***************************************************************** 06/05/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.141 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Toxic Fuel To Be Transported Through Ohio 2 Broadcasters pull promos 3 Toxic-waste hearing draws little interest 4 Nuke-Friendly Radio Ads Gone, 5 Why not kill Yucca? 6 Ex-lab worker stumps in Japan 7 Opinion - Eugene P. Wigner: Reminiscences of one he mentored 8 Opinion - Guest column: Nuclear power not the answer to U. S. 9 Federal commission finds no major problems at state's nuclear 10 Nuclear Waste Management Gets Boost from 'Smart Card' 11 Environmentalists to Meet Cheney at White House 12 ABC Natl Board of Directors Endorses Bush Energy Plan 13 Maine Yankee submits revised license termination plan 14 Letter was incorrect on uranium isotopes 15 Nuke plants pass fed's review 16 ANNUAL ASSESSMENTS FOR NUCLEAR PLANTS RELEASED 17 San Onofre Quake Readiness Questioned 18 EUROTECH Remarks On 'Nuclear Summer' Time Magazine Article 19 USEC Names Dennis Spurgeon as Executive Vice President And Chief 20 United States Antimony Corporation Announces Development of a 21 ATG announces cost cutting measures and relocation of Fremont 22 Statement Extension request Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository 23 Sydney reactor assessment to proceed - 24 Lucas Heights nuclear reactor plans go on public display 25 Fishermen use 60 boats in nuclear plant protest 26 Congress in favour of ending curbs: Rocca 27 Korea Compensation Demand Dismissed 28 No plans for more nuclear power, says Blair 29 AEA abandons all-in sale talks 30 Editorial: Expressing doubts over nuke dump 31 Ireland will lose its control of decisions 32 Rivne nuclear reactor restarted after shutdown 33 Daschle's opposition may kill nuclear dump 34 State to offer proposal to clear contaminated soil NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Tent blamed for exposure of 11 to plutonium dust 2 EPA must help pay to clean up Rocky Flats site 3 Jury selection begins in beryllium lawsuit 4 Rocky Flats' focus on safety 5 STRICKLAND OUTRAGED BY SEVERANCE PLAN FOR PIKETON WORKERS 6 Reports critique DOE waste disposal facilities 7 Scientists Want Nuclear Arsenal Cut 8 Did U.S. use infant bodies to test levels of N-fallout? 9 Australia Probes Reports of Nuclear Tests on Babies 10 Stillborn babies shipped to US for use in nuclear tests 11 Wooldridge to examine 'nuclear test babies' claim 12 Nuclear tests on dead babies confirmed 13 Stillborn babies used in US nuke tests 14 Vic inquiry into baby N-tests 15 Were stolen babies nuclear test subjects? 16 Glass-maker Hoya aiding nuclear arms facility, U.S. scientist says 17 Rocky Flats lawsuit could reveal government cover-up 18 EPA must help pay to clean up Rocky Flats site ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Toxic Fuel To Be Transported Through Ohio NewsNet5 *Nuclear Fuel Was Stored In Pool* WEST VALLEY, N.Y., 9:18 a.m. EDT June 4, 2001 -- A train carrying highly toxic nuclear fuel will make its way through Ohio. NewsChannel5 reports that the fuel has been stored for several decades at an indoor pool in rural New York, but government officials will now ship the radioactive material to a storage facility in Idaho. Workers are loading 125 bundles of rods that contain fuel pellets used to produce electricity in nuclear power plants into two super-strength casks that can withstand steep falls, engulfing fires, punctures and underwater pressure. The shipment will be tracked by satellite during its journey. Hundreds of officials have been trained in the transport of radioactive material for this summer's transport. Dates and times the train will pass will not be made public. *Copyright 2001 by NewsNet5.The Associated Press contributed to ***************************************************************** 2 Broadcasters pull promos [deseretnews.com] June 05, 2001 Broadcasters have dumped radio spots promoting radioactive waste disposal after receiving complaints from a citizens group that called the ads "misleading propaganda." The spots, co-sponsored by the Utah Broadcasters Association and the Tooele Chamber of Commerce, promoted the benefits of radioactive waste disposal by airing stories from patients who touted the benefits in medical treatment. Yet the vast majority of the radioactivity that would be disposed of at a landfill operated by Envirocare of Utah would be from nuclear reactors, citizens complained. "These supposed public service announcements did nothing more than promote the agenda of a multimillion-dollar company driven by a desire not for public service, but for profit," said Claire Geddes of Utah Legislative Watch, a member of a newly formed group, Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah or HEAL. The spots were paid for with a contribution by Envirocare. The operators of a low-level radioactive waste dump in remote Tooele County are seeking to expand its business to accept hotter waste than its current license allows. That proposal requires the governor's and Legislature's approval. John Greene, broadcasters association president and station manager at KUER in Salt Lake, said the ads were "inappropriate" use of filler spots that stations normally use for campaigns like National Guard recruitment. "We were kind of fooled by this," Greene said. The association has agreed to correct the situation by running spots submitted by HEAL. © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 3 Toxic-waste hearing draws little interest [deseretnews.com] June 05, 2001 Envirocare seeks to handle hotter material By Donna Kemp Spangler Deseret News staff writer Most schools are out, summer's on its way and it seems people have other things to do than attend public hearings on radioactive waste. Only two people testified at a public hearing Monday on a proposal by Envirocare of Utah to dispose of barrels of waste contaminated with low-level radioactivity, called in industry jargon Class A containerized waste. It is slightly hotter and more dangerous than the contaminated soils the company is currently licensed to accept, but nowhere close to the radioactivity of Class B and C radioactive wastes. Those are primarily materials from decommissioned nuclear power plants and hospital wastes. Bill Sinclair, director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control, said he will make a decision later this month on whether to recommend the Legislature and governor approve Envirocare's license application for the hotter B and C wastes. Envirocare's bid to dispose of the hotter Class A wastes does not need legislative or gubernatorial approval. Rather, Sinclair will make a final decision after the public comment period ends on June 14. Monday's hearing on the lower-level Class A waste drew only 21 people, significantly fewer than the other hearings. Both individuals who testified supported Envirocare's amendment to its license. "This proposed amendment will not increase the volume or types of waste Envirocare is authorized to receive," testified Mark Ledoux, radiation protection manager at the facility in remote Tooele County. "What it will do is allow Envirocare to modify certain operating procedures, which will make waste handling safer and minimize . . . exposure to our employees." That waste consists of materials such as spent resin beads, which are used at nuclear power plants and packaged in high-integrity containers. A second public hearing is scheduled at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 7, at the Tooele County Health Department Auditorium. *E-MAIL: donna@desnews.com* © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 4 Nuke-Friendly Radio Ads Gone, The Salt Lake Tribune -- ** *Tuesday, June 5, 2001* BY JUDY FAHYS The Utah Broadcasters Association, prodded by critics, has pulled the plug on public service ads that appeared to promote a multimillion-dollar landfill company. The UBA's 80 member stations have been asked to scrap five promotional spots for the Tooele County Chamber of Commerce. The discounted radio ads were paid for with a contribution by Envirocare of Utah, which operates a radioactive waste disposal site about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City. The promotions used the stories of medical patients to tout the benefits of radioactive waste disposal, a controversial commercial service provided in Utah exclusively by Envirocare. In addition, the broadcasters will be asked to run brief spots for Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah), a citizens group that frequently criticizes Envirocare. The radio messages will "more accurately reflect the true public health dangers of radioactive waste." "It's the most appropriate way of correcting the problem of Envirocare manipulating the public-service announcements," said Jason Groenewold of Families Against Incinerator Risk. John Greene, UBA president and station manager for the Salt Lake City public radio station KUER, said the five chamber of commerce ads were "inappropriate" use of the filler slots that stations normally reserve for community campaigns, such as National Guard recruitment and Baby Your Baby. "We were kind of fooled by this," Greene said. "We took immediate action." Dale Zabriskie, the UBA's executive director, said the ads would have been worth at least $40,000 in broadcast time in exchange for the $10,000 donation made by the Tooele chamber. The donations from such spots are used to help pay the broadcasters association's expenses. "We found ourselves in the middle of an argument between that activist group, Envirocare and the Tooele County Chamber of Commerce," he said. "It's not our argument. We have no reason to be in the middle of all of them." The Chamber said it only wanted to remove some of the stigma associated with the radioactive waste disposal that has been going on within its borders for more than a decade and remind people about the jobs and revenue the industry brings to the area. The chamber also had the ads produced by the public relations firm that works closely with Envirocare, whose operations churn about $5 million annually into the county's budget. Meanwhile, Envirocare noted that it periodically contributes to chamber programs and that the spots never mention the company by name. HEAL pointed out more than 80 percent of the waste accepted at Envirocare comes from decommissioned nuclear reactors, not medical procedures, as the ads suggest. The group said all of Envirocare's waste comes from out of state and no nuclear waste generated in Utah goes to the Tooele County facility. "It was completely inappropriate of Envirocare to manipulate the public airwaves, and we are glad the UBA recognized this and agreed to pull the spots," said Claire Geddes, a HEAL coalition member. Envirocare, which is seeking the state's permission to begin accepting "hotter" radioactive waste, has been stepping up its public information and promotional efforts in recent months. The company must get approval from Gov. Mike Leavitt and the Legislature before it can expand into this new business line. ***************************************************************** 5 Why not kill Yucca? LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: OPINION: COLUMN: Steve Sebelius Submit a Letter to the Editor STEVE SEBELIUS MORE COLUMNS Tuesday, June 05, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal COLUMN: Steve Sebelius There's a delightful "Dilbert" cartoon in which Wally, Dilbert's dorky co-worker, is assigned the task of reassigning cubicles for the office. He immediately sets about using the newfound position to his advantage, which prompts Dilbert to inquire as to whether Wally really should be abusing his power. Wally's retort: "What would be the other reasons to have power?" U.S. Sen. Harry Reid faces much the same dilemma in Washington, D.C., these days, having convinced U.S. Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., to leave the Republican Party, where moderates are greeted with all the joy that PETA reserves for a barbecue. But the unfortunate downside for Reid, who with Jefford's 51st vote is scheduled to become majority whip today, is the pressing question of Yucca Mountain. Will Reid, using his newfound power, sap the dollars currently going to scientific studies of the site, thus delaying the process? Nope. Here's the good senator, the day after the announcement: "I have always tried to be fair. I have the ability to cut back funding significantly, but I believe there's a process in line that Yucca Mountain be characterized, and I'm not going to stop it from being characterized. That would be very little, that would show I'm a little person," Reid said. "I don't think the (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) will ever approve it." Huh? Reid may be right about one thing: There has been a process in line to characterize Yucca Mountain, a process that reached its apex in 1987 when Nevada was singled out unfairly to be the nation's nuclear waste dump. It was a political act, arbitrary, capricious and more or less permanent. So if Reid has the opportunity to starve the beast by another political act -- cutting funding for the dump -- then he ought to do it, and to hell with the looming specter of looking "little." But Reid, who has become the state's No. 1 practitioner of nuclear politics, is more cautious when asked about the issue, at once claiming he could cut funding but admitting that he can't stop Yucca from moving forward, no matter what he does. In an interview in his eighth-floor office in the new Lloyd D. George federal courthouse, Reid recalled the sage advice about doling out favors for the home state, given him long ago by former U.S. Sen. John Stennis, D-Miss.: "Don't be greedy." (Stennis, of course, has an aircraft carrier, a NASA space center and an institute of government named after him, the ultimates in legislative pork rewards.) But why shouldn't Reid be greedy and use every trick in his briefcase to drive a wooden stake through the heart of the biggest threat to Nevada's quality of life (and the nation's highway safety, if the scary press notices are to be believed)? Perhaps it's because he can't. There isn't, after all, a bill that can be shelved, a deal that can be made, a filibuster that can be had with new best friend and sidekick U.S. Sen. John Ensign. And even as incoming Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is declaring Yucca Mountain dead so long as Democrats hold the Senate, Reid himself is explaining that what Daschle really means is that any attempt to get interim storage in Nevada, or to let the Nuclear Regulatory Commission instead of the Environmental Protection Agency set radiation release standards, is dead. Yucca, as an institution, is still alive. It's barreling along on autopilot until the inevitable finding by the NRC which will be (with all due respect to Reid's prediction) that Yucca is the perfect place to bury nuclear waste. That will be followed by the inevitable decision by President George W. Bush (brought to you, in part, by the Nuclear Energy Institute) that the trucks should start their engines, followed by the inevitable veto from Nevada, followed by the inevitable override by Congress, a vote that Reid frankly acknowledges he cannot win. "The only thing I can do is to put up roadblocks," Reid says, recalling his amateur boxing days. "There are different ways you win fights." Instead of a knockout, Reid's hoping for a decision -- that Yucca is unsafe -- from the very people who've spent billions to prove otherwise. Is there a way to get odds on this? Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist. His column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 383-0283 or by e-mail at Steve_Sebelius@lvrj.com. webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 6 Ex-lab worker stumps in Japan Tuesday, June 05, 2001 3:06 AM MST Trotts quit over nuclear research By Glenn Roberts Jr.STAFF WRITER LIVERMORE -- A former Lawrence Livermore Laboratory scientist, who renounced nuclear weapons work in favor of anti-nuclear activism, is touring Japan this week to speak with activists, politicians and business representatives. On Issac Trotts' itinerary is a meeting with officials at Hoya Corp., a Japan-based company with a shop in Fremont that is preparing high-tech glass slabs for the National Ignition Facility laser project at Livermore Lab. In February, Hoya officials announced that shipments of glass for the laser project were being withheld "for the time being." Public protests in Japan have questioned why Hoya managers would support the construction of NIF, a U.S. nuclear weapons research tool. Though the Japan Times reported in late March that Hoya managers planned to resume the shipments, officials at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory reportedly have not received a formal statement from the company about resumption of the shipments. Lab spokesman Susan Houghton said Monday that "nothing has changed in relation to Hoya." "We value our relationship with Hoya and are allowing them to handle this issue," Houghton said. Trotts, 25, who worked as a computer scientist and mathematical programmer at Livermore Lab from October 2000 to March of this year, has said he resigned after learning that lab scientists continue to develop new capabilities for nuclear weapons. Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, a Livermore-based nuclear watchdog group, and Gensuikin, a Japanese anti-nuclear group, combined forces to send Trotts to Japan. In a paper he prepared for his trip, Trotts states that NIF is "an instrument for continuing U.S. nuclear weapons research and development." The paper also says, "As such, it would not be socially responsible for a Japanese business, or any business for that matter, to directly contribute to the NIF's construction. Hoya Corporation now has an opportunity to show its social responsibility to the people of Japan by ending its involvement with the National Ignition Facility." Houghton said Trotts "was never affiliated with the National Ignition Facility and his claims are not credible." Hoya Corp. is contracted to produce about half of the specialized laser glass needed for NIF and for a similar nuclear weapons research project in France called the Megajoule. Both projects are expected to generate nuclear weapons explosions on a miniature scale by blasting radioactive fuel pellets with high-power ultra-violet lasers. Marylia Kelley, executive director for Tri-Valley CAREs, said Trotts went to Japan "with a stack of documents to present to Hoya -- so that Hoya (officials) understand the NIF's role in enhancing and maintaining nuclear weapons." She said Trotts also is planning to travel to Hiroshima this week to meet with its mayor and to visit the atomic bomb museum there. ©1999-2001 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG ***************************************************************** 7 Opinion - Eugene P. Wigner: Reminiscences of one he mentored opEd 2 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:49 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5, 2001 Alvin Weinberg told "Eugene Wigner stories" a week ago tonight to about 250 listeners at Pollard Auditorium. Like: * How Wigner, in 1936, predicted that man would release nuclear energy within five years. * That Wigner, who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1963, never took a formal physics course. Editor's License Dick Smyser * About the intensely paradoxical relationship between Wigner and DuPont, one of the major U.S. industries involved with the early atomic bomb effort and first operating contractor for Oak Ridge National Laboratory. * How Wigner, more than anyone else within the Manhattan Project, was obsessed with fear that Nazi Germany would develop the bomb first. * How Wigner once suggested to Weinberg that they visit Albert Einstein but Einstein wasn't home. * * * Weinberg, former director of ORNL who regularly proudly calls Wigner his mentor, was first associated with the acclaimed physicist at University of Chicago where the first controlled nuclear chain reaction was achieved Dec. 2, 1942, just one year later than Wigner had said it would be. Wigner, who when he made the prediction was at University of Wisconsin, later declared, "I had no basis for that statement." As a young man in Budapest, Wigner had told his father that he wanted to be a physics professor. "And how many physics professors do you know?" his father asked. About four, young Wigner answered. His father was not impressed that such a career path offered much hope for employment. "OK, Pop," Wigner is reported to have replied. "I'll study chemical engineering," which he did. During the months just before and after Enrico Fermi's team achieved that historic first controlled nuclear chain reaction in the "pile" under the stands of Stagg Field, University of Chicago's football stadium, there was a major difference of opinion: How to cool the plutonium-producing reactors envisioned to be built at what was to be the Hanford, Wash., nuclear site? Most argued for helium as the coolant. Wigner, however, argued equally as strongly for water cooling. DuPont was to be the contractor for the Hanford reactors and Wigner had become convinced that DuPont was unduly delaying the urgent bomb effort. He felt so strongly that, through a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, the president's wife, he let President Franklin D. Roosevelt know of his -- Wigner's -- contempt for DuPont. But DuPont, convinced that Wigner was right in the debate about reactor cooling systems, ultimately decided to follow his recommendation. The Hanford reactors, for which the pilot plant was what is now the National Historic Landmark Graphite Reactor at ORNL, were water cooled. (It was while in Oak Ridge for the shutdown of the Graphite Reactor in 1963 -- when it was designated a historic landmark -- that Wigner learned that he had shared the Nobel Prize for Physics for research he had done earlier at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies.) Just after World War II in 1945 and 1946, Wigner was the virtual founder and then first research director of ORNL. He continued his strong advocacy for water-cooling of reactors, this concept becoming the basis for the design of what now are pressurized water power producing reactors all over the world. Wigner's European boyhood, his experiences there with totalitarian governments -- both the Nazis and the Soviet communists -- had left him "terribly frightened," Weinberg said, of what was going on in Europe in the late 1930s, events which culminated in the beginning of World War II when Hitler attacked Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. In reaction to these fears, Wigner had immigrated to the United States in the middle 1930s. "He was a driven man," Weinberg said, as he worked in the earliest stages of the Manhattan Project. It was Wigner and Leo Szilard, fellow physicist and a schoolmate of Wigner's in Budapest, who called on Einstein and implored him to write the famous letter to President Roosevelt urging the U.S. bomb effort. Einstein, Weinberg said, knew little of fission at the time of the Szilard-Wigner visit. But he -- Einstein -- grasped the concept and its significance within just a few minutes and agreed to write the letter to the president which Wigner then translated from German to English. Immediately after the end of World War II in August 1945, Wigner, who lived in Oak Ridge and spent major time at ORNL (then Clinton Laboratories) during the war, urged postwar perpetuation of the lab. Somewhat reluctantly he agreed to be its research director, which at the time was really ORNL's top scientific post, the director being rather much an administrator only. But, Weinberg said, Wigner soon became impatient dealing with the military, which, until 1947 and the creation of the civilian U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, was still in charge of the Manhattan Engineer District. Thus, and with his scientific blessing of the lab's work a key to its future, Wigner returned to Princeton and Weinberg became his replacement as research director and then a few years later the director. It was during a later visit back at Princeton that Wigner suggested to Weinberg that they walk over and visit with Einstein, who lived in a modest bungalow near the university. But Einstein was out and the meeting never took place, Weinberg recalled wistfully. * * * The occasion for Weinberg's reflective lecture is this year's observance of the centennial of the Princeton University Graduate School which, at its founding in 1901, was one of only two university graduate schools in the United States, the other, and first, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Larry Dresner, Oak Ridge Princeton alumnus, presided and Weinberg was introduced by William Happer, Princeton physics professor. Weinberg recalled how Wigner, whose personal centennial will be next year, often observed that the phenomenon of human consciousness should somehow be thought of as relative to -- a part of -- quantum mechanics, the basic system for science at the atomic level. Might it -- human consciousness -- be explained by quantum mechanics? Wigner, who died in January 1995 at age 92, would ask. ORNL, Weinberg said in concluding his remembrances, is extremely fortunate to have its origins tied to Wigner -- his consciousness. -- RDS *Richard D. Smyser is founding editor of The Oak Ridger. You can reach him by e-mail at rdsandmps@aol.com* Web posted Monday, June 4, 2001 Guest column: Nuclear power not the answer to U. S. energy needs By David Kyler In these times of rising energy costs, it may seem difficult to argue against nuclear power as a supposedly inexpensive,"clean" energy alternative. Like many claims about technological fixes, closer examination of nuclear energy reveals far different conclusions than what may be suggested by conventional wisdom. Nuclear fuels and related radioactive materials are extremely dangerous if leaked into the environment, even in minuscule amounts especially because they last so long. Forms of uranium most commonly used as fuel have a life of many hundreds of years. Plutonium, another radioactive material proposed as nuclear plant fuel, remains hazardous for thousands of years. All radioactive materials threaten the health of humans and wildlife that are exposed to them, producing symptoms ranging from severe and persistent nausea to nervous system dysfunction, cancer, reproductive abnormalities, birth defects and death. Most troubling, because of their longevity, these materials can build up in the systems of animals, plants and habitats (water bodies and land areas). At exceptionally low levels, a single dose may not produce any significant adverse health risks, but continued or accumulating exposure can be deadly. Because these materials can be moved by wind, evaporation and rain and can wash off land areas into rivers and ground water, radioactive substances travel great distances. Dispersion of radioactive materials through air and water can introduce threats downwind and downstream for thousands of miles. This issue should be of particular interest to the people of coastal Georgia. Plant Hatch in Baxley near the Altamaha River is being relicensed. Although there has never been a terrible catastrophe at this facility, the aging condition and defective design of Plant Hatch make it ripe for a serious incident of contamination. Even more threatening is a proposal at the Savannah River Site near Augusta, now under review, for processing plutonium from decommissioned nuclear bomb warheads into fuel to be used at nuclear power plants in other locations. The SRS site is already known to be dangerously contaminated, with over 50 unlined"seepage ponds" believed to be releasing radioactive contaminants into the area's groundwater systems. Introducing the proposal for plutonium processing greatly adds to SRS's prospective threats to human health and the environment. Since plutonium is a more persistent form of radioactivity, and arguably the most toxic substance known, it represents an even greater threat than conventional uranium fuel. A single incident, whether caused by human operator error, an engineering or processing failure, natural catastrophe or act of terrorism, could produce far-reaching health hazards for any generations and essentially shut down all contaminated ecosystems. Considering the huge potential costs of these risks, it is highly doubtful that nuclear power or fuel processing is truly practical. Efforts to demonstrate the acceptability of this form of energy production are, in effect, attempts to seize short-term benefits at serious long-term risk to human health and critically important environmental balance. Perhaps the public may seem to gain in the short term from energy produced, but clearly the most notable benefits would be in the form of private profits. There are safer ways to produce energy at a profit, and to improve energy conservation, without severely jeopardizing the public. Improving the efficiency of lighting, appliances and various industrial processes, as well as making further headway in solar, wind, tidal and hydrogen-cell technologies come to mind. Ironically, the Bush administration is proposing to cut funding for such research by 47 percent. On the cost side, it is likely that communities whose health or business and employment interests are endangered by radioactive contamination would incur a substantial burden of using nuclear materials. Over hundreds of years, these costs could be cumulatively immense, unless safeguards were unfailingly ideal in every respect. The history of technology and human limitations do not substantiate belief in the flawless design and operation of such facilities. Nuclear energy is perhaps the most dangerous application of blind faith as a tool of public policy. Misleading economic and environmental assessments that portray nuclear power as practical rest upon willfully naive assumptions that are nothing short of science fiction. We accept such fantasies at our own risk and, worse, at the peril of future generations. David Kyler is executive director for the Center for a Sustainable Coast, based at St. Simons Island. © 2001 Savannah Morning News. All rights reserved. PRIVACY ***************************************************************** 9 Federal commission finds no major problems at state's nuclear plants theIndependent.com News: 06/04/01 • On the Net: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Omaha Public Power Districtand the Nebraska Public Power District By Scott Bauer The Associated Press LINCOLN -- Nebraska's two nuclear power plants passed their annual reviews with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Omaha Public Power District's Fort Calhoun station north of Omaha and Nebraska Public Power District's Cooper Station near Nebraska City were given satisfactory evaluations by the regulatory commission. In separate letters dated May 29 to plant operators, the commission said the plants "operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all cornerstone objectives." The reports cover April 2, 2000, through March 31. That period includes a March 3 incident at Cooper Nuclear in which water in the plant reactor's cooling system fell to unusually low levels. The regulatory commission said the risk was low and the utility's own action against the crew that operated the plant that day was sufficient. In the annual report, the commission said it noted a potentially adverse trend at Cooper of employees not identifying and adequately resolving potential problems. The commission said it intended to focus on that during its next inspection. NPPD spokeswoman Marcia Cady said the Cooper Nuclear Station recognized early last year that its "problem identification standards" needed to be improved. Correcting any problems in that area has been and will continue to be a high priority, she said. Both plants' licenses are set to expire in 2013, but both utilities are considering applying for 20-year extensions. • On the Net: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Omaha Public Power Districtand the Nebraska Public Power District © 2001 The Grand Island Independent AP materials © 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 Nuclear Waste Management Gets Boost from 'Smart Card' EarthVision Environmental News* IDAHO FALLS, ID, June 4, 2001 - Managing and transporting nuclear waste, as might be expected, generates a lot of paperwork related to regulatory affairs, transportation requirements, and human health and environmental protection. According to managers at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), as much as 1,000 pages of paper are generated for every drum of nuclear waste. To cut down on the amount of paper needed for the management of this waste while still ensuring the integrity of the data associated with the waste is maintained, INEEL has developed the digital signature for its Transuranic Reporting, Inventory and Processing System (TRIPS). TRIPS is an electronic database tool used to manage and ship radioactive waste to the Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, the repository for defense-generated nuclear waste. Unlike the simple signature systems that have been used on the Internet for a few years, the INEEL technology allows users, through one signature, to sign data that resides in hundreds of locations in various databases. According to the INEEL, TRIPS gathers the data, shows it to the users as an electronic form, verifies the signature authority, and then remembers and saves exactly what the user signed. Regardless of subsequent changes in information, the integrity of the users' signature and the form he or she signed remains unbroken. For a single 42-drum shipment of waste to WIPP, the INEEL developers say TRIPS will automatically verify between 350 to 1,000 separate signatures and the underlying data in complex analytical groupings. Each signature stored in the TRIPS system represents a piece of paper that was not printed, copied, or destroyed. The system, which is fully implemented, is expected to save more than 900,000 pieces of paper per year. The researchers are now adapting the TRIPS system for commercial applications. "Using electronic signatures in the process has increased our productivity by at least 50 percent," said Thomas Monk, INEEL project manager. "The benefit is not only noticed in the reduction of paper produced but in the total cost to the project." The digital signature technology earned its development team a White House "Closing the Circle" award for demonstrating a commitment to energy efficiency and pollution prevention. The White House is presenting these awards June 12, 2001 to recognize the best in government environmental programs. For more information, contact Wayne Austad at phone: 208-526-5423, or wqa@inel.gov, or Kathy Gatens at phone: 208-526-1058, or kzc@inel.gov. EarthVision Stories ***************************************************************** 11 Environmentalists to Meet Cheney at White House Tuesday June 5 10:31 AM ET Bush Talks Politics, Environment on Florida Everglades Trip - (KPRC) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) is to meet major environmental groups on Tuesday to discuss energy issues and seek ``common ground'' as the White House tries to overcome an image of hostility to green issues. White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said representatives of the Sierra Club (news - web sites), the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group were to meet with Cheney. She said the meeting would be to talk ``about energy issues, as we have been talking to groups throughout the process, trying to find common ground.'' Environmental groups have complained that they were largely shut out of the process of developing President Bush (news - web sites)'s energy policy, which they have criticized as placing too much emphasis on increasing oil, coal and nuclear power, and not enough on conservation. They have also protested what they said were attempts by Bush to weaken environmental regulations issued by former President Bill Clinton. Bush has in the last two weeks been trying to portray himself as more environmentally friendly, traveling to Sequoia National Park in California and Everglades National Park in Florida to discuss his views of a ``21st century environmentalism.'' Disapproval of Bush's environmental and energy policies helped drive down the president's overall job approval rating in an ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Tuesday. The nationwide poll found 58 percent of the adults surveyed disapproved of Bush's energy policies and 50 percent disapproved of his environmental policies. The overall approval rating was 55 percent, with 40 percent disapproving. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 ABC Natl Board of Directors Endorses Bush Energy Plan U.S. Newswire 4 Jun 17:06 ABC National Board Of Directors Endorses Bush Energy Policy; Demand Full And Open Competition On Energy Related Projects To: National Desk, Labor and Energy Reporters Contact: Scott Brown or Pam Hunter, 703-812-2000 Both of the Associated Builders and Contractors WASHINGTON, June 4 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Associated Builders and Contractors national board of directors voted today to endorse the National Energy Policy recently put forward by President George W. Bush. The board vote emphasized the necessity of ensuring that all federally funded construction of new energy-related projects be built through full and open competition. ABC opposes union-only project labor agreements as costly, discriminatory and unfair to the American taxpayer. ABC represents approximately 23,000 merit shop construction and construction-related firms in 82 chapters across the United States. "Today's national board of directors vote sends a clear message. ABC strongly supports President Bush's national energy policy," said Henry Kelly, ABC national president. "ABC believes that the Bush energy plan will provide profound benefits for the American consumer and that the proposed construction of 1300 to 1900 new power plants over the next 20 years will be a tremendous opportunity for the construction industry. We believe that all of these projects should be built through full and open competition" The resolution approved by the ABC national board of directors reiterates the association's support for the recent Bush administration executive order against mandatory project labor agreements on federally funded construction projects. This will ensure that all new federally funded power plants and related projects will be built through full and open competition. Key components of the Bush National Energy Policy released May 17, 2001 include: -- Building 1300 to 1900 new power plants over the next 20 years - the equivalent of one new plant per week. And construction of up to 300,000 new miles of gas pipelines and distribution lines. -- Formulation of an energy impact statement for every regulatory action that could "significantly and adversely" impact energy supplies, distribution or use. -- An executive order for federal agencies to expedite permits for power plants and power lines. -- Expedites approval and construction of a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to the rest of the nation. -- Support for an expansion of nuclear power through plant upgrades, streamlining of the licensing and re-licensing process for nuclear power plants, and establishing a national repository for nuclear waste. -- Expedites and encourages research into alternative and renewable energy resources. -- According to the Bush administration each new power plant will create 1,000 construction jobs and 200 permanent jobs, and each 1,000 miles of pipeline will create 5,000 new jobs. "The Bush energy policy is the right solution for the energy challenges facing our nation. ABC contractors support the President's policy and will help to provide America with safe, economical and state-of-the-art power production facilities," said Kelly. --- A copy of the Board resolution adopted by the ABC National Board of Directors is attached. For more information contact Scott Brown at 703-812-2062 or brown@abc.org Copyright 2001, U.S. Newswire ***************************************************************** 13 Maine Yankee submits revised license termination plan By Associated Press, 6/4/2001 16:04 WISCASSET, Maine (AP) Maine Yankee has submitted a revised license termination plan in which operators of the defunct nuclear power plant explain how they will meet the state's strict radiological dose standard. The changes were filed with the Nuclear Regulator Commission on Friday. In the filing, Maine Yankee says it will comply with the state's radiation standards, which are stricter than the federal government's. The Maine standards were set last year by the Legislature, which required a residual dose of 10 millirem with no more than 4 millirem from groundwater per year when the decommissioning is complete. The NRC requires Maine Yankee to meet a residual radiological dose of 25 millirem. ''We'll be cleaning up the site to the Maine standard, which is more stringent than the NRC standards,'' Howes said. Maine Yankee began decommissioning in 1997 and is scheduled to complete the process in 2004. To date, more than 28 million pounds of waste have been shipped out-of-state from the site in Wiscasset. Boston Globe Online ***************************************************************** 14 Letter was incorrect on uranium isotopes Reno Gazette-Journal June 5th, 2001 Concerning the letter from Dallas Foster regarding uranium (May 20), this ex-miner / mill foreman is no more a chemist than the average cook is a surgeon. U-235 and U-238 are isotopes of the element uranium, which means that the two contain different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei but are chemically identical. The difference between the two isotopes only comes into play in nuclear physics. The U-235 isotope, which comprises approximately 0.6 percent of naturally occurring uranium, is the only isotope that is useful in weapons. The U-238 isotope (the other 99-plus percent) is too stable to readily support nuclear fission. No, you will not likely find uranium in pure elemental form in nature. It is, however, found in nature as a chemical compound with other elements. If it were not there at all, you would not be able to extract and concentrate it by chemical processes in that place. The quantity found in any one place depends on the type and origin of the rock and soil. A small amount of these compounds can leach into the ground water, as happens in Fallon and many other places. Stephen R. Weber, Reno (via e-mail) © 2001 Reno Gazette-Journal ***************************************************************** 15 Nuke plants pass fed's review The Associated Press Nebraska's two nuclear power plants passed their annual reviews with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Omaha Public Power District's Fort Calhoun station north of Omaha and Nebraska Public Power District's Cooper Station near Nebraska City were given satisfactory evaluations by the regulatory commission. In separate letters dated May 29 to plant operators, the commission said the plants "operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all cornerstone objectives." The reports cover April 2, 2000, through March 31. That period includes a March 3 incident at Cooper Nuclear in which water in the plant reactor's cooling system fell to unusually low levels. The regulatory commission said the risk was low and the utility's own action against the crew that operated the plant that day was sufficient. In the annual report, the commission said it noted a potentially adverse trend at Cooper of employees not identifying and adequately resolving potential problems. The commission said it intended to focus on that during its next inspection. NPPD spokeswoman Marcia Cady said the Cooper Nuclear Station recognized early last year that its "problem identification standards" needed to be improved. Correcting any problems in that area has been and will continue to be a high priority, she said. Both plants' licenses are set to expire in 2013, but both utilities are considering applying for 20-year extensions. Copyright © 2001, Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved. 926 P Street Lincoln NE 68508 402 475-4200 feedback@journalstar.com ***************************************************************** 16 ANNUAL ASSESSMENTS FOR NUCLEAR PLANTS RELEASED Environment News Service: AmeriScan: June 4, 2001 AmeriScan: June 4, 2001 WASHINGTON, DC, June 4, 2001 (ENS) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued annual assessment letters for all operating nuclear power plants and posted them to its web site. The assessment letters sent to each licensee are available from the NRC Office of Public Affairs, at: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/ppron the NRC web site, and through ADAMS, the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System. All commercial nuclear power plants - with the exception of the two D.C. Cook plants, due to their extended shutdown - are now being evaluated under a revised reactor oversight process initiated on April 2, 2000. The NRC expects to make additional refinements to the program based on lessons learned from the first year of initial implementation. The revised reactor oversight process reflects several important themes for all of NRC's activities - a greater focus on safety, an effort to improve objectivity and timeliness, a commitment to stakeholder involvement, and improved transparency of agency activities for both licensees and the general public. As part of the new program, each plant will receive an assessment letter every six months: a mid-cycle review letter and the annual assessment letter. Updated information on plant performance will be posted to the NRC web site every quarter. The NRC is in the process of aligning the inspection and assessment cycle with the calendar year. In order to transition to a calendar year, the current inspection and assessment cycle will consist of three quarters (the second, third and fourth calendar quarters of calendar year 2001). The next annual assessment letters will be issued in March 2002, and the next mid-cycle review letters in September 2002. Public meetings at each plant are planned to review the assessments. Details about plant performance can be found at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/index.html Copyright© 2001 Lycos, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Lycos® is a ***************************************************************** 17 San Onofre Quake Readiness Questioned KGTV TheSanDiegoChannel.com | San Diego Daily Transcript Monday June 04 09:56 PM EDT The fault lines offshore from the San Onofre nuclear power plant might be able to produce earthquakes stronger than originally thought. New research shows that earthquakes along the faults could be within the 7.1 to 7.6 range, 10News reported. San Onofre's generators were designed to withstand a magnitude 7.0 quake. A spokesperson for the nuclear plant says that engineers are looking at the report but believe that the plant is still safe. According to 10News, engineers believe that the plant can withstand a quake greater than magnitude 7.0. They are going to further study the faults to see if they really can produce a very strong earthquake. Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! and . ***************************************************************** 18 EUROTECH Remarks On 'Nuclear Summer' Time Magazine Article Yahoo - Tuesday June 5, 10:48 am Eastern Time Press Release Company's EKOR applications were successfully applied at Chernobyl's reactor accident site WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 5, 2001--EUROTECH, Ltd., (AMEX:EUO - news), focused on Nuclear Waste and Environmental Solutions for the 21st Century, announced today that its revolutionary encapsulant EKOR(TM) can solve some of the greatest nuclear waste problems on earth. EKOR(TM)'s use in storing, containing, transporting, and disposal should go a long way to solving the ``not in my backyard'' issue.``-CEO Don Hahnfeldt. The radiation-resistant EKOR(TM) is fireproof and waterproof, with superior adhesion properties. EKOR(TM) was created specifically for the cleanup and containment problems at the Chernobyl reactor accident site, and has wide application to uses in the nuclear industry. At a recent United Nations Conference, Ukrainian Deputy Director of the Chernobyl Shelter Project, Artur Korneev, presented information about EKOR(TM)'s success in encapsulating critical fuel masses inside Chernobyl's sarcophagus in March 2000, and EKOR(TM)'s potential applications in nuclear waste management worldwide. ``The results are positive after only one year and EKOR(TM) is performing perfectly. EKOR(TM) is the only material the Shelter could use for these applications that is not corroded in the chemical and radioactive environment. Test reports indicate that the EKOR(TM) encapsulated radioactive debris will remain fixed in place for more than 400 years.'' In a Time Magazine article published Tuesday May 29th, author Daniel Eisenberg wrote: Three Mile Island. Chernobyl. And don't forget The China Syndrome. With their long, notorious track records of burning money and spewing toxic waste, it's hard to imagine that nuclear power plants could ever again be hot properties. But in Vernon, Vt., some of the nation's largest energy companies are battling to gobble one up. The Vermont Yankee plant, a 28-year-old nuclear war-horse, has become the target of a bidding war. With the price of oil and natural gas escalating, concerns about global warming rising and electricity markets deregulating, these onetime white elephants are starting to look more like cash cows. The Vermont battle, in fact, is just the latest stop on an industrywide shopping spree that is fueling a nuclear resurgence. By the end of the decade, new nuclear power plants could be sprouting up right here at home: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has already approved the next generation of supposedly cheaper, safer plant designs. The Administration's proposal to reexamine nuclear recycling makes watchdogs even more nervous. Such reprocessing aims to reduce waste by separating plutonium from spent uranium fuel and reusing it as a power source. But this practice hasn't been done in the U.S. since the 1970s, and opponents say it could help put bomb-grade plutonium in the wrong hands. Even the improvements that the industry never tires of trumpeting - more efficient, longer-running plants - do little to comfort anti-nuclear activists. ``They're running these reactors hotter and longer,'' says Paul Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. Last year the Indian Point 2 plant, part of a trio of upstate New York reactors Entergy recently bought for around $1 billion, was temporarily closed down after radioactive water leaked from a ruptured steam tube. Just as the plants are getting older and more prone to problems, critics assert, the NRC is letting operators police themselves. To read the entire story visit: http://www.time.com/time/personal/article/0,9171,1101010528-127263,00.html (Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field.) Certain information and statement included in this release constitute ``forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of the Federal Privates Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. *Contact:* EUROTECH Dawn VanZant, 800/665-0411 Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy ***************************************************************** 19 USEC Names Dennis Spurgeon as Executive Vice President And Chief Operating Officer Monday June 4, 2:59 pm Eastern Time Press Release BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 4, 2001--USEC Inc. announced today that Dennis R. Spurgeon has joined the company as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In that role, Spurgeon will be responsible for day-to-day activities of USEC's operations, including production activities together with Marketing and Sales. ``Dennis will make a tremendous addition to the USEC leadership team,'' said USEC President and CEO William H. Timbers. ``His extensive nuclear background and record of success in commercial and governmental markets is an extremely complementary fit with our mission.'' Before joining USEC, Spurgeon served as principal owner and chief executive officer with Swift Group LLC, an international leader in shipbuilding for commercial and military markets. His earlier career included executive leadership positions at UNC Resources (formerly United Nuclear Corporation) where as Chief Operating Officer some of his management responsibilities included operation of a uranium recovery facility, the manufacturing of reactor cores for the Navy and operation of the dual purpose ``N'' reactor. He previously held posts in the Ford administration including an assignment as Assistant Director for Fuel Cycle in the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration and as a member of the White House task force that developed President Ford's nuclear policy. He also worked for the General Atomic Company, where he assisted in the development of nuclear reactor plants for electric power generation. During a distinguished military career with the U.S. Navy, Spurgeon served aboard two submarines, was a ship superintendent in a naval shipyard and was assigned on loan to the Atomic Energy Commission as Technical Assistant to Commissioner ``Tommy'' Thompson and later Chairman Glenn Seaborg. He ultimately achieved the rank of Captain, USNR. Spurgeon holds an MS in Nuclear Engineering and the degree of Nuclear Engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy. USEC Inc. (NYSE: - news), a global energy company, is the world's leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. *Contact:* USEC Inc. Elizabeth Stuckle, 301/564-3399 or Charles Yulish, 301/564-3391 Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy ***************************************************************** 20 United States Antimony Corporation Announces Development of a Significant Zeolite Deposit Monday June 4, 9:49 am Eastern Time Press Release THOMPSON FALLS, Mont.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 4, 2001--United States Antimony Corporation (OTCBB:UAMY - news), a prominent domestic producer of antimony products, announced today it is developing a geologic resource of more than 200 million tons of zeolite. Zeolite is a naturally occurring mineral that has been used for more than 20 centuries due to its remarkable ability to absorb moisture and exchange cations such as heavy metals and ammonium. The deposit of zeolite has been sampled at the surface but has not been core drilled according to John Lawrence, President of United States Antimony Corporation (USAC). ``This zeolite is one of the better deposits in the country,'' said Lawrence. ``It has a very high capacity to absorb ammonium and heavy metals. The deposit appears to be over 800 feet thick with very little over burden or internal waste. It contains significant amounts of potassium, good for fertilizers and is very low in sodium which is toxic to plants.'' Lawrence also said that the zeolite is a light green color making it a strong candidate to be used as a soil amendment in golf courses, playing fields, lawns and gardens. Lawrence said USAC would focus its initial efforts on the bulk commodity market for zeolite rather than the smaller, niche-type of retail markets. The bulk markets to be targeted will include animal feed, soil amendment, water filtration, odor control, environmental cleanup, amended fertilization for high-value crops such as potatoes, vegetables and row crops among others, kitty litter, sewage treatment, heavy metal remediation and light weight aggregate. Although the Idaho National Experimental Laboratory has previously used this particular zeolite deposit for remediation of nuclear waste, the deposit has never been fully exploited. USAC has formed a subsidiary named Bear River Zeolite Company (BRZ) to oversee the zeolite plant and mine located in Preston, Idaho. USAC owns 75% of Bear River Zeolite and is the operator. The permitting and engineering was started during the year, 2000 and the actual mine development, the road system and the plant construction commenced earlier this year. United States Antimony Corporation (USAC) is a prominent domestic producer of antimony products. The Company's antimony properties, mill and metallurgical plant are located in the Burns Mining District of Sanders County, Montana, approximately 15 miles west of Thompson Falls. The Company holds 12 patented lode claims, some of which are contiguous, and two patented mill sites. The antimony-based products from USAC are used in glass for cathode ray tubes for computer monitors and television bulbs, enameling cast iron such as bath tubs and sinks, as a flame retardant system for plastics, rubber, fiberglass, textile goods, paints, coatings and paper. This press release contains ``forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995. The words ``believe,'' ``expect,'' ``anticipate'' and ``project,'' and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statement was made. Such statements may include, but not be limited to, projections of revenues, income or loss, expenses, plans, and assumptions relating to the foregoing. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified. Future results could differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements. *Contact:* Media Relations Contact: The Cervelle Group, Orlando, Fla. Dave Donlin, 866/295-7878 or 407/295-7878 dave@thecervellegroup.com or Investor Relations Contact: The Cervelle Group Rob Karbowsky, 866/295-7878 or 407/295-7878 rob@thecervellegroup.com Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy ***************************************************************** 21 ATG announces cost cutting measures and relocation of Fremont headquarters Solid Waste .com News for solid waste professionals -->6/4/2001 ATG Inc., a leading provider of low-level radioactive and low-level mixed waste treatment services with processing facilities located in Richland, Washington and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, announced the relocation of its California headquarters in Fremont to a neighboring city, Hayward. The Hayward location consists of 8,000 square feet of office space and 7,500 square feet of warehouse space. The new five-year lease starts with an equivalent triple net rental of $0.85 per square foot. As the first part of a company-wide efficiency improvement program, the relocation -- out of the high-rent Silicon Valley to a more industrial Hayward area -- results in an annual cost savings of $400,000. The Company has reduced employee head counts in the headquarters, and has also realized an annual cost savings in the amount of $300,000. "We are looking at each and every cost item to reduce General &Administrative and overhead costs," said Doreen Chiu, president and chief executive officer of ATG. "With the most advanced technologies and facilities on hand, our goal is to be the most cost-effective company providing the best value to our customers." ATG's new headquarters is located at 3400 Arden Road, Hayward, CA 94545. About ATG Inc. ATG Inc. is a radioactive and hazardous waste management company that offers comprehensive thermal and non-thermal treatment solutions for low-level radioactive and low-level mixed waste generated by commercial, institutional and government clients such as nuclear power plants, medical facilities, research institutions and the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy. *This news release may contain forward-looking statements pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, the Company's new products and services, cost cutting measures and cost savings, contract awards, competition and various factors set forth under "Factors Affecting Future Operating Results" in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K and such other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements, which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.* *Source: ATG Inc.* Solid Waste.com | VerticalNet.com | Contact Us Copyright © 2000-2001, Vert Tech LLC. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 22 Statement Extension request Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository June 4, 2001 Mr. Lake Barrett Acting Director Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20585 Dear Mr. Barrett: This is to request a three month extension of the comment period for the *Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada *(DOE/EIS-0250D-S). A comment period of only forty-five days on this new document excludes the possibility of meaningful public participation, especially considering that no advance notice was given before the Supplement was released. The Department appears not to have taken into account the time required for members of the public to obtain the document, analyze its contents, and compile comments. The highly technical nature of the subject, irregular summer schedules of many stakeholders, and the decision to hold no hearings outside of Nevada underscore the need for the comment period to be extended. As evidenced by the overwhelming participation in the comment period on the original Draft Environmental Impact Statement, the public is intensely interested in the Yucca Mountain Project proceedings. To artificially restrict input on the Supplement by providing inadequate time for public comment further discredits the Department's process for evaluating the repository proposal. Public Citizen is a national, non-profit, consumer advocacy organization that has been active since 1971. We are supported by 150,000 members across the country and work closely with local, state-level, and national organizations on issues of energy policy. Thank you for considering our request. Sincerely, Wenonah Hauter Director Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program ***************************************************************** 23 Sydney reactor assessment to proceed - smh.com.au - News Update Tuesday, June 5, 2001 *An application for a licence to build a replacement nuclear reactor in Sydney's south was given the go-ahead for assessment today. Australia Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency chief Dr John Loy said the application put forward by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation would have to satisfy the community's safety concerns. He said an analysis of all possible accident scenarios and the way in which the research reactor at Lucas Heights would deal with them would be critical to the acceptance of the licence. Dr Loy said the assessment process would include a series of reviews, including a call for public submissions, before being decided upon next February. Dr Loy said ANSTO had taken steps to ensure the safety of residents living near the site of the proposed new reactor. "Accepting that it is sited in an area with a population around it ... you have to satisfy us, and satisfy the community, that you've protected well enough against accidents to ensure that there isn't adverse effects on the substantial community nearby," he said. Dr Loy said a Preliminary Safety Analysis Report by ANSTO and Argentinian building contractors INVAP had analysed safety aspects of the design. The PSAR found the plans provided "multiple levels of protection" against the accidental release of radioactive materials, Dr Loy said. He also highlighted plans to construct a safety net around the building to strengthen its defences against aircraft crashes. "We'll only be making a decision to agree to the construction of the reactor if at the end of all that process we decide that it could be constructed safely," Dr Loy said. He said the PSAR would be available for public inspection in libraries across Australia and a summary in CD form and on the internet. Sutherland Shire Council and environmental groups today reaffirmed their opposition to the reactor. Genevieve Rankin, chairman of the council's Nuclear Reactor Task Force, said the report failed to address a number of key conditions imposed by the Federal Government. She said it was worrying that additional seismic analysis had not yet been finalised and that the report ignored a study estimating the earthquake risk at the site to be double what was previously thought. Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Dave Sweeney said it was inappropriate for ARPANSA to push ahead with plans for the reactor when a recent Senate inquiry had found the reactor should not proceed. "There is growing concern over the blatant push by both ANSTO and the federal Minister for Industry, Science and Research Senator (Nick) Minchin to fast track this plan before the coming federal election," he said. AAP ***************************************************************** 24 Lucas Heights nuclear reactor plans go on public display ABC News - 06/06/01 Details of plans to build a replacement nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney's south went on public display yesterday and mark the start of a 12-month assessment process. The lengthy series of documents, including a safety analysis report, will be examined by the regulator the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) before any decision is made on the future of the reactor. The plans include information on the building, which will contain the reactor, analysis of any possible accidents and information on temporary storage facilities. Dr John Loy from ARPANSA says the plans even detail what the operators will do to protect the Lucas Heights reactor against a light airplane crash. "They have in fact put a safety net around the reactor building to strengthen it defences against aircraft crash that's a bit unexpected," he said. "That's a pretty superficial thing and I think otherwise we would see what they have done as being a professional approach of reactor design and analysis of its safety." > © 2000 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 25 Fishermen use 60 boats in nuclear plant protest website = "http://ad.hk.admomentum.com"; document.write(''); AdMomentum Ad Tag Wed , 6 June 2001 **Agence France-Presse** TAIPEI: Fishermen tried to use 60 boats yesterday to block the shipment of two generators to the site of a controversial nuclear-power plant being built in northern Taiwan, an official said. They ended the protest only after the state-run Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) agreed to talks on compensation for the damage caused to a fishing area by the development. The generators were shipped before dawn on two barges escorted by 21 coast guard patrol boats to the waters off the coastal town of Kungliao, where the partially-built plant is sited. The fishermen said construction of a pier for the US$5.6 billion (HK$43.6 billion) power plant had polluted the area they had fished in for generations. Taipower had previously agreed to pay the fishermen NT$200 million (HK$45.8 million) in compensation. The generators, each weighing 83 metric tonnes, had been stored at the northern Keelung harbour since arriving from Germany in August because construction of the plant was suspended on October 27 by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The generators are designed to supply power for the operation of the nuclear reactors. The government was forced to retract the suspension order after Taiwan's highest legal body, the Grand Justices, ruled there were flaws in the process of deciding to suspend the project. They said the DPP had failed to consult parliament over the issue, as required by Taiwan's constitution. The nuclear-power project was pushed through in parliament in 1996 by the then Kuomintang government despite years of violent protests. Critics of the project have insisted that the island should stop building more nuclear-power plants both on safety and conservationist considerations. 6 June 2001 / 12:40 AM "http://ad.hk.admomentum.com ***************************************************************** 26 Congress in favour of ending curbs: Rocca -DAWN - Top Stories; 05 June, 2001 By Masood Haider NEW YORK, June 4: New US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca told a business forum that there is a general agreement in the Congress on ending or easing economic sanctions imposed on Pakistan and India by the United States following May 1998 nuclear tests. A business official who attended the meeting told Dawn on Sunday that the meeting, organized by the Business Council for International Understanding, was attended by American business leaders and diplomats from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and American mission chiefs from South Asian region. Ms Rocca told the business community eager to clear cobwebs from the American policy in the region, hours after being sworn in, that the atmosphere on the Capitol Hill was sympathetic towards lifting of sanctions on both Pakistan and India. Responding to queries from American business leaders, who sought relief from the sanctions, Ms Rocca said while the lifting of military sanctions from the two South Asian neighbours involved complex issues, sentiments were favourable in Congress to eliminate sanctions. Ms Rocca is herself believed to be favourably disposed towards eliminating the sanctions on both the countries. In her statement two weeks ago before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her confirmation hearings she had expressed opinion that the nuclear sanctions of 1998 had "outlived their usefulness" and emphasized the need for the US to evolve a new framework to deal with the issues that came under sanctions purview. Ms Rocca assumed the charge as Assistant Secretary of State on Friday, June 1, and is expected to play a key role in the review of sanctions policy. Experts here point out that the selection of Ms Rocca as the Assistant Secretary whose views on the sanctions are well known, is itself indicative of the direction the Administration wants to move in. The DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2001 ***************************************************************** 27 Korea Compensation Demand Dismissed June 04, 2001 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The chief of a U.S.-led international consortium on Monday dismissed North Korea's demand for extra compensation for expected delays in building two nuclear reactors in the reclusive communist country. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, or KEDO, agreed in 1994 to build two light-water reactors in North Korea by 2003 and to provide heavy fuel oil in return for a freeze of Pyongyang's suspected nuclear program. The reactors would replace Soviet-designed, graphite-moderated reactors, which experts say produce greater amounts of weapons-grade plutonium. However, the $4.6 billion reactor project will be delayed at least until 2008 because of funding problems and tension on the Korean Peninsula, consortium officials say. North Korea is threatening to scrap the deal unless the consortium - which includes delegates from the United States, Japan and South Korea - compensates it for the loss of electricity caused by the delay. KEDO chief Charles Kartman rejected that demand, saying 2003 was a target date, not a contracted date. North Korea will receive 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil worth $100 million a year until the first reactor is completed, he said. "Pyongyang will continue to receive heavy fuel oil even during years of delay," Kartman said. "This is compensation." Kartman arrived in Seoul on Monday for a three-day visit to discuss the project with Chang Sun-sup, the chief South Korean delegate to the consortium, and Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo. Kartman said he planned to visit North Korea this summer but no date was set. Verification is a major issue with North Korea's nuclear program. Some U.S. experts suspect that the North may have extracted enough plutonium to make one or two atomic bombs before freezing its nuclear program in 1994. The Korean Peninsula was divided into the communist North and the pro-Western South at the end of World War II in 1945. The 1950-53 Korean War ended without a peace treaty. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 28 No plans for more nuclear power, says Blair Tuesday June 5, 03:03 PM LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair says he has no plans to increase Britain's nuclear power capability. "We have absolutely no plans to expand nuclear power," Blair told a news conference on Tuesday, two days ahead of the general election. "What we are actually doing is putting a lot of money now into renewable forms of energy." The Labour Party manifesto released last month was slightly more opaque, saying coal and nuclear energy "currently play important roles in ensuring diversity in our sources of electricity generation." U.S. President George W. Bush plans to reduce his country's dependence on foreign oil with more oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear power production. "What the Americans do obviously is up to them but we've got no plans to expand nuclear power here," Blair said. Blair reaffirmed his commitment to meeting Britain's targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions as laid down by the Kyoto protocol. "We've got to make progress across the board in getting that done," he said. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or ***************************************************************** 29 AEA abandons all-in sale talks Guardian | Terry Macalister Tuesday June 5, 2001 The Guardian AEA Technology, the troubled science and engineering group, has ended talks with potential buyers of the company and is selling off some of its divisions individually instead. Shares in the former state-owned business rose 25% as management promised to return the sale proceeds to investors. The share price had slumped following two profit warnings over the past nine months but rose again in March after news that AEA might be bought. The group, spun off from the atomic energy commission and privatised by the Conservatives in 1996, plans to concentrate on its rail and environment divisions which it says are earning much higher returns compared with its other activities. AEA has agreed to dispose of its nuclear engineering business to Nukem Nuclear, an arm of Germany's RWE utility group, for nearly £34m and expects to conclude similar talks about its nuclear consulting activities over the next half-year. The company is also in negotiations about the sale of Hyprotech, its main engineering software business, and once this is complete will reduce overheads by £6m a year. In a formal statement the company said preliminary discussions to sell the entire firm, which were announced on April 3, had been dropped because they were unlikely to lead to an offer which "adequately reflects the value inherent in the company". AEA plans to cut its overheads further and will transfer 120 of its staff from the world-famous science park at Harwell to Windscale. Charles Pick, analyst with Prudential-Bach, said the returning of money would please shareholders but AEA would become a small company, 30% of its original size. He said there were a lot of unanswered questions about the latest moves, not least the cost of the restructuring. The rail business which is to be prioritised, centred on the former British Rail research centre, has experienced compound growth in turnover of 42% since 1997, according to the company. The management plans to expand the business in Britain and mainland Europe, partly through acquisitions. The environment business includes monitoring air quality for the government. The company is expected to announce more details of its restructuring with its full-year financial results on June 26. Its shares closed yesterday at 281.5p, up 60.5p. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 30 Editorial: Expressing doubts over nuke dump Today: June 05, 2001 at 8:59:36 PDT When President Bush unveiled his national energy plan last month, things looked bleak for Nevada. After all, the president was calling for the development of more nuclear power. And the more nuclear power that's used, the more deadly waste it produces, which in turn increases the pressure to build a nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. In the three weeks since Bush announced his energy plan, however, there has been an interesting new take on nuclear waste storage. Instead of talk about what a done deal this is, there now is momentum building that questions Yucca Mountain's suitability in safely storing 77,000 tons of nuclear waste. The change in party control of the Senate -- and with it the elevation of Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid as assistant majority leader -- has been the principal reason for optimism. The new Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle, said last week that he thought Yucca Mountain would be a "dead" issue as long as Democrats were in control. And a former high-ranking Department of Energy official, who originated the idea of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, now says that a dump here should be abandoned. Despite the promising trend, the reality is that Nevada still is facing a tough battle since the Department of Energy is moving forward with its suitability study of Yucca Mountain. The next step is up to the Bush administration, which has been on record as supporting the need for a central repository. Still, it is hoped that the White House listens to the growing chorus of skepticism about Yucca Mountain and finally puts an end to this dangerous idea. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 31 Ireland will lose its control of decisions ireland.com - The Irish Times - IRELAND FRONT: Anti-Nice campaigners to seek High Court injunction to silence Ahern Tuesday, June 5, 2001 The Nice Treaty is a recipe for disarray and conflict which militarises the union of more than 350 million citizens, argues Nuala Ahern MEP The Treaty of Nice will form the basis on which the institutions of the European Union will function in the next decade. In "Eurospeak" this is called "Deepening the Union". Ireland has a right to say No to these proposals. In saying No to Nice we are saying No to unacceptable proposals for the functioning of the EU. We are not saying No to new members or to enlargement, which is called "widening the Union". Regardless of the outcome of the Nice Treaty, each new member will agree an accession treaty with the EU. In its structure the EU is closest to a federation of nation states. Each state is entitled to equality and parity of esteem, irrespective of its size or economic importance. The automatic right to have a Commissioner is vital. Ireland, because of its small representation in the European Parliament and its tiny voting strength in the Council of Ministers, would be much more adversely affected than larger member-states if it were to give up this right. Not only would Ireland have lost the automatic right to a Commissioner, but when it is our turn to have one, he or she will be chosen by the President of the Commission, not our own Government. EU Commissioners currently hold a number of portfolios which are too complex for them to take effective responsibility for. This has led in the past to charges of incompetence in dealing with fraud. Increasing the number of Commissioners does not adversely affect function; the reverse is the case. The Nice Treaty allows a core group of member-states to form an elite inner circle using the institutions of the EU. They have hijacked the EU institutions and this will mean not only that the more powerful states will make the real decisions but also that some states will become second-class members in not being allowed any real participation in some aspects of the Community. The applicant countries of Eastern Europe will be offered a second class membership in such a two tier Europe. EU laws are normally in the form of Directives which are proposed by the European Com mission after wide consultation. They are amended by the European Parliament and agreed by the Council of Ministers. They are then implemented into member-state law allowing for national differences and after discussion and debate in the national parliaments. Currently the role of national parliaments within this system has become confused. While the European Parliament has be come adept at making the Com mission accountable by scrutinising EU legislation, problems arise with the accountability of the Council of Ministers. In theory it is accountable to member-state parliaments but in practice most of them are simply informed after the event of the position taken by their ministers in agreeing particular legislation. An important plank of accountability is therefore lost and this is compounded by the secrecy with which the Council operates. In order to have accountability people need to know what is happening. This requires openness and access to both documents and records of decisions, particularly by the member-state governments in Council. The Council's unreasonable secrecy makes this impossible. This was recently compounded by an attempt to have all EU documents relating to NATO classified, even those referring to NATO documents. The reluctance to make rational changes that would make the Council of Ministers more ac countable is dangerous and eroding much support for the EU. In a few instances EU law is made by a draconian instrument called a regulation, which is akin to a decree, imposed on member-states without debate in the national parliaments. They are inflexible, which means they are imposed without regard to local or national conditions. There has been a worrying increase in the number of regulations. The most recent example is a regulation on the liberalisation of Telecom's networks to which the Irish Minister, Mary O' Rourke, was opposed, yet the regulation went ahead. It is a matter for concern whether ministers really have a grip of the decisions they are agreeing to in Brussels, given their responsibilities at home. Such is the density and complexity of much legislation that it is in practice agreed by the Minister's permanent representative in Brussels. What exactly happened in the question of the Regulation on matrimonial matters which was raised by former Attorney General John Rogers? What are the economic implications for families who could have expected to be generously treated under Ireland's divorce law but who might now have to accept the much more limited provision under, for example, UK law? Statements last week from Brussels and Paris on EU taxation policy have raised controversy. There is a logical case to be made that there should be no interference in tax policy with out full equality of representation and indeed a commitment to social welfare transfers between member-states. This would be unthinkable to most of the richer member-states. The EU, which brought for mer enemies together for peaceful co-operation, is now being militarised. This is a frightening prospect. European Com missioner Loyola de Palacio is aggressively promoting nuclear technology as the answer to climate change. Renewed impetus to nuclear technology and even a nuclear arms industry in Europe should be unthinkable. The evidence is that it is not. The kind of late-night dealing in smoke-filled rooms that final ised the Treaty of Nice was the unacceptable face of the EU and is not worthy of a Union of 350 million people. Nice was frankly a shambles, with the outcome for Ireland that we lose our automatic right to a Commissioner. In Nice the conflict and the disarray became so apparent that a new inter-governmental conference was agreed. ***************************************************************** 32 Rivne nuclear reactor restarted after shutdown The Associated Press KPnews.com -- News about Ukraine BigMir Internet Category: NATION 05 Jun 2001 KYIV, June 5 - Ukrainian nuclear workers on June 5 successfully restarted a reactor that was shut down the previous day due to an operator's error, the Emergency Situations Ministry reported. Reactor No. 1 at the Rivne nuclear power plant was stopped by its safety system when operators tried to restart it Monday morning after repairs. The ministry did not specify the error but said there were no radiation leaks or damage. Last month, a fire at the plant temporarily halted its reactors No. 2 and No. 3. Rivne is one of two nuclear plants where Ukraine is pressing ahead with construction of new reactors. They are meant to compensate the energy-starved country for the loss of Chernobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, where the last operating reactor was stopped in December under international diplomatic pressure. Ukraine currently operates four nuclear plants with 13 reactors that often experience malfunctions or are closed for lengthy repairs and maintenance. The former Soviet republic counts on nuclear power to provide for about 40 percent of its electricity. © 2000 SputnikMedia.net ***************************************************************** 33 Daschle's opposition may kill nuclear dump HarkTheHerald.com Orem-Geneva Times LAS VEGAS -- Opponents of a nuclear waste dump in Nevada are cheering incoming Senate majority leader Tom Daschle's declaration that the proposal is politically dead. "It's the most significant event we've seen since the change in the White House in January,"Stephen Cloobeck, a Las Vegas businessman and leader of a casino and business anti-dump coalition, said Friday. But a Department of Energy official said Daschle's position does not derail ongoing studies or plans to make a site selection recommendation soon. "The DOE will make a recommendation on the basis of science," spokesman Joe Davis said. "The policy on whether to continue will be made by the president and Congress." The department has spent $7 billion trying to determine whether the nation's commercial radioactive waste can safely be stored at the site, 90 miles from Las Vegas. The dump is also contemplated to store defense-complex waste like that at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Davis said a recommendation could be made to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham as early as this summer, and it could be on Bush's desk early next year. If Nevada challenges the recommendation, as expected, the matter will be sent to Congress for a vote. Daschle used his first trip since it became clear last week that he would be the new majority leader to declare that Democrats will kill the Yucca Mountain proposal if it reaches the Senate. "As long as we're in the majority, it's dead," he said during a brief public appearance before a political fund-raiser for Nevada U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic whip. "Having the majority leader say this is a dead issue gives us a lot of confidence that our notice of disapproval would not be overridden by the Senate," said Bob Loux, state Nuclear Projects Office director and chief anti-dump spokesman for Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn. President Bush last month announced his support for building more nuclear power plants as part of his administration's long-range energy policy. That raised the profile of the Yucca Mountain proposal because the nation has no place to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive research waste. This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A2. ***************************************************************** 34 State to offer proposal to clear contaminated soil Today: June 05, 2001 at 10:48:09 PDT By Jeffrey Libby LAS VEGAS SUN About 2,400 acres of contaminated land in central Henderson could be cleaned up for private residential development according to a plan to be proposed Wednesday by the state Division of Environmental Protection. In a public hearing before the Henderson City Council, Doug Zimmerman, director of the state's Bureau of Environmental Remediation, will detail an eight-month cleanup process that would remove 2 million cubic yards of contaminated soil from evaporation ponds on the east side of Boulder Highway just north of Lake Mead Drive. The soil would be buried in a landfill just across Boulder Highway at the Basic Management Inc. heavy industrial park. The contaminated soil would fill a 12-story building the length of a football field. But even so, Zimmerman says the planned 52-acre landfill would be visible south of Warm Springs Road as a mound of dirt no more than 25 feet high. It is the agency's preferred alternative and would comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's most stringent regulations. Other options include fencing off the area, capping the soil or storing the contaminated soil in an on-site landfill. Those options would allow no development or less intensive development. The state agency needs approval from the public and the City Council to proceed with the project. LandWell Corp., the development arm of Basic Management Inc., plans to build an upscale master-planned community with 7,000 homes and a commercial center on the site. The developer had agreed to donate 300 acres to the city for a state college as part of the town center, but that deal was abandoned in March due to lingering environmental and timing issues. The contaminated soil is the legacy of 45 years of chemical manufacturing that began with the federal government's production of magnesium in 1941 to build lighter, faster planes for World War II. A succession of private manufacturers, including Basic Magnesium Inc., dumped pesticides, arsenic, lead, radioactive isotopes and other hazardous chemical byproducts in unprotected evaporation ponds until 1976. In that year, Congress enacted the first federal laws governing the disposal of hazardous wastes. Since that time, the ponds on the east side of Boulder Highway have for the most part remained inactive. Basic Environmental Co., owned by BMI, has agreed to pay the estimated $16 million to $21 million required to clean up the site. Those costs include closing and cleaning up about 100 acres of active evaporation ponds used by Timet Corp. in the production of titanium. The contaminated dirt would be transported west by conveyor belt underneath Boulder Highway beginning in July 2002. But BMI does not want to pay an estimated $50 million to $60 million that Timet Corp. will need to build new "zero-discharge" ponds closer on the west side of Boulder Highway in the heavy industrial area, Robin Bain, director of environmental services for BMI, said. BMI has requested that the city of Henderson extend its downtown redevelopment area to include the 2,400 acres of contaminated land and pay for the start-up costs of the new ponds. Developers and city officials have estimated that the master-planned community could raise $145 million in tax revenues over 30 years. For that to happen, Henderson would have to annex the land, which is currently part of unincorporated Clark County. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Tent blamed for exposure of 11 to plutonium dust Rocky Mountain News: Local By Berny Morson, News Staff Writer The accident that left 11 Rocky Flats workers contaminated with plutonium dust last fall occurred partly because safety experts misjudged just how tricky the place is, plant officials said Monday. The 11 employees were supposed to be protected by a tent that covered their work area inside the highly contaminated Building 771, said Alan Parker, president of Kaiser-Hill Inc., the company cleaning up the defunct nuclear weapons plant. The same tent had been used by workers who had cut up glove boxes -- containers in which plutonium bomb parts were assembled during the Cold War. "We thought if it (the tent) worked well for one thing, it surely should work well for another," Parker said. The tent is being destroyed, and that mistake won't occur again, Parker said. Parker spoke Monday to elected leaders of the towns and counties that surround Rocky Flats. The doses received by the 11 workers were not enough to make them immediately ill, but their health will be tracked, Parker said. Also blamed was the failure of alarms to sound when dust levels rose in the tent. The monitoring system is being improved, and workers are making greater use of respirators. Building 771 is among the most contaminated structures at Rocky Flats, with radioactive dust in ceilings and on ductwork. That dust is being disturbed as the building is dismantled. June 5, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 2 EPA must help pay to clean up Rocky Flats site Rocky Mountain News: Local By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- Even the Environmental Protection Agency must live by the laws it enforces. The federal agency is among 135 companies and government entities that have agreed to pay a combined $668,695 toward the estimated $6.7 million cleanup of contaminated soils at the Rocky Flats Industrial Park Superfund site in Arvada. Since the mid-1970s, the EPA and other entities involved in a tentative settlement announced Monday all sent used solvents or other hazardous materials to the Thoro Products Co. or AERRCO chemical recycling facilities. Storage of the chemicals is blamed for soil contamination that will require several more years of costly cleanup. Under federal law, so-called "generators" of hazardous materials are liable to pay a portion of cleanup costs, even if they were not directly involved in fouling the environment. "It sort of leaves the smaller companies holding the bag for the companies that are more culpable," said EPA enforcement attorney Suzanne Bohan. The giant federal agency is no different. It racked up $13,528 in liability for sending 2,454 gallons of used solvents and other chemicals from a research lab to AERRCO for recycling, and would pay more than any other government agency in the shared settlement. The next largest is the city of Longmont, which will pay $12,624. June 5, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 3 Jury selection begins in beryllium lawsuit [www.TheDailyCamera.com] By Jennifer Hamilton *Associated Press* GOLDEN — A beryllium supplier to Rocky Flats on Monday blamed the management at the former nuclear weapons plant for concealing the metal's harmful effects. Lawyers for four workers and their families said Cleveland-based Brush Wellman Inc. knew of beryllium's risk as early as the 1940s, but failed to alert its customers, including the Department of Energy's Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. The company "thought of profit before people, production before health," lawyer Allen Stewart said in his opening statement. Brush Wellman's lawyer said the information was widely available to the public and blamed Rocky Flats' management. "Each shipment of beryllium to Rocky Flats was labeled with warnings approved by the government," said Sydney McDole, attorney for Brush-Wellman. "It didn't matter what warnings we put on the labels, they were never going to get to the workers." Denver-based DOE spokeswoman Karen Lutz said Monday evening it's inappropriate for the department to comment on the allegations because it has not been named in the lawsuit. Earlier, a panel of six jurors and two alternates was seated in the Jefferson County District Court trial. The trial involves claims from four workers, who attended the trial tethered to oxygen tanks, and their wives. In all, 55 former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant workers and their spouses have sued the company. Brush Wellman shipped beryllium, a lightweight, stiff metal, to Rocky Flats, northwest of Denver. The metal was used in nuclear-bomb triggers made at the plant until it was closed in 1989. Internal company documents and declassified government material indicated Brush Wellman knew as early as 1951 that workers were becoming sick when exposed to beryllium levels within the standard. Brush Wellman officials said information sent to Rocky Flats management about beryllium's dangers was ignored. Workers alleged the federal government allowed Brush Wellman to censor medical documents for years, including a report from Brush Wellman's medical director that concluded beryllium was one of the "most deadly (elements) known to mankind." Nationwide, Brush Wellman faces 71 lawsuits involving 192 plaintiffs. Outside the defense industry, the metal has been used in cars, cell phones, computers, bicycles, dental work and golf clubs. As many as 800,000 employees in a variety of industries could be working with the metal, according to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. *June 5, 2001* Copyright 2001 The Daily Camera. All rights reserved. Any ***************************************************************** 4 Rocky Flats' focus on safety [www.TheDailyCamera.com] By Beth Wohlberg *Camera Staff Writer* A recent report outlining safety concerns at Rocky Flats has prompted the site's cleanup company to focus less on a schedule toward closure by 2006 and more on quality and safety for daily work tasks. "We are developing a strategy that emphasizes safe performance ... and de-emphasizes the discussion of the overall schedule," wrote Kaiser-Hill's vice president Alan Parker in a letter to Barbara Mazurowski, the Department of Energy's site manager. "Constant reminders of the closure date targets may have supplanted the safety message to our workers. "This is a key effort to refocus the workforce on safe performance of daily work," the letter said. "Our safety message needs to be reinforced daily by all levels of management; our actions must mirror our words." The Site Safety Improvement Plan, announced at Monday's meeting of the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments, stems from a recent report by the Department of Energy's independent oversight board. The report pointed out several inadequate safety measures that led to workers' exposure to low-level radiation in Building 771, one of the main plutonium manufacturing buildings at the former nuclear weapons factory. Parker said his plan addresses the concerns of the oversight board, but it will act as a "living document" that will change as more information is gathered. The plan also outlines ways to simplify work for each job, improve supervisors' training and refine the site's processes for fact-finding and analysis of safety problems, he said. "We are going to transfer these lessons we learned to other buildings," Parker said. "We are not going to make these mistakes" in other buildings. But site officials also said it's impossible to ensure that no worker will breathe or ingest radioactive material because the work involved in decontaminating site buildings is extremely risky. They said the site's goal is to maintain exposures "as low as reasonably achievable." Representatives from the local union of the United Steelworkers of America said the site changes so far are good for workers. Vice president John Barton said two full-time safety representatives work in Building 771 now, and Kaiser-Hill is encouraging workers to question safety practices and stop work that is unsafe. The Energy Department's Rocky Flats field office ordered the independent review in January. Mazurowski said she asked for the review "because I wanted to make sure we weren't just fixing symptoms." She also said Rocky Flats is the first former nuclear weapons factory to be cleaned up in this way. Even with the new safety measures, the schedule for closure by 2006 has not been changed. "We are learning things about decontaminating and decommissioning contaminated buildings because this is the first of its kind of work at DOE," she said. *Contact Beth Wohlberg at (303) 473-1364 or wohlbergb@thedailycamera.com.* *June 5, 2001* Copyright 2001 The Daily Camera. All rights reserved. Any ***************************************************************** 5 STRICKLAND OUTRAGED BY SEVERANCE PLAN FOR PIKETON WORKERS June 5, 2001 Sends Letter to DOE Demanding Accountability for Public Finds WASHINGTON – Congressman Ted Strickland today called on the Department of Energy to live up to its promise to Piketon workers and provide a meaningful severance package for those who are being laid-off at the Piketon uranium enrichment plant. "The efforts by the Energy Department to develop a comprehensive severance package have thus far been woefully inadequate," Strickland said. "DOE is required by law to publicly develop a severance and benefits package for displaced workers. For all practical purposes, DOE has instead ignored the law and simply written a check to USEC to develop a plan." Under the 1993 Defense Authorization Act, DOE is required to not only develop their own benefits plan, but also to offer a period of public comment. However, according to an agreement with the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), DOE is letting USEC develop its own plan with money DOE received from Congress. For example, DOE has given USEC $1.25 million in public funds to provide an early retirement package. On Friday, USEC contacted union leaders with a proposal that creates an "early retirement window program". The program would require employees to give up their legal rights to file any claims against USEC in exchange for a severance or retirement package that is being funded largely by public tax dollars. "It is outrageous for DOE to abrogate responsibility over public funds," said Strickland. "They are handing control of federal money over to a private company that has consistently shown contempt for its employees." "What we have here is a private company getting public tax dollars, and using those dollars to wage economic blackmail against its employees. If this is not technically illegal, it is certainly unethical and immoral. Of course, that is nothing new for the failed management at USEC. It’s their company trademark. Could it be that USEC fears age discrimination claims given the fact that my office has received numerous reports that the company is targeting older, more experienced workers for termination?" The early retirement program adds years to retirement eligibility, but does not address the formula for calculating benefits, forcing employees to accept a fraction of their pensions. In addition, Strickland’s office has been informed that some workers will be forced to make financial sacrifices and accept early retirement simply to maintain health benefits. "This affects every worker at the Piketon plant, both hourly and salary," Strickland said. "There are a number of employees who were sent home last Friday who have no idea what type of compensation they are going to receive for their years of dedication to both DOE and USEC. It is unconscionable to make them wait at home with no input into the process, or any idea what they might receive. Their futures are being negotiated without their input." Strickland outlined his concerns in a letter to DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham. "I am alarmed that the Department is moving forward with an agreement that provides no opportunity for public input, fails to include a workforce restructuring plan, sets a precedent for allowing a private party to determine how workers receive federal dollars, and requires employees accepting early retirement to waive their legal rights to bring any and all legal action against USEC without regard to the law, public interest or equity," Strickland said in his letter. Strickland also pointed out that USEC is trying to manipulate a legal agreement to pay workers $8,400 in additional severance. This additional severance package came about after Strickland filed a "Petition to Intervene" in a contract modification that was before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The contract modification would have resulted in a multi-million dollar windfall to USEC. After extensive settlement negotiations, USEC entered into a binding legal agreement to provide $8,400 to workers laid-off between November 21, 2000, and October 1, 2003, who have not received previous severance payments. In exchange, Strickland dropped his suit, and allowed the contract modification to go forward. "It is outrageous that after USEC signed an agreement to give these workers additional money, they are now requiring workers to give up their right to sue this company in order to receive that money," said Strickland. "I negotiated in good faith to secure these payments for laid-off workers, and I am not going to remain silent while USEC tried to walk away from its commitments." ***************************************************************** 6 Reports critique DOE waste disposal facilities Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:02 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff It's been recommended that the Department of Energy reevaluate waste disposal options before building new facilities, including one in Oak Ridge. In a recently released report, the U.S. General Accounting Office recommends the reevaluation to ensure that on-site disposal decisions continue to be advantageous to DOE. The GAO serves as the investigative arm of Congress. Since 1996, three DOE sites have decided to develop new on-site low-level waste disposal facilities, including the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility in Oak Ridge. Construction began earlier this year on the local facility, which is being built in East Bear Creek Valley. Officials at the Oak Ridge, Ohio and Idaho sites decided to develop the facilities after conducting detailed cost and risk assessments that compared on-site and off-site disposal. "Site officials concluded, and [the Environmental Protection Agency] agreed, that the projected cost savings from on-site disposal outweighed the uncertainties surrounding the long-term costs and safety risks associated with keeping the waste on-site," the GAO report states. However, the GAO report indicates that circumstances at the three sites have changed. For example, the projected volume of waste has often increased and cleanup schedules have altered. "Unless DOE revisits its disposal needs and its current options for disposing of wastes off-site, it could miss opportunities to reduce cleanup costs at the three sites and at other sites, such as Paducah, Ky., that might propose the development of new on-site facilities," the report states. "Even if the validation did nothing more than confirm the original decision to dispose of the wastes on-site, it has the potential to ensure that costs are kept to a minimum." DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office declined to comment on the GAO report. But Carolyn Huntoon, acting assistant secretary for Environmental Management at DOE headquarters, issued a letter to the GAO regarding its report. Huntoon states that the GAO's concerns will be addressed as part of the comprehensive "top to bottom" assessment of the DOE Environmental Management program announced in April by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Abraham said the review was initiated in order to make sure taxpayer dollars were being spent effectively on the cleanup projects. Lately, there's been a lot of talk that cleanup funding, especially in Oak Ridge, could suffer greatly in the fiscal year 2002 budget. Incidentally, DOE's Inspector General's office has just released an audit stating the federal agency has not fully utilized the disposal capacity of the Nevada Test Site and the Hanford Site during the past two years. In fact, the audit points out that the two facilities have operated at only 48 percent of their capacity. Instead, DOE stored large amounts of waste at generator sites and disposed of some commercially. Oak Ridge is one of four sites that has a combined total of more than 2 million cubic feet of low-level waste in storage, of which 918,000 cubic feet is over five years old. The audit states 1,070,765 cubic feet of low-level waste is stored in Oak Ridge. Of this waste, 614,423 cubic feet is more than five years old while 1,517 cubic feet is more than 20 years old. According to the audit, DOE's decision to store or dispose of the waste commercially is "inconsistent with the department's determination of preferred disposal alternatives," especially since storage of waste at generating sites is designed to be a temporary measure. DOE established the Nevada and Hanford sites as the preferred options for disposing of low-level waste that could not otherwise be disposed of at the site of origin. Together, the two sites can dispose of more than 1.6 million cubic feet of waste annually. To date, DOE has disposed of nearly 69 million cubic feet of waste at its facilities. The audit states the federal agency plans to dispose of an additional 358 million cubic feet of low-level waste over the next 70 years. DOE informed the Inspector General's office that the agency is taking steps to improve disposal efficiency, the audit states. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 7 Scientists Want Nuclear Arsenal Cut Today: June 05, 2001 at 14:30:27 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) - As President Bush prepares for summit talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, 16 American scientists and security experts are urging him to sharply reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal to a total of 1,000 warheads. The proposal, in a report released Tuesday, would amount to a cut of more than 90 percent of the roughly 10,500 nuclear warheads aimed at 20,000 Russian targets. The cutback, urged by the Federation of American Scientists, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Union of Concerned Scientists, would include the elimination of 1,670 tactical nuclear warheads that remained after former President George H.W. Bush deactivated almost all the weapons in the category in 1991. The tactical nuclear warheads that remain are kept at Air Force bases in New Mexico and Nevada, on cruise missiles at Navy bases in Washington and Georgia, and in a few NATO countries. The weapons are not needed to defend Europe - strategic nuclear weapons do the job - and they could be stolen or fall into unauthorized hands, the report said. Bush, due to see Putin on June 16 in Slovenia, has said he is prepared to sharply reduce U.S. nuclear weapons while making plans for a anti-missile defense. The scientists and security experts would cut back much further and are skeptical of Bush's plan for an anti-missile shield. Deployment of a national missile defense would undermine Russia's confidence that it could retaliate quickly if the United States attacked, the report said. Russia would need to maintain its readiness for quick launch of its long-range nuclear weapons. And China, the scientists and security experts said, would likely respond by increasing its nuclear forces, possibly tenfold. Bush has not decided on the kind of anti-missile program he would build. An administration review of options is underway. At a news conference Tuesday, Richard L. Garwin of the Council on Foreign Relations said deploying a few interceptors near Grand Forks, N.D., or in Turkey as a shield against attack from Iran, might enhance U.S. security. Tom Collina, director of global security at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the ultimate goal of the three groups is the prohibition of nuclear weapons. The report's 10-year plan, Collina said, is a step in that direction. On the Net: Federation of American Scientists: http://www.fas.org/ Natural Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org/ Union of Concerned Scientists: http://www.ucsusa.org/index.html All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 8 Did U.S. use infant bodies to test levels of N-fallout? [deseretnews.com] June 05, 2001 Reuters News Service CANBERRA, Australia — Australia launched an investigation Tuesday into reports that the bodies of Australian babies were sent to the United States for use in nuclear energy experiments in the 1950s and 1960s. Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said he was not aware of an alleged operation in which the babies' bodies were shipped overseas for research purposes without their parents' permission. British newspapers this week said the bodies of stillborn babies and infants were snatched from Australian hospitals for use in U.S. Department of Energy tests to monitor radioactivity levels of Strontium 90. "Project Sunshine," the reports said, began in 1955 when University of Chicago doctor Willard Libby, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his research into carbon dating, appealed for bodies, preferably stillborn or newly born babies, to test atomic bomb fallout. The reports said about 6,000 bodies were taken from hospitals in Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, the United States and South America over 15 years without the permission of parents. "Obviously the information that has come to light is very disturbing and the minister has asked his department for information," a spokesman for Wooldridge told Reuters. He said the minister was seeking hospital records from that era from the relevant health authorities in Australia's six states and two territories. Australia last month raised allegations its troops were used as human guinea pigs during British atom bomb tests in the 1950s to test protective clothing in low-radiation nuclear tests at Maralinga in the South Australian outback. © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 9 Australia Probes Reports of Nuclear Tests on Babies Real Cities: Last update: Tuesday, 05-Jun-01 08:34:45. CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia launched an investigation on Tuesday into reports that the bodies of Australian babies were sent to the United States for use in nuclear energy experiments in the 1950s and 1960s. Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said he was not aware of an alleged operation in which the babies' bodies were shipped overseas for research purposes without their parents' permission. British newspapers this week that the bodies of stillborn babies and infants were snatched from Australian hospitals for use in U.S. Department of Energy tests to monitor radioactivity levels of the element Strontium 90. ``Project Sunshine,'' the reports said, began in 1955 when University of Chicago doctor Willard Libby, who was awarded a Nobel prize for his research into carbon dating, appealed for bodies, preferably stillborn or newly-born babies, to test atomic bomb fallout. The reports said about 6,000 bodies were taken from hospitals in Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, the United States and South America over 15 years without the permission of parents. ``Obviously the information that has come to light is very disturbing and the minister has asked his department for information,'' a spokesman for Wooldridge told Reuters. He said the minister was seeking hospital records from that era from the relevant health authorities in Australia's six states and two territories. This was the second report of humans being used in nuclear tests to emerge in Australia in the past month. Australia last month raised allegations its troops were used as human guinea pigs during British atom bomb tests in the 1950s to test protective clothing in low-radiation nuclear tests at Maralinga in the South Australian outback. Britain told the European Court of Human Rights in 1997 that no humans had ever been experimented on during its atom bomb tests but documents unearthed in Australia's National Archives by a Scottish researcher contradicted this. opyright © 2000 Reuters Limited. All ***************************************************************** 10 Stillborn babies shipped to US for use in nuclear tests ABC News - 4 Jun 2001 20:26 AEST Bodies of stillborn babies and infants who died at just a few months old were shipped to the United States (US) from Australian hospitals in the 1950s and 1960s to be used in nuclear experiments. Parents were never asked for permission or told what happened to their children, British newspaper the *Daily Mail* said. Details of the US Department of Energy experiment, code named Project Sunshine, have been released under the Freedom of Information Act. The experiment began in 1955, when Dr Willard Libby of the University of Chicago appealed for large numbers of bodies, preferably stillborn or newly-born babies, for experiments on the effect of fallout from atom bomb tests. "If anybody knows how to do a good job of body-snatching, they will really be serving their country," the paper quoted Dr Libby. Over 15 years, hospitals in Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, the United States and South America sent 6,000 bodies to the university. After the tests, the bodies were cremated and radioactivity in the remains was measured. © 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 11 Wooldridge to examine 'nuclear test babies' claim ABC News - 5 Jun 2001 11:20 AEST The Federal Health Minister is looking into claims Australian stillborn babies were sent to the United States for nuclear tests during the 1950s and 1960s. A newspaper has claimed Australia was one of several countries to send stillborn babies to a US university, to be used in tests to measure the effects of radiation from atomic explosions. A spokesman for the Minister, Michael Wooldridge, says the Government is seeking further information on the claims. He says the Minister has asked the states and territories to provide further details on the claims, as the matter would lie within their jurisdiction. © 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 12 Nuclear tests on dead babies confirmed 05 June 2001 news.com.au - From AAP STILL-born babies were widely used in nuclear experiments in the 1950s without their parents' permission, an American university spokesman confirmed today. The British newspaper The Daily Mail has reported that bodies of stillborn babies and infants were used as part of the US Department of Energy experiments. And a spokesman for health minister Michael Wooldridge says the federal government is investigating claims the bodies of Australian babies were used in the tests. Larry Arbeiter, from the University of Chicago, said today the experiments were necessary because of the large amounts of radioactive material being released into the atmosphere during the 1950s arms-race. "Scientists were especially concerned with an element called Strontium 90, it's radioactive, it was considered the most dangerous of the fallout chemicals," Mr Arbeiter told Sydney's 2GB radio. "In the 1950s, very widely in the US, and I suspect also in Australia, stillborn infants were typically autopsied then disposed of in hospitals. "Those bodies provided the opportunity for scientists to understand how much radiation was going into the food." Mr Arbeiter said at the time there were no instruments sensitive enough to measure the amounts of harmful material in a human being. The only way of doing so was to convert human remains into ash then "put (them) inside a kind-of sophisticated geiger counter". He said permission was not usually sought from parents. "At the time, permission was not typically sought for this," he said. He said the experiments were vital in creating pressure to reduce above-ground testing for nuclear weapons. "(These experiments have) been well known for some time and the results were very positive," he said. ***************************************************************** 13 Stillborn babies used in US nuke tests - smh.com.au - News Update June 5, 2001 *Australian still-born babies were widely used in nuclear experiments in the 1950s without their parents' permission, an American university spokesman confirmed today. The British newspaper *The Daily Mail* reported yesterday that bodies of stillborn babies and infants were used as part of the US Department of Energy experiments. A spokesman for health minister Michael Wooldridge said yesterday the Federal Government would investigate claims the bodies of Australian babies were used in the tests. Larry Arbeiter of the University of Chicago said today the experiments were necessary because of the large amounts of radioactive material being released into the atmosphere during the 1950s arms-race. "Scientists were especially concerned with an element called Strontium 90, it's radioactive, it was considered the most dangerous of the fallout chemicals," Mr Arbeiter told Sydney's 2GB radio. "In the 1950s, very widely in the US, and I suspect also in Australia, stillborn infants were typically autopsied then disposed of in hospitals. "Those bodies provided the opportunity for scientists to understand how much radiation was going into the food." Mr Arbeiter said at the time there were no instruments sensitive enough to measure the amounts of harmful material in a human being. The only way of doing so was to convert human remains into ash then "put (them) inside a kind-of sophisticated geiger counter." He said permission was not usually sought from parents. "At the time, permission was not typically sought for this," he said. He said the experiments were vital in creating pressure to reduce above-ground testing for nuclear weapons. "(These experiments have) been well-known for some time and the results were very positive," he said. The experiments began in 1955, when Dr Willard Libby of the University of Chicago appealed for large numbers of bodies, preferably stillborn or babies that died shortly after birth for experiments on the effect of fallout from atom bomb tests, the Daily Mail reported. The New South Wales and South Australian governments will investigate the claims. AAP ***************************************************************** 14 Vic inquiry into baby N-tests The Age: AAP Tuesday 5 June 2001, 03:10 PM The Victorian government would investigate claims that the bodies of stillborn children were sent to the United States for nuclear experimentation in the 1950s and 1960s, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said today. Mr Bracks described the practice as wrong and abhorrent. "We will pursue what happened. It's totally abhorrent," Mr Bracks told Radio 3AW. Mr Bracks said things had changed since the 1950s and 1960s but even so the practice was totally unacceptable. "I wouldn't have even thought it was known at that time, in the 1950s, and, yes, any appropriate action, if required, will be taken," the premier said. Mr Bracks said Health Minister John Thwaites would examine any files on the matter and make a report. "It is a while back, but those sins of the past should not go unnoticed and should be lessons for the future," Mr Bracks said. Mr Bracks said he was unsure what could be done after so much time had passed. However it was appropriate that the families of the dead children at least learnt what had happened. Britain's Daily Mail newspaper reported that the bodies of infants and stillborn babies were taken as part of an experiment by the the US Department of Energy. The newspaper said about 6,000 bodies were taken from hospitals in Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, the USA, and South America without the permission of parents. ***************************************************************** 15 Were stolen babies nuclear test subjects? POSTED AT 5:01 AM EDT Tuesday, June 05 Reuters News Agency Canberra — Australia launched an investigation Tuesday into reports that the bodies of Australian babies were sent to the United States for use in nuclear energy experiments in the 1950s and 1960s. Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said he was not aware of an alleged operation in which the babies' bodies were shipped overseas for research purposes without their parents' permission. British newspapers said this week that the bodies of stillborn babies and infants were snatched from Australian hospitals for use in U.S. Department of Energy tests to monitor radioactivity levels of the element Strontium 90. “Project Sunshine,” the reports said, began in 1955 when University of Chicago doctor Willard Libby, who was awarded a Nobel prize for his research into carbon dating, appealed for bodies, preferably stillborn or newly-born babies, to test atomic bomb fallout. The reports said about 6,000 bodies were taken from hospitals in Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, the United States and South America over 15 years without the permission of parents. “Obviously the information that has come to light is very disturbing and the minister has asked his department for information,” a spokesman for Mr. Wooldridge told Reuters. He said the minister was seeking hospital records from that era from the relevant health authorities in Australia's six states and two territories. This was the second report of humans being used in nuclear tests to emerge in Australia in the past month. Australia last month raised allegations its troops were used as human guinea pigs during British atom bomb tests in the 1950s to test protective clothing in low-radiation nuclear tests at Maralinga in the South Australian outback. Britain told the European Court of Human Rights in 1997 that no humans had ever been experimented on during its atom bomb tests but documents unearthed in Australia's National Archives by a Scottish researcher contradicted this. Contact Us Copyright © 2001 Globe Interactive, a division of Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. ***************************************************************** 16 Glass-maker Hoya aiding nuclear arms facility, U.S. scientist says [The Japan Times Online] June 5, 2001 A U.S. scientist and former employee of a U.S. Energy Department institute, to which Japanese glass maker Hoya Corp. ships materials, says the institute is conducting nuclear weapons research. Hoya claims that shipping the product to the facility will not contribute to development of nuclear weapons. Issac Trotts, 25, is a member of an antinuclear organization in California and former employee of the institute. He told a news conference the facility is conducting research to improve the precision of nuclear weapons. Trotts is visiting Japan at the invitation of the Japan Congress Against A- and H- Bombs (Gensuikin). Before joining the antinuclear group, Trotts worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where the National Ignition Facility funded by the U.S. Energy Department is currently under construction. Trotts was in charge of research on the visualization of data. He said he resigned after learning that his research could lead to the improved performance of nuclear weapons. He told the news conference that erroneous information concerning the shipments of Hoya's product -- special glass slabs -- has been circulating. The slabs will be used to amplify laser beams in the nuclear fusion process at the new facility, which is due to start partial operations in 2004 and be completed by 2007. Hoya said in March it plans to resume suspended shipments of the glass to the facility, believing the product will not lead to new nuclear weapons development. In February, the company temporarily suspended deliveries of the product by its U.S. subsidiary Hoya Corp. USA. The move followed domestic opposition that claimed the deal would help the U.S. maintain its nuclear arsenal. "It was confirmed that this glass itself will not lead to new nuclear development and the research programs are to contribute to the elimination of nuclear weapons," the company said in a letter to antinuclear groups. Trotts visited Hoya's Tokyo headquarters with members of Gensuikin and submitted a written request for the immediate halt of the shipments. He will return home Sunday after visiting Osaka, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japan Times: June 5, 2001 . ***************************************************************** 17 Rocky Flats lawsuit could reveal government cover-up Casper Star-Tribune Casper, Wyoming 04-Jun-2001 09:18 GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) - A lawsuit filed against the world's leading beryllium supplier alleges that the federal government knew the radioactive metal's harmful effect on workers but took little action. Fifty Rocky Flats workers are suing Brush Wellman Inc., a Cleveland-based company, claiming it and the federal government conspired to hide information that showed federal workplace safety standards for beryllium did not protect workers. The company shipped beryllium to Rocky Flats, where triggers for nuclear weapons were made. The Jefferson County trial is expected to begin Monday. Brush Wellman maintains it did nothing wrong and researched the problem. "We intend to defend (ourselves) vigorously," said Patrick Carpenter, a Brush Wellman spokesman. The lawsuit alleges that Brush Wellman has always known that workers could contract chronic beryllium disease, which afflicts the lungs, even from the most minute exposure. A tentative workplace standard set in 1949 warned its guidelines might not protect all workers, Brush Wellman said in court documents. Several government documents, including reports in 1984 and 1986 also warn not all people will be protected by the federal standard. Attorneys on both sides of the case declined to comment. Internal company documents and declassified government material introduced in the case indicate that Brush Wellman knew as early as 1951 that workers were becoming sick when exposed to beryllium levels that were within the federal safety standard. Workers allege the federal government allowed Brush Wellman to censor medical documents for years. For example, a report from Brush Wellman's medical director concluding that beryllium was one of the "most deadly (elements) known to mankind" was allegedly censored. Dave Norgard, 45, is one of the plaintiffs afflicted with chronic beryllium disease. "I would like to think that the average man and woman on the street and the working individual will be able to see the significance (of the documents). We are talking about something similar to what happened to smokers," Norgard said. "To not know something and to try to do the best to find out is one thing. But to know something and to carry on as if nothing has happened is something else." The metal has also been used in cars, cellphones, computers, bicycles, dental work and golf clubs. As many as 800,000 employees in a variety of industries could be working with the metal, according to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Across the country, Brush Wellman faces 71 lawsuits involving 192 plaintiffs, company spokesman Carpenter said. While some of the company's documents and declassified federal reports have been part of other lawsuits, those cases have not yet come before a jury. ***************************************************************** 18 EPA must help pay to clean up Rocky Flats site Rocky Mountain News: Local Attorney: Beryllium firm hid health peril Rocky Flats workers suing Brush Wellman By Sue Lindsay, News Staff Writer A beryllium supplier conspired with the government to hide information about harmful effects that damaged the health of workers at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, the workers' lawyer told a Jefferson County jury Monday. About 50 Rocky Flats workers are suing Brush Wellman Inc., of Cleveland, the world's leading supplier of beryllium, a strong, light metal used in items ranging from computers to defense systems. Allen Stewart, the plaintiffs' attorney, said Brush discounted reports that workers were getting sick from even minute exposures to beryllium because it wanted to protect their business. "The defendant thought of profit before people, production before health," Stewart said. Brush knew people were getting sick from exposure to beryllium levels below the standard set by the government, Stewart said. "Brush Wellman knew that in the '40s, in the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s, and they know it today," he said. "These men went to work every day and relied on the company to tell them the truth." Company attorneys contend that Brush thought the standard was safe and that the company shared all reports about health effects with their customers, including Rocky Flats. But Brush, the government and Rocky Flats management all knew the standard protected the health of most workers and was no guarantee against ill-effects for those with hypersensitivity to beryllium, said Brush attorney Sydney McDole. McDole blamed the lung diseases of Rocky Flats workers on slipshod plant safety procedures. Brush placed warnings about health hazards on its shipments, but those warnings were removed by Rocky Flats before the product got to the workers, she said. Four workers with chronic lung disease, whose cases will be showcased in the six-week trial, worked in poorly ventilated areas, had other health problems and sometimes didn't wear respirators, McDole said. Rocky Flats also didn't provide glove boxes for workers, which Brush advocated, McDole said. In fact, workers were allowed to eat, drink and smoke in beryllium areas at Rocky Flats, she said. Beryllium levels at the plant exceeded the government standard "year in and year out," McDole said. Contact Sue Lindsay at (303) 892-5181 or lindsays@RockyMountainNews.com. * June 5, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************