-------- Original Message --------
Stirring Up the Toxic Dust
They turned Uncle Sam's uranium into atom bombs, and the
work made them sick. Now they've got a new champion—Hillary
Clinton
by Kristen Lombardi
June 21st, 2005 5:06 PM Village Voice
http://villagevoice.com/news/0525,lombardi,65154,5.html
Eugene Ruchalski probably never dreamed he'd say anything
nice about Hillary Clinton. A lifelong Republican, he served
five proud terms as the highway superintendent in his
hometown of Boston Hills, a Buffalo suburb. At 68, and set
in his ways, he admits to entertaining conservative ideas
about what he calls "women in politics."
Yet lately, his opinion of New York's junior senator has
been changing. He counts himself among a select group of
Buffalo-area residents for whom Clinton has become a
crusader. Ruchalski's father was one of thousands of
employees exposed to radiation at 36 mills in western New
York. In his case, it was at the local Bethlehem Steel
plant, now defunct, in the late 1940s and early '50s. Many
of those workers got sick.
Now, when Ruchalski meets with the others, he hears about
all the work the senator is doing to bring his family
justice. "If she can deliver for us," he says, somewhat
sheepishly, "she can guarantee herself a vote." His.
Anyone wondering why Senator Clinton has gotten so popular
upstate, with positive numbers pushing 70 percent, need look
no further than the Bethlehem Steel families. Their lives
changed for good in 2000, when the federal government
admitted that workers in 350 mills nationwide had "rolled"
uranium to make nuclear bombs—but never knew it. On lunch
breaks at Bethlehem, they blithely sat around on piles of
the radioactive stuff, eating their sandwiches and inhaling
a deadly dust.
Under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation
Program Act, created by Congress, retired workers who got
sick, or their survivors, could apply for a $150,000 payment
from the government. To date, 1,218 Bethlehem families have
filed claims with the Labor Department and the National
Institute of Occupational Health and Safety, the two
agencies that administer the program. The old Bethlehem
Steel plants—located in South Buffalo, Lackawanna, and
Hamburg—have drawn the most applications not only from New
York, but nationwide.
The response has not been great. Of the current claims, only
half, or 632, have made it through the first screening for
eligibility. Of those, up to 383 claims—more than 60
percent—have been denied.
"Obviously, the program is just not working for these
people," says Dan Utech, Clinton's main staffer on the
issue. This month, his boss plans to file a bill that would
make it easier for the families to collect. "The senator
believes it took too long for the government to accept
responsibility in the first place. Now, it's getting to be
ridiculous."
Clinton's role as champion for nuclear-weapons workers may
come as a surprise to those who remember her old ties to the
dreaded Wal-Mart. As Arkansas first lady, she served six
years on the board of the union-busting behemoth, notorious
during her directorship for alleged child labor abuses.
Wal-Mart has since become corporate enemy number one,
causing some Democrats to fear that Clinton's onetime
affiliation will scare away the labor vote if she makes a
bid for the White House in 2008.
But if her advocacy on Bethlehem Steel is any indication,
Clinton is now trying to build up a solid record of
defending worker rights—particularly when it comes to health
and safety. Jim Melius, of the Laborers Union, in Albany,
has followed the plight of these families for years now, and
he finds her work on their behalf telling. "It says that
she's willing to stand up and fight and try to fix the
problem." And because of her new bill, Melius adds, "The
story with Bethlehem isn't over."
That story began in 1949, at the start of the Cold War, when
the military was racing to make the atomic bomb. Mills and
foundries dominated the Buffalo landscape, yet one company
reigned supreme: Bethlehem Steel. Its facilities spanned
three miles along Lake Erie, with state-of-the-art equipment
and a workforce of 22,000.
"Everybody worked at the steel mill," says Frank Panasuk, a
retired detective from Hamburg. A large man with huge,
square-framed glasses, he drove to the old Bethlehem complex
on a recent Wednesday and along the way listed relatives who
worked there—his father, his father's five brothers, his
mother's five brothers.
Most of the 1,700-acre site sits vacant and weeded-over
today, abandoned when the company went belly-up in the '80s.
But the bar mill where workers rolled steel and, for four
years during the Cold War, uranium, still stands. Now a
galvanizing outfit, the building looks tired, its rusted
siding barely hanging on. Driving on a utility road, Panasuk
spots some workers toiling over a fire.
"Boy," he says, taking in the scene of power lines and
railroad tracks, "this brings back memories."
Not all of those memories are good. Panasuk's dad died in
1987, just weeks after developing stomach cancer. Before
that, he suffered from colon cancer. He spent his entire
career at the mill, serving as a metal inspector for 35
years. The tenure did Panasuk's dad proud; it has haunted
his family.
Ever since 2000, when the government came clean about its
atomic-weapons program, people have had to come to grips
with the weight of a decades-old secret at Bethlehem. From
1949 to 1952, the mill did contract work for the country's
fledgling nuclear arsenal, rolling billets of uranium into
rods for reactors. But few knew the true nature of the
project—and those who did had to keep quiet. All the while,
workers handled toxic material. They pressed it, shaped it,
ground it, and squeezed it, unwittingly.
Former employees and their families have had to face the
reality that the government exposed them to some of the most
dangerous matter on earth—"basically poisoned these folks,"
as one Clinton aide puts it.
At Bethlehem, as opposed to other facilities, the uranium
was especially deadly. According to former workers and
government officials, the company did nothing to control
radiation levels. Employees had no body suits to protect
them, no badges to monitor exposure. They didn't even have
masks. Worse still, they had to endure the constant presence
of uranium dust.
"For years I inhaled that dust," relays Russ Early, 81, a
Vernon Downs resident with a shock of white hair and a
feisty disposition. A cancer survivor, he operated a crane
in the bar mill, laboring there for 43 years, soaking up the
dust. It blurred his vision and scratched his throat. It
settled on his food and in his coffee. It got so hot it
could burn a blister on the skin the size of a silver dollar.
Now that the Bethlehem secret has been revealed, the dust
and its sting finally make sense to folks. And so do other
things. Like all the talk in the late '40s and early '50s of
a "government project" at the mill. Or the unexplained
sightings of guards watching over the rods. Or the army
trucks coming and going on weekends.
And then there are all those cancer deaths. Edwin Walker, a
genial 71-year-old from Lackawanna, held a Bethlehem post as
a bricklayer from 1951 to 1954, during the uranium project.
He was one of 15 men in the so-called "hot gang," the group
that patched holes in furnaces. Today, only he and one other
are still living. Everyone else was killed by cancer. Nor
have Walker and his colleague avoided the disease—he has
bladder cancer, his friend colon.
"I consider that more than a coincidence," he says. "We are
victims of the government's secrecy."
Walker and dozens more say the government is victimizing
them again—this time, by refusing to compensate them for
their illnesses. When the agencies set up the compensation
program, they presented the claims process as simple.
Bethlehem workers, or their survivors, could apply if they
worked at the mill during the uranium rollings and if they
got certain cancers—22 in all, including of the lungs, skin,
colon, and pancreas. In return, they'd get $150,000.
But it turns out the company didn't keep records of which
employees worked at the bar mill during the uranium
procedures, and the records it did keep are incomplete. As a
result, says Larry Elliott of the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, the agency has had to
develop a formula, called "dose reconstruction," to evaluate
claims.
It's a complicated model, but here's the gist: NIOSH uses
software to predict a person's risk for developing cancer,
based on exposure. It takes into account such factors as the
radiation type, where the person worked, how long shifts
lasted, and so on. NIOSH relies on the few existing records
about the uranium work at Bethlehem, Elliott says, and the
formula skews toward the inhalation of uranium dust, thus
putting a premium on lung and kidney cancer, and leukemia.
Critics argue the formula is flawed. They say NIOSH doesn't
have enough information to accurately determine individual
dosages. When first creating the formula, officials failed
to interview retired employees or to visit the bar mill.
Instead, they substituted data from a neighboring mill, in
Lockport, New York.
"The model assumes that you can be precise about an
individual's exposure," says Melius, of the Laborers Union,
who sits on an advisory board overseeing the process. But
because of the minimal records, he explains, "It's an almost
impossible task to piece together."
The result? A lot of people have had their claims unfairly
denied—at least, that's what Early thinks. He handled the
uranium, and has suffered from rectal cancer for 17 years.
In 1987, he underwent surgery in which three tumors, his
appendix, and his gall bladder were removed. Yet he's been
denied compensation—twice.
"They said it wasn't bad enough," he says, referring to his
estimated dosage. Lifting his Hawaiian shirt and poking at
his colostomy bag, he asks, "See this? You call that not bad
enough?"
The denials have left people angry and bitter. Workers see
colleagues with lung cancer getting paid, while they,
diagnosed with other types, are not. They tell tales of
employees stationed in buildings far from the bar mill
receiving checks, all because they have lung or kidney cancer.
"It's wrong," says Walker, who has filed three claims, all
denied. "It's unjust, and the government should own up to it."
To that end, the families have formed two groups—the
Bethlehem Steel Radiation Victims and Survivors, and the
Bethlehem Steel Claimants Action Group— numbering some 300
members in total. They've taken their fight public,
protesting outside government offices, writing letters, and
making themselves a general pain for bureaucrats. Last year
they scored big when a 199-page audit found serious flaws in
NIOSH's system for evaluating their claims.
NIOSH's Elliott admits the audit has forced the agency to
review its ways. But he also insists the process is working.
"We've built a solid method," he argues, adding that none of
the 300-plus claims denied have been overturned on appeal.
"We're confident that we are not missing any claimant who
really deserves to be compensated."
Clinton's office has heard that line before, repeatedly,
since the senator first took up this crusade in 2003. She
got involved after her Buffalo staff began fielding calls
from constituents and she sent an aide to the Bethlehem
claimants' meetings. In December of that year she met them
herself at a special gathering in Hamburg.
There, she listened to 50 or so people recounting their
experiences. People like Theresa Sweeney, of Lackawanna,
whose husband died of pancreatic cancer, and who explained
the trouble she'd endured when administrators challenged the
legitimacy of her 30-year marriage. Or Cindy Mellody, of
South Buffalo, whose dad died of "probable lung carcinoma,"
and who told of the "huge injustice" of having her claim
denied. Her father served in World War II, got captured,
escaped, and hid in the jungle for two years; he returned to
New York only to get a job at a plant where the government
exposed him to uranium.
"These stories hit you up front," says the senator's western
New York regional director. The staffer says the senator was
so outraged she charged the Buffalo office with documenting
as many cases as possible. It now has a stack of about 200.
Early on, Clinton tried pressuring agency heads to fix
problems. In May 2003, for example, she pushed for a
provision calling for NIOSH and the Labor Department to file
a report with Congress, explaining the delays in processing
claims at Bethlehem, as well as other New York facilities.
The measure passed; the report has yet to be drafted.
Then came the letters. In December 2003, she wrote to
President Bush, calling on him to implement long-ignored
legal requirements that would help Bethlehem claimants. "The
longer the Administration delays," she wrote, the "more
workers will die without having their claim resolved."
Twelve months later, she issued a statement demanding NIOSH
review its methods. The NIOSH audit, she said, "clearly
indicates that claims that have been denied need to be
re-evaluated."
Last January, she wrote to the Labor Department, along with
Senator Chuck Schumer and western New York representatives,
demanding that Labor officials search harder for uranium
records at Bethlehem.
"She has been dogged in her oversight," says Richard Miller
of the Government Accountability Project in Washington,
D.C., which tracks the program. "It's not simply say one
thing and do another with her."
These days, Clinton has come to believe that the program is
broken, her staff says, and that legislation is the only way
to fix it. She's set to introduce a bill that would make it
easier for Bethlehem claimants to get paid. The measure
would set minimum standards for records needed to evaluate
claims. Under the bill, employees who did nuclear-weapons
work at plants without such records—as is the case at
Bethlehem—would join a "special exposure cohort."
That's a term in the original law, reserved for workers from
facilities where the government lacks basic information and
thus cannot reconstruct dosages. In effect, the bill would
order the government to presume that workers in this status
got cancer from radiation exposure and to pay them.
Because the measure mandates spending, Clinton's staff says,
it won't be attractive during a time of huge deficits and
tax cuts.
U.S. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, of Niagara Falls, will
co-sponsor a House companion bill to Clinton's legislation,
and she predicts resistance. Yet Slaughter, who has worked
on this issue since the mid '90s, sees two advantages. For
one, its proposals amount to what she calls "basic decency."
For another, Hillary Clinton is on it. As she explains, "I
don't know what we'd do without her, because she performs."
For now, all the Bethlehem families can do is wait. Many,
like Dorothy Jaworski of West Seneca, see the senator's bill
as the only source of hope, the only way they'll be able to
collect what they deserve. Jaworski got a December 2003
letter from the Labor Department announcing she qualified
for the $150,000 because her late husband "had sustained
leukemia and pancreatic cancer in the performance of his
duty," only to have the offer rescinded, an apparent
"mistake," five months later.
If it weren't for Senator Clinton, Jaworski says, "this
whole issue would be dead." No matter what happens to the
bill, she appreciates the senator standing up for her. She
believes she'd have a check in hand if Hillary Clinton were
in charge. "With Hillary on our side," Jaworski says, "I
have faith."
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49 Arizona Republic: Panel to focus on cleaning up Colorado River
[Arizona Republic Online Print Edition]
Jun. 25, 2005 12:00 AM
Cleaner water from the Colorado River is the goal of a task force
appointed by Gov. Janet Napolitano.
The 40-member group, comprised of governmental, tribal,
conservation, agricultural and real estate representatives, has a
December 2006 deadline for reporting on ways to clean up water
quality in the Colorado. The Clean Colorado River Alliance also
is working on plans for a regional approach to ensure that the
river is safe from pollutants and other contamination.
The committee's work is being coordinated by the Arizona
Department of Environmental Quality.
The river last year was named the most-endangered river in the
United States by the conservation group American Rivers, due to
such contaminates as perchlorate, nitrogen, chromium and uranium.
Task force information, including meeting agendas, is available
at www.azdeq.gov/environ/water/ccra.html
- Mary Jo Pitzl
Copyright © 2005, azcentral.com. All rights reserved.
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50 Guardian Unlimited: Amec and Fluor team up to bid for rump of BNFL
Contractors offer to take ailing British Nuclear Group
private
Oliver Morgan, industrial editor
Sunday June 26, 2005
Amec, the UK engineering company, and Fluor of the US have
approached the government about buying the Sellafield-based
British Nuclear Group. This would complete the break-up of fuel
and reprocessing operator BNFL.
The two companies have written in recent weeks to the Shareholder
Executive, the government body charged with overseeing the
performance of state-owned enterprises, indicating that they want
to buy all or part of the business. It is also thought support
services group Serco would be interested in taking a stake in
BNG.
The government is keen to see a sale or partnership arrangement
because it has little faith in BNG's ability to manage major
nuclear decommissioning work.
The news comes a week after BNFL chief executive Michael Parker
confirmed that the company was looking to sell off its nuclear
power station building business to Westinghouse for around £1
billion.
The government has been considering the future of BNG against
the background of a complete restructuring of the reprocessing
and decommissioning sectors of the industry, which have hitherto
been dominated by BNFL.
In April, the ownership of Sellafield and a further 20 nuclear
sites passed from the company to the newly created Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority, along with the liability for
dismantling them.
The state-controlled NDA will enter into contracts with private
firms to decommission the sites from 2008, when an interim
arrangement allowing BNG to continue managing them will run out.
Westminster concern over the management of the company has been
heightened by a leak of radioactive material at the Thorp
reprocessing plant at Sellafield, which is currently closed.
Amec, which last week paid £38 million for nuclear services
consultancy NNC Holdings, is expanding aggressively into the
nuclear market, having made acquisitions in France, Canada and
the US. It wants to buy all or part of BNG and is hoping that a
sale process will begin soon. Fluor, a partner of Amec in Iraq,
is also understood to have separately expressed an interest.
· A report from influential consultancy Oxera concludes that a
programme to build new nuclear reactors in the UK will be
economically viable only with government assistance. Oxera
calculates that a new-build programme of eight reactors would
generate 22 per cent of UK energy by 2025, but that industry
could expect only an 11 per cent return - well below the 18 per
cent seen at onshore wind farms.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited ¿ Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
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51 Guardian Unlimited: Amec sees a nuclear future as it eyes Sellafield
Terry Macalister
Monday June 27, 2005
The Guardian
Amec said yesterday that it was interested in buying part or all
of the British Nuclear Group which operates the controversial
atomic site at Sellafield in Cumbria.
An Amec spokesman also confirmed that his company would be
interested in helping to build a new generation of nuclear power
plants in the UK amid mounting speculation the government might
take another look at this issue.
The comments came as Oxera, a respected independent economics
consultancy, gave a deeply pessimistic view about the economics
of the nuclear industry.
In a new report out today it says that the government would have
to plough billions of public money into any new atomic generating
schemes to make them viable.
The British engineering firm has teamed up with its partner in
Iraq, Fluor of the US, and written to BNFL, the owners of the
British Nuclear Group, proposing talks about the future of this
business.
"We have been in contact with BNFL although only at an
exploratory level so far. We will have to wait and see how
things develop," said an Amec spokesman.
"We are very keen to build a world class nuclear business and
that is why we purchased NNC [nuclear services consultancy] last
week. The market is changing and we see a lot of good work to be
done."
Ownership of Sellafield and 20 other nuclear sites has been
passed on to the newly-formed Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
This organisation has in turn passed on management and
operations of the Cumbrian installation to BNG.
But Amec's ambitions extend beyond doing decommissioning to
construction work. "If a new-build programme came along we would
benefit considerably but, for now, that's not fully on anyone's
agenda," said the engineering firm's spokesman.
Oxera argues that the atomic industry could expect a return on
equity of around 11% on a programme to build eight reactors by
2025 and generate 22% of the UK's electricity, according to its
research.
"These figures don't indicate there would be enough of an
incentive for industry to finance a new nuclear programme," said
Oxera director Derek Holt.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
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52 Bradenton Herald: Tanks in Tallevast trigger queries
| 06/25/2005 |
Lockheed tries to quell mistrust, says tanks are for drilling
DONNA WRIGHT
Herald Staff Writer
MANATEE - Two large black tanks were moved into Tallevast this
week.
Community leaders fear those tanks could mean Lockheed Martin
Corp. has already begun remediation of an underground plume of
contamination stemming from the former Loral American Beryllium
Co. plant without getting the Tallevast residents' approval to
do so.
But a Lockheed official said the tanks are simply the next phase
of drilling to test the water in the Floridan aquifer.
Lockheed now is drilling into the aquifer at the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection's request to verify the
depth of the plume, said Gail Rymer, Lockheed's director of
communication. The tankers are used to store water that comes up
when the drills penetrate the aquifer.
"It's part of the process, and it's not for remediation," said
Rymer.
Lockheed acquired the beryllium plant in 1996 as part of a
corporate buyout of Loral but closed down the business shortly
after the sale. As owner of the closed plant when the toxic
spill was discovered in 2000, Lockheed has assumed
responsibility for the cleanup.
Residents did not learn of the toxins in their back yards until
three years later.
Lockheed's failure to disclose the threat created widespread
mistrust in the Tallevast community, which the defense giant has
been unable to overcome.
Rymer said she recently explained the presence of the tanks to
Wanda Washington, vice president of Family Oriented Community
United and Strong, an advocacy group representing Tallevast
residents.
But Washington and other FOCUS leaders don't trust Rymer's
explanation. Nor do they trust Lockheed's latest data on the
size and depth of the plume, which now measures more than 131
acres.
One of the most dangerous chemicals in the plume is
trichloroethylene or TCE, a highly toxic solvent, linked to
several types of cancers.
"We question why some of the wells known to be contaminated with
TCE are now outside of the latest plume map," said Washington in
a meeting with county staff Friday at the county administration
building.
One of those contaminated wells is more than 400 feet deep, Dr.
Billy Ward, a Tallevast dentist and member of FOCUS, told county
staff.
That irrigation well is owned by Michael Charles Wesley, Ward
said.
Tests performed last summer on Wesley's well contained TCE
levels of 320 parts per billion, or more than 100 times the
Florida standard for drinking water, according to a July DEP
report.
Ward's comment caught the attention of John Zimmerman, the
county's water manager.
"If that's the case, you are getting pretty close to the
aquifer," said Zimmerman. "You worry me when you talk about a
400-foot well because that means the Floridan Aquifer could be
compromised."
The Herald was unable to confirm the depth of Wesley's well late
Friday.
The DEP report does not include the depth of Wesley's well, only
the fact that the sample was taken from a depth of 22 feet.
The deepest well cited in the DEP report is 233 feet, which is
still above the aquifer.
The report further says that only three wells were found that
could potentially produce water from the Floridan aquifer. Two
are located on the small golf course to the south of Tallevast.
The third, called the Martinez well, is located at 7609 18th St.
E. in Tallevast.
Samples from the 200-foot well on the golf course and the
Martinez well are clear of toxic solvents, the report said.
The deepest golf-course well, which burrows down to 400 feet,
has been sampled for 1,4 dioxane and has been found to be below
cleanup target levels, according to Lockheed.
Lockheed has installed one deep well on the former Loral
American Beryllium property. That well is in the vicinity of the
highest levels of toxic concentrations found in the intermediate
aquifer.
FOCUS leaders predict this next round of drilling will change
the plume size once again.
"Just as I wouldn't bet my shirt on what they say is the size of
the plume neither would I bet my shirt on their statement that
remediation had not begun," said Laura Ward, president of FOCUS.
"There are things going on that should not be going on at this
point in time."
Rymer told The Herald that Washington had asked Lockheed why
workers doing the new drilling are not wearing protective gear.
"It's not necessary," Rymer said. "There's no risk involved in
this process. There's no risk of vapors or anything like that."
Yet the county said Friday that any future road work to install
a water line at the intersection of 15th Street East and
Tallevast Road, or to improve residential streets, will be done
by teams trained to handle contaminated soil.
Karen Collins, the county's environmental manager, also doubts
that the latest plume map will be the last. The site is too
complex, she said.
"We are not at the end-point yet," Collins said. "We may never
reach the end-point."
"That's what troubles us," Billy Ward said. "What do we do in
the meantime. We are in the middle of the stew."
HeraldToday.com
Explore previous coverage of the contamination and cleanup.
More coverage
Legislator wants new standards to limit TCE exposure. 16A
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53 AU ABC: Minister attacks NT uranium mining ban
"Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online">
Monday, 27 June 2005. 08:08 (AEST)Monday, 27 June 2005. 08:08
The federal Resources Minister says the Northern Territory
Government will rue its decision to ban any new uranium mining
over the next four years.
The Minister, Ian Macfarlane, says growing demand from China for
nuclear-generated electricity has driven the world uranium price
up to a record $30 a pound and the Northern Territory should be
seizing that export market.
"We estimate the reserves currently held in the Northern
Territory to be somewhere around $13 billion," Mr Macfarlane
said.
Mr Macfarlane says Chief Minister Clare Martin's pre-election
decision to follow Western Australia and ban new uranium mines
may haunt the Territory's economy.
"The Northern Territory has missed an opportunity and perhaps
that opportunity won't come back for decades," Mr Macfarlane
said.
He says South Australia has not cut off its options and will
soon reap the benefits as mining companies focus their efforts
where they are welcome.
Mr Macfarlane says countries that use nuclear power to generate
electricity will simply look elsewhere.
"If those countries don't buy their uranium from Australia
because of some ideological ban put in place by Labor
politicians, then they will simply go to other countries and buy
that uranium, perhaps under less stringent environmental and
nuclear safeguard agreements," he said.
Mr Macfarlane has also accused the Territory Government of
hypocrisy for banning new uranium mines but allowing South
Australia's yellowcake exports to leave Darwin's port.
He says the Martin Government's anti-nuclear sentiment stops
when uranium oxide from Olympic Dam rolls into East Arm Port on
the Adelaide to Darwin railway.
"These ideological decisions by Labor governments to ban uranium
mining but still allow it in certain parts of the state make no
sense at all," Mr Macfarlane said.
"Particularly when you have a competitor state exporting its
uranium through a Northern Territory port."
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54 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: A matter of principle
June 24, 2005
LAS VEGAS SUN
WEEKEND EDITION
June 25-26, 2005
Last week Nevada received some help -- of sorts -- in its fight
against the federal government's plan to permanently bury 77,000
tons of high-level nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. Utah
Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who in 2002 voted to send nuclear
waste to Nevada, said he is working on legislation that would
require the government to study two alternatives to Yucca
Mountain -- leaving the waste at nuclear power plants or
temporarily storing it at government sites.
Hatch said he still supports Yucca Mountain for the long-term
storage of nuclear waste, but Utah officials are concerned that
if Yucca Mountain doesn't get approved by federal regulators,
then their state might by default become the nation's home for
nuclear waste. Their concern is well-founded.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is getting closer to
approving a plan by a coalition of nuclear power plants, unhappy
with the delays on Yucca Mountain, to temporarily store 44,000
tons of nuclear waste on an Indian reservation in Utah. So if
Yucca Mountain's application does get turned down, as we believe
it eventually will, then pressure will grow on the government to
leave the nuclear waste in Utah -- no matter how much evidence
exists that doing so is unsafe. "I understand why our colleagues
from Nevada oppose the Yucca Mountain site," Hatch said on the
Senate floor last week. "I am getting more and more
understanding of that as I go along."
Prior to Congress' vote on Yucca Mountain in 2002, Hatch and
Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, agreed to go along with President
Bush's plan to send nuclear waste to Nevada. In return, the
White House assured them that the administration wouldn't back
efforts by some nuclear power plant operators to temporarily
store nuclear waste in Utah. Obviously that promise meant
nothing. Utah's senators very well may come to rue their 2002
decision not to join with Nevada and, on principle, fight the
federal government's dangerous plan to send nuclear waste to
Nevada. The failure to stand together, and declare that the West
isn't a dumping ground for the government, very well could come
back to haunt Utah.
*****************************************************************
55 Casper Star Tribune: Uranium revival excites industry veterans
Casper, Wyoming - Sunday, June 26, 2005
By JEFFREY JACQUET
Star-Tribune correspondent Sunday, June 26, 2005
LARAMIE -- It is a radioactive metal with a funny name that is
fetching 20-year-high prices, reopening mines across the West
and catching the attention of everyone from Wyoming mining
veterans to Wall Street stockbrokers.
It was back in the 1970s when uranium last garnered this much
interest, back before the Three Mile Island accident, and back
when more than 5,000 Wyomingites had jobs extracting the
yellowish, radioactive ore from the ground.
Now a number of Wyoming industry analysts and veterans -- many
of whom began their careers during the uranium heyday -- say
they are excited as high prices and global demand are likely
here to stay.
They also say Wyoming -- already the nation's top uranium
producer -- is in an excellent position to reap the rewards of
this upward trend.
"This is very definitely an exciting time," said Robert Maxwell,
a Casper-based consulting geologist for the industry. "We are
looking at a long-term trend (in prices) based on a number of
long-term factors."
Maxwell is helping organize the upcoming Global Uranium
Symposium, set for Casper July 11-13, which he says will help
showcase the state's attributes.
"Wyoming is in a very good position," he said. "Wyoming and
Texas are the most likely areas in the country for upgrading
current operations and beginning new (operations)."
Ray Harris, a senior staff geologist and uranium expert for the
Wyoming Geological Survey, agreed, explaining the Cowboy State's
reserves are not only the nation's largest, but also the most
accessible.
"The advantage is that Wyoming's proven reserves can be mined by
in-situ methods, where other reserves (in other states) have to
be mined by conventional means," Harris said. "So our production
is more accessible and more environmentally friendly. And these
will be the districts of the most interest."
Harris, an industry veteran who will publish a memoir on the
history of Wyoming's uranium industry later this year, said
interest in the metal is greater than he has seen in decades.
"Just this year, I've had a lot of people in this office asking
about Wyoming uranium," he said.
In the past few months alone:
-- Riverton-based US Energy Corp. announced it will reopen the
Sheep Mountain mine near Jeffrey City.
-- CAMECO announced it will expand uranium production at its
Smith Ranch-Highland mine north of Douglas.
-- COGEMA Inc. is restoring its Irigaray and Christensen mines
near Kaycee.
-- Canada-based Energy Metals Corp. acquired and plans to
develop the Nine Mile Lake uranium deposit north of Casper.
-- Canadian-based Tournigan Gold Corp. acquired uranium deposits
in the Great Divide and Shirley basins.
Uranium fever has even begun to sweep Wall Street, where two new
uranium investment funds have emerged to immediate success, as
the price of uranium has doubled in the last 18 months.
Investment advice articles with titles such as "Why we are
buying uranium stocks" have started to sprout up in the business
press.
It's unlikely that the uranium mining industry in Wyoming would
match the other extraction industries in dollars or jobs anytime
soon. According to the Wyoming Mining Association's Web site, in
2003 the uranium industry employed 120 workers in Wyoming, while
coal production employed more than 4,700.
Nevertheless, when all the effects on employment are tallied --
ranging from geologists to dump truck drivers -- the impact
could still be substantial.
"All the geologists are tied up right now," said Robert Odell of
the Rocky Mountain Uranium Scout. Odell, who has been a Wyoming
uranium geologist for more than 51 years, will present a history
of Wyoming's uranium industry at the Casper Symposium.
"There are a lot of young companies trying to buy up land here
and set up shop," he said.
Some have wondered if Wyoming has enough uranium milling
capacity to remain competitive -- uranium ore must be processed
to produce uranium oxide, or "yellowcake" -- but Harris said
milling problems are "happening all across the country" and
Wyoming is no worse off than any other state.
The ‘new' nuclear
Charles Mason, a University of Wyoming professor of economics
who wrote his dissertation on the uranium industry bust in 1983,
explained that it is a slow-moving industry dependent on
long-term forecasts and trends.
"My impression is what's driving the optimism is the expectation
... there will be a global, large-scale push into alternative
kinds of power," Mason said. "We could be seeing a kind of sea
change (in energy use), and if that happens it could really
radicalize the market."
The price of uranium plummeted in the 1980s, as nuclear power
became politically unfavorable, while the price bubble of the
'70s caused an excess supply. But in today's world of global
warming, nuclear energy is seen around the world as becoming
once again in vogue.
Electricity from nuclear reactors produces no carbon dioxide,
and nuclear power advocates contend that troubles containing
harmful radioactive waste and reactor meltdowns are problems of
the past.
President Bush recently called nuclear power "one of the safest,
cleanest sources of power in the world," and nuclear power is
even being heralded as "the new green energy" by a number of
European environmental groups.
"It's kind of thrilling to know industrial nations are beginning
to realize they can cut down on CO2, and still keep the
industrial base," said Odell, echoing Mason's assessment.
"Uranium is here to stay. All the developing nations are trying
to get to where we are, and we're going to need all the power
sources we can get. It's such a cheap source of power."
Copyright © 2005 by the Casper Star-Tribune published by Lee
*****************************************************************
56 Cape Cod Times: Army ready to clean up perchlorate
(June 25, 2005)
By AMANDA LEHMERT
STAFF WRITER
BUZZARDS BAY - The Army may soon begin cleaning perchlorate
flowing through the region's sole-source aquifer under Camp
Edwards, despite the fact no safety standard has been set.
Safety standards for contaminants in drinking water trigger
cleanups and set the legal parameters for the level of
contaminant that must be removed by those responsible for the
pollution.
Perchlorate is found in rocket fuel, fireworks and explosives.
Trace amounts of perchlorate from the base have been found in
private drinking water wells in Bourne and Sandwich, although
the perchlorate in the Sandwich well has yet to be linked to
pollution coming from the base. At one point, traces of the
contaminant were found in two Bourne Water District wells in
Monument Beach that have since tested clean.
Army officials have long argued that they cannot begin to
remove perchlorate from water flowing under the base until a
safety standard is in place. So far, neither the state nor
federal Environmental Protection Agency has set a standard for
perchlorate, but new Defense Department policy guidelines will
allow Army officials to take a more active stance on the
perchlorate cleanup issues at Camp Edwards.
Perchlorate plumes
Several plumes of perchlorate have been found on the base under
training areas or ranges, at levels as high as 730 parts per
billion. One plume coming from an old contractor range is
heading in the direction of an Upper Cape water district well on
the eastern side of the base near Sandwich.
Although there is no state standard for perchlorate, state
officials issued a health advisory for safe ingestion of the
chemical of 1 part per billion in 2002. ''We likely won't have
to wait for the (state) Department of Environmental Protection
perchlorate standard to begin addressing it,'' said Hap Gonser,
program manager for the groundwater study. ''We are going to
start being proactive.''
Last year the state environmental officials seemed poised to be
the first in the nation to set a standard for perchlorate.
Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Robert
Golledge has openly advocated a strict 1 part-per-billion
standard on the substance to protect children - the population
most sensitive to perchlorate. One part per billion is equal to
a half a teaspoon of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
It's been three years since the state environmental officials
first told the Bourne Water District that drinking perchlorate
in concentrations above 1 part per billion could be harmful to
babies, pregnant women or people with thyroid conditions.
Plans to set a drinking water standard by early 2005 have been
delayed as the proposal undergoes internal reviews at the
Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
The standards may be proposed in six to eight weeks, Golledge
said yesterday at a water quality forum in Buzzards Bay
organized by Rep. Jeffrey Perry, R-Sandwich.
Ingesting perchlorate can inhibit the uptake of iodide and
disrupt the function of the thyroid gland, which regulates
metabolism in adults and growth in children.
The Army's Groundwater Study Program at Camp Edwards already
has plans to treat a plume of Royal Demolition Explosive
trailing from the contractor ranges that fringe the eastern
portion of the former artillery impact area near Sandwich. The
cleanup plan includes simultaneously removing perchlorate from
those areas starting in 2006.
Cleanup to go ahead
Gonser said the military's new perchlorate guidelines will
allow the groundwater program to move beyond sampling and go
after the worst sites on base.
The Defense Department is basing its guidelines for perchlorate
on the reference dose - a safe level of daily ingestion from all
sources of the contamination including drinking water and food -
set by the EPA in February. Setting a reference dose is the
first step in creating a safety standard for drinking water.
The reference dose is the amount of perchlorate that can be
safely ingested by an individual. For example, a 154-pound adult
can safely ingest 24.4 parts per billion of perchlorate in
drinking water daily.
The EPA reference dose was based on the recommendation of an
independent National Academies of Science (NAS) panel that was
charged to review the health effects of perchlorate. The safety
standard for perchlorate is a politically contentious issue, in
part because the lower the safety standard the more expensive
the cleanup.
''We always said we would abide by the science of the NAS,''
said Linda Wennerberg, senior policy analyst with the Defense
Department, who was on the panel at Perry's forum.
Since the guidelines won't be complete until later this summer,
it was too early to say yesterday exactly how they will affect
the local cleanup efforts at the base.
Jim Murphy, an EPA Region 1 spokesman, said the environmental
regulators like to see the Army being proactive, but until the
guidelines are produced, it was too soon to comment on them.
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