***************************************************************** 02/02/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.31 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Anti-Yucca campaign gathers strength in LV 2 Siemens merger finalized, becomes Framatome ANP 3 YUCCA MOUNTAIN: County gives $1 million to media fund 4 Surfrider Foundation Forces Edison to Test Ocean Water Quality 5 American Ecology Acquires Envirosafe Services of Idaho, Inc. 6 NEI Briefs Wall Street on Nuclear Energy's Increasing Value in 7 CNSC ANNOUNCES DECISION ON THE POINT LEPREAU SOLID RADIOACTIVE WASTE 8 New energy law mooted to solve crisis 9 UKAEA says no nuclear risk from Dounreay strike 10 Editorial: A troubling steward of our lands 11 TEMELIN SEES TEST RENEWAL IN MID-FEB 12 Taiwan nuclear vote rejected 13 Nuclear power plant contractors may be getting cold feet 14 HSE WANTS SELLAFIELD TO REDUCE QUANTITIES OF LIQUID HIGH-LEVEL 15 Germany, France Agree to Step Up Contacts 16 Waste firm may face prosecution over radioactive find 17 Nuclear fuel rods still missing after further searching Spots in 18 Taiwan Lawmakers Nix Scrapping Nuclear Plant 19 Nuclear-waste plan opposed 20 Envirocare seeks to amend permit 21 ENVIROCARE HEARINGS HEATING UP 22 Envirocare Settles Lawsuit, Asks for Change to License NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 NUCLEAR WEAPONS WATCHDOGS CRITICIZE LASER FACILITY REPORT 2 Whistleblower: Dever deposition could occur within two weeks 3 BWXT Y-12 addresses hiring plan with subcontractors 4 Lawrence Young: CROET has nothing to hide, says its president 5 Business--Y-12 licenses metal technology 6 DOE briefs workers on radiation exposure study 7 DOE workers distrust report - 8 Amchitka cancer study under way 9 THE BOMB'S CHICAGO FALLOUT U.S. SAYS '40S RESEARCH PUT THOUSANDS 10 UN health agency seeks $2 million to fund work on depleted 11 Despite 3 years' preparation, Ottawa remains vulnerable 12 AGING A-BOMB SURVIVORS STRUGGLE TO CARRY ON 13 THE AREA With THE RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL WAS BEING WATCHED FOR 14 Deception over health risks of depleted uranium 15 Scientists Study NATO Ammunition 16 Samuel H. Day; Editor Fought to Publish Story on How to Build a 17 No leukaemia found among Russian peace-keepers 18 (Kursk Advice Surfaces From All Over) 19 IDUST - Radiation readings near Basrah 20 Critics try to muzzle DOE report on NIF 21 US sidesteps radioactive fall-out concerns 22 Uranium dumping 23 Kosovar DU Fears 24 Bill seeks help for downwinders **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Anti-Yucca campaign gathers strength in LV nuke meeting February 02, 2001 BY MARY MANNING LAS VEGAS SUN A nonprofit corporation will be formed to help Nevada tell the rest of the country about the dangers of nuclear waste, a Strip executive said Thursday. The corporation will spring from a consortium of Las Vegas businesses, which sent about 70 people to Thursday's meeting. Stephen Cloobeck, president and CEO of Diamond Resorts International, told Thursday's gathering that he hopes to raise about $10 million for the effort. The money will be used to motivate people across America to oppose burial plans in Nevada, he said. The Energy Department is preparing a report about whether to build a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Because the DOE is expected to recommend Yucca to Congress, local opposition is mounting. In all, if the DOE's plan goes forward and receives presidential approval, the nuclear industry would send 77,000 tons of nuclear waste to the mountain over the next several decades. In addition to $5 million Gov. Kenny Guinn has pledged in the battle against a Yucca Mountain repository, Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera said the county would contribute $1 million to the nonprofit corporation. Representatives of the Southern Nevada Board of Realtors, public utilities and the Venetian hotel-casino were among those attending Thursday's meeting. Other major resorts have also contacted him, Cloobeck said. The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, for the first time, passed a resolution on Wednesday opposing nuclear waste storage in Nevada. "I'm the glue trying to keep the state, the county and the cities together and make the rest of the country aware of what is going on," Cloobeck said after the meeting at the County Government Center. Officials representing Gov. Kenny Guinn, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., attended. State Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, Herrera and County Commissioner Myrna Williams also participated. Citizens not affiliated with major industry or government also pledged their help. Guinn committed $5 million in state funds to battling nuclear waste, said Bob Loux, director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects. That money won't be available until after July 1, he said. The agency cannot use federal money to lobby against the nuclear dump. What the new organization can do is help spread the word on the dangers facing communities along the transportation routes leading to a Yucca repository, Loux said. The Department of Energy proposes using federal highways through 43 states. More than 53 million people live within a mile of the routes. "It's not an ad campaign," Loux said, explaining that the state's money won't go into the hands of an advertising company. Instead, the funds will be used to distribute information to community and environmental groups across the country on the dangers from shipping the wastes to Yucca Mountain, he said. Williams said Southern Nevada faces "some real danger" after former Michigan Sen. Spencer Abraham was confirmed as energy secretary. In 1998, Williams noted, Abraham wrote a letter to former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson in an effort to keep plutonium from nuclear weapons from flying over Michigan. But he favors sending nuclear wastes to Nevada, she said, even before the scientific studies at Yucca Mountain are complete. County Nuclear Waste Division Director Dennis Bechtel said the DOE has not yet issued a formal transportation plan. But without consulting the county or any of the cities, major transportation routes in Southern Nevada were chosen as part of DOE's environmental impact studies, Bechtel said. The DOE's inspector general is investigating possible bias in the Yucca Mountain site selection process. A team of federal agents from Washington has been conducting interviews and poring over DOE documents in Las Vegas the past several weeks. The investigation was requested by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in December after the Sun reported that it had obtained documents that appeared to show the DOE collaborating with its chief Yucca Mountain contractor to win approval for the Nevada site. The Sun reported it had obtained a 60-page draft of a DOE overview on Yucca Mountain declaring the site suitable for nuclear waste storage, even though scientific studies haven't been completed. Attached to the draft was a two-page memo suggesting the overview could be used to help the nuclear industry sell Yucca Mountain to Congress. Federal law prohibits the DOE from taking sides in the selection process. ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 2 Siemens merger finalized, becomes Framatome ANP This story was published Thu, Feb 1, 2001 BY JOHN STANG HERALD STAFF WRITER That big nuclear fuel fabrication plant in northern Richland is now called "Framatome ANP Richland." Germany-based Siemens AG and France-based Framatome Group formally consummated their long-anticipated merger Wednesday to create Paris- based Framatome ANP. "ANP" stands for "Advanced Nuclear Power," although ANP is used in the corporation's formal name. This merger includes about 750 people who work at the former Siemens Power Corp. plant in Richland. It is too soon to tell how the consolidation will affect the Richland plant, said spokesman Wayne Baker. Until the merger became reality, the two competing nuclear power and service corporations have kept much of their proprietary information confidential. So, more study is needed until it is known if any changes will occur at the Richland plant, Baker said. Framatome brought to the merger a smaller version--in Lynchburg, Va.--of Siemens' Richland plant. Lynchburg is the headquarters for the new corporation's American operations, which are in Richland, Lynchburg and Atlanta. The Richland plant fabricates low-enriched nuclear fuel assemblies for commercial power reactors. That means the Richland plant processes a uranium compound, inserts the resulting powder into tiny pellets, put the pellets into long thin rods, and then bundles the rods into assemblies that are used to fuel nuclear reactors. The Lynchburg plant just tackles the latter part of this assembly process. In fact, the Lynchburg plant has often hired the Richland plant to provide it with the pellets, Baker said. This merger is been in the works since at least 1999. The two corporations decided to consolidate to improve their positions for an anticipated worldwide spurt in building nuclear power plants. Siemens brings about 4,100 employees, and Framatome brings about 9,000 workers into the new corporation with Siemens having a 34 percent share and Framatome owning 66 percent. Framatome ANP is expected to soon become a subsidiary of a holding company now being set up, called TOPCO. The French government will own 78 percent of TOPCO, with numerous minority shareholders owning the rest. TOPCO will own 100 percent of the Cogema Group, which has two Richland- based engineering subsidiaries. And TOPCO will take over the 66 percent share of Framatome ANP that is currently owned by the Framatome Group. France-based Cogema Group used to be a minority owner of the Framatome Group, but it sold off its share in 2000. The new Framatome ANP anticipates $3 billion in annual sales in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and South America. Most of its employees work in France and Germany. The new company claims it corporate ancestors have built 90 reactors worldwide--with four more under construction, according to Framatome ANP. It also produces a significant share of the world's nuclear fuel. COPYRIGHT 2001 TRI-CITY HERALD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS ***************************************************************** 3 YUCCA MOUNTAIN: County gives $1 million to media fund Friday, February 02, 2001 Copyright c Las Vegas Review-Journal REVIEW-JOURNAL Clark County will contribute $1 million to a fund to advertise against the transportation of nuclear waste across the country, Commission Chairman Dario Herrera said Thursday. Herrera said the money will go to the nonprofit corporation being organized by Polo Towers executive Steve Cloobeck in an effort to oppose the federal government's efforts to establish a nuclear repository in Nevada. Cloobeck on Thursday held a second organizational meeting at the Clark County Government Center to continue his efforts to create an educational nonprofit. In an effort to raise public awareness, Cloobeck hopes to raise as much as $10 million to wage a media campaign in states the waste will be traveling through. Gov. Kenny Guinn allocated $5 million in state funds for a media campaign to inform other states about the danger of nuclear waste. Guinn said he'd be asking each city and county, along with the private sector, to contribute as well. The county has been the first entity to respond with a specific financial commitment. Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being considered for the nation's nuclear waste storage. A letter was circulated at the organizational meeting signed by new Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, formerly a Republican senator from Michigan, who will be working on the effort to store nuclear waste. His letter, penned in 1998, expressed his concern about transportation of dangerous materials--if they go through Michigan. Abraham wrote then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to complain about the possibility the Energy Department would ship plutonium through his state. Abraham asked Richardson to consider disaster response issues in case of an accident. "Given the local population concentrations and geography, I am sure you will agree that the ramifications of an accident are too serious to consider anything less than the very best emergency response preparedness," Abraham wrote, asking for federal assistance so emergency response teams could deal with accidents. ***************************************************************** 4 Surfrider Foundation Forces Edison to Test Ocean Water Quality Near San Onofre Power Plant Environmental News Network - ENN Direct From Surfrider Foundation Thursday, February 1, 2001 SAN CLEMENTE, CA - The San Clemente Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation is pleased to report that the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) has forced Southern California Edison to begin bacterial testing of ocean water at its San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The plant is located within the San Onofre State Park and is in between the very popular surf destinations of "Surf Beach" (a.k.a. "Old Mans") and "Trails". During discharge permit hearings, the Surfrider Foundation’s San Clemente Chapter reviewed detailed documentation of operations at the plant. In addition to the nuclear power production, the chapter stumbled onto the fact that SONGS operated a wastewater treatment plant that discharged to the ocean but was never required to test for bacterial pollution. "The threat of radioactive discharges overshadowed the fact that it’s an industrial plant with more common discharges as well," said Mark Cousineau, Chairman of the Surfrider Foundation’s San Clemente Chapter. "It’s important to test these discharges to help protect the health of the more than 300,000 people who visit San Onofre State Park every year." Initially the staff of the RWQCB fought against the request to test, but after persistent effort, the Board required that SONGS add bacterial testing to their program both at the discharge point as well as in the surf zone at "Surf Beach". The Surfrider Foundation is a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans, waves and beaches, for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education (C.A.R.E.). Surfrider Foundation currently has 50 grassroots chapters and over 27,000 members in the U.S. -end- For more information, contact: Mark Cousineau San Clemente Chapter Chairman Surfrider Foundation (949) 361-3902 ***************************************************************** 5 American Ecology Acquires Envirosafe Services of Idaho, Inc. FRIDAY FEBRUARY 2, 6:00 AM EASTERN TIME Press Release Profitable Idaho and Illinois Hazardous Waste Operations Included BOISE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2001--Jack Lemley, Chairman, President, and CEO of Boise, Idaho based American Ecology Corporation Services of Idaho, Inc. in a stock purchase from Envirosource Corporation of Horsham, Pennsylvania. ``This acquisition is a major step for our Company and is right in line with our targeted growth strategy,'' Lemley stated, adding ``These well established, profitable waste treatment and disposal assets are a superb fit with American Ecology's existing core businesses.'' Operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Ecology, the new company is expected to provide annual revenue of approximately $12 million and a significant, accretive contribution to earnings. Envirosafe Services of Idaho's principal operation is a hazardous waste treatment and disposal facility located in the southwestern Idaho desert. ``Our new Idaho landfill operation extends American Ecology's existing, competitive position for hazardous waste in the western United States while significantly increasing the range of state-of-the art services we offer our customers,'' Lemley explained. Chief among the new services acquired through Envirosafe Services of Idaho is a patented, U.S. EPA-approved steel mill waste treatment technology to stabilize and ``delist'' certain hazardous wastes generated by steel mills, allowing economical disposal as non-hazardous industrial waste. In addition to the Idaho landfill operations, Envirosafe Services of Idaho is also licensed to use the patented delisting technology at a steel mill in Sterling, Illinois. ``Acquiring this onsite contract and waste processing equipment provides us with valuable expertise in a new business that fits very well with our existing organization, '' Lemley commented. Stephen Romano, Vice President for Corporate Development with American Ecology, will serve as President of the Company's Idaho operations, which include the newly acquired subsidiary. ``This unique combination of environmentally protective waste treatment technology, desert disposal capacity and client site services favorably expands American Ecology's capabilities,'' Lemley concluded. On Monday, February 5, at 10 am Mountain Time, Lemley will host an investor conference call to discuss the acquisition and respond to questions. Participants are invited to call 800/553-9545. The participation code is 734798. American Ecology Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides hazardous, PCB, low-level radioactive and non-hazardous waste services to commercial, industrial and government customers throughout the nation. The Company, which provides scientific solutions that protect people and the environment, operates state-of-the-art desert disposal facilities in Idaho, Nevada and Washington State. American Ecology also operates a hazardous waste disposal facility and adjacent municipal solid waste landfill in south Texas, and a radioactive materials processing facility in Tennessee. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, the Company is the oldest and most experienced hazardous and low- level radioactive waste services company in the United States. This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they fail to materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of American Ecology and its subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than historical fact are forward-looking statements, including any projections of earnings, revenues, or other financial items and any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of management. There can be no assurance that the business acquired will generate the expected level of future revenues or earnings, maintain existing contracts, or secure additional contracts. For information on factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations, please refer to American Ecology Corporation's Report 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contact: For American Ecology Steve Romano, 208/331-8400 ***************************************************************** 6 NEI Briefs Wall Street on Nuclear Energy's Increasing Value in Today's Electricity Markets Story Filed: Friday, February 02, 2001 11:29 AM EST NEW YORK, Feb 2, 2001 (BUSINESS WIRE)--Buoyed by their ability to reliably produce large amounts of low-cost, bulk electricity, nuclear power plants continue to increase in value, industry executives told Wall Street analysts here today. The energy woes gripping California and other parts of the United States reflect changes in the competitive electricity marketplace that are creating market opportunities for low-cost nuclear power, industry executives said. In addition, changing conditions are fostering "a high level of confidence" that construction of new nuclear power plants will begin later this decade. Christian Poindexter, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Constellation Energy Group, Inc. and chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute's board of directors told the analysts that nuclear energy plants continue to perform at record levels of safety and reliability. As a result, he said, "The value of nuclear power plants in today's market has increased significantly in the last year, and we see that value continuing to increase." Nuclear power plants are this nation's largest source of emission- free generation. NEI President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Colvin said this attribute will become more important - and more valuable - as Clean Air Act requirements limit companies' ability to find sites for new coal-fired and gas-fired power plants and increase the cost of coal- and gas-fired generation. Poindexter highlighted several key achievements from the past year: --The average nuclear plant capacity factor industrywide is at an all-time high. The industry averaged over 86 percent in 1999, and estimates 90 percent for 2000. NEI estimates that year 2000 production will top 1999's production record of 728 billion kilowatt-hours by 5 percent. --With nuclear production costs declining to 1.83 cents per kilowatt-hour, nuclear production costs are the lowest of all large, expandable fuel sources, and have dropped below average coal-fired production costs for the first time since 1987. --Safety performance is at record levels. Marvin Fertel, senior vice president for business operations at NEI, said the industry started laying the foundation more than a decade ago for policy changes to set the stage for new nuclear plant construction. Three essential conditions have converged to establish a compelling business case for construction of the next nuclear power plants in the U.S.: --Growing electricity demand and need for new generating capacity; --Greater certainty in the NRC licensing process; and --Programs to reduce capital costs for new nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Energy Institute is the nuclear energy industry's Washington- based policy organization. This news release and additional information CONTACT: NEI Melanie White, 202/739-8000 703/644-8805 after hours and weekends. Copyright (C) 2001 Business Wire. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 CNSC ANNOUNCES DECISION ON THE POINT LEPREAU SOLID RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT FACILITY CNSC: Media Centre - News Release 01-01 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 30, 2001 Following a public hearing held on November 9, 2000 and January 18, 2001, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) today announced the following decision: WASTE MANAGEMENT FACILITY The Commission approved the renewal of the licence for New Brunswick Power Corporation's Point Lepreau Solid Radioactive Waste Management Facility for a term of two years, ending January 31, 2003. In making these decisions, the Commission considered written submissions and oral presentations from the applicant and CNSC staff and concluded that New Brunswick Power is qualified to operate the Point Lepreau Solid Radioactive Waste Management Facility and will make adequate provision for the protection of the environment, the health and safety of persons, and the maintenance of national security and measures required to implement Canada's international obligations. A Record of Proceedings, including the Reasons for Decision will be available on the CNSC web-site at www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca or by contacting the CNSC. The CNSC regulates the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada's international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. -30- Documents related to CNSC hearings are available upon request. You 5284. CONTACT: Sunni Locatelli Media and Community Relations Communications Division (613) 996-6860 © Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission 2000 ***************************************************************** 8 New energy law mooted to solve crisis The Taipei Times Online: 2001-02-02 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2ND, 2001 POWER PLAY: With negotiations set to start between the ruling and opposition parties over the fate of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, sources close to the president have suggested any agreement be set down in law BY LIN MEI-CHUN, LIN CHIEH-YU AND JOYCE HUANG STAFF REPORTERS While the Presidential Office indicated that President Chen Shui- bian (³¯¤ô«ó) might agree to a resumption of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (®Ö¥|) project under certain conditions, Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (¤ýª÷¥­) yesterday softened his previous stance and expressed his willingness to negotiate with Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (±i«T¶¯). At a Chinese New Year dinner hosted by Chen for the heads of the five branches of the central government, Wang agreed to meet Chang this morning to begin negotiations. "OUT OF COURTESY AND RESPECT, ALL CAUCUS LEADERS AGREE THAT I MAY GO TO LISTEN TO THE VIEWS OF THE PREMIER, BUT I SHOULD ACT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONSTITUTION." Wang Jin-pyng, speaker of the Legislative Yuan If the negotiations between the leaders of the executive and legislative branches fail to result in agreement, the Presidential Office said, Chen will, in accordance with the Constitution, hold further negotiations in which he will act as mediator. Opposition party caucus leaders agreed in the afternoon during a closed-door session with Wang that he should participate in the negotiations. "Out of courtesy and respect, all caucus leaders agree that I may go to listen to the views of the premier, but I should act in accordance with the Constitution," Wang said. People First Party spokesperson Hwang Yih-jiau (¶À¸q¥æ) said, however, that Article 44 of the Constitution authorized the president to organize meetings to resolve disputes between government branches, but "only in respect of controversies that are not specifically covered by the Constitution." "But the power plant controversy should not be i.ncluded in this regulation because it is a matter of law. The Constitution clearly states a set of procedures for the legislative and executive branches to handle any dispute over a legal matter," Hwang said. "Wang could only go [to the meeting] if the president organized the meeting out of his personal intention to end the tension between the two branches, but not by virtue of the Constitution. "Even if he goes, he alone cannot make any promises. All final decisions must be made as a result of discussions with lawmakers,"Hwang said. Sources within the Preidential Office, who declined to be named, said that the president is trying to create a "compromise option, " which can satisfy both the DPP and the opposition alliance. "Since the DPP government and the opposition parties have agreed to build a nuclear-free country, we believe that both sides will make concessions and ultimately reach agreement, which should be enshrined in legislation," the sources said. "Even the DPP has to persuade its members to accept the final agreement." According to some DPP lawmakers, the conditions currently under consideration by the president might include: early decommissioning of the first, second, and third nuclear power plants; decommissioning of the fourth plant if other energy projects can supply sufficient electricity in the future; the enshrining into law of a scheduled date for decommissioning of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant; a clear declaration that no further nuclear power plants will be built. The sources said that any conditions will still have to be discussed during the upcoming negotiations. "The final agreement must be written into law," according to the sources, "in order to ensure that both the government and opposition parties abide by it in the future." Meanwhile, to extend his goodwill, the premier yesterday unexpectedly appeared at the handover ceremony of the KMT's legislative caucus leaders, urging the opposition alliance to "never close the door to negotiations." "A nuclear-free country is our mutual and ultimate goal. We will definitely reach an agreement," Chang said, adding that the balance of power between the executive branch and the legislature prevented the Cabinet from becoming a mere "branch" of the legislature by adhering to any resolutions unilaterally passed by the body. In response to Chang's remarks, Wang said that the legislature did not insist on immediately restarting the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant's construction before negotiations had taken place. Wang's remarks were widely seen as a reciprocal gesture of goodwill. This story has been viewed 602 times. Copyright c 1999, 2000, 2001 The Taipei Times. All rights ***************************************************************** 9 UKAEA says no nuclear risk from Dounreay strike FRIDAY FEBRUARY 2, 05:43 PM EDINBURGH, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Britain's nuclear decommissioning body moved to calm fears on Friday that a planned two-day strike at the troubled Dounreay nuclear plant on Scotland's northern coast might put the public at risk. More than 100 workers, members of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU), at the remote plant have voted for a two- day strike later in February in a dispute over pay and conditions. The UK Atomic Energy Authority acknowledged the industrial action would hold up decommissioning work at the accident-prone plant, but said safety would not be affected. "The AEEU and other unions have guaranteed that safety cover will always be maintained," a spokesman said. Nobody from AEEU was immediately available for comment. The Dounreay strikers, who had rejected a three-percent pay increase, represent just over 10 percent of the workforce on the site, which is run by the UKAEA. Dounreay is Britain's most complex nuclear site, home to three reactors which are now closed, and is concerned with decommissioning plant, fuel reprocessing and waste management. When it was built in the 1950s, it was at the cutting edge of fast- reactor nuclear technology. But mounting health and safety criticism, and a catalogue of errors -- which included using household Polyfilla and Plaster of Paris to solidify nuclear waste--forced the government to shut down commercial reprocessing in 1998. Last October, the government outlined a plan to restore the plant to its natural state by 2060. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication ***************************************************************** 10 Editorial: A troubling steward of our lands February 02, 2001 It was something of a surprise when George W. Bush nominated Gale Norton to be his secretary of the interior. After all, Bush's narrow victory--and his pledge to be a "uniter, not a divider"--was expected to result in Cabinet nominees who did not hold extreme views. His selection of Norton and John Ashcroft as attorney general, then, certainly defied the conventional wisdom. Yet Norton this week won Senate confirmation, in part, by softening many of her previously strident, out-of-touch stands that almost always sided with business interests--grazing, logging and mining -- on environmental issues. Norton once had even said that the Endangered Species Act and the Surface Mining Act were unconstitutional. But in an about-face, during her confirmation hearings before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, she said she no longer held those views. Norton also said she would enforce all environmental laws, assuring the committee that the top priority of the Department of Interior "must be to conserve those natural resources." Not only did senators buy her line about championing the environment, many also glossed over her observation that oil and gas exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could be accomplished with little threat to the environment. Such a policy would be a reversal of her predecessor, Bruce Babbitt, who successfully fended off efforts to drill in this environmentally sensitive land. This was the real Gale Norton, a protege of Jim Watt, who was no friend of the environment as secretary of interior under President Ronald Reagan. It should be acknowledged that Norton's views on drilling in Alaska mimic those of both the president, a former oil company executive, and the vice president, Dick Cheney, another oil man. Both Bush and Cheney have even suggested that the energy crisis in California should serve as a wakeup call to tap the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Despite the administration's hard sell, which ignores the fact that drilling on that public land in Alaska will have no impact on alleviating California's woes, it is heartening that the American public so far hasn't fallen for this pitch. An Associated Press poll released Thursday found that 53 percent oppose the plan, while just 33 percent support drilling there. If such an anti-environmental plan is being advocated in this administration's opening days, when the president presumably is trying to build a coalition by wi nning over those Americans who didn't vote for him, it's terrifying to think what the next four years will bring. ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 11 TEMELIN SEES TEST RENEWAL IN MID-FEB Prague Business Journal Daily News SUN., FEBRUARY 4, 2001 Source: Reuters Date: February 2, 2001 p;News FEBRUARY 2 - The controversial Czech nuclear power plant at Temelin could renew testing on its reactor after February 20, plant spokesman Vaclav Brom said on Friday. The Soviet-designed Temelin reactor, which began testing operations in October last year, was stopped in mid-January due to a problem with the steam pipes in the plant's secondary, non-nuclear circuit. "According to the schedule, we could be finished (with the repair of the pipes) around February 20," Brom told Reuters. He added that once the defects are repaired, testing on the reactor will continue and when the plant reaches 30 percent of output, it will ask the regulatory office to allow it to proceed to the next sub-level of 45 percent of nominal output. Earlier, Temelin officials said that the problems with the steam pipes may hold up the start of commercial operation, scheduled for May, by one month. If the testing restarts in mid-February, the delay is likely to be avoided. The Soviet-designed plant, fiercely opposed by neighbouring Austria which says it is unsafe, has run into several problems since firing up the reactor for a series of tests in October. The Czech Republic has agreed to carry out an environmental impact study to appease the fiercely anti-nuclear Austria which had threatened to block the Czechs' entry into European Union. Temelin, equipped with a U.S.-made control system, has one operating 981 megawatt reactor and one under construction. The plant is owned by majority state-owned power company CEZ, which is slated for privatisation by mid-2002. SEE RECENT STORIES ON ENERGY: COPYRIGHT REUTERS LIMITED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ***************************************************************** 12 Taiwan nuclear vote rejected BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC | Friday, 2 February, 2001, 12:33 GMT [I] Many are bitterly opposed to the project The Taiwanese opposition has rejected a government proposal to hold a referendum on the future of a partially-built nuclear power plant. Taiwan's Prime Minister Chang Chun-hsiung had suggested the referendum as a way of resolving a political deadlock that has battered Taiwan's economy. The government has insisted it wants to scrap the station, while parliament has pushed for its completion. Mr Chang had also suggested a new energy law - which would seek to make Taiwan nuclear free - as an alternative solution. But the opposition said it was not prepared to enter into negotiations with the government until construction work on the power station was restarted. Government sources say the opposition's refusal to accept his proposals means that the whole issue is back to square one. The row erupted last October when President Chen Shui-bian ordered a halt to the construction of the $5.5bn plant, the island's fourth. The project was begun under the Nationalists who were swept from office last year after 55 years in power. Mr Chang's referendum offer followed a parliamentary resolution on Wednesday urging the cabinet to reverse its decision to scrap the plant. The premier enraged opposition lawmakers by saying the resolution was not legally binding. But in a new tone of compromise, Mr Chang later said he "attached importance" to the resolution. ***************************************************************** 13 Nuclear power plant contractors may be getting cold feet The Taipei Times Online: 2001-02-02 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2ND, 2001 BY RICHARD DOBSON STAFF REPORTER Signs that contractors building the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (®Ö¥| ) are getting cold feet have begun to appear as the delay in construction drags into its fourth month. The largest of the domestic contractors, New Asia Construction and Development Corp (·s¨È«Ø³]), last week requested the Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, ¥x¹q) give them clear indication on whether the project will proceed or be canceled, according to executives at both companies. New Asia made the request under pressure from its own subcontractors, who have previously made it clear that if the matter couldn't be resolved in the short-term they would likely bail on the project, according to executives. If the delay was to continue, New Asia will seek compensation for losses incurred since the government halted work on the plant last October and the return of a NT$1.5 billion guarantee bond, executives added. New Asia signed a NT$10.5 billion contract to construct the structures that will house the two nuclear reactors and their accompanying turbines. Under the agreement signed with Taipower, all domestic contractors are permitted to annul their contracts and seek compensation if construction is halted for more than three months. Taipower executives said that company lawyers were examining the legalities of the bond request, but could give no assurances on whether work on the plant would resume until they receive instructions from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (¸gÀÙ³¡) under the Executive Yuan. The last instruction from the Ministry was on Jan. 20, when Taipower was told to maintain suspension of the project and strive to retain the contractors, according to Taipower. Additionally if any of the contractors move to annul their contract, Taipower has been instructed to pass the matter onto the Ministry which will handle the matter. None of the 12 major contractors have yet signalled any intention to pull out of the project, according to Taipower. This might change, however, after word spreads among other contractors of New Asia's request. In an prior interview with the Taipei Times, New Asia's President Chu Tai-sheng (¦¶¥x´Ë) stressed the cooperative nature of construction work on the project, saying that even one contractor pulling out would compound delays and losses. Certain areas of construction are dependent on the prior completion of others, which if remain incomplete due to contractor walk outs, will hobble the efforts of the remaining builders, said Chu. Other contractors, however, remain committed for now. The second biggest domestic builder, CTCI Corp (¤¤¹©¤uµ{) will for the time being hold off on seeking compensation or an annulment of their NT$2.7 billion contract, said one executive. The executive said that the company has been in constant contact with Taipower over the status of the project and was upbeat on the project's fate, saying it "isn't dead just yet," in light of the Legislative Yuan's vote Wednesday to resume construction and efforts by President Chen Shui-bian's (³¯¤ô«ó) administration to facilitate further negotiations between the Cabinet and the legislature. This story has been viewed 327 times. Copyright c 1999, 2000, 2001 The Taipei Times. All rights ***************************************************************** 14 HSE WANTS SELLAFIELD TO REDUCE QUANTITIES OF LIQUID HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE Safety Online News for safety professionals HSE WANTS SELLAFIELD TO REDUCE QUANTITIES OF LIQUID HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE The UK Health & Safety Executive's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) today issued a Specification (a legal requirement to take action) to British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL)... --> [*]STUDY ESTIMATES 14 PERCENT OF DRIVERS ARE UNINSURED -->2/1/2001  The UK Health & Safety Executive's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) today issued a Specification (a legal requirement to take action) to British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL). The Specification formalizes BNFL's program to reduce the quantity of liquid high level radioactive waste--known as highly active liquor (HAL)--stored at the Sellafield reprocessing plant. HAL is a concentrated solution of fission products in nitric acid. It arises from the reprocessing of irradiated nuclear fuel at Sellafield. It is currently stored in a number of water-cooled highly active storage tanks. In 1991, BNFL opened a two-line Waste Vitrification Plant, capable of incorporating the HAL into solidified glass blocks -- an intrinsically safer storage arrangement. BNFL is currently commissioning a third vitrification line. “The Specification marks a major step in an ongoing regulatory process aimed at securing conversion of the HAL, currently held as liquid in water-cooled tanks, to a passively safe form of storage (i.e. as glass blocks) as soon as reasonably practicable. We will not hesitate to use our regulatory powers to halt THORP reprocessing, should that be necessary, in order to keep BNFL within the Specification,” said Laurence Williams, HM chief inspector of nuclear installations and HSE's director of nuclear safety. He said the NII will closely review BNFL's strategy every two years in the light of the prevailing circumstances, such as changes to BNFL's business plans and reprocessing contracts, and further advances in technology, to identify any further “reasonably practicable” reductions. The plan is aimed at minimizing the amount of HAL by 2015 to achieve the residual or “buffer” stock required to feed the vitrification (glass-making) process. The maximum permitted amount of HAL Sellafield will be able to hold will be reduced from a limit of 1,575 cubic metres (m3) by about 35 m3 per year until 2012, when it will decrease rapidly to the buffer stock limit of 200 m3. BNFL is expected to keep the actual volume below this upper limit, which allows for dilution that occurs because of additions of inactive acid and water for operational reasons. The major contributor to the hazard potential comes from HAL derived from the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP). Consequently, NII has also specified controls on the amount of HAL originating from THORP. As BNFL blends this material with Magnox HAL in order to optimize the HAL vitrification rate, the controls relate to blended and unblended HAL. The control level of such HAL is set initially at 770 m3 and reduces to 500 m3 by 2007. In addition to the required stock reductions, BNFL has made a commitment to develop further improvements in stock reduction; in particular, ensuring improvements in vitrification plant performance and eliminating operational constraints to improve the rate of reduction and reduce even further the buffer stock. By Sandy Smith Content Manager, Safety Online E-mail: [*]ssmith@verticalnet.com --> ***************************************************************** 15 Germany, France Agree to Step Up Contacts F.A.Z. - English Version BY ECKART LOHSE AND CARL GRAF HOHENTHAL BLAESHEIM. France and Germany worked during an Alsatian dinner to bring new vigor to a relationship that has grown tense and uneasy in recent weeks. Meeting in Blaesheim, near Strasbourg, on Wednesday night, French President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder announced that they still shared a common "vision" for the future of the European Union. And to help stay focused on this vision, the leaders agreed that they would step up their contacts. Instead of meeting twice a year during Franco-German summits, the two leaders said they would begin meeting every six to eight weeks. The countries' foreign ministers will meet every four weeks to lay the groundwork for these sessions. The two leaders, besides working on their common vision for Europe, also worked to eliminate possible tension caused by one concrete political issue--the return of German nuclear waste from a reprocessing plant in France. At the end of March, a permit will be granted for a batch of spent fuel rods, welded into glass cocoons, to be transported from the French reprocessing plant at La Hague to a storage facility in Gorleben, in the German state of Lower Saxony. Alittle later, nuclear waste will travel from the atomic power station at Philippsburg, southwest of Heidelberg, to La Hague. At least one other shipment will be transported later this year from La Hague back to Germany. Mr. Schröder and French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin further agreed that over the coming years at least 12 reinforced containers containing nuclear waste will be brought from the reprocessing plant to Germany. They may all be transported in a single consignment rather in two separate batches, as has happened in the past. Germany's environment minister, Jürgen Trittin, welcomed the plans to restart transportation of nuclear waste, an issue that has generated violent demonstrations in the past. Addressing possible protesters, Mr. Trittin said Germany had a political and legal duty to take back the nuclear waste, and he said he did not think this would lead to a political split within his party, Alliance 90_The Greens. Under Germany's plan to shut down its 19 nuclear power plants, nuclear waste is to be kept in central interim storage facilities at the nuclear power stations. Transportation to reprocessing plants in France and Britain is to end by 2005. But the environmental citizens' initiative in Gorleben accused Mr. Schröder and Mr. Jospin of continuing the nuclear policy of former governments. Much of the post-meeting talk covered the countries' relationship, which was shaken by the tumultuous December EU summit hosted by France in Nice. After the meeting in Alsace, Mr. Schröder spoke of the "great historic opportunity" that France and Germany had to work jointly for the future of the EU, an opportunity he said they wanted to grasp "together and only together." Mr. Chirac said that if Europe wanted to make good progress, it could only be achieved through Franco-German leadership and that the two countries had to "pull together." The two countries still have to work out the details on how they will hold their more frequent meetings in the future. The priorities are: the post-Nice process, the intergovernmental conference scheduled for 2004, and enlargement of the EU. German Foreign Minister Joseph Fischer said that France and Germany were essential as the "driving force" of Europe. The German government believed it important not to exclude other member states from the Franco-German relationship. The chairman of the Christian Democratic Union_Christian Social Union parliamentary group, Friedrich Merz dubbed this summit a "crisis meeting." Speaking on the radio, Mr. Merz said the relationship between Paris and Berlin had suffered over the last two years from domestic politics in France and from neglect by the German government. Mr. Schröder had a different view. Under the clear, starry skies in Blaesheim, Mr. Schröder spoke about the "great, historic opportunity" facing France and Germany "together and only together" in the creation of an enlarged Europe. The utterances of Mr. Chirac and Mr. Schröder were so laden with history and significance that they were reminiscent of the rhetorical flourishes often heard from former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the late French President Francois Mitterrand. Insults that one or the other only had his own national interests in mind seemed to have vanished. By agreeing to hold meetings at this level more frequently, it is clear that the aim is to restore Franco-German cooperation--on the wrong track over the last six months and particularly at the Nice summit--to the level it used to occupy in the past when Mr. Kohl and Mr. Mitterrand were in office. If we take the atmosphere over the evening meal in Blaesheim, the body language, the friendly atmosphere at the welcoming session and during the shared bus-ride back to the airport as evidence, then it was clear that this was a genuine concern to Mr. Chirac and Mr. Jospin as well as Mr. Schröder and Mr. Fischer. The French and German government have every reason to know where their relations are going from here. After Paris said in the fall of 1998 that it expected the new German government would make relations between the two countries more down-to-earth and less nostalgic, a new sense of sobriety between Paris and Berlin was taken for granted for a while. Since then, France has regularly stated that it had no problem with a larger and more influential, reunified Germany. Apparently, the French participants in the talks held on Wednesday in Blaesheim have also embraced this credo. At the same time, it became clear to the French that the Germans were serious about having a greater influence. Mr. Fischer's speech in May on the future of Europe and Mr. Schröder's insistence on an intergovernmental conference in 2004 must have given Paris the clear impression that the Germans really did want to take charge of events in Europe. The inability to agree became clear before and finally in Nice in the petty dispute over whether Germany should have one more vote than France in the EU's Council of Ministers. There were mutual recriminations that culminated in Mr. Fischer publicly accusing the French of having done an unsatisfactory job in the presidency. But after he said that, he was apparently shocked at the clarity with which his comments were reported in the newspapers. Reason enough then, at the beginning of a new year, a millennium even, to eat sauerkraut together amid an exchange of all the usual friendly courtesies. At the end of the meeting in Alsace, Mr. Schröder said the talk had been about "what we have done wrong, but more about what we did right." Feb. 1, 2001 ;Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2000 All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 Waste firm may face prosecution over radioactive find THURSDAY FEBRUARY 1, 11:59 PM A waste firm in Gloucester could face prosecution for storing radioactive waste. Cleansing Service Group faced criticism when a blast at its plant and subsequent flooding leaked potentially cancer-causing chemicals into surrounding water. Residents are furious after Environment Agency officials cleaning up the fire-wrecked site discovered two drums of radioactive waste. Agency staff have said the waste-processing firm in the city's Sandhurst area does not have a licence to store the dangerous substances and could face prosecution. The discovery is the latest twist in a series of incidents at the site since the explosion on October 30 last year. In November, agency officials uncovered seven 25-litre drums of BSE- contaminated waste containing matter used in the investigation of animals affected by mad cow disease. At the time CSG admitted the drums should have been incinerated four years ago. More than 100 residents have claimed they have suffered sore throats, breathing problems and sickness since the blast last year but the agency and Gloucestershire Health Authority claimed after tests that there would be no long-term effects. An agency spokeswoman said: "Concerns were raised by the agency over two of the remaining drums. Officers have found these drums contain some radioactive substances." "The agency is using specialist contractors to remove the waste and undertake a detailed assessment of it so that safe disposal can be arranged. Initial indications are that no radioactivity has been released from the site." CSG were unavailable for comment but managing director Kenneth Pee has previously claimed "best practice" was carried out at the base and said: "It has been operated under the weekly inspection of the EA, a normal regime for such a site." Copyright © 2001 Ananova. All rights reserved. Republication or Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 17 Nuclear fuel rods still missing after further searching Spots in storage pool most likely to contain rods already examined TheDay.com: Local and National News Published on 2/2/2001 WATERFORD — The odds are increasing that officials at Millstone Nuclear Power Station may never be able to account for two spent nuclear fuel rods first discovered missing in November following an audit of the spent fuel storage pool. Robert V. Fairbank, project team manager for the missing fuel investigation, said personnel recently completed searching those sections of the Millstone 1 spent fuel storage pool considered most likely to contain the fuel rods. The search of those areas, accounting for about 20 percent of the pool, turned up nothing. “We had every expectation that those efforts would result in us finding those rods, but unfortunately that wasn't the case,” Fairbank said. The update on the missing fuel rod situation was provided to the Millstone 1 Decommissioning Advisory Committee during a meeting Thursday night held at the station's training center. Only a few members of the general public attended the meeting. Plant personnel are now digging in for an extensive search that could drag into the summer, extending past the April 1 date when Dominion Resources Inc. is scheduled to finalize its $1.3 billion purchase of Millstone from Northeast Utilities. Frank Rothen, vice president of decommissioning activities at the closed Millstone 1 plant, said the investigation team would remain in place after Dominion takes control. Fairbank said the next several weeks will be spent planning how to search the other 80 percent of the spent fuel pool, sections where the highly radioactive nuclear waste is packed more tightly together and where there are fewer “nooks and crannies” where the fuel rods could have been inserted. The company is also examining thousands and thousands of records for some clue as to what happened to the two errant rods. Also in attendance at Thursday's meeting were representatives of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Todd J. Jackson, a health physicist with the NRC, said the agency has confirmed that this is the first time in the history of the nuclear industry that spent nuclear fuel has not been accounted for. Michael T. Masnik, chief of the decommissioning section of the NRC's Division of Licensing Project Management, said the case is being viewed with great seriousness by the federal regulatory agency. Failure to account of nuclear fuel is a violation of federal regulations, but Masnik refused to speculate what action the agency may ultimately take. At this point it will continue to monitor NU's investigation. Joseph Coleman, an East Lyme resident and member of the advisory committee, said it appears ever more likely the fuel rods will never be located. If the fuel rods are not found in the pool there will be no other options to pursue, he said. “It seems to me that at that point there's not much more you can do, except run up the flag and say, 'We lost them,' ” Coleman said. The last reference to the fuel rods in Millstone records, dating back 20 years ago, stated the rods were stored in a special container in a corner of the 38-foot deep storage pool. Masnik said there is no reason to believe the fuel rods pose a threat to public safety. NU officials have said the two fuel rods might have either been moved to a different location in the spent fuel storage pool and the change not properly recorded, or they could have been accidentally shipped off site to low-level radioactive waste dumps in either South Carolina or the state of Washington. In either case, say company officials, they would be safely contained. Legally, there is no place to take spent nuclear fuel in this country. Shipping the two fuel rods, accidentally or not, would have been a violation of federal regulations. Masnik said if it is determined the fuel rods were shipped, the NRC will then have to determine if it is better to retrieve them or leave them be. A records review discovered the problem of the misplaced rods and an internal Millstone report was filed Nov. 16. May 1979 engineering notes refer to the two fuel rods — 13-feet, 2-inches long and a half- inch in diameter — as being stored in a special container in the northwest corner of the pool. An April 1980 report confirmed that location. But a September 1980 inventory of the spent fuel pool makes no mention of the fuel rods, first removed during an inspection of possible fuel rod damage in 1972. A special crane and remote cameras are being used to conduct the storage pool search. The NRC officials said they do not expect the incident to hold up the sale to Dominion and NU executives have promised to take full responsibility for the cost of finding them and any liability that may result. [I] ***************************************************************** 18 Taiwan Lawmakers Nix Scrapping Nuclear Plant www.sfgate.com p;February 2, 2001 HONG KONG-- Taiwan's political stalemate hardened this week as the legislature voted to reverse a decision by President Chen Shui- bian to scrap a partly built nuclear power plant. The $5.5 billion plant is no mere public works project. It is the proxy for a much broader battle between Chen and the Nationalist Party, which he swept out of power last March after 55 years of rule. The legislature, which is dominated by the Nationalists, voted 134 to 70 on Tuesday to resume construction. It said that halting the project had caused "political turmoil, an economic slowdown and social instability." More tumult seems likely, as Taiwan's prime minister, Chang Chun- hsiung, said the government was not obliged to follow the vote. But Chang offered to negotiate with the legislature. Political analysts said Chen was under mounting pressure to find a compromise. The dispute has paralyzed the government, earning the country unwelcome comparisons with the Philippines and Indonesia, two of the most chronically unstable Asian countries. The standoff has also scared away foreign investors, hobbled the stock market and undermined Taiwan's currency. Andrew Yang, the secretary-general of the Chinese Center for Advanced Policy Studies, a research organization in Taipei, said it would be difficult for Chen to retreat. He promised to scrap the plant during the presidential campaign, and his party, the Democratic Progressive Party, is fervently opposed to the project. ***************************************************************** 19 Nuclear-waste plan opposed Friday, February 02, 2001 Critics wonder why Leavitt isn't fighting Envirocare proposal Deseret News staff writer Dear Gov. Mike Leavitt: If Utah would accept high-level nuclear waste only "over your dead body," why is the state still considering accepting less-radioactive wastes? Signed: Most of the people attending a Thursday night public hearing on a proposal by Envirocare of Utah to store Class B and C radioactive wastes at its landfill in remote Tooele County. These are wastes primarily from research laboratories, decommissioned power plants and hospitals. While potentially thousands of times hotter than the Class A contaminated soils Envirocare currently accepts, they are still millions of times less radioactive than the spent nuclear fuel rods targeted for the Goshute Reservation, 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. "Why are the powers that be in Utah and in the governor's administration opposed to the Goshute (proposal) but are apparently friendly to Envirocare?" inquired Boyer Jarvis. "Could it be that the Goshutes are not making political donations?" Citing Deseret News reports showing Envirocare has made tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions to the governor and legislators, many people at the public hearing railed on state officials for appearing to have been bought by Envirocare. The public hearings, scheduled over the next several weeks, are required by law prior to a decision by the Utah Legislature and the governor on Envirocare's request to accept Class B and C wastes. The Department of Environmental Quality has already determined the company's application meets all technical requirements. Bill Sinclair, director of the Division of Radiation Control, has given the proposal his tentative approval. Yet opponents of the proposal repeatedly pointed to a Deseret News poll showing 84 percent of Utahns oppose Envirocare's plan. Envirocare had some supporters at the hearing. Among them, Mark Ledoux, radiation protection manager for Envirocare, promised the wastes would all be packaged and transported safely and would be buried in concrete containers so that the radiation posed no threat to human health. Others agreed. "I've been to the site; I like the way they handle this waste and I'm all for it," said Jay Elkins, a Tooele County resident. Art Palmer, a safety officer at Envirocare, testified "these radioactive wastes are a fact of modern life. They can and have been managed safely for over 20 years. The Envirocare site is an optimum place to dispose of them." But a majority of those attending the public hearing were opposed to Envirocare, saying they don't trust a company that makes such large political contributions. The issue is really about public safety and Utah's public image as a dumping ground for waste. "It comes down to an issue of trust," said Jason Groenewold, director of Families Against Incinerator Wastes. And the history of the company's actions in Utah do not warrant trust, he said. "Let's be wise in our decision," he said, offering a bit of advice to the governor. "Let's kill this insane proposal." E-MAIL: [*]donna@desnews.com [I] [I] [I] [I] c 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 20 Envirocare seeks to amend permit Friday, February 02, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS Envirocare applied this week to amend its state permit for storing Class A low-level radioactive waste. If approved, Envirocare would be able to begin accepting class A waste that is prepackaged in containers. The material has a higher concentration of radioactivity than the loose waste the company now accepts at the site 80 miles west of Salt Lake City. This request is not related to the company's pursuit of a permit to store Class B and C wastes. (See related story.) Envirocare would use a portion of the landfill that is already receiving Class A waste. In another development this week, Envirocare announced it is quitting its existing operations and expansion plans in west Texas. The move is part of a settlement by Envirocare and Waste Control Specialists, a Texas waste company that filed a billion- dollar antitrust lawsuit against Envirocare in 1997. Neither side would discuss terms of the settlement, but Envirocare president Charles Judd told the Odessa Texas American that his company would sell its two west Texas facilities. One was proposed as a long-term nuclear waste storage facility and the other as a disposal site for radioactive and hazardous wastes. The permit amendment Envirocare is seeking in Utah is different from Envirocare's controversial Class B and C waste proposal. To accept even hotter waste, Envirocare must get a new license to open a new landfill at its current Tooele County site so it can dispose of containers of waste in classes A, B and C. Using the amendment to piggyback on its existing license for Class A waste, the company can begin part of the expansion it is seeking along with its new license application. Of the 400,000 cubic feet of materials that Envirocare hopes to dispose under its new license application, 380, 000 cubic feet is the Class A waste Envirocare can begin putting into its existing landfill if the amendment is approved. A legislative budget committee has approved the state Department of Environmental Quality's plans to have four people oversee the expanded Class-A facility and to levy fees on those who send waste to the Utah facility, such as medical-waste disposal companies. Since the proposed amendment is considered an extension of Envirocare's current business, it only will require a limited regulatory review, rather than the approval by regulators, the Legislature and the governor. [I] [I] [I] [I] c 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 21 ENVIROCARE HEARINGS HEATING UP The Salt Lake Tribune--Utah's Statewide Newspaper Friday, February 02, 2001 BY JUDY FAHYS Some say it would be Utah's way of being a good environmental citizen. Others contend it would set a bad precedent, making Utah a haven for waste so foul few other places in the nation will have it. These opposing views took center stage Thursday at the first of two public hearings on Envirocare of Utah's request to branch out into a new business line at its radioactive-waste landfill in Tooele County. It was a forum for supporters and critics to make their cases for swaying the state Division of Radiation Control in its final decision. "The proposal is for a dump site, a truly hazardous one," said Anne Sward Hansen of Citizens Against Radioactive Waste, adding that four out of five Utahns oppose the new license. Jay Elkins, a Tooele County resident, represented supporters. "I want this board to know I'm all for this license," he said, declaring the landfill safe and well-run after his own on- site inspection. Bill Sinclair, director of the radiation division, already has given tentative approval to Envirocare's plans to take on "hotter" waste at the facility, which is about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City. For about a decade, Envirocare has been disposing class A waste, often described as "dirty dirt" that is mildly tainted with radioactive material. Under the application now under public review, the company could accept " class B and C waste," typically nuclear- power-plant discards that are hundreds of times--and sometimes thousands of times--more contaminated than material currently disposed at Envirocare. Opponents say the expansion puts Utah and Envirocare workers at greater risk of health damage such as cancer and birth defects. Supporters say Envirocare's plans offer a way to safely dispose of the contaminated wastes that include old smoke detectors, medical treatment waste and medical research waste, as well as nuclear plant refuse. "These wastes are a fact of today's life," said Envirocare Radiation Officer Art Palmer, who spoke at the afternoon hearing. "We have them on our hands. Our real challenge is ensuring that they are cared for safely." Later, at Thursday night's public hearing, Envirocare handed out stickers to its supporters, who were sprinkled among more than 100 in the audience. Opponents wore handwritten stickers of their own. Many opponents lamented that the license approval looked like a done deal. They noted that Sinclair has said he is inclined to approve the license. Many also complained no members of the Radiation Control Board were there to hear their comments. They also denounced Envirocare's political clout with the Legislature and the governor, both of whom will be asked to give the license final approval. "If our elected officials truly represent the people of Utah, there is no way they can approve this license application, " said Jeri Roos, a grandmother and schoolteacher. The Division of Environmental Quality has set three more hearings: Thursday in Layton; Feb. 15 in Tooele; and Feb. 22 in Provo. Each begins at 7:00 p.m. More information about the hearings and Envirocare's proposal is available at www.deq. state.ut.us/eqrad/info_101.htm. The public comment period ends March 2. After Sinclair decides on the new license, Envirocare's plans are subject to approval by the Legislature and the governor. Tooele County commissioners already have given the proposal their support. ***************************************************************** 22 Envirocare Settles Lawsuit, Asks for Change to License The Salt Lake Tribune-- FRIDAY, February 2, 2001 BY JUDY FAHYS Thursday's hearings follow two other notable developments for Envirocare and low-level radioactive waste in Utah. Envirocare has announced it is quitting its existing operations and expansion plans in West Texas. The move is part of a legal settlement announced Monday by Envirocare and Waste Control Specialists, a Texas waste company that filed a billion-dollar antitrust lawsuit against Envirocare in 1997. While neither side would discuss terms of that settlement, Envirocare president Charles Judd told the Odessa Texas American that his company would sell its two West Texas facilities. One was proposed as a long-term nuclear waste storage facility, and the other as a disposal site that included radioactive and hazardous wastes. The second development involves a new use of the company's landfill in Tooele County. Company officials on Monday officially asked the state Radiation Control Division to alter its current license to store low-level "class A" waste. If approved, Envirocare would be able to begin accepting class A waste that is prepackaged in containers. The stuff is generally more "hot" or concentrated in radiation than the loose waste Envirocare currently disposes at the site, about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City. Envirocare would use a portion of the landfill that is already taking class A waste. The amendment differs from Envirocare's so-called "class B and C" waste proposal in this way: To accept even hotter waste, Envirocare must get a new license to open a new landfill at its current Tooele County site so it can dispose of containers of waste in classes A, B and C. By using the amendment to piggyback on its existing license for class A waste, the company can begin part of the expansion it is seeking with its new license application. In fact, of the 400, 000 cubic feet that Envirocare hopes to dispose under its new license application, 380,000 cubic feet is the class A waste Envirocare can begin putting into its existing landfill if the amendment is approved. A legislative budget committee has approved the state Department of Environmental Quality's plans to have four people oversee the expanded Class-A facility and to levy fees on those who send waste to the Utah facility, such as medical-waste disposal companies. Since the proposed amendment is considered an extension of Envirocare's current business, it only will require a limited regulatory review, rather than a multifaceted approval by regulators, the Legislature and the governor. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 NUCLEAR WEAPONS WATCHDOGS CRITICIZE LASER FACILITY REPORT Albuquerque Tribune Online: News TRIBUNE REPORTER Two public nuclear weapons watchdog groups today said they are suing to block the Department of Energy from using a favorable technical report to continue the controversial $3.6 billion National Ignition Facility laser. They said the report was produced by a "stacked" team of DOE scientists and DOE contractors in violation of federal law, and that it aims to deceptively "garner public and congressional support" for the NIF. NIF, a giant laser and nuclear weapons blast simulator under construction at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, is billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule. And, it is considered by some to threaten the stability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile maintenance program, as well as the budgets and programs of the other two nuclear weapons labs, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico. Several New Mexico nuclear weapons and fusion scientists are among NIF's biggest critics. The NIF technical report is "tainted" and violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), charge the Natural Resources Defense Council, in Washington, and Tri-Valley Cares, of Livermore. The groups announced they are filing today for a federal court injunction to prevent the DOE from using its NIF "Rebaseline Validation Review," completed last August, to persuade Congress that the project is under control and back on track. "The review of NIF is the epitome of everything that the FACA was designed to prevent--a hasty, biased, made-to-order review, conducted in secret by agency officials and insiders who stood to benefit from the very recommendations they were being called upon to make," charged Christopher Paine, a senior NRDC researcher. Tri-Valley Cares' Director Marylia Kelly said, "The DOE has relied on this tainted review to assert to Congress that it has finally gained control over the NIF's technical and budget problems, when the reality is quite different. "If we prevail, DOE could be forced to go back to square one and prepare a more candid, unbiased and complete assessment of the NIF project," she said. The groups' lawyer, Howard Crystal, said the federal "violations involved in this case are blatant, and all citizens concerned about the manipulation of federal agencies for private ends should welcome the action my clients are taking today." The groups contend that DOE failed to provide public input and access to the review and packed the NIF review committee with "paid consultants and advisers to Livermore and the NIF project." Efforts to obtain comment from DOE were unsuccessful. DOE and Livermore officials have insisted that the review was done independently, though they acknowledge the panel contained many experts from DOE labs and contractors. The department, which manages all of the civilian nuclear weapons labs and considers NIF crucial to weapon stewardship, is required to report to Congress by March 31 on NIF's status, scientific prospects and alternatives. Several leading members of Congress have raised serious reservations about the project, including New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici who sees next month's DOE report to Congress as a possible last straw. "It's either prove it up time, or the end of it," he said, in agreeing to provide conditional funding for NIF pegged to DOE assurances by March 31 that NIF is viable. While DOE has been trying to present a unified front in support of NIF, NIF criticisms by Sandia executives last year drew a blunt and immediate rebuttal from then Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson. Sandia and Los Alamos experts also told General Accounting Office investigators, who severely criticized the project, that they favor scaling NIF back to one-fourth its planned size of 192 laser beams. Three Los Alamos scientists last year independently tried to persuade the DOE to take a more measured NIF approach, but were rebuffed. Independent Los Alamos fusion physicist Leo Mascheroni, NIF's longest-standing critic, hailed the suit, saying Congress still is being misled by Livermore and DOE efforts to whitewash severe NIF handicaps. Mascheroni said NIF does not work and has survived because of flawed computer code calculations that ignored secret underground nuclear weapons experiments. "They are saying don't worry, everything is okay with NIF," he said. "It's not. That is a disservice to the country and to the taxpayers." ©The Albuquerque Tribune. Users of this site are subject ***************************************************************** 2 Whistleblower: Dever deposition could occur within two weeks Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:59 p.m. on Friday, February 2, 2001 BY PAUL PARSON Oak Ridger staff Issues concerning discovery in Joe Carson's whistleblower case continue to be worked out. Carson says the Department of Energy, though six days past its deadline, provided some answers Monday evening to a court order seeking information pertaining to his whistleblower case. However, he said the federal agency offered no explanation for being late. The requested information includes any documents mentioning Carson since February 1994, including those dealing with the safety violations he reported, his job status and any personnel actions taken against him. Carson said his attorney expects to talk with DOE's legal counsel today to try to resolve any concerns about the discovery as well as to schedule depositions. Part of the discovery involves taking depositions from several key DOE figures, including Leah Dever, manager of DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office. Carson said he hopes the depositions will occur within the next two weeks. Carson, a licensed professional engineer, says that while working in a safety oversight role in Oak Ridge for DOE headquarters, his attempts to report safety and security violations at several DOE sites resulted in a lowering of his usual performance rating, his removal from surveillance responsibilities and his reassignment to another site. In April 1999, the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board ruled that DOE's actions were reprisal for Carson's whistleblowing. DOE's appeal was rejected by the Merit Systems Protection Board in a February 2000 decision, which ordered Carson restored to his job. DOE has declined to discuss the Carson case with The Oak Ridger. [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 3 BWXT Y-12 addresses hiring plan with subcontractors Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:59 p.m. on Friday, February 2, 2001 BY PAUL PARSON Oak Ridger staff Around 75 people involved in subcontractor activities at the Y-12 National Security Complex attended a meeting Thursday with BWXT Y- 12 officials regarding future hiring plans. Doris Heim, BWXT Y-12 Business Systems director, said this morning that some of the meeting attendees were concerned that BWXT Y-12 would be hiring away all the subcontractor employees and canceling contracts. But, that's not true, she said. "We're not here to do doom and gloom," Heim said. "We are not terminating contracts." BWXT Y-12 does plan to hire employees to fill positions--currently held by subcontractor employees--where long-term support is needed. In some cases, subcontractor employees have been in these positions for three years or longer, compared to the industry standard of six months to one year for subcontractor employees. "If we have positions that need someone for two to three years or longer, we should have Y-12 employees in those positions," Heim said. Heim said there are currently six to eight immediate openings at Y-12, including some in the finance area. "The contracts were expiring," Heim said. "We're just now posting those positions." Currently, BWXT Y-12 has more than 700 subcontractor employees at Y-12, and they are eligible to apply for the job openings. In the long run, Heim said, the company's hiring plan could benefit as many as 50 subcontractor employees by giving them permanent, full- time positions. At least 66 subcontractors were represented during Thursday's meeting at Y-12. BWXT Y-12--a partnership between Bechtel National Inc. and BWX Technologies Inc.--was awarded a five-year, $2.5 billion contract on Aug. 31 to manage and operate Y-12 for the Department of Energy. [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 4 Lawrence Young: CROET has nothing to hide, says its president Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:44 p.m. on Friday, February 2, 2001 My friend Tom Beehan advised me many years ago to never get into an argument with anyone who buys ink by the barrel. Sound advice; however, so much misinformation is floating around this community regarding the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee, I feel obligated to respond. Some would imply, and even accuse, that our recent strategic planning process was implemented to cloak our activities in secrecy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, it all too often seems that people nowadays immediately assume the worst. That seems to be the situation in this case. CROET exists to help the private sector create quality jobs in the region by using the underutilized land, facilities, equipment, personnel and technologies available at the Oak Ridge complex. Although we were created in 1995 by federal legislation, we are not a governmental entity. That said, we have always operated within the requirements of law regarding public meetings and the like. In fact, we often go beyond what we're required to do to solicit community input. Our board of directors includes 40 of the most diverse leaders in Oak Ridge. Perhaps that is one reason why our activities seem controversial. We discuss our business and explore innovative programs in the open. Only our working committees gather outside of the public setting, and that simply enables questions to be asked and creative brainstorming to take place outside the glare of public opinion. As soon as recommendations are formalized, public input is not only allowed but encouraged. Our recent strategic planning process is a perfect example. The strategic planning committee worked for months addressing hundreds of issues related to the future of reindustrialization in Oak Ridge. These issues, like so many issues in the city of Oak Ridge, are often confusing and complex. Throughout the process, the CROET board was informed of the committee's progress and invited to provide input via the committee members. The moment the strategic planning committee presented their working document to the CROET board of directors, the plan became a public document. All board members were given the plan prior to that meeting so that they could provide input based on the organizations they represent. Understand, however, that we're not driven by the Sunshine Law or any other legal requirements for public disclosure. Again, CROET is not a governmental entity. However, CROET works to create a positive impact on our economy in partnership with the community. Despite what you may read, we have always been and will always be solicitous of public input. Community reuse is key to our name, and we exist to create jobs in East Tennessee. Partnership is important, and we work closely with the city of Oak Ridge, the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, the Anderson County Industrial Development Board and the Roane County Alliance. We work closely with the Department of Energy and Bechtel Jacobs. We tap the expertise of our broad board membership to do our best for the community, and they in turn serve as a liaison between CROET and the organizations they represent. The system for public involvement is a key ingredient of who we are, which makes the accusations of secrecy utterly confounding. We have realized some tremendous successes, but we cannot become complacent. Since CROET was initiated, 4,331 jobs have been created or retained. More than 20 companies have located in East Tennessee Technology Park's Heritage Center. We welcomed our first tenant, Theragenics, in Oak Ridge's premium new Horizon Center even before the business and industrial park opened. Nearly 500 acres are available to companies who want to locate near the unsurpassed technology source at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in a space that is surrounded by the beautiful nature of East Tennessee. In order to ensure this effort maintains its momentum, the strategic plan is necessary. As facilities are made available to CROET for leasing, our role is shifting to one of a marketer and a landlord. When you build a house, you don't lay the foundation before you think out the details of your design. When you renovate a room in your house (like the project I'm immersed in at home that Eve says "seems" to be taking a long time), you're much better off if you think the project through before you start wielding that hammer. Likewise, at CROET, our strategic plan serves as the blueprint for our future. And like any plan, adjustments will be made as we go forward. Now is the time to get involved, to understand what we're doing to bring jobs to Oak Ridge, and to play a positive role in the process. Now is the time to put away personal agendas, to work together, and to build a reindustrialization program that will continue to bring jobs to East Tennessee families. Lawrence Young is president and chief executive officer of the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 5 Business--Y-12 licenses metal technology Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, February 1, 2001 BWXT Y-12 and the National Nuclear Security Administration have signed an agreement to license a patented metal treatment technology. Tesla USA, a Chattanooga-based company, has licensed from BWXT Y- 12 and NNSA a method of treating carbon steel using technology developed at the Y-12 National Security Complex, according to a BWXT Y-12 press release. The technology makes the process faster, cheaper and safer than the traditional method of using a furnace. The owners of Tesla USA are forming a new company in Chattanooga to manufacture treated carbon steel. The company, which will initially employ some 30 people during development. The company is expected to be in full production within two years and may employ as many as 200 people in Chattanooga, the press release stated. Bill Brumley, the Y-12 Area Manager for the NNSA, said this license is Y-12's first major venture in technology transfer since it became part of NNSA last year. "This agreement shares the technological expertise of Y-12 and will generate jobs and benefit the Tennessee economy," the press release quotes him as saying. John Mitchell, president and general manager of BWXT Y-12, is quoted as saying the license agreement is a way to "demonstrate what an extraordinary resource the skill and knowledge that exists at Y-12 is for the United States and offers a great chance to take that knowledge and use it to help support industry." BWXT Y-12, a partnership between BWX Technologies Inc. and Bechtel National Inc., operates the Y-12 National Security Complex for the NNSA. BWXT Y-12's goal is the safe and efficient operation of the Y-12 complex while at the same time modernizing the facilities to ensure their long-term capability to meet national security missions, according to the press release. [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 6 DOE briefs workers on radiation exposure study The Associated Press State & Local Wire February 2, 2001, Friday 2:00 AM Eastern Time PADUCAH, Ky. A briefing on a study concerning past radiation exposure at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is a best effort, considering notable gaps in records, an investigator said. "We recognize that as a shortcoming," Rick Jones, the Department of Energy's lead investigator for the study, said during a brief Thursday night. Nearly 200 people - employees or former employees and their families -attended the briefing. The DOE report, released last month, said 2,500 to 4,000 plant workers had jobs from 1952 to 1991 placing them in potentially high risk of radiation exposure. But important exposure-level records were missing, and much of the data collected was from interviewing current and former employees. Former employee Al Puckett said he once put his film badge, used to measure external radiation, in a highly radioactive area of the plant and the badge showed nothing. "One day, I took my badge apart and there was no film in there," he said. Current plant health physicist Orville Cypret, who reviewed the report as a citizen and not as a U.S. Enrichment Corp. employee, said it had many errors, looked unprofessional and apparently did not undergo peer review before release. Despite that, Cypret said he agreed with "most of the conclusions." The report confirms previous studies and statements by former workers about dangerous working conditions and procedures during the plant's early years. DOE officials say the intent was to identify former workers eligible for exposure-related benefits. DOE is urging people to call to get on a mailing list for benefits information. But several people, including former plant worker Joe Smith, said they left messages and were never called. Jones said the hot line has gotten more than 10,000 calls since it was set up a year ago, and 600 to 800 calls are returned weekly. Publicity from the meeting may increase calls, which could slow the response pace, he said. DOE officials hope publicity will encourage former workers to seek free health screening, including testing for early signs of lung cancer. Last year, Congress approved paying workers and surviving families up to $150,000 compensation for plant-related illness or death. Ongoing medical costs also are covered. Compensation applications are expected to be accepted in the fall. The report said high-risk areas included now-closed buildings where uranium hexafluoride (UF6) was made and fed into the plant, and where uranium metal was made; and currently used buildings where UF6 is enriched, and where enrichment equipment is overhauled, repaired and cleaned. People with greatest potential for increased radiation exposure included those working on enrichment equipment and handling ash. The study said they were at most risk for exposure to highly radioactive plutonium, neptunium and similar substances. Findings did not estimate exposure doses for individual workers and said risk does not mean workers will get sick. Some at the meeting challenged being placed in lower-risk classifications. John Driskill, president of the plant guards' union, said security personnel work in all areas of the plant, even those off-limits because of radiation. "I do not understand how you can place workers like the security force in the low-risk group," he said. Jones, the DOE investigator, said security officers are potentially exposed less than other work groups with high to moderate exposure potential. "The important thing now is to get into the medical surveillance program and monitor your health," he said. LOAD-DATE: February 2, 2001 ***************************************************************** 7 DOE workers distrust report - By Joe Walker The Paducah Sun Friday, February 02, 2001 Some records were missing for the study of radiation exposure, and some people said they had problems calling the hot line. Uranium enrichment workers challenge the accuracy and fairness of a study identifying groups threatened most by past radiation exposure at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Released last month, the Department of Energy report said 2,500 to 4,000 plant workers had jobs from 1952 to 1991 placing them in potentially high risk of radiation exposure. But important exposure-level records were missing, and much of the data collected was from interviewing current and former employees. Nearly 200 current and former workers and their families attended a DOE briefing Thursday night at the Paducah Information Age Park resource center. The gathering reflected plenty of skepticism. Former employee Al Puckett was cynical, saying he once put his film badge, used to measure external radiation, in a highly radioactive area of the plant and the badge showed nothing. "One day, I took my badge apart and there was no film in there," he said. Rick Jones, DOE's lead investigator for the study, said the findings were a best effort, considering notable gaps in records. "We recognize that as a shortcoming," he said. Current plant health physicist Orville Cypret, who reviewed the report as a citizen and not as a USEC Inc. employee, said it had many errors, looked unprofessional and apparently did not undergo peer review before release. Despite that, Cypret said he agreed with "most of the conclusions." The report confirms previous studies and statements by former workers about dangerous working conditions and procedures during the plant's early years. DOE officials say the intent was to identify former workers eligible for exposure-related benefits. DOE is urging people to call a recorded message toll-free at 877- 447-9756 to get on a mailing list for benefits information. But several people, including former plant worker Joe Smith, said they left messages and were never called. Jones said the hot line has gotten more than 10,000 calls since it was set up a year ago, and 600 to 800 calls are returned weekly. Publicity from the meeting may increase calls, which could slow the response pace, he said. Don Seaborg, DOE Paducah site manager, encouraged people to call his office at 441-6800 if they have trouble with the hot line. DOE officials hope publicity will encourage former workers to seek free health screening, including testing for early signs of lung cancer. Last year, Congress approved paying workers and surviving families up to $150,000 compensation for plant-related illness or death. Ongoing medical costs also are covered. Compensation applications are expected to be accepted in the fall. The report said high-risk areas included now-closed buildings where uranium hexafluoride (UF6) was made and fed into the plant, and where uranium metal was made; and currently used buildings where UF6 is enriched, and where enrichment equipment is overhauled, repaired and cleaned. People with greatest potential for increased radiation exposure included those working on enrichment equipment and handling ash. The study said they were at most risk for exposure to highly radioactive plutonium, neptunium and similar substances. Findings did not estimate exposure doses for individual workers and said risk does not mean workers will get sick. Some at the meeting challenged being placed in lower-risk classifications. John Driskill, president of the plant guards' union, said security personnel work in all areas of the plant, even those off-limits because of radiation. "I do not understand how you can place workers like the security force in the low-risk group," he said. Jones responded that security officers are potentially exposed less than other work groups with high to moderate exposure potential. "The important thing now is to get into the medical surveillance program and monitor your health," he said. Former workers may enroll in a medical screening program by calling 1-888-241-1199. ***************************************************************** 8 Amchitka cancer study under way February 01, 2001 The Associated Press ANCHORAGE--At least 20 people who worked on Amchitka Island during an atomic testing program three decades ago have developed types of cancers often associated with radiation. But the numbers of cancers detected, and the number of people examined so far, are too small to be statistically significant, medical experts said Tuesday. A new health study is under way that could identify others. The health survey, funded through the U.S. Department of Energy, began last summer and is expected to continue for at least two more years. The first results of the health monitoring study of the Amchitka work force were discussed in a daylong meeting in Anchorage on Tuesday. So far, 1,060 former Amchitka workers have been identified, and medical screening exams have been conducted on 43. Results of those tests are back on 37 people, "and we have detected one compensable case through the screening program, of leukemia," said Dr. Knut Ringen, principal investigator for the Amchitka health study. About 20 workers already known to have radiation-related cancers are not included in the screening results, Ringen said. Ringen's group expects to complete exams on another 300 people by June 30, and on another 750 by June 30, 2002. A federal law passed last year will provide $150,000 in compensation to Amchitka workers who have developed any of 21 types of cancers, beryllium disease or chronic silicosis believed to be related to their work in the atomic program. Survivors of workers who have died of those diseases may also be eligible. Workers who can demonstrate they have developed other illnesses related to their work on Amchitka may be eligible for a separate state workers' compensation program. The United States conducted three underground NUCLEAR tests at Amchitka between 1965 and 1971. Hundreds of people worked on the island as employees of the Atomic Energy Commission or private contractors. The last explosion, a 5-megaton blast called Cannikin, was the largest underground NUCLEAR test conducted by the United States. After the tests, the U.S. Navy operated a backscatter radar site there from the late 1980s until the early 1990s. A major multiagency cleanup project is planned for the island this summer. Crews hired by the Navy, the Energy Department and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will demolish buildings, remove PCB-contaminated sewage sludge, collect lost artillery shells and cap pits of drilling muds used in preparing for the atomic tests. In addition, the state Department of Environmental Conservation plans to test tissue samples from blue mussels for signs that radiation may be leaching from the blast pits into the ocean. The physicians working on the Amchitka employee health study will watch the results of the state's tests closely, said Dr. Tim Takaro, a medical consultant working on the project. ***************************************************************** 9 THE BOMB'S CHICAGO FALLOUT U.S. SAYS '40S RESEARCH PUT THOUSANDS AT HIGH RISK Chicago Tribune Traditional Version - Nation/World SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2001 BY SAM ROE AND JEREMY MANIER Tribune Staff Writers FEBRUARY 02, 2001 Herbert Anderson was a major figure in the race for the atomic bomb, a pioneering physicist who made history at the University of Chicago in 1942 when he helped create the world's first controlled nuclear chain reaction. But Anderson paid a heavy price for such achievements. He contracted a rare lung disease from handling beryllium, an extraordinarily toxic metal critical to nuclear weapons production. Before he died, his lungs were so damaged he couldn't breathe without an oxygen tank, and his bones were so brittle he once broke two fingers just by shaking someone's hand. Now, more than a half-century after the dawn of the nuclear age, America is beginning to get a glimpse of how thousands of scientists and ordinary laborers--many in the Chicago area--may have risked their lives to develop and build the country's nuclear arsenal. In an unprecedented move, the federal government last month released a list of 317 mills, factories and research institutions that it believes may have exposed workers to toxic and radioactive materials during nuclear weapons production or in work for the Department of Energy. Fifteen sites are in Chicago--more than any other U.S. city--and a total of 24 are in the Chicago area. They range from the secret wartime headquarters of atomic bomb research at the U. of C. to factories, machine shops and storage sites far beyond the university gates. At a West Chicago factory thousands of workers breathed air laced with the radioactive metal thorium; at the Museum of Science and Industry, radioactive materials were stored--and spilled--in the early years of the Cold War; and at the U. of C., at least 10 workers became sick after being exposed to beryllium at a clandestine lab code-named Site B. "There's been so much secrecy and denial in the history of the nuclear weapons complex that just getting this information out is of historic importance," said David Michaels, who was the Energy Department's top health official in the Clinton administration. The government estimates that more than 8,000 workers nationwide may have been harmed. But no one knows every facility where workers were injured or how serious the hazards were. While nuclear weapons-related work continues in other parts of the nation, Chicago's ties to the industry have dropped. In fact, few Chicago-area companies on the government's nuclear weapons list were involved after 1960, and about half no longer exist. At some sites, it appears the risks were slight. Government records indicate that relatively little radioactive material was stored at the Museum of Science and Industry, and two radiological surveys have revealed no lasting contamination. But the dangerous work done at other facilities offers ample reason for concern. At least two scientists, including Anderson, died of beryllium disease after doing wartime research at the U. of C. "The government really ruined the lives of many people," said Larry Kelman, 81, a Naperville resident who developed beryllium disease after working at Site B. Groundbreaking effort For decades the federal government denied that workers were being harmed by nuclear weapons production. But in 1999, the government admitted for the first time that weapons work had caused illnesses, and Congress approved a program to provide victims with government- paid medical care plus $150,000 in compensation. The recently released list of weapons-related sites is the latest step in that groundbreaking effort. Taken together with other government documents and interviews, the list opens a window on Chicago's historic role in the nuclear weapons industry and hints at the hazards that faced thousands of area workers, including machinists, welders, millwrights and engineers. Their work was ordinary--grinding, sawing, sanding--but the use of exotic metals such as uranium and beryllium was not. "Nuclear weapons production is largely this industrial process that looks like a lot of other industrial processes--it just uses some really weird materials," said Josh Silverman, a research analyst and historian for the Energy Department and an expert on nuclear weapons production. Silverman said the main reason Chicago had so many firms doing weapons work was the proximity of the U. of C., where researchers with the top-secret Manhattan Project led the nation's World War II effort to build an atomic bomb. According to press accounts at the time, 5,000 scientists helped develop the bomb at the university; another 3,000 local skilled and unskilled workers pitched in. Risks of beryllium To make the government's weapons list, a facility had to handle beryllium or a radioactive material such as uranium only once in the course of nuclear weapons production or in work for the Energy Department. Beryllium is the hazard that researchers can most easily tie to weapons production. More than 300 people have contracted beryllium disease at facilities doing weapons work, government and industry documents show. Lighter than aluminum but stiffer than steel, beryllium is used to amplify the chain reaction in a nuclear bomb. In bulk form the metal is relatively harmless. But when workers grind, sand or cut it and inhale the resulting dust, they can develop an incurable disease that slowly eats away at their lungs. A third die of the illness, a third become disabled and a third remain relatively healthy, doctors say. Back in the mid-1940s, researchers knew beryllium dust was deadly, but they did not fully understand that microscopic particles could be harmful or that workers could become sick years after their last exposure. Consequently, few Manhattan Project workers wore respirators- -a common safeguard today. One scientist who worked with beryllium was Anderson, who did wartime research involving the metal at Columbia University in New York and at the U. of C. In 1942, he and about 40 other scientists, including Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi, gathered at a makeshift laboratory at the U. of C.'s Stagg athletic field and produced the first self- sustained nuclear chain reaction. The event helped usher in the nuclear age and paved the way for a vast nuclear weapons industry. Anderson's widow, Betsy, recalled how her husband used a mortar and pestle to grind beryllium like flour. "He would just sort of grind it up by hand and be breathing the dust," she said. It wasn't until 1948 that Anderson noticed he was losing weight and becoming easily winded. At 34 years old, he was told he had beryllium disease. Steroids stabilized his condition, and he went on to enjoy a long career as a researcher and U. of C. physics professor. But in his final few years, his lungs deteriorated to the point where he needed to carry a portable oxygen tank wherever he went. Side effects from the steroids made his bones as fragile as glass. "He began to break ribs when he coughed badly," said his wife, a retired physics research technician in Santa Fe. "One time someone shook his hand and broke a couple of his fingers." He died in 1988 at age 74. "The last year before his death, he was never getting enough air. It was this very labored gasping," his wife said. "It was a lot like strangling slowly." Lower-profile workers faced similar risks--and harm. Kelman joined the Manhattan Project in 1944 as a 24-year-old metallurgist at the U. of C.'s "Metallurgical Laboratory," the name for several university facilities doing bomb research. He was assigned to Site B, a warehouse-turned-clandestine lab on University Avenue near 61st Street. He spent five years at the lab, testing a variety of metals, including beryllium. Site B, he said, was always filthy. Barrels of debris were left open, beads of mercury collected in the cracks of the wood floors, and gray dust settled on tabletops. "The secretaries would have to wipe the dust off the bosses' desks before they came to work," Kelman said. "If anyone would have come for a visit, they would have left thinking, `What the hell is that place?'" In 1948, as the U. of C.'s wartime research labs were evolving into the Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont, an Argonne doctor visiting Site B noted "rather distressingly poor housekeeping conditions" related to the handling of beryllium, graphite and mercury, according to an Argonne document. Several months later, another Argonne physician found "an alarmingly dangerous situation concerning the use by at least six men of beryllium oxide powder with no precautions in an open room." Subsequent tests found beryllium dust in much of the building, including the attic. By 1953 Argonne had identified 192 workers associated with the Metallurgical Laboratory or Argonne who had been exposed to beryllium. Kelman estimates there were dozens more: "Anybody that got into [Site B] was exposed: salespeople, the guard at the door, janitors." In 1980 Kelman was told he had beryllium disease. He sued the U. of C., alleging that he was not warned of beryllium's dangers and that his condition was not detected earlier. But a judge threw out the suit, ruling Kelman did not demonstrate enough evidence of wrongdoing for the court to allow the case to go to trial. Kelman did receive $15,000 in a worker's compensation settlement and about $45,000 in medical expenses, according to the university. At least 10 workers developed beryllium disease after working at Site B, Argonne reports. But Argonne, citing state laws governing the privacy of medical records, would not release the names of the victims or details of their illnesses. Kelman, who retired from Argonne in 1989 as a senior metallurgist, acknowledged he is lucky. He shows few visible signs of beryllium disease and still drives, gardens and travels with his wife--even shovels snow. But he said he has a bad cough and has lived for years with the knowledge that he has a potentially fatal disease. "It's there and it will always be there," he said. Site B no longer poses a health problem. It was torn down more than 25 years ago, and "all underground piping and structure removed to a minimum depth of 4 feet," an Energy Department document states. Exposed to thorium Beryllium is not the only potentially hazardous material that qualified facilities for the government list. For decades, a West Chicago plant originally owned by Lindsay Light and Chemical Co. exposed thousands of workers and West Chicago residents to thorium, a radioactive element that helps fuel nuclear reactors and nuclear bombs. Use of the metal was a closely guarded secret. During World War II, it even carried a code name, "Penbarnite." From 1945 to 1963, the West Chicago plant was the main source of thorium for the government weapons program, according to a 1997 Energy Department report. The report cited company records showing that Lindsay Light and its successor, American Potash, sold 11.7 million pounds of purified thorium for use in reactors or weapons. Only after the plant closed in 1973 did federal officials discover the extent of medical and environmental effects from the operation. A 1980 study of more than 3,000 workers at the plant showed somewhat elevated rates of death from cancer, especially lung cancer. Argonne researcher Andrew Stehney also examined autopsy results of former plant workers. One 23-year veteran of the facility had thorium concentrations 6,000 times higher than normal in his lungs and lymph nodes. The man had died of pancreatic cancer. Waste and leftover thorium ore from the plant have created a health hazard that still affects local residents. Operating at a time before stringent regulation of radioactive materials, the plant trucked the sandy thorium waste to ordinary dumps or let people take it away for use as landfill. More than 600 homes near the plant have been targeted for cleanup since the mid-1990s, said officials at Kerr-McGee Chemical LLC, which bought the West Chicago plant in 1967. At last count, Kerr-McGee had shipped nearly 1 million tons of contaminated soil from West Chicago to a dump in Utah. Others on the list At other area weapons-related sites, the record on potential health risks is less clear. In 1943 Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. of North Chicago obtained a $44,200 contract to provide 720 beryllium bricks to the Manhattan Project. Government officials said Fansteel was still processing beryllium in 1944, but no one knows how long the work continued. Michael Mocniak, vice president and general counsel for Fansteel, said he had not known the company had ever done work with the highly hazardous metal. The company has changed locations since the war, and Mocniak said he does not know where the beryllium processing was done or what the building might be used for now. At the Museum of Science and Industry, current officials were surprised to learn that the museum provided storage space for radioactive materials during the Cold War. A 1979 Energy Department report shows the museum was used for storage and office space by the Metallurgical Laboratory and Argonne from 1946 to 1953. The project took up more than 50,000 square feet, mostly in the East Pavilion. Government records do not indicate the kind of radioactive materials involved. Workers interviewed for the 1979 report remembered at least one spill of radioactive material near a service elevator on the ground floor. The area was immediately decontaminated. A survey by Argonne in 1949 found no trace of residual radioactive contamination, and neither did a survey in 1977 by Argonne and government officials. Museum spokeswoman Amy Ritter said there was never any danger to museum visitors, who now number more than 2 million per year. "Obviously, we want people to understand we were absolutely cleared," Ritter said. Energy Department officials said their list of weapons-related facilities is far from complete. They urge people who have additional names to notify the agency. To qualify for compensation, workers must have been employed by facilities doing Energy Department work and developed beryllium disease, cancer from radiation or, under certain conditions, lung disease from silica. Surviving relatives can also apply for aid. Energy Department officials said the burden will be on the government- -not the victim--to track down employment and exposure records. "In the past, workers had to go through sheer hell to get records, " said an Energy Department official who requested anonymity. "Now it won't be that way." Michaels, assistant energy secretary for environment, safety and health in the Clinton administration, said the effort to identify and compensate injured weapons workers was one of the department's top accomplishments in recent years. He said, "It's a statement that is saying, `The Cold War is over; we don't need to deny the risks and unfortunate side effects of nuclear weapons production.'" ***************************************************************** 10 UN health agency seeks $2 million to fund work on depleted uranium [I] Thursday, February 01, 2001 UN HEALTH AGENCY SEEKS $2 MILLION TO FUND WORK ON DEPLETED URANIUM for close to $2 million to examine the possible health effects of depleted uranium, which was used during conflicts in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans. The agency plans to use the money to conduct field surveys and support data collection from local health facilities. The funds will also help WHO provide technical support and equipment to strengthen efforts by countries to keep records on cancers and other non-communicable diseases. In addition, WHO will use the resources to deploy toxicologists, radiation and chemical experts--together with equipment, supplies and easier access to international reference centres--in support of national efforts to diagnose and treat non-communicable diseases. This initial appeal will eventually form part of an estimated $20 million which WHO will seek to cover its work on depleted uranium for the next four years. That money would allow the agency to undertake in-depth epidemiological and toxicological studies into the possible health and environmental effects of the substance. Experts generally think that there is low risk from exposure to depleted uranium--which is used in certain ammunition and missiles--but caution that there is not enough information to be certain. "Evidence on the incidence of cancers needs to be strengthened in communities within Iraq and the Balkans in order to draw any epidemiological conclusions," said Dr. Xavier Leus, Director for WHO's Emergency and Humanitarian Action Department. "There is also very little information on other possible risk factors for civilians and the military that may be equally important," he pointed out. Dr. Leus said that evidence must be collected on the numbers of people exposed, amounts of depleted uranium involved and the concentration and distribution of environmental pollutants. He said the current state of uncertainty about the health effects of depleted uranium was "unacceptable." WHO is requesting $1.98 million from humanitarian donors to cover activities for the next six months. ***************************************************************** 11 Despite 3 years' preparation, Ottawa remains vulnerable National - Ottawa Citizen Online [I] Thursday 1 February 2001 DAVID STONEHOUSE The Ottawa Citizen Emergency authorities in Ottawa have been "quietly" training crews and preparing contingency plans to deal with a biological, nuclear or chemical attack against the city. "We have been meeting as a committee quietly to gear up for preparedness for this kind of issue," says Dr. Justin Maloney, the medical director for Ottawa's paramedic program and a member of the committee. "We felt ... that we were not as well-prepared as we needed to be." For nearly three years, the National Capital Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Resource Team has been mapping out how to respond to a strike. "The wakeup call for all of us was the sarin gas attack in Tokyo in 1995," Dr. Maloney told the Citizen yesterday. "The level of preparedness there was even greater than ours would be if we were faced with that at the time. We all thought, 'Holy crow! What if ... ?' " A sarin gas attack in a Tokyo subway by a doomsday cult nearly six years ago killed 12 people and injured thousands. The emergency planning under way in Ottawa helped authorities deal with yesterday's incident, Dr. Maloney said. Although officials connected with the effort were reluctant to discuss exact details, they said the planning has helped. Some firefighters and police officers have gone through live biological agent training exercises to help prepare them for real calls. "We have had a couple of suspicious package calls together," said Ottawa Fire department Capt. John Gagnon, who is co-chair for the effort. "We've got a pretty good command structure going and a workable team." Ottawa Police Insp. Sue O'Sullivan, the other co-chair, said the city is a potential target as the nation's capital and it has to be prepared. The group meets about once a month at the fire station on Industrial Avenue and includes fire, police and ambulance officials along with doctors and public health officials. RCMP representatives also attend. "Planning for something like this is going to save lives. It is also going to prevent over-reaction," Dr. Maloney said. After the Tokyo attack, emergency crews in the city began examining what their responses would be to a similar strike. But it was not until some time later that the agencies began meeting to work out their plans together. The group has been examining how communities in the U.S. have been preparing for possible attacks. The U.S. has given money to 120 cities to help them prepare for strikes. In a speech in Washington three weeks ago, then-Secretary of Defence William Cohen argued the threat is very real. "This is not some science fiction that we are simply concocting in order to scare people," Mr. Cohen said. "I have tried to raise the level of consciousness about this threat. I did so years ago in dealing with (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein. "When I went on television I held up a ... five-pound bag of sugar, and I said, 'Pretend for the moment this is anthrax. This five-pound bag of anthrax, if released, with proper wind conditions, over a city the size of Washington, will kill roughly 70 per cent of the population.' There are tons of anthrax in existence." Copyright 2001 Ottawa Citizen Group Inc. ***************************************************************** 12 AGING A-BOMB SURVIVORS STRUGGLE TO CARRY ON asahi.com news Asahi Evening News By MASATO TAINAKA February 2, 2001 HIROSHIMA-For more than half a century, Hiroshima has relentlessly tried to spread the message of peace. Now, nearly 56 years after the atomic bombing, a group of elderly survivors committed to telling their story is having to disband-they are simply too old and too frail. Their biggest fear is who will carry on after they have gone. They also worry that Hiroshima will lose its status as a magnet for peace education, as memories of World War II fade. Most A-bomb survivors are over the age of 70, and many are too feeble to continue talking in public forums, schools and auditoriums about their experiences. Yoshiko Yanagawa, 71, has the status of hibakusha. She says she will never forget Aug. 6, 1945, the day ``Little Boy'' wiped out the city. It took her years to come to terms with the bombing-Yanagawa said she feared she would become the target of discrimination or a curiosity item if people knew. But eight years ago, after four decades of silence, she took on the role of kataribe, or A-bomb witness. She also joined Speakers from Hiroshima (Hiroshima wo kataru kai), a volunteer group of A-bomb survivors who give lectures to students visiting Hiroshima on school trips. The group has been active for the past 16 years, during which 30 kataribe were at one time registered. A total of 480,000 students from across the country have listened to the group's lectures at the Peace Memorial Park and other venues in Hiroshima. But time is their worst enemy. Only 17 kataribe remain, and their average age is 74. The others have either died or retired. The ones who are left, like Yanagawa, also have decided it is now time to retire and the group will break up at end of March. Yanagawa says she battled on because ``I don't want children to be exposed to that hell again.'' Even so, she has reached her physical limit. Yanagawa has been hospitalized twice during the past year. Hiroshima has always seen itself as a beacon for the world's peace movement, driving home its anti-nuclear message year after year. Even so, schools are losing interest in Hiroshima as a destination for school trips. About 420,000 students on school trips visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in fiscal 1995. By fiscal 1999, the number had dropped to about 350,000, mostly because Kanto-area schools decided Okinawa Prefecture was more interesting or they organized trips overseas. Hiroshi Hara, 69, head of Speakers from Hiroshima, gripes about the attitude of the younger generation. ``Some students don't listen to our lectures, but teachers don't scold them. It fills me with a sense of emptiness,'' he said. ``Nowadays schools don't have any enthusiasm to learn about what happened in Hiroshima during the war.'' Some people say Hiroshima is losing its appeal precisely because it commemorates death, and the manner of people dying. They say Hiroshima needs to spruce up its image. ``Hiroshima people, both hibakusha and non-hibakusha, must work together to create new ways to convey the voice of Hiroshima and give outsiders a deeper understanding of the issues involved,'' said Minoru Omuta, former chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation. He pointed out that A-bomb survivors have limited their activities to Hiroshima because it was the first city in the world to be attacked with an atomic weapon. Omuta also noted that survivors missed the boat when it came to spreading their message through videos and the Internet. ``It is important that Hiroshima people overcome their reclusiveness and promote their messages to an outside audience more actively,'' he added. Still, the clock is ticking. ``I feel the voice of Hiroshima is slowly disappearing, as we survivors pass away one by one. I think it is our responsibility to leave a legacy that will prevent another nuclear war,'' said Hitoshi Takayama who recently published an English-language book titled ``Hiroshima in Memoriam and Today.'' The latest fourth edition was published after an interval of 21 years. Takayama, 70, is a former junior high school teacher of Japanese. He started to speak about his experiences to foreign tourists at the Peace Memorial Park in 1960s. For years previously, he had struggled against a malignant tumor brought on the radioactive effects of the atomic bombing. It is estimated that about 140,000 people died in the initial blast. But another 70,000 people have died since then from ailments directly connected to the bombing. In 1969, Takayama used his own funds to publish a 49-page English- language book titled ``Hiroshima in Memoriam.'' It carries the accounts of four survivors, including his own. Donations from Hiroshima residents and offers of translation support from American missionaries enabled Takayama to revise the book in 1973, 1979, and finally this time. The latest edition has 278 pages and carries the memoirs of 29 people or essays of support from well-known people such as former South African President F. W. de Klerk. South Africa remains the only country to voluntarily dismantle its nuclear arsenal. The city of Hiroshima meantime also has been working to preserve the voice of survivors. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum has been videotaping witness accounts of the bombing for use as an educational material since 1986. Due to financial pressures, each video is only 20 minutes long. Even so, the experiences of 700 people have been recorded to date. Since 1998, the city of Hiroshima has also offered a training program for young people who have no experience of war so that they can become volunteers for peace. The 5-month program involves learning the history of the city through lectures and accounts from survivors. About 100 peace volunteers work as guides for the Peace Memorial Museum and in the Peace Memorial Park. ``My dream to be kataribe has finally come true,'' said Norio Ichikawa, 61, rejoicing that he had finally given his account on videotape. He was six years old at the time of atomic bombing. Ichikawa spent 42 years working for a company in Tokyo before returning to Hiroshima two years ago. When he was in Tokyo, he never talked about his experiences of the bombing. Yet, every year at 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, the moment of the dazzling flash that became part of history, Ichikawa has stopped what he was doing at work and entered a washroom to pay a silent tribute to the A-bomb victims. He did not want his colleagues to know because he feared they would start treating him differently. ``I never forgot Hiroshima. So when I retired, I made up my mind to live with the souls of my ancestors for eternity.'' ``Nothing can replace kataribe as the voice of Hiroshima, of course, '' said Noriyuki Wakatsuki, associate chief of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in charge of videotaping and peace volunteer projects. ``During the 20th century, more than 210,000 people died of A-bomb-related causes. We have to hurry to record as many witness accounts as possible before they all pass away. After that, it will be up to young people to take up the challenge.'' Copyright 2001 Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction ***************************************************************** 13 THE AREA With THE RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL WAS BEING WATCHED FOR OVER THREE MONTHS Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 01-02-01 //www.hri.org/MPA. Thessaloniki, 1 February 2001 (16:50 UTC+2) The state agencies were watching discreetly for over three months the region of the forest of Kouri in Asvestochori near Thessaloniki, where the radioactive material were found buried, according to the newspaper "Angelioforos". The 520 plutonium and americium tables were located by the economic crime police which acted after information it had received concerning a radioactive and chemical materials illegal trade ring. According to the police authorities, the radioactive material was possibly stolen from Ukrainian storage areas after the break up of the former Soviet Union, while it is still a mystery how it arrived in the area where it was buried. An HRI Project. HTML by the HR-Net Group / Hellenic Resources Institute, Inc. mpab2html v1.01d run on Thursday, 1 February 2001 - 19:14:10 UTC ***************************************************************** 14 Deception over health risks of depleted uranium ireland.com - The Irish Times - OPINION Thursday, February 1, 2001 Is contamination caused by depleted uranium dust the explanation for so-called Gulf War syndrome and cancer clusters in Iraq? A book published this week in France examines the evidence. LARA MARLOWE reports. Is depleted uranium, the waste product of the nuclear industry used to make tank-piercing weapons, responsible for Gulf War syndrome and Balkans syndrome? The US Department of Defence and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation both still deny it. But in July 1990 - the month before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait - a report submitted to the US army by Science Applications International Corporation compared the merits of tungsten and depleted uranium (or DU) as armour penetrators. DU is a "lowlevel alpha radiation emitter which is linked to cancer when exposures are internal, and chemical toxicity causing kidney damage", the report said. Following combat, it added, "the condition of the battlefield, and the long-term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of DU kinetic penetrators . . ." The report warned that "aerosol DU exposures to soldiers on the battlefield could be significant, with potential radiological and toxicological effects". A navy memo dated September 1990 alludes to "the hazard created from residual radiation of a spent round" and notes that "prolonged exposure could cause illness". How can one explain that children of Gulf War veterans suffer the same birth defects as Iraqi children born in zones contaminated by DU? That the same symptoms - fatigue, depression, respiratory and kidney problems and in many cases leukaemia - affect civilians and soldiers exposed to DU in both the Gulf and the Balkans? And if DU is harmless, why is Kuwait paying private companies millions of dollars to decontaminate its battlefields? Who will pay to decontaminate Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo? Three journalists, Martin Meissonnier, who is French, the Belgian Frederic Loore and Roger Trilling from the US, have spent two years investigating DU production, use and effects. Their conclusions - published in Paris on Monday by Robert Laffont in a book, Depleted Uranium, the In- visible War - are causing tremors in the defence establishments of the US and Britain, the only states to have used DU weapons. The book and a television documentary by the same journalists show the US government was at best grossly negligent and deceitful towards US nuclear workers, soldiers and the civilians of Iraq and former Yugoslavia. At worst - as stated by Paul Sullivan, the head of the National Gulf War Resource Centre - the US is guilty of knowingly contaminating parts of the Gulf and former Yugoslavia for the next 4.5 billion years. Uranium is found in nature. Those who oppose the use of DU in weapons do so on emotional, not scientific, grounds, NATO and Pentagon spokesmen tell us. If there is no proof, most people conclude, then why worry? But when he says that DU is a safe material, US Col Eric Daxon ignores even the study produced by his own Armed Forces Radiology Research Institute, which concluded that DU forms tumours and mutates genes in laboratory mice. "Strong evidence exists to support detailed study of potential DU carcinogenicity," the institute's study concluded. So why did NATO only recently warn Albanian Kosovars not to let their children play on destroyed tanks? Why was a video on the dangers of DU, made in 1995 by Capt Doug Rokke of the US army, never shown? Why were US servicemen and women now suffering from Gulf War syndrome allowed to scramble over destroyed Iraqi armour taking photos? Why did their commanding officer, Gen Barry McCaffrey, wear nuclear-biological- chemical protective clothing when he visited units in the desert? Mr Trilling admits that "there's a doubt in everybody's mind" about the exact relationship between DU and cancer, and he does not exclude the likelihood that vaccines given to soldiers, the bombing of chemical plants in Serbia and Iraq and the oil well fires in Kuwait also contributed to ailments. "DU is a terror weapon in the sense that no one really knows what it does," he says. "The Gulf veteran groups are desperate to find out. The people we talk to are half mad with terror." The authors were among the first to report that uranium at the only three US plants which process DU was contaminated with transuranics - highly radioactive elements including plutonium. The plants were meant to process natural uranium, but in the 1950s, without notifying the workers or surrounding communities, the US Department of Energy decided to reprocess spent fuel from military nuclear reactors. In other words, the hundreds of tonnes of DU fired in the Gulf and in the Balkans were not so "depleted" after all. It was in response to a question from Mr Trilling on January 17th that the outgoing Pentagon spokesman, Kenneth Bacon, acknowledged the plutonium contamination that independent scientists began to suspect in the early 1990s. THE US anti-DU activist Dan Fahey sums up the Pentagon's attitude as, "Don't look, don't find". Congress ordered the Pentagon to investigate the effects of DU in 1993, but nearly eight years later it has undertaken no serious research on the inhalation of DU or the birth defects afflicting veterans' children. When Gerry Wheat, a Gulf War veteran wounded with DU shrapnel, complained of pain in his left kidney, the Veterans' Administration hospital insisted on checking his right kidney instead. It was known from 1952 that the defoliant Agent Orange caused cancer, degenerative diseases and birth defects. Yet when Vietnam veterans suffered these afflictions, the Pentagon insisted there was no evidence they were caused by Agent Orange. Workers at Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which produced DU in Kentucky, breathed and touched carcinogenic plutonium dust for decades before the Department of Energy admitted in 1999 that the entire place was contaminated. Ten thousand Paducah workers, many of them cancer-stricken, are now suing the US government. In Italy, Belgium and France, criticism of NATO's use of DU is growing. Yet the number of countries with DU weapons has doubled to more than 40 since Meissonier, Loore and Trilling began their research. "It's a burgeoning industry," Meissonier says. "There aren't any wars on at the moment, so why can't there be a moratorium until the scientists figure out what these weapons do?" ***************************************************************** 15 Scientists Study NATO Ammunition EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer Story Filed: Friday, February 02, 2001 3:46 PM EST LONDON (AP)--The possibility that U.S. tank-piercing ammunition used in the Balkans wars contained more than just depleted uranium has prompted scientists to re-examine their skepticism about health risks to veterans. Experts' opinions that cancer cases reported by European veterans were not linked to depleted uranium assumed the material came from raw ore. But now the Pentagon says shells used in the 1999 Kosovo conflict were tainted with traces of plutonium, neptunium and americium -- byproducts of nuclear reactors that are much more radioactive than depleted uranium. ``If it has been through a reactor, it does change our idea on depleted uranium,'' said Dr. Michael Repacholi, the World Health Organization's radiation expert. ``It all depends on the amounts.'' The main new concern, experts say, is plutonium, a highly toxic radioactive metal. On Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson reiterated NATO's position that Balkans peacekeepers have not been shown to suffer health damage from depleted uranium ammunition. U.S. officials have said the shells contained mere traces of plutonium, not enough to cause harm. But WHO experts asked the U.S. government this week to clarify exactly how much plutonium and other radioactive material was in the ammunition. Countries that sent peacekeepers to Bosnia and Kosovo have been looking for links between the depleted uranium ammunition and illnesses contracted by veterans. A wave of fear swept across Europe and beyond after Italy announced it was screening its soldiers because 30 Balkans veterans had become ill, including five who died of leukemia. Scores of countries began testing soldiers for radiation poisoning. U.N. environmental experts are examining radiation levels at sites targeted by NATO in the Balkans and NATO has set up a special committee to investigate claims of a link. The WHO expects to start new studies in the next six months. ``Minds have to be kept open on this,'' said Malcolm Grimson, a radiation expert at London's Imperial College of Medicine. ``We're in a different ballpark here than where we were when we thought we were dealing with depleted uranium from the ground. You have to do all your calculations again.'' Experts must first establish whether cancers are more common than normal among troops before they go on to investigate why. So far, there is no confirmed increase in cancer rates, said WHO's Repacholi. Lung cancer is the main danger from the radiation, but experts say it is far too early for that to surface. It takes several decades for lung cancer to develop from radiation exposure. It is just about possible for leukemia cases to start showing up two years after exposure to radiation, but they are less likely to occur than lung cancer and it would take a massive dose, experts say. ``You would die of suffocation before you could inhale enough of the dust to cause cancer, and even then there's a low probability of cancer,'' Repacholi said. That opinion is based largely on studies of survivors of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he said. Leukemias started to appear there after two or three years. Depleted uranium mainly contains alpha rays, which are far less toxic than the gamma rays produced by atomic bombs. Among the Japanese bomb survivors, ``there's virtually no place where you get leukemia from something less than gamma radiation,'' Repacholi said. Plutonium releases gamma rays, but some scientists believe that while the revelation that the ammunition was tainted raises new concern, it doesn't raise enormous concern. ``I can't imagine anyone in Kosovo got exposed to anything remotely like,'' the radiation produced by the bombs in Japan, said leukemia expert Mel Greaves, a professor of cellular biology at the Institute of Cancer Research in London. ``It's entirely related to dose.'' That's why WHO officials need to know exactly how tainted the ammunition was. When uranium is extracted from the ground, it is made up mostly of three forms, or isotopes. Two of them, uranium-234 and uranium-235, are highly radioactive and are capable of generating a nuclear explosion or nuclear power, while the other, uranium-238, is not. The isotopes are separated so that only the uranium-234 and uranium- 235 are put into nuclear processing plants. What is left over is pure depleted uranium-238, which is about half as radioactive as natural uranium. That is what is used to fortify airplanes and make ammunition. Uranium that goes through a nuclear processing plant splits into several substances, including depleted uranium-238, plutonium and other radioactive wastes. If the elements are not separated properly, the depleted uranium can be contaminated. It is unclear where the depleted uranium in the Kosovo weapons came from. Copyright c 2001 Associated Press Information Services, all bsp; ***************************************************************** 16 Samuel H. Day; Editor Fought to Publish Story on How to Build a Hydrogen Bomb Friday, February 2, 2001 By ELAINE WOO, Times Staff Writer [*][I] Samuel H. Day, a journalist and peace activist who, as managing editor of the Progressive magazine, oversaw publication of a landmark 1979 article on how to build a hydrogen bomb, has died. He was 74 and died Jan. 26 at a hospital in Madison, Wis., after a stroke. At the Progressive, Day battled government lawyers for six months to publish the work of a freelance writer named Howard Morland, who in early 1979 submitted an article and detailed sketches that he said would describe publicly for the first time how a thermonuclear bomb worked. Claiming the article was classified, the federal government won a prior restraint order against the magazine, an unusual tactic that previously had been used in a failed attempt to block publication of the Pentagon Papers. Arguing that its story was drawn from public records and therefore not classified, the Progressive prevailed in court, the result, in no small measure, of the dogged advocacy of Day. "The H-bomb story would not have happened if not for Sam Day," said Progressive Editor Matthew Rothschild, who described Day as a hero to many in the peace movement. The article, titled "The H-Bomb Secret: How We Got It--Why We're Telling It," was published in November 1979. The event was hailed as a victory by defenders of 1st Amendment freedoms and raised the national profile of the Madison-based monthly, which covers matters involving peace and social justice. Day not only waged a battle with the government to publish the piece, he guided it through many revisions and wrote its eloquent introduction and conclusion. "The secret of how a hydrogen bomb is made protects a more fundamental 'secret': the mechanism by which the resources of the most powerful nation on Earth have been marshaled for global catastrophe. Knowing how," the article stated, "may be the key to asking why." Release of the article was a career- defining moment for Day. But, oddly enough, it was the magazine's confrontation with federal authorities that compelled him to leave journalism. What he really wanted, he wrote in his autobiography, "Crossing the Line," was to foment "public defiance of nuclear secrecy, " to engage that battle more directly than being a writer and editor allowed. In 1980, he resigned from the magazine to join an anti-nuclear weapons organization sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee. Over the next two decades, he would be arrested more than 25 times for acts of nonviolent civil disobedience to draw attention to the dangers of nuclear proliferation. Day was an unlikely candidate for a rabble-rousing life. He was the son of a diplomat and attended exclusive Eastern schools, including Philips Exeter Academy and Swarthmore College. After college and a two-year stint in the Army as an information specialist, he entered mainstream journalism, working for the Associated Press and the Lewiston Morning Tribune in Idaho. By the 1960s he was a reporter at Idaho's Intermountain Observer, a muckraking journal that examined issues of poverty, race and gender years before covering them became fashionable. His first arrest came in 1969 when he reported on a University of Idaho symposium that had invited Tom Hayden, who was then facing trial with others of the Chicago Seven for disrupting the 1968 Democratic National Convention, as a speaker. Bitter debates over the Vietnam War marred the event, which Day reported without censoring Hayden's profanity-laced speech. The local sheriff and police chief pressed for Day's prosecution on obscenity charges, resulting in a 1st Amendment controversy that gripped much of the state. Later, his focus on the peace movement led him to become editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an anti-nuclear weapons publication founded by some of the scientists who built the first atomic bombs in the United States. He also founded Nukewatch, a national campaign to identify and trail the trucks used to transport nuclear weapons to military bases. Described by Rothschild as a "lovable lefty" for his collegiality and sense of humor, Day maintained a steady schedule of protest into his last years, despite a serious handicap: While imprisoned for distributing anti-war literature at a federal facility in 1991, on the day after the Persian Gulf War began, he had a stroke that left him legally blind. That did not prevent him from traveling widely as chairman of the Committee to Free Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear scientist jailed since the late 1980s for spilling Israel's nuclear secrets to a British newspaper. Day was arrested in Israel three years ago when he and other activists attempted to inspect the military facility where Vanunu had worked and to expose it as a nuclear weapons plant. His availability to press Vanunu's case depended less on his health, as he once wryly noted, than "on whether I'm in jail." "I remain an Old Codger for Peace," he wrote in his autobiography, "ready to continue my resistance and to recruit others to the cause . . . whatever the risk and whatever the pain." Day is survived by his wife, Kathleen; three sons; six grandchildren; a sister; and a brother. Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times ***************************************************************** 17 No leukaemia found among Russian peace-keepers BBC News | EUROPE | FRIDAY, 2 FEBRUARY, 2001, 09:50 GMT The Russian military says medical checks on Russian servicemen currently serving as peace-keepers in Kosovo and Bosnia-Hercegovina have revealed no cases of leukaemia. The checks were carried out after concerns were raised in the West about the possible impact on peace-keeping troops of the use of depleted uranium munitions by Nato. The chief of staff of the Russian Airborne Forces Lieutenant-General Nikolay Staskov said only soldiers currently in the Balkans had been tested: checks on paratroopers who had returned home had not been completed. Russia has called for an international investigation of the issue and two weeks ago agreed to take part with France in an independent study into the effects of exposure to depleted uranium. From the newsroom of the BBC World Service ***************************************************************** 18 (Kursk Advice Surfaces From All Over) The St. Petersburg Times - Top Story #641, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2001 BY THOMAS RYMER STAFF WRITER Chinese junks; cables pulled by tanks; creating a giant cone of ice: These are but three of the more outlandish suggestions received by St. Petersburg's Rubin submarine design facility as proposals to float the Kursk submarine to the surface of the Barents Sea. According to an open letter from Rubin's chief designer Igor Spassky, published in Thursday's issue of Izvestia newspaper, these are three of the 500 suggestions received from around the world as possible methods of raising the sub, which sank Aug. 12 after military exercises, killing all 118 crew members. As yet, it is not clear what sank the sub -either an on-board explosion, as Western research suggests, or a collision, as many on the Russian side say. Earlier efforts to recover the remains of the sailors who perished in the accident by international diving teams were scrapped with the coming of winter, but the Russian government has vowed to raise the vessel in the spring. Joint Russian-Norwegian deep-sea efforts recovered 12 bodies, but Vice Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov ordered that the entire sub be brought back to the surface -and put Rubin in charge of the efforts. Spassky said in his letter that Rubin is now exploring the question of how to bring the 300-meter Oskar-class sub - and the two nuclear reactors on board - up from the sea's bottom. The wreckage of the Kursk is presently under 108 meters of water just north of Murmansk. "While analyzing the suggestions, we were surprised not just by the great interest people showed in the difficult problem of raising the nuclear submarine, but also by the wide variety of methods suggested as solutions," Spas sky wrote. "Some of the suggestions were comparable with Jules Verne fantasies. But there is the possibility that we will use some of the technological elements suggested in the letters." While Rubin press official Gennady Sorokhin said that a number of the proposals were, indeed, far-fetched, he said that a surprising number were well-conceived. "The methods suggested ran from what I would describe as the fantastic to others that were much more technologically sound," Sorokhin said in a telephone interview Thursday. Of the fantastic variants, the most far-fetched - and least-likely - was received from China, suggesting that the submarine could be raised by a flotilla of junks - or traditional Chinese sailing barges - which would lift it to the surface. Another suggestion was that the submarine be dragged out of the sea by cables pulled by a large number of tanks. That the submarine's bow could be covered with ice, which would in turn float it to the surface was yet another proposal. But Sorokhin said that even suggestions that seemed over the moon were still being considered in a positive light. "All the same, we have taken them seriously," he said. "We understand that these letters have come from the heart." Sorokhin refused to give specifics about the more feasible suggestions. "These letters were sent directly to us, and were meant only to be seen by us," he said. "It wouldn't be proper to divulge specifics about their content without the consent of those who sent them. Some of them involve rather advanced techniques and a level of technology that it would be wrong to make public without the author's consent." Sorokhin said that the majority of the letters had been written by Russian citizens, with neighboring Belarus and then Israel as the next two most common points of origin. Israel is home to a large number of Russian Jews, including a large number of Soviet-trained scientists and engineers, who emigrated to the country during the late Soviet period or following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. He said that letters were also received from Europe and the United States. While the specialists at the design bureau were impressed with the ingenuity and level of technology involved in a number of the proposals, Sorokhin said that it was unlikely that they would figure significantly in the methods which will ultimately be used. "For the present undertaking, it is unlikely that any of these would be sufficient," he said. "It's not that they wouldn't or won't be used in the future in other situations, it's just that what we're trying to lift here weighs about ten times more than any of them could handle." [I] COPYRIGHT THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES 2001 ***************************************************************** 19 IDUST - Radiation readings near Basrah 23 January 2001 Radiation readings near Basrah, southern Iraq indicate that depleted uranium projectiles used during the Gulf War contained enriched uranium waste. Contact: Damacio Lopez International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST) Bernalillo, New Mexico, USA Tel: 505-867-0141 Email: idust@swcp.com On January 17th 2001, 20 air exposure measurements were taken in southern Iraq, some 150 km south of Basrah on the DMZ road to Saudi Arabia. Findings are listed below: 1. In Study Area 1, 6 readings of entry and exit holes on destroyed armoured tanks were taken. Exposure rates of 60-120 counts/minute were recorded. 2. In Study Area 2, 4 readings of entry and exit holes on destroyed armoured tanks were taken. Exposure rates of 500-1945 counts/minute were recorded. 3. 4 readings of a single 30mm intact projectile were taken. Exposure rates of 2100-2450 counts/minute were recorded. 4. Background exposure rates of 7-21 counts/minute were measured in 6 control areas away from the destroyed targets. These results indicate the presence of both low and high level radiological pollution: Low level: radioactive waste of depleted uranium DU (U-238), which is generated from then gaseous diffusion process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. High level: enriched uranium waste from nuclear reactors that contain U-236, which is not found in DU. US Air Force A-10 aircraft fired 940,000 30mm rounds of DU during combat in Iraq in 1991. When a DU penetrator strikes a target, up to 70% of the penetrator oxidises into fumes and cigarette ash-like dust. The US military has admitted to using an overall total of 315 tonnes of DU for the weapons used during the Gulf War. However, this new evidence suggests that supposed DU projectiles contained at least traces of enriched uranium waste. A recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) study in Kosovo also found traces of enriched uranium waste from supposed DU projectiles. The study team to Iraq consisted of Damacio Lopez, Executive Director of the International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST); and Ramsay Clark, former US Attorney General and founder of the International Action Center (IAC). The radiation instrument used was a German-made hand-held MR 9511 ABX- Alert, manufactured by Muller Lehrtechnik. Laboratory tests of the projectile must be made before further conclusions can be drawn. ***************************************************************** 20 Critics try to muzzle DOE report on NIF February 01, 2001 By Glenn Roberts Jr. STAFF WRITER LIVERMORE--Members of a local anti-NUCLEAR group and a national environmental group said they plan to file a motion in federal court today to block the government from using a report on a massive federal laser project. In August 2000, the Energy Department sent a team to Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to conduct a review of the National Ignition Facility, a project that federal officials have said will cost about $3.3 billion to $4 billion, including related research and development. Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, a Livermore- based anti-NUCLEAR group, and the Natural Resources Defense Council believe that the review violated federal openness laws, said Marylia Kelley, executive director for Tri-Valley CAREs. Kelley said that the Energy Department called the review "independent, " though that could be a misnomer. The review team, which had about 40 members, was selected and led by Energy Department workers. More than half of its members were employed by the Energy Department or its contractors, and none of its proceedings were open to the public. In addition, several members not directly employed by the Energy Department or its contractors may have had a conflict of interest by participating in the review, Kelley said. John Belluardo, an Energy Department spokesman, said Wednesday that the Energy Department still considers the August review to be independent. The membership and conduct of the review team appears to violate the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which is intended to prevent federal agencies from conducting biased reviews, Kelley said. "The Energy Department is still, today, relying on that review to try to convince Congress and the public that it has a handle on NIF's problems and that they have a handle on what its ultimate costs are going to be," Kelley said. The two groups seek a preliminary court injunction to stop the Energy Department from using and validating the findings of the review, which found no major technical problems with the project. This request for an injunction stems from a November lawsuit alleging that the Energy Department has a history of conducting biased technical reviews. "It's just flat wrong to proceed the way the department has been proceeding," Kelley said. "The independent review of the NIF project confirmed that the science of the NIF project remains sound, and that the management changes have helped to bring the project back on track," Kelley said. Kelley said the August review was key in winning additional money from Congress last year to pay a portion of NIF overruns. "It is, in fact, the basis upon which Congress has made the funding decision," she said. ');}// --> [*][I] ');}// --> [*][I] ***************************************************************** 21 US sidesteps radioactive fall-out concerns 15:38 AEDT THU 1 FEB 2001 America's top Pacific admiral today side-stepped concern over whether one of the unintended consequences of Washington's planned missile defence systems would be radioactive fall-out on Pacific nations. The US Navy's Pacific Commander, Admiral Dennis Blair, was addressing the Pacific Leaders Conference here on the strategic situation in the region. Nauru's ambassador to the United Nations, Vince Clodumar, told Blair that his country was concerned that Washington was moving ahead with its so-called National Missile Defence System which would allow it to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles as far from the US as possible. Clodumar said it was known that the system, if it became operational, could be directed at North Korea. "If (the system) is deployed say against North Korea you do not have to be a rocket scientist to know that the interception point, the fall-out from the nuclear warhead, would be somewhere over the north Pacific and it is certainly not in the best interests of the region." Clodumar said. He questioned whether this problem was among the reasons why the United States had not signed the protocols of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone treaty, despite indicating several years ago, that it would. Blair declined to debate the issue. "I think the full debate in my country about the National Missile Defence is just beginning so the considerations you raise are certainly ones which should be factored in with all the many technical and diplomatic and policy factors involved," he said. Blair's area, which includes Korea, China, India and the South Pacific, is, he said, an area of peace. The "points of friction" such as the India/Pakistan border and the Korean border, were historic. "If you look at them closely all of these are the remnants of past conflicts which have been managed for many years without any conflict in some cases and containment in other cases. They are the issues of the past, rather than of the future." He said the near future in the Pacific was one of relative peace, although he warned of piracy, drug running and illegal migration and called for further cooperation from nations in the region against transnational crime. "The organisations which run these are well financed, they will go to the weakest spots they can find, they will attack all of us, they don't play by the rules." AFP cAAP 2001 c 1997-2001 ninemsn Pty Ltd - All rights reserved - Terms ***************************************************************** 22 Uranium dumping The Scotsman Online - Scotland's best selling quality national newspaper For over 150 years we, in the south-west of Scotland, have been dumping full-strength uranium all over the country. Two places that spring to mind are London Embankment and Liverpool Docks. So, we can hardly complain if a tiny amount of the depleted variety is dumped here. There is one benefit your correspondents have not considered. Depleted uranium is the most efficient shield we have against nuclear radiation. This is why it is used for the canisters to contain high-level nuclear waste. It is also used for protection in the radiotherapy departments of our hospitals. Its use in the armour of battle tanks is essential to give crews maximum protection in the event of nuclear attack. As the sands under the Solway give off nuclear radiation, the depleted uranium will stop it from rising to contaminate those who live on its shores. Any semi-rational being must surely consider that a good thing. ROBERT M PATE Minnigaff Kirkcudbrightshire With 6,000 steelworkers losing their jobs, this is a dark day for British manufacturing and its workers. So I was perturbed to hear the announcement being... Your editorial (30 January) clearly pointed out the dilemma posed by the suggestion that the state should pay mothers to stay at home with their young... Joyce McMillan (Opinion, 24 January) attacks President George Bush’s decision "to withdraw funding from international health charities which offer abortion... BMW In "My working day" (Business, 26 January), Iain Couper, the marketing director of Lothian Buses, referred to climbing into his BMW every morning... Methinks Margaret Smith (Letters, 31 January) doth protest too much about the McCrone agreement. She appears to think that her 20-year- old honours dissertation... Regarding the debate on implementing the Sutherland report in Scotland, the London-based Tories have a problem. They don’t like the Scottish parli-ament,... The environment minister, Sam Galbraith, not unexpectedly, em-phasised the enterprise side of being part of a national park (your report, 30 January)... At Alder Hey Hospital, in Liverpool, the body parts of babies were systematically looted; unacceptable? Yet, foetuses are routinely aborted be-cause they... Ihave spent the last 50 years working as a deer manager. I find some deer management proposals to be serious-ly flawed, particularly the increasing utilisation... ***************************************************************** 23 Kosovar DU Fears Institute for War & Peace Reporting After weeks of indifference, Kosovars are expressing concern over depleted uranium. By Nehat Islami in Pristina (BCR No. 214, 1-Feb-01) The international uproar over NATO's use of depleted uranium bombs in Kosovo has, until recently, left Kosovars themselves curiously undisturbed. "I'd rather die from uranium, if that's my fate, than be killed by a Serbian policeman," said an old woman from Orahovac. The view was fairly typical when Western newspapers earlier this month warned of the danger of radiation deaths among people who ventured near the site of a DU explosion. Now Kosovan opinion is drifting round to anxiety at the prospect of health risks. But there is still none of the frenzy seen elsewhere. NATO confirmed that over 100 Kosovo locations were bombed with depleted uranium. Most of these sites are located in south-western Kosovo, in towns such as Prizren, Peja, and Klina next to the border with Albania, where Yugoslav heavy armour was concentrated. Around 31, 000 DU bombs fell on Kosovo. When the air war against Serbia ended, Kosovars welcomed NATO soldiers as heroes and liberators. Their arrival signalled the retreat of Milosevic's forces, paving the way for more than 800,000 refugees to return home. The gratitude felt by Kosovars towards NATO inhibited them from truly comprehending the warnings issued by foreign experts over the depleted uranium radiation peril. When stories about DU first started circulating, Kosovars dismissed them as Serb propaganda. They said it was a trick to force NATO troops out of Kosovo. The general attitude was a mixture of irony and indifference. In an interview for a local radio station, one old man who receives no pension laughed at recent press stories about the radiation threat. "If there is any depleted uranium in the food chain, it cannot harm us old people," he joked. "We are so rarely in contact with food". The DU stories failed to stir local rumours, unusual for this rumour- prone region. One of the few that surfaced was that Djakovica hospital had experienced cases of deformed babies born to mothers who had been in direct contact with DU. The stories were unconfirmed and soon forgotten. Now, though, the indifference is slowly evaporating. The media daily publish contradictory reports: NATO headquarters in Brussels delivers soothing statements while countries whose soldiers served in the Balkans publish alarming stories about the dangers of depleted uranium. The growing uneasiness in Kosovo is still a long way from panic. Anxieties have been assuaged by reassuring messages from local politicians, doctors and scientists. Dr Pleurat Sejdiu, a co-president of the UNMIK Department for Health in Kosovo, stated in the Pristina Medical Centre that everyone who thinks they had contact with DU will receive a free medical check up. Teams of health experts, equipped with gas masks and radiation detectors, are travelling around Kosovo searching for evidence of radiation poisoning. The World Health Organisation is to examine children who played on the wreckage of Yugoslav army tanks and lorries close to Klina. In Klina, one resident, Sul Berisha, said the children were always messing around the burnt out vehicles, but, as far as he knew, had not fallen ill. He said KFOR troops had recently removed some of the wreckage. Other locals said people came across the border from Albania and took away parts of the damaged tanks for sale as scrap iron. Kosovar doctors and scientists believe that depleted uranium has not so far caused major health problems. They began researching the effects of DU long before the matter became an international issue, according to Dr Shaip Muja, a senior figure in Kosovo Defence Corps. He said that Kosovar doctors investigated blood and urine samples of children and soldiers living and traveling in the bombed areas, Pristina University Hospital became the centre for collecting data on DU health risks. The doctor's investigation, which was conducted in secret, concluded that there was no call for alarm. This was backed by hospital haematologists who said the number of leukemia sufferers has not increased over the past three years. Some experts warn, however, that the first signs of the illness may not appear for another two years. In the spring, NATO and the World Heath Organisation will come up with the first definitive results on a possible link between DU and diseases like cancer and leukemia. Until then, nobody can really be sure. Nehat Islami is the IWPR project manager in Pristina © INSTITUTE FOR WAR & PEACE REPORTING LANCASTER HOUSE, 33 ISLINGTON HIGH STREET, LONDON N1 9LH, UK FAX: +44 (207) 713 7140 THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN IWPR ONLINE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THOSE OF THE INSTITUTE FOR WAR AND PEACE REPORTING. REGISTERED AS A CHARITY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (CHARITY REG. NO: 1027201, COMPANY REG. NO: 2744185) THIS SITE IS BEST VIEWED WITH [*][I] OR [*][I], VERSION 4 OR BETTER. ***************************************************************** 24 Bill seeks help for downwinders StandardNETR Friday, February 02, 2001 By BOB WARD Standard-Examiner Capitol Bureau SALT LAKE CITY--Radioactive fallout from the nuclear weapons detonated at the Nevada Test Site has irreversibly changed the lives of many Utahns. But to date there has been no centralized place for "downwinders" to turn for help, and no exhaustive effort to document their story. State Rep. Lou Shurtliff, D- Ogden, hopes to change that. She is sponsoring a resolution urging the federal government to establish a "health effects subcommittee" for fallout from the Nevada Test Site. Similar committees comprised of scientists, doctors and victims have been set up for five other places where the government developed and tested atomic devices, including Oakridge Laboratory in Tennessee and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. Shurtliff and others are seeking the last available slot for a panel, to research the effects of the southern Nevada site. Shurtliff told the House Health and Human Services Committee Thursday that one of her constituents is afflicted with thyroid cancer that she believes is rooted in her childhood in Delta. On the block where the woman grew up, Shurtliff said, "nearly every family has been afflicted by cancer." "The lady that does my hair--her daughter has thyroid cancer and she's 40 years old," Shurtliff said. The idea behind the subcommittee is not to seek compensation for victims' suffering, Shurtliff said, but to investigate and document the experiences associated with the Nevada Test Site for historical and medical purposes. "It would be a great idea to bring this to Utah," she said. "We had 5,000 times more fallout than Oak Ridge, Tennessee." Shurtliff's resolution would not set up the panel or change any laws, but would encourage the federal government to establish the subcommittee for the Nevada Test Site. The resolution won unanimous approval from the legislative committee, and now goes to the House floor. You can reach reporter Bob Ward at 532-2104 or bward@standard.net. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************