***************************************************************** 06/02/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.138 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Senate leader's opposition to nuclear dump cheered in Nevada 2 Citizens Walk Against Nuclear Waste Dumping in Southern Utah 3 Ex-top waste boss to be tried 4 Letters: There is never any safe nuclear energy 5 Healing Our World Commentary: Nuclear Plants Relicensed 6 Statement of Chris Busby in Relation to the Millstone Reactors 7 Energy Department Initiatives Back Bush Plan 8 Paying Through the Nose 9 Yucca Mountain part of long-term plans at Hanford, nuke plant 10 Nuclear Power Poised for a Revival 11 Sunday Soapbox: Fire up the reactors? 12 UPI News Article: Bush urges supplemental spending OK 13 Jury decides NPPD does not owe LES 14 Terrorists Could Easily Make An Atomic Bomb From MOX Fuel 15 Japan power utility bows to nuclear 'no' vote 16 KEDO chief to visit Seoul 17 waste &abuse 18 Oh, What a Mess 19 Fire extinguished at Maine Yankee 20 Trains resume in Webster Groves after derailment 21 Russia wants nuclear waste imports 22 Former Reagan Administration Supporter of Yucca Mountain Nuclear 23 Gephardt Expresses Worry over Future Railroad Derailments NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Plan to Recycle Plutonium Delayed 2 Hanford cleanup funding looks likely 3 White House wants to add $180 million to cleanup budget 4 $1B hike sought in cleanup funding 5 $3.4M SNS electrical contract awarded 6 Bush to ask for $100 million more for nuclear cleanup 7 LANL Chief Says DOE 'Not Happy' 8 O'Neill gets $162M for Mass. site - 9 Security adviser says U.S. must be prepared for nuclear threats - 10 MoD's tilt at windmills 11 "Nuclear Spy" Took Military Secrets From Newspapers 12 Tennessee taking steps to protect its water wealth 13 SKorean atomic bomb victim wins landmark case in Japan 14 Bush request doesn't include money to cover IOUs for ill workers 15 Uranium Miners, Downwinders Still Getting IOUs 16 $2 billion sought for nuclear labs, facilities Money needed for **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Senate leader's opposition to nuclear dump cheered in Nevada June 01, 2001 LAS VEGAS (AP) - Opponents of a nuclear waste dump in Nevada are cheering incoming Senate majority leader Tom Daschle's declaration that the proposal is politically dead. "It's the most significant event we've seen since the change in the White House in January," Stephen Cloobeck, a Las Vegas businessman and leader of a casino and business anti-dump coalition, said Friday. But a Department of Energy official said Daschle's position doesn't derail ongoing studies or plans to make a site selection recommendation soon. "The DOE will make a recommendation on the basis of science," said Joe Davis, spokesman for the Energy Department in Washington. "The policy on whether to continue will be made by the president and Congress." The department has spent $7 billion dollars trying to determine whether the nation's radioactive waste can safely be stored at the site, 90 miles from Las Vegas. Davis said a recommendation could be made to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham as early as this summer, and it could be on Bush's desk early next year. If Nevada challenges the recommendation, as expected, the matter will be sent to Congress for a vote. Daschle, D-S.D., used his first trip since it became clear last week that he would be the new majority leader to declare that Democrats will kill the Yucca Mountain proposal if it reaches the Senate. "As long as we're in the majority, it's dead," he said Thursday during a brief public appearance before a political fund-raiser for U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the majority whip. "Having the majority leader say this is a dead issue gives us a lot of confidence that our notice of disapproval would not be overridden by the Senate," said Bob Loux, state Nuclear Projects Office director and chief anti-dump spokesman for Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican. Cloobeck, a longtime personal friend of Daschle, said he realized the Senate makeup of 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one Independent represents the thinnest of majorities for Daschle, Reid and the rest of the Nevada congressional delegation opposed to the Yucca Mountain plan. "The Democrats have been tremendously supportive of our efforts," Cloobeck said. "But the fight is not over." President Bush last month announced his support for building more nuclear power plants as part of his administration's long-range energy policy. That raised the profile of the Yucca Mountain proposal because the nation has no place to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive research waste. Since 1987, Yucca Mountain has been the only site studied to accept and entomb the 77,000 tons already being stored at existing power plants and military sites. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 Citizens Walk Against Nuclear Waste Dumping in Southern Utah Environmental News Network - ENN Direct From Living Rivers/Glen Canyon Action Network Friday, June 1, 2001 BLANDING, UTAH — GROUPS PROTEST TOXIC URANIUM MILL NEAR UTE INDIAN RESERVATION BLANDING, UTAH -- Citizens and environmental groups in southern Utah held a "Walk Against Nuclear Waste" on Thursday. More than 40 individuals walked simultaneously from Blanding (San Juan County) to Moab. The eighty-mile walk, led by longtime San Juan County activist Ken Sleight, followed U.S. Highway 191. Cosponsoring groups included Moab-based Living Rivers, Glen Canyon Action Network, and the Sierra Club Glen Canyon Group, as well as HEAL-UTAH from Salt Lake City. The event was held in conjunction with a Utah Radiation Control Board tour of a mill operated by the International Uranium Corporation (IUC) at a site near Blanding. The mill uses an acid heap leach process to extract uranium and other minerals from the waste. Activists are protesting the recent application by IUC to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which seeks to transport and process radioactive lead waste, by truck from a site near San Bernardino, California, for processing into high-grade material. The Sierra Club is fighting the application. "We want this mill closed and the awful mess cleaned up," said John Weisheit, Chair of the Glen Canyon Group. "This multinational corporation is hauling out-of-state nuclear waste through our communities, and dumping it in the backyards of Utahns." As the volume of radioactive materials grows at White Mesa, residents increasingly express concerns that the IUC mill could become "another Moab," a reference to the highly polluting Atlas uranium mill tailings site near that community on the banks of the Colorado River. The mill site, just north of the White Mesa Ute Indian Reservation, has been controversial since its opening in 1980. Currently the mill receives shipments of waste material from a number of toxic and radioactive dumps around the country. The uranium-bearing wastes are brought to the IUC facility--in unmarked containers on trucks and by rail--from sites in New York, New Jersey, and Missouri. Proposals to bring nuclear wastes in from other locations, such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, are pending. Meanwhile, the company's annual report indicates that it has lost substantial sums of money in recent years. The company is only responsible for closure costs of ten million dollars. This news has stirred fears that IUC may be intentionally stockpiling large amounts of radioactive and toxic metals and other wastes, with the intention of declaring bankruptcy and closing the facility. A similar situation exists in Moab, where one of the nation's largest uranium tailings piles leaches thousands of gallons of radioactive ammonia into the Colorado River each day. Cleanup estimates of this site, formerly owned by Atlas Corporation, range into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Atlas spun off the Moab mill to a subsidiary, then allowed the new company to go bankrupt, thereby avoiding liability. The latest proposal would bring radioactive sludge-like material to the IUC mill by truck from Unocal's Molycorp Mountain Pass Mine in San Bernardino County, California. The mine sludge is laced with lead, a potent toxin known to cause a host of serious health problems in humans, as well as environmental damage. The Sierra Club is currently appealing a decision by a NRC administrative law judge, seeking a hearing on the Molycorp license amendment. The judge denied the group's request, saying that the Sierra Club lacked standing in the case. The well-known conservation group may take the NRC to court over the matter. The Radiation Control Board will meet in Moab's Star Hall on Friday, from 9 AM until noon. The environmental groups will call on the board to regulate existing wastes at the mill and to oppose all incoming shipments of additional wastes. "We will march to the Governor's office in Salt Lake City if need be," said Ken Sleight, a San Juan County businessman. "There's no excuse for Utah state government to spend our tax dollars fighting the Goshute Indians who want to dump nuclear waste on their own lands, while sitting quietly and letting white people dump poison next to the White Mesa Ute Indians." For more information on the IUC mill: International Uranium Corporation: www.intluranium.com Wyoming Mining Association: www.wma-minelife.com/uranium/ef.html WISE Uranium Project: www.agroeco.nl/~wise/uranium/umopwm.html Sierra Club Fact Sheet: utah.sierraclub.org/glencanyon/nuclear3.htm Organizational websites: Sierra Club Glen Canyon Group utah.sierraclub.org/glencanyon Living Rivers www.livingrivers.net Glen Canyon Action Network www.drainit.org For more information, contact: Owen Lammers Executive Director Glen Canyon Action Network 435-259-1063 ***************************************************************** 3 Ex-top waste boss to be tried June 02, 2001 Anderson didn't comply with plea deal, judge says By Maria Titze Deseret News staff writer Utah's former top radiation waste regulator, who struck a deal with federal prosecutors in February, is going to face trial on charges of extortion, fraud and tax evasion after all. Friday's scheduled sentencing of Larry F. Anderson, 64, before U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell ended abruptly. "I am quite shocked today to learn that Mr. Anderson has not complied (with the plea agreement)," the judge said. A grand jury accused Anderson of extorting as much as $600,000 from Khosrow B. Semnani, the owner of Envirocare, a radioactive waste dump in Tooele County. As director of the Bureau (and later, Division) of Radiation Control from 1980 to 1993, Anderson supervised the agencies that regulated the disposal of radioactive waste in Utah. A 1999 indictment alleged he began extorting money and property from Semnani after Envirocare applied for a low-level radioactive waste permit in 1987. Later Anderson allegedly "induced" Semnani to hand over $50,000 in cash plus gold coins, a Park City condo and other goods worth $550,000 more. After prosecutors decided it wasn't a case of bribery, Semnani was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge in exchange for his cooperation in Anderson's case. In February Anderson admitted to charges of mail fraud and tax evasion in exchange for having the more serious charges of extortion and fraud dismissed. He was to serve a year in federal prison, if he turned over the equity in his townhouse in Mesquite, a credit union account, a golf club membership and a golf cart to the U.S. government. But Anderson's lawyer said that during the past two weeks, negotiations with the government had deteriorated. "My client has a fear of what's going to happen to his family, particularly his wife" if he turns over the assets, said attorney Jerome Mooney. Anderson has had heart surgery and is in poor health, he said. "He just doesn't want to leave his wife at the mercy of the government." Mooney said Anderson has never admitted to extortion. Anderson alleges that Semnani owed him $5 million in consulting fees for creating the business plan for Envirocare. U.S. Attorney Paul Warner said he was "disappointed" that Anderson is "not interested in participating in this process any longer." "The negotiations are over," Warner said when asked about the possibility of a new plea agreement being reached. "We stand ready to try this case." © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 4 Letters: There is never any safe nuclear energy - Charles Laws Reno Gazette-Journal Letters to the Editor There is never any safe nuclear energy Reno Gazette-Journal June 2nd, 2001 There is never any safe nuclear energy I want to bring to your attention research involving the relationship of childhood leukemia to radioactive materials. There has been the discovery of childhood leukemia and cancer clusters near many sources of man-made radioactive contamination. The sources are not only those from nuclear weapon use and development but also from mining, processing, the persistent and unavoidable discharges of radioactive materials from nuclear energy facilities, and waste storage sites. The models on which safety and security are claimed have been shown to be in error by factors of hundreds. For further information please consult http://www.nirs.org/reactors/busbyonmillstone32001.htm. Exposure to radioactivity not only results in immediate injury; in all living things it causes a greater susceptibility to subtle mutations and disease. Inhaled and ingested radioactive isotopes are very dangerous. Materials ingested by pregnant women have been shown to result in infant leukemia. There is no safe nuclear energy. There is only the suicidal satisfaction of ultimate military power and our energy addiction. Seasoned with greed. It’s time to terminate the nuclear experiment. Charles Laws, Reno (via e-mail) Original Article © 2001 Reno Gazette-Journal ***************************************************************** 5 Healing Our World Commentary: Nuclear Plants Relicensed Environment News Service: By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. Under Our Radioactive Noses - Nuclear Plants Relicensed *grandmother you were silenced before you could finish telling me the stories i am coming home i am listening everywhere for your voice.* -- Jeanetta Calhoun Many environmentalists have assumed that most of the nation's 103 nuclear power plants would have trouble getting relicensed when most of their 40-year licenses come up for renewal in the next few years. With the stricter building codes and earthquake hazard rules, many of these plants could not be legally built today. Also, considerable proof exists of the flaws in the construction of many of these plants and along with the growing popular opposition to nuclear power since Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986, few thought we would have to live with this threat much longer. But the Bush administration has created a new reality that we all must face: most of these nuclear plants, whether they would be judged unsafe by today's standards or not, will likely be relicensed, bringing us all closer to another nuclear disaster. So far, five reactors on two sites in South Carolina and Maryland have been relicensed, and more are in the works. [Calvert Cliffs] Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant 45 miles southeast of Washington, DC is owned and operated by the Baltimore Gas &Electric Company. (Photos courtesy ) Although the Bush administration has voiced strong support for increased investments in nuclear power and will do everything possible to keep the nuclear-military-industrial complex healthy for many years to come, changes ushered in by the Clinton administration have actually made it easier to build and much harder for citizens to stop new nuclear plants. New Clinton administration rules include generic approval for particular types of reactors and a process that allows site approval in advance of an actual plant license. Because of the 40 year maximum license, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) tell us that many nuclear plant components were engineered to 40 year lifetimes to cut costs! This aging equipment will be allowed to continue to operate when these licenses are renewed. About 20 percent of all the electric power produced in the United States comes from nuclear power plants. The first operating license will expire in the year 2006. About 10 percent of the country's reactor licenses will expire by the end of the year 2010, and more than 40 percent will expire by the year 2015. A nuclear power plant owner decides whether or not to seek renewal of its license. The company then has to satisfy NRC requirements for safety and criteria that determine whether license renewal is a cost effective venture. In today's power hungry environment, license renewal will surely be considered cost effective. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) reminds us that the U.S. nuclear energy industry is an accident waiting to happen. UCS says, "A severe nuclear accident has the potential to do catastrophic harm to people and the environment. A combination of human and mechanical error could result in an accident killing several thousand people, injuring several hundred thousand others, contaminating large areas of land, and costing billions of dollars." The UCS believes that the nuclear reactor risk assessments conducted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are really not risk assessments at all because potential accident consequences are not evaluated. The assessments merely examine accident probabilities, which is only half of the risk equation. Union of Concerned Scientists also believes that accident probability calculations are seriously flawed and have found many irregularities in NRC reporting and the facts. Here are a few examples: + The risk assessments assume nuclear plants always conform with safety requirements, yet each year more than a thousand violations are reported. + Plants are assumed to have no design problems even though hundreds are reported every year. + Aging is assumed to result in no damage, despite evidence that aging materials killed four workers. + Reactor pressure vessels are assumed to be failure proof, even though embrittlement (reactor walls becoming brittle due to radiation exposure) forced the Yankee Rowe nuclear plant to shut down. + The risk assessments assume that plant workers are far less likely to make mistakes than actual operating experience demonstrates. + The risk assessments consider only the threat from damage to the reactor core despite the fact that irradiated fuel in the spent fuel pools represents a serious health hazard. Also, the NRC has failed to establish any minimum standards for the accident probability calculations, all of which are conducted by plant owners, each with their own assumptions. Union of Concerned Scientists' research has shown the fallacy of conducting studies in this way with a number of case studies done on plants that were built identically, but operated by different owners. For example, the Indian Point 2 and 3 nuclear plants share the same Westinghouse design and sit side by side in New York, but are operated by different owners. On paper, Indian Point 3 is more than 25 percent more likely to experience an accident than her sister plant. [Callaway] Owned and operated by the Union Electric Company, the Callaway nuclear plant is 10 miles southeast of Fulton, Missouri. (Photo courtesy NRC) The Wolf Creek plant in Kansas and the Callaway plant in Missouri were built identically, sharing the same standardized Westinghouse design. But some events at Callaway are reported to be 10 to 20 times more likely to lead to reactor core damage than the same events at Wolf Creek. To make matters worse, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is allowing plant owners to cut back on tests and inspections of safety equipment, further increasing risks. The NRC approves these reductions based on the results from the incomplete and inaccurate accident probability assessments. Surprisingly, one of the NRC risk assessments that is assumed to be 100 percent controlled is fire suppression. It is shocking that in this day and age, fire control is actually a concern at nuclear facilities, facilities that could kill tens of thousands of people in the event of a disaster. A few years ago, a worker at the Waterford nuclear plant, near Taft, Louisiana, reported heavy smoke in the turbine building. The plant's fire alarm was not sounded for 29 minutes so workers could search through heavy smoke for the source of the flames. During this time, fire detector alarms in the control room were ignored by operators who were busy directing workers who searched for the fire. When the plant's fire brigade finally responded, the fire brigade leader did not allow water to be used because of the electrical equipment. As a result, the fire blazed for over an hour. When use of water was finally allowed, the fire was put out within four minutes. Another comedy of errors like this could have disastrous consequences. The list is very long of disasters in the making. For example, nine U.S. nuclear power plants were shut down for all of 1997 while their owners made extensive repairs to emergency equipment that were long overdue. Each of these plants had operated for years with emergency systems that would not have functioned as required in event of an accident. We have to stop this madness before it escalates. We must demand that safe, alternative forms of energy be developed rather the dirty nuclear and fossil fuels that represent the personal interests and investments of the U.S. Presidential administration. The people must demand that reason return to energy policy. The "American Way" that President Bush seeks to protect is unsustainable and has disastrous consequences for the ecosystem and every woman, man and child alive. RESOURCES 1. See the license renewal process described at the NRC website at http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/REACTOR/LR/" 2. Get involved and make your voice heard! Demand that these old plants be forced to close or rebuild their aging components. Visit the NRC Public Involvement website and put in your comments at http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/public.html" 3. Learn how to oppose the Bush energy scheme with the help of the Union of Concerned Scientists at http://www.ucsusa.org/act/act_scheme.html 4. Check out Daily Events from the NRC Operations Center at http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/der.htm Be prepared to be scared. 5. For a list of all U.S. nuclear reactors and their license expiration dates, visit http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/NUREGS/SR1350/V12/part11.html 6. See the a list of nuclear reactors worldwide at http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/NUREGS/SR1350/V12/part19.html 7. Visit the Nuclear Guardianship Library to learn of what we should be doing with the tragic legacy of nuclear waste at http://www.nonukes.org/ngl.htm" 8. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Demand that they stop the rubber stamp relicensing of dangerous nuclear plants. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html" Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be found wondering how many devastated areas that once were nuclear reactor sites his new son will know of when he grows up. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at /news.jsp?id=ns9999811 For more on Terrorism http://www.ncpa.org/pi/congress/cong9.html Dallas Headquarters: 12655 N. Central Expy., Suite 720 - Dallas, TX 75243-1739 - 972/386-6272 - Fax 972/386-0924 Washington Office: 655 15th St. N.W., Suite 375 - Washington, DC 20005 - 202/628-6671 - Fax 202/628-6474 © 2001 NCPA ***************************************************************** 15 Japan power utility bows to nuclear 'no' vote Friday June 1, 8:19 PM *By Miho Yoshikawa* TOKYO (Reuters) - Buckling under public pressure, Japan's largest power utility said on Friday it would postpone loading a controversial nuclear fuel at a plant in the country's rural north. Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc's (TEPCO) plans were derailed after residents in nearby Kariwa village opposed the loading of MOX fuel at the nuclear plant, the world's largest and which supplies the capital with a fifth of its power. "In view of the request that we received, we decided not to load MOX fuel during the current maintenance period," TEPCO said in a statement, referring to a formal request for a postponment from local authorities following a weekend referendum. The decision had been widely expected after the referendum, but TEPCO added that it nevertheless remains "firmly committed" to the use of MOX. The non-binding vote, in which some 53 percent of voters opposed TEPCO's plans, has put the government in a bind on energy policy. Nuclear power is being pushed as the solution to resource-poor Japan's energy needs, but a series of accidents and mishaps has heightened public concern over its safety. The referendum result has sent government and industry officials scrambling to reaffirm their commitment to nuclear power and to win back public trust. Anti-nuclear campaigners said TEPCO's statement was a step in the right direction, but had not gone far enough. "I do not think TEPCO's statement fully respected the wishes of the people of Kariwa because it said only that it will not load MOX during current maintenance, and not that it had abandoned MOX, which is what the people want," said Hideyuki Ban, co-director of Citizens Nuclear Information Centre, Japan's largest anti-nuclear group. KARIWA ONLY ONE BATTLE While Kariwa residents may have won the battle with their "no" vote, analysts say the wider debate is far from over given the massive levels of investment by companies and the government. The Japanese nuclear industry has set a target of having 16-18 nuclear reactors using MOX fuel by 2010, but it has been unable to load the fuel at any of its 51 commercial nuclear reactors, which provide a third of the nation's power supply. TEPCO had been expected to use an April-July maintenance period at the No 3 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture to begin loading MOX fuel -- a blend of uranium and plutonium recycled from spent nuclear fuel. It has yet to say if or when it will try again, but in the meantime the industry plans to step up its campaign to win public understanding. Some utilities, including TEPCO and Japan's second largest utility Kansai Electric Power Co Inc, have already set up in-house committees to promote the benefits of MOX fuel to a suspicious population. Critics say it is expensive, potentially dangerous and an inefficient way of using up the plutonium produced by burning uranium. Supporters say it reduces uranium consumption and is a way to use up plutonium, but their case has not been helped by a series of recent mishaps. The nuclear industry was forced to postpone initial plans to begin using MOX fuel in 1999 after British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) admitted in September of that year that it had falsified data on MOX fuel shipped to Kansai Electric. The same month saw the nation's worst nuclear accident at a uranium processing facility in Tokaimura, 140 km (90 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Hundred of residents and workers were exposed to radiation and two plant workers later died. TEPCO shares have weathered the Kariwa set back well and on Friday closed Tokyo trade down 0.33 percent at 3,030 yen, up from a year low of 2,500 yen set on February 1. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 KEDO chief to visit Seoul welcome to Korea Herald!!_National The chief of the international consortium in charge of the construction of two light water reactors in North Korea will arrive in Seoul today for a five-day visit. Charles Kartman, executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), will discuss issues regarding the $ 4.6 billion nuclear reactor project with Seoul officials, Foreign Ministry officials said yesterday. He will meet with Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo, Unification Minister Lim Dong-won and Chang Sun-sup, head of the Office of Planning for the Light Water Reactor Project. Under the 1994 Agreed Framework between Pyongyang and Washington, KEDO is building a nuclear power plant in North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang's suspension of its nuclear activities. The project, originally scheduled to be completed by 2003, has been delayed due to financial problems and tension on the Korean Peninsula. 2001.06.02 ***************************************************************** 17 waste &abuse InsightMag.com By Sean Paige spaige@InsightMag.com Fear and Loathing Near Las Vegas Of many obstacles standing in the way of reaching consensus on a national energy policy, perhaps none are greater to surmount than the twin evils of fear and misinformation. Employing both long has played a part in politics, of course. But peddling fear as a political tactic becomes particularly heinous in times of national crisis, when decisions should be made not on appeals to emotion but on reason and fact. Such campaigns are even more reprehensible, however, when taxpayers bankroll them. This is the case in Nevada, where state officials and congressional delegates are pulling out all the stops and evidently will stoop to anything to kill the proposed nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain. That Nevada test-site facility is designed to store high-level nuclear waste for tens of thousands of years and has undergone exhaustive and expensive design work and study. It will be all but impossible to resuscitate the nation’s moribund nuclear-power industry without it, as proposed in the Bush administration’s recently released energy policy. Understanding that sowing fear offers the surest way to derail Yucca Mountain and foreclose the nuclear-energy option, Nevada Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn is asking the state Legislature to appropriate $5 million to fund a national ad campaign. It is meant to scare non-Nevadans into opposing Yucca Mountain, too, because the nuclear materials would have to be moved through their towns or communities on the way to the storage site. “This would allow us to tell other states the proposal includes sending nuclear waste by truck or train right past the schools and parks and homes of people in Colorado and Illinois and Utah,” said a spokesman for Guinn. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., also has gotten into the act by publishing on her House of Representatives Website a list of communities and congressional districts through which nuclear wastes might pass on the way to Nevada. She has distributed the list to green groups, which have elevated fear-mongering to a high art. “This will be an invaluable tool to educate the public on the dangers of transporting nuclear waste through the backyards of American communities,” according to Berkley’s mouth-for-hire. But much of the radioactive materials intended for burial deep in Yucca Mountain already are in American “backyards” and have been there for decades. They are stored in temporary holding areas at roughly 70 sites nationwide, some of which have reached or are approaching full capacity. It was this situation that led to the proposal for Yucca Mountain in the first place, based on the assumption that storing these materials in one secure, remote and thoroughly studied location is preferable to the status quo. Geothermal Power Proposal Generates Hot Air, But No Heat We’ve written before about how designations of national monuments on resource-rich public lands in the latter days of the Clinton administration may come back to haunt a nation scrambling to cope with an energy crunch. But last December’s less-notorious creation by Congress of the 1.2 million-acre Black Rock Desert National Conservation Area, in a desolate corner of Northwestern Nevada, also may be depriving the region of access to geothermal energy, one of the “cleanest” sources on the planet. A rancher named John Estill wants to build a geo-thermal power plant capable of supplying energy enough for 300,000 households on 120 private acres he owns within the newly designated conservation area. This would more than double the state’s geothermal output, and he even is willing to share royalties from the project with the states of California and Nevada if they’ll cooperate. Though nothing legally prevents Estill from building the plant on his land, running transmission lines 30 miles across the Black Rock Desert to plug into the power grid is another matter. Though Estill’s proposal has piqued the interest of the Nevada Division of Minerals, the Bureau of Land Management, which manages the area, is likely to reject permits for the power lines. The proposal also is opposed by green groups that, though ostensibly supportive of alternative-energy sources, aren’t in this case. A spokesperson for the Sierra Club in Reno says the group — a leading voice for the American cake-and-eat-it-too-crowd — supports development of geothermal power. But “just not in the middle of the Black Rock National Conservation Area,” where power lines allegedly will spoil the area’s rugged desolation and threaten endangered species. Estill says such obstructionism by the government and the greens not only is foolhardy, given the current energy crisis, but a violation of his private-property rights. That’s an argument bound to resonate with thousands of individuals, particularly in the West, who also own private lands engulfed by parks, national forests and the 19 national-monument areas created or expanded by the Clinton administration. These people face severe restrictions on the use, and thus the value, of those lands. Copyright © 2000 News World Communications, Inc. ***************************************************************** 18 Oh, What a Mess Power and first principles. June 1, 2001 3:00 p.m. The monsoon of data and analysis and ululation over the energy problem has the effect of obscuring first principles. First principles, to be sure, don't always work. They are largely ignored in wartime, for instance. But since we are not at war, we tend to magnify lesser problems, and to appropriate military rhetoric in discussing them, as of course the wars on poverty, drugs, racism, etc. If we were at war, we would reorder our priorities and subordinate our complaints. Gratefully we aren't at war, but this shouldn't mean that we have license to neglect priorities that are built into the market systems. Here is a recitation of evolving considerations: Power, except in Arctic circumstances and surgical operating rooms, is not indispensable to life, in the sense that food and water are indispensable. But it is on the order of a necessity. That is the reason why it worked its way, in social-economic history, to qualify for state superintendence. Power has been thought of, and dealt with beginning about 100 years ago, as a commodity produced by monopolies. The political reaction to monopolies came in two parts. The first was to break them up, as was done to such as Standard Oil. Where this was not feasible, regulation was invoked. Social life could not tolerate a water distributor to charge what it liked for water, let alone to estop its delivery. The principle of a "utility" arose, and the sale of power was, accordingly, regulated. But the sources of power proliferated. The generation of electricity is done by myriad, though not countless, forces. Hydroelectric dams generate electricity. So do coal, oil, and gas. So does nuclear power. In the next wave of social adjustment to energy consumption the tendency was to order monopoly power distributors to break up, intending competitive offspring. Con Ed in New York, as an example, was told to sell off its power-generating plants, and restrict itself to distributing power. In California, as we are up-to-our- keister informed, legislative fine-tuners approached the problem by attempting to square a circle: Companies that generated power could buy and sell as they liked, but consumer prices could not be affected. What happened was bankruptcy. Came, then, the question of environment. Many years ago, economists thought through the social cost of an automobile. The consumer in the 1920s thought the whole thing wrapped up when he paid $l,000 to the automobile dealer. But derivative economic questions of course arose. What is the use of an automobile if there are no roads to drive on? And what are the responsibilities of the automobile driver when he runs over somebody? The auto gave rise to the construction of highways and the proliferation of insurance companies. Similarly, the expenditure of energy, whether to generate heat or cold or computer life, let alone travel in automobiles, threatened, and indeed caused, such malevolences as Los Angeles smog and whatever it is that is happening, or is threatened to happen, to the ozone layer that regulates planetary heat. The concern for the environment became, in the hands of enthusiasts, something of a theological movement, i.e., worshiped, as in the religious wars, without sufficient thought given to contextual frames of reference. Vice President Cheney regrets that "the government has not granted a single new nuclear power permit in more than twenty years." One reason for this is that no utility company has *submitted* such an application for 20 years. In California, notwithstanding the predictable rise in energy needs, no new power plants were built. The attempt simultaneously to close in on multiple fronts of concern has resulted in political/economic hybrids and miscalculations as in New York, where electrical costs are up almost 40 percent for reasons including, but not limited to, market manipulation. Politics can't be pulled away, leaving us with crystalline adjustments governed by supply and demand in the conventional sense. The reason for it is that supply is substantially decided by the vote of a few foreign producers, notably Arab states, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Mexico. And supply is reasonably affected by factors extrinsic to reserves of oil, gas, coal, and nuclear plants. But guiding stars are there to help us penetrate the fog. Most relevant is this, that high energy prices are going to result in greater supplies — in the long run. Meanwhile there is no alternative to submitting to them either by paying the extra costs, or diminishing consumption. At current production rates, 90,000 megawatts of new electricity are scheduled to come in by 2002, twice that by 2004. Moral. Interfere with the market only as thoughtfully required for corollary satisfactions, but always remember the abiding satisfactions of energy consumption. By William F. Buckley Jr. 6/1/01 ***************************************************************** 19 Fire extinguished at Maine Yankee CMP workers put out blaze in switch yard at the plant. --> Saturday, June 2, 2001 Associated Press WISCASSET — A small fire Friday at the decommissioned Maine Yankee nuclear plant was quickly extinguished by two Central Maine Power employees before causing major harm. The fire began around 1 p.m. when a current transformer failed at CMP's switch yard at the power plant. Maine Yankee is undergoing decommissioning, which is expected to be completed in 2004. Eric Howes, a spokesman for Maine Yankee, said the switch yard, which is part of CMP's distribution system, did not lose any power due to the fire. Howes said two CMP employees were leaving the switch yard after finishing maintenance work when they heard an explosion and saw flames. The workers grabbed fire extinguishers and returned to the site to put out the fire. The Wiscasset Fire Department was called to the scene, but Howes said the fire was essentially out by the time fire fighters arrived. Copyright© Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. ***************************************************************** 20 Trains resume in Webster Groves after derailment STLtoday - news BY KEN LEISER Of the Post-Dispatch 06/01/2001 Webster Groves Fire Capt. Marty McLaughlin finishes putting out a smoldering fire at the scene of a coal train derailment Thursday. (Robert Cohen/P-D) Union Pacific on Friday reopened one of two parallel tracks through Webster Groves where 14 cars of an East St. Louis-bound coal train derailed one day earlier. The second track was expected to open late Friday after work crews replaced more than 200 yards of torn up track and an additional 1,500 ties that were damaged by a dragging broken axle. Union Pacific traced the derailment to the broken coal car axle, which failed about 12 miles west of the accident scene, said Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis. The derailment forced Union Pacific to reroute train traffic to other railroads and caused the cancellation of two Amtrak runs from St. Louis to Kansas City. Crews worked through the day and evening Thursday to clear the spilled coal and remove the coal cars from the track near West Lockwood Avenue in Webster Groves. The accident is being investigated by the Federal Railroad Administration and the Missouri Division of Motor Carrier and Rail Safety. Thursday's derailment renewed fears among Webster Groves officials and others about the possible shipment of spent nuclear fuel through the community en route to a Nevada burial site. The U.S. Department of energy is still studying the possibility of opening a nuclear waste repository in Yucca Mountain, Nev. If the site is approved, shipments could begin by 2010. ***************************************************************** 21 Russia wants nuclear waste imports BBC News | EUROPE | 3 June, 2001, Russia's Nuclear Energy Minister, Alexander Rumyantsev, has spoken out strongly in support of a controversial law that allows imports of nuclear waste to Russia. He said the measure would promote nuclear non-proliferation at the same time as helping Russia's energy producers. The minister said that foreign partners would more readily buy Russian-made nuclear fuel if they knew that they could return their waste, and that Russia could also take care of the weapons-grade plutonium that remained in the waste in small amounts. The bill allowing imports of nuclear waste was ratified by the Russian parliament in April, ignoring protests by ecologists. Environmentalists have warned that the nuclear waste reprocessing facilities in Russia fall short of European safety norms. The scheme is expected to earn Moscow some $21 billion over 10 years. *From the newsroom of the BBC World Service* ***************************************************************** 22 Former Reagan Administration Supporter of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump Abandons Support for Controversial Project *June 1, 2001* Proposed Repository Unfit for Licensing * WASHINGTON – Recent developments indicate that a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., cannot be safely licensed and that the Department of Energy should abandon its irresponsible and wasteful efforts to recommend the site. A recent letter to the White House from a former DOE official recommends that the Yucca Mountain project be "mothballed," according to reports by the *Las Vegas Sun* and Associated Press on Wednesday. W. Kenneth Davis, who as deputy secretary of the DOE was involved in drafting a proposal for nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain during the Reagan administration, has now withdrawn his support for the repository project. He expressed concerns about the hazards of transporting high-level waste across 43 states to Nevada and about the likelihood of radiation leaking from the repository. In a separate development, a May 17 letter from an official with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) identifies several technical errors in the DOE's calculations of repository performance. The NRC would be responsible for licensing a repository if the president and Congress approved the proposal. "Although Congress has yet to vote on the proposal for a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, the NRC appears to be using all its powers to assist the DOE in developing the technical aspects of a potential license application," said Lisa Gue, policy analyst with Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy & Environment Program. In the May 17 letter, William Reamer, chief of the NRC's nuclear waste division, highlighted errors in the DOE's projections of how long waste storage canisters could maintain their integrity before releasing radioactive contaminants into the environment. He also noted mistakes in calculating radiation exposure to nearby residents. Reamer's letter specifies that DOE figures underestimate by 12 times the expected radiation dose in the event of a volcanic eruption. Although the DOE has pledged to review its calculations, these inconsistencies reveal the unacceptably high levels of uncertainty that lie behind repository safety assurances. The latest revelations of DOE technical errors add to a long history of policy, safety and scientific problems that have plagued the Yucca Mountain Project since its inception. "The nation cannot afford the inherent failings of this industry-driven approach to disgorge their financial liability onto the taxpayer by dumping their waste at Yucca Mountain," Gue said. Public Citizen ***************************************************************** 23 Gephardt Expresses Worry over Future Railroad Derailments 6/1/01 8:30 AM (KSDK) Several blocks of Lockwood Avenue in Webster Groves remain closed to traffic this morning, due to a train derailment yesterday. Last night, clean-up crews shoveled the 14 cars full of coal that spilled out when an axle broke on the train. They're also removing the mangled and broken cars and rails. Union Pacific officials started laying new rail about midnight. Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt was at the scene of the derailment and voiced the same concern as many nearby residents. "If this had been hazardous materials - acid - or worse- nuclear waste--this could have been a first class disaster. So we were lucky today and it gives me ammunition to go back to Washington and argue - once again - for a prohibition against moving nuclear waste across our states like Missouri." Congressman Gephardt took photos of today's accident. He says he'll use them in congress this summer when lawmakers debate the railroad safety bill. Currently hazardous materials - like nuclear waste - cannot be transported by rail; gephardt wants to retain that ban. Meanwhile the area may be seeing many more coal shipments as the price of oil continues to rise. An Illinois coal initiative is on its way to Governor George Ryan's desk. The state house passed the $3.5 billion incentive plan today, which would reward power plants that burn coal in Illinois. The state has a 250-year supply of coal, and new technology makes it possible to burn it cleanly. The state senate passed the plan yesterday. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Plan to Recycle Plutonium Delayed June 01, 2001 TOKYO (AP) - A nuclear power plant operator said Friday it will postpone a plan to use recycled plutonium at a reactor in northern Japan after local residents rejected the idea in a vote. The Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it will comply with local government leaders' request to delay the use of plutonium-based mixed oxide, or MOX, fuel at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant. "Our company decided to hold off on the use of MOX at this time," the company said in a statement, without specifying how long it will freeze the plan. In the first-ever referendum on Japan's aggressive nuclear power program, residents in Kariwa voted against TEPCO's plan to introduce MOX at the nuclear plant - the world's largest - by mid-June. Sunday's plebiscite in Kariwa, a village of 5,000 residents, 160 miles northwest of Tokyo, was held in the wake of a series of accidents and cover-ups that have made many Japanese uneasy about nuclear power. Japan's worst-ever nuclear accident killed two workers and exposed hundreds of others to radiation at Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, in September 1999. The vote on the referendum, which isn't legally binding, reflected concerns about the safety of MOX, which critics say is a dangerously volatile form of nuclear fuel. It is made by mixing uranium with plutonium extracted from spent fuel. Despite the postponement, TEPCO said on Friday the company will continue efforts to gain public understanding so their plan "can be resumed as soon as possible." Welcoming the decision, Kariwa Mayor Horoo Shinada told national television network NHK: "I think TEPCO made an appropriate decision that shows understanding to the residents' feelings." TEPCO had planned to start using the MOX fuel at the No. 3 reactor of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, said TEPCO spokesman Takashi Nakayama. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa's seven reactors have a combined capacity of 8.2 million kilowatts, making it the world's largest nuclear facility in terms of power generated. Japan depends on nuclear power for about 30 percent of its electricity needs, and planners see the use of recycled fuel as one solution to the long-term problem of disposing of nuclear waste. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 Hanford cleanup funding looks likely But there is still no set repository to store radioactive waste *Saturday, June 2, 2001* By LISA STIFFLER AND JENNIFER A. DLOUHY SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS Prospects for funding Hanford cleanup improved this week, but where the radioactive garbage will ultimately end up has become less certain. President Bush is asking Congress for $100 million more for the environmental management program immediately -- a move some legislators say shows that the president recognizes the need to spend more to clean up Hanford and other nuclear weapons installations. "A significant portion of this $100 million will go toward helping meet the critical shortfalls at Hanford's Richland Operations and Office of River Protection," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. This "is a positive first step by the administration to reverse the cuts proposed in the administration's budget request." Congress has already passed a budget resolution that carves out $6.9 billion for the U.S. Department of Energy's environmental management program for next fiscal year -- $1 billion more than Bush's proposal. The bulk of the president's supplemental request for this fiscal year, which ends in September, goes to defense. The $100 million for the environmental management program is divided among a number of programs, including Hanford, and would likely be carried over to the next fiscal year. But that's still less than what's needed to meet court-ordered cleanup deadlines, said Todd Webster, spokesman for Washington Sen. Patty Murray. "We're thrilled that the Bush administration is beginning to see the need" to fully fund cleanup at Hanford, he said. "But the reality of the situation is that they're still $900 million short of where they need to be." Hanford cleanup plans include turning nearly 41,000 tons of high-level waste stored in leaking underground tanks into a sort of glass and moving more than 2,300 tons of spent, corroding reactor fuel held in water-filled tanks into dry storage. The plan is to store the stabilized waste temporarily at Hanford, ultimately shipping it to a waste repository for permanent storage. Many expected the destination to be Yucca Mountain in Nevada. But Nevada residents and politicians have for years objected to making their state the dumping ground for waste that remains hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years. And now Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., the soon-to-be Senate majority leader, has pledged to fight the repository. "I think the Yucca Mountain issue is dead," Daschle said Thursday. "As long as we're in the majority, it's dead." Officials from the Department of Energy, which provides oversight for the cleanup projects, took Daschle's proclamation in stride. "This does not impede or impact our ability to continue with our mission," said Erik Olds, spokesman for the DOE's Office of River Protection, which oversees the tank farms and the glassification project. Operators of the nation's 103 commercial reactors also plan to send waste to a national repository. In fact, most of the repository is for their use, said Doug Sherwood, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Hanford project manager. Gary Miller, information specialist for Energy Northwest, owner of the region's only commercial nuclear power plant, said they are prepared to handle their waste until 2024. Currently 17 years' worth of spent fuel is being stored in pools at the reactor on the Columbia River. This and additional waste will be transferred to casks with a 20-year life span, which Miller said they are trying to extend. "Realistically, there are many hazardous materials associated with commercial reactors and DOE operations and, at some point in time, this country has to reach agreement on disposal of all those materials," Sherwood said. "They're not going away. To this point, there has been little consensus on how to define what is an acceptable solution to the nuclear and mixed waste problems of this country." *P-I reporter Lisa Stiffler can be reached at 206-448-8042 or lisastiffler@seattlepi.com The Associated Press also contributed [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 ***************************************************************** 3 White House wants to add $180 million to cleanup budget This story was published 6/2/2001 By Les Blumenthal and John Stang Herald staff writers WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration wants to add $180 million to its nationwide nuclear cleanup budget of $6.267 billion for fiscal 2001. But DOE's Washington, D.C., headquarters has not calculated how much of that extra money would go to Hanford -- and for what. Partway through each year's annual federal budget negotiations in Congress, the president's administration submits a "supplemental request" for extra money for items not covered in the original budget request. The administration's overall supplemental request of about $6.5 billion -- mostly for the Department of Defense -- is expected to go to Congress any day now. DOE staff and U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings' staff said the supplemental request includes $180 million for DOE's nuclear cleanup programs, of which $100 million is in a pool of cash that Hanford is eligible to receive. However, several other DOE sites besides Hanford are also eligible for the $100 million pool, staff members said. The $80 million is for nondefense cleanup programs, which Hanford doesn't qualify for. The supplemental request document says that yet-to-be-determined amounts of the $100 million should go to Hanford's K Basins and radioactive waste glassification projects, said Hastings aide Todd Young. If the $180 million supplemental request survives passage through Congress, that would bump DOE's nationwide nuclear cleanup budget for the current year to $6.447 billion. Hanford's 2001 share would then be $1.456 billion, plus whatever it gets out of the extra $100 million. Hanford traditionally receives 20 percent to 25 percent of DOE's nationwide cleanup budget. Right now, Congress is looking at the Bush administration's trimmed-down nationwide nuclear cleanup budget request of $5.913 billion for fiscal 2002, which begins Oct. 1. Hanford's share is to be $1.4 billion, which is $470 million to $527 million short of meeting DOE's legal obligations in 2002, depending on which budget scenario is used. The U.S. House and Senate have adopted nonbinding resolutions to allocate about $6.65 billion at the start of their 2002 cleanup budget negotiations with DOE, which wants $5.913 billion. Young said any additional money Hanford receives in 2001 can be used to reduce the massive budget shortfall Hanford faces in 2002. Back to top stories Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 4 $1B hike sought in cleanup funding Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:04 p.m. on Friday, June 1, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff The Energy Communities Alliance is offering to work with a group of senators who are trying to add $1 billion to the Department of Energy's proposed fiscal year 2002 environmental management budget. The alliance is an organization of governments across the United States, including the city of Oak Ridge and Anderson County, that are adjacent to or impacted by Department of Energy activities. Oak Ridge Mayor Jerry Kuhaida serves as chairman of the organization. In a letter to the Senate nuclear cleanup caucus, the alliance states, "We cannot stress enough the importance of adequate and sustained cleanup funding. While our individual communities each support site-specific agendas, we also understand that a loss of [environmental management] funding for one site will have a direct impact across the entire complex." The caucus consists of senators who lobby for cleanup funds. U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., recently became the 15th member of the bipartisan group. In return, the caucus has issued a statement indicating that it is leading an effort to pressure the Senate Appropriations Committee to increase cleanup funding. "Both the House and Senate have acted through the budget resolution to indicate that the administration's request of $5.9 billion for the environmental management budget is inadequate to meet legal and moral obligations at sites around the country," according to Mike Crapo, an Idaho senator and co-chairman of the caucus. The caucus is seeking an additional $1 billion in funding. The Energy Communities Alliance has also notified the Senate Appropriations Committee of its willingness to help work on increasing the cleanup budget. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 5 $3.4M SNS electrical contract awarded Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 10:34 a.m. on Friday, June 1, 2001 from staff reports A $3.4 million contract has been awarded to design, fabricate and supply electrical unit substations and transformers to the Spallation Neutron Source. The contract was awarded to Roden Electrical Supply Co. of Knoxville. Knight/Jacobs Joint Venture is the construction manager. The contact runs through June 2003 and is dependent upon the release of delivery orders from the construction manager. Scheduled for completion in 2006, the $1.4 billion SNS will be used for scientific research and development of a variety of industrial materials. Neutron scattering research has been responsible for improvements in jets, credit cards, pocket calculators, compact discs, computer disks, shatterproof windshields, satellite information for weather forecasts and stronger, lighter plastics. Neutrons have also been used in medical research for such studies as determining how bones mineralize during development and how they decay during osteoporosis. SNS is being built atop Chestnut Ridge. The design and construction of the project is a collaboration among six Department of Energy laboratories: Argonne, Brookhaven, Jefferson, Lawrence Berkeley, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managing the partnership and will be responsible for operating the facility when it's completed. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 6 Bush to ask for $100 million more for nuclear cleanup KnoxNews.com - News - Latest Washington News *By LES BLUMNETHAL* *Scripps-McClatchy Western Service* *June 01, 2001* WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will ask Congress for $100 million in additional funding to clean up the Hanford reservation and other Department of Energy nuclear sites, Rep. Richard "Doc" Hastings said Friday. The request will be included in a $6.5 billion supplemental budget request the White House is expected to send to Capitol Hill as early as next week. The bulk of the money will go to the Department of Defense. If approved, the funding would be for the current fiscal year. The administration had earlier called for a $56 million cut in Hanford cleanup funding in the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. The cut would come at a time when Hanford needs an increase of roughly $400 million in order to meet the deadlines in the Energy Department's cleanup agreement with Washington state and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The state has threatened to sue if the deadlines aren't met. Hastings, R-Wash., was unsure exactly how much of the additional $100 million the administration is now requesting would be spent at Hanford. "A significant portion of this $100 million will go towards helping meet the critical shortfalls at Hanford's Richland Operations (Office) and Office of River Protection," Hastings said in a statement. "This supplemental request is a positive first step by the administration to reverse the cuts in the administration's budget request." Hastings had been openly critical of the administration's proposed budget for Hanford and, along with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., had been lobbying the administration for additional funds. Last month, the House and the Senate approved a budget plan that includes an additional $1 billion in cleanup money for the Department of Energy for the next fiscal year. Hastings said the administration has apparently gotten the message with its supplemental spending proposal. "These additional funds are consistent with congressional action providing an increase in the environmental management program above the president's (budget) request," Hastings said. (Les Blumenthal is a Washington reporter for Scripps-McClatchy Western Copyright © 1999-2000, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights ***************************************************************** 7 LANL Chief Says DOE 'Not Happy' Friday, June 1, 2001 Albuquerque Journal--> By Jennifer McKee *Journal Staff Writer* The Department of Energy was "not happy" with the performance of Los Alamos National Laboratory last year, according to the lab's latest federal report card and a memo the lab's director sent to upper management. Los Alamos lab scored an 87 out of a possible 100 points in its latest DOE report card, though the lab also earned an "excellent" rating in DOE's written critique of its fiscal year 2000 performance. Despite the relatively good report, the lab's director feels LANL would have done worse had it not been for the Cerro Grande Fire, which tested the lab's mettle and helped offset some more-dismal areas of lab performance. The Energy Department evaluates the lab's performance in several key areas every year, said David Gurulé, the area manager of DOE's Los Alamos office. The department then assigns the lab a numerical grade and prepares a written critique of the lab including a one-word performance summary ranging from "outstanding" to "unsatisfactory," with "excellent" the second-highest possible rank. The DOE docked the lab in two areas — management, which fell by eight points over last year, and the office of Science and Nuclear Energy, which also declined by eight points, according to the memo from lab director John Browne, dated May 4, shortly after the report card came out. In his memo, Browne said it's clear DOE is "not happy with the lab's performance and would probably have given us a lower score had it not been for the Cerro Grande Fire." Browne's memo called for several changes, effective immediately, to beef up and streamline the lab's administration. "I do not consider the report acceptable," Browne's memo reads. In a prepared statement Thursday, Browne said he's "made clear to my managers that I also expect improvements in these areas." Despite Browne's concerns, the lab's overall score maintains Los Alamos' improvement trend over the last five years. In fiscal year 1995, according to information from the University of California, which manages the lab under a contract from DOE, the lab scored just under 80 points — a high C. Two years later, the lab scored in the low 80s. In fiscal 1999, the lab scored a high B. A DOE letter accompanying the report sent to the University of California said that "laboratory leadership was considered weaker before and after the (Cerro Grande) fire than in previous years. Significant problems exist with the Laboratory's work for the DOE office of Science and Defense Programs." Defense programs oversees the lab's nuclear weapons work. The DOE report also dinged the lab for security and safety problems such as some computer hard drives that turned up missing but were later found, among others. However, the report also praises the lab, principally for handling and cleaning up after the Cerro Grande Fire, which burned over parts of the lab and kept it closed for weeks. New duties A LANL manager disciplined over missing computer drives has been given new high-profile duties Page 2 Copyright 2001 Albuquerque Journal ***************************************************************** 8 O'Neill gets $162M for Mass. site - 2001-05-31 - Philadelphia Business Journal Shannon Stevens Web Editor O'Neill Properties Group sold one of its highest-profile renovation projects, Boston's Watertown Arsenal, for $162 million to Harvard University. King of Prussia-based O'Neill Properties bought the site, which had been an armament supply house for almost 200 years, for $24 million two and a half years ago from the town of Watertown and the U.S. Army. Having spent $110 million to do the renovation, O'Neill Properties grossed roughly $28 million on the sale. The 40-acre, 754,000-square-foot site, while modernized to attract strong tenants, was designed to maintain as much of its history as possible. "We took a Superfund site that was vacant, had had a low-level nuclear reactor on the site, had been under-utilized for 100 years and were able to renovate it and sell it to an institution like Harvard," said Stephen Corridan, chief operating officer at O'Neill Properties. "Having sold it to Harvard guarantees that all the efforts to make it a historically accurate renovation will be maintained in perpetuity." Harvard, which will use the site to house the publishing division of the Harvard Business School as well as other tenants, was the first tenant to rent space at the site. The university first signed its 20-year lease for 110,000 square feet at the same time that O'Neill Properties bought the Arsenal. About a year later, O'Neill Properties signed the Arthur D. Little company into a 20-year lease for 360,000 square feet of space at the Arsenal. Part of that arrangement was O'Neill Properties' agreement to purchase the company's 415,000-square-foot headquarters building in Cambridge. Having paid $21 million for that site, O'Neill Properties promptly leased it up and turned around to sell it for $63 million with no renovation required. [Get Copyright Clearance] Copyright 2001 American City ***************************************************************** 9 Security adviser says U.S. must be prepared for nuclear threats - CNN.com - June 1, 2001 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice defended the Bush administration's stance on missile defense Friday, saying the United States must be prepared for new kinds of threats in a dangerous new world. Rice said that while it is important for the United States to be involved in efforts to reduce nuclear weapons worldwide, such weaponry is widely accessible to other nations, both friends and enemies. "You can never put this genie back in the bottle," Rice said. "Somebody will always know how to make them. The fact is they are a part of deterrence for a number of countries in the world." Rice discussed missile defense and nuclear weaponry in answer to questions and comments from CNN founder Ted Turner at CNN's World Report conference, an annual meeting of international journalists. She also talked about a wide range of issues in a speech and in questions from journalists. Turner -- who backs the elimination of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction -- wanted to know whether the administration has considered ridding the world of weapons of mass destruction and supporting nuclear nonproliferation, rather than pursuing a missile defense program that would cost billions. Rice said the nonproliferation effort has had "some successes, but it has had some leakage and some failure," she said. One problem, she said, is that "ballistic missile technology is proliferating around the world" and is in the hands of states that haven't signed the nonproliferation treaty. "There is no one answer," she said, stressing that the U.S. strategy against weapons of mass destruction must be comprehensive -- on the diplomacy front as well as on testing. Ballistic missiles, she said, are "a particular type of problem." They are the "perfect terror weapon" and give "very little warning." "You might be able to catch that terrorist at the border. You can't catch that ballistic missile right now," she said. Rice said Bush would like to "deploy limited defenses that can handle the small attack." And he supports such protection for every "responsible state." She said the administration is constrained in testing and evaluating missile technology by the current anti-ballistic missile treaty. "The fact of the matter is we have to be realistic. In the time frame in which we're talking, the president has to defend against the reality, not the hope," Rice said. © 2001 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. ***************************************************************** 10 MoD's tilt at windmills Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Saturday June 2, 2001 The Guardian Having removed all wind-farms from the UK to enable the military to practice low-flying techniques, I wonder how they would propose defending the UK against a lone terrorist armed with a nuclear device constructed from plutonium stolen from Sellafield (MoD tries to veto wind farm sites; Scientists say BNFL plant is terrorist risk, May 31) It would seem that the military-industrial complex is alive and well in the UK and distorting energy policy away from our interests. I wonder what the response of the environmental court suggested by Lord Woolf would be to these proposals? Stephen Brown RICS Foundation stephen@rics-foundation.org • As someone who lives only one mile from an 11 turbine wind farm in north Pembrokeshire I have to wonder how the MoD would explain the regular low-level flying exercises which we "suffer" every week, with jets and "props" flying at 200 feet and, possibly, lower. Charlie Mason Glogue, Pembrokeshire • In the early days of flying when the main flying school was on Salisbury Plain there was a proposal to knock down Stonehenge for the same reason. Are the same people still in charge? PJ Ladd Bradford on Avon, Wilts PLadd36932@aol.com • If the RAF is aware that "the turning of turbine blades can interfere with modern radar", is there not a case then for immediately reverting to the propeller-driven kites of old? This should ensure us getting below 30,000 feet come the next major military engagement. Greig Aitken Brno, Czech Republic Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 11 "Nuclear Spy" Took Military Secrets From Newspapers ALLNEWS.RU: NEWS: A Russian court has resumed the hearing of an espionage case against staff member of the USA and Canada Institute in Moscow Igor Sutyagin. The court sitting is being held behind closed doors in Kaluga, in the south of the Moscow district. Sutyagin was accused of spying for the United States and UK. The "nuclear spy" has denied all the charges again, Interfax news agency reported, quoting Sutyagin's lawyer Vladimir Vasiltsov. Sutyagin was arrested in October 1999 in Obninsk. He was officially indicted on November 5, 1999, on charges of high treason. According to investigators, Sutyagin was recruited by U.S. intelligence agents in England during a scientific conference in February 1998. The trial began on December 26, 2000. The 36-year-old academic expert on Russian-American arms control told the court he agreed to work as a consultant for British firm Alternative Futures. Russian prosecutors claim the company was a front organisation for US military intelligence and his founder Shone Kidd is an American intelligence officer. Over the next 18 months Sutyagin earned some $20,000 from the company, which also paid his travel expenses to London, Brussels, Budapest and Warsaw. The prosecutors say he collected and handed over materials on Russian nuclear submarines of new generation. But Igor Sutyagin insists he worked exclusively with open sources and all the documents he used for his consultations were not classified. Sutyagin presented a list of sources he used for his work - Russian newspapers Krasnaya zvezda, Izvestia, Kommersant, American The Washington Post and Pentagon's articles "Soviet military power" among them. There were some media reports that told the London-based company and all Sutyagin's contacts had been mysteriously vanished. The alleged risk analysis consultancy was no longer at the London address known to Sutyagin and nor it was responding to emails. Sutyagin faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Email: info@allnews.ru Copyright © 2001 Lenta.Ru [Main ***************************************************************** 12 Tennessee taking steps to protect its water wealth By DUNCAN MANSFIELD *Associated Press Writer* KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee no longer is content to sit back and watch its mighty river flow. Growing demand for water at home and across the South has changed the dynamics. "When we grew up there was abundant water everywhere in Tennessee. I considered it my birthright," said Justin Wilson, deputy governor and chief architect of Tennessee environmental policy. "Now we are having droughts in Tennessee." The possible threat of water shortages in the South has Tennessee flexing its muscles to protect its significant water wealth. That includes much of the 652-mile-long Tennessee River, the nation's fifth-largest river system. Tennessee's Inter-basin Water Transfer Act, enacted six months ago, empowers state regulators to block water diversions between watersheds, and potentially between Tennessee and its neighbors. Gov. Don Sundquist's proposal wasn't intended to start a water war mirroring the Western states' battle over use of the Colorado River. But the law did come amid fears that pockets of Tennessee were facing water shortages of their own and that burgeoning Atlanta was courting Chattanooga utilities to tap millions of gallons a day from the Tennessee River. "I don't want to portray that act as designed to keep out-of-state interests from our water," Wilson said. "But that is one of the effects, yes." Only one inter-basin transfer has been requested so far. A dozen small water utilities in southern Kentucky want to pull water from the Cumberland River some 18 miles away at Clarksville, Tenn. Tennessee officials are expected to approve the transfer because they hope the favor is returned someday, particularly among water-stressed communities on the Cumberland Plateau. More transfer requests are expected. Both the public Eastside Utility District and the private Tennessee-American Water Co., which together serve Chattanooga and some north Georgia customers, want to expand outside the Tennessee River basin. "I think they're using their head," Eastside manager Don Stafford said of Tennessee's new water controls. "I don't think we should pump 100 million gallons a day out of state and hurt Tennesseans." Tennessee-American president Bill L'Cuyer agrees te law is neded, saying Tennessee — the 14th-fastest growing state in the nation — is just beginning to examine its current and future water demand. "One thing about water supply," he said. "You can't create more." Tennessee has 61,000 miles of streams and over 538,000 acres of publicly owned lakes. Most are part of the Tennessee River system. The Tennessee River begins in the hills of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina and runs south to Chattanooga. It winds west across north Alabama, then nips northeast Mississippi as it heads north. The river re-enters Tennessee, flowing across the western portion of the state to Kentucky. There it joins the Ohio River — the link to the Mississippi River. Whether Tennessee officials can manage withdrawals from the Tennessee River outside the state through diplomacy with Alabama and Mississippi remains unknown. Tennessee officials worry about the 47 million gallons of water diverted from the Tennessee River every time the locks open at the Tombigbee Waterway in Mississippi — a water route to Mobile, Ala. They also know Birmingham is growing and the city views the Tennessee River as a potential water source. More than 4 million people get their drinking water from the Tennessee River. But that isn't the river's only function. It also is a corridor for 50 million tons of barge traffic a year, and a source of water for farm irrigation, recreation, waste treatment and electricity production. The federal Tennessee Valley Authority is charged with balancing all of these needs through an integrated system of 25 flood-control and 29 hydroelectric dams. Dodd Galbreath with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said the Sundquist administration had been considering a water transfer policy since 1995. A meeting with TVA officials in late 1998 brought home the urgency. "The one thing that probably got the administration's attention the most was the comment from TVA that their nuclear plants might have to shut down during a drought," Galbreath said. TVA has five nuclear reactors that depend on the river to cool reactor operations and drive steam turbines. Droughts the past few summers not only have reduced TVA's hydroelectric production — down nearly 40 percent last year — but interfered with nuclear generation when river water temperatures rose. Some 30 billion gallons of water flow daily down the Tennessee River. Water users withdraw about 9 billion gallons a day. While most of that water eventually comes back to the river, Janet Herrin, TVA's vice president of river operations, worries about a recent trend compounded by drought. Rainfall across the Tennessee Valley was 87 percent of normal last year, but the river system only received 61 percent of runoff. "What has happened to us as we have progressed through this dry period is that the groundwater has receded," she said. "So you get rainfall, but it never gets to the reservoir." Dr. David Feldman, a water policy researcher at the University of Tennessee, said the state of Tennessee may be realizing the value of its water resources in time. "But it is like anything else," he said. "Now that you know there are some problems looming on the horizon you can't let up, you've got to keep ahead of the game. "There are going to be challenges. And population growth and growth in demand are big ones." &Permissions © Copyright 2001 The State-Record Company ***************************************************************** 13 SKorean atomic bomb victim wins landmark case in Japan June 1, 6:42 PM TOKYO, June 1 (AFP) - A South Korean victim of the wartime atomic bombing of Hiroshima won a landmark case guaranteeing his pension in a Japanese court Friday. The verdict raised the prospect that up to 5,000 atomic bomb victims living overseas could receive money from Tokyo. The Osaka Regional Court in western Japan upheld a claim by Kwak Kui-hoon, 76, who demanded the Osaka authorities reverse their cancellation of an official allowance. Presiding judge Jun Miura ordered the Osaka government to reinstate Kwak's rights to a monthly official pension of 34,000 yen (280 dollars) as an atomic bomb victim regardless of the fact he currently resides in South Korea. "It is against the intention of the law designed for atomic bomb victims that the authorities do not apply it to the plaintiff because he lives outside Japan," the judge said in his ruling. The court ordered the Osaka government to pay 176,500 yen in redress for the cancelled allowance which was intended to cover medical expenses. Kwak was one of two million Koreans in Japan at the end of World War II after they were forcefully brought here -- a legacy of Japan's colonial occupation of the peninsula between 1910 and 1945. He was conscripted to the Japanese military in 1944 and fell victim to the Allied bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945. Kwak returned to South Korea after the war, but came back here in May 1998 and received recognition as a atomic bomb victim qualifying for an official allowance. But the Osaka government cancelled the pension after he returned to South Korea in July 1998, arguing that the payments were only intended for those living in Japan. Japanese media reports said the ruling was likely to increase pressure on the government to extend the payments to an estimated 5,000 atomic bomb victims from Hiroshima and Nagasaki living abroad, including those in China, the United States and Brazil. In March, the Japanese government's first official mission to consider assistance for bomb victims in North Korea found a total of 928 survivors there. Some 2,200 people are recognised as atomic bomb victims in South Korea, including 349 who visited Japan between 1981 and 1986 to receive specialised treatment. Since their treatment here ended, Japan has provided a total of four billion yen to the South Korean Red Cross in 1991 and 1993 in support of atomic bomb victims at home. Copyright © 2001 AFP. All rights reserved. All information ***************************************************************** 14 Bush request doesn't include money to cover IOUs for ill workers June 01, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - Victims of the nation's Cold War-era nuclear weapons programs holding government-issued IOUs would not see any compensation payments until October under a budget proposal issued by President Bush on Friday. Members of Congress from New Mexico and Utah had lobbied the administration to include $84 million in additional funding to cover shortfalls in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Jude McCartin, spokeswoman for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said the senator was disappointed the funding wasn't included in the proposal. "It means the Department of Justice is going to continue to issue IOUs and that is absolutely unacceptable," she said. The act, passed in 1990, was designed to compensate uranium miners and Downwinders - those exposed to radiation during nuclear tests. But the program, administered by the Justice Department, ran out of money last summer, meaning many people eligible for payments have been receiving IOUs from the government. Several have died from their cancers while awaiting payments. "We believe it's a very important program and what the administration has proposed is significantly increasing the program," said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan. Bush has proposed fully funding the compensation program beginning in the next fiscal year at a cost of $97 million next year and $710 million over the next decade. He also would make the funding mandatory, meaning it wouldn't be subject to annual congressional budget battles. But none of that money would become available until October. "We have to look until October and even then we've got to keep our fingers crossed," said J. Preston Truman, director of the group Downwinders. "On one hand everyone is so sorry for all the victims of the Cold War (programs) and on the other hand they don't want to pay for it." Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., had requested the $84 million emergency funding, but a spokeswoman for the senator said it wasn't expected in Bush's proposal. "It's something we intend to handle here now that its in Congress' hands," spokeswoman Sarah Echols said. "We're going to get it on the front burner as soon as possible." She said Domenici has sent a letter to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and will make a request with Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who will take charge of the committee when Democrats take over control of the Senate next week. To qualify for RECA, miners must have worked for at least four years in uranium mines between World War II and 1971 and have lung cancer or one of several other ailments linked to radiation exposure. Many of the mines were in the Four Corners area where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet, and many of the miners were Navajo Indians from the area. The act also covers "Downwinders" - those who lived in areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona where radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons tests in southern Nevada settled. Miners who qualify can receive payments of $100,000 and can get an additional $50,000 through a defense bill passed last year. Downwinders can get $50,000. Legislation sponsored by Domenici and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would allow Downwinders to get an additional $50,000 and cover medical costs. Through mid-March, the Justice Department had approved 3,637 compensation claims, most of them from former miners, and awarded more than $270 million. At that time, about 179 IOUs totaling $23 million were outstanding with just under $1 million left in the fund, according to the Justice Department. Justice Department's Radiation Exposure Compensation Program: http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/torts/const/reca/index.htm DINE Care: http://dinecare.indigenousnative.org/ -- All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 15 Uranium Miners, Downwinders Still Getting IOUs The Salt Lake Tribune -- June 2, 2001* THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- Victims of the nation's Cold War-era nuclear weapons programs holding government-issued IOUs would have to wait until October to receive any compensation payments under a budget proposal issued by President Bush on Friday. Members of Congress from New Mexico and Utah had lobbied the administration to include $84 million in additional funding to cover shortfalls in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Jude McCartin, spokeswoman for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said the senator was disappointed the funding wasn't included in the proposal. "It means the Department of Justice is going to continue to issue IOUs and that is absolutely unacceptable," she said. The act, passed in 1990, was designed to compensate uranium miners and those exposed to radiation during nuclear tests who are known as "downwinders." But the program, administered by the Justice Department, ran out of money last summer, meaning many people eligible for payments have been receiving government IOUs. © Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 16 $2 billion sought for nuclear labs, facilities Money needed for repairs, new hires (6/03/2001) * *****************************************************************