***************************************************************** 06/08/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.144 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Senator adjusts Yucca stance 2 For Bringing Nuclear Waste To Russia U.S. Demands Ending Nuclear 3 Study of Teeth Finds High Radiation But other experts dispute 4 Way cleared for world's N-waste - 5 U.S. Weighs In on Nuclear Bill 6 What a waste 7 Experts say mice can 'smell' low levels of X-rays 8 REID, ENSIGN SAY YUCCA GROUNDWATER PROTECTION IMPORTANT FOR 9 US CONDITIONS CAST DOUBT ON FUTURE OF RUSSIAN PLANS TO IMPORT 10 Opinion: Bush Energy Policy - Fuels Rush In 11 Senator: Yucca bills unlikely this year 12 EPA rule subject to change: Legal clause allows courts to scrap 13 Russia May Not Import Nuclear Waste Containing Materials Produced 14 NRC TO MEET WITH ENTERGY TO DISCUSS SAFETY PERFORMANCE AT GRAND 15 Let the obstruction begin 16 IEER: EPA's Rule Undermines Safe Drinking Water Standards, press release 17 FORATOM: EU institution endorses nuclear power option 18 Jeffords to Chair Environment Panel 19 Despite hoopla no new U.S. nuclear plants soon 20 NRC to Meet with PG&E to Discuss Safety Performance at Diablo 21 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Friday, June 08, 2001 22 Group to lobby for lab near USEC 23 Exelon asks to shift emergencies setup 24 Transformer explodes at Maine Yankee 25 NRC to Meet with North Atlantic Energy Service Corporation to 26 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Thursday, June 07, 2001 27 NRC Staff Concludes Overview Panel for Cook Restart NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Hanford may get extra $53.3 million 2 US use of dead babies not news 3 Proposed Hanford budget irks board 4 NATO Stresses Importance Of Nuclear Arms Discussions With Russia 5 Y-12 president is Roane-Anderson speaker 6 Review of Oak Ridge Operations Office Nuclear Criticality Safety 7 NUCLEAR LAB CONTRACT CALLED 'SUSPICIOUS' 8 Pressure Mounts on HK for Probe of Nuclear Baby Tests 9 To demolish K-25 or not? 10 World Wakes Up to Horrific Scientific History 11 McConnell: Extra cleanup funds not guaranteed 12 Program to assist filing DOE compensation 13 U.S. Justice Department may intervene 14 Our View: Treat DOE with respect 06/08/01 ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Senator adjusts Yucca stance [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Friday, June 08, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Leading supporter of proposal acknowledges Nevada's new clout By STEVE TETREAULT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- One of the Senate's leading backers of nuclear waste burial said Thursday he would support more research into alternatives now that it appears Nevada has more clout to block bills that would ease development of a repository at Yucca Mountain. Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, said it is unlikely Congress will pass nuclear waste legislation as long as Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is majority whip -- the body's No. 2 leader. Reid, like most Nevada elected officials a strong critic of the Yucca Mountain program, has vowed to block nuclear waste bills, and last week Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., said Yucca Mountain is dead as long as Democrats control the Senate. Reid also is new chairman of an Appropriations subcommittee that writes annual spending bills for the Energy Department, which has been studying Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as a possible repository. "Nevada is not going to allow (Yucca Mountain development) under any circumstances, and as a consequence of Senator Reid's position, you can predict what's going to happen," Murkowski told reporters. "It's not going to happen on their watch." Murkowski said he continues to support a Yucca Mountain repository but Congress should also examine alternatives to underground burial of waste. "When you've got a (Nevada) delegation that says (Yucca Mountain) isn't going to happen over their dead body, do we want to continue looking down that rat hole or do we want to look at something else?" Murkowski said. "Do we want to look at technology, at reprocessing like they do in France, or do we want to continually row this boat?" he said. Murkowski said he backs provisions in the Bush administration's energy strategy that call for more research into nuclear waste disposal alternatives while continuing to pursue a repository in Nevada. Kalynda Tilges, nuclear issues coordinator for Citizen Alert in Nevada, said, "While it's exciting and refreshing to hear comments like that from Senator Murkowski , we remain skeptical and consider things business as usual until we see Congress pass a bill that (revamps) not only the Nuclear Waste Policy Act but the entire national energy policy." Meanwhile, Reid said he plans to remove blocks he had placed on nominees to top environmental jobs in the Bush administration after Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman set health protection rules this week for a proposed repository. Two nominees could win Senate approval by Monday, Reid said. Facing final confirmation are Stephen Johnson of Maryland as EPA assistant administrator for toxic substances and James Connaughton of Washington, D.C., to become a member of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. On May 10, Reid announced he would hold up nominees for jobs in agencies overseen by his Senate Environment and Public Works Committee until the EPA released final health and safety regulations for the repository, including a controversial standard for protection of groundwater. Reid credited Whitman with standing up to pressure from the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which had argued for what were considered by environmentalists and Nevada elected officials to be more lenient standards. "I commend her for her willingness to do battle to see the rule was published," Reid said. "I'm patting her on the back." On Wednesday, the EPA put in place a 15-millirem limit on the amount of radiation that a person living outside a repository boundary could be exposed to in a year. The agency set a separate 4-millirem per year limit on radiation allowed to be measured in groundwater that flows beneath Yucca Mountain and eventually supplies farmers and dairy ranchers in Amargosa Valley. Energy Department scientists who have been studying the Yucca Mountain site would need to show the repository could meet those standards in order to win an operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Review-Journal writer Keith Rogers contributed to this report. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Jun-08-Fri-2001/news/16278193.html ***************************************************************** 2 For Bringing Nuclear Waste To Russia U.S. Demands Ending Nuclear Cooperation With India, Iran Pravda.RU Jun, 08 2001 Now over 90 percent of spent fuel from nuclear reactors world-wide contains American-made materials. The American government will allow their import in Russia for immobilisation only if the Russian government ends nuclear cooperation with India and Iran. This viewpoint was expressed on Thursday by The New York Post with reference to the results of a meeting at the Department of State between American government representatives and leaders of the international environmental organisation Greenpeace. On Wednesday Greenpeace activists asked American President George W.Bush for blocking the Russian State Duma-approved plans for importing nuclear waste to Russia from abroad. Without US approval the entire scheme is inoperable, said Greenpeace official spokesman Tobias Munhmeyer, who was present at the State Department meeting. Apart from ban on cooperation with India and Iran, the United States also demands from Russia fully to prohibit recycling of spent nuclear fuel, reported Munhmeyer. RIA 'Novosti' The Web-site of the Russian Federation administrative bodies The official site of the Russian Government ***************************************************************** 3 Study of Teeth Finds High Radiation But other experts dispute anti-nuke group's findings 06/07/2001 - Thursday - Page A 32 by Katia Hetter Staff Writer by Dan Fagin Staff Writer Charging that nuclear reactors are to blame, a group of scientists who are anti-nuclear activists said yesterday they have found increasing and "ominously high" levels of radioactivity in more than 1,300 baby teeth, including 603 from Long Islanders. But other experts said yesterday that the levels of radioactive strontium-90 found in teeth analyzed by the Brooklyn-based Radiation and Public Health Project are minuscule, far too low to be a health threat. Larger and more scientifically sophisticated studies, they added, have discounted claims by the Brooklyn group and others that people who live near nuclear power plants are more likely to get cancer. At a news conference in Mineola, the authors asserted that the findings of their unorthodox study support a hypothesized link between above-average cancer rates on Long Island and emissions from nearby nuclear reactors. There are four commercial reactors across Long Island Sound in Connecticut, three in Westchester County and two now-closed research reactors at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The authors acknowledged, however, that levels of radioactivity in teeth they collected from Long Island and Connecticut residents were actually lower than what they found in teeth they collected from each of the other areas they studied: New York City, California, Florida and New Jersey. "We ourselves cannot implicate any particular reactor at Brookhaven or anywhere else, but we believe our findings are important and need to be followed up, and they obviously provide ammunition to the anti-nuclear movement," said Jay Gould, an epidemiologist and longtime activist who heads the Radiation and Public Health Project, a nonprofit group. The study's authors found that levels of strontium-90 in 44 teeth they collected from Connecticut residents averaged 0.96 trillionths of a Curie (a unit measure of radiation) per gram of calcium. For 544 teeth collected in Suffolk County the average level was 1.38, while the 59 teeth from Nassau residents averaged 1.25 and the 78 teeth from New York City averaged 1.44. They found that the state with the highest average strontium level in teeth was Florida, with a statewide average of 2.08, followed by California at 1.73 and New Jersey at 1.55. Though higher than levels in teeth from Long Island or New York City, the strontium levels in those three states are still far lower than an earlier nationwide tooth study found in 1964, a few months after above-ground nuclear weapons tests were banned by treaty. That year, the nationwide average strontium concentration in teeth was 11.03 trillionths of a Curie. Gould, 86, lives in East Hampton and his group has drawn much of its financial support from celebrity neighbors. The group launched its "Tooth Fairy Project" four years ago. Joseph Mangano, the group's national coordinator, said the study's most surprising finding is that strontium-90 levels appear to be on the rise and have reached what Gould asserts are "ominous" levels. In Suffolk County, for example, strontium levels in the teeth of children born between 1993 and 1996 are 40 percent higher than in the baby teeth of children born between 1981 and 1984. The study's findings conflict sharply with the views of most radiation experts and the federal government. "If there's any trace of strontium-90 showing up in baby teeth today it is likely the result of earlier atmospheric bomb tests, rather than infinitesimal releases from nuclear power plants," said Sue Gagner, a spokeswoman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Copyright © Newsday, Inc. Produced by Newsday Electronic ***************************************************************** 4 Way cleared for world's N-waste - smh.com.au - World Friday, June 8, 2001 *Moscow: A big step towards Russia becoming the dumping ground for the world's nuclear waste has come with parliament scrapping a ban on the importation of spent nuclear fuel. Ignoring public opposition, environmentalists' protests, and expert opinion that the scheme is flawed and doomed, the lower house passed a package of amendments in support of a project which the Government claims can earn Russia $40 billion in the next 10 years by making it the world's biggest repository for other countries' nuclear waste. The bill now goes to the upper house before President Vladimir Putin signs it into law. The upper house Speaker, Mr Yegor Stroyev, has criticised the scheme as a gift to "madmen and the mafia", but Mr Putin is a fervent believer in capitalising on Russia's nuclear expertise. The opposition leader, Mr Grigory Yavlinsky, told the Duma: "100 million Russian citizens are against it and only 500 people are for: 300 members sitting here and 200 bureaucrats who will be getting the money." But the new atomic energy minister, Mr Alexander Rumyantsev, told a Moscow newspaper that "the lion's share" of the proceeds would be spent on "social recovery programs". Opinion polls show that up to 90 per cent of Russians oppose the plan. Officials predicted that they could start importing spent fuel for storage at two Russian sites within three years, with a view to reprocessing it from 2020. The Russians hope to import spent fuel rods from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Switzerland and Germany and to outbid the British and the French reprocessing industries. But the US holds the trump card: it has an effective veto on 90 per cent of the potential imports because countries using US-designed reactors need its consent to export their waste to a third country. The Guardian *[go to top] [ WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1 ] In this section $6bn verdict delivers body blow to US tobacco giant Plea to Macedonia: stay your hand Canberra riled by lenient treatment of militia thug Last-minute polling predicts 200-seat margin of victory for Blair's Labour All systems go for McVeigh execution Pain eases for a man who tried to help US reverses course on N Korean negotiations Indonesia in limbo as Megawati delivers another snub Children among victims of assault on separatists Way cleared for world's N-waste ***************************************************************** 5 U.S. Weighs In on Nuclear Bill Friday, Jun. 8, 2001. Page 4 By Ana Uzelac Staff Writer The U.S. State Department has responded to Russia's plan to import spent nuclear fuel by reiterating that Washington would not give its consent for importing fuel of American origin unless Moscow takes into account U.S. security concerns. The United States controls about 90 percent of the world's spent nuclear fuel, since most countries that use the fuel buy it from the United States and are contractually obligated to receive U.S. approval for any transfer of such material. Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said Wednesday he was aware that these restrictions could leave Russia with access to only 10 percent of the world's spent nuclear fuel. According to a statement posted Wednesday on the State Department's web site, Russia could count on U.S. approval if it were to sign a Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, which would oblige Moscow to terminate nuclear cooperation with "third parties" — presumably so-called rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea. But this was not the only condition. "The U.S. would need to be assured that the planned transportation and disposition of the fuel complied with appropriate standards of safety and security," the statement said. "The U.S. would want to be assured that the transfer was for eventual disposal, and not for reprocessing." The reprocessing foreseen by Rumyantsev's ministry would result in increasing Russia's stocks of separated plutonium, which is used mainly for military purposes. Limiting these stocks has been one of Washington's long-term goals for decades. The ministry plans to use the reprocessed fuel in a new generation of reactors, which environmentalists say are exorbitantly expensive and dangerous. The State Duma passed the bill on the import plan Wednesday, but some members of the Federation Council, which must also pass the bill, have voiced opposition to the plan. Russia is making "a strategic mistake in the search for quick profit," Nizhny Novgorod Governor Ivan Sklyarov told Interfax on Thursday. Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev called the plan "a disgrace." But the vote will ultimately depend on the chamber's silent majority, which is likely to pass the bill. It was not immediately clear whether Washington's position would affect Rumyantsev's stated aim of earning Russia $20 billion on the imports. His predecessor Yevgeny Adamov estimated that the world's spent nuclear fuel market would be worth around $150 billion in the coming 20 years — theoretically giving Russia access to $15 billion in profits from non-U.S.-controlled fuel. The money — which Rumyantsev says will go toward nuclear cleanups — has been one of the ministry's chief arguments in convincing deputies to pass the bill. Indeed, commercial interest in storing spent fuel in Russia seems to bridge the Atlantic. Earlier this year, the Financial Times reported that a Delaware-based company, Non-Proliferation Trust, has been negotiating with the Nuclear Power Ministry about brokering a plan to ease U.S. restrictions on exports to Russia. According to the report, the company, which is said to enjoy the support of some influential U.S. Republicans, hopes to generate $15 billion by shipping 10,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel to remote sites in Russia for permanent storage. Duma Approves Nuclear Fuel Imports (Jun. 07) www.moscowtimes.ru ***************************************************************** 6 What a waste Denver Post.com editorial Thursday, June 07, 2001 - The U.S. Senate's newly installed Democratic leaders are already busily engaged in some very tricky politics involving the nation's long-delayed effort to develop a safe storage site for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, just 90 miles outside of Las Vegas. Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who is the new majority whip, is in a great position to halt development of the Yucca Mountain site, a goal endorsed by a number of environmental groups normally allied with his Party. On a recent visit to Nevada, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle boldly told local reporters that as long as we're in the majority, it (Yucca Mountain) is dead." This assertion isn't good news for the nation's nuclear power industry, which for years has been waiting for the congressionally mandated development of a storage site for the spent nuclear fuel rods that are an inevitable byproduct of nuclear power generation. Colorado no longer has a nuclear power plant, but does still have fuel rods left over from the Fort St. Vrain plant. The state, therefore, has an interest in whether the Yucca Mountain site can be developed. With nuclear power providing 20 percent of the nation's electricity, this interest is shared by many other areas. This is not an issue that can be endlessly deferred, nor should it be held hostage to what amounts to localized politics. Experts in the nuclear field say that waste from the nation's nuclear plants has been piling up at a rate that would overwhelm Yucca Mountain even if it were opened tomorrow. That is all the more reason to find particular fault with Reid's current political strategy. He is holding up key Environmental Protection Agency appointments until the Bush administration agrees to stringent radiation standards proposed in the Clinton administration. These standards are so tight they virtually preclude development of the Yucca Mountain project. It should be noted that there is a probable majority in the U.S. Senate waiting for the chance to approve the Nevada project. The immediate problem is that the Senate's new leadership seems dedicated to denying them the opportunity to vote. The battle has been joined. It is now up to the Bush administration to better present its case to the American people for moving ahead with a storage site, without which the nation's nuclear power industry cannot expand. All contents Copyright 2001 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 7 Experts say mice can 'smell' low levels of X-rays Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun Researchers claim that mice can "smell" low levels of radiation that cannot be detected by humans, it was learned Thursday. The claim was made by a research team that included Yukihisa Miyaji, a researcher at the International University of Health and Welfare, and Takeshi Yamada, a visiting researcher at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry. In a series of experiments using weak doses of radiation produced by X-rays, they found that mice have an unusually strong sense of smell. In one experiment, 15 sleeping mice were exposed to 40 millisieverts of radiation produced by an X-ray. All of them woke up immediately after being exposed and leaned backward, holding their noses high in the air. The radiation dose was equivalent to 80 percent of the annual permissible amount for people working in radioactive environments. Researchers then removed organs that control the mice's sense of smell and conducted the experiment again. Only three of the mice woke up when exposed. X-rays remove atoms of oxygen from air molecules to produce ozone, which gives off a smell. The research team conducted the same experiment in an oxygen-filled box, but none of the mice woke up when they were exposed to radiation. Researchers believe the mice, unlike humans, can smell ozone. Another institute conducted the same experiments and achieved similar results. This is not the first time scientists have discovered an unusually high sensitivity to radiation among animals. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was found that ants could detect radiation with their antennae. Tortoises, too, appeared to flinch and move away when exposed. However, since high levels of radiation were used in those early experiments, skeptics said the animals used in earlier experiments may have reacted because they were suffering from radiation sickness or the heat produced by radiation. Copyright The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 8 REID, ENSIGN SAY YUCCA GROUNDWATER PROTECTION IMPORTANT FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY OF NEVADANS NEV. SENS REMAIN CAUTIOUS ABOUT OVERALL QUALITY OF NEW EPA RADIATION RULE June 6, 2001 Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senators Harry Reid (D) and John Ensign (R) today said that a newly published radiation standard for Yucca Mountain contains important radiation limits to protect groundwater under the site and called the move a milestone in the battle to allow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to carry out the law. "While this rule has changed from what was originally proposed, it still contains important provisions to protect groundwater and it marks an end to Nevada's nearly two-year battle to allow EPA to carry out its duties under the law. Governor Whitman should be commended for her tenacity in seeing that this rule was published and for not bowing to the wishes of those who sought to limit the EPA's role," said Reid, The Assistant Majority Leader. "Now that this rule has been established, the Department of Energy has to prove that they can fully protect Nevadans and the environment from deadly radiation. From earthquakes, floods and volcanoes to the transportation of nuclear waste, far too many questions remain about the future of Yucca Mountain for anyone to declare that the site is safe or acceptable to the people of the Silver State," Reid concluded. "We are pleased to see that the Bush Administration has lived up to its promise to let the EPA set the standard. The ground water standard complies with federal clean drinking water requirements. But, we are still trying to assess the full impact of the EPA's proposed regulations" Ensign said. He added, "However I will never be satisfied if these regulations lead to nuclear waste being shipped to Nevada. The most important thing here is to ensure that we can do everything that is possible to keep the families of Nevada safe." The EPA's rule includes a radiation standard of 15 millirems annually and a separate standard for groundwater protection which is equivalent to current radiation limits on drinking water (approx. 4 millirems annually). The rule also establishes a one mile buffer zone between the closest community and the boundaries of the site. Finally, the rule changes the assumption about water use in the area which is critical to determining DOE's compliance with the rule. ***************************************************************** 9 US CONDITIONS CAST DOUBT ON FUTURE OF RUSSIAN PLANS TO IMPORT NUCLEAR WASTE 8 June 2001 Moscow, Russia, 2001: Russian government plans to import nuclear waste were in doubt after the US State Department ruled out Russian reprocessing of nuclear waste as an option for US origin nuclear fuel, which accounts for 90 percent of the potential waste imports. "Russia is neither able nor willing to fulfil the US conditions, which amount to a de facto veto on this dangerous Russian nuclear waste import scheme," said Tobias Muenchmeyer of Greenpeace International. "The US conditions make Minatom's plans impossible. Without the US controlled fuel the Minatom program, if it proceeds, will involve mainly spent nuclear fuel from former Eastern Block countries." The State Department's announcement followed Greenpeace's call for the US government to veto nuclear waste exports to Russia. The announcement came out a few hours after the Russian Duma on Wednesday approved a controversial amendment to the environmental law, which overturned a ban on the import of radioactive waste to Russia Reprocessing (see notes) of imported nuclear waste is a crucial part of the Russian Atomic Ministry's (Minatom) plan. Minatom estimates, 16,000t of the 20,000t imported would be reprocessed. The US State Department, in a statement released yesterday clarifying US policy, said: "For Russia to import irradiated fuel containing US origin nuclear material would require a Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with the US, something it does not now have". The statement continued: "In considering whether in the future to grant consent for retransfer, the US would want to consider several factors. For instance, the US would want to be assured that the transfer was for eventual disposal, and not for reprocessing, in order to avoid increases in civil stockpiles of separated plutonium. The US would need to be assured that the planned transportation, storage, and disposition of the fuel complied with appropriate standards of safety and security. An especially important factor would be the nature of Russia's nuclear cooperation with third parties". The last point refers to American concerns over Russian sales of nuclear technology to Iran. Recent calculations based on data provided by the US Department of Energy (DOE) show that more than 90 percent of foreign radioactive waste (spent nuclear fuel) considered for import by Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) is under US control. Only 180t (or 7.5 percent) of the 2,400 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel produced annually, by Minatom's claimed potential client countries, could be exported to Russia without US approval. This material is mainly produced in Eastern European countries and in China. The State Department conditioned a permission for countries to export US controlled fuel to: a commitment that Russia would give up its plan to reprocess the imported spent fuel: that transportation, storage, and disposition of fuel would comply with international safety standards; and Russia would give up nuclear cooperation with Iran and India. The law changes, approved by the Duma on Wednesday, must go in the coming days to the Russian Upper House. The leader of Russia's Upper House is opposed to the radioactive waste import legislation "The Federation Council must demonstrate that it has nothing to do with the nuclear mafia, but is reflecting the people's opinion. Greenpeace urges the Federation Council to turn down this insane law change." said Muenchmeyer. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: - Tobias Muenchmeyer (Berlin) +49 170 86 66 052 - Ivan Blokov (Moscow) +7 095 257 41 22 or visit the Greenpeace website at www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/waste/russianwaste.htmlwhere a chronology of events leading up to today's Duma vote is available. PHOTOS AND VIDEO are available of the victims of radioactive pollution from the Mayak nuclear facility. Contact Greenpeace Communications Mim Lowe (video) or John Novis (photo) on ++31-20-5236222 Nuclear fuel reprocessing involves the separation of plutonium, the basic ingredient for nuclear weapons, from nuclear waste. There are only three civil reprocessing plants operating in the world: Sellafield (UK), La Hague (France) and Mayak (Russia) all of which have a disastrous track record of accidents and environmental pollution. It is the declared objective of Minatom to establish a "closed nuclear fuel cycle" or plutonium economy in Russia: Spent fuel would be reprocessed, separated Plutonium fabricated into MOX fuel and the MOX fuel loaded in Fast Breeder Reactors, the most dangerous reactors in the world, to produce ("breed") more plutonium, which then can be separated and used again. USA, Germany, France, Italy and Belgium have all cancelled their fast breeder programs, because of economic and safety reasons, Japan has halted its program, only Russia still believes in the use of fast breeder technology. ***************************************************************** 10 Opinion: Bush Energy Policy - Fuels Rush In Environment News Service: By John Berger, Ph.D. SAN FRANCISCO, California, June 6, 2001 (ENS) - Lobbyists for the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries can congratulate themselves on a job well done. The Bush administration's energy plan reads as if it were drafted by a second GOP - gas, oil and power interests. Given reports of their entree with Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Policy Task Force, the energy interests got exactly what they wanted: relaxation of the Clean Air Act and other environmental regulations in order to fast track a profusion of new power plants, creation of 38,000 miles of new gas pipelines (12 times the width of America), expansion of oil refineries under reduced regulation and approval to drill for oil with impunity in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other protected public lands. [Bush] President George W. Bush (left) is congratulated by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, a Republican May 18, the day after the National Energy Policy was announced. (Photo courtesy the White House) A central component of the plan - the creation of a new national power grid - is not a bad idea in principle. We do need new transmission capacity to bring the nation's huge treasure trove of clean wind, geothermal, biomass and solar electric energy to market. But if the transmission lines are situated primarily to facilitate the transport of power generated by coal and other fossil fuels, the nation will suffer a severe setback in its quest for clean, affordable energy. Another key element of the plan - increasing natural gas imports and the use of federal powers of eminent domain to quash local opposition to the proposed new pipelines - hardly seems to square with the vaunted "energy independence" which the administration has emphasized. Predictably, the plan shows little enthusiasm for renewable energy sources and no immediate relief from soaring prices for electricity, natural gas and gasoline. [Cheney] Vice President Dick Cheney headed the task force that wrote the National Energy Policy. (Photo courtesy the White House) It also ignores the issue of national fuel economy standards, a program that has stagnated since 1975. Cheney, intellectual author of the plan unveiled last week, promised only that the administration will "look at" the standards issue. Laudable by themselves are the plan's proposals for a small residential solar tax credit, tax credits for hybrid-electric vehicles and the extension of the Clinton administration's wind energy production tax incentives. But these will have little effect on national energy use for the near future. The plan curtseys to conservation, a last minute insert, provoked no doubt by looking at public opinion polls. But the administration would further slash the already inadequate research and development budgets for clean energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydrogen and biomass power, although Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, bowing to a growing backlash, has said he would revisit these items. But of much greater interest to the Bush administration is what Cheney calls "environmentally friendly clean coal" which some might consider an oxymoron, and a revival of the moribund nuclear power industry. Under the plan, the Price-Anderson Act would be renewed, limiting the liability of nuclear power plant owners in the event of a catastrophic nuclear accident. Catastrophic nuclear accidents don't seem to concern the vice president. He is on record as referring to the Three Mile Island core-melt accident, in which thousands of people were evacuated from their homes, as "the Three Mile Island flap." If you listen carefully to the supposed "need" to build 1,300 new power plants - more than one a week for the next 20 years - you can actually hear old ghosts a-croaking. In 1972, the Atomic Energy Commission, in similar fear-mongering fashion, declared that up to 1,500 large new nuclear power plants would be required to meet the nation's energy needs. The AEC's successor, the Energy Research and Development Administration, modified that ridiculous claim and more circumspectly projected that 725 reactors by the year 2000 would do nicely. That was the conventional wisdom of the Nixon-Ford years. Never mind that giant cost overruns, expensive electricity, accident risks, waste problems and proliferation concerns stopped the sales of these white elephants in the mid-1970s, with America's civilian nuclear power inventory topping out at 103 plants. Yet this is the technology that Cheney now wants to resurrect, calling it a safe, clean and plentiful energy source. [Diablo] Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant (Photo courtesy Nuclear Regulatory Commission) That is exactly the line the nuclear industry has been pushing since the 1950s when it promised that "our friend the atom" would produce power "too cheap to meter." Tell that to the ratepayers of California who have had to spend billions bailing out "stranded" nuclear assets, such as PG's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. In case anyone has forgotten, the cost of civilian nuclear power for taxpayers, consumers and private investors has been estimated at $492 billion (in 1990 dollars) between 1950 and 1990. Perhaps that is why the vice president is so fond of it. Corporations like Cheney's Halliburton Co. were deeply involved in slopping up the nuclear gravy through Halliburton's subsidiaries, Ebasco Service Inc. and Brown &Root Inc. Consider, by contrast, his faintly contemptuous remark, "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy." Forget for a moment that not even the most committed environmentalist is suggesting that we rely entirely on conservation to meet future energy needs. Note instead that five national scientific laboratories have recently shown that straightforward energy efficiency programs could eliminate the need for more than 600 new power plants. Aware of criticism, the Bush administration is now trying to make nice, with Bush absurdly declaring his policy as "a new kind of conservation, a 21st century conservation." It's an interesting kind of "new" conservation that does not dare call upon restraints on conspicuous consumption, no matter how unnecessarily gas-guzzling the SUV or grandiose the monster home may be. In a statement in May, the vice president actually said that he's not in favor of doing more with less energy, a pronouncement a freshman engineering student would find astounding. Merrily burning as much nonrenewable fuel as possible, wringing the last drop of oil from protected public lands, trampling on local rights in the name of pipeline building and resurrecting the specter of nuclear power, with all its danger and all its deadly waste, hardly comports with the "compassionate conservatism" espoused by the Bush-Cheney election campaign. Neither does it accord with the wishes of the American people. The National Energy Policy is available online at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/ {John Berger is an energy and environmental consultant. He has worked for the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, corporations such as Lockheed and Chevron, nonprofit groups, and governmental organizations, including the U.S. Congress. He is the author of "Charging Ahead - The Business of Renewable Energy and What it Means for America," and "Beating the Heat: Why and How We Must Combat Global Warming."} © Environment News Service ***************************************************************** 11 Senator: Yucca bills unlikely this year Las Vegas SUN: June 07, 2001 By Benjamin Grove LAS VEGAS SUN WASHINGTON -- Any Yucca Mountain-related legislation is not likely to surface in the Senate this year, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., now the leading senator on energy issues, said Wednesday. Bingaman on Wednesday became chairman of the Senate Energy Committee as the Senate underwent a historic mid-session shift from Republican to Democratic control. That committee will wrestle this year with energy policies. But the panel probably will not consider nuclear waste legislation. "We're on track," Bingaman told reporters of the proposed nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "There's nothing Congress is required to do as far as I'm concerned." Bingaman replaced former chairman Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, a vocal supporter of the Yucca project. Environmental groups say Bingaman, like Murkowski, also supports the Yucca project, but he is more sympathetic to Nevada objections. "Sen. Bingaman is more concerned about the weakening of the process of determining whether Yucca Mountain is approved or not approved," said Anna Aurilio, a scientist with U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Bingaman spokeswoman Jude McCartin said, "If the Department of Energy comes back next year ... and agrees that Yucca Mountain is the right place to pursue as a repository, and all the T's are crossed and the I's dotted, certainly Sen. Bingaman is not going to stand in the way of opening Yucca." Congress in 1987 designated Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the only site to study and consider as the nation's nuclear waste burial ground. The Environmental Protection Agency this week issued health and safety standards for the proposed repository. The next important step in the project timeline will be the DOE issuing its site recommendation on Yucca to the president. Nevada can formally file an objection, which Congress can override. Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must approve a DOE license to store waste at the desert site. "The Congress has already dealt with this issue to the extent that it needs handling," McCartin said. Last year, Murkowski crafted a bill that shortened the timeline for waste shipments to Nevada by three years, and he attempted to draft a compromise on radiation release limits at the Yucca site. President Clinton vetoed the bill. But Bingaman has no plans to bring up a similar bill, McCartin said. Despite his general support for Yucca, Bingaman has voted with Nevada senators on technical Yucca-related legislation before, including last year, said Nathan Naylor, spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. "There's no reason to think that he wouldn't in the future," Naylor said. Murkowski has butted heads with Nevada senators over the radiation standard and the Yucca project in general. "The strength of the anti-nuclear lobby and those on the Democratic side, along with the folks in the state of Nevada, are clearly going to do everything they can to stop this," Murkowski told reporters this week. Still, Murkowski said he was optimistic nuclear energy industry officials could still move forward with plans to eventually build new plants in America, despite opposition from some Democrats and several sizeable hurdles, including where to store waste. Dow Jones News Service contributed to this article. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 12 EPA rule subject to change: Legal clause allows courts to scrap radiation standards at Yucca June 08, 2001 By Mary Manning and Benjamin Grove LAS VEGAS SUN The Environmental Protection Agency's long-awaited, "finalized" radiation standards for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository are not absolutely final. According to a fairly routine "severability" clause inserted in the 152-page EPA standards document unveiled Wednesday, federal courts have the authority to review and scrap a part of the standards -- including a limit on radiation that taints ground water near the repository. That ground water rule is crucial: Nevada leaders say it is vital to protecting residents, and the nuclear power industry says the rule is so strict that it threatens the viability of the proposed dump at Yucca. The nuclear industry has already sued the EPA over its rules, specifically stating that the ground water rule is unnecessary. "In its current form, the Yucca Mountain Rule will impede timely disposal of used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste," the lawsuit said. As courts consider the complaint, the severability clause will become an issue. Such a clause allows judges to toss out a single standard without throwing out the entire rule. That's why the EPA inserted the clause during an Office of Management and Budget review this year, said Frank Marcinowski, director of the EPA Radiation Protection Division. The aim was to protect the heart of the standards in the face of a court challenge to one provision. Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being considered as the nation's nuclear waste repository, a permanent burial ground for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent uranium fuel. The EPA has the legal authority to determine how much radiation could leak from the waste into the environment, and EPA officials after two years finalized their rules Wednesday. The rules include two important standards: a 15-millirem limit on radiation leaks into the environment immediately surrounding Yucca; and a 4-millirem limit on radiation in ground water downstream from Yucca. An average chest X-ray is 5 millirems. The EPA's rules become final on July 6. But a court challenge to the standards has already been launched. This week the nuclear energy industry promptly asked two federal courts to throw out the ground water standard. The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's top lobby group, on Wednesday filed a five-page suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging the ground water rule is "arbitrary" and "unjustified." NEI also filed a two-page petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit requesting a court review of the standard. The lawsuits were filed just hours after the EPA unveiled its final rules on its website. "We knew we had several options after the EPA issued its draft rule (in August 1999) and litigation was one," NEI lawyer Ellen Ginsberg said. Many real estate agreements, employer-employee contracts and other regulations contain severability clauses, allowing future adjustments without cancel ing the entire agreement or regulation, legal experts said. For example, a severability clause in patients bill of rights legislation now being considered in Congress could one day protect the bulk of the law, even if courts scrap one provision. Of course, one other body could challenge the EPA standards: Congress. But that looks less and less likely this year. The Senate's leading Yucca Mountain supporter, Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, this week acknowledged the Yucca project faces strong opposition in the new Democratically controlled Congress. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-N.D., standing alongside Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., at a Las Vegas fund-raiser last month declared Yucca "dead." Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, also this week said Yucca legislation is unlikely this year. In the House, Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., do not expect any of their House colleagues to challenge the EPA standards this year, their aides said. Congress has revised EPA standards before: lawmakers changed rules governing air and water contamination at Yucca Mountain in the early 1990s. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham could make his official recommendation on Yucca Mountain to President Bush by the end of this year or next year. His recommendation would be based in part on whether Yucca could meet the strict ground water radiation limit. The repository would open in 2010 at the earliest. Sun wire reports All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 13 Russia May Not Import Nuclear Waste Containing Materials Produced In US Pravda.RU Jun, 07 2001 Pravda.ru comes forward with working out conceptions and creating new corporative representative sites, as well as with promotion of new products in the Net. More in detail... Most of the world's nuclear reactor fuel waste "contains materials made in the US" and at the moment Russia has no right to import them into its territory for processing, said Richard Boucher, an official US Department of State spokesman, on Thursday. In a written answer distributed in Washington to journalists' questions about a decision of the Russian State Duma, Boucher said that import into any country of nuclear waste of American origin may be done only with "US consent". This is confirmed by American "legislation and bilateral agreements" with those countries which use American fuel. According to Boucher, Russia may accept on its territory spent nuclear fuel with American origins only if Russia and the US sign an agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear power, which does not exist at the moment. When adopting a decision on allowing future import into Russia of spent nuclear fuel produced in the US, Washington will demand guarantees that this fuel will be destroyed and will not be recycled, thus increasing "civilian stockpiles of divided plutonium". Besides, the US needs guarantees that transportation, storage and destruction of fuel will be done "in accordance with appropriate safety and protection standards". "A particularly important factor will be the character of cooperation between Russia and third countries in the nuclear field," the official spokesman said. RIA 'Novosti' Pravda.RU:Politics ***************************************************************** 14 NRC TO MEET WITH ENTERGY TO DISCUSS SAFETY PERFORMANCE AT GRAND GULF NUCLEAR POWER PLANT Press Release Region IV - 2001- 26 - NRC to Meet with Entergy to Discuss Safety Performance at Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 No. IV-01-026 June 7, 2001 CONTACT: Breck Henderson Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227 e-mail: bwh@nrc.gov The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with officials of Entergy Operations Inc. on Thursday, June 14, to discuss the results of NRC's annual assessment of safety performance at the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant. The meeting will be held at 1 p.m. in the Energy Information Center, Waterloo Road, Port Gibson, Miss. The public is invited to observe the meeting. NRC officials will be available after the meeting to answer questions. A letter sent from NRC Region IV to Entergy, which addresses plant safety performance during the previous year and forms the basis of the meeting discussion, is available from the Region IV Office of Public Affairs or on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/ppr/. Current safety performance information for Grand Gulf is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/GG1/gg1_chart.html ***************************************************************** 15 Let the obstruction begin Robert Novak *June 7, 2001* BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST * New radiation rules issued Wednesday for the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository in Nevada underline President Bush's problems with Washington's altered balance of power. Democratic control of the Senate imperils the administration's nuclear strategy in attacking the energy shortage. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, a rising figure as Senate minority whip, is now a premier power broker as majority whip. For weeks, he has blocked Bush's nominees to the Environmental Protection Agency until it issues radiation standards that will kill Yucca Mountain and, therefore, expansion of nuclear energy. Wednesday's new standards won't satisfy him. Reid was at Sen. Tom Daschle's side in Las Vegas last weekend when the presumptive majority leader declared the waste repository dead. Daschle's death notice delighted environmental ideologues who oppose the nuclear option even though it promises a clean, safe and increasingly economical energy alternative (now providing 20 percent of the nation's electricity). But the green threatening nuclear development is not the color of trees but of money on Nevada's gambling tables. The state's dominant industry does not want even a safe nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas for fear of frightening away high-rollers. Without Yucca Mountain to store waste, new nuclear power cannot be developed. That's the goal of Harry Reid, Nevada's main agent in Washington. A ''work horse'' rather than a ''show horse'' to use Sam Rayburn's terminology, Reid attracted little attention in Washington when he was elected the Senate's No. 2 Democrat without opposition in late 1998. He has since become a leading backroom operative, brokering the Senate Democratic takeover by sacrificing his top-ranking seat on the Environment Committee to make Sen. Jim Jeffords its chairman. Reid has blocked confirmation of three EPA nominations, holding them hostage while demanding that the Bush administration approve a ruling made by Carol Browner as the agency's administrator under President Bill Clinton. She advocated a maximum radiation level on Yucca Mountain groundwater of 4 millirem -- killing nuclear expansion. That compares with 5 millirem from a Washington-Las Vegas round-trip flight, 50 millirem from living in Denver (absorbing cosmic radiation), 85 millirem from a year working at the U.S. Capitol and 150 millirem from a dental X-ray. The nuclear industry asserts an overall 15-millirem ceiling, not limited to groundwater, is safe. Clinton's EPA holdovers nearly inserted the 4-millirem level in Bush's energy package May 17, even though it was rejected last year as unscientific by the National Academy of Sciences. Sandbagged by Reid, the White House now has agreed to Browner's 4 millirem but applies it to a larger body of water--''changing the denominator from a glass to a bucket,'' says one aide. That is a backdoor way to save the waste-disposal facility. Such a solution will not satisfy the Nevadans, who want to kill Yucca Mountain--not make sure that it doesn't contaminate water. When Daschle arrived in Las Vegas last weekend for a Reid fund-raiser, he was extraordinarily blunt to reporters in responding to questions about the waste repository: ''As long as we're in the majority it's dead.'' By any count, a substantial majority of senators--many with nuclear reactors in their state -- favor authorizing the Nevada site. Thus, Daschle's declaration that Yucca Mountain is dead contradicts what he told me on CNN May 26: ''We're going to have an open process. I can't conceive of using the filibuster and the cloture opportunities that a majority leader has available to him to stymie debate.'' But parliamentary tricks will be needed for Daschle and Reid to keep their pledge. They may really hope that George W. Bush looks at the multiple problems in dealing with a Democratic majority and gives up a doubtful and difficult fight for nuclear power. Pressure on the president is intensified because the Republican Party is on the rise in Nevada with the election of Kenny Guinn as governor in 1998, of John Ensign as senator in 2000 and Bush carrying the state last year for four electoral votes he could not afford to lose. Bush could capitulate and save himself lots of trouble. The cost would be sacrificing an important means of supplying energy to the American people. Copyright 2000, Digital Chicago Inc. ***************************************************************** 16 IEER: EPA's Rule Undermines Safe Drinking Water Standards, press release *PRESS RELEASE* For Immediate Release, 6 June 2001 For further information contact: Arjun Makhijani, (301) 270-5500 *Rule Sets a Precedent for Possible Future Federal Government Pollution of Public Lands, Independent Institute Claims* Takoma Park, Maryland: The Environmental Protection Agency's final rule for the proposed nuclear repository for high level radioactive waste, issued today, abandons protections for drinking water even while retaining the formalism of the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER). The EPA created an exclusion zone of 18 kilometers (about 11 miles) around the repository in which the safe drinking water rules would not apply. The rule would apply beyond the exclusion zone. The 18-kilometer zone was selected because it corresponds to the limit of the Nevada Test Site, which the EPA says is federal land (but which is also claimed by the Western Shoshone tribe). The limit of the exclusion zone is only about a mile-and-a-half from the small community of Lathrop Wells, and just eight miles from an agricultural area where water from the aquifer is used for irrigation today. "This is the first time that the EPA has exempted a portion of a currently used aquifer from the safe drinking water act," said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president of IEER. "The EPA's exclusion zone concept is very dangerous. Much of the land in the West is under federal control. This exclusion zone implies that the federal government can decide to exempt itself from rules that apply to everyone else whenever it wants." The power of eminent domain makes the reasoning behind the exclusion zone even more questionable. "If private water supplies are polluted or threatened with pollution by industry or government in the future, and the federal government believes that enough is at stake, what is to prevent it from using its power of eminent domain to take over the land and the water resources beneath it? While this seems to be one small exclusion in a desert area in the vast West, it will undermine the safe drinking water act as no rule has done before," said Dr. Makhijani. "It is a misguided rule that should be rescinded." There has been intense pressure from the nuclear industry to license Yucca Mountain, for which the rules have been relaxed twice before, according to IEER. In the late 1980s, the EPA issued a rule for high-level waste repositories, but it soon became clear that Yucca Mountain could not comply with one part of it, a judgment confirmed by the EPA Science Advisory Board in 1994. The problematic part of the rule sought to limit emissions of carbon-14, a radioactive from of carbon, from the repository. Instead of seeking a new site that could meet all then-existing rules, Congress asked the National Academy of Sciences to advise the EPA on how to set a special rule for Yucca Mountain. "I call it the double-standard standard," said Dr. Makhijani. "The government's approach, under intense industry pressure seems to be: If Yucca Mountain can't meet the rule, just change it. In the 1990s it also became clear that Yucca Mountain probably could not the meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing standards, issued in the 1980s. So new rules for licensing were then issued." A decision on the suitability of the site is expected from the Department of Energy later this year or early next year. According to IEER, other problems with the rule issued today include: + A decision to limit radiation protection to 10,000 years, even though it is officially estimated the maximum doses are likely to occur 100,000 or more years from now. The 10,000 year limit for regulation was set despite at least two reports from the National Research Council, including the 1995 report mandated by Congress on Yucca Mountain standards, that advised that the dose should be calculated at the time of the estimated peak occurrence of contamination. "The 10,000 year limit is an arbitrary and bureaucratic rejection of the advice of the National Research Council," said Dr. Makhijani. + The abandonment of conservative principles of radiation protection which are used throughout the world. They are based on the common sense idea that lifestyles far into the future cannot be predicted and, that therefore, future populations should be protected by assuming that the most exposed person in the future will be a subsistence farmer. + The rule does not consider doses from other pollution present at the Nevada Test Site. "Yucca Mountain is a poor site and the government should stop wasting money on it and start afresh," Dr. Makhijani said. IEER has published extensively on nuclear waste, including an alternative waste management plan and principles for doing repository research. For more information, see IEER's newsletter, *Science for Democratic Action*, vol. 7 no. 3 (May 1999) , containing IEER's Alternative Plan for Highly Radioactive Waste Management in the United States. An exhaustive list of IEER web resources on radioactive waste can be found at www.ieer.org/webindex.html#waste. --30-- IEER Homepage Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Comments to Outreach Coordinator: ieer@ieer.org Takoma Park, Maryland, USA *Posted June 6, 2001* ***************************************************************** 17 FORATOM: EU institution endorses nuclear power option [M2 Communications Ltd.] Story Filed: Thursday, June 07, 2001 1:03 PM EST Brussels, Jun 07, 2001 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- A key EU institution, the European Economic and Social Committee (ESC), has strongly endorsed the use of nuclear power to meet the energy supply and climate change challenges facing the European Community. The ESC, an important EU consultative body also known as ECOSOC, has issued its response to the European Commission's Green Paper on security of energy supply, published last November. The ESC said yesterday (Wednesday)* that the committee adopted - without opposition - an 'opinion' on 30 May, stating that the best way to reduce energy supply risk was to "ensure the most diverse and balanced possible use of different types and forms of energy". About 35% of the EU's electricity is generated by nuclear power plants, which emit virtually no greenhouse or acid rain gases. The committee has taken the view that EU member states should take their own decisions on the use of nuclear power, and that this independent decision-making must be respected in the future. The ESC adds: "However, it is difficult to see how the EU can in future meet the challenges of climate change and ensuring energy supply at reasonable prices without nuclear power continuing to make at least its current contribution to electricity production. Nuclear power may also in the future support the developing hydrogen economy, which requires a secure supply of electricity or natural gas." The ESC's position has been welcomed by FORATOM, the trade association for the nuclear industry in Europe. Secretary General Dr. Wolf-J. Schmidt-Kuster said: "The committee statement shows there is broad-based recognition of the important role that nuclear power plays in meeting Europe's economic and environmental targets. This contrasts sharply with the steps taken by some European governments to phase-out nuclear for purely political reasons." The ESC acts as an advisor to the three main EU Institutions - the European Parliament, Council and Commission. The committee also seeks to promote input into EU policy matters from civil society. The ESC is made up of 222 representatives from all EU member states, drawn from organisations representing employers, workers, farmers, the professions, consumers, environmentalists and NGOs involved in social issues. The Green Paper was published to initiate a wide-ranging and dispassionate debate on security of energy supply in the EU. The Community is currently dependent on imports to meet about 50% of its energy needs, but this level of dependency is expected to rise to 70% over the next 20-30 years. As one of "tomorrow's priorities", the Green Paper said: "The nuclear option must be examined in terms of its contribution to security of supply and greenhouse gas emission reductions." FORATOM's response to the Green Paper is available on the Internet ( www.foratom.org). http://www.esc.eu.int/pages/en/acs/press--rels/cp--ces63-2001--cp--en.PDF CONTACT: Jack Ashton, Media Relations Manager, Tel: +32 2 505.32.26 e-mail: ja@foratom.skynet.be Karen Daifuku, Communications Director Tel: +32 2 505.32.20 e-mail: kd@foratom.skynet.be M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.neton the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com. Copyright 1994-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD ***************************************************************** 18 Jeffords to Chair Environment Panel Thursday June 7 3:39 PM ET Senate Convenes under New Democratic Leadership - (ABCNews.com) *By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer * WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. James Jeffords (news - web sites) is going to be creating a lot more headaches for President Bush (news - web sites) besides turning the Senate over to Democratic control. The newly independent Vermont lawmaker who soon will become chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has an environmental and energy agenda sharply different from the White House's. ``I have been disappointed in the president's actions so far this year on environmental issues,'' Jeffords told The Associated Press on Thursday. ``In the weeks ahead, I'll be working to put together an environmental agenda that will garner bipartisan support.'' A top priority will be trying to persuade President Bush to return to the positions he held as a presidential candidate on global warming and power plants' carbon dioxide emissions. In March, Bush backed out of a 1997 international global warming treaty, negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, and abandoned his campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. The administration is again rethinking its approach, focusing on largely voluntary measures. ``I am deeply depressed by the fact we removed ourselves from the Kyoto agreement,'' said Jeffords, who has sponsored legislation to treat carbon dioxide as a pollutant. ``Obviously, we can't do much to reinstate (our) country except to put the pressure on and hopefully to convince the administration that that was a bad idea.'' On some issues, Bush's agenda is not that far apart from Jeffords'. A month before the president released his energy plan, Jeffords joined Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., in sponsoring a bill to promote cleaner vehicles and reduce fuel consumption through tax credits. Bush's energy package has similar tax incentives. But Jeffords wants a stronger government role in improving energy efficiency and in looking beyond fossil fuels and nuclear power for energy resources. ``I was one of those who started the alternative energy field, wind energy. I also some time ago got the present energy bill put into place that looks for more efficiency and alternative forms of energy,'' he said. ``I have been out front on these issues and I will continue to be out front.'' Jeffords was one of the principal negotiators of the 1990 Clean Air Act. In recent years, he has stood watch against efforts by some Republicans to attach provisions to spending bills that would weaken environmental laws. He also was one of two Republican co-sponsors of a bill opposing oil exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (news - web sites), a centerpiece of Bush's energy plan. Environmentalists see Jeffords signaling a shift from Bush's emphasis on market-based energy and environmental policies and toward strengthening traditional emphasis on governmental regulations. So does Sen. Robert Smith (news - bio- voting record), R-N.H., who led the committee Jeffords is taking over. Smith said he expects more regulation and less negotiation on environmental policy under Jeffords. ``I've tried to move to ... more market-based initiatives to get more voluntary reductions in emissions,'' Smith said. As an example, he cited a ``cap and trade'' policy under which polluters who reduce emissions below set limits can get credits they can sell to other polluters. Supporters of the administration's policies say they do not believe Jeffords' ascension will produce many changes. ``Whether it's Smith or Jeffords, they are both going to be pro-environmental. The real problem is that the committee is green,'' said Bill Kovacs, vice president for environment and regulatory affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (news - web sites). ``Certainly, Jeffords may try to block some of the administration's positions from going through,'' Kovacs said. ``But there's not going to be much he can do about it.'' On the Net: Senate Environment and Public Works Committee: http://www.senate.gov/(tilde)epw Sen. Jeffords' site: http://www.senate.gov/(tilde)jeffords/energy-enviro.html Copyright © 2001 ., and The Associated Press. All rights ***************************************************************** 19 Despite hoopla no new U.S. nuclear plants soon Thursday June 7, 12:44 pm Eastern Time By Carolyn Koo NEW YORK, June 7 (Reuters) - Despite haunting memories of the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents, the U.S. nuclear power industry appears poised for a rebirth as a worsening energy shortage and the high price of alternative fuels force utilities to seek new supply. But energy executives caution it may be years before completion of the next new plant. ``I'm a huge believer that nuclear power should play a part in our energy needs,'' Michael Morrell, president and chief operating officer of Allegheny Energy Supply Co., a subsidiary of utility Allegheny Energy Inc. (NYSE:AYE - news), said at a recent conference. ``But I don't believe there will be a nuclear plant built in my lifetime.'' Morrell, 53, was an engineer at GPU Inc. (NYSE:GPU - news) during the 1979 meltdown of the utility's Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, the U.S. industry's worst nuclear accident, and knows whereof he speaks. Three Mile Island was followed by the world's worst nuclear accident at the Chernobyl plant near Kiev in Ukraine in 1986. Not all industry executives are as pessimistic -- or blunt -- as Morrell. But, as much as they all hope that a national energy crisis and an improved safety record pave the way for new plants, they realize that issues like deciding where to dispose of waste, improving licensing, attracting people to the industry and, not least, mustering public support continue to stand in the way. And that means new plants won't go up any time soon -- certainly not in time to solve today's power problems. Already, nuclear power supplies about 20 percent of U.S. energy needs, but those needs are rapidly expanding. Supplies are scant, even as electricity demand nationally is set to rise about 20 to 25 percent over the next decade. Don Kirchoffner, spokesman for utility Exelon Corp. (NYSE:EXE - news), said he thinks 2006 is the earliest for construction of a new plant. But Lou Long, vice president of technical services at Southern Co. (NYSE:SO - news) unit Southern Nuclear Operating Co., is slightly more optimistic, estimating that a new plant could be in place by 2005 but only ``if you started today.'' In other words, nuclear power isn't going to be much help in the current crisis in California, which remains at the mercy of a flawed deregulation plan that's resulted in power shortages and a series of rolling blackouts. THINGS HAVE CHANGED Nevertheless, energy executives say nuclear power could do its part to provide energy for the country's future needs, and the industry is poised to press ahead, given the imprimatur of President George W. Bush as well as nascent public approval. The national energy policy announced last month by the administration called for increased use of nuclear power. ``Existing and new technologies offer us the opportunity to expand nuclear generation as well,'' the policy stated. ``This power source, which causes no greenhouse gas emissions, can play an expanding part in our energy future.'' Even Stephen Dolley, research director of the anti-proliferation Nuclear Control Institute, admitted, ``It's the strongest support nuclear power has had in the White House in 20 years.'' And a recent poll by the Field Institute, a nonprofit public policy research group, revealed that 59 percent of Californians support building more nuclear power plants. The realization that California's problems aren't necessarily unique has propelled nuclear power onto the national energy agenda. And high natural gas prices have utilities looking at alternative fuel sources like nuclear or cleaner-burning coal. ``Our industry was caught off guard in that we really weren't seriously looking at nuclear power plants because the price of gas was so low,'' explained Southern's Long. ``Suddenly things changed dramatically.'' More encouragement came when the state of Georgia recently issued a request for power in 2005-2006, from either a coal-fired plant or a nuclear plant, according to Long. ``It was another sign that the landscape has changed,'' he said. ``From Georgia's perspective, they're just beginning to say, 'Oops, we don't want the same situation as California.''' Exelon, for one, is seeking to build a cheaper and more efficient type of plant called a pebble bed modular reactor, pending a feasibility study that has cost $8 million already. The study will be completed in six to nine months. Until new plants are built, the energy industry is working on renewing current 40-year licenses, which would extend them by another 20 years. While praising the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for starting to expedite the license renewal process, Dominion Resources Inc. (NYSE:D - news) unit Dominion Energy Chief Executive Thomas Farrell II told the Nuclear Energy Assembly last month, ``We need assurance that the process won't get stalled.'' However, David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists, thinks that renewals work against the construction of new plants. ``There are 103 plants. Renewals of 103 plants is 103 fewer reasons to build,'' he said. Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy ***************************************************************** 20 NRC to Meet with PG&E to Discuss Safety Performance at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant Press Release Region IV - 2001- 27 - UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 No. IV-01-027 June 7, 2001 CONTACT: Breck Henderson Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227 e-mail: bwh@nrc.gov The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with officials of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on Thursday, June 14, to discuss the results of NRC's annual assessment of safety performance at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the PG&E Community Center, 6588 Ontario Rd., San Luis Obispo, Calif. The public is invited to observe the meeting. NRC officials will be available after the meeting to answer questions. A letter sent from NRC Region IV to PG&E, which addresses plant safety performance during the previous year and forms the basis of the meeting discussion, is available from the Region IV Office of Public Affairs or on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/ppr/. Current safety performance information for Diablo Canyon is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/DIAB1/diab1_chart.html ***************************************************************** 21 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Friday, June 08, 2001 State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADAMS - Items of Interest Recent Released Documents Added - Friday, June 08, 2001 These documents and others may be retrieved at the NRC PERR web site ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item ID: 011580254 Accession Number: ML011500020 Date Added: 6/7/01 12:44:38 PM Title: 04/20/2001 Meeting with Nuclear Management Company, LLC Re Planned Licensing Actions for Point Beach, Units 1 and 2 Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580361 Accession Number: ML011580488 Date Added: 6/7/01 5:12:17 PM Title: 05000275, 05000323, California Energy Commission, Diablo Canyon, Units 1 & 2, Notification of Upcoming Meeting Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-IV/DRP/E Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580360 Accession Number: ML011580483 Date Added: 6/7/01 5:12:08 PM Title: 06/04/2001 Mtg. with Cooper Nuclear Station re: EOC assessment of performance Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-IV/DRP/C Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580018 Accession Number: ML011510293 Date Added: 6/7/01 11:12:35 AM Title: 06/04/2001 public meeting in Auburn, NE to discuss the results of the assessment associated with inspections & performance indicators for Cooper Nuclear Station Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-IV/ORA/RSLO Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580255 Accession Number: ML011580123 Date Added: 6/7/01 12:44:43 PM Title: 06/18/2001 Meeting With Entergy Operations, Inc., Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., and Entergy Nuclear Generation Company Re Licensee's May 1, 2001 , Request For Exemption From The 10 CFR20.1003 Definition Of Deep-Dose Equivalent. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD4 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580358 Accession Number: ML011580425 Date Added: 6/7/01 5:12:01 PM Title: 06/20/2001 Meeting between AmerGen Energy management and the NRC staff to discuss the end-of-cycle plant performance assessment, as documented via letter dated May 31, 2001. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-I/DRP/PB7 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580027 Accession Number: ML011510384 Date Added: 6/7/01 11:13:25 AM Title: 06/27/01 Public Meeting regarding Annual Assessment of Oconee Nuclear Station. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-II/DRP/RPB1 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580036 Accession Number: ML011520113 Date Added: 6/7/01 11:14:06 AM Title: 07/10/01 meeting with Exelon Generation Company in Byron, IL. to discuss the recent End-of-Cycle Review letter. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580022 Accession Number: ML011510335 Date Added: 6/7/01 11:13:01 AM Title: 07/10/2001 Public meeting with Duke Energy Corporation regarding annual assessment of McGuire Nuclear Station. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-II/DRP/RPB1 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580019 Accession Number: ML011510305 Date Added: 6/7/01 11:12:40 AM Title: 07/11/2001 Public meeting with Duke Energy Corp regarding Annual Assessment of Catawba Nuclear Station. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-II/DRP/RPB1 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580337 Accession Number: ML011580237 Date Added: 6/7/01 2:37:09 PM Title: M010606A - All Employees Meeting - A. M. Session Author Affiliation: Court Reporter, Neal R. Gross and Co. Inc Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580335 Accession Number: ML011580244 Date Added: 6/7/01 2:11:46 PM Title: M010606B - All Employees Meeting - P. M. Session Author Affiliation: NRC/OCM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580357 Accession Number: ML011580379 Date Added: 6/7/01 5:11:57 PM Title: Press Release-01-069: NRC To Meet With Public On June 13 To Discuss Use Of Risk Information In Regulating Nuclear Waste And Materials Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA Document/Report Number: Press Release-01-069 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580362 Accession Number: ML011580355 Date Added: 6/7/01 5:12:20 PM Title: Press Release-I-01-028: NRC To Meet With Consolidated Edison Company Of New Yrok To Discuss Safety Performance At Indian Point 2 Nuclear Plant Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-I/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-I-01-028 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580356 Accession Number: ML011580359 Date Added: 6/7/01 5:11:53 PM Title: Press Release-II-01-013: NRC To Meet With TVA Officials To Discuss Safety Performance At Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-II/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-II-01-013 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011580297 Accession Number: ML011520318 Date Added: 6/7/01 12:49:47 PM Title: STATE OF UTAH'S REPLY TO STAFF'S RESPONSE TO APPLICANT'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY DISPOSITION OF UTAH CONTENTION AA - RANGE OF ALTERNATIVES Author Affiliation: State of UT Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ ***************************************************************** 22 Group to lobby for lab near USEC The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Friday, June 08, 2001 Group to lobby for lab near USEC *Officials say if they are successful, it could mean an estimated $7 billion injection to the local economy.* By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--*270.575.8650* Community leaders are headed to the White House soon to tout their vision of developing the Information Age Park into a national laboratory for research and development keying on the U.S. Enrichment Corp. uranium enrichment plant. "We're in a listening mode right now, but we want to clearly define the message and go to Washington within the month," said retired businessman Ken Wheeler, chairman of a new task force for the project. "This whole thing has got a sense of urgency." Helping the 11-member task force are Elaine Spalding, president of the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce, and Stuart Gilbert, president of the Greater Paducah Economic Development Council. A laboratory and other endeavors related to the plant, leased by USEC from the Department of Energy, are worth nearly $7 billion to the local economy, Gilbert said. The estimate consists of about $3.25 billion in environmental cleanup jobs and investment opportunities; $1.5 billion in deploying new technologies to replace outdated gaseous diffusion used by the plant; $100 million for research and development of cleanup and enrichment technologies; and $2 billion in two new power plants sought for McCracken County and elsewhere in the Purchase area. "There are tremendous opportunities for us for new jobs and investments, all based on research and development, and secondly all the other advantages that tie into the 3,200-acre DOE site," Gilbert said. The delegation plans to meet with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and senior White House staff, among others, Spalding said. Chamber lobbyist John Cooper is working on the issue at the federal level, she said. The group wants to be ready by Aug. 1, when the Energy Department is expected to award a contract to convert about 40,000 plant cylinders of spent uranium hexafluoride, or UF6, into a safer, potentially marketable material. Eleven firms including USEC are involved in five bids to convert tons of the material. Federal law mandates the conversion plant be operational by 2004. A conversion contract is the first catalyst for developing a program to make the information park the site of the state's first national research and development laboratory, said Dr. Len O'Hara, Paducah Community College president and a task force member. "The only place I believe we could establish justification for building (a laboratory) is right here because we're sitting on billions of dollars of opportunity that no one denies exists," O'Hara said, adding the cylinders contain fluorine alone worth at least $1 billion. The park also is ideally suited for working on technologies for environmental cleanup at the plant and developing telecommunications networks for utilities, and is "at ground zero on the north-south energy grid," he said. The University of Kentucky, DOE and USEC are among the businesses and institutions that have expressed interest in the park's resource center, which Gilbert's council wants to sell for $3.5 million. O'Hara received a letter June 1 from Tom Lester, dean of the UK College of Engineering, saying he is looking forward to "collaboration" with PCC and community leaders on issues related to USEC plant cleanup and advanced uses of discarded resources such as depleted UF6. "The addition of eight highly-qualified mechanical and chemical engineering faculty at our extended campus site in Paducah should enable us to be even more effective in addressing those issues in the future," Lester wrote. UK President-elect Lee Todd has said he wants the university to establish a major presence in western Kentucky in research and development. A month ago, he and Lester met with USEC President Nick Timbers to discuss helping with plant-related research. They also expressed interest in expanding UK’s engineering program to provide continuing education for plant workers. The meeting was at the home of Dr. Bob Meriwether, who is on the newly-formed task force. The Paducah neurosurgeon is a UK graduate and on the university 's board of trustees. Looking to diversify, USEC also has submitted a bid to the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a 600-megawatt, gas-fired facility near the enrichment plant. The power plant would help move power across TVA's seven-state grid. USEC and two partners hope to make the short list, expected to be announced July 16. A contract is slated to be awarded by Dec. 14. Work would be completed in time to begin providing power in 2005. ***************************************************************** 23 Exelon asks to shift emergencies setup Nuclear plant response teams would lose members. Three Mile Island and Limerick would be affected. By Akweli Parker INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Exelon Corp., the Chicago-based parent of Peco Energy Corp., will seek approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this month to shuffle emergency-response staffing and procedures at three nuclear plants in Pennsylvania, including Three Mile Island. Exelon officials said yesterday that the changes would include reducing from 53 to 30 the number of positions on emergency teams required to respond to an incident within 30 minutes. The changes would help standardize procedures in times of emergency, the company said, adding that the proposed procedures have been in place at five of six Exelon plants in the Midwest since 1980. The company said the proposal was not made to cut costs. The plants affected include Three Mile Island, which is about 10 miles south of Harrisburg near Middletown; Peach Bottom, just north of the Maryland state line about 58 miles west of Philadelphia; and Limerick, 21 miles northwest of Philadelphia. At Three Mile Island, the company was considering eliminating 11 response positions; six each would be cut from the Peach Bottom and Limerick response teams. The proposed cuts include three specialists who would calculate dosages of radiation exposure and five workers who would check for radiation releases outside the plant, as well as personnel responsible for administration, maintenance, security and public relations. "These are not full-time jobs we're talking about. . . . These are collateral duties that are only fulfilled in the event of an emergency at the plant," Ralph DeSantis, a spokesman for Exelon's nuclear division, said. William Jefferson, director of generation for Exelon, said the changes would not affect public safety. Advances in technology and more efficient procedures approved by the regulatory commission, the nation's nuclear watchdog, have eliminated the need for the positions, Jefferson said. Tyson Slocum, senior researcher for Public Citizen, a Washington group opposed to nuclear energy, said the plan puts profits ahead of prudence. "We cannot be sacrificing safety so Exelon can shovel more profits to its shareholders," Slocum said. Exelon also asked the commission for permission to move its emergency operations facility for Three Mile Island about 60 miles east, from Harrisburg to Coatesville, where there is a combined emergency facility for Limerick and Peach Bottom. A spokesman for the commission, which will decide on the request, told the Associated Press that the proposed changes were "significant." Of special concern was the proposal to lengthen the response time for some emergency center personnel from 30 minutes to 60 minutes, commission spokesman Neil A. Sheehan said. Exelon denied that the move was being made to save money, emphasizing instead that it would improve efficiency. During an emergency at one of the three plants, the new plan would make more crisis personnel available at the affected plant and the Coatesville center than under the current arrangement, Jefferson said. "This is not a cost-cutting plan for our company," he said. "This is a plan to enhance the emergency-response capability of our company." Exelon was formed last year by the merger of Philadelphia's Peco Energy and Chicago utility Commonwealth Edison. Akweli Parker's e-mail address is aparker@phillynews.com. ***************************************************************** 24 Transformer explodes at Maine Yankee Jun 07, 2001 "*Serving Maine and Lincoln County for Over a Century*" Vol. 126-No. 23 Sherwood Olin An electrical transformer located on the grounds of Maine Yankee nuclear power plant in Wiscasset exploded and caught fire around 12:30 p.m., June 1. According to Maine Yankee spokesman Eric Howes the explosion occurred shortly after two Central Maine Power employees had completed maintenance work in the area. Howes said no one was injured in the incident. Maine Yankee never lost power due to the explosion and decommissioning activities were unaffected, he said. Howes said the explosion and the cleanup of the site were a CMP matter. "It's a CMP facility though it's on Maine Yankee property," Howes said. According to Howes, two CMP employees had performed routine maintenance activities on a separate piece of equipment in the 345 switch yard. The work did not involve the transformer in question, Howes said. Howes said the CMP employees had left the switch yard and were on the access road, nearing the intersection with the main road when they heard the explosion. The men immediately returned to the scene where the fire was largely selfextinguished, Howes said. The CMP workers alerted Maine Yankee authorities who contacted the Wiscasset Fire Dept. Howes said. The CMP employees completed extinguishing the fire with fire extinguishers they had on hand. Howes said cleanup of the site is CMP's responsibility. The leaked oil will be sampled and tested for contaminants, Howes said. "It is CMP's responsibility," Howes said. "Obviously we will work with them... The DEP has been notified, all the appropriate agencies have been contacted." On June 4, Howes reported the remediation activities were underway. Soil is being removed from the site, a process which is expected to be completed by mid week, he said. Representatives from the Dept. of Environmental Protection were on site June 1 and 4, Howes said. Howes said the cause of the explosion remains unknown at this time. The transformer will be examined by CMP. Howes said he did not know how long that process would take. Top 07 June 2001 Cunningham Island E911 GSB Budget Lincoln Home Park Pemaquid Beach SAD 40 SB Boatlaunch Transformer explodes Wiscasset Selectmen Advertisers Back Issues Browse Community Calendar Home Town News Obituaries Photo GallerySearch *Editor@LCNews.Maine.Com* Lincoln County News PO Box 36, Damariscotta, ME 04543 Tel: 207.563.3171 ***************************************************************** 25 NRC to Meet with North Atlantic Energy Service Corporation to Discuss Performance at Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant Press Release - Region I - 2001- 29 - UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 No. I-01-029 June 7, 2001 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610)337-5330/ e-mail: dps@nrc.gov Neil A. Sheehan (610)337-5331/e-mail: nas@nrc.gov Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with representatives of North Atlantic Energy Service Corporation on Thursday, June 14, to discuss the results of the agency's annual assessment of safety performance at the Seabrook nuclear power plant. The meeting, which will be open to the public for observation, is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in the Science and Nature Center at the plant, located on Lafayette Road in Seabrook, N.H. NRC officials will be available afterwards to answer questions. The performance period to be discussed is April 1, 2000, to March 31, 2001. Overall, the NRC found that the plant operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all cornerstone objectives during the period. A letter sent from the NRC Region I office to North Atlantic Energy Service Corporation addresses plant performance during the period and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: www.nrc.gov/OPA/ppr/seabrook_eoc2001.pdf Current performance information for the Seabrook plant is available on the NRC web site at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/SEAB1/seab1_chart.html ***************************************************************** 26 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Thursday, June 07, 2001 State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects ADAMS - Items of Interest Recent Released Documents Added - Thursday, June 07, 2001 These documents and others may be retrieved at the NRC PERR web site Item ID: 011570151 Accession Number: ML010870157 Date Added: 6/6/01 11:12:15 AM Title: 04/25/01 - Federal Register Notice for Price Increases for Copying NRC Documents Author Affiliation: NRC/OCIO Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570401 Accession Number: ML011560345 Date Added: 6/6/01 5:27:48 PM Title: 05/21/01 Meeting Summary With Westinghouse Regarding Zirlo TM Topical Report Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570406 Accession Number: ML011570516 Date Added: 6/6/01 5:28:07 PM Title: 06/19/2001 Crystal River Unit 3 - Meeting to Review and Discuss Fall 2001 Outage License Amendment requests Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570281 Accession Number: ML011560744 Date Added: 6/6/01 3:13:30 PM Title: 06/20/2001 meeting with DUKE, VEPCO, and EXELON to discuss schedules for planned license renewal application. This meeting is for the staff to receive comments on the draft model from the three applicants and to continue discussions on developing integr Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DRIP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570280 Accession Number: ML011560644 Date Added: 6/6/01 3:13:23 PM Title: 06/20/2001 Meeting with Nuclear Mangement Company, LLC Re Emergency Response On-Shift Staffing Commitments for the Palisades Plant Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570245 Accession Number: ML011570105 Date Added: 6/6/01 12:11:52 PM Title: 06/25/2001 Meeting with AmerGen Energy Company re the failure to promptly identify and correct an oil leak and vibrations on the 'A' motor driven emergency feedwater pump, as identified in NRC inspection report 05000289/2001-02. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-I/DRP/PB7 Document/Report Number: 01-019, Rev 1 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570216 Accession Number: ML011560742 Date Added: 6/6/01 11:26:02 AM Title: 06/25/2001, Envirocare of Utah, Inc., Public Meeting to discuss Performance Update by Licensee Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-IV/DNMS/FCDB Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570115 Accession Number: ML011500421 Date Added: 6/6/01 10:22:52 AM Title: Meeting Summary - Public Meeting with Union of Concerned Scientists Author Affiliation: NRC/IRO Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570217 Accession Number: ML011560777 Date Added: 6/6/01 11:26:06 AM Title: Press Release-01-068: ACRS Subcommittee To Meet On Reactor Power Uprates On June 12 Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA Document/Report Number: Press Release-01-068 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570218 Accession Number: ML011560796 Date Added: 6/6/01 11:26:16 AM Title: Press Release-I-01-027: NRC To Meet with Exelon Generation Company To Discuss Performance At Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-I/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-I-01-027 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570284 Accession Number: ML011570279 Date Added: 6/6/01 3:13:51 PM Title: Press Release-II-01-012: NRC To Meet With Florida Power Officials To Discuss Safety Performance At Crystal River Nuclear Power Plant Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-II/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-II-01-012 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570219 Accession Number: ML011560804 Date Added: 6/6/01 11:26:23 AM Title: Press Release-III-01-021: NRC Names New Senior Resident Inspector At Byron Nuclear Power Plant. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-III/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-III-01-021 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570285 Accession Number: ML011570291 Date Added: 6/6/01 3:13:54 PM Title: Press Release-III-01-022: NRC Staff To Meet With University Officials On Apparent Violations At Southeast Missouri State University Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-III/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-III-01-022 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011570221 Accession Number: ML011560850 Date Added: 6/6/01 11:26:33 AM Title: Press Release-IV-01-025: NRC To Meet With SONGS To Discuss Safety Performance At Nuclear Power Plant Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-IV/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-IV-01-025 ***************************************************************** 27 NRC Staff Concludes Overview Panel for Cook Restart Region III -- 2001 - 23 - UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 No. III-01-023 June 8, 2001 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630)829-9663/e-mail: rjs2@nrc.gov Pam Alloway-Mueller (630)829-9662/e-mail: pla@nrc.gov NRC STAFF CONCLUDES OVERVIEW PANEL FOR COOK RESTART The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has concluded its special panel overseeing the restart and performance improvement activities for the D. C. Cook Nuclear Power Station. The two-unit plant, operated by American Electric Power Co., is located at Bridgman, Michigan. Both units were shut down in September 1997 as a result of an NRC inspection which found instances where plant safety systems did not meet their original design requirements. Additional equipment and design problems were subsequently found by the utility and by the NRC staff, leading to an extended outage. In April 1998 the NRC established a restart panel of Region III and NRC Headquarters personnel to review the plant's outage activities and preparations for restart of the two units. The restart panel process was set up under NRC Inspection Manual Chapter 0350. The panel held frequent meetings, open to public observation, at the NRC Region III and Headquarters offices and at the D. C. Cook plant. NRC resident inspectors at the plant and inspection personnel from the regional and headquarters offices monitored activities at the plant. Unit 2 restarted in June of last year; Unit 1 restarted in December. In notifying the utility that the agency had terminated the restart review process, James E. Dyer, Region III Administrator, noted that the plant staff "has established an effective long-range improvement program, is sufficiently implementing the corrective action program, has demonstrated safe plant operation and overall improving performance, and has established an effective program to update and maintain the plant's design basis." The full text of the notification is available from the Region III Office of Public Affairs or an the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/reports ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Hanford may get extra $53.3 million This story was published Fri, Jun 8, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer Hanford is supposed to receive an extra $53.3 million for this fiscal year under a supplemental budget request the Bush administration submitted to Congress. Bob Tibbatts, director of the Department of Energy's budget division at Hanford, cautioned Hanford Advisory Board members Thursday that the request still has to go through Congress. If it survives, Hanford should see the extra money in July or August to be spent this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The money would supplement several ongoing cleanup projects. DOE's fiscal 2001 Hanford cleanup budget is $1.456 billion. Each year, DOE traditionally asks Congress for some extra money in a "supplement request" for its cleanup programs. The $53.3 million Hanford would receive comes from a pool of $100 million, Tibbatts said. If the request survives intact, DOE would spend slightly more than $1.509 billion on Hanford's cleanup in fiscal 2001. Right now, DOE has asked Congress for $1.4 billion for Hanford in fiscal 2002, which is $470 million to $527 million short of what is needed to meet the site's legal obligations. The extra 2001 money can help chip away at that 2002 shortfall, Tibbatts said. The extra requested money would be used as follows: -- $25 million would be added to the tank waste glassification project's 2001 budget of $377 million. -- $10 million would be added to CH2M Hill Hanford Group's budget of $370 million to take care of the tank farms. -- $10 million would go the K Basins project's budget of $191 million. -- $5 million would go to converting scrap plutonium at the Plutonium Finishing Plant into safer forms. The majority of Hanford's $177 million facilities stabilization budget covers the PFP's work. -- $3.3 million would go to the demolition of outlying buildings and sealing off the main reactor chamber at F Reactor. That work is not expected to be done by Sept. 30, and DOE's budget request for fiscal 2002 does not have money to continue this work for the next year. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 2 US use of dead babies not news 07/06/2001 07:01 - (SA) Washington - The United States has acknowledged for years that it used corpses of babies in nuclear experiments conducted for two decades from the 1950s, a US Energy Department official said on Wednesday. Britain's The Observer newspaper said on Sunday that between 1955 and 1970 around 6000 babies from hospitals in Hong Kong, Australia, Britain, Canada and South America were shipped to the United States for use in nuclear experiments. The department official, who asked not to be named, challenged The Observer's claim that its report contained revelations from new documents concerning the project. "We know of no such documents," the official said, adding that all documents had been released in 1995 and the operation condemned Project Sunshine had been widely reported in the US media at the time. In June 1994, then energy secretary Hazel O'Leary collected some 11 000 documents detailing experiments on stillborn and other dead babies by nuclear researchers working for the US military. zThe documents were collected at the request of former president Bill Clinton who ordered an investigation into Project Sunshine which was carried out by a group of nuclear experts dubbed the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. The group's report, along with the documents, were released to the public the following year. "The only Project Sunshine records that this office is aware of were released as part of the 1995 report on human radiation experiments," said the energy department's office of declassification in a statement. According to those records, Project Sunshine began in 1955, when Dr Willard Libby, of the University of Chicago, appealed for large numbers of bodies, preferably stillborn babies, for experiments on the effect of fallout from atom bomb tests. The tiny corpses were needed for tests, conducted by the US Department of Energy, into radioactivity levels of the isotope Strontium 90. The declassified documents show that bodies were sent from hospitals in many parts of the world, including Hong Kong, Australia, Britain, Canada, South America, and the Philippines. - Sapa-AFP ***************************************************************** 3 Proposed Hanford budget irks board This story was published Fri, Jun 8, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer Completion of Hanford's tank waste glassification project faces a potential delay of at least four years under the Bush administration's proposed 2002 budget. And that has the Hanford Advisory Board growling that the site's regulatory agencies should crack down much harder on the Department of Energy underfunding and missing Tri-Party Agreement obligations. The regulators appear ready to do so. "I think that is the only card we have left to play," said board member Leon Swenson, representing the public-at-large. The Tri-Party Agreement legally governs Hanford's cleanup. A four-year delay in finishing the glassification project would smash the timetable of Hanford's top-priority project. Using DOE figures, the HAB's co-vice chairman Ken Bracken, a retired Hanford project manager, looked at Hanford's potential 2003 budget scenarios that emerge from DOE's fiscal 2002 budget request. DOE officials at Thursday's Hanford Advisory Board meeting said Bracken's calculations are on target. The basis for these calculations is DOE sending a fiscal 2002 Hanford cleanup budget request of $1.4 billion to Congress. That is $470 million to $527 million short of meeting the site's legal cleanup obligations, according to DOE's figures. That $1.4 billion breaks down to $500 million for glassification, which needs $690 million; and $314 million to maintain the tank farms, which need $370 million. Bracken did not examine the rest of Hanford cleanup. For that, DOE asked for $586 million when it needs $765 million to $823 million. If DOE's $500 million 2002 glassification request stays intact, that project would need $898 million in 2003 to catch up to its timetable. That timetable is already fuzzy. The Tri-Party Agreement calls for full-speed glassification in 2009. DOE recently signed a contract with Bechtel National that calls for full operations by 2011. The state never agreed to that delay and is unhappy about it. Also, it is universally agreed in Hanford circles that increasing the site's glassification budget from $500 million to $898 million appears unlikely. Consequently, Bracken also examined steady $500 million glassification budgets in both 2002 and 2003. He calculated that scenario would bump full-speed glassification to at least 2015, which agrees with some earlier preliminary DOE calculations. The extra years would add at least $600 million to the project's $4 billion estimated price tag, Bracken predicted. If Hanford's proposed 2002 tank farms maintenance budget of $314 million remains intact, it would need to increase to $466 million in 2003 to catch up on the missed work. Some Hanford board members noted if glassification is delayed, the site's 28 double-shell tanks will likely run out of room to store wastes. So more double-shell tanks would have to be built -- adding to the overall costs. Regulators and most Hanford constituencies have simmered about this for the past few months. The Hanford Advisory Board is preparing to send a memorandum to DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency and Washington's Department of Ecology to protest DOE's budget and to call for the regulators to hit DOE with enforcement actions. If Hanford's 2002 budget survives Congress at its current level, the EPA will fine DOE because Tri-Party Agreement deadlines would be missed, said Mike Gearhard, the EPA's Northwest regional administrator. But because the EPA and DOE are both federal agencies, the EPA cannot take any action beyond a fine. However, under the Tri-Party Agreement, the state can sue to force DOE to catch up to its missed deadlines. The state attorney general's office is researching filing such a lawsuit, with the glassification delays being the most likely legal battleground. The state threatened a lawsuit in 1998 to successfully get DOE to speed up pumping wastes out of Hanford's leak-prone, single-shell tanks. It appears very willing to go to court over glassification this year. "Getting the (glassification) plant built is today many times more important than the (tank pumping) issue of three years ago," said Mike Wilson, the Ecology Department's nuclear program manager. The Hanford board's draft memo said the Tri-Party Agreement "is in serious, perhaps irreparable trouble. The proposed budgets will result in DOE reneging on its commitment to this region's cleanup master plan, the Tri-Party Agreement. Fifty percent or more of the milestones will be missed." Some board members want to specifically call the state and EPA to enforce the Tri-Party Agreement timetable on shutting down and cleaning out the Fast Flux Test Facility. Many board members objected to that addition. The board has and firmly entrenched pro-FFTF and anti-FFTF contingents. And since the board requires close to unanimity for its stances, this could shoot down the memo as it was written Thursday. The FFTF's cleanup is covered in the Tri-Party Agreement. But that timetable was put on hold until DOE made a formal decisions on whether to revive the dormant reactor or permanently shut it down. The Tri-Party Agreement's FFTF language would become moot if the reactor is revived, Wilson said. Former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson signed paperwork on Jan. 19 to order the FFTF's shutdown. That reactivated the Tri-Party Agreement's FFTF timetables, Wilson said. But on April 25, new Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham ordered a 90-day study of the revive-or-shutdown issue. But DOE did not request the state to table the reactivated Tri-Party Agreement deadlines until the review is complete, Wilson said. HAB members hope to hammer out a compromise on the memo today. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 4 NATO Stresses Importance Of Nuclear Arms Discussions With Russia Pravda.RU Jun, 07 2001 Pravda.ru comes forward with working out conceptions and creating new corporative representative sites, as well as with promotion of new products in the Net. More in detail... NATO's nuclear planning group and military planning committee held a conference in Brussels on Thursday, which brought together the defence ministers of the alliance's 18 member countries. They underscored the importance of the discussion of nuclear weapons issues with Russia within the framework of the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council. The final communique of the meeting says that NATO "looks forward with interest" to the consultations on its proposals regarding security- and confidence-building measures in the nuclear sphere. These proposals are aimed at increasing transparency in the relations with Russia on nuclear weapons issues, in the spirit of reciprocity, says the document. According to it, NATO sees in these proposals the groundwork for mutual understanding, confidence and cooperation. The NATO defence ministers expressed hope that substantial consultations with Russia on these issues would serve the proclaimed aim--reliable cooperation with the Russian side. In their communique, the NATO ministers again urged Russia to conclude the reduction of its non-strategic nuclear potential, which was planned before the end of 2000. The defence ministers again stressed that the Europe-based nuclear forces at NATO's disposal still constitute the main military-political link between the European and the American members of the alliance." The ministers showed "interest" in the consultations with the USA on the adaptation of the concept and the forces of deterrence in view of future security tasks. The document evaluates NATO's collective defence planning as the core of the alliance's work. In this connection, the communique stresses the importance of the implementation of the directives pertaining to the defence possibilities initiative and the enhancement of the alliance's efforts in the area. The communique points to the need for more efficient use of the resources for the defence purposes and for additional funding. RIA 'Novosti' Pravda.RU:Politics ***************************************************************** 5 Y-12 president is Roane-Anderson speaker Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:04 p.m. on Friday, June 8, 2001 The Roane-Anderson Professional Society will meet at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at Sagebrush Steakhouse, 390 S. Illinois Ave. The guest speaker will be John Mitchell, president and general manager of the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant. His topic will be "Modernization of Y-12 -- The Way Ahead." Mitchell is charged with the management of all Y-12 National Security Complex programs and the BWXT Y-12 organization, to ensure fulfillment of the Statement of Work goals in the U.S. Department of Energy management and operations contract. In particular, he must ensure customer satisfaction (DOE and NNSA) with respect to performance, safety, quality and delivery on commitments. He directs interfaces with other nuclear weapons complex facilities and laboratories, private sector and government entities associated with Y-12, and other local, state and regional stakeholders. Prior to the Y-12 contract award in August 2000, Mitchell managed Bechtel National's operations, planning and integration for federal agency work. Previously, he was president and general manager of Bechtel Nevada, where he directed the management and operation of DOE's Nevada Test Site. He joined Bechtel as a senior project manager in 1994, following a 31-year career with the U.S. Navy. He managed strategic nuclear weapons systems and retired as a rear admiral. Mitchell has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rice University and a master's degree in physics from the U.S. Navy postgraduate school. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 6 Review of Oak Ridge Operations Office Nuclear Criticality Safety Self-Assements Review Of Oak Ridge Operations Office Contractor Nuclear Criticality Safety Self-Assessments June 2001 Office of Independent Environment, Safety and Health Oversight U.S. Department of Energy Washington, DC 20585 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 1.0 INTRODUCTION 5 2.0#9BACKGROUND 5 3.0 BRITISH NUCLEAR FUELS LIMITED 6 4.0#9BECHTEL-JACOBS COMPANY 6 5.0#9CONCLUSIONS 10 6.0#9FOLLOW-UP VISIT RESULTS 10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ANSI American National Standards Institute BJC Bechtel Jacobs Company BNFL British Nuclear Fuels Limited D&D decontamination and decommissioning DOE U.S. Department of Energy EH Office of Environment, Safety and Health EH-2 Office of Independent Environment, Safety, and Health Oversight ETTP East Tennessee Technology Park LMES Lockheed Martin Energy Systems NCSA Nuclear Criticality Safety Approval NCSE Nuclear Criticality Safety Evaluation ORO Oak Ridge Operations Office ORPS DOE Occurrence Reporting and Processing and System EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background On September 30, 1999, a criticality accident occurred in a uranium processing facility in Tokai-Mura, Japan. This accident was one of the factors cited by the Deputy Secretary in his November 11, 1999, memorandum that established the DOE Nuclear Criticality Safety Improvement Initiative. As part of this initiative, the Deputy Secretary directed all DOE sites to perform self-assessments of their criticality safety programs. The self-assessments were to evaluate the site nuclear criticality safety program against a set of specific criteria, that were derived from requirements delineated in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) 8.19 Standard and DOE Policy 450.5, *Line Management Oversight of Environment, Safety and Health. * Also as part of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Improvement Initiative, the Deputy Secretary directed the Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH) to review the site self-assessments and to conduct additional site reviews where warranted. The EH Office of Independent Environment, Safety, and Health Oversight (EH-2) was assigned to conduct the reviews. The Oak Ridge Operations Office, Bechtel Jacobs Company, and BNFL, Inc. programs were selected for additional review because their respective criticality safety self-assessments reported significant widespread deficiencies in their criticality safety programs relative to the assessment criteria provided by the Deputy Secretary. In addition, these self-assessments did not address all information specifically required by the Deputy Secretary's memorandum and did not specifically assess the risk of a criticality accident. EH-2 conducted a field review from August 7-11, 2000 of the nuclear criticality safety self-assessments performed by two contractors under the purview of the Oak Ridge Operations Office (ORO). The EH-2 team focused on facilities and activities operated by BNFL, Inc. and Bechtel-Jacobs Company. Results BNFL, Inc. is responsible for decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of three facilities at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP): K-33, K-31 and K-29. Although work remains to be accomplished in completing planned corrective actions BNFL has performed an adequate self-assessment, taken appropriate interim actions, and developed an adequate corrective action plan. The EH-2 team did not identify any safety issues at BNFL facilities. Bechtel-Jacobs Company at Oak Ridge is responsible for waste management and D&D activities for the balance of facilities at ETTP, the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment facility, portions of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Y-12 National Security Complex, the Portsmouth and Paducah sites. The contractor's self-assessment indicates that there were systemic weaknesses in the Bechtel Jacobs Company nuclear criticality safety program and related management systems. A total of 74 findings and 40 observations were identified by the company's self-assessment. The corrective actions developed to address these self-identified findings and observations are responsive. During this review, the EH-2 team identified two Safety Issues in nuclear criticality safety activities managed by the Bechtel Jacobs Company. These Safety Issues are shown in Table ES-1. Conclusions Although deficiencies are evident in the Bechtel Jacobs Company and BNFL, Inc. criticality safety programs, the criticality accident risk remains low at the present time because few activities are being conducted that involve significant quantities of fissile material or that impact fissile storage areas. There is a potential that this reduced risk of a criticality is generating the incorrect perception, particularly in the Bechtel Jacobs Company facilities, that the likelihood of a criticality accident is so remote that deficiencies in controls can be tolerated. Oak Ridge Operations Office management and their contractors need to resolve deficiencies in their line management oversight programs and criticality safety programs before proceeding with decommissioning activities of uranium processing facilities and equipment that historically contained higher enrichments of uranium (greater than five percent) in the gaseous diffusion process plants. These areas pose an increased risk for a criticality accident due to higher enrichment levels or potential for introduction of moderating materials. Follow-up Review Results The EH-2 team conducted a follow-up visit on April 24, 2001. The EH-2 team focused on the progress toward addressing deficiencies identified at Bechtel Jacobs Company facilities during the August 2000 review. A number of corrective actions to criticality safety controls in the K-25 vault have been completed. The Bechtel Jacobs Company also commissioned two internal reviews of their criticality safety program that identified additional weaknesses and included recommendations. Bechtel Jacobs Company personnel are in the process of developing corrective action plans for these two internal reviews. Bechtel Jacobs Company management also committed to provide the Oak Ridge Operations Office with a Criticality Safety Improvement Plan. This plan is intended to provide for long-term resolution of identified issues and weaknesses and strengthen the overall criticality safety program prior to conducting decommissioning activities in former fissile material areas where higher enrichments might be encountered. Also, the Bechtel Jacobs Company added a significant number of nuclear criticality safety staff to support its five sites. However, the Bechtel Jacobs Company Criticality Safety Supervisor position remained unfilled at the time of the follow-up visit. A senior nuclear criticality safety engineer from the subcontractor providing nuclear criticality safety services is filling this position on an interim basis. EH-2 will continue to monitor the effectiveness of corrective actions, the improvement program and the implementation of criticality safety controls. Table ES-1 – Safety Issues DOE Order 414.1A, *Quality Assurance*, establishes a process for addressing and tracking Safety Issues identified by independent oversight evaluations. As used in that Order, the term "Safety Issue" refers to deficiencies in safety programs or weaknesses in safety management systems that require formal tracking and corrective action. The DOE Office of Environmental Management, as the responsible program secretarial office, is required to develop a corrective action plan to address the Safety Issues identified during this EH-2 review. + Safety Issue #1 addresses management's failure to correct longstanding criticality safety deficiencies in Bechtel Jacobs Company facilities. The EH-2 team identified problems in the nuclear criticality safety postings, controls, and evaluations at the East Tennessee Technology Park K-25 facility. Similar criticality safety deficiencies have been recognized for a least four years and were known to the Bechtel Jacobs Company when they took over the contract in 1998 but have not been corrected. + Safety Issue #2 addresses inadequacies in the Bechtel Jacobs Company self-assessment, which was not effective in identifying a number of problems in the nuclear criticality safety program. The self-assessment did not identify deficiencies in areas such as nuclear criticality staffing, field verification of criticality safety controls, fissile material accountability, occurrence reporting, and unreviewed safety question determinations. REVIEW OF OAK RIDGE OPERATIONS OFFICE CONTRACTOR NUCLEAR CRITICALITY SAFETY SELF-ASSESSMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As part of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Improvement Initiative, the Deputy Secretary directed the Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH) to review the site self-assessments and to conduct additional field reviews where warranted. The EH Office of Environment, Safety, and Health Oversight (EH-2) performed a field review that examined nuclear criticality safety programs of the Bechtel-Jacobs Company (BJC) and British Nuclear Fuels, Limited (BNFL) during August 7-11, 2000. The purpose of the field review was to provide timely feedback to line management regarding criticality safety risks and the need for additional improvements. The EH-2 comments on the Oak Ridge Operations Office (ORO) Nuclear Criticality Safety Self-assessment Corrective Action Plan were communicated in a separate report. Section 2 of this report provides the background that led up to conducting this review. Sections 3 and 4 discuss the results for the BNFL and BJC programs respectively. The EH-2 team identified two Safety Issues involving the BJC program that are summarized as (1) failure to promptly correct criticality safety deficiencies and (2) inadequacies in the criticality safety self-assessment. Section 5 provides the conclusions. Section 6 presents the results of an EH-2 Team follow-up visit that was conducted on April 24, 2001. The follow-up visit focused on ORO and BJC efforts to resolve safety issues and weaknesses identified during the August 2000 visit and enhance the nuclear criticality safety program at BJC facilities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.0 BACKGROUND ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On September 30, 1999 a criticality accident occurred in a uranium processing facility in Tokai-mura, Japan. This accident was one of the factors cited by the Deputy Secretary in his November 11, 1999 memorandum that established the DOE Nuclear Criticality Safety Improvement Initiative. As part of this initiative, the Deputy Secretary directed all DOE sites to perform self-assessments of their criticality safety programs. The self-assessments were to evaluate the site nuclear criticality safety program against a set of specified criteria, that were derived from requirements delineated in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) 8.19 Standard and DOE Policy 450.5, *Line Management Oversight of Environment, Safety and Health*. Also as part of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Improvement Initiative, the Deputy Secretary directed EH-2 to review the site self-assessments and to conduct additional reviews where warranted. The ORO, BJC, and BNFL programs were selected because their respective criticality safety self-assessments reported significant widespread deficiencies in their criticality safety programs relative to the assessment criteria provided by the Deputy Secretary. In addition, these self-assessments did not include an analysis of nuclear criticality safety staffing needs through the next five years or an assessment of risks, although such information was specifically required by the Deputy Secretary's memorandum. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.0 BRITISH NUCLEAR FUELS LIMITED ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although work remains to be accomplished in completing planned corrective actions, BNFL has performed an adequate self-assessment, taken appropriate interim actions, and developed an adequate Corrective Action Plan. BNFL's use of the outside experts was a proactive step that enhanced their self-assessment. The EH-2 team did not identify any additional Safety Issues. The BNFL self-assessment identified a number of deficiencies with the nuclear criticality safety program. Specifically, the need for additional criticality safety staff and the identification of nuclear criticality safety controls and the flowdown of those controls into work planning documents. Corrective actions have been identified to hire additional criticality safety staff, revise work planning procedures, and evaluate the tracking and trending of nuclear criticality safety issues. A number of opportunities for improvement were identified in the areas of training, implementation of nuclear criticality safety analyses, and the integration of nuclear criticality safety with other safety management programs. BNFL has made improvements as outlined in their Corrective Action Plan. Current and projected nuclear criticality safety staffing levels appear adequate. Currently, BNFL has four contracted nuclear criticality safety staff, one of whom is a trainee. BNFL plans to add one more experienced individual to the contracted nuclear criticality safety staff in anticipation of beginning operations in other facilities. Their goal is to have five fully qualified criticality safety engineers before commencing decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) operations in the K-29 Facility. BNFL also plans to conduct a follow up assessment, using outside experts, to gauge the effectiveness and pace of corrective actions. BNFL has ensured that it seeks feedback from workers and their supervisors on the appropriateness of proposed controls and on options for eliminating difficulties with implementing existing controls. However, continued BNFL management attention will be needed to ensure that the planned corrective actions are fully and effectively implemented so that BNFL will be able to monitor future D&D activities in buildings that previously processed higher enriched uranium and pose inherently higher risks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.0 BECHTEL-JACOBS COMPANY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The BJC self-assessment and the results of this EH-2 review indicate that there were systemic weaknesses in BJC's nuclear criticality safety program and related management systems. A total of 74 findings and 40 observations were identified by the BJC self-assessment. The majority of the root causes for the findings were management related such as improper resource allocation; policies not adequately defined, disseminated, or enforced; inadequate administrative control; and defective or inadequate procedures. The EH-2 team identified two Safety Issues that require formal corrective action plans according to DOE Order 414.1a, *Quality Assurance*. SAFETY ISSUE #1: Bechtel-Jacobs Company management has not corrected longstanding criticality safety deficiencies at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). The EH-2 team identified problems in the nuclear criticality safety approval (NCSA)/nuclear criticality safety evaluation (NCSE) in Vault 1X at the ETTP K-25 facility during a tour on August 8, 2000. Subsequent analysis of the NCSA/NCSE indicated several significant problems with the posted criticality safety controls for the storage array and the evaluation of potential accident conditions as well as the BJC response to the identified problems. All of the problem areas discussed below are violations of specific provisions of the mandatory standards ANSI/ANS-8.1 and 8.19, which are required by DOE Order 420.1, *Facility Safety*. + BJC did not promptly take action to correct the criticality safety problems. The specific problems with the Vault 1X NCSE (i.e., inadequate analysis of accident conditions and controls in the NCSEs and inconsistencies between NCSE in Vault 1X) and similar problems in other NCSEs have been recognized for at least four years but not adequately corrected. The previous contractor, Lockheed Martin Energy Systems (LMES), identified deficiencies with this NCSE (NCSA/E-1326) during a 1996 assessment for ETTP. The 1996 LMES assessment concluded that there were many examples of NCSA/NCSEs not adequately demonstrating double contingency, including NCSA/E-1326. This information has been available to BJC since it took over the contract in 1998, and BJC acknowledged the need to review and revise NCSA/NCSEs in their self-assessment. However, BJC has not corrected the problems at ETTP. BJC approved NCSA-1459 in September 1999 to replace NCSA/E-1326 but it had not been implemented at the time of the field review. In addition, an active NCSA/NCSE (1316), identified as deficient in the 1996 LMES assessment, was not revised. + The posted controls derived from NCSA/E-1326 permitted a potentially critical array to be established. The posted criticality safety limits did not control enrichment or mass of individual containers. Spacing was maintained with administrative controls only. With the enriched uranium material potentially available at the K-25 Facility, it is possible to load the array according to the posted limits with highly enriched uranium and initiate a criticality accident with only a minor spacing violation (e.g. human error, fire fighting, seismic events). + The NCSE that provided the basis for the controls (i.e., NCSE-1326) did not analyze all credible normal and abnormal conditions. NCSE-1326 did not evaluate enrichments above 20 percent using nominal six-inch diameter bottles or spacing violations such as those caused by fire fighting, seismic events, or simple operator errors. Some of the as-found storage conditions were not addressed within the scope of the NCSE. For example, the EH-2 team found an array that contained 13 six-inch nalgene bottles without established controls on enrichment. Therefore, the as-found conditions had not been adequately analyzed by the active NCSE and thus the potential risk of a criticality accident is higher than that assumed by the evaluation. + The controls specified by NCSA-1326 were inconsistent with the basis criticality safety evaluation (NCSE-1326). The NCSA controls for the storage operations were inconsistent with the parameters analyzed in the NCSE and omitted controls that were assumed by the NCSE. For example, the NCSE stated that the maximum diameter of bottles was a nominal five inches, and that enrichment would not exceed 20 percent U-235. However, the NCSA permitted nominal six-inch diameter bottles containing uranium of any enrichment. These inconsistencies indicate that the flow down of the evaluation to the controls was not adequate and that verification and surveillance processes were not sufficient to detect discrepancies. + BJC management did not post the area or notify workers of the criticality safety problems so that they could perform their expected functions without undue risk. No actions were taken to alert workers of the criticality safety problems with the nuclear criticality safety controls or evaluation since the identification of the problems four years ago. The areas were not posted to warn workers, management controls were not in place to restrict operations until adequate criticality safety controls were established, and no occurrence notifications were made. Although some actions were taken after the EH-2 team discussed the specific problem with BJC staff, the area was not posted to warn operators of the deficient controls, even during the time before BJC completed its initial evaluation of the safety of the as-found condition. SAFETY ISSUE #2: The criticality safety self-assessment performed by BJC did not identify the following program weaknesses: + Lack of qualified nuclear criticality safety staff + Inadequate field verification of the NCSAs and NCSEs that govern current facility operations + Inability to determine the amount of fissile material in specific areas + Inadequate processes for identifying and reporting criticality safety deficiencies to DOE + Lack of a process requiring Unreviewed Safety Question Determinations for criticality safety deficiencies The EH-2 team identified weaknesses in the nuclear criticality safety program that were not identified in the BJC self-assessment. The Corrective Action Plan for this Safety Issue needs to address each of the following problem areas. + Lack of qualified nuclear criticality safety staff. The self-assessment and the associated Corrective Action Plan did not address the need to formally qualify the BJC nuclear criticality safety staff to the equivalent of DOE Standard 1135-99. BJC currently has two nuclear criticality safety staff to direct and monitor the nuclear criticality safety activities of its subcontractors. One engineer has five years of experience in Nuclear Safety Analysis, two of which are directly related to nuclear criticality safety. The other has no nuclear criticality safety work experience. In addition, the self-assessment and Corrective Action Plan did not address the need to fill the nuclear criticality safety supervisor position on a permanent basis. At the time of the assessment, an individual who had significant collateral duties was filling the nuclear criticality safety supervisor position on an acting basis. The shortage of experienced and qualified nuclear criticality safety staff is a factor in the continuing weaknesses in NCSAs/NCSEs and the failure to identify and correct weaknesses in a timely manner. + Inadequate field verification of the NCSAs and NCSEs that govern current operations The BJC self-assessment did not accurately evaluate the criticality risk because it was not based on a field validation of the adequacy on NCSAs/NCSEs. For example, the self-assessment includes statements such as "no violations of double contingency" and "no immediate safety concerns" that are not fully supportable in light of recognized problems. For instance, the assertion about "no double contingency violations" is not supportable since BJC had not completed walkdowns of many of the operations. In addition, previous assessments provided clear indicators that at least two active NCSA/NCSEs did not adequately demonstrate double contingency (see discussion under Safety Issue #1). BJC had 42 active NCSA/NCSEs at two Oak Ridge projects (28 at ETTP and 14 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory). Based on previous assessments, at least two of these (NCSA/NCSE 1326 and 1316) were inadequate with respect to application of the double contingency principle. Although the self-assessment identifies NCSA/NCSEs as a problem area, the Corrective Action Plan did not specifically identify the need to walk-down and field verify existing NCSA/NCSEs. Thus, the NCSAs/NCSEs did not provide full assurance that current facility conditions were adequately analyzed and that the facility was operating within established controls. + Inability to determine the amount of fissile material in specific areas BJC took five days to locate fissile content data for three of the bottles stored in Vault 1X because of the lack of an effective fissile material inventory system. Such a system is needed to determine the amount of fissile material in the vault and to confirm that the total fissile content of all thirteen nalgene bottles in the array was low (less than 700 grams). Without information of the fissile material content, BJC was not able to quickly determine compliance with mass or enrichment limits (if established) and evaluate the significance of nonconforming/inconsistent NCSAs and NCSEs. Previous ORO assessments also identified the lack of a fissile material inventory system as a weakness. For example, the Facility Representative report covering the period from October 1999 through March 2000 indicated significant deficiencies in the Waste Information Management System database (findings FRP-00-001 and FRP-00-002). However, the self-assessment and the Corrective Action Plan did not contain information about the deficiencies in the fissile material inventory and associated tracking systems. + Inadequate processes for reporting criticality safety deficiencies to DOE The BJC process was not timely in reporting criticality safety deficiencies to the DOE Occurrence Reporting and Processing and System (ORPS). Some BJC personnel indicated that the observed problems with Vault 1X NCSA/E were not a reportable event because the presence of the six-inch diameter bottles did not violate the posted criticality safety controls. However, DOE reporting requirements specify that a major discrepancy between the evaluation and the controls would be a significant event that warrants reporting via ORPS. On August 25, 2000, 14 days after the EH-2 team identified the problem to BJC, BJC filed a formal Occurrence Report, ORO-BJC-K25WASTMAN-2000-016, *Violation of Nuclear Criticality Safety Procedure*. The occurrence report focused solely on the failure to implement the new NCSA/E-1459 on schedule. It did not address deficiencies in the existing controls, surveillances, or quality control that resulted in the deficient NCSE and NCSA controls. + Lack of a process requiring Unreviewed Safety Question Determinations for criticality safety deficiencies BJC initiated an Unreviewed Safety Question Determination for the criticality safety deficiencies associated with NCSA/NCSE-1326 only after prompting by the EH-2 team. The current process does not include NCSEs as part of the Facility Authorization Basis. However, the NCSE is the safety basis for the operation and the derivative NCSA is the implementing document for the criticality safety controls assumed to be present by the Authorization Basis. DOE Order 5480.21, *Unreviewed Safety Questions*, indicates that the discovery of an inadequate safety basis and inadequate controls would lead to a positive Unreviewed Safety Question Determination because the frequency of a criticality accident would be higher than that assumed by the Authorization Basis for normal operating conditions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.0 CONCLUSIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The overall conclusions for the two contractor programs are summarized as follows: + In general, the BNFL self-assessment is adequate and BNFL is making significant improvements in its program. Completion of these improvements is essential to facilitate safe D&D activities, particularly in areas where higher enriched materials are expected. + Significant weaknesses were evident in the BJC criticality safety program, including two Safety Issues. Safety Issue #1 addressed management's failure to take effective and timely corrective actions when problems were identified at BJC facilities. Safety Issue #2 addressed inadequacies in the BJC self-assessment. Although significant deficiencies are evident, the overall risk is reduced at the present time because few activities are being conducted that involve significant quantities of fissile material or that affect fissile storage areas (e.g., structural modifications). However, the BJC and ORO programs need significant improvement to ensure adequate nuclear criticality safety controls are in place before D&D activities begin that remove or disturb equipment or facilities containing fissile material where higher enriched uranium (greater than five percent) is expected in the gaseous diffusion process buildings. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.0 FOLLOW-UP VISIT RESULTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The EH-2 team conducted a follow-up visit on April 24, 2001. The EH-2 team focused on the progress toward addressing deficiencies identified at Bechtel Jacobs Company facilities during the August 2000 review. The EH-2 team's follow-up visit verified that BJC has completed a number of corrective actions to criticality safety controls in the K-25 vault. BJC also commissioned two internal reviews of their criticality safety program subsequent to the August 2000 EH review. One of these internal reviews assessed all active nuclear criticality safety evaluations and analyses, including field verification of the adequacy of criticality safety controls. The field verification found no violations of the double contingency principle in the field. The other internal review was a comprehensive review of the criticality safety program. Both internal reviews identified a number of additional weaknesses and made several recommendations. However, neither review found any unsafe conditions from a criticality safety perspective. BJC is in the process of developing corrective action plans for the two internal reviews. BJC is also scheduled to provide a Criticality Safety Improvement Plan to the DOE Oak Ridge Operations Office. This plan is intended to provide long-term resolution of the issues and weaknesses identified by the EH-2 and the internal reviews, and strengthen the overall criticality safety program in advance of decommissioning activities in former fissile material areas where higher enrichments might be encountered. Also, BJC added a significant number of nuclear criticality safety staff to support the five sites for which BJC is responsible. However, the Bechtel Jacobs Company Criticality Safety Supervisor position remained unfilled at the time of the follow-up visit. A senior criticality safety engineer from the subcontractor providing criticality safety services is filling this position on an interim basis. EH-2 will continue to monitor the effectiveness of corrective actions, the improvement program and the implementation of criticality safety controls. ***************************************************************** 7 NUCLEAR LAB CONTRACT CALLED 'SUSPICIOUS' Source: States News Service Story Filed: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 8:42 PM EST WASHINGTON, Jan 24, 2001 (States News Service via COMTEX) -- A five-year contract renewal with the University of California to manage the nation's nuclear arms laboratories is being called "suspicious," "highly irregular" and "haphazard" by an influential congressman, Rep. Billy Tauzin, chairman of the House Commerce Committee. The powerful Louisiana lawmaker is now demanding to review all records and documents relating to the $125-million contract between the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of California. Tauzin claims that he made several requests to former Energy Department Secretary Bill Richardson to delay the agreement, but they were ignored. The contract was signed last Thursday just days before the Clinton Administration left office. "Richardson was put on notice, and, in effect, he thumbed his nose at Congress and the new administration," said Tauzin. "What was the rush? Why not take some time to review all the (security) allegations before committing the federal government and taxpayers?... I think the deal is very suspicious." The contract renews UC's management responsibilities to 2007, although the standing contract was not to expire until 2002. UC first began managing the labs during World War II when they were created to develop the nuclear bomb. The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico -- one of five national laboratories that also includes Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California -- made front page news last year when allegations of Chinese espionage focusing on scientist Wen Ho Lee were made public. A congressional investigation led by Rep. Chris Cox, R-Newport Beach, eventually led to a controversial report linking China's advances in nuclear weapon development to security leaks at the lab. It was also discovered that a computer hard-drive at the lab was missing in the aftermath of the Los Alamos wildfire that raged out of control for weeks in the nearby mountains and hillsides. The hard-drive was eventually discovered behind a photocopying machine. Responding to the Cox Report, the Department of Energy and UC determined it was necessary to re-negotiate the management contract so that security at the labs could be beefed up, according to Floyd Thomas, spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). NNSA is an agency that was established last spring to ensure security at the labs in the wake of the Cox report. It operates semi-autonomously within the Department of Energy. Progress in the contract negotiations was announced publicly last October at a press conference with UC Energy Department officials. "We were communicating with Congress step by step," said Thomas. Tauzin was not the only member of Congress concerned with the process of the new contract. A special oversight panel within the House Armed Services Committee also made similar requests to NNSA last November and December. Those requests were satisfied with a detailed 20-page memo on the matter, say committee members. "The Energy Department, National Nuclear Security Administration and the University of California have taken the aggressive steps the committee demanded to improve security and counterintelligence, streamline reporting procedures, improve project management and aggressively protect our nation's most precious nuclear secrets," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, ranking member on the panel. Still, Tauzin remains skeptical. "This is a serious issue that cuts across party lines," he said. "We need to get to the bottom of this." By David Phinney Copyright States News Service, all right reserved. *Copyright © 2001, States News Service, all rights reserved.* ***************************************************************** 8 Pressure Mounts on HK for Probe of Nuclear Baby Tests Friday June 8 12:33 AM ET By Tan Ee Lyn HONG KONG (Reuters) - Pressure is mounting on the Hong Kong government to investigate reports that dead babies were sent to the United States and Britain for nuclear experiments between the 1950s and 70s. A lawmaker representing Hong Kong's medical community called on Friday for a full investigation into the British newspaper reports and said he would press the government in the legislature later this month for an answer. ``The government has to tell Hong Kong people what happened, how the situation is, what the controls are (on bodies) and to reassure people that such things will not happen again,'' Lo Wing-lok told Reuters. British newspapers reported this week that some 6,000 stillborn babies and dead infants were sent from Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, the United States and South America over a 15-year span without the permission of parents. The reports said the bodies and some body parts were used by the U.S. Department of Energy (news - web sites) for tests to monitor radioactivity levels of the element Strontium 90 in humans. Australian officials, in response to the reports, confirmed on Thursday that cremated bones from some Australian babies, children and adults of up to 39 years old had been shipped to the U.S. and Britain to test for radioactive fall-out from nuclear tests. Hong Kong health officials said on Thursday they would not investigate the reports unless specific evidence came to light that Hong Kong babies had been used in the tests. British newspapers said ``Project Sunshine'' began during the Cold War when University of Chicago doctor Willard Libby, who was later awarded a Nobel prize for his research into carbon dating, appealed for bodies, preferably stillborn or newly-born babies, to test the impact of atomic bomb fallout. Britain's Observer newspaper said British scientists also used the remains of babies from Hong Kong for tests and that research ended only in the 1970s. Hong Kong was a British colony for over 150 years before being handed back to China in mid-1997. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 To demolish K-25 or not? Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:09 p.m. on Friday, June 8, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff A report issued this week analyzes four alternatives -- ranging in cost from zero to $434 million -- for decontaminating and decommissioning two large, historic uranium enrichment process buildings at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site. Buildings K-25 and K-27 are the two facilities examined in the engineering evaluation/cost analysis prepared by Science Applications International Corp. for the Department of Energy. The U-shaped K-25 building covers more than 40 acres at the site while K-27 takes up around 374,000 square feet. Operations in K-25 ceased in the early 1960s while K-27 was completely shut down in the mid-1980s. SAIC's report analyzes four alternatives for taking care of the buildings on the basis of cost, implementability and effectiveness. The most effective method, according to the report, consists of removing equipment from the buildings, demolishing the facilities and disposing of the waste. Estimated cost is $373 million if the waste is taken to the Nevada Test Site or $296 million if the waste is disposed of at the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, which is under construction in Oak Ridge. This choice is also deemed the "preferred or recommended" alternative for handling the two buildings. However, this alternative poses the greatest transportation risk if the waste is shipped to Nevada, the report states. It has been estimated that 10,032 shipments may be required to transport waste to Nevada if the material doesn't meet the local facility's acceptance criteria. This alternative is one of two that would take eight years to complete. The other would entail decontaminating the equipment, demolishing the building and disposing of the waste at the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility. According to the report, this alternative is considered the most difficult because of all the large equipment that will have to be cleaned under the constraints of criticality and security concerns. Estimated cost is $434 million. The report also looks at spending no money to take "no action" on the buildings and paying $361 million over 30 years to continue surveillance and maintenance. Both structures have been determined eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. So, continuing surveillance and maintenance is the one alternative that would not adversely impact the buildings from a historic preservation perspective. But this alternative can't be considered a "permanent solution," and it only defers the inevitable demolition of the structures, the report states. Copies of the engineering evaluation/cost analysis are available at DOE's Information Resource Center, 105 Broadway. DOE is accepting public comments on the document until July 9. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 10 World Wakes Up to Horrific Scientific History ABCNEWS.com : leela.jacinto@abc.com Leela Jacinto Half a century after secret studies on the effects of radioactive fallout were carried out in the United States and Britain, the world is waking up to the "body snatching" of the 1950s. Called "Project Sunshine," studies conducted on dead babies sought to measure the amount of radioactive strontium-90 being absorbed by humans due to nuclear testing. On Tuesday, the Australian Ministry for Health and Aged Care launched an investigation into reports of Australian baby samples being dispatched for Project Sunshine without the parents' permission. "We need to verify if Australian babies were used in this manner, how many, and from where they came," said a spokesman for Australian Health Minister Michael Wooldridge. The investigation was launched days after a British newspaper reported that British scientists obtained children's bodies from various hospitals and shipped their bones and other body parts to the United States for classified nuclear experiments. Oceans away in Hong Kong, a British colony until 1997, the newspaper report set off a furor, prompting authorities to launch an inquiry on Wednesday. Serving Their Country More than 1,500 cadavers — many of them babies — were gathered from half a dozen countries from Europe to Australia in the 1950s for the studies on the effects of radiation conducted by the now defunct Atomic Energy Commission, according to U.S. government documents. Project Sunshine, which was conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, attempted to study the absorption of strontium-90 in human tissue, primarily bone. In June 1995, a presidential Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, set up by former President Clinton released classified documents from the Atomic Energy Commission, which showed that scientists working on Project Sunshine were aware of the dubious ethical and legal grounds on which their research was being conducted. In a transcript of a secret meeting on Jan. 18, 1955, Dr. Willard Libby, a University of Chicago researcher, who went on to win the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, acknowledged that the difficulty in getting human samples was resulting in "great gaps" in the project's findings. "I don't know how to get them," Libby is quoted as saying. "But I do say that it is a matter of prime importance to get them and particularly in the young age group. So, human samples are of prime importance and if anybody knows how to do a good job of body snatching, they will really be serving their country." its and Pieces For many unsuspecting parents, the experience was nightmarish. In a 1995 British documentary, Deadly Experiments, Jean Prichard, a British mother of a stillborn baby whose legs were removed by British hospital doctors in 1957, said she was forbidden to dress her daughter for her funeral to prevent her from finding out what had happened. "I asked if I could put her christening robe on her, but I wasn't allowed to, and that upset me terribly because she wasn't christened," she said. "No one asked me about doing things like that, taking bits and pieces from her." Though British and Canadian media have, in the past, reported that cadavers of infants were sent to the United States for Project Sunshine, there have been no official investigations into the murky shipments. Fifty Years Later While admitting that British scientists did indeed work on Project Sunshine, Elizabeth Taylor, a spokeswoman for the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority said the organization was only beginning to sift through hundreds of documents, not all of which have been declassified. "Following the [Observer] report, we started to look at this, it's a mountain of information," said Taylor. "This is about what happened in the 1950s, it's not easy to do this." Taylor said the organization had so far not been able to trace records of bodies being sent by British scientists to the United States. The sheer volume of papers and the fact that they were conducted around 50 years ago make investigations a challenging prospect and could explain why governments of countries that participated in Project Sunshine are only recently waking up to their parts in the ghoulish studies. Wooldridge himself was not aware that Australian babies were allegedly sent to the United States until the British media carried reports earlier this week, said a spokesman. He said the DOE had not yet been contacted to assist in the investigation though he fully expected the department to cooperate. When contacted, a spokesman for the DOE confirmed the department had not been contacted: "My understanding is the Australian inquiry is looking at their own records." ABCNEWS reported details of the program in 1995, including the practice of obtaining cadavers from cities where tracking was lax, particularly in poverty- stricken areas. ***************************************************************** 11 McConnell: Extra cleanup funds not guaranteed The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Friday, June 08, 2001 *The senator says an extra $18 million for Paducah plant cleanup will be difficult to approve because of the Democratic control in Senate.* By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com--*270.575.8650* Congressional approval of an extra $18 million for environmental cleanup at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant this year will be difficult, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell says. "The problem is the Democratically controlled Senate," he said Thursday during a telephone news conference with Kentucky reporters. "Even though the president requested it, everyone is going to be fighting for a piece of the pie." The proposal is in a supplemental spending plan for fiscal year 2001 that President George W. Bush delivered to Congress this week. He wants to release $18 million from the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund, according to documents filed with the budget. "The additional funding requested would continue progress in addressing recently identified environmental, safety and health issues at the Paducah plant," Bush said in the proposal. The supplemental budget asks for an additional $5.6 billion in spending this year. McConnell predicted that senators will try to redirect funds in all categories for pet projects. Recommendations from Bush that don't have widespread congressional support are likely to be targets for elimination. McConnell said if approved, the $18 million will be used for wastewater treatment and general cleanup. It would be added to the more than $100 million allocated for Paducah when the budget was approved last fall. Emphasis on increasing funding for the Paducah plant began two years ago under President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, after his energy secretary, Bill Richardson, acknowledged there were serious environmental problems that could affect the heath of workers and nearby residents. McConnell also said he and other members of Kentucky's congressional delegation have met with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, who has promised to make Paducah cleanup a priority. Cleanup funding in the next budget at the very least will match this year's funding, McConnell said. On another topic, McConnell said it is likely he'll retain his seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee under organizational rules being negotiated with Democrats who took control of the Senate this week. The Judiciary Committee controls presidential appointments to federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Influence on that committee is important to Republicans who want to add more conservative judges to the courts. McConnell heads a group of five Republican senators who are negotiating the organizational rules with Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., the new majority leader. Calling the discussions cordial and congenial, McConnell predicted there would be an agreement by next week. Under rules adopted in January when the Democrat-Republican split was 50-50, each committee was chaired by a Republican and had an equal number of members from each party. McConnell said the plan being discussed with Daschle is to keep all Republicans on the committees and add one Democrat to give them the majority. Democrats also would chair the committees. Kentucky's senior senator also said that the tax cut bill signed by Bush on Thursday included a provision he drafted to make earnings in pre-paid tuition savings accounts 100 percent tax-free. It is called the Setting Aside for a Valuable Education (SAVE) Act. McConnell attended the White House ceremony in which Bush signed the tax cut bill. McConnell said he had been working for seven years to pass the plan. ***************************************************************** 12 Program to assist filing DOE compensation The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Friday, June 08, 2001 Meetings will be held in Paducah June 19 to explain the compensation program for current and former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant workers who became ill because of job-related exposure to hazardous chemicals. Officials of the U.S. Departments of Labor and Energy will conduct sessions at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Executive Inn. "This is our first opportunity to meet with workers and explain the law in detail," said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao, whose agency is in charge of the program. "It's critical that people know how to fill out these forms properly." She said correct claim forms will speed the process. The government will start accepting claims on July 31 under terms of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. It pays $150,000 lump-sum compensation and related medical expenses to workers who became seriously ill from exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica while working in DOE nuclear weapons plants. Some survivors of plant workers also will be eligible for benefits. DOE's Office of Worker Advocacy will help workers file claims and document employment history. Paducah is one of 25 sites for informational meetings around the country between now and the end of July. Other information outlets: www.dol.gov on the web; toll-free phone hotline 866-888-3322. ***************************************************************** 13 U.S. Justice Department may intervene The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Thursday, June 07, 2001 By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com--*270.575.8650* A Washington watchdog group says attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice want to intervene in a whistle-blower lawsuit that claims a former operator of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant falsified environmental records to earn tens of millions of dollars in operating bonuses. The group Taxpayers Against Fraud also claims in memos distributed to The Paducah Sun that top officials in the U.S. Department of Energy oppose intervention and are trying to convince top Department of Justice officials to reject the recommendation by government lawyers who investigated the allegations. The final decision is pending in Attorney General John Ashcroft's office, according to Bill Campbell, assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky and the government's lead attorney in the matter. Campbell would not comment on the statements of the watchdog group, but said the government could reveal its intentions as early as today. "We have a pleading that most likely will be filed this week," he said, without revealing its contents. It could range from requesting U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley to extend Wednesday's deadline for making a decision, to notifying the judge the government wants to become a plaintiff. Campbell also confirmed that a meeting was held in Washington on May 29 involving attorneys for the two cabinet departments to discuss evidence uncovered in a two-year investigation, and whether the government should join in the suit. James Moorman, a former assistant U.S. attorney general who is president of Taxpayers Against Fraud, said the DOE argued against intervening in the suit. He said he didn't know if the arguments were successful. The suit was filed in June 1999 under the federal False Claims Act by four current and former plant employees against Lockheed Martin, formerly Martin Marietta, which operated the uranium enrichment plant from the early 1980s until 1997 when it was privatized and taken over by the by U.S. Enrichment Corp. The suit claims Lockheed Martin filed false reports involving environmental conditions in order to receive millions of dollars in performance bonuses from the DOE, which owns the plant. If the claims are substantiated in court proceedings, Lockheed Martin could be ordered to repay the government millions of dollars. Those who filed the suit would receive up to 25 percent of the amount refunded. Campbell said Wednesday and in previous court documents there have been negotiations with Lockheed Martin to settle the suit without further court action. "The parties are continuing to talk," Campbell said. "We have a much better understanding of Lockheed's position. We are making our concerns clear (to Lockheed Martin) and will continue to exchange information toward reaching a resolution." Jeff McCord, a spokesman for Taxpayers Against Fraud, said the source of information on the decision by investigators to join in the suit was Joe Egan, the lead attorney for the "whistle-blowers" who filed the suit. Egan, in a telephone interview, said the statements attributed to him were misleading and were made public without his permission. After the Sun inquired about the accuracy of the statement, McCord issued a new memo which said: "I have learned that ... (Egan) feels he cannot confirm for the record the information we attributed to him. He does, however, acknowledge the accuracy of what we said." Taxpayers Against Fraud describes itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that fights fraud against the U.S. government. McCord said his group is interested in this suit because it has the potential of forcing Lockheed Martin to return tens of millions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury. A move by the Department of Justice to join the suit would indicate that government investigators found evidence to confirm the allegations. Justice officials have spent two years reviewing thousands of pages of documents and computer generated files, interviewing current and former employees and excavating at several locations in and around the plant. If the Department of Justice does not become a plaintiff, the current and former employees who filed suit would have to proceed on their own, and the pursuit would likely be costly and time-consuming. Western District U.S. Attorney Steve Reed would not comment on the statements of Taxpayers Against Fraud. ***************************************************************** 14 Our View: Treat DOE with respect 06/08/01 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:04 p.m. on Friday, June 8, 2001 While many areas of Tennessee tend to look upon Oak Ridge alone as being favored by federal -- and particularly Department of Energy -- largess, a new study by the University of Tennessee suggests the beneficial reach extends well beyond the city's borders. Among the findings by UT's Center for Business and Economic Research: - DOE's local work year led to an increase of nearly $1.8 billion in Tennessee's gross state product in 2000; boosted state and local tax coffers by $56.6 million; and directly or indirectly created 33,517 full-time jobs for the state. Certainly that is nothing to sneeze at. And, as maddening as we might sometimes find dealing with big-government bureaucracies and decision-making, the fact is DOE on the whole is a pretty good corporate neighbor. At the least, it should be treated with some measure of the same courtesy and consideration accorded to private-sector employers whose impact pales by comparison. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************