***************************************************************** 07/06/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.167 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 N-power setback 2 Salem nuclear plants' owner will pay to protect river life 3 Alert shuts reactor near Morris 4 NB Power posts 2001 loss due to nuclear outage 5 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Friday, July 06, 2001 6 Joint Comments on the U.S. Department of Energy's Supplement to 7 American Ecology Subsidiary Awarded $1.5 Million Contract 8 Feds halt radioactive shipments by California company 9 Ukraine Nuclear Reactor Stopped NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Opening of Resource Center for Nevada Test Site Workers 2 DOE: remove last 24 Hanford tanks from watch list 3 Russian envoy hears nuke concerns 4 Ongoing Radiation Monitoring To Be Conducted On Death Site Of 5 Moscow Hopes Aggregate Number Of Nuclear Warheads Will Diminish 6 Salvage team prepares to leave for Kursk 7 Rumors taint cleanup budget 8 Labor Department to again meet with sick workers 9 Our View: State needs to confront DOE on cleanup retreat 10 DOE: 'Trust' issue not simple 11 DOE Should Unify and Extend Deadlines for Comment on Proposed 12 Court: Chas Pik Libeled Nikitin - 13 Simpsonville awaits results of uranium tests 14 Congressman publicizes compensation to miners, down-winders 15 Uranium workers may not know they have money coming 16 Bills include more funds for INEEL 17 Little explosion risk seen at Hanford 18 Resource center opens for Nevada Test Site workers **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 N-power setback Web posted Friday, July 6, 2001 4:30 p.m. Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff During Bill Clinton's presidency Congress passed several bills, such as the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. This legislation called for safe storage of the nation's used nuclear fuel at a deep geological facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev. - first at a temporary site there, then later as a permanent site as mandated by Congress nearly 20 years ago. Once the issue of where to safely bury the dangerously radioactive spent fuel is settled, there's no reason not to develop new nuclear power plants to meet the nation's pressing need for electricity from sources that provide large amounts of power without polluting the air or tearing up the environment. Yet despite congressional passage of the nuclear waste bill, which had the encouragement and support of lawmakers in our two-state area, there were never enough votes to override Clinton's veto. That was expected to change with the election of pro-nuclear power President George W. Bush, especially after California was hit by an energy crisis. But now with Democrats' takeover of the U.S. Senate, prospects are dim for new nuclear power initiatives such as H.R. 1679 (co-authored by U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.), designed to advance nuclear power as a key component of the nation's electricity infrastructure. Just as Clinton's vetoes KO'd the Yucca Mountain storage legislation, so now the U.S. Senate can do the same. The anti-nuclear Democratic leadership, which controls the legislative agenda, can keep it off the floor. It's a shame nuclear energy has been dealt this setback. Nuclear power is emission free and it already provides 20 percent of the nation's electricity - more than that in Georgia and South Carolina. It's why we are not suffering rolling blackouts. This fact also rankles: To finance the Yucca Mountain project Congress established the Nuclear Waste Fund, to which consumers of nuclear power generated electricity have contributed over $16 billion since the 1980s, about a billion of that from South Carolina customers and half a billion from Georgians. The fund was used as a deficit offset for years. Today it's counted as part of the surplus. Now these customers will have to see their bills rise as nuclear power plants like Vogtle and Hatch will each have to spend $30 million or more to expand their spent nuclear fuel storage area until Yucca Mountain can receive the waste, if it ever does. The virtual ban on new state-of-the-art nuclear power sources means that today's aging plants - there are seven in South Carolina alone - will be forced to extend their working life another 20 years or more. That doesn't make safety or environmental sense. All contents © 1996 - 2001 The Augusta Chronicle. All ***************************************************************** 2 Salem nuclear plants' owner will pay to protect river life abc.philly.com --Weather -- --Yellow Pages -- --Philly Finder -- July 6, 2001 Go to: S M T W T F S DOVER, Del. - The operator of the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear power plants in Salem County has agreed to pay Delaware to protect fisheries and other Delaware River habitats. Fish, plants and other aquatic life are sucked up with the three billion gallons of river water used each day to cool the two Salem plants. PSE Nuclear LLC agreed to pay $5.7 million for restoring aquatic habitat, constructing artificial reefs in the Delaware Bay, monitoring fish species, and enacting other programs. The company will spend an additional $2.3 million to monitor and maintain fish ladders, which give migratory river herring access to additional spawning habitat, and to build two additional ladders. The three 1,100-megawatt plants are located along the Delaware River at the utility's complex in Lower Alloways Creek Township, about 35 miles south of Philadelphia. ***************************************************************** 3 Alert shuts reactor near Morris [Chicago Tribune] [''] ['NEWS'] Problem probed at Dresden plant By Jeff Long Tribune environment reporter July 06, 2001 Operators shut down a reactor at the Dresden Nuclear Generating Station and issued a rare "alert" Thursday morning after air temperature and pressure in a containment building rose beyond normal levels. The cause of the problem remains unknown, but the alert was canceled by 4:02 p.m., according to Ann Mary Carley, a spokeswoman for the plant's owner, Exelon Nuclear. The reactor will remain shut down indefinitely while investigators determine what caused the problem and what repairs are needed. "There was no threat to plant workers or to the general population," said Jan Strasma, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "There were no abnormal radiation levels and no releases of radiation." The alert was issued at 10:19 a.m. after operators noticed that air temperature in a containment building, called a drywell, rose from the normal 135 degrees Fahrenheit to 147 degrees. Air pressure in the drywell rose from 15 pounds per square inch to 17 pounds per square inch. Strasma said an alert was issued because the higher temperature and pressure might have been an indication of a leak in the reactor's coolant system, but a leak has since been ruled out. The drywell, a light bulb-shaped structure inside a larger containment building, holds the nuclear reactor. An alert is the second of four stages of emergency classifications used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The first and lowest emergency classification is an "unusual event." The third is "site area emergency," followed by "general emergency." A general emergency was declared at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania during a partial core melt in 1979. An alert is issued when there is "actual or potential for substantial degradation of plant safety levels," according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Web site. Strasma said just two alerts were issued nationwide in 2000. There were four in 1999. Just one other alert has been issued so far this year, at a nuclear plant in Michigan. That was because of a small fire in a diesel generator used as a backup power supply for the plant, according to Strasma. "It's not a common occurrence," he said. The Dresden plant, about seven miles southwest of Morris in Grundy County, has two operating reactors, each capable of generating 809 megawatts of electricity. Together, they can power 1 million average homes. A third reactor was retired in 1978. The remaining reactor is operating at full capacity, according to Carley. She said Exelon would be able to meet its commitments to supply electricity to its sister company, Commonwealth Edison, while the cause of Thursday's shutdown is studied. ***************************************************************** 4 NB Power posts 2001 loss due to nuclear outage Thursday July 5, 4:27 pm Eastern Time NEW YORK, July 5 (Reuters) - NB Power said it recorded a net loss of C$12 million in fiscal year ended March 31, 2001 due to an unplanned outage at the Point Lepreau nuclear station and one-time charges related to the downsizing of NB Coal. ``While I am disappointed in the net income result for the year, our operating performance continues to be strong,'' President and Chief Executive James Hankinson said in a statement released late last week. NB Power is the provincially owned energy company with about 330,000 customers in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. NB Power said an unplanned outage at Point Lepreau late in the fiscal year cost C$27 million in expenses and lost export sales. Additionally, the company said it took a C$12 million one-time charge at NB Coal for early retirement expenses and a write-down on surplus drag line equipment. NB Coal is the wholly owned subsidiary of NB Power that mines and delivers the coal from a coal field in the center of the province to two power plants -- Belledune and Grand Lake, according to NB Power spokesman Jeffrey Carleton. Since the domestic coal is high in sulfur content and far away from the Belledune plant, NB Power found it cheaper to buy off-shore coal for that plant. The financial charge was for the reduction of the truck fleet and production cuts at the mine. Grand Lake is next to the coal mine and therefore coal transportation is not a cost for that plant. It will continue to burn coal from the domestic mine to generate electricity. REVENUE AND DEBT Corporation revenue grew 4.9 percent to C$1.3 billion in 2000-2001. In-province revenue was C$931 million and out-of-province revenue was C$332 million. Over the past five years, the provincial corporation said it paid down C$476 million in debt while making C$415 million in capital investments. NB Power as a crown corporation uses debt to finance the construction and improvements of its power plants and transmission facilities, spokesman Carleton said. At its peak in December 1995, the company's debt reached $3.4 billion. As of March 31, 2001, the end of its fiscal year, its debt was down to $2.9 billion. NB Power said successful debt reduction is an important achievement as the energy company faces the prospect of refurbishing its generating capacity and expanding its transmission capability. ``Our operations are more efficient and debt has been reduced significantly,'' Hankinson, the company CEO, said in the statement, adding, ``This progress will complement the investment program necessary to refurbish our infrastructure.'' NB Power said it is currently examining three development projects - the refurbishments of the Coleson Cove oil-fired and Point Lepreau nuclear generating stations and an international power line to New England. The international transmission line between New Brunswick and New England will cost NB Power about $40 million to import about 400 megawatts across a 345-kilovolt line. With the new line, NB Power will be able to import or export a total of about 1,000 megawatts of power. One megawatt provides enough power to light about 1,000 homes. RESTRUCTURING OF MARKET The government in New Brunswick wants to open the wholesale electricity market for large industrial customers -- pulp and paper companies and a refinery -- by April 2003. Before the market can be opened, however, infrastructure like the new international power line must be in place so the the industrial customers can actually buy and sell power from a source other than NB Power. Moreover, there is a merchant plant being built at one of NB Power's old power plants, the Bayside generating station. Bayside was an oil burning plant that Westcoast Energy Inc. (Toronto:W.TO - news) of Vancouver, British Columbia is converting into a gas plant. Merchant plants are built by unregulated companies with private money, as opposed to plants built by regulated utilities where the cost of construction is made up over time through customers' bills. Finally, the government said it would decide by December 2001 what to do with NB Power. The choices are privatization, partial privatization, break-up or the status quo. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Friday, July 06, 2001 State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects ADAMS - Items of Interest Recent Released Documents Added - Friday, July 06, 2001 These documents and others may be retrieved at the NRC PERR web site ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item ID: 011860249 Accession Number: ML011780094 Date Added: 7/5/01 11:31:50 AM Title: 04/05/2001 NRC Status Meeting regarding Raceway Fire Barrier Project Author Affiliation: NRC Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860043 Accession Number: ML011640726 Date Added: 7/5/01 11:06:15 AM Title: 06/13/2001 Letter to Stanley R. Marshall Regarding Transmittal of Questionnaire for Nevada's IMPEP Review. Author Affiliation: NRC/STP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860412 Accession Number: ML011860176 Date Added: 7/5/01 4:27:55 PM Title: 06/18/2001 Meeting with Entergy Operations re licensees' 05/01/01 request for exemption from 10CFR20.1003 definition of deep-dose equivalent. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD4 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860085 Accession Number: ML011780147 Date Added: 7/5/01 11:12:53 AM Title: 06/26/2001 letter to Thomas C. Thompson, NAC International from E. William Brach; subject: Review of Changes to Technical Specifications - NAC-UMS Spent Fuel Storage Cask. Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/SFPO Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860413 Accession Number: ML011860180 Date Added: 7/5/01 4:28:00 PM Title: 07/17/2001 Meeting With Tennessee Valley Authority and the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Regarding Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Steam Generator Tube Alternate Repair Criteria Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD II-2 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860251 Accession Number: ML011840087 Date Added: 7/5/01 11:31:59 AM Title: 07/17/2001, Forthcoming Meeting with Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, Inc. (CCNPP) - Status of Licensing Issue - Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, Units Nos. 1 and 2. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860253 Accession Number: ML011840188 Date Added: 7/5/01 11:32:11 AM Title: 07/24-07/26/2001 Meeting Notice with Malinckrodt Inc to discuss Revisions to the Phase Decommmissioning Plan. Author Affiliation: NRC Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860467 Accession Number: ML011360762 Date Added: 7/5/01 4:37:45 PM Title: Attachments 1&2 for SECY 01-0105 - Response to SRM 1/25/01- Briefing on Status of Nuclear Materials Safety Program Author Affiliation: NRC, State of CO, State of IL, State of OR, State of Texas, State of UT Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860443 Accession Number: ML010950195 Date Added: 7/5/01 4:34:42 PM Title: Guidance Potassium Iodide as a Thyroid Blocking Agent in Radiation Emergencies Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/IOLB/DIPM/EPHP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860425 Accession Number: ML010950135 Date Added: 7/5/01 4:30:37 PM Title: Guidelines for Iodine Prophylaxis Following Nuclear Accidents Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/IOLB/DIPM/EPHP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860470 Accession Number: ML011840004 Date Added: 7/5/01 4:37:58 PM Title: June 2001 Exports & Imports Monthly Letter Author Affiliation: NRC/OIP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860140 Accession Number: ML011840303 Date Added: 7/5/01 11:19:08 AM Title: Medical Misadministration Due to Mislabeled Iodine-125 Seeds. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-II Document/Report Number: PNO-II-01-021 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860411 Accession Number: ML011840479 Date Added: 7/5/01 4:27:50 PM Title: PADUCAH AND PORTSMOUTH - Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant and Portsmouth GDP Request for Additional Criticality Accident Alarm System Coverage Exclusion (TAC NOS L32166, and L32168, PORTS). Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/FCSS/FSPB Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860457 Accession Number: ML011010114 Date Added: 7/5/01 4:36:21 PM Title: SECY-01-0069 - Status Of Potassium Iodide Activities Author Affiliation: NRC/EDO Document/Report Number: SECY-01-0069 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860164 Accession Number: ML011830067 Date Added: 7/5/01 11:22:58 AM Title: Small Leak in Control Rod Drive Mechanism Pressure Housing (Update). Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-III Document/Report Number: PNO-III-01-019A _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011860020 Accession Number: ML011780578 Date Added: 7/5/01 11:03:45 AM Title: SNM-348 Department of the Army 591/Field Notes. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-I Document/Report Number: IR-01-001 ***************************************************************** 6 Joint Comments on the U.S. Department of Energy's Supplement to the Draft Yucca Mountain EIS by the State of Nevada, Clark County, and the City of Las Vegas KENNY C. GUINN Governor STATE OF NEVADA [State Seal] OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR AGENCY FOR NUCLEAR PROJECTS 1802 N. Carson Street, Suite 252 Carson City, Nevada 89701 Telephone: (775) 687-3744 • Fax: (775) 687-5277 E-mail: nwpo@govmail.state.nv.us ROBERT R. LOUX Executive Director July 5, 2001 Ms. Jane R. Summerson, EIS Document Manager Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management U.S. Department o f Energy P.O. Box 30307, M/S 010 North Las Vegas, Nevada 89036-0307 SUBJECT: State of Nevada, Clark County, and City of Las Vegas Comments of the Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada Dear Ms. Summerson: Enclosed are the collective comments of the State of Nevada, Clark County, and the City of Las Vegas on the above-referenced Supplement to the Yucca Mountain draft environmental impact statement. The comments were developed as part of a collaborative effort on the part of the three entities. Consequently, DOE should give equal weight and consideration to all of the comments contained in the attached submission. Should you have questions regarding these comments or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me, Irene Navis (Clark County), or Jim Pegues (City of Las Vegas). Sincerely, --s-- Robert R. Loux Executive Director Document Links + State of Nevada Comments of the Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada (pdf-65KB) + Clark County Comments of the Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada (pdf-211KB) + City of Las Vegas Comments of the Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada (pdf-102KB) State of Nevada Office of the Governor Agency for Nuclear Projects 1802 North Carson Suite 252 Carson City, NV 89701 (775) 687-3744 voice (775) 687-5277 fax nwpo@govmail.state.nv.use-mail ***************************************************************** 7 American Ecology Subsidiary Awarded $1.5 Million Contract Thursday July 5, 10:35 am Eastern Time Press Release Field Services Group to Decommission Closed Waste Processing Plant in Tennessee BOISE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 5, 2001--American Ecology Corporation (Nasdaq:ECOL - news) today announced that a $1.5 million contract was awarded to subsidiary US Ecology to decommission a closed commercial radioactive and hazardous waste processing facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation awarded the competitively bid contract to US Ecology's Oak Ridge-based Field Services Division to decommission the M4 radioactive and hazardous waste processing facility. US Ecology and teaming partner D.F. Shoffner, Inc. will identify, remove, transport and dispose of radiological and chemical contaminants from the M4 site and coordinate with the state on post- cleanup activities. ``This award continues the successful expansion of our Field Services business,'' Barbara Trenary, President of American Ecology's Nuclear Division commented. ``We are particularly pleased to serve the State of Tennessee on this important environmental remediation effort,'' Trenary added. American Ecology Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides radioactive, PCB, hazardous and solid waste services to commercial and government customers throughout the United States, such as nuclear power plants, medical and academic institutions, agricultural companies, steel mills and petro-chemical facilities. The company provides scientific solutions that protect people and the environment. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, the Company is the oldest radioactive and hazardous waste services company in the United States. This press release contains certain forward-looking information and statements. Actual results and future contract awards may differ materially from what is expressed in these forward-looking statements and there can be no assurance given that the Company will secure additional field services contracts. For additional information, please refer to American Ecology Corporation's most recent quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contact: American Ecology Corporation Stephen Romano, 208/331-8400 info@americanecology.com www.americanecology.com ***************************************************************** 8 Feds halt radioactive shipments by California company ContraCostaTimes.com Published Friday, July 6, 2001 By Andrew Bridges ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ordered a company to stop large shipments of radioactive materials because of concerns the packages could break open in an accident. The action was sparked by complaints by French officials that JL Shepherd &Associates of San Fernando had shipped an irradiator that had not been packaged in a way that conformed with U.S. regulations. A follow-up inspection of the Los Angeles-area company in late May left NRC officials without "the requisite assurance that (Shepherd's) current operations can be conducted . . . in compliance with the commission's requirements," the order, issued Tuesday and effective immediately, read in part. "This is a significant action," said Tim Kobetz, a project manager with the NRC. "When we issue an order it's because we certainly have a concern in this area and there is the potential the public's safety and health could be impacted." Federal officials discovered the company had altered the design of the packaging that houses one of its irradiators, a medical device used to irradiate blood, without gaining government approval. The device contains 18,000 curies of cobalt-60, a highly radioactive material. If the substance breached the protective packaging that shields it -- including a double-walled steel cylinder -- it could cause serious injuries or death. No one was exposed to radiation because of the improperly packaged irradiator, federal officials said. The NRC identified a similar issue with how Shepherd packaged its products in 1999, but was later assured by the company it had fixed the problem in accordance with federal regulations, Kobetz said. The company declined to comment on the action. "This matter is between JL Shepherd and the NRC and there is no comment," said a woman who answered a company phone but refused to identify herself. The device was shipped from California to New York and then on to the United Kingdom last summer. French officials refused to admit the irradiator when they discovered its housing design varied from that approved by the U.S. government. The irradiator was later shipped back to California. Without federal approval, JL Shepherd &Associates cannot ship large radioactive sources in certain packages, but will be able to ship some smaller quantities. The company now has 20 days to answer the order, either consenting to it or explaining why it should not have been issued. It may also request a formal hearing on the matter. ContraCostaTimes.com ***************************************************************** 9 Ukraine Nuclear Reactor Stopped July 06, 2001 KIEV, Ukraine- A nuclear reactor at Ukraine's Yuzhna atomic power plant was halted Friday after malfunction in its steam generator system, the state nuclear Energoatom company said in a statement. No radiation leaks were reported, Energoatom said. The company did not say when the reactor would be restarted. Ukraine relies on nuclear energy for about 40 percent of its electricity, but the country's aging reactors are often shut down due to minor malfunctions or for repairs. Seven of a total of 13 reactors are currently working, the report said. In December, Ukraine permanently closed down the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986 when its reactor No. 4 exploded, spewing radiation over much of Europe. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Opening of Resource Center for Nevada Test Site Workers Senator Reid's Remarks July 5, 2001 As East-West tensions grew in the years after World War II, a secret army of workers took to the underground tunnels of the Nevada Test Site. These foot soldiers of the Cold War wore coveralls instead of uniforms, but their mission was critical to making sure the United States would be ready to face the challenges of a destabilized world. They worked to modernize this country's defenses and develop its nuclear arsenal. They built tunnels, tested bombs, measured radiation and carried away contaminated rock. Instead of fighting foreign enemies on the battlefield, these patriots faced toxic chemicals and radiation. Now some of them are sick with cancer or silicosis. Many are dead. Most have no regrets about what they did, only sadness that service to their country made them sick. But instead of showing gratitude to these valiant men and women, the government denied their claims for health costs. Some of the survivors and their families are here today to help us mark the end of that injustice. James Cates worked at the test site for 18 years. At the age of 55, he was forced to retire because he had developed silicosis and needed a lung transplant. State workers' compensation helps Mr. Cates pay his medical bills, and he gets by on his monthly disability check. William Hacker, Jr., worked at the Nevada Test Site for 23 years, retiring in 1991. Years later, he developed the symptoms of silicosis, too. Sadly, Mr. Hacker was denied workers' compensation because too much time had passed between his exposure and his illness. He pays for private medical coverage, but his benefits are running out. The contributions of these men -- and thousands like them -- helped the United States win the Cold War, and they paid for it with their health. And their families have suffered too. After years of denying the claims of thousands of Americans who served at the 300 nuclear weapons facilities around the country, last year the Clinton Administration began the process of correcting this transgression. And Congress passed legislation in October to recognize heroes like Mr. Hacker and Mr. Cates -- and to give them help. The Department of Labor and Department of Energy are opening this resource center today to help these workers access the medical care and compensation they are due. Mr. Cates and Mr. Hacker, and others like them, will each receive $150,000 in retribution, and will obtain federal medical coverage. I am pleased to see this program finally starting up. It has been too long in coming. The program is not perfect, and we in Congress will work hard to address some of the problems. In particular, we need to change the way silicosis is treated so that more sick workers will qualify for benefits. And we need to enable more surviving children to file claims on behalf of their deceased parents. Today is an important day. By opening this resource center, the federal government is starting to pay its debt to the people who helped keep this country safe during the decades of the Cold War. This program is here to serve them. I am glad to be a part of it. ***************************************************************** 2 DOE: remove last 24 Hanford tanks from watch list Thursday, July 5, 2001 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RICHLAND -- The U.S. Department of Energy is preparing to remove the last radioactive waste tanks from a watch list of tanks with the potential to explode at the Hanford nuclear reservation. The DOE's Office of River Protection, which oversees management of the tanks, believes the remaining 24 tanks don't pose a sufficient hazard to warrant listing, said Harry Boston, manager of the office. The list, set up by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in 1991, at one time had 60 tanks on it. The 24 tanks remaining were placed on the list for fear they were at risk for an internal buildup of flammable gas. The Office of River Protection now says it has data that show the tanks are not so dangerous. "In '91 we did not know a lot," said Craig Groendyke, the Office of River Protection's flammable gas project manager. The office has collected data on the 24 tanks for seven years, and now has a better understanding of their contents, and better monitoring. "We can demonstrate there is no longer a risk of release of material due to an increase of temperature or pressure," Groendyke said. He said the office will recommend to Energy Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., that the 24 tanks be taken off the watch list. Under the Tri-Party Agreement, the legal pact governing cleanup at Hanford, DOE must have taken the necessary steps to get all the tanks off the list by Sept. 30. Only two of the tanks have actually required work before they could be removed from the list: _Tank SY-101, the notorious "burping" tank, released flammable hydrogen gas periodically. A mixer pump was installed in the tank to stop the burps, but that led to a thickening of the waste crust inside and increased the chances of a leak. Last year, contractor CH2M Hill pumped out waste from SY-101 and diluted the contents with water to solve the problem. _The mix of waste in Tank C-106 spontaneously heated, making it an explosive hazard. It, too, was pumped out and removed from the list. Over time, other tanks on the list have been shown stable enough to be removed, without any action. Studies in 1996, for example, showed that natural decomposition was diminishing the formation of potentially explosive gases in some tanks. Hanford's high-level radioactive waste is stored in 149 single-shell tanks and 28 double-shell tanks in the central part of the 560-square-mile reservation, where plutonium for the nation's nuclear arsenal was made for 40 years. Contractors have been pumping waste out of the aging, leaky single-shell tanks into the double-wall units, many of which are nearing the end of their engineered-use lives. At least 10 percent of the nearly 54 million gallons of waste will be converted into glass logs for long-term storage at a vitrification plant now being designed. Construction is expected to begin late next year, with processing to begin in 2007. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to newmedia@seattle-pi.com ***************************************************************** 3 Russian envoy hears nuke concerns July 06, 2001 By Mary Manning LAS VEGAS SUN Russian Ambassador Yuri Ushakov listened as Nevada scientists explained how they plan to remove radioactive material that remains from nuclear testing in Southern Nevada. Ushakov, who is scheduled today to visit the Nevada Test Site, where more than 1,000 nuclear warheads exploded above and below ground 1951 through 1992, portrayed the similarities between the remote site 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas with one in Semipalatinsk, Russia. Nevada Sen. Harry Reid met with the ambassador after the opening of a resource center for Nevada Test Site Workers in Las Vegas, where those exposed to radiation, dust and beryllium can apply for up to $150,000 in benefits. The ambassador acknowledged Russia's nuclear workers are also suffering, and an environmental cleanup would be a massive undertaking. In 1998 scientists from the United States and the former Soviet Union also exchanged visits to test sites and viewed parallel underground nuclear weapons tests. Since then, the Test Site has opened its gates to environmental research, and subcritical tests -- where weapons materials undergo experiments without sustaining a chain reaction. The government is also welcoming university scientists to areas that were once top-secret. Despite the fact that Russia signed a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty that the U.S. Senate rejected on Oct. 13, 1999, Ushakov said the existence of roughly 12,000 nuclear weapons still poses a major problem for the United States and Russia, the heart of the former Soviet Union. "We have to do everything we can to make our nuclear arsenals safer," Ushakov told Reid, as well as scientists from UNLV, the University of Nevada, Reno and the Desert Research Institute. The most important task for both nations in the 21st century is to cooperate, Ushakov said. Reid said that the Russian Parliament did a better job seeking nuclear disarmament than U.S. lawmakers. "I was terribly embarrassed," the senator said of the 1999 Senate vote. "The Russians approved it and we didn't. They set an example and we should follow. In my opinion, there is not nearly enough being done." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 4 Ongoing Radiation Monitoring To Be Conducted On Death Site Of Kursk Sub Pravda.RU On Wednesday, the Mikhail Rudnitski rescue ship of the Northern Fleet headed for the Kursk nuclear submarine's death site in the Barents Sea. On board the rescue vessel, there are specialists from the Krylov Research Institute, based in St. Petersburg, and the Moscow-based Kurchatov Research Institute. They will do continuous radiation monitoring of the sea area until the arrival here of an auxiliary ship, the Mayo, with divers on board. A spokesman for the naval command said that in the next few hours the Severomorsk antisubmarine ship will be moved to the wrecked Kursk site. The Severomorsk carries a special-purpose expedition under the command of Vice-Admiral Mikhail Motsak, Chief-of-Staff of the Northern Fleet. The expedition will organize all sorts of work in a Kursk-raising operation. One goal will be the arrangement of interaction with other warships and auxiliary vessels engaged in the special-purpose expedition, as well as the introduction of a special regime in the surrounding area, to be closed for navigation. The Admiral Kharlamov cruiser is still here, ensuring protection of the area. Very soon, other warships and auxiliary ships will sail to the site of the Kursk's death, such as the heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Petr Veliki, the missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov, the rescue ships Altai and Pamir, hydrographic vessels, the special craft Svir, tankers, and other support vessels. Transport planes and helicopters of the North Fleet's maritime aircraft will also be involved in the Kursk-lifting operation. ***************************************************************** 5 Moscow Hopes Aggregate Number Of Nuclear Warheads Will Diminish Pravda.RU Jul, 06 2001 Moscow hopes that the aggregate number of nuclear charges of the five nuclear powers will not exceed 4,000. Today they have about 14,000 nuclear warheads in the aggregate on strategic delivery vehicles. As spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko told journalists on Friday, precisely this is the target of the Russian proposals in the sphere of strategic stability. He explained that the essence of the Russian initiatives is that the five nuclear powers - permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, the USA, Great Britain, China and France) should "set up and start a permanent consultative process on the problems of strategic stability". In practice, it is planned, in particular, to submit, for discussion by the Five, Moscow's proposals on further drastic reductions of the strategic offensive arms of Russia and the USA to the level of 1,500 nuclear warheads for each side and even fewer under strict control ensured by the agreements START-1 which is now in force, and START-2 (the USA must complete its ratification). RIA 'Novosti' ***************************************************************** 6 Salvage team prepares to leave for Kursk Last updated: 06-07-01, 10:57 The international team bidding to raise the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk made last preparations today ahead of their departure from Scotland for the wreck site. Kursk nuclear submarine at Vidyaevo naval base - May 2000 The sub is at the bottom of the Barents Sea after an unexplained series of explosions sank the vessel off the Norwegian coast on August 12th, 2000, with the loss of all 118 crew on board. Moscow's decision to lift the 20,000-tonne Kursk from the seabed is seen as a bid to close the book on one of the most tragic episodes in Russian military history. The salvage crew, who include British, Russian, Norwegian and Dutch divers and support staff, are due to leave Aberdeen, northeast Scotland, later today or early tomorrow on the North Sea diving support vessel Mayo. They were completing a "familiarisation" briefing today. The team should take about a week to reach the site where they will prepare the wreck for a lifting operation, planned for mid-September, by clearing the submarine of soil and cutting holes into the vessel to allow lifting equipment to be attached. A spokeswoman for Dutch contractors Mammoet Transport, who are carrying out the operation, said: "The team is now loading the ship with equipment, and as soon as that is finished we will be leaving. "I expect that to be late on Friday evening, or perhaps in the early hours of Saturday morning. The familiarisation programme is still ongoing, and that should be completed later on Friday." Several Russian ships have already left the Arctic port of Severomorsk for the wreckage site. There will be more than 20 vessels moored over the Kursk at the height of the operation, which will be run from the nuclear cruiser Peter the Great. The unprecedented operation is likely to cost nearly 80 million dollars (95 million euros), although the Russian government is refusing to give figures. The Russian navy insists there were no nuclear weapons aboard when the sub went down, although opponents fear either of the Kursk's two nuclear reactors could break up and leak should something go wrong during the salvage, polluting the Arctic waters. There was a mission to find survivors in the stricken submarine soon after it sank, but it was found to be entirely flooded. AFP © 2001 The Irish Times/ireland.com ***************************************************************** 7 Rumors taint cleanup budget Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 10:33 a.m. on Friday, July 6, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff Determining what impact the Department of Energy's troubled fiscal year 2002 cleanup budget will have on Oak Ridge is difficult, says one state official, especially since it's plagued by rumors. "We don't know exactly what will happen," said Justin Wilson, Gov. Don Sundquist's deputy for policy, during a phone interview Thursday. Based on what the House has approved, funds set aside for cleanup projects on the Oak Ridge Reservation will be cut by $90 million when compared to this fiscal year -- from $423.7 million to $332.457 million. Though the Senate still has to OK its version of the funding bill before the final figures can be worked out, if the numbers stay low it could be detrimental to Oak Ridge. However, Wilson declined to comment on what impact a $90 million cut would have locally. "We've got a lot of rumors," he said. "We do not know to what extent the rumors that are floating around are true,, or not true, as to the so-called cuts. Needless to say, we are quite concerned." But, some Oak Ridge officials are having a hard time seeing the state's concern. Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, who has met with Wilson regarding the possible cleanup funding cuts, says he appears to be unwilling to push DOE or Congress for more money. However, Wilson said otherwise. "I think it's fair to say that we (the state) are strongly encouraging not only DOE, but our Congressional delegation to increase the funds for Oak Ridge," Wilson said. "The United States of America has a fundamental obligation to clean up Oak Ridge." That obligation will be hard to meet if the Oak Ridge cleanup budget is reduced by $90 million because the cut will essentially halt local cleanup projects negotiated between the state, the Environmental Protection Agency and DOE. Out of 16 ongoing projects and 23 projects with new phases planned to begin, 30 will be eliminated and two will have seriously reduced efforts In addition, the funding cuts will eliminate a significant amount of jobs related to the cleanup work. A spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's environmental manager for Oak Ridge, was unavailable this morning to discuss what the job impact would be. And, although the state has an interest in the jobs, according to Wilson, they won't be a primary focus of the push to increase funds. "We don't make our demands based on how many jobs will come or go, but really on what is done on meeting the obligations to clean up Oak Ridge," Wilson said. Also in danger is the state's environmental oversight grant, which funds the LOC, a group that provides advice to local, state and federal officials regarding DOE environmental management decisions. DOE Oak Ridge Operations office is proposing to give the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation $1.8 million, compared to its request of $4.7 million for FY 2002. Gawarecki said TDEC has informed her that it cannot support the LOC if this is the case. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 8 Labor Department to again meet with sick workers Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:12 a.m. on Friday, July 6, 2001 from staff reports Officials with the Department of Labor are returning to Oak Ridge next week to hold another set of informational meetings on the compensation plan for job-sickened nuclear workers. The two meetings are scheduled for 1 and 7 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium of the American Museum of Science and Energy. The sick-worker compensation plan, or the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, goes into effect July 31 and covers radiation-induced cancer and beryllium disease for nuclear workers. It provides a $150,000 lump-sum, nontaxable payment as well as related medical expenses. Although the Department of Labor will administer compensation and medical benefits, three other departments share some responsibilities under the plan, including: + The Department of Energy's Office of Worker Advocacy will help workers file state workers' compensation claims and list facilities where covered workers were employed. + The Department of Health and Human Services will establish guidelines for estimating radiation doses and the likelihood that they caused a worker's cancer. + The Justice Department is obligated to notify uranium workers eligible for benefits under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that they may also receive compensation under the energy workers' program. One of the biggest complaints about the compensation program is that it's inadequate. For example, those people who believe their illnesses were caused by exposure to toxicants other than exposure to radiation, silica or beryllium will have to settle for possibly getting state workers' compensation. Several people have expressed concern that state workers' compensation programs won't be able to handle the types of illnesses caused by exposures at nuclear facilities. For more information about the compensation program or to request application forms, contact the Department of Labor at 1-866-888-3322. More information is also available at the DOE Office of Worker Advocacy Web site at http://tis.eh.doe.gov/advocacy/laws/laws.html. A resource office where workers can file claims will open in Oak Ridge this summer. The tentative location is in Jackson Plaza. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 9 Our View: State needs to confront DOE on cleanup retreat Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 9:53 a.m. on Friday, July 6, 2001 The argument can and necessarily should be made that the Department of Energy has about as much ability and know-how to shape nuclear defense strategy as it does to oversee and decide upon environmental cleanup policy. That is to say that DOE has little business being the main mover for either. And yet, if cleanup woes are any indication, at the Oak Ridge Reservation and elsewhere, DOE is having far too great a say over what may and, more important, no longer needs to be, spent for cleanup of contaminated sites. "What we're going to lose is unimagineable," says Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee. She is referring to the millions upon millions of dollars that would be cut under the current federal budget from standing commitments to cleanup sites through Oak Ridge. It means that cleanup projects negotiated by the State of Tennessee, the Environmental Protection Agency and DOE would largely come to a halt. This is unacceptable. We can understand why the Bush Adminstration's EPA might be complicit in so insulting a retreat from cleanup commitments, but just why does the State of Tennessee appear to be sitting on its hands? The state, starting with top Department and Environment and Conservation officials and extending all the way to Gov. Don Sundquist's office, should be making all kinds of noise about this reckless policy retreat. Nor does the U.S. Senate need to go along with this kind of environmental abandonment. It is incumbent upon Tennessee's two Republican Senators to impress upon colleagues, and the Bush Administration, the importance of honoring commitments to cleanup. Ms. Gawarecki concedes that it is entirely possible for cleanup funding to be increased in the fiscal 2003 budget. What would be lost, she aptly adds, is the momentum and continuity of long-term cleanup efforts. DOE needs to be advised of the errors of its ways, and to be held responsible for commitments made to so important a leg of national energy and defense policy. The state needs to lead the way in holding them to that promise. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 10 DOE: 'Trust' issue not simple The Oak Ridger Online - Opinion - Your views: 07/06/01 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 9:49 a.m. on Friday, July 6, 2001 Your views: To The Oak Ridger: Recently S. Kaplan (OR letters 6/25/01) has raised the issue of trust and ascribed it to two causes: 1) students taught to "leave their ethics and morals at the door when they come to work" and 2) "the acceptability of lying in business." Were it only that simple. First, I cannot recall being taught that it is correct or permissible to lie (under any circumstances) or that my ethics and morals should be left at any door. Quite the contrary, I was instructed that objectivity, ethics and morality were at the heart of a society. Nor did any training I received as an employee in any way seek to compromise my ethical beliefs. This is not to say that honest differences of opinion could not exist among individuals. Nor does it say that all entrepreneurs have been ethical but I see no evidence of any systematic effort to negate fundamental ethical principles during my professional career. Second, Kaplan's explanation seems to apply to the marketplace but the Oak Ridge trust problems lie in the area of government and appear to extend into several other sectors that do not derive from normal commercial origins. These include the prime contractors, even those that operated on an essentially non-profit basis; the medical establishment, including all doctors; the newspaper, as well as broad classes of individuals such as "scientists" and "managers." What has troubled me the most about the Oak Ridge trust problem is that individuals are branded as untrustworthy not based upon what they say or do but upon their membership in a class such as scientist or doctor or manager. This form of distrust (more accurately termed, bigotry) is the most insidious form since the individual can do almost nothing to remove the onus of his class membership nor does there seem to be any motivation to try to do so. As one attempts to understand the social dynamics of the Oak Ridge region, one is struck by a common denominator of the distrust: Disagreement. If one does not agree with ALL the claims of a group, then one is not to be trusted. It all too often becomes stridently personal and defamatory. This leaves little room for compromise or for the formation of constructive coalitions in the solution of problems. Unfortunately, it also inhibits wide support for just causes. Regrettably, this distrust has deprived the ORR Health Effects Committee of the benefits of DOE as a liaison member and the participation of one of the community's most dedicated and compassionate members. It was a high price to pay for any marginal gain. In spite of the suggestions of deficiencies in one's character or even in the face of the not infrequent invective, there is really only one choice: To continue to support one's detractors where their claims are just and to oppose the claims one perceives as ungrounded. It is sad that it can't be a pleasant process. No, the distrust process which Ms. Kaplan attributes to such simple causes is not simple nor does the above do it full justice. Al Brooks Oak Ridge All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 11 DOE Should Unify and Extend Deadlines for Comment on Proposed Nuclear Dump Document July 5, 2001 Dual Deadlines for Comment Period on Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement Are Confusing and Inequitable WASHINGTON, D.C. – Public Citizen has requested that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) unify and extend the deadlines for public comment on the Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The current situation is confusing and inequitable, and further discredits the DOE’s process for evaluating the Yucca Mountain repository proposal. On May 11, the DOE initiated a 45-day comment period on the supplement, which addresses changes in the repository design proposal. Many concerned citizens and public interest organizations, including Public Citizen, expressed concern over this very short comment period, given the highly technical nature of the document. In response, the DOE extended the comment period by 11 days to July 6. Meanwhile, in recent weeks, the DOE realized that 700 addresses had been erroneously omitted from its mailing list when the supplement was distributed in early May. In what Public Citizen views as an ill-conceived effort to compensate for this blunder, the DOE has now extended the deadline for these parties only until August 13. The first token 11-day extension failed to address real concerns for meaningful public participation, and the DOE’s decision to selectively offer an additional extension only compounds this problem. "This situation is not only confusing, but also inequitable," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, in a letterto Lake Barrett, acting director of the DOE’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. "We urge you to unify the new deadlines for public comment by further extending the general comment period until at least August 13." Other concerned members of the public who are not on any of DOE’s mailing lists and have only recently accessed the document have not been afforded any extension. Also, since it is likely that some of the people originally omitted from the DOE’s mailing list found other ways to acquire the document before it was mailed to them on June 25, the selective extension arbitrarily grants these individuals the benefit of a longer comment period, while denying the same to other interested stakeholders. "Given the national significance of the Yucca Mountain Project, public participation must be taken seriously and processes must be conducted with integrity," Hauter’s letter said. "Unless corrected, the unacceptably short comment period and incongruous deadlines will further erode public confidence in the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain Project activities." Yucca Mountain is the government's proposed storage site for high-level nuclear waste produced by commercial nuclear power plants and at nuclear weapons facilities. Located about 80 miles from Las Vegas, Yucca Mountain is currently the only site the DOE is considering. However, concerns exist that the storage casks will leak, radioactively contaminating the surrounding environment and endangering public health. The Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement is required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Public Citizen Home Page ***************************************************************** 12 Court: Chas Pik Libeled Nikitin - The St. Petersburg Times. #684, Friday, July 6, 2001 By Charles Digges STAFF WRITER Environmentalist and former espionage defendant Alexander Nikitin won a libel lawsuit against the newspaper Chas Pik and journalist Alexander Zubarev for an article that the Kuybishevsky Federal Court deemed libelous. The article was published on May 14 - five months after Nikitin's final acquittal on all the espionage charges that had been brought against him by the Federal Security Service, or FSB. Entitled "When Politicians Talk, Themis is Silent," - in reference to the Greek god of justice - it argued that Nikitin had been acquitted for political reasons. In finding for Nikitin on Thursday, the court ordered Chas Pik to publish a retraction of Zubarev's article and to pay a modest but undisclosed sum to Nikitin. Reached by telephone in Norway, Nikitin had not yet heard of the decision, and his response was characteristically low-key. "The courts did what we consider to be the right and just thing," he said. "We are not out for revenge or money and want to put the suit behind us. But the decision shows there may be hope for an independent judiciary in Russia." Nikitin's lawyer, Yury Shmidt, would not reveal the amount of the settlement, claiming that it was "too little to discuss." "It's a bit tacky when winners in such cases talk about how much or how little they've won, which in this case would be close to nothing," Shmidt said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "This suit was about principle and about defending a man's name." Schmidt said that Nikitin had been particularly concerned about one of the passages in Zubarev's article that accused the activist of continuing to sell "military secrets about Russia's nuclear potential abroad, and the verdict in this case mutilates the meaning of 'innocence.'" Zubarev also claimed that Nikitin, a former naval captain, was initially paid $1,200 for the information and that he received an additional $10,000 later. Zubarev, reached by telephone on Thursday, said he that is innocent of libel and plans to appeal. He offered no further comment. Chas Pik editor Natalya Chaplina could not be reached for comment. Thursday's decision is the third-straight libel suit that Nikitin has won. The first was against then-Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Adamov, who last summer called Nikitin "a spy" in a magazine interview. Adamov was dismissed from the cabinet in March. Nikitin also won a libel judgment against the City Hall-controlled newspaper Sankt Peterburgskiye Vedomosti, which also called him "a spy" in a March 2000 article. A fourth suit is currently pending against local television station TKR Peterburg and its program "Peterburgskiye Bezopasnosti." The program ran a series of investigative reports that it claimed proved Nikitin's guilt and that accused a number of journalists covering the case of being Western spies. The broadcasts were aired while Nikitin's trial was underway during the fall and winter of 1999. The suit will be heard in a city court in October. But Thursday's victory over Chas Pik is particularly meaningful. The weekly newspaper is edited by Natalya Chaplina, who is married to Northwest Region Governor General Viktor Cherkesov. Prior to taking that post last spring, Cherkesov served as the director of the St. Petersburg branch of the FSB throughout the Nikitin case. Almost from the moment of Nikitin's arrest in February 1996, Chas Pik ran numerous articles that were based exclusively on unnamed FSB sources and that shrilly accused Nikitin of being a paid foreign agent betraying Russian state secrets. Nikitin, 49, first caught the FSB's attention in 1995 when the Norwegian environmental group Bellona published his now-famous report, which came complete with photos of rusting nuclear submarines parked in Murmansk dockyards, as well as accounts of numerous accidents and near-meltdowns on both Soviet and Russian Navy vessels. The FSB picked him up for questioning and ended up holding him for nearly 11 months, claiming that his report revealed state secrets. They initially denied him a lawyer, and for most of his stint in jail he was not even formally charged. In 1997, Amnesty International named Nikitin a prisoner of conscience - their designation for anyone imprisoned solely for his or her political beliefs - making Nikitin the first Russian to hold that title since Soviet dissident physicist and Nobel Prize-winner Andrei Sakharov. Over the years, Nikitin has become a cause celebre in international human rights and environmental circles. Former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien are among those in the world of politics who have lobbied the Russian authorities for his freedom. Nikitin has also received numerous honors and awards, including the prestigious California-based Goldman Environmental Foundation's 1997 prize, which comes with $75,000 and is considered to be the Nobel Prize for environmentalist activists. In 1997, Nikitin was awarded the Norwegian Free World Prize. He is also the winner of this year's prize in honor of the slain Duma Deputy Galina Starovoitova, with which he is financing a seminar series on environmental studies in Washington D.C. Simon Ostrovsky also contributed to this report. [Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2001 ***************************************************************** 13 Simpsonville awaits results of uranium tests [charlotte.com] Published Friday, July 6, 2001 well water Associated Press GREENVILLE -- State health officials are organizing a meeting in Simpsonville to discuss the latest findings on uranium contaminating some well water in the area. The Department of Health and Environmental Control has some results from urine samples of residents whose homes have high levels of uranium. But DHEC won't release the results until all residents have been notified, spokesman Thom Berry said. Work continues to extend public water lines to the area, at a cost of at least $500,000, said Greenville Water System general manager Lynn Stovall. Two water treatment systems installed in homes with extremely high levels of uranium continue to remove almost all of the radioactive substance, DHEC spokeswoman Daphne Neel said. Uranium is a silver-white radioactive material found in bedrock and can cause kidney problems. Two Clemson University researchers are studying the effectiveness of filtration systems. Jim Navratil, professor of environmental engineering and science, said activated carbon filters, which cost a few hundred dollars, seem to work best. ***************************************************************** 14 Congressman publicizes compensation to miners, down-winders July 06, 2001 GALLUP, N.M. (AP) - Thousands of sick uranium workers and other sickened during the Cold War are eligible for $50,000 each, although they probably don't know they have the money coming. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., visited western New Mexico to publicize the extra compensation. "We're afraid there are a lot of people who don't know about this and aren't aware they qualify," Bingaman said Thursday at a meeting at Gallup's City Hall. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was passed in 1990 to provide cash payments of $100,000 to uranium miners and $75,000 to "down-winders" - residents exposed to radioactive fallout caused by nuclear weapons tests. Many of the uranium mines were in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona and many of the miners were Navajos. The down-winders lived in southern Nevada and Utah and northern Arizona, where fallout settled from nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test site near Las Vegas. Under a defense bill passed last year, those who qualify for the compensation could get an additional $50,000. Bingaman and others arranged for the increase last year after Congress approved $150,000 compensation payments for Department of Energy workers who had been sickened by dangerous materials involved in developing and testing nuclear weapons. The additional $50,000 applies to workers who already have received or been promised their initial payments or to the heirs of those who have died. Bingaman said payments will begin to be processed Aug. 1, and checks will go out after that. Some sick people and their families have waited years for compensation. The payments must be approved each year out of annual appropriations. Last year, Congress fell $84 million short in allocations, leaving hundreds - many of them sick and dying - holding IOUs for their compensation. Bingaman said the additional compensation payments will come from funds that are guaranteed. "The money is there," he said. "It's important that they know that and make their applications." On the Net: Justice Department's Radiation Exposure Compensation Program: http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/torts/const/reca/index.htm U.S. Department of Labor: http:/www.dol.gov All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 15 Uranium workers may not know they have money coming July 06, 2001 GALLUP, N.M. (AP) - An additional $50,000 is available to thousands of sick uranium workers although they probably don't know they have the money coming. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., visited uranium country in western New Mexico on Thursday to publicize the extra compensation. "We're afraid there are a lot of people who don't know about this and aren't aware they qualify," Bingaman said at a meeting at Gallup's City Hall. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was passed in 1990 to provide cash payments of $100,000 to uranium miners and $75,000 to "down-winders" - residents exposed to radioactive fallout caused by nuclear weapons tests. Many of the uranium mines were in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona and many of the miners were Navajos. The down-winders lived in southern Nevada and Utah and northern Arizona, where fallout settled from nuclear weapons tests near Las Vegas. Under a defense bill passed last year, those who qualify for the compensation could get an additional $50,000. Bingaman and others arranged for the increase last year after Congress approved $150,000 compensation payments for Department of Energy workers who had been exposed to beryllium and sickened by it. The additional $50,000 applies to workers who have already received or been promised their $100,000 or to the heirs of workers who have died. Bingaman said payments will begin to be processed Aug. 1, and checks will go out a short time after that. Some sick uranium workers and their families have waited years for compensation. The payments must be approved each year out of annual appropriations. Last year, Congress fell $84 million short in allocations, leaving hundreds - many of them sick and dying - holding IOUs for their compensation. Bingaman said at Thursday's meeting that the additional compensation payments will come from funds that are guaranteed. "The money is there," he said. "It's important that they know that and make their applications." --- On the Net: Justice Department's Radiation Exposure Compensation Program: http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/torts/const/reca/index.htm U.S. Department of Labor: http:/www.dol.gov All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 16 Bills include more funds for INEEL IdahoStatesman.com Friday, July 6, 2001 Crapo, Simpson are working to reduce impact of job cuts By would be adequately funded. The Associated Press IDAHO FALLS -- Extra funding for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory has been included in early versions of two appropriations bills working their way through Congress. They contain more money to meet deadlines for getting nuclear waste out of Idaho and funds to soften the blow of looming job reductions at the eastern Idaho U.S. Department of Energy site. U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has put $5 million in an emergency appropriations bill to fund a voluntary separation program. That could enable Bechtel BWXT Idaho to offer employees money to voluntarily leave their jobs rather than be laid off. Energy Department officials are reviewing proposals to cut about 800 more jobs. The supplemental appropriations bill -- which addresses urgent, midyear budget needs -- has passed the Senate Appropriations Committee, of which Craig is a member. It may come to a vote before the full Senate next week, spokesman Mike Tracy said. U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, has also made inroads with a historically hostile House of Representatives and helped increase the amount of funds for Energy Department cleanup efforts next year. The bare-bones budget proposed by the Bush administration in April would have cut cleanup funding at Idaho's nuclear laboratory next year by more than 15 percent. The appropriations bill passed last week by the House -- usually resistant to funding Energy Department cleanup programs -- contains enough money to boost it by about 10 percent. That is largely due to efforts of the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, a coalition of representatives with Energy Department sites in their districts that has been pushing to meet cleanup agreements with various states. "We have begun to see the fruits of that effort," Simpson said. "This legislation and the substantial increases ... clearly demonstrate that my House colleagues heard my pleas for additional resources." The Senate is now crafting its own version of the Energy and Water appropriations bill, which Simpson said would likely contain larger Energy Department increases. Other programs also need better funding, he said. Kathleen Trever, director of the state's INEEL oversight program, said the money contained in the House bill should be adequate to cover the costs of immediate cleanup deadlines. Under the court-enforceable 1995 settlement agreement with the state, for instance, the agency must ship 3,100 cubic meters of waste out of Idaho by the end of 2002. But Trever said the state needs to sit down with the Energy Department and make sure longer-term priorities -- such as addressing radioactive waste buried above drinking water supplies ***************************************************************** 17 Little explosion risk seen at Hanford The Seattle Times: July 06, 2001 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific By The Associated Press RICHLAND - The U.S. Department of Energy is preparing to remove the last radioactive-waste tanks from a watch list of tanks with the potential to explode at the Hanford nuclear reservation. The department's Office of River Protection, which oversees the tanks, believes the remaining 24 tanks don't pose a sufficient hazard to warrant listing. The list, set up by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in 1991, at one time had 60 tanks on it. The 24 tanks remaining were placed on the list for fear they were at risk for an internal buildup of flammable gas. The Office of River Protection now says it has data that show the tanks are not so dangerous. The office has collected data on the 24 tanks for seven years and now has a better understanding of their contents and better monitoring, says Craig Groendyke, a project manager for the office. The office will recommend to Energy Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., that the 24 tanks be taken off the watch list. Under the Tri-Party Agreement, the legal pact governing cleanup at Hanford, the department must have taken the necessary steps to get all the tanks off the list by Sept. 30. Only two of the tanks have actually required work before they could be removed from the list: • Tank SY-101, the notorious "burping" tank, released hydrogen periodically. A mixer pump was installed in the tank to stop the burps, but that led to a thickening of the waste crust inside and increased the chances of a leak. Last year, contractor CH2M Hill pumped out waste from SY-101 and diluted the contents with water to solve the problem. • The mix of waste in Tank C-106 spontaneously heated, making it an explosive hazard. It, too, was pumped out and removed from the list. Over time, other tanks on the list have been shown stable enough to be removed, without any action. Studies in 1996, for example, determined that natural decomposition was lessening the buildup of potentially explosive gases in some tanks. Hanford's high-level radioactive waste is stored in 149 single-shell tanks and 28 double-shell tanks in the central part of the 560-square-mile reservation, where plutonium for the nation's nuclear arsenal was made for 40 years. Contractors have been pumping waste out of the aging, leaky, single-shell tanks into the double-wall units, many of which are nearing the end of their engineered-use lives. At least 10 percent of the nearly 54 million gallons of waste will be converted into glass logs for long-term storage at a vitrification plant now being designed. Construction is expected to begin late next year, with processing to begin in 2007. ***************************************************************** 18 Resource center opens for Nevada Test Site workers [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Friday, July 06, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Las Vegas office one of several across country By LISA SNEDEKER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS After years of being turned away, sick workers from the Nevada Test Site now have a place to go to seek assistance and file claims for government compensation. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and officials from the Labor and Energy departments were on hand Thursday for the opening of one of 10 resource centers that will operate nationally. They were joined by about a dozen former workers, including one with a lung transplant and others with oxygen tanks, who trace their illnesses to time spent helping the nation develop and test nuclear weapons. "These people deserve compensation. They are very sick," Reid said from the Las Vegas center, 1050 E. Flamingo Road. "They are due. It's been too long." Reid, who was instrumental in passing the legislation that provides the compensation, called the former test site workers "foot soldiers in the Cold War." "After working out there all these years and being guinea pigs, they haven't compensated us," said Chuck Alger, 70, who worked in the mines at the Test Site from 1958 to 1991. Alger suffers from silicosis, a respiratory disease that develops from prolonged exposure to airborne crystalline silica, which comes from the rock at the test site. "We're hoping they'll do something before we all die," Alger said. Hank Peluaga, 73, who worked with Alger the same 33 years in mining, drilling and blasting, also remains skeptical. "I also lost my hearing out there," he said. He, too, suffers from silicosis. "I doubt we'll get anything out of them." Labor Secretary Elaine Chao opened the first of the centers in Paducah, Ky., on Monday. The centers are jointly operated by the federal Labor and Energy departments as part of the Energy Employees Occupational Injury Compensation Program Act. Resource centers are scheduled to open in Denver; Richland, Wash.; Espanola, N.M.; Idaho Falls, Idaho; North Augusta, S.C.; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Anchorage, Alaska; and Portsmouth, Ohio. The program offers lifetime medical care and $150,000 to ailing workers who were employed at nuclear test sites in Nevada and Alaska, in the government's nuclear weapons plants or at factories that contracted with the Energy Department. Approved by Congress last year, the compensation plan ended 50 years in which the government had denied any link between workers' illnesses and their jobs in the nation's nuclear weapons complex. "I'm proud the nation is finally repaying its debt," said Kathy Carlson, manager of the Energy Department's Nevada Field Office. The government will begin accepting claims July 31, and officials hope to mail the first compensation checks in late August or early September, said Pete Turcic, director of the division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. There is no deadline for filing a claim, which may be submitted by heirs of deceased workers. The government has hired contractors to operate the resource centers. Diseases covered include cancer caused by radiation, chronic beryllium disease and chronic silicosis. An estimated 800 workers who worked in underground tunnels at the test site from 1951 to 1992, when the bombs exploded, developed the lung disease silicosis, but the legislation doesn't apply to all silicosis victims. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Jul-06-Fri-2001/news/16480231.html ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************