***************************************************************** 01/11/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.10 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Power Online News for power industry professionals 2 Little Bayou Creek conditions improve 3 U.S. DOE TO RESEARCH INCINERATION ALTERNATIVES 4 Domenici says high energy prices linked to lack of energy policy 5 Early February Restart Planned for V.C. Summer Nuke 6 Nuclear power generates only real solution to energy need 7 Clinton Administration Proposes Legislation to Build Energy 8 Uranium Institute News Briefing 01.02 | 4 - 9 January 2001 9 Groups Fume Over Nuclear Waste Ship 10 Argentina says nuclear ship won't enter its waters 11 Radiation scare homes offered tests 12 Austrian Greens to Continue Protests Against Temelin 13 Planned Murmansk nuclear repossessing plant in difficulties NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 VA pushes ‘atomic veterans’ benefits - By Bill Bartleman 2 DOE environmental manager paid $17 M 3 Depleted Coverage of NATO's Depleted Uranium Weapons 4 EDITORIAL STUDY URANIUM SHELLS 5 Bullet debate: Answers in Iraq? 6 Depleted Uranium: The Invisible Threat 7 U.S. Releases Nuclear Plants List 8 ADF says uranium stock gone [ 11jan01 9 Australian military screening soldiers for radiation exposure 10 NATO Takes Balkan Uranium Fears Seriously-Albright 11 U.N. Wants Uranium Sites Isolated 12 NATO Devises Uranium Action Plan 13 NATO Bows to Uranium-Shell Fears 14 Europe orders own tests on dangers of uranium-tipped shells 15 Ailing vets want answers 16 Britain Dismisses Own Report Backing Uranium Risk 17 UN presses for more uranium research 18 Britain to screen Gulf War vets 19 Army warned of uranium risk four years ago 20 HOON REJECTS ARMY URANIUM REPORT 21 Nato chief moves to calm fears over uranium health risks 22 ‘No danger’ in depleted uranium weapons 23 These children had cancer. Now they are dead. I believe they were 24 INQUIRY CALL OVER URANIUM BOMBS 25 Uranium Arms Scare a Milosevic Trick 26 DU galvanizes Athens 27 Nuclear test veterans call for screening 28 Britain denies Norwegian reports on continued pollution from 29 Russia Must Secure Nuclear Stockpile 30 Ready for the Worst Case 31 Iraq blames depleted uranium for cancer increase ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Power Online News for power industry professionals ELECTRON CAFé BY JOHN GLENN: BIG AND LITTLE -->1/10/2001  This column is a follow up to my pre-election musings about whether Yucca Mountain might decide the presidential election. I did not imagine just how close the election would actually be. Had Gore got Nevada’s four electoral votes, he would be choosing the next Energy Secretary [Spencer Abraham?], not Bush. However, the Nevada spread was relatively big in percent but not in total votes. Closer to giving the election to Gore was LITTLE New Hampshire with its four electoral votes. The Green Party (Nader) had many more votes (22,000) than the vote difference between Bush and Gore (7000). Thus the environmentalists probably sealed the case for Nevada as the nation’s repository for high level radioactive waste. With the Republican’s in charge of Congress and the White House, most East Coast Democrats will gladly let any decision by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in favor of Yucca Mountain stand. This proves that LITTLE differences can have BIG consequences. While small difference can be absolutely decisive in politics, should small differences in the environment have the same big impact? The opponents of siting the repository at Yucca Mountain are counting on LITTLE differences between the standards proposed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory (NRC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to have a BIG impact on DOE’s findings. Following an earlier column, Bob Loux, Director of Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects, provided two comments regarding the standards for Yucca Mountain. I would like to quote his two points separately with commentary on each point: “The first is that because the Department of Energy’s performance assessment for Yucca Mountain includes the need to use the Amargosa aquifer as a waste management tool in order to meet the regulatory goal, the inclusion of a separate ground water protection standard as a part of the overall standard, is very important to Nevadans. DOE’s PA anticipates that significant releases into this aquifer will occur within the regulatory period. At 5 km from the actual repository releases into the aquifer will be on the order of 400 to 600 millirem, but hoping that the aquifer is so large that these materials will ‘dilute and disperse,’ so that current users of water from that aquifer (dairies, farmers, and the town of Amargosa Valley) will only receive doses around 25 millirem at 20 km from the repository. Many, both within DOE and in Congress, believe that the inclusion of a separate ground water standard of 4 millirem will disqualify Yucca Mountain from further consideration.” I disagree with this point. My columns have stressed that although the differences between EPA and NRC seem large, in truth, the safety differences are trivial. Every Nevadan, from the day they are born, is exposed to relatively high levels of natural, background radiation. This is due to the geologic formations in much of the State. Thus Nevadans are likely to receive today between 400 and 600 millirem every year of their lives. My point is that the LITTLE difference to their descendants of receiving 425 to 625 millirem per year versus 404 t0 604 millirem per year means nothing. A separate groundwater standard of 4 millirem per year is a powerful political tool but a ridiculous technical basis. “The other point worth mentioning is that DOE requires a waste package that would last on the order of 30,000 to 100,000 years, to meet a 25 millirem standard measured at 20 km from the site. This is because DOE has found the actual site conditions so poor at Yucca Mountain that the site only provides less than 5% of the overall performance, with the waste package needing to provide the remaining 95%. Our studies to date indicate that the metal package DOE is proposing to use will likely last only 500 to 1,000 years. And finally, all of the DOE performance assessment calculations, including meeting the regulatory target, have very large uncertainties that range from 5 to 7 orders of magnitude, making any predictions of performance highly suspect.” This point has technical merit. Orders of magnitude differences are truly BIG. This should be the area of scrutiny for DOE’s performance assessment. Alas for Nevada, the other 49 states are quite willing for DOE to conclude that the LITTLE likelihood of any of the high- risk scenarios makes the siting acceptable. In the best of all possible worlds, I believe recoverable storage is superior to geological disposal. Recoverable storage combined with plutonium burn-up in a breeder reactor offers the best approach to meeting even the most restrictive standards. But neither Nevada nor I are likely to get wishes fulfilled. The odds are that Congress and the Bush administration will let the Yucca approval ride (my second preference) and that recycle (breeding) will only come about if DOE continues to move at glacial speed. Wait long enough, and we will realize the foolishness of burying valuable resources. [*]WWW.POWERONLINE.COM ***************************************************************** 2 Little Bayou Creek conditions improve The Paducah Sun Thursday, January 11, 2001 STAFF REPORT Recent tests for PCB contamination in Little Bayou Creek near the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant indicate improved conditions, but environmental officials continue to advise consumers not to eat fish caught in the creek. The Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet prepared a draft report on Little Bayou as required by the Federal Clean Water Act. Comments on the draft report can be made to the cabinet through Feb. 9. Copies are available by calling 564-3410, or checking the Internet at http://water.nr.state.ky.us/dow/tmdl.htm. The report said Little Bayou is contaminated with PCBs because of spills and discharges from the gaseous diffusion plant. PCBs are used in capacitors and transformers. Advisories against eating fish from the creek have been consistent since 1992. The report found that levels of PCBs have dropped from almost two parts per million in 1992 to less than one part per million in the most recent study. The goal is to remove all PCBs. Contamination has been reduced through improvements in environmental management at the gaseous diffusion plant, and through cleanup efforts that began 10 years ago, the report said. ***************************************************************** 3 U.S. DOE TO RESEARCH INCINERATION ALTERNATIVES Pollution Online News for pollution control professionals -->1/10/2001  U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said on Jan. 8 that the department would pursue new ways to dispose of nuclear wastes. Richardson, who relinquishes his post on Jan. 20, said the department will investigate alternatives to burning nuclear wastes. The decision in part came about as a result of successful protestations by citizens of Jackson, WY of government plans to incinerate nuclear-contaminated wasted at a DOE Idaho facility during 2000. The department had intended to burn transuranic waste, containing radioactive elements such as plutonium with hazardous chemicals such as PCBs, at its Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in eastern Idaho. Protesters claimed that particles of plutonium could release in the process, wafting 100 miles to the east over the Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. The secretary has formally accepted a report by a panel that examined other waste-disposal choices. The panel, according to the Associated Press report of Richardson’s action, was constituted as part of the settlement of a lawsuit filed by several prominent citizens in the Jackson area. The panel produced what it said was several promising ways to dispose of transuranic wastes without the health hazards attributed to incineration. The methods—still commercially unproved-include plasma torching, thermal, and vacuum treatments, and steam reforming. The panel opined that some of the methods could be ready for use as early as 2003. Researching new methods of nuclear waste disposal could cost nearly U.S.$91 million, the panel said and warned against devoting insufficient resources to the effort. The AP reported that Richardson promised to increase funding for the effort in the 2001 budget by $3 million to $9 million. Edited by Paul Hersch Managing Editor, Pollution Online --> [*]WWW.POLLUTIONONLINE.COM ***************************************************************** 4 Domenici says high energy prices linked to lack of energy policy Special to the Journal January 10, 2001 WASHINGTON--AFTER PREDICTING LAST FALL THAT SUPPLY AND PRICE PROBLEMS WITH NATURAL GAS AND PROPANE WOULD HIT AMERICANS THIS WINTER, U.S. SEN. PETE DOMENICI, R-N.M., SAID THE "PATHETIC" CHRISTMAS TREE BROWNOUTS IN CALIFORNIA WERE A CLEAR SIGNAL THAT THE NATION MUST SOON ADOPT A COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY POLICY TO BRING RELIEF TO CONSUMERS AND KEEP THE AMERICAN ECONOMY ROLLING. DOMENICI IN DECEMBER PARTICIPATED IN A SENATE ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE HEARING ON THE RECENT QUADRUPLING OF NATURAL GAS PRICES OVER THE PAST YEAR, AS WELL AS THE GROWING CRISIS SURROUNDING SUPPLY AVAILABILITY. DOMENICI TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHALLENGE THE NEXT WHITE HOUSE ADMINISTRATION TO WORK WITH CONGRESS IN DEVELOPING A NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY, THE LACK OF WHICH IS EVIDENT IN RISING OIL AND NATURAL GAS PRICES. "WE'VE INCREASED OUR RELIANCE ON NATURAL GAS TO FUEL ELECTRIC PLANTS AND NOW THE SUPPLY IS NOT KEEPING UP. SO TODAY WE SEE BROWNOUTS ROLLING ACROSS CALIFORNIA. IT'S PATHETIC THAT SOME PEOPLE IN THIS GREAT COUNTRY (WERE) BEING TOLD NOT TO KEEP THEIR CHRISTMAS TREES ON," DOMENICI SAID. "THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DUPED INTO BELIEVING THAT WE CAN HAVE 4.4 PERCENT ECONOMIC GROWTH, MORE JOBS AND PROSPERITY WITHOUT RECOGNIZING THAT ENERGY SUPPLY IS THE UNDERPINNING OF OUR ECONOMY. WITHOUT AN ENERGY POLICY THAT ADVOCATES A WIDE VARIETY OF ENERGY SOURCES, OUR NATION PUTS ITS ECONOMY AT RISK AND ALMOST GUARANTEES HIGH HEATING PRICES FOR FAMILIES," HE ADDED. DOMENICI SAID AN ENLIGHTENED ENERGY POLICY WOULD ADVOCATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF NUCLEAR ENERGY, RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES, BUILDING MORE REFINERIES AND POWER PLANTS, AND, FINALLY, GREATER DOMESTIC OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION. HE CRITICIZED THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION FOR NOT ADVOCATING ANY RESEMBLANCE OF AN ENERGY POLICY DURING ITS EIGHT-YEAR TENURE. "WE NEED EVERY KIND OF ENERGY IN AMERICA. WE NEED MORE NATURAL GAS. WE NEED TO RETHINK AND INCREASE THE USE OF CLEAN COAL, AND WE HAVE TO OPEN UP THE AMERICAN HINTERLANDS TO OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION," DOMENICI SAID. "IN TERMS OF NATURAL GAS AND OIL, THIS (CLINTON) ADMINISTRATION HAS DONE SO MUCH TO HINDER ANY SUCH PRODUCTION." AS AN EXAMPLE, DOMENICI CITED THE POTENTIAL NATURAL GAS FIELD WITHIN THE BENNETT RANCH IN SOUTHERN OTERO COUNTY IN NEW MEXICO. DEVELOPMENT OF THIS RESOURCE HAS BEEN DELAYED FOR MORE THAN THREE YEARS AS THE ADMINISTRATION CONSIDERS ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS, SUCH AS "DESERT GRASSLAND HABITAT FRAGMENTATION." "THIS HAS THE POTENTIAL FOR BEING A VERY LARGE FIND, BUT WE MAY NEVER KNOW BECAUSE OF THE REGULATORY HURDLES BEING THROWN UP. THERE'S A RISK THAT THIS ENERGY SOURCE MAY NEVER BE PRODUCED," DOMENICI SAID. ACCORDING TO A NATIONAL PETROLEUM COUNCIL REPORT THERE ARE ABOUT 200 TRILLION CUBIC FEET OF NATURAL GAS EITHER OFF LIMITS OR AVAILABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT ONLY WITH SIGNIFICANT RESTRICTIONS. NATURAL GAS NOW PROVIDES 18 PERCENT OF ALL THE ELECTRICITY USED IN THE UNITED STATES. At a hearing in September, Domenici advised "Americans to hold on to their pocketbooks because they haven't seen the highest prices yet on natural gas, or even propane." ***************************************************************** 5 Early February Restart Planned for V.C. Summer Nuke EnergyOnline ˙LCG, Jan. 10, 2001--South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. said yesterday ˙that repair and testing of a faulty weld in a pipe in the reactor ˙coolant system at its V.C. Summer Nuclear Station are progressing ˙well, and the plant should return to service in late January or ˙early February. ˙The 1,000 megawatt facility has been shut down since last October ˙7 when a small leak was discovered during a routine refueling ˙outage. The small leak was in a weld in a big pipe – 30 inches ˙across – and the pipe is a primary cooling system conduit. It ˙would take a while to fix. ˙"We initially thought we would be able to put the nuclear plant ˙back in service in early January, but the repair work has been ˙very time consuming and we want to make sure there are no questions ˙about the integrity of the new weld," said Steve Byrne, SCE& ˙G vice president for nuclear operations. ˙Summer workers cut out a 12-inch section of the pipe, six inches ˙on each side of the weld, and are now welding a new piece of pipe ˙in its place. That means two difficult welds, and they are now ˙nearing completion. ˙SCE&G has met with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission three times ˙as the repairs have progressed and will meet once more a week ˙from tomorrow. Weld repairs and all associated testing should ˙be completed by mid-January with restart of the plant currently ˙scheduled for the end of January or the first week of February. ***************************************************************** 6 Nuclear power generates only real solution to energy need Evansville Courier & Press - By Bertram Wolfe and Chauncey Starr Special to the Los Angeles Times Why is California now suffering from a lack of affordable electricity? The answer is that California and the nation have not looked responsibly to the future. In the late 1960s and early ’70s, the United States was doubling its electricity use every 10 years. To meet coming needs, utilities were placing major orders for new generating plants. In 1973, the situation changed. The Arab oil boycott and the resulting higher energy costs slowed the growth of electricity use to a doubling in 35 years. As a result, the new plants ordered before 1973 that were subsequently built led to a surplus of electrical supply. That nationwide surplus, which is now gone, is what California officials were counting on when deregulation was approved in 1996 — a robust, competitive market of wholesale electrical supply from generating companies outside the state. That expectation failed. Why? Before 1973, the Sierra Club supported nuclear power. Since then, the influential “environmental” organizations have opposed oil, gas, coal and nuclear plants, as well as dams and even geothermal plants. They argue for solar and wind power, which on a large scale are impractical because of their immense land use and their intermittent availability; indeed, on such a scale, they are environmentally detrimental. However, with a surplus of energy supply, it didn’t matter. But the electrical surplus has vanished. In the United States, we now need new energy capacity to meet our present and future needs. We must decide how to meet our energy needs. The Energy Information Administration projects a continued U.S. increase of electricity needs of 40 percent in the next 20 years, and the needed replacement of 25 percent of our current capacity. There are problems that must be addressed. The price of natural gas has quadrupled in the past year. New gas-fueled electricity plants, which were the least expensive source of electricity, are now the most expensive. Natural gas supply will remain tight for the foreseeable future, with accompanying price volatility depending on weather and import availability from Canada and Mexico. Oil is subject to serious overseas political problems and costs that have gone up and down. Coal, which is among the most plentiful and least costly energy sources, has environmental problems: large emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, including small particles. Nuclear energy, which has no significant emissions, can also be among the low-cost energy sources, but it has political barriers to overcome. The 103 existing nuclear plants (ordered before 1973) remain a vital, safe, electricity source in California and in the United States. But since 1973, it has taken an uneconomic 10 to 20 years to build the previously ordered nuclear plants in this country, whereas U.S. companies build nuclear plants abroad (and used to build them here) economically in four or five years. Similarly, anti-nuclear forces have unnecessarily delayed the construction of repositories for nuclear wastes. The electricity trap in which California now finds itself is a consequence of the national trends coming together this winter. Weather has increased demand in the western United States, so California cannot depend on low-cost electricity purchases from neighboring states. The political response has so far been Band-Aid fixes, which do not tackle the root issue of making California a friendly state for long-term investment by electricity generators. The recent electricity problems in California make it clear that we must take action to prevent future energy disasters. In the next few years, our only means to provide the needed electricity is with an expansion of gas- and/or coal-powered plants, with their financial and environmental problems. We should demonstrate now that nuclear plants can be built here as efficiently as they can be built abroad and move to get our waste repositories moving. We need government commitment and action to ensure that we can meet our near-term and long-term energy needs in California and nationally. The one available solution is a major increase in the utilization of nuclear energy. Nuclear energy can provide an essentially unlimited supply of energy economically. Anti-nuclear activists frighten the public about nuclear wastes thousands of years out. But the real concerns are fossil fuel environmental impacts and the lack of energy in the coming decades, when oil and gas supplies are exhausted and, in the following century, when economic coal supplies are depleted. The near-term expansion of nuclear energy would allow us to mitigate global warming and to lengthen the availability of specially needed fossil fuels. Today we are having very disturbing, but relatively mild, energy problems due to our lack of preparation. We must work to solve this near-term problem. But we should also not wait for the future national and world energy disasters to occur before we act to mitigate — and hopefully eliminate — them. Bertram Wolfe is an independent consultant and a fellow and past president of the American Nuclear Society. Chauncey Starr is president emeritus of the Electric Power Research Institute. ***************************************************************** 7 Clinton Administration Proposes Legislation to Build Energy Department Worker Compensation Program energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson today announced the Administration's proposed changes to existing legislation that provides for compensating thousands of current and former workers in nuclear weapons-related activities, or their survivors, whose service to the country left them sick or dying. "For many years, the government promoted a legacy of neglect toward those workers who helped build the strongest national security in the world," said Secretary Richardson. "We failed to take care of our workers who became sick. The legislative changes we are proposing today are an opportunity to build upon our commitment to do what is right for our employees and for this nation by showing we have listened to what our workers want--more choices in benefits and more fairness in adjudicating claims." The Administration's proposal would amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-398), which was enacted in October 2000 with strong bipartisan support as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. The Act provides for compensation of Energy Department workers, or their survivors, who have occupational illnesses from exposure to the unique hazards associated with building the nation's nuclear defense. Secretary Richardson and Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman jointly transmitted the proposed amendments to Congress today. The Department of Labor has primary responsibility for administering the compensation and medical benefits program, including determining eligibility requirements and adjudicating claims. Under the proposed amendments, a covered worker will be provided a choice of compensation remedies. The worker may elect to receive a lump sum payment of $150,000, as provided in the current law, or compensation for lost wages provided by the new legislation. Compensation for lost wages is the traditional remedy for workers' compensation under Federal and State compensation programs. Both the new legislation and current law provide for payment of medical expenses. The legislation also makes changes necessary to administer the compensation program effectively. These changes include clarifying agency responsibilities for various activities and providing appropriate review of eligibility and other determinations made in implementing this program. The reviews include an appeals process for workers who may disagree with findings on their claims. The Department of Health and Human Services will develop guidelines for the Department of Labor to determine whether a cancer is likely to be related to a worker's occupational exposure to radiation, to establish methods to estimate worker exposure to radiation and develop estimates for those who have applied for compensation. A Presidential advisory board is now being selected to provide oversight and assure confidence in the scientific validity and quality of this work. Secretary Richardson also made public an initial list of facilities to be covered under the legislation, including beryllium vendors, Energy Department sites that used radioactive materials and facilities where atomic weapons workers may have been employed. Some of these facilities are no longer operating. The list names 317 sites in 37 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and the Marshall Islands. This preliminary list, responding to a December 2000 Presidential Executive Order, will be published next week in the Federal Register. Also in Washington on Thursday, the department's new Environment, Safety and Health Worker Advocacy Advisory Committee held its first meeting. The committee chair is Emily Spieler, professor at West Virginia University College of Law. The 14-member committee's work includes providing advice on worker compensation policy issues and reviewing the department's worker advocacy program initiatives. The proposed legislation, the preliminary list of facilities and information on the compensation program are available on the World facilities will be available by the end of the month at the same website. Workers who have questions about the compensation program may call the department's toll-free number at 1-877-447-9756. MEDIA CONTACT: Jeff Sherwood (DOE), 202/586-5806 Clinton Coleman (DOL), 202/693-0023 Release No. R-01-009 ***************************************************************** 8 Uranium Institute News Briefing 01.02 | 4 - 9 January 2001 A weekly summary of international news relevant to uranium and the nuclear energy industry. [NB01.02-1] INDIA: THE 220 MWE RAJASTHAN-4 PRESSURISED HEAVY WATER REACTOR (PHWR) went into commercial operation on 25 December, the Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd announced. (Nucleonics [NB01.02-2] KAZAKHSTAN DOES NOT PLAN TO INCREASE URANIUM PRODUCTION IN 2001, according to Mukhtar Dzhakishev, president of Kazatomprom. Citing low uranium prices, he said that it was futile increasing production when none of the world uranium producing companies will 'invest in its production'. Kazatomprom will be forced to stop development of uranium deposits in southern Kazakhstan at the 'experimental level' if uranium prices remain at their current levels or drop further. Mr Dzhakishev also noted that an increase in uranium prices would not automatically lead to increased Kazakh production. Meanwhile, the Kazakh government has confirmed there is a need to privatise Kazatomprom. The government has reportedly held talks with Kazatomprom's strategic partners, including Cogema, Cameco and Nukem. Dzhakishev proposed to the government that 67% of the state block of shares in the company should be sold to a strategic investor. (Ux Weekly, 8 January, p3; see also 3] FINLAND'S NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS MAINTAINED THE COUNTRY'S 30% NUCLEAR SHARE in total electricity produced during 2000 for the second consecutive year, generating a total of 21.97 TWh. The two-unit Olkiluoto plant generated 14.07 TWh, while the two-unit Loviisa plant generated 7.9 TWh. (NucNet 3) [NB01.02-4] FRANCE: ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION ROSE 3.3% TO 517 TWH FROM 1999 TO 2000. The rise was accounted for according to the information centre for French electricity network (CIREF) by an 18% increase in fossil-fuel plants and a 5.4% increase in nuclear. Hydroelectric production dropped 6.1%. Demand in the French market increased by 2.4% and exports rose 6.7%, while imports of electricity dropped by 33.3% to NB00.15-2) [NB01.02-5] SEVERAL EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS HAVE CALLED FOR AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTS on soldiers and civilians of depleted uranium (DU) weapons used in the Balkans. Slightly higher levels of beta radiation have been recorded in eight out of the eleven sites checked by the United Nations' depleted uranium assessment team. Checks are to be carried out on military personnel from countries involved in a peace-keeping role after a number of troops reportedly developed leukaemia. Pekka Haavisto, the chairman of the UN team, said it was vital to examine the full personal background of each soldier. He told The Times that 'it would not be possible for a soldier passing through an area hit by depleted uranium weapons in Kosovo to be suffering now from leukaemia (as a result)'. A report from the UN Environmental Protection team into the use of DU in military conflicts and possible impact on health and environment in the Balkans is due to be published in February. (Times Online, 8 January; EURO (US$42.35 MILLION) PROGRAMME TO HELP FINANCE the closure of Ignalina-1 has been agreed by the European Union (EU) and the Lithuanian government. Part of the grant is to be used to put in place alternative energy sources to replace power generated by the RBMK-1000 reactor. Lithuania agreed to close Ignalina-1 by the end of 2005 as part of negotiations to join the EU. Ignalina-1 currently produces about 70% of Lithuania's total electricity. (Nucleonics Week, 4 January, p9; see JOINT DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH-POWER, LOW-COST REACTOR has been agreed by Toshiba Corp, Hitachi Ltd and General Electric Co. The three companies will share design data and split work for the development of an improved version of an advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR). The total cost for the reactor to generate 1700 MWe will be between 25 billion yen (US$215 million) and 30 billion yen (US$260 million), according to sources. This is about half the price of a conventional nuclear reactor. (Ux Weekly, 8 [NB01.02-8] US: INDIAN POINT-2 RESUMED OPERATION ON 3 JANUARY, nearly a year after a steam leak shut down the plant. The restart was delayed after the operator ConEd installed new steam generators following pressure from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). (Nuclear Market Review, 5 January, p3; [NB01.02-9] SWEDEN: PREPARATIONS TO BRING RINGHALS-1 BACK ON LINE HAVE BEGUN, almost six months after an annual refuelling outage during which new cracks were discovered in brackets and welds fixing the core spray system to the core shroud. The Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) will allow the reactor to operate until this summer's scheduled outage, when further inspections of the brackets and welds will be required. Permission to restart the reactor was only given after Ringhals AB had submitted an extensive calculation and analysis of the performance of the core spray system under accident conditions. If no further cracks are found in the core spray system brackets and welds during the reactor's 2001 outage, the SKI will allow it to continue operating until its 2002 outage, when Ringhals plans to install a new core shroud cover and spray Briefing 00.40-15) [NB01.02-10] US: PRESIDENT-ELECT GEORGE W BUSH HAS NOMINATED SPENCER ABRAHAM to be Secretary of Energy. The nomination came as a surprise to both the Republican and Democrat parties, but appears to be acceptable to all except environmentalist organisations. Critics of the nomination say that the former Republican senator from Michigan has little experience in energy issues. (FreshFUEL, 8 January, REQUEST BY CAROLINA POWER & LIGHT (CP&L) TO EXPAND THE CAPACITY for storage of spent fuel at Shearon Harris by placing two additional spent fuel pools in service has been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The approval was given despite an on-going adjudicatory hearing. The NRC said on 21 December that the Harris licence amendment is effective Briefing 99.02-13) [NB01.02-12] US: ENVIROCARE OF UTAH INC'S REQUEST to be allowed to take more radioactive low-level waste (LLW) for disposal has been given tentative approval by Utah regulators. A 60-day public comment period follows the announcement. Envirocare can already dispose of most types of Class A LLW, but wants to take the more radioactive Classes B and C also. Utah's legislature and the governor must approve the final decision by the regulator. (Nucleonics Week, 4 January, p3) [NB01.02-13] UK: A SODIUM DISPOSAL PLANT AT HAS BEEN COMMISSIONED at Dounreay by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). The plant - scheduled to start operating in late-summer 2001 - will convert 1500 tonnes of reactor coolant into saltwater by early 2003. NB00.42-19) [NB01.02-14] US: REPROCESSING AND MIXED OXIDE (MOX) FUEL use for either energy production or weapons disposition should be stopped immediately on economic and non-proliferation grounds, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER). The report suggests that immobilising inventories of civilian and military plutonium would be a safer, faster and cheaper method to put separated plutonium into non-weapons-usable form. The report essentially recommends abandoning the programmes outlined in the September 2000 US-Russia bilateral agreement. Instead, the IEER suggests, G-7 nations should offer to buy Russia's commercial and surplus weapons plutonium, and pay to immobilise it. That move would cost about US$2 billion. The IEER also urged the US to immobilise all of its surplus military plutonium. The report is available on IEER's website (http://www.ieer.org/reports/pu/index.html). (SpentFUEL, [NB01.02-15] US: US ENERGY CORP (USE) AND CRESTED CORP (USECC) have now received the full US$3.25 million from Kennecott Uranium Co for a litigation settlement signed in September 2000. Under the agreement, USECC transferred the Green Mountain Mining Venture to Kennecott and both USEEC and USE will receive 4% net royalty on any profits from Green Mountain. Kennecott also agreed to assume all reclamation liabilities associated with the properties. (Ux Weekly, 8 January, 5) [NB01.02-16] US: CONECTIV HAS SOLD ITS 7.51% INTEREST IN PEACH BOTTOM-1 AND -2, as well as the 7.51% share in Salem-1 and -2, to PSEG Nuclear LLC and PECO Energy Company for approximately US$9.2 million, excluding reimbursement of estimated fuel inventory which is subject to adjustment. (Nuclear Market Review, 5 January, REPUBLIC: LIKELY BIDDERS FOR CZECH ELECTRICITY GENERATOR CEZ and six distributors include Germany's E.ON and EDF of France. The Czech government - which aims to raise at least US$2.5 billion from the sale - intends to accept bids from only major players with experience in both generation and distribution. Another condition for the sale is the signing of a 15-year deal to buy 35 million tonnes of coal annually. 15) [NB01.02-18] UK: STRICTER SECURITY CHECKS ARE TO BE INTRODUCED at nuclear power plants after a security guard at BNFL's Bradwell Magnox reactor reportedly tried to sabotage the site's computers in June 1999. The patrolman triggered a security alert that led to shutdown of the station's automatic access control system, locking doors electronically to close it as colleagues started looking for an intruder. The guard, who is believed to have hacked into Bradwell's computer system to alter sensitive information, reportedly had never been vetted and had two undisclosed criminal convictions. (Guardian, 9 January, p2) Prepared by the Uranium Institute Information Service. All news and views are those of the publications cited. ***************************************************************** 9 Groups Fume Over Nuclear Waste Ship January 10, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP)--So far it's been smooth sailing at sea for the Pacific Swan, a British-owned ship carrying French nuclear waste to Japan. But back on land, environmental protesters are giving the shipment a rougher ride. As the Pacific Swan neared the southernmost tip of South America at Cape Horn on Wednesday, it faced numerous protests by environmental groups who fear it may be only the first of a series of ships bearing dangerous cargos through the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And local governments have also made clear the ship isn't welcome. Last month, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay all opposed the ship's arrival, fearing it could cause damage to delicate ecosystems. They demanded tighter, universally agreed standards on such shipments. The Pacific Swan left France in December carrying 90 tons of nuclear waste. Its journey is set to last around 60 days, though the ship's exact sailing plans have been kept under close wraps. Last week, protesters gathered outside British embassy in Argentina, where they hoisted a skull-and-crossbone flag, emblazoned with the words "No Plutonium" in place of Britain's Union Jack. On Wednesday, Greenpeace environmentalists said they were dispatching a "search party" in a chartered boat to track the Pacific Swan as it rounds Cape Horn. Martin Pietro, a Greenpeace spokesman, charged that Argentina would be ill-equipped to handle the outcome should something befall the ship off its waters. He called for concerted action by Latin American governments to prevent future shipments. "If the governments of Argentina and Chile don't send a strong message of opposition to the use of the Cape Horn route ... they will be opening up a nuclear highway for this and future shipments," he said. International law prevents countries from blocking a ship's passage as long as it stays beyond 12-miles from the shoreline. The majority owner of the company that operates Pacific Swan insisted fears over safety are baseless. "This is one of the safest ships to sail the seas," said Paul Vallance, a spokesman for British Nuclear Fuel Ltd. He said the Pacific Swan, built especially for transporting such wastes, bristles with safety features, including a double hull, duplicate navigational and power systems and reinforced structures to guard against collision damage. In the event of damage or mechanical failure in any part of the ship, all essential systems would be able to continue functioning, said Vallance. "All hulls could be flooded and the ship would still float, " he said in an interview. Vallance added that the ship had no plans to enter Argentine waters as it sailed on to Rokkasho-Mura, Japan. And while the ship's operators accept that it is possible ships carrying more dangerous material could come through the area in the next decade, BNFL spokesman Mark Scott said there was "no proposal to do so." Argentina's national atomic energy commission recently issued a statement giving the all-clear, declaring "the population faces no risk." The last time a vessel carrying nuclear waste arrived in the region, in 1995, the Chilean government deployed an armed warship to escort it out of Chilean waters, while a concerted campaign of demonstrations dogged the ship's journey. ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 10 Argentina says nuclear ship won't enter its waters - 1/10/2001 - ENN.com Wednesday, January 10, 2001   [I] The British ship Pacific Swan sails in the Atlantic South on route to Japan with a cargo of more than 80 metric tons nuclear waste. The ship is scheduled to sail past Cape Horn January 12, an area renowned for its strong currents that make navigation difficult. The Argentine government sought Tuesday to ease concerns about the possibility of a toxic spill by a British ship carrying nuclear waste around treacherous Cape Horn, saying the vessel Pacific Swan would not enter its territorial waters. "The information given to us about the boat's planned route indicates it will pass around Cape Horn and it is not expected to enter Argentina's territorial waters," the Foreign Ministry said, responding to protests by local environmental groups. The statement came as Argentine navy planes spotted the Pacific Swan midway down Argentina's south Atlantic coast on the edge of its territorial waters. Plans to transport the highly radioactive 80-ton cargo of French- processed, spent nuclear fuel around Cape Horn - one of the world's most treacherous stretches of water - has alarmed Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, whose coastlines are on the planned route. The Pacific Swan, which is owned by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), set sail from Cherbourg, France, Dec. 19 with a cargo of Japanese nuclear reactor waste mixed with glass. The vessel is due to dock in Aomori in northern Japan in February. The environmental group Greenpeace fears the passage around South America's southern tip could become the preferred route for transporting nuclear waste between Europe and Japan, replacing the traditional, shorter route through the Panama Canal. Copyright 2001, Reuters All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 11 Radiation scare homes offered tests Ananova - Householders worried that their drinking water may be contaminated with radioactive material have been offered the chance to have their supplies tested by local councils. But the councils will charge more than Ł90 to carry out the checks. The offer comes after a study found that 15% of households with private water supplies in Devon has radioactive radon or uranium in their drinking water. It also discovered that running the tap or boiling the water did not remove all traces of the radioactive material. Radon is a naturally occurring gas and in areas where it is known to exist in high levels, local authorities are offering advice to the public. Councils say the Ł90 charge is needed simply to cover the costs of sending the samples to a laboratory. West Devon Borough Council, which carried out the research, has called on the Government to consider giving financial help in view of its findings. But a spokeswoman for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions say no extra money is to be given to councils which already has access to grants for action against radon in air. When consumed over a long time radon can lead to an increased risk of stomach cancer, while uranium in high levels can be toxic to the kidneys. However, the health risks from ingested radon are very small and there is no evidence to suggest low levels of uranium would lead to kidney disease. The study found the radioactive material in water mainly from springs, wells and boreholes. Mains water supplies were not affected. Last updated: 17:38 Wednesday 10th January 2001 Copyright c 2001 Ananova Ltd ***************************************************************** 12 Austrian Greens to Continue Protests Against Temelin Central Europe Online Daily News - VIENNA, Jan 11, 2001--(CTK - Czech News Agency) The Austrian Greens have demanded that consistent opposition against the Czech Temelin nuclear power plant continue, the Austrian news agency APA said today. They have called on Lower Austrian Governor Erwin Proell, who is to hold talks in Prague on Friday, to agree with Czech Premier Milos Zeman and Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies Vaclav Klaus on prolonging tests at Temelin by the end of this year, APA said. Greens spokeswoman Eva Glawischnig criticized Economy Minister Martin Bartenstein, who, despite a clear resolution adopted by the Austrian parliament, has not yet achieved a ban on exports of electricity from the Czech Republic. She said that Bartenstein should not only immediately put things right as regards the ban but should also submit, on behalf of Austria, a complaint against the Czech Republic to European Union bodies for an alleged suspicion of dumping sales of electricity. The Greens believe that an agreement achieved by Zeman and Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel on December 12, 2000, which stipulates for carrying out safety checks and an environmental impact assessment at Temelin was not at all a "suitable instrument" for clarifying many open questions around Temelin, Glawischnig said. She pointed out that eight failures occurred at Temelin during the current trial operation of its first reactor alone. ((C) 2001 CTK - CZECH NEWS AGENCY) ***************************************************************** 13 Planned Murmansk nuclear repossessing plant in difficulties The Norway Post - Doorway to Norway 11. Januar 2001 A planned repossessing plant for liquid nuclear waste in the Russian city of Murmansk, which was to be financed by Norway and the US, is in difficulties, according to Aftenposten. The plant is still not ready for production, six years after the project was started. The US has withdrawn from the project, but the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority is still of the opinion that Norway ought to grant more money, Aftenposten writes. The paper has been given access to an internal report written for the Authority. Norway had first agreed to take part in the building up of the reposessing plant, but it soon became apparent that a secure storage plant was also needed, and Norway has now agreed to pay for this as well. (NRK/Aftenposten) Rolleiv Solholm ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 VA pushes ‘atomic veterans’ benefits - By Bill Bartleman The Paducah Sun Thursday, January 11, 2001 Were military troops ever assigned to guard or work at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant? No one in Washington is certain, but if they were, the Veterans Administration wants them to be eligible for special benefits given to veterans who worked in radiation-risk activities. The VA recently issued a news release calling for additional aid for "atomic veterans." Most of the news release dealt with making it easier for veterans to obtain benefits if they have cancer and were assigned to jobs in which they were exposed to radiation. The release also said that "The proposed changes would also expand the definition of 'radiation-risk activity' to include exposure to radiation related to ... service at gaseous diffusion plants in Paducah, Ky., Portsmouth, Ohio, and Oak Ridge, Tenn." The release implied that at some point, military troops were assigned to the Paducah plant, something that has never been rumored or made public. VA officials in Washington at first said they were proposing expansion of the benefits so that military assigned to work in Paducah would receive the same benefits that are now being offered to civilian workers at the plant. Asked to explain what work the military performed at the plant, the VA spokeswoman referred questions to the Department of Defense. A press spokeswoman in DOD said it would be difficult to determine if troops were assigned to the plant for special details 20 to 50 years ago. However, she said that there was no record of troops currently being assigned to the plant, and referred questions back to the Veterans Administration. VA spokesman Phil Budahan repeated the comment made earlier: military personnel assigned to Paducah was being added "because of simple fairness. We want to make sure that wherever we had military personnel serving alongside of civilians and facing the same risks, that they would be entitled to the same benefits." However, he said he wasn't aware if any military personnel were ever assigned to the plant. Budahan said it was being added "just as a precaution" in case it is learned later that someone was assigned to Paducah. "We want to err on the side of veterans," he said. Steve Wyatt, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy, said he wasn't aware of any military ever being assigned to Paducah. ***************************************************************** 2 DOE environmental manager paid $17 M OAK RIDGE--Bechtel Jacobs Co., the U.S. Department of Energy's environmental manager in Oak Ridge, received almost $17 million in fees for work performed during fiscal 2000. "Performance during the evaluation period significantly improved in the area of safety ...," DOE said in a Jan. 9 letter to the contractor. The federal agency also lauded Bechtel Jacobs for excellent project management, transition of workers to subcontracts, and meeting regulatory commitments. Bechtel Jacobs received $16,228,813 in performance-based fees for projects done during the fiscal year, which concluded Sept. 30. That was 91 percent of the available fee ($17.8 million). The contractor earned an additional $590,375 from DOE based on a management evaluation. That was 59 percent of the available fee ($1 million) for that part of the contract. "We're gratified that DOE recognized our sustained high level of work in the field," Bechtel Jacobs spokesman Mark Musolf said Wednesday. "Ninety-one percent is a good score. We know we can do better, and we intend to fix what needs fixing." DOE said Bechtel Jacobs needs improvement in its Integrated Safety Management program, citing several problems during the years. The company also was criticized for failing to coordinate a program that involved painting rusty cylinders used to store uranium, thus contradicting a position already taken by the department. Leah Dever, DOE's Oak Ridge manager, said future evaluations will put added emphasis on how well Bechtel Jacobs works with other Oak Ridge contractors--UT-Battelle, manager of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and BWXT, manager of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. Senior writer Frank Munger can be reached at 865-482-9213 or twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. Copyright 2000 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 3 Depleted Coverage of NATO's Depleted Uranium Weapons FAIR MEDIA ADVISORY: JANUARY 10, 2001 Concern has been mounting rapidly throughout Europe over the effects of depleted uranium (DU) munitions used by NATO in Bosnia and Yugoslavia during the 1994-95 and 1999 wars. At least 12 soldiers-- six Italian, five Belgian and one Portuguese-- who served in the Balkans have died of leukemia or other forms of cancer; several Italian, Spanish, French and Dutch soldiers are being treated for cancer; and several other European countries are currently testing their soldiers for signs of illness. Other soldiers and aid workers have experienced symptoms including "chronic fatigue, hair loss and various types of cancer" (NEW YORK TIMES, 1/7/01), ailments which have collectively come to be known as "Balkans War Syndrome," much like Gulf War Syndrome. Italy, Belgium, France, Portugal and Germany have all demanded that NATO conduct a thorough investigation into the health and environmental impacts of DU, and have expressed distrust of Pentagon and NATO reassurances (AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, 1/8/01). Reports in the European press suggest that the situation is causing serious divisions within the alliance, with the conservative London TIMES asserting that the soldiers' "Deaths Threaten the Unity of Nato" (1/6/01). Germany has called on NATO to ban the toxic and radioactive metal (THE INDEPENDENT, 1/9/01), while the United Nations' war crimes tribunal has offered to make available all relevant records on the Kosovo war, raising the question of the legality of NATO's use of DU (AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, 1/8/01). Since the new year, stories about the DU controversy have been running almost daily in every major British newspaper, with the GUARDIAN (1/8/01) and INDEPENDENT (1/6/01) each running editorials calling for a NATO investigation into DU's health effects. Altogether, the London INDEPENDENT has run 14 original articles; the London TIMES has run 12; the DAILY TELEGRAPH has run 10; and the GUARDIAN and its Sunday paper, the Observer, have run eight. Meanwhile, in the U.S.-- the country most responsible by far for DU contamination-- newspapers have relegated most of their coverage to news briefs and short wire stories. The only U.S. newspaper in the Nexis media database to have run an editorial on the current controversy is the SEATTLE TIMES (1/6/01). Big picture questions about the extensive use of DU since the Gulf War, its lasting impact on civilian populations and the record of official deception around DU have been largely ignored in both print and broadcast reports. Apart from small wire stories, the NEW YORK TIMES has run only three original pieces on the current DU controversy. The WASHINGTON POST and CHICAGO TRIBUNE have each run two original stories on the topic, while the LOS ANGELES TIMES, USA TODAY and CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR have run one apiece. Besides a sprinkling of news briefs and short wire service stories in papers across the country (one of the most widely used was the ASSOCIATED PRESS' January 5 piece noting "many medical experts" who are "skeptical" of DU's dangers), these few articles represent the extent of U.S. print coverage of the current controversy. Television coverage has also been limited. CNN has aired two reports on DU (1/7/01, 1/10/01), while the three networks' evening news broadcasts each did one story (NBC, 1/7/01; ABC, 1/8/01; CBS, 1/8/01). Only three of the mainstream U.S. media reports about the current controversy have referred in any detail to the parallels between Balkans War Syndrome and the illnesses alleged to have resulted from use of DU during the Gulf War-- the LOS ANGELES TIMES article (1/ 6/01, which also ran the next day in NEWSDAY), one CHICAGO TRIBUNE article (1/9/01) and the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR's excellent January 9 piece. Though richer in background than other U.S. reports, neither the L.A. TIMES nor the TRIBUNE articles addressed the growing evidence that the U.S. military has long known about and attempted to conceal the dangers of DU. (For more information on this point, see the resources listed below.) Nor was the larger question about DU raised: Is it legal? In a December 18 draft recommendation that went largely unremarked, the Environment Committee of the Council of Europe found that during the Kosovo war, NATO countries violated provisions of the Geneva Conventions intended to limit environmental damage. Among other things, the committee cited "the use of depleted uranium in warheads" as a violation that had "dramatically worsened" Yugoslavia's environment "with long-lasting effects on the health and quality of life for future generations." The committee further found that this damage "can be presumed to have been deliberate." According to a search of the Nexis database, no major U.S. newspaper, magazine, television show or wire service has reported on the COE's suggestion that NATO countries deliberately violated international law. Despite questions raised by veterans, health researchers and international organizations like the UN, NATO's use of DU in Kosovo has received almost no sustained media attention, either during or after the war. One wartime report on ABC's NIGHTLINE (4/1/99) criticized Serbian state media's coverage of the conflict, highlighting what it described as "this astonishing claim" from a Belgrade news report: "They [NATO forces] even use radioactive weapons...which are forbidden by the Geneva Convention." Astonishing, perhaps, but true; at the time, the Pentagon had already admitted using DU in Kosovo. As for the possibility that NATO violated the Geneva Conventions, ABC has never returned to it. ***************************************************************** 4 EDITORIAL STUDY URANIUM SHELLS Seattle Times: Search Result Copyright c 2001 The Seattle Times Company Editorials & Opinion : Monday, January 08, 2001 Depleted uranium, a bomb byproduct used to make armor-piercing shells, has been the subject of persistent stories of cancer. The Pentagon has denied any long-lasting health threat from exploded uranium fragments. But after 850,000 such shells were exploded in the Gulf War, and another 31,000 in the war against Serbia, the reports have continued. Following the death of a 24-year-old Sicilian solider from leukemia after two tours in Kosovo, Italy's defense minister has said the weapons should be banned. It's too soon to say that. That six Italians and two Dutch have died of leukemia since returning from the Balkans may not be enough to ban these weapons entirely. The world needs a scientific appraisal. If these weapons do litter the Earth with cancer-causing fragments - and depending on how potent these fragments remain - depleted uranium ordnance should at least be heavily restricted. Up to now, this issue has been the province of peace activists. Now the Italian defense minister has weighed in and the secretary-general of NATO promises an investigation of sites in Bosnia. That's a start, but it should not be left entirely in military hands. It should also be an issue for Congress. ***************************************************************** 5 Bullet debate: Answers in Iraq? BY SCOTT PETERSON STAFF WRITER OF THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR NATO chief yesterday pledged openness on the long-term dangers of depleted-uranium rounds in Kosovo. The most bitter scientific debates usually play out in little-read academic and specialty journals. But the dispute over the lingering health risks of radioactive bullets fired by the US in the Balkans is sparking demands for answers from leaders across Europe. The recent deaths and illnesses of European peacekeepers who served in the region are deepening already strained ties between the US and its NATO allies. The surge in interest in the 1999 Kosovo bombing campaign is also causing experts to turn for clues to another former allied target: Iraq. At issue are the armor-piercing depleted-uranium (DU) bullets fired by American aircraft in Kosovo and Bosnia. Far greater numbers were fired in Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War, however, littering the desert war zone with radioactive debris. Battlefield conditions, likelihood of exposure, and apparent health effects differ widely between the Balkans and Iraq. Experts say a close comparison raises questions about whether DU could be the main culprit in Kosovo. "This is the moment to find out the scientific truth," says Pekka Haavisto, chairman of the United Nation's DU Assessment Team in the former Yugoslavia and a former Finnish environment minister. His team has found elevated levels of radiation at eight out of 11 sites it examined in Kosovo. "I'm not so happy we have [Kosovo] as a test laboratory, [but] the valuable thing is [that] for the first time we are doing field work with this issue," he says. In Iraq, more DU was used, and soldiers were often far more exposed during combat, notes Mr. Haavisto. Contaminated areas in Kosovo, however, are "local and limited," and NATO ground troops did not deploy until the bombing stopped. "When speaking about these severe health effects, I am a little bit doubtful whether a short time serving in Kosovo could affect your health in such a serious way," he says. Strain among allies Britain, America's closest ally during the Kosovo campaign, on Tuesday became the latest European nation to begin testing soldiers for so- called "Balkans Syndrome." NATO chiefs rejected Italy's call for a moratorium on DU use, after Rome announced it was investigating the cancer-related deaths of seven of its Balkan veterans. DU is a low-level nuclear waste left over from the making of nuclear energy and bombs. It is a dense, and therefore formidable, armor- piercing weapon. But the toxic heavy metal burns on impact and creates clouds of radioactive dust that some scientists say can be dangerous if breathed or eaten. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright - echoing the Pentagon's view - stated Tuesday that there is "no scientific basis" to link DU with the string of cancer deaths and related illnesses reported in Europe. US and NATO military-training manuals require wearing protective gear within 50 yards of any known DU-contaminated vehicle, to avoid contact with the dust. Several American vehicles struck with DU during Gulf War "friendly- fire" incidents were deemed to present a "substantial [health] risk" at the time, and were buried in low-level radioactive waste dumps. Citing "militarily sensitive information," NATO withheld details of exact impact sites in Kosovo until last summer. The delay prevented UN teams from making any survey before November - or marking sites to alert civilians. US Defense Secretary William Cohen on Tuesday dismissed NATO member concerns. "Adequate warnings were given" by Washington, he said, and "there is a "very low risk ... provided there is sufficient protection." But a "hazard awareness" document about DU issued by the Pentagon's joint chiefs soon after the Kosovo conflict, circulated to allied capitals and acquired this week by The New York Times, made no mention of the radiation risks of DU. In Brussels yesterday, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson promised a new openness to reassure people that "the weapons that were used have not caused any lasting damage to the area, or to the people of the area, or to the troops who are peacekeeping in the whole region." Gulf War use US troops fired 340 tons of DU in the Gulf War - 783,000 bullets and 9,000 larger tank rounds, by the Pentagon's count. Though the Gulf battlefield was a toxic stew that included dangerous chemicals and other toxins, Iraq has ever since blamed DU exclusively for a spate of cancers, birth defects, and other severe health problems. US and Iraqi veterans alike describe a combat zone thick with DU- laden smoke, as Iraqi tanks were picked off by American gunners. Advancing allied forces passed contaminated burning vehicles; thousands of soldiers took after-action tours of the front line, and climbed - unprotected - on destroyed Iraqi tanks bathed with the telltale black DU dust. Today, 1 in 7 US vets claims a collection of ailments known as Gulf War Illness, though Pentagon studies dismiss DU as a cause. Critics charge that many veterans have died as a result. Iraq says its Gulf War vets have abnormally high rates of cancer, similar to current European claims. US officials counter that 33 American survivors of "friendly fire" DU attacks in an ongoing monitoring program exhibit few signs of cancers now reported in Europe. Only a fraction of the amount of DU fired in Iraq has been used in the Balkans: nine tons in Kosovo, and three tons in Bosnia in 1994 and '95. Pollutants were everywhere in Kosovo and Serbia, too, as allies targeted petroleum and chemical industries. US pilots fired DU into populated towns for the first time in Kosovo, but barely a handful of destroyed Yugoslav Army vehicles were found in the Serb province by NATO troops. Many DU bullets missed their target or hit non-metal decoys, and therefore would not have turned to dangerous dust. "They would be in the ground, and it would be a very slow process to break it down chemically, and move it around," says Leonard Dietz, a radiation expert who worked for 25 years at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in the US. In 1979, he found that DU particles had been carried 26 miles by the wind. Different exposure, terrain Windblown Iraq is still spread with DU particles, which lose half their radioactivity every 4.5 billion years. But regular rain in Kosovo - and a geography of forests and hills - cut down the spread of DU particles. "My hunch is that whatever is ailing all these veterans is not totally due to DU," Mr. Dietz says. "I don't think you can blame it all on one source." "The trouble is that you've got to have numbers, and nobody has done any decent epidemiology [on DU]," says Chris Busby, a low-level radiation specialist who has examined leukemia clusters for the Irish government, for a research body called Green Audit. "In this game, everybody waves their arms around, but there are no numbers at all," he says. "Give me numbers, and I'll give you an answer," he says. Mr. Busby visited the Iraqi battlefield three months ago at the request of an Arab television network. His soil samples showed less radioactivity than he expected, and were confiscated by Iraqi authorities. But a series of air samples he took indicated that radiation levels - from DU dust that emits powerful alpha radiation - were 20 times higher in battle areas than in Baghdad. Likewise, during the Kosovo campaign, scientists in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to the south, detected eight times higher than normal alpha activity in the air. 'Underestimated' impact In a paper he presented to the Royal Society of Britain's DU working group last year, Busby spelled out how he believes the health impact of low-level radiation has been underestimated. A close analogy with DU, he says, is someone warming themselves by a fire receiving a "dose" of heat. "If you reach into the fire and eat a hot coal, you would still have the same overall 'dose,' but it would burn a hole in your stomach." That would square with a 1991 DU report commissioned by the US Defense Department, which warned that "no dose is so low that the probability of effect is zero." In Kosovo, UN investigators say they want to take no chances. "Of course we can be critical that this information was not released [by NATO] in the summer of 1999, for the local population and [Kosovo Force] soldiers," says the UN's Haavisto. "Now it's better than not doing anything. For those living in the vicinity of those sites, it's very valuable now to act rapidly." ***************************************************************** 6 Depleted Uranium: The Invisible Threat New evidence that depleted uranium munitions may have sickened European and American soldiers who served in Kosovo and in the Gulf War is sparking a worldwide outcry. In 1999, the MoJo Wire was the first to report that the Pentagon had no plans to clean up the DU left behind in Kosovo, despite health concerns. Here's the original story from our archives, along with more resources on DU. Jan. 10, 2001 (Originally published June 23, 1999) NATO's continued bombardment of Yugoslavia had several stated goals, one of which was the safe return of hundreds of thousands of Kosovar refugees. With refugees already pouring back over the borders, attention and concern now turn to the conditions facing returning refugees: bombed roads and bridges, burned villages, and an almost non-existent civil infrastructure. But there's another potential problem: depleted uranium (DU). The Pentagon has confirmed that it used DU in Kosovo. It has also confirmed it has no plans to clean it up. Depleted uranium is twice as heavy as lead. As a result, ammunition made from DU can pierce just about any armor. But while it's an extremely effective an anti-tank weapon, DU does have a downside: It is radioactive and, in dust form, it can cause serious internal injuries. A waste product of nuclear weapon manufacturing and reactor use, depleted uranium is only about half as radioactive as natural uranium. When used in combat, the uranium in the bullet or round ignites upon impact and, when it combines with oxygen, forms a toxic cloud of uranium oxide dust. Solid uranium is not harmful; DU is toxic only if the dust is inhaled or ingested, or if DU-contaminated shrapnel enters the body. Once oxidized, the dust--which remains toxic to those who may inhale or ingest it--settles in the immediate area and is also dispersed by wind and rain. What risks does DU pose to returning refugees? It depends on who you ask. Predictably, the Pentagon denies that the DU used in Kosovo poses any danger to the refugees. Indeed, it cites a number of studies in support of its conclusion. But there are a number of critics who say, essentially, the Pentagon is lying. Significantly, one of the biggest critics of the Pentagon's policy on DU is a former U.S. Army officer who was in charge of cleaning up DU after the Gulf War. Doug Rokke served as the Theatre 12th Preventative Medicine Command health physicist with the 3rd U.S. Army Medical Command in the Persian Gulf War. Rokke had overall responsibility for radiological safety in the war, and his team was charged with the "clean up" of DU-contaminated battlefields and equipment in Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. His team never received any specialized training or protective gear. Within two weeks of his return from duty in the Middle East, Rokke and the other members of his DU assessment team began developing health problems. "The Department of Defense doesn't want to admit that DU is harmful because they don't want the liability," he says. In March of 1991, Rokke says he received a faxed memorandum from Lt. Col. Ziehmn of Los Alamos National Laboratory suggesting "that we didn't 'find' anything that would disrupt the military's use of depleted uranium. They were using it, period." In the past eight years, most of the original team has developed health problems, and some have died, according to Rokke. Rokke himself has had severe kidney and respiratory problems. A urinalysis conducted in March of 1994--three years after he returned to the States - - showed that the level of uranium present in his urine exceeded the normal level by more than 2,000 percent. Lt. Col. Diane Lawhon, a spokesperson for the Pentagon's Office of the Special Assistant for the Gulf War Illnesses [OSAGWI] acknowledges that DU weaponry gives off "minor radiation," but says that the DU released in such "minute fragments ... should not be a health concern for returning refugees." According to Lawhon, "Uranium is all around us, in the air, the soil ... when exposed [to DU] the body just assimilates it." The MoJo Wire received a faxed confirmation from Department of Defense press officer Lt. Col. Mike Milord that the Pentagon does not have plans to clean up the DU contamination in Kosovo: "No. It's use has been minimal and we do not believe it poses any significant health risk." OTHER SOURCES ON DU: From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation From the US Department of Defense's Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses An investigation by Japan's Chugoku Shimbun newspaper From the Netherlands Based in the UK Rokke, of course, disagrees. The key to determining the danger posed to refugees, he says, is the quantity of DU used in Kosovo. That fact is impossible to determine given that the Pentagon refuses to release any information about its use of DU, beyond a general acknowledgement that it was used. However, by taking into account the number of sorties the A-10 Warthogs (the planes firing the DU bullets, according to the Pentagon) were flying per day, the estimated percentage of those sorties which actually fired DU rounds, and the number of rounds their guns hold, it is possible to arrive at an estimate. According to John Pike, a well-respected defense analyst with the Federation of American Scientists "one could reasonably assume that we have fired at least 10,000 of [DU] rounds." Based on a conservative estimate of 10,000 fired rounds, the amount of DU used in the Gulf War was approximately 100 times greater than the amount used in Kosovo. But Rokke is quick to stress that the quantity of DU used in Kosovo would still "absolutely have a negative impact" on refugees that come in contact with contaminated areas: "Those areas need to be cleaned up, each of those rounds has to be cleaned up, or the stuff will just stay there forever." Rokke cautioned that people cleaning up contaminated areas, unless provided with the proper protective clothing and training, may develop serious health problems. Refugees returning to their villages may kick up and inhale the dust simply by walking; children playing on tanks or other destroyed equipment could inhale it or ingest it (if they put their hands in their mouths, for example); soil, surface water, and ground water may be contaminated. According to some critics, enough DU exposure would likely cause refugees increased cancers, possibly damage to internal organs (primarily kidneys), and birth defects. Roy Farrell, an emergency physician on the National Board of Directors to know decisively what the long-term effects are, because not enough research has been done on depleted uranium in general. However, Farrell points to Iraq as an example of the kind of effects combat use of DU can have on civilian populations. "Depleted uranium was used by U.S. and British forces in the Gulf War, and thousands of people were exposed to residual contamination." Although downplayed by the Clinton administration and Western media, Iraqi physicians have reported sharp increases in cancers such as lymphomas and leukemia in Southern Iraq, as well as an increase in birth defects. Daniel Fahey, a former Naval officer who is now the research director extensive research on depleted uranium. DU contamination poses a hazard to NATO troops and Kosovar civilians alike, Fahey says, unless they are provided with appropriate training and protective clothing. "You're talking about something that should be stored as a radioactive waste, and [instead they're] spreading it around other countries -- and the Pentagon is saying there's not a problem." While publicly claiming that DU is safe, the Army has quietly outfitted its men in full protective gear during DU testing. In the course of such testing at the Department of Energy's Nevada test site in 1994 and 1995, Rokke and his team were outfitted with head-to-toe protective gear, including full-face respirators. "We were totally encapsulated--they taped us in," he says. Indeed, Rokke says his team received the go-ahead to bury six Bradley fighting vehicles--casualties of American "friendly fire" incidents -- during the Gulf War cleanup. The vehicles were "scrap heaps," Rokke says, and decontaminating them would have been impossible. They were buried in the sand instead. While the Pentagon says that a clean up in Kosovo is simply unneccessary, there may be another factor in their decision: it's too expensive. According to Fahey, a DU clean-up effort is Kosovo would be "very difficult and costly." Tanks and other contaminated equipment would have to be wrapped in tarps and taken to decontamination sites. Additionally, the top layer of soil--roughly one foot deep--of all affected areas would have to be removed, "containerized" and disposed of properly. Likewise, all the rounds which missed their targets would have to be found and properly removed. Fahey points to the Jefferson Proving Ground in Indiana as an example of the prohibitive cost of such an effort. In 20 years of DU testing, roughly 150,000 pounds of uranium were discharged over the Ground's 500 acres. The estimated cost for cleaning up that area was between $4 billion and $5 billion. "They're not cleaning it up--[the Department of Defense] decided it was too expensive," Fahey says. [I] [*]What do you think? j.j. richardson is a former editorial fellow at motherjones.com. ***************************************************************** 7 U.S. Releases Nuclear Plants List KATHERINE RIZZO, Associated Press Writer Story Filed: Thursday, January 11, 2001 5:32 PM EST WASHINGTON (AP)--The government identified the hundreds of mills, foundries and factories that did nuclear weapons work during the Cold War in a step Thursday toward identifying workers who might qualify for compensation because they were made sick by their jobs. The Energy Department examined records going back 60 years in an effort to document every facility that handled the deadly metal beryllium or radioactive materials. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson urged sick workers who were employed at the facilities to contact the government. ``The burden of proof is on the government, not the worker. We will be open and candid this time, not like in the past,'' he said at a news conference. The list includes 317 sites that employed 600,000 people in 37 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Marshall Islands. Some were government-owned, but most were private companies that did business for the Energy Department or the Atomic Energy Commission. David Michaels, the Energy Department's top health official, cautioned that some of the sites played very minor roles in the history of weapons production. For example, while Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. in St. Louis processed thousands of tons of uranium, Star Cutter Corp. in Farmington, Mich., only had five pieces of uranium on site for one day while testing a special saw. Ailing workers and the families of many dead workers spent years pushing the government to take responsibility for illnesses caused by on-the-job exposure to high levels of radiation. Many sick workers complained they could not get adequate care because the substances to which they were exposed were considered classified information. As recently as President Clinton's first term, the government routinely fought worker compensation claims. ``We failed to take care of workers that got sick from exposure,'' Richardson said, adding it now is time ``to settle the score with our workers.'' Under a program approved by Congress last year, employees of facilities doing Energy Department work who contracted cancer as a result of radiation exposure, as well as those who contracted a lung disease from beryllium or silica, can receive government-paid medical care plus $150,000. The first checks should go out later this year. Many of the privately owned sites have not performed work for the Energy Department for decades. Still to be decided is how the compensation program will determine which people from such sites got sick because of work done for the government ``This is a very sensitive area,'' said Richard Miller, a workers' advocate from Holyoke, Mass. ``There are places where the DOE had no contract for, for instance, beryllium after a certain date, or a mill didn't roll uranium after a certain date, but the buildings remained contaminated.'' The Energy Department's toll-free number for workers seeking information is 1-877-447-9756. //www.eh.doe.gov/benefits Copyright c 2001 Associated Press Information Services, all bsp; Portions of above Copyright c 1997-2001, Northern Light Technology Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 ADF says uranium stock gone [ 11jan01 news.com.au - From AAP 11jan01 19:35 (AEDT) GROWING concern over the use of depleted uranium today prompted the Defence Department to report its supplies of the ammunition had been shot into the sea more than a decade ago. Defence has announced it will identify troops who served in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, joining several other nations worried after the reported deaths from cancer of Italian and Belgian veterans of Kosovo and Bosnia. Aid workers could also be affected. CARE Australia has identified around 30 workers who worked in Kosovo and the Yugoslavian capital, Belgrade, who may have been exposed to the possibly radioactive dust loosed on impact by the armour-piercing weapons. The debate over the safety of the ammunition has split the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Britain and the United States argue there is no health risk from depleted uranium, while Germany, Italy, Portugal and Belgium are demanding a full NATO inquiry. Australia's acting Defence Force chief Lieutenant General Des Mueller said the ADF still believed the risk for Australian soldiers was minimal. "Whilst it is unlikely that ADF personnel in the Balkans have been exposed to depleted uranium, I have directed that those individuals who have served in the Balkans be identified and their degree of exposure assessed," Lt-Gen Mueller said. "However, on the information available, any risk to ADF personnel would be minimal." Depleted uranium was used by the United States in armour-piercing weapons during its bombing raids on the Balkans in 1999 and in the Gulf War in 1991. It is feared that radioactive dust spreads in a potentially poisonous cloud when the weapons impact on their targets. Australia had up to 200 personnel serving in the Balkans over the period of the conflict. Many of them were on secondment to overseas military forces in the United Kingdom or the US and it is believed most would have been well away from combat. But CARE Australia's workers may not have been so distant. Although not in the heat of battle, they would go in fairly soon after the shooting stopped to help refugees, CARE Australia chief executive Paul Mitchell said. About 30 CARE workers were in the Balkans during the conflict, Mr Mitchell said. CARE was examining whether any of its people would have to be screened for radiation exposure. "The advice we have at the moment is that the level of risk is very low, but it depends where you are," Mr Mitchell said. "We've got to piece together where everyone was." CARE has sought expert advice on the level of harm from the dust released by the depleted uranium which is expected to be different to other forms of radiation exposure. Meanwhile, the ADF confirmed it no longer uses depleted uranium ammunition but had used it for a short time after first installing the Phalanx anti-missile systems on navy ships. Phalanx was a fully-automated system with minimal handling of the ammunition by personnel, Defence Department spokesman Tim Bloomfield said. The depleted uranium ammunition - 20mm rounds all used up by 1986 - had been shot over the sea and did not raise the dust problem. The ADF now uses Australian-made tungsten tipped ammunition in the Phalanx system. "It doesn't have the same problems as the depleted uranium does," Mr Bloomfield said. ©News Limited ***************************************************************** 9 Australian military screening soldiers for radiation exposure ABC News - 11/01/01 : The Australian Defence Force is compiling a list of up to 200 military personnel who served during the Balkans crisis to ascertain whether they were exposed to radiation from depleted uranium weapons. The Australian personnel were stationed with United States and British regiments in 1999. [I] The Defence Force has confirmed up to 200 Australian soldiers serving in the Balkans could have been exposed to depleted uranium [I] Pat Rafter has confirmed his days as one of the world's most talented Defence public affairs officer Tim Bloomfield says the process is purely precautionary. "We're going through the full process of this to ensure that they have the confidence in the Defence Force," he said. "We're taking all the right steps to ensure their health is A-one." CARE AUSTRALIA CARE is currently seeking international medical advice about the so- called Balkans Syndrome, which may be affecting more than 10 CARE workers who were stationed in Yugoslavia in 1999. CARE chief executive officer Paul Mitchell says it is likely CARE volunteers are at the same risk as British troops, who are taking part in a voluntary screening program in the UK. "We're formally advising the potentially affected staff...but we are very much in a situation of not wanting to alarm them unnecessarily, " he said. "There is the advice that we've got to date that the level of risk is low." UK DEFENCE REPORT Meanwhile, the British media is reporting that an internal British Defence Ministry report warned four years ago that exposure to ammunition coated with depleted uranium increased the risk of cancer. AMinistry of Defence spokesman has confirmed a report was prepared on the subject but said it was flawed, written by a trainee and never endorsed. However, its existence has added fuel to the debate about the safety of depleted uranium ammunition used by British, US and other Western armies in the Gulf War and the Balkan conflicts. So far more than 40 cases of leukemia have been recorded worldwide from exposure to depleted uranium, resulting in 11 deaths. Munitions are tipped with depleted uranium so they can penetrate armour, but scientists fear that servicemen, who were exposed to radioactive dust that the weapons emit on impact, could contract cancer as well. NATO INVESTIGATIONS Yesterday, NATO ambassadors met in Brussels for urgent discussions on so-called "Balkans Syndrome" after claims soldiers have died from leukaemia after being exposed to depleted uranium. MULTIMEDIA [I][I] NATO ambassadors will meet in Brussels later tonight to discuss growing health fears over the use of depleted uranium weapons in [I] NATO ambassadors are meeting to discuss an alarming increase in reports. [I] The British Government has announced it will provide a voluntary NATO secretary-general George Robertson says there is no evidence of any link between depleted uranium and leukaemia but concedes more information is needed. "As in the past we will be as open as we possibly can- we have nothing to hide, but we have a lot to share," he said. "This issue will remain a high priority issue on our agenda, but there will be a requirement for time and patience as the facts are gathered and the research is done. "We are confident that there is little risk from DU ammunitions, but we refuse to be complacent." EU INVESTIGATIONS The European Union nations, which sent troops to Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, have already begun investigations into leukemia and other illnesses suffered by Balkans veterans, suspected to have links to DU projectiles fired by US forces. At a meeting in Brussels, the EU Commission has told a group of doctors and radiation experts to urgently report on the matter. Britain, Russia and Latvia are among countries which have agreed to provide tests for people exposed to depleted uranium in the Balkans. ***************************************************************** 10 NATO Takes Balkan Uranium Fears Seriously-Albright Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Thursday that NATO was taking seriously European concerns over possible health risks from depleted uranium in weapons used in the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia. REUTERS ONLINE Story Filed: Thursday, January 11, 2001 1:10 PM EST MADRID (Reuters) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Thursday that NATO was taking seriously European concerns over possible health risks from depleted uranium in weapons used in the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia. Albright, who has warned against letting hysteria dominate discussion of the so-called ``Balkans Syndrome,'' reaffirmed the U.S position there was no evidence showing munitions with depleted uranium core had been linked to illnesses. ``I hope this is not an issue that is being used by others for their personal agendas,'' she told a news conference in Madrid on the first stop on her European farewell tour. The issue has whipped up a public furor in Europe, where several countries fear their peacekeepers deployed in the Balkans face health hazards after radiation doses from spent ammunition. ``NATO is taking the concerns expressed by the allies seriously and NATO members have had detailed discussions in Brussels this week, '' Albright said. Initial reactions by governments to reports of a syndrome involving leukemia among soldiers have diverged sharply. NATO's two main military powers--the United States and Britain -- have dismissed or played down the risk, while Germany, Italy, Belgium and Portugal are demanding a full investigation. Ahead of the Madrid visit, a senior State Department official said Albright would thank the Spanish government for its cooperation on the issue. ``The Spanish have been quite helpful in this and have not been among those...most excited by some of the press furor,'' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. At a joint news conference with Albright, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique mostly echoed the U.S. stance. ``As (former NATO secretary general Javier) Solana said, maybe too many people are talking about the subject without knowing enough about the matter,'' Pique told reporters. Copyright c 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 U.N. Wants Uranium Sites Isolated NAOMI KOPPEL, Associated Press Writer Story Filed: Thursday, January 11, 2001 11:41 AM EST GENEVA (AP)--A U.N. field survey of Kosovo sites assaulted by depleted uranium ammunition suggests that many could be contaminated, prompting demands Thursday that the areas be cordoned off and local people warned to stay away. While it's not clear the contamination poses a danger, precautions should be taken, the U.N. Environment Program said, adding that children and farm animals are wandering into the sites freely. ``It was a little bit disturbing, an uncomfortable feeling that people were just living their normal lives in the middle of all this mess after the war,'' said Pekka Haavisto, leader of the U.N. team that checked the sites for radiation left over from NATO attacks in spring 1999. ``Some of these sites were near villages or in the middle of villages. Cows were there, children were there,'' Haavisto said. Last July, NATO gave the U.N. Environment Program a list of 112 sites where depleted uranium ammunition was used in 1999, and the team took samples from 11 sites last November. The sites visited included Vranovac Hill in western Kosovo, where NATO said it had fired 2,320 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition. Of the 11 sites, eight were found to show signs of slight contamination, and a number of pieces of ammunition were found intact, the U.N. program said. The program's executive director, Klaus Toepfer, said it was too early to tell whether depleted uranium at the unmarked bomb sites poses a danger, but precautions should be taken in the meantime. Haavisto said local people apparently had not been given advice on the possible risks they face. A total of 340 samples taken during the two-week mission to Kosovo have been sent to five European laboratories for analysis. Results are expected in early March. Toepfer said all 112 sites should be visited, checked and clearly marked to protect the local people. Entry to contaminated areas should be blocked, he said. Depleted uranium is a heavy metal used in ammunition for its armor- piercing capabilities. Some medical experts have said exposure to radioactive dust from depleted uranium shells might lead to the development of cancer. Depleted uranium was used by NATO in Kosovo and also earlier in Bosnia. NATO maintains that there is no evidence that remains of depleted- uranium rounds pose a health risk, but cases of illness fuel the controversy. On Thursday, Dutch officials said four Dutch soldiers who served in the Balkans in the 1990s have since died of leukemia, but ruled out a connection with exposure to the weapons. Last month, Italy began studying the illnesses of 30 Balkans veterans, seven of whom died of cancer, including five cases of leukemia. In France, four soldiers are being treated for leukemia. Several European countries have begun screening soldiers who served as peacekeepers in the Balkans. A British Army report written almost four years ago said that soldiers exposed to dust from the shells might be at risk of developing cancers, but a military adviser called it flawed, the British media on Thursday. On Thursday, Javier Solana, the NATO Secretary General during the allied airstrikes in the Balkans, said more analysis on possible health risks was needed. U.N. Environment Program site: http://balkans.unep.ch Copyright c 2001 Associated Press Information Services, all ***************************************************************** 12 NATO Devises Uranium Action Plan January 10, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)--NATO announced Wednesday that it will set up a group to exchange information on possible health risks from depleted uranium munitions because of public concern that they may lead to cancer and other illnesses. NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson told reporters there is no scientific evidence that exposure to armor-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium poses a significant health risk. Nevertheless, he said NATO has set up an action plan because of European countries' fears about health risks to soldiers assigned to the Balkans, where depleted uranium munitions were used in combat. Robertson said the plan calls for full NATO cooperation with any investigations on depleted uranium's risks. It also includes consultation with countries that contribute peacekeepers to Bosnia and Kosovo and creation of a clearinghouse to exchange information on depleted uranium. Depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal, is used in anti-armor munitions because of its high penetrating power. U.S. forces fired weapons containing depleted uranium in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and in 1999, NATO fired such weapons during its bombing of Yugoslavia. Numerous studies into the effects of depleted uranium have not revealed any connection between the metal and cancer. But concerns among European nations have intensified since Italy began studying the illnesses of 30 soldiers, seven of whom died of cancer, including five cases of leukemia. While Britain has argued against a link between the depleted uranium and cancer-stricken soldiers, a document leaked to the British media revealed that a British army report had warned four years ago of health dangers connected to the heavy metal munitions. The draft document, prepared by the Headquarters of the Army's Quartermaster- General in March 1997, said that soldiers exposed to dust from depleted uranium shells might be at risk of developing lung, lymph and brain cancers, according to the British Broadcasting Corp. and newspaper reports published Thursday. All troops who come in contact with depleted uranium "should be aware that uranium dust inhalation carries a long- term risk to health," the document said, according to published excerpts. The Ministry of Defense said that the document was a "discredited" draft paper, prepared by a trainee and never endorsed by senior staff. "Certain elements are scientifically incorrect or misleading," the Ministry of Defense said in a statement. In France, four soldiers are being treated for leukemia. Several European countries have begun screening soldiers who served as peacekeepers in the Balkans. Many civilian aid agencies are doing the same. On Wednesday, Portuguese Science Minister Mariano Gago said Portuguese scientific experts have found no dangerous levels of radiation during tests in Kosovo over the past four days. Gago told Portuguese state radio RDP that readings taken around the central Kosovo town of Klina, where Portuguese peacekeepers are stationed, showed normal levels of background radiation. "The possibility of generalized contamination in the area is therefore out of the question," Gago said. One Portuguese peacekeeper has been diagnosed with cancer since returning from Kosovo. In Berlin, Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping also insisted there is no evidence to support growing concern that weapons containing depleted uranium pose a health risk. "The results of the tests on (German) soldiers deployed in Kosovo, and on soldiers never deployed there, show no differences," Scharping said. But he said Germany still wants a moratorium while more research is carried out. NATO turned down a request by Italy and Germany for such a moratorium Tuesday. Asked why NATO refused to consider a moratorium, Robertson said that since there are currently no hostilities in Europe, the weapons are not being used anyway. "What we have to do is act on the basis of our analysis of the facts, " he said. "I would not agree to the use of the munitions if I believed there were a hazard." One risk that NATO itself has acknowledged is the possibility of contamination from breathing dust from an exploded depleted uranium shell. But even then, Robertson said, one would have to be inside a destroyed vehicle to be affected. ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 13 NATO Bows to Uranium-Shell Fears The Salt Lake Tribune-- THURSDAY, January 11, 2001 BY JEFFREY ULBRICH THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BRUSSELS, Belgium--NATO announced Wednesday that it will set up a group to exchange information on possible health risks from depleted uranium munitions because of public concern that they may lead to cancer and other illnesses. NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson told reporters there is no scientific evidence that exposure to armor-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium poses a significant health risk. Nevertheless, he said NATO has set up an action plan because of European countries' fears about health risks to soldiers assigned to the Balkans, where depleted uranium munitions were used in combat. Robertson said the plan calls for full NATO cooperation with any investigations on depleted uranium's risks. It also includes con- sultation with countries that contribute peacekeepers to Bosnia and Kosovo and creation of a clearinghouse to exchange information on depleted uranium. Depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal, is used in anti-armor munitions because of its high penetrating power. U.S. forces fired weapons containing depleted uranium in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and NATO fired such weapons during its bombing of Yugoslaviain 1999. Numerous studies into the effects of depleted uranium have not revealed any connection between the metal and cancer. But concerns among European nations have intensified since Italy began studying the illnesses of 30 soldiers, seven of whom died of cancer. In France, four soldiers are being treated for leukemia. Several European countries have begun screening soldiers who served as peacekeepers in the Balkans. Many civilian aid agencies are doing the same. On Wednesday, Portuguese Science Minister Mariano Gago said Portuguese scientific experts have found no dangerous levels of radiation during tests in Kosovo over the past four days. Gago told Portuguese state radio RDP that readings taken around the central Kosovo town of Klina, where Portuguese peacekeepers are stationed, showed normal levels of background radiation. "The possibility of generalized contamination in the area is therefore out of the question," Gago said. One Portuguese peacekeeper has been diagnosed with cancer since returning from Kosovo. In Berlin, Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping insisted there is no evidence to support growing concern that weapons containing depleted uranium pose a health risk. "The results of the tests on [German] soldiers deployed in Kosovo, and on soldiers never deployed there, show no differences," Scharping said. But he said Germany still wants a moratorium while more research is carried out. NATO turned down a request by Italy and Germany for such a moratorium Tuesday. One risk that NATO acknowledged is the possibility of contamination from breathing dust from an exploded depleted uranium shell. Even then, Robertson said, one would have to be inside a destroyed vehicle to be affected. ***************************************************************** 14 Europe orders own tests on dangers of uranium-tipped shells - smh.com.au - World Thursday, January 11, 2001 Members of the Portuguese Department of Protection from Radioactivity take samples of radioactive materials near the lake of Radoniq in Kosovo. Photo: AFP Paris: With NATO beginning to react to health concerns about uranium- tipped ammunition, European governments have ordered their own investigation. The 15-nation European Union on Tuesday instructed scientists from the nuclear supervisory body Euratom to report within a month on whether unexplained illness and even deaths among peacekeepers in the Balkans could be linked to uranium-tipped weapons fired during NATO's air campaign. The Pentagon and NATO deny links could exist between US-made antitank weapons and the unexplained diseases among veterans. But reports of leukaemia and other diseases continue to surface. The French Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that it had found a fifth soldier, a Balkans veteran, suffering from leukaemia. Marie-Claude Dubin, a French journalist who says she has suffered a range of illnesses since covering the Persian Gulf and Balkans wars, has been called to give evidence before parliament. At least seven Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans have died of leukaemia and many other veterans have fallen ill with a range of symptoms from cancer to fatigue and hair loss. Britain had refused to test its soldiers, arguing, like the US, that the weapons posed no health threats if handled properly. But, under pressure, the Government on Tuesday announced an abrupt turnaround, setting up a voluntary screening program for service personnel and civilians who served in the Balkans. The issue was to be discussed at a meeting of diplomats at NATO's Brussels headquarters yesterday. Italy - backed by Germany and several other European nations - has demanded a ban on further deployment of the armour-piercing shells until medical tests determine whether radioactive dust they leave behind can cause cancer and other ailments. The moratorium request is opposed by Britain and the US. NATO says there is no proven link between the shells and cancer among Western peacekeepers, but agrees further studies should be conducted. The EU is calling for scientific assessment, as if there is contamination it may have to adjust its reconstruction projects in Kosovo, where it keeps several hundred staff members and contract workers. Scientists who will make the assessment for Euratom will gather data from military and government sources and universities, rather than do independent research. ˙Australian will conduct a survey to identify any personnel exposed ˙to depleted uranium in the Balkans. a Defence Department source ˙said yesterday. Up to 200 Australian personnel served in the former ˙Yugoslavia during the NATO bombing campaign. New Zealand has announced it will conduct a similar survey. ***************************************************************** 15 Ailing vets want answers Daily Southtown: Serving Chicago area's Southland Many wonder if radioactive ammo caused their illnesses THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2001 BY CONSTANT BRAND THE ASSOCIATED PRESSBOOM, Belgium — It all started about a year after he returned from Bosnia — muscle pains, shortness of breath and stomach ailments. Five years later, Cpl. Guido Fleurackers says he's still sick and wants to know why. "I have problems with sleeping, I have pain in my legs, my arms and in my muscles," said Fleurackers, a 20-year army veteran who served one tour in Bosnia and another in Croatia. "I'm sure it's related to my service in the Balkans." Fleurackers is one of a growing number of Balkan veterans who fear they are at risk from cancer and other ailments, possibly due to exposure to ammunition containing depleted uranium. Depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal, is used in anti-armor munitions because of its penetrating power. U.S. forces fired weapons containing depleted uranium in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and in 1999, NATO fired such weapons during its bombing of Yugoslavia. Studies into the effects of depleted uranium have not revealed any link to cancer. But concerns among European nations have intensified since Italy began studying the illnesses of 30 soldiers, seven of whom died of cancer. Since then, similar cases have been reported in at least eight other European countries, including four leukemia cases among Balkan veterans in France and two in Denmark. In Belgium, five soldiers who served in the Balkans have died of cancer and four more are suffering from the disease. Now Fleurackers is part of a class-action lawsuit planned on behalf of 1,600 Belgian service members. The Belgian soldiers are not blaming their problems specifically on depleted uranium, but they claim the government endangered their health by sending them to U.N. and NATO- led peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia. Fleurackers says his health deteriorated drastically after he returned in 1994 from Bosnia, where he served in an engineering unit. Within months, he says he noticed fatigue, muscle pains, shortness of breath and stomach problems. "My work began to suffer," Fleurackers said. "Most people around me can't understand what has happened. Some people think I'm not really sick." Fleurackers was transferred to a desk job and then took nine months of sick leave in 1997. He returned to duty, but seven months ago was back on sick leave. Now, he's awaiting results of tests to determine if he has cancer. Even if he does not, he's worried that he may be discharged from the army for medical reasons. Fleurackers maintains others are suffering from similar disorders but are afraid to talk about them for fear of losing their jobs. "A lot of people have bought houses, have cars, have a family, have kids, and they are scared to lose their salaries every month," he said. "This is reasonable. I'm also scared to lose my pay." NATO and the United States insist there is no evidence linking depleted uranium to cancer or other ailments among Balkan veterans. The European Union and NATO have promised to accelerate research to determine if there is a "Balkan Syndrome" and if so, what causes it. On Wednesday, NATO also took other steps, including creating a clearinghouse to exchange information on depleted uranium and agreeing to cooperate with related investigations. Still, many European soldiers and veterans are worried. At his home in Sardinia, former Italian peacekeeper Valery Melis looked through photos of his time in the Balkans and wondered if the reason for his illness lies there. He's 23 and suffering from Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer. Melis served in Albania and Macedonia from March to June 1999. He never got closer to Kosovo than about 15 or 20 miles. But he still thinks he might have "inhaled" depleted uranium somehow. "At first I didn't make the connection," Melis, an army corporal, said. But as the debate over the health risks of depleted uranium heated up across the continent, "the first doubts came along." Then there is retired Capt. Frank Cop of Belgium, a Bosnia veteran who served 30 years before an undetermined illness forced him to retire. "I don't know if I came in contact with it," he said. "I did not receive any warnings. I did not have any protective gear." The Belgian government is at a loss to determine how to deal with people like Fleurackers. The Defense Ministry has been swamped with letters from parents and wives of soldiers serving in the Balkans, concerned about possible health risks. "We know they are frustrated," Defense Ministry spokesman Gerard Harveng said. "We want to give clarification to the families. We can understand their plight." For Fleurackers, there is little that can be done but await results of the various investigations. "I don't know what my future holds," he said. "I'm not afraid of a bullet. I'm not afraid of a grenade. But I am afraid of this. This is scary." c 2000 Associated Press — All rights reserved. This material may ***************************************************************** 16 Britain Dismisses Own Report Backing Uranium Risk WORLD NEWS - updated 1:15 AM ET Jan 18 - The Independent (UK) THURSDAY JANUARY 11 1:05 AM ET NATO Tries To Quell Uranium Controversy (REUTERS) By Brian Williams LONDON (Reuters) - An internal British Defense Ministry report warned four years ago that exposure to ammunition coated with depleted uranium increased the risk of cancer, British media said on Thursday. A Ministry of Defense (MoD) spokesman confirmed a report was prepared on the subject but said it was flawed, written by a trainee and never endorsed in any way. However the mere existence of the report added fuel to a debate in Britain and elsewhere about the safety of depleted uranium (DU) ammunition used by British, U.S. and other western armies in the Gulf and Balkan wars. the effects of DU used in tank-busting ammunition, but insisted it posed a minimal health risk. As more countries stepped up screening of war veterans who may have been exposed to the munitions' mildly radioactive residue, NATO said it would do all it could to reassure troops and civilians worried by recent cancer scares. NATO ambassadors agreed a ``robust'' action plan to look into the effects of using DU in weapons which have been linked to dozens of cases of leukemia among Western peacekeepers who served in the Balkan conflicts. Details of the 1997 British report were splashed on the front pages of the Guardian and Independent newspapers under headlines like ``MoD knew shells were cancer risk.'' ``The warnings, in an internal MoD document are in marked contrast to persistent public assurances--repeated by the Armed Forces Minister John Spellar to parliament on Tuesday--playing down the risk of DU,'' the Guardian said. The army medical report said inhalation of dust from DU led to accumulation in the lungs ``with very slow clearance--if any.'' Reuters Photo ``Although the chemical toxicity is low, there may be localized radiation damage of the lung, leading to cancer,'' the two newspapers quoted the report as saying. ``All personnel should be aware that uranium dust inhalation carries a long term risk ... the (dust) has been shown to increase the risks of developing lung, lymph and brain cancers.'' The MoD spokesman told Reuters the report was scientifically incorrect and misleading. ``It is flawed. It was done by a trainee. It was never endorsed by senior staff. It was not taken forward. It is not an official position of ours,'' the spokesman said. The spokesman was unable to say whether the trainee author was a military or other doctor. Britain has agreed to test soldiers for possible health problems while insisting there was no evidence of a link. On Wednesday Spellar told parliament a voluntary screening program would be set up for people who served in the Balkans but said the move was a response to public concern not evidence of illness caused by depleted uranium. NATO has appeared split between the likes of Britain and the United States, who argue there is no health risk from DU weaponry and Germany, Italy, Portugal and Belgium who want a full NATO inquiry. ***************************************************************** 17 UN presses for more uranium research BBC News | EUROPE | Thursday, 11 January, 2001, 21:29 GMT [I] Radiation checks are under way in Bosnia and Kosovo The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has called for a more extensive survey of sites in the Balkans that were hit by Nato shells containing depleted uranium. An IAEA spokesman said checks on at least 30 sites were required for a satisfactory survey to determine whether debris from the shells could cause cancer. Nato has informed the United Nations of more than 100 sites where the shells were used, and so far UN inspectors have seen 11 of them. The agency spokesman said initial analysis suggested that they did not contain high levels of radioactivity. CANCER Depleted uranium (DU) has been blamed for a number of leukaemia cases among former peacekeepers who served in the Balkans. Veterans also say it contributed to health problems suffered after the 1991 Gulf War. NATO MEASURES Study effects of DU further Identify locations struck by DU weapons Co-ordinate research The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) has said areas hit by DU-tipped shells during the 1999 Kosovo conflict should be cordoned off. Unep and IAEA experts took samples of soil, water, cows' milk and vegetation in the 11 areas of Kosovo they visited last November. Unep said it was disturbed to find shells lying on the ground and children playing nearby. The agency says more needs to be done to inform the local population of potential risks. Nato aircraft fired tens of thousands of DU rounds during its 1995 bombing of Bosnian Serb targets and 1999 air war against Yugoslavia. TOXIC DUST DU rounds are denser than standard ammunition, making them more effective against armour, but the dust given off on impact can be dangerous. [I] Lord Robertson refuses to be "swayed by perceptions" "The level of research carried out so far is not yet sufficient to warrant a scientific conclusion," said IAEA Director-General Mohamed el-Baradei. Investigators would need to do more work at the DU-affected sites, backed by more co-operation and information from Nato, he said. The IAEA says more information is also needed on the spread of DU contamination under battlefield conditions. NATO MOVES TO CALM FEARS On Wednesday, Nato announced a range of measures to try to allay concerns over DU munitions. Its Secretary-General, Lord Robertson, insists that fears are misplaced and says there will be no suspension of the use of the weapons. But Unep says it wants to conduct tests at 112 sites in Kosovo, and if the money is forthcoming, it will extend its investigations to Bosnia. The row continues to grow, with allegations that the UK Government has known about a possible risk for years and Australia becoming the latest country to announce a screening programme. For their part, Yugoslav experts have said they have found radioactivity levels more than 1,000 times greater than usual in Serbia and Montenegro. UK DENIAL In the UK, the Ministry of Defence has continued to deny that the weapons pose a health hazard, despite revelations that an internal document warning of health risks was drawn up four years ago. [I] Nato targeted Yugoslav tanks with DU-tipped weapons Ministers have said the paper was a flawed draft by a trainee and insist there is no scientific proof of such a danger. On Tuesday, the UK Government agreed to the medical screening of those who served in the Balkans - a measure which is now also being offered to Australian troops and humanitarian workers. Six Italian soldiers, five Belgians, two Dutch nationals, two Spaniards, a Portuguese and a Czech national have died after serving in the Balkans. Four French soldiers and five Belgians have also contracted leukaemia. However, Russia says initial screening has found no illness among its soldiers who served in the Balkans. ***************************************************************** 18 Britain to screen Gulf War vets BBC News | EUROPE | Friday, 12 January, 2001, 01:30 GMT The British government has said it will offer health checks for exposure to depleted uranium to its troops who served in the Gulf War. It has already announced tests for troops who served in the Balkans, where uranium-tipped munitions were used in the conflicts in Bosnia- Hercegovina and Kosovo. Concern about the safety of the metal-piercing munitions has risen since Italy demanded a NATO investigation after seven of its former peacekeepers died from leukaemia. Australia is the latest country to announce plans to screen its soldiers and Russia has asked to be kept fully informed by NATO. The American aand British governments say there is no scientific proof that depleted uranium is linked to cancers and other illnesses. From the newsroom of the BBC World Service ***************************************************************** 19 Army warned of uranium risk four years ago ISSUE 2057 Thursday 11 JANUARY 2001 BY MICHAEL SMITH, DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT [9 JAN '01] - MINISTRY OF DEFENCE [MOD] GULF WAR RESOURCE CENTRE THE Army warned four years ago that exposure to dust from exploded depleted uranium ammunition increased the risk of developing lung, lymph and brain cancers. John Spellar, the Armed Forces minister, told Parliament on Tuesday that when handled in accordance with regulations, depleted uranium to British troops. The MoD has persistently argued that the only risk lay in the ingestion of very large quantities of the dust thrown up when a depleted uranium round hit a hard target such as a tank. This would need to be in far greater quantities than would be expected to occur and would mainly affect the kidneys, it said. None of the veterans of the Balkans or the Gulf war were suffering from kidney damage. However, a copy of an Army medical report obtained by The Telegraph and dated March 4, 1997 shows that although this is true there is a much more potent risk from the inhalation of the dust. It states: "Inhalation of insoluble uranium dioxide dust will lead to accumulation in the lungs with very slow clearance - if any. Although the chemical toxicity is low, there may be localised radiation damage of the lung leading to cancer. Uranium compound dust is therefore hazardous." The document, a summary of a longer report, The Use and Hazards of Depleted Uranium Munitions, points out that current UK Occupational Exposure Standard for uranium dust is 0.2mg per cubic metre but that cleaning and cannibalising a contaminated vehicle would expose soldiers to eight times that amount. The document concludes that the risk of exposure to the dust caused by the depleted uranium ammunition "must be reduced" and it states that "exposure to uranium dust has been shown to increase the risks of developing lung, lymph and brain cancers". Shaun Rusling, chairman of the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, said: "I think this shows that Mr Spellar has, perhaps unknowingly, misled the House of Commons." He also said it was not true that there were no Gulf war veterans with kidney problems. "A large number of us are suffering from kidney damage." Dr Douglas Holdstock of Medact, a medical group working on environmental and nuclear issues, said the MoD arguments did not take into account recent radiobiological research that showed the risks of depleted uranium might be greater than previously thought. "Scientists in America and Britain have found that alpha particles can affect the DNA structure. The changes are such that they could lead to cancer within months." An Army officer who contacted The Telegraph said the MoD had known from the mid-Eighties that there were problems. "These [depleted uranium ammunition] were trialled at Kirkcudbright and they were fired at gantry targets hoisted above the ground because we knew that if they hit something solid on the ground there would be environmental problems. For them to say they didn't know is absolute tosh." to Balkans veterans, with MoD officials admitting that it would be some time before they knew what form they would take. Chris Baker, of the MoD's Gulf Illness Unit, said there was a range of options open but that the Balkans screening "may end up reflecting the Gulf programme". Gulf war veterans who go through the MoD's Medical Assessment Programme are screened for depleted uranium only if a consultant deems it appropriate. Only two have been tested so far. The Royal British Legion said Mr Spellar's statement to Parliament was insufficient and called for a public inquiry. "Only by going public can the Government show it is hiding nothing else." ˙Thousands of Britons living up to 30 miles away from depleted ˙uranium firing ranges or factories producing the ammunition were ˙at "very real" risk from contamination, Prof Malcolm Hooper, of ˙Sunderland University, told ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald ˙yesterday. of Balkan veterans in Balkans exposed to depleted uranium ***************************************************************** 20 HOON REJECTS ARMY URANIUM REPORT The Times The Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, tonight rejected an internal Army medical report’s conclusion that exposure to depleted uranium (DU) heightened the risk of soldiers suffering lung, lymph and brain cancer. Mr Hoon insisted that the report had contained significant errors, and that he had been assured that its central conclusion was incorrect. But he did acknowledge that in some extreme circumstances, exposure to depleted uranium could pose a risk to health. He added to confusion about the status of the report by saying that the document was not passed down the Army chain of command. Earlier in the day, it emerged that a covering letter from the office of the Quartermaster General recommended that the paper be disseminated to military and civilian personnel likely to come into contact with DU ammunition. The MoD said that while it was not clear how widely the report had been distributed, copies had been seen by senior Army medical officers who then repeated its errors in papers which did receive wider circulation. Mr Hoon told Channel 4 News tonight that he had seen the document only after it was leaked to the BBC. He was also asked about another document, leaked to Channel 4 News, which suggested that Army chiefs were told nearly 18 months ago that soldiers in Kosovo would need Geiger counters because of the hazards represented by DU shells. The document suggested that a procurement programme was in place, but was unfunded. Mr Hoon said: "I don’t accept that ... I’m not aware of that at all, no." Copyright 2001 TIMES NEWSPAPERS LTD. This service is ***************************************************************** 21 Nato chief moves to calm fears over uranium health risks top.addnav(' Nato chief Lord Robertson has sought to calm fears over health risks linked to the use of depleted uranium weapons in the Balkans. After talks between Nato ambassadors in Brussels, the alliance secretary- general insisted there was no scientific evidence linking the use of uranium shells to illness among troops serving in peacekeeping forces in the region. And he urged people to ''focus more on the facts and less on the emotions''. Lord Robertson emerged from the talks to give reassurance to Nato troops, civilian back-up staff who have been involved in peacekeeping operations in areas where the controversial weapons have been used, and to their families. He promised that the alliance was working as swiftly as possible to establish the facts, adding: ''After five years it is not going to be an easy job.'' The Nato meeting highlighted deep differences between Nato member states over the impact of the depleted uranium weapons on the health of individuals on the ground in the Balkans. The talks follow the deaths of six Italian soldiers and a spate of cancer cases among Nato troops from other countries returning from Balkan peacekeeping duties. Italy and Germany are demanding a ban on the use of depleted uranium weapons while an investigation is carried out into the health implications. Meanwhile Portugal, Holland, Belgium, France and - since Tuesday - Britain are screening soldiers for symptoms ranging from hair loss to chronic fatigue. Britain told the talks that, despite Tuesday's Government announcement in London of screening for soldiers concerned about health problems they believe may be associated with their service in the Balkans, the UK was still insisting there is no scientific evidence to back up claims of a connection. Spain, meanwhile, does not believe there is any risk at all from the use of depleted uranium shells. Until a scientifically backed medical link is made, many Nato allies believe such weapons should remain available because of their effectiveness in the field. Lord Robertson said monitoring of the situation was going on and investigations into claims of a serious health risk would be completed as soon as possible. But he insisted: ''I want to reassure our troops, civilian back-up and families that there is nothing to fear from this particular type of munitions.'' He went on: ''People must understand that when we act, we act with the interests of our troops and civilians very much in mind. ''We need to focus more on the facts and less on the emotions and ensure that people realise this is not something, on the basis of scientific fact, that is likely to cause a problem for our troops in the area.'' Meanwhile, a European Commission committee which advises EU member states on nuclear safety issues and radiation risks was beginning a special assignment probing the health claims associated with the use of depleted uranium. The committee, made up of scientific experts from the EU member states, includes three Britons and has been asked to report back within a month. Commission officials have insisted they were not interfering in matters of Nato competence, but a spokesman said: ''We do have a legitimate interest on health and environmental grounds, particularly as an employer of civilians involved in the reconstruction effort on the ground in the Balkans.'' On Tuesday Commission President Romano Prodi insisted that the Commission would not get involved in the ''military aspect'' of the current inquiry. Sweden as EU president has announced that the issue has now been put on the agenda for priority discussion at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on January 22. The Royal British Legion called for a public inquiry into the health of Gulf War veterans. Screening for Balkans veterans was not enough, a statement from the Legion said. Ian Townsend, secretary general of The Royal British Legion, said: ''The Legion believes veterans need and deserve a public inquiry so that they can stop suspecting and start dealing with the truth.'' The Nato meeting still left question-marks over the safety of depleted uranium munitions. Although pressure to ban such weapons was resisted - not least because none is in use at the present time - the Allies vowed full co-operation with any investigations being carried out by its member states or by ''responsible multi-national organisations''. Astatement also pledged Nato to consult fully on the issue with all past and present troop providing countries engaged in the peacekeeping effort in the region. Afirst briefing to consult all those involved will take place at a regular meeting of troop contributors on Friday. The statement emphasised that the Nato Allies are committed to the health and safety of their servicemen and servicewomen and to the avoidance of ill effects for civilian populations and staff of NGOs as a result of Nato military operations. But it went on: ''There is no evidence currently available to suggest that exposure to expended depleted uranium munitions represents a significant health risk for Nato-led forces or the civilian population in the Balkans.'' The Allies pointed out that statements from the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme have confirmed that there is ''very little likelihood of troops becoming ill, such as by contracting leukaemia, from exposure to radiation from depleted uranium''. Nevertheless, Nato has promised that the situation will be kept under review and that the alliance ''should continue to co-operate fully with investigations on the possible effects of exposure carried out by the nations involved or by responsible multi-national organisations''. Nato has already passed detailed information to the UN Environment Programme to assist its study on the environmental impact of using depleted uranium munitions during Operation Allied Force in Kosovo in 1999. The study is due to be issued in March. Similar information on the use of depleted uranium munitions during Operations Deny Flight and Deliberate Force in 1994 and 1995 will be produced ''as soon as possible'', said the Nato statement. The Allies also committed themselves this afternoon to improving the exchange of information between Nato governments on any health risks in the future, setting up a Nato ''working group'' to act as a clearing house for the exchange of information. ***************************************************************** 22 ‘No danger’ in depleted uranium weapons The Scotsman Online - Scotland's best selling quality national newspaper Foreign Staff LORD Robertson, the NATO secretary-general, yesterday tried to calm fears over health risks linked to the use of depleted uranium weapons in the Balkans. After talks between NATO ambassadors in Brussels, Lord Robertson insisted that there was no scientific evidence linking the use of uranium shells to illness among troops serving in peacekeeping forces in the region. He urged people to "focus more on the facts and less on the emotions". The NATO chief emerged from the talks to give reassurance to NATO troops, civilian back-up staff who have been involved in peacekeeping operations in areas where the controversial weapons have been used, and to their families. He promised that the alliance was working as swiftly as possible to establish the facts, adding: "After five years it is not going to be an easy job." The NATO meeting highlighted deep differences between alliance member states over the impact of the depleted uranium weapons on the health of individuals on the ground in the Balkans. The talks followed the deaths of six Italian soldiers and a spate of cancer cases among NATO troops from other countries returning from Balkan peacekeeping duties. Italy and Germany are demanding a ban on the use of depleted uranium weapons while an investigation is carried out into the health implications. Portugal, Holland, Belgium, France and - since Tuesday - Britain are screening soldiers for symptoms ranging from hair loss to chronic fatigue. Britain told the talks today that, despite yesterday’s government announcement in London of screening for soldiers concerned about health problems they believe may be associated with their service in the Balkans, the UK was still insisting there is no scientific evidence to back up claims of a connection. Spain does not believe there is any risk at all from the use of DU shells. Until a scientifically backed medical link is made, many NATO allies believe such weapons should remain available because of their effectiveness in the field. Lord Robertson said yesterday monitoring of the situation was going on and investigations into claims of a serious health risk would be completed as soon as possible. But he insisted: "I want to reassure our troops, civilian back-up and families that there is nothing to fear from this particular type of munitions." He went on: "People must understand that when we act, we act with the interests of our troops and civilians very much in mind. "We need to focus more on the facts and less on the emotions and ensure that people realise this is not something, on the basis of scientific fact, that is likely to cause a problem for our troops in the area." Meanwhile, a European Commission committee which advises EU member states on nuclear safety issues and radiation risks began a special assignment investigating the health claims associated with the use of depleted uranium. The committee, made up of scientific experts from the EU member states, includes three Britons and has been asked to report back within a month. Yesterday, Sweden, the EU president, announced that the issue has now been put on the agenda for priority discussion at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on 22 January. The Royal British Legion called for a public inquiry into the health of Gulf war veterans. Screening for Balkans veterans was not enough, a statement from it said. Ian Townsend, the Legion secretary general, said: "The Legion believes veterans need and deserve a public inquiry so that they can stop suspecting and start dealing with the truth." The NATO meeting still left question-marks over the safety of depleted uranium munitions. Although pressure to ban such weapons was resisted - none is in use at present - the allies vowed full co-operation with investigations being carried out by its member states or by "responsible multi-national organisations". Yesterday’s statement emphasised that the NATO allies are committed to the health and safety of their servicemen and women and to the avoidance of ill effects for civilian populations and staff of NGOs as a result of NATO military operations. But it went on: "There is no evidence currently available to suggest that exposure to expended depleted uranium munitions represents a significant health risk for NATO-led forces or the civilian population in the Balkans." Nevertheless, NATO promised that the situation would be kept under review. ***************************************************************** 23 These children had cancer. Now they are dead. I believe they were killed by depleted uranium Independent YOUSSEF QASSEM, aged two: In a Basra hospital in 1998 on the point of death from leukaemia. His British-trained doctor had witnessed a fourfold increase in a variety of cancers among Iraqi families who had been living around the 1991 Gulf War battlefields ALI HILLAL, aged eight: He lived close to Iraqi factories at Diala, repeatedly bombed by coalition aircraft in 1991. The fifth child of a family with no history of cancers, he died of a brain tumour in 1998. His mother said there was a "a burning, choking smell" after the explosions SAMAR KHDAIR, aged five: Her parents lived near Babylon, the target of regular coalition raids in 1991. She was born in 1993 and died of leukaemia in 1998. Her father spent the equivalent of ś6, which was three months' wages, on cyto-toxins trying to save his daughter By Robert Fisk 10 January 2001 They smiled as they were dying. One little girl in a Basra hospital even put on her party dress for The Independent's portrait of her. She did not survive three months. All of them either played with explosive fragments left behind from US and British raids on southern Iraq in 1991 or were the children - unborn at the time - of men and women caught in those raids. Even then, the words "depleted uranium" were on everyone's lips. The Independent's readers cared so much that they contributed more than ś170,000 for medicines for these dying children. Our politicians cared so little that they made no enquiries about this tragedy - and missed a vital clue to the suffering of their own soldiers in the Balkans eight years later. In March 1998, Dr Jawad Khadim al-Ali - trained in Britain and a member of the Royal College of Physicians - showed me his maps of cancer and leukaemia clusters around the southern city of Basra and its farming hinterland, the killing fields of the last days of the 1991 Gulf War that were drenched in depleted uranium dust from exploding US shells. The maps showed a four-fold increase in cancers in those areas where the fighting took place. And the people from those fields and suburbs where the ordnance were fired were clustered around Dr Ali's cancer clinic in Basra. Old men, young women with terrible tumours, whole families with no history of cancer suffering from unexplained leukaemias. They stood there, smiling at me, wanting to tell their stories. Their accounts, tragically, were the same. They had been close to the battle or to aerial bombing. Or their children had been playing with pieces of shrapnel after air raids or their children - born two years after the war - had suddenly began to suffer internal bleeding. Of course, it could have been one of Saddam's bombed chemical plants - or the oil fires - that were to blame. But a comparison of the location of cancer victims to air raids, right across Iraq from Basra and Kerbala to Baghdad, are too exact to leave much doubt. And tragic did not begin to describe the children's "wards of death" in Baghdad and Basra. Ali Hillal was eight when I met him - he was to live less than two months more - lived next to a television broadcasting transmitter and several factories at Diala, repeatedly bombed by Allied aircraft in February 1991. He was the fifth child of a family that had no history of cancers - he now had a tumour in his brain. His mother, Fatima, recalled the bombings. "There was a strange smell, a burning, choking smell, something like insecticide," she told me. Little Youssef Abdul Raouf Mohammed came from Kerbala, close to Iraqi military bases bombed in the war. He had gastro-intestinal bleeding. There were blood spots in his cheeks, a sure sign of internal bleeding. Ahmed Fleah had already died in the children's ward, bleeding from his mouth, ears, nose and rectum. He took two weeks to bleed to death. About the same time, the first British "Gulf War syndrome" victims were telling of their suffering. It was often identical to the stories - told in Arabic - that I listened to in Iraqi hospitals. Something terrible happened in southern Iraq at the end of the Gulf War, I reported. But the British Government - now so anxious to allay fears for the health of British soldiers who have been in contact with depleted uranium shells in the Gulf and in the Balkans - put their collective nose in the air. Doug Henderson, then a defence minister - and later to be such a public supporter of Nato's bombing of Kosovo - wrote in an extraordinary letter that "the Government is aware of suggestions in the press, particularly by Robert Fisk of The Independent, that there has been an increase in ill-health - including alleged [sic] deformities, cancers and birth defects - in southern Iraq, which some have attributed to the use of depleted uranium-based ammunition by UK and US forces during the 1990-91 Gulf conflict. "However, the Government has not seen any peer-reviewed epidemiological research date on this population to support these claims and it would therefore be premature to comment on this matter." And there Mr Henderson lost interest. Had he been able to see Hebba Mortaba, the tiny girl in Basra whom I met with a tumour the size of a football pushing up from her stomach, perhaps his reply would have been more serious. Many of the other children in this purgatorial hospital were bald and suffering from non-Hodgkins lymphoma. All came from heavily-bombed areas of Iraq. A few knew they were dying; some told me they would recover. None of them did. When in 1998 I visited the killing fields outside Basra, the burned-out Iraqi tanks still lay where they had been attacked by Major General Tom Rhame's US First Infantry Division, bombed amid the farms and streams. Many of the local farmers had relatives dying of unexplained cancers. One of them, Hassan Salman, walked up to me through the long grass, a man with a distinguished face, brown from the sun. "My daughter- in-law died of cancer just 50 days ago," he said. "She was ill in the stomach. Her name was Amal Hassan Saleh. She was very young - she was just 21 years old. A woman walked out of a tomato field and offered me an over-large pale green tomato, a poisoned fruit according to the Basra doctors, from a poisonous war, grown on a dangerous stem, bathed in fetid water. Yes, of course, it made good propaganda for Saddam. Yes, of course, he gassed the Kurds who had gone over to Iran's side in the 1980- 88 Iran-Iraq war. Yes, of course, the Iraqis later laid on a propaganda showcase of statistics for their dying - and mock funerals for the infant dead. But the children I met were dying - and have died. Their leukaemia was real and growing. One Baghdad doctor had just watched a child patient die when I went to visit him. He sat in his chair in his clinic with his head in his hands, the tears flowing down his face. This was not propaganda. In Basra, in the poorest part of the city - still, ironically, regularly attacked by the USAF and RAF - I asked a random group of women about the health of their families. "My husband has cancer, " one said. Sundus Abdel-Kader, 33, said her aunt had just died suddenly of leukaemia. Two other women interrupted to say that they had younger sisters suffering from cancer. And so it went on, in a society where merely to admit to cancer is regarded as a social stigma. Why had so many Iraqis - especially children - suddenly fallen victims, I asked myself, to an explosion of leukaemia in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War? Of course, the victims were Iraqis. They were Muslims. They lived - and died - in a far-away country. They were not Caucasians or Nato soldiers. But I do wonder if I'm going to have to tour the children's wards of Bosnia and Serbia in the years to come, and see again the scenes I witnessed in Iraq. Or perhaps the military wards of European countries. That's why I asked Nato just after the Kosovo bombing in 1999 for the locations of depleted uranium munition explosions. The details, I was told, were "not releasable". ***************************************************************** 24 INQUIRY CALL OVER URANIUM BOMBS by Charles Reiss The Government today faced demands for a full public inquiry into the risk to troops from depleted uranium (DU) shells in the Gulf and Kosovo - and whether it was aware of a serious health hazard years ago. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was confronted by sharp new questions and fresh embarrassment after the leak of an Army medical report compiled in 1997. The report warned that soldiers cleaning or stripping vehicles hit by shells tipped with DU were exposed to eight times the accepted safety levels for the dust. It said this could bring risks of lung, lymph and brain cancer and added: "All personnel should have a full medical history taken and be counselled appropriately." The Ministry of Defence today launched a sustained operation to rubbish the document. Chief scientific adviser Professor Sir Keith O' Nions told BBC Radio the document had been through no internal assessment and gave no indication of how long a soldier must be in a contaminated vehicle to suffer serious exposure. He said: "I have to say, rather cruelly, that the word flawed is correct." The criticism, however, did nothing to stop the growing political row, with calls from veterans and the Tories for Mr Hoon to disclose in the Commons exactly what ministers knew or did not know. c Associated Newspapers Ltd., 11 January 2001 ***************************************************************** 25 Uranium Arms Scare a Milosevic Trick Hungary Today on Central Europe Online - BUDAPEST, Jan 11, 2001--(Agence France Presse) A widening scare over NATO depleted uranium (DU) weapons has been fuelled by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Hungary's intelligence chief said Thursday. The Yugoslav army may even have planted radioactive material in certain areas to distort findings, said Laszlo Botz, the head of Hungary's military intelligence office. "To link radioactive radiation with DU weapons has been part of Milosevic's anti-NATO propaganda," Botz told state radio. "The first information about radiation and weapons that contain uranium came to our knowledge from Yugoslav sources in 1999. This clearly proves that it was a hysteria provoked by the Milosevic regime," Botz said. Hungarian army intelligence was also "sure that leaking the information was part of Milosevic's policy. It was an endeavor to paint a bad picture about NATO," he said. Botz did not rule out the possibility that Milosevic did more than that. "It is also possible that the Milosevic-controlled (Yugoslav) army delivered radioactive material to the critical areas," he said. Hungarian intelligence agents "are continuing to probe and analyze who could have been interested in so badly distorting the effect of the depleted uranium weapons," he added. ((C) 2001 AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE) ***************************************************************** 26 DU galvanizes Athens FLURRY OF GOVERNMENT MEETINGS; 65 VOLUNTEERS FOR KOSOVO CHANGE MINDS [I]EUROKINISSI MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY'S YOUTH WING, KNE, STAGED A DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE THE DEFENSE MINISTRY ON MESOGEION AVENUE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON, CALLING FOR NATO TO PULL OUT OF KOSOVO. ALMOST DAILY, SINCE THE WORRIES SURFACED ABOUT POSSIBLE POLLUTION FROM DEPLETED URANIUM ORDNANCE, DEMONSTRATORS HAVE DENOUNCED NATO AND CALLED FOR THE RETURN OF GREEK TROOPS FROM THE SERB PROVINCE. The Inner Cabinet will meet tomorrow to discuss the consequences of NATO's use of radioactive, highly toxic ammunition in its bombing attacks on Yugoslavia in 1999, while on Friday PM Costas Simitis is due to respond in Parliament to opposition critics regarding Greece's stance on the matter. Yesterday, Defense Minister Akis Tsochadzopoulos and Development Minister Nikos Christodoulakis decided to set up permanent radiation- monitoring stations in the Greek army camps in Kosovo and Bosnia, as well as in munitions dumps inside Greece. "Greece is totally free of any danger deriving from radiation," Christodoulakis said. And government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said the government "feels it has done the best it could." "It is present, and is taking initiatives in coordination with the international community," he explained. The Army General Staff said yesterday that it had asked 340 troops who had volunteered for a tour of duty in Kosovo if they still wanted to go and that 65 had changed their mind. On the other hand, only one of the 1,481 soldiers serving there already has applied for repatriation. None of the 120 troops in Bosnia has made such a request. On Monday, the Defense Ministry conceded that the navy had fired up to 40,000 rounds of ammunition containing depleted uranium in Aegean target ranges, while noting that another 10,000 rounds are still in storage on land and on twelve frigates. The 5,000 20-millimeter rounds used by the ships' anti-missile Gatling guns yesterday began to be transferred to storage at the Salamis fleet base, where another 5,000 are already kept. Although the air force and army have denied possessing any depleted uranium ordnance, reports yesterday insisted that this is not the case. The ammunition, used for its armor-piercing and incendiary properties, is allegedly linked with instances of leukemia and other cancers among soldiers and civilians who came into contact with remains of exploded depleted uranium ordnance. NATO has admitted to firing at least 31,000 such rounds in Kosovo and Serbia, and fewer during the 1995 air raids in Bosnia. A Greek non-commissioned officer earlier stationed in Bosnia has developed leukemia, in what could be a case of the so-called Balkan Syndrome. But yesterday officials at Thessaloniki's AHEPA hospital, which has been screening troops stationed in Yugoslavia and Bosnia as well as Greek students in these areas, said no other cases have been observed so far. Nevertheless, Greeks studying in Yugoslavia and their parents insisted yesterday in a meeting with Education Minister Petros Efthymiou that the government should transfer them to Greek universities. Most Greeks resort to undergraduate studies in the Balkans after failing to secure entry into Greek universities. But Efthymiou discouraged the idea. Site designed, developed and hosted by KATHIMERINI's IT department. ©1999-2000 IHT-KATHIMERINI English Edition. All ***************************************************************** 27 Nuclear test veterans call for screening Ananova - Nuclear test veterans are demanding a screening programme like the one offered to Britons who served in the Balkans. The Nuclear Test Veterans' Association has written to Armed Forces Minister John Spellar saying it would be "callous and unforgivable" to ignore its members. Mr Spellar has announced a screening programme for all those who feared exposure to radioactive weapons in the Balkans had made them ill. The association represents 2,500 British servicemen who took part in experiments or clear-up operations. It says its members should be given similar medical checks. Association secretary Sheila Gray demanded: "If they have nothing to hide why don't they let our men have tests? "Good luck to the Balkans veterans but what happened to us? We have been campaign for years." In her letter to the Minister, Mrs Gray said statistical studies and cancer checks previously carried out were inadequate. Mrs Gray warned: "We know that time, where radiation-related illnesses are concerned, is of the essence." Last updated: 15:50 Wednesday 10th January 2001 Copyright c 2001 Ananova Ltd ***************************************************************** 28 Britain denies Norwegian reports on continued pollution from Sellafield Story Filed: Thursday, January 11, 2001 6:46 AM EST JAN 11, 2001, M2 Communications - British officials are reported to be surprised at criticisms by Norway that radioactive emissions from the Sellafield plant will continue unchanged. According to Norwegian reports yesterday (10 January), Britain had withdrawn demands that the plant must reduce radioactive emissions by 80%. Norway was particularly concerned that the emissions would continue to pollute Norwegian waters. Brenda Irons of the British environmental office said that a programme remains in place for emissions from the controversial nuclear plant to be steadily cut. ((Comments on this story may be sent to nbr.feedback@nordicbusinessreport.com)) Copyright c 1998-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com p; Portions of above Copyright c 1997-2001, Northern Light Technology ***************************************************************** 29 Russia Must Secure Nuclear Stockpile January 10, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP)--The possibility of Russian nuclear materials being stolen or diverted is "the most urgent unmet national security threat" facing the United States, says a task force of former federal officials. The panel recommends a $30 billion program to help Russia secure its nuclear stockpile. "We have no proof of a diversion of weapons or material from Russia, but there is so much of it and security is so meager ... it is a continuing threat," warned former Sen. Howard Baker, co-chairman of the bipartisan panel. Baker, a Tennessee Republican, said that as a courtesy he has discussed the report briefly with Vice President-elect Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, President-elect Bush's choice as defense secretary. He said he wanted to give the incoming administration "a heads up" on an issue it will face. The report urged Bush and the new Congress to give the Russia nuclear proliferation concerns top priority. "If there is going to be attention paid (to this issue) there has to be a very strong presidential leadership," said former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., a panel member. Hamilton has been mentioned as a possible Bush choice for United Nations ambassador. Russia has an estimated 40,000 nuclear weapons and more than a 1, 000 metric tons of nuclear material including highly enriched uranium and plutonium scattered at facilities across Russia, many of them with inadequate security. The problem has been compounded by the thousands of Russian nuclear weapons scientists who are out of work or on meager incomes "and may be tempted to sell their expertise" to other nations or terrorist groups, the report says. "The issues are immediate and the dangers are real," said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who a year ago ordered the task force review of U.S. efforts to deal with nuclear proliferation in Russia. U.S. spending on nuclear security in Russia now totals about $900 million annually, about a third of that in Energy Department programs to help Russia secure nuclear materials, safeguard nuclear facilities and retrain nuclear scientists facing hard economic times. Some members of Congress have been reluctant to continue spending even that much because of concern that money may be misused and because of Russia's refusal to stop selling civilian nuclear technology and conventional arms to Iran. Russia's dealings with Iran are "a major cloud on the horizon" that will make it more difficult to sell the $30 billion spending plan to Congress, acknowledged Lloyd Cutler, President Clinton's former White House counsel and the other task force co-chairman. The panel urged the Energy Department's spending be increased to $3 billion a year over eight to 10 years. The $30 billion price tag "would constitute the highest return on investment in any current U.S. national security and defense program," said the report. While U.S. nuclear assistance programs for Russia have made progress, their shortcomings "leave an unacceptable risk of failure and the potential for catastrophic consequences," the report says. To give the issue a higher profile, the panel urged Bush to create a "nuclear nonproliferation czar" with access to the president, and that Congress create a joint House-Senate committee on the subject. Others on the panel included former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., who for years has been active on nuclear nonproliferation issues; Graham Allison, a nonproliferation expert at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; former Sen. David Boren, D-Okla., now president of the University of Oklahoma; former Rep. David Skaggs, D-Colo., now of the Aspen Institute; and Susan Eisenhower, president of the Eisenhower Institute. ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 30 Ready for the Worst Case Thursday, Jan. 11, 2001. Page 9 Ready for the Worst Case By Pavel Felgenhauer Last week U.S. government officials leaked information to the press that Russia had secretly moved tactical nuclear weapons to the Kaliningrad region, a small patch of Russian territory sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on the shores of the Baltic. Moscow fiercely denied that there were any nuclear weapons in the area, and President Vladimir Putin told journalists that the report is "rubbish." But somehow the denials did not sound completely convincing. Kaliningrad is the home base of the Russian Baltic Fleet, and all armed forces in the region (including the army and air force) are under overall naval command. Last week’s denials were mostly coming from Russian naval spokesmen. However, since the sinking of the Kursk submarine last August, the navy has issued so many false statements that now it is hard to believe anything it says. Although the Russian authorities have only themselves to blame that no one believes them, this time they are probably telling the truth: Tactical nukes most likely have not been moved into the Kaliningrad region — yet. In 1991 Russia and the United States agreed to remove all land-based tactical warheads from Europe. Naval tactical nukes were removed from ships and stockpiled. This nonbinding agreement is still observed, and both sides dismantled most of the removed warheads. The removal of tactical nuclear weapons was more than just an outburst of disarmament enthusiasm caused by the end of the Cold War. Battlefield nukes need a field of immanent battle for deployment, but there was none left in 1991. NATO and Russian troops were separated by distances so great that there was no need to keep nuclear artillery shells. Air force and naval tactical nukes were not abolished, though, since even then there remained the distinct possibility that they may be needed someday. However, their numbers were considerably reduced. The same logic still applies today. Poland may have joined NATO, but no forces are yet concentrated on its border with Russia. There is nothing in the 100-kilometer maximum range of battlefield Russian land-based tactical delivery systems in Kaliningrad that would warrant a nuclear strike, only peaceful Polish villages and marshes. The Russian Baltic Fleet is a collection of rusty surface ships with no modern nuclear attack submarines. Also, the Baltic Fleet does not presently face any significant concentration of enemy power. There is no military reason whatsoever to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad today. Most likely, U.S. military intelligence observed not the actual movement of weapons per se, but enhanced preparations of facilities and personnel for a possible swift nuclear deployment in the future. For some years now, the Russian military has been preparing to face a limited NATO attack. After the bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999, these preparations have been enhanced and Kaliningrad has been singled out as the most exposed area. Russian military planners believe that NATO will first impose a sea, land and air blockade of the Kaliningrad region and then attack it with stealth bombers and cruise missiles, forcing Russia to either start a global nuclear war or simply to surrender like Yugoslavia and accept Western (i.e., American) domination. To prevent such a scenario, a joint command under naval supervision has already been established in Kaliningrad so that all forces can fight as a unified garrison even if besieged. Planners also consider it crucial to have the capability to rush tactical nukes into Kaliningrad before NATO closes in. The Kaliningrad garrison could use them to fight its own local nuclear campaign that may not involve the rest of Russia. Tactical nuclear weapons could also serve as a regional deterrent. But it is imperative that the warheads be rushed in at the last moment, so that NATO cannot destroy them in a surprise preventive strike. It is also important that the nukes are not deployed beforehand so that the West cannot use them as a pretext to attack Kaliningrad. In 1991, many believed that the world had changed profoundly. But the nature of military planning never changes: It is always the worst possible scenario that is considered the most probable. Unfortunately, when not restrained by a free press and an informed public (which is the situation in Russia today), the military can often make these terrible scenarios come true. Pavel Felgenhauer is an independent, Moscow-based defense analyst. ***************************************************************** 31 Iraq blames depleted uranium for cancer increase Gulf News Online : Print p;10/01/01 An Iraqi doctor said yesterday that cancer cases in the south of the country had risen since the 1991 gulf War and blamed this on radioactivity from depleted uranium shells used by U.S. and British forces. "In my opinion, the main factor which caused cancer is radiation from the use of depleted uranium, in the southern part, where the American and British forces delivered more than 300 tonnes of DU (depleted uranium)," Dr Jawad Ali told Reuters Television at a hospital in the southern city of Basra. Iraqi authorities have repeatedly accused Western powers of inflicting a creeping environmental disaster on the country's southern provinces by firing shells made with depleted uranium, which is used to harden them so they can pierce tank armour. Earlier this year, a cancer conference organised by the Iraqi Health Ministry said that number of cancer cases registered in Iraq rose to 6,158 in 1997 from 4,341 in 1991. The doctor's comments come amid growing fears of a "Balkans Syndrome" with reports of cancer among troops who served in NATO-led peacekeeping forces in Bosnia and Kosovo, where depleted uranium shells were used. Doctors at the Basra hospital said that most of the patients were suffering from leukaemia. Britain says depleted uranium rounds can produce small amounts of radioactive and toxic particles on impact, but argues that it is unlikely anyone outside the target area could be affected. It said its Challenger tanks had fired fewer than 100 new 120mm rounds with a uranium core against Iraqi forces and its armoured forces operated well away from population centres. In 1998 Iraq sent a formal complaint to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reserving the right to compensation for the "appalling damage" caused by allied use of depleted uranium shells during the Gulf War. c Al Nisr Publishing LLC - Gulf News Online ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************