***************************************************************** 04/01/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.81 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 State Rejects Fed Test of WIPP Waste 2 $5 million urged to fight Yucca dump 3 EDITORIAL: Alternative energy 4 Hank Greenspun: PEPCON fire an example of corporate greed 5 Letter: Nuke industry dropped ball on waste foresight 6 Nuke waste opponents point to train derailment increase 7 Reactors Linked To Cancer In St. Lucie 8 Envirocare Slapped With State Fine 9 Opinions:Clean up nuclear mess, don't add more 10 Proposed nuclear waste site bill draws fire 11 Increase in mistakes at PFP leads to a series of changes 12 POWER WOES PUT NUCLEAR IN NEW LIGHT 13 NRC's oversight of Con Ed, Indian Point 2 under scrutiny 14 CL sells $1.4 billion in bonds for debt reduction 15 Nuclear Control Institute Hosts April 9 Conference On Nuclear 16 Northwest Nuclear Plant Subject Of New Study 17 Decommissioning enters new phase 18 Alternative Nuclear Power 19 Pakistan to Use Nuclear Technology in Drought Crisis 20 U.S. nuke regulators prepare for new plant applications 21 Redlands ready for nuclear accident 22 BNFL faces fight over MOX plant 23 Public inquiry call over Devon nuclear waste plans 24 Disputed Czech Nuclear Plant to Close Again for Repairs 25 Glitch-plagued Czech nuclear plant faces new delay 26 France's La Hague plant no stranger to protests 27 No evidence 28 Russia's new nuclear plant starts< 29 Dominion announces completion of Millstone purchase 30 British Nuclear Fuels plunges into the red 31 Study Finds Radioactive Substance in Florida Kids' Teeth; Nuke 32 Nuclear power is worth developing, promoting NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 New York Engineering Software Firm Signs Contract With Computer 2 COMPENSATION PROGRAM: Nuke workers' benefits may shift to Justice 3 Where I stand--Brian Greenspun: Don't tread on us 4 Draft order shows Chao winning battle to shed nuclear worker program 5 Bush Shifting Compensation Program 6 Energy Department Reviews Uranium 7 Report praises, criticizes Pantex emergency response 8 Keep word to miners 9 Sandia planning new nuclear labs 10 3 SRS workers show contamination 11 Overseers worry about SRS tanks 12 Agency needs 2 more years to quantify radioactive uranium 13 DOE workers comp may leave Labor 14 Keep word to miners 15 DOE delays announcing Hanford's new budget 16 Report cites possible K-25 exposure sites 17 Several officials critique UT-Battelle's performance 18 SNS funding sweetens UT-Battelle's first year 19 Modernization to begin on ORNL's east campus 20 Recommends hike in cleanup funds for nuclear sites, including Oak 21 Aid for sick workers heads for Justice Dept. 22 Our Views: Good news on pension, contract for DOE workers 23 Whitfield makes plea on nuclear worker aid 24 Report: Money wasted by cleanup sites contractor 25 Kobe waives nuclear rule for ship 26 Father of Pak's nuclear bomb steps down 27 Protesters vow to fight N-weapons court ruling 28 Effective Nuclear Disarmament ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 State Rejects Fed Test of WIPP Waste Saturday, March 31, 2001 Albuquerque Journal--> By Tania Soussan *Journal Staff Writer* The New Mexico Environment Department this week turned down a federal request to change the way drums of nuclear waste headed for WIPP are analyzed. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad is the U.S. Department of Energy's underground repository for radioactive waste. WIPP operates under a permit from the state. DOE wanted to change the requirements for how long workers must wait after a waste container has been closed to sample the gases that accumulate inside. The gases must be tested to measure concentrations of hazardous volatile organic compounds. DOE said different requirements are needed for specific packaging configurations based on how many inner bags and liners were used in packaging the waste. The rules now apply to a drum in which waste is sealed inside five plastic bags. But if three bags are used, less time would be needed before the drum could be sampled, said DOE spokesman Gregory Sahd. WIPP watchdog groups opposed the permit modification. The proposed change to the permit would have replaced simple rules with "a complex scheme of scenarios and look-up tables," the Environment Department said in a notice. Many people who commented on the requested permit change identified technical shortcomings in the proposal, including the "complete failure" of DOE to address several issues, according to the Environment Department. Sahd said the agency is reviewing the Environment Department's action. "We don't know what we're going to do yet," he said. Copyright 2001 Albuquerque Journal ***************************************************************** 2 $5 million urged to fight Yucca dump [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Saturday, March 31, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Governor's initiative designating funds to block nuclear waste repository sent to Senate panel By SEAN WHALEY DONREY CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- The chairman of the state Commission on Nuclear Projects said Friday that the panel strongly supports a proposal by Gov. Kenny Guinn to set aside $5 million to fight efforts to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Senate Bill 494, setting aside the $5 million for the Nevada Protection Account, has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee. A hearing has not been set. "The commission believes implementing the Nevada Protection Fund program is the single most effective thing the state can do to defeat Yucca Mountain," said Brian McKay, a former attorney general and chairman of the commission. "It's time for Nevada to take the fight to another level, and the governor's initiative does just that." The fund would serve a dual purpose: it would be used to mount any legal challenges needed to fight establishment of the repository, and it would be used to let people in other states know about the risks to their communities if high-level waste is shipped across the country to Nevada. "It has been obvious for some time that there is an as yet untapped groundswell of public opposition in cities and communities around the country to the massive radioactive waste shipping campaign required to implement a Yucca Mountain repository," McKay said. Hundreds of cities and communities in 43 states would be affected by the nuclear waste shipments to Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, he said. The Commission on Nuclear Projects will meet Tuesday to discuss the proposed Nevada Protection Account. Diamond Resorts International President Stephen Cloobeck, who has launched a grass-roots effort in Southern Nevada to raise funds to augment the $5 million account, and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who is considering legal challenges to the repository, will also speak to the commission. The U.S. Department of Energy is expected to make a decision about Yucca Mountain's suitability early next year. If the project is approved, as many as 3,000 shipments of high-level nuclear waste per year would be taken to the site over 35 years. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Mar-31-Sat-2001/news/15766830.html ***************************************************************** 3 EDITORIAL: Alternative energy [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Saturday, March 31, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal One of the latest problems associated with [California's] electricity crisis is that alternative energy producers aren't getting paid by the utilities, so the producers are cutting back. This was one of the key causes behind last week's rolling blackouts. Alternative energy producers use such sources as wind, geothermal and methane instead of the more common natural gas, nuclear and hydro sources. ... By cutting back, the alternative producers reduced output by 1,300 megawatts. Gov. Gray Davis is trying to get the Public Utilities Commission to order payments to the alternative energy plants for future production, but the plants are demanding payment for the more than $1 billion they already are owed. The alternative energy plants also have formed committees to try to force the utilities into bankruptcy for failing to make the payments. The problem of the payments was "really just another matter that was put on the back burner" as other matters were dealt with, Robert Michaels, a professor of economics at Cal State Fullerton, told us. "There are so many problems." And the problems keep popping up like spring mushrooms. ... Unfortunately, Gov. Davis and the Democrat-controlled Legislature continue trying to squeeze the world's most dynamic capitalist economy into the straightjacket of a socialist energy policy. Until markets are restored -- that is, real deregulation is enacted, not the flawed "deregulation" of 1996 -- this crisis will not end. ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Mar-31-Sat-2001/opinion/15760654.html ***************************************************************** 4 Hank Greenspun: PEPCON fire an example of corporate greed March 30, 2001 Thou shalt not kill. There must be a higher authority than a greedy, soulless, out-of-state corporate structure that insists on placing Nevada citizens in peril of their lives. It's barely a week since horrified spectators watched huge fireballs reaching toward the sky as black, billowing poison smoke spiraled upward like some death cloud. Explosions ripped the valley and for hours fear of a gruesome death toll clutched the hearts of all who watched in helpless terror. The explosion and fire that leveled PEPCON and the Kidd marshmallow factory touched the lives of every resident in the valley. The first proper, decent act of Kerr-McGee officials was to suspend manufacturing of the deadly ammonium perchlorate until they had an opportunity to learn what caused the explosive disaster at their sister producer, PEPCON. In announcing their intention to await official investigative procedures of the tragedy that, but for a miracle, could have been catastrophic to Clark County, the company acted responsibly. But firing up the ammonium perchlorate process without notice less than a week later is reprehensible beyond measure. The fire department, EPA and other official investigative bodies are still sifting the ashes at PEPCON for clues as to what caused the bomb blast that shook our community and destroyed homes, schools, buildings and lives of valley residents. The activity is proceeding slowly, partly because the process demands precision and study and because the exact extent of the contamination at the site is not known. It may be days or weeks before the cause of the blasts are revealed and protective measures, if there are any, can be employed to assure Clark County citizens that their worst fears will not be realized with a repeat of last week's disaster. Can responsible people allow Kerr-McGee to go forward with its production of ammonium perchlorate in the face of all that's known and unknown? What parent can forget the tear-streaked faces of little children cowering under desks and tables in the schools that suffered damage from the blast? And who will ever forget the picture of the little baby who, hours after entering this world, was pelted with flying glass, suffering physical harm and who knows what mental scars during her first day of life on Earth. Kerr-McGee's decision to resume production without the benefit of knowing what caused the explosion is an act of barbarism. Its unfathomable actions remind us of the unanswered questions surrounding the mysterious death of Kerr-McGee's Oklahoma employee, Karen Silkwood. Karen, who was contaminated with plutonium, died in a mysterious car accident while on her way to meet with a New York Times reporter. Plant records she carried in her car were never found. Kerr-McGee officials deny suggestions that the Defense Department pressured them into the immediate, clandestine restarting of the operation to avoid a shortage of oxidizer for shuttles, MX missiles and other defense programs. While there are published reports from Pentagon and space agency spokesmen that there is enough fuel on hand for at least a year's defense-related activity, it is difficult to determine where the truth lies. Regardless of the accuracy of the fuel status, are there not other, less life-threatening alternatives for our defense needs? Are we again going to let the Washington bureaucracy tell us we have to destroy ourselves because of a speculative national defense effort? Are we going to allow an out-of-state corporate boardroom to give orders for our own deaths? They are demanding that our children face a life of never-ending peril. We cannot permit them to do this. We do not have to accept these orders. We live in a democracy where sane human beings do not have to sit idly by while our government decrees our potential extermination. Kerr-McGee must be closed without delay and, if necessary, rebuilt at another remote site. We sympathize with those whose jobs will be temporarily lost. They should be given every assistance by relief agencies. When the plants are relocated many miles away from the population center, their jobs will be there for them and they will do what Nevada Test Site workers do -- travel to work by bus or car. So far, one man has stood up like Horatio at the bridge. County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury has called on every power he can muster -- fire, police, law and other public officials -- to keep the plant from re-opening. He requested a meeting at Kerr-McGee with the Clark County fire chief at 5 a.m. Wednesday and later called on County Manager Pat Shalmy and District Attorney Rex Bell to pursue legal action. No one else seems to have the desire or the ability to do what is in the health and safety interests of Clark County residents. We must not forget that if the explosion occurred this Wednesday instead of last, there would not have been winds to carry the toxic fumes far from our valley. Thousands of residents would have suffered dramatic injuries had the hydrochloric acid hung lazily over this valley for any length of time. Commissioner Woodbury is a father. He understands the devotion parents have for their children and the desire to keep them from harm. It is far better to drive by our schools and see beautiful little children playing joyfully in the schoolyard, than watch in horror as charred or mangled bodies and blinded wounded are carried from a disaster area. Like the sufferer of a mild heart attack, we have been warned that we cannot continue to live as we have done in the past. We simply cannot allow Kerr-McGee to continue at its present location, nor can PEPCON be given permission to rebuild close to a populated area. The lesson is starkly and devastatingly told in the ashes of PEPCON and in the hearts of the families who lost loved ones. We simply cannot allow a time bomb to tick away in the heart of any Southern Nevada community. This is not a judgment to be based on government defense needs, speculative or real, or financial considerations. It is a choice between good, wholesome life or the horrible, dreadful holocaust of death. There is no more time to think. It is time to act. A fire Wednesday at Kerr-McGee's neighbor, State Industries, could have been the cause of a second and far more catastrophic explosion ... while authorities are still wondering what caused the first. The city of Henderson, whose residents felt the brunt of the disaster but by no means are alone in their continuing fear of further peril, should act immediately to demand that the Clark County Commission close the plants. There is no more time to waste. It is a matter of life and death. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Letter: Nuke industry dropped ball on waste foresight March 30, 2001 Admittedly I have very limited knowledge of nuclear power. What I do have is a trepidation and fear that nuclear waste will be transported here, or anywhere for that matter. I realize this is way after the fact, but why weren't nuclear generating stations constructed to include facilities from the get-go for 100 percent self-containment, thereby eliminating the need for dangerous movement of their hazardous nuclear waste? If the individuals responsible for planning, erecting and maintaining nuclear power plants couldn't, and didn't, come up with a completely safe, original-site disposal method, what makes anyone think they can come up with a manner in which to safely transport potentially disastrous material by truck, by rail, by whatever method? Moving and relocating nuclear waste hundreds and thousands of miles to Nevada is inviting human error, and we'd just be biding our time before we experience the avoidable nuclear transport tragedy of lost lives. CAROLE LAROCCA ***************************************************************** 6 Nuke waste opponents point to train derailment increase *By Frank X. Mullen Jr.* Reno Gazette-Journal Saturday March 31st, 2001 New statistics that show an 18 percent increase in train derailments since 1997 underline the dangers of transporting nuclear waste to Nevada, opponents of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump said Friday. They point to this month’s derailment in Iowa when an Amtrak train that would have passed through Reno derailed, killing one person and injuring 96. The incident happened in an area where a rail defect had been recently patched, investigators said. “This really highlights what Nevadans have been saying all along,” U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. “Transporting nuclear waste is a dangerous business. The waste isn’t just a danger to the plants that produce it or the dump that stores it. Every American who lives between those two points lives just one rail-width away from tragedy.” In 1987, Congress designated Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, to be the nation’s nuclear waste dump. The waste is now stored at nuclear power plants nationwide. Nevada leaders oppose the plan on the grounds that Yucca Mountain is unsuitable and the transportation of the waste to Nevada would endanger the whole nation. Derailments increased 18 percent over the past four years, according to statistics kept by the Federal Railroad Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation and released this week to Congress. Derailments on track and in rail yards increased from 1,741 in 1997 to 2,059 in 2000, the agencies reported, partly because the number of train trips has increased. Poorly maintained track and inadequate inspections by railroad companies also may be to blame, the report stated. But John Bromley, spokesman for the Union Pacific Railroad in Omaha, Neb., said the report is misleading. He said most of the reported accidents occurred in rail yards and on railroad spur tracks where the average speed is about 5 mph. “Most of the accidents cited were the equivalent of fender-benders,” he said. “The general trend in railroad safety shows a tremendous improvement.” He said rail accidents per million miles traveled have decreased 65 percent since 1980 and 15 percent since 1990. He said accidents caused by track problems have dropped 70 percent since 1980 and 13 percent since 1990. Opponents of the Yucca Mountain dump proposal said whatever the statistics, there’s no way to guarantee safety when nuclear waste is moved by rail. According to Department of Energy reports, if the waste is shipped to Nevada by rail, it would involve between 10,800 and 19,800 waste casks being shipped on thousands of special trains over a 20-year period. “Common sense tells us that it won’t be easy to maintain safety,” said Kaitlin Bachlynd, executive director of Reno-based Citizen Alert, an environmental group, which opposes the Yucca plan. “The group RailWatch reports that there is a train accident of some kind every 90 minutes and a toxic spill on the nation’s railroads every two weeks. If the waste is shipped by rail, there will be a number of train accidents, no question about it.” Bachlynd said aging tracks and layoffs at major railroads also decrease rail safety. “If nuclear waste is shipped by rail, there will have to be a lot of modernization of the railroad’s infrastructure, and none of those costs are in the Yucca Mountain project budgets,” she said. The recent rail safety report shows there are just 550 federal and state rail safety officers. The number of industry inspectors, responsible for checking 230,000 miles of track, also has dwindled, the report showed. Bromley said Union Pacific is constantly inspecting and maintaining track. He said although the companies recently laid off 2,000 workers, those people were in administrative jobs and not safety-related positions. Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn has asked the Nevada Legislature for $5 million this year to launch an advertising campaign in states that contain nuclear waste transportation routes. The money also would be used for legal actions to block the shipments. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who sits on the House Transportation Committee, said she hopes the committee uses the statistics to tackle rail safety rules this year. “You cannot expect train after train after train loaded with nuclear waste to go through this country without any concern for the communities that the trains will be passing through,” Berkley said in a prepared statement. “The statistics will demonstrate that the more trains you have, the more accidents will occur.” Berkley this week created a list of all the House members who represent areas along the waste transportation routes in an effort to pressure them to oppose the Yucca Mountain project. “When people across the country start to realize how this could have a direct impact on the health and safety of their communities, we might finally be able to build the political will in this country to look for sensible long-term solutions,” Berkley said. ©2001 Reno Gazette-Journal ***************************************************************** 7 Reactors Linked To Cancer In St. Lucie Thursday March 29 01:22 PM EST Area residents are concerned that there could be a link between local childrens' cancer and nuclear reactors. A new study released Thursday said that there could be a direct link. Danny Kishpaugh is 9 years old, loves Pokemon and if all goes well, will beat cancer. On a day where he was thinking about getting the game-winning hit, Danny was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called neuroblastoma. Doctors had to remove one of his kidneys. Soon after, the Kishpaugh family found the Danny was not alone. In recent years, dozens of children in Port St. Lucie have been stricken with cancers of the brain and central nervous system. A new study casts suspicion on two nuclear power plants in South Florida -- Turkey point in Miami-Dade County, and a plant in St. Lucie County. The report says that childhood cancers in St. Lucie County have jumped more than 300 percent over the last 15 years. The report adds that baby teeth of some Miami-Dade County children contain higher than normal levels of strontium-90. Strontium-90 is produced only by nuclear explosions and power plants. Danny's mother, though, thinks the reaction her son and others have had may be due to more than just the reactor. Danny is more concerned trying to figure out where to put his baseball memorabilia. Among those trophies is an award from the American Cancer Society -- an award for courage. Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! and . ***************************************************************** 8 Envirocare Slapped With State Fine The Salt Lake Tribune -- March 31, 2001* BY JUDY FAHYS State regulators have fined Envirocare of Utah for being sloppy about underground water testing at the company's hazardous and radioactive waste landfill in Tooele County. The Division of Radiation Control slapped the company with a $9,750 fine -- about a third of it an enhanced penalty for ignoring the state's first warning about the problems in September. The agency also ordered follow-up tests to make sure the landfill is not leaching any of the worrisome chemicals detected in the monitoring wells on 93 occasions. "This is a reporting and paperwork-type of violation," said Envirocare President Charles Judd, adding that the retesting is under way. Both regulators and the company said the test results are no cause to worry the landfill is polluting the water, since there is good reason to believe the chemicals are naturally occurring. The 31 wells cited by regulators are new, so they lack the kind of track record that would suggest what chemicals are normal and what are not at each of the test wells, said Judd. Still, the March 22 "Notice of Violation" comes at a bad time for the company, which wants to expand its business line and needs the state's approval to do it. Part of that expansion involves accepting class B and C waste, which contains radiation levels that are hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of times stronger than the radiation waste the company has been accepting for more than a decade. A technical review on the application is expected to be complete by summer, clearing the way for the governor and the Legislature to make a final decision. Another, separate part of the new business line involves disposing containers of class A waste that contain material more concentrated than the loose waste the company now accepts. Chip Ward, an opponent of the B and C proposal, said the monitoring is important because similar landfills in other parts of the nation are notorious for leaking. "Envirocare's record so far does not inspire confidence, to say the least," he said. "If they can't follow procedures for A-level waste, why should we trust them with B- and C-level?" The company's state license requires that, whenever periodic tests show chemicals exceed certain bounds, the company must report those results to the state within 30 days. In addition, the company must double-check the monitoring wells to confirm the initial results and, if they are confirmed, trace the source of the chemical to make sure the landfill is not leaching. "It's not common [for Envirocare to have water-testing violations] but it has happened before," said Dave Finerfrock of the Division of Radiation Control. Judd said this time there was "confusion and misunderstanding" about the timing of the chemical-test reports. However, in the citation, regulators said they were increasing the fines by 50 percent because the company had failed to heed warnings in September about the problems. Earlier in the month, Envirocare publicized results of a four-day inspection by federal radiation-control officials. ***************************************************************** 9 Opinions:Clean up nuclear mess, don't add more March 31, 2001 *Editor, The Chronicle* Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness recently opined, ``The only way anybody could object (to making plutonium pits at Savannah River Site) is if they objected to maintaining a nuclear weapons stockpile.'' (``Production potential upsets some activists,'' March 11 *Chronicle*). By international treaty, the United States is committed to eliminating nuclear weapons, so objecting to new weapons production is simply complying with law. But this is not the only objection to a new SRS project. President George W. Bush will cut $400 million from Department of Energy cleanup budgets while adding nearly $300 million to new weapons work. For years SRS officials have been telling us that their mission is cleanup. Now they drool over the possibility of building the triggers for nuclear weapons on top of their other new mission to create experimental plutonium fuel. As nice as the technical challenges and lucrative plutonium production contracts might be for SRS, clean up of the extensive existing contamination must be the primary mission of the site, as SRS literature implies. Instead of cleanup taking clear priority, projects like plutonium fuel production and and making new plutonium triggers are pursued with greater zeal. The U.S. does not need new nuclear weapons. We have barely begun to address the harm caused by 50 years of producing the thousands of weapons we have now. Instead of dragging us back to the dawn of the nuclear age, the U.S. should honor its international treaty obligations, clean up the mess it has made and lead the way toward nuclear disarmament. Jeanne Macuch Kato, Augusta All contents © 1996 - 2001 *The Augusta Chronicle*. All rights ***************************************************************** 10 Proposed nuclear waste site bill draws fire By JANE ALDRED Morris News Service AUSTIN - A bill that would create a low-level nuclear disposal facility in Texas drew critics from across the state during a Senate Natural Resources Committee meeting on Thursday. Senate Bill 1541 by Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, allows Texas to fulfill its obligation under a compact agreement with Maine and Vermont to store low-level radioactive waste. The measure provides for the state to enter into a contract with a private business to build a facility and then pay them to run it. Duncan said Texas needs a disposal facility now because low-level radioactive waste from Texas hospitals and research facilities is held in more than 1,200 temporary storage facilities across the state. There are no permanent storage sites. David Fredrick, a resident of Ward County, where a possible site is under consideration, said he was worried a private corporation might not feel the same amount of responsibility toward residents as the state government would. "As we are in West Texas, the area in which this bill would relegate a permanent management facility, we're really, really worried about privately operated and owned waste-management facilities," Frederick said. "We feel that this should be a publicly owned facility. We feel that offers some vehicle of protection because of the Open Meetings Act, the financial disclosure requirements of public officials, and it provides some degree of accountability." Duncan said the state isn't as knowledgable on nuclear waste as a private business that builds and operates disposal facilities for its livelihood. Under the state's supervision, a private company will be the most efficient and safest choice. "When all is said and done, the waste and the site will be owned by the state of Texas," Duncan said. Julian Florez, a county commissioner for Reeves County, said he was pleased to see the bill permits the host county to call for a vote on whether residents want the facility. His concern was the bill doesn't consider the surrounding counties, which might have towns close to the site. "Even though it's in Ward County, the (proposed) site is about 12 miles from Pecos, which is in Reeves County," he said. "I think it's a risk, and my constituents have passed petitions, and I guess we have about 2,000 signatures that do not support a waste site. Anybody who is going to be affected should have the right to place a vote." Florez said many of his constituents believe certain areas of West Texas are being targeted for disposal sites because of the low population, low per capita income and high Hispanic population of the area. Another West Texas resident, Alfredo Raza, brought a homemade Texas flag with a radiation symbol emblazoned on it to present to Duncan. Raza said he didn't like the idea of big-city waste being disposed in West Texas. Erin Rogers, outreach coordinator for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, said her organization opposes the bill because it opens the door for Department of Energy waste. She said that although this waste is financially lucrative for the state to store, the projected 70 million cubic feet of waste from the Department of Energy would soon fill up the facility - and leave no room for Texas, Vermont and Maine. http://www.amarillonet.com/copyright.html">© 2001 Amarillo Globe-News ***************************************************************** 11 Increase in mistakes at PFP leads to a series of changes This story was published Fri, Mar 30, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer A recent increase in mistakes at Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant has led to some managerial fix-it work. The increase came in February and March. But none of the mistakes removed any barriers that prevent the facility's plutonium from going "critical," or shooting off uncontrolled bursts of radiation. However, the increase in mistakes was significant enough to worry the Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. "Is it at an alarming level? No. Are we concerned? Yes," said Pete Knollmeyer, DOE's assistant manager for nuclear materials and facilities stabilization at Hanford. The PFP's mission is to convert 4.4 tons of plutonium -- mixed within 19.6 tons of scrap -- into safer forms. Most of those safer forms are powders. Consequently, the PFP's workers routinely move different types of chunks and powders of plutonium and neutralize them. The mistakes have shown up in handling and storing the plutonium-laced materials, said Knollmeyer and a recent defense board weekly report. Until recently, the PFP had posted a good record regarding procedural violations and maintenance checks. For the past year, the PFP averaged 5.7 procedural and routine maintenance violations per 200,000 hours worked, compared to Hanford's average of 5.9. DOE uses 200,000 hours because that is about what 100 people work in one year. For the past six months, the PFP tallied five violations in October 2000, three in November, zero in December, five in January, eight in February and four so far in March, Knollmeyer said. Slightly more than half of the mistakes came from managers' decisions on how to correct routine problems, Knollmeyer said. "We're not so worried about the problems happening. ... We're more worried about the responses," Knollmeyer said. Last week, the PFP's work force stopped work for a half day to review and discuss the situation. And Tuesday, there was a three-hour senior manager's workshop to review the situation and regroup. "We're trying to nip this in the bud," Knollmeyer said. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 12 POWER WOES PUT NUCLEAR IN NEW LIGHT [Chicago Tribune] *UTILITIES CONSIDER EXPANDING ITS USE* By Melita Marie Garza Tribune staff reporter *April 01, 2001* The nuclear industry, encouraged by the Bush administration, is beginning to see new life in its once-moribund corner of the world. Capitalizing on high natural gas prices, fears about California's energy problems and what they say are technological improvements, utilities such as Chicago-based Exelon Corp. are taking steps once thought inconceivable to expand the use of nuclear power. Rather than mothballing 40-year-old plants as had been anticipated, owners of 33 nuclear reactors, including Exelon's Dresden and Quad Cities plants, are seeking 20-year license renewals from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Nationwide, five reactors already have been relicensed. While environmental groups continue to oppose nuclear power, other criticism from consumer advocates has melted away amid concerns about rolling blackouts and $400-a-month heating bills. Utilities, meanwhile, are bidding against one another to buy aging nuclear power plants once widely viewed as white elephants. For example, Exelon, through AmerGen Energy Co., its partnership with British Energy, bought Illinois Power's former Clinton nuclear plant in 1999. Last year, it snapped up GPU Inc.'s Oyster Creek nuclear facility in New Jersey for $10 million. And Exelon, which owns the nation's largest nuclear fleet, is even proposing the construction of new nuclear plants in the U.S. for the first time in decades. To that proposal, environmental activists pledge a vigorous fight. "Good luck," said Chris Hayday of the Sierra Club. "There's not a human being on the planet who wants to be near a nuclear waste dump. It's a very dangerous way to boil water." Indeed, the nuclear power industry in the U.S. continues to operate without a national storage facility for high-level radioactive waste. The chosen disposal site, Yucca Mountain in Nevada, is bitterly opposed by some Nevada officials, stalling its opening until at least 2010. In the meantime, some 2,000 metric tons of waste produced annually by the nation's reactors is being stored at plant sites. Nonetheless, some consumer groups that vigorously fought the construction of nuclear plants in the '70s and '80s have begun to relax their opposition. "Exelon has been doing a good job running the nuclear plants for the last two years, and we think the existing plant licenses should be extended if Exelon can prove that it can continue to run them safely and reliably," said Martin Cohen, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board. Cohen, however, stopped short of endorsing new plants. "We'd have to take a look at specific plans," he said. White House support In the past two weeks, the Bush administration has shown its enthusiasm for new nuclear plants, with Vice President Dick Cheney and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill speaking in favor of them. The move to expand nuclear power is a surprise, even to the true believers. "I didn't see us coming back to nuclear this quickly," said Oliver Kingsley, president and chief nuclear officer of Exelon Nuclear. "I always thought it would take some sort of crisis in order to bring nuclear back." Nuclear power has long suffered under a cloud generated by the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, where a nuclear reactor overheated at the facility about 10 miles south of Harrisburg, Pa. "We changed a lot of things as a result," said Marvin Fertel, a senior vice president of the Washington-based Nuclear Energy Institute. "Three Mile Island turned out to be one of the best things for improving nuclear safety worldwide." Still, there remains the legacy of Chernobyl, the 1986 disaster that spewed radioactive waste over a swath of the former Soviet Union and Europe, leaving thousands dead, injured and disfigured. To fears of a repeat of that sort of catastrophe, the nuclear industry counters that their power source produces no air pollution and doesn't contribute to global warming. But environmental groups don't buy that argument. Expanding nuclear power to clean up the air "would be like solving your smoking problem by taking up crack," said Hayday of the Sierra Club. The move back toward nuclear power owes a debt to rising natural gas prices, whose spike this year set off alarm bells about the dangers of relying too heavily on one source for electric power generation. That fact is not lost on Cohen, whose group has fielded hundreds of calls from irate consumers. "Nuclear power is critical to maintaining a diversity of power sources," Cohen said. "Almost every single new plant planned so far is gas-fired, and this year we have seen what that means for electricity prices." According to Nuclear Energy Institute estimates, electricity from nuclear power costs 1.83 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with 2.07 cents for coal power, 3.18 cents for oil and 3.52 cents for natural gas. The costs would still compare favorably to natural gas, Exelon says, even if the gas price normalized. About half of the electricity generated in Illinois and about a fifth in the U.S. is produced by nuclear power. But without electricity deregulation and the opportunities it has presented for buying, selling and trading electricity, companies would not be seeking relicensing. Among those already relicensed: Constellation Energy's two Calvert Cliffs reactors in Maryland and Duke Energy's three reactors at the Oconee plant in South Carolina. Fertel, of the nuclear industry trade group, said he expects virtually all of the license renewals to be approved. Deregulation also has spurred power companies to run plants more efficiently, leading Exelon, for example, to increase capacity in its fleet of 17 reactors by a total of 1,000 megawatts, equivalent to adding an entire new plant. New plants considered Perhaps the most remarkable new development is the prospect of building new nuclear plants, which would have been unthinkable without deregulation. In a meeting at the NRC on Jan. 31, Exelon explained its plan to seek licensing in the U.S. for the pebble-bed modular reactor, which Exelon and independent nuclear power experts tout as smaller, simpler and safer than any reactor in operation. Exelon likely would build some of the pebble-bed reactors for its own power needs and also sell them to other utilities. Exelon's plan is contingent on the successful development of a prototype 110-megawatt plant the company is building in South Africa with Eskom, a South African utility. Construction on that plant could begin by the middle of next year, with completion in about three years. If approved in the U.S., construction could begin in 2006, with new plants appearing about 2007. The new reactors most likely would be located at current nuclear plant sites, potentially some in Illinois. The pebble-bed reactor is helium-cooled, in contrast to the light-water reactor designs operating now in the U.S. The plant has fewer moving parts and requires a smaller crew, making its operations less prone to problems, said Rod Adams, an independent nuclear power analyst. Jim Muntz, Exelon vice president for nuclear projects, said: "There are no pumps. In the nuclear industry, pumps are the root of all evil. As the reactors get bigger, the pumps get bigger. They all have big electric motors, and they all need to be maintained." The new reactor has only 30 mechanical systems, versus 120 in the older ones, Muntz said. The new reactor also produces one-eighth the volume of high-level radioactive waste of existing plants, he said, and because the fuel is encased in a ceramic ball--or pebble--it can be stored much more safely. The pebble bed's simpler, modular design and smaller size also would cut construction time--to two years from the 10 years it took in the 1980s--and cost. Where the Clinton plant cost $6 billion to build, Exelon estimates it would cost $125 million for a 110-megawatt pebble-bed plant. But cheaper or not, some believe new plants are a nuclear industry pipe dream. "I think local communities will be totally, totally opposed," said Ashok Gupta, senior energy economist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "They don't want natural gas power plants near their house; why would they want nuclear plants? It's going to be a very, very tough uphill battle to get a single new nuclear power plant built." ***************************************************************** 13 NRC's oversight of Con Ed, Indian Point 2 under scrutiny thejournalnews.com : ROGER WITHERSPOON THE JOURNAL NEWS *Original publication: March 30, 2001* The investigatory arm of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is looking into that agency's oversight of Consolidated Edison's operations and safety procedures at Indian Point 2. George Mulley of the NRC's Office of Inspector General said he assigned three investigators to review the commission's plant oversight on March 7. The team is examining various problems at the nuclear power plant, NRC documents and past commitments by Con Edison to fix electrical problems, and interviewing personnel involved in accidents and other events. A report is expected in May. "We are taking a look at the NRC oversight of IP2 with respect to some design basis deficiencies and some commitments that were made several years ago that were not followed up," said Mulley, who has overall responsibility for investigations. A commission spokesman said there would be no comment on the investigation. Con Edison spokesman Mike Clendenin said the utility was "not aware of any new inquiries; however, we maintain that the plant is operating safely. We are also continuing to address issues that have been raised by our engineers and by the NRC." Clendenin would not respond to specific criticisms leveled against Con Edison and its operation of the Buchanan-based plant. Mulley said the commission's oversight problems were brought to light by information found in plant condition reports provided to his office by Rep. Sue Kelly, R-Katonah, the Citizens Awareness Network, the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public Citizen. "We are taking our lead from those condition reports," he said. "We do not do technical reviews. We look at issues such as, does the plant have a large number of design basis deficiencies and, if so, why hasn't the NRC picked up on it and had them corrected? We are looking at how the NRC regulated this to see if there isn't something they could have done better." David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said plant condition reports did not contain conclusions or complete analyses, but descriptions of problems found or suspected by plant workers. Nuclear plant operators rely on the reports to determine what might be wrong with their various nuclear and power systems. NRC inspectors review samples of condition reports to determine the quality of a plant's operations and the safety margins on systems. Mulley's investigation was primarily prompted by a complaint filed by Kelly and the advocacy groups about a dispute that arose in January between a contract engineer for Con Edison and the utility. The dispute centered on the operation of the plant's reactor protection system, a complex safety system that shuts down the nuclear reactor and initiates back-up systems in the event of a problem. The engineer quit the company in February over the dispute, which Con Edison termed a professional disagreement. The commission later sent two inspectors to specifically check the reactor safety system, and their preliminary report stated the system was sound. "The reason we went to the Office of Inspector General," Lochbaum said, "is that the NRC inspection report on the reactor protection system listed a number of the condition reports they looked at. The condition reports we had predated theirs and indicated there was a much bigger problem." "We don't know if Con Ed didn't provide all of the condition reports to the NRC inspectors, or if they had all of them and chose not to mention the more severe ones. That is something the Inspector General can get to the bottom of." The plant has had a series of electrical problems involving the reactor and safety systems over time. Most recently, Con Edison was fined $88,000 in February 2000 for faulty electrical systems that triggered a six-week shutdown the previous August. Those electrical problems first surfaced in 1997. A report released this month by a special 14-member commission team that examined the plant's reactor and electric generating systems found problems still existed with some of the same type of electrical equipment. The special inspection was triggered by the plant's shutdown on Feb. 15 last year. The shutdown followed the worst accident in the plant's 26-year history, an accidental leak of contained radioactive water and a small leak of radioactive steam into the atmosphere. The plant restarted Jan. 4 and has dealt with a series of problems since then. "Each time, the company said, 'Here is what we will do so this never happens again.' At Con Ed, never seems to only last a few months," Lochbaum said. Indian Point 2 also is supposed to have readily accessible diagrams of each of its nuclear and power generating systems. When a malfunction occurs, engineers consult those diagrams to help troubleshoot the problem. Over the years, however, changes have been made to the equipment at Indian Point 2 and Indian Point 3, which was sold by the New York Power Authority to the Entergy Corp. last year. As a result, the system diagrams on file do not always match the electrical systems in use. An accident in which a worker was injured last May 27 is part of Mulley's investigation. According to a Con Edison analysis of the incident, part of the problem was that plans for equipment did not match the actual circuitry, and engineers were unable to fix it. "This is an example of what it says about systemic deficiencies and design and what the NRC is doing about it," Mulley said. "We are not investigating the incident to see how the the guy almost got killed; we are looking to see what it says about their whole oversight program." In 1994, the New York Power Authority purchased the original blueprints for all of its systems at Indian Point 3 from the Westinghouse contractors who built that plant. Lochbaum, who worked for the authority at the time, said IP3 engineers checked every system against the original blueprints and made corrections where they differed. "Con Ed did not buy the original blueprints," Lochbaum said, "and since they were proprietary, we were not able to share them with the engineers at Indian Point 2, though both plants used the same equipment from the same supplier." Mike Kansler, chief executive officer of Entergy Northeast, which is attempting to buy Indian Point 2, said Entergy intends to buy the original blueprints for all systems if the sale is approved. Manufacturer's representatives also would inspect the equipment and make sure there is conformity between the existing systems and the diagrams, he said. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires us to ask you the following question about your age. If you have any questions about COPPA, please see our Terms of Service. Your age: Select Age Under 13 13-17 18-24 25-34 35-49 50-64 65 and older Gannett Foundation"> ***************************************************************** 14 CL sells $1.4 billion in bonds for debt reduction NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) By Diane Scarponi, Associated Press, 3/30/2001 16:46 NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) Connecticut Light &Power has sold $1.44 billion worth of bonds to reduce its debts and interest payments, resulting in $274 million in savings for customers, the company and state treasurer said Friday. The bonds will be used to pay down 15 costly power contracts and to refinance other CL debts that customers would otherwise have to continue to pay for under the 1998 electric deregulation law. The benefits from the bond sale, combined with the sale of CL's hydro, fossil fuel and nuclear plants and other assets have reduced those debts from $3.6 million to about $800 million, CL said. State Treasurer Denise Nappier, whose office oversaw the bond sale, said the bonds should ''help keep rates in check.'' The bonds are backed by CL's 1.1 million customers, who will pay off the bonds through charges on their electric bills. Because the bonds will reduce debts and interest payments, customers will save $274 million over the long haul, the company said. The 1998 law allowed the bond sale as a way to reduce debts that consumers still have to pay for under a competitive market. The law did not allow any bonds to be sold for CL's nuclear power assets, or to help CL pay off debts incurred when the Millstone plants were shut down in the late 1990s because of safety concerns. The bonds were sold from one to 10 years, at an average interest rate of almost 6 percent. Of the $1.44 billion total, $1.06 billion of bonds will be used to buy out or buy down 15 long-term power contracts with independent power suppliers. These contracts were negotiated years ago, at a time when future power prices were expected to be much higher than they are. The remainder will be used to refinance other CL debt. The bond sale brings CL near the end of its transformation under the 1998 law, from a company that generates, transmits and sells power, to a company that just transmits and distributes power. The 1998 law ended CL's monopoly on generating power, to allow other companies to compete for customers by offering lower prices and other benefits. The law caps power prices until the end of 2003. CL and United Illuminating remain the default companies for customers in their service areas who do not choose a new power supplier. CL and UI will continue under the law to operate the transmission and distribution system for power. © Copyright 2001 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, Inc. ***************************************************************** 15 Nuclear Control Institute Hosts April 9 Conference On Nuclear Power and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons Wednesday March 28, 3:08 pm Eastern Time Press Release *SOURCE: Nuclear Control Institute* Nuclear Control Institute Hosts April 9 Conference On Nuclear Power and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons WASHINGTON, March 28 /PRNewswire/ -- A dozen top international experts on nuclear power, energy alternatives, and the spread of nuclear weapons will speak at an April 9 conference in Washington sponsored by the Nuclear Control Institute. The conference marks NCI's 20th Anniversary and will take place at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In the wake of the California energy crisis, there is renewed interest in nuclear power as the solution to national and global electricity needs. But North Korea's nuclear missile capability, Iraqi and Iranian nuclear-weapons potential, and tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, all point to a connection between national nuclear power programs and nuclear proliferation. Headline speakers include: -- Ambassador Robert Gallucci, Dean of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and diplomatic troubleshooter on North Korean, Iraqi and Iranian nuclear weapons issues, will give the luncheon address: "The Continuing Relevance of Nuclear Power to the Problem of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation." -- Former U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary will discuss the Clinton and Bush Administrations' nuclear and alternative energy policies. -- Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of "The Making of the Atomic Bomb," will make the case for nuclear power. -- Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, will make the case for the "soft-energy" path: energy conservation and efficiency instead of nuclear power. For two decades, the Nuclear Control Institute has worked to de-link nuclear power and nuclear weapons by seeking a halt in commerce in plutonium and bomb-grade uranium. NCI is hosting the April 9 conference to raise these questions: -- Can we have nuclear power without nuclear weapons? Are there good technical fixes? -- How essential is nuclear power? How viable are advanced, non-nuclear alternatives? -- Are nuclear power plants vulnerable to attack and sabotage? -- What role has nuclear power played in the acquisition of nuclear weapons? Are current non-proliferation agreements effective? Other conference participants include: Richard Garwin, IBM Fellow Emeritus; William D. Magwood IV, Director of Nuclear Energy, Science & Technology, U.S. Department of Energy; Robert Williams and Harold Feiveson, Princeton University; Marvin Miller, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Lawrence Scheinman, former Assistant Director, U.S. Arms Control & Disarmament Agency; George Perkovich, author of ``India's Nuclear Bomb;'' Bertram Wolfe, past Vice-President/Nuclear, General Electric Co.; and Zachary Davis, Livermore National Laboratory. The conference and reception that follows are open to the media. The complete conference program and registration can found at: http://www.nci.org/conference.htm For more information, contact: Paul Leventhal, President Nuclear Control Institute 1000 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 410 Washington, DC 20036 Tel: 202-822-8444 E-Mail: pleventhal@aol.com; http://www.nci@nci.org ***************************************************************** 16 Northwest Nuclear Plant Subject Of New Study March 31 12:56 AM EST Two Washington congressmen have asked for $1 million to find out if one of the terminated nuclear plants in the Northwest might be brought back to life. The Washington Public Power Supply System planned 25 years ago to build five nuclear power plants to serve a booming demand for electricity. But demand dried up. Four of the plants were terminated, and WPPSS defaulted on more than $2 billion in municipal bonds. Now, the agency calls itself Energy Northwest. Reps. Doc Hastings and George Nethercutt say that the facility is too large, and its potential for benefit is too great to ignore. The Hanford plant's kilowatt efficiency numbers are so good that Energy Northwest is all ears. "These power plants were designed to be very large producers of electricity. In today's market, they would have been a boon to the Northwest," plant manager Scott Oxenford says. Supporters of nuclear power cite gas and coal-fired energy plants that pump out greenhouse gases. Hydropower is susceptible to drought, and bad for fish. They say that the biggest problem is waste disposal, but operation of the plants is much safer than 20 years ago. The Bonneville Power Administration owns the bonds for the terminated plant and says that it won't block a study aimed at finding an economical way to get the plant running. Because the terminated plant is nearly 20 years old, the study may find that its equipment is too outdated to be used. In that case, BPA may have to pay to have the plant dismantled. Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! and . ***************************************************************** 17 Decommissioning enters new phase Times Record News * BOB_KALISH@TimesRecord.Com* 03/30/2001 WISCASSET  The result of decommissioning activities will become more visible and apparent during the next three to five months as workers begin to dismantle buildings at the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant and move radioactive waste. "The next few months represent the peak of the decommissioning process" Michael Meisner, former president and current chief nuclear officer of Maine Yankee, told the Community Advisory Panel at its regular monthly meeting Thursday night. Workers on Monday will begin dismantling the turbine building, the large green structure that housed the turbines that produced electricity. "This will not be as dramatic as you think," Meisner said. "There will be no sudden demolition. Instead, we'll be cutting it apart piece by piece." Meanwhile, the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Facility proceeds, with movement of the spent fuel from the fuel pool to the dry casks scheduled to begin later this spring. Raymond Burke, acting vice president of decommissioning, told the panel that Maine Yankee imposed a stop-work order last Feb. 10 that lasted 10 days and resulted in the plant being "slightly behind by two or three weeks" from its schedule for completion of decommissioning in 2004. The reason for the stand-down was faulty work procedures among employees of one of the contractors. "We corrected the faulty practices," Burke said, "and only resumed work after we were satisfied the procedures at fault were not going to be repeated." ***************************************************************** 18 Alternative Nuclear Power World and I Magazine - Nuclear power for businesses. Advances in South Africa and the Netherlands suggest that small-scale fission machines could become safe, reliable, and inexpensive sources of electricity and heat for ships, factories, and perhaps single-family homes. Crews on nuclear submarines spend months at a time underwater and are totally dependent on the constant, reliable power output of a nuclear reactor. Similarly, some of NASA's long-distance space probes depend on nuclear power. Yet the once-bright promise of nuclear energy is today tarnished by associations with nuclear weapons, a few power station accidents, and concerns about wastes. While most of the world continues to ignore the possibility of resurrecting nuclear energy sources, working groups in South Africa and the Netherlands are making The Savannah, the first nuclear-powered commercial ship, represents the missed potential of nuclear power. strides toward commercializing a more user-friendly nuclear energy machine--one that is modular and scalable to provide an appropriate amount of electricity and heat for diverse customers. These smaller-scale applications employ a different kind of reactor design than the large commercial power plants, which use the reactor as a heat source for converting water to steam that drives steam turbines. In the smaller-scale reactors now being developed, the reactor heats a gas (like helium or nitrogen) that in a closed cycle directly drives a gas turbine. To understand the suite of options offered by the new breed of nuclear fission machines, we need to know how they work. From splitting atoms to electricity Machines that harness fission as a sustained source of power are called nuclear reactors because they are designed to manage a key reaction affecting the nucleus in each of trillions of fuel atoms. This reaction is fission, the splitting of an atomic nucleus into two main fragments, a process that is greatly enhanced if an extra neutron joins the nucleus. Among the naturally occurring metals, fission occurs only with certain isotopes of the heaviest metal, uranium. If these heavy metal atoms are packed together closely enough and stimulated by neutrons from an outside source, neutrons released in the fission process can escape the initial reaction, find another heavy metal nucleus, and cause a second reaction. If at least one neutron from each fission causes another fission, the process is said to have reached criticality; the amount of material needed for this condition is called critical mass. Critical masses can be achieved with as little as one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of fuel. In a reactor, the fissionable material is normally carefully arranged in a structure called a core, which also contains sufficient space to allow a flowing fluid to remove the generated heat. Neutrons released in fission are initially moving so fast that they avoid capture by a heavy metal nucleus; hence, they cannot cause fission. To do that, they need to be slowed down. The best way to slow them is to assure that they pass through a lightweight material (one in which each component atom has a small, light nucleus). In this way the neutrons, in colliding with many of the nuclei, will be slowed, as in each collision they transfer some small part of their kinetic energy to one nucleus without being captured. Materials that slow the neutrons are called moderators. They reduce the quantity of fissionable materials needed to achieve a critical mass. The nuclei of some materials, called neutron absorbers, act as a sponge, absorbing a neutron without either undergoing fission or reacting in any way that releases neutrons. Neutron absorbers are used as needed to control the neutron population and fission rate. The energy released in nuclear fission comes in several forms, including the electromagnetic wave energy of gamma radiation and the kinetic energy of the two main fragments and such diverse particles as neutrons, electrons (called beta radiation), and alpha particles (helium nuclei consisting of two protons and two neutrons). The most penetrating and detrimental to human health are energetic neutrons and gamma rays. To protect operators and the general public from radiation, nuclear reactors are surrounded by structures called shields, which attenuate gammas and neutrons. Lead, steel, concrete, and water are pretty good at eliminating gamma rays; water, plastic, steel, lead, and oil are often used in neutron shields. Shields can also help reactors work better by turning the energy released by the nuclear radiation into useful heat and reflecting neutrons back into the fissionable material. Like moderators, reflectors reduce the amount of material needed for a critical mass. *** Each tennis ball-sized fuel element in the PBMR contains roughly 10,000 coated particles of uranium dioxide. The particles are embedded in a powerful carbon matrix, which is securely enclosed within a hard graphite shell. *** One tool used for managing fission is the neutron source. These devices combine a radioactive material with one of several light elements like lithium or beryllium, such that alpha particles emitted by the radioactive material strike the nucleus of the light element and cause the emission of a neutron. Just as an experienced outdoor cook can arrange charcoal, vents, a match, and lighter fluid to control a combustion heat source, nuclear reactor designers and operators can arrange fissionable materials, moderators, reflectors, absorbers, and neutron sources in various ways to control a fission heat source. Harnessing fission heat In essence, a nuclear reactor, like any kind of combustion chamber or furnace, is a heat source that can be connected to engines that convert the heat into a more usable energy form such as rotational kinetic or electrical energy. In the 1950s, when commercial fission reactors were developed, the most popular form of steady input heat engine involved a closed loop of water and steam, with the heat converting water to steam that drives a turbine. These engines were well understood, reliable, and clearly capable of converting heat from almost any source into useful work. Further, the industrial base supporting steam engines was extensive, and plenty of people were experienced in operating and maintaining them. The early designers and builders minimized the risk of their projects by combining the new nuclear fission--based heaters with the well-proven closed-cycle steam engines. They established the industry's prevailing and enduring wisdom that the best way to reduce unit costs was to build plants with steadily increasing capacity to take advantage of projected economies of scale. Thus, essentially all of today's commercial nuclear power plants are large, central stations that use steam engines to convert their heat output into a useful form of energy, usually electricity. Eskom, a large public utility in South Africa, has taken a serious look at nuclear fission technology and is committed to the precommercial development of an alternative type of machine called the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR). The machine uses a high-temperature fission reactor as the heat source and helium, an inert gas with valuable heat-transfer properties, as the working medium. In a closed cycle, the compressor pushes the gas into the heat source, from which the heated and expanded gas advances to spin the turbine before it enters the heat sink unit, whose function is to remove the gas's excess heat. From there the gas is ready to be compressed again. A similar kind of cycle is used in a jet engine, with the atmosphere taking the place of the heat sink by supplying fresh air and accepting the waste gases. Since fission emerged as a promising heat source some 60 years ago, the alternative to steam-driven turbines--high-temperature, gas-driven turbines--has been dramatically improved. In parallel, nuclear reactors capable of reaching the high temperatures at which modern gas turbines are most efficient have been developed and proved in experimental programs. These developments culminated in the construction and operation of the PBMR's predecessors--several prototype reactors, one of which was operated for more than 20 years in Germany. Fuel for the PBMR is packaged inside "pebbles," billiard ball--sized spheres. Each pebble is a bit like a Russian doll, with the variant that inside the thick outer layers of silicon carbide steel a confined "sea" of graphite filler surrounds and enfolds about 10,000 fuel microspheres, each about 1 millimeter in diameter. Each microsphere consists of four protective layers surrounding a tiny sphere of uranium oxide, which is the fuel. Each pebble therefore includes both fuel (the microspheres) and moderator (the graphite) encased inside a tough shell. The core of a PBMR consists basically of a pile of pebbles held in a cylindrical container. The core is surrounded by a neutron reflector (made of graphite) that also contains channels for holding control rods. Space between the pebbles provides ample room for a flowing gas that removes the reactor's heat. Because higher temperatures naturally lead to higher efficiencies in heat engines, the PBMRs will achieve an overall thermal efficiency of about 45 percent compared to the 33 percent typical of conventional nuclear steam plants. The inert gas coolant eliminates the need for corrosion-resistant metal coatings to protect core materials. Safety features All the materials in the reactor are capable of withstanding elevated temperatures without melting, so there is a large margin between the temperature used in normal operation and the point at which any fuel failure will occur. Beyond normal operation, in the remote possibility of loss of control, even PBMRs producing somewhat more thermal power than the reactor planned by Eskom can withstand any series of failures without releasing fission products. That statement was proved by an experiment conducted in 1986 on the AVR, a German pebble bed reactor. It appears likely that the PBMRs will undergo similar tests to prove the design assumptions. *** Eskom's researchers have determined that no operational accidents could result in public exposure to radioactive materials. *** Eskom's researchers have determined that no operational accidents could result in public exposure to radioactive materials. Their plans provide a wide margin of safety with a 400-meter-radius safety zone. This means that the plants could be placed adjacent to populated areas, keeping transmission costs low. It also means that there will be no need to develop extensive emergency plans with a wide variety of local government agencies. In keeping with the utility industry's interest in being able to add generating capacity as demand grows, each PBMR will produce about 110 Mwe (million watts of electricity), roughly enough to power a city of 100,000. This size allows a utility to construct a 1,100-Mwe generating station over time, adding a generator or two until there are 10 on the same site to take advantage of common support systems. To allow the utility even more flexibility, the machines will automatically adjust their output to meet load variations. According to Eskom's projections, the final cost of electricity from the plants will be approximately U.S. 1.4--1.6 cents per kilowatt-hour with an installed base of 10 plants. The PBMR system includes, as shown, not only units for handling the two key working materials, fuel and hellium, but also the reactor, where helium is heated by the fuel, and the turbine-generator unit, where the hot helium spins a turb ine that drives an electrical generator. Current schedules project that the first unit will be constructed by 2005. Excitement is building, as many observers watch to see if PBMRs will meet the same kind of opposition that has plagued other nuclear projects. Eskom sees a potential international market of perhaps 20--30 plants per year. Eskom has turned over project development to a new group called the PBMR companies so it can continue to focus on its primary electricity business. To spread the development risk and attract additional capital, the organization includes two major international partners, BNFL and Exelon. BNFL is the company formerly known as British Nuclear Fuels, and Exelon is one of the largest investor-owned utilities in the United States. Each company has taken a 20 percent stake in the project. Exelon's leaders have indicated that they will request a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license review of the PBMR design in preparation for obtaining plants to serve their customers' growing needs. Future developments The project points the way to other possibilities for applying fission technology to meet the needs of additional customers. Downsizing and simplification do not have to stop at a 110-Mwe power plant module. Though quite small compared to the 1,000--1,300 Mwe of the typical large nuclear station, South African PBMRs will still be too big to use to push most ships or power an individual factory or industrial park. Because most customers requiring heat for industrial purposes or environmental controls use far less than the 120 MW each PBMR will produce as a by-product of its electrical generation, these reactors are not well suited to the market for cogeneration plants selling both heat and electricity. In the Netherlands, a country that currently depends heavily on natural gas--fired gas turbines operating as cogeneration plants, a significant amount of research has been conducted on future power plants that can replace those units when the gas begins to run out. The country also has a centuries-old tradition as a maritime trading nation with a substantial shipping industry. The ships currently depend on diesel engines, which use expensive fuel and are subject to increasing emissions-control limits. One potential solution for both needs is the NEREUS concept, a pebble bed reactor that bears a close technological resemblance to the South African PBMR. That plant will produce about 8 Mwe, fill a cube less than 8 meters (26 feet) on a side, and be readily adaptable to the market for ships and cogeneration. The plants will use the same kind of fuel as the PBMR, allowing the project to leverage the investment made by the PBMR companies. Operation in the cogeneration mode will require the inclusion of optional heat exchangers that will make heat available for heating buildings, purifying water, or drying industrial products like paper. NEREUS project leaders plan a pool system of management, whereby the plant's owners will take care of routine operation and a specialized cadre of workers and facilities will do maintenance and repair work. This management system is already used with great success in fossil-fuel ship and aircraft engine programs. Using the financial assumptions standard in the small power plant market, NEREUS project leaders calculate a power cost of approximately U.S. 5 cents per kilowatt-hour. This would give them a strong competitive advantage against fossil-fuel machines, whose power often costs two or three times as much. Home power reactors In much the same way that microprocessors can provide the basis for computational machines ranging in size from a pocket calculator to a mainframe computer, the high-temperature fuel microspheres could be used as the basis for fission machines that are considerably smaller than the 8-Mwe models being investigated in the Netherlands. Smaller than the PBMR, the reactor proposed by the NEREUS project would be about the right size for powering a cargo ship, a factory, or office building. The fuel elements would be similar to those used in the PBMR. There is nothing magic about the billiard ball--sized fuel element. It was originally chosen by German designers as a convenient size for a reactor using a continuous refueling concept. For smaller reactors, elements the size of golf balls or marbles might be needed. Making the smaller critical assemblies required for the very small reactors would also require fuel pebbles whose percentage of fissile material is higher than it is for pebbles in larger reactors. Though shielding can be expensive if space or weight is a limiting concern, it is also possible to put the machines at the bottom of a water tank the size of a swimming pool. Like their larger cousins, the very small reactors would probably use a gas in a closed cycle to harness the nuclear fission heat for driving an appropriately sized turbine. Microturbines using only a single moving part to produce a few kilowatts in an open-burned fuel system similar in operation to a jet engine are now available and could be adapted to closed-cycle machines. The very small reactor's power level would be suitable for individual homes. *** What if an external explosion, as from a ruptured natural gas main, shattered the tough shield surrounding the PBMR and scattered the pebbles? *** Of course, the early adopters of such a technology will not be average homeowners. A likely initial customer might be the owner of an isolated tropical island or a remote mountain with a spectacular view. The machines could be designed as black boxes containing a decade or more of fuel and needing only a cooling supply and a place to put the output power. They would not spoil the view with an exhaust stack and could be buried to muffle all noise. The possibility of home-size cousins of the PBMR coming to a neighborhood might raise concerns. What if an external explosion, as from a ruptured natural gas main, shattered the tough shield surrounding the PBMR and scattered the pebbles? In such a scenario, the radioactive material would remain contained within the pebbles. Of course, the pebbles would be hot, in terms of both temperature and radioactivity. Residents would need to be evacuated until professionals collected all the pebbles, but then they could return safely to their homes. Given the current state of energy-industry politics, few people familiar with the field allow themselves to imagine that such a machine will ever exist. Engineers and scientists may acknowledge that the technology is simply an adaptation of existing machinery, but they pale when considering the difficulties involved in obtaining permission to build and sell the device. Perhaps this mind-set can change as machines such as the PBMR emerge as viable, attractive alternatives to the much-maligned conventional nuclear plants. Additional Reading Ship-sized Reactors Adams Atomic Engines, Florida http://www.atomicengines.com NEREUS Project: Romawa, the Netherlands
http://www.romawa.nl Town-sized Reactors PBMR Project: ESKOM, South Africa http://www.pbmr.com Rod Adams was a nuclear submarine officer for nearly 13 years. He holds an associate chair in the weapons and systems engineering department of the U.S. Naval Academy. ***************************************************************** 19 Pakistan to Use Nuclear Technology in Drought Crisis Environment News Service: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 30, 2001 (ENS) - A three year drought has prompted Pakistan to consider new and unorthodox ways of obtaining water. Melting glaciers with charcoal and using nuclear technology to cultivate salt tolerant crops are two of the options under consideration. The majority of Pakistan's 141.5 million people do not have access to potable water and freshwater for farming is equally scarce. A prolonged drought has not helped matters for Pakistan, a country about twice the size of California. It has also exacerbated water sharing problems with India over the Indus River. [lake] Lake Simly. Pakistan is learning to make the most of its water resources in the midst of a three year drought. (Photos courtesy Islamic Republic of Pakistan High Commission, London) Under an agreement signed with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Thursday, the Pakistan government will cultivate crops, trees and fodder grass on 5,000 acres of saline and waterlogged land. Soil salinity is a worldwide phenomenon but is most serious in arid and semi-arid regions where surface water is scarce or unreliable and where groundwater also tends to be saline. Normal agriculture depends on fresh water, but in irrigated and non-irrigated saline lands, fresh water is scarce. Saline or brackish water though is usually available and can be used for cultivation with salt tolerant plants. Plants have vast genetic variability and more than 100 species exhibit natural salt tolerance. Salt resistant plants can be used for food or animal fodder, for timber, fuel, green manure or for processing into food or industrial products. The IAEA is conducting an inter-regional Model Project in eight countries, including Pakistan, to demonstrate that economic use can be made of salt affected barren land using saline groundwater and salt tolerant plants chosen to meet local needs. The other countries taking part in the Model Project are Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Myanmar. The IAEA believes that by using nuclear techniques, bio-saline agriculture can make productive and economic use of two wasted resources - saline land and saline groundwater - at a time of alarming forecasts for the availability of freshwater worldwide. Integral to the nuclear techniques are neutron moisture gauges. According to the IAEA, irrigation can be better managed using neutron moisture gauges because only needed amounts of irrigation are applied and salt accumulation can be controlled. [lake] Lake Rawal, Pakistan. Under normal conditions, up to 40 percent of water used in irrigation can be lost to seepage. This has the effect of raising the groundwater table and bringing salts to the soil by capilliary action. Evaporation of the water leaves the salt on the surface. Stable and radioisotopic analysis of groundwater can provide information about the quality and quantity of its recharge, and the sustainability of its use. Other isotopes can be used to "label" plants by tracing the pathways of elements such as carbon and nitrogen, which circulate from the atmosphere to plants to soil and again into the atmosphere. Such study can provide information on the effect of plants on soil structure and fertility. Isotopes of chlorine can be used to monitor the movement of saline water and to assess whether the techniques are sustainable. Media reports quote Pakistan agriculture ministry officials as saying the project should turn desert land green within a few years. In a more novel approach, the government is also looking into melting glaciers to ease the country's water shortage. The proposal involves melting part of the glaciers in northern Pakistan by spraying on charcoal, which raises the temperature of the ice. Chairman of the Federal Flood Commission, Riaz Ahmad Khan, told BBC Online that the plan is at "very preliminary stage" and Pakistan is looking into which other countries had tried the method. He added that, even if the plan went ahead, it would have limited application and would be subject to strong environmental and safety controls, so as not to destabilize the glaciers. © Environment News Service ***************************************************************** 20 U.S. nuke regulators prepare for new plant applications [Reuters] Friday March 30, 2:47 pm Eastern Time WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday said it is forming a ``future licensing project organization'' to prepare and manage possible applications to permit construction of new nuclear reactors. ``Several utilities and organizations have contacted the NRC to initiate discussions associated with possible construction of a new nuclear plants in the United States,'' the NRC said. ``These include Exelon's (NYSE:EXC - news) request for a pre-application review of a Pebble Bed Modular Reactor and Exelon's stated intentions to submit an application to build the Pebble Bed Reactor.'' No commercial nuclear power plant has been built in the United States in 25 years. Though nuclear supplies around 20 percent of the nation's electricity needs, it is only now, with a new Republican White House and an emerging energy crisis that the industry has seriously explored building new plants. The NRC said it intends to staff the new organization in phases with the objective of having a fully functional office by the end of September. More Quotes and News: Exelon Corp (NYSE:EXC - news) Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy ***************************************************************** 21 Redlands ready for nuclear accident Inland Empire Online - News April 3, 2001 It may be the only city in the San Onofre power plant's 50-mile "ingestion pathway zone" that has such an emergency plan. By Jacquie Paul and Louis Rom *The Press-Enterprise* REDLANDS The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station may be about 50 miles away -- as the crow flies -- from Redlands, but its presence looms large in the city's emergency management plans. Though plant officials say the odds of a large-scale nuclear accident are more than a million to one, the San Diego County plant owned by Southern California Edison does pose a potential threat to some cities in the Inland area. Redlands is on the outer reaches of the plant's "ingestion pathway zone," a 50-mile circle around the plant that experts say could be exposed to radioactive material should a meltdown occur. Radiation released from the plant would be so diluted by the time it reached Riverside and San Bernardino counties that the only real threat would be in contaminated soil or food products, plant officials said. Emergency evacuations might only be needed for those living within a 10-mile radius of the plant, said San Onofre spokesman Ray Golden. Still, Redlands is ready with more than 120 employees and nearly 100 volunteers ready to respond. Greg Renick, state Office of Emergency Services spokesman, said he knows of no other city that has mapped out a disaster plan specific to the ingestion pathway. "An event may never happen, but if one does, we'll be prepared to respond appropriately," said Redlands Battalion Chief Mitch McKee, who heads the fire department's radiological emergency unit. Should an emergency grow beyond the means of the local team, state and federal emergency teams could come in, he said. In an emergency, five specially trained firefighters will race out to a number of predetermined sites throughout the city and begin testing for radioactivity, according to fire officials. Based on those results, the public could be notified of appropriate shelters, and those in areas without adequate shelter may be evacuated. The department's test kits give readings for radioactivity levels dangerous to humans, though such levels are unlikely to reach Redlands, Golden said. "Radiation drops off dramatically from its point of release," he said. Lesser levels of contamination to water, food and cattle -- measured by state and federal agencies -- could pose a threat, Golden and McKee acknowledged. Golden said Redlands' emergency-management workers would have plenty of time to react because radiation is likely to be released slowly if a reactor fails. "We'd be talking hours, if not days, for these types of scenarios to evolve," said Golden. David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, an industry watchdog group based in Cambridge, Mass., said weather conditions would play a major role in carrying radiation to other areas. "If they (radioactive materials) do escape and get through all the barriers that are between it and the public . . . then it's primarily a function of wind direction and speed," Lochbaum said. Emergency workers would have to determine what measures to take based on wind direction, Golden said. If the contamination is carried west, for example, very few areas would be adversely affected because most of the radiation would float out over the Pacific, he said. Federal, state and Edison officials have mapped out a detailed emergency-response plan for all areas that could be within the contamination's path. Quarterly drills are performed to test the plan, Golden said. *Jacquie Paul can be reached by e-mail at or by phone (909) 792-6547 Louis Rom can be reached by e-mail at or by phone at (909) 890-4464.* *Published 4/1/2001* ***************************************************************** 22 BNFL faces fight over MOX plant The Times FRIDAY MARCH 30 2001 BY CARL MORTISHED BRITISH Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) is preparing for a battle with environmentalists over the Sellafield MOX Plant after the Government decided to consult the public on whether the company should be allowed to operate the plant. The Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel manufacturing plant, built at a cost of £460 million, is crucial to the future of BNFL. However, the fuel, which combines uranium and plutonium, achieved notoriety last year when it was revealed that workers in a demonstration plant falsified quality assurance checks on MOX fuel shipped to Japan. After the scandal, BNFL’s new management submitted a revised economic case for the plant in January. Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister, has asked independent consultants to evaluate the new business case put forward by the company. The consultants will report in ten weeks. The Deputy Prime Minister and the Health Secretary will then decide whether the plant should go ahead. Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided on Times ***************************************************************** 23 Public inquiry call over Devon nuclear waste plans BBC Online - Devon - News - 30 March 2001 [submarine] More Work: DML is refitting nuclear submarines Anti-nuclear campaigners in Plymouth are seeking a public inquiry over DML's plans to increase radioactive discharges into the River Tamar. As part of the programme to refit the Trident nuclear submarines, DML has applied to increase the amount of radioactive tritium discharged into the Tamar by 700% . But in the draft authorisation put forward by the Environment Agency at a meeting last night, which was attended by more than 250 people, the company would only be allowed to increase the discharge by less than 500%. DML says this increase would fall well within current safety levels. But campaigners, who are concerned about the long-term effects of any increases on both the environment and the local population, are mounting a legal challange against the Environment Agency. They claim the public consultation process contraveans the Human Rights Act, and they're calling for a public inquiry into the procedure. ***************************************************************** 24 Disputed Czech Nuclear Plant to Close Again for Repairs Czech Today on Central Europe Online - Czech Today - PRAGUE, Mar 30, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Managers of a disputed Czech nuclear plant announced Friday that its only running reactor will be closed down for at least a month in June after a series of technical problems. The announcement appears certain to delay the scheduled operational launch of the Soviet-built Temelin plant, which Prague had hoped would start producing electricity commercially by June. The single functioning reactor at the plant, which has sparked protests in neighboring Austria, has been repeatedly stopped due to technical faults, including a month-long shutdown in February to modify equipment. Austria at one stage threatened to block Prague's EU membership negotiations over Temelin, which is located some 60 kilometers (35 miles) from the Austrian border. However it signed an accord last December agreeing to allow the plant to start up, but only after safety and environmental studies had been carried out. The accord specified that the plant could start producing electricity commercially, if all conditions were fulfilled. Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner expressed concern Thursday over the series of glitches in talks with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan, but insisted Vienna will abide by the December agreement. Anti-nuclear protestors who staged border blockades last October, when Temelin first started powering up, have threatened to resume the blockades in recent days. Kavan said Thursday such action could threaten the December deal. Construction of the Temelin plant began in the 1980s, but was only finished in the 1990s after extensive modifications and additions following the 1989 collapse of the Soviet bloc. In its latest glitch last Thursday, the reactor was powered down under emergency conditions after an oil leak, but was started again on Sunday. A new series of tests have been scheduled for Sunday, plant spokesman Milan Nebesar said. Turbine vibrations and gas leaks are the main problems to be solved, according to the boss of the plant. A second reactor at Temelin is due to begin the process of powering up in November this year, and experts say they have already successfully carried out tests on its air-tight seals. *((c) 2001 Agence France Presse) ***************************************************************** 25 Glitch-plagued Czech nuclear plant faces new delay 31 March 2001 : Indiatimes] PRAGUE: A glitch-plagued and disputed Czech nuclear plant suffered its latest blow on Friday as managers announced a new month-long closure, threatening to delay its commercial launch. The Soviet-built Temelin plant, which has sparked fierce protests in neighbouring Austria, will close for "at least a month" in June for repairs, said its director Frantisek Hezoucky. The announcement appears certain to delay the operational launch of the plant, which Prague had hoped would start producing electricity commercially by June. The Temelin plant began powering up last October, despite protests by both the Austrian government and environmental protestors who blockaded the border between the two countries. But the single functioning reactor at the plant, which is located some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the Austrian border, has been repeatedly stopped due to technical faults, including a month-long shutdown in February. In its latest glitch last Thursday, the reactor was powered down under emergency conditions after an oil leak, but was started again on Sunday. A new series of tests have been scheduled for Sunday, plant spokesman Milan Nebesar said. Turbine vibrations and gas leaks are the main problems to be solved. Hezoucky meanwhile told the Prague daily Pravo that that 44 strengthening rings which had been added to the reactor in February had ruptured, but he added that they had been rendered superfluous by recent modifications. The Czech government, which suffered a slump in economic growth in recent years, has pressing economic reasons for building the plant, which when fully on stream will provide some 20 percent of the country's power needs. But neighbouring Austria, which rejected nuclear energy in a 1978 referendum, has demanded safety guarantees for the plant Vienna at one stage threatened to block Prague's EU membership negotiations over Temelin. But it signed an accord last December agreeing to allow the plant to start up, but only after safety and environmental studies had been carried out. The accord specified that the plant could start producing electricity commercially, if all conditions were fulfilled. Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner expressed concern Thursday over the series of glitches in talks with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan, but insisted Vienna will abide by the December agreement. "Of course we are concerned that there are all these incidents," Ferrero-Waldner told AFP. But she said: "If you have an agreement you have to stick to the agreement as long as the partner also maintains the right positions and commitments, and the Czechs are committed to that." Anti-nuclear protestors who staged border blockades when Temelin first started powering up have threatened to resume the blockades in recent days. Kavan said on Thursday that such action could threaten the December deal. Construction of the Temelin plant began in the 1980s, but was only finished in the 1990s after extensive modifications and additions following the 1989 collapse of the Soviet bloc. A second reactor at Temelin is due to begin the process of powering up in November this year, and experts say they have already successfully carried out tests on its air-tight seals. In a separate development on Friday officials admitted that two tourist aircraft had violated an air exclusion zone around the Czech Republic's existing nuclear plant at Dukovany in the southeast of the country. The planes flew over at an altitude of 150 metres (500 feet) earlier this month, the CTK news agency reported. It was not immediately clear if the planes, flying from the Austrian city of Linz, were involved in a protest. (AFP) ***************************************************************** 26 France's La Hague plant no stranger to protests FRANCE: March 30, 2001 PARIS - France's La Hague nuclear reprocessing plant, the source of atomic waste rumbling in a train across Germany amid widespread protests, has long been a favourite target of environmental groups. One of only two commercial reprocessing sites in the world, the plant has proved a high-profile bugbear for activists who have used every means from chaining themselves to railway tracks to filing lawsuits to block its shipments. The plant sits at the centre of a multi-billion dollar reprocessing web, taking in spent fuel from Germany, Japan, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands before sending back the recycled fuel and waste produced to its country of origin. German demonstrators have mounted the fiercest opposition, turning out in their hundreds to occupy railway track to opppose the train that left on Monday with the first shipment from La Hague to Germany since 1997. Demonstrators fought pitched battles with police during protests against the previous shipment to Germany, which has since agreed to phase out nuclear reactors by 2025. Protests have been more muted in France, which has one of the world's largest nuclear industries and generates around 75 percent of its power from atomic reactors. Smaller demonstrations have greeted ships taking waste to Japan from La Hague, both at the French port used for the shipments and in countries along the sea route. The environmental group Greenpeace has played a prominent role in protests at the plant, sending divers to block an undersea pipe discharging waste in June last year. A court ruled earlier in March in favour of a case brought by Greenpeace that a shipment of Australian nuclear waste could not be unloaded because it did not have proper authorisation. Mindful of public fears, Cogema, the state-owned firm that runs the plant, pledged in October 1999 to end its culture of secrecy and try to eliminate radioactive emissions from La Hague. Not all the shipments have provoked the kind of outcry seen in Germany. A Cogema spokesman said three similar waste shipments had moved unopposed through Belgium in the past year. "In Germany there is a political question, so you must differentiate between Japan and Belgium, and the situation in Germany." Story by Matthew Green REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 27 No evidence The Scotsman Online - Scotland's best selling quality national newspaper In reply to James Boyle (Letters, 26 March), there is no evidence that the incident at Windscale in 1957 harm-ed anyone. Radioactive iodine was released, but a ban was placed on milk and two million litres of contaminated milk were poured away. So much for not causing panic. Whatever the events at Dounreay, there is no evidence that the plant’s activities have harmed anyone. The dumping of waste into the old access shaft was not illegal, and the removal of the material is not necessary. Nevertheless, the government is spending taxpayers’ money on the task, a gift to the local economy. Nor is there any convincing evidence that nuclear material has been lost, al-though it may not be accounted for. STEUART CAMPBELL Dovecot Loan Edinburgh ***************************************************************** 28 Russia's new nuclear plant starts< MOSCOW - Russia's first new nuclear plant since the Soviet era started pumping electricity to the energy-starved south on Friday, in a boost to the country's nuclear industry after years of public opposition. Two decades after construction began, reactor No. 1 at the Rostov Atomic Energy Station was sa fely switched on to minimal output in February for tests. On Friday, operators turned it up to 10 percent of its maximum output level and linked it to the electricity grid serving the North Caucasus region, the state-owned nuclear power company Rosenergoatom said. It will operate on a trial basis and continue to undergo tests for the next six months, after which it is expected to begin working full-time on full power. Friday's launch went smoothly and the reactor was produ cing 100 megawatts a second, Rosenergoatom's press service said in a statement. Operators discovered a minor glitch in the Rostov reactor during start-up tests Sunday. No radiation leaked, but steam leaked from secondary cooling pipes. It was quickly fixed, plant officials said. The reactor had been almost complete when the government froze construction on all Russian nuclear plants because of public protests prompted by the 1986 explosion at the Soviet Chernobyl plant, the world's worst nuclear accident. With Friday's launch , Russia now has 10 nuclear plants that produce about 12 percent of the nation's electricity. http://www.russiajournal.com ***************************************************************** 29 Dominion announces completion of Millstone purchase By Associated Press, 3/31/2001 17:46 HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) Dominion Resources Inc. announced Saturday it has completed its $1.3 billion purchase of the Millstone nuclear power complex from Northeast Utilities. ''This closing is a significant step forward in fulfilling our growth strategy to become a major regional provider of energy and energy services,'' said Thomas Capps, chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Richmond, Va.-based utility. The power plant in Waterford includes two operating reactors of 870 megawatts and 1,150 megawatts each. A third and oldest unit is out of service and is being decommissioned. The sale was conducted by sealed bid in August, and the $1.3 billion was the highest ever paid per kilowatt. Opponents of the sale lost two court battles last week. A Superior Court judge on Thursday rejected a request to halt the transfer of state water discharge permits from Northeast Utilities to Dominion. The Coalition Against Millstone accused the plants of dumping discharges into Long Island Sound illegally. The permits expired three years ago and Millstone has been operating under emergency authorizations. A Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that the coalition failed to establish legal standing to pursue a lawsuit challenging the sale's approval by the Department of Public Utility Control. The DPUC's order requires the Dominion to offer all nuclear employees jobs for at least a year following the sale. Any workers laid off for six months after that would receive $3,000 toward retraining and help to get a new job. The highest price was for the largest and youngest reactor, Millstone Three, which brought in $791 per kilowatt. Dominion offered $507 per kilowatt for Millstone Two. The two reactors together generate about 2,000 megawatts. One megawatt, or a million watts, provides enough power for about 300 homes. The purchase price also includes $1 million for out-of-service Millstone One. Berlin-based Northeast Utilities put the plants up for sale to comply with the state's deregulation law and get out of the business of generating power. NU officials were not available for comment. Phone messages were left with a company representative. ***************************************************************** 30 British Nuclear Fuels plunges into the red ISSUE 2137 Sunday 1 April 2001 By Mary Fagan LOSSES at British Nuclear Fuel's Magnox reactor division soared to about £100m last year, pushing the company into the red. BNFL, which the Government and which made an operating profit before exceptionals of £65m a year earlier, has also been hit by problems at its Sellafield site in Cumbria which could cost up to £50m. The figures emerge as BNFL prepares to open talks with the Government over massive nuclear liabilities, which have soared to around £34bn. BNFL is responsible for £10.5bn of those liabilities and has shareholder funds of only £300m. The company fears that without government underwriting or some form of guarantee, investors will shun any privatisation process. Magnox power plants account for around 60 per cent of the £10.5bn and although BNFL has announced plans to shut all the Magnox plants by 2009, the related liabilities will live on for many years. At the same time BNFL is awaiting approval to , which it sees as the key to the future of the whole site. BNFL was plunged into chaos last year after Sellafield employees falsified data on mixed oxide fuel bound for Japan. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate accused BNFL of being guilty of "systematic management failure" and of having "a serious safety culture problem". BNFL has since made sweeping changes in management and processes throughout Sellafield and has appointed a new chief executive, Norman Askew, to drive the company forward. It is now awaiting the outcome of an eight-week government consultation on the Mox plant. A source close to the company said: "The new management has made the right decision to exit the Magnox business. They were sold a pup by the Government and they now need the right decision on the go-ahead for the Mox plant." ***************************************************************** 31 Study Finds Radioactive Substance in Florida Kids' Teeth; Nuke Industry Disputes Results March 31, 2001* FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Tests by a privately funded anti-nuclear group found that South Florida children's baby teeth contain concentrations of radioactive Strontium-90 that rival those measured in the early 1960s, when the United States still conducted aboveground nuclear weapons testing, a study released this week says. The group responsible for the findings, the Radiation and Public Health Project, says emissions from South Florida's two nuclear power plants -- Turkey Point and St. Lucie -- are the only plausible source of the man-made carcinogen. The plants' owner, Florida Power &Light, disputes the study's accuracy. The study collected 86 baby teeth from Miami-Dade children born between 1980 and 1994. Those teeth showed an average Strontium-90 concentration of 2.21 picocuries per gram of calcium, the highest of six regions that the project has focused on to date. Dubbed the "Tooth Fairy Project," the study suggested a link between the nuclear power plants' emission levels and subsequent fluctuations in the rates of bone, blood, breast and childhood cancer. Strontium-90 is one of a host of radioactive byproducts produced by nuclear fission. The substance does not occur in nature. It is treated by the body much like calcium, causing it to be taken up into developing bone and teeth. The nuclear industry responded with swift criticism of the report, accusing its authors of skewing their findings to frighten the public, and to further a political agenda. ***************************************************************** 32 Nuclear power is worth developing, promoting c 2001 Alabama Live, LLC 03/31/01 If the nation is suffering an energy shortage, but environmentalists are worried about the effects of burning more fossil fuels, then what are we to do? The answer is not to get mad, but instead to go nuclear. As in uranium rods. Controlled fission. Negligible airborne emissions. And falling costs. An article by William Tucker in the April 2 Weekly Standard explains why. In 1999, Mr. Tucker notes, nuclear energy became the nation's cheapest source of electricity, at 1.83 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to 2.07 cents for coal, 3.24 cents for oil and 3.52 cents for natural gas. "We're basically immune to increases in fuel prices," explained Marv Fertel, senior vice president of the Nuclear Energy Institute. "Uranium is as common as tin and relatively easy to process." Not only that, writes Mr. Tucker, but: "Recent improvements in safety techniques and operating procedures have raised the nuclear industry's 'capacity factor' (the percentage of time the plants are on line) to an almost unbelievable 90 percent. Coal plants run at only 69 percent of capacity, while oil and natural gas generators run at about 30 percent. ... Hydroelectric dams, at the mercy of rainfall and snowmelt, ran at only 40 percent last year." But what about safety? After all, fears of another Three Mile Island accident yet linger in the public mind. Look at it this way: Three Mile Island's accident occurred more than two decades ago. As celebrated as it was, it was only a scare - a disaster that came close to happening. And nothing like it has happened since anywhere in the free world: Not in the 103 nuclear reactors operating in the United States today; not in France, where 70 percent of all power is nuclear-generated; not in Japan, which is 50-percent nuclear. In the decades since Three Mile Island's partial meltdown, standards and practices have improved significantly. As Mr. Fertel explained to The Weekly Standard, "On average, our operators spend one week a month in a training environment. They do more simulation practice than airline pilots." Meanwhile, the National Cancer Institute has refuted earlier fears that, somehow, escaping traces of radiation could harm surrounding communities. In 1991, it concluded that there is "no general increased risk of death from cancer for people living in 197 U.S. counties containing or closely adjacent to 62 nuclear facilities." Mr. Tucker writes that other demographic studies have confirmed those studies. In short, nuclear power is inexpensive, safe and efficient. It is therefore long past time for national policy-makers to re-emphasize nuclear power as part of a strategy to reach America's long-term energy needs. c Mobile Register. Used with permission. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 New York Engineering Software Firm Signs Contract With Computer Center in Russian Closed Nuclear City By Ascribe, 3/30/2001 WASHINGTON, March 30 (AScribe News) -- Analysis & Design Application Company, Ltd. (adapco), a for-profit U.S. corporation in Melville, New York announced the signing today of an $84,000 contract with the Sarov Open Computing Center (SOCC) located in Sarov, a Russian closed nuclear city formerly known as Arzamas-16. The contract will employ Russian former nuclear weapons scientists - six engineers and one manager - for a period of one year to perform commercial engineering work in computer modeling and software development for adapco. The collaboration is the direct result of a travel grant provided by the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) and the activities of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration's Nuclear Cities Initiative Program (NCI). Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's nuclear weapons and research facilities have witnessed drastic funding cutbacks, leading to fears in the West that unemployed or underpaid former Soviet defense researchers would be tempted by offers from rogue nations seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction. The CRDF's programs seek to engage such scientists and engineers in civilian activities. The NCI Program established the Sarov Open Computing Center in 1999. The Centers serve as a mechanism to allow Western businesses to engage former weapons scientists in computing and modeling complex systems. NCI has established contracts with several U.S. software companies. Successful projects such as this benefit U.S. industry and provide civilian opportunities for former weapons researchers, and represent a significant victory for the CRDF, NCI and other U.S. nonproliferation efforts. adapco learned of the Sarov Open Computing Center through Argonne National Laboratory, an NCI partner, with whom adapco had collaborated for many years on various projects. Through Argonne, adapco approached the Sarov Open Computing Center by initiating a pilot project for the Sarov scientists to work on. With initial positive results from the collaborative effort, adapco and the team of Russian scientists applied for and received a grant from CRDF to meet in person and discuss possible further collaboration. The visit led to an $84,000 contract between adapco and the Russian scientists, which was signed on April 1, 2001. The U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation for the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, founded in 1995, is a private, non-profit charitable organization created by the United States Government as an American response to the declining state of science and engineering in the former Soviet Union (FSU). The CRDF seeks to address this issue by fostering opportunities for collaborative projects between FSU and U.S. researchers. Analysis and Design Application Company, Ltd. (adapco) was founded in 1980 as a mechanical engineering consulting firm to provide very high quality design and analysis support to major mechanical equipment manufacturers. adapco is now a leading provider of engineering software and consulting services to manufacturers of mechanical equipment as well as the process industry worldwide. The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration's Nuclear Cities Initiative Program (NCI), focuses on downsizing Russia's nuclear weapons complex by diversifying the economies of the 10 closed ''nuclear cities'' and assisting the transition of nuclear scientists to the commercial sector by introducing a variety of relevant business, training, and community development projects. A Government-to-Government Agreement between the U.S. and the Russian Federation established the program in 1998. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies, federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership. The University of Chicago operates Argonne as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratory system. 2001 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 COMPENSATION PROGRAM: Nuke workers' benefits may shift to Justice [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Saturday, March 31, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Changing agency authority might delay the delivery of aid to qualifying people By TONY BATT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Concerns about a potential delay in distributing benefits to disabled workers at the Nevada Test Site and other nuclear facilities grew this week with the disclosure of a draft copy of an executive order from the White House. Issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget, the unofficial executive order would transfer responsibility for the benefits program from the Department of Labor to the Justice Department. "This is something I can't comment on because the process is still under way and not done," Chris Ullman, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said Friday. Spokeswomen at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and the Department of Energy in Washington also declined comment. A call to the Justice Department was not returned. Copies of the draft began circulating Thursday on Capitol Hill, prompting criticism from lawmakers in Nevada and other states where nuclear workers are set to start getting benefits by July 31. They are worried the Justice Department does not have an adequate system to distribute checks to thousands of disabled nuclear workers. "It is inexcusable to delay distribution and prolong the agony of these workers," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said. Congress established a program last year making disabled nuclear workers eligible for $150,000 and medical benefits if their illnesses stemmed from handling toxic metals or being exposed to radiation while manufacturing or testing nuclear weapons for the Energy Department. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, in a March 9 letter to the White House, said the Justice Department should run the program because it already distributes benefits under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. These benefits go to uranium miners and downwind victims of radiation from atmospheric tests. "The difficulty is that the Labor Department would have to start from scratch," said Labor Department spokesman Stuart Roy. "The deadline for writing regulations (for the nuclear workers' compensation program) is May 31, and the program has to be up and running by July 31," he said. "We have never dealt with a radiation compensation program, and the Justice Department has." Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who spoke to Chao last week, said the transfer of the program to the Justice Department is "a done deal." "I don't know what else you can do," he said. "Chao told me she doesn't want to see the workers shortchanged, and I don't think she's lying." But Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said through spokesman Nathan Naylor he was "puzzled why Chao is getting cold feet. It is troubling that she has decided to reinvent the wheel and engage in a bureaucratic turf war with the Department of Justice when there are sick and dying nuclear workers." In a March 21 letter, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., joined eight other lawmakers urging Mitch Daniels, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to keep the program at the Labor Department. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Mar-31-Sat-2001/news/15769940.html ***************************************************************** 3 Where I stand--Brian Greenspun: Don't tread on us March 30, 2001 "WE HAVE a political problem with the state of Nevada that is serious with reference to the state's fighting the federal government." So sayeth Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico. He's the same fellow, by the way, who told Nevada's senior Senator, Harry Reid, just a few months ago that the nation's high-level nuclear waste would be heading our way within months after George W. Bush was elected president. To Nevadans, that bit of truth telling by the likable Sen. Domenici confirmed what we have known for years, and that is that the decision to put nuclear waste in Nevada at Yucca Mountain is all to do with politics and nothing to do with science, or even necessity. I hope and, dare I say it in this modern age, pray that the good senator is right on the mark this time when he suggests that political issues may derail a hellbent Congress and nuclear industry from burying their inability to deal with radioactive waste in our back yard. What is most ironic about Sen. Domenici's statement is that it comes on the heels of an attempt by many of Nevada's state legislators to cave in to the Department of Energy and begin negotiating transportation routes. Say what they will to cover their behinds, those folks in Carson City who couldn't wait to advance legislation that would send the wrong message to Washington almost dealt this state a fatal blow in our long-term effort to rid ourselves of a future filled with the ugliness that only a radioactive nightmare could conjure up. There are no sure things in politics, and any thought of giving up or giving in should be banished, as should those who publicly espouse them to the detriment of the people who call Nevada home. Don't jump to any conclusions here. I am all for free speech, but the kind of mindless chatter that could send 70,000 tons of the deadliest poison known to man through the streets of Las Vegas, to a burial plot just a few miles from the tourist capital of the world, is not free. It has a cost attached to it that is so dear to the health and safety of our loved ones that no one should be required to pay it against their will. And that, dear friends, seems to be what is on Sen. Domenici's mind when he suggests that a "political problem" exists in the great state of Nevada. To that I say hooray and duh! For, if anyone in elected office -- except for former President Bill Clinton, who understood us and acted in our interests -- had been paying attention to Nevadans during the past 20 years, they would have understood from the outset that, except for a few misguided state legislators, the people who live here don't want that stuff anywhere near our children and other living things. What had been boiling just beneath the surface of this one-sided effort to solve the nuclear industry's problem of what to do with the mess it has made is finally bubbling up through and into the political mindset in Washington that so far has decided to ignore the problem and Nevada as if both will eventually go away. Well, nuclear waste is not going away anytime soon, at least not for the next 10,000 years, and our citizens' opposition to Nevada being used as a garbage dump, for that which the rest of the states do not want, will never go away. The reason we will never say die is because that could be what happens to the Silver State if we give in. No one wants to have a hand in the signing of their own death warrant. What New Mexico's senior senator may be giving life to is the idea that in this republic of 50 different and sovereign states, the will of the majority of them should not overrule the will of just one when the result of such a decision could mean a tragic violation of protections afforded by the Constitution of the United States. In short, the concept of states' rights, especially for a good Republican, must be given some meaning if our elected representatives are to be consistent with their oaths of office. And this state has the same right as every other of our 49 sister states to pursue the hopes and dreams of its citizens. And nowhere in the future of Nevada -- the fastest growing and probably the most envied of the batch -- is there room for radioactive waste. Not when there are other alternatives. Not when there are no other alternatives, either. The way this country is supposed to work is that when there is a national problem -- and nuclear waste is one -- the entire country is supposed to come together to seek a solution. That has never been done in the case of nuclear waste and that has always been the Achilles' heel of the effort by the power companies and their minions in Congress to bury their problems in our Yucca Mountain. It is not too late to do so. And if Sen. Domenici's observation has any validity to it, it is high time the rest of the country got real and looked for a solution that doesn't oppress a minority of its people just to favor an unworthy majority. I say unworthy because Nevadans don't use nuclear power. We don't benefit directly from its use and we don't ask anyone else to bear the burden of our energy needs. These were voluntary decisions by other states to use nuclear power because they thought it was cheaper and cleaner. Those are benefits that were conferred upon the people who received them. To try to push the negative effects onto someone else against their will is not only unfair, it probably violates a few constitutional proscriptions. In the end, whether legal or not, it just isn't good business or good politics to force Nevada to take this waste that nobody else wants. We have one senator from New Mexico who sees the problem. Will there be more who will see the writing on the wall? The colonial saying, "Don't tread on me," comes to mind when I think about what the rest of the country is trying to do to Nevada and our efforts to stop that from happening. Those were very powerful words three centuries ago. They are just as powerful today. After all, Pete Domenici heard them, didn't he? All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 4 Draft order shows Chao winning battle to shed nuclear worker program March 30, 2001 By Katherine Rizzo ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - A signal that the Bush administration might move agency control of a compensation program for sick nuclear workers intensified lobbying by lawmakers and others worried that the change will delay payments. The Office of Management and Budget on Thursday circulated a draft executive order handing the program over to the Justice Department. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao had asked for such an order, saying her department did not have the right kind of expertise to be in charge of distributing medical coverage and $150,000 payments to some of the workers dying of cancer or incurable lung diseases because of lax Cold War-era safety standards. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, immediately called the White House and asked Budget Director Mitch Daniels to reconsider. "Many of these people don't have time to wait. They're sick now and can't wait while the government tweaks its bureaucracy," Voinovich said. Daniels listened to a pitch for keeping the program in the Labor Department but offered no indication of whether he'd been convinced that putting the Justice Department in charge would mean a longer wait for workers exposed to health-robbing levels of radiation, beryllium or silica. The government weapons' work was done at mills, foundries and factories around the country. The Energy Department preliminarily identified 317 sites in 37 states where sick workers might qualify for benefits. Most were private companies that did business for the Energy Department or the Atomic Energy Commission. The new program is expected to generate about 2,500 successful claims a year, Voinovich said, compared with about 360 successful claims in the ongoing Justice Department-run program for the miners, uranium millers and victims of airborne radiation from aboveground nuclear bomb tests. "The best plan is to send this program through the biggest pipeline, and I think that's Labor," Voinovich said. The White House said it would have no comment on the draft order, which is not the administration position unless President Bush signs it. In the last week, the White House has received a series of strongly worded letters from Capitol Hill, some demanding that the Labor Department be forced to run the new entitlement program, some agreeing with Chao that the Justice Department's experience running the miners' compensation program made it better suited to the task. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said miners in his district had been complaining for years about Justice Department rules that made it difficult for them to prove their eligibility for benefits. Putting that department in charge of new eligibility decisions "is essentially double-crossing the people who had been expecting to get the benefits of this legislation," he said. Many of the uranium miners for whom the Justice Department-run program was intended are Navajo. A tribal leader weighed into the dispute on Thursday, asking that both the new program and the old program be sent to Chao's team. The law creating the new compensation program offered medical care to the miners but, "This move will make the promised medical benefits for uranium miners another broken promise," wrote Dr. Taylor McKenzie, Navajo Nation vice president. The new program already has $60.4 million in start-up funds, some of which was earmarked for radiation dose reconstruction by the Department of Health and Human Services. The bulk of the appropriation, though, could be moved to the Justice Department. Chao had assured senators in February that the Labor Department was up to the task of running the new program and meeting a July 31 deadline to be ready to accept applications. On Thursday, she said she "soon found that the Department does not have the experience or expertise in radiation cases to adequately serve these workers." The leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees support Chao's position. The Senate chairman, Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, helped start the program to help miners who got sick while digging uranium ore without protection from radiation. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said the uranium miners should not have to apply to one federal department for lump-sum payments and a second department for their new medical benefits. The Justice Department, he said in a letter to Daniels, "has been diligent and efficient in its responsibilities" and "individuals with claims under the Energy Employees Occupational Compensation Program should be afforded the expertise and efficiency that the Department of Justice can provide by administering their program as well." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Bush Shifting Compensation Program March 30, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is a step closer to shifting agency control of a new compensation program for sick Cold War-era nuclear weapons plant workers, a move critics say will delay badly needed payments. The Office of Management and Budget has drafted an executive order that would move the program from the Labor Department to the Justice Department. The shift is supported by Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who says the Justice Department is better suited to oversee the program. Richard Miller, a lobbyist with the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union who helped negotiate the compensation program's provisions, said he feared such a move would make it impossible for dying workers to quickly get the checks and medical benefits they've been promised. "What they have just done is pour cement boots over this program," Miller said Thursday. The proposed order, which must be signed by President Bush to take effect, would amend an order by President Clinton, who put the Labor Department in charge, and defy Congress, which last year appropriated money to the Labor Department. The program calls for payments of $150,000 plus medical care to workers with cancer or incurable lung disease because of their Cold War-era exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica. The lawmakers who designed the program wanted the Labor Department to run it on the theory that experience with black lung and other compensation programs would let it prepare quickly to evaluate medical claims by the nuclear workers. Despite assuring senators in February that the Labor Department was up to the task, Chao said she "soon found that the department does not have the experience or expertise in radiation cases to adequately serve these workers." Chao's position is supported by the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, one of the fathers of a Justice Department-run program that compensates miners who got sick while digging uranium ore. Other lawmakers feel differently. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said the new program is expected to generate about 2,500 successful claims a year, versus only about 360 claims in the miners' program. "Can such a huge increase of work be handled and the injured workers still get their benefits in an efficient manner? Many of these people don't have time to wait. They're sick now and can't wait while the government tweaks its bureaucracy," he said. "The best plan is to send this program through the biggest pipeline, and I think that's Labor." On the Net: Report on compensation issues: http://www.eh.doe.gov/benefits All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 Energy Department Reviews Uranium March 30, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Energy Department says it could take two more years to determine how much recycled uranium - which contains traces of plutonium and other radioactive materials - passed through its nuclear facilities. The agency released a preliminary review Thursday analyzing the flow of recycled uranium throughout the DOE sites between 1952 and 1999. The agency was unable to complete a final analysis due to "significant inconsistency and inherent uncertainty" in the data it gathered from 12 facilities at nine sites. The investigation began in 1999, prompted by concerns that workers were unknowingly exposed to high levels of radiation at uranium enrichment plants in Paducah, Ky.; Piketon, Ohio; and Oak Ridge, Tenn. The Energy Department used uranium in nuclear weapons and as fuel for reactors. The agency began recycling it in the early 1950s to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign uranium. The report said most Energy Department facilities stopped using recycled uranium in the late 1960s. Recycled uranium is more harmful than mined uranium because it has been processed in a reactor, where it becomes contaminated with plutonium and neptunium. Pete Dessaules, a team leader in DOE's Office of Plutonium, Uranium and Special Materials Inventory, said an overall assessment of the 12 facilities will help determine exactly how much recycled uranium was used over the years and how much may still be stored around the country. However, the task is proving more difficult than expected, Dessaules said. "The biggest challenge in completing the report is standardizing the definitions that were used in the site reports for recycled uranium," he said. "That may involve looking at millions of records." According to DOE, recycled uranium was present at the following locations: Hanford, Wash.; Savannah River, S.C.; Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab, Idaho; Fernald, Ohio; West Valley, N.Y.; Weldon Springs, Mo.; RMI Inc., Ohio; the gaseous diffusion plants in Paducah, Piketon and Oak Ridge; the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge; and Rocky Flats, Colo. On the Net: DOE Report: http://tis.eh.doe.gov/legacy/ All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 Report praises, criticizes Pantex emergency response By JIM McBRIDE Globe-News Courts Writer Inspectors rated the Pantex Plant's emergency management as marginal during a drill last summer and said the nuclear warhead plant provided questionable assurance that workers or the public could be protected after a major accident. A November report from the Energy Department's Office of Independent Oversight and Performance Assurance said the exercise was well-planned, constructed and executed by former Pantex contractor Mason & Hanger Corp. But inspectors cited various problems with the August exercise dubbed "Verser Partout." "On-scene command and control and strategic direction from the emergency response organization staff were insufficient to ensure the safety of emergency responders and to mitigate the impact of the simulated explosion and radioactive material release on victims and the public," the report said. The simulated accident focused on a worst-case scenario. As workers were dismantling a nuclear warhead, an explosion ripped through a work area, killing four workers and scattering plutonium toward Amarillo. Raw meat and liver - mimicking body parts - were splattered across the accident scene. Organizers used mock warheads to give a realistic setting. Dennis Kelly, the DOE's assistant area manager for nuclear materials operations, said DOE inspectors agreed that Pantex has adequate personnel and extensive equipment for accident response, but they criticized Pantex's command and control of the incident. "I think what I'd like to emphasize is that an inherent part of emergency preparedness is that we conduct comprehensive exercises to gain some feedback on how well we are doing, and then to use that information to continually improve the program," he said. Kelly said the DOE inspectors faulted on-scene commanders for giving local agencies inadequate information about the accident's scope. "We could have performed better in that regard," Kelly said. "One concern was there was an error in the initial notification to the local governments where on our checklist it was erroneously suggested that people evacuate vs. shelter in place. That was quickly corrected. There were also some problems with communications equipment." Pantex plans more training for emergency management personnel, Kelly said, and the DOE has approved Pantex's corrective action plan. "This gives us some insights in terms of how our program is doing. It kind of tells us at a high level that we have the management commitment for the program, we have the resources, we have the qualified people, but in our actual performance in this specific exercise there were some areas where opportunities for improvement need to be addressed," he said. DOE inspectors said Pantex did not give other agencies such as the city of Amarillo and Carson County accurate and sufficient information to protect the public. Pantex has various systems to notify neighbors of an accident. Pantex strobe lights and special radios installed in nearby homes are designed to alert residents of an emergency. The DOE's report said the radios were tested just days before the exercise, but the devices initially failed to operate when the exercise began. "In addition, the public was not given any information about the event or the potential plutonium release when the tone-alert system was activated, and there was no mention of a possible radioactive material release when a press conference was held two hours and 45 minutes after the incident occurred," the report said. "It was not until . . three and a half hours after the incident that the plant acknowledged that any release had occurred." Inspectors also noted that Pantex had a wrong number for the Texas Department of Public Safety and briefly could not contact the DPS. "Despite the extensive preparations and sound concept, significant weaknesses were demonstrated during this exercise in providing state-local agencies with the information they needed to ensure the protection of the public," the report said. The DOE's inspectors particularly raised concerns about radiation monitoring and said emergency medical care to victims was delayed unnecessarily. "Weaknesses in radiation monitoring protocols placed other responders at risk of inhaling radioactive material and increased the potential for spreading contamination," the report concludes. Kelly said the DOE plans another extensive exercise this summer that will include Federal Emergency Management Agency. He said the DOE provides state and local agencies with funds for emergency response. "We do have a very pro-active emergency management organization here on the contractor side that is always pushing the envelope. We tend to do more challenging exercises than other sites," Kelly said. Amarillo Globe-News ***************************************************************** 8 Keep word to miners *March 29, 2001* The federal government's betrayal of sick and dying uranium miners, including hunTdreds of Coloradans, is disgusting and dishonorable. Congress and the Bush administration must live up to promises to compensate the people who dug the raw materials for America's Cold War arsenal. Congress should make a supplemental appropriation to make good on Uncle Sam's pledges, then ensure that future payments continue uninterrupted. Ten years ago, Congress passed, and the first President Bush signed, the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act. The law set up one-time payments of $100,000 to miners or their families and to people who lived downwind from Western nuclear test sites. Last year, Congress increased the payments to $150,000, improved medical benefits and expanded eligibility. The problem is, there's no cash in the fund, just a bunch of IOUs. So after Uncle Sam made grand promises, he just turned his back on his obligations. It was an outrageously callous act. The miners didn't know their jobs would kill them, not only because researchers decades ago didn't know as much as scientists today, but also because what information was available wasn't passed on to the workers. Today, the miners are spending their last days chained to oxygen tanks, knowing that the medical bills piling up on their kitchen tables could bankrupt their families even after their deaths. And they are, understandably, angry about this final betrayal. No labor union or rock star has stepped forward to champion their cause. There have been no protest marches, no political action committees. There have been just a lot of Western guys dying - and letters from the federal government saying yes, we owe you this money, but we're not going to pay it. Nationwide, some 1,600 claims have been filed, and another 1,000 applications may arrive in the government's in-box this year. Hundreds of the unpaid claims were made by Colorado residents, mostly from the Western Slope. U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, a Republican who represents the Western Slope, wants to rectify the situation with a pair of recently introduced proposals. The first would replace the IOUs. with $84 million in real cash, to cover the miners' outstanding claims. The funds would come from a supplemental appropriation, thus avoiding the delay inherent in regular appropriations. The second bill would exempt the radiation exposure fund from the annual budget labyrinth, so future payments would be automatic. Congress should pass both measures. House and Senate leadership also should prevent politicians from attaching to the bills any unrelated amendments that could slow down or even scuttle their passage. The dying miners deserve at least this much respect. .NewsChoice.com/ ***************************************************************** 9 Sandia planning new nuclear labs ContraCostaTimes.com *Published Wednesday, March 28, 2001 * + High-tech facilities will be home to scientists studying through simulation rather than explosions By Peter Felsenfeld TIMES STAFF WRITER LIVERMORE -- Design plans are under way for a new facility at Sandia/California National Laboratories where scientists will work to develop information systems for the nation's nuclear weapons complex. Construction for the $35.5 million project, called the Distributed Information Systems Laboratory, is scheduled to start in April 2002. Program manager Steve Carpenter said the new facility will bring scientists from disparate fields under one roof to improve nuclear weapons monitoring and testing. This work now involves computer simulations instead of controlled detonations. In addition, scientists working there will explore ways to coordinate weapons-related research by scientists working at different locations. "Right now, there are limitations on our ability to address certain problems," Carpenter said. "In some cases, there are people in different labs across the country trying to work on the same problem." The new center, Carpenter said, should help coordinate the outlying scientists, making them more efficient. The Albuquerque-based architectural firm of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini was awarded the design contract for $1,562,000, according to a laboratory press release. The 70,400-square-foot building will house 130 employees. The building is equipped with solar panels to supplement the lab's energy supply. At the new facility, lab scientists will pursue research and development projects with academics and industry representatives in a declassified area. Results of that research will be sent to a classified section of the building, where weapons designers and engineers will apply the discoveries to national security projects. "We expect the pace of technology development will continue to occur in the commercial sector and in universities," said Ken Washington, program director for the Distributed Information Systems Laboratory. "We need to ride that wave and partner with academics and industry." The program is sponsored by the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative program, a U.S. Department of Energy effort to create computer modeling and simulations to manage the nation's nuclear stockpile. Washington said ASCI scientists require special facilities, such as high performance fiber connections, and the existing labs all fall short. Designers hope the new Distributed Information Systems Laboratory building, scheduled for completion in April 2004, will offer the ideal laboratory environment. "It will give us a place that's designed from bottom up where we can do high performance technology research," Washington said. The high-tech monitoring of nuclear weapons falls within the domain of the country's stockpile stewardship program. DOE and laboratory officials say the program will eventually allow researchers to monitor and maintain the nuclear arsenal without exploding weapons. Critics of stockpile stewardship say program researchers are actually developing new nuclear devices. * Peter Felsenfeld covers the national labs. Reach him at 925-847-2184 or . ***************************************************************** 10 3 SRS workers show contamination [charlotte.com] March 31, 2001 *Associated Press * AIKEN -- Three Savannah River Site employees will be monitored for health effects after they were contaminated with low-level radioactive material at the nuclear complex. Two workers had radioactive material on their skin and one had contaminated clothing Thursday, said Judy Spencer, a spokeswoman for Westinghouse Savannah River Co., which runs the complex for the Energy Department. They were in the F-Canyon where impurities are removed from plutonium and other radioactive materials. The workers, as well as others in the area, will be monitored to see if they inhaled any of the unidentified radioactive material and suffer any health effects, Spencer said. The incident occurred as a team of four workers, assisted by radiation-control inspectors, prepared to calibrate an instrument on the F-Canyon's second level. The area was a "radiological buffer area," which means it adjoined a radioactive work area but that no radioactive material should have been present, Spencer said. The work called only for protective gloves. ***************************************************************** 11 Overseers worry about SRS tanks [charlotte.com] March 31, 2001 *Panel points out shortage of waste storage * *Associated Press * AIKEN -- A federal oversight board says a shortage of storage in nuclear waste tanks at the Savannah River Site could affect safety. It is a "critical shortage of tank space" that threatens to delay processing of highly radioactive waste, John Conway, chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, wrote recently to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. "Furthermore, this problem has led to a reduced margin of safety and a shortsighted emphasis on solving immediate problems at the expense of investing in comprehensive efforts to enhance the safety and flexibility of the high-level waste system," Conway wrote. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle. An Energy Department spokesman said Thursday the agency would address the board's concerns. "We would certainly want to look at the letter and the issues they have raised and respond in a timely manner," spokesman Joe Davis said. There are about 34million gallons of radioactive liquid waste in 49 underground tanks at the nuclear complex. Ten tanks have developed leaks during the years. A leak of about 90 gallons of water containing radioactive tritium into a secondary-containment vessel recently was discovered in one tank, Tank 6. The ultimate goal is to turn all liquid waste in a more stable solid. But there have been problems. For example, in 1998 a $489million plant to remove radioactive cesium was deemed unusable after engineers could not prevent a buildup of flammable and carcinogenic benzene. Technical problems also have curtailed operation of two of the site's three evaporators that are used to reduce the waste volume by evaporating water from it. The Defense Board recommends several ways to solve the space shortage: + Accelerate efforts to build a replacement to the failed cesium plant. Site engineers also should reuse the tanks to store waste. + Construct a new evaporator. + Construct new waste tanks. + Slow production at the Defense Waste Processing Facility that turns liquid waste into a solid, radioactive glass inside stainless-steel canisters. However, its output also requires storage. ***************************************************************** 12 Agency needs 2 more years to quantify radioactive uranium March 30, 2001 BY NANCY ZUCKERBROD *Associated Press Writer * WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Energy Department says it could take another two years to determine how much recycled uranium containing traces of plutonium and other radioactive materials passed through its nuclear facilities. The agency released a preliminary review Thursday analyzing the flow of recycled uranium throughout the DOE between 1952 and 1999. The agency was unable to complete a final analysis due to ``significant inconsistency and inherent uncertainty'' in the data it gathered from 12 facilities at nine sites. Concerns that workers were unknowingly exposed to high levels of radiation at uranium enrichment plants in Paducah, Ky.; Piketon, Ohio; and Oak Ridge, Tenn., prompted the department to start its investigation in 1999. The Energy Department relied on uranium for use in nuclear weapons and fuel for nuclear reactors. The agency began recycling it in the early 1950s to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign uranium. The report said most Energy Department facilities stopped using recycled uranium in the late 1960s. Recycled uranium is more harmful than mined uranium because it has been processed in a reactor, where it becomes contaminated with plutonium and neptunium. Pete Dessaules, a team leader in DOE's Office of Plutonium Uranium and Special Materials Inventory, said an overall assessment of the 12 facilities will help determine how much recycled uranium was used over the years and how much may still be stored around the country. However, the task is proving more difficult than expected, he said. ``The biggest challenge in completing the report is standardizing the definitions that were used in the site reports for recycled uranium,'' he said. ``That may involve looking at millions of records.'' According to the DOE, recycled uranium also was present at the following locations: Hanford, Wash; Savannah River, S.C.; Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab, Idaho; Fernald, Ohio; and Rocky Flats, Colo. On the Net: DOE Report: http://tis.eh.doe.gov/legacy/ AP-CS-03-30-01 1913EST --> ***************************************************************** 13 DOE workers comp may leave Labor This story was published Fri, Mar 30, 2001 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer The Office of Management and Budget began circulating a draft executive order of a plan Thursday that critics believe would slow compensation to former nuclear workers who fell ill from chemical and radiation exposure at Hanford and other Department of Energy sites. "That move puts cement boots on the project and pushes it into deep water," said Richard Miller, a policy analyst for unions representing nuclear workers in the Midwest. "That really is a one-sided declaration of war against the implementation of the program." The Bush administration is proposing the compensation program be moved from the Labor Department to the Justice Department. The Clinton administration had given Labor authority to handle the program because it has a large staff devoted to other workers' compensation claims and seemed well equipped to handle the ongoing medical claims of former nuclear workers. Justice has been administering another comparatively small program to give one-time payments to miners who fell ill after providing the nation's nuclear program with uranium and those harmed by nuclear tests. The Justice program, which has a staff of 14, has handled 3,900 uranium miner claims in 10 years, paying money on 1,705 of them, Miller said. It's also handled claims of some downwinders, such as those who lived downwind of the Nevada nuclear bomb tests, bringing total claims to about 9,000 in a decade. In contrast, the Labor Department runs a worker compensation program that handles 242,000 claims a year under the Longshore and Harbor Workers Act, the Federal Employees Compensation Act and a third Black Lung beneficiary program, according to the AFL-CIO. It's uncertain how many sick nuclear workers or their survivors might qualify for the new program among the 600,000 who have performed nuclear work for DOE. However, the AFL-CIO estimates 25,000 claims could be paid over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the program would cost $1.6 billion over 10 years. It would cover medical expenses and allow workers to claim compensation for lost wages or $150,000, whichever is more. "There is only one government agency that has the capacity and expertise to deal with a program of this magnitude, and that is the Department of Labor," wrote AFL-CIO President Edward Sullivan in a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. Chao favors turning over the program to the Justice Department. Whichever agency runs the program has just two months until it must announce draft regulations for the program. In two more months, it would need to be accepting claims from former nuclear workers. The proposed change in agencies worries U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. "The Department of Labor is the only agency with the experience and infrastructure necessary to administer this program," Murray wrote in a letter to the Labor secretary Thursday. "The Department of Justice has already conceded it is ill positioned to properly administer the program." In hearings in September, Justice Department officials told a congressional subcommittee the department had neither the staff nor the procedures in place to handle claims programs that determine eligibility for medical cost reimbursements. As a result, when medical benefits were extended to uranium miners, responsibility for handling the claims was turned over to the Labor Department. Hastings is concerned that moving the nuclear worker compensation program from Labor to the Justice Department would cause a delay, said spokesman Todd Young. "He believes it's best to get this up and running as soon as possible," Young said. U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., pointed out that the Labor Department not only has experience in helping injured workers, but also has a network of regional offices across the country where workplace claims are handled. "The Department of Justice, by contrast, possesses none of this infrastructure or expertise," he wrote in a letter to the Labor secretary. The nuclear workers compensation program was modeled after the Federal Employees Compensation Act, which the Labor Department administers. "The program is not intended as an apology payment like the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (for uranium miners), which the Department of Justice manages," Murray wrote in her letter to Chao. Among those who support moving the nuclear worker compensation program to the Justice Department is U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 14 Keep word to miners DenverPost.com - Editorials April 1, 2001 - The federal government's betrayal of sick and dying uranium miners, including hundreds of Coloradans, is disgusting and dishonorable. Congress and the Bush administration must live up to promises to compensate the people who dug the raw materials for America's Cold War arsenal. Congress should make a supplemental appropriation to make good on Uncle Sam's pledges, then ensure that future payments continue uninterrupted. Ten years ago, Congress passed, and the first President Bush signed, the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act. The law set up one-time payments of $100,000 to miners or their families and to people who lived downwind from Western nuclear test sites. Last year, Congress increased the payments to $150,000, improved medical benefits and expanded eligibility. The problem is, there's no cash in the fund, just a bunch of IOUs. So after Uncle Sam made grand promises, he just turned his back on his obligations. It was an outrageously callous act. The miners didn't know their jobs would kill them, not only because researchers decades ago didn't know as much as scientists today, but also because what information was available wasn't passed on to the workers. Today, the miners are spending their last days chained to oxygen tanks, knowing that the medical bills piling up on their kitchen tables could bankrupt their families even after their deaths. And they are, understandably, angry about this final betrayal. No labor union or rock star has stepped forward to champion their cause. There have been no protest marches, no political action committees. There have been just a lot of Western guys dying - and letters from the federal government saying yes, we owe you this money, but we're not going to pay it. Nationwide, some 1,600 claims have been filed, and another 1,000 applications may arrive in the government's in-box this year. Hundreds of the unpaid claims were made by Colorado residents, mostly from the Western Slope. U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, a Republican who represents the Western Slope, wants to rectify the situation with a pair of recently introduced proposals. The first would replace the IOUs. with $84 million in real cash, to cover the miners' outstanding claims. The funds would come from a supplemental appropriation, thus avoiding the delay inherent in regular appropriations. The second bill would exempt the radiation exposure fund from the annual budget labyrinth, so future payments would be automatic. Congress should pass both measures. House and Senate leadership also should prevent politicians from attaching to the bills any unrelated amendments that could slow down or even scuttle their passage. The dying miners deserve at least this much respect. ***************************************************************** 15 DOE delays announcing Hanford's new budget This story was published Fri, Mar 30, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer The Department of Energy plans to delay unveiling Hanford's cleanup budget until April 9. Originally, that budget was expected to be announced Tuesday or Wednesday. DOE in Washington, D.C., recently told its field offices -- including Hanford -- that budget discussions are still ongoing, and that DOE's headquarters and field offices are not to talk in public about the fiscal 2002 budget, said Marla Marvin, DOE's communications director at Hanford. That frustrated Hanford Advisory Board financial affairs committee members Thursday, who had planned to discuss budget needs by phone with DOE officials in Washington, D.C. This frustration comes from DOE traditionally announcing detailed Hanford budget figures for the next two years by the end of each February. Consequently, each spring leads to in-depth public budget discussions, feedback and compromises in Hanford circles. That has not been possible so far this spring. No detailed Hanford budget figures have been announced for fiscal 2002 or fiscal 2003. This is because the cliffhanger nature of the last presidential election and the switch to a new administration. For 2001, DOE's overall budget was $19.7 billion with $6.25 billion going to nationwide cleanup efforts, including $1.5 billion for Hanford. But for 2002, all that is publicly confirmed is that DOE's overall budget will be $19 billion. No cleanup figures have been released, although clues point to a shrunken $5.8 billion budget. Hanford needs about $1.85 billion to meet its legal obligations and almost $1.9 billion to accelerate cleanup along the Columbia River. HAB committee members believe the accelerated river shore cleanup plan will be a likely casualty of a funding shortfall. But their greatest concern is that Hanford's top cleanup priority -- the radioactive waste glassification project -- is unlikely to get the $690 million needed in 2002 to keep it on its legal Tri-Party Agreement construction timetable. Gov. Gary Locke and Attorney General Christine Gregoire have threatened to filed a lawsuit against DOE if it falls behind on its Tri-Party Agreement obligations. "If they don't fund the (glassification) plant, (Gregoire) will sue, and she should," said HAB member Bob Larson, representing the Port of Benton. Hanford has two DOE departments, the Office of River Protection that manages tank waste matters and the Richland office that manages everything else. The Office of River Protection is seeking about $1.1 billion for fiscal 2002, and the Richland office is seeking $762 million. HAB members don't like the fuzziness on how much money the Richland office actually needs to meet its legal commitments for fiscal 2002. Publicly discussed dollar figures have all been soft and subject to change. At one time, DOE's Richland office mentioned it needed $823 million for 2002. That figure prompted the HAB members to question why the Richland office sought only $762 million from DOE's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and seven other Republican congressional members met for 45 minutes Thursday with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Hastings, who is pushing for a DOE nationwide cleanup budget of $6.65 billion, took Hanford's case to Bush and Cheney. "President Bush committed that his administration would work with me on this important matter," Hastings said in a press release. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 16 Report cites possible K-25 exposure sites Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, March 30, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff Workers in four facilities at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site in the 1950s and 1960s had a high potential for exposure to radioactive materials, a report states. The Department of Energy report outlines several key activities and facilities associated with the possible exposures. Those are unpacking, feeding, and sampling of uranium trioxide in building K-1131; collecting ash for uranium recovery and cleaning tower filters in buildings K-1131 and K-1420; uranium recovery from ash in buildings K-1231 and K-1410; and maintenance and repair of a fluorination tower and associated equipment in buildings K-1131 and K-1420. A total of nine site-specific reports were released this week and represent the fifth installment of a comprehensive effort begun by DOE in September 1999 to address worker concerns associated with the historical use of recycled uranium at the gaseous diffusion plants in Oak Ridge, Paducah, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio. The reports provide a general understanding of the flow and characteristics of recycled uranium at individual sites. They identify where recycled uranium and trace amounts of other radioactive contaminants could have concentrated or been released, including historical periods, activities and concentrations, which may be useful for identifying potential worker exposure. Thousands of historical records were retrieved and analyzed to compile the data used in these studies. Based on this information, DOE officials say they have a good preliminary understanding of the characteristics and trace contaminants in the major streams of recycled uranium. The reports are available on the Internet at www.tis.eh.doe.gov/legacy/ All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 17 Several officials critique UT-Battelle's performance Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:16 p.m. on Friday, March 30, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff It's been a year filled with big announcements on new businesses, mice, layoffs, modernization and more at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. And at the heart of it all has been UT-Battelle. The not-for-profit partnership between the University of Tennessee and Battelle has managed the federal lab for the Department of Energy since April 1, 2000. Bill Madia, director of ORNL, recently spoke with The Oak Ridger about the past year. One thing he emphasized during the talk was that his role in the lab's big picture is only a minor one. "Lab directors are a lot like coaches Š they often get far too much credit and they get far too much blame," Madia said. "All the lab director does is point the direction. It's the staff that makes it happen." Madia, however, declined to grade his performance over the past year as lab director. "I'm not sure I should," he said. "Because I'm really biased. I would love for you to ask that question of the community." In fact, several Oak Ridge officials were asked to critique UT-Battelle's performance over the past year. "DOE is very pleased with the performance of UT-Battelle in the operation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory," said Ed Cumesty, acting manager of DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office. "As a new contractor, they have brought new ideas and innovative approaches to managing this important facility and in addressing the lab's long-term need for revitalization. From a bottom-line contractual standpoint, UT-Battelle continues to deliver on the commitments (established by DOE) they made to DOE in the procurement process." U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, said, "Overall they get extremely high marks on their first year. The first year is a tough year." Ron Townsend, president of Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and Parker Hardy, president of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, joined Wamp is praising UT-Battelle for gaining full funding this fiscal year for the Spallation Neutron Source project and all the company's work on the proposed $200 million modernization of ORNL. "UT-Battelle is leading a modernization effort that is bringing new facilities and capabilities," Townsend said. "They are making an investment in the community." ORNL's modernization will be funded through federal, state and private-sector support, and it will feature several modern facilities including a new Mouse House. "It's a bold vision," Wamp said. Hardy noted the success of the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth -- a partnership between UT-Battelle and Technology 2020. Since its inception last summer, the partnership has created around 10 new businesses through the use of lab technology. The chamber president also credited UT-Battelle for drafting a plan to keep the American Museum of Science and Energy prospering. "It's an area near and dear to Oak Ridgers' hearts," Hardy said. The museum was established in 1949. In its plan, UT-Battelle suggests that the Department of Energy relinquish control of the museum so the facility can charge admission fees, receive private and corporate donations and rent meeting space to community groups. UT-Battelle oversees the museum under its contract to manage ORNL. Oak Ridge Mayor Jerry Kuhaida said he would give UT-Battelle an "A-minus" on their first year, adding the company can strive for an "A-plus" next year. "Almost everything they have done in the past year has been positive for the community," he said. "They have demonstrated their determination to be partners with the community." However, the recent layoffs at ORNL seemed to be a touchy subject for some of those commenting on UT-Battelle's performance. The Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee is one group that has expressed concern about the recent layoffs. "On average, UT-Battelle has done a good job," said Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the oversight group. "But we're somewhat distressed with the number of layoffs and how they were handled." The Local Oversight Committee approved Thursday a set of recommendations calling for changes in layoff procedures. (See related story on Page 1A) The layoffs are a double-edged sword, according to Hardy. He said it was bad for those affected, but added that UT-Battelle officials insisted the layoffs were necessary to cut operating costs and keep the lab competitive. Some officials said it isn't fair to blame contractors for the layoffs since they are occurring throughout the DOE complex. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 18 SNS funding sweetens UT-Battelle's first year Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:16 p.m. on Friday, March 30, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff It's no joke. UT-Battelle will celebrate its first anniversary as Oak Ridge National Laboratory's manager on Sunday -- April Fool's Day. "It feels terrific," said Bill Madia, the lab's director. "We started a year ago with a rather ambitious agenda. And, as I reflect back on the last year, I'm just real pleased with the progress we've made. I just couldn't be happier." The smile on Madia's face echoed his words as he described some of the big events in the past year during a recent interview. * BIG DEAL: "Getting full funding for the SNS, that was the single biggest first-year test of UT-Battelle," Madia said. Congress appropriated $278 million for the current fiscal year to begin construction of the $1.4 billion SNS project. "And, ironically, that started before April 1," Madia said. He pointed out that Billy Stair, director of the lab's Communication and Community Outreach department, worked diligently before UT-Battelle officially took over to get a sales-tax ex-emption for the SNS. The work paid off and Gov. Don Sundquist signed a tax-relief bill in January 2000 that freed the project from about $28 million in state sales tax. "That enabled us to keep the project alive," Madia said. Though alive, the SNS continues to be a hot topic of conversation in the community, Madia said. "There continues to be speculation in the community that the project is in some level of difficulty," Madia said. "Over the last six months there were cost and schedule questions that arose. That's real natural on a project that spends more than a million dollars a day. "I want to be on the record, unambiguous, as clear as I can be. The project is on schedule, on budget," he continued, pausing briefly before adding, "and we'll deliver the SNS in June of '06 as planned." While Madia insists the project is in good shape, officials did have to scramble to replace former SNS director David Moncton when he announced in January that he was leaving the project. "All eyes were on us," Madia said. "It was very hard because we knew the project could not go without new leadership. It was a pressure search. We had to do it by March 1 -- two months, basically. And we had to get the right person. That two-month period took 80 percent of my calendar time to make happen. It was a consuming search -- intense." Thom Mason, who was serving as director of the SNS's Experimental Facilities Division, was chosen to helm the project. "I'm so proud of what Thom has done in the first four weeks or so," Madia said. "He was unanimously supported by the staff of the project. It's very important that a project that big and that important Š have leadership it wants to follow. He has a very positive collaborating style. Thom's got a style that really fits what's necessary to run a multi-laboratory, national project that spends a million dollars a day." And speaking of money, UT-Battelle is waiting for word on what the fiscal year 2002 budget holds for the company. "I'll be very candid. Several people expressed concern about the funding if we didn't get stable leadership in place before the upcoming budget season," Madia said. "Now, with Thom in place Š all signals we're getting are supportive and positive." The budget request for fiscal year 2002 is expected to be $291 million. "I have every confidence Š SNS will be fully funded," Madia said of the approaching fiscal year. SNS will consist of a linear accelerator that will produce proton beams that scatter neutrons by bombarding a liquid mercury target. Neutron scattering research has been responsible for improvements in jets, shatterproof windshields, satellite information for weather forecasts and for such medical studies as determining how bones mineralize during development and how they decay during osteoporosis. * A NEW LOOK: After just over five months into the job, a visit from then Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and several elected officials gave UT-Battelle a big reason to smile. On that day -- Sept. 11, 2000 -- a $200 million modernization effort for the federal laboratory was announced. "This is on our must-do list and for very important reasons," Madia said. "It has a scientific basis, a cost basis, a safety basis and a recruiting basis." The proposed facilities in ORNL's modernization plan include new chemistry facilities, a facility for computational sciences and a facility to house the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies. Funding for the modernization will involve federal, state and private-sector support. "Science pushes facility requirements," Madia said. "The science we want to do in the future, which is very sophisticated, needs modern facilities. You simply can't put it in a 50-year-old building." Madia cited the construction of the Aberration-Corrected Electron Microscope as an example. "There isn't one building on this campus that can physically house that microscope because of vibration and other requirements," he said. The microscope will have the ability to examine objects as small as a single atom. In addition, Madia said the old buildings cost more to operate, they pose safety issues and don't have what's needed to attract the "best and the brightest" future lab employees. Another big change for ORNL is that it will become a more open campus. The lab's security focus will be shifting from fences and gates to building-based access. "For the first 50 or some years, the lab lived behind the fence and that was the appropriate model," Madia said. "What we did here throughout the Cold War needed to be restricted and couldn't have the general public walking around." For the next 50 years, however, Madia said that's not the case. "We don't need a restricted campus for 95 percent of what we do," Madia said. "Therefore, taking down the fences and controlling access at the doors of the buildings is the appropriate security posture for us to be in. "When I talk about this in town, a lot of people like the idea that we're going to be more approachable, more open," he continued. "Our sister laboratories are open to the public -- Pacific Northwest, Brookhaven, Argonne. The open-campus feel has improved community relations." As a whole, Madia said he's happy with the proposed modernization plans. But he said he'll feel much better when the results of the construction work start showing. "I'll be happier when my shoes are muddy every day," Madia said. * MOUSE SCIENCE: Included in ORNL's modernization is a new Mouse House, which Madia cites as a personal favorite on UT-Battelle's list of accomplishments. "We got the Mouse House in the budget after trying for 15 years," Madia said. "Although the size and impact don't compare to the SNS, the level of satisfaction of finally getting that thing in the budget was real high." The new Mouse House, or Laboratory for Comparative and Functional Genomics, will be located at ORNL. It will replace the current facility, which is more than 50 years old and is located at the Y-12 National Security Complex. At ORNL's existing Mouse House, researchers have utilized around 70,000 genetically mutated mice to zero in on the role particular genes play. The facility has been involved in the Human Genome Project to identify all the genes in human DNA. "Genomics plays a major role in the scientific advances we're seeing," Madia said. "Last year we published the human genome. We're now beginning to understand how life was assembled. We don't fully understand how it functions, what causes disease, what causes wellness, but now at least we have a blueprint of how life is assembled." Three teams -- each consisting of construction and architectural firms -- are currently vying for the contract to build the new Mouse House. UT-Battelle officials said an announcement on the contract could be made in April or possibly later. * BAD NEWS: The past year hasn't been all roses for UT-Battelle. In a cost-cutting move, the company let around 300 people go in late 2000. "That's clearly the most difficult thing we've had to do," Madia said. "Anytime you have to deal with people's lives and termination of employment, you literally agonize over it, as you should. None of that should ever be done lightly." The departures were part of UT-Battelle's plan to reduce operating costs at the federal laboratory by $28-30 million over a two-year period -- $20 million during the current fiscal year and around $10 million for the 2002 fiscal year. "We are hopeful that the $10 million reduction needed for FY02 could be done without staff reductions," Madia said. "I'm stopping short of saying it won't happen." Madia said he hopes the $10 million cut could be generated through closing off certain facilities and making changes in operating procedures "We spend a lot of money supporting numerous computer hardware and software configurations," he said. "We anticipate going to a far smaller set of supported options -- the same functionality. You just won't have every imaginable combination of hardware and software available to you. But by doing that, we can cut a lot of our operating costs." * THE FUTURE: As UT-Battelle's first year at ORNL draws to a close, Madia insists that he is happy in Oak Ridge. Madia even laughs as he's asked once again about the possibility that he will leave his ORNL job to become the new president and chief executive officer for Battelle when the company's current leader, Doug Oleson, retires this year. "There's nothing to say," he responded pleasantly. "Been no contact. Haven't gotten a phone call from a search committee or anything. Therefore, there is no way of denying it." Madia said he would not be surprised if he were to be contacted by Battelle officials. But, no matter what the future holds, Madia says he and UT-Battelle are focusing on doing the best job possible at ORNL. "It's all rhetoric until it's result," he said. "The thing I'm going to like about the second anniversary is that the (lab) staff and the community are going to see more tangible progress. There will be trucks, dirt and noise. Then the rhetoric starts becoming the result." All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 19 Modernization to begin on ORNL's east campus Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:16 p.m. on Friday, March 30, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff Improvements to Oak Ridge National Laboratory -- totaling around $200 million -- are expected to give a whole new look to the federal facility. Several new buildings are featured in ORNL's modernization plan including a new Mouse House, chemistry facilities, a facility for computational sciences and a facility to house the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies. Funding for the lab's modernization includes $125 million in federal support, $26 million from the state of Tennessee and $50 million from the private sector. Tim Myrick, project director of ORNL's facilities revitalization effort, said UT-Battelle is taking the "brownfield approach" to the modernization, using previously contaminated and/or developed areas for the new facilities. Myrick said UT-Battelle's main focus over the next year will be construction on the east campus of the lab. "It's going to be the beehive of the next couple years," he said. When the modernization effort is completed in 2006, UT-Battelle officials say they will have deactivated and closed around 1.8 million square feet of outdated space and added 600,000 square feet of modern, energy-efficient buildings. This is good news considering that more than half of the buildings at the federal facility were built during or immediately following World War II. Officials say currently only 23 percent of the occupied space at ORNL is adequate for the lab's research missions. Marking its first anniversary, UT-Battelle is establishing a scholarship program. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 20 Recommends hike in cleanup funds for nuclear sites, including Oak Ridge Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:56 p.m. on Friday, March 30, 2001 The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The House has put a price tag on the likely cost of cleaning up Energy Department nuclear sites in fiscal year 2002. A report accompanying the federal budget passed by the House this week recommended that $6.65 billion be spent next year on cleanup projects within the agency's nuclear complex. That would be a $400 million increase over this year's funding. The document does not recommend how much should be spent at individual sites such as Kentucky's Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant or the Oak Ridge nuclear reservation in Tennessee. President Bush's budget blueprint has called for a 3 percent cut in Energy Department spending, and that has some lawmakers worried the White House will try to reduce funding for nuclear cleanup projects. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., whose district includes the Hanford nuclear reservation, discussed the issue with Bush at the White House Thursday. "I stressed the magnitude of the challenge and the need to keep cleanup work on track," Hastings said. "President Bush committed that his administration would work with me on this important matter." The administration has not said how much it would recommend spending on cleanup activities. "We're still working on our budget," Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said Thursday. The president released a budget outline last month. He is expected to release a more detailed document April 9. All Contents.©Copyright *The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 21 Aid for sick workers heads for Justice Dept. Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:56 p.m. on Friday, March 30, 2001 By Katherine Rizzo Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is a step closer to shifting agency control of a new compensation program for sick Cold War-era nuclear weapons plant workers, a move critics say will delay badly needed payments. The Office of Management and Budget has drafted an executive order that would move the program from the Labor Department to the Justice Department. The shift is supported by Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who says the Justice Department is better suited to oversee the program. Richard Miller, a lobbyist with the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union who helped negotiate the compensation program's provisions, said he feared such a move would make it impossible for dying workers to quickly get the checks and medical benefits they've been promised. "What they have just done is pour cement boots over this program," Miller said Thursday. The proposed order, which must be signed by President Bush to take effect, would amend an order by President Clinton, who put the Labor Department in charge, and defy Congress, which last year appropriated money to the Labor Department. The program calls for payments of $150,000 plus medical care to workers with cancer or incurable lung disease because of their Cold War-era exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica. The lawmakers who designed the program wanted the Labor Department to run it on the theory that experience with black lung and other compensation programs would let it prepare quickly to evaluate medical claims by the nuclear workers. Despite assuring senators in February that the Labor Department was up to the task, Chao said she "soon found that the department does not have the experience or expertise in radiation cases to adequately serve these workers." Chao's position is supported by the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, one of the fathers of a Justice Department-run program that compensates miners who got sick while digging uranium ore. Other lawmakers feel differently. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said the new program is expected to generate about 2,500 successful claims a year, versus only about 360 claims in the miners' program. "Can such a huge increase of work be handled and the injured workers still get their benefits in an efficient manner? Many of these people don't have time to wait. They're sick now and can't wait while the government tweaks its bureaucracy," he said. "The best plan is to send this program through the biggest pipeline, and I think that's Labor." ------ On the Net: Report on compensation issues: http://www.eh.doe.gov/benefits All Contents.©Copyright *The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 22 Our Views: Good news on pension, contract for DOE workers Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:31 p.m. on Friday, March 30, 2001 There was very good news on two fronts this week for workers and retirees from Oak Ridge federal facilities. Their good news is, by way of extension, good news for a community as well. First, the long struggle by some 13,000 Department of Energy contractor retirees for a fairer pension check has paid off. Beginning in June, those retirees will see pension check increases ranging from 4 percent to 23 percent. The retirees had not seen a hike in pension since 1992, creating a real hardship for many of them. The increases are to offset half the rise in the Consumer Price Index since the date of that last pension hike, almost 10 years ago. BWXT Y-12, which administers the pension fund under its contract recently assumed to manage the Y-12 National Security Complex, was wise to put this simmering dispute behind it and create an atmosphere for better relations with the workforce. A big step in that reconciliation was made with a pension boost that includes among its beneficiaries those workers who opted for early retirements late last year as part of a voluntary reduction-in-force program. In another area of potential workforce gains, federal workers at BWXT Y-12, UT-Battelle, Bechtel Jacobs Co., Duratek Federal Service, The Washington Group, WESKEM and Canberra will decide the fate of a three-year contract extension that the president of the local Atomic Trades and Labor Council praises, on the whole. "We don't have too many days we're happy," said Carl "Bubba" Scarbrough, union council president, in response to the extended contract proposal which offers 4-, 3.8- and 3.5-percent pay hikes over each of the next three years. "Today, we're happy." While the proposal does not offer everything the workers sought, there is nonetheless good cause for Mr. Scarbrough's expressed happiness. The offer also includes, for example, a 15-percent jump in pension calculation formula. On Saturday, union members will decide the fate of the deal in a vote scheduled from 12:30 to 9 p.m. at the Machinists Hall, 101 E. Lincoln Road. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 23 Whitfield makes plea on nuclear worker aid courier-journal.com » The Courier-Journal » Louisville, KY » Local and March 31, 2001 By KATHERINE RIZZO, Associated Press + A C-J in-depth look: The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant WASHINGTON -- In a last-ditch effort yesterday, Kentucky Rep. Ed Whitfield asked President Bush to reconsider transferring a compensation program for job-sickened nuclear workers from the Labor Department to the Justice Department. Cancer victims and people fighting incurable lung diseases caused by Cold War-era work for the government should not have to wait while the Justice Department sets up appeals panels and hires administrative law judges and other personnel that already are in place at the Labor Department, Whitfield told Bush. The shift "would be a grave disservice" to the sick workers, he wrote. Whitfield, a Republican, represents the 1st District in Western Kentucky, which includes the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. His letter was sent a day after the Office of Management and Budget circulated a draft executive order handing the program over to the Justice Department. Labor Secretary Elaine -Chao had asked for such an order, saying her department did not have the expertise to be in charge of handling medical coverage and $150,000 payments for some of the workers exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, beryllium or silica. Work for the nuclear weapons program was done at mills, foundries and factories. The Energy Department preliminarily identified 317 sites in 37 states where sick workers might qualify for benefits. In his letter, Whitfield pointed out that the Energy Department has fielded 16,000 calls from people seeking information about the new program. The Labor Department handles worker-compensation programs that process hundreds of thousands of claims annually, while the Justice Department runs a single program that handles a few hundred each year. The new program is supposed to be ready to accept applications July 31. The Justice Department "would never be in a position to meet that deadline," Whitfield said. The White House said it would have no comment on the draft order. Copyright 2001 The Courier-Journal. ***************************************************************** 24 Report: Money wasted by cleanup sites contractor OnlineAthens.com --> * March 28, 2001* WASHINGTON -- The company managing cleanup at nuclear facilities in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio cost taxpayers an extra $44 million because it didn't meet commitments to cut staff by using subcontractors, the Department of Energy inspector general has concluded. The Energy Department awarded a $2.5 billion contract to Bechtel Jacobs Co. in 1997 to manage the cleanup of nuclear facilities in Paducah, Ky., Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Piketon, Ohio. Bechtel Jacobs subsequently hired the previous contractor's employees but eventually was supposed to move people to the payroll of subcontractors who were to be awarded bids for fixed-priced contracts. ''Bechtel Jacobs did not use competitive, fixed-price subcontracts or reduce staffing to the extent proposed,'' Inspector General Gregory Friedman wrote. A company spokesman said Wednesday that the unusual nature and size of the project were factors the report didn't fully take into account. Bechtel Jacobs won the contract in large part by stating it would cut costs and speed up the cleanup by subcontracting more than 90 percent of the work and reducing staffing by about 80 percent, the inspector general noted. But as of September Bechtel Jacobs subcontracted less than 60 percent of the original work outlined in the project and reduced staff through the transition to subcontractors by just 58 percent, according to the report. TVA board approves fuel from weapons production KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- In a post-Cold War effort to beat swords into plowshares, uranium once used to make bombs will be converted into fuel to make electricity at the Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA Board of Directors, meeting in Muscle Shoals, Ala., agreed Wednesday to enter into the unique relationship with the U.S. Department of Energy. The federal utility intends to convert into commercial fuel some 33 metric tons of highly enriched uranium that once powered the shuttered weapons production reactors at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. By 2005, this reprocessed material could be generating power for homes across the Tennessee Valley through TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Athens, Ala. A demonstrator, wearing a banner showing a yellow " X ", symbol of their anti-nuclear organization, plays a trumpet as protesters occupy the tracks near Dahlenburg, northern Germany, Wednesday. A train delivering 60 tons of nuclear waste to a German storage site was forced to retreat Wednesday after protesters clashed with police and some chained themselves to the rails. *Fabian Bimmer/AP* The deal represents a potential cost-savings windfall both for DOE and TVA, but some critics worry about the message it sends the world about mixing commercial and military nuclear activities. Of the 33 tons of uranium, which DOE declared surplus from the weapons program in the early 1990s, two-thirds is stored at the Savannah River Site and the other third at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Diluting the material into low-enriched uranium ''to where it is considered a waste and could be disposed of would be extremely expensive. We are talking in the range of about $1 billion,'' DOE-Oak Ridge spokesman Steve Wyatt said. TVA gets the uranium free. But it will pay $90 million to $100 million to have it diluted at the Nuclear Fuel Services plant in Erwin, Tenn., and then repackaged into reactor fuel at a Siemens Power Corp. facility in Washington state. ''The savings are derived in a reduction in future fuel expenses over what the market conditions would be,'' said Jack Bailey, TVA vice president for nuclear engineering. Assuming uranium prices stay unchanged, TVA could break even around 2010. The DOE material, once converted, could fuel Browns Ferry's two operating reactors for 14 years. No other utilities expressed interest when DOE first proposed the giveaway in the early 1990s as a way to reduce the amount of weapons-grade material in its nuclear stockpile. Nuclear waste arrives at depot amid clashes DANNENBERG, Germany -- Police cleared protesters with water cannons on Wednesday as a train laden with 60 tons of nuclear waste arrived in this town a day late after being blocked by demonstrators who chained themselves to the tracks. With seven helicopters hovering overhead, the train entered the northern German town of Dannenberg as night fell, just before 7.30 p.m. Protesters along the route whistled and screamed ''Get away!'' Nearly 11/2 hours later, the wagons carrying the waste reached Dannenburg's heavily protected depot, where the six containers are to be tested for radioactivity before being loaded onto flatbed trucks for the last leg of a much-disrupted 375-mile trip from a French reprocessing plant. As the waste containers passed through the town, more than 1,000 police officers started pushing demonstrators back from several directions. Police repeatedly charged the crowd and surrounded the protesters' makeshift camp. Organizers broadcast repeated appeals for calm over loudspeakers, while police countered with accusations that the demonstrators had ripped up paving and attacked officers. The camp was surrounded by a five-deep cordon of police as a tense standoff started. A group of schoolchildren was crying. ''Everything was peaceful here until the police charged in,'' complained one protester, Alfred Skallweit, from the nearby town of Muetzingen. ''It seems like a war zone.'' The protesters object to what they say is highly dangerous radioactive waste being transported through Germany, and hope to make the transports so costly the government will call them to a halt. Spent nuclear fuel from German power plants is sent abroad for reprocessing, but the contracts oblige Germany to take back the resulting waste. This article published in the Athens Daily News on Thursday, March 29, 2001. ©opyright 2001 Athens Newspapers Inc. ***************************************************************** 25 Kobe waives nuclear rule for ship April 1, 2001 KOBE (Kyodo) The city of Kobe has decided not to ask an Italian navy vessel to submit a document stating that it is not carrying nuclear weapons or nuclear materials, as required by a city ordinance, before it docks in the port Monday, city officials said Saturday. The 52.9-ton Orsa Maggiore is an unarmed training vessel and therefore not subject to the city's nonnuclear regulations, the officials said, adding that the waiver does not mean the city has abandoned the requirement. The Orsa Maggiore is expected to remain at the port until April 10 for refueling and to give its crew some shore leave. The vessel has been taking part in various events in Tokyo and other cities. Kobe has refused to allow foreign ships to make port calls unless they submit a document stating that they are not carrying nuclear weapons or materials. The Japan Times: Apr. 1, 2001 ***************************************************************** 26 Father of Pak's nuclear bomb steps down 31 March 2001 The Times of India ISLAMABAD: Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, on Friday severed his last links with the vital nuclear project he started 27 years ago, stepping down as chairman of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), Kahuta. Khan, 64, will now join the cabinet of General Pervez Musharraf as his advisor on science and technology. Khan's retirement as KRL chairman, announced by Musharraf earlier this month, had come as a surprise to many, including the scientist himself. "Though he has agreed to join the government in a different capacity he had received the news with a heavy heart because he wanted to continue... perhaps for life," one of his close friends commented. The two earlier governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif had also pondered over removing Khan, but didn't do so for one reason or another. Khan had founded Pakistan's nuclear program in the mid-seventies when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was prime minister, after India detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1974. "It was...to be precise, on July 31, 1976, when the first seeds, real seeds of Pakistan's nuclear program were sown," Khan once said. "The date marks the turn in our beloved country's destiny as it was on this fateful day that under the banner of Engineering Research Laboratories, an autonomous organization was formed on the orders of the late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto...," he said. The 1974 Indian tests left many Pakistanis in and outside the country with sleepless. Khan, then in Holland, was one of them. Khan returned to start the KRL, located in Kahuta, 40 km east of Islamabad. While Pakistan developed its nuclear program, Khan kept away from the public gaze. He was at one time a most sought after scientist of the American and Western media that used to carry his imaginary sketches and allege that he stole nuclear material from Europe for Pakistan's nascent nuclear program, something Pakistan always denied. For years, people did not know in which house he was living in a posh sector of the federal capital. There was more than one sprawling bungalow provided to Khan in the neighborhood to keep his presence a secret. All these houses have always been under heavy security surveillance. After Pakistan openly started owning up to its nuclear program in a phased manner as part of a well-calculated policy, Khan began appearing in public. The scion of a modest family from India's Bhopal state, who loves poetry, flowers and animals, Khan migrated to Pakistan in 1952, following millions of other Muslims who came here from India during the subcontinent's partition in 1947. After graduation in Karachi, he went to Europe for further studies. (IANS) ***************************************************************** 27 Protesters vow to fight N-weapons court ruling ISSUE 2136 Saturday 31 March 2001 By Tara Womersley ANTI-NUCLEAR protesters vowed to fight on yesterday after High Court judges in Scotland ruled that Britain's Trident nuclear weapons are not illegal under international law. The judgment follows a sheriff's decision to clear three women of causing £80,000 of damageafter boarding a barge at Coulport, part of the Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde, and throwing laboratory equipment overboard. Sheriff Margaret Gimblett accepted the women's defence that they had a right to "disarm" the base because the use of international weapons were illegal according to a ruling made at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Angela Zelter, 49, Ellen Moxley, 46, and Ulla Roder, 46, had argued during their trial that they had acted to prevent a far greater crime from taking place. The Crown challenged the sheriff's ruling during a five-day hearing last Octoberwhen it made the rare legal move to prevent peace campaigners using the same defence should any be charged and appear in court. Lords Prosser, Kirkwood and Penrose, issued their judgment yesterday at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, which was packed with anti-nuclear protesters. The acquittal of the three women, who stood trial at Greenock Sheriff Court in 1999, still stands. Ms Zelter, who was among campaigners who held an all-night vigil outside the court before hearing the judgment, said she was extremely disappointed and felt that the Scottish judiciary had failed. She said: "It was such a wasted opportunity. Even if the result had been yes, yes, yes, we would still have had to continue with our campaign. You can't trust politicians, you can't trust just words, you have to trust people's actions and we have got to get rid of weapons of mass destruction." A spokesman for Trident Ploughshares said that the anti-nuclear organisation was "taken aback by the ruling" and would continue its fight, with a demonstration outside the Faslane Naval Base on April 7. He said: "The tone in court was completely different to the tone of the hearing last October and it was noticeable that Lord Prosser, the chair of the bench, came in and did not look the respondents in the eyes and only uttered a few curt sentences before hurrying out. "Maybe this was because in his hearts of hearts he knew that he had let the people of Scotland down." A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We've always said that the International Court of Justice ruling in no way deems that nuclear weapons are illegal, so we were surprised when the protesters' defence was upheld by the sheriff. "The legality of Trident was never in the dock, it was more a question of interpretation of law and whether the defence offered up by the protesters was legitimate." ***************************************************************** 28 Effective Nuclear Disarmament March 31, 2001 [A] mong the most cost-effective defense dollars America spends are those that pay for reducing Russia's arsenal of leftover cold-war weapons. The Bush administration began a review of these "threat reduction" programs this week, saying it wanted to make them more efficient. But there are troubling signs that Mr. Bush is planning to reconsider his campaign promise to increase overall funding for these valuable programs and cut them instead. That would be a serious mistake. During the cold war Washington spent trillions of dollars defending against Russian nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Over the past decade, for a little less than $6 billion, America has financed, among other things, the deactivation of more than 5,000 Soviet-era nuclear warheads, conversion of more than 110 metric tons of bomb-grade uranium into commercial reactor fuel and safe storage of plutonium removed from Russian weapons. It has also helped underwrite new jobs for Russian nuclear scientists who might otherwise sell their talents to Iraq, Iran or Libya. Last year Congress appropriated nearly $900 million for threat reduction programs in Russia and other former Soviet republics. In the presidential campaign, Mr. Bush expressed strong support for these efforts and promised a substantial increase in their funding. Earlier this year a bipartisan task force headed by former Senator Howard Baker called for spending up to $30 billion on them over the next decade. But yesterday The Wall Street Journal reported that the administration's budget makers were instead preparing to impose substantial cuts. Not all the programs in Russia have been equally effective. Finding commercial projects to keep nuclear scientists employed has been difficult, and efforts to dispose of Russian and American bomb-grade plutonium have been slow in getting started. But one of the programs now in line for big reductions is the highly successful effort to keep track of and secure nuclear material at Russian bomb sites before it is removed and rendered harmless. The administration should conduct a careful review, identifying those programs that need to be strengthened or have their funding shifted to more effective efforts. But overall spending in this area should be increased, not decreased. It would be a dangerously false economy to slow the dismantling of Russian weapons. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************