***************************************************************** 03/06/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.59 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 TVA projects $15 billion surplus, eyes restart of oldest nuclear unit 2 Local officials attending energy alliance conference 3 Environmental management funding may not be welcome in Bush's 4 TVA looks to preparing for rise in power demand in coming years 5 Public Citizen Petition for Emergency Planning at Indian Point Reactor Denied 6 New Pollution Tool: Toxic Avengers With Leaves 7 NUCLEAR POWER 8 GAO to probe letter alleging Yucca mismanagement 9 Yggdrasil Institute - Uranium Enrichment Newsletter - March 2001 10 U.N.: Global Warming Can Be Fought 11 ConEd, NU Deal in Danger 12 NRC Announces Environmental Review, Public Meetings on Proposed 13 Radioactive shipment passes through Australian waters. 14 Anti-nuclear flotilla claims Pacific victory 15 Papers reveal govt's nuclear reactor moves 16 Four new Cabinet officials appointed 17 Agency agrees to investigate claims of Yucca Mountain mismanagement 18 Greens Remain Committed to Nuclear Transports 19 More nuclear plants planned 20 Fighting for fishing's future 21 Firm Hopes To Profit From Nuclear Metals - 22 Lawmakers suspect effort to ease radiation standard 23 Duma Report: Adamov Corrupt 24 Tax Report Consultant Had Possible Conflicts 25 Greenpeace explicitly linked Adamov's 'illegal' commercial 26 Legislators preparing measure of Yucca disapproval NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Taft lauded for winning Piketon plant a reprieve 2 Nuclear-Free Zone: What Does It Mean? 3 Peter Eisler of USA Today Wins Stokes Award 4 WA plays role in world nuclear monitoring project 5 Editorial: More crash test dummies 6 EU Panel Clears NATO Uranium Risk 7 After the Blast 8 Nuclear Ministry Denies Foul Play 9 Russia Committed To Lifting Sub 10 Chasing nukes in the Middle East 11 Learning to live with a nuclear Iraq 12 Rocky Flats probes plutonium violation 13 Y-12 emergency response exercise set for Wednesday 14 *Beyond Oak Ridge, region has stake in success of SNS * **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 TVA projects $15 billion surplus, eyes restart of oldest nuclear unit The Times Free Press on Tuesday, March 6, 2001 By Dave Flessner *Staff Writer* The Tennessee Valley Authority projects it will have at least $15 billion of extra revenues over the next decade to cut its debt in half. However, TVA Chairman Craven Crowell said Monday the federal utility may have to use most of that extra money instead to clean up its aging coal plants and add more power generation to keep the lights on. TVA directors are planning to boost the $2 billion already spent on pollution controls, and the board is considering a plan to restart TVA's oldest nuclear reactor, idle for 16 years because of safety concerns. "It's tempting to follow the 'California Plan' and simply hope that others build capacity for us," Mr. Crowell said Monday during one of his last board meetings before he retires from TVA next month. "But then the valley might experience similar problems of not enough generating capacity or transmission." Anti-nuclear activists pledge to fight TVA's attempt to extend the life of its Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant and to restart the plant's oldest reactor. Critics claim the $1 billion expense required to bring the Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry into compliance with today's safety standards is too risky and expensive and could be avoided with better conservation. The Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry, the site of a 1975 fire that was one of America's most serious nuclear plant accidents, has been idle since 1985. "To support the restart of Browns Ferry Unit 1 demonstrates an ignorance of past failures such as Three Mile Island and a disregard for the future," said Dr. Ed Passerini, president of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, an anti-nuclear group. TVA directors have yet to officially decide whether to pursue the restart of the Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry. But TVA will conduct a public hearing today near Decatur, Ala., on the potential environmental impacts of extending the 40-year license for Browns Ferry for another 20 years. "We're closely looking at the feasibility of bringing Unit 1 online at Browns Ferry," TVA Director Glenn McCullough said Monday. TVA's electricity demand is growing 50 percent faster than the national average. TVA Executive Vice President Terry Boston said having adequate power supplies is critical for today's digital economy and to avoid rolling brownouts like those experienced this winter in California. "Electricity is a lifeline, not just a bottom line," he said. Adding extra power generation to meet the growing demand for electricity could hurt TVA's bottom line. The utility developed a 10-year plan in 1997 to cut the agency's $27 billion debt in half by 2007. The debt will have dropped by $2.2 billion by the end of this year, but TVA's decision to add more power capacity will leave the utility short of its original debt reduction target, Mr. Crowell said. "By following a different strategy (than California) -- making prudent investments to increase our generation -- TVA remains on target to achieve our original goal of having a competitive cost of power by 2007," Mr. Crowell said. Dr. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, insists that TVA could reduce its debt and cut consumer power bills by encouraging conservation. Tennessee and Alabama now rank first and third, respectively, among the states in the share of electricity used by the average resident. "We are awash in energy in the Southeast," Dr. Smith said. TVA may try to boost its generation by trying to finish its dormant Bellefonte nuclear plant. But Mr. McCullough said the unfinished plant will probably be powered with a fuel other than nuclear. "Bellefonte's future most likely will not be nuclear. We are looking at a number of options that could make the Bellefonte site productive," he said. Mr. Crowell said his successors on the TVA board will have to decide how to use extra revenues to pare TVA's debt, build more capacity or install more pollution controls. But he said there should be enough money to do at least some of all three goals without a rate increase. "We at TVA are proud of our record of just one rate increase in 13 years, and we're also proud that we won't need another rate increase for the foreseeable future," Mr. Crowell said. *E-mail Dave Flessner at * Email this story to a friend | To print this article use print button at top Chattanooga Times Free Press on the World Wide ***************************************************************** 2 Local officials attending energy alliance conference Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:41 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff Several local officials are heading to Washington, D.C., this week with hopes of meeting the Department of Energy's new administration and discussing Oak Ridge activities related to the federal agency. They will be attending the ninth annual Energy Communities Alliance conference, which will be held Wednesday through Friday at the Hilton Washington Embassy Row hotel. Established in 1992, Energy Communities Alliance is an organization of local governments that are adjacent to or impacted by Department of Energy activities. "This conference is one of the most useful I go to," said Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee. "You learn so much." Gawarecki said she has several topics she hopes to address at the conference. Those include reindustrialization, recycling and some health and safety issues. Gawarecki will be attending the conference with Susan Kaplan, a member of the Local Oversight Committee's Citizens' Advisory Panel. The Local Oversight Committee is a nonprofit organization funded by the state of Tennessee that provides advice to local, state and federal officials regarding DOE environmental management decisions. The Local Oversight Committee will pay the travel expenses for the two women. Oak Ridge Mayor Jerry Kuhaida said he will be attending the conference with Paul Boyer, Oak Ridge city manager, and Amy Fitzgerald, special assistant to the city manager. The city will pay the travel expenses for Kuhaida, Boyer and Fitzgerald. Oak Ridge was a charter member of the alliance. "What we've been doing over the years is addressing the various issues going on," said Kuhaida, who also serves as secretary for Energy Communities Alliance. "For example, in Oak Ridge there has been a lot of work on longterm stewardship." Officials that have been invited to speak during the conference include Spencer Abraham, energy secretary designate; U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District; and Gen. John Gordon, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The NNSA is the quasi-independent agency within DOE that oversees the nuclear weapons complex. Anderson County recently joined the alliance, but Roane County is not yet a member. For more information on the Energy Communities Alliance, visit the organization's Internet site at www.energyca.org/ All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 3 Environmental management funding may not be welcome in Bush's budget Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:42 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff Though it's still too early to tell what will happen, some officials think President Bush's $1.96 trillion budget for 2002 may benefit the Spallation Neutron Source but hurt the Department of Energy's environmental management activities. Bush's budget provides DOE with $19 billion in 2002, which is $0.7 billion, or 3 percent, below the 2001 enacted level and $1.2 billion, or 7 percent, above 2000's amount. "It's very early in the process, though," said U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, in a phone interview Monday. Wamp said he had not looked through the budget proposal with a "fine tooth comb," but added he feels good about funding for science and national security matters. For example, the budget increases funding for weapons stockpile stewardship by 5 percent over 2001 to approximately $5.3 billion. Wamp said he also feels confident about funding for the SNS, which is expected to have a 2002 budget request of $291 million. However, the congressman said environmental management is an area that needs protecting. "It's going to have a rocky road," he said. "It's a program that is always under fire." Wamp said environmental management is an area where the Bush administration is having a hard time seeing results. For example, he said Oak Ridge was leading the way in cleanup, but suffered a "tough year" in 2000 due to two moratoriums on metal recycling. In fact, Bush's budget proposal states environmental remediation is included in the major programs initiated by DOE that are never even completed. Failure won't be funded, Wamp insisted, adding that the federal agency needs to "propose and implement" programs that work. Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, agrees that environmental management activities may be in trouble in Bush's budget. "It's absolutely essential we get this place cleaned up," Gawarecki said. "The sooner the better. But you've got to have the cleanup dollars." The Local Oversight Committee is a nonprofit organization funded by the state of Tennessee that provides advice to local, state and federal officials regarding DOE environmental management decisions. More information about Bush's budget proposal is available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/usbudget/blueprint/budtoc.html All Contents.©Copyright *The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 4 TVA looks to preparing for rise in power demand in coming years Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6, 2001 By JASON STRAIT Associated Press Writer CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- The Tennessee Valley Authority is considering reviving a dormant nuclear reactor and retooling an unfinished one to meet a looming demand for more power. TVA has proposed restarting the Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant near Scottsboro, Ala., to satisfy an electricity demand that is expected to increase by 3 percent next year. The reactor was shut down in 1985 amid public fears about radioactive waste and safety. "We're closely looking at the feasibility and the payback of bringing Unit 1 online at Browns Ferry. That is one of a number of options that we're considering," TVA board member Glenn McCullough said Monday. Board members on Monday also discussed converting the incomplete Bellefonte plant, also near Scottsboro, into a new source of power for TVA's seven-state region. Construction on the $4.6 billion Bellefonte nuclear plant was stalled in 1988 when TVA announced decreased demand for power was forcing it to delay completion by five years. In 1994 the agency's directors decided they couldn't afford to finish the project without a financing partner. Since then, TVA has been spending $8 million annually to maintain the reactors. McCullough said the plant may yet have a future in the TVA power system, though it likely will not be as grand as TVA officials originally planned. "Bellefonte's future most likely will not be nuclear. We are looking at a number of options that could make the Bellefonte site productive," he said. He declined to specify what those options were, however the utility in the past had considered converting the facility to a gas- or coal-powered plant. Both options would be costly and could affect TVA's goal of reducing its debt by $2 billion to $8 billion -- to $18 billion to $24 billion -- depending on natural gas prices and other variables by 2007. It could cost up to $1 billion to restart the Browns Ferry reactor, the country's oldest and TVA's first. That option has met with resistance from energy conservation activists, including the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. A public hearing on the potential environmental effects of restarting the Browns Ferry reactor is set for Wednesday. TVA is expected to release a final environmental statement at the end of the year. TVA also will solicit feedback on a proposal to extend the operating licenses for the two operating nuclear reactors at Browns Ferry. Under that proposal, the reactors would continue generating electricity through 2034 and 2036. The two reactors can produce enough power to supply 200,000 homes with electricity. In other issues, TVA chairman Craven Crowell said the public utility had no plans to increase rates for consumers. TVA has increased the price for energy once in the past 13 years. "We are proud of our record of just one rate increase in 13 years, and we're also proud that we won't need another rate increase in the foreseeable future," said Crowell, who is stepping down as chairman on April 16. TVA, the nation's largest public utility, provides electricity to nearly 8 million people in Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. ------ On the Net: Tennessee Valley Authority: http://www.tva.gov/ All Contents.©Copyright *The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 5 Public Citizen Petition for Emergency Planning at Indian Point Reactor Denied [pclogo.gif (4633 bytes)] *March 5, 2001* WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite repeated failures on the part of Consolidated Edison to adequately test and implement its off-site emergency plan for the Indian Point 2 nuclear reactor, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has denied a petition filed by Public Citizen and a coalition of environmental groups asking that the agency force the utility to conduct a drill or shut down the nuclear reactor. "Emergency planning is especially important at Indian Point," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "The government never should have allowed a nuclear reactor to be built 25 miles from New York City. The least the NRC can do is ensure that local residents can get out in the event of a meltdown, and the agency isn’t even doing that." In a letter sent late Friday to Public Citizen denying the group's petition, the NRC claimed that the emergency planning regulations governing two owners on a single site, as is the case with Indian Point 2, are ambiguous. However, Public Citizen maintains that they are quite clear. The agency said it would issue a proposed rule soon to address the matter. NRC regulations require off-site drills to be done every two years. When conducting an emergency off-site drill, plant workers must practice the steps they would take to evacuate nearby towns in the event of a nuclear accident. The last time such a drill was performed at Indian Point 2 was June 1998. NRC has claimed that because personnel at New York Power Authority's Indian Point 3 – which is located at the same site – conducted an off-site drill within the past two years, Consolidated Edison’s staff at Indian Point 2 need not comply with the biennial requirement in the regulation. That’s absurd, because Indian Point 2 is a different reactor, run by a different company, said James Riccio, senior analyst for Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "It’s unbelievable that the NRC would say that Con Ed has complied with the regulations, when, in fact, a different company that happens to be located at the same site conducted the drill," said Riccio. "We have serious concerns about Con Ed’s ability to react swiftly in the event of a nuclear accident, and the NRC’s denial of our petition has done nothing to change that." Currently, Consolidated is negotiating to sell its reactors to Entergy Operations Inc. Postponing the issue of the emergency planning until after the sale would effectively render it moot, Riccio said. "The only thing that’s ambiguous is the NRC's dedication to protecting the public," Riccio said. "The agency is merely running interference for Consolidated Edison until it can get out of the nuclear business. By the time NRC addresses the supposed ambiguities in the emergency planning regulations, Consolidated Edison will likely have sold the Indian Point 2 reactor and avoided conducting an off-site drill for more than four years." Public Citizen in January petitioned the NRC to halt the operation of Indian Point 2 until Consolidated Edison conducted a full participation emergency planning exercise as required. Emergency planning is especially important because Indian Point 2 is located about 25 miles from New York City and has the highest population within 10, 30 and 50 miles of any nuclear power plant in the U.S. At 50 miles, its population is more than double any other nuclear reactor in the country. ### ***************************************************************** 6 New Pollution Tool: Toxic Avengers With Leaves March 6, 2001 By ANDREW C. REVKIN The Associated Press Dr. Lena Q. Ma helped discover that the brake fern filters arsenic out of water and soil. ``It not only tolerates arsenic, it loves it,'' Dr. Ma said. Sunflowers soaked up radioactive elements near Chernobyl. A. Joseph Pollard/Furman University A locust ate the alpine herb at right but did not attack the herb that had absorbed zinc. [A] s scientists struggle to find cheaper, easier ways to clean up polluted soil and groundwater, they are increasingly wielding a novel tool: plants. In the United States alone, the cost of decontaminating tens of thousands of toxic sites on factory grounds, farms and military installations is expected to eventually surpass $700 billion, several analyses show. The main approach so far, digging out offending chemicals and carting them to special landfills, is costly and disruptive, often requiring fleets of trucks, forests of mechanical wells and other equipment. After a decade of field and greenhouse tests, a variety of techniques harnessing the absorptive power of plants' roots appear poised for a much expanded role. Hundreds of species of plants, together with the fungi and bacteria that infuse the rhizosphere, the ecosystem around roots, represent the botanical equivalent of detox centers, seeking and often breaking down molecules that can harm most other life, soil scientists and botanists say. There are sunflowers that capture uranium, ferns that thrive on arsenic, alpine herbs that hoard zinc, mustards that lap up lead, clovers that eat oil and poplar trees that destroy dry-cleaning solvents. In fact, poplars are so effective that people in the fast-growing "phytoremediation" business have a new name for them. "A stand of poplars is a self-assembling solar-powered pump-and-treat system," said Steven A. Rock, an environmental engineer in the National Risk Management Research Laboratory of the federal Environmental Protection Agency in Cincinnati. There, Mr. Rock is part of a team tracking research into ways plants can fight pollution. Small tests have been run at some sites on the federal Superfund list of worst toxic spills, and a growing number of larger projects have successfully cleaned plots where pollution is not as severe but still violates standards. It is this kind of pollution problem — with low, dispersed, but harmful levels of contamination — that has proved least amenable to conventional technologies and is likely to be the most valuable niche for plants, Mr. Rock and other experts said. Still, he and many scientists stress that there are still many questions to resolve before a particular project gets going. Plants must be chosen not only for their ability to go after the chemicals involved, but also for their tolerance of weather and other conditions at a site. Some plants that meet these requirements may actually make matters worse. For example, research is still under way to determine whether some solvents extracted from the ground by trees end up evaporating through pores in leaves. For now, it appears that very little gets into the air, and what does is usually quickly degraded by sunlight, a variety of scientists say. But more work is being done. Also, care must be taken to avoid the chance that insects or wildlife might eat plants that have accumulated high concentrations of toxic materials. Some laboratory studies are showing that insects avoid plants with high metal concentrations, and that pattern may explain how the metal-accumulating trait evolved in the first place. Perhaps the biggest limitation of plants is that they take time to grow and time to work, with several crops over months or successive seasons often needed to eliminate pollution. At sites requiring urgent action, there will always be the need to "dig and dump," said Dr. Steven P. McGrath, senior principal scientist at the Institute of Arable Crops Research, in Hartfordshire, England, and an expert in the use of plants to purge metals from the soil. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 7 NUCLEAR POWER by Deep Winze Engineering &Mining Journal, Feb 1, 2001 A VITAL PIECE OF AMERICA'S (and the world's) ENERGY PUZZLE So, Where Will the Fuel Come From? Is the New York Times on to something? In a Dec. 20, 2000 article entitled "Nuclear Power's Second Act," the Times reports on how increased demand for electricity has allowed nuclear utilities, such as Duke Energy, Entergy, and ConEd, to profit from aging and once out-of-fashion nuclear power plants. Nuclear Power Is Hot! The extraordinarily cold winter of 2000/2001's spiking U.S. natural gas prices, as well as concurrently high oil prices, underscores the premise that a strong American economy depends on a healthy mix of energy produced from coal, nuclear, hydroelectric, natural gas, and other sources. Sounds good. About 23% of America's electricity now comes from nuclear power. Yet no one has ordered a new nuclear power plant in America since the 1970s. Now, rising demand for clean electricity and the increased reliability of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors, on which the industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in modernization, have conspired to produce a bright future for nuclear power in America. Yes, America's nuclear utilities are making money with their aging plants. But the government-abetted collapse in uranium prices and the ensuing sharp decline in the viability of America's uranium production, conversion, and enrichment industries (which comprise the "front end" of the nuclear fuel cycle) makes it unlikely that these utilities can rely on low-cost, environmentally-clean, domestically-produced uranium for much longer. These industries are in deep trouble. And there is no help on the horizon. It's a big mess - a train wreck waiting to happen. Uranium is an electricity-generating fuel. Some is still used for defense purposes, (reactor fuel for submarines and carriers and tritium for weapons triggers) but by treaty, foreign-sourced uranium cannot be used for U.S. defense purposes. So, how did the production side of the industry become so neglected by the government that created it just when gas and oil prices are jumping and places like California are on the brink of daily blackouts? The U.S. Uranium Industry is Not! The U.S. government was the dominant factor in the industry's growth until the late `60s when commercial nuclear fuel sales began to play a larger role than sales to the government for weapons use. Government purchases for defense programs ended in 1970. However, even after the industry was producing just for commercial needs, the government retained a monopoly role in providing enrichment services. The contracts and procedures whereby uranium was enriched had a critical impact on uranium markets. The `70s was the industry's heyday, with New Mexico leading the nation in production, followed by Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Washington, and Florida. Some 22K people were employed, prices rose to $43/lb, and production reached a record level of 43.7M lb in 1980. Then came a series of body blows: Three Mile Island; Chernobyl; the collapse of the Soviet Union and the so-called High Enriched Uranium Agreement (HEU Deal) between America and Russia; and the privatization in 1998 of the U.S. Enrichment Corp. out of the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). In the late `70s large inventories grew because production, based on long-term utility commitments, was much greater than actual requirements. Delays and cancellations of power plants, coupled with the inventory buildup, set the stage for the industry's decline in the `80s. The federal government's reluctance to act to preserve a viable industry through supportive trade or enrichment policies added to the depressed condition of the industry in the `80s. DOE had some success in encouraging uranium exports, and the Reagan administration reluctantly endorsed a proposed domestic-uranium purchase program, but U.S. production continued its decline. The industry took initiative in the early `90s with successful action under the U.S. trade laws against former Soviet republics that dumped uranium in U.S. markets. As part of the 1992 Energy Policy Act (EPACT), Congress responded to the industry's depressed condition with legislation giving the Secretary of Energy new responsibilities for preservation of a viable industry with a specific directive to encourage the use of domestic uranium. EPACT also required DOE to maintain and use its large uranium stockpiles in such a fashion as to not adversely impact the domestic producing industry by sales or transfers of the stockpiled material. Russian HEU Deal and the Privatization of USEC So what broke the price and the producers? After the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early `90s, there was great concern that weapons-grade material from retired, Russian, nuclear weapons, such as highly-enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium, could be stolen or sold to rogue nations for reuse in nuclear weapons if not disposed of or properly protected. In the case of HEU, one solution was to dilute it into low enriched uranium for use in commercial nuclear reactors. In February 1993, the United States agreed to purchase 500 mt of Russian HEU over a 20-yr period. Also in 1993, newly-elected Vice President Gore, aiming to "reinvent" government, came up with the plan to privatize the only industry in the western hemisphere that enriched uranium. The U.S. Enrichment Corp. (USEC) was a government corporation within DOE and operated the gaseous diffusion plants at Paducah, Ky. and Piketon, Ohio. USEC was also the "executive agent" for the U.S. in purchasing the HEU from Russia and paying Russia for the deliveries of low-enriched uranium, an amount of some $12B over the agreement's 20-yr term. Privatization legislation passed the U.S. Congress in 1996, and USEC went public through an IPO (initial public stock offering) in July 1998. The original terms of the USEC Privatization Act provided metered introduction of Russian uranium from HEU and defense stockpiles. The Privatization Act also called for transfer to USEC of about 32M lb uranium, which would also be metered into the market. Domestic producers participated in this legislation because they were assured that mechanisms would work to prevent harm to the market and the domestic producers. However, in May of 1998, just before USEC was privatized - and over the objections of the privatization's Congressional supporters and Joseph Stiglitz, chairman of President Clinton's council of economic advisors - an additional transfer was made to USEC from DOE inventories, which brought the total to 74M lb, not the original 32M lb. This amounted to the equivalent of about 17 yr of domestic production. One can only surmise what would happen (the furor) if the government had spun off a gold or copper mining company and gave it 17-yr worth of production cost free. The price of uranium at the time of USEC's privatization in 1996 was over $16/lb. Today, it is at an all-time, real-dollar low of $7.10/lb. This decline occurred due to the massive amounts of former U.S.-government uranium becoming available to the market free of environmental, land-holding, or production costs. Taken with the ongoing market disruption from the delivery of the Russian HEU, USEC's sales of these former-government uranium inventories has caused the price of uranium to crash - far below the cost of production of U.S. and worldwide producers. The price of uranium in 1996 when the Privatization Act was passed was over $16/lb and has declined steadily thereafter. A U.S. House of Representatives Commerce Committee Oversight hearing was held into the privatization of USEC and the ensuing collapse of uranium prices on Apr. 13, 2000. Several hours of candid, sworn testimony disclosed all of the red flags that the Clinton-Gore administration ignored regarding damage to national security and the domestic uranium industry. Upon learning of the $78M in fees, which Clinton-Gore friends and insiders received from working on the underwriting and other activities associated with the privatization, Congressman Ed Whitfield remarked, "This (privatization) had nothing to do with uranium enrichment, but everything to do with insider enrichment." Proposals to Help U.S. Uranium Producers - Legislation to require the U.S. DOE not to release its remaining inventories of uranium or HEU unless the U.S. Congress approves the release; - Tax incentives/credits for American nuclear utilities, which increase their inventories to greater than a 12-mo requirement. This could be purchases of HEU or uranium from any source, not just from American producers. The tax help could come in the form of a deduction from current year taxes; and - Tie any future federal aid to USEC (it wouldn't be called a "bailout") to having USEC agree to have the government buy back its uncommitted inventory of uranium or HEU. Where We Are Today What remains of America's uranium industry today? Only four viable producers, one conversion company (Converdyne - a subsidiary of Honeywell-General Electric Corp.) and one enrichment company (the U.S. Enrichment Corp.) are left. Today, less than 3M lb of the roughly 50M lb/yr of uranium needed for refueling domestic power plants comes from these ailing producers. Their production is declining and could become zero within 2-4 years unless Congress and the Executive Branch can fix what they have broken. In fact, world demand for uranium is 160M lb/yr, and production has declined to just 80M lb/yr. Where is the difference between production and demand coming from in the United States and worldwide? Inventory. Best estimates are that these inventories will be consumed by 2004. In 1980, Grants, N.M. sported some 7,500 workers in the uranium mining and milling business. Today Grants has about 20 employees in the uranium industry and they are involved in environmental cleanup and restoration at Quivira Mining Co.'s (formerly Kerr-McGee Nuclear) Ambrosia Lake mine/mill complex. The year 2000 marks the first time since 1950 that no uranium is produced from either New Mexico or Texas. Nor do Arizona, Utah, or Washington yield any uranium. Today the industry is comprised of: Quivira, its parent company Rio Algom Mining Corp. (a unit of Billiton plc), and its Smith Ranch (Wyoming) in-situ leach facility; Cotter Corp.'s mill, in Canon City, Colo., which recovers uranium from tailings; and two small, but rapidly declining in-situ leach operations, in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska, operated by subsidiaries of Canada-based Cameco and France's Cogema. Only about 300 workers are in these companies today. Today, only one of the companies, Cotter, is domestic. The rest have Canadian, French, or British parents. And Cotter does not employ (ISL) technology. Taken together these companies will produce less than 3M lb U subscript 3O subscript 8 in 2001, only about 5% of the annual demand of America's nuclear utilities. In other words, the source of the remaining 95% of this fuel is from rapidly depleting inventories or insecure or unreliable foreign sources in Canada, Russia, Australia, CIS states, and Africa. Today, Wyoming has the best geological environment for (in-situ leach) ISL production, the cost-effective, and environmentally-sound uranium production method, which America's primary producers now rely on to remain competitive. Using ISL technology, uranium yellowcake can be produced with roughly 10% of the work-force needed for conventional open-pit or underground mining. Like Wyoming coal, the uranium orebodies in the southern Powder River Basin are truly world-class in size and in the amount of uranium they contain. In-situ production needs a favorable sedimentary, host-rock environment blessed with favorable hydrology. Other uranium-rich regions of Wyoming are capable of in-situ production, as are former producing areas of New Mexico's San Juan Basin and South Texas. Low commodity prices have driven this new technology, and Rio Algom's Smith Ranch facility is recognized as perhaps the world's showcase operation. However, at today's price for U subscript 3O subscript 8 of $7.10/lb, not even a new, clean, low-cost technology can compete with the overwhelming government inventories that are flooding the market free of production, land-holding, or cleanup costs. What Happens When Cost-Free U subscript 3O subscript 8 Disappears? The price of uranium will rebound - fast. However, the really critical question is whether America's mining and conversion industries will remain viable over the ensuing 3-4 yr in the current low-price environment and be able to provide at least a competitive portion of the future fuel needs of America's nuclear power industry. Yet another question is when will America's nuclear utilities begin to be concerned with this situation? Wouldn't it be in their best interests to encourage higher prices if only to be able to sustain the domestic production industry until the time that prices rebound? That way there will be reliable, competitive, domestic producers that can provide strong price competition to prices offered by foreign producers. Should America's production and conversion capacities cease, the intellectual and physical infrastructure of an entire industry will have been lost. It will be virtually impossible to recreate the industry, rehire and retrain personnel, and reopen properties and production capacity. Are There Any Solutions? No one can argue that it was the U.S. government that fundamentally created the need for the nuclear power industry. Thus, it follows that government should create the means to fix the problems that government piled onto the industry. As New Mexico's Senator Pete Domenici and others wrote on Sept. 25, 2000 to President Clinton, "On the Clinton administration's watch, pursuant to its own policies, and counter to its legal obligations to safeguard America's mining, conversion, and enrichment capabilities, America's nuclear capacities have entered a perilous tailspin from which there may be no return. Immediate coordinated action is needed to resuscitate mining, conversion, and enrichment." Several Areas Are Under Discussion: - Develop a strategic uranium reserve sufficient to cover a healthy fraction of the needs of the domestic nuclear power industry. This reserve would be obtained from uranium that is newly-produced from within the U.S.; - Promote availability of tax credits to domestic producers and to domestic utilities that burn U.S.-origin uranium; - Annual Congressional funding for cooperative agreements to mitigate the cost of compliance with environmental safety and health laws and regulations for eligible domestic uranium production facilities to assure full environmental compliance where costs would normally be defrayed through production revenues; - Under the premise that changing and punitive federal regulations have contributed to harm the competitiveness of domestic uranium producers, develop DOE-sponsored programs to assist the domestic ISL uranium industry in such areas as large-scale field trials of promising technologies to counter the regulatory burdens inhibiting both production and well-field restoration; and - Restructure the onerous Nuclear Regulatory Commission fee structure. Relevant Citations on USEC (excerpts only): Letter from Senator Pete V. Domenici (New Mexico) to President Clinton (Sept. 8, 1998): "Unfortunately, the U.S. government concurrently finalized its plans to sell the U.S. Enrichment Corp. (USEC). Unbeknown to the Russian Federation, western uranium producers, or even me (and I cosponsored the law by which USEC was sold), the U.S. government chose to sell not only USEC, but also 78M lb uranium that was transferred to USEC prior to its sale. The introduction of that 78M lb uranium into the market has significantly depressed future uranium price projections, and the price that had been agreed to by the Russian Federation and western producers is no longer feasible. The problem is that there is now too much uranium available from the United States (79M lb at USEC and another 35M lb still at the U.S. Dept. of Energy) and Russian inventories (28M lb delivered in 1997 and 1998 but still unsold) for Russia to be paid $29/kg for future deliveries." Lawmakers Blast USEC Privatization, Reuters (April 13, 2000): "U.S. House lawmakers gave a lashing to the Clinton (-Gore) Administration for the way it carried out the privatization of USEC Inc. USEC's privatization plan was not completely supported in the Administration. Joseph Stiglitz, who at the time was chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, opposed the arrangement, fearing it compromised national security. Stiglitz testified that, `the national benefits from the privatization have yet to have been demonstrated. The risks presented are all too apparent.'" The Art of the (Raw) Deal, by Bruce B. Auster, U.S. News & World Report (April 24, 2000): "It was the largest privatization of a government agency since the sale of Conrail over a decade ago. The sale of USEC through a 1998 public offering yielded $1.9B - about as predicted. But nothing since has gone according to script. (In the meantime) USEC has won a $325B bailout from Congress. The company's CEO, William Timbers - a onetime Wall Street analyst - earned $325K/yr for his government work. He now earns $600K/yr (from USEC). Last year (1999), he also received a $617K bonus and stock options valued at $1.7M. "These sharpies. The USEC board, which chose how to go private, was also one of the bidders for the corporation. USEC also had a team of power brokers pushing the privatization. The lineup included: Susan Thomases, a friend of Hillary Clinton; Thomas Boggs, perhaps the pre-eminent Washington lobbyist; and Greg Simon, once a top adviser to Gore. In a memo to the White House, Simon and Boggs asked - unsuccessfully - for $135M to help USEC. Outside consultants and investment bankers superscript * who handled the USEC deal pocketed another $78M." "The vice president was no passive player in the USEC deal. He phoned Rep. Strickland from Air Force Two to reassure the congressman's constituents, for instance. "Last week, the investigative arm of the House Commerce Committee summoned Timbers and others to explain the USEC deal, in an effort to determine how to salvage the company." superscript *Editor's note: E&MJ has been told that the latter were big contributors to the Al Gore presidential campaign. U.S. Mulls Russia Uranium Deal, by Nancy Dunne, Financial Times (May 26, 2000): "The Clinton administration was on Friday debating a politically-explosive deal, which would allow Russia to export additional enriched uranium into the already oversupplied U.S. market. The big losers in the proposal would be several mining companies and a processor which are the surviving remnants of the U.S. uranium industry, already devastated by world oversupply..." Uranium Industry Hurt by Supply, Financial Times (May 30, 2000): "Uranium prices are at historic lows - about $8/lb - and employment in the industry is falling. States of the American west are dotted with closed mines, and the last provider of uranium conversion services is struggling to remain afloat. More importantly the industry - which mines, processes, and enriches uranium ore for use in nuclear reactors - is fragmenting in the face of adversity. USEC was lobbying the administration to bring additional supplies of cheap enriched uranium into the country. This would be in addition to the 500 mt over 20 yr it is already handling under a U.S.-Russia disarmament deal...With the world's oversupply of nuclear materials, (USEC's) sales volume has been cut to under half its 1997 level and expected revenues have been slashed by a factor of four. Mine production declined by 5% and employment in the U.S. uranium raw-materials industry decreased by almost 25%. In 1999 U.S. utilities paid an average of $11.63/lb for uranium - a decrease of 18% compared to the 1996 price." How Gore Lost Russia, in "Thinking Things Over," a column by Robert L. Bartley, Wall Street Journal (Aug. 21, 2000): "One of the Gore-Chernomyrdin initiatives persists as an unresolved problem today. Mr. Gore oversaw an agreement to buy Soviet weapons-grade uranium; an Eneregy Dept. agency took the uranium, diluted it, and resold it to power plants. Under Mr. Gore's `reinventing government' program, this agency was privatized and exists today as a private company, USEC. But the uranium market has collapsed and USEC is stuck with a contract to buy Russian uranium at above-market prices. What's more, (then) current energy Secretary Bill Richardson is threatening the company if it carries through plans to close one of its money-losing U.S. plants at a cost of 2,000 jobs in Ohio." Quick Data Primer - 1,000 ft superscript 3 natural gas, costing $9, yields 95 kWh electricity for 10.5/kWh - 1 lb U subscript 3O subscript 8 proced at $7, yields 15K kWh electricity for 0.047/kWh Now, compare this: - 1 st coal (Powder River Basin, Wyo.) yields 1,950 kWh - 1 bbl oil yields 500 kWh - 1 lb U subscript 3O subscript 8 yields 15K kWh Today's U.S. Power Crunch Recently a mining executive encapsulated the U.S. electrical-power situation. He began by saying that, "nuclear plant utilization/efficiency ratings improved in the `90s - reaching a remarkable 87% in 1999. This has been a very important factor in U.S. electricity supply over the past 10 yr, providing much of the (needed electricity increase) over that period." He added that, "now, with no new coal or nuclear plants being built and nuclear capacity factors at their maximum, the United States has become totally reliant upon natural gas for new electricity supply (reinforced in a recent Business Week article dealing with the California electricity crunch). This natural-gas supply problem is not a temporary one; it will continue to grow unless the United States encounters a major economic recession." Perhaps California is an ideal microcosm. The inability of power companies to build cheaper fossil- or nuclear-fueled powerplants in the state over many years led to greater dependence on natural-gas-fired units being constructed. Some say the Clinton administration even encouraged the shift. The U.K.-based Economist magazine observed that, on Dec. 7, 2000, the state declared a first-ever "stage three" (power) emergency. Translation: 98.5% of its power reserves had been consumed; people were being asked to turn off the lights on their Christmas trees. On December 14, electricity pricing on the California Power Exchange reached $1,400/MWh (about enough for 1,000 households), up from $30/MWh a year earlier. On December 15, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission intervened by setting a "soft" price cap of $150/MW. Other sources quantify losses being borne by electricity suppliers in the state - being subjected to pricing caps on the retail side - over $10B (as of January 2001). And bankruptcy protection may be sought by the two largest electricity utilities in California. Kaiser Aluminum in Washington state laid off 400 workers after concluding that it could get a larger profit reselling its power than smelting aluminum. BREAKING news Desperate moves? Buried in the back of the Jan. 22, 2001, Wall Street Journal was the announcement that "in a last-minute effort to shore up the finances of (USEC), the Clinton administration gave USEC approval to purse a deal with Russia to import commercially-produced uranium for power-plant fuel." The 20-yr agreement is for the purchase of $12B in enriched fuel `blended down' from nuclear weapons. Supposedly, USEC "must gurantee that added imports will not jeopardize U.S. uranium enrichment or result in loss of jobs among skilled U.S. workers." A seemingly oxymoronic development was announced on Jan. 24, 2001, by the Chicago Tribune headline stating: "Law was broken to save (USEC) Ohio plant jobs, GAO (U.S. General Accounting Office) says." Some $630M of `$725M in leftover privatization funds' was promised by Bill Richardson, the former Dept. of Energy head, to avert the layoff of 1,000 employees. The GAO observed that agency decision makers can be reprimanded, suspended, or fired if they obligate the government to spend money not approved by Congress. © 2001, IndustryClick Corp., ***************************************************************** 8 GAO to probe letter alleging Yucca mismanagement Today: March 06, 2001 at 11:07:44 PST By Benjamin Grove <> LAS VEGAS SUN WASHINGTON -- Officials with the General Accounting Office will investigate charges made in an anonymous six-page letter that allege mismanagement at the Yucca Mountain project. It's not clear when the investigation will begin or conclude. "They appear enthusiastic and appear to appreciate the seriousness of the allegations," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said. The letter, apparently written by a Yucca project insider, surfaced in February. It had been sent to Nevada lawmakers in Congress and other energy officials in Washington. The letter warned that the Department of Energy's plan to bury the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain could fail due to mismanagement and unqualified project managers. On Feb. 12 Berkley asked the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, to look into charges made in the six-page letter. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., made a similar request. The GAO agreed to the job in a letter to Berkley dated Feb. 26. Yucca has been under DOE study since 1987, when Congress deemed it the site for the nation's nuclear waste repository. If Yucca is eventually approved, highly radioactive material would be shipped by truck and train cross-country to the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The anonymous letter also had been sent to DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman. He is investigating whether there is DOE bias in favor of the Yucca project even before Yucca has been deemed safe and is officially approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Friedman's investigation was launched after the Sun published a story about an anonymous two-page memo that had been attached to an official DOE Yucca study report. That memo argued that the biggest obstacle facing the project was the cost and that Congress should be lobbied to convince members that the costs were justified. The significance of the memo was that it appeared to show a close relationship between the contractor and DOE officials. Under federal law the DOE is supposed to remain impartial in the site selection process for a nuclear waste dump. The GAO assigned the probe to Bob Robinson, Managing Director for Natural Resources and Environment, according to the letter to Berkley. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 9 Yggdrasil Institute - Uranium Enrichment Newsletter - March 2001 Uranium Enrichment Newsletter March 2001 The Uranium Enrichment Project publishes a monthly online newsletter summarizing events within the US uranium enrichment establishment. The newsletter is edited by Mary Byrd Davis, who can be contacted at . A grant from The John Merck Fund makes the newsletter possible. I. OAK RIDGE II. PADUCAH III. PORTSMOUTH IV. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) V. U.S. ENRICHMENT CORPORATION (USEC) VI. RUSSIA VII. URANIUM MARKET VIII. DEPLETED URANIUM IX. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY I. OAK RIDGE GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT Land use January 31, opening a public forum on land use at Oak Ridge Reservation, Leah Dever, manager of the Oak Ridge Operations Office, made three announcements: she will sign an environmental assessment that allows the transfer of 182 acres of floodplain property along the Clinch River to a developer; DOE hopes to finish within the next month an environmental review that will allow the transfer of some property at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for private development; and she is putting on hold the transfer of land for the ED-3 industrial park. The last announcement came as a surprise to all but a few of her close confidantes. Land use has apparently become the “battleground” in a conflict within DOE’s Oak Ridge office. Dever replaced Jim Hall as manager of Oak Ridge in 1999. Hall had ties to the Oak Ridge business community and supported development by private parties of “surplus” federal lands. The current chief of administration Dan Wilken and the assets manager Robert Brown maintain this position. Dever, on the other hand, is seen by pro-development interests as a supporter of environmental interests. At issue is the fate of thousands of mostly forested land, not occupied by buildings or waste dumps. February 7 DOE scheduled and then canceled a press conference at which Dever was expected to announce that DOE would require an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the Oak Ridge Reservation, as requested in January by the Southern Environmental Law Center. Steve Wyatt, DOE spokesperson, said that the announcement of the EIS was canceled, because Dever had not been able to meet with senior-level officials at DOE headquarters. However, Frank Munger later reported that the announcement was postponed after Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN)) met with Jim Decker, acting director of DOE’s Office of Science in Washington. (Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel, 2/5/01, 2/7/01, 2/9/01; Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 2/8/01) In late February Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation (AFORR) found that the deed from the transfer of the 182 acres of land along the Clinch River, next to the Boeing Property, indicates that the federal government sold the land to the “Oak Ridge Land Company, LLC” for $9,828, that is for $54 an acre. The Nature Conservancy had evaluated the land as “of very high biological significance.” (John Devereux Joslin, e-mail, 2/27/01) Dever on Temporary Assignment February 8 Leah Dever unexpectedly announced that she was accepting an approximately 90-day position as acting chief operating officer in DOE’s Office of Science in Washington. She maintained that the assignment had nothing to do with the land-use controversy: “These are two totally separate issues that just seem to come together.” She had volunteered for the temporary position a few weeks previously to assist in the transition to the new administration, she said. Ed Cumesty, her deputy, will serve as Oak Ridge manager during her absence. (Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel, 2/9/01) Cleanup British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) received $11.5 million from DOE in February for completing Milestone No. 5 in the cleanup at the K-25 site. The terms of the $238 million, fixed-price contract signed in 1997 stipulated that BNFL is to be paid as milestones are completed. The firm planned to submit invoices by the end of March for Milestones 6 and 7, worth $12 million each. Prior to February, BNFL had been paid $56 million. Most of BNFL’s work to date has taken place in Building K-33, from which some 2 million pounds of material are removed each week. Much of the contaminated material is sent to Utah. (Frank Munger, Knoxville News-Sentinel, 2/17/01) New health-risks office The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) opened an office in February in downtown Oak Ridge. The agency, a part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, recently helped to create an Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects subcommittee. The agency and the subcommittee, with help from other organizations, will shortly carry out two assessments: a community needs assessment and a public health assessment. (Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 2/19/01) Refusal to store waste Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist has refused to allow the US Department of Energy (DOE) to ship about one hundred drums, (ten truckloads) of transuranic waste from Battelle’s Laboratories near Columbus, Ohio, to Oak Ridge to await treatment, packaging, and shipping to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The waste was created during the Manhattan Project. Sundquist said that he might consider treating and packaging out-of-state waste on a case by case basis after a treatment plant that Foster Wheeler Environmental is constructing at Oak Ridge is operational. The plant is expected to start up in late 2002. Sundquist’s refusal came in a letter to the manager of DOE’s Carlsbad, New Mexico office (Michael Hawthorne, Columbus Dispatch, 2/16/01; Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel, 2/15/01) Perma-Fix Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. announced February 14 that it has signed a Definitive Agreement to purchase all the outstanding voting stock of East Tennessee Materials and Energy Corporation (M&EC). M&EC is licensed to operate the only non-government-run facility to treat mixed waste (hazardous and low-level radioactive) located within the boundary of the Oak Ridge site. (Perma-Fix Press Release, 2/14/01) Water quality A public meeting to discuss Phase 2 of an investigation into water quality at the K-25 site, scheduled for February 27 has been postponed until April 9 when “some initial observations and assumptions” should be ready to present. Meanwhile, anyone with information about possible water contamination at K-25 should call the Phase 2 hot line, 481-8290 or the physician Richard Byrd, 781-646-5770. (Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 2/26/01) Whistleblower case The Coalition for a Healthy Environment has filed a “friend-of-the-court” legal brief in support of whistleblower Joe Carson. The US Merit Systems Protection Board has ruled that DOE retaliated against Carson for attempting to report safety and security violations at several DOE sites. Carson and his lawyer are currently trying to get DOE to comply fully with a court order to furnish information on his case. (Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 2/16/01) II. PADUCAH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT Meeting on Exposure Assessment February 1, DOE briefed employees, former employees, and their families about the report of the Exposure Assessment Project on the Paducah plant, released in January (see February UEN). Current plant health physicist Orville Cypret, who reviewed the report as a citizen rather than in his official capacity, said that, although the report contained errors, he was in agreement with "most of the conclusions." Some attendees disagreed with the risk classifications. (Associated Press, 2/2/01) Increase in assay February 15, the Paducah plant enriched uranium to 2.25% uranium 235, a record high for the facility. Normally it enriches to around 2%. The NRC approved enrichment to 2.75% last year, and is expected to approve enrichment to 5.5% in mid March. USEC is planning to enrich at 2.25% or higher in the next couple of months to create a stock of feed material "to help increase levels up to 5.5% once [the 5.5% assay] is approved," Elizabeth Stuckle of USEC reports. The increase to the high assay will proceed "more easily" if the enrichment process can begin with a relatively high-level feed. In May USEC will begin to decrease production in preparation for the summer months when the plant will reduce its output in order to cut its use of electricity during the period when electricity is most expensive. The plant will enrich at the higher levels needed for USEC customers when production increases in the fall. (Joe Walker, The Paducah Sun, 2/16/01) Replacement of monitoring wells Starting in the spring, DOE will replace at least 19 corroded monitoring wells at Paducah. The corrosion of the stainless steel casing results from enzymes created by bacteria in the groundwater, not from radioactivity, according to a report prepared for the Kentucky Natural Resources Cabinet by Bechtel Jacobs. Because of the corrosion, the state cannot be certain that the samples from the wells are reliable. Replacing 19 wells will cost up to $1.5 million, Greg Cook, a spokesperson for Bechtel Jacobs Co. says. Bechtel Jacobs is still looking into how many wells need replacement. (Bill Bartleman, Paducah Sun, 2/21/01) III. PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT Funding for cold standby In a press conference in Columbus March 1, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced that the Bush administration will provide $125.7 million to the Portsmouth plant for winterizing, cold standby, and worker transition. The funding will be split between the 2001 and 2002 fiscal years: $59.2 million in FY 2001; $66.5 million in FY 2002. The funding is in addition to $180 million budgeted for dismantling and decontamination. No money is being provided for development of gas centrifuge enrichment technology at the plant. The fate of the plant after September 30, 2002, will be determined by two task forces: a task force on national energy policy to be headed by Vice President Dick Cheney and a task force on defense policy to be headed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The $125.7 million will mean that USEC will be able to retain some 1200 workers at the site for the time being. About 525 workers will lose their jobs this year. (DOE Press Release, 3/1/01; Darrel Rowland, Columbus Dispatch, 3/2/01) USEC had told the Bush administration that if the company did not have a commitment for funding for cold standby by March 1 when it needed to begin the complex job of winterizing it would not be able to retain 1200 workers. Governor Bob Taft, Senators Mike DeWine and George Voinovich, Rep. Ted Strickland, and the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union lobbied to obtain the commitment by the deadline. Opinions in Ohio differ as to the extent to which Abraham's announcement fills a promise that Bush made in a letter to Taft October 4, 2000: "If I am elected President, my Administration will aggressively explore how the workforce and facilities at the Piketon site can continue to serve our national interest." (Associated Press in the Columbus Dispatch, 2/22/01; Katherine Rizzo, Associated Press, in the Columbus Dispatch, 2/28/01; Eddie Blakeley, Portsmouth Daily Times, 2/19/01) Shipments of uranium billets In mid-February DOE began shipping 235 metric tons of uranium billets from the Hanford nuclear reservation to the Portsmouth plant for storage. The billets would have been used to make fuel for the closed N reactor at Hanford. The shipments, which are going by truck, should be completed by the end of March. (Associated Press, 2/16/01) IV. US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) Funding for cleanup President Bush's budget anticipates deep cuts in cleanup funds for nuclear weapons production sites, but the Bush administration will not release the details behind the broad outline of the budget until April. Meanwhile, reports of the Bush administration's intentions are circulating. (Katherine Rizzo, Associated Press, 2/28/01). One of the earliest was a report in the Washington Post February 13 that funds for cleanup at weapons facilities would be cut by $400 million. The Kentucky Congressional delegation and Kentucky governor Paul Patton reacted strongly to the Post article, as they fear a slowdown in cleanup at Paducah. (Bill Bartleman, Paducah Sun, 2/16/01; James R. Carroll, Courier Journal, 2/20/01) Security of special nuclear materials Ronald Timm, the head of Reta Security Inc., a key security contractor for DOE, has called on Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to address major inadequacies in the measures in place to protect special nuclear materials from sabotage or theft. Special nuclear materials include plutonium and highly enriched uranium. In a February 9 letter, he charged that the DOE inspector general has released a classified report giving "clear evidence of actual risk . . . at key DOE sites and in transit." A spokesperson for Abraham said that the DOE has already addressed most of the issues raised and will review the others. (George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, 2/15/01) V. UNITED STATES ENRICHMENT CORPORATION (USEC) NRC Review A US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) review of USEC's performance at the Portsmouth plant from October 1, 1998, through September 30, 2000, found no safety or health issues that demanded immediate attention and noted safety improvements. However, the NRC stated that USEC still needs to improve in certain areas, including criticality controls. The company has been lax, in particular, in placing containers with uranium too close together for safety. As a result of the review, the NRC plans to carry out additional inspections during which its staff will pay close attention to criticality controls. (William C. Wallack, Nuclear Fuel, 1/22/01) Tainted uranium Responding to USEC's announcement that as much as 9500 metric tons of the uranium that it received from DOE is contaminated with technetium, a DOE spokesperson said that the agency will work with USEC to determine the extent of the problem but that it is too early to say whether the government will compensate USEC. The editors of the Columbus Dispatch are among critics of USEC that hope that the company is "given no more than the simple and timeless advice 'Buyer, beware.'" (Jonathan Riskind, Columbus Dispatch, 2/1/01; "Caveat Emptor," Columbus Dispatch, 2/13/01) Cuts at headquarters USEC announced February 13 that the company is reducing its headquarters costs by 20%. It has targeted a reduction of $10 million in headquarters costs for fiscal year 2002. The savings would be achieved by reducing the use of consultants, eliminating 40-50 staff positions at headquarters, and consolidating office space. (USEC Press Release, 2/13/01) Dumping investigation The Department of Commerce is extending the time limit of the preliminary determinations in the countervailing duty (CVD) investigations of low enriched uranium from France [Eurodif], Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom [Urenco] from March 2, 2001 until no later than May 7, 2001. The delay results from the fact that the investigations are "extraordinarily complicated." (Federal Register, vol. 66, no. 35, pp. 11000-11001, 2/21/01) Meanwhile, Duke Energy and Excelon have hired the Washington law firm of Shaw Pittman to put together an ad hoc group to lobby against USEC on the dumping issue. (The Electricity Daily, 2/20/01) VI. RUSSIA USEC-Tenex agreement The Bush administration appears to have withdrawn approval for USEC to sign an agreement with Russia’s Technsabexport in regard to the implementation of the US-Russian High-Enriched Uranium (HEU) agreement from 2002 to 2013. In reply to a request from the US House Energy and Commerce Committee for a review of the proposed agreement by the Enrichment Oversight Committee, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice wrote to the committee that USEC’s execution of the HEU agreement “requires careful oversight to ensure that the agreement achieves important US nonproliferation objectives, while at the same time being mindful of the stresses this may place upon the domestic industry. I believe that a review of recent decisions related to this agreement is warranted.” She indicated that particular attention will be paid to the question of importing enriched uranium that does not contain military HEU. (www.nuke-energy.com/data/other/natl_security_usec.html) The Russian Audit Chamber has checked for the first time on how the US-Russian HEU agreement is being implemented. The results of the check were discussed at a meeting of the Chamber’s board, which decided to send reports on the results to the Russian Security Council and to both houses of the Russian parliament. (Itar-Tass, 2/6/01) VII. URANIUM MARKET DOE’s “Report to Congress on Maintenance of Viable Domestic Uranium, Conversion and Enrichment Industries,” dated December 2000, recently came to public attention.. The report was prepared in response to the FY 2001 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Conference Report, which asked the Clinton administration to evaluate and recommend options to support the domestic uranium industry. In the conclusion DOE recommends that the USEC Privatization Act be amended to avoid the requirement that DOE place on the market by April 2003 the remaining 9.8 million pounds of natural UF6 associated with Russia’s 1995 and 1996 shipments of blended-down HEU; that consideration be given to prompt, limited assistance to the only US conversion company, ConverDyn; that DOE and the uranium industry cooperate to develop low-cost environmental restoration technology for uranium mines; and that DOE establish an Office of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Security. The report can be found at VIII. DEPLETED URANIUM The United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP's) Depleted Uranium Assessment Team announced February 16 that laboratories in Switzerland and in Sweden charged with analyzing depleted uranium penetrators have found traces of plutonium 239/40 in four penetrators found in Kosovo. The readings varied from 0.8 to 12.87 Bequerels per kilogram. "The amount of plutonium found in the DU penetrators is very low and does not have any significant impact on the overall radioactivity," UNEP commented in its press release. Laboratory analyses are continuing. In early March UNEP will present a report on the environmental impact of depleted uranium in Kosovo. (UNEP Press Release, 2/16/01) An opinion piece by Dan Fahey in the Los Angeles Times summarizes the controversy over the use of depleted uranium ammunition, while it asks for full disclosure by the Pentagon. Among the points in the article-the United States shot 320 tons of depleted uranium ammunition in Kuwait and Iraq. NATO forces "released the equivalent of 10 tons of depleted uranium in Kosovo and Serbia." Not until seven months after the bombing did NATO name the 112 sites contaminated by depleted uranium and not for nineteen months after the bombing did it post warning signs at the sites. The Pentagon's failure to release full information has inflamed the controversy that rages in Europe. Fahey is a student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a former board member of the National Gulf War Resource Center. (Dan Fahey, Los Angeles Times, 2/18/01) IX. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY An article in the Richmond-Times Dispatch, February 27, describes experimentation on the development of a gas centrifuge enrichment process at the University of Virginia from before World War II until June 1985. At that time, the federal government, which had been funding the project, shut it down. A university physicist Jesse W. Beams developed the process. “Only small amounts of uranium” were used, but the largest centrifuge, a hollow metal tube, was sixty feet long. When research ended, the government shipped the equipment to Oak Ridge. (Carlos Santos, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 2/27/01) ***************************************************************** 10 U.N.: Global Warming Can Be Fought Monday March 5 9:35 PM ET *By KWASI KPODO, Associated Press Writer * ACCRA, Ghana (AP) - The world possesses effective and affordable means to combat the threat of global warming, but the political will to implement them is in doubt, members of a U.N. panel said Monday. The panel, which met in Accra, Ghana, released a summary of a 1,000-page study called ``Climate Change 2001: Mitigation,'' written by 200 scientists and reviewed by 400 independent experts. The report is the third in a series on climate change. The first predicted that global temperatures could increase faster than expected. The second, released last month, warned of potentially devastating effects. ``The earth is really warming, and this warming needs to be mitigated,'' said Narasimhan Sundararaman, secretary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. ``Fortunately, the options are there.'' Greenhouse gases - primarily carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels like coal and oil - are widely believed to trap heat in the atmosphere, causing the phenomenon known as global warming. Research indicates that existing technologies could stabilize carbon dioxide levels over the next 100 years or more, panel members said. To reach that goal, however, means clearing an array of technical, economic, political, cultural, social and institutional hurdles. ``The good news is that there are cost-effective policies and technologies available for cutting emissions,'' said Klaus Topfer, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program. ``The bad news is that there are many barriers to rolling these out.'' Among the possible energy sources it cited were forestry and agricultural byproducts, municipal and industrial waste, wind energy, hydropower - and nuclear power, which is widely opposed by environmental groups. There are also hundreds of technologies and practices to improve energy efficiency in buildings, transportation and manufacturing. But the report concedes that at least until 2020, energy supply is likely to be dominated by relatively cheap and abundant fossil fuels - despite the existence of energy sources involving low levels of carbon emission. The panel also noted that the world's poor have little means to adopt new technologies or change their practices. The U.N. panel's first report, released in January, predicted global temperatures could rise by as much as 10.5 degrees over the next century and said industrial and auto pollution would be largely to blame. The second installment outlined the potential effects, saying sea levels could rise worldwide, while melting polar ice caps could unleash climate changes that would continue for centuries. The latest report followed a meeting Sunday in Trieste, Italy, where environment ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations and Russia renewed promised to seek a detailed agreement on reducing pollution. American and European environmental officials have been at odds over the implementation of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites), which calls for reductions in the output of greenhouse-gas emissions. Copyright © 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 ConEd, NU Deal in Danger Monday March 5 8:54 PM ET *By STEPHEN SINGER, AP Business Writer * HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Consolidated Edison Inc.'s $3.8 billion acquisition of Northeast Utilities teetered on the brink of collapse Monday, with both sides accusing the other of violating their agreement. NU officials accused ConEd of walking away from the deal, which would have formed one of the largest electric companies in the United States, and said it will sue to impose the merger as negotiated. A ConEd spokesman said the New York-based utility is and always has been in compliance with the merger agreement, which it said remains in effect, but seemed to hold out little hope for the future of the deal. Still, ``certain aspects of NU's operations raise issues regarding its ability to satisfy obligations under the merger agreement,'' said Chris Olert, a spokesman for ConEd. Specifically, he said, there were questions about the ``supply obligations'' of NU's unregulated power marketing subsidiary, Select Energy, whose rights to power generated at the Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut end this year. ConEd's concern is that if Select had to buy power on the open market, it could be forced to pay more than it is allowed to charge Connecticut customers. This is one of the problems that has led California's two major utilities, Pacific Gas &Electric and Southern California Edison (news - web sites), to run up billions of dollars in debts. NU said Monday it is in a stronger financial position than it was when the merger was signed. NU had set a deadline of 5 p.m. Monday for ConEd to confirm that it planned to proceed with the October 1999 agreement. As late as Friday - the first deadline NU had set for ConEd to confirm the deal - the New York company had said it hoped to move forward. The deal - which including debt brings the total value to about $7.5 billion - had been approved by shareholders and state regulators; approval was expected shortly from the Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites). But the regulatory approvals came with conditions that both companies had said might prove unworkable. NU operates the Connecticut Light &Power Co., Western Massachusetts Electric Co., Public Service Company of New Hampshire and Yankee Energy Systems, a natural gas distributor. ConEd operates Consolidated Edison Company of New York, an electric, gas and steam utility that serves New York City and its suburbs. The company also owns Orange &Rockland Utilities Inc., serving Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Shares of NU fell 10 cents to $21 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange Copyright © 2001 ., and The Associated Press. All rights ***************************************************************** 12 NRC Announces Environmental Review, Public Meetings on Proposed Mixed Oxide Fuel Facility Press Release -2001 - 21 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA No. 01-024 March 6, 2001 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced plans to prepare an environmental impact statement to support its license review of a proposed mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility on the Department of Energy's Savannah River site near Aiken, South Carolina. The agency is also scheduling public meetings to allow interested members of the community to express their opinion and provide information and comments to assist the agency in its environmental evaluation. Scoping meetings will be held April 17-18 in North Augusta, South Carolina, and in Savannah, Georgia. These meetings will enable the public to become involved in determining the scope, or bounds of the environmental impact statement for the proposed MOX facility. Additional meetings inviting public comment will be held after the draft statement is published. The Department of Energy plans to construct a MOX fuel plant through a contract with the consortium of Duke Engineering & Services, COGEMA Inc., and Stone & Webster (known as DCS). If NRC grants the license, DCS could build and operate a MOX facility that would convert surplus weapons-grade plutonium, supplied by the Department of Energy, into fuel for use in commercial nuclear reactors. Such use would render the plutonium essentially inaccessible and unattractive for weapons use. Commercial nuclear power plants in the United States currently use uranium as fuel; the mixed oxide fuel would be a combination of uranium and plutonium. DCS submitted an application on March 1 for authorization to construct the facility. An opportunity for a hearing will be announced in a Federal Register notice following NRC's acceptance review of the application. The NRC's preparation of an environmental impact statement is a major part of the construction application review. The MOX fuel fabrication facility would have to be built in accordance with strict safety requirements set forth in the agency's regulations. If the NRC review proceeds on schedule, and if the agency approves construction, DCS intends to begin construction in mid-2002. DCS also intends to submit an application for an operating license in June 2002. The public meetings in April will assist the NRC staff in determining the range of environmental impacts and alternative actions to be considered in the environmental impact statement, and will identify significant issues. The principal goals of the process are to: + Ensure that problems are identified early and are studied properly; + Identify alternatives to building the facility that will be examined; + Identify significant issues that need to be analyzed; + Eliminate unimportant issues; and + Identify public concerns. Some areas to be covered in the environmental impact statement include: health and safety, waste management, transportation, handling of hazardous materials, background radiation, water and earth resources, air quality, land use, noise, ecological resources, socioeconomic issues, and natural disasters. The meetings will follow a non-traditional format, with attendees participating in smaller working groups within the larger meeting setting. Participants may express their views verbally and will also be encouraged to submit their comments in writing. The meeting on April 17 in North Augusta will be held at the North Augusta Community Center, at 496 Brookside Avenue. The meeting on April 18 in Savannah will be held at the Georgia Coastal Center, at 305 Martin Luther King Blvd. The meetings are scheduled from 7:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. NRC staff will be available at 5:30 p.m. to informally discuss the project. Those interested in attending are asked to register in advance by calling Betty Garrett, 301-415-5808 (e-mail: bsg@nrc.gov). Other initiatives and background information on the MOX project are located at http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/NMSS/MOX/index.html on the web. The NRC expects to publish its draft environmental impact statement next February and will schedule meetings shortly thereafter to obtain public comment. ### ***************************************************************** 13 Radioactive shipment passes through Australian waters. By Mark Schulman The Earth Times/ENVIRONMENT: [c.gif] ANBERRA--A ship transporting radioactive waste has breached Australia’s 200 mile exclusive economic zone, according to Greenpeace Australia. The British freighter, the Pacific Pintail, accompanied by a second ship, the Pacific Teal, is carrying some 500 pounds of mixed oxide (MOX) plutonium fuel through the Pacific Ocean, the international environmental organization said. Mixed oxide is a combination of plutonium and uranium oxides that is used as a fuel for nuclear power plants. Once the two oxides are mixed into a powder, they are then pressed and bonded into pellets for shipment. The ships left the French port of Cherbourg in January and will pass through the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand on the way to Japan, where the fuel is to be loaded into a nuclear reactor. The nuclear companies in Britain, France and Japan, which are responsible for the shipment, have used the Tasman route twice before in 1993 and 1999 with the permission of the Australian government. “The government accepts that international law grants freedom of navigation on the high seas and through exclusive economic zones,” a spokesperson for Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told the press. The arrival of this current shipment has sparked renewed calls from Australian environmental groups to take a more pro-active regional role in protesting the transit of such hazardous material. “The Howard government is alone is allowing these shipments to use the Tasman Sea as a nuclear highway,” said Greenpeace Australia’s nuclear campaigner Stephen Campbell. “[Prime Minister] Howard should revoke the license and put Australia in the position that reflects the concerns of its people and the region,” he added. Green Senator Bob Brown has criticized the government’s allowance of the shipment to pass through Australian waters. “This is a dangerous ship that will travel off the Australian coast past Sydney and Brisbane,” he said. “The Australian government, unlike New Zealand and other governments in the region, support the heavily armed, uninsured shipments of radioactive waste. An accident would have unthinkable consequences.” According to a recent Greenpeace report on marine transport of radioactive materials, the Australian government’s disaster plan isn’t up to the task of mounting an effective and rapid response to an emergency involving radioactive material at sea. “A speck of plutonium smaller than a grain of sand can cause lethal cancer and birth defects in people and animals,” Stephen Campbell said of the dangerous cargo. Plutonium is a hazardous radiotoxic waste with a half-life of 24,000 years and is radioactive for over 250,000 years. New Zealand has warned the ships to stay clear of its own exclusive economic zone. “New Zealand’s position on ships carrying nuclear waste is very clear,” New Zealand's Foreign Minister Phil Goff told the Australian press. “We don’t want them to come through our territory or through our exclusive economic zone waters...We seek assurance from nuclear states that they will remain outside the exclusive economic zone.” The Cook Islands, Nauru, and other Pacific nations have also objected to the shipments. Greenpeace has sent a nuclear-free Tasman flotilla, consisting of seven yachts from Australia and New Zealand to form a symbolic chain across the 75 nautical miles of international waters, which separate the two countries. Their protest banner reads: Close the Nuclear Highway. According to Greenpeace Australia, as much as 45,000 kilograms of plutonium will be transported from Europe to Japan over the next 10 years. That amounts to some 80 transports via the Tasman Sea if the Pacific route continues to be available to them. Copyright © 2000 The Earth Times All rights ***************************************************************** 14 Anti-nuclear flotilla claims Pacific victory Tuesday March 6, 5:49 PM SYDNEY (Reuters) - A ship carrying nuclear fuel from France to Japan changed course on Tuesday to avoid a mid-ocean protest by a flotilla of six yachts in the Tasman Sea off Australia, environmentalists said. The first anti-nuclear protest fleet to sail into the South Pacific since French nuclear testing at Mururoa atoll in 1995 claimed a high seas victory and vowed to return in greater numbers if the Pacific was used again as a "nuclear highway". "We never planned to impede their progress...all we ever planned was to form a symbolic chain across the international waters," Greenpeace spokeswoman Elisabeth Mealey told Reuters. "As far as we're concerned, it's a victory for us that they've had to avoid us, that they've gone to this trouble to evade the flotilla," she said. The British-flagged ship Pacific Pintail is carrying a cargo of nuclear fuel from France to Japan, escorted by another ship, the Pacific Teal. Greenpeace has said the cargo, which combines plutonium and uranium oxides recycled from spent nuclear fuel, contains 230 kg (507 lb) of plutonium, enough to make 20 atomic bombs. The Nuclear-Free Tasman Flotilla said in a statement the two ships had changed their northerly course by 50 degrees, sped up to 15 knots from eleven knots, and headed northwest near Australia's Lord Howe Island, north-east of Sydney. "The skippers and crew of the yachts radioed the captains of the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal to express their strong opposition to the sea being used as a nuclear highway," the flotilla said in a statement released by Greenpeace. Flotilla spokesman Henk Haazen, skipper of the Tiama yacht, said the Pacific protest movement was growing, with a local flotilla protest planned this weekend in Fiji. "The flotilla movement will be back and it will be even bigger if they attempt to use the Tasman and Pacific routes again," he said. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Papers reveal govt's nuclear reactor moves Tue 6 Mar 2001 The federal government had considered up to 10 sites for its second nuclear reactor before settling on the existing location at Lucas Heights in southern Sydney, according to secret Cabinet documents released today. Information obtained by Sutherland Shire Council under the Freedom of Information Act showed the government had scoured Australia for an appropriate site for a new research reactor and spent fuel processing plant. Among its key criteria was a site which would "not be subject to urban encroachment in the next 40 years". Sutherland Shire councillor Genevieve Rankin immediately announced the council would challenge the government's decision to build a new reactor at Lucas Heights which defied the criteria. She also claimed the government had chosen the southern Sydney site on financial reasons rather than on health or safety grounds. The confidential Cabinet submission by the Department of Industry, Science and Tourism revealed the government had considered sites at Holsworthy in Sydney south, Goulburn, Adelaide, Perth, Woomera, Broken Hill, Mt Isa and Darwin. It also examined mine sites, including the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia, for the spent fuel processing plant. The documents stated the site would need to be around 1,000 hectares, including a 1.6-kilometre exclusion zone around the reactor, and be close to an airport to allow the delivery of radiopharmaceuticals. "Selection of the alternate sites has been a desk-top exercise to find areas where a 1000 hectare site could be found which would not be subject to urban encroachment in the next 40 years, having good geological and drainage characteristics and which was in reasonable proximity to an airport," it said. It said a contamination risk to local catchment area which supplied drinking water to Sydney would have to be undertaken if the facility was to be built in the Goulburn area. Native title claims would be an issue at Holsworthy, Broken Hill and Mt Isa, it said. It said Lucas Heights was "more than adequate" for the reactor and processing plant, stating native title had been extinguished within the boundary of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) grounds. The document did not mention urbanisation in the area as a concern. It warned the release of information about alternate sites could also "unnecessarily alarm communities in the board areas under consideration". The document was released last week after the federal government was taken to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal after it rejected Freedom of Information applications from the council. Cr Rankin, the chair of the council's nuclear reactor taskforce, said the council had spent over $10,000 in trying to obtain information about the government's criteria in choosing Lucas Heights as the preferred reactor site. The head of Prime Minister John Howard's department, Max Moore-Milton, has also issued a special exemption certificate to render the documentation outside the jurisdiction of the FOI Act. "Local residents and the council believe the federal government is frightened of releasing details of how it chose the suburb of Lucas Heights for Australia's new half billion dollar nuclear reactor," Cr Rankin said. "This certificate is an attempt by the Prime Minister to ensure no further information is released on how the federal government came to chose Lucas Heights as the site for the new reactor." ©AAP 2001 © 1997-2001 ninemsn Pty Ltd ***************************************************************** 16 Four new Cabinet officials appointed The Taipei Times Online: 2001-03-06 Tuesday, March 6th, 2001 CABINET RESHUFFLE: Those ousted include the heads of the Environmental Protection Administration, the Atomic Energy Council and the National Science Council By Joyce Huang STAFF REPORTER Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (±i«T¶¯) yesterday appointed four new Cabinet members to join the DPP government, a move which he said was done to maintain political stability and stimulate economic development. The four new Cabinet members chosen by the premier include New Party convener Hau Lung-bin (°qÀsÙy), who replaces Lin Jun-yi (ªL«T¸q) as head of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA, Àô«O¸p); Hu Chin-piao (­JÀA¼Ð), who leaves his position of minister without portfolio to replace Hsia Der-yu (®L¼wà±) as chairman of the Atomic Energy Council (AEC, ­ì¯à·|); and Hu Sheng-cheng (­J³Ó¥¿), director of the institute of economics at Academia Sinica, who will fill the vacancy left by Hu Chin-piao. New faces at the table * Environmental Protection Administration Hau Lung-bin, 49, is currently the New Party convener and a two-term legislator. Hau is the son of former premier Hau Pei-tsun and also teaches food science and technology at National Taiwan University. * Atomic Energy Council Hu Ching-piao, 57, is currently a minister without portfolio. Hu previously served as chairman of the Atomic Energy Council. The premier expects Hu's experience with the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant will help the Cabinet handle the plant's construction and to oversee the project's progress in terms of safety. * Minister without portfolio Hu Sheng-cheng, 61, is an economic adviser to Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh. Hu is currently director of the institute of economics at Academia Sinica. A colleague of former minister of finance Shea Jia-dong, Hu's expertise on public health care and social welfare economy is highly touted by the DPP government. Source: taipei times Meanwhile, Vice President of National Chiao Tung University Wei Che-he (ÃQ­õ©M) will replace Weng Cheng-i (¯Î¬F¸q) as head of the National Science Council (NSC, °ê¬ì·|), Chang said yesterday. Chang said that he had approved the resignation of Lin, the former head of the Environmental Protection Administration, because Lin insisted on taking responsibility for the delayed cleanup of a recent oil spill in southern Taiwan. "However, I am impressed with Lin for setting a good example to all Cabinet members, since he was willing to shoulder all the political responsibility himself," Chang added, speaking at a press conference yesterday afternoon. Chang also said Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Chu-lan (¸­µâÄõ) would remain in her position, even though she had previously offered to resign. In response, Yeh immediately returned to her post yesterday after several days of absence, saying that "I've decided to stay and I will do my best." Even though the Cabinet decided to restart construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (®Ö¥|) last month, after coming under pressure from the opposition, there has been much speculation that the Executive Yuan is seeking a way to reverse the decision. The premier, therefore, was questioned by reporters over whether Hau, who has said he support the nuclear project, would be an obstacle to the Cabinet's possible plans to hold a referendum at the year's end. Chang, however, denied this would be a problem, saying that "the decision of the plant's fate had been decided by the Cabinet. It won't be altered simply because of one man's opinion." Chang denied media speculation that President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó) orchestrated the reshuffle. Chang said the president fully respected his decision over the new Cabinet appointments. Echoing Chang's remarks, secretary-general to the president Yu Shyi-kun also said that Chen met with Hau last Saturday after Chang had decided to recruit Hau into his Cabinet. "The president is absolutely not involved in the Cabinet reshuffle. He only asked the premier to complete it as soon as possible and to find better replacements," Yu said yesterday morning. Meanwhile, yesterday's Cabinet reshuffle confirmed prior speculation that ministers responsible for economic or financial portfolios, including Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (ªL«H¸q), Minister of Finance Yen Ching-chang (ÃC¼y³¹), and Chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development Chen Po-chih (³¯³Õ§Ó), would not be dismissed. In addition, Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (´¿§Ó®Ô), whom the media speculated would be forced out, was also not on the list. "As Tzeng has said many times, I've never asked him to meet me in my office," Chang said. "Is it possible that I will fire him [without informing him first]?" Chang added at yesterday's press conference. Chang also denied media speculation that Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (§õ»·­õ) had interfered with the Cabinet's decision to dismiss Tzeng, saying "the speculation is neither true nor fair to Lee." This story has been viewed 593 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/03/06/story/0000076348] Copyright © 1999-2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 17 Agency agrees to investigate claims of Yucca Mountain mismanagement [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Tuesday, March 06, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By STEVE TETREAULT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The investigations arm of Congress has agreed to look into an anonymous six-page letter sent to lawmakers alleging major mismanagement within the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste program. However, the General Accounting Office said it can't be certain when it will be able to start its work. On Feb. 12, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., asked the GAO to initiate the investigation, a request echoed several weeks later by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Agency officials responded Feb. 26 in a letter Berkley's office made public Monday. "GAO has accepted your request as work that is within the scope of our authority," wrote Doris E.L. Cannon, assistant director for congressional relations. But, she added, considering the work involved and a backlog of requests from other lawmakers, "It is difficult to specify at this time when GAO can start this work." The project was assigned to the GAO division that handles natural resource audits. The letter's author has not stepped forward, but Berkley and others who have read it give the missive some credibility, saying it appears to show a level of expertise about nuclear waste and a familiarity with the workings of the Yucca Mountain program. The Energy Department is studying Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for nuclear waste burial. The letter says program managers have failed to anticipate costs and have failed to heed advice from technical advisers. It also questions the educational background and expertise of senior program managers, as well as overseas travel by program staff. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Mar-06-Tue-2001/news/15579919.html ***************************************************************** 18 Greens Remain Committed to Nuclear Transports [Frankfurter Allgemeine] F.A.Z. BERLIN. The leadership of Alliance 90/The Greens emphasized in a resolution on Monday that it opposed any protests directed solely at the upcoming return of German nuclear waste from France. But the leadership group also moved to cool off the heated feelings of some party members who were upset by the group's January resolution on the issue of Castor container transports. In the second resolution, the leaders drew a distinction between the type of anti-nuclear demonstrations they would accept and those they would reject. "We will not issue an appeal to join actions, demonstrations or blockades that are directed against the agreement to shut down the country's nuclear power plants," the resolution said on Monday. "Nonetheless, Greens will participate in demonstrations held in connection with the transports that will call for a faster shutdown of nuclear power plants based on the agreement." At the same time, the leadership once again endorsed Castor transports that it considered necessary to carry out the nuclear agreement reached in June between members of the government and representatives of energy companies. This agreement will lead to the shutdown of Germany's 19 nuclear power plants by granting each plant an operating life of 32 years. The Castor shipments are expected to resume either late this month or early next month. They will move German nuclear waste from a reprocessing plant in France to a temporary storage site in Gorleben, a town in Lower Saxony. The shipments, which have triggered violent protests in the past, were stopped in 1998 because of concerns that excessive radioactivity was being emitted from the containers. The resolution also addressed another major concern of party members -- fears that the Gorleben salt mine could become a permanent home for the waste. The leadership said it would oppose such a move. The resolution was passed ahead of the coming weekend's party conference in Stuttgart, where Claudia Roth is expected to be selected as the party's new coleader. Addressing the possibility of a weekend showdown on the Castor transports, the party's other coleader, Fritz Kuhn, expressed confidence that the resolution would receive wide support from delegates at the convention.Mar. 5, 2001 © Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2000 All ***************************************************************** 19 More nuclear plants planned Scotsman Online - Scotland's best selling quality national newspaper Martin Flanagan City Editor BRITISH Energy confirmed yesterday that it is not ruling out building new nuclear power stations in the longer term to replace existing plants, but said reports that it was committed to do so were "excitable". A spokesman said yesterday: "We are not ruling out new nuclear generation longer term, but the real focus now is extending the lives of our existing plants in the UK and growing our business in America, not here. "What we are saying is that we will have to replace our existing plants, but the market and political framework has got to be right." The company would need the approval of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate to build any more power stations to replace its seven advanced gas cooled reactors, and it would take about 10 years to get through the complex planning permissions involved. The spokesman for the company said that, as there was such a strong lead time on the planning process getting through, the company would have to address the issue of whether to build new nuclear plants "over the next two or three years". Some analysts believe the rethink on new nuclear plant when the existing plants come to the end of their useful lives is something of a U-turn by British Energy. Six years ago it announced it was scrapping all plans to build new power stations. However, it is believed the company now has a more open mind as the rising cost of natural gas has again made nuclear power a viable option for generating electricity. Any such renewed interest in building new nuclear power stations would be likely to spark strong opposition from Britain’s "green" lobby. If a programme won government approval, it would be the first time Britain has built a nuclear plant since it opened its pressurised water reactor, Sizewell B in Suffolk, in 1995. The first of the AGRs to be replaced could be at Hunterston in Scotland, Dungeness in Kent and Hinkley in Somerset. Although the Government has ended a moratorium on building gas-fired plants, almost no electricity generators have been desperate to do so. By contrast, City electricity analysts say one of the great advantages of nuclear generation is that only 10 per cent of the cost of running a nuclear plant is fuel compared with 60 per cent at gas-fired power stations. ***************************************************************** 20 Fighting for fishing's future The Scotsman Online - Scotland's best selling quality national newspaper A MASSIVE armada of 160 boats steamed down the Firth of Forth yesterday in a spectacular show of strength by fishermen against the bureaucracy that has blighted their beleaguered industry. Miracle rescue from icy sea A FISHERMAN has stunned experts by surviving twice as long as the predicted limit after saying alive for 12 hours in the icy waters off the Western Isles. Handler's barking law suit A POLICE dog handler is suing his chief constable for damages in a test case legal action, claiming his hearing has been damaged by the loud barking of his force’s canine recruits. ONE of the world's leading nuclear safety experts has called for an immediate halt on the firing of depleted uranium shells into the Solway Firth until health worries can be satisfied. Dr John Large accused the MoD of "arrogance and incompetence" over last month's resumption of test firing at the Dundrennan range. He also said the ministry had fired nearly 30 tonnes of depleted uranium into the Sol-way Firth which broke radioactive dumping at sea legislation – but had managed to avoid the law by claiming "Crown exemption". Dr Large called upon the Scottish parliament and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) to regulate any future firings. It is known that SEPA wants to take control. Contamination from the armour-piercing warheads is claimed to have caused the deaths of six Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans. Troops who served in the Balkans and the Gulf War have claimed their health has suffered because of the radioactive ammunition. The MoD has found only one of the 6,900 shells fired since 1982 – and that was dragged up by a fishing boat four years ago. Dr Large said: "These firings should be regulated by the Scottish Parliament and SEPA because the MoD has been so incompetent and arrogant over people's health. These firings should not have gone ahead without a justification, recovery plan and radioactive impact assessment." "They are clearly breaking the Radioactive Substances Act of 1993 which bans the dumping of radioactive material at sea. The MoD has cocked its nose at the legislation by claiming crown exemption. It is outrageous and these firings should stop immediately. "At the very least the MoD is putting a highly toxic material which attacks the nervous system into the environment without any justification. It never seemed to cross anybody's mind in the MoD that they were dumping radioactive material." In the current tests, Challenger tanks fire shells at soft targets, usually canvas, before the fall into the sea. Some shells have fallen short and hit land and others fragmented in flight. The MoD claims all contamination was cleaned-up immediately. Dr Large said: "Until every-body is satisfied that the health risk is acceptable the firings should stop. " It is no good the MoD saying there is no risk. They should demonstrate there is no risk. It seems everybody except the MoD knows that uranium is highly toxic." Environmentalists have also called on the MoD to remove the artillery shells, which have been linked to Gulf War Syndrome. The government's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, which monitors the range, has announced that new experiments are to be carried out to "determine the rate and nature of the corrosion process of DU both in soil and on the sea bed." Dr Large, who advises governments around the world on nuclear issues said the shells normally released radioactive particles on impact causing potential health risks. "These particles are either wind borne or fall into the sea and could enter the food chain through fish or lower organisms," said Dr Large, who is currently advising the Gibraltar government over repairs to the nuclear submarine HMS Tireless. But DERA said the firing of the DU shells was under strictly controlled conditions. A spokesman said: "The purpose of the firing is to research and develop and prove DU ammunition for use by the UK armed forces in times of conflict." ***************************************************************** 21 Firm Hopes To Profit From Nuclear Metals - The St. Petersburg Times. Overal news from St.Petersburg and Russia #650, Tuesday, March 6, 2001 By Charles Digges STAFF WRITER Environmentalists and officials are protesting over a factory that will rework radioactive metals - currently in waste storage at the Leningrad Atomic Energy Station, or LAES - for eventual use in all manner of consumer products, from refrigerators to utensils. The firm, called EKOMET-S - located in the militarily closed city of Sosnovy Bor, 60 kilometers to St. Petersburg's west - says that by smelting many of the radioactive metals stored in LAES' overflowing waste-storage facilities, it can lower radioactivity in the waste so it is safe for commercial use. If and when the factory gets the expected go-ahead, observers fear that metal formerly residing in nuclear reactors could turn up in products as disparate as cell phones and spoons. Local environmentalists accuse EKOMET-S of flaunting environmental safety laws by delaying the presentation of environmental impact reports. By law, these plans should have been submitted to an expert committee selected by officials from Gosatomnadzor, or GAN, Russia's nuclear regulatory body, when the blueprints for the factory were still on the drawing board back in 1994. But the plans did not reach the committee until December 2000, well after the factory had been built, according to Natalya Malevannaya of the Sosnovy Bor administration's department of environmental safety. She expects the plant to receive its license from GAN by the end of the month. But because the factory is dragging its feet filing safety reports environmentalists say the safety of EKOMET-S' proposed product is highly suspect. "The company has followed none of the norms governing the building of a nuclear installation," Sergei Kharitonov, an activist with Greenworld Sosnovy Bor and a former waste engineer at LAES, said in an interview. "It has been subject to no regulation at all." Because of this, it is nearly certain that much of the metal produced by EKOMET-S for general consumption will contain dangerously high traces of radioactivity, Kharitonov said. Malevannaya agreed. "Re-smelting highly radioactive metals for commercial consumption could turn out to be extremely dangerous to thousands of people," she said in a telephone interview Monday. According to its Web site, EKOMET-S plans to smelt 5,000 tons of radioactive metal a year. The supposedly radioactively inert metals will then be sold in Russia and abroad. If the pilot program at LAES is successful, the company plans to build more facilities throughout Russia with the aim of producing as much as 150,000 tons of cleansed metal a year. Exactly who owns EKOMET-S is a mystery. None of those interviewed for this article knew, and company representatives refused comment. Malevannaya said that EKOMET-S has been operating on a small and unofficial basis - cleansing valuable metals such as platinum, silver and gold from discarded reactor control consoles - since 1992. But whether the steel, aluminum and other metals removed from the actual reactors during renovation will be safe for use in consumer products is unclear. In 1996, the "unofficial" EKOMET-S had to stop operations for several days because of an alpha decay during smelting - an accident that carries a high risk of causing cancer in those exposed. It is also unknown if items produced by EKOMET-S will carry any information as to their origin. Oleg Bodrov of Greenworld also said there was no indication from EKOMET-S or GAN as to how many becquerels -a measure of radioactive decay - would be considered safe in metals produced. Acceptable levels are generally considered be in the low hundreds. Neither the firm nor GAN's St. Petersburg offices, which are handling the licensing procedure, have commented. EKOMET-S spokesperson Vladimir Buntushkin has refused comment until a press conference for hand-picked media scheduled for Tuesday. Gosatomnadzor officials have also refused repeated requests for comment, and some observers - including Malevannaya and Kharitonov - have suggested that the regulatory body may be cajoled into licensing EKOMET-S by the Nuclear Power Ministry, or Minatom. Last month, the ministry put a bill before the Duma that would hand over all of GAN's licensing and safety-control authority to Minatom, which would make a number of Nuclear Minister Yevgeny Adamov's pet projects - like the import of nuclear waste from other countries - considerably easier. Ironically, the smelting of radioactively contaminated metals has been in successful use in Britain for over a decade, where more that "thousands of tons" of cleaned-up radioactive metals are annually sold on the open market, said David Cartwright, a decommissioning expert with British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. in London. But Cartwright cautioned that strict controls are in place and only certain metals can be rehabilitated to safe levels. Others must be buried. "Our metals literally have to be less radioactive than a Brazil nut," said Cartwright. "Metals from the reactor core - things that have been bombarded by neutrons - are unsuitable." [Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2001 ***************************************************************** 22 Lawmakers suspect effort to ease radiation standard [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Tuesday, March 06, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Energy agencies lobbied EPA about Yucca Mountain, activists say By STEVE TETREAULT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency is facing new pressure to loosen standards for radiation exposure from the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, according to Nevada lawmakers and environmental activists. Representatives from the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission met with a deputy to EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman to discuss the agency's regulation that sets a 15 millirem per year standard for radiation. The meeting, which took place within the past week or two, was characterized by environmental and Capitol Hill sources as a lobbying effort by the energy agencies. EPA and NRC officials said they could not comment on what might have been discussed at a "nonpublic" meeting. Energy Department officials had no comment. "Our information is they were concerned with lobbying for changes," said Lisa Gue, who monitors nuclear waste for the Ralph Nader-founded Public Citizen watchdog group. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., complained about the meeting in a letter sent Monday to President Bush. She said the NRC and Energy Department were asking for a "redraft" of the radiation rule to make it easier to license a repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "I'm just concerned that there is even lobbying," Berkley said of the two energy bodies. "The first step in the sequence would be to lobby the EPA; and if they don't get a good response, they can step it up and just go higher." Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., discussed Yucca Mountain radiation standards in a Monday telephone conversation with Whitman. "She told him she hasn't had a chance to look too in-depth on this issue," spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer said. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., also plans to follow up with Whitman, spokesman David Cherry said. "We'd be very surprised if Christine Whitman went back on her word, which she gave to Sen. Reid in writing during her confirmation hearing, that it should be the role of the EPA to set a radiation standard at Yucca Mountain," Cherry said. The matter of radiation releases is considered important in the development of a repository in Nevada. Nuclear industry supporters have said it could be difficult to get a repository licensed under stringent standards set up to guard against exposure. Jan. 19, the EPA proposed a limit of 15 millirem per year on radiation escaping from a Yucca Mountain repository, the equivalent of three chest X-rays. The agency proposed a separate 4 millirem standard for groundwater. The proposed regulation was sent to the Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget for final review and still sits there, EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn said. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Energy Department have preferred a 25 millirem standard for radiation exposure and have argued against the need for a separate standard for groundwater. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Mar-06-Tue-2001/news/15579748.html ***************************************************************** 23 Duma Report: Adamov Corrupt Monday, Mar. 5, 2001. Page 1 By Andrei Zolotov Jr. Staff Writer Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Adamov The State Duma's anti-corruption commission has issued a report saying Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Adamov illegally continued to engage in business activities — worth millions of dollar — after becoming minister in 1998, and used his post to appoint business associates to key positions in Russia's nuclear sector. The 20-odd page report, which was commissioned by the Duma, offers detailed proof of allegations printed earlier by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, many of which Adamov has denied. The text of the report — which, according to the Segodnya newspaper, was "declassified" Friday — was posted on the web site of the Russian branch of the environmental organization Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.ru), a consistent critic of the Nuclear Power Ministry. According to the report, Adamov, who from 1986 to 1999 headed NIKIET, a secret energy technologies institute that was the key developer of Chernobyl-type nuclear reactors, violated many security regulations and created "various commercial organizations in Moscow and abroad and continues to be actively involved in entrepreneurial activities." The anti-corruption commission does not have the right to prosecute people, but its report concluded that the Prosecutor General's Office and the Federal Security Service should launch a formal probe into Adamov's activities. Copies of the report were to be sent to President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. Commission officials were not available for comment Sunday. The report cited a speech made by Adamov to the Duma in which he said he had not engaged in business since his appointment as minister in March 1998. "There have been no deposits to my personal [bank] account since I've been minister," the report quoted him as saying. But the entire report is devoted to debunking Adamov's statement. It is not clear from the document whether the companies founded by Adamov were directly involved in the nuclear sector. Some of them were described as consulting firms, others worked in real estate. But, according to the report, the companies' Russian offices were set up at security-sensitive nuclear research facilities, and Adamov's NIKIET institute became home to several companies, some of which list Adamov's wife Olga Pinchuk as a co-founder. The report also said that until 1998 Adamov served as president of a U.S.-based consulting, management and investment company he founded in 1994 called Omeka, Ltd. and registered in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. His wife became the company's representative in Russia and Omeka's local office was registered at Adamov's home address, the report said. In 1998, around the time he was appointed nuclear minister, Adamov resigned as president of Omeka in favor of his U.S. partner Mark Kaushansky. However, according to the report, at the end of 1999, the company's $5 million in assets were controlled by Adamov ($3.15 million), his wife ($1.5 million) and Kaushansky ($410,000). It was unclear whether these three individuals were the company's sole shareholders or controlled the assets through a more complicated ownership scheme. The report, which says Adamov has admitted having a U.S. social security card, went on to say that when Adamov applied for a Diner's Club card in 1996, he stated his total annual income at over $120,000. It also said Omeka provided Adamov's NIKIET with $34,000 worth of flooring supplies and continues to provide the institute with computer equipment to the tune of $50,000 a year. According to the report, Omeka owns stock in a "housing services" company in Pennsylvania and a medical services center in Michigan, along with investments in Russia and Ukraine. The report says the company bought a $200,000 house for Adamov in Pittsburgh. Omeka is also reported to have bought real estate and opened a $250,000 account in Switzerland, where Adamov's daughter attends university in Bern. The dates of these transactions were not clear from the report. But it said that both Omeka and Adamov's other U.S.-based company, Energy Pool Inc., transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars for Adamov and other Nuclear Ministry officials through the Logic Realty real estate company registered at the address of his NIKIET institute. The report identified Adamov's wife as an Energy Pool shareholder. In 1996, when Adamov headed NIKIET, it signed a contract with Iran's nuclear agency to conduct an expert assessment of plans for a nuclear facility in Iran. The contract, the report said, violated regulations governing such contacts and, in December 2000, the Prosecutor General's Office opened an investigation into the "illegal export" of technologies related to weapons of mass destruction and military equipment. "The fact that Adamov engaged in commercial activity while he was director of NIKIET and nuclear power minister has been fully proven," the report said. It also listed a number of cases when Adamov appointed people with no experience in the nuclear industry to key positions in the ministry and state companies controlled by the ministry. Some of these officials were also listed as shareholders of private companies formed by Adamov before he became minister. As minister, Adamov initially saw to it that the ministry's international deals — reported to total about $2 billion in exports annually — were channeled through the ministry-affiliated bank Konversbank. Then, according to the report, he ordered the bank's officials to sell the bank's controlling stake to MDM-Bank, an institution associated with Kremlin insiders Alexander Mamut and Roman Abramovich. Thereby, the report said, MDM got control over such lucrative deals as a $12 billion contract for processing weapons-grade plutonium. "At the present time, the purchase of Konversbank stakes for the benefit of MDM-Bank continues," the report said. MDM has been reported to have assets worth $850 million, while Konversbank has some $400 million to $500 million on its books. In its press release, Greenpeace speculated that the report's appearance Feb. 20 could have been the reason behind the Duma's postponement of the second reading of a controversial bill allowing the import of spent nuclear fuel into Russia, which was scheduled for Feb. 22. But Segodnya, which said it had obtained a copy of the report from the Duma, wrote that the interests of the anti-nuclear lobby pale before the power of Adamov's other enemies, such as power monopoly Unified Energy Systems, or UES. Vladimir Kuznetsov, director of the nuclear and radiological security program of the Russian Green Cross, said in a phone interview Sunday that he did not believe there was any connection between the report and the vote postponement. He said the report proves what has long been known in the industry — that Adamov was a corrupt official. He also said the long-running attack against Adamov was part of the struggle for the nuclear industry among Russia's financial and political groups. "The gas industry, oil industry and non-ferrous metals have all been divvied up," Kuznetsov said. "What remains to be divided is the nuclear power industry. The fight for it is underway." ***************************************************************** 24 Tax Report Consultant Had Possible Conflicts The Salt Lake Tribune -- Tuesday, March 6, 2001* BY GREG BURTON The consultant behind a controversial report on taxing Envirocare's radioactive waste is a part-time regulator from South Carolina, a state where Envirocare's chief competitor could benefit from Utah's decisions. Virgil Autry's name was kept secret after Envirocare of Utah objected to his involvement in the study, triggering weeks of legislative lobbying over the scope of what became the waste tax measure, House Bill 370. After intense opposition from Envirocare, the legislation was scaled down. It is expected to generate a modest $3 million a year based on fees charged to companies that ship waste to the company's 640-acre Tooele County landfill. Autry retired last June as head of South Carolina's Division of Radioactive Waste Management, but he continues to work two days a week for the state, uses the same phone number and still influences -- although to a lesser degree -- radioactive waste decisions in South Carolina, a state that has reaped millions burying nuclear waste at its Barnwell facility. While unaware of Autry's involvement with Utah, a spokesman for South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges said part-time employees are not prohibited from consulting on the side. Now exposed, Autry preferred to slip back into the shadows. "I'd rather let the dogs lie," Autry told The Salt Lake Tribune. "I'd rather not get involved in this. I got in a situation I do not particularly like." He is not alone. "Personally I would be a little bit concerned about [Autry's continued state employment]," said Envirocare spokesman Tim Barney. "Keep in mind that the site at Barnwell is owned by South Carolina, so [that] state has a direct benefit." Envirocare has other objections. Just over a month before Autry prepared his tax report for Utah, he delivered an exhaustive study to Envirocare on how to navigate the political minefield that surrounds radioactive waste storage. In February, hours after Autry's tax report was released to Republican House leaders in Utah, Envirocare President Charles Judd convinced Autry to withdraw it. Autry withdrew the tax report but not before many legislators knew what it contained. Autry has an "open contract" with Envirocare, Judd said, and his work for Utah constituted "a possible conflict-of-interest." Utah state officials have resisted comment, saying there was no written contract with Autry and a "verbal" contract was never consummated. But Autry said he recently mailed Utah a $5,000-$6,000 bill for his services, including travel, four days of work in Utah and time spent preparing the seven-page tax report. "I need something for my income taxes," he said. "If they are not going to pay I have to show a loss . . . I'm not a rich man. I'm a retired state employee and I got into a situation that I'm never going to get in again." In his report to the Utah Legislature, Autry suggests a number of ways to tax low-level waste. He also recommends Utah delay plans for Envirocare to handle hotter waste. If Utah had accepted all of the recommendations, Envirocare's competitors -- including Chem-Nuclear Systems, which operates the Barnwell storage facility -- likely would benefit. While Barnwell is scheduled to close in 2008, the company's short-term profits, as well as revenues generated for South Carolina, depend on the market for low-level nuclear waste, said Bill Sinclair, director of Utah's Division of Radiation Control. Things that affect Envirocare also affect Chem-Nuclear and South Carolina, said Bill House of Chem-Nuclear. "No doubt." Envirocare is doubly concerned by Autry's mixed allegiances. "I do not necessarily want to suggest that our competitors were behind this . . . but certainly our competitors can benefit from [Autry's] recommendations," Barney said. Autry's report, which estimated up to a $100 million tax windfall for Utah, helped motivate Utah's Legislature to craft HB370. While the version that finally passed the Legislature is less aggressive than the proposal based on Autry's report, Envirocare still believes the measure could lead to layoffs. "Absolutely," Barney says. All of which is unintended, Autry says. "I was asked to find some information and that's what I did." ***************************************************************** 25 Greenpeace explicitly linked Adamov's 'illegal' commercial activities with the controversial bill to allow nuclear waste imports The Russia Journal MOSCOW - The international environmental organisation Greenpeace called for the sacking Monday of Russian Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov after a leaked document highlighted his dubious business activities. Greenpeace called on the State Duma (lower house) to reject Adamov-backed plans for Russia to import nuclear waste after it obtained a l eaked report by the Duma's anti-corruption committee outlining his multi-million-dollar dealings. "Adamov must be sacked immediately and all the commercial activities of the Ministry of Atomic Energy must be investigated before it is too late to stop this dangerous scheme to turn Russia into a nuclear waste dump," Tobias Muenchmeyer of Greenpeace told AFP. As an employee of the atomic energy ministry (Minatom), Adamov is forbidden to have any private business activities, and two years ago he told the Duma that he had "never received any busi ness i ncome" since becoming a minister in 1998. However, the 20-page document posted by Greenpeace on its website (www.greenpeace.ru) lists dozens of money-making activities carried out by Adamov through a web of companies in Russia and abroad. The report also alleges that Adamov, who from 1986 to 1999 headed NIKIET, a top secret technology institute that developed Chernobyl-style nuclear reactors, had violated many security and legal regulations. Adamov created "vario us commercial organisations in Mosco w and abroad and continues to be actively involved in entrepreneurial activities," it said. And Greenpeace explicitly linked Adamov's "illegal" commercial activities with the controversial bill to allow nuclear waste imports, due to get a second reading in the Duma on March 22. "The nuclear waste plan has always been Adamov's favoured project and is supported by the Russian government for merely commercial reasons, despite genuine safety fears," Muenchmeyer told AFP. The government says th e amended legislation would permit Russia to sign contracts with China, Germany, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan, earning 21 billion dollars over the next 10 years. The bill was passed on its first reading in December. The Duma's anti-corruption chairman Nikolai Kovalyov conceded Monday that it had carried out an investigation into Adamov's business dealings and sent a report to Russia's top prosecutor on February 28. The prosecutor had until March 8 to consider the material before deciding whether to initiate legal action, he added. "But I think it is possible to see a political aspect (to the Greenpeace report) and a link to the legislation on nuclear waste imports," Kovalyov told AFP. The ministry of atomic energy flatly denied Monday any wrongdoing on Adamov's part and said the media reports were part of an international conspiracy to discredit the Russian government. "Everybody knows where Greenpeace gets its money from, and how that money allows them to spread lies about the atomic energy ministry," said spokesman Yury Bespalko. However, Greenpeace's Russian spokesman Ivan Blokov appealed to Duma members to reconsider their support for the nuclear waster bill in the light of the leaked report. "This is a wake-up call for the Duma members who voted in favour of Adamov's multi-billion-dollar proposal. They must now throw out the proposal which is nothing more than a money-making scehem for Adamov and the rest of the Russian nuclear maf ia," he said. www.russiajournal.com ***************************************************************** 26 Legislators preparing measure of Yucca disapproval Today: March 06, 2001 at 11:07:44 PST By Cy Ryan SUN CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- A resolution stating the Nevada Legislature's official disapproval of the proposed nuclear dumpsite at Yucca Mountain is scheduled to be introduced in the Senate today. Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said it was important the Bush administration gets the message Nevada doesn't want the radioactive repository. The resolution has been signed by every senator except Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas. Although pushed by Democrats, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have signed the measure urging the president to veto legislation to locate a temporary or interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Nevada. It also urges the Bush administration to abandon consideration of Yucca Mountain as a permanent dumpsite. The resolution states that the federal government is prohibited from locating the repository without the Legislature's prior expressed consent. The resolution documents the "official disapproval" of any action by Congress. Titus on Monday said the administration is discussing the production of additional nuclear power to combat the energy crisis afflicting parts of the nation. She said the issue regarding disposal of the nuclear waste must first be answered. Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, a notice of disapproval would require that Yucca Mountain be withdrawn from further consideration unless overridden by a majority of Congress. According to the resolution, "Congress and the commercial nuclear power industry continue to ignore the reality that neither Yucca Mountain nor the Nevada Test Site are suitable locations for storing spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste ..." The resolution states the Department of Energy "continues to make unfounded and biased assumptions" about the suitability of Yucca Mountain "despite mountain scientific evidence that there are serious flaws at the site ..." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Taft lauded for winning Piketon plant a reprieve *Tuesday, March 6, 2001* Gov. Bob Taft won bipartisan praise for his role in prying loose $125.7 million from the Bush administration that staved off closure for the Piketon uranium-enrichment plant. Although skeptics such as Rep. Ted Strickland wish the president had made a longer commitment to the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, they were impressed that Taft got Energy Secretary Spence Abraham to Ohio just two days after the governor and Sens. George V. Voinovich and Mike DeWine met with him in Washington. Strickland, a Lucasville Democrat, was happy that he was included in the session. Although he was the only Democrat in the room, Taft asked him to explain the Piketon dilemma to Abraham. Greg Simonton, executive director of the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative, is dubious about the Bush plan but impressed with Taft's performance. "This governor has been engaged in more issues at this plant than any governor in the past,'' he said. "He has dogged the administration.'' The eventual fate of the plant will be decided during reviews of the nation's energy and defense needs. -- Darrel Rowland drowland@dispatch.com Trade missions bring governors bad luck Maybe Ohio's governors should just stay home. Every time one of them leads a foreign trade mission, bad news seems to be in the offing. Within hours of landing in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to begin a two-week trade mission, Gov. Bob Taft received word that former Gov. James A. Rhodes had died. Late tonight, Taft will wing his way back to Columbus to attend Rhodes' funeral. He will catch up with the trade mission in Argentina on Saturday. It marked the second time in four years that a governor has left an overseas trade trip to return home early. While on a mission to South Korea, Taiwan and Australia in the spring of 1997, then-Gov. George V. Voinovich returned midway through the trip to tend to floods that were ravaging southern Ohio. -- Joe Hallett jhallett@dispatch.com Negative ads upset Ohioans, poll finds The 2000 election reinforced Ohioans' distaste for negative campaigning, according to a new poll by the Institute for Global Ethics, a nonpartisan group that advocates clean campaigns. After viewing an Ohio Supreme Court race featuring TV ads that were roundly condemned, half of Ohioans strongly agree that negative campaigns damage democracy, compared with 37 percent two years earlier. An even higher percentage, 56 percent, called negative campaigning unethical, an increase from 42 percent in 1998. The phone poll of 500 adults was taken Nov. 16 to 27 and has a sampling error of 4.4 percentage points. -- Darrel Rowland drowland@dispatch.com Copyright © 2001, The Columbus Dispatch ***************************************************************** 2 Nuclear-Free Zone: What Does It Mean? NewsNet5 - *Cleveland Heights Passed Ordinance In 1987 * CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio, 7:31 a.m. EST March 6, 2001 -- It was fear of an atom bomb that motivated voters in Cleveland Heights to pass an ordinance in 1987 that proclaims Cleveland Heights a nuclear-free zone. "There were signs on several streets, and I am moving here from Atlanta, and I noticed the signs and we did all of our homework," Cleveland Heights resident Stefanie Johnson says.[ ALIGN=] It's hard to miss, since most signs in Cleveland Heights say the city is nuclear free. But do the residents of Cleveland Heights know what it means? "It means we're out of range if a nuclear power plant explodes," Cleveland Heights resident Mark Novak jokes. "I guess … that stuff that they truck from one side of the country to the other should not be trucked through our city," Eva Cohen, also of Cleveland Heights, tells NewsChannel5. Mostly the ordinance bans nuclear weapons, and that's why every year since 1987, the city council is supposed to tell the United Nations, the president of the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that Cleveland Heights is nuclear free. The Soviets went out of business 10 years ago, so NewsChannel5 called the Russians to see if Cleveland Heights is obeying the law. "Nyet" is what the Russians had to say. So you may want to duck and cover in Cleveland Heights just in case. Other local cities like Shaker Heights, Wooster and Oberlin have similar nuclear-free zone laws on their books. *Copyright 2001 by . All rights reserved. This material may not ***************************************************************** 3 Peter Eisler of USA Today Wins Stokes Award U.S. Newswire 2 Mar 10:57 Peter Eisler of USA Today Wins Stokes Award for Best Energy Writing To: National Desk Contact: Miriam Vermeiren of the National Press Foundation, 202-721-9104 WASHINGTON, March 2 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Peter Eisler, of USA Today, has won the Thomas L. Stokes Award for best writing in a daily newspaper during 2000 on the subject of energy, it was announced today. He will receive a $1,000 cash prize from the National Press Foundation, sponsor of the annual competition, for a three-day series in September, 2000 titled "Poisoned Workers & Poisoned Places." The product of a year's work, he revealed that the federal government secretly contracted with hundreds of private companies to process vast amounts of radioactive and toxic material for the U.S. nuclear weapons program in the 1940s and '50s. Using more than 100,000 pages of declassified federal records, Eisler documented the work done by more than 150 contractors. The judges of the competition among 22 submissions were unanimously impressed by the depth and breadth of the series, which not only examined industrial dangers but also pictured the effect on people. The series resulted in ground-breaking legislation to compensate nuclear weapons workers for illnesses related to radiation and chemical exposure. The Thomas L. Stokes award is given annually by the National Press Foundation in memory of Thomas L. Stokes, the Washington columnist for United Features who was noted for his writing on energy and conservation of national resources. The judges also cited Paul J. Nyden, of The Charleston Gazette, for 26 articles exposing highly questionable coal synfuel projects in which coal was changed in such a way as to qualify for what will be $1 billion in federal tax credits annually. Copyright 2001, U.S. Newswire ***************************************************************** 4 WA plays role in world nuclear monitoring project ABC News - The south-western tip of Western Australia, near Augusta, is set to become an important link in a worldwide network monitoring nuclear explosions. It is one of more than 300 sites around the world being established by the Vienna-based, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation. The organisation's chief of hydro-acoustic monitoring, Martin Lawrence, says about 40 people are working at Augusta to install 120-kilometres of fibre optic cabling. He says work on the $10 million project will occur over the next 10-days on the beach south of Granny's Pool. Dr Lawrence says yesterday was spent laying fibre optic cable between a ship and an onshore satellite transmission facility in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, north of Augusta. "When this is complete, it will be lowered to the sea floor and the ship will start laying the cable as it heads out to sea and the operation of burying the cable under the sand will begin," he said. ***************************************************************** 5 Editorial: More crash test dummies The Taipei Times Online: 2001-03-06 Tuesday, March 6th, 2001 Amid what many see as dim prospects for change, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (±i«T¶¯) yesterday announced a small reshuffle of the Cabinet, replacing the heads of the Environmental Protection Administration, Atomic Energy Council and National Science Council and a minister without portfolio. Looking at the lack of substance in the changes we can only ask, why bother? Why now? Both the timing and the changes made have been quite outside the premier's control. President Chen Shui-bian's (³¯¤ô«ó) tongue-lashing of the Executive Yuan over its inefficiency prompted Minister of Transportation Communications Yeh Chu-lan (¸­µâÄõ) to tender her resignation, since three of the five examples pointed out by Chen had to do with her ministry. Things began to spin out of control after Yeh's move prompted the legislature to press for a definite time and scale for a reshuffle. Chang had his own plans, based on the professional skills, performance, popularity ratings and coordination abilities of his Cabinet members. But the reshuffle list obviously has nothing to do with Chang's plan. It tells us nothing about the Cabinet's policy direction. Both Chen and Chang view the economy as crucial, but the premier has not been able to replace any of the economic and financial chiefs because the Presidential Office wouldn't approve such changes. Meanwhile, looking at the profile of the the new Cabinet members leaves us with no clearer idea of the government's policy direction. If the reshuffle was meant to improve accountability, there is no sign of it. According to Chen, the most inefficient ministry was the transportation ministry. But Yen has retained her job, despite volunteering to go. Instead, EPA chief Lin Chun-yi (ªL«T¸q) and NSC Chairman Weng Cheng-i (¯Î¬F¸q) were canned. Not surprisingly, the reshuffle has prompted jokes that the government only dares bully the weak -- pushing academics-turned-officials out of the minor ministries -- while it leaves the political heavyweights untouched. If the change was meant to improve consensus within the Cabinet, it will have exactly the opposite effect. Outgoing AEC Chairman Hsia Der-yu (®L¼wà±) is to be replaced by Hu Ching-piao (, the former AEC chief who approved Taipower's license for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (®Ö¥|) in the first place. If that weren't enough, EPA chief Lin is to be replaced by Hau Lung-bin (°qÀsÙy), a top member of the ultra-conservative New Party. Opinions within the Cabinet are sure to become more divergent. If the appointments of Hu and Hau mean the government is supporting continued construction of the nuclear plant, a conflict between the DPP and the government will inevitably ensue. Such appointments are certainly not conducive to solidarity between the government and the ruling party. Also, Hau's appointment will not promote harmony between political parties because the New Party will not change its policies just because Hau is now a Cabinet member. That opposition parties do not moderate their behavior when their own are drafted into the Cabinet was quite adequately demonstrated by the melancholy precedent of Tang Fei (­ð­¸). Nor will Hau change his pro-China and pro-fourth nuclear plant stance upon becoming a member of the government. Partisan confrontation will only intensify, if anything, ahead of the year-end elections. The shuffle is perhaps best interpreted as a feeble attempt at crisis management. But this time the crisis is the lack of direction in the DPP government. Like a boat adrift at sea, Taiwan politics is moving beyond the control of the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan and the DPP. The boat's passengers can be thankful that they have only encountered small squalls so far. They can only pray that they are not hit with a real typhoon. This story has been viewed 369 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/03/06/story/0000076398] Copyright © 1999-2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 EU Panel Clears NATO Uranium Risk Today: March 06, 2001 at 8:23:58 PST ASSOCIATED PRESS BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Depleted uranium used by NATO in armor-piercing weapons in Kosovo had no detectable effect on health, a European Union panel of experts concluded Tuesday. The findings concurred with NATO's own studies saying there was no link between depleted uranium, a substance used in anti-armor munitions because of its penetrating power, and cancer among peacekeeping troops. "I don't think there is any reason to be afraid," said Prof. Ian McAulay of Trinity University in Dublin, who headed the panel. U.S. aircraft used munitions containing depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal, during the 78-day air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, as well as in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995. A number of European nations also use munitions containing depleted uranium, which has about 40 percent less radiation that natural uranium, which itself is not considered a health hazard. Concerns arose in several European countries earlier this year when Italy started studying the illnesses of 30 veterans of Balkans peacekeeping missions. Seven of the veterans died of cancer, including five from leukemia. The European Union sought its own scientific opinion since EU civilian employees have worked and visited Kosovo for prolonged period. Its experts concluded that "radiological exposure to depleted uranium could not result in detectable effect on human health," McAulay said. With specific regard to leukemia, uranium accumulates very little in blood-forming organs such as bone marrow, making the risk of leukemia is far below that of other cancers, he said. Depleted uranium also contains a chemical toxicity, and "the possibility of a combined effect of exposure to toxic or carcinogenic chemicals and to radiation cannot be excluded but there is no evidence to support this hypothesis," the panel said. Margot Wallstroem, the EU's environment commissioner, said the European Union's executive body would consider the study when discussing the need for further action on the health and environmental situation in the Balkans. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 After the Blast Harvard Political Review - Winter 2001 *Political Squabbling has paralyzed efforts to clean up Chernobyl.* By Christine A. Telyan Nearly 15 years after the Chernobyl disaster, the embers of political repercussion continue to smolder. While the case of the fourth reactor has drawn attention to economic and energy interests in the Ukraine, the immediate problems of environmental damage have yet to be addressed. Chernobyl has come to symbolize not human devastation, but rather the discontent of industrial laborers and the dominance of nuclear power. Correspondingly, the international community continues to follow political rather than humanitarian logic by withholding direct aid to Chernobyl. [Chernobyl in Retrospect] The Hot Zone: Workers labor in the shadow of Chernobyl's reactors. This "hands-off" attitude has been perpetuated in two ways. First, the Chernobyl crisis has been categorized as a domestic issue, discouraging participation by the international community. Despite medical findings that indicate the need for an environmental overhaul of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the United States has been unwilling to act. For the Ukraine and Belarus, the industry has meant employment and economic activity. Second, the U.S. has used aid to Chernobyl as a bargaining tool, given in exchange for the restructuring of Ukrainian economic and energy policy. As the U.S. attempts to stake a claim in the country's development, its protracted promises of IMF and World Bank loans are contingent upon normal economic policy with property reforms and flexible tariffs. When Vice-Pres. Gore urged Pres. Leonid Kuchma and the Ukrainian government to help their own country before asking for foreign assistance, it was made clear that the U.S. would not become involved in the Chernobyl incident. On the other hand, the U.S. has not hesitated to promote the transport of Caspian oil to Europe. The preeminence of nuclear energy is largely a function of its integration into the economy of the Ukraine, which runs 14 nuclear reactors with several more under construction. Labor unions further contribute to instability—one day championing the economic benefits of nuclear energy, while striking the next day for lack of post-hoc health programs. The inability of the Ukrainian people to reconcile their differences to form a coherent policy has inspired similarly noncommittal world initiatives. The minimal international involvement has yielded little more than an "official" closure of the Chernobyl crisis: a $2 billion entombment of the reactors, completed in mid-December. But while this much-publicized "sarcophagus" is a necessary step in contending with this vicious aftermath, is it sufficient? The answer depends on the residual effects of the explosion. Specialists from the Belarusian Gomel Medical Institute, for example, have already linked it to 11,000 incidences of thyroid cancer, projecting an eventual total of some 65,000. But in truth, these figures fail to represent the full scope of potential devastation, considering that 4 million people live in areas of contamination. Furthermore, the Ukraine cannot account for the health of the 800,000 state employees who participated in containment efforts. The U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation discounted these concerns, reporting that "there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation." The World Health Organization has corroborated these findings, despite the continued pleas of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who most recently appealed for $9 million to aid the victims. Experts agree that the decomposition of cesium isotope 137 will, at the very least, result in three decades of food and soil contamination. In light of this, can the U.S. justify removing itself from the Chernobyl crisis? The burden of emergency relief has fallen instead to private organizations such as the Children of Chernobyl Relief Fund, an alliance of Ukrainian-Americans and corporate sponsors. Their efforts have funded airlifts, the purchase of medical equipment, and training for doctors. Although a small operation, the Relief Fund has delivered over $40 million in aid to the victims. This humanitarian, non-political intervention ought to be a model for U.S. involvement. The fiscal and economic concerns of foreign politics should end where the suffering of fellow human beings begins. Copyright © 2000 Harvard Political Review hpronline@hpronline.org ***************************************************************** 8 Nuclear Ministry Denies Foul Play Tuesday, Mar. 6, 2001. Page 03 By Staff Writer The Nuclear Power Ministry on Monday denied corruption allegations leveled against the head of the agency, Yevgeny Adamov, by the State Duma's anti-corruption commission. The report — a copy of which was obtained by The Moscow Times on Monday from the Duma, where it was distributed among deputies Friday — said that Adamov illegally continued to engage in business activities after becoming minister in March 1998, and used his post to appoint business associates to key positions. "Let the Prosecutor General's Office and the Audit Chamber sort it out," Nuclear Power Ministry spokesman Yury Bespalko said Monday in response to the report, which recommended that law enforcement agencies open a formal investigation into the charges against Adamov. "They have been here many times and did not find anything wrong. As soon as Adamov was appointed minister, he immediately put all his securities in trust, and has not been involved in business any more. He is not an idiot and he knows that a state official is not allowed to engage in business activities," Bespalko said in a telephone interview. According to the report, Adamov set up a number of private companies while he headed a leading secret nuclear research facility called NIKIET from 1986 to 1998, and continued to benefit from the companies while serving as minister. During his tenure as minister, the report said, Adamov also appointed people with little or no experience in the nuclear industry to key positions in the ministry, and concentrated the ministry's foreign trade accounts, first, in the hands of the ministry-affiliated bank Konversbank and then with MDM-Bank, associated with Kremlin insiders Alexander Mamut and Roman Abramovich. Yury Shchekochikhin, a Duma deputy who is a member of the anti-corruption commission and a reporter with the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, said Monday that the commission's investigation had nothing to do with any political maneuvers targeting the Nuclear Power Ministry. The paper has spearheaded its own investigation into Adamov and last year published allegations like those in the Duma report, which the minister also denied. "It was a Novaya Gazeta project," Shchekochikhin said. "Deputies requested an investigation after they read the Novaya Gazeta article, and it is not connected with any political struggle." Shchekochikhin said the investigation had been on the agenda of the previous Duma's anti-corruption commission, of which he was also a member. Last year, the probe got the backing of Nikolai Kovalyov, the Fatherland faction deputy and former head of the Federal Security Service, who now heads the commission. The Moscow press has been surprisingly indifferent toward the investigation. Other than the Segodnya daily, which reported the commission's findings Saturday, Novaya Gazeta was the only media outlet to cover the story this week. The paper ended its article with an invitation to Adamov to respond to the allegations in its next issue. Shchekochikhin said that Novaya Gazeta reporter Roman Shleinov assisted the Duma commission in its investigation. The press service of the Prosecutor General 's Office could not be reached for comment Monday. The report obtained from the Duma is the same as the text posted Friday on the web site of the Russian branch of the Greenpeace environmental organization (). The Nuclear Power Ministry's Bespalko denied speculation by Greenpeace that the commission's report led to the postponement of the Duma's second reading of a controversial bill allowing the import of spent nuclear fuel to Russia. He said the vote has been rescheduled for late March and the ministry remained confident that the Duma will pass the bill. Bespalko said, however, that the anti-corruption commission's report may complicate the bill's passage. *Ana Uzelac contributed to this report.* ***************************************************************** 9 Russia Committed To Lifting Sub March 05, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia has not changed its plans to lift the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine later this year, the government said Monday, despite reported funding troubles. The Russian Navy also angrily dismissed allegations that the vessel was sunk by a stray Russian missile during maneuvers, as Russian media have reported. Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said the Cabinet would soon issue a formal order authorizing a mission to salvage the Kursk, which sank Aug. 12 during naval exercises in the Barents Sea, killing all 118 men aboard. "Neither the president nor the government has revised an earlier decision to raise the Kursk this summer," Klebanov said Monday, according to the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies. The Russian government is supposed to pay part of the mission's cost, estimated at $70 million, with the Kursk Foundation, an international fund-raising group based in Belgium, paying the rest. The Segodnya daily reported Monday that Russia's reluctance to provide its share -- from one-third to half the cost -- has threatened to derail the project. Klebanov's spokeswoman Oksana Onishchenko said Monday that the government order, to be issued in about a week, would include the funding details. The plan envisages the Kursk being raised using cranes and towed to the Russian port of Murmansk under a giant barge. The operation is expected to be completed in August. Russian officials have said the Kursk's nuclear reactors were automatically shut down when it sank and would remain safe for at least 10 years, but said the ship should be lifted to avert any potential danger to the area's rich fishing grounds. The government hasn't yet issued a verdict on the cause of the disaster, saying it could have been touched off by an internal malfunction, a collision with a foreign submarine or a World War II mine. Most Russian and foreign experts believe the explosion of a practice torpedo was the most probable cause. Several Russian media also have reported allegations that the Kursk was sunk by a cruise missile launched from the Russian cruiser Peter the Great during the naval exercise. The British Sunday Times also reported the theory, citing an unidentified Russian admiral as a source. Russian Navy chief spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo dismissed that. "It's a pure invention which is not even worth a comment," he said. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 10 Chasing nukes in the Middle East March 5, 2001 Alexander Rose National Post Four alarming reports have focused on Saddam Hussein's efforts to acquire a nuclear bomb. A British newspaper, The Sunday Times, asserts that Iraq had successfully tested a prototype years before the Gulf War. The second, in London's Sunday Telegraph, claimed Saddam actually has two nuclear bombs. The third, leaked to Die Welt, a Berlin paper, was a report by German intelligence claiming that Saddam could develop "nuclear weapons within the next three to six years." And the last is the CIA's February report on the "Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction." The agency "believe[s] Iraq has probably continued low-level theoretical R&D associated with its nuclear program." Saddam would kill to get The Bomb, but how accurate are these estimates? Taking into consideration the British Sunday papers' penchant for sensationalism, it's unlikely Iraq has the enriched uranium needed to test a working weapon, let alone finish two of them. In particular, The Sunday Times story smells to high heaven of a hoax. An accompanying diagram of "Saddam's Bomb" depicts a monstrously over-complex mechanism equipped with what appear to be fuel rods. It actually looks like the inside of a nuclear reactor. As for the German report, it devotes only a few sparse sentences to Iraq's nuclear efforts. But the CIA hedges even more before concluding that "a sufficient source of fissile material remains Iraq's most significant obstacle." Israeli analysts privately think, however, that in its "three to six years" estimate, German intelligence assumed Iraq was laboriously producing indigenous fuel. Should Washington's new "smart sanctions" fail and Iraq smuggles in military-grade uranium, a Bomb is possible within six months. Jerusalem, nevertheless, thinks the Iraqi threat should not be viewed in isolation. Last week, the Israeli Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz, said that Iran was a damn sight closer to The Bomb than even Iraq. The justified, if myopic, attention paid to Iraq's pursuit of WMD has drawn everyone's eye off Iran. Tehran has an open line to Russia and can afford to buy anything it wants. Moscow's shipments have accelerated Iran's development of the Shihab-3 medium-range ballistic missile, while its Ministry of Atomic Energy touts its wares to Tehran. While we see the problem of proliferation in the stark terms of Iraq v. the West, Saddam is also engaged in a nuclear arms race with Iran. He cites Iraq's vicious war with Iran in the 1980s, and Iraq's lack of strategic depth, as reasons why he needs a Bomb, just as Iran views Baghdad's mounting weapons-stockpile with suspicion. We have to face facts: Sometime in the next few years, ceteris paribus, either Iran or Iraq is going to gatecrash the Nuclear Club. The addition of just one openly acknowledged atomic bomb will transform the strategic geography and military balance of the Middle East. In that occurrence, Israel will abandon the policy of "deliberate ambiguity" about its nuclear deterrent, and warn Iraq and Iran that a launch would be considered sufficient grounds for massive nuclear retaliation. A Bomb would oblige Israel's ally, Turkey, to engineer nuclear capability. The reaction of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt would be a confused amalgam of popular pride in Muslim scientific genius (when Pakistan tested a nuke in 1998, Al-Quds, the Palestinian paper, carried an illustration of a mushroom cloud surmounted by an Islamic crescent) and fear of its effects. The Saudis might then enhance nuclear co-operation with Pakistan, while U.S.-inclined Jordan and Egypt would fall under the sway of the Middle East's new martial power. The Americans, in the absence of a theatre and national missile defence system, would be trapped between the need to ensure Persian Gulf oil and being threatened with a nuclear strike against their troops. Of course, in the past the United States has persuaded countries to forgo the nuclear option. Taiwan, South Korea, Brazil and Argentina all broke off their efforts, but Washington either enjoyed an intimate relationship with them or they realized a Bomb was not worth the trouble Iran and Iraq, unfortunately, do not think like that. Their weak point, however, is the need for imported fissile material. Perhaps the Bush administration's strengthening of the military cordon around Iraq will make things more difficult. Simultaneously, the Russians must be prevailed upon to sever their nuclear links with the Islamic Republic. Since an Iranian Bomb would directly threaten U.S. Middle Eastern interests, Russian co-operation in diminishing the nuclear threat could be linked to easing NATO's -- and the U.S. nuclear umbrella -- expansion eastwards into what Moscow regards as its backyard. Even so, these steps can probably only retard the drive for nuclear mastery. "Something wicked this way comes", as the witches aptly prophesied in Macbeth. Copyright © 2001 National post ***************************************************************** 11 Learning to live with a nuclear Iraq Haaretz Daily Newspaper - English Internet Edition *Monday, March 5, 2001* If the Germans are correct, there's not much time left to draft a new Iraq policy *By Reuven Pedatzur* ** Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) published an assessment over a week ago on Iraq's continuing development of weapons of mass destruction. It emphasizes how important it is for Israel to prepare itself for a vastly different Middle East.There is nothing substantially new in the German view that within three years, Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein will have nuclear weapons - and by 2005, he will also have ballistic missiles with a range of 3,000 kilometers that will be able to hit targets in Europe. Similar assessments of the Iraqi nuclear timetable have been published before. What is new about the German intelligence agency's evaluation is the inclusion of technical details, such as Iraq's success in manufacturing ammonium percholorate, one of the three components needed to produce solid fuel for ballistic missiles, and the revelation that forbidden materials have been smuggled into Iraq (through Dubai and Malaysia). Iraq's stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction has once again begun to concern the international community following the entry of George W. Bush into the White House. One of Bush's first decisions led to an aerial attack on Iraqi military installations near Baghdad. Furthermore, the new American president's declarations and those of the senior members of his cabinet are cogent evidence of Washington's fears of Iraq becoming a nuclear power capable of threatening, within a relatively short period of time, America's European allies. On the surface of things, a substantive change seems to have taken place in American policy. It appears the recently installed Bush administration is determined to put an end to Iraq's plans for developing weapons of mass destruction. However, it seems more likely the Americans will soon realize they have really missed the boat as far as stopping Iraq from arming itself with ultra-lethal weapons is concerned. Since December 1998, when the last United Nations inspectors left Iraqi soil, no one in the West knows for certain what has been going on in Iraq regarding weapons of mass destruction. But it seems obvious to all those who monitor Iraq's activities that, the moment the last inspector departed from that country, Baghdad renewed and stepped up its programs for developing such weapons. For example, the BND assessment has called attention to the extensive activities observed at Al-Kaim, which, according to Western experts, is the hub of the research and development work connected with Iraq's nuclear program. The assessment in the West is that the key factor that will enable Iraq to complete its development of a nuclear bomb would be the acquisition of fissionable weapons-grade materials. Apparently, the known quantities of uranium in Iraqi hands would be enough for the production of four to five nuclear bombs. According to nuclear experts, the quantity of low-grade uranium that Iraq currently possesses (1,700 kg) is enough for the creation of 45 kg. of uranium that would be of sufficiently high quality to enable the production of a bomb. In addition to these materials, Iraq has 13 tons of natural uranium, which the International Atomic Energy Commission allowed to remain in Iraqi hands for peaceful applications in the future. This amount of natural uranium would be sufficient for the production of 70 kg. of weapons-grade uranium. If one factors in the fear that additional fissionable materials have been smuggled into Iraqi over the past two years or will be smuggled in within the near future, it seems clear that Saddam's determination to manufacture nuclear arms will lead to the production of an Iraqi atom bomb. When the various options available to the Bush administration are weighed, the only conclusion is that, without Saddam's cooperation, there is no rational way of putting an end to Iraq's nuclear program. It is difficult to imagine the American administration being able to once more forge a coalition of countries supporting genuine international monitoring of Saddam. The Iraqi leader himself has already made it crystal clear that he has no intention of letting arms inspectors roam freely in his country. The reaction of France, Russia and China to this statement indicates that these three nations have learned how to live with the fact that arms monitoring of Iraq can never be renewed. The only other military option the United States could adopt would be the launching of a unilateral American operation. However, it seems highly unlikely an American president would order that sections of Iraq be captured in order to permit the destruction of that country's nuclear installations. Even aerial bombing, in the absence of precise intelligence reports, is out of the question. The sad but inevitable conclusion is that Iraq will have nuclear weapons within a few short years. Israel's policy-makers must base their decisions on the acceptance of this fact of life. The question, of course, is how should Israel prepare itself to meet this threat. The same reasons that discourage America from any use of military action to terminate the Iraqi nuclear program will also prevent those who once managed to destroy the Iraqi nuclear reactor from repeating such a move. Thus, the only realistic option left for Israel is to formulate policies that will effectively cope with this new nuclear threat. Those policies will have to be based on the formation of a credible deterrent capability that could provide an effective response to a surprise Iraqi attack. At the same time, channels of communication must be developed between Iraq and Israel to formalize the rapid exchange of messages that is vitally needed to prevent one of the parties, in possession of such doomsday weaponry, from making wrong decisions based on a misinterpretation of the enemy's actions and on a lack of understanding of the enemy's vital interests. This kind of dialogue, which appears today to be in the realm of science fiction, would also serve vital Iraqi interests. Saddam is well aware of the kind of damage a highly lethal weapon could inflict on his country and he will therefore do everything possible to prevent such a scenario becoming reality. In the new Middle East, Iraq will undoubtedly be a dangerous enemy but will, at the same time, also be a partner in a strategic dialogue. If the German intelligence agency's assessments concerning Iraq are correct, Israel's policy-makers do not have much time left in order to formulate a policy that can effectively meet this challenge [ vspace=5] © copyright 2001 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved *RESURRECTION: These black-clad commandos in 1998 put on their biggest display in Baghdad since the Gulf War. According to German intelligence, Iraq's renewed race to rebuild mass destruction weapons is even more relentless.(Photo: AP) * [ ***************************************************************** 12 Rocky Flats probes plutonium violation Denver Rocky Mountain News: Local Rules were broken when worker was alone with deadly material By Berny Morson, News Staff Writer Rocky Flats officials are trying to figure out how a worker was left alone with a can of pure plutonium, in violation of strict security procedures. Two people are required to be present at all times whenever the deadly material is not locked in a vault. The Feb. 20 security breach was not a threat to the public, since a thief or terrorist could not have gotten the 4 pounds of weapons grade plutonium through several layers of security, officials said Monday. But Hank Dalton, the Rocky Flats assistant manager in charge of security, said the incident is being taken seriously. "We do have some concerns about this," Dalton said. The two-person rule is "the first barrier" to theft of the radioactive material, he said. Dalton said seals on the can were not broken, and the contents have been verified. Kaiser-Hill Co., the firm hired to clean up the defunct nuclear weapons plant, has launched an investigation. Movement of pure plutonium has been halted while the matter is being investigated. A series of communications errors may have been responsible for allowing the worker to be alone with the plutonium for as long as 45 minutes. A two-person team was present when the material was removed from a vault and placed on a cart with two other cans containing nuclear waste. The cart was headed for an area where the contents of the cans are periodically measured by remote sensors. The first team handed the cart off to a second team. That team allowed the lone worker to take the cart the rest of the way. It is not clear that the lone worker, a technician, knew what was in the cans. She had been sent by a supervisor to bring the cart to the testing area. The amount of plutonium was not enough to make a nuclear bomb. The exact amount of plutonium in a bomb is classified, but a generally accepted figure is 7 to 9 pounds, said Len Ackland, a University of Colorado journalism professor who wrote a historical book on Rocky Flats. The incident occurred at a time when the U.S. Department of Energy is looking into a rash of safety violations at Rocky Flats. The federal agency, which oversees Rocky Flats, is conducting four investigations of the plant. Those violations involved less risky waste materials. March 6, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 13 Y-12 emergency response exercise set for Wednesday Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:37 p.m. on Monday, March 5, 2001 from staff reports An emergency response exercise simulating the release of hazardous materials is scheduled for Wednesday at the Y-12 National Security Complex, officials said. The exercise is part of a series of "increasingly more complex exercises" that will culminate in May with a large-scale operation called Volunteer Response 2001, according to a press release from BWXT Y-12. BWXT Y-12 manages Y-12 for the Department of Energy. The emergency exercises are being conducted to ensure that the public, Y-12 employees and the environment would be protected in the event of an emergency on the Oak Ridge Reservation, the press release stated. On Wednesday, the public will observe officials performing environmental monitoring or sampling in addition to several emergency personnel simulating response activities, the press release stated. However, the exercise is not expected to disrupt traffic on state highways or city streets in and around Oak Ridge. Exercise participants will include DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office, the local office of the National Nuclear Security Administration, Bechtel Jacobs, BWXT Y-12, UT-Battelle and Wackenhut Services. Also participating will be representatives from the state of Tennessee, the city of Oak Ridge and Anderson, Roane, Knox and Loudon counties. During Wednesday's exercise, public warning sirens will not be sounded. In the event of an actual emergency involving the release of airborne hazardous materials, the sounding of the warning sirens would alert people to take shelter indoors, to turn off ventilation systems and to tune to one of the local radio or television stations for more information. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 14 *Beyond Oak Ridge, region has stake in success of SNS * Oak Ridger Online - Opinion - Other's View: 03/05/01 Chattanooga and Oak Ridge might as well be Mars and Pluto. Different planets, differing chemical makeups. No apparent contact between the two. Try this experiment. For a full day, ask anyone in this city the following question: "What will the Spallation Neutron Source mean to you?" If you get an intelligent answer, or even a hint of recognition, be sure to let us know. Rep. Zach Wamp is the only local resident who should be exempt from taking the test. He alone would have a detailed answer because he knows, almost to the dollar, what the SNS could mean to his congressional district. How does a $1.4 billion federal project disappear from our radar screen? Perhaps because so little in our community's experience equips us to recognize its importance or to sustain a dialogue with its host community. But listen to this thumbnail description, straight from Oak Ridge National Laboratory: "The SNS is the world's largest civilian research project. When completed in 2006, the SNS will become the world's center for research for making a variety of materials stronger, lighter and cheaper." Do we, priding ourselves as a manufacturing center, fail to comprehend the value of stronger, lighter and cheaper materials? Surely not. Neutron scattering research has been responsible for improvements in jets, credit cards, pocket calculators, compact discs, computer disks, shatterproof windshields, satellite information for weather forecasts and stronger, lighter plastics. Neutrons have been used in medical research for such studies as determining how bones mineralize during development and how they decay during osteoporosis. A Lucent Technologies researcher says of the Department of Energy project: "The information superhighway is paved with materials. Silica-based optical fibers are its traffic lanes, compound semiconductor lasers are its car makers, and silicon electronics is its traffic lights." The Spallation Neutron Source is well under way, with $278 million funding in this fiscal year. Chattanooga has to catch up with its neighbor's accelerator, and we will have to do our part. 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