***************************************************************** 08/07/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.190 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Another fire extends shutdown of reactor 2 Russia, India to sign nuclear power plant agreement in October 3 Moving on from old nuclear regime 4 Environment Agency to cut emissions from Sellafield 5 TVA hears more about proposal to restart reactor 6 Train to carry nuke waste in Illinois 7 State: Cleanup progress must continue 8 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Monday, August 06, 2001 9 Opportunity - TVA should use nuclear assets 10 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Tuesday, August 07, 2001 11 TVA to consider private financing plan for nuclear restart 12 TVA eyes nuclear plant lease proposal 13 NRC Asks for Information from Certain Nuclear Plant Licensees on 14 Lowry Landfill contains plutonium NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 ORNL's flexible R&D fund successful in special role 2 Judge awards damages to 3 DOE whistle-blowers 3 Survivors commemorate 56th anniversary of first atomic bomb 4 Hiroshima Survivors Remember 'Hell' 5 Veterans exposed to radiation win benefits 6 More cancers added to radiation compensation 7 Marshall Islands Resists US Pressure 8 NZ nuclear test veterans to sue British government 9 US Set to Ease Benefit Rules for 'Atomic' Veterans 10 Hiroshima Vows to Keep A-Bomb Memory Alive 11 Evicted by the US military, the Inuit prepare to fight Star Wars 12 EDITORIAL:We all share the obligation to preserve A-bomb history 13 Tainted-well cleanups continue 14 Maralinga forum organisers to continue compo push 15 Protesters converge on Y-12 16 Whistleblowers win damages from DOE 17 Paducahan to get first check in sick workers' reparation 18 Blasting opposed for Flats razings 19 People's genes react differently to radiation 20 Hiroshima Survivors Remember 'Hell' **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Another fire extends shutdown of reactor Published: Tuesday, August 7, 2001 BY DENNIS LIEN The Unit 1 reactor at the Prairie Island nuclear power plant near Red Wing, Minn., remained shut down Monday as plant workers continued to search for the cause of a fire in an electrical cabinet. The fire Friday night prompted the plant to declare an "unusual event,'' the lowest level of four emergency classifications. The unit, one of two at Prairie Island, had been restarted and was ramping up when the fire broke out in a small enclosed room of the turbine building on the "non-nuclear'' side of the plant. The unit had been down since Wednesday after a different electrical panel failed. The Friday fire was confined to one breaker and the cables above it, according to Maureen Brown, communications director for Nuclear Management Co., which manages the plant for Xcel Energy. The two incidents are unrelated, said Brown, who added that she did not know when the Unit 1 reactor would be restarted. "It won't be today, and the reason is we need to fully understand why this occurred, make repairs and ensure that we prevent something like this from happening again,'' she said. The unusual event was declared at 9:12 p.m. Friday and ended at 12:14 a.m. Saturday. The classification indicates that the problem at the plant does not affect the public and is being handled by workers at the site. Unit 2 was unaffected and continues to operate at full power. The accident was the third unrelated incident at the Prairie Island plant in the past month, but a nuclear safety engineer for the nuclear watchdog group Union of Concerned Scientists said that he isn't alarmed. "The average plant reports anywhere from 15 to 20 a year,'' Dave Lochbaum said. "When they seem to occur in short order, it's more a statistic than a sign of anything unraveling. Here, the root causes don't seem to be related.'' In each incident, Lochbaum said that plant workers responded appropriately, which is a more important consideration. In July, the plant reported 16 of 17 flood panels installed to protect equipment during high-water periods were found to be deficient. Last Wednesday, a failure in an electrical panel triggered a shutdown. When that problem was corrected, and the unit restarted Friday evening, the fire broke out, prompting the current shutdown. "Until we really understand what caused the issue on Friday, I would be very cautious about drawing any sweeping conclusions,'' Brown said. In Friday's fire, a member of the Red Wing fire department was treated for heat exhaustion, according to Fire Chief Scott Nelson. He said his department and the plant's fire brigade, which sometimes train together, collaborated well. In an unrelated issue, the Monticello nuclear power plant cut its power to 60 percent Sunday evening because a combination of the hot weather and volume of warm plant-water discharge boosted temperatures in a canal discharge area above regulation. The plant, however, was operating at full capacity Monday afternoon, Brown said. "By dropping to 60, the temperature of the discharge drops as well, which mitigates the temperature in the discharge area,'' Brown said. Nuclear Management Co. manages several nuclear power plants, including the Prairie Island and Monticello plants, for Xcel Energy. The two units provide power for about 1 million households. Dennis Lien can be reached at or (651) 228-5588. © 2001 PioneerPlanet / St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press / TwinCities.com- ***************************************************************** 2 Russia, India to sign nuclear power plant agreement in October Monday August 6, 7:47 PM MOSCOW, Aug 6 (AFP) - Moscow and New Delhi in October will sign an agreement on Russia's construction of a multi-billion-dollar nuclear power plant in India's southern Tamil Nadu state, officials here said on Monday. The agreement on the Kundakulam nuclear power plants construction will be signed during a visit here by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Reshetnikov told Interfax. He estimated the cost of construction at 1.5 to two billion dollars. Moscow and New Delhi initially agreed on the plant's construction some 13 years ago, but the project was abandoned following the Soviet Union's collapse. The deal was resurrected when former Russian President Boris Yeltsin visited India in 1998. Officials in India earlier said that Russia would supply the design and 90 percent of the equipment for the plant and also provide 54 percent of the credit at four percent interest. India will have to repay the credit in 14 equal installments, one year after the commissioning of the plant. The first unit of the plant is expected to be commissioned by December 2007 and the second by December 2008. The plant will supply power to the four southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Copyright © 2001 AFP. All rights reserved. All information ***************************************************************** 3 Moving on from old nuclear regime Daily Yomiuri On-Line EDITORIAL] Yomiuri Shimbun Hiroshima today marks the 56th anniversary of being attacked by an atomic bomb, as will Nagasaki on Thursday. The two cities mark the bombings every year by calling on the international community to work to ensure that nuclear warfare is never repeated. The world has not seen any victims of nuclear warfare since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the Damocles sword of nuclear destruction still hangs over humanity and the specter of nuclear holocaust remains a nightmare. Despite more than 10 years having passed since the end of the Cold War, the old nuclear foes have yet to scale down their stocks of nuclear weapons to a sane level. True, the United States and Russia have reduced their nuclear arsenals to two-thirds what they were a decade ago in terms of the number of strategic nuclear warheads, but they still hold 13,000 warheads between them. In light of the status quo of U.S.-Russian relations, this number is ridiculously high. Given the deteriorating ability of Russia to control its nuclear arms, the size of the current stockpile of nuclear weapons is dangerously high. The number of nuclear warheads must be slashed at once. === Threat of nuclear proliferation Nuclear expansion and proliferation have been occurring throughout Asia. China has been striving to modernize its nuclear weaponry while India and Pakistan have become nuclear powers. There is strong concern that North Korea is on the verge of possessing nuclear-tipped missiles. These developments all pose a potential threat to the region's stability. We urge China, India, Pakistan and North Korea to make a U-turn in their nuclear policies. Opposition is mounting both at home and abroad against the missile defense system being promoted by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. Washington maintains the system is designed to counter the threat of missile attacks by "rogue states," such as North Korea. Beijing strongly opposes the planned U.S. missile shield, arguing that it would ruin its nuclear deterrent power. Meanwhile, Russia and some European countries have expressed concern that the U.S. missile defense plan will disrupt the world's existing nuclear framework and lead to a renewed nuclear arms race. A way out of Cold War legacy At a summit meeting late last month, the leaders of the United States and Russia agreed that the foreign and defense ministers of their respective countries would hold consultative security talks to discuss cuts in strategic nuclear missiles and missile defense as a package. Looking at the U.S. missile defense plan, we sense the United States' intention to get out of the nuclear regime of the Cold War period. But full discussions have yet to be held on the advisability of promoting the plan. We will closely monitor whether the planned U.S.-Russia talks will bring about an accord that will lead to a significant reduction in nuclear arms. We will also keep watch to see whether the two countries will be able to find a way out of the old nuclear order that is a legacy of the Cold War period. The U.S. government has expressed its intention not to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. This approach is not acceptable. If the missile defense system is a means to counter nuclear proliferation, then CTBT is the most effective means to preempt it. The treaty was concluded after years of work by the international community, including successive U.S. governments. Quitting the treaty at this juncture would badly shake world faith in the United States. Washington must ratify the treaty. (From Aug. 6 Yomiuri Shimbun) Copyright The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 4 Environment Agency to cut emissions from Sellafield edie news: The Environment Agency has announced that it is to improve the way in which it regulates radioactive waste disposal from Sellafield, which is expected to reduce emissions from the facility by around a quarter. The Agency launched a consultation on 30 July regarding radioactive waste at Sellafield, including a proposal for a new certificate of authorisation for the management of radioactive wastes, progressive reductions in discharge limits for 22 radionuclides, and discharge limits for three additional radionuclides. There are also proposals for new controls on discharges from individual plants on the site, and a requirement for BNFL to provide reports on issues such as the effects of radionuclides on ecosystems, and to make improvements to their management of radioactive waste. “The Agency’s proposals should lead to reductions in the potential radiation dose to members of the public, if discharges were made at the authorised limits, by 27% for liquid discharges and by 21% for aerial discharges,” said the Agency’s Chief Executive Barbara Young. “They will also help to implement the UK’s OSPAR (Oslo and Paris Convention) commitments to reduce radioactive discharges to the marine environment.” “The proposed improvement [in] conditions and information requirements also require BNFL to undertake additional research and development work with the intention of reducing discharges still further in the future,” said Young. As well as changes in discharges to air and water, the Environment Agency is also proposing that it will no longer authorise the disposal of waste by in-situ burial, instead only authorising waste to be deposited in ‘engineered solid waste disposal areas’, although an Environment Agency spokesperson told edie that this will have little impact on the workings at Sellafield, but should make cleanup at the site easier. It is also proposed that the Health and Safety Executive will assume primary responsibility for the future regulation of contaminated earth at the site. Other proposed improvements include changes to the permitting system for transfers of radioactive waste to other sites, and the installation of monitoring equipment to allow independent assessment of aerial emissions. This week, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has released an independent report revealing that Sellafield’s MOX plant would be economically viable (see related story). Following a public consultation on the report, the Secretaries of State for Health and DEFRA will consider whether full-scale fuel production should go ahead at the plant. Comments on the Environment Agency’s document should be sent by 3 December to: The Sellafield Review Team, The Environment Agency, PO Box 114, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 9GN; telephone 01768 866666; fax 01768 892456; or by email to project.sellafield@environment-agency.gov.uk. © Faversham House Group Ltd 2001. This article may be copied or ***************************************************************** 5 TVA hears more about proposal to restart reactor By Dennis Sherer Staff Writer August 7, 2001 Jack Bailey, the utilitiys vice president for nuclear engineering left, was among the TVA officials at Mondays meeting  File photo by TimesDaily photographer Jim Hannon. Tennessee Valley Authority officials heard more Monday about a proposal by a Chattanooga, Tenn., developer to finance the restart of the utility's reactor Unit 1 at Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant. Developer Franklin Haney and an entourage of attorneys and financial experts met with a TVA delegation in Chattanooga to discuss a proposal to restart the idled reactor using money from an investment group. "Franklin Haney and his group came in and made a proposal," TVA spokesman John Moulton said. "We are going to evaluate the proposal for maybe three or four weeks to see what kind of questions we have and see if we need to get together and have another meeting with them." Monday's meeting was closed to the public. Among the TVA officials in the meeting was Jack Bailey, the utility's vice president for nuclear engineering. The proposal calls for an investment group led by Haney to issue bonds for $1.3 billion to finance renovation of Unit 1 at the nuclear plant near Athens. The reactor has not produced electrical power since being shut down in 1985 because of safety concerns. The group, which would be known as Nuclear Leasing, is proposing a lease-lease agreement with TVA, said Lewis Donelson, a Chattanooga attorney representing Haney. "We would form a company and lease Unit 1 from TVA and immediately lease it back to TVA. All we would be doing is providing them with the money they need for the restart," Donelson said. Under the agreement, TVA would retain ownership of the reactor and the electrical power it produced. TVA would pay rent to Nuclear Leasing. The amount of rent has not been disclosed. Donelson said the agreement would allow TVA to have the reactor, which can produce enough electricity to light 200,000 homes, back in operation within five years. TVA announced earlier this year it was considering restarting Unit 1 to ensure it has enough electricity to meet expected growth in the Tennessee Valley. Being able to restart the unit without hampering efforts to reduce the utility's $26 billion debt was listed among the issues to be addressed before making a decision on the fate of the reactor. Donelson said Haney's proposal would allow TVA to restart the unit with minimum impact on its debt. U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Ala., have called on TVA to restart the reactor. Browns Ferry Unit 1 is the only nuclear-powered generator in the United States with an operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that is not producing electricity. Cramer said Haney's proposal warrants serious consideration by TVA officials. "From everything I've heard so far, the finance proposal being discussed is something TVA should look at very seriously," Cramer said. "What's especially attractive is that it would allow TVA to bring Unit 1 back on line without increasing its debt while at the same time maintaining ownership of the plant. "So I hope that TVA will look carefully at this proposal and analyze it based upon its merits. Browns Ferry is a gem of a plant, and the energy produced by Unit 1 could really help us in the Valley meet our energy needs in the future." Sessions spokesman Mike Brumas said the lawmaker has not had an opportunity to review Haney's proposal. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Knoxville, Tenn.-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said the proposal "stinks." He contends that the proposal is a scheme to allow TVA to convince its ratepayers that it is not increasing its debt by restarting the idled reactor. The money for the payments would still come from ratepayers, he said. "I haven't seen all the details of the proposal, but I am very skeptical of it based on what I've heard," said Smith, a frequent critic of TVA. Instead of restarting the reactor, TVA should become more aggressive in its efforts to promote energy conservation among its customers, Smith said. Moulton said TVA did not ask Haney to develop the proposal. He said the utility will not make a decision on restarting Unit 1 until at least early next year. Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or . TimesDaily ***************************************************************** 6 Train to carry nuke waste in Illinois August 6, 2001 BY DAVE MCKINNEY SUN-TIMES SPRINGFIELD BUREAU SPRINGFIELD--For the first time in a decade, Illinois is preparing for a rail shipment of nuclear waste amid the safety concerns of anti-nuclear activists and residents near the train route. Sometime between now and perhaps late September, the train will be carrying spent radioactive fuel bundles from a New York state nuclear facility bound for a federal storage site in Idaho. The shipment will roll along an east-west route in the middle of the state, stretching between Danville on the east and south of Quincy on the west. Going no faster than 35 mph, the train will go through Champaign, Decatur and Springfield, passing only two blocks away from the historic home of Abraham Lincoln in the state capital. The federal government has planned the trip since 1999 and deliberately steered it away from Chicago or the suburbs, opting instead for the less populated route Downstate. Federal officials insist that the shipment will pose no threat to anyone along the 2,300-mile path the train will take, starting at the West Valley Demonstration Project near Buffalo and ending at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. John Chamberlain, a spokesman for the federal Department of Energy, said it would take perhaps an hour before someone directly next to specially built containers carrying the material might amass radiation equivalent to a chest X-ray. "If you're off the rail line by 30 or 40 feet, you won't see any difference in background radiation. For anyone sitting by the rail line or in a car at a crossing, there just won't be any measurable exposure,'' he said. But David Kraft, director of the Evanston-based watchdog Nuclear Energy Information Service, worries whether every inch of railroad is safe and whether this shipment merely represents the first of many more like it through Illinois. "A few years ago, there was a hue and cry taken up over napalm shipments that were to go through Illinois to [northwest Indiana]. This stuff,'' Kraft said, "makes napalm look like cupcakes." The state Department of Nuclear Safety intends to inspect the shipment when it crosses into the state and will have staff that accompanies it during its estimated seven-hour journey through Illinois, agency spokesman Patti Thompson said. The Illinois Commerce Commission also intends to inspect "every single foot of track" on which the shipment will travel, agency spokesman David Farrell said. The last time the state had to mobilize for such a rail shipment was in 1991. Because of safety worries, neither the state nor federal governments will reveal when the radioactive material will come through Illinois, though Chamberlain said it should be before the end of summer. Despite the safety and security precautions being taken, some of those along the path are uneasy about the deadly material that will be skirting their property. "I didn't realize it was coming through my backyard. It concerns me, and I'd like to know exactly when it was coming through because I'd choose not to be in the area, to tell you the truth,'' said Mary Jo Nelch, owner of a Springfield concrete company that backs up to the rail line that will be used. "It should be our right to know when we're being put in danger. We should have the choice of whether to get a chest X-ray or not,'' she said. Daily Southtown Pioneer Press Post-Tribune Star Newspapers Suburban Chicago Newspapers Copyright 2000, Digital Chicago Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 State: Cleanup progress must continue Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:26 a.m. on Tuesday, August 7, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff The state of Tennessee has taken to task the Department of Energy for turning its back on promises to clean up Oak Ridge. Justin Wilson, deputy for policy in Gov. Don Sundquist's office, sent a letter dated July 25 to Jessie Roberson, the newly appointed assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, indicating the state's dissatisfaction over DOE's proposed fiscal year 2002 environmental management budget. Concern has been voiced that Oak Ridge could lose as much as $90 million in cleanup funds. Wilson's letter points out that the state and DOE signed a "statement of principles" in 1999 stating the federal agency's intent to meet cleanup commitments in Tennessee. "Just two years later those commitments seem to have been ignored," Wilson's letter proclaims. "Tennessee has worked in good faith with DOE to establish a reasonable set of agreements, timetables and milestones to clean up the Oak Ridge Reservation. DOE was required to consult with Tennessee if any of these milestones were changed. Yet DOE appears to be moving to alter major elements of these milestones in 2002 with no word to the state of Tennessee." In his letter, Wilson cited several examples where DOE was failing in its cleanup commitments, including: + DOE plans to reevaluate the removal of transuranic waste, including plutonium, from soils located just across the street from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory cafeteria. + Contaminated groundwater plumes continue to contact numerous streams, seeps and springs. Approximately 140 miles of contaminated streams spill their contents into the Clinch and Tennessee rivers, major sources of drinking water for southeast Tennessee. + DOE plans to delay up to 17 months a project that would remove high levels of radioactive waste from two large, unlined ponds that are immediately adjacent to White Oak Creek, which flows into the Clinch River. "We refuse to accept circumstances under which the United States just walks away from the legacy of the Cold War," Wilson's letter states. "We must pursue all necessary action to ensure that the United States meets its obligations to the people of Tennessee." A DOE headquarters official did not return a phone call for comment. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 8 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Monday, August 06, 2001 State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects ADAMS - Items of Interest Recent Released Documents Added - Monday, August 06, 2001 These documents and others may be retrieved at the NRC PERR web site ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item ID: 012150183 Accession Number: ML011940347 Date Added: 8/3/01 2:11:06 PM Title: 07/12/2001 - NEI Presentation Slides from July 12, 2001, Meeting with Nuclear Energy Institute Regarding Containment Integrated Leak Rate Testing Issues. Author Affiliation: Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150213 Accession Number: ML012150040 Date Added: 8/3/01 2:13:56 PM Title: 07/12/2001 - Summary of July 12, 2001, Meeting with the Nuclear Energy Institute Regarding Containtment Integrated Leak Rate Testing Issues. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DRIP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150149 Accession Number: ML012120056 Date Added: 8/3/01 9:32:20 AM Title: 07/26/01 Reorganization of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Author Affiliation: NRC/OCA Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150212 Accession Number: ML012150037 Date Added: 8/3/01 2:13:51 PM Title: 08/14/2001 Meeting with NRC and Nuclear Fuel Services Re: Project Manager and Decommissioning Survey Plan Reviewer Site Visit and Fuel Cycle Licensing Branch Chief Familiarization Site Visit. Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS Document/Report Number: ML012150037 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150247 Accession Number: ML012150240 Date Added: 8/3/01 5:11:19 PM Title: 08/15/2001 - Meeting with Nuclear Energy Institute and Operating Pressurized Water Reactor Licensee's to Discuss NRC Expectations Re PWR Licensee Responses to NRC's Bulletin on Circumferential Cracking of Reactor Pressure Vessel Head Penetration Nozzles. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150158 Accession Number: ML012060186 Date Added: 8/3/01 9:33:18 AM Title: 08/16/2001 Meeting with Unplug Salem Campaign Regarding Steam Generator Inspections at the Salem Nuclear Generating Station. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD1 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150197 Accession Number: ML012120416 Date Added: 8/3/01 2:12:47 PM Title: 08/16/2001 Public Meeting to Discuss Safety System Unavailability Performance Indicator Revisions to the Reactor Oversight Process. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DIPM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150243 Accession Number: ML012150260 Date Added: 8/3/01 4:13:26 PM Title: 08/21/2001 Cancelled-GE Forthcoming Meeting on SAFER/GESTR 1600 F Limit.. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD4 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150148 Accession Number: ML012130184 Date Added: 8/3/01 9:32:17 AM Title: Committee on Environment & Public Works Subcommittees. Author Affiliation: NRC/OCA Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150146 Accession Number: ML012070374 Date Added: 8/3/01 9:31:31 AM Title: Mallinckrodt Inc - Preliminary Report to Comply with 30 Days Reporting Requirements Found in 10CFR20.2203(a) Regarding Potential Employee Exposure. Author Affiliation: Mallinckrodt Inc Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150251 Accession Number: ML012150447 Date Added: 8/3/01 5:12:01 PM Title: SRM-SECY-01-0083 - Proposed Rule to Standardize the Process for Allowing a Licensee to Release Part of its Reactor Facility or Site for Unrestricted use before NRC has Approved its License Termination Plan. Author Affiliation: NRC/SECY Document/Report Number: SRM-SECY-01-0083 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150193 Accession Number: ML012110052 Date Added: 8/3/01 2:12:27 PM Title: Summary of 07/17/2001 Annual Assessment Meeting & Meeting with Local Officials re NRC Reactor Oversight Process & Watts Bar Annual Assessment of Safety Performance for Period of 04/02/2000 - 03/31/2001. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-II/DRP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012150107 Accession Number: ML012070038 Date Added: 8/3/01 9:23:51 AM Title: Supplement and Amendment to Request for Exemption from 10 CFR 20.1003, Definition of Deep-Dose Equivalent and Permission to Use External Whole Body Weighting Factors Other than 1.0. Author Affiliation: Entergy Nuclear Generation Co, Entergy Nuclear Northeast, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc, Entergy Operations, Inc Document/Report Number: ***************************************************************** 9 Opportunity - TVA should use nuclear assets The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Tuesday, August 07, 2001 The Tennessee Valley Authority's chances of recouping the $6.3 billion it poured into its dormant nuclear power plants are rapidly improving now that President Bush and his allies in Congress are poised to produce a rational energy policy for the nation. TVA still has several big hurdles to clear before it can revive its nuclear program — the biggest one being the cost of restarting reactors and completing 25-year-old projects — but the agency is carefully exploring its options with an eye toward bringing at least some of the dormant units back on line. As recently as a year ago, TVA had little hope of recovering the billions it spent on the construction of nuclear plants in the 1970s and 1980s. But soaring energy costs last winter and the California power crisis combined to renew public interest in nuclear power. A poll commissioned earlier this year by the Associated Press showed rising public support for nuclear power and decreasing fear of all things nuclear. A critical point for TVA and private utilities is that the Bush administration has broken the political taboo against openly advocating the construction of nuclear plants. Bush, citing the excellent safety and environmental record of nuclear facilities, says there must be a place in America's energy program for nuclear power. The major elements of the president's energy plan, which includes $33 billion in tax breaks for energy development, were recently approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. This should provide more encouragement for TVA officials who are studying the possibility of restarting a mothballed reactor at Browns Ferry in Alabama and finishing the construction of the Bellefonte nuclear plant in the same state. The Bellefonte facility is about 75 percent finished. Bellefonte could play a major role in TVA's future plans — if the agency can find a way to finance the $2.8 billion needed to complete construction. TVA officials have considered turning Bellefonte into a natural gas plant or using the site for a new plant that would burn gasified coal, the Associated Press reported. High prices and the California energy crunch, which was caused in part by that state's dependence on high-priced natural gas, have dampened enthusiasm for natural gas as an energy source. Moreover, TVA needs to shift power production away from coal-fired plants that are saddled with increasingly costly federal pollution control mandates. That leaves nuclear power as the safest, cleanest and most efficient alternative. Consider TVA's recent record in the nuclear energy field. The agency's Sequoyah plant near Chattanooga has operated without interruption since 1994. Last year the Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the TVA nuclear program top grades for safety. This achievement is noteworthy given that nuclear power plants throughout the nation have a remarkably good safety record. TVA almost certainly will need help from investors to revive its nuclear program. But the sense is growing that nuclear power no longer is a bad financial bet. The problems of the 1980s stemmed mainly from excessive public concern about the perceived hazards of nuclear power. This translated into onerous regulations and long, expensive legal fights over plant permits. Since then nuclear power has proven its value in the United States and western Europe. Nuclear power plants provide 80 percent of the electricity generated in some European countries. Now is an excellent time for TVA to put its nuclear assets to work for its customers. With nuclear hysteria fading, the agency has an opportunity to generate more low-cost power and spread the economic benefits across the Tennessee Valley. ***************************************************************** 10 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Tuesday, August 07, 2001 State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects ADAMS - Items of Interest Recent Released Documents Added - Tuesday, August 07, 2001 These documents and others may be retrieved at the NRC PERR web site ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item ID: 012180113 Accession Number: ML011980143 Date Added: 8/6/01 10:33:30 AM Title: 04/25/2001 Summary of Meeting with Amergen Energy Co., LLC, to Discuss the Licensee's Proposed License Change Application 291 For Steam Generator Inspection AT MI-1 (TAC MB0664). Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPDI Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180142 Accession Number: ML012110200 Date Added: 8/6/01 10:37:51 AM Title: 04/25/2001 Summary of Meeting with NRC/AmerGen Meeting - Proposed License Change Application 291 for TMI-1 Volumetric ID IGA. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPDI Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180193 Accession Number: ML011570017 Date Added: 8/6/01 12:11:03 PM Title: 05/09/01 Meeting Summary With Joint Owners Group To Discuss MOV Periodic Verification Program Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD4 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180102 Accession Number: ML012070314 Date Added: 8/6/01 10:31:34 AM Title: 07/10/2001 Annual Assessment Meeting & Meeting with Local Officials Re St. Lucie Nuclear Plant. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-II/DRP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180103 Accession Number: ML012070308 Date Added: 8/6/01 10:31:40 AM Title: 07/11/2001 Annual Assessment Meeting for Turkey Point Re NRC's Reactor Oversight Process Annual Assessment of Safety Performance for Turkey Point for Period of 04/02/2000 - 03/31/2001. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-II/DRP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180067 Accession Number: ML012130169 Date Added: 8/6/01 10:21:37 AM Title: 07/31/01 Committee Report on H.R. 2620, For Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2002. Author Affiliation: NRC/OCA Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180195 Accession Number: ML012150476 Date Added: 8/6/01 12:11:19 PM Title: 08/16/2001, Public Meeting Notice, Management Review Board Meeting for Mississippi Radiation Control Program IMPEP Review. Author Affiliation: NRC/STP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180226 Accession Number: ML012140203 Date Added: 8/6/01 12:14:56 PM Title: 08/23/2001 Public Workshop, Draft Guidance for Measurement Uncertainty Recapture Power Uprates. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD3 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180196 Accession Number: ML012180081 Date Added: 8/6/01 12:11:23 PM Title: 09/28/01 - Closed Commission Meeting Certification - Dated 08/03/01 Author Affiliation: NRC/OGC Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180197 Accession Number: ML012140146 Date Added: 8/6/01 12:11:26 PM Title: 09/28/01-Full Written Explanation for Closed Commission Meeting on 09/28/01 Author Affiliation: NRC/SECY Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180209 Accession Number: ML012150132 Date Added: 8/6/01 12:12:25 PM Title: Funding of NRC High Level Waste Management Program Costs Under The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 - Use of Nuclear Waste Fund (SECY-84-456). Author Affiliation: NRC/OCM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180211 Accession Number: ML011760668 Date Added: 8/6/01 12:13:07 PM Title: G20010244/LTR-01-0299 - Ltr. Sen. Jesse Helms re Environmental Impact Statement for MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility (Dorothy Sulock). Author Affiliation: NRC/EDO Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180062 Accession Number: ML012120325 Date Added: 8/6/01 10:20:51 AM Title: IR 07001151/2001202 NRC Special Team Inspection Report. Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/FCSS Document/Report Number: IR-01-202 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012180225 Accession Number: ML011930042 Date Added: 8/6/01 12:14:50 PM Title: Press Release-I-00-050 - Staff Concerns & Request for Additional Information Regarding the Steam Generator Operational Assessment, Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit 2. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-I/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-I-00-050 ***************************************************************** 11 TVA to consider private financing plan for nuclear restart Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:49 p.m. on Tuesday, August 7, 2001 by Jason Strait Associated Press CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- Sen. Fred Thompson says he hopes the Tennessee Valley Authority will seriously study whether to restart a dormant reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama. The federal utility would use $1.3 billion in private funds to restart Browns Ferry under a financing deal proposed by Chattanooga developer Franklin Haney. "I support efforts to bring more of TVA's nuclear assets on line," said Thompson, R-Tenn. "I hope TVA will carefully consider the merits of any proposal designed to restart Browns Ferry I in a cost-effective manner." Haney, a Democratic contributor and long-time Al Gore supporter, outlined his proposal Monday in a two-hour meeting with TVA officials that was closed to the public. The proposal calls for Haney's company, Nuclear Leasing, to issue bonds for $1.3 billion to pay for the cost of restarting the Unit 1 reactor at Athens, Ala., shuttered since 1985 because of safety questions and an inability to meet regulatory standards. "It looks like it has some potential," said Jack Bailey, TVA vice president for nuclear engineering. "We are at least interested in looking at it further at this stage." Haney, a one-time Democratic candidate for governor, proposes leasing the reactor to TVA, which would maintain ownership of the plant, the power produced and the revenue generated by the power production. The reactor is capable of providing power to 600,000 homes, according to TVA estimates. The financing deal would not count against TVA's $26 billion debt, and would allow TVA to continue reducing that debt. TVA ended a 35-year pattern of continued borrowing in 1997 when it reached a debt of $27.7 billion, just short of a Congressional cap of $28 billion. With the help of a rate increase and a hiatus in its nuclear construction program, TVA has trimmed the debt by $1.7 billion. "That's the unique feature of this proposal. We are posting rates that are competitive, and it would not be subject to the debt limit," said Joe Conner, an attorney representing Haney who attended the meeting. Nuclear Leasing's fee for financing the project has not been released. The TVA board of directors would have to approve the deal. A decision is not expected until early next year. Some years ago, Haney quietly presented a plan to help TVA retire $3.2 billion in high-interest debt held by the Federal Financing Bank. TVA turned it down. In 1998, the TVA Congressional Caucus and the Clinton administration persuaded Congress to let TVA refinance the debt through the public bond market. In return, Congress ended the agency's appropriations for river management and other nonpower programs. The deal saves TVA an estimated $1.2 billion in interest expenses by 2016. The Browns Ferry reactor was the site of the country's worst pre-Three Mile Island nuclear accident when a worker caused a $1 million fire in 1975 by igniting a control cable with a candle while looking for an air leak. TVA also is reviewing all options on the unfinished twin-reactor Bellefonte station in Hollywood, Ala. Options include finishing it with financing help, shared ownership and outright sale. Haney has said he would be interested in financing a project at Bellefonte, though Monday's meeting focused exclusively on Browns Ferry. "Would this work for other plants? The answer is yes," Conner said. TVA is the nation's largest publicly owned utility, providing electricity to large industries and 158 distributors serving 8.3 million in seven Southeastern states. On the Net: Tennessee Valley Authority: http://www.tva.gov/ All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 12 TVA eyes nuclear plant lease proposal ChattanoogaNow | Chattanooga Times Free Press Tuesday, August 7, 2001 By Bob Gary Jr. Staff Writer The Tennessee Valley Authority official who heard Chattanooga developer Franklin Haney's plan to finance a restart of the long-dormant Unit 1 reactor at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant said Monday that it "has the potential to work." "It's not that much different than TVA self-financing, but it may be slightly more attractive," said Jack Bailey, TVA's vice president for engineering and technical services. "If it is, it's worth serious consideration." Mr. Bailey said TVA officials and Mr. Haney's representatives probably won't meet again for several weeks. He said TVA's board of directors has yet to decide formally whether to restart Unit 1 at all. "We've got a lot of work to do to analyze whether it (the Haney plan) will do everything they say," Mr. Bailey said. Mr. Haney's plan is to form an investor group called Nuclear Leasing. That group would issue bonds for about $1.3 billion, the approximate cost of restarting the reactor near Athens, Ala., then lease Unit 1 from TVA for that amount. The plant would be leased back to TVA. Lewis Donelson, a principal of the Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell law firm that represents Mr. Haney, said his client's proposal makes sense in two ways -- first, nuclear power is a key part of President George W. Bush's energy policy, and, second, low interest rates make Mr. Haney's plan attractive financially. Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Washington, D.C-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said restarting Unit 1 might not be a bargain in every way. "It's an unprecedented endeavor to take a reactor that's been in mothballs for 15 years and turn it on again. There would have to be concerns about the material condition of the plant," said Mr. Lochbaum, a University of Tennessee-trained nuclear engineer who worked at Browns Ferry from 1980 to 1983 and oversaw operations at Unit 1 before its 1985 shutdown. "It's not that we're fundamentally opposed, but it's essentially a nuclear experiment," he said. The Haney group's leasing of Unit 1 back to TVA would leave the utility with ownership of the plant, the power it produces and responsibility for safety. With $1.3 billion in hand, TVA could start the process of getting Unit 1 back on line, perhaps by 2006. Mr. Haney's plan would keep TVA from reaching its debt ceiling of $30 billion because payment on the lease would be deferred, Mr. Donelson said. TVA currently has debt of about $26 billion. Mr. Bailey said some of the bonds would be payable short-term, though others would not be due until between 2036 and 2056. Tom Zarilli, managing director and co-founder of New York-based CTL Capital, would secure buyers for the bonds once those bonds are issued. Mr. Haney would make an as-yet unquantified commission on the sale of the bonds. Stone & Webster, a Baton Rouge, La.-based engineering and construction firm that maintains Browns Ferry's Unit 2 and Unit 3, would refurbish Unit 1. Mr. Donelson, a former commissioner of the state Finance Department, estimated the Unit 1 reactor could generate between $75 million to $100 million annually, not counting lease and escrow payments. TVA could use that money, he said, to pay down its debt. Rate-payers wouldn't see higher power bills, he said, because TVA would have no new debt to pay. Mr. Bailey said TVA could self-finance a Browns Ferry restart by using cash flow from its operational plants. The agency would incur no new debt, he said, but neither would it be able to pay down its old debt. "The potential attractiveness (of the Haney plan) has us able to place the lease payments into an escrow account, where they'd accumulate value over time," he said. "This allows us to use cash flow to reduce debt now, then pick up the lease payments in the future." E-mail Bob Gary Jr. at bgary@timesfreepress.com ***************************************************************** 13 NRC Asks for Information from Certain Nuclear Plant Licensees on Reactor Vessels Press Release - 2001 - 96 - 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. 01-096 August 3, 2001 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a bulletin seeking information from several nuclear power licensees regarding the structural integrity of reactor pressure vessel head penetrations. The bulletin is being sent to the licensees of 69 pressurized water reactors (PWRs) as the result of recent discoveries of cracked and leaking penetration nozzles in the top of reactor pressure vessels. These nozzles are fabricated from Alloy 600 material. These discoveries have raised concerns about the structural integrity of reactor penetration nozzles in the top of reactor pressure vessels at PWRs throughout the industry. Control rod drive shafts pass through penetration nozzles which sit at the top of a reactor vessel head. Control rod drive mechanisms (CRDMs) are used to guide the movement of control rods in and out of a reactor core. Axial cracking (along the length) of these nozzles has previously been observed but has not been considered a safety concern requiring immediate attention. This issue was addressed by the NRC in Generic Letter 97-01, issued in 1997. Inspections and repairs have generally been made during plant maintenance outages. However, earlier this year, circumferential cracking (part way around the width of the nozzle, above the structural retaining weld) was discovered at two PWRs. One function of the nozzles is to maintain the reactor coolant system pressure boundary. Cracking of the control rod drive mechanism nozzles represent a degradation of the primary reactor coolant system boundary, and hence, is potentially safety significant. NRC is requesting information from PWR licensees to determine whether current inspection practices are adequate and whether any additional regulatory response by the agency is necessary. The NRC bulletin requests PWR licensees to provide information related to the structural integrity of these reactor pressure vessel head penetration nozzles, "as needed to ensure the integrity of their reactor coolant system pressure boundaries and demonstrate compliance with applicable regulatory requirements." The bulletin also requires that PWR licensees submit a written response indicating whether the requested information will be submitted within the required 30-day time period. NRC licensees unable to satisfy this requirement will have to submit a written description of any alternative course of action they propose to take, including the basis for its acceptability. NRC has established a web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/REACTOR/ALLOY-600/index.html to keep the public informed of generic activities on cracking of Alloy 600 material in PWRs. This page provides links to information regarding the cracking identified to date, along with documentation of NRC interactions with its licensees (industry submittals, meeting notices, presentation materials, meeting summaries and the full text of this bulletin). The NRC will continue to update this web page as new information becomes available. NRC will meet with representatives of the Nuclear Energy Institute and PWR licensees on August 15 to discuss the agency's expectations regarding licensee responses to the bulletin. The meeting will be held from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. in room T-2B3 of the agency's Two White Flint North building, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The meeting is open to public observation. EDITORS: A drawing illustrating a typical pressurized water reactor vessel upper head is attached. ***************************************************************** 14 Lowry Landfill contains plutonium Rocky Mountain News: Local Radioactive contaminants aren't threat, officials say By Todd Hartman, News Staff Writer After years of hedging, cleanup officials at Lowry Landfill are acknowledging low levels of plutonium and other man-made radioactive contaminants in the Superfund site's groundwater. The confirmation by Environmental Protection Agency and state officials came not in a dramatic announcement, but in a recent 12-page public fact sheet that marks the government's most candid admission and detailed discussion of radioactive contamination at Lowry since it was tagged a Superfund project in 1984. The June 2001 document also represents a major departure in how the government has addressed pollutants at the former Arapahoe County dump. For years, cleanup officials have focused public attention exclusively on myriad hazardous and household wastes, while downplaying -- sometimes even denying -- the presence of any man-made radioactive contamination. The new public communique, titled "Radionuclides and the Lowry Landfill Superfund Site," follows a rebuke from the EPA's inspector general last year. The inspector general said agency officials failed to "effectively manage" criticism of the Lowry cleanup by activists who allege that illegal dumping of dangerous radioactive waste from Rocky Flats at the site occurred decades ago. Though the inspector general's audit concurred with regional EPA officials that no "credible evidence" exists to support the dumping claim, it scolded the agency for inconsistent and inaccurate responses to activists' questions about the presence of radioactive contaminants. The new fact sheet is an effort to stop "hemming and hawing" over the matter, said Richard Graham, an EPA radiation expert who helped assemble it. He characterized the report as "calling a spade a spade." Certain fundamentals in the report are not new but are addressed in more detail. In it, officials continue to insist that the low levels of plutonium, americium and other man-made radioactive contaminants present in the Lowry groundwater pose no public health threat and come from conventional sources -- probably fallout from nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s or the 1986 Chernobyl reactor accident in Ukraine. In a new twist, officials suggest groundwater contamination could be from long-ago disposal of smoke detectors, gas lanterns, camera lenses and other mundane items carrying tiny amounts of radionuclides. "We have never claimed there was nothing there. Our claim is that the levels we find there are consistent with what we find in background locations -- the same as what you'd find in your front yard," said Barry Levene, regional head of EPA's Superfund program. "It's just not unusual to find those levels anywhere, of plutonium, americium, a couple of others." But the most outspoken critic of the Lowry cleanup said the levels are higher than background benchmarks, and called EPA's new effort to address the issue nothing more than public backpedaling. Adrienne Anderson, an activist and University of Colorado instructor, insists the cleanup plan -- which involves treating Lowry groundwater at a conventional sewage plant and spreading the resulting sludge on farmland east of Denver -- is flawed and dangerous, an assertion health officials deny. "What this (new fact sheet) represents is the unraveling of a complex web of collusion, corruption and conflicts of interest between EPA, its contractors and the major dumpers at Lowry," Anderson said. "It's an effort to deny liability in order to cover up a clear dumping operation." While EPA representatives and other government officials have often criticized Anderson for overstating the danger, EPA itself hasn't always been forthcoming about what's present at the Lowry site. The inspector general report critical of EPA's public outreach cited one case in which an EPA project manager for Lowry told the audience at a 1998 public meeting there was "absolutely" no plutonium at the 480-acre site. In another case, one not cited in the report, a June 1999 EPA brochure produced to counteract activists' claims about the illegal dumping, the agency wrote: "There is no credible data or evidence of plutonium contamination at Lowry Landfill." "There have been complaints from people about how and why we did things the way that we did (at Lowry)," Levene said, explaining the agency's new approach to the matter. He characterized the fact sheet as an unusual step for the agency to take, though not as bringing any new information. Instead, he said, it offers a more thorough "explanation and interpretation" of radionuclide data. The new fact sheet on Lowry is the latest chapter in a yearslong dispute between environmental officials and critics about groundwater cleanup. That job, which began last summer, involves partially treating contaminated groundwater on site, then piping it to the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, the metro area's largest sewage plant. Once there, the Lowry water is run through the sewage treatment process along with tens of millions of gallons of wastewater that flow into the plant from households and industries every day. The process then sends the treated wastewater into the South Platte River. It also produces a sludge, or biosolids, that is sold as fertilizer and spread on the wastewater plant's 50,000 acre property in Deer Trail, east of Denver. Activists have long argued that such a cleanup method takes the wastes confined in Lowry -- particularly radioactive wastes that can't be removed in treatment -- and spreads them across landscapes and rivers. Environmental officials counter that both the treated wastewater and land-applied sludge meet state and federal health standards. According to the EPA, the Lowry Landfill began as a bombing range for the U.S. Air Force in the 1930s. In 1966, the land was turned over to Denver and used as a municipal and industrial landfill. Millions of gallons of industrial wastes, including sludges, oils, caustic liquids, solvents and metallic waste, were dumped into unlined pits. The landfill remains relatively isolated, southeast of E-470, but development is moving closer. The nearest housing is a quarter-mile east of the site. Contact Todd Hartman at (303) 892-5048 or hartmant@RockyMountainNews.com. August 6, 2001 ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 ORNL's flexible R&D fund successful in special role Monday, Aug 6 By Frank Munger News-Sentinel senior writer FIRST OF TWO ARTICLES The scientific method is a basic tool for every boy and girl aspiring to a career in science, but once there they learn the method of real importance is how to acquire funds for their research. Top scientists spend much of their time not at the laboratory bench but in offices writing proposals and filling out applications or taking trips to Washington to cajole funding agencies into giving them the money needed to do what they do best. OK, that may be oversimplified and overstated, but researchers at places including Oak Ridge National Laboratory devote a lot of their energy to chasing dollars. ORNL is a U.S. Department of Energy lab, and most of its research funding comes from DOE after being appropriated in Congress with tight controls on how it is spent. Outside of the sanctioned research projects, there isn't a lot of freedom for spending the money that arrives in Oak Ridge. A notable exception is a fund known as Laboratory Directed Research and Development. "It's gold," said Lee Riedinger, ORNL's deputy director for science and technology. Riedinger administers the special fund, which is used for research projects that develop new capabilities and explore new concepts to help the laboratory better position itself for future missions (and the big budgets that come along with them). In essence, the laboratory builds the LDRD fund by placing a "tax" (about 2.7 percent) on incoming research grants from DOE. That money is set aside as part of the lab's general overhead expenses, and ORNL then uses the account to fund innovative projects proposed by staff scientists and engineers. The current LDRD fund is about $14.5 million. The internal proposal process at ORNL is highly competitive, but typically less onerous than DOE-wide competitions. And the money gets into the hands of researchers much more quickly -- in some cases a matter of weeks. Perhaps most importantly, the laboratory managers can decide what projects to fund with these federal dollars without getting the approval of DOE or Congress. That may sound like it's circumventing the congressional appropriations process, but Congress actually has supported the establishment of LDRD funds at the national labs -- to an extent. The defense labs, such as Los Alamos in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore in California, are allowed to tax DOE program funds at a rate up to 6 percent and use that money for exploratory research projects. The so-called science labs -- such as Oak Ridge, Brookhaven in New York and Argonne in Illinois -- can tax incoming federal funds at a rate up to 4 percent. Although ORNL would like to build up its LDRD fund in years ahead, the current plan is to keep the rate at 2.7 percent because the lab wants to keep overhead as low as possible, Riedinger said. The LDRD fund was one of the few things exempted when UT-Battelle, the managing contractor, cut millions of dollars from the laboratory's overhead expenses during the past year, he said. Riedinger said the flexible fund is essential because there's no other mechanism to pay for early research on new concepts or activities that could establish an Oak Ridge expertise for national competitions in the future. ORNL reportedly was among the first of the national labs to set up an LDRD fund, beginning in the early 1980s. Herman Postma, then director of the Oak Ridge lab, recalls that the initial research investments from the fund -- at the time called the director's discretionary fund -- were highly successful. "It turns out the number of patents and the ability to get funds (for future projects) greatly exceeded that of ordinary projects," Postma said. "It was exceptionally productive." In fact, the early success generated a controversy within DOE. After monitoring the fund's results for a couple of years, ORNL produced an internal report and sent it to agency headquarters in Washington, Postma said. Al Trivelpiece (who oddly enough would later succeed Postma as director of ORNL) was then director of the Office of Energy Research at DOE. "(Trivelpiece) said, 'Oh, that cannot be. You can't publish that,' " Postma recalled. "It was of the nature that if you guys are so good at choosing projects that are so productive, then we'll look bad." According to Postma, DOE headquarters decided to send a team down to Oak Ridge to review the fund and its research activities, and the team ultimately confirmed ORNL's findings. Postma said the fund was successful because it got money to researchers quickly while they were still enthusiastic. Plus, there was a special motivation because the scientists -- who submitted their own proposals for high-risk, high-reward research -- wanted to prove their ideas were worthwhile. * MONDAY, AUG. 13: I'll look more closely at how the LDRD fund works at Oak Ridge, some of its success stories and the potential pitfalls of a laboratory controlling its own research fund. Senior writer Frank Munger can be reached at 482-9213 or by e-mail at twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. This weekly column on science and technology also is available on our Web site at http://www.knoxnews.com/science/munger/. Copyright 2001 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 2 Judge awards damages to 3 DOE whistle-blowers KnoxNews: Business Monday, Aug 6 By Frank Munger, News-Sentinel senior writer OAK RIDGE -- An administrative law judge has awarded financial damages to three Department of Energy whistle-blowers who suffered retaliation, job stress and health problems after reporting security concerns in Oak Ridge and bucking DOE management over the issues. The July 31 ruling by Daniel F. Sutton, an administrative judge with the federal Labor Department, recommends that DOE pay: * $50,353 in compensation to Ken Warden, a former security analyst in DOE's Oak Ridge office who was transferred to another job after he began his whistle-blowing activities. DOE also was told to return Warden to his former position. * $25,000 to Commie Byrum, a security analyst who was briefly transferred from his position at Oak Ridge and verbally reprimanded for "insubordination and threatening behavior." DOE was told to rescind the reprimand and expunge its records of any references to the action. * $2,500 to Virginia Johnson, a former security analyst in Oak Ridge who now works at DOE headquarters in Washington. Johnson left her Oak Ridge position years ago, but she was still involved in substantiating long-standing issues and suffered discrimination in her job as a result. DOE also was told to pay all legal fees, which will be assessed later, and to post copies of the judge's order at "conspicuous" places in the Oak Ridge federal building. A complaint from a fourth party, Dennis McQuade, a one-time security analyst fired by DOE in 1997, was dismissed. The administrative judge ruled that the essence of McQuade's case had been ruled upon previously by the Merit Systems Protection Board. Loring F. Justice, the attorney for the complainants, praised the 63-page ruling on Monday. "I think it sheds light on the fact that my clients are very good and nice people who raised security concerns and were retaliated against when they pursued their legal rights," Justice said. DOE spokesman Steven Wyatt said Monday the agency's legal staff had not seen the law judge's decision and couldn't comment on the outcome or possible appeal. DOE has 10 days to file an appeal. Sutton's decision caps a long and complicated case, with some filings that date back to the mid-1990s. The testimony raised serious questions about the way DOE grants or renews security clearances, including those for nuclear weapons workers, and showed that DOE managers at times insisted on authorizing clearances over the objections of security analysts. The initial concerns, raised almost a decade ago, were that clearances were being granted to convicted felons, drug dealers and abusers and "persons with psychological problems," according to background in the ruling. Sutton's ruling does not address the validity of many security issues, but deals with the treatment of individuals in the DOE workplace. Justice said he thought the most disturbing thing in the trial was that DOE "deliberately altered evidence" in the case. He was referring to an exhibit DOE submitted to show Byrum had not been subjected to a job transfer, which had been alleged as retaliatory. The exhibit, which showed a later organizational chart after Byrum had been returned to his old position, was "misleading," according to the judge, who suggested it may not have been an innocent mistake. Frank Munger can be reached at 865-482-9213 or twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. Copyright 2001 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 3 Survivors commemorate 56th anniversary of first atomic bomb August 6, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP)--For Fumiko Amano, the 56th anniversary of the day an atomic bomb destroyed her home in Hiroshima rekindled memories of "a kind of hell." Amano was joined by fellow survivor Keiko Hara in a ceremony Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial to remember those killed by the bomb, dropped by the United States on Aug. 6, 1945. "The primary reason for doing this is to keep alive the memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," said John Steinbach, of the Gray Panthers, a multi-issue advocacy group. "The Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) are very concerned that the world is going to forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Approximately 140,000 people died at Hiroshima and an estimated 70,000 more perished in the second bombing in Nagasaki three days later. The two bombings marked the effective end of World War II. Japan surrendered within two weeks, on Aug. 15, 1945. According to Amano and Hara--who were 14 and 5 years old, respectively, when the bomb was dropped--the ceremony was not just about remembering those who died. Hara said Sunday that she wants to spread the message that "we should abolish nuclear weapons, because there is no way they can coexist with humankind. I hope there is no more Hiroshima, no more Nagasaki, no more Hibakusha!" Dennis Nelson, a retired Navy commander who participated in the commemoration, spoke of victims of another type of U.S. nuclear action. Nelson said he believes his brother and sister died of cancer at young ages because they were exposed to radioactive fallout in his hometown of St. George, Utah, which lies 100 miles (160 kilometers) downwind from an old nuclear test site. "I had to speak out," he said. "Too much is too much." Nelson, who now serves as co-director of Support and Education for Radiation Victims in Kensington, Maryland, hopes that ceremonies like these will get the attention of the government. "The only thing that can possibly change their mind is a grass-roots movement." Still, Nelson, Amano and Hara said they harbor no ill will toward the U.S. government. "I wouldn't be spreading the message of nuclear abolition if I didn't love America," Amano said. © 1995-2001 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D) Managed by I.STAR Sdn Bhd (Co No 422871-T). ***************************************************************** 4 Hiroshima Survivors Remember 'Hell' Las Vegas SUN August 05, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - Sunday was just another Sunday for almost everybody in the world. But for Fumiko Amano, the 56th anniversary of the day an atomic bomb destroyed her home in Hiroshima rekindled memories of "a kind of hell." Amano was joined by fellow survivor Keiko Hara in a ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial to remember those killed by the bomb, dropped by the United States on Aug. 5, 1945. "The primary reason for doing this is to keep alive the memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," said John Steinbach, co-convener in Washington of the Gray Panthers, a multi-issue advocacy group. "The Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) are very concerned that the world is going to forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Approximately 140,000 people died at Hiroshima and an estimated 70,000 more perished in the second bombing in Nagasaki three days later. The two bombings marked the effective end of World War II. Japan surrendered within two weeks, on Aug. 15, 1945. According to Amano and Hara - who were 14 and 5 years old, respectively, when the bomb was dropped - the ceremony was not just about remembering those who died. Hara said she wants to spread the message that "we should abolish nuclear weapons, because there is no way they can coexist with humankind. I hope there is no more Hiroshima, no more Nagasaki, no more Hibakusha!" Dennis Nelson, a retired Navy commander who participated in the commemoration, spoke of victims of another type of U.S. nuclear action. Nelson said he believes his brother and sister died of cancer at young ages because they were exposed to radioactive fallout in his hometown of St. George, Utah, which lies 100 miles downwind from an old nuclear test site. "I had to speak out," he said. "Too much is too much." Nelson, who now serves as co-director of Support and Education for Radiation Victims in Kensington, Md., hopes that ceremonies like these will get the attention of the government. "The only thing that can possibly change their mind is a grass-roots movement." Perhaps surprisingly, Nelson, Amano and Hara said they harbor no ill will toward the U.S. government. "I wouldn't be spreading the message of nuclear abolition if I didn't love America," Amano said. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Veterans exposed to radiation win benefits Las Vegas SUN August 06, 2001 ST. PAUL (AP) - The "atomic veterans" are finally getting their due. Thousands of servicemen exposed to cancer-causing radiation while taking part in atomic tests decades ago should have easier access to compensation and medical care now that the Bush administration has signed off on benefit changes. The White House Office of Management and Budget agreed late last week to make benefits automatically available to the veterans stricken with cancers of the lungs, colon, bone, ovary, and brain and central nervous system due to their roles in atomic bomb exercises. Their widows also can apply for compensation. The new regulation must clear a couple of bureaucratic hurdles that will delay its enactment at least 150 days, a Department of Veterans Affairs spokesman said Monday. But Sen. Paul Wellstone, a Minnesota Democrat who pushed to extend the benefits, said that the administration's endorsement of the change make it a safe bet to become reality. "It's a perfect example of justice denied way too long," Wellstone said. It's something Al "Smokey" Parrish doggedly pursued through letters to government officials, testimony in Congress and in a book about the tests and their aftermath. "I have worked no less than 30 hours a week for the last seven years trying to get the government to recognize what they just admitted - that it did cause problems for us," said Parrish, of Hackensack, Minn. "I'm so elated that some of my buddies are going to get their just compensation for health care that it's hard for me to talk." Parrish was a member of the Army's 216th Chemical Service Company, composed mostly of Minnesotans, that was assigned to monitor radiation from eight atomic blasts in the spring of 1952. Parrish and his wife lost three children to stillbirths and two to miscarriages. His only surviving daughter was born before he left for the Nevada testing site. Parrish himself suffers from health problems he attributes to the military work, although none are cancerous. Veterans Affairs officials estimate that 195,000 servicemen may have been exposed to ionizing radiation in the post-World War II occupation of Japan. Another 210,000 took part in nuclear tests between 1945 and 1962. Under the current system, cancer-stricken veterans seeking disability compensation - of up to $2,107 per month - had to prove they were exposed to a set level of radiation. Few could, and many who submitted claims had them denied. Last year, Congress made it easier for more civilian employees exposed to radiation in uranium mines or during weapons tests to seek redress for their ailments. They qualified for up to $150,000 in compensation. But veterans, for the most part, had been left out. Dale Howard, executive director of the Los Lunas, N.M.-based National Association of Atomic Veterans, had mixed feelings about the federal action. "It's a big step," said Howard, who was exposed to radiation in 1952 during his Navy service in the Marshall Islands. "But it doesn't cover near what it should." Veterans groups like his had pressed for a more inclusive list of radiation-caused conditions. Howard said most members of his organization, including himself, suffer from skin cancer. Parrish is upset it took so long for government officials to make amends, but he doesn't resent the military for putting him through the tests. "Somebody had to do it," he said. "I would do the same exact thing today that I did in 1952 except that I would want them to recognize the need for" more protective gear. On the Net: Department of Veterans Affairs: http://www.va.gov National Association of Atomic Veterans: http://www.naav.com All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 More cancers added to radiation compensation Las Vegas SUN Today: August 07, 2001 at 10:14:38 PDT Military veterans who were exposed to radiation -- or the veterans' survivors -- may become eligible for benefits after the Bush administration on Monday added five cancers to a list of diseases eligible in a federal compensation package. Service men and women were exposed to radiation not only during atmospheric nuclear experiments at the Nevada Test Site but also at Hiroshima and Nagasaki after atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities 51 years ago this month. The Office of Management and Budget decided to include cancers of the lungs, colon, bone, ovary, brain and central nervous system, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., announced. Wellstone, who has worked for expanded benefits since 1994, credited Veterans Administration Secretary Tony Principi for advocating the additional benefits. Last year President Clinton signed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which provides compensation and medical benefits to civilian employees of the Department of Energy who were exposed to radiation, dust or beryllium at government facilities, such as the Test Site. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 Marshall Islands Resists US Pressure Press Release by Greenpeace at 11:26am, 7th August 2001 Majuro, Marshall Islands, August 6th, 2001: The Marshall Islands government today dropped a deportation case against New Zealand Greenpeace activist, Richard (Alice) Leney. Alice had broken no laws. But the Marshall Islands government has been under great pressure from American authorities to deport him from Marshall Islands for his peaceful opposition to the Star Wars programme. Today the Marshall Islands government dropped the case. Instead the Minister of Foreign Affairs will issue a special order, requiring Alice to depart the Marshall Islands as soon as he receives his passport, or when his visa expires later this month, whichever occurs first. Alice had been camping on a small island in Marshall Islands for the last three months in order to bear witness to U.S. testing of the Star Wars missile defence system from the Kwajalein Missile Range. Alice had arranged a "peace picnic" for local people on the day of the missile test. Even with his arrest, around 60 local people picnicked and watched the launch from Meck Island near the missile range. Greenpeace anti-nuclear campaigner Steve Campbell says "The Republic of Marshall Islands has today shown itself to be a free country, despite the US government's attempts to force it to quash free speech and protest." "It's encouraging to see that on the anniversary of the US's bombing of Hiroshima, one government has decided not to bow to new US military pressures," says Campbell. The United States conducted 66 atmospheric Nuclear Tests in the past in the Marshall Islands, and Alice has a long history of working with radiation victims resulting from those tests. "The US should fulfil its responsibilities to the people of the Marshall Islands still suffering from those nuclear tests and deal with outstanding compensation issues, rather than involving them in a new nuclear arms race," says Alice Leney. The Marshall Islands' decision comes as 15 other Greenpeace activists face conspiracy charges following the delayed launch of the Star Wars missile in Vandenberg, California three weeks ago. Two journalists who documented the protest face the same charges. ENDS wapnews.co.nz ***************************************************************** 8 NZ nuclear test veterans to sue British government theage.com.au, Breaking News By Ray Lilley Source: AAP|Published: Monday August 6, 3:20 PM WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Aug 6 AP - New Zealand war veterans who claim they suffered ill health after being exposed to British nuclear tests are planning to sue the British government for compensation. A lawyer acting for the New Zealand ex-servicemen, Gordon Paine, said today that while Britain has a law preventing its own servicemen from suing it, the law likely does not cover New Zealanders. Nuclear Test Veterans' Association chairman Roy Sefton said the association will seek compensation for servicemen who suffered ill health after radiation exposure during the British hydrogen bomb testing program, Operation Grapple, in 1957 and 1958. The New Zealand frigates Pukaki and Rotoiti were part of the task force and 551 Royal New Zealand Navy personnel were involved in the tests in the South Pacific. The crews were told to stand on ships' decks for nine nuclear blasts. Pukaki also sailed through the radioactive area within hours of at least two blasts, he said. The veterans claim their exposure has led to cancer and hereditary diseases among themselves and their families. Sefton said the action would also include compensation claim for veterans' widows. The issue of including their children was still being investigated. Sefton said the legal action would be watched carefully by nuclear test veterans around the world. “We have to be extremely careful because we're only going to get one run at this,” he said. “But we believe we have an extremely good case,” he added. Research to check for any radiation effects on the DNA of New Zealand nuclear test veterans is about to begin in New Zealand. Sefton said the legal action would go ahead, regardless of the research results. Copyright © 2001 The Age Company Ltd. Any unauthorised use, ***************************************************************** 9 US Set to Ease Benefit Rules for 'Atomic' Veterans Monday August 6 11:20 PM ET By Lisa Richwine WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration has agreed to ease restrictions on federal benefits for veterans who were exposed to atomic weapons radiation and later developed certain cancers, a senator said on Monday. ``Atomic veterans'' are currently eligible for federal compensation, but many have not been able to meet the government's tough standards to prove their illnesses were related to military service. A regulation expected to be published on Wednesday removes the burden of proof from atomic veterans with cancers of the lungs, colon, bone, brain or ovary, Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota said. The government will be required to pay monthly benefits to veterans with those cancers who served at atomic test sites, or to their surviving spouses, Wellstone said. ``This is long overdue. ... It's just so unconscionable that this happened to these veterans,'' Wellstone said in an interview. Department of Veterans Affairs (news - web sites) spokeswoman Laurie Tranter confirmed that a regulation regarding atomic veterans was expected to be published on Wednesday. She said she could not provide other details but that it probably would take effect in January after a public comment period. The government has estimated that 205,000 veterans were exposed to radiation during Cold War nuclear tests from 1945 to 1962. A further 195,000 were exposed after the 1945 World War Two atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, where they were ordered to clean up contaminated debris. Many have died from cancer. Soldiers said they were not warned about potential dangers and given minimal or no protection from radiation exposure. Congress has passed laws setting compensation for atomic veterans, but veterans and their widows have been lobbying the government to ease eligibility requirements for years. ``It's just like an answer to a prayer. I'm so excited,'' said Pat Broudy, national legislative director for the National Association of Atomic Veterans and the widow of an atomic veteran. Benefits could be as high as $2,000 a month for veterans and about $950 a month for widows, Broudy said. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 Hiroshima Vows to Keep A-Bomb Memory Alive Sources: Reuters | AP | The New York Times | ABCNEWS.com Monday August 6 5:31 AM ET By Susumu Takahashi HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - The city of Hiroshima on Monday marked the 56th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing with a pledge to keep the memory of the horror alive, even as younger Japanese are starting to forget. About 50,000 people, including survivors and relatives of the victims, gathered for a memorial ceremony at Hiroshima's Peace Park, near ground zero where the bomb was dropped. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi also attended. As the solemn ceremony began, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and two citizens placed two books containing the names of the bomb's victims under the park's arch-shaped cenotaph. Paper cranes symbolizing peace were draped around the park while incense burned on prayer alters. Many shed tears as they recalled the atomic inferno that destroyed the city instantly. The Peace Bell tolled at 8:15 a.m. -- the moment a U.S. warplane dropped the bomb on August 6, 1945 -- then all went silent in the still and humid heat of the summer air. The names of 4,757 people who died recently were added to the list of victims, bringing the total number recognized by the city to 221,893. A few thousand names of victims are added each year. Akiba made a plea for nuclear disarmament, urging that the memory of Hiroshima not be forgotten. ``Passing on to younger generations the memories and the will of those who suffered the bombing is the most important step for humankind to survive in the 21st century,'' Akiba said. ''That is the surest way to bridge a rainbow to the 22nd century.'' FADING MEMORIES With the average age of atomic blast survivors now over 70, keeping the memory alive seems more difficult with each passing year. A recent survey by the western city of Hiroshima showed 64.8 percent of elementary school children did not know the exact date and time of the bombing, up 20.5 percentage points from five years ago. The bomb killed some 140,000 people by the end of 1945, out of Hiroshima's estimated population of 350,000. Thousands more succumbed to illness and injuries later. The southwestern city of Nagasaki was bombed three days after Hiroshima, leading to Japan's surrender and the end of World War Two. Koizumi repeated a pledge that Japan -- the only nation to suffer an atomic attack -- would work for nuclear disarmament. ``Japan will continue to stand at the forefront of the international community and do its utmost to seek a complete end to nuclear weapons,'' he said at the ceremony. SENSITIVE SHRINE VISIT The prime minister has come under criticism from peace activists and Japan's Asian neighbors for a plan to visit a shrine dedicated to the nation's war dead, including executed war criminals. Later in the day, survivors of the bombing met Koizumi and asked him to forego the visit. ``I would like to express the honest feelings of the survivors,'' Akio Kanzaki, head of a survivors' association, was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying. ``We want you to cancel plans to make an official visit to the shrine.'' Koizumi, however, merely reiterated that he would make an appropriate decision on visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine after listening to advice from various quarters. Koizumi has repeatedly said that, in the case of a shrine visit, he wants only to pay respects to Japan's war dead, and has no intention of justifying or glorifying the war. (Additional reporting by George Nishiyama) - | Copyright © 2001 ***************************************************************** 11 Evicted by the US military, the Inuit prepare to fight Star Wars © 2001 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd 08 August 2001 07:13 GMT+1 Independent By Steve Boggan on MV Arctic Sunrise, Qaanaaq, Greenland 07 August 2001 The sign that greets arrivals at Thule airport in Greenland says: "Air Force Space Command's 12th Space Warning Squadron. Latitude 76 degrees 32N, Longitude 68 degrees 42W." In simple terms, this is the last place on earth you can land in a passenger jet. As the sign says, it is the home of a United States space command squadron, a group of men and women whose job involves providing America with advance warning of airborne attack. If President George Bush gets his way, it will be one of two bases outside the US – the other is at Fylingdales, North Yorkshire – that will be key to his plans for ballistic missile defence, aka "Son of Star Wars". Because of its remote location, some 800 miles north of the Arctic Circle, President Bush could be forgiven for believing this would be the less troublesome of the two foreign stations he needs permission to use if his system is to work. But he would be wrong. This base and, more importantly, a tiny community of Inuit people evicted to make way for it, are about to find themselves at the centre of American foreign policy making. As Andy Warhol might have put it, these hunters in their 650-strong community at Qaanaaq, the northernmost municipality on the planet, are about to get their 15 minutes of fame. Theirs is a story of enforced eviction, a nuclear plane crash, environmental pollution and national betrayal. And, after nearly 50 years of being ignored, they view President Bush's Star Wars proposals – that will see the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia torn up, and which China has already predicted will result in a new nuclear arms race – as their last chance to have the world sit up and take notice. The Americans first became interested in Thule – also known as Pituffik – in 1946 when it became obvious the new threat to its interests would come from the Soviet Union. Inuit tribesmen remember the day they arrived. "It was in April 1946," said Aron Qaavigaq, then a 12-year-old living off the traditional Dundas mountain hunting grounds on the north-western edges of Greenland. "We saw a plane coming out of Canada. It circled and went away. Then, in July, a huge black plane came. We saw it coming lower and lower to the sea and it landed on it, throwing out an anchor like a boat. Many people were amazed to see that. They came ashore and gave us apples and told us a ship was on its way." Within months, 36 ships had arrived, an airstrip was laid, and a weather station built with the permission of the Kingdom of Denmark, of which Greenland is a part. The Inuit continued to hunt for seals, walruses, whales, narwhals, foxes and birds until, between 1951 and 1953, militarisation of the base began. Finally, in May 1953, the 27 families that made up the Inuit community were told to leave to make way for American surface-to-air missile batteries. They were given between 48 hours and two weeks to get out. Mr Qaavigaq said: "We were told there were houses waiting for us in Qaanaaq [100 miles away], but those of us who didn't go voluntarily would not get one. We had no choice; we had to go. There were seven of us. I remember my mother and father were crying. We were young and very excited to be going somewhere new. But they kept crying, so we knew there was something wrong. "Everyone packed what they could on their dogsleds and set off north across the ice. After a while, my father stopped and looked back. He and my mother were crying again." In all, more than 150 people were forcibly evicted. And, when they arrived at Qaanaaq, the houses they were promised had not been built. For three months, they had only tents in which to live. "They were treated appallingly," said Christian Harlang, a Danish human rights lawyer, who has taken up their case. "Most were given just 48 hours to leave with their elderly and their children. "For decades, the Danish government lied about them, claiming they had moved voluntarily. At school, we were taught that Denmark did not mistreat Greenland the way the French and the British mistreated their colonies, yet all the time these people were suffering." But things were to get worse. Uusaqqak Qujaakitsoq, vice-president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, and Axel Lund Olsen, deputy mayor of Qaanaaq, said the new hunting-grounds were not so good. It was too far to travel back to the old grounds (and, even then, permits were required from the Danes) and, as the next generations came along, many turned their backs on the hunting way of life. Today, unemployment in Qaanaaq is high, feelings of resentment are growing and alcoholism is becoming a serious problem. One of the reasons hunting has become so difficult, they say, is that the area has become polluted – not least because of an incident on 21 January 1968 when an American B-52 Stratofortress carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed on the ice in Bylot Sound near the Thule base. In the ensuing explosions, the bombs were fragmented, spewing radioactive debris across the snow. Despite clean-up attempts, the Americans and Danes have admitted that between 500g and 1.8kg of plutonium – enough for a whole bomb – was never recovered. Mr Qujaakitsoq said: "We are finding many deformed animals – musk oxen with deformed hooves and seals with no hair. We believe a lot of the pollution must be coming from the base, perhaps from the missing plutonium." The Danish and American governments have conducted environmental-impact studies on the base, but the results of some of them remain secret. Greenpeace, which is supporting the Qaanaaq Inuits, has tried to use Danish Freedom of Information legislation to gain access to a 4,000-page report on Thule, but to no avail. All of which makes the community fervently opposed to the Thule base being used to house the still-experimental X-band radar systems required to make President Bush's Star Wars plan a reality. For Star Wars to work, a number of American bases plus Fylingdales and Thule would operate with X-band, which is intended to track missiles during the "intermediate" phase of their trajectory, after launch but before their final attack phase. Other bases, including Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, will perform a role, but it is the X-band radar bases that are the most controversial. The Danish government, like the British, has refused to support or oppose the US proposal, arguing that the Americans have, as yet, presented no firm plans or requests for the use of bases. The Greenlandic Home Rule Government – which must defer foreign and defence issues to Denmark – has also been quiet on the issue. But in Qaanaaq, the three main local parties are all opposed to the American plans. "People are opposed to Star Wars for two reasons," said Mr Olsen. "First, they are afraid that some day there will be a war and this whole area will be destroyed in a nuclear attack. Second, we are fighting for the Americans to clean up Thule and give it back to us. If the Danish government gives permission for the Americans to use it for Star Wars, we may never get our homeland back." The strength of feeling can be judged by the success of a Greenpeace visit to Qaanaaq. A few years ago, a ship such as the Arctic Sunrise would have been chased away by hunters who still bitterly remembered their trade in seal skins being affected by Greenpeace's campaign against the clubbing of harp seal pups in Newfoundland. This week, however, the Arctic Sunrise has been welcomed with open arms. Dan Hindsgaul, Greenpeace's disarmament campaigner, said: "It has been a powerful experience for us to meet these people – they have been pushed around for 50 years but now they have a unique opportunity to prevent a new nuclear arms race. "There are only a few of them, but they are our best chance of stopping Bush's madcap plans for Thule air base." Regardless of public opinion, the role of the Danish Supreme Court, which in the autumn of 2002 will rule on the Inuits' right to reclaim their old hunting- grounds, will be crucial. In August 1999, a Qaanaaq pressure group called Hingitaq 53 (Hingitaq means "the exiled") won an historic victory in the Danish Eastern District High Court. Mr Harlang, the group's advocate, successfully argued that, under the United Nations convention on the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples – and under the Danish constitution – the people of Qaanaaq had been unlawfully moved. They were granted paltry compensation – about £1,500 each – but the victory was hugely symbolic. They have launched an appeal seeking an increase in the compensation award and will argue that it was perverse to admit they were wrongly moved without giving them the right to return. Mr Harlang said: "I find it very odd that the court agreed with our argument yet did not agree to their rights to reclaim the land. I believe we have a sound case for the Supreme Court appeal and we should win it, but I don't know if we will. "There is enormous political pressure on the court. What you have to realise is that although we are taking on the Danish government, de facto and inter alia, this is really a case between the people of Qaanaaq and the American government; the smallest, most remote population on earth against one of the most populous and the most powerful." Mr Qaavigaq hopes for victory but believes he will never return to his home. "I don't feel bitter towards the Americans," he said. "But if Mr Bush were here now I would say, 'Mr Bush, if God wanted to end the world and to turn the mountains upside down so that they were covered by the sea, he would do it; he does not need you to do it for him'." ***************************************************************** 12 EDITORIAL:We all share the obligation to preserve A-bomb history asahi.com : ENGLISH Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com JAPANESE How to convey the experience of being witness to the horrors of atomic bombs to the young people of the new century becomes an every more important challenge. Aug. 6 and Aug. 9 commemorate the dates of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the last century, mankind failed to eliminate nuclear weapons. The United States, the world's biggest nuclear power, refuses to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)-an essential step in implementing the pact-and seems intent on killing it. It seems that developments in the realm of nuclear arms are working in ways that turn back the clock. Such is the concern we feel as we mark the first of this century's ``atomic bomb days.'' And that is exactly why we must recall the havoc that nuclear weapons bring and must face that reality forthrightly. Let us turn to the picture book created by Toshi Maruki, who died in January last year at the age of 87. In her book ``Hiroshima-no Pika'' (A-Bomb Over Hiroshima), she recalls, ``On that day, my mother ran around trying to escape flames, carrying her wounded husband on her back and taking her 7-year-old daughter by the hand. She saw piles of human corpses. Swallows, unable to fly because their wings were burned, floundered at her feet.... The corpses of people, cats and fish flowed downstream. The dark sky thundered, and soon a black, oily rain fell.'' What became of those men and women and all the other living things beneath the mushroom-shaped cloud? If we forget the horrible scenes that were acted out on those fateful days of the atomic bombings, are we likely to be blindsided by the perils of nuclear weapons? The questions posed in Maruki's picture book some 20 years ago are still fresh. At the conclusion, an old woman whispers, ``An atomic bomb would not fall unless someone drops it.'' That is just the message that Hiroshima and Nagasaki have tried to present to the world for more than half a century. In ``Hiroshima: Hope,'' Takashi Hiraoka, former mayor of Hiroshima, declares, ``Our resolve to abolish nuclear weapons is sustained by indignation over the human suffering caused by the atomic bombs.'' Conversely, were we to forget that indignation, which is appropriate to the only nation to be the victim of atomic bombs, the hope of abolishing all nuclear weapons would disappear. We must not abandon that indignation at any cost. It is certainly difficult to properly convey the message concerning nuclear weapons from the 20th century. But we dare not talk about new horizons of a post-nuclear era unless we can do so. How to convey the experience of being witness to the horrors of atomic bombs to the young people of the new century becomes an every more important challenge. Those who carry the official designation as hibakusha, as those who suffered the atomic bombings, now total 290,000, and they average 71 years of age. Soon, there will be no one to present his or her firsthand recollections of encountering the hell of the atomic bombs. How are we to preserve the memories of the tragedy and pass them on to future generations? All of us who live in Japan, the only nation to suffer atomic bombings, must find the answer to this question, and must not leave it solely to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 6) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction ***************************************************************** 13 Tainted-well cleanups continue Augusta Georgia: Metro: Web posted Monday, August 6, 2001 By Matthew Boedy South Carolina Bureau AIKEN - Five months after tests showed wells in Jackson and Perry had elevated levels of a radioactive pollutant, local officials say the process of correcting the levels is well under way. Earlier this year, state experts found slightly elevated levels of radium in wells in the towns in southwest Aiken County. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control discovered that Jackson's radium levels exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's standard by about 1.2 picocuries and 1.58 picocuries in two tests conducted last year. In Perry, the levels ranged from 1.63 to 2.5 picocuries higher than the limit. A curie is a measurement of radioactivity, or the pace at which a radioactive element such as radium decays. A picocurie is a trillionth of a curie. The EPA's radium limit is five picocuries, a standard established in 1976, though not fully enforced until last year. Seven Wisconsin cities and the National Mining Association are fighting that standard in court. The levels of radium in South Carolina's Midlands have grown because of a naturally occurring phenomenon similar to one in the Upstate in which uranium, from which radium can decay, has been found. State officials say the geology of the area and most areas along an East Coast fault line allows radioactive elements to seep into the ground water. All rock contains some radium, usually in small amounts. Ground water, which moves slowly through the cracks in underground rock layers, dissolves minerals as it travels. At places where the rock contains significant amounts of radium, and the ground water moves at a slow enough rate, the water can pick up radium. But why that process occurs has befuddled South Carolina officials. ''We can't really come up with a reason we are seeing it,'' said Myra Reece, DHEC's Aiken director. ''Totally predicting that and defining that is becoming a challenge for us.'' Ms. Reece said there is no immediate danger from the radium, which can cause bone cancer, unless someone is exposed for a long period of time. For those with private wells who suspect their water might have high levels of uranium, Ms. Reese said, the state offers a test and they can buy a treatment kit at any local home and garden store for about $200. Ms. Reece said it could take as long as two years for Jackson's water to move below the federal radium standards. Bill Dennis, Jackson's water commissioner, said the city is working toward that goal. He said the city has looked at three options for pushing down the radium levels. First, the city could purchase water from another town, a choice Mr. Dennis deemed impractical. Second, it could dig new wells, though that process is costly. What seems the best option for now, Mr. Dennis said, is a filtration process. City engineers will soon begin analyzing the city's options. Mr. Dennis said within three to five months, the city can start that process. Mr. Dennis said he is not worried about the option the city chooses. ''There is no doubt they'll work,'' he said. Reach Matthew Boedy at (803) 648-1395 or mboedy@augusta.com. All contents ©1996 - 2001 The Augusta Chronicle. All rights ***************************************************************** 14 Maralinga forum organisers to continue compo push ABC News - Bulletin: Mon, 6 Aug 2001 11:16 ACST Organisers of a South Australian public forum on the Maralinga nuclear tests, say they will maintain pressure on the Federal Government to compensate those affected by the blasts. Yesterday's forum endorsed resolutions, including calls for a federal apology to those affected by the tests, and an inquiry by the South Australian Government into whether fallout affected residents of Whyalla, Port Augusta, Port Pirie and Adelaide. Organiser Ron Gray says the public mood on the issue is changing and supporters will not let up. "There's more people taking notice now than ever before - more service personnel are willing to come forward, bringing all that together it becomes a more cohesive thing to do," he said. © 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 15 Protesters converge on Y-12 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:59 a.m. on Monday, August 6, 2001 Gordon Lee Mayham of Cincinnati, Ohio, talks with Tim Mellon, an intern for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, during Sunday's event at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Marie Moffitt/Staff by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff Employees entering the Y-12 National Security Complex this morning were greeted by a crowd of more than 40 calling for peace, which resulted in the need to redirect work traffic for a short time. The group began gathering on the front lawn of the nuclear weapons plant around 6 this morning. Their effort was a continuation of a larger-scale event that transpired on Sunday. Workers entering Y-12 from Scarboro Road had to use the Portal 13 entrance instead of the normally used Bear Creek Road entrance, according to Bill Wilburn, a spokesman for BWXT Y-12, which manages the plant for the federal government. The detour, which lasted only about 10 minutes, was because the crowd blocked the Bear Creek Road entrance with sawhorses and a few other items, according to Wilburn. Stacy Griffin, a member of Citizen-Soldiers, shows her support for veterans. Marie Moffitt/Staff More than a dozen people were arrested in connection with this morning's activities. Because police had not finished processing those arrested, they were unable this morning to release the names of those taken into custody. However, police said they will be charged with impeding a public roadway or thoroughfare, which is a state charge. Twenty-two people were arrested Sunday on charges of trespassing, and their cases will be heard Aug. 17 in Oak Ridge City Court. Some of those arrested attempted to enter the plant at the Bear Creek entrance while others went over barbed wire fences along the front outskirts of the plant. According to police reports, those arrested Sunday were Paula Elizabeth Rosclaer, 40, of Lexington, Ky.; Chad E. Hartung, 18, Oakland, Mont.; Dorothy S. Ross, 81, Sylva, N.C.; Gordon Lee Mayham, 84, Cincinnati, Ohio; William May, 20, Barrington, Mass.; Oliver Gibbo, 18, Cashtown, Pa.; Barbara Newcomb, 80, Sewanee; Lori Beth Girshick, 47, Arden, N.C.; Mary S. White, 32, Fall Creek, Wis.; Daron Matthew Kohrin, 39, Knoxville; Mary Dennis Lentsch, 64, Appison; Jeremy Savage Manhein, 19, Madison, Wis.; Margaret Bell Bogle, 19, Maryville; Lynn Gail Hartung, 53, Oakland, Mich.; Timothy Joseph Mellen, 45, Oak Ridge; Tiffany Lynn Hartung, 23, Knoxville; Glenda Struss-Keyes, 54, Knoxville; Willow Dees, 28, Roanoke, Va.; Shelley Wascom, 42, Lake City; Victoria Quatman, 60, Lake City; Erik Johnson, 57, Maryville; and Doug Cox, 55, Tallassee. One juvenile was reportedly arrested on Sunday and cited to juvenile court. Today marks the 56th anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Though members of the "Stop The Bombs" campaign wanted to make a presence this morning, they opted to hold their larger protest Sunday, as in years past. More than 400 people participated in the weekend event. One difference this year is that attendees gathered in large tents near the Portal 12 entrance, which is close to Union Valley Road, instead of the Bear Creek Road entrance. Ralph Hutchison, coordinator for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, said the move was made to accommodate the group's growing crowd. He anticipated that the group's numbers will increase even more next year. In fact, the popular alternative folk duo the Indigo Girls have said they will perform at the peace group's April event, Hutchison said. On Sunday, the peace group expressed their message with chants of "shut the plant, save the planet" and "we will, we will stop you, stop you," sung to the tune of "We Will Rock You" by the rock group Queen. Paloma Galindo of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance informed the crowd that the federal government plans to spend $4 billion to modernize Y-12. "Think about where the money can go -- health care, the education system," she told the crowd. As in years past, the peace group was met with opposition. The Citizen-Soldiers for the Atomic Bomb group, whose numbers were far smaller than the peace group, was on hand to show its support for the country's veterans. Even though she is supposed to deliver her second child this month, Stacy Griffin, a 28-year-old Rhea County resident and member of Citizen-Soldiers, said she felt it was necessary to attend the event. "They don't have the right to slander our veterans," Griffin said of the peace group. "It's treason. I want to put a stop to them." Steven Wyatt, who heads up the Department of Energy's public affairs office, was at Y-12 during Sunday's event and said the federal agency respects the rights of all groups to express their opinion. He also pointed out that Y-12 is involved in activities to reduce the threat of nuclear danger. Staff writer Beverly Majors contributed to this report. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 16 Whistleblowers win damages from DOE Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:21 p.m. on Tuesday, August 7, 2001 The Associated Press An administrative law judge has awarded financial damages to three Department of Energy whistle-blowers who said they suffered retaliation, job stress and health problems after reporting security concerns. The damages granted by Daniel F. Sutton of the federal Labor Department range from $2,500 to more than $50,000. The DOE has 10 days to file an appeal. The July 31 ruling recommends that DOE pay $50,353 in compensation to Ken Warden, a former security analyst in DOE's Oak Ridge office. He was transferred to another job after he began his whistle-blowing activities. DOE also was told to return Warden to his former position. The judge recommended $25,000 go to Commie Byrum, a security analyst who was briefly transferred from his position at Oak Ridge and verbally reprimanded for "insubordination and threatening behavior." DOE was told to rescind the reprimand and expunge its records about the action. The judge recommended $2,500 to Virginia Johnson, a former security analyst in Oak Ridge who now works at DOE headquarters in Washington. Johnson left her Oak Ridge position years ago, but she was still involved in substantiating long-standing issues and suffered discrimination in her job as a result. DOE also was told to pay all legal fees, which will be assessed later, and to post copies of the judge's order at "conspicuous" places in the Oak Ridge federal building. A complaint from a fourth party, Dennis McQuade, a one-time security analyst fired by DOE in 1997, was dismissed. The administrative judge ruled that McQuade's case had been ruled upon previously by the Merit Systems Protection Board. DOE spokesman Steven Wyatt said Monday the agency's legal staff had not seen the law judge's decision and couldn't comment on the outcome or possible appeal. Sutton's decision caps a long and complicated case, with some filings dating back to the mid-1990s. The testimony raised serious questions about the way DOE grants or renews security clearances, including those for nuclear weapons workers, and showed that DOE managers at times insisted on authorizing clearances over the objections of security analysts. The initial concerns were that clearances were being granted to felons, drug dealers and abusers and "persons with psychological problems," according to background in the ruling. Sutton's ruling does not address the validity of many security issues, but deals with the treatment of individuals in the DOE workplace. Loring F. Justice, the attorney for the complainants, praised the 63-page ruling. "I think it sheds light on the fact that my clients are very good and nice people who raised security concerns and were retaliated against when they pursued their legal rights," Justice said Monday. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 17 Paducahan to get first check in sick workers' reparation The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Tuesday, August 07, 2001 Labor Secretary Elaine Chao will present the lump-sum payment to the widow of a nuclear plant worker. By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao will be in Paducah Thursday to present the first $150,000 benefit check from a new workers' compensation program for sick nuclear plant workers and their families. She is scheduled to be at the Department of Labor resource center on Memorial Drive at 9:15 a.m. to present the first check to Clara Harding of Paducah, whose husband, Joe Harding, died of cancer more than 20 years ago after making public claims that his illness was caused by his work at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Since her husband's death, Clara Harding has maintained a high profile in her effort to get compensation for sick workers and their families. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, Chao's husband, also is scheduled to attend. The Department of Labor began accepting claims on July 31. The $150,000 lump-sum payment will go to former workers who have certain types of cancer and worked at the plant prior to 1992. If the worker has died, the money will go to a surviving spouse, and, in some cases, to surviving children. Officials say it will take several months to process claims. Last month, the departments of labor and energy opened a resource center at 125 Memorial Drive across from Paducah Community College to help workers process claims. The center is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The telephone number is 524-0599. ***************************************************************** 18 Blasting opposed for Flats razings Denver Post.com Stacie Oulton Denver Post Staff Writer --> Tuesday, August 07, 2001 - A proposal to use explosives to demolish guard towers next month at Rocky Flats, the former nuclear weapons plant, is a "profoundly dumb thing to do," Boulder County Commissioner Paul Danish said Monday. Danish doesn't trust that the federal government knows the full extent of contamination at the plant, between Arvada and Boulder, and said the explosives option shouldn't be considered. He said he is concerned that blowing up the towers could kick up dust that contains radioactive particles or other hazardous material that could drift into nearby cities. "If you are going to blow up something and get a big cloud of dust, we want to know what's in it - sooner than later," Danish said at Monday's monthly meeting of the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments. Three guard towers, all at least 35 feet tall, would be blown up, and clean-up officials are considering using explosives to tip over the stack on Building 771, the world's first factory-size plutonium-processing plant. The 771 stack would not be demolished until next year or later. The coalition was created to oversee the cleanup of the weapons plant, but it can't dictate to the U.S. Department of Energy and Kaiser-Hill, the company cleaning up the facility. Kaiser-Hill spokesman John Corsi said the company wants to demolish the guard towers as a demonstration project to show that explosives can be used without any environmental concerns. No contamination has been found in the three guard towers, and the explosions would be accompanied by automatic water suppression to knock down any dust, he said. The plant also has constant air monitoring. "Their input is strongly considered," Corsi said of the city officials. "We are going to work with people about their concerns." All contents Copyright 2001 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 19 People's genes react differently to radiation ireland.com - The Irish Times - SCIENCE TODAY Dr Fiona Lyng (seated) with colleagues in the radiation science centre, DIT, Kevin Street. From left: Natasha Coen, Ed Keys and Orla Howe. Photograph: Bryan O' Brian Even low levels of radiation can put some people at risk of disease, depending on their genetic make-up, writes Declan Fahy Some people can easily cope with the harm caused by low level doses of radiation, but others can receive long-term damage, scientists in Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) have found. Most scientists have focused on radiation's ability to cause cancer. They did this by by looking at how the radiation breaks individual strands of DNA. Researchers in Kevin Street went an alternative route, showing damage to DNA is not needed to prove the harmful effects of radiation. They are studying the effects of low level radiation, looking in particular for signs of long term rather than immediate damage. Dr Carmel Mothersill, head of the Radiation and Environmental Science Centre, DIT, is leading the research, using smokers as an example. Some life-long smokers never develop lung cancer. Others do, sometimes because they have a genetic predisposition to this type of cancer. She said the same logic applies with radiation. Some people, because of their genes, can process damage caused by low level radiation. These doses of radiation, they found, can have varying effects - depending on an individual's genetic make-up. Low level doses of radiation can "shock" a person's system if they are predisposed to the harm from radiation. As the doses are low, the DNA itself is not affected. A person's cells, however, are harmed. They are put under stress, which could over time lead to neuro-degenerative diseases, cancer and ageing. "This is controversial research," Dr Mothersill acknowledged. Scientists are only beginning to understand these complex mechanisms occurring within cells which have received a dose of radiation. Furthermore, it is hard to get the epidemiological evidence to support the claims, as heavy metals and exposure to various chemicals can produce the same effects on cells as the low level radiation. At its most basic, the research has revealed "some people are fitter than others at dealing with the damage", from low doses of radiation, said Dr Mothersill. In those who can deal with the damage, the radiation dose kickstarts the release of proteins that repair a damaged cell, or help it cope with the stress. Others have not the same defences - and the dose produces a stress response. The DIT research, which has been published in a number of journals including Radiation Research and the International Journal of Radiation Biology, is challenging other scientific views of radiation. Most radiation research, Dr Mothersill said, is based on studies of Hiroshima survivors who received enormous doses of radiation. Studies produced graphs which plotted the size of the dose received against the incidence of cancer. The higher the dose, the greater the damage to DNA - and the higher likelihood of developing a cancer. Scientists used the Hiroshima survivor data and worked backwards, trying to estimate the effect of low level radiation doses. This approach assumed however that the same mechanisms in the body would operate, regardless of whether the person received a large or low dose of radiation, Dr Mothersill said. This assumption is wrong, she believes. The body's response to a low dose of radiation is "completely different" to the response of a high dose, the DIT research has found. This different response can be seen once cells are analysed. A low level dose may not damage DNA, but it does affect cells. Low doses of radiation can come from X-rays, medical imaging techniques (such as scanning for tumours), or from the naturally-occurring radon gas, which reaches high levels in some areas. It is vital to emphasise people should not be discouraged from undergoing often vital cancer treatment and medical investigations, Dr Mothersill stressed. "It must be remembered there are very beneficial effects of radiation in medicine, such as diagnostic techniques and radiotherapy, and the slight risk of exposure must be seen in context of the benefit to the patient". She said the hypothetical risk of getting cancer from an x-ray is a very minor consequence compared to the benefit of having a necessary diagnostic examination. dfahy@irish-times.ie ***************************************************************** 20 Hiroshima Survivors Remember 'Hell' Las Vegas SUN August 05, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - Sunday was just another Sunday for almost everybody in the world. But for Fumiko Amano, the 56th anniversary of the day an atomic bomb destroyed her home in Hiroshima rekindled memories of "a kind of hell." Amano was joined by fellow survivor Keiko Hara in a ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial to remember those killed by the bomb, dropped by the United States on Aug. 5, 1945. "The primary reason for doing this is to keep alive the memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," said John Steinbach, co-convener in Washington of the Gray Panthers, a multi-issue advocacy group. "The Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) are very concerned that the world is going to forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Approximately 140,000 people died at Hiroshima and an estimated 70,000 more perished in the second bombing in Nagasaki three days later. The two bombings marked the effective end of World War II. Japan surrendered within two weeks, on Aug. 15, 1945. According to Amano and Hara - who were 14 and 5 years old, respectively, when the bomb was dropped - the ceremony was not just about remembering those who died. Hara said she wants to spread the message that "we should abolish nuclear weapons, because there is no way they can coexist with humankind. I hope there is no more Hiroshima, no more Nagasaki, no more Hibakusha!" Dennis Nelson, a retired Navy commander who participated in the commemoration, spoke of victims of another type of U.S. nuclear action. Nelson said he believes his brother and sister died of cancer at young ages because they were exposed to radioactive fallout in his hometown of St. George, Utah, which lies 100 miles downwind from an old nuclear test site. "I had to speak out," he said. "Too much is too much." Nelson, who now serves as co-director of Support and Education for Radiation Victims in Kensington, Md., hopes that ceremonies like these will get the attention of the government. "The only thing that can possibly change their mind is a grass-roots movement." Perhaps surprisingly, Nelson, Amano and Hara said they harbor no ill will toward the U.S. government. "I wouldn't be spreading the message of nuclear abolition if I didn't love America," Amano said. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************