store waste in up to 4,000 storage containers. The site would store up to 44,000 tons of waste for 20 years, with an option to extend the license by an additional 20 years. Utah residents and members of the Goshute tribe are protesting how the site was selected. They are warning about the dangers of moving waste across the country to Utah and are concerned about the potential health and safety risks involved with storing the waste, from radiation exposure to terrorism. Those objections and concerns mirror Nevada's arguments against the Yucca Mountain dump. "Our reservation is not desolate, nor is it barren," said tribe member Margene Bullcreek at a press conference at the National Press Club on Monday. Bullcreek heads an organization called Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia, which is Goshute for Timber Setting Community. "The waste storage will bring devastation to our people and future generations. The future generations do not have any part in today's decisions." Bullcreek said because the Yucca repository may never open, the waste would just be left in Skull Valley without a permanent storage option. "There should be no temporary site because it will become permanent," she said. The Skull Valley debate also involves allegations of bribery and corruption surrounding the tribe's leader Leon Bear. Bullcreek and others claim they have never seen the agreement between the tribe and PFS to use the reservation land and that Bear continues to serve as the tribe's leader even though his term has expired. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman sent a letter to Public Citizen and other critics of the site Friday thanking them for their work against the project. "Nuclear waste should be stored onsite at the facility that generated the waste until a permanent facility is available," Huntsman wrote. "Shipping nuclear waste to Utah does not eliminate terrorism or radiological risks to the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians, residents of Utah and communities along the transportation corridors." Critics are pointing to problems with the plan in advance of a hearing at the NRC on Wednesday. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an NRC administrative panel, granted the state of Utah's request for an appeal to the panel's Feb. 24 decision that allowed the Private Fuel Storage project to move to a commission vote. The board found that the consortium had adequately made its case that the chance of an aircraft crash occurring in which a waste container was damaged -- and radioactivity was released -- was less than one in a million per year. But Utah disagrees. The three-hour hearing, which will take place at NRC's headquarters in Rockville, Md., will be open to the public -- a significant change in a process that has largely been conducted behind closed doors due to the amount of safeguarded information involved. ***************************************************************** 34 Las Vegas SUN: Top Yucca scientist opts for early retirement Today: April 05, 2005 at 9:39:36 PDT By Mary Manning LAS VEGAS SUN A top scientist who had worked for years on the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump effort took early retirement on March 29. Michael Voegele, the lead Yucca Mountain scientist with Bechtel-SAIC, the company hired by the government to build the nuclear dump, took advantage of an opportunity to retire early, Bechtel-SAIC spokesman Jason Bohne said Monday. "The timing was right for him personally," Bohne of Las Vegas said. Voegele had been overseeing technical work prepared for a licensing application to allow the Energy Department to build the repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Voegele could not be reached for comment Monday. Bohne said Voegele's retirement after two decades with the company had nothing to do with the federal investigations into alleged falsification of documents related to the dump. At least two U.S. Geological Survey scientists have suggested falsifications of data on water flow rates, a key issue in isolating radioactive wastes, as well as potential climate changes. The e-mails were circulated between 1998 and 2000 among other scientists studying Yucca Mountain. Voegele was chief scientist for Bechtel-SAIC when the Yucca Mountain contractor sent 6 million pages of information about the mountain to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in July 2004, a first step in applying for a license. At the time the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were struggling with 293 key technical issues, areas both the department and the commission agreed needed more answers. Voegele said at the time that 101 issues had been reviewed and accepted by the commission. ***************************************************************** 35 Las Vegas SUN: DOE had knowledge of Yucca e-mails in December Today: April 05, 2005 at 11:14:55 PDT Porter conducting hearing on alleged data falsification By Suzanne Struglinski SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU DOE Documents + "DOE is having some sticker shock for the price of the program," April 5,' 2000 + "I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass here, but from what I've seen, ev' ryone has to cover their own asses, while at the same time work hard at being ' eam players and making sure the job gets done," Jan. 20, 1999 + "I'm sure the public would love to see how YMP (Yucca Mountain Project) s' ends resources trying to figure out whether or not the mountain is safe," Apri' , 28, 1999. + "Perhaps DOE (Energy Department) should be honest with the NRC (Nuclear R' gulatory Commission) and tell them they are not funding an infiltration map th' s year." Nov. 18, 1998. WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department knew about e-mails detailing possibly falsified work on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in December, according to internal department memos released Monday. The department developed talking points and fact sheets before announcing the problem in March. Department officials had contrasting opinions about the potential impact of the e-mails and the alleged falsification, with one writer doubting it had any meaning and another finding potential "vulnerabilities" with what appeared to be "deliberate failures" in the process to back up the science of the proposed high-level nuclear waste dump. The new documents were released Monday by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., as a follow-up to Friday's release of 93 pages of partially redacted e-mails. Porter is conducting a hearing today into the alleged falsification of work on the dump. Among those expected to testify are Ted Garrish, the Energy Department's top Yucca Mountain official, Charles "Chip" Groat, head of the U.S. Geological Survey, and the inspectors general of the Energy and Interior departments. Monday's documents included the e-mails, several previously unreleased messages and internal memos compiled as the department learned about the situation. One memo says the first knowledge of the e-mails occurred in December 2004 while the department was reviewing documents for License Support Network. Meetings took place but "no specific action resulted." Instead, "a conversation about other e-mail issues" brought the matter up again on March 9. An undated memo between unamed Radioactive Waste Management employees said a memo was sent March 11 "describing potential program vulnerabilities resulting from what appear to be deliberate failures to follow quality assurance procedures and possible falsification of data committed by a USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) employee" between May 18, 1998, and March 20, 2000. That memo also includes a June 2002 report using plans developed by the department and the U.S. Geological Survey to determine radiation doses that may include the data allegedly falsified by the employee. The report concluded water infiltration in the mountain would not disqualify it from being recommended as the site to store nuclear waste. The memo gives the recipient five "key points for your discussion with the Secretary," including "the implication of the information contained in the e-mails does not impact the site recommendation and we do not believe that the questionable data has any meaningful effect on the results supporting the site recommendation," according to the memo. But also in the new document set, a separate, heavily redacted memo with a recommended course of action for the still unnamed employee says, "Depending on the current status of the work to which he contributed, these e-mails may create a substantial vulnerability for the program." Monday's documents include a detailed list of 53 e-mails in question. Names and other identifying information has been redacted but the department summarized the suspicious language in each. Other memos give more information about the people involved. One document says the technical staff involved worked on "planning and fielding an extensive shallow drilling program (over 75 boreholes) that produced the data used to estimate how much of the precipitation that falls at Yucca Mountain has a potential to infiltrate and potentially reach repository depths." Water is an important concern at the dump site because it can carry radiation through the rock and eventually down into the groundwater. Another memo says one of the people involved worked for five months in 2000 as a data verification engineer using his Nuclear Regulatory Commission background and knowledge of the commission's auditing procedures. He left the project in August 2000 but returned in July 2003 as a senior licensing engineer. The memos say work discussed in the e-mails affects two current Analysis and Model Reports but the people named in the e-mails worked on more than 150 reports or data sets. All the memos discuss an investigation into the matter and a review of the data in question. One document said review will take four to eight weeks. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., sent a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on Monday demanding that work at Yucca Mountain stop until investigations into the alleged data falsification are complete. "It is clear that scientific malpractice has occurred and fundamental questions about the quality, validity and integrity of the scientific review and quality assurance processes associated with the YMP (Yucca Mountain project) must first be answered about the project," the senators wrote. "Given the magnitude of human health and safety implications of the Yucca Mountain project, we hope that you will act immediately on this request." But work on the project will continue. "The department is thoroughly investigating the alleged falsifications of the quality assurance documents and related work while aggressively moving forward with the license application," said department spokeswoman Anne Womack Kolton. "If in the course of the ongoing investigations if any work is found to be deficient, it will be replaced or supplemented with analysis and documentation that meet appropriate Quality Assurance standards." ***************************************************************** 36 BYU NewsNet: E-mail fraud fuels nuclear waste debate By Kate Jackson Daily Universe Staff Reporter - 5 Apr 2005 SALT LAKE CITY – Recently discovered fraudulent e-mails could delay the storage of nuclear waste in Nevada and make Utah the next choice for 77,000 tons of radioactively contaminated material. Because of the e-mails released Friday, the nation’s proposed permanent nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nev. was turned over to the FBI for investigation into alleged criminal activity. “This is worse than the Enron stuff,” Harry Reid, U.S. Senate Minority Leader D-Nev., told reporters after a speech at the University of Utah, Friday. The correspondence between U.S. Geological Survey employees suggests blatant fabrication of research results at the Yucca Mountain site, in order to further the Nevada project. One e-mail said: “this is as good as it is going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff.” USGS scientists studying water movement at the site told the Energy Department water seepage in the mountain is relatively slow and radiation would be unlikely to escape. However, Reid cited one e-mail by those same employees that said there is “water, water everywhere.” Congress first approved Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for the burial of 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in 2002. Now, because of allegations of bad science at the site, waste could end up at Utah’s Skull Valley Indian Reservation, 45 miles west of Salt Lake City. Skull Valley, home of the Goshute Tribe, has been labeled as a temporary holding place while the Yucca Mountain storage facilities are being finished. However, with the discovery of the e-mails, completing Yucca Mountain seems like less of an option and “temporary” storage in Utah could become permanent. “‘Interim,’ in nuclear lingo, means forever,” Reid said. Sammy Blackbear, vice president of the Goshute Tribe, has been in a lawsuit for six years with Private Fuel Storage, a group of electric companies who support storing nuclear waste in Skull Valley. He said there were instances of organized crime and bribery in regards to the project. “This is corruption at its highest,” Blackbear said. “We are living in a third world country out here and the people that support Private Fuel Storage have their nice cars and new homes.” Blackbear is not alone in his opposition of storing waste in Utah. “I’ve always supported Utah in keeping nuclear waste out of Utah,” Reid said. “Just because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does something doesn’t mean we can’t stop it with legislation.” The Bush administration supports storing nuclear waste in one centralized area like Nevada’s Yucca Mountain and is opposed to spreading out the storage. Currently nuclear waste is stored in 39 U.S. states. However, Reid said he feels there is a major threat in the transportation of nuclear waste past people’s homes, schoolyards, businesses and churches. “Since 9/11 we will never transport nuclear waste in America,” he said. “Every one of those trains is a terrorist target.” Instead, Reid supports leaving waste where it is generated at power plants, in dry casks buried underground. He said U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, both R-Utah, “could be making a conversion to his point of view.” Both Hatch and Bennett voted for the Yucca Mountain project hoping to keep nuclear waste out of Utah. Since it was proposed as a repository site the project has cost almost $10 billon. Utah officials will meet Wednesday with the Atomic Safety and Licensing board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in an attempt to thwart the approval of Skull Valley. Copyright, BYU NewsNet ***************************************************************** 37 Las Vegas SUN: Fraud Allegations Probed at Yucca Mountain Today: April 05, 2005 at 10:42:30 PDT By ERICA WERNER ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers summoned top Energy and Interior department officials to explain e-mails in which scientists on the Yucca Mountain project talk about inventing facts, keeping two sets of records and deleting data that didn't get a desired result. A congressional panel chaired by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., planned to question the Energy Department official overseeing the nuclear waste dump project, along with the head of the U.S. Geological Survey, whose employees authored the e-mails. Also on the witness list were the inspectors general of both departments, who are conducting investigations. In advance of the hearing set for Tuesday, Porter's House Government Reform federal work force and agency organization subcommittee last week released portions of the dozens of e-mails, written between 1998 and 2000, that show workers discussing concocting facts and keeping two sets of figures, one for themselves and one to show quality assurance officers. In one a USGS scientist writes: "I don't have a clue when these programs were installed. So I've made up the dates and names. ... This is as good as it's going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff." Nevada officials have seized on the e-mails as the newest reason to kill the project. Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn and others were testifying Tuesday. The subcommittee released a new batch of documents late Monday, including internal Energy Department memos written as the e-mails were about to be made public last month. The memos show department officials were deeply concerned about the effect of the e-mails on the faltering Yucca Mountain project, but also that they concluded no real harm had been done to the underlying science. "Depending on the current status of the work to which he contributed, these e-mails may create a substantial vulnerability for the program," says one memo, apparently referring to the principle author of the e-mails. A second has a section entitled "key points for your discussion with the secretary." Among them: "We do not believe that the questionable data has any meaningful effect on the results supporting the site recommendation." The memos also indicate department officials learned about the problem in early December, more than three months before making it public. The names of authors and recipients and some sections of text were blacked out because of investigations by the FBI and inspectors general. An Energy Department spokeswoman declined comment because of the continuing investigations. The memos show that the workers involved in the e-mails created 150 or more reports and data sets. They were producing data used to estimate how much precipitation that falls on Yucca Mountain reaches the depths of the proposed underground waste repository. The USGS validated Energy Department conclusions that water seepage was relatively slow, so radiation would be less likely to escape. But the memos say that because large uncertainty factors are assumed in an overall program assessment, the potentially manipulated records probably didn't change outcomes. Yucca Mountain, approved by Congress in 2002, is planned as the nation's repository for 77,000 tons of radioactive defense waste and used reactor fuel from commercial power plants. The material is supposed to be buried for at least 10,000 years beneath the Nevada desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A planned completion date of 2010 was recently abandoned by Energy Department officials. They have yet to set a new date. --- On the Net: Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: http://www.ymp.gov State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov -- ***************************************************************** 38 ICT: Energy secretary admits Yucca Mountain data fabricated [2005/04/05] Posted: April 05, 2005 by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today YUCCA MOUNTAIN, Nev. - The Department of Energy has admitted that data regarding the climatological safety of water infiltration systems at Yucca Mountain Nuclear Storage Facility were fabricated, as revealed in e-mails written by U.S. Geological Survey staffers. In those e-mails, government scientists of the USGS said they were clueless about project specifics and were willing to backdate data and make things up. One expressed the desire to ''get the hell'' out of Yucca Mountain; another described the nuclear storage facility as being held together by quick fixes. ''This is what we felt was going on, they have not been truthful. It shows they want this so bad that they are willing to do anything to move forward with something that hasn't even really been studied,'' Timbisha Shoshone Chairman Joe Kennedy told Indian Country Today. As Congress began its probe in April, Energy Department Secretary Samuel Bodman said data pertaining to quality assurance at the high-level nuclear waste dump appears to have been falsified by staff of the USGS. ''During the document review process associated with the Licensing Support Network preparation for the Yucca Mountain project, DOE contractors discovered multiple e-mails written between May 1998 and March 2000, in which a USGS employee indicated that he had fabricated documentation of his work,'' Bodman said in a written statement. One USGS employee, identified as USGS employee 1, wrote: ''I don't have a clue when these programs were installed. So I've made up the dates and names. ... This is as good as it's going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff, as long as it's not a video recording of the software being installed.'' The revelations of government scientists' fabricated data were found in e-mails written to colleagues. The House Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Work Force and Agency Organization released redacted versions of some of the e-mails. An unidentified worker said Yucca Mountain is being held together by quick fixes: ''Some nights I have a hard time going to sleep because I realize the importance of trying to get the right answer, and I know how many serious unknowns are still out there, and how many quick fixes are still holding things together.'' The revelation of fabricated data came in March, just after Western Shoshone leaders told ICT that if completed, the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump would poison the waterways of their ancestral land - land described in Article 5 of the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. Kennedy and Western Shoshone National Council Chairman Raymond Yowell said Shoshone long ago predicted that if the mountain, known to Shoshone as ''Snake Mountain,'' were mistreated, it would move and cause a great deal of harm. Pointing out that nuclear science has not been developed to perfection and has already resulted in widespread death, Kennedy said if nuclear waste were stored on Yucca Mountain, Nevada's waterways would be poisoned. Western Shoshone have filed a federal lawsuit to halt the nuclear waste dump on their ancestral land, based on the 1863 Ruby Valley treaty. The United States' exposure of fabricated data in regards to water follows separate claims by whistleblowers that they were told to circumvent gauges that would measure the amount of Nevada's water used at the Yucca Mountain facility. USGS employees said what Western Shoshone had long suspected: that scientists were willing to make things up to make the project work. In the e-mails describing fabricated water data, USGS employee 2 said, ''Science by peer pressure is dangerous but sometime (sic) it is necessary.'' One unidentified worker asked if he should create data and backdate it. ''Here's my question: When we go to start (quality assurance)'ing the site-scale modeling work, will I get taken to the cleaners because I am not referencing either a tech procedure or a scientific notebook? In other words, would it be cost-effective to create a (scientific notebook) for the site-scale work and back-date the whole thing??'' USGS employee 2 wrote, ''This is now CYA and we had better be good at it. I seem to have let this one slip a little too much in an attempt to cover all our work (and get us the hell out of the long-term problem of Yucca Mountain) but now it's clear that we have a little to no choice. In all honesty I've never felt well-managed or helped by the USGS (Yucca Mountain Project) folks. In fact, as you know, I've often felt abandoned. This time it's no different, or worse, and we have to work together to get out of this one.'' USGS employee 1, who also makes reference to Sandia Labs in New Mexico, wrote that the Yucca Mountain project ''has now reached a point where they need to have certain items work no matter what, and the infiltration maps are on that list. If USGS can't find a way to make it work, Sandia will (but for now they are definitely counting on us to do the job).'' Bodman said the documentation referred to in the e-mails is required as part of the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission's quality assurance programs and verifies the accuracy and credibility of the work completed. The documentation relates to computer modeling involving water infiltration and climate. ''The Department of Energy has initiated a scientific investigation of the data and documentation that was part of this modeling activity. If in the course of that review any work is found to be deficient, it will be replaced or supplemented with analysis and documentation that meets appropriate quality assurance standards to ensure that the scientific basis of the project is sound. ''We are conducting a thorough review of all work completed by the identified individuals to ensure that other work was not affected,'' Bodman said. Bodman said the Energy Department's Office of Inspector General was asked to investigate. The Energy Department said it informed the USGS and the State of Nevada about the e-mails. ''The safe handling and disposal of nuclear waste and the sound scientific basis for the repository safety analysis are priorities for this Administration and the Department of Energy. All related decisions have been, and will continue to be, based on sound science. ''The fact remains that this country needs a permanent geological nuclear waste repository, and the Administration will continue to aggressively pursue that goal,'' Bodman said. Kennedy said it is good the fabricated data was revealed. ''It is good in a way, but it sure makes the DOE look bad.'' İ 1998 - 2005 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved  ***************************************************************** 39 Jim Gibbons: Gibbons will Demand Answers on Alleged Yucca Document Falsification Government Reform Subcommittee to Probe Possible Fabrication of Scientific Data at Yucca Mountain 4/4/2005 WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congressman Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) will participate in a critical Congressional hearing being held tomorrow by Congressman Jon Porter (R-Nev.), Chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Work Force and Agency Organizations. The hearing will investigate allegations that federal scientists falsified data used to establish the safety of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. “In light of information released by the Department of Energy that Federal employees possibly falsified data regarding the safety of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, it is imperative that Congress take action, initiate its own investigation, and halt this project in it tracks,” stated Gibbons, the sole geologist in Congress who has continually questioned the DOE’s claim that a high level nuclear repository could be safely built at Yucca Mountain. “I thank Congressman Porter for his leadership on this issue and for holding this hearing in his subcommittee.” “These most recent allegations of false documentation and fabricated scientific evidence are so serious that the FBI is now conducting its own investigation into the matter,” added Gibbons. “Public safety has been and always will be the central focus of debate over the Yucca Mountain. Any allegations alluding to improprieties in the handling and gathering of scientific evidence that could eventually jeopardize the health and safety of the people of Nevada must not be handled lightly.” WHAT: Congressman Jim Gibbons will participate in the Government Reform Subcommittee hearing: “Yucca Mountain Project: Have Federal Employees Falsified Documents?” WHERE: Room 2247, Rayburn House Office Building DATE: Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 5, 2005 TIME: 10:00 A.M. EDT For more information, contact: Amy Spanbauer Press Secretary Congressman Jim Gibbons Phone: 202-225-6155 FAX: 202-225-5679 URL: http://wwwc.house.gov/gibbons/press_contact.asp Congressman Jim Gibbons · 100 Cannon House Office Building · Washington D.C. 20515 Voice: 202-225-6155 · Fax: 202-225-5679 ***************************************************************** 40 Jim Gibbons: Gibbons Blasts DOE for Allegations of Falsifying Yucca Mountain Science and Ignoring Public Safety All Work at Yucca Mountain Should Stop Immediately 4/5/2005 -- Washington, DC-- Congressman Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) searched for answers from representatives of the Departments of Energy and Interior today regarding recently released documents which prompted allegations that federal scientists falsified data used to establish the safety of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. During the hearing held by Congressman Jon Porter (R-Nev.), Chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Work Force and Agency Organizations, Gibbons cited specific emails that proved to be especially disturbing and callous. “Throughout these correspondences, these government employees show a reckless disregard for quality control and assurance,” stated Gibbons. “Nevadans have always been concerned that the Department of Energy would do anything to open Yucca Mountain, and I am afraid these emails prove that point. One even said, ‘We only win if we get the final product out.’ Such a disregard for public safety and scientific integrity is irresponsible, unethical, and intolerable.” As the sole geologist in Congress who has continually questioned the DOE’s claim that a high level nuclear repository could be safely built at Yucca Mountain, Gibbons said he understands “the painstaking process of ensuring that your data is collected and analyzed correctly and sometimes you get frustrated with this process. However, never do you falsify or manipulate your data to get a desired result.” Gibbons was most disturbed by the atmosphere that seemed to exist within the DOE which tolerated disregarding quality assurance. “These employees work in an environment that has no interest in scientific integrity or the quality controls needed to ensure that this project is safe,” Gibbons commented, citing one email that stated: ‘dealing with this QA (quality assurance) … (explicative)… is really starting to make me sick.’ “It seems clear to me that not only is the science with regards to this project compromised, but I fear the greater problem is the atmosphere of pushing forward --no matter what the evidence says-- and opening Yucca Mountain at any cost,” Gibbons added. “Today, the issue at hand is not whether you support or oppose Yucca Mountain, but the confidence we have in our government to protect us and adhere to safety regulations,” added Gibbons. “We should not waste one more taxpayer dollar on a project that has been pushed forward with a blatant disregard for public safety. As Congress, the Inspector General, and now the FBI continue their investigations, all scientific data must be fully re-examined and all work at Yucca Mountain should stop immediately.” For more information, contact: Amy Spanbauer Press Secretary Congressman Jim Gibbons Phone: 202-225-6155 FAX: 202-225-5679 URL: http://wwwc.house.gov/gibbons/press_contact.asp Congressman Jim Gibbons · 100 Cannon House Office Building · Washington D.C. 20515 Voice: 202-225-6155 · Fax: 202-225-5679 ***************************************************************** 41 Ensign: ENSIGN TESTIFIES: WE CANNOT AFFORD TO CONTINUE THIS PROJECT US Senator John Ensign : 04/05/2005 Washington, D.C. – Senator John Ensign testified today before the House Government Reform Subcommittee regarding the possible falsification of data used at the Yucca Mountain Project and the e-mail communication between federal employees about the project. The following are excerpts from Senator Ensign’s testimony: “Mr. Chairman, the quality assurance program was put in place as part of the NRC licensing process to verify the accuracy and credibility of work that has been completed to protect public health and safety. The fact that the alleged fraud deals with the issue of water infiltration is critical because it impacts the corrosion of casks and the containment of radioactivity.” “We’re not talking about how realistic this scenario would be for a science fiction novel or a movie script. The corrosion of casks and the containment of radioactivity are frightening realities that Nevadans and all Americans face should this project proceed based on fraudulent science.” “And at what cost do we forge ahead with the Yucca Mountain site? To bury it in a location where science has taken a back seat to fraud and politics is completely reckless. We cannot afford to continue this project.” “If there is a positive side to this potentially criminal activity regarding Yucca Mountain, it has given impetus to the nuclear industry and other supporters of enhanced nuclear power opportunities to be open to other ideas for waste disposal. I hope that our nation gives a long hard look at other options because $58 billion is a lot to pay for a repository that is not based on sound science and will not be licensed in the foreseeable future.” ***************************************************************** 42 Public Citizen: Opposition to Private Fuel Storage Mounts from Public Interest Groups and Tribes April 4, 2005 Citing National Security and Environmental Justice Concerns, Groups Urge Nuclear Agency to Listen to Utahs Appeal WASHINGTON, D.C.  Public interest groups and spokespersons from indigenous tribes today charged that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is exacerbating the nations nuclear waste problems  and endangering national security  by preliminarily approving a so-called temporary waste dump in Utah known as Private Fuel Storage (PFS). The proposal to build the dump on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in Utah, 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, is led by a private consortium of eight commercial nuclear utilities, which plans to temporarily store 44,000 tons of irradiated fuel in dry cask containers above ground.   According to the utilities, this site will not serve as a permanent resting place for the nations waste, but rather would be an interim storage site until Yucca Mountainis opened.   Yucca Mountain, mired in delays and lawsuits, is the U.S. Department of Energys intended destination for the countrys commercial, and a portion of its military, atomic waste. But PFS poses a national security risk because the high-level nuclear waste would travel on railways through highly populated regions across the United States with little to no preparation or training for states and cities, the groups said. Moreover, questions about the integrity of the waste casks in a crash remain unresolved.  Nuclear waste remains dangerous to human health and the environment for hundreds of thousands of years.  Further, if Yucca Mountain, which is beleaguered by controversy, never opens, PFS would be poised to become a de facto permanent storage site. This plan is a fatally flawed shell game, unnecessarily risking transport of dangerous radioactive waste across the country to a temporary dump, only to have it moved again someday to someplace else, said Kevin Kamps, nuclear waste specialist at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS).  Once parked at Skull Valley, the 4,000 containers of waste would be a radioactive bulls eye for terrorists directly upwind of Salt Lake City. Private Fuel Storage is just another industry-driven scheme to further energy companies goals of a nuclear-powered future, said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizens energy program. We urge the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to rein in this misguided plan and listen carefully to the state of Utahs legitimate concerns about why its residents should not bear the burden of hosting 44,000 tons of radioactive waste in their backyard. Utah has been fighting the proposal since 1997. There are no nuclear power plants within Utahs borders, yet Utahs residents are being targeted to bear the burden of 80 percent of the countrys commercial high-level radioactive waste.  Further, the private project is sited on a small, impoverished Indian reservation, which raises serious environmental justice concerns, an issue the NRC has been negligent in addressing in recent years. Yet again, like the Mescalero Apache in New Mexico that fought off PFS years ago, and dozens of other tribes before us, our sovereign reservation is being targeted by aggressive, giant energy corporations and complicit government agencies, said Margene Bullcreek, a leading Skull Valley Goshute opponent to PFS. We do not want this radioactive waste dump on our sacred land. On Wednesday, Utah will present oral arguments in its appeal of the NRC licensing boards recent decision to dismiss Utahs safety concerns. The oral arguments will be made at a 1 p.m. hearing at the NRCs Rockville, Md., headquarters that is open to the public.  ***************************************************************** 43 KVBC: Yucca Hearing on Alleged Falsified Emails April 6, 2005 The government has spent nearly 10 billion dollars on the Yucca Mountain Project so far. But some say a handful of e-mails may be enough to throw it all off track. The allegations are serious; Federal workers accused of falsifying studies used to show that storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain would be safe. News 3's Mitch Truswell has more on how Nevada's Congressional Delegation fought back today. "It's been a flawed project, it should be brought to a stunning halt as of now." "I'm stunned by the number of references to deleting and destroying emails -- fudging information and not telling how something was done." They're talking about these emails. Only about 20 of them threaten the underlying safety of Yucca Mountain and the studies used to prove it's safe. Comments like: "I've made up the dates and names. If they need more proof I will be happy to make up more stuff." "This type of action cannot be tolerated under any circumstance. This is nothing short of criminal behavior and we as members of Congress must not allow this type of behavior to happen again." The emails were written by one or more U.S. Geological survey employees. The Director of the USGS offered little in terms of hard answers. "The objectivity and credibility of our scientists and their work is of supreme importance to us and has been throughout our 125 year history." The USGS did agree that once their investigation into the emails is complete, they plan to take action against the employees and to redo the research that was falsified. On Thursday, a senate committee also looks into the email controversy. It will also talk about potential alternative sites while the Yucca Project is delayed. Copyright 2000 - 2005 WorldNow and KVBC. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 44 klastv.com: Senators Reid and Ensign Send Letter to Secretary of Energy April 5, 2005 Nevada Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign are asking for work to be stopped on the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. They've sent a letter to the Secretary of Energy saying revelations employees may have falsified work throws the validity, integrity and quality assurance of the entire project into question. This new call comes as Nevada Congressman Jon Porter prepares to hold hearings Tuesday, Apr. 5 into those questionable e-mails. The hearing will take place in Washington, D.C. and Eyewitness News will be there to report on what's said. More allegations of wrong doing at Yucca Mountain surfaced Monday. The Las Vegas Review Journal is reporting two former pipe fitters say they were instructed to bypass a meter that measures how much Nevada water goes to the site. The state has fought providing water to the Yucca Mountain Project. Nevada Congressman Jon Porter says the types of e-mails talking about falsifying documents could have a big impact on whether or not the Yucca Mountain Project moves forward. Copyright 2000 - 2005 WorldNow and KLAS. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 45 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada lawmakers fund fight again Yucca waste dump Today: April 05, 2005 at 14:17:25 PDT ASSOCIATED PRESS CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - The Assembly Ways and Means Committee approved $2 million in state funding Tuesday to continue the fight against a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. The committee approved the funding for the Nevada Protection Account and the High-level Nuclear Waste Fund, which support scientific research and transportation studies used to mount opposition against the federal plan to store waste at the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Senate Finance Committee approved $1 million, but noted that the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee may make up the difference if federal funding proposed in President Bush's 2005 budget doesn't come through. Although the administration supports using the site to store waste, the president's budget allocates $3 million to help the state fight the project. But Ways and Means members said they don't want to rely on that money. "I don't know how we could possibly trust the federal government to give us $3 million when they're trying to shove that stuff down our throats," said Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas. A committee staffer said the state has not yet seen $2 million promised in last year's federal budget. -- ***************************************************************** 46 KVBC: Yucca Mountain E-mails Subject of Investigation April 6, 2005 A lot is riding on a special hearing this morning in Washington , D.C. The subject is the Yucca Mountain and falsified emails from the project. The house government reform subcommittee is trying to learn more about the emails. Lawmakers want to know if falsified studies could affect the nuclear waste storage site. Nevada Congressman Jon Porter chairs the subcommittee. "It's proof that science hasn't been driving this project. It's about funding the project, getting it done as quickly as possible and as you look at additional emails, they talk about changing dates, changing information, what ever you need to do." He's talking about the pages and pages of email conversations. The names and email addresses are blacked out to protect the current investigations underway, including one by the FBI. These emails date back to 1998. Some conversations make no effort to hide some surprising statements. Like this: "I've made up the dates and names--if you need more proof I will be happy to make up more stuff." " Yucca Mountain Project has now reached a point where they need to have certain items work no matter what." Others include this warning: 'Delete this memo after you've read it.' "We have entrusted as residents of the country for the federal government to provide us with the proper data so Congress can make the right decision, so the White House can make the right decision, so the federal courts can make the right decision. It makes me sick to my stomach that they have blatantly falsified these documents." The falsification appears in a couple of areas, including studies on how water moves through the mountain. If there's more water than studies show, it could affect the long term storage of radioactive waste. Possibly allowing waste to seep into groundwater and ultimately the water supply. "I believe it can and will end the project based upon the fact that they've admitted to falsifying documents, internally they've accepted the fact that it's been falsified and I believe this puts the whole project at risk." The Inspector Generals from the Energy and Interior departments are conducting their own investigations. Those leaders have been called to testify in the Congressional hearing. Copyright 2000 - 2005 WorldNow and KVBC. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 47 ABC News: Reid Accuses GOP of Arrogance on Courts Nevada Sen. Harry Reid Accuses GOP of 'Arrogancy of Power' in Criticism of Federal Courts Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid,D-Nev., center, greets Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, right, before a hearing concerning Yucca Mountain, Tuesday, April 5, 2005, on Capitol Hill. At left is Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. Lawmakers summoned top Energy and Interior department officials to explain e-mails in which scientists on the Yucca Mountain project talk about inventing facts, keeping two sets of records and deleting data that didn't get a desired result. (AP Photo/Linda Spillers) By JESSE J. HOLLAND Associated Press Writer [The Associated Press] The Associated Press WASHINGTON Apr 5, 2005 — Congressional Democrats on Tuesday said Republican criticism of the federal courts following Terri Schiavo's death showed an "arrogancy of power" that is leading to a Senate confrontation over filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominees. "If they don't get what they want, they attack whoever's around," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "Now they're after the courts, and I think it goes back to this arrogancy of power." Republicans said judges' rejection of efforts to keep Schiavo alive was a separate issue from the dispute over the filibuster. [Top Stories] + Bush Questions Social Security Trust Fund + Officials Urge Renewal of Patriot Act + The Note: Delegating Authority "I don't associate the two issues directly," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Frist and several other Senate Republicans have not joined with conservatives who have complained about the federal court system in relation to the Schiavo case. "I'm not for things that go after judges. They're an independent branch of government. We need to respect that," said Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. But Democrats are focusing on comments by two Texas Republicans, Sen. John Cornyn and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who gets no vote on judicial nominations since they are the purview of the Senate. "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," DeLay said after Schiavo died last week. Cornyn, while criticizing a different judicial decision, wondered Monday if frustration against perceived political decisions by judges "builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in violence, certainly without any justification." A DeLay spokesman said he was merely referring to potential future action in Congress. And Cornyn said his remarks had nothing to do with the Schiavo case or with what DeLay said. "I'm a former judge myself and I've made clear that attacks against judges are never justified," said Cornyn, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee. But some Democrats called both comments out of bounds. "The presumption that somehow we are going to threaten judges or demand certain outcomes from judges is antithetical to a free people under law," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Although the federal review "was not as complete as we would like," Frist said, he still thought the courts were "fair and independent." But Democrats said it all comes back to Republicans wanting things their way, including Frist's plan to change Senate rules to stop Democrats from filibustering Bush's nominees. "If people don't get what they want with judges, they change the rules. I think it's an arrogancy of power," Reid said. Reid then praised Frist for announcing he would work with Democrats to find a way to ensure that Bush's judicial nominees get confirmation votes, instead of pushing immediately for a ban on judicial filibusters. "We have a ways to go before we resolve this very difficult situation on the so-called nuclear option, but at least we're talking," Reid said. Until all negotiations fail, Frist told reporters, it's too early to discuss whether he has the support needed to ban judicial filibusters, when he might act or which nominee he will ask senators to vote on first. "All the details are way too premature," he said. Democrats blocked 10 of Bush's judicial nominees with filibuster threats during Bush's first term, and they have threatened to block more if they consider them too conservative. ***************************************************************** 48 Deseretnews.com: Foes of Goshute nuclear waste plan take case to D.C. [deseretnews.com] Tuesday, April 5, 2005 By Jerry Spangler Deseret Morning News WASHINGTON — Having thus far failed to make their case in the courts, opponents of storing 40,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste on Goshute tribal lands in Tooele County took their cause to the nation's capital Monday, calling the proposal "environmental racism" and "nuclear colonialism." Environmental organizations and Native American environmental justice organizations called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject a license application by Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear power utilities, to store the waste in canisters above ground on lands owned by the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes. "Locating high-level radioactive waste facilities on Indian lands violates the trust responsibility of the U.S. government, federal laws and treaties, and is an extreme example of the continuing environmental racist policies against Indian people," said Tom Goldtooth, executive director of Indigenous Environmental Network. "PFS must be stopped." Environmental justice issues, such as the impacts of the waste facility on traditional tribal values, were not considered by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board when it voted 2-1 to recommend the NRC grant PFS a license. But those issues will certainly be the focus of litigation should the NRC grant the license, participants said. Margene Bullcreek, who has spearheaded Goshute opposition in Utah through her group Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia Awareness, said the issue for Goshutes is not about how much money the 130 band members would get from the deal, but "who we are" as Native Americans. "This waste will destroy who we are," she said. Anne Sward Hansen, a Utahn with the Environmental Justice Foundation, called for congressional oversight of Goshute tribal officials and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who all approved the PFS lease in a deal that Hansen and others now say was fraught with corruption and illegalities. "The merits of this case need to be heard in some judicial or oversight venue before the NRC commissioners grant approval for a PFS license," Hansen said. If the issues are not addressed, she added, "the NRC decision could become historically the greatest act of environmental racism and injustice in America." According to opponents, tribal members have never voted on the proposal, and tribal chairman Leon Bear, who negotiated the PFS deal, has thwarted such attempts and changed tribal election rules to remain in power after his term expired last November, Bullcreek said. Goshutes opposed to PFS, led by Bullcreek, have been fighting for years to have Bear removed from office, but their case has been rejected by the courts, which ordered the matter resolved by the BIA and the tribe. Even if Bear were to be removed from office, the band would probably be legally bound to the PFS deal under terms of the contract, and it could take years and years of litigation to resolve any attempt to pull out, Goldtooth said. PFS opponents are trying to raise public awareness of the PFS proposal in light of a hearing scheduled Wednesday on an appeal by the state of Utah of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board's decision. The full NRC will then make a decision on whether to accept or reject the recommendations of the board. Utah officials have been fighting the PFS proposal for years, but so far all attempts to challenge the project in court have failed and the state's contentions before nuclear waste regulators that the project posed insurmountable risks were rejected by the licensing board, a quasi-judicial body within the NRC that advises the commissioners. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is continuing the opposition efforts, and last week he sent a letter to the organizers of Monday's event, saying "your unified message on behalf of the millions of people your collective organizations represent is both heartwarming and overwhelming." Some 350 different organizations have now signed on to a letter to the NRC opposing the PFS license. "Shipping nuclear waste to Utah does not eliminate terrorism or radiological risks at operating nuclear power plants, but extrapolates those serious risks to the Skull Valley band of Goshute Indians, residents of Utah and communities along the transportation route," Huntsman wrote. If that fails and PFS is licensed, Kevin Kamps with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service predicted an outpouring of nonviolent civil disobedience as tens of thousands of Americans seek to stop the shipments of waste through thousands of communities — just as 20,000 Germans turned out to block waste shipments there. Kamps predicted people "will be doing everything in their power" to stop the waste shipments. E-mail: spang@desnews.com İ 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 49 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: U.S. plan for Hanford reactor questioned [seattlepi.com] Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Energy's approach may not be most effective, report says By SHANNON DININNY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS YAKIMA -- The U.S. Department of Energy should reevaluate its plans for deactivating and decontaminating a one-of-a-kind reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the agency's inspector general said in a report released yesterday. The report centered on the federal government's plans for closing the Fast Flux Test Facility, the last remaining sodium-cooled reactor in the United States. Built to test advanced nuclear fuels, the reactor was used for research, to produce medical and industrial isotopes, and to make tritium from 1982 until 1992. After much debate about its future, the reactor was finally ordered closed in December 2001. The Energy Department awarded a $235 million small business contract to Knoxville, Tenn.-based SEC Closure Alliance last September to perform some of the closure work. Another bidder challenged that contract. The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, upheld the challenge, saying the Energy Department did not evaluate bids fairly. The Energy Department's existing project plan may not be the most effective approach to shutting down the reactor, the inspector general said. The final end state of the reactor remains uncertain, in part because a required environmental impact statement has not been completed. In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Washington have repeatedly argued that money for deactivating the reactor could be better spent on cleaning up other Hanford projects that pose a greater risk to the environment. Those issues should be thoroughly examined as part of a comprehensive reevaluation of the Energy Department's future plans to deactivate, decontaminate and decommission the reactor, the report said. A spokesman for the Energy Department in Washington, D.C., said yesterday that there had been no change in policy regarding the shutdown and dismantling of the reactor. In a letter last month to the GAO, the Energy Department said it would again open the contract for bids. The letter said the agency will negotiate with the EPA and the state over their concerns and will evaluate new budget information that could change the cleanup plans. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com İ1996-2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 50 UC Daily Bruin: UC makes preparations to bid on Los Alamos lab Tuesday, April 05, 2005 By Adam Foxman DAILY BRUIN STAFF afoxman@media.ucla.edu The University of California has not said whether it will bid to retain management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, but both the university and its possible rivals are gearing up for competition. As the UC Board of Regents continues to wait for the final request for proposals, which is expected this month, the UC has formed a tentative coalition with higher education institutions in New Mexico. Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin has rejoined the competition. The UC's contract to manage the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory and the Lawrence Berkeley lab will run out this year, and for the first time in its more than 50-year history, the management of the lab will go up for bid. The Department of Energy decided to put the labs up for competition partially as a result of a string of security breaches and mismanagement issues at Los Alamos in recent years, the most serious of which effectively closed the lab from July 2004 to January 2005. In January the regents decided to bid to continue managing the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, but they will not make a decision about Los Alamos until the Department of Energy releases its final request for proposals. But that hasn't stopped the university from getting ready. The university announced last month that if it competes for the labs, it will do so in conjunction with the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University and the New Mexico Institute for Mining and Technology. The alliance, which will form only if the UC regents decide the UC should bid, would be called the Institute for Advanced Studies, and its members would cooperate on research at Los Alamos. The formal agreement with New Mexico institutions is a step toward competition, but it is not a given that the UC will bid. George Blumenthal, chair of the UC Academic Senate and a faculty representative to the regents, said the current draft of the request for proposals contains worrisome elements. He said this second draft of the document requires a separate pension system for Los Alamos employees which would be less generous than the current UC pension system. He also said he was worried that a change in the pension system might push employees to retire for financial reasons. He added that the current revision is very different from the first draft, so there is no way of knowing what the final document might contain. But Blumenthal said the university has to move along as if it is planning to compete, because if the university waited until the regents made their decision, there would be no time to prepare. Lockheed Martin has taken a more concrete position. The corporation said it would not bid for Los Alamos when the first draft of the request for proposals came out in August 2004, but it has committed to bid under the conditions laid out in the current version of the document. Don Carson, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, said the conditions of the first draft made bidding look unprofitable for the corporation, but the new proposal is more attractive. The DOE's new draft requires a "separate, stand alone" pension plan instead of the UC's current system, and the establishment of a separate legal entity – like a company's board of directors – to run the lab. Carson called the UC's pension plan "expensive" and "convoluted" and said the new proposal would let the winner of the contract run Los Alamos like a business. "That appeals to Lockheed Martin because that is a model that we have used at our other labs successfully," Carson said, referring to Lockheed Martin's experience running the Sandia National laboratory, the Nevada Test site and the Atomic Weapons Establishment in England. Chris Harrington, a spokesman for the UC, said additional competition will not affect the UC's preparations to bid. "We are going to prepare the best possible bid, regardless of what the field looks like," Harrington said. Copyright 2005 ASUCLA Student Media ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************