***************************************************************** 03/05/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.58 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 ANALYSIS - Power games over German "green" energy boast 2 Bulgaria sacks head of nuclear watchdog 3 UPDATE - Nuclear fuel train derails in Scotland 4 Workers evacuated in French nuclear plant alert 5 UPDATE - Dutch police arrest 16 at two nuclear waste protests 6 British Energy has nuclear plans 7 Envirocare Warns of Employment Freeze 8 Greens blast developed countries for energy double-talk 9 New Party stalwart to join Cabinet 10 Finding a resting place for radioactive materials 11 Nuclear trains face new probe 12 Nevadans put more heat on Bush over Yucca safety rules NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 EU RUSSIAN "DISARMAMENT" FUNDING COULD INCREASE RUSSIAN STOCKS OF 2 Scrapping of nuclear munition needs global control -view 3 Piketon's new hope : Bush administration pumps in $126 million 4 Security panel to decide on minimum N-deterrence ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 ANALYSIS - Power games over German "green" energy boast March 5, 2001 BERLIN - Germany's boast of being a world leader in environmentally clean power faces a critical test in coming days as a dispute over a central plank of its energy policy is slugged out at ministerial level. At stake is not only the peace within the ruling coalition - where the issue is a matter of honour for junior partners the Greens - but also whether Germany can meet commitments to halt global warming and thus continue pressing others to do the same. Convinced that proposals forcing them to convert more plant to "green" energy would entail huge costs, the country's largest power firms - which the government has already committed to a gradual withdrawal from nuclear power - want their say. "There is a very wide spectrum of views to be heard in the political debate about this," said Klaus Wertel, a spokesman for leading power firm Energie Baden Wuerttemberg AG. "It's still too early to see which way it will go." PUSH TO REPLACE NUCLEAR Knowing that it would sooner or later have to replace the one third of its power needs currently covered by nuclear plants, the government resolved last year to accelerate moves to promote various environmentally-friendly energy forms. At the centre of this push was a draft agreement to use a "quota system or similar mechanism" to boost the amount of electricity produced by combined heat and power (CHP) plants, which can trap much of the vast heat generated in energy production and convert it into additional power. The push for more CHP plants - currently accounting for a modest 12 percent of energy needs - is seen as critical to Germany meeting its ambitious target of 2005 for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the "greenhouse" gas seen as a main cause of global warming, by 25 percent from 1990 levels. But a final decision originally due by the end of last year on whether industry should be forced - or merely encouraged - to build the plants instead fell prey to a cabinet dispute. In one corner, under mounting pressure from Greens party colleagues to get results, is Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, who has declared that the matter should be settled once and for all by a cabinet meeting next Wednesday. In the other is Economics Minister Werner Mueller, a former power industry boss without party affiliation, who was brought in by Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to stiffen his pro-business credentials. Mueller has said industry should have until the end of March to come up with a voluntary scheme. Mueller sides with industry arguments that a quota forcing German power firms to build from scratch new CHP plants or upgrade existing traditional facilities could put them at a huge disadvantage in an energy market that is being deregulated and opened to competition the context of European Union legislation. The quota could furthermore force them to shut existing plants whose start-up costs have already been long written off and are thus operating at supremely favourable profit margins. Trittin has rejected out of hand a proposal outlined by industry purporting to save more than the required amount of CO2 emissions. His aides question the plan's arithmetic and say it double-counts existing commitments. Yet far from pushing industry into an ever more desperate race against time to avoid binding quotas, the delaying tactics some accuse Mueller of employing on behalf of Germany's top utilities appear to be working. GREENS UNDER PRESSURE While it has been strenuously denied by Schroeder's office, one of the chancellor's senior party colleagues has said Schroeder has already expressed to him his opposition to quotas. Despite recent figures showing that Germany's emissions of CO2 actually rose slightly last year, even backers of the quota system appeared resigned to a compromise. "The quota option is certainly not off the table," said Michaele Hustedt, the Greens' parliamentary energy spokeswoman. "But there are other possibilities, such as using existing arrangements subsidising renewable energies." Such an instrument - which would establish a premium for CHP-based electricity that grid operators would have to pay to producers - might prove more acceptable for industry. But energy experts note that while such a mechanism would be easier to introduce, it does not offer the same guarantee as a legally enforceable quota that generation targets will be met. "We've seen in the Netherlands an attempt to promote green energy through voluntary targets established by an industry federation. They have not been fulfilled," said Wolfgang Braeuer of the Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim. That, fear environmentalists, could undermine Germany's claim to being the world leader in CO2 reduction with the 15 percent cut it has already achieved since 1990. The moral cudgel it has employed at previous environment conferences to encourage others down the same path would then be gone, embarrassing when a new round of global talks on cutting greenhouse gas emission starts in Germany, in Bonn, in July. It would also look bad for Germany's Greens, who despite having clinched the gradual exit from nuclear fuel and a set of new "eco-tax" levies on certain fuels, have disappointed many of their voters with their debut in government. They already face outrage among supporters that Germany will in a few weeks restart nuclear waste shipments suspended since a radiation scare in 1998. With regional elections in the affected areas later this month, and a general election in about 18 months time, pressure to end the waiting game is growing. "We need a fair and reasonable compromise," said the Greens' Hustedt. "Schroeder must intervene now. Story by Mark John REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 2 Bulgaria sacks head of nuclear watchdog BULGARIA: March 5, 2001 SOFIA - Bulgaria's government said last week it had sacked Georgi Kaschiev, the head of the country's nuclear watchdog for impeding the operations of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. Other reasons included interference in the work of the Bulgarian Atomic Energy Committee's (BAEC) inspection for safe usage of atomic energy, the government said in a statement. The deputy chairman of BAEC Robert Popits was appointed to replace Kaschiev. In September, environment minister Evdokia Maneva demanded Kaschiev's resignation over what she called wrong information of increased radiation after an incident at a 440-megawatt reactor at Kozloduy. Maneva said the national system, monitoring the territory of the whole country and the plant's territory, had not shown increased radiation. Kaschiev stuck to his statement and refused to resign. In an interview with a local newspaper Kaschiev said after the incident that radiation near the reactor was up 70-80 times above the normal level and two workers had been affected. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 3 UPDATE - Nuclear fuel train derails in Scotland March 5, 2001 EDINBURGH - A freight train carrying empty spent nuclear fuel flasks jumped the tracks near Edinburgh on Friday although no-one was hurt in the low-speed derailment, British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) said. "No-one has been injured and there has been absolutely no damage to any of the flasks which have remained upright," BNFL said in a statement. Two freight wagons derailed in the accident which happened near the Torness Power Station around 20 miles (30 km) east of the Scottish capital. Only one of them was carrying the heavily protected nuclear fuel casks. BNFL, the state-owned operator of Britain's nuclear power stations, said it had put emergency procedures into place purely as a precautionary measure. Emergency services at the scene were also monitoring radiation levels. The derailment came two days after a head-on collision on the same Scotland to London east coast main line between a coal train and a passenger express at Great Heck in northern England, which left at least 13 dead and 70 injured. The north Yorkshire crash appeared to be a freak accident, caused by a Land Rover and trailer which slid off a motorway onto the tracks. Rail network operator Railtrack said the Torness derailment had reduced mainline rail services to just one track, but should only cause minor disruption as the freight train appeared to be turning into a railway siding at the time. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 4 Workers evacuated in French nuclear plant alert FRANCE: March 5, 2001 PARIS - More than 130 workers at a French nuclear power plant were evacuated after a radioactivity alert on Friday, but none of the people nor the surrounding area were contaminated, the state-owned EdF power company said. "It's nothing serious. It's not an incident that goes into the...international register of nuclear risks," a spokeswoman at the company, Electricite de France, said. "Everything gets back to normal tomorrow." The incident took place at a reactor during maintenance at the Cattenom nuclear plant outside the northeastern town of Thionville, near the borders with Germany and Luxembourg. "At 1050 this morning (0950 GMT) the radioactivity counters sounded off," the spokeswoman said. "We immediately evacuated the 131 people who were working there. At 1430 we measured radioactivity levels again and there was no longer anything. "There's no trace of contamination," she said. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 5 UPDATE - Dutch police arrest 16 at two nuclear waste protests NETHERLANDS: March 5, 2001 OOST-VLISSINGEN, Netherlands - Dutch police arrested 16 environmentalists on Thursday at two separate anti-nuclear protests which delayed waste shipments to processing plants in France and Britain. Nine people from the activist group Omkruit were arrested after blocking railway tracks and delaying the departure of a train carrying spent nuclear fuel from the Borssele nuclear plant to a French processing plant at Le Havre. The protesters had climbed inside oil barrels on the tracks and used specially designed devices to lock their arms together. "We have a special unit to deal with that, and they succeeded (in removing the protesters) in less than an hour," Zeeland police spokesman Jan van Mourick said. Seven Greenpeace members were arrested at a separate protest when they attempted to block a road to prevent a truck carrying spent nuclear fuel rods from the defunct Dodewaard plant from reaching the port at Vlissingen. That truck reached the port after the protesters were cleared from the road, police said. The fuel was destined for the British Nuclear Fuel processing centre at Sellafield. In January, Greenpeace protesters delayed train shipments of spent nuclear fuel from Borssele to Le Havre. Greenpeace did not take part in Thursday's railtrack occupation because a court ruled last month it had no legal right to block shipments to France, it said. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 6 British Energy has nuclear plans ISSUE 2110 Monday 5 March 2001 By Sophie Barker BRITISH Energy, the nuclear electricity generator, is making plans to replace its existing portfolio with nuclear, rather than gas-fired, plant. The move, which would have been unthinkable a year ago, follows a near-trebling in wholesale gas prices in the last six months, on the back of soaring oil prices and worries over Britain's dwindling North Sea gas supplies and over global warming. It comes three months after Robin Jeffrey, British Energy's outspoken chairman designate, called for a "nuclear renaissance", in a bid to open up a public debate on the issue. British Energy is keen to maintain its 25pc share of the generation market and may have to decide on whether to replace some of its current plant with gas or nuclear stations in the next five years. The company's oldest advanced gas-cooled reactors, at Hunterston in Scotland and Hinkley, Somerset, are due to close in 2011, after a life extension. However, British Energy could get a further life extension on both plants. A spokesman for British Energy said: "Nuclear is certainly an option for the future. A lot will depend on the financial and political frameworks developing over the next few years". Nuclear stations are more expensive to build than their gas-fired counterparts, although they last longer. British Energy would need political support and the development of an advanced emissions trading market in order to proceed with a new nuclear build programme. The new stations would also have to be approved by regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. © Copyrightof Telegraph Group Limited2000. Terms & Conditionsof reading. Commercial information. Privacy Policy. Information about www.telegraph.co.uk. ***************************************************************** 7 Envirocare Warns of Employment Freeze The Salt Lake Tribune -- Monday, March 5, 2001* THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Envirocare is facing employment cutbacks because of a new state tax on low-level radioactive waste, the company's president said in an internal memo. In the March 1 memo, Envirocare President Charles Judd says the tax, the result of a negotiated compromise between his firm and legislators, will slash his company's profits and cut yet-to-be-filled jobs at the company. Judd said he doesn't expect any current employees to lose their jobs, although he said the company will re-evaluate the situation in the future. The Legislature approved the tax on Wednesday, the last day of the 2001 session. The measure is awaiting Gov. Mike Leavitt's signature. The bill levies a tax of 5 percent to 12 percent on disposal contracts, depending on the type of low-level radioactive waste the Tooele County-based dump accepts. It also affects International Uranium Corp., which has a uranium-processing mill in San Juan County. As a direct result of the new tax, Judd wrote in the memo, "we will now need to cut back on our numbers here at Envirocare. As of today, there are 266 positions at Envirocare with 28 open positions. For the time being, we will take our cutbacks in the open positions and not in laying off current employees." Neither Judd nor lawmakers knew exactly how much revenue would be generated by the tax, since it only affects new contracts and not those already held by Envirocare. However, the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jeff Alexander, R-Orem, has said the tax was primarily intended to make a statement, not to make money for the state. "What we are really trying to do is send a message: If people want to dump their waste in Utah, they should pay a fee," Alexander said. Envirocare executives hammered out an agreement with Alexander and other legislators in the last week of the session. Alexander's original bill would have netted $34 million in state taxes. ***************************************************************** 8 Greens blast developed countries for energy double-talk - 3/4/2001 - ENN.com Sunday, March 4, 2001 By Robin Pomeroy Developed countries are giving polluting fuels such as coal, oil and nuclear energy at least 10 times as much subsidy as they put into renewables like wind and solar energy, green groups said on Saturday. Environmental campaigners issued a blistering attack on G8 countries, meeting in Italy this weekend, accusing them of propping up polluting industries and failing to help new, clean technologies. According to data gathered by Greenpeace, the European Union ploughed $10 billion into fossil fuels and $5 billion into nuclear energy in 1997, compared with just $1.5 billion on renewables. In the United States, renewable energies receive an even smaller share of government energy funding, the groups said. In the 50 years to 1998, fossil fuels and nuclear energy received $111.5 billion in federal subsidies. Renewables, excluding large hydro projects which have their own environmental disadvantages, took just $5 billion, a Friends of the Earth survey found. "Governments need to put their money where their mouths are," World Wild Fund for Nature's Jennifer Morgan told Reuters. "There really is no excuse for G8 governments not to have a significant proportion of their energy generated from renewables." U.N. scientists say gases from energy use are contributing to a projected increase in average temperatures of up to six degrees Celsius over the next 100 years. Such global warming would have disastrous consequences on humans and wildlife. As G8 environment ministers met behind closed doors to discuss how to fight climate change, green groups said a switch of funds to renewables, which do not produce emissions, was key. "Without enhanced support in G8 and other industrialized country markets, renewables will not be able to reach the production levels necessary to drive costs to an affordable level for mass markets in the south," the groups said in a statement. The G8 countries should take the lead and promise to convert at least 20 percent of their energy consumption to renewables by 2010, the groups said. By contrast, the EU gets about six percent of its energy from renewables and plans to double this by 2010, EU figures show. Such a move would make economic as well as environmental sense, Greenpeace campaigner Steve Sawyer said. "If governments lead the way by shifting subsidies away from fossil fuels to renewables it would happen very quickly and a lot of people would make a lot of money and more new jobs would be created than by opening up new oil fields in the Amazon or Alaska," Sawyer told Reuters. The industrialized world also needs to alter the finance available to energy projects in developing countries through institutions such as export credit agencies and the World Bank to ensure they switch from traditional schemes into renewables, they said. The World Bank spends 25 times more on fossil fuels than it does on clean energies, Friends of the Earth said. The G8 has set up a task force of senior business people to look at ways of boosting renewable energies. The group will report to a G8 summit in Genoa in July. Copyright 2001, Reuters ***************************************************************** 9 New Party stalwart to join Cabinet The Taipei Times Online: 2001-03-05 March 5th, 2001 RESHUFFLE: Though he says his ideals are radically opposed to those of the DPP, Hau Lung-bin has accepted a key position as head of the Environmental Protection Administration By Lin Chieh-yu STAFF REPORTER New Party convener Hau Lung-bin (°qÀsÙy) yesterday agreed to join the DPP government as head of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), to replace Lin Jun-yi (ªL«T¸q), who was asked to step down for bungling the cleanup of a recent oil spill in southern Taiwan. Hau, a legislator and head of the New Party's Central Policymaking Committee, said that though his political stance and ideology were at odds with the DPP's, he would join the Cabinet to prove that the New Party "really loves Taiwan." "I told the premier and the president that I will not change my political stance on issues such as [Taiwan's] statehood and cross-strait policy ..." *Hau Lung-bin* "President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó) has told me that he will respect my ideals and allow me to comment freely, even through my remarks may be wildly different from those of other DPP Cabinet members," Hau said. Hau was invited by Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (±i«T¶¯) to discuss the issue on Friday and then met with Chen on Saturday. "I told the premier and the president that I will not change my political stance on issues such as [Taiwan's] statehood and cross-strait policy, to satisfy the DPP's ideology [on advocating independence]" Hau said. "I also told them that I will consistently support the continued construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and that I will oppose a plebiscite on the issue ... unless the Legislative Yuan passes a [referendum] law," Hau said. Hau, whose party is ardently unificationist and has in recent years become little more than a mouthpiece for Beijing, said that the president promised to give him free rein as the new EPA chief. "The New Party has consistently voiced its concern for Taiwan's environmental protection and now I can realize my party's ideals through this opportunity," Hau said. Hau was asked to join the Cabinet when the DPP took power in May, but he refused an invitation from then-premier Tang Fei (­ð­¸). Hau said previously that if he took over as head of the EPA, he would have to resign as convener within the New Party and give up his seat in the legislature. Meanwhile, the premier yesterday continued to consult with close advisors and the president to decide a final list of names for the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle. "The heads of the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) and National Science Council (NSC) will be replaced," said a senior aide to the president, who refused to be named. The source added that Wei Che-he (ÃQ­õ©M), vice president of National Chiao Tung University, was tipped to replace Weng Cheng-i (¯Î¬F¸q) as the new NSC head, while a possible new chairman for the AEC could be current Minister Without Portfolio Hu Chin-piao (­JÀA¼Ð). "As to whether to nominate a new education minister to succeed Ovid Tzeng (´¿§Ó®Ô) and a new head for the Council for Economic Planning and Development, no firm decision has been made yet," said another source from the Presidential Office. This story has been viewed 607 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/03/05/story/0000076212] Copyright © 1999-2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 Finding a resting place for radioactive materials The Taipei Times Online: 2001-03-05 March 5th, 2001 NUCLEAR WASTE: Concerns over environmental damage and lax safety standards at a proposed nuclear waste repository in Kinmen County remain unanswered By Chiu Yu-Tzu STAFF REPORTER A decision by the Cabinet in mid-February to resume halted construction of the Foruth Nuclear Power Plant (®Ö¥|) has temporarily silenced a political brouhaha but longstanding concerns over environmental damage, insufficient safety precautions and radioactive waste disposal remain unaddressed. This week the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) will hold a meeting to review Taipower's proposal to build a final repository for low-level radioactive waste in Wuchiu township (¯QËú¶m), Kinmen County and its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). "...In terms of ecology, national security, and nuclear safety, the report has to be revised heavily, if it is not rejected." *Yang Chao-yueh, Environmental Impact Assesment committee member* However, environmentalists and experts who have already seen the report are skeptical, saying there are many questions that Taipower has yet answer. Uncertain solutions Disposal of nuclear waste has long been a difficult question for Taipower, which operates Taiwan's three plants. It is estimated that there have been about 300,000 barrels of radioactive waste produced by Taipower, including around 100,000 barrels in Orchid Island (ÄõÀ¬), awaiting disposal. Since June in 1998, Taipower has carried out a primary survey of geological and environmental conditions of Hsiaochiu Islet (¤pËúÀ¬), a 0.6km2 islet of Kinmen island's Wuchiu township. Taipower has also spent seven years searching for nuclear waste dumps overseas and domestically, but each attempt has failed due to strong local opposition from residents. On the islet, there are fewer than ten residents living in the island's only village. The island is so small that sometimes the surf reaches resident's homes. The islet, currently controlled by the Ministry of National Defense, has been regarded as a perfect disposal site for nuclear waste because of its remoteness from Taiwan. And with only 10 residents, local opposition is seemingly of little concern. The possible future home of at least one million barrels of low-level radioactive waste, according to the report, will be actually under granite rock, more than 50m beneath the seabed. But "in terms of ecology, national security, and nuclear safety, the report has to be revised heavily, if it is not rejected by the EIA committee," Yang Chao-yueh (·¨»F©¨), one of EIA committee members, told the *Taipei Times.* According to Taipower's idea included in the EIA report, all low-level nuclear waste will be stored at the repository with the radioactive waste from hospitals and research institutions. To build the repository in Wuchiu, Taipower has found an ideal model to copy from -- the Swedish Final Repository. The repository, hewn from 430,000m3 of granite rock 50m beneath the Gulf of Bothnia's seabed, is operated by Svensk Karnbranslehantering AB, a Swedish nuclear fuel and waste management company. The repository, the world's first operating geological repository for low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste, is located at a spot off Sweden's rocky Baltic coast 160km north of Stockholm. The under-seabed facility near the Forsmark nuclear station was regarded by scientists as one of the most advanced facilities in the world when it opened in 1988, and was first presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency's International Symposium on Management of Low- and Intermediate-Level Radioactive Wastes convened in Stockholm. Yang, who is also an oceanography professor at National Taiwan University, said that it was uncertain that the Swedish technology, which is suitable for the frigid zone, could be used in tropical areas. "Meanwhile, they seem to forget a threatening factor -- earthquakes," said Yang, adding that this was one of big differences between Sweden and Taiwan. In addition, Yang said, Taipower has failed to pay attention to the negative impact on the marine environment that may be caused by the establishment of a repository. "I see some areas of the report that don't make sense. For example, Taipower said the coverage rate of living coral is 50 percent but that only four kinds of fish live in the waters," Yang said. A high coverage rate of vulnerable living coral implies that the waters are suitable for fish. Using Pingtung County's Nanwan («nÆW) coral reserve as an example, Yang said that there are more than 1,000 kinds of fish living there. So is Taipower mistaken about the coral, the fish, or both? Either way, questions remain. Then there is the national security aspect. Yang said that though the islet was close to China's Fujian Province, it did not discuss China's possible reaction to the facility's construction. Yang also said Taipower's pre-treatment of radioactive waste was questionable. "In 1997, experts with Greenpeace, invited by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, found leaking at the dump on Orchid Island," Yang said. Officials of the Atomic Energy Commission, however, claimed that since 1986 no radioactive waste water had leaked at the site. Yang said 11 out of 15 EIA committee members appointed by outgoing EPA head Lin Jun-yi (ªL«T¸q), who has been against nuclear energy for decades, were not happy with the report. Political struggles, however, might affect the future of the repository in Wuchiu. Alleged administrative problems involved in a recent oil spill in southern Taiwan have forced Lin out of the EPA and the new head, Hau Lung-bin (°qÀsÙy), may have a different approach toward the assesment. Foreign Rejection As Taiwanese anti-nuclear activists protested against the resumption of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant last month, their counterparts in South Korea were fighting against turning some areas of the Korean peninsular into a nuclear repository. What particularly worries both ruling and opposition parties is a plan for Taiwan to ship nuclear waste to North Korea. According to the *Korea Times*, both parties joined forces to urge Taiwan to reverse its plan. In Taiwan political figures have shown much less concern about the environment and more on political stability and economic prosperity, the reasons cited by Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (±i«T¶¯) on Feb. 14 for the resumption of construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. If the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is to go ahead after all, however, solving Taiwan's nuclear waste disposal problem becomes all the more pressing. Huang Huei-yu (¶À´f¤©), a division head of Taipower's public affairs department, told the *Taipei Times* that the export of radioactive waste to North Korea was still uncertain. The status of Taipower's contract with North Korea in 1997 is still unchanged. "Taipower will not prepare for shipping the waste to North Korea unless we are notified that construction [of the facilities] has been completed and an operational license issued," Huang said. This story has been viewed 256 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/03/05/story/0000076231] Copyright © 1999-2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Nuclear trains face new probe The Greater London Assembly is launching a committee today to investigate safety concerns surrounding rail transportation of radioactive waste through the capital. Trains loaded with spent fuel from three nuclear power stations in the South-East regularly cross London, bound for British Nuclear Fuel's Sellafield plant in Cumbria. They pass through several boroughs, including West Hampstead, Islington, Hackney, Newham, Hammersmith and Fulham, Wandsworth, Lambeth and Bromley. Part loads of nuclear waste are regularly stored at marshalling yards in Willesden. The new Radioactive Waste Trains Investigative Committee will hear evidence from BNFL and Railtrack as well as representatives from local community groups before putting a report on its findings before the GLA in the summer. The committee's foundation comes only three days after a train carrying spent nuclear fuel flasks derailed as it arrived at Torness power station in Scotland. © Associated Newspapers Ltd., 05 March 2001 ***************************************************************** 12 Nevadans put more heat on Bush over Yucca safety rules March 05, 2001 By Benjamin Grove LAS VEGAS SUN WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials are putting more pressure on the Bush administration to allow the Environmental Protection Agency, not the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to set safety rules for Yucca Mountain. Rep. Shelley Berkley sent a letter today to Bush urging him to back the EPA in a standoff the agency has with the NRC over radiation release levels for the planned nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "I respectfully request that you deny the DOE and NRC lobbying efforts and continue to advocate the EPA's authority in setting these types of public health regulations," Berkley wrote. Gov. Kenny Guinn also stressed Nevada's stance when he met with EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman last week in Washington. Whitman told Guinn she would stand behind the EPA's standard over that of the NRC, Guinn said. The Department of Energy plans to make Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear waste burial ground for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel as early as 2010. But after years of debate the EPA and NRC are still at odds over just how much radiation the waste could safely release into the environment. The EPA supports a 15 millirem-a-year limit, with a separate four millirem standard for ground water. The NRC says it would be safe to allow 25 millirems of radiation a year to be release, with no separate ground water standard. A typical chest X-ray can range from 5 to 10 millirems. Current law gives the EPA authority to set the standard, although there is pressure in Congress among Yucca backers to use the NRC standard. The EPA's proposal was submitted to the president's Office of Management and Budget on Jan. 19, the day before President Clinton left office, and is undergoing a typical review process that can take several months, an EPA spokeswoman said today. Both the EPA and NRC have lined up scores of documents and scientists who back their stances. A report released by the General Accounting Office in July last year concluded the EPA and NRC "have had long-standing differences, and we question whether their latest efforts will resolve these differences without congressional intervention." There has been "no new progress to date" in resolving the two stances, an NRC spokeswoman said today. Nevada officials prefer the stricter EPA standard. But the EPA rules could be impossibly strict, some Yucca backers say. Berkley called on Bush to stand behind a comment he made at a September campaign stop in Nevada that "the best science must prevail" at the Yucca site. "If you are to follow through on your campaign promises, then the EPA must set the standards," Berkley wrote. Berkley wrote that the NRC "has lost the trust and faith of the people of Nevada in its irrational determination to approve the Yucca Mountain project." Nevada's bipartisan delegation is united on the issue. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., has said he has "every confidence" that the Bush administration ultimately will back the EPA standards, and Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., has made similar statements. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., also has discussed the issue in person with Whitman. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 EU RUSSIAN "DISARMAMENT" FUNDING COULD INCREASE RUSSIAN STOCKS OF WEAPONS-USABLE PLUTONIUM 5 March 2001 Brussels - The European Commission is considering a "disarmament" funding proposal for Russia which will actually increase the country's stocks of weapons-usable plutonium, heighten the risks of nuclear weapons proliferation and cause severe environmental contamination, Greenpeace warned today. A new Russian government document (1), obtained by Greenpeace, reveals plans to use Western disarmament funds to set up a new nuclear reactor programme, known as Fast Breeders, which burn MOX fuel. According to the document the government is considering leasing MOX fuel, made from weapons grade plutonium, to nuclear power plants ".... owned by utilities of Western countries, like Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Japan, which are interested in the process of nuclear disarmament". The document states, that Belgium and Italy "are currently joining" a Russian-French-German agreement on peaceful use of weapons grade plutonium. The consequences of this would be an increase in the amount of Russian weapons-usable plutonium and a major increase in the number of nuclear transports in Western Europe as plutonium MOX fuel is moved from Russia to Western Europe and nuclear waste is returned to Russia after the MOX fuel has been burnt in commercial reactors. European Commission External Affairs, commissioner Chris Patten is setting up a "Unit of Experts" (2) to consider funding the production of mixed oxide plutonium (MOX) reactor fuel, as a way to utilise plutonium taken from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons. The European Union and the G8 group of countries support this option, despite MOX fuel being classified as a "direct-use weapons material" by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A two-day meeting starts in Brussels tomorrow (Tuesday) of the G8 Plutonium Disposition Program Group (PDPG) with participation of the European Union to discuss the financing of the Russian MOX program. Also in Brussels on Thursday another high-ranked meeting of the Non-proliferation and Disarmament Co-operation Initiative (NDCI) with representatives from all EU and all G8 countries as well as Switzerland, Australia and Norway will discuss the financing and in particular the use of MOX fuel in Western countries. On Friday EU and U.S. experts will also meet in Brussels to discuss how to fund the production of MOX fuel in Russia. G8 experts have already identified the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)as the most appropriate funding mechanism. About US$ 100 million of the funding for a US$ 1.9 billion program is expected to come from the EBRD. "This program is a dangerous fraud. As a result of this so-called disarmament initiative, Russia will have more weapons-usable nuclear materials than ever before," said Greenpeace nuclear expert Tobias Muenchmeyer. Last Friday in Moscow Greenpeace revealed confidential documents revealing the large-scale illegal business dealings of Evgeny Adamov, Minister of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom), and demanded his dismissal. "The EU must be mad to throw millions of dollars into Adamov's ministry for a Russian MOX program. There is no guarantee, that this money will not end up on a private Swiss bank account of Minister Adamov." said Tobias Muenchmeyer. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: - Tobias Muenchmeyer +49 30 440 58 960 www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/waste/russianwaste.html Notes to Editors: (1) Presentation by Vice-Minister of Minatom, Valentin Ivanov, to the Russian cabinet on February 8. (2) The unit of experts will begin work in the coming weeks under the "European Union Cooperation Programme for Non-Proliferation and Disarmament in the Russian Federation". (3) The Russian MOX funding discussions in Brussels follow a G8 agreement in Okinawa to agree on a financing plan by the next G8 meeting in Genoa, Italy, on July 20. The G8 decision follows an in principle in September 1998 between U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium (known as plutonium disposition) from their national stockpiles, declared excess to military requirements. A Joint US-Russian Plutonium Disposition Options Study identified two options for plutonium disposition: plutonium disposition by burning in MOX fuel or immobilization of plutonium. Under a September 2000 US-Russian agreement 25 tonnes of the US and 34 tonnes of the Russian excess weapons plutonium is to be 'burned' in nuclear reactors as MOX, while nine tons of the U.S. plutonium is to be immobilized." ***************************************************************** 2 Scrapping of nuclear munition needs global control -view [ITAR/TASS News Agency] Story Filed: Monday, March 05, 2001 11:01 AM EST MOSCOW, March 5 (Itar-Tass) - The process of scrapping nuclear munition requires international control, Professor of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences Major-General Vladimir Belous told Itar-Tass on Monday. He said that the "charges within the warheads can be used once more for making other types of ammunition". The scientist also believes that "all the agreements on the limitation and reduction of strategic armaments stipulate only the scrapping of nuclear weapon carriers". "These agreements describe in detail the procedures for scrapping missiles, missile firing submarines, and heavy bombers, but they do not stipulate similar measures in respect to nuclear warheads and their destruction under reciprocal control," Belous stressed. He noted that the cooperation of democratic nations to promote ecological security, including the process of nuclear disarmament, would help enhance the world community's safety on a global scale". kli/ (c) 1996-2001 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. y ***************************************************************** 3 Piketon's new hope : Bush administration pumps in $126 million *Monday, March 5, 2001* Ohio and Gov. Bob Taft played an important role in helping George W. Bush into the presidency, and that assistance surely helped spur the reprieve granted last week to the Piketon uranium-enrichment plant. The plant will receive nearly $126 million, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced, temporarily preserving about 1,200 jobs at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant through September 2002. Its fate beyond that will be decided by two task forces examining national energy and defense policies. The financial infusion from the Bush administration helps provide some hope for a viable future at the plant -- hope that is desperately needed in poverty-plagued southern Ohio. But the dark side of hope, unfortunately, is uncertainty. And in an impoverished region, uncertainty breeds anxiety. Without firm answers on the plant's future beyond next year, workers understandably are worried about how long they'll be employed. As it is, about 525 people will lose their jobs this year. Not that anxiety is anything new for workers at the plant. Hundreds of jobs already have been lost since the plant was privatized in 1998. And, as The Dispatch has said many times, employees there have been treated abominably by the very government for whom they worked -- helping to construct the nation's nuclear arsenal by producing weapons- grade uranium -- and by whom they were made ill, unknowingly handling plutonium secretly laced into the uranium. Some are optimistic that the Bush administration's review of U.S. energy needs will demonstrate the value of the plant, which prepares uranium for use in commercial nuclear-power plants. Clearly, Taft understands the plant's value and is willing to go to bat for the deserving people who work there. He joins Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, whose district includes Piketon, as a much-needed advocate for this region. The Bush administration would be wise to listen. Copyright © 2001, The Columbus Dispatch ***************************************************************** 4 Security panel to decide on minimum N-deterrence Monday, March 5, 2001 NEW DELHI, March 4 (PTI) The crucial report of the three heads of the armed forces, who are members of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, will be presented to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), headed by Prime Minister Vajpayee, which will take a decision on the creation of a minimum but credible nuclear deterrence structure for land, air and sea-based forces, sources said. The GoM, which reviewed the entire security set up in the wake of the Kargil conflict and submitted its 137-page report to the Prime Minister last week, is believed to have suggested the creation of a new Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) post to command nuclear forces and ensure greater coordination of the security apparatus. The CDS will report directly to the Defence Minister and would also serve as a key adviser on military issues to the Government. The GoM is also believed to have recommended that the post of National Security Adviser (NSA) should be a permanent one. The NSA should head a national intelligence board, it is understood to have been recommended but a final decision on the issue has been left to the Prime Minister. The GoM, headed by Home Minister L K Advani, comprised Defence Minister George Fernandes, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra. The GoM, which was set up on April 17 last year and had held 27 meetings to finalise its recommendations, is also understood to have given wide-ranging recommendations on revamping the intelligence gathering machinery consisting of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence. The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is currently under the Cabinet Secretariat while IB reports to the Union Home Ministry. The report, which would now go to the CCS, is also believed to have suggested the setting up of a defence intelligence committee headed by a Lieutenant General or his equivalent in the other two services to analyse information and data received from various agencies. It is also understood to have called for strengthening the Coast Guard and for deployment of high-tech equipment. It also recommended fencing for preventing infiltration and smuggling. The GoM had considered the recommendations of the four Task Forces on Intelligence Apparatus, Internal Security, Border Management and Defence Management set up by the Centre following submission of the report of the Kargil Review Committee headed by defence analyst K Subrahmanyam which had reviewed the events leading to the Pakistani aggression in Kargil in 1999. The GoM also dealt with recommendations of the Task Force On Defence Management on changes in the existing organisations and structures "in the emerging security scenario having regard to the nuclearised environment". It is believed to have suggested methods to bring about Improvements in the procurement process of the Defence Ministry and to make them cost-effective. Similarly, the Task Force on Intelligence Apparatus had recommended detailed measures for greater coordination and cooperation among the myriad of agencies, including civil and military, especially in view of the observations made in the Kargil Committee report. It had also recommended several steps to strengthen the system of information exchange among these agencies. The Task Forces on Border Management and Internal Security considered the existing threat perceptions regarding cross-border terrorism, operations of militant outfits, infiltration of arms and drug smugglers and recommended number of steps to deal with the situation. © Copyright, 1999 The Printers (Mysore)Ltd. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************