***************************************************************** 04/03/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.83 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Berkley demands oversight money for Yucca Mountain 2 Conflict of interest concerns group seeking city aid 3 USEC cuts jobs as it ceases uranium enrichment at plant 4 Eastern Connecticut's Information Source 5 Unitil Completes Sale of Nuclear Interests 6 Former Bush aide sees more nuclear power key to avoiding deeper 7 Editorial: Don't bury danger of quakes 8 Company Announces First Contracts in the Nuclear Waste Industry 9 Group Faults Power Plant's Cleanup Plans 10 Crown company should butt out of pro-nuclear campaign, Sierra Club says 11 Nuclear agency kept secret fund 12 Govt plans to increase N-power generation 13 COGEMA ALLOWED TO UNLOAD AUSTRALIAN SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL BUT 14 Nuke dump foes concerned about derailment increase 15 CHILDREN OF CHERNOBYL INVITED TO VATICAN 16 Fuel rods begin trek to storage: Rancho Seco crews take extreme 17 Rancho Seco Project Under Way 18 City report says Berkeley lab is safe but should improve methods NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 health-hazard answers 2 K-25 water investigation topic of upcoming meeting 3 Incinerator resumes operation after shutdown + 4 Sick worker program moves closer to Justice oversight 5 Fed pleads case against Benton 6 Yggdrasil Institute - Uranium Enrichment Newsletter - April 2001 7 U.S. nuclear sub visit sparks Japanese anger - 8 International Nuclear Traffic a "Global Threat" 9 Blast test site called underused 10 DOE workers assured of payment 11 Radiation claims meeting ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Berkley demands oversight money for Yucca Mountain April 03, 2001 By Benjamin Grove LAS VEGAS SUN WASHINGTON -- Nevada needs $11 million in federal money from Congress to oversee the Congress-approved plans to establish Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste dump, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., wrote in a letter to a key lawmaker on Monday. "The Nevada Congressional Delegation and the Governor of Nevada remain steadfastly opposed to the storage of nuclear waste in Nevada," Berkley wrote to Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., chairman of the House Energy and Water Development subcommittee. "We believe we have a responsibility to monitor this project with funds authorized by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act." That law designated Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, to be considered as the only potential site for a national nuclear waste repository. The site, slated for 2010 completion if it is approved and deemed a safe place to bury 77,000 tons of high-level waste, is still under consideration after years of study. Congress last year gave several Nevada counties $6 million to watch over U.S. Department of Energy studies at Yucca Mountain, but only gave the state $2.5 million, even though state officials are entitled by law to $5 million for oversight. The state operates the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency to act as a watchdog over DOE operations. Congress several years ago froze Nevada's oversight money amid allegations that the agency misused funds by spending it in an effort to fight the Yucca proposal. But Congress partially restored the money last year, when Gov. Kenny Guinn assured lawmakers that the funds were being used responsibly. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 Conflict of interest concerns group seeking city aid Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 by Amy L. Lee Oak Ridger staff The issues of conflict of interest and staff coverage by a law firm that the city of Oak Ridge is seeking to contract with were the overriding issues during a meeting held late last week. The Committee for Enhanced DOE-Related Remuneration met Friday in the Municipal Building with representatives of Baker Donelson Bearman &Caldwell and its subcontractor, Darrel Akins of Akins Public Strategies, to hammer out a contract between the city and the law firm. City Council has already approved hiring the law firm to research methods by which the city might be able to obtain increased state and/or federal funding. However, council will also have to approve the contract, which is expected to be done at the May 7 council meeting. The city is seeking more money based on the charge it is not seeing its fair share of revenue from Department of Energy land and facilities. The firm's technical approach includes researching the possibilities of direct payments of guarantees, such as payment in lieu of taxes, other direct subsidies, and sources of federal loans, grants and other indirect payments. The firm specifically plans to look for ways to move DOE-owned property into "private or at least taxable hands," said project leader Sandy Mattice of the law firm. The CEDRR Committee made no changes to a draft yearlong contract agreement, but it did express concern about who the law firm's other clients might be and what their interests are. "We don't want to be paying you $75,000 to go after millions (of dollars) when (a direct competitor) is paying you millions," said Committee Chairman Leonard Abbatiello. The point of contention revolved around the committee's desire that the firm's efforts on behalf of the city be "performed by individuals who are not ... employed by or in any other way compensated for work which involves obtaining state or federal funds for or on behalf of any DOE prime contractor or ... any state or local government other than Oak Ridge." Mattice argued, "If you mean that as it is drafted, there may not be anybody in this world who can do this work for you. I think I understand what the committee wants here, but the breadth of (the provision) puts us in an almost impossible situation. We have the ethical duty to make a determination of conflict of interest, and we have done that internally -- we have satisfied ourselves. "Read it again, folks. It's impossible. If you don't believe we're going to be your advocate, you really shouldn't hire us. If you don't trust your lawyers, you need to have other lawyers," Mattice said. Committee member David Bradshaw, describing the committee's request as "onerous," went on to say, "I don't think we do this to every contractor we have multi-million-dollar contracts with. We need to be mindful of the goal we're trying to achieve and not micro-manage this relationship." The firm reserves the right to assign lawyers from any of its offices in Tennessee, Washington, D.C., or Jackson, Miss., to represent clients with opposing interests, provided "certain criteria are met." The firm's Terms of Engagement state that the firm agrees to not accept another client "to pursue interests that are directly adverse to (another client's) interests unless and until we have made full disclosure to (the existing client) of all the relevant facts, circumstances and implications of our undertaking the two representations, and you have consented to our representation of the other client." The client also agrees to be "reasonable" in considering those facts. The committee's second concern centered around naming Steve Roth as a co-principal investigator of the team with Mattice. Roth was considered "in case Sandy is tied up in another case," said Bob Worthington, a partner with the law firm. "We're not going to take a chance that something might shorten Sandy's (continuation with the firm.) The firm suggested Roth begin work on the case with Mattice because both U.S. Sens. Fred Thompson and Bill Frist of Tennessee have recommended Mattice for appointment as a U.S. attorney. Mattice maintains the process is long and requires that a formal nomination be made, extensive background checks performed and confirmation hearings held before he would officially have to leave the practice, thus having to forego working on the city's case. And with the law firm's partner former Sen. Howard Baker's recent appointment as ambassador to Japan, the committee is seeking assurance the city's case would be handled competently. Abbatiello said, "It would be one thing for (Mattice) to leave at the start of the project and another for him to leave four months into it." Roth, a member of the law firm's board of directors and shareholder and managing partner in the firm's Knoxville office, is experienced in matters concerning local government, including representing Knox County in litigation against the state concerning the constitutionality of the Growth Plan Act. Committee member Pat Rush charged that Roth's "experience is exceedingly limited." Inquiring as to what Worthington's role in the case would be, Rush said, "I really feel like your role is not defined." Worthington said, "I intend to coach on the sideline to Sandy's quarterback. We're putting together a team ... and I'm responsible for managing that team. I promise you when the information is put together ... I'll be right in the middle analyzing." A separate contract with the firm to devise a more immediate action plan will be discussed in the upcoming days. The second effort focuses more on taking advantage of lobbying possibilities while Congress is in session. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 3 USEC cuts jobs as it ceases uranium enrichment at plant [Reuters] Monday April 2, 5:49 pm Eastern Time PIKETON, Ohio, April 2 (Reuters) - Enriched uranium maker USEC Corp.(NYSE: - news) said on Monday that it wiGi???s at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, beginning June 1, as it ceases enrichment operations there. About 230 salaried employees and 296 employees who are represented by the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union will be affected, the company said. Employees represented by the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America International Union will not be affected. The reduction is based on current government plans for maintaining the Portsmouth, Ohio facility in a cold standby condition. USEC said it is awaiting U.S. Department of Energy authorization to proceed with cold standby operations. USEC said in February that it planned to reduce costs by 20 percent and cut 40 to 50 jobs at its headquarters, which will save the company $10 million by 2002. The Bethesda, Md-based company said it expected to cut costs by minimizing the use of consultants, cutting jobs and consolidating office space. USEC, which was run by the U.S. government until its initial public offering in 1998, previously announced that it will cease enrichment operations at the Portsmouth plant and that it would consolidate operations at its Paducah, Ken., plant. ***************************************************************** 4 Eastern Connecticut's Information Source The Day Online: www.TheDay.com: Eastern Connecticut's News Source Go Back Millstone 3 gears up for a comeback *New plant owner is moving toward 100 percent power* By Paul Choiniere - More Articles Published on 4/3/2001 Waterford — The Millstone 3 nuclear plant moved toward a return to 100 percent power operations Monday as the station began its first week under a new owner, Dominion of Virginia, which faces some immediate challenges as it takes control. Dominion finalized its $1.3 billion purchase of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station from Northeast Utilities on Saturday, completing a process that began last August when the utility was named the high bidder in the Millstone auction. NU was forced to sell off its power plants under the 1998 state law that introduced competition to the electric generation industry. Headquartered in Richmond, Dominion is the nation's largest energy producer with extensive gas and electric holdings in the Northeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. It operates four reactors in Virginia. Dominion saw the purchase of Millstone station with its two operating reactors as the opportunity to become a major electric producer in the energy-hungry Northeast. Missing fuel rods must be dealt with With the takeover Dominion assumes regulatory responsibility for trying to locate two missing fuel rods at the Millstone 1 nuclear plant, which last operated in 1995 and is now permanently closed. Engineers doing an inventory of the plant nuclear waste storage pool could not account for the two rods back in November. Dominion will also be looking to improve in the future on the recent refueling outage at Millstone 3 that lasted 56 days, 21 days longer than scheduled. The need for unscheduled repairs to the plant's turbine was blamed for the delayed restart. Operators began powering up the reactor over the weekend. Dominion has completed refueling outages at its Virginia plants in as little as 23 days, among the industry's best outage performances. Swift and incident-free refuelings are recognized as a key component to limiting expenses and maximizing profits in the nuclear industry. Worker exposure to radiation during the Millstone 3 outage also fell short of the goal. While well within regulatory limits and below industry standards, the amount of worker exposure was still some 38 percent higher than the pre-outage goal. “We are studying the outage exposure and reviewing options to improve our performance in the next outage,” said Pete Hyde, a Millstone spokesman. “We will continue to operate the plant with our priorities being safety and reliability.” Operators also have detected what appears to be a leaking fuel rod in the Millstone 2 reactor. The leak was detected during routine monitoring of the reactor coolant system. The radiation leak is extremely small and confined within the plant's cooling system and should not have any adverse impact on safety or reliability, Hyde said. Antone Cerne, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector at Millstone, agreed that the fuel leak is not a significant issue at this time and that monitoring is the proper course of action. Perhaps the most painstaking challenge the new owner faces is locating the two missing fuel rods at Millstone 1. Twelve-feet long and roughly the thickness of a man's thumb, they were last referred to in a May 1979 report. Slightly damaged, they were removed in 1972 from an assembly of fuel rods and placed in the storage pool. After the November inventory showed they were missing, plant personnel unsuccessfully conducted a search of obvious storage locations in the pool. A more detailed search is now underway, Hyde said. Spent fuel assemblies – which are fuel rods bundled together – are being pulled from their storage racks while crews, using remote cameras, inspect for the missing rods. At the same time a detailed review of thousands of reports and records continues as the company looks for clues to what may have happened to the fuel. The search could continue into the summer. While Dominion now has control over the search, NU retains financial responsibility for the cost and for the expense of retrieving the fuel rods, Hyde said. Plant officials have said it is possible that the fuel rods were shipped out to a low-level waste dump, an action that would violate federal regulations. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not determined whether the fuel rods would have to be retrieved, an enormously expensive undertaking. It is also possible they will never be located. There are low-level waste storage facilities in South Carolina and Washington. Millstone has shipped to both. www.TheDay.com: Eastern Connecticut's News Source ***************************************************************** 5 Unitil Completes Sale of Nuclear Interests [Business Wire] Monday April 2, 4:07 pm Eastern Time Press Release HAMPTON, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2001--Unitil Corporation (AMEX: UTL- news; www.unitil.com) completed the divestiture of its remaining interest in Millstone Unit 3 with the closing last Saturday on the sale of the Millstone Nuclear Generating Station to Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc. Effective with this closing Unitil's utility affiliate Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Company completes the divestiture of its 2.5MW interest in Millstone 3 and eliminates all potential future liabilities including environmental and decommissioning liabilities. ``We are pleased that we have finally eliminated nuclear power related ownership risks for the company and for our Massachusetts customers,'' said Robert G. Schoenberger, Unitil's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. ``This closes the book on our involvement in nuclear power generation, while providing direct and significant benefits to our customers, both immediately and in the long term.'' Unitil Corporation is a public utility holding company with subsidiaries providing electric service in New Hampshire, electric and gas service in Massachusetts and energy service throughout the Northeast. Its subsidiaries are Concord Electric Company, Exeter & Hampton Electric Company, Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Company, Unitil Power Corp., Unitil Realty Corp., Unitil Resources, Inc. and Unitil Service Corp. Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc. is a subsidiary of Dominion (NYSE: D- news). Headquartered in Richmond, Va., Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's web site at www.dom.com. Mark Collin 603-773-6612 collin@unitil.com ***************************************************************** 6 Former Bush aide sees more nuclear power key to avoiding deeper energy crisis Economics Last update 06:00:52 GMT WASHINGTON (AFX) - The U.S. needs to increase all its forms of energy supplies, including more nuclear power, and clean coal technology, to avert a more serious, long-term energy crisis, said Matthew Simmons, president of Simmons and Co International. Simmons, a member of President George W Bush's presidential transition committee, said at a Senate Energy Committee hearing the U.S. faces a very real risk of power blackouts this summer. "To make matters worse, our gasoline stocks are lower than the low levels of a year ago," which could spark summer gasoline shortages and price spikes at the same time as blackouts, he said. "I do not need to remind any of this committee that the U.S. economy has never grown when energy consumption has declined," he said. "As the energy crisis unfolds, it could become the most critical threat to our economy since World War II," Simmons warned. Simmons said that the only effective way to solve these problems "involves increasing our energy supplies in all forms of energy, including an ultimate return to more nuclear power in the U.S. and major increases in coal use, hopefully accompanied by startling break-throughs in clean coal technology." He stressed that access to new oil and natural gas resources is critically important, and while it is politically popular "to attack the need to open up a few thousand acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)," the potential of the reserve "is too important to our economic future to abandon." Simmons also noted that increased gas supplies from ANWR could help make one or even two pipelines economically feasible, and bring additional supplies to the so-called lower 48 states. He urged the Bush administration to forge ahead with an oil and gas lease sale in the eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico. This highly gas-prone area is over 100 miles west of Florida at its closest point, but neighbors the most efficient infrastructure to bring gas to market, he noted. Simmons added that the administration should assess potential recoverable reserves deposited on the Outer Continental Shelf of the U.S., including areas off-shore of California. jjc/cxa/mkp Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 Editorial: Don't bury danger of quakes April 03, 2001 Most people think of California when earthquakes are mentioned. The Golden State has suffered from devastating temblors in the past two decades, but other parts of the nation are exposed to these risks as well. Although in recent times Nevada has not seen earthquakes of the magnitude that have rocked California, seismologists note that this state is the third most prone to earthquakes, posing some significant dangers. Despite Nevada's high ranking it doesn't appear that local building codes are up to snuff. Scientists and engineers attending the 36th Engineering Geology &Geotechnical Engineering Symposium, which was held at UNLV over the weekend, noted that the Las Vegas area itself needs to do more. For instance, local building codes allow homes and other structures to be built within 5 feet of a fault line. This is better than what it was before -- homes actually were allowed to be built just 1 foot away from fault lines until 1996. For that matter, the change didn't come about until a lawsuit was filed against a developer, charging that homes were allowed to be built on a major earthquake fault. But the 5-foot-threshold in Clark County still is a far cry from the tougher standards developed in California, where building codes require homes to be built at least 50 fe et away from fault lines. Local governments should reassess the existing standard to see how much it should be strengthened! . It's not just the structures that house homes and businesses that are at risk, though. As Sun reporter Mary Manning noted in a March 15 story, our roadways can be in jeopardy as well. That's why the Nevada Department of Transportation is undertaking a $450,000 study to see whether a 32-year-old section of U.S 95 could be knocked down during an earthquake. That section of highway being looked at is a concrete bridge that is located between Las Vegas Boulevard and the eastern side of the Spaghetti Bowl, where U.S. 95 and Interstate 15 converge. That section was built before stricter earthquake standards were created during the 1980s. If Las Vegas had a major earthquake that damaged the structure, the replacement costs could rival the $300 million spent to replace similar spans that were damaged during the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. Some geology consultants also are questioning whether the federal government has realistically assessed what impact a big earthquake could have here -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency projects that there would be just $28 million in damage. But geology consultants John Perry and Jim O'Donnell, using a computer model, estimate that an earthquake larger than a 6.0 magnitude could result in up to 386 deaths and more than 3,300 people hospitalized in Las Vegas. There also could be $11 billion in total losses to the local economy, according to Perry and O'Donnell, who both live in Boulder City. When discussion turns to the danger posed by earthquakes in Nevada, it often focuses on the threats presented by the possible storage of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, which is just 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, virtually in our back yards. But it is clear that the danger is even more pervasive, and literally could be in our back yards, depending on how close our homes have been built near fault lines. It took deadly fires at hotel-casinos in Las Vegas before this state implemented strict fire codes. With earthquakes we know in advance -- based on what California has experienced -- how deadly they can be. Instead of responding after a disaster has hit, county and city leaders should come together and offer a comprehensive plan that would revamp existing building codes so that they offer better protection for the public if the unthinkable ever happens. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 8 Company Announces First Contracts in the Nuclear Waste Industry EarthVision Environmental News* * FAIRFAX, VA, April 2, 2001 - The international technology holding and marketing company Eurotech Ltd. announced it has secured the first two contracts for its EKOR Radiation-Resistant Material, which is a highly radiation resistant silicon-geopolymer material for encapsulation of radioactive wastes. Eurotech notes the customer's objective in the first contract is to evaluate the performance of EKOR Matrix, which, when mixed with low-level radioactive waste creates a waste form suitable for disposal. The second contract is for EKOR Sealer, where the customer's objective is to evaluate EKOR's performance in preventing the migration of radioactive contaminants on equipment used in the production of radioactive materials. "While the initial EKOR sales will demonstrate proof of principle and have modest dollar values, these early sales are important milestones, as they represent necessary steps to full deployment of EKOR at Department of Energy sites," said Don Hahnfeldt, Eurotech's CEO and President. "More importantly, our recent activity over the last month, including the variety of EKOR product presentations made to key waste management contractors, represents the groundwork for future growth and sales. Examples include field presentations of EKOR Matrix and EKOR Sealer at multiple sites. EKOR is following required industry protocol to prove the product and application effectiveness." In related news, Eurotech announced that its EKOR product has been used to "cocoon" a fuel containing mass inside Chernobyl's failed reactor No. 4 for more than nine months, with no loss in effectiveness according to the Chernobyl Shelter Agency. In addition, the Shelter team that applied and tested EKOR under an agreement with Eurotech has identified other uses for EKOR. "Now that we have confirmed the ability of EKOR to provide an effective isolation barrier and to maintain its integrity under severe radiation exposure, we are planning further application development projects," said Artur Korneev, the Deputy Director of the Shelter Object. "These projects include important tasks such as dust suppression and repairing corroded concrete surfaces such as walkways. Each of these projects is designed to demonstrate EKOR's use in actual conditions and represent important preparation for the future large scale applications inside the sarcophagus." The EKOR family of products addresses a broad spectrum of applications where its multiple forms can be used as sealers, coatings, and waste encapsulation matrices, or foamed into cavities to control airborne contamination. Eurotech Ltd. works with scientists and research institutes in Russia, Israel and other countries to develop and commercialize innovative technologies that have widespread or critical application. For more information, visit http://www.eurotechltd.com. ***************************************************************** 9 Group Faults Power Plant's Cleanup Plans Local - Hartford Courant - updated 7:11 AM ET Apr 9 Monday April 02 07:11 AM EDT Group Faults Power Plant's Cleanup Plans *By GARY LIBOW, The Hartford Courant* HADDAM - The Citizens Awareness Network has charged to the federal government that Connecticut Yankee's plans to clean up its decommissioned nuclear plant are inadequate and flawed. In a 72-page filing to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency scrutinizing Connecticut Yankee's license termination plan, CAN charged the company's lax plan leaves the community's long-term health and safety in the balance. CAN is scheduled to appear at a prehearing April 24 in Cromwell, at which it will argue for a formal hearing before the NRC. Connecticut Yankee plans to formally submit its response to CAN's charges on Monday, spokeswoman Kelly Smith said. CAN contends that license termination plan information submitted by Connecticut Yankee provides neither documentation and analysis of the "extensive contamination,'' nor the methodology to ensure the Haddam Neck site will be cleaned up properly so people will not be harmed once it is released for unrestricted use. ***************************************************************** 10 Crown company should butt out of pro-nuclear campaign, Sierra Club says Calgary Herald News *STEPHEN THORNE OTTAWA (CP) - Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., a federal Crown corporation, should not be spending tax dollars on a campaign aimed at convincing Canadians of the benefits of nuclear power, the Sierra Club said Monday. A spokesman for Atomic Energy dismissed the criticism, saying no federal tax money has been spent on the public relations campaign by the Canadian Nuclear Association. "The grants and contributions from federal coffers just keep on coming to keep alive an industry that Canadians clearly don't want," Elizabeth May, Sierra Club's executive director, told a news conference. The nuclear association, of which AECL and three public utilities are members, recently released a survey suggesting 50 per cent of Canadians support nuclear power while 40 per cent oppose it. The 65-member group plans a campaign to inform Canadians how nuclear power benefits medicine, the economy and the environment, said association president Bill Clarke. "The nuclear industry wants to dupe Canadians into believing that nuclear power is clean, or emissions-free," said Dave Martin of the Sierra Club. "That's simply not true. "Nuclear power is dirty and it's dangerous, and no amount of advertising by the industry is going to change that." Martin said a Crown corporation should not be contributing public money to a private industry lobby group for an advertising campaign. Atomic Energy spokesman Larry Shewchuk acknowledged the company contributes to the nuclear association, but said that doesn't involve taxpayers' money. "We can put money toward the CNA for an advertising campaign but we can take that money from our private-sector revenues," he said. The company earns more than $5 from the private sector for every $1 it receives in public funds, Shewchuk said. Commercial revenues peaked last year at $550 million compared with $100 million from Ottawa. All public money goes to research and development of isotopes for medical use at the firm's Chalk River, Ont., facility, he said. The firm's CANDU reactor program also doesn't get one penny of public funds, he added. Clarke said some environmentalists have painted themselves into a corner. "On the one hand, they are strongly opposed to measures that add to climate change issues," he said. "On the other hand, they are vehemently opposed to the production of electricity from hydro or nuclear or fossil fuel production. They can't have it both ways, otherwise we're going have to turn out the lights." Clarke also said what AECL is doing is no different than practices at other federal departments and Crown agencies like Canada Post and the Export Development Corp. "They have advertising programs aimed at informing the public about their services and their products," he said. But Martin questioned why participating in the advertising campaign is necessary, given that AECL has not sold a reactor in Canada since 1974 and nuclear power has a corner on the market in Ontario. He speculated the private industry has the most to gain from such a campaign. "It's not clear to me that a government agency should be bankrolling their private commercial interests." © The Canadian Press, 2001 ***************************************************************** 11 Nuclear agency kept secret fund asahi.com news The Asahi Shimbun April 3, 2001 A Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute official calls the 25.4-billion slush fund a necessary evil. The government-funded Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) amassed a slush fund of at least 25.4 billion yen over the past five years, The Asahi Shimbun has learned. The fund has been in existence for at least 20 years, sources said. The slush fund was used to pay salaries of extra employees hired for large projects in which central government funds were insufficient. Isamu Sasaya, a JNC director, said the fund was a necessary evil. ``We felt it was our prerogative under the government-approved budget,'' Sasaya said. ``But it was not entirely acceptable behavior under a strict interpretation of the budget.'' He added, ``We will review the special expense fund with an eye to eliminating it altogether.'' According to sources, JNC officials systematically siphoned about 5 percent from each expense category of the budget for JNC's operating division to create the fund. The assembled slush fund, known as the ``internal adjustment expenses,'' was under the control of the accounting department. Fund figures were approximately 5.15 billion yen in fiscal 1996, about 6.17 billion yen in fiscal 1997, about 6.13 billion yen in fiscal 1998, about 4.1 billion yen in fiscal 1999 and about 3.9 billion yen in fiscal 2000. JNC kept an extra accounting book to handle the fund's finances. Other books were kept to be presented to government inspectors. The second secret book contained the actual amounts placed into the internal adjustment expense fund. The money amassed in fiscal 1999 was used for travel and clerical expenses (about 3.06 billion yen), personnel expenses (850 million yen) and assistance to local governments cooperating with JNC projects (186 million yen), according to sources. The central government paid the JNC about 23 billion yen to its administrative division to pay the salaries of 2,676 employees. It could only afford to pay the salaries of 2,537 workers with the money. The salaries of the remaining workers were paid with from the secret fund. Money taken from the operating division may have also been used inappropriately for the administrative division, in violation of a regulation against moving funds. In fiscal 2000, the operating division budget came to 125.7 billion yen. The administrative division budget was about 39.9 billion yen. The JNC, which receives its entire budget from the government, resorted to hidden funds to pay the salaries of the extra workers needed for projects, because the central government had limited its outlays for these purposes. ``Under the strict circumstances of a limited staff and budget, we created the fund to cover administrative expenses,'' Sasaya said. Toru Nakahara, head of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology section that oversees the JNC, said the ministry would look into the matter of the secret fund. The JNC was created from a restructuring of the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. (Donen) in October 1998, following several accidents, including a December 1995 sodium leak at the Monju fast-breeder nuclear reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. In March 1997 a fire and explosion rocked Donen's nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture. ***************************************************************** 12 Govt plans to increase N-power generation 3 April 2001 : The Times of India News Service NEW DELHI: The government plans to increase the generation of nuclear power in the country from a meagre 2720 MW at present to 20,000 MW in the next 20 years. The target of 20,000 MW nuclear power capacity has been set by the Vision 2020 document of the department of atomic energy (DAE). At present, the power generation in India is predominantly coal-based, with the share of thermal power in the total generation being slightly more than 80 per cent. The share of nuclear energy is not even three per cent in India. In contrast to this, in France, the share of nuclear power in the total electricity generation is as high as 76 per cent. It is between 20 per cent to 30 per cent in Japan, Germany, UK and the US. DAE officials say the cost of generation from nuclear power plants in India is ``competitive'' when compared to contemporary coal thermal power plants. The proposals for nuclear power development in the Ninth Plan include commencement of 2x500 MW plant at Tarapur and additional 2x220 MW at Kaiga. ``Preparation of a detailed project report is also underway for the commissioning of the 2x1000 MW nuclear power station at Kandankulam in Tamil Nadu with Russian assistance and the commencement of work on the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor of the 1x500 MW towards the end of the Ninth Plan,'' said an official. Moreover, depending on financial resources, two more projects at Kaiga (2x220 MW) and Rawatbhata (2x500 MW) are planned during the 10th Plan. Officials say the ``capacity factors'' of existing nuclear power stations in commercial operation have seen progressive improvement based on efforts at several levels. One, strengthening of monitoring and preventive maintenance. Two, improving ``outage'' management. Three, intensive training for maintenance and operating staff. And four, effective coordination with regional electricity boards to improve frequency control for the grid. ***************************************************************** 13 COGEMA ALLOWED TO UNLOAD AUSTRALIAN SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL BUT GREENPEACE TO LAUNCH NEW LEGAL CHALLENGE 3 April 2001 Paris - Greenpeace will launch a new legal challenge to the state-owned nuclear company Cogema's plans to reprocess Australian spent nuclear fuel after an injunction preventing the unloading of the fuel was overturned by a Court of Appeal today. The Court of Appeal (Cour d'Appel) in Caen, Normandy, in northern France, today overturned an injunction granted to Greenpeace by a lower court (Tribunal de Grande Instance) in Cherbourg on March 15. The injunction prevented the unloading of the spent nuclear fuel, currently on board the ship Bouguenais in Cherbourg harbour. Greenpeace had successfully argued, in the lower court, that Cogema did not have specific authorisation to reprocess the Australian spent nuclear fuel. However, despite lifting the injunction, today's court judgement opened the way for another legal challenge by Greenpeace of the legality of Cogema reprocessing the Australian spent nuclear fuel. A legal complaint will be filed by Greenpeace today at the Cherbourg court (Tribunal de Grande Instance). This case will hinge on the definition of "nuclear waste" which, under a 1991 French law, cannot be imported into France. It will also raise the lack of a specific authorisation for Cogema to reprocess the Australian fuel and a timetable for such reprocessing. The 360 fuel assemblies, (about 750kg) of spent nuclear fuel, came from the research reactor at Lucas Heights in southern Sydney which is operated by the Australian Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). The spent nuclear fuel, under the guard of French police, has been sitting on board the Bouguenais in Cherbourg harbour since the court injunction was granted on March 15. However it can now be unloaded and taken to the nearby Cogema nuclear complex at La Hague. "While we are disappointed that the court did not allow the injunction it has provided us with the opportunity to continue our legal challenge of Cogema to stop this spent nuclear fuel being reprocessed in France," said Greenpeace spokesperson Jean-Luc Thierry. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: - Jean-Luc Thierry (France) +33 1 44640214 (m) +33 673895502 - Jon Walter (Amsterdam) +31 20 523 6608 (m) +31 653504731 or - Stephen Campbell (Australia) +61 9263 0351; +61 (0) 418 681 275 Visit www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/transport/mox00 ***************************************************************** 14 Nuke dump foes concerned about derailment increase April 02, 2001 RENO, Nev. (AP) - Opponents of a federal proposal to locate a nuclear waste dump in Nevada are voicing concern over new statistics that show an 18 percent increase in train derailments nationwide since 1997. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other foes said the statistics underline the dangers of transporting nuclear waste to the proposed Yucca Mountain site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "This really highlights what Nevadans have been saying all along," Reid said. "Transporting nuclear waste to Nevada is a dangerous business." Top Nevada elected officials have long opposed the plan to make Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear waste dump. The waste now is stored at nuclear power plants across the nation. Derailments climbed from 1,741 in 1997 to 2,059 last year, the Federal Railroad Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation reported last week. But Union Pacific Railroad spokesman John Bromley said the report is misleading because most accidents occurred in rail yards and on railroad spur lines where the average speed is about 5 mph. "Most of the accidents cited were the equivalent of fender-benders," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "The general trend in railroad safety shows a tremendous improvement." If approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush, the plan would involve the shipment of from 10,800 to 19,800 waste casks to Yucca Mountain on thousands of special trains over a 20-year period. "Common sense tells us that it won't be easy to maintain safety," said Kaitlin Bachlynd, executive director of the Reno-based Citizen Alert environmental group. "If the waste is shipped by rail, there will be a number of train accidents, no question about it." Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn has asked legislators for $5 million this year to launch an anti-dump advertising campaign in states along affected rail routes. The money also would be used for legal actions to block the shipments. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she's trying to pressure all House members whose districts are crossed by the rail routes to oppose the Yucca Mountain site. "The statistics will demonstrate that the more trains you have, the more accidents will occur," she said. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 15 CHILDREN OF CHERNOBYL INVITED TO VATICAN EWTN News Story *31-Mar-2001 -- News Agency VATICAN CITY, (Zenit.org).- John Paul II will observe the 15th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident in the company of children who are still suffering from the consequences of the nuclear disaster. The tragedy happened at 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986. Reactor No. 4 in the Chernobyl nuclear center caught fire and exploded, spewing a toxic cloud that had devastating effects for residents in the area and for the environment. This April 26, John Paul II will remember those tragic moments, by receiving members of Italian families and institutions, caring for the children of Chernobyl. Although the nuclear plant was finally closed last Dec. 15, Chernobyl continues to claim thousands of victims, in an "invisible death," the Ukrainian Embassy to the Vatican explained in a press statement. The embassy estimated that 3.5 million people are affected by the radioactivity. One million of them are children who, as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, have weak immune defenses. Another 600,000 people, who were directly involved in eliminating the dangers of the explosion, today need special medical and social assistance. The embassy said radioactivity affected 2,293 municipalities in Ukraine, including 76 in a zone that was completely evacuated in the first days following the accident. Respiratory problems, blood and intestinal ailments, and cancers are the most widespread sicknesses. Cases of thyroid tumors were tenfold in the period following the radioactive explosion, especially among children. Since the 1986 accident, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children have been taken in by Italian families, religious community centers and charities. The Pope wished to invite to the Vatican the ones now in Italy. ***************************************************************** 16 Fuel rods begin trek to storage: Rancho Seco crews take extreme caution in radioactive move sacbee Local News: By Carrie Peyton Bee Staff Writer *(Published April 3, 2001)* Nuclear plant crews Monday began one of the touchiest maneuvers in the decline and fall of the shuttered Rancho Seco power plant: removing used fuel from the pool where it has cooled for more than a decade. The highly radioactive fuel rods will be loaded into a giant steel can that is filled with helium before being welded shut and packed into a concrete vault. The idea is to store the rods relatively inexpensively and safely for decades, until the federal government can haul them to a still-unbuilt permanent nuclear-waste site. For the next nine months, Sacramento Municipal Utility District workers will perform the same exacting minuet, over and over, until 21 cans have been packed and sealed. The $60 million storage project, repeatedly delayed by manufacturing and permit problems, began in earnest Monday morning, after months of drills and rehearsals. "We're very pleased" to have come this far, said Steve Redeker, plant-decommissioning manager. The operation involves two enormous cranes, more than three-dozen workers and a specially built truck for the one-third mile trip to the dry storage site. After briefings and equipment reviews, Monday was devoted to tests and double-checks: Do waterproof seals fit as specified? Does a mock-up fuel assembly mate properly with the canister? Does everything tested dry perform as well under water? "We're taking things very slow and careful. We're not marching to a time clock," Redeker said. The crew that assembled at 7 a.m., somber and focused, will be undertaking a delicate job. Federal regulators and nuclear watchdog groups say moving fuel is generally safer than operating a nuclear power plant but riskier than tending the fuel in its storage pool. "Any time you move fuel you increase the risk," said Vincent Everett, an inspector with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But by the end of the night, Everett said, the operation "looks pretty good. They have practiced a lot on this." SMUD's aggressive schedule was hampered by small glitches, he said, including a fuel pump that malfunctioned and a roll-up door that got stuck. "We're already seeing the gremlins are at work," Everett said. The NRC will have inspectors at Rancho Seco at least through April 10. It put SMUD through a dress rehearsal last month. "We're looking for a move that is without incident," SMUD board President Larry Carr said. Neighbors were equally confident, although they would have liked to know what day the move was starting, said Tim Butts who lives about three miles south of Rancho Seco. "It would have been nice if they notified us, but I don't think any of us feel there is any real threat," he said. It will take roughly one to two weeks to move each batch of fuel from wet to dry storage, using a single, reusable transport cask and the 21 steel canisters. By midday Monday, the first steel canister, already nested inside the cask, had been lowered by crane into the holding pool. Workers in head-to-toe cloth coveralls tested seals and fittings, and scrubbed radiation from a steel plug as they eased it from the pool. The first fuel assembly - a long, rectangular column of fuel rods - was expected to be lifted into the canister early this morning by operators standing on a fuel-handling bridge that spans the pool. It will take about 12 hours to fill the canister with its cargo of 24 fuel assemblies. Then, the cask-canister combo will be raised from the pool and given the first of two sets of welds. In between the first and final sealings, the canister will be dried out and filled with helium, an inert gas that gives added protection against corrosion in the fuel rods. Afterward, it is tested for leaks. Crews then devote a full 24 hours to the next weld - the one that seals the nuclear fuel away. A specially built rig will haul the cask to a rank of concrete vaults west of the gutted nuclear plant. Then, the canister will be slowly shoved horizontally into the vault. Finally, the empty cask will be returned to the fuel pool for another round of transfers. Decades from now, the cask could be used again to ship the fuel, canister by canister, to a waste dump that has not yet been fully designed or authorized, although the federal government continues to study Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The fuel move is a major step in the $492 million dismantling of Rancho Seco, although another huge task - disposing of the reactor vessel - still awaits. SMUD hopes to build a new, natural-gas-burning power plant on the site within the next three to four years. The Rancho Seco fuel has cooled for so long that the move probably presents minimal risks to neighbors of the plant in the community of Herald, said the Union of Concerned Scientists, which tracks nuclear operations nationwide. And although SMUD began the move on a day of a Stage 2 power alert, Rancho Seco would never be in line for a rotating blackout, Redeker said. If some other accident knocks out power, a generator can operate the giant crane that hoists the 126-ton cask and canister. In that event, he said, "We basically would set the cask down and stop. And that would only take a few minutes." *The Bee's Carrie Peyton can be reached at (916) 321-1086 or *. ***************************************************************** 17 Rancho Seco Project Under Way KCRA TheKCRAChannel.com Tuesday April 03 02:56 AM EDT The last time steam rose from Rancho Seco's twin towers was in 1989. Since then, 493 fuel rods, each carrying uranium pellets, have sat in a water in the plant's fuel building. SMUD crews are now working around the clock to pull the rods out of the water -- so-called wet storage -- and into stainless steel containers, which will be stored in concrete. Dry storage is somewhat safer, SMUD officials said, but the primary reason for the transfer is to save money. SMUD officials said that they will save between $8 million and $10 million a year. "We have been practicing this process for over a year now, and we have very detailed procedures that we've worked out," plant manager Steve Redeker said. "We have gone to other plants and observed how they do it, so we fully understand exactly how to do this." The project could take nine months, Rancho Seco officials said, and marks another milestone in what Redeker simply calls reverse construction. ***************************************************************** 18 City report says Berkeley lab is safe but should improve methods ContraCostaTimes.com West County Times *Published Tuesday, April 3, 2001 * + Air, soil, ground water and vegetation samples indicate low levels of tritium, study finds BY TONY HICKS TIMES STAFF WRITER BERKELEY -- Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory doesn't emit enough tritium to harm humans, but the lab needs to improve monitoring and cataloging of the radioactive material, according to a city consultant's report. The City Council commissioned the report last year in response to community concerns about radiation exposure around the lab. Scientists from the Germany-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Researchreleased a draft of their findings last week. Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen used by lab scientists in biomedical research. It is a carcinogen and has been linked to low sperm counts. The report, authored by Bernd Franke and Anthony Greenhouse, says there's no evidence suggesting that radiation exposure from the lab exceeds what a person usually receives during the course of a year from routine medical sources, like X-rays. But the report also points out there's limited evidence, and recommends that the lab take additional measures to assure that exposure levels remain low. The researchers looked at data from air, soil, groundwater and vegetation samples. "We think it minimized things," said Gene Bernardi, of the city's Community Environmental Advisory Commission. "But we feel the report is very revealing. They don't even know how much tritium they have." Bernardi referred to the institute's finding that the lab's listed tritium inventory could be as much as 20 percent off. That kind of discrepancy isn't as drastic as it sounds, said Nabil Al-Hadithy, who manages the city's Toxics Management Division. "That's common -- no one is surprised by that," said Al-Hadithy, who added that the figure is similar at other tritium facilities. "That's the nature of the beast. The lab doesn't have the means to measure every ounce of every vial that goes out of there." Al-Hadithy said the consultant found that current data is complete, but the historic data that is missing. "The laboratory needs to improve its record-keeping, auditing of Clean Air Act requirements and use different analysis," Al-Hadithy said. The city hired the consultant last year, after concern about emissions and the lab's proximity to earthquake faults and wildfire areas heightened the danger. Lab officials are quick to point out that the report verifies the facility isn't exceeding federal emission standards, and that they've responded to community concerns. As a federal installation, the lab is not bound by any city recommendations. "We think he (Franke, the report's co-author) has some valid points and we've responded," said lab spokesman Ron Kolb. "Nothing in the report suggests that there is a public health hazard at this time." Among the points, the report says: + The lab has far fewer emission-monitoring stations than other Department of Energy facilities, each of which has between 17 and 52 stations. The Berkeley site is increasing its number of stations from six to 14, which the consultant called "a significant improvement over the current situation." + No evidence exists showing anyone has received radiation doses exceeding the legal limit in the past two years. "However, some uncertainty remains because the evidence is limited." + The tritium inventory in nearby trees and groundwater is small. + Limited historical data concludes that there were substantially larger radioactive emissions 20 years ago than there have been in the past few years, but further review is necessary. The report also recommends the lab use new, more accurate instruments and reassess health consequences from past releases. Al-Hadithy said the consultant will take more community input before releasing a final report, tentatively estimated to be ready in a few months, he said. * Tony Hicks covers Berkeley. Reach him at 510-262-2713 or e-mail . ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 health-hazard answers MySanAntonio: Express-News: Roddy Stinson San Antonio Express-News The Express-News' investigation of health hazards at Kelly AFB has turned up an intriguing and tantalizingly cryptic document. In response to a request, a Kelly official delivered to this desk a copy of a Nov. 28, 2000, contract for "Selective Demolition and Equipment Removal at Building 301 and Associated Propulsion Business Area Facilities." Building 301 should be familiar to Express-News readers. In an Oct. 18, 2000, article, Staff Writer Sig Christenson reported that the building was once the Air Force's largest plating facility. For years, airplane parts were dipped in cadmium and chromium solutions, which sometimes "leaked out of the vats, contaminating soil and groundwater." In a Jan. 11, 2000, column, I reported (after being tipped off by a Kelly employee) that workers in 301's metal plating shop emptied a tank containing a chromium/sulfuric acid solution into another tank containing ethylene glycol. The chemical stew "foamed over, and vapors were released into the air." That should help explain the need to raze the building. In the demolition contract, the Air Force instructed Weston Inc., the contractor in charge of the project, to proceed with "decontamination, disassembly, removal and disposal of selected components in the former plating shop." Weston was also told to "decontaminate, where necessary, demolish and/or remove various pieces of process equipment" in buildings 316, 348 and 360. Except for brief references to "asbestos" and "lead-based paint," the Air Force made no mention of what contaminants needed to be removed, and therein lies the continuing mystery and unanswered question: What did Kelly workers in general — and occupants of buildings 301, 316, 348 and 360 in particular — touch, breathe and take home on their clothes? An educated guess about Bldg. 301 would include cadmium and chromium. And this comment by a Bldg. 360 machinist in a Jan. 28, 2001, column provides a clue about the need to decontaminate that facility: "I was once asked to machine some kind of groove on a beryllium part, and I told my supervisor, 'You have no way to filter the air. This is a deadly material.' "He then asked the guy who worked next to me to machine the part, and he did it." Except for such anecdotal information, most Kelly workers remain in the dark about their exposure to health hazards. However, the 16-page contract between the Air Force and Weston Inc. contains plenty of implied horrors about the contamination in and around Bldg. 301. Some chilling excerpts: "The contractor shall properly decontaminate, disassemble and dispose of all ducting associated with the Plating Line in Building 301." "The contractor shall remove all floor grating in Building 301." "The contractor shall cut and/or crush tanks, drums and containers." "Waste materials shall be transported in accordance with all applicable transportation regulations." "All vehicles leaving the exclusion zone shall be decontaminated prior to leaving the project site." "The contractor shall inspect all vehicles prior to their leaving the project site to ensure that the least possible amount of soil adheres to wheels and undercarriages." Very commendable. I don't recall ever seeing similar instructions for base employees. It appears that the Air Force cares more about Weston Inc.'s "vehicles" than about the men and women who for decades have labored for their country at Kelly. *To leave a message for Roddy Stinson, call 250-3155, or e-mail rstinson@express-news.net. * ***************************************************************** 2 K-25 water investigation topic of upcoming meeting Oak Ridger Online --> story last updated at 12:14 p.m. on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 K-25 water investigation topic of upcoming meeting by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff Community members will have a chance next week to critique and provide information for an impending investigation into historical water contaminations at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site. To prepare for that event, members of the recently titled Community Input Team, which provides stakeholder representation, met Monday afternoon in a Bank of America conference room to discuss the agenda for the public meeting and the plan for conducting the investigation. The project will be investigating and assessing K-25's drinking water and steam systems and the potential for exposure through any possible route due to cross-connections or via other means from other utility systems including firefighting water, recirculating cooling water, storm drains and sanitary sewers. "I'm not an expert, but the project plan looks OK," said Norman Mulvenon. He is representing the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee on the Community Input Team. "It is a complex project Š a lot more than some people thought it would be," Mulvenon added. He also said he would like for the project team to provide a timeline of what has happened so far and what is to come. The project is expected to be completed by August 2002. Sherrie Farver, a Community Input Team member, warned that thoroughness and accuracy are vital to the investigation. Farver, also a member of Coalition for a Healthy Environment, says she suffers from illnesses related to her work at K-25. The impending investigation is a continuation of tests conducted in August after employees voiced concern about contaminated water at K-25. The initial tests indicated that K-25's current drinking water is safe to consume. Findings stated that the drinking water at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site contained no contaminants whose levels exceeded Environmental Protection Agency- and state-regulated standards. The public meeting to address the upcoming water investigation is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, April 9, in suites A and B of the Garden Plaza Hotel. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 3 Incinerator resumes operation after shutdown + Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:14 p.m. on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 The Associated Press OAK RIDGE -- The government's toxic-waste incinerator is back operating after a four-month shutdown for maintenance and repairs. The Department of Energy incinerator burns low-level radioactive wastes, as well as some wastes containing hazardous chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Mark Musolf, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs Co., said the incinerator began burning wastes shortly after noon Sunday following a warm-up period that lasted several days. "Maintenance work during the outage went as planned, and we're ready to take another large bite out of DOE's inventory of waste," Musolf said. Bechtel Jacobs is the department's environmental manager in Oak Ridge. An electrical problem with the incinerator's emissions scrubber system was detected during the restart operations, but it was corrected late last week, Musolf said. During the maintenance period, workers replaced the refractory brick lining in the main kiln and prepared wastes for the upcoming burn session. The 12-year-old incinerator originally was scheduled to burn about 2 million pounds of waste this fiscal year, which concludes Sept. 30, but that total has been scaled back to about 1.4 million pounds. The incinerator also was shut down for a month last fall because of problems with its kiln. DOE and its contractors currently are seeking new operating permits for the facility, and a trial burn -- to demonstrate its capabilities for destroying pollutants -- is scheduled for mid-May. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environment and Conservation will have representatives on hand during the test operations. Most of the waste left over from the Cold War is expected to be eliminated by the end of 2003, and the incinerator will be closed then. IT Corp. operates the incinerator under a subcontract to Bechtel Jacobs. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 4 Sick worker program moves closer to Justice oversight Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:14 p.m. on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 by Katherine Rizzo The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Another committee chairman on Monday endorsed a plan to put the Justice Department in charge of deciding which job-sickened nuclear workers should get federal benefits. The opposition added an influential ally, too. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, who heads the committee that oversees the Labor Department, said he agreed with Labor Secretary Elaine Chao that her agency is not the one best suited to take on the extra tasks. A colleague with strong connections to President Bush's inner circle made the opposite argument. In a letter to the White House, Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said "I am deeply concerned that this proposal could delay implementation of the program." "I do not believe there are any new developments ... to justify moving the jurisdiction of this program from the Labor Department," wrote Portman, who is a longtime Bush family friend, Bush campaign insider and Speaker Dennis Hastert's liaison to the White House. There was no comment from the Office of Management and Budget, which last week circulated a draft executive order taking the program out of the Labor Department. Responding to some of the protest letters she received, Chao on Monday said "the Department of Justice has the foundation on which to administer this program, and it would be inefficient, duplicative, and slow to attempt to establish a similar capacity at DOL while Americans wait for these benefits -- many of whom are elderly and suffering." Boehner said he, too, believes people dying from diseases contracted because of their Cold War-era work for the government would not be better served by the Labor Department. "I believe the Department of Justice is better positioned to effectively and efficiently administer the program," Boehner said in a letter to the White House. The government is supposed to be ready July 31 to take applications from workers exposed to health-robbing levels of radiation, beryllium or silica, and from the surviving relatives of deceased workers. The Energy Department preliminarily identified 317 sites in 37 states, including the facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Those found to be eligible are supposed to get medical coverage and $150,000 payments beginning later this year. Boehner followed House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah., in urging the White House to put the Justice Department in charge of choosing the eligible beneficiaries. Boehner's stance appeared to doom prospects for Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, who was writing a bill putting the Labor Department in charge of the compensation program. Strickland said Monday that he still plans to introduce his bill, even though it would have to go through the Boehner-led committee that oversees Labor. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio; Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio; Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.; Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.; Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.; and other senators want to put the Labor Department in charge. So do House members who were closely involved in creating the program. They include Strickland; Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky.; Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo.; Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M.; and Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa. When the program was created, congressional negotiators couldn't agree on which agency should run it. Congress passed a law that let the White House pick the program's home, then appropriated $60.4 million for the Labor Department to put the program together. The program's main authors were so convinced it would be run by Labor that they solicited advice from the department's staff on fine-tuning the law to avoid bureaucratic delays. Those who want the Labor Department in control cite several reasons, mainly the desire for appeals panels to reconsider claims initially rejected. The Labor Department already has those; the Justice Department doesn't. Chao and her backers said the Justice Department's special experience with radiation cases makes it the logical place to put the new program. Others countered that the Labor Department handles compensation programs that process hundreds of thousands of medical claims annually, while the Justice Department runs a single program that handles a few hundred cases each year. ------ On the Net: Justice Department program's claims summary: All Contents.©Copyright *The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 5 Fed pleads case against Benton DenverPost.com - Business News Aldo Svaldi Denver Post Business Writer Apr. 3, 2001 - The Federal Reserve launched its case Monday against one-time multimillionaire Oren Benton, accusing the former Colorado Rockies owner and uranium trader of making illegal loans to family members and business associates through a bank he onced owned. Federal Reserve regulations strictly limit the loans banks can make to insiders and to companies affiliated with a bank's owners. The Federal Reserve required The Professional Bank, which Benton owned, to write off $4.9 million of the loans in the first quarter of 1995, causing it to briefly become undercapitalized. Benton, once one of Colorado's wealthiest residents, lost most of his assets in a bankruptcy proceeding and eventually sold the Glendale bank in 1997 to Vectra Bank. Administrative law judge Ann Cook heard opening arguments against Benton and one of the bank's senior lending officers, Edward Scott. Cook will make a recommendation to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, which will rule on the case. Among the punishments that Benton and Scott, who now works for Key Bank in Denver, face are lifetime bans from banking. Fed examiners are also seeking a $1.25 million fine against Benton and a $75,000 penalty against Scott. Benton, representing himself, said he had little direct involvement with the bank, which was only a small piece within a widespread group of companies he controlled. His holdings included a global uranium trading operation, an advertising agency, real estate, leasing companies, a high-technology manufacturer, and the holding that won Benton the most attention, a $20 million investment in the Colorado Rockies. Scott's attorney, Bruce Featherstone, said that all the loans regulators are questioning went through a compliance officer and the bank's legal counsel. Federal Reserve regulators also reviewed the questionable loans in 1993 and 1994 and did not question them at the time. "Every single one of these loans was reviewed by the loan committee," Featherstone said, including bank executives who later turned government whistleblowers. He said Scott was not aware that Benton's children would use the proceeds of their loans to benefit their father's other companies. "He was told by the borrowers that the money was not going to affiliates," Featherstone said. Benton, facing financial difficulties, sold off numerous assets in 1994. Some of those transactions were financed through loans with the bank. "They were real transactions involving real assets," Featherstone said. The borrowers, whom Featherstone called sophisticated businessmen of substantial means, pledged personal assets. They also repaid their loans, as did Benton's adult children. "The Benton family members paid every penny of interest and principal on their loans," he said. Featherstone blamed disgruntled and envious colleagues as being behind the case against Scott. Maryann Hunter, senior vice president for bank examinations with the 10th Federal Reserve District, tried to establish a pattern of violations of banking laws as the government's first witness. Hunter detailed how Federal Reserve examinations of a predecessor to The Professional Bank, Belcaro Bank, uncovered concerns over a concentration of loans with Benton-owned companies and violations on laws dealing with loans to insiders and affiliate companies. Hunter said the bank's board of directors, including Benton, were warned and appeared to understand the concern of regulators. Federal reserve attorneys said their presentation could take two and a half weeks. Featherstone said the case could run as long as four to five weeks. Benton and Scott could appeal any board ruling in civil court. Copyright 2001 The Denver Post. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 Yggdrasil Institute - Uranium Enrichment Newsletter - April 2001 The Uranium Enrichment Project publishes a monthly online newsletter summarizing events within the US uranium enrichment establishment. The newsletter is edited by Mary Byrd Davis, who can be contacted at francenuc@francenuc.org. A grant from The John Merck Fund makes the newsletter possible. I. OAK RIDGE II. PADUCAH III. PORTSMOUTH IV. US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY V. UNITED STATES ENRICHMENT CORPORATION VI. RUSSIA VII. HIGHLY-ENRICHED URANIUM VII. DEPLETED URANIUM IX. SCRAP METAL I. OAK RIDGE Penalty against BNFL The US Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a civil penalty of $41,250 against BNFL Inc., the contractor in charge of decontamination and decommissioning at the former K-25 site. The fine stems from a fire that occurred April 4, 2000, in a bundle of metal tubes housed in an assembly being decontaminated in the K-33 process building. According to DOE, the fire released uranium into the building while workers were fighting the fire. DOE’s Office of Enforcement and Investigations found that BNFL did not follow established procedures and implement an effective quality improvement process. The Preliminary Notice of Violation was issued March 19. It becomes final within thirty days unless challenged by BNFL. BNFL must respond to the Preliminary Notice with a schedule for completing corrective actions. The company does not agree that the fire released uranium into the building, but as of March 23 had not indicated whether it would challenge the penalty. (DOE Press Release, 3/22/01; Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 3/23/01) Progress in cleanup March 27 BNFL Inc. shipped the last of 640 process motors from the K-33 building to Envirocare in Utah. K-33 is the largest of the three process buildings that BNFL is decommissioning and decontaminating. The shipment of the 16,000 pound motor occurred 65 days ahead of schedule. (Frank Munger, Knoxville News-Sentinel, 3/28/01) TN & Associates Bechtel Jacobs Co. recently awarded a $1.4 million subcontract to clean up twenty-five waste storage areas at Oak Ridge to TN & Associates Inc. The company will close storage units, tanks, and waste holding areas scattered across the Reservation. The tanks contain "mixed waste." Work is expected to be completed by September. (Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 3/19/01) II. PADUCAH Authorization to enrich to 5.5% March 19 the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) amended the Certificate of Compliance for the Paducah plant to authorize the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) to enrich uranium at Paducah to 5.5% uranium 235 by weight. The Paducah plant had been limited to enriching uranium to 2.75% uranium 235. Uranium enriched at Paducah was transported to Portsmouth for enrichment to higher levels. Most nuclear power plants use uranium enriched to 4 to 5% uranium 235. The NRC had been prepared to issue the amendment March 16, but Rep. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) and John Dingell (D-Mich) asked the NRC Chairman Richard Meserve to delay authorizing the increase in the enrichment level at Paducah or to require that the Portsmouth plant be kept in "hot standby" until Paducah has proven that it can enrich to the higher level. Stickland and Dingell argued that, according to the USEC Privatization Act of 1996, the NRC cannot issue a Certificate of Compliance if the issuance of the certificate "would be inimical to (a) the common defense and security of the United States; or (b) the maintenance of a reliable and economic domestic source of enrichment services." Allowing Portsmouth to close before Paducah has been proven to be able to enrich to 5.5% would not ensure the maintenance of a domestic source. In certifying Paducah for the new assay, the NRC, they said, was relying on the "’view’ of the NRC General Counsel that the concept of a reliable and economic domestic supply ‘is principally directed to the possibility of foreign entities gaining control.’" This "view" is not consistent with the intent of Congress in passing the Act, they said. They also noted in the letter that USEC is filling Paducah cylinders at Portsmouth with uranium hexafluoride enriched to 3% "that may be shipped to Paducah" for further enrichment. Portsmouth should not be allowed to claim that it is enriching to 5.5% if, to do so, it enriches uranium hexafluoride already enriched to 3%. (Letter from Ted Strickland and John Dingell to NRC Chairman Meserve, 3/14/01. The letter is available at www.house.gov/strickland/03.14.01-NRCletter.html.) The NRC delayed the authorization until it could reply, but stated in its answer that "it would be inappropriate to condition the Paducah amendment on USEC’s maintaining a particular operational status at Portsmouth." Lashing out at the NRC in a March 27 hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on energy and air quality, Strickland noted that the NRC appeared to recognize its obligation to ensure domestic production in a 1997 staff memo, but later changed its position. (Jonathan Riskind, Columbus Dispatch, 3/17 and 3/28/01; Katherine Rizzo, Associated Press, 3/16 and 3/19/01; Federal Register: 3/28/01, vol. 66, no. 60, pp. 16960-16961) Application for hazardous waste permit DOE has submitted a permit renewal application for hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal at the Paducah Plant for the next ten years. Its current permit expires August 19. The Kentucky Division of Waste Management is reviewing the application and plans to notify DOE of any deficiencies by May 21. The Division welcomes comments from the public during its review. Questions and comments should be sent to Brian Baker, Hazardous Waste Branch, Division of Waste Management, 14 Reilly Road, Frankfort, KY 40601; 502-564-6716, Brian.Baker@mail.state.ky.us. The application can be seen at the office of the Division and at the McCracken Public Library in Paducah and the DOE Information Center in Kevil. (Letter from the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection, 3/15/01) Proposed "CERCLA Cell" DOE is developing a Siting Study document that would narrow down from ten to three the potential sites for a CERCLA Cell proposed for Paducah. The CERCLA Cell would be a disposal structure for radioactive waste that is regulated by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The Siting Study was to be submitted to regulators and to the Site Specific Advisory Board (SSAB) March 30 for their review. DOE will seek the Board’s input over the next few months in selecting a single site.for further study. Meanwhile, planning for a Seismic Study, which would involve field work, is underway. Paducah is located within the New Madrid fault system. (E-mail from David Dollins, Oak Ridge, 3/27/01) Settlement of whistleblower suit? Assistant US Attorney Bill Campbell said March 30 that prosecutors in the whistleblower suit filed in June 1999 by three workers have met twice with lawyers for Lockheed Martin to discuss possible settlement. The US Department of Justice has been looking into the charges for almost two years as it decides whether to join the suit. On the 30th, the department asked US District Judge Joseph McKinley for a seventy-five day extension of its time to reach a decision. The motion for an extension noted that the government has tried to include in settlement talks, lawyers representing other plaintiffs but so far has not succeeded. One suit seeks one billion dollars for workers and their families; another seeks damages for people owning property near the site. (Associated Press, 3/31/01) III. PORTSMOUTH Portsmouth in relation to the Paducah upgrade (see Paducah above) Domenici Bill Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) has introduced the "Nuclear Energy Electricity Assurance Act of 2001," S. 472, designed to strengthen the nuclear industry. The bill provides, among other things, for maintenance of the Portsmouth plant on cold standby for five years, with an authorization of $36 million for this purpose for fiscal year (FY) 2002 and such sums as needed for FY 2003, 2004, and 2005. It would also provide Converdyne with up to $8 million per year for FY 2002, 2003, and 2004 to enable it to continue to convert uranium. The bill is available at http://thomas.loc.gov. Bush on Portsmouth In an interview with nine reporters March 13, President Bush said that the release of $125.7 million for cold standby and worker transition at Portsmouth during fiscal years 2001 and 2002 is a strong indication that he means to honor his election campaign promise to keep the plant open. The fate of the plant will, nevertheless, depend on the conclusions of two task forces that he has appointed. (See UEN March 2001). (Jonathan Riskind, Columbus Dispatch, 3/14/01) Layoffs Rep. Ted Strickland wrote to William Timbers, CEO of USEC, March 8 to urge that USEC offer its employees at the Portsmouth plant an opportunity to select early retirement before layoffs begin this year. IV. US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) Subcontracting DOE’s inspector general, Gregory H. Friedman, has released a report, stating that Bechtel Jacobs has not performed as expected in regard to subcontracts, since it entered into a $2.5 billion management and integration contract with the Oak Ridge Operations Office, for environmental remediation at Oak Ridge, Paducah, and Portsmouth. To speed cleanup and reduce cost, Bechtel Jacobs was to rely for much of the work on competitively awarded, fixed-price subcontracts. In its response to the request for proposals, Bechtel Jacobs promised that within two years of the contract award it would subcontract just over 90 percent of the work and cut staffing by about 80 percent through shifting staff to subcontracts. As of September 2000, Bechtel Jacobs had subcontracted less than 60 percent of the original work scope and reduced staffing by only 58%. The Oak Ridge Operations Office did not incorporate the subcontracting requirement into Bechtel Jacobs’ contract. The inspector general estimates that DOE could have saved $44.1 million in Fiscal Year 2000 had Bechtel Jacobs fulfilled the terms of its proposal. (Audit Report, Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC’s Management and Integration Contract at Oak Ridge, DOE/IG-0498, March 2001, available at www.ig.doe.gov) Occupational Illness Compensation In a letter of March 9 to Mitch Daniels, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao asked that administration of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA) be moved from the Labor Department to the Justice Department. She stated that the Labor Department does not have the infrastructure to implement the program, in particular to determine the eligibility of workers claiming to have been made ill by radiation. She pointed out that, on the other hand, the Justice Department administers a small program to compensate miners suffering from exposure to radiation. Various Republican and Democratic members of Congress, including Senators Mike Dewine (R-Ohio), George Voinovich (R-Ohio), and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass), and Representatives Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky) have written letters to Chao and/or to Daniels opposing the switch to Justice. Other opponents of the change include Richard Miller of the PACE labor union and Dr. Taylor McKenzie, vice president of the Navajo Nation, who criticizes the Justice Department’s handling of the program for miners. Those disagreeing with Chao contend that the Labor Department has more experience than the Justice Department with compensation programs, that Congress intended the Labor Department to administer the program, although it left the final decision to the President, and that the change of administration would slow the granting of compensation. As laid out in the EEOICPA, the government is to be ready to accept applications by July 31. As we write, Chao, supported by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), appears to be getting her way. March 29 the White House Office of Management and Budget circulated a draft executive order that would override a December executive order by President Clinton and transfer the program to the Justice Department. The proposed order cannot go into effect until the President signs it. (Ben White, Washington Post, 3/23/01; Jonathan Riskind, Columbus Dispatch, 3/22/01; Katherine Rizzo, Associated Press, 3/27 and 3/29/01 ) Long-term stewardship Doe has released to the public its two-volume Report to Congress on Long-Term Stewardship. The report is the result of a request by Congress in the Fiscal Year 2000 National Defense Authorization Act for a report on DOE’s existing and anticipated long-term stewardship obligations at sites where environmental restoration activities are complete or will be complete by 2006. The first volume presents a summary of the Long-term Stewardship Program including cost projections at sites (or portions of sites) where cleanup, stabilization, or disposal activities have been completed. The program is expected to cost annually $6 billion as of 2000 and 2006 and $150 million as of 2050. The second volume contains site summaries which present cleanup activities and "accomplishments" to date plus plans for long term stewardship. Of the three enrichment plants, Portsmouth is the farthest along with cleanup. By 2006, Portsmouth is expected to have completed all assessments and agency- required remedial actions ( prior to decontamination and decommissioning ) and shipped all DOE Environmental Management waste for final disposal. At the East Tennessee Technological Park, the former K-25 site, except for the decision to demolish buildings, most remedial decisions are in the early planning stages. At Paducah, the only activities expected to be completed by 2006 are removal of 65,000 tons of scrap metal, remedial construction for cleanup of groundwater sources, and remediation activities for contamination of the North-South Diversion Ditch. The report is available online at http://lts.apps.em.doe.gov/center/. To obtain copies of this Report or for more information on the environmental management activities of the U.S. Department of Energy, contact The Environmental Management Information Center at 1-800-736-3282. Recycled uranium March 29, DOE released nine reports that examine the movement of recycled uranium through the department’s facilities. The three gaseous diffusion plants are among the twelve sites covered. The studies identify where recycled uranium and trace amounts of other radioactive contaminants could have concentrated or been released; but they do not claim to be the final answer to the question of what took place. DOE admits that because of differing operational practices, different designations for recycled uranium in historical records, and extensive blending operations, the data are not always consistent, and the recycled uranium totals for each site cannot be added to give an accurate, overall total. To remedy this problem, DOE’s Office of Plutonium, Uranium, and Special Materials Inventory will conduct a follow-up study to develop a historical mass balance for uranium, including recycled uranium. The reports and a project overview are available in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format at http://tis.eh.doe.gov/legacy/. Funds for Cleanup The federal budget passed by the House of Representatives in late March was accompanied by a report in which the House recommends that $6.65 billion be spent on cleanup of DOE’s nuclear complex in the next fiscal year. The report does not recommend amounts for specific sites. The President’s budget outline calls for a three percent cut in DOE spending. Bush is expected to release more details on the budget April 9. (Associated Press, 3/30/01) V. UNITED STATES ENRICHMENT CORPORATION (USEC) Licensing procedure A proposal from USEC to amend section 193 of the Atomic Energy Act is going the rounds on Capitol Hill. The suggested change would require the NRC to conduct only a single informal hearing rather than to go through a lengthy licensing process with "an adjudicatory-trial-like hearing" to license a new enrichment plant on the site of an existing gaseous diffusion plant. Last year USEC asked the NRC to support legislation to license a new enrichment plant under the regulations that now apply to certification of the existing enrichment plants. NRC refused to do so, but noted that it had earlier supported legislation to allow a new enrichment plant to be licensed in an informal hearing. Michael Knapik of Nuclear Fuel points out that USEC runs a risk in opening up the Atomic Energy Act as it applies to enrichment facilities. Utilities could take the opportunity to try to remove uranium enrichment services from coverage by US trade law. (Michael Knapik, Inside N.R.C., 2/26/01) Views of USEC’s privatization US District Court Judge Gladys Kessler of the District of Columbia ruled in favor of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW; now PACE) in a dispute as to whether attorneys for the union should be reimbursed by DOE for expenses incurred in efforts to make public the records of the privatization proceedings. Concluding that the attorneys were engaged in a legitimate effort to inform the public, she severely criticized the privatization process. "The transcripts of the June-July 1998 meetings show that the board’s deliberations were ‘model’ only insofar as they were a model of what not to do when considering various options for privatizing a federal entity." "Many board members were forced to rely largely upon information provided by parties with potential conflicts of interest," who "recommended" the stock offering. Charles Yulish of USEC wrote to *Energy Daily* in regard to a March 21 article on Kessler’s decision. He stated that since USEC had been dismissed from the suit in 1998, the judge heard only the union’s "provocative, one-sided and often specious set of allegations," and he gave ten examples of "why the charges OCAW makes, the conclusions of the judge and your article, are so misleading." (Jonathan Riskind et al., Columbus Dispatch, 3/18/01; Gladys Kessler, Memorandum Opinion in OCAW vs. USDOE; Charles Yulish, Energy Daily, 3/22/01) VI. RUSSIA Under an agreement signed in early March, the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), Techsnabexport ( Tenex ) and ConverDyn will cooperate on USEC’s return of natural uranium to Russia in connection with the implementation of the U.S.-Russian Megatons to Megawatts program. When USEC purchases LEU from Russia, it pays for the enrichment content and is obligated to return to Tenex an equivalent amount of natural ( non-enriched ) uranium. Under the new terms, USEC utilizes account transfers to assist Tenex by giving it the option to take possession of appropriate quantities of natural uranium at the Honeywell conversion facility in Metropolis, Illinois, for return to Russia. (USEC Press Release, 3/15/01) Exports to Iran Platts Nucleonics Week reported March 8 that several sources confirmed that Russian officials have told the United States that Russia will not send laser equipment to Iran. US officials believe that Iran would have used the lasers for uranium enrichment, although Russia long maintained that they could not serve this purpose. Replacement of the nuclear energy minister March 28 President Vladimir Putin replaced Yevgeni Adamov as nuclear energy minister, with Alexander Rumyantsev. Rumyantsev is head of the Kurchatov Insitute, the nation’s main nuclear research establishment. The state attorney’s office received a report in February on alleged illegal activities by Adamov, from the Duma’s anti-corruption committee. The committee accused Adamov of having interests in at least ten commercial enterprises within and outside Russia. The change was part of a government reshuffle, the first since Putin assumed power. A US official told Agence France Presse that the United States believes that Adamov "has been tolerating if not supporting transfers of sensitive technology to Iran." The United States will watch closely to see whether Rumyantsev stops this practice. (Agence France Presse, 3/28 and 3/30/01) Review of US aid to Russia The White House is embarking on a review of American aid programs to Russia designed to stop the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Officials of the National Security Council who have been critical of some of the programs initiated the review. Senior officials at the Council will conduct the review, which will last six to eight weeks. Included in the review will be the Megatons to Megawatts program under which USEC buys downblended highly enriched uranium from Russia. However the official who told the *New York Times* of the review praised this program. The review parallels but is distinct from a broad White House review of policy towards Russia. (Judith Miller, New York Times, 3/29/01) VII. HIGHLY-ENRICHED URANIUM Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has approved the transfer of 33 metric tons of highly enriched uranium ( HEU ) from the federal government to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for use in TVA’s Browns Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama. About 12 tons of the uranium is currently stored at Oak Ridge’s Y-12 complex; the balance is at the Savanna River plant. DOE is not charging TVA for the HEU, but TVA will have to pay for the blending of the HEU with low-enriched or natural uranium to prepare it for use. DOE spokesperson Steven Wyatt claims that the transfer will save the government money, because it would have had to spend $ 1 billion to prepare the HEU for disposal as nuclear waste. Nuclear Fuel Services at Erwin, Tennessee, is expected to carry out the downblending for TVA; Siemens Power Corp. at Richland, Washington, to make the fuel. The HEU would be transferred to TVA by stages between 2003 and 2007. The two operating reactors at Browns Ferry would begin using it in 2005. Instead of performing an environmental review of the conversion process, TVA proposes to adopt a review that DOE conducted in the mid-1990s. In a March 6 letter to TVA, Citizens for National Security, a group that monitors activities at Y-12, objected to this tactic and to the use of an interagency agreement to set up the transfer. TVA’s board of directors approved the agreement March 28. ( Frank Munger, Knoxville News-Sentinel, 3/15/01; Oak Ridger Online, 3/15/01 ) VIII. DEPLETED URANIUM DOE’s source evaluation board for acquisition of depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facilities and services at Portsmouth and Paducah has received five proposals. They come from: 1. American Conversion Services, a LLC comprised of CH2MHill and United States Enrichment Corporation, Inc.; 2. Foster Wheeler Environmental Conversion Services, a LLC comprised of BWXT Services, Inc., BNFL, Inc., and Foster Wheeler Environmental Corporation; 3. General Atomics; 4. Jacobs-Cogema, LLC ; 5. Uranium Disposition Services, a LLC comprised of Framatome ANP Richland, Inc., Duratek Federal Services, Inc., and Burns and Roe Enterprises, Inc. According to DOE’s Web site on acquisition of services for the conversion project, a contract will be awarded in August of this year. The Web site is at http://www.oro.doe.gov/duf6disposition. IX. SCRAP METAL Release criteria A National Academy of Sciences Committee on Alternatives for Controlling the Release of Solid Materials from Nuclear Regulatory Commission-Licensed Facilities held a meeting to hear from "stakeholders" March 26 and 27 in Washington. A letter to the committee from 119 public interest groups and individuals criticized the meeting as dominated by representatives of industry, and the committee process as "skewed toward" recommending use of the waste to make common household goods and building materials." No critic of the release of contaminated materials was allowed to address the full committee. The committee was formed to help the NRC to make rules on the release of solid, radioactively-contaminated materials from NRC-licensed facilities. However, the decision reached by the committee will set a precedent that is likely to impact standards for the release of such materials from Department of Energy and Department of Defense sites. Bill Richardson, when energy secretary, placed a moratorium on the release of radioactive metals from DOE sites, but contaminated materials that are not metals may still be released from these sites provided that the releases will result only in "authorized doses" of radiation to the public. (Public Citizen, Press Release, 3/26/01, available at www.citizen.org/Press/; E-mail from Diane D’Arrigo, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, 3/26/01) Nickel at Oak Ridge Frank Munger, writing for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, posed the question of what will be done with the estimated 3.5 million pounds of radioactively contaminated nickel that will be removed from process buildings at the K-25 site. Since DOE’s moratorium on release of contaminated metals, BNFL is selling metals to DOE at market price, but it is not clear what will happen to the nickel, which, after recovery, is stored at the site. (3/14/01) Earth Island Institute ***************************************************************** 7 U.S. nuclear sub visit sparks Japanese anger - CNN.com - April 3, 2001 Japan demands explanation 'Shake the trust' TOKYO, Japan -- The surprise visit of a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine into a Japanese port has sparked anger among locals, still reeling from a February collision. The 6,200-ton Chicago entered Sasebo port, 982 kilometers (609 miles), southwest of Tokyo, on Monday, but U.S. military officials had only told the city government that it would stop outside the port, said city spokesman Keiichi Matsuda. The submarine arrived from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The 20-minute stop violated a 1964 bilateral accord requiring the United States to notify Japan 24 hours in advance of port calls for U.S. nuclear-powered submarines. The notice gives time for local authorities to check radioactivity levels in ports before and after U.S. submarine visits. Japan demands explanation Japan's foreign minister demanded an explanation for the U.S. nuclear-powered sub's entry, and suggested further port calls should be put on hold. "Until I receive the report, I cannot cooperate with U.S. nuclear submarines making port calls," Yohei Kono told reporters. The U.S. Navy acknowledged the violation of the accord, attributing it to "an internal administrative error." But the Navy defended its safety record and said its ships pose no environmental hazards. The port call has inflamed tensions between Japan and the U.S. military in the wake of a series of crimes linked to American bases here and the collision of a U.S. submarine and a Japanese fishing vessel off Hawaii that killed nine Japanese. 'Shake the trust' Sasebo City Mayor Akira Mitsutake called the Chicago's port call an "act of bad faith." It was the first port entry to violate the U.S.-Japan pact, he said. Sasebo port is used jointly by the U.S. Seventh Fleet and Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces. Prefectural officials have said that more U.S. nuclear subs are visiting Japanese ports after giving less than 24 hours notice. In Sasebo alone, it has happened five times in the last three years. Sensitivities towards even nuclear-powered vessels run high in Japan -- the only country ever to have experienced the devastation of a nuclear attack. In this case, sensitivities have been exacerbated by the recent collision between the USS Greeneville and the Ehime Maru. Sasebo is a port that is used jointly by the U.S. Seventh Fleet and Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces. The U.S. Embassy had no immediate comment. Hideo Sawada, mayor of Yokosuka city, warned the sub's unannounced port call could unnerve Japanese, particularly in cities that host U.S. troops. Yokosuka, located 45 kilometers (28 miles) southwest of Tokyo, is the site of a U.S. Naval base. Nearly 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan under a joint security treaty. Reuters contributed to this report. ***************************************************************** 8 International Nuclear Traffic a "Global Threat" Russia Today - SAINT PETERSBURG, Apr 3, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) The illegal traffic of nuclear and other radioactive materials is developing into a global threat and requires a coordinated effort to stamp it out, international officials said Monday. The head of Russian customs services Nikolai Kravchenko told a conference of Baltic and former Soviet states that more than 500 incidents of illegal transportation of nuclear and radioactive materials across Russian borders were recorded last year. Of these, 80 percent involved materials in transit, while 20 percent involved exported material, he said, warning that the situation was likely to remain unchanged in 2001. Kravchenko noted that China carried more radioactive cargoes into Russia than any other country. A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), William Mikhan, meanwhile called for a consolidated effort by the world community to end the traffic, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. He told participants, including representatives of the European Commission, that the traffic was developing into a threat of global proportions. *((c) 2001 Agence France Presse) ***************************************************************** 9 Blast test site called underused Energy Dept. audit says make it 'as-needed' facility *April 02, 2001* By Glenn Roberts Jr. STAFF WRITER Energy Department investigators have a beef with BEEF, the Big Explosives Experimental Facility at the Nevada Test Site that nuclear lab researchers have used for high-explosives tests. BEEF has been underutilized since it opened in February 1997, according to an audit report released in March by the Energy Department Inspector General's Office. In its first 38 months of operation, BEEF was inactive for 19 months. And only three of the explosives experiments conducted there exceeded the capacity of other Energy Department explosives test facilities, auditors found. "We also determined that in the future, facility utilization might decline even further because potential users of the facility were moving away from larger shots for which the BEEF was designed," the report states. There are about 40 explosives firing facilities in the Energy Department complex. Experiments at BEEF and other sites are intended to validate the effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal in the absence of actual nuclear tests. The full-time operating budget this year for BEEF is $1.3 million, and about $1 million of that budget is for staffing at the facility. The report recommends that BEEF operate on an as-needed basis rather than full-time, which auditors said could save about $500,000 per year.. Managers agreed with the report's recommendations. David Schwoegler, a spokesman at Livermore Lab, said he doubts that the cost savings will be $500,000 for reducing the availability of BEEF. "When they talk about BEEF being available year-round, it doesn't mean that there is a full staff on site. It means they can (conduct an experiment) any day," he said. Generally, BEEF is not staffed unless there is an experiment, he added. Staff for BEEF are drawn from a pool of test site workers and explosives experts from Livermore Lab and the lab's explosives test range near Tracy, Schwoegler said. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory officials first proposed BEEF to conduct large, conventional explosive tests no longer allowed at the lab's own Site 300 test range in the Altamont hills because of a growing population in Tracy. BEEF was approved for experiments using up to the equivalent of 70,000 pounds of explosives. At the time the facility was built, there was a 100-pound limit at Livermore Lab and a 5,000-pound limit at Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico. Two bunkers at the Nevada Test Site, a stretch of desert where weaponeers conducted hundreds of nuclear explosives tests during the Cold War, were renovated for BEEF. Officials at the Energy Department's Nevada Operations Office had not reviewed BEEF since it began operating, the audit also found. "Livermore officials stated that they were sending shots to the BEEF because they wanted to give facility personnel practice and keep equipment calibrated," the report states. Schwoegler said sometimes the lab's facilities are booked and transfers are necessary. 0000.00--->Livermore used BEEF experiments in 1997 to test a shaped explosive charge capable of penetrating 11 feet of high-strength armor steel. But several other high-explosives experiments formerly planned at Livermore and Los Alamos labs suffered "reduced funding, change of focus and new priorities" since BEEF was built, Schwoegler said. In 1991, Livermore Lab completed the $45 million High-Explosives Applications Facility, a contained explosives test building built on lab grounds. And a $50 million Contained Firing Facility is under construction at the lab's Site 300 explosives test site for experiments using up to 132 pounds of explosives. There is a short-term need to use BEEF until the new contained explosives facility is built, Schwoegler said, though "there will be some reduction of BEEF use" once the new firing facility is ready. "Beyond that we can't predict future funding, focus and priorities." NewsChoice.com ***************************************************************** 10 DOE workers assured of payment This story was published Tue, Apr 3, 2001 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer The Department of Energy is committed to meeting deadlines for payments to Cold War workers who fell ill after working at Hanford or other DOE nuclear sites, said Kate Kimpan of the Office of Worker Advocacy. But several of the approximately 400 people who attended a meeting Monday in Richland were skeptical after hearing her comments. "We need something now, not years from now when I die or don't have no nose left," said Ray Samson, a former lineman at Hanford who lost part of his nose to cancer after inhaling radioactive material. "How many more of these people won't be here in a year?" asked former worker Ken Staley. "Since October, I've planted three of them with beryllium, cancer or other (diseases)." There is reason for concern, said Dr. Tim Takaro of the University of Washington's Former Hanford Worker Medical Monitoring Program, which sponsored Monday's free seminar. "I think it's going to be an uphill battle -- bureaucratically and politically," he said. "This is not the same administration that enacted the bill" to compensate nuclear workers for work-related illnesses. The Clinton administration legislation requires the federal government to have forms available July 31 for workers to begin filing claims. However, the Bush administration is considering switching the program from the Labor Department to the Justice Department, where just 14 people now do similar work. Union officials and some political leaders -- including Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. -- believe the switch will cause delays in the program. Takaro said former workers will have to keep pressure on their elected representatives if they want to benefit from the workers' compensation program. Plans call for DOE to provide records of workers' radiation dose histories for all the years worked at nuclear facilities. The program is aimed primarily at those exposed to radiation during the Cold War years, but those who worked earlier or more recently at Hanford also are eligible. Radiation doses for workers who developed cancer would be compared with radiation risk tables to determine the likelihood it was caused by exposure to radiation. More than 30 cancers would be considered, including leukemia and cancers of the thyroid, breast, bone, brain, colon, ovary and stomach. Workers who qualify would receive $150,000 tax-free. If they are deceased, their survivors would receive the money. Payment for lost wages would not be available from the federal government but might be available from the state worker compensation program. Workers would also have future medical expenses covered, including drugs, treatment and transportation, with no co-payment or deductible under the federal program, Kimpan said. However, some workers are worried their dose radiation records are incomplete, leaving them with too little documented exposure to show their cancer was caused by working at Hanford. Policy on how much leeway to allow in compiling dose information will be guided by an advisory board that has not been appointed. Jack Fix of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said Hanford dose records have been validated in a number of research projects. "They are not perfect, but I'm amazed how dang good they are, considering they were done by hand," Fix said. External dose records are available for every worker for every year of Hanford employment, and they give specific numbers rather than just noting they fell below 10 percent of the regulatory limit, he said. However, Takaro said getting accurate dose records for construction workers may be difficult. They may have been in and out of jobs on the Hanford site and not enrolled in the dosimetry program, he said. Also, there were financial incentives for not wearing dosimetry badges when they entered contaminated areas, he said. If their dose got too high, they would no longer be allowed to do that work, he said. The workers' compensation program also would cover berylliosis, caused by exposure to the metal beryllium used at Hanford, and silicosis, caused by exposure during nuclear tests in Nevada and Alaska. Although claims for the federal compensation program cannot be filed yet, workers or their survivors should contact the worker advocacy project to get on its mailing list. The number is 877-447-9756. Former workers also may sign up for free screenings for Hanford-related health problems. Construction workers may call 800-866-9663, and nonconstruction workers can call 800-419-9691. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 11 Radiation claims meeting [SCNmedia (www.SuburbanChicagoNews.com)] By STAFF WRITER Affected workers: Officials to explain compensation process JOLIET — The U.S. Department of Energy will hold a meeting April 18 to explain the compensation procedure for workers and/or family members affected by Cold War-era government work with radioactive materials. The meeting will be at 2 p.m. in the auditorium of The Herald-News, 300 Caterpillar Drive, Joliet. U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Morris, will be the host, and the main speaker will be Kate Kimpan, deputy director of the Office of Worker Advocacy for the U.S. Department of Energy. The compensation package would cover former employees of the Blockson/Olin plant south of Joliet; the William E. Pratt Co., formerly at Cass and Henderson streets in Joliet; and some 2,300 people at the University of Chicago, and later Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont, who worked with the dangerous metal beryllium during atomic bomb research in the 1940s. Kimpan will brief victims and their families about the current status of the DOE program and the claims process. The process is moving quickly because the compensation procedure has to be in place by July 31, said Judy Keating, executive director of a presidential advisory committee set up to oversee the compensation package. President Clinton in December signed an executive order expediting a compensation package already approved by Congress in the fall. That package provided a lump-sum payment of $150,000 to the workers or their survivors, as well as medical benefits for the former workers. New legislation proposed a month later by then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and former Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman would give workers a choice of the lump-sum $150,000 payment or compensation for lost wages due to illness. Both sets of legislation include the payment of medical expenses. The proposed amendments also include an appeals process. If the amendments are approved by Congress, workers dissatisfied with their compensation package or turned down outright would be able to appeal the decision. Weller noted that the current compensation package and the proposed amendments cover only those employees who worked at the plants during the times of the government contracts. Dozens of workers at the now-closed Blockson Chemical plant, later Olin, at Patterson near Brandon roads, were exposed to uranium they extracted under a secret government weapons contract from 1952 to 1962. Workers at the former Pratt company were involved in grinding uranium rods for nuclear fuel. Scores of workers at Argonne and Blockson/Olin believed for years their cancers and other physical ailments were caused by their exposure to the radioactive materials. But it wasn't until early last year that the federal government admitted that more than 10,000 workers at some 200 private companies nationwide would have been exposed unknowingly as the companies had secret contracts with the government. Weller noted that the former employees or their survivors need only show that they or their loved ones worked at the plants during the times of the government contracts. It will be the burden of the government to show that the cancers and other diseases the victims suffered could not be traced to their secret government work. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will develop guidelines for the Department of Labor to determine whether a cancer is likely to be related to a worker's occupational exposure to radiation. Guidelines also will be set to establish methods to estimate worker exposure to radiation and to develop estimates for those who have applied for compensation. Keating said DOE will set up field offices to handle claims, but they haven't decided the exact locations. Another DOE spokesman said that one office would likely be set up fairly close to Argonne because of the large number of former employees affected there. Kimpan will give out information on the process, but won't take any claims, Keating said. The forms haven't even been printed yet, she added. But the compensation package has generated a lot of interest since it was first proposed last fall. "We've had 20,000 calls (nationwide) to our hotline," she said. That number is (877) 447-9756. Weller said those interested could also call his Joliet office at (815) 740-2028 to register for the claim or for more information on the April 18 information session at The Herald News. U.S. Rep Judy Biggert, R-Hinsdale, said constituents, especially those affected by the beryllium contamination, could call her office at (630) 655-2052. Those interested also can call up the DOE Web site at . The Herald News also has a link on its Web site that lists past stories and pictures dealing with the uranium/beryllium contamination. That address is: www.suburbanchicagonews.com/ heraldnews/focus/. The issue was originally brought to light by a series of USA Today articles released last fall. Assistant City Editor Nick Reiher can be reached at (815) 729-6050 or via e-mail at nreiher@scn1.com. ***************************************************************** 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. 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