***************************************************************** 05/05/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.109 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Las Vegas SUN: Energy considers new design for nuclear waste dump 2 A retreat on 'stewardship?' 3 TVA ordered to pay damages to whistleblower 05/04/01 4 Few knew Cabell plant's role Report says company didn't know 5 Nuclear power comes 'clean' in ad campaign 6 W.House Energy Report Stirs Industry, Greens to Act 7 NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE: Group: Yucca viable for... 8 Experts Join Bill Nye for Energy Tech. Press Conference 9 Pencils sharpened for Plant No. 1 study 10 N-plant set to go offline for refueling 11 Nuclear plant dismantling halted for removal of rods 12 Limiting uranium in water could be costly 13 Nuclear body to check city smog levels 14 UPDATE - Czech Temelin plant to shutdown for two months 15 Feds Consider Redesign Of Yucca Nuclear Site 16 Chirac targets green voters with "ecology charter" 17 MAP International and the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund 18 `Not-in-my-back-yard' is big obstacle to new energy resources 19 Old Fuels and Poor Policy 20 Review panel rules in favor of former TVA worker NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 DOE hikes in-lieu-of-tax money 2 Sick workers' office to open in OR 3 Chao says compensation program should be up soon 4 SRS claim office will be open June 15 5 2 Anti-Nuclear Activists Sentenced 6 Bush seeks to create new terrorism office 7 New atomic warfare display at museum 8 Underpaid Nuclear Experts Present Risk, Warns Report - 9 Atomic Energy Commission displays wares at exhibition 10 A thousand billy goats gruff to troll Rocky Flats? 11 Government to open Flats health office ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Las Vegas SUN: Energy considers new design for nuclear waste dump Return to the referring page. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Las Vegas SUN ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 04, 2001 Energy considers new design for nuclear waste dump WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is considering a revamped, cooler design for storing thousands of tons of nuclear waste in Nevada with the changes adding nearly $12 billion to the overall cost of the project. The new design and cost estimates were outlined in a series of documents released Friday by the Energy Department in advance of a recommendation later this year on whether to proceed with the project. The changes address concerns raised more than a year ago by a nuclear waste advisory board that the concentration of waste - more than 70,000 tons - could generate too much heat under previous designs and cause safety problems, especially if water were to contact waste packages. With the changes now being considered the total cost of the project at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert was estimated to be $58 billion, about 26 percent more than estimated only three years ago, and nearly twice the cost given in the early 1990s. About $6.7 billion already has been spent on the project, mostly for scientific studies and construction of an access tunnel at the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is expected to make a recommendation to President Bush toward the end of this year on whether the Yucca Mountain is suitable for burying the nuclear industry's used reactor fuel, which will remain highly radioactive and toxic for thousands of years. The wastes are now stored at reactor sites in 31 states. Critics, including most Nevada officials, have charged that 20 years of scientific study have shown that the location has too many technical problems. Some contend it will never be approved. "There are still many unanswered questions," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., responding to the documents released Friday. "The report clearly demonstrates there is ample scientific basis for making a decision to dispose of used nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain," countered Joe Colvin, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry trade group. The hundreds of pages of new documents make no recommendations on site suitability and contain no scientific bombshells on what has been a decades long effort to find a place to store the used reactor fuel at commercial nuclear power plants. "There are no conclusions drawn from any of these reports as far as the suitability of the site," emphasized DOE spokesman Joe Davis. The department's nuclear waste office will formally determine whether the Yucca Mountain project should proceed later this year with President Bush expected to make a decision probably in early 2002, according to administration officials. But Friday's documents confirmed that after 20 years of study, the scientists are still making substantial changes in their design for the underground repository where 70,000 tons of waste would be kept in end-to-end canisters more than 600 feet below the surface. "The final design has not been chosen and won't be chosen for some time," said Allen Benson, a spokesman for the DOE's Yucca Mountain Project Office in Nevada. But because of concern over heat accumulation from the waste, the department now is considering a variety of measures - including putting waste canisters farther apart - to keep the repository above the boiling point. The latest design, compared to one tentatively recommended in a 1998 interim report, also now includes expensive titanium "drip shields" over the waste canisters to keep away water deposits. Finally, the designers are now considering keeping the repository accessible for possibly as long as 300 years instead of shutting it in shortly after all the wastes are deposited. This provides greater flexibility to deal with unforeseen circumstances, some scientists have argued. Together, these changes have added $11.6 billion (in constant 2000 dollars) to the cost of the project from an estimate given in 1998. The cost, which would total $58 billion for the entire project over a 100-year life cycle, could be even higher if the site were left open longer than 100 years, as is being contemplated, officials said. --- On the Net: Energy Department: http://www.doe.gov -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to the referring page. Las Vegas SUN main page ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Questions or problems? Click here. * All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. * ***************************************************************** 2 A retreat on 'stewardship?' Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:26 p.m. on Friday, May 4, 2001 By Dale McConnaughay Oak Ridger staff While many local government officials are pleased that payments to their jurisdictions in lieu of taxes from the federal government will increase by 15 percent, other local citizens question Washington's commitment to environmental stewardship here. Adding potential insult in injury, they suggest, is that local governments' in-lieu-of-taxes payments may actually come out of environmental cleanup funds designated locally, since the added money is not a new appropriation. "We will not get beyond the problems of annual appropriations until Congress decides we have a problem," Lorene L. Sigal told a gathering of about 15 people gathered at the Oak Ridge City Services Complex Thursday night. Norman Mulvenon, who with Sigal presented the community report "Why Stewardship?" on behalf of the Oak Ridge Site-Specific Advisory Board, said that establishment of a trust fund would be the best way to assure that adequate funds for environmental cleanup remain available. Susan L. Gawarecki, executive director of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, noted that funding for environmental management in fiscal year 2002 appears to be flat compared to 2001. But, she added, "the devil is hiding in the details." She noted, for example, that the Oak Ridge Reservation stands to lose over $90 million in cleanup money for fiscal year 2002. Sigal said it is up to each resident to "assume responsibility for assuring that stewardship is protected." She compared environmental stewardship to road maintenance or other public works endeavors undertaken by government. And while that commitment is ongoing, she did emphasize that with the amount of monitoring and oversight that takes place in Oak Ridge, it is very likely a safer place than many other communities. "It isn't what The Tennessean would have you believe," she said in a swipe at a series of environmental gloom stories published a couple years ago in the Nashville newspaper which cast Oak Ridge in a negative light. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 3 TVA ordered to pay damages to whistleblower 05/04/01 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:58 p.m. on Friday, May 4, 2001 CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- A federal review board has awarded compensatory damages to a Tennessee Valley Authority whistleblower who lost his job after raising safety concerns at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. The Labor Department review board ordered TVA to pay $50,000 in damages and court costs to Curtis Overall of Cleveland, Tenn. Board members, in an order signed Monday, said they found ample evidence to support an administrative law judge's findings of "a coverup by TVA in order to facilitate the fuel load and start up at Watts Bar." In 1995, Overall was removed from his job overseeing the ice condenser system at Watts Bar when he found 171 broken screws at the bottom of the condenser system. His request to inspect the problem was dismissed by superiors, who were trying to start the plant after 20 years of construction. A judge sided with Overall in 1998 and ruled TVA discriminated and schemed against him. Monday's decision upheld that ruling. Overall, who was reinstated at TVA and received back pay, has left the agency over allegations TVA officials still were retaliating against him. That complaint is still pending before an administrative law judge. TVA: www.tva.gov U.S. Labor Department: www.dol.gov All Contents.©Copyright *The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 4 Few knew Cabell plant's role Report says company didn't know about factory Charleston Daily Mail By The Associated Press Friday May 04, 2001; 12:31 PM HUNTINGTON -- Special Metals Corp. officials did not know when the company bought a plant two years ago that it had once contained a nuclear fuel preparation factory, according to a published report. Special Metals bought Inco Alloys International from Inco Ltd. in October of 1998. "This issue was not disclosed at the time," T. Grant John, president of Special Metals, said in a letter to the Huntington-Herald Dispatch. Because the federal government required employees to sign secrecy agreements, few people in Huntington knew that the Inco. property had contained the government-owned Reduction Pilot Plant. From 1952 to 1963 the plant produced nickel carbonyl powder for use at uranium enrichment plants. At least twice in the 1960s, Inco printed brochures showing site maps for its Huntington works, and both times the maps omitted the Reduction Pilot Plant, leaving only a blank area between the maintenance building and the service center where the plant should have been. Documents obtained by The Herald-Dispatch show some nickel that had been contaminated with enriched uranium was sent back to the Reduction Pilot Plant for reprocessing. The plant was demolished and buried in 1979. A check of the property after the demolition showed no residual radiation. Enough workers may have been exposed to radiation, however, that the Department of Energy has included the Reduction Pilot Plant on its list of factories whose workers would be covered by the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. The federal program compensating former atomic weapons workers for radiation- related cancer specifies that the employees cancer was at least "as likely as not" related to the employment. A memo dated Nov. 14, 1979, reviews the history of the plant. The Reduction Pilot Plant was built by the Atomic Energy Commission, now known as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in 1951. The Reduction Pilot Plant was built on about four acres of federally owned land surrounded entirely by facilities owned and operated by International Nickel Co., now known as Inco Ltd. After the plant closed, Inco maintained it in a cold standby condition. The Department of Energy eventually decided it no longer needed to keep the Reduction Pilot Plant standing by and agreed to demolish it. The plant had problems, however. Some nickel contaminated with slightly enriched uranium had been processed at the Reduction Pilot Plant, although the memo did not state where that nickel came from. Former Reduction Pilot Plant workers have said they believe the plant reprocessed nickel that had been taken from pipes removed from the enrichment plants. A radiation survey and security inspection were done at the Reduction Pilot Plant in January 1975. "Based upon the radiation survey, the presence or potential presence of classified starting material, and the potential presence of nickel carbonyl, it was decided that the process equipment and piping were unsuitable for conventional disposal and consequently scheduled for disposal in the classified burial ground at the Portsmouth, Ohio, Gaseous Diffusion Plant," the 1979 memo said. © Copyright 2001 Charleston Daily Mail -- Privacy policy -- Send ***************************************************************** 5 Nuclear power comes 'clean' in ad campaign - 5/4/2001 - ENN.com Friday, May 4, 2001 By Janet McGurty When you think of nuclear power, what comes to mind? The looming towers of Three Mile Island? The eerie desolation after the Chernobyl disaster? Or hip young things with cellphones and scooters? The Nuclear Energy Institute's latest print ad campaign features a young girl with all the accoutrements of her generation — down to shimmering blue nail polish and a glittery stick-on face tattoo. The sky is blue. The clouds are fluffy and white. The headline reads "Clean air is so 21st century" and it goes on to say "Our generation is demanding lots of electricity...and clean air." "It's saying those old, green people are so twentieth century," said Barbara Lippert, ad critic for "Adweek Magazine." Not exactly, counters Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the industry lobbying group Nuclear Energy Institute. "The purpose of the ads are to remind the American people and policymakers that we are here." The campaign is part of an effort by the nuclear power industry to ride on coattails of the resurgence in solar and hydroelectric power — the darlings of the clean, green power generation set — to create a triumvirate of emission-free power producers in the minds of Americans. And they appear to have some degree of success. On the NEI's Web site (http://www.switchonamerica.com), respondents voted an overwhelming "Yes" to the question "Are you willing to use more emission-free electricity, like hydroelectric, nuclear and solar power?" In the United States, emission-free power sources provide about one-third of all electricity. Of that, nuclear power provides about two-thirds, or about a fifth of all electricity in the United States. Copyright 2001, Reuters ***************************************************************** 6 W.House Energy Report Stirs Industry, Greens to Act Sources: Reuters | AP | ABCNEWS.com Friday May 4 4:29 PM ET By Patrick Connole and Tom Doggett WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A White House task force to develop a new national energy policy is wrapping up its work and sending its recommendations to government printers this weekend, industry and congressional sources said on Friday. The proposals by the task force, headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, were expected to be unveiled during the week of May 14 by President Bush. Representatives of the oil, natural gas, electricity, nuclear and coal industries have been lobbying the White House for months to get relief from environmental regulations, access to more federal lands and government support to boost production in their sectors. Environmentalists expect the lobbying to pay off. CLEAN AIR ANYONE? Officials with clean air and conservation groups said the recommendations would likely include encouraging construction of coal-fired power plants, and easing procedures to license new nuclear plants. ``Clearly we expect an attack on the Clean Air Act,'' said Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust. He said utilities have pushed Cheney for changes in ``new source review rules'' enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency. Such rules were interpreted strictly under the Clinton administration, leading to federal lawsuits against major power firms like Southern Co for allegedly making improvements to power plants without installing pollution controls. ``They have lobbied trying to weaken new source rules and make retroactive (eliminating the lawsuits),'' O'Donnell said. Utilities say they want federal regulations clarified, to make it possible for companies to plan ahead and invest. The utilities have long stated their belief that prosecution for clean air violations under the previous administration was uncalled for, because the ``improvements'' to power plants were for routine maintenance and repairs. ``We're for a comprehensive energy policy that embraces fuel diversity,'' said Jim Owen, a spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute. He noted that each of the fuels used for powering the nation's generation have significant hurdles. For coal, Owen said there is a ``bewildering overlapping'' of environmental rules. For example, nuclear power is hindered by a lengthy relicensing process and storage of waste, while hydropower is grappling with relicensing and confusion about fish conservation programs. And natural gas suffers from a lack of pipelines and new production. Energy Is Big-Time The Cheney report comes amid a flurry of energy-related issues rising to the top of the nation's political agenda. Two regional Federal Reserve presidents said on Friday the increase in energy prices threatened a turnaround in the economy. Separately, the latest U.S. unemployment report showed the jobless rate jumped to its highest level in two-and-a-half years to 4.5 percent. A day earlier, Bush ordered federal and military facilities in California to cut power use to help the state stave off rolling blackouts expected on at least 30 days between June and October. Americans are also seeing soaring gasoline prices. Pump prices rose to the highest level in almost a year and the U.S. Energy Department has warned of more increases to come. Land and wilderness protection groups fear the White House report will open up drilling in pristine federally owned lands, a move they have promised to fight long and hard. Industry and congressional sources said they expect Cheney, the former top executive of oilfield services giant Halliburton Co, to recommend drilling access in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. They also expect relaxed environmental regulations to make it easier to obtain permits for new refineries and pipelines. To avoid future disruptions in gasoline supplies and to lower costs for refiners, oil firms want the White House report to recommend cutting the number of cleaner-burning motor fuels that are required throughout the country. Instead of having dozens of so-called ``boutique'' fuels, the industry wants a specific type of gasoline for each region, and eventually a single cleaner-burning fuel that could be sold anywhere in the country. The U.S. oil industry also wants to invest in Iran and Libya's energy sector, now off limits due to unilateral sanctions. The White House task force was reviewing the impact of the sanctions on available oil supplies, but it was unclear if the task force will recommend easing the investment curbs. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights ***************************************************************** 7 NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE: Group: Yucca viable for... LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: NEWS: COMMENTING ON THE DOCUMENT Public hearings on a supplement to the project's draft impact statement are scheduled for May 31 in Amargosa Valley, June 5 in Las Vegas, and June 7 in Pahrump. -- REVIEW-JOURNAL Saturday, May 05, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE: Group: Yucca viable for nuke waste Reid contradicts industry lobbyists By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL While a long-awaited federal report on Yucca Mountain offers no conclusion that the site is suitable for burying the nation's most lethal nuclear waste, a power industry trade group said Friday that the document clearly means the mountain is a safe place to put it. "The science strongly suggests that the site is suitable," according to a statement from Joe Colvin, president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based lobby group, the Nuclear Energy Institute. "We expect the decision process, based on scientific facts, to move forward in an expeditious manner," he said. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., countered the nuclear power industry's interpretation of the 1,500-page Yucca Mountain Science and Engineering Report, the culmination of 20 years of studying the mountain by Energy Department scientists and contractors. "While the nuclear power industry is pulling out all the stops in their effort to sell Yucca Mountain, there are still many unanswered questions about the suitability of this site," Reid said in a statement late Friday. "Nevadans remained committed in their opposition to becoming the nation's nuclear garbage dump, and we will continue to fight for fair and accurate science and responsible decision-making," he said. The report was one of four documents released Friday that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is expected to use as a road map to reach a decision this year on whether to recommend Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as suitable for development of a repository. If he recommends the site be developed and President Bush approves, and Congress acts to override an expected veto from Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, then the first shipments of 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste -- most of it spent nuclear fuel pellets -- would be hauled to the mountain from reactor sites across the nation by the end of the decade. Guinn, in a telephone interview, said he "absolutely" would disapprove of any recommendation for a Yucca Mountain repository. He said his staff is reviewing the stack of new DOE documents and will analyze them from the standpoint of how the federal government intends to proceed and if any forthcoming actions can be litigated. "It's too early for us to be bold," he said, noting, "It looks like they didn't put anything in there that would satisfy us on the seismic conditions." At a meeting of local governments affected by the project, geologist Steve Frishman, a full-time consultant for the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency, said one of the new documents calls for possibly constructing a pool near Yucca Mountain where as many as 12,000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies would be temporarily stored in order to sort them by the amount of heat their decaying radioactive pellets would disperse in the volcanic-rock ridge. The document does not analyze what would happen to the waste if a large earthquake damaged the pool, he said. Yucca Mountain Project nuclear engineer Dan Kane said plans to install a pool to hold fuel assemblies are still in limbo. "If a pool is used, it would have to be considered in a safety analysis to the NRC on the possibility of an earthquake splitting the pool," Kane said, referring to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Another unresolved issue with Nevada officials is the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed radiation standards, which must first be finalized, adopted by the NRC and incorporated into the Energy Department's plans for Yucca Mountain. Steve Brocoum, the Yucca Mountain Project's assistant manager for the Office of Licensing and Regulatory Compliance, said not having final radiation standards would probably not affect DOE's effort to issue a preliminary site suitability document this summer. But, he said, "To recommend the site, you'll have to have those guidelines in place." One DOE document released Friday estimates the cost of designing, building, operating, closing and decommissioning a repository at Yucca Mountain to be $49 billion from this year through 2119. That's in addition to $7 billion that's already been spent on the project from a fund paid by nuclear power ratepayers. U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., took issue with those estimates, saying in a statement, "The cost of this project has skyrocketed $11.8 billion in two years, and that cost increase shows this project is out of control." Reid agreed. "What is clear from these new reports is that the overall cost of this proposed repository has ballooned to more than $50 billion and will likely continue to climb as design work continues. "And while the release of this report signals the beginning of the public comment period, there is still no discussion about proposed transportation routes that could bring this deadly garbage within a few miles of millions of American families," Reid said. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2001 ***************************************************************** 8 Experts Join Bill Nye for Energy Tech. Press Conference U.S. Newswire 4 May 10:11 Dissecting the Cheney Task Force's Energy Rollback; Experts Join Bill Nye "the Science Guy" for Energy Technology Press Briefing To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor Contact: Paul Fain or Rich Hayes, 202-223-6133 both of the Union of Concerned Scientists News Advisory: The Union of Concerned Scientists will hold a press briefing on Vice President Cheney's energy task force report this Monday, May 7. Experts on nuclear power, renewable energy, vehicles, and the politics of the energy debate will dissect the administration's energy plan and offer practical alternatives. After the briefing, as a contrast to the outdated technologies the administration is proposing, Bill Nye will demonstrate a cutting-edge energy technology that produces zero-pollution. WHAT: Press briefing dissecting Cheney energy plan (a light brunch will be served) WHEN: 10:30 am, Monday, May 7, 2001 WHERE: Old Ebbitt Grill Cabinet Room (downstairs) 675 15th Street, NW WHO: -- David Lochbaum, UCS Nuclear Safety Engineer -- Alden Meyer, UCS Director of Government Relations -- Alan Nogee, UCS Clean Energy Program Director (via phone) -- Bill Nye, The Science Guy -- Michelle Robinson, UCS Senior Advocate, Clean Vehicles Program This event is for journalists only. KEYWORDS: ADVISORY, ENERGY -0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 05/04 10:11 Copyright 2001, U.S. Newswire ***************************************************************** 9 Pencils sharpened for Plant No. 1 study This story was published 5/5/2001 By Chris Mulick Herald staff writer SEATTLE -- Energy Northwest staffers will be heavily involved in crafting a study to determine whether completing Plant No. 1 at Hanford is feasible. Even so, managers are confident that won't detract from efforts to convince the public the study will be credible. They say the nuclear project won't be finished unless there's broad public support. "If there's not a mandate to do it, it doesn't matter how economical it is," said Rod Webring, Energy Northwest's vice president for operations support. The consortium of 13 Washington public utilities, which operates the 1,150-megawatt Columbia Generating Station, expects to have the study completed by summer's end. And Energy Northwest surely will face a barrage of skeptics if that study suggests completing the two-thirds-finished Plant No. 1 is worth the effort. The consortium is best known for never finishing four nuclear power plants, including Plant No. 1, it started building in the 1970s as the Washington Public Power Supply System. For years, its infamous municipal default on $2.25 billion in bonds for two of them was the largest in American history. Ballooning construction costs, high interest rates and regulatory changes were among myriad factors that sunk the projects. A small group of Energy Northwest managers and executive board members gathered in a Seattle hotel conference room Friday and asked themselves one simple question they would expect to hear repeatedly from the public: "What's different this time?" "People will come to the board and say, 'How many times do you guys have to be fooled by these engineering types?' " said board Chairman Rudi Bertschi. "These kinds of questions from the public are not silly questions. They're serious questions, and they deserve serious answers." Over the course of the afternoon, the group uncovered a mine field of issues that could blow up the credibility of the study, for which $500,000 has been budgeted. To start with, it already appears there will have to be a greater fudge factor in the final price tag to finish construction than originally hoped. That's because contractors would need more time at a price Energy Northwest isn't willing to pay. Even a small deviation from anticipated costs could be huge, considering the entire project is likely to cost several billion dollars. The group also spent considerable time Friday brainstorming the kind of independent oversight it wants for the study. While all the engineering work will be handled by contractors Bechtel and Framatone, Energy Northwest staffers will be responsible for preparing operating cost forecasts, a critical component toward deciding whether the 1,250-megawatt project would be economical. Vic Parrish, Energy Northwest's chief executive, said there's no reason for anyone else to do that part of the study, since it is the simplest component, and no one would know better than Energy Northwest itself. The consortium will rely on another contractor and an outside review team to review all parts of the study and supply the independent flair it's been touting. Those groups also will help prepare some parts of the study and make final recommendations. If the economics shake out, Energy Northwest hopes to build support through some sort of public involvement process. While it's not clear a public vote would be required, Parrish said he suspects one would be taken regardless. A series of public hearings and conferences also are being considered. "People will want to know for sure. There will be a chance to affect the decision," board member Margret Allen said. "It can't be just for show." Not to be forgotten is the all-important market forecast. Skyrocketing wholesale power prices are the only reason finishing Plant No. 1 is being considered at all. A year ago, the concept of finishing the project was laughable. But while the plant's power could be competitively priced at today's market, it might be too pricey in tomorrow's. It could take upwards of six years to finish Plant No. 1, giving markets time to right themselves and topple several times over. "It's going to be extremely difficult to project the market even a year from now," board member Vera Claussen said. Back to top stories Copyright 2000 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 10 N-plant set to go offline for refueling The Seattle Times: Local News: By Linda Ashton *The Associated Press* RICHLAND -- The Northwest's only nuclear-power plant shuts down May 18 for refueling, leaving the Bonneville Power Administration without its workhorse electricity producer for 30 days in the worst drought in a quarter-century. The BPA and Energy Northwest, the 13-utility public-power consortium that owns the Columbia Generating Station, have been planning for the outage for almost two years. "We arranged for power and made purchases to cover that outage months ago," said Ed Mosey, a spokesman for the BPA in Portland. "It will have absolutely no effect on reliability or price." The Columbia Generating Station, which typically produces about 5 percent of electricity in the Northwest, will contribute about 10 percent of the region's generation over the next year because of diminished water supplies here in hydropower country. This is the shortest outage ever planned at the plant, with twice as much fuel loaded to stretch the time between outages - plans that seem almost prescient now but were made long before this year's drought threatened summer hydropower capacity, salmon survival and irrigated orchards. The board of directors of Energy Northwest understood the power market and believed the plant's weather-independent operation would one day be appreciated, said Scott Oxenford, the general manager of the Columbia Generating Station. Since the plant came online in 1984, refuelings typically have been scheduled in the spring, when river water is abundant and power demand is relatively low. But water isn't plentiful this year, although the Northwest Power Planning Council has said the region can probably get through the summer without rolling blackouts. John Dabney, outage manager, has been working on this outage since the last one ended. His workforce will nearly double in size; 800 contract workers will be added to the regular staff of 1,050. Nuclear plants function much as other thermal-power plants, using heat to boil water for steam to drive turbine-generators to make electricity. The critical difference is how they make the heat. Rather than burning coal or natural gas, nuclear plants produce heat by fissioning atoms of uranium. The price of a successful outage: $33 million, excluding lost power production. The 1,200-megawatt Columbia Generating Station generates enough electricity to light a city the size of Seattle and produced more than $1 billion worth of electricity in just eight months. seattletimes.com home ***************************************************************** 11 Nuclear plant dismantling halted for removal of rods Friday, May 4, 2001 By DAVID A. VALLETTE ROWE — Dismantling work at the Yankee Nuclear Power Station has come to a halt because no more can be done without risking damage to the building that houses highly radioactive fuel rods. "We've taken decommissioning about as far as it can go," said Rick Williams, the plant superintendent, while leading members of the Yankee Rowe Community Advisory Board on a plant tour Wednesday night. The dismantling will not resume, he said, until all the fuel rods have been removed from a cooling pool inside the building, and transferred into casks that will sit on a concrete pad far enough from the plant to be out of harm's way. An outside contractor, NAC International of Atlanta, has been hired to conduct the fuel rod transfers. It is expected to be ready for a couple test runs of the procedures next month, with the actual removals set to begin in July. The process is expected to take until the middle of next year to complete. When finished, Yankee can return to the task of dismantling the plant. Williams said that the fuel pool, its building, the huge dome that covered the reactor, and all other vestiges of the atomic power plant that closed in 1991 after 30 years' operation, will be gone. "We're going to level the site," he said. The only things to remain will be a gatehouse and the pad of upright fuel casks. The process of transferring the fuel will be time-consuming. The 533 fuel-rod assemblies now under water will be placed in canisters inside a transfer cask, and a lid will be put on the casks while still under water. A crane will then pull the casks out of the pool and haul them to a new "fuel transfer enclosure building," where all water in the canisters will be removed and the open spaces inside filled with helium. This is a better cooling medium than air. The fuel canisters will then be placed inside concrete casks, the transfer cases removed, and the concrete cask sealed. Each, weighing about 200,000 pounds, will then be transported by special vehicle to the concrete pad, where they will stay until a better resting place is found. It will take 15 canisters to fit all the fuel roads, and another to store contaminated metal associated with the fuel rods. It is estimated that it will take two weeks per canister to be processed and set up on the pad. Williams said that although a contractor was hired to undertake the transfers, Yankee will remain involved in the process, providing oversight and approval. "We're not just sitting back," he said. Ultimately, Yankee wants the government to take the fuel rods and provide storage. Then the site can be cleared, pronounced free of radiation, and be available for other uses. © 2001 UNION-NEWS. Used with permission. ***************************************************************** 12 Limiting uranium in water could be costly Journalstar.com: Nebraska Monday, May. 7, 2001 The Associated Press SCOTTSBLUFF - In two years, uranium levels in drinking water will be regulated for the first time by the Environmental Protection Agency, and that could prove costly to many Nebraska cities. The EPA issued a rule in December limiting uranium levels to 30 micrograms per liter of water. The rule takes effect in 2003. Anne Pamperl, drinking water program specialist for the state Health and Human Services System, said at least 32 towns and cities either will or could have a problem meeting that standard. There may be more cities, Pamperl said Friday, but she was still checking measurements of uranium. Options for many towns would include drilling new wells or treating the water, she said. "It's going to be expensive," Pamperl said. "Most of the towns affected are small. New wells are not cheap, and treatment plants are not cheap, either." Uranium is found in rocks and soil in parts of Nebraska, particularly the North Platte, Platte and Republican river valleys, which largely run from western to south-central Nebraska. High levels of uranium can lead to cancer and kidney disease. Pamperl said she was not sure how prevalent any health problems might be across the country from uranium content in water. The town farthest east that would be affected is Silver Creek, Pamperl said, which is about 25 miles southwest of Columbus. Bridgeport and Morrill in the west will have to take measures to lower uranium levels in drinking water, Pamperl said. Communities including Bayard, Broadwater, Gering, Lyman, Minatare, Mitchell and Terrytown are on the edge of the new standard, and will have to test their uranium levels to determine whether action is needed, she said. Bridgeport City Manager Finley DeGraffenreid called the EPA rule an unfair, unfunded mandate. "I don't think the EPA has properly assessed those costs," he said. Nebraska officials have criticized certain other EPA regulations on drinking water as expensive and unnecessary. Attorney General Don Stenberg has filed lawsuits challenging orders to reduce copper and arsenic levels. Deputy Attorney General Steve Grasz said Friday the uranium regulation may be out of the reach of a state lawsuit. "It's my understanding that this is final," he said. Copyright © 2001, Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved. 926 P Street Lincoln NE 68508 402 475-4200 feedback@journalstar.com ***************************************************************** 13 Nuclear body to check city smog levels theage.com.au, Breaking News Source: AAP|Published: Saturday May 5, 3:56 PM Australia's nuclear research body is to survey the level of smog in capital cities. The study will determine just what city dwellers really breathe and which is the most polluted city. The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) will set up air sampling units in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart. Typical air pollution includes soot, ammonium sulphate, sea spray, water vapour, trace elements and dirt. ANSTO will work with universities and other government agencies in the $332,800 project, which is funded by the Commonwealth Air Toxics Program and the Natural Heritage Trust. Dr Brian Spies, head of ANSTO's physics division says the pollutants are gathered on 25 millimetre filters which often turn black with collected contaminants. He says they will be analysed using ion beams from ANSTO's three million volt Van de Graaf Beam Accelerator which can measure levels of up to 35 different materials simultaneously. Copyright © 2001 The Age Company Ltd. Any unauthorised use, ***************************************************************** 14 UPDATE - Czech Temelin plant to shutdown for two months CZECH REPUBLIC: May 4, 2001 PRAGUE - Problems with a rotor in one of the turbines has forced a complete shutdown of the controversial Czech Temelin nuclear power plant, officials said yesterday. CEZ , the firm which runs the power plant, told Reuters late in the afternoon yesterday that the reactor will be shut down within hours and will be restarted at the beginning of July at earliest. CEZ said work on replacing one of three low pressure rotors in a turbine has started and that it is possible there has been damage to a high pressure component of the turbine. The plant was expected to be shut in June for other maintenance. CEZ originally planned the plant to be commercially launched in May. The current deadline is set for end-September and CEZ officials said Yesterday's closure should not effect that date. The $2.6 billion plant was built just over 50 km (31 miles) from the border of neighbouring Austria. Austrian protesters have staged border blockades demanding its closure, and a series of minor failures forced repeated shutdowns since it was first launched for testing operations last October. Austria says the station, which combines a Russian VVER-1,000 reactor with a U.S.-made control system by Westinghouse, may be unsafe. But a recent Czech-led independent commission, which included observers from the EU, Austria and Germany, gave it high marks in an environmental impact study. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 15 Feds Consider Redesign Of Yucca Nuclear Site The Salt Lake Tribune -- ** *Saturday, May 5, 2001* BY H. JOSEF HEBERT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- The government is considering a revamped, cooler design for storing thousands of tons of nuclear waste in Nevada with the changes adding nearly $12 billion to the overall cost of the project. The new design and cost estimates were outlined in a series of documents released Friday by the Energy Department in advance of a recommendation later this year on whether to proceed with the project. The changes address concerns raised more than a year ago by a nuclear waste advisory board that the concentration of waste -- more than 70,000 tons -- could generate too much heat under previous designs and cause safety problems, especially if water were to contact waste packages. With the changes now being considered, the total cost of the project at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert was estimated to be $58 billion, about 26 percent more than estimated only three years ago, and nearly twice the cost given in the early 1990s. About $6.7 billion already has been spent on the project, mostly for scientific studies and construction of an access tunnel at the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is expected to make a recommendation to President Bush toward the end of this year on whether the Yucca Mountain is suitable for burying the nuclear industry's used reactor fuel, which will remain highly radioactive and toxic for thousands of years. The wastes are now stored at reactor sites in 31 states. Critics, including most Nevada officials, have charged that 20 years of scientific study have shown that the location has too many technical problems. Some contend it will never be approved. "There are still many unanswered questions," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., responding to the documents released Friday. "The report clearly demonstrates there is ample scientific basis for making a decision to dispose of used nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain," countered Joe Colvin, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry trade group. The hundreds of pages of new documents make no recommendations on site suitability and contain no scientific bombshells on what has been a decades long effort to find a place to store the used reactor fuel at commercial nuclear power plants. "There are no conclusions drawn from any of these reports as far as the suitability of the site," emphasized DOE spokesman Joe Davis. The department's nuclear waste office will formally determine whether the Yucca Mountain project should proceed later this year, with President Bush expected to make a decision in early 2002. © Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 16 Chirac targets green voters with "ecology charter" ORLEANS, France - French President Jacques Chirac sought yesterday to lure green-minded voters in next year's national elections with a proposal that the public be granted a constitutional right to a clean environment. The call for a broad "ecological charter" came as his likely leftist rival in the 2002 presidential race, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, faced a row in his coalition over the use of controversial taxes in environment policy. Jospin's government has been attacked for its uncertain handling of weeks of flooding in the northern Somme valley region that has forced thousands to leave their homes and has focused public attention on the environment. "We all have the feeling that apparently natural phenomena can be caused or aggravated by human action or inaction," Chirac was due to say in a speech released to the media ahead of a visit to the Loire Valley town of Orleans. "The right to an environment that is protected and preserved (must be) considered on a par with civil liberties," he said, calling on parliament to draft a constitutional annex offering such guarantees. Chirac renewed his support for the Koyoto protocol aimed at cutting the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming and warned the Bush administration, which rejects the accord, that the United States must pull its weight in reducing pollution. He also urged a debate "without taboo" on France's reliance on atomic energy for over half its electricity, while noting that nuclear reactors helped save on greenhouse gas emissions. IS CALL CREDIBLE? While the Greens in Jospin's coalition have been the traditional party of ecology-minded voters, Chirac strategists believe the environment is becoming a dominant theme on which conservatives can score points. Many first-round Green voters in March's town hall elections ignored party advice to switch their support to the main leftist candidate in the decisive second round, helping the right chalk up surprise victories across the country. Victims of the Somme flooding - not proved to be the result of global warming - say authorities have been slow to mobilise mechanical pumps that are now alleviating the situation. Aside for the call for a constitutional right to a clean environment, Chirac urged a "green audit" of all government policy based on ecological criteria and renewed a call for the creation of a powerful world environmental body. As a long-time backer of nuclear fuel and the intensive farming methods now blamed by many for the spread of mad cow disease and the foot-and-mouth virus, Chirac may face a credibility hurdle with some ecologist voters. Yet Jospin, who trails Chirac in polls ahead of next spring's presidential election, will have his pro-environment credentials tested on Friday during talks with the Greens party chief, Environment Minister Dominique Voynet, over the future of energy taxes aimed at curbing pollution. She wants Jospin to affirm his previous backing for the levies after some in his coalition - including Finance Minister Laurent Fabius - said they should be ditched. "I don't want to go on the warpath over this issue," she told business daily Les Echos. "But I do not imagine that he will not keep his word," she added. Story by Sophie Louet REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 17 MAP International and the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF) Commemorate 15th Anniversary of Nuclear Reactor Explosion in Chornobyl, Ukraine Friday May 4, 6:13 pm Eastern Time Press Release *SOURCE: eNewsRelease.com* MAP International and the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF) Commemorate 15th Anniversary of Nuclear Reactor Explosion in Chornobyl, Ukraine Georgia-Based Agency Sends Half-Million in Medicine for Children's Hospital BRUNSWICK, Ga., May 4, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- MAP International and the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF) have collaborated on a humanitarian airlift marking the 15th anniversary of the April 26, 1986 disaster. This shipment, valued at over one-half million dollars (wholesale value), contains antibiotics (skin and oral), and other pediatric medicines and surgical supplies. A portion of these medicines will be used to establish and/or support neonatal intensive care units at children's hospitals in Odessa, Yavoriv and Rivne, Ukraine. ``We are confident that the medicines provided by MAP International...will result in rapid progress in the quality of care we can provide,'' stated Alex Kuzma, executive director of CCRF. On April 26, 1986, at 1:23 a.m., reactor number four at the Chornobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded and caught fire, releasing 260 million curies of radiation (280 times the radiation released from the bombing of Hiroshima). Rainfall and the subsequent shift in wind-direction spread the deadly cloud over a widespread area, including the northern regions of the Ukraine and the southern border of European Russia. This massive dose of radioactive fallout unleashed a legacy of disease and suffering, not only for the existing population, but for those yet to be born. About 3.4 million of Ukraine's 50 million people are still suffering the effects of this disaster. The statistics are startling: Thyroid cancer among children living near Chornobyl is 80 times higher than normal, leukemia has tripled since 1986 (many cancers don't develop for 10-20 years after exposure), and infant mortality has climbed to levels three times the European average. Birth defects, including Down syndrome and polydactylism (abnormal numbers of fingers and toes) have nearly doubled. MAP International is grateful for the opportunity to assist CCRF and the children of Chornobyl. Through the generosity of individuals, partner agencies and corporations, MAP has been able to provide nearly $62 million dollars in medicines and medical supplies for the people of Ukraine and Belarus, and will continue to do so for as long as there is need. Donations should be directed to: MAP International, Disaster Relief Fund, 2200 Glynco Parkway, Brunswick, GA, 31525, 800-225-8550, or take a look at our How to Help page, where you may also make a secure donation online. CONTACT: MAP International Suzanne Baroody, Public Relations Director (800) 225-8550 *SOURCE: eNewsRelease.com* Copyright © 2001 PrimeZone Media Network. All rights reserved. Redistribution ***************************************************************** 18 `Not-in-my-back-yard' is big obstacle to new energy resources (5/06/2001) `Not-in-my-back-yard' is big obstacle to new energy resources WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON The Bush administration's new energy policy, which calls for 1,900 new electric power plants, 38,000 miles of new natural gas pipelines and lots more electric power lines, faces a major obstacle: people. Americans want more power, now. But they don't want more power lines, power plants or gas pipelines anywhere near them. Power companies and policy makers call a person who resists a ``NIMBY,'' as in ``Not In My Back Yard.'' Whatever the name, experts say community resistance has done more than environmental rules or oil cartels to generate America's current power crunch. And they predict that nimbyism will be a major impediment to Bush's energy plan. ``Everyone wants their lights to go on . . . but no one wants their facility nearby,'' said former Ambassador Richard Sklar, just appointed head of California Gov. Gray Davis' energy task force. ``It's rampant in this country and it's spreading across the world.'' ``The fact is people don't want the stuff around them,'' said Karl Rabago, a former Texas public utility commissioner. If Bush proposes lots of new plants, Rabago predicted, the administration is ``going to run into (NIMBY) a lot.'' There are reasons for such objections, said Rabago, now managing director of Rocky Mountain Institute, an Old Snowmass, Colo., advocacy group that encourages energy conservation. Proximity to power plants, gas lines and transmission lines tends to depress property values and raise environmental and health concerns, he said. New electric power lines are especially important -- and especially difficult to site. The capacity of the U.S. electric transmission system dropped by 16.2 percent from 1989 to 1998, according to the Edison Electric Institute, a Washington-based trade association for power companies. In the next decade, power line mileage is projected to grow 4.2 percent -- but demand for electricity will likely grow by more than 20 percent. But stringing new interstate transmission lines is ``almost impossible,'' said Tim Gallagher, an official at the North American Electric Reliability Council, a Princeton, N.J., consortium that promotes them. Environmental standards are rarely a problem with a new power plant, experts said; new plants are designed to meet them. But nimbyism can be a problem even for clean-burning natural gas plants, said Robert Burns, an analyst and attorney at the national Regulatory Research Institute at Ohio State University in Columbus. That's because ``nimbyism is an undefined area,'' said Dave McDermitt, a Boston public relations executive who specializes in power plant siting. ``There's no defined hurdle that has to be achieved for the plant proponent to win approval.'' Nuclear power, which the Bush administration is trying to revive, confronts the highest hurdle, experts said. ``I don't think anybody at the state commission level -- and those are the people who would deal with siting issues -- considers it back on the table,'' said Burns. ``If we see a new nuclear power plant in the U.S. it will be on an existing site,'' said Paul Joskow, the director of the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research in Cambridge, Mass. ``It would be insane to build a new nuclear power plant on a new site.'' John Weingart, a former New Jersey environmental regulator who headed a failed commission to locate a low-level nuclear waste dump in the nation's most densely populated state, knows the problem well. ``A lot of people, when you say (a risk of) 1 in 10 million or 1 in 1 billion, they see their kid as that one,'' Weingart said. ``There isn't a lot of incentive for a political leader to say, `It's safe'.'' Some years ago, when more utilities were community-owned, siting power plants was easier. Plant owners were neighbors, contributors to local charities, the power behind local jobs, Joskow said. Now, utilities tend to be from out of town, out of state or even out of the country, and it's much easier for community leaders to oppose them. So what's the solution? Joskow and others propose giving the federal government the power to condemn and buy private property for power lines, just as it has for gas pipelines. Downside: It's a time-consuming process that often yields bitterness. For Republicans, it requires a government exercise of authority that many conservatives reject. Another possibility, Burns suggested, is to lease property from landowners, paying them an annual fee for being on their land or nearby, as the French do. ``Part of it is education, but a large part of it is bribery,'' Burns said. ``Bribery isn't all that bad.'' Online resources + The North American Electric Reliability Council: www.nerc.com + The Edison Electric Institute: www.eei.org/ + The Rocky Mountain Institute: www.rmi.org/ + The MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research: http://web.mit.edu/ceepr/www/ © 2001 PioneerPlanet / St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press / TwinCities.com- ***************************************************************** 19 Old Fuels and Poor Policy Today's News Past 2 Weeks Past 30 Days Past 90 Days Past Year Since 1996 May 5, 2001 By BILL RICHARDSON [W] ASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's energy policy, centered primarily on increasing the supply of oil, coal and nuclear power, is shortsighted and misaimed, focusing too much on the wrong fuels and too firmly on supply. There is no question that we need to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Energy companies now enjoying record profits should use their newly minted resources to pursue additional exploration and to build desperately needed refining capacity. But drilling for oil need not be conducted in environmentally sensitive areas. And since oil is not a major fuel for power plants, finding more of it will do little to address an issue that demands immediate attention: providing for our growing needs for electricity. Coal is an abundant energy source. But it should not be the fuel of choice for power plants, either, as President Bush signaled it would be when he rescinded a campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Vice President Dick Cheney said last week that coal would be a primary source of power generation for years to come. We are likely to need 1,000 new power plants by 2020. It is preferable that they be clean, efficient, gas-fired plants that emit few pollutants. Technological investment and changes in plants to increase energy efficiency will be curtailed if we continue on an exclusively pro-coal path. Despite current capacity and price problems, clean-burning natural gas should be recognized as America's best source of energy for supplying electricity in the future. Meeting the nation's generation demands will require that we not only find and produce 60 percent more natural gas, but deliver it to markets. We need to be aggressive in the construction of 30,000 miles of new gas transmission lines and 275,000 miles of new distribution lines. All Americans should support construction of the proposed transcontinental natural gas pipeline, following the most economical route from Alaska's North Slope to the lower 48 states. As for nuclear power, we have not yet resolved the intractable problem of where to store the thousands of metric tons of nuclear waste scattered across the country. False expectations should not be raised. We cannot build new power plants before we decide whether Yucca Mountain in Nevada is scientifically and environmentally suitable as a long-term depository. The contentious debate on its suitability should be made on the basis of science and not politics. But no matter what the fuels, supply is only one element of energy policy. And because it takes a long time to develop new sources or build new infrastructure, the supply side is necessarily the longer-term part of our planning. Energy efficiency — investments in developing and deploying technology to increase the efficient use of our scarce energy resources — is our best bet for meeting the nation's shorter-term energy needs. Last week's speech by Vice President Cheney cleverly showered energy efficiency and conservation solutions with faint praise. With the federal government the biggest energy consumer, the administration is right to cut its own energy consumption, if only by repeating the guidelines given last year. But much more can and must be done. Increasing the efficiency of our vehicle fleet by just three miles a gallon would save us one million barrels of oil per day, out of the roughly 10 million barrels we import. Regrettably, Mr. Bush reduced the Energy Department's budget for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs by 30 percent. A partnership with automakers to increase mileage in vehicles to 80 miles a gallon was also significantly cut. The Bush Energy Department also caved in to the air conditioning industry to block a rule requiring residential central air conditioners to be more efficient. It is important to the nation's future that we take a bipartisan and balanced approach to energy policy. Everyone needs to recognize that energy and environmental policy are two sides of the same coin. Perhaps most important, we need to emphasize supply and demand in equal measure. In the end, this balance will be the true recipe for success. *Bill Richardson, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, was secretary of energy from 1998 to 2001.* ***************************************************************** 20 Review panel rules in favor of former TVA worker Whistleblower awarded back pay and legal fees May 5, 2001 News-Sentinel Washington bureau Review panel rules in favor of former TVA worker Whistleblower awarded back pay and legal fees A federal Department of Labor review board has upheld an earlier decision favoring a former Tennessee Valley Authority employee who claimed he was laid off after reporting safety concerns at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. The board agreed with an administrative law judge's finding that Curtis Overall of Cleveland, Tenn., who worked for TVA from 1979 to 1996, should be reinstated with back pay and interest, given $50,000 for compensatory damages, reimbursed for health insurance, medical bills, life insurance and losses to his retirement fund, and that TVA pay his attorneys' fees of $81,000. He is represented by the Washington, D.C., firm of Bernabei and Katz. TVA spokesman John Moulton said the agency is reviewing the board's decision before deciding whether to appeal. In April 1995, Overall inspected a melt tank used with a large supply of ice intended to help contain radioactivity inside the plant in the event of a nuclear accident. He found 200 fallen ice basket screws and fragments that suggested the cooling system could be flawed and not operating properly. Shortly after he reported the safety concern, he was removed from his job and sent to a temporary office for employees seeking jobs suited to their skills. He claimed that while he was assigned to that office, he received anonymous harassing phone calls about his safety report. In September 1996 he was laid off. The last two rulings agreed that TVA discriminated against Overall for reporting safety concerns that could delay the operation of the plant, which is near Spring City, and that TVA discounted his findings. Copyright 2001 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. [E.W. Scripps] Copyright © 1999-2001, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 DOE hikes in-lieu-of-tax money 05/04/01 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:25 p.m. on Friday, May 4, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff The Department of Energy has approved a 15-percent increase for payments made in lieu of property taxes for the federal agency's 35,242-acre Oak Ridge Reservation. The federal agency is not required to pay property taxes. DOE officials said the per-acre figure will rise from $4,610 to $5,327. The increased amount is based on a state of Tennessee-mandated reappraisal of property in both Anderson and Roane counties that resulted in a higher valuation of property and a state-mandated reduction in property tax rates. "We are pleased that this increase has been approved," said Ed Cumesty, acting manager for DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office. "We believe it is a matter of fairness and equity in our relationship with local governments." U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, praised the federal agency this morning for its action. "This is a fine example of DOE being a good neighbor to East Tennessee," he said. DOE officials say the increase -- the first since early 1998 -- will be effective immediately. It will result in increased payments to three local governments during the current fiscal year: The city of Oak Ridge -- $153,956; Anderson County -- $65,430; and Roane County -- $85,298. The increase was made at the request of officials of all three local governments and was supported by Wamp. "It shows when we work together we can get things done," said Oak Ridge Mayor Jerry Kuhaida this morning. "I think it's outstanding for the city. This comes at a time when we need it." Anderson County Executive Rex Lynch said this morning that he was excited about the increase. "I'm real pleased with the news," Lynch said. "This money is going to help in reindustrialization efforts. It comes at a crucial time for us." Roane County Executive Ken Yager was unavailable for comment this morning. Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for DOE, said this morning that the money for DOE's payment increases will come from the Oak Ridge Operations office's operating budget. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 2 Sick workers' office to open in OR Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:42 p.m. on Friday, May 4, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Special claims offices will be set up near nine nuclear weapons plants to help job-sickened workers file for benefits under the nation's newest entitlement program, the Labor Department said Thursday. The offices will be set up in Oak Ridge; Piketon, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; Hanford, Wash.; Savannah River, S.C.; Los Alamos, N.M.; Nevada Test Site, Nev.; Portsmouth, Ohio; Rocky Flats, Colo.; and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced that decision in Paducah, where she also met with some cancer-stricken workers who may be eligible for federal benefits. A new program that is supposed to take effect July 31 offers $150,000, plus lifetime medical care to workers at nuclear weapons plants who contracted cancer, silicosis or beryllium disease because of on-the-job exposure. In addition to the nine new claims offices, the department said it will expand its existing offices in Cleveland, Seattle, Denver and Jacksonville, Fla., to handle the expected crush of applications from nuclear workers and heirs of deceased workers. Chao said Thursday that the Labor Department should be able to process the claims on time as long as the White House approves the agency's draft regulations by the end of this month. If that happens, people could start getting checks by the fall, Chao estimated. "Many workers at Paducah -- including some of you here today -- not only gave your labor, but they also gave their health. And now it's time for the government to compensate these workers," Chao said after touring the facility, which enriches uranium for commercial use. Chao said she planned to hire 300 employees to help administer the new program. She also said the department would need people to review appeals. "It is a humongous task, which was why as you can tell I was a little bit concerned that we were not going to be able to meet the deadline," Chao said. All Contents.©Copyright *The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 3 Chao says compensation program should be up soon Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:42 p.m. on Friday, May 4, 2001 By NANCY ZUCKERBROD Associated Press Writer PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) -- Labor Secretary Elaine Chao told current and former workers at a uranium enrichment plant Thursday that a program to compensate workers who got sick from working at nuclear weapons plants should be up and running by July 31. That deadline was set by Congress, and Chao said last month she might have trouble meeting it. But she said Thursday the Labor Department should be able to process the claims on time as long as the White House approves the agency's draft regulations by the end of this month. If that happens, people could start getting checks by the fall, Chao estimated. "Many workers at Paducah -- including some of you here today -- not only gave your labor, but they also gave their health. And now it's time for the government to compensate these workers," Chao said after touring the facility, which these days enriches uranium for commercial use. The program approved last year by Congress offers lifetime medical care and $150,000 to ailing workers who were employed in the government's nuclear weapons complex, at factories that worked for the Energy Department, or at nuclear test sites in Alaska and Nevada. The program is limited to those with cancer associated with radiation, silicosis or chronic beryllium disease. Eligibility rules for some workers have been set by law, and the Labor Department must work out qualification guidelines for the rest. Soon after taking office, Chao tried to shift control of the program to the Justice Department. She said that department was better suited to oversee the program but changed her mind last month amid criticism from lawmakers. The lawmakers were upset by the job Justice has done running a compensation program for former uranium miners and people who lived downwind of nuclear test blasts. "It really made me mad, because our lawyer said we don't want it with the Justice Department -- that they'll never do anything," said Martha Harding Alls. After her father, Joe Harding, died in 1980, his bones were found to contain 1,700 to 34,000 times the expected concentration of uranium. Yet while he lived, Harding was denied compensation because official records showed he was only exposed to small levels of radiation. Sitting around a union hall with Chao and retired workers, Alls said she couldn't help thinking about her father's struggle. "If only they had listened to Daddy," she said. But Alls praised Chao's visit and said she was optimistic about the compensation program. "We just thought we'd never hear anything -- that it would always be a cover-up," Alls said. Chao said she planned to hire 300 employees to help administer the new program, and she announced the department would open small offices in Paducah and around the country to help workers process claims. She also said the department would need people to review appeals. "It is a humongous task, which was why as you can tell I was a little bit concerned that we were not going to be able to meet the deadline," Chao said. She took time to praise the Kentucky congressional delegation for fighting for passage of the benefits program. Chao is married to Kentucky's senior senator, Republican Mitch McConnell. All Contents.©Copyright *The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 4 SRS claim office will be open June 15 [charlotte.com] Published Saturday, May 5, 2001 *Associated Press * WASHINGTON -- Special claims offices should open June15 near nine former nuclear weapons plants, including South Carolina's Savannah River Site, the Labor Department said Friday. The offices will handle paperwork from job-sickened workers applying for benefits under the nation's newest entitlement program. Along with the one at SRS, they will be set up at Piketon, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; Hanford, Wash.; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Los Alamos, N.M.; Nevada Test Site, Nev.; Portsmouth, Ohio; Rocky Flats, Colo., and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho. The program offers $150,000, plus lifetime medical care, to workers at nuclear weapons plants who contracted cancer, silicosis or beryllium disease because of on-the-job exposure. In addition to the nine new claims offices, the department said it will expand its existing offices in Cleveland, Seattle, Denver and Jacksonville, Fla., to handle the expected crush of applications from nuclear workers and heirs of deceased workers. A toll-free number to handle inquiries about the program should be set up by the end of May, the department said. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said Thursday the Labor Department should be able to process the claims on time as long as the White House approves the agency's draft regulations by the end of this month. If that happens, people could start getting checks by the fall, Chao estimated. SRC="http://ads.realcities.com/image.ng/Params.richmedia=yes&site=charlotte&siz ***************************************************************** 5 2 Anti-Nuclear Activists Sentenced May 04, 2001 MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Two anti-nuclear activists were sentenced to prison Friday for damaging an antenna the Navy uses to communicate with nuclear submarines. Bonnie Urfer and Michael Spong admitted using a handsaw to cut down three wooden poles supporting the 28-mile antenna. The damage disabled the link to the Navy's Trident submarines for a day. The activists argued that cutting the poles was permissible under national and international law because the antenna is part of an illegal weapons system. But a jury found them guilty of willfully damaging government property. Urfer was sentenced to six months in a federal prison; Spong was given a two-month term. Each was ordered to pay $7,492 restitution. Protesters have frequently targeted the site, contending the antenna, part of the Navy's ELF system, raises the risk of nuclear warfare. Project ELF, named for its extremely low frequency radio waves, uses an antenna network to transmit coded messages to submarines in deep waters around the world. On the Net: U.S. District Court, Wisconsin Western District: http://www.wiw.uscourts.gov/ All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 Bush seeks to create new terrorism office By Christopher Newton, Associated Press, 5/4/2001 23:18 WASHINGTON (AP) President Bush has drafted an executive order that would create an umbrella office on terrorism to coordinate the government's response to any biological, chemical or nuclear attack, a congressional source familiar with the plan said Friday night. The office would exist under the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Vice President Dick Cheney would oversee the creation of a national terrorism response plan, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The office would be at the helm of more than 40 federal agencies that provide emergency services and personnel. Currently, the Justice Department has responsibility for reacting to a terrorist attack. White House officials declined to comment on draft order, first reported by NBC News. Bush's plan is separate from legislative efforts in Congress to reorganize the nation's anti-terrorism response. The Senate Intelligence Committee is holding hearings on the matter next week. Several emergency management agencies will testify. Andrea Andrews, a spokeswoman for Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said the president's plan is a ''step in the right direction.'' ''There is a consensus that something that needs to be done to coordinate all the agencies that have jurisdiction in this area,'' Andrews said. The federal government has received several indicators that the nation is not prepared to deal with the calamity created by a terrorist attack. Last spring, a secret exercise to determine how a medium-sized city would cope after a terrorist detonation of a weapon of mass destruction showed that Cincinnati's hospitals, police and other services were woefully unprepared for such an attack. The findings were presented to then-Attorney General Janet Reno, then- Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre and senior FBI officials at two sessions at the Pentagon. They immediately ordered the formation of interagency working groups to study the problems that might arise from a major terrorist attack. The resulting study and other government studies suggested that the nation's emergency groups were too splintered to respond to a problem quickly. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Friday that the nation's cities would be overwhelmed by the probable injuries. ''Supposing someone used one of these things (bio-weapon) and we required hospitalization of 1,000 people, what community has got the ability to put together quickly the medical teams, the other equipment needed to take care of 1,000 people?,'' Warner said at a meeting Friday. ''We are unprepared, and we are determined here in the Senate to bring together, all of us, put our minds to work with those in the administration and see what we can do to prepare America.'' ***************************************************************** 7 New atomic warfare display at museum Story #13737 Friday, May 04, 2001 By Staff The Great Lakes Museum of Military History will open a new atomic warfare display in the lobby at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 5. Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Tom Sherman will preside at the opening. He has extensive experience with atomic weapons, both as a Strategic Air Command bomber pilot and as deputy director of the Defense Nuclear Agency. He will give a presentation about the display at 11 a.m. The display will cover atomic warfare from its beginnings in World War II to the present. Illustrative of the present is a training version of a modern atomic bomb, the B61, which is a centerpiece of the museum’s display. Also included will be a simple explanation of how these weapons work (the physics), pictures of various weapons, their delivery systems (bombers, missiles, guns) and their effects. A large-scale map of Michigan City will show the destructive radius of various weapons. There is no charge to see the display in the lobby. Regular admission fees will be in effect to tour the museum. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. It is closed Sunday and Monday. Call the museum at 872-2702 or (800) 726-5912 for more information. Questions or Comments? ndnews@michigancityin.com Copyright © 1996-1997 - Nixon Interactive ***************************************************************** 8 Underpaid Nuclear Experts Present Risk, Warns Report - The St. Petersburg Times. General news from St.Petersburg and Russia #666, Friday, May 4, 2001 NEWS By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane THE WASHINGTON POST In the 1940s and 1950s, Russia's 10 "nuclear cities" were places of relative privilege in the former Soviet Union. Scientists living in these isolated, nameless towns and cities, which were not found on any map, were rewarded for their work on the development of nuclear weapons in terms of good wages and access to a large number of scarce consumer goods. That was then, but times have changed. Now, six in 10 nuclear experts are earning less than $50 per month, and roughly the same number have to moonlight to get by, according to a groundbreaking survey of 500 specialists working in the nuclear cities. The survey was commissioned by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "If you're a top manager at Los Alamos, you make about 100 times more than you make if you're a top manager in Russia," said Jon Wolfsthal, an associate in Carnegie's Non-Proliferation Project. "Their economic hardship dramatically increases the risk that they will be forced to sell their skills or materials at hand to the highest bidder," Wolfsthal and Alexander Pikayev wrote in the report's introduction. More than one in 10 experts said they would like to work outside Russia, and 6 percent said they would move "any place at all." What would they do once they got there? "What they do best, which is make weapons," Wolfsthal said. Aside from the risk of secret-saturated scientists settling in the so-called "rogue states" such as Iraq or North Korea, there is also the problem of whether there would be anyone left to mind the nuclear store. Private business is proving to be an irresistible lure for many specialists, and migration to the nuclear cities is on the wane. The report, authored by Russian sociologist Valentin Tikhonov, is available on Carnegie's Web site (www.ceip.org) and will be officially released in early May. The Moscow Times [ ] [Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2001 ***************************************************************** 9 Atomic Energy Commission displays wares at exhibition The Jerusalem Post Newspaper : Online News From Israel - News Article [The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition] Wednesday, May 2 2001 12:20 9 Iyar 5761 By Gwen Ackerman (May 2) - The Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) slightly lifted its shroud of secrecy yesterday, when for the first time it set up a booth under its own name at the International Environmental Technologies Exhibition where it displayed the radiation monitoring equipment that it sells in Japan, the US, Taiwan, and Europe. In Israel, too, a monitoring system operates from Metulla to Eilat, and a computer screen showed the colored line display of measurements taken of radioactive activity in the Tel Aviv area yesterday morning. "We never thought not to disclose what we are doing," said Dov Barak, director of external relations. "They asked us to come and we came. We are less in hiding that is actually thought. There was no difficult decision taken here." The IAEC, which operates two R sites in Nahal Sorek and Dimona, was established in 1952, and in 1966 was assigned overall responsibility for Israel's alleged nuclear weapons program. Israel has never acknowledged that it possesses nuclear weapons; its official position is that it supports a nuclear-free Middle East. According to Barak, IAEC deals mostly in research of radioactive materials - for example, how they can be turned into energy - with the problem of disposal and monitoring a byproduct of that. Also at the Tel Aviv exhibition and breaking another taboo of sorts, especially given the violence that has overtaken the peace talks, was a group of 15 Palestinian businessmen, academics and environmental consultants from the West Bank. According to Avraham Yisraeli, head of the environment department at the Israel Export Institute, the exhibition had originally been planned as a regional affair to be held under a joint Israeli-Palestinian umbrella. That idea had to be abandoned when hostilities broke out in September, but Yisraeli asked that a Palestinian delegation still come. The group did not want its members' names revealed or photographs taken, and Yisraeli, mindful of the risk they were taking in attending, protected their identity. "There was a lot of interest in general in Israeli technology and in cooperation with both Israeli academics and companies," said Yisraeli. "Together we are hoping for better times." And while the Palestinians did attend the exhibition, other important guests from the US, Russia and Argentina cancelled due to the security situation. Still, out of the 200 companies at the exhibition, 30 were foreign, and among the guests were delegations from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Macedonia, Canada, Ireland, and Australia. Supplements on JPost.com ***************************************************************** 10 A thousand billy goats gruff to troll Rocky Flats? Rocky Mountain News: Local By Berny Morson, News Staff Writer A truckload of bleating goats may help eliminate the noxious weeds that are overrunning the vast buffer zone around Rocky Flats. A plan by Rocky Flats officials to burn the weeds has run into opposition from area residents. They fear a fire could disturb plutonium that may have been deposited accidentally in the 6,000-acre buffer zone during 40 years of weapons production. University of Colorado biology professor Harvey Nichols and students in his critical-thinking class came up with the goat option earlier this year. Knapweed and thistle that offend the human eye look like lunch to a goat, Nichols said. "We don't want radioactive smoke drifting around the whole area," Nichols said. "If there are other ways of doing, we need to think about human health." Rocky Flats officials say concerns about plutonium in the buffer zone are exaggerated. Similar levels of plutonium are found everywhere because of the above-ground nuclear tests conducted by both sides during the Cold War, said John Rampe, an ecologist who heads environmental programs at Rocky Flats. "The levels we're talking about are infinitesimal," Rampe said, although he is not dismissing the goat proposal. Goats could be part of a weed strategy that includes fire, grazing, herbicides and the release of weed-eating insects. The plan to burn the weeds was postponed last year amid public opposition. The idea remains on hold while the federal government studies the "controlled burn" that destroyed homes in Los Alamos, N.M., last summer. If Rocky Flats wants goats, Fred and Lani Lamming are ready. The Lammings, of Alpine, Wyo., own 1,700 goats. They are eating weeds in seven states, Fred Lamming said. "We raise our animals for munching down on weeds." The Lamming goats have been used to trim weeds at the Marshall Landfill, a federal Superfund cleanup site just north of Rocky Flats, and at the Army's chemical-weapons depot in Pueblo. Nichols, the CU professor, contacted the Lammings after reading about them in a Boulder newspaper. About 1,000 goats would be needed to get rid of weeds on the 3,000 acres at Rocky Flats that are the most heavily infested, Lamming said. He can pack that many goats into a single cattle truck. The Lammings charge $1 a day per goat. About 500 of them eat through an acre of weeds in a day. At that rate, it would take more than four years for 1,000 goats to get through the 3,000 affected acres. Fire is faster and cheaper, Lamming said. But weeds can more easily move back into burned areas, he said. "Some of these acres may not be as weedy as others," he said. The goats "would just give it a light massage" and move on. Boulder County Commissioner Paul Danish is interested in the goat option and is considering holding a hearing on it. He chairs the Rocky Flats-area coalition of local governments, which will hold its regular meeting Monday. Danish warns that if the area is radioactive, someone may have to follow the goats with a pooper scooper. "What goes into a goat comes out of a goat," Danish said. The goat droppings could be shipped to a hazardous-waste burial site, he said. "You would actually be cleaning up instead of making matters worse," Danish said. "It strikes me as an intrinsically more controllable way of going about weed management than starting a prairie fire." *Contact Berny Morson at (303) 892-5072, or morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com.* May 4, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 11 Government to open Flats health office Rocky Mountain News: Local By Berny Morson, News Staff Writer The federal government will open an office near Rocky Flats to help workers win compensation for health problems from exposure to toxic materials, such as plutonium and beryllium. The office will open in mid-June, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Thursday. The department also will open an office at the Denver regional center to expedite claims. Similar offices will open near seven other sites around the nation where nuclear weapons parts were manufactured during the Cold War. On Aug. 1, the Labor Department will begin distributing to the injured workers compensation of up to $150,000 plus lifetime medical benefits under a program first announced in 1999. Counselors at the new offices will inform workers and former workers of the program and help them fill out claim forms, said Peter Turcic, the head of a Labor Department task force focusing on workers' problems in the nuclear weapons industry. The offices also will help obtain work records to show that employees were in areas with toxic materials, Turcic said. The government does not know how many claims to expect since some could come from people who left the nuclear weapons industry decades ago. However, the Labor and Energy departments have used a working estimate of 3,000 people nationwide, half of whom contracted cancer. At least 115 people at Rocky Flats became ill from inhaling beryllium dust, but 100 others are at risk of developing the disease. Beryllium is a metal that was machined into bomb parts. Many others at Rocky Flats came in contact with plutonium, a heavy metal linked to cancer. Members of Colorado's congressional delegation had urged the Labor Department to open offices to help the nuclear workers. "That means there's going to be a dedicated effort to try to identify those people so they can begin to get reimbursed," Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said Thursday. Tony DeMaiori, the head of the United Steel Workers local at Rocky Flats, said, "We think that's great. . . . That $150,000 will be greatly appreciated." The federal government throughout the Cold War had brushed off claims from workers that they contracted diseases from exposure to plutonium and beryllium dust. That stance changed in 1999, when President Clinton and former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said the government should meet its responsibility to people who manufactured nuclear weapons. May 4, 2001 2001 © The E.W. 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