***************************************************************** 05/11/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.115 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Reid vows to block Bush nominations over Yucca 2 Lost fuel rods continue to haunt Millstone 3 First batch of SRS nuclear waste gets shipped to New Mexico 4 First South Carolina Shipment Arrives at WIPP 5 NRC turns down county request to review CP&L's waste expansion 6 NRC staff clears hurdle for Arkansas nuke plant revewal 7 Reid criticizes Cheney over energy plan 8 It's time for a nuclear power renaissance 9 U.S. Mulls Shift of Nuke Research 10 Duratek Inc. Reports Loss of $1.6 Million 11 NRC Schedules May 24 Meeting in Mesquite, Nevada, on Possible 12 RADIATION LIMITS: Reid threatens to block nominees 13 `Roll back N-programme' 14 Russia Approves Nuclear Fuel Plan But Demands Cash 15 Russia hopes to build first NPP in Egypt 16 Bushehr NPP to be put into commission with a year delay 17 Moldova likely to ratify nuclear fuel transit deal 18 Russia may build more nuclear power plant units in Iran 19 Eskom's Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Leads Nuclear Project 20 O'Donnell says Nevada must stop hysteria over nuke dump 21 DOE faces unresolved Yucca issues NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 DOE chief set to sell Hanford budget 2 Feds, Fluor Daniel settle overcharge suit 3 Shipp becomes president of INEEL facility 4 Weekly Defense Monitor - Volume 5, Issue #19 - May 10, 2001 5 Card breezes toward Energy post 6 Australia to Study Nuclear Claims 7 Minister says cancer study of Maralinga servicemen underway 8 'Radiation guinea pigs' investigated - 9 Oz troops used in Brit nuke tests 10 Downer holds off raising Maralinga issue with UK Govt 11 'Whistleblower center' to help employees fight corruption in 12 Russia to Announce Plan to Lift Sunken Submarine 13 Reducing a Common Danger: Improving Russia's Early-Warning System 14 Opinion - Still MAD - 15 NIF foes clash with DOE estimates 16 Bush gets pressure on funding Hanford cleanup 17 Energy chief says cleanup funds fine 18 State fines Washington Group **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Reid vows to block Bush nominations over Yucca May 11, 2001 By Benjamin Grove and Mary Manning LAS VEGAS SUN WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is playing hardball with President Bush over radiation standards for a proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Reid, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, on Thursday said he would try to block federal nominations reviewed by the committee unless Bush approves a strict radiation safety standard for the proposed nuclear waste site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The committee votes on Bush nominations to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and several other agencies. About a dozen nominees will be pending in the coming weeks, including four next week. Among them is Linda Fisher, nominated to be EPA deputy administrator. "We need to finalize these standards, and I will use every means at my disposal, including blocking these nominees, until this rule is published," Reid said. Reid said he didn't know if he would be able to successfully block the nominees on the 18-member committee, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. At issue are health and safety standards at Yucca Mountain. It's the only site being studied to hold 77,000 tons of nuclear waste. The Energy Department is conducting the studies and would build the repository if it is approved. No one doubts the stored waste would release radiation. The question is how much would be safe? The Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission disagree. The EPA backs a standard that allows someone to be exposed to 15 millirems of radiation, with a four millirem limit in ground water. The NRC says a 25 millirem standard is safe, and sets no separate limit for ground water. A chest X-ray is roughly five millirems. Backers of Yucca Mountain say the EPA standard is so strict it could kill the project. That's why Nevada officials like it, and nuclear industry officials don't. "I have the responsibility to protect the safety and health of Nevadans, including ensuring that the vital ground water resources beneath the proposed nuclear waste repository do not become contaminated," Reid wrote in a letter to Bush on Thursday. The EPA has legal authority to set the standard, and former President Bill Clinton's EPA administrator, Carol Browner, submitted the EPA's numbers to the Office of Management and Budget on Jan. 19, a day before Bush moved into the White House. It has been under Bush review since. Bush must sign off on it for it to become official. Reid said he was disturbed by reports this week that high-level discussions among EPA, NRC and DOE officials were under way to weaken the standards. Reid said agency officials had told him about the meetings. He added that nuclear energy officials have been lobbying heavily to weaken the standard. "I have every confidence that the administrator of the EPA will do the right thing," Reid told reporters Thursday. "But she is getting pressure." At a Senate Environment Committee meeting this week, Reid scolded NRC officials, who said they had a right to comment on the issue. "I am convinced that you are doing more than just commenting and I don't think it is appropriate," Reid said. The energy trade publication Energy Daily this week reported that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and EPA Administrator Christie Whitman had met on the issue. But Abraham and Whitman have not met, and don't plan a meeting specifically to discuss the radiations standards, DOE spokeswoman Jill Schroeder said. However, both serve on the energy task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney, and it is unknown if they discussed the issue at their regular meetings, Schroeder said. EPA and NRC staffers are involved in "ongoing" meetings on the issue, but wouldn't offer any details about the meetings. Nuclear energy industry officials have not been directly involved in any meetings about the standards, Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitch Singer said. NEI backs the NRC standard, calling it a "more appropriate level" in a position paper. EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn confirmed EPA, DOE and NRC staffers have been discussing the issue. She declined to say how committed Whitman is to the current standard. Asked if there has been any pressure put on the EPA by either the DOE or the NRC, Milbourn replied, "If there is, it is not going on in the public arena." James Taft, in charge of EPA drinking water standards, said he had been in some earlier staff discussions over the proposed standard. "I have been included in some of the discussions and could not comment at this time," he said, referring inquiries to Whitman's office. Environmentalists say they consider the EPA standard a bare minimum. If it were a truly effective repository, Yucca would release no radiation, Public Citizen's Lisa Gue said. A ground water standard is vital, she said. But the rule has implications beyond the Yucca repository, Gue said. "This is a precedent-setting standard," she said, adding that both commercial nuclear reactors and DOE research reactors would fall under the stricter ground water limit, if it is approved. Gue said EPA officials had told her high-level meetings between EPA and the DOE were ongoing to change the EPA standard. "That's an indication of the pressure that the DOE and the NRC seem able to exert in this new administration," Gue said. "Unfortunately, it doesn't bode well for the site recommendation." The Energy Department has remained tight-lipped on its input to the Bush administration. The DOE refused a National Resources Defense Council request to reveal interest groups shaping energy policy for Cheney's task force. The council filed an appeal to the DOE's decision on Wednesday. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 Lost fuel rods continue to haunt Millstone TheDay.com: Local and National News *Issue may affect the number of fuel rods the new owner can store at the site* By Paul Choiniere - More Articles Published on 5/11/2001 Waterford — The inability to find two missing nuclear fuel rods, last listed in Millstone Nuclear Power Station records more than two decades ago, has come back to haunt the station and its new owner. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is taking a second look at the approval it granted the station to store more spent fuel in the Millstone 3 storage pool. The inability to find the two fuel rods from the closed Millstone 1 plant raises doubts about the ability of station operators to handle more spent fuel at Millstone 3, according to the board. Tuesday's decision to reopen the issue will be an administrative headache for Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, which took over ownership of Millstone station last month from Northeast Utilities. To continue operating over the next 20 years Millstone 3 has to find a place to store 1,860 spent nuclear fuel assemblies that will be used up in the nuclear reactor. Currently it has a license to put only 756 assemblies in the storage pool, and is already near that figure. Dominion has to demonstrate that the mistakes in procedures that led to the misplacing of two of the spent fuel rods at Millstone 1 will not cause problems at Millstone 3. But at this point investigators have not determined what went wrong at Millstone 1 or even where the fuel rods ended up. Inventory exposed the problem The fuel rods could not be accounted for when an inventory of the spent fuel was conducted last November. Plant records last refer to the fuel rods back in 1980. Plant officials believe they were either moved to a different spot in the pool and cannot be found or were inadvertently shipped off site, which would be a federal violation. Nancy Burton, an attorney for a coalition of anti-nuclear groups that had the raised the issue, said as a result of Thursday's decision she will file a motion to gain unprecedented access to all Millstone 1 plant records related to the storage of spent fuel. It will be interesting to see what those records reveal about how the fuel was managed, she said. “That was the right course of action,” said Burton of the board's decision. “I don't know how they could have taken any other view, given the unprecedented loss of nuclear fuel rods from a nuclear reactor.” There was no immediate comment from Dominion. A prehearing to discuss what happens next was scheduled for May 24. Ironically, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board decision came the same day the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a favorable ruling for Millstone 3 and the industry in general. The Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone and the Long Island Coalition Against Millstone — the same groups that raised the missing fuel rod issue — had raised in the Millstone 3 case a legal question that had implications for the storage of spent nuclear fuel in plants across the country. It pointed to NRC regulations that state “physical systems or processes” must be used to assure the nuclear fuel remains safe. The anti-nuclear coalitions, using expert testimony, argued that the standard was not being applied. As more spent nuclear fuel has been crammed into storage pools, nuclear plants are utilizing not only physical barriers to maintain safety, but also precise administrative and procedural controls. Millstone 3 is counting on such controls to place more spent fuel in its pool. The spent fuel must be placed in a certain configuration to prevent an atomic reaction within the storage pool. Also, boron must be maintained in the water to avoid any atomic reaction. These procedures extend far beyond the “physical” safety requirements of the regulations and are prone to mistakes that could lead to a nuclear accident, Burton had argued. But the commission, in a 5-0 ruling, said the requirement for “physical systems” to assure safety does not “exclude human intervention to set (those) physical forces in motion or to monitor them.” “So long as criticality is prevented by a physical process, the types of administrative procedures used to implement or maintain the process are simply not relevant, presuming, of course, that the procedures are safe,” stated the commission. David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, had testified that the plans for safely maintaining nuclear fuel at Millstone 3 were too dependent on human controls. He said he was not surprised by the commission vote. “If they were to rule (otherwise) that would have a huge implication; safety of spent fuel pools across the country would be in question It would undermine public confidence across the country,” Lochbaum said. Pete Hyde, a Millstone spokesman, said Dominion was pleased with the decision and had expected the NRC to reaffirm the safety of the “time-tested methods” used to store spent nuclear fuel at nuclear plants such as Millstone 3. © 1998-2001 The Day Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 3 First batch of SRS nuclear waste gets shipped to New Mexico [charlotte.com] May 11, 2001 *Plutonium-tainted materials sent for underground disposal * *Associated Press * CARLSBAD, N.M. -- The first radioactive shipment from South Carolina's Savannah River Site nuclear complex arrived Thursday at the federal government's underground disposal site in southeastern New Mexico. The shipment of 42 drums of plutonium-contaminated waste left SRS near Aiken on Tuesday and arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant east of Carlsbad early Thursday morning. The 1,540-mile trip through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas took about 39 1/2 hours, including time for the drivers to stop and inspect the truck every 100 miles or two hours, as required by U.S. Transportation Department regulations. SRS is expected to send about 1,800 shipments to WIPP during the next 33 years. It is the fifth site in the nation's nuclear weapons complex to ship waste to WIPP. Since the repository opened in March 1999, it has received waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico, Rocky Flats near Denver, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho Falls and the Hanford site in Washington state. During the next 35 years, WIPP officials expect to transport 19,300 loads of radioactive waste from more than 20 locations nationwide. The waste is stored 2,150 feet underground in rooms excavated from ancient salt beds. Disposal rooms are 300 feet long, 33 feet wide and 13 feet high and will hold about 12,000 55-gallon drums of waste. ***************************************************************** 4 First South Carolina Shipment Arrives at WIPP ABQjournal: May 10, 2001 *The Associated Press* CARLSBAD, N.M. — The first radioactive shipment from a former nuclear weapons plant in South Carolina has arrived at the federal government's underground disposal site in southeastern New Mexico. The shipment of 42 drums of plutonium-contaminated waste left the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., Tuesday and arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant east of Carlsbad at 1:40 a.m. MDT Thursday. The 1,540-mile trip took about 39 1/2 hours, including time for the drivers to stop and inspect the truck every 100 miles or two hours as required by U.S. Department of Transportation regulations. Savannah River is expected to send about 1,800 shipments to WIPP over about 33 years. It is the fifth site in the nation's nuclear weapons complex to ship waste to WIPP. Since the repository opened in March 1999, it has gotten waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico, Rocky Flats near Denver, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and the Hanford site in Washington state. During the next 35 years, WIPP officials expect to transport 19,300 loads of radioactive waste from more than 20 locations nationwide. The waste is stored 2,150 feet underground in rooms excavated from ancient salt beds. Disposal rooms are 300 feet long, 33 feet wide and 13 feet high, and will hold about 12,000 55-gallon drums of waste. Copyright Albuquerque Journal ***************************************************************** 5 NRC turns down county request to review CP&L's waste expansion NC News Wire [newsobserver.com, Raleigh, NC] HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (AP) -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has turned down a request to review Carolina Power &Light's plans to expand waste storage at the Shearon Harris nuclear facility. In March, Orange County asked the commission to review the decision to approve CP's plans and to issue an emergency stay to halt the expansion. In its decision filed Thursday, the five-member commission disagreed with the county's arguments and said it was oversimplifying the agency's review process. Orange County officials could not be reached for comment. CP first asked the NRC in December 1998 for an amendment to the company's license for Shearon Harris. The company already was storing spent fuel rods in two pools at the power-generating facility, and it sought approval to store the rods in two other pools there. The company has said it intends to start storing rods in the third pool this summer and to use the fourth pool if necessary in 15 years. Orange County raised concerns about the potential effect of an accident at the site. The NRC staff decided that CP's plan didn't merit a full-fledged environmental impact statement, but Orange County argued that there should at least be an evidentiary hearing on that question. It asked the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to require such a hearing, in which experts would give testimony and be cross-examined. In December, while the licensing board's decision on that request was pending, the NRC staff went ahead and approved the license amendment for Shearon Harris. The licensing board subsequently ruled against the county and confirmed the amendment. The NRC commissioners declined to review those decisions Thursday, saying, "We do not ordinarily second-guess ASLB fact-findings, particularly those reached with this degree of care. Orange County has given us no reason to do so here." At the end of their 21-page ruling, the NRC commissioners also accused Orange County of trying to get around the commission's requirement that petitions be no longer than 10 pages. They said that although the county's petition was 10 pages long, there were "voluminous" footnotes, references to earlier filings and supplemental affidavits. "This can only be viewed as an attempt to circumvent the intent of our page-limit rule," the commissioners wrote. News & Observer. All material found on newsobserver.com is ***************************************************************** 6 NRC staff clears hurdle for Arkansas nuke plant revewal [Reuters] Thursday May 10, 5:26 pm Eastern Time WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday said a final environmental impact statement written by its staff found no reason to block the proposed renewal of the operating license for Entergy Corp's (NYSE:ETR - news) Arkansas nuclear plant in Russellville, Arkansas. ``The NRC staff found there should be no significant environmental impacts from an additional 20 years of plant operation and recommends that the commission determine there are no impacts that would preclude renewal of the license for environmental reasons,'' the NRC said in a statement. The 836-megawatt Arkansas Unit 1 will see its current license expire on May 20, 2014. Entergy Operations Inc in January submitted an application to the NRC to extend the life of the plant to 2034. Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy ***************************************************************** 7 Reid criticizes Cheney over energy plan May 11, 2001 By Benjamin Grove LAS VEGAS SUN WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Thursday led early Democratic criticism of a much-awaited energy plan being drafted by Vice President Dick Cheney, which is set for release next week. Reid stressed that the nation should increase energy supply while also protecting the environment, saying Cheney's task force did not focus enough on renewable energy. Reid, joined at a press conference by Democratic Sens. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., Jeff Bingaman, N.M., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., also rapped Cheney for working in secret -- not with the Congress -- and relying on oil, gas, coal and nuclear utility company executives for input. "We believe we shouldn't have to read about this in the paper -- it's been leaked out little by little," Reid said. Bush early in his term directed Cheney to cobble together a comprehensive energy strategy for America. While it is still under wraps, some points have been openly discussed, a few publicly by Cheney himself. Democrats generally have been critical of Bush energy plans, such as drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. The Bush-Cheney energy strategy should put a stronger emphasis on conservation and fuel efficiency, such as more efficient cars and air conditioners, Reid said. Cheney took fire from Democrats for saying that conservation is a "personal virtue" but not a cornerstone of a comprehensive energy strategy. "We encourage the task force to ensure that its proposal is aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and improving air and water quality," Reid said in a follow-up letter to Bush dated Thursday. "Environmental quality and public health are not matters we can afford to set aside in pursuit of greater energy supplies." Reid, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, also has said Cheney's public suggestions that the nation should increase nuclear power production is a problem, because officials have not dealt with the issue of nuclear waste. Congress' proposal to bury the waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is not a viable solution, Nevada lawmakers have long said. The Cheney plan will include some proposals that will require congressional approval, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Thursday at a Senate hearing on the Department of Energy's budget. The DOE budget includes $445 million, a $54.6 million increase over last year, for projects at Yucca Mountain. Nevada lawmakers want to scale back that funding. The proposed DOE budget also calls for major cuts in renewable energy spending, which Reid has criticized. Abraham defended those cuts today, saying renewable energy technology is fully developed already and little more research is needed. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 8 It's time for a nuclear power renaissance JERRY HEASTER: Date: 05/10/01 22:15 California's electricity crisis is converging with fears of global warming to possibly make nuclear the prevailing power generation choice for the 21st century. This convergence might become powerful enough to convince even the most ardent environmentalists that nuclear is preferable to burning more fossil fuels to meet the country's growing power needs. Even without California's blackouts, global-warming fears still would be boosting nuclear acceptance. What the Golden State situation does, however, is give the problem an urgency global warming lacks. A recent poll showed half of those surveyed supporting nuclear power, and more than half of those supporters had no qualms about living near a nuclear plant. There are greens, of course, who always will maintain that renewable sources such as wind and solar are adequate for future needs, but this ignores reality. As energy and environmental analyst Peter Huber recently observed, coal, gas and uranium can generate massive amounts of power from relatively small facilities close to population centers. Sun and wind require much greater scales to approximate the same magnitude of output, and even then are iffy sources because of the need for the right natural conditions, i.e., wind and sunlight. That nuclear is now being taken more seriously is evidenced by a proliferation of magazine and newspaper articles from both conservative and liberal perspectives acknowledging nuclear's potential to solve our most pressing energy and environmental problems. The arguments for nuclear are many and convincing. The arguments against remain as unconvincing as always. The only difference between today and 20 years ago is nuclear's track record weighed against a pressing need for cleanly produced electricity for an energy-hungry society. Even though America has made remarkable strides in using energy more efficiently since 1980, economic growth and population gains still have pushed electricity consumption up 60 percent. Author Richard Rhodes, who has written extensively on nuclear-related matters, said the emergence of the United States as the world's leading greenhouse gas emitter makes "renewal of nuclear power likely." Nuclear, in fact, has become an increasingly important power source, almost doubling since 1980 to 20 percent of total electricity generated. Although no new plants have come on line in years, existing plants have become much more efficient while adding to an already impressive safety record. Another factor adding to nuclear's growing attractiveness is development of technology allowing construction of reactors only one-tenth the size of traditional units. This makes them much less costly and reduces construction time. As for the waste disposal problem, it has always been overstated. Since the first nuclear power plant came on line in the mid-1950s, the industry claims the total waste produced so far would only fill a hole the size of a football field to a depth of 15 feet. Nuclear's renaissance won't happen overnight, but serious debate has been joined. As it progresses, nuclear's benefits as a cheap, clean, safe source of power will become impossible to ignore by even erstwhile doubters. Jerry Heaster's column appears Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. To reach him, write the business desk at 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64108, call (816) 234-4297 or send e-mail to jheaster@kcstar.com. All content © 2001 *The Kansas City Star* ***************************************************************** 9 U.S. Mulls Shift of Nuke Research May 11, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is considering shifting some critical nuclear research to Russia as part of budget cuts that may shut down small research reactors at three U.S. colleges. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has asked the Energy Department to move work from Michigan to a facility that might take years to equip, a department official said. "It is troubling to us, obviously," said John C. Lee, chairman of the University of Michigan's Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences. Lee said proposed research cuts would require his school to decommission its research reactor and test laboratories within three years. The reactor is the only one in the nation capable of testing 10-inch-thick pressured steel vessels that act as a last resort against leakage of radiation from nuclear power plant reactor cores, he said. William Magwood IV, director of the Energy Department's Office of Nuclear Energy, testified Thursday before Congress on President Bush's proposed 42.5 percent budget cut for nuclear research, from $47 million this year to $27 million in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Meantime, the administration was putting the final touches on an energy package that will emphasize reviving nuclear power to address future electricity needs. "They think they might have to go to Russia if the University of Michigan closes the reactor," Magwood said after testifying. "I'd hate to see that happen." He agreed that the Michigan reactor has a unique task, but he said the NRC does not view moving its work to Russia as a national security issue. Two of the nation's other premier university-run nuclear research laboratories - Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University - also have told the Energy Department they plan to decommission their reactors unless the government contributes more. In Bush's budget, all of the research, education and nuclear facilities and materials programs that Magwood oversees would be cut 20 percent, from $277.5 million to $223 million. "Vice President Cheney is going to come out and say that this is the way we should proceed, but at the same time say, 'Give us less money to make sure we do it right,'" complained Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., chairman of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee. But Magwood said in an interview that it was appropriate for the Bush administration "to take a pause and have a careful examination of everything we're doing and then move forward." The University of Michigan already has begun planning for decommissioning its 2 megawatt Ford Reactor and accompanying nuclear labs it operates at an annual cost of $1.5 million. The Energy Department now contributes about $100,000 a year although the NRC has invested close to $2 million in the testing program at Michigan, Lee said. "The integrity of the pressure vessels is very important for the safe operation of nuclear power plants in this country," Lee said. "This is essentially the last line of defense ... that would protect and contain radiation produced in the operation of a reactor." On the Net: Energy Department budget: http://www.cfo.doe.gov/budget/02budget/index.htm University of Michigan site: http://www.engin.umich.edu/dept/nuclear All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 10 Duratek Inc. Reports Loss of $1.6 Million washingtonpost.com: May 11, 2001; Page E02 Duratek Inc. reported yesterday that it lost $1.6 million (15 cents per share) in the first quarter as the company continued to be plagued by problems in its commercial waste-processing operations. The Columbia company took in $66.5 million in revenue for the quarter ended March 31. The company earned $1.5 million (8 cents) on $41 million in revenue for the same quarter in 2000. Shares of Duratek closed at $4.38, down 26 cents, on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The first-quarter earnings include results from Duratek's acquisition of Houston-based Waste Management Nuclear Services for $65 million last June. The company's federal and commercial services divisions performed well, but its commercial processing unit, which includes waste-disposal plants in Memphis and Oak Ridge, Tenn., suffered financially, said Robert E. Prince, Duratek's president. The firm said it incurred $14 million in unexpected overtime, waste-burial and transportation costs in the fourth quarter, after waste-storage space ran out at the Oak Ridge plant. Duratek said earlier the company expected its earnings for the first quarter of 2001 to suffer from the high costs of starting new waste-processing programs late last year. Those programs include a new process to handle contaminated metals. The programs are designed to boost the company's output and lower the cost of processing low-level radioactive metals, a fast-growing segment of the company's business. This month, the company said it expects to earn $6 million to $7 million (32 cents to 37 cents per share) in 2001 on revenue of $280 million to $300 million. • Mid Atlantic Medical Services Inc. reported healthy first-quarter increases in revenue and earnings as membership and premiums paid at the health maintenance organization continued to grow. Rockville-based Mid Atlantic said it earned $12.9 million (32 cents per share) on revenue of $424.7 million, compared with net income of $8.6 million (22 cents) on revenue of $360.1 million in the first three months of 2000. The first quarter's 50 percent increase in net income was accompanied by an 8 percent increase in commercial membership -- employees at Mid Atlantic's client companies signing up for the HMO. Mid Atlantic operates primarily in the mid-Atlantic states and covers 1.9 million people. Commercial premiums were up 10.7 percent in the quarter, while corresponding medical expenses grew 9.2 percent. Separately Mid Atlantic's board expanded its stock repurchase program, setting aside $25 million for the stock repurchases on the open market, $5 million more than the company has committed to its stock repurchase program previously. Mid Atlantic's stock closed at $18.20, up $1.06 a share, yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. © 2001 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 11 NRC Schedules May 24 Meeting in Mesquite, Nevada, on Possible Yucca Mountain Waste Repository Press Release 2001 - 057 - [NRC Seal] *NRC NEWS*** U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA No. 01-057 May 10, 2001 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet with local citizens May 24 in Mesquite, Nevada, to provide an overview of its activities related to the possible future high-level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The meeting will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Mesquite City Hall, 10 East Mesquite Blvd., Council Chamber. NRC representatives will discuss the agency's independent oversight function and its role in regulating the transportation of high-level waste. They will also be available to answer questions. ***************************************************************** 12 RADIATION LIMITS: Reid threatens to block nominees LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: NEWS: Harry Reid Nevadan is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Friday, May 11, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Nevada senator seeks release of Yucca Mountain standards By STEVE TETREAULT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Thursday threatened to block nominees for top jobs in three environmental agencies until the Bush administration agrees to set groundwater limits for radiation should it escape from a Nevada nuclear waste repository. Reid said he will use his position as ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to hold up Bush's choices at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and also the Council on Environmental Quality, a White House advisory office. "I can't stop hearings, but I can look at quorums" needed to conduct business meetings, Reid said. As far as blocking committee votes, "we'll have to see," he said. "Sometime you can, sometimes you can't." The 18-member environment committee is split 9-9 between Republicans and Democrats. "Reid has made it known he has nine votes that are not going to be for nominees," said Eryn Witcher, spokesperson for chairman Sen. Robert Smith, R-N.H. "We're disappointed," Witcher said. "These nominees are necessary to move forward on vital issues. It's important the president's team be allowed to be put in place. This will only serve to slow the process. We hope he'll reconsider." Witcher said the committee intends to proceed with a May 17 hearing on four nominees, the most prominent being Linda Fisher to become EPA deputy administrator, the agency's second-in-command. Reid sent President Bush a letter Thursday informing him of his plans and complaining the administration is taking too long to finalize the radiation standards. At least three federal agencies continue to debate how much harmful radiation should be allowed to escape from a repository being developed at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Environmental Protection Agency had been given authority by Congress to set health standards for radiation, but the limits it proposed have been criticized by the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as unrealistically tough and potential show-stoppers. Particularly controversial is an EPA proposal that a separate standard be set for radiation escaping through groundwater. "These agencies have had more than sufficient time through the interagency review process to comment on the proposed rule," Reid told Bush. "EPA should be allowed to fulfill its statutory responsibility." Reid said the EPA is being pressured by the other agencies and the nuclear industry to relax the standards before making them final. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has held several recent face-to-face meetings with EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman in an attempt to break an impasse, the Energy Daily newsletter said this week in a report attributed to sources in the agencies. Spokespersons said Thursday they could not confirm the report. "All we can really say right now is there are interagency discussions going on," said EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn. Milbourn added Whitman has told lawmakers in Capitol Hill testimony this week she expects the radiation standards to be issued "this spring." webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 13 `Roll back N-programme' 11 May 2001 : The Times of India Staff Reporter BANGALORE: The Bangalore Platform Against Nuclear Weaponsisation on Thursday impressed upon the government to roll back its present nuclear weapons programme and resume its earlier crusade for nuclear disarmament. In an introspection on the occasion of the third anniversary of nuclear explosion by India and Pakistan being observed on Friday, the platform felt that the nuclear arms race has only added to the general insecurity in the country. Noted environmentalist and historian Ramachandra Guha said, ``Contrary to the claim of the government that Pokhran II has enhanced our nuclear security, we have learnt that the government is committing a sum of Rs 1,100 crore to build underground nuclear shelters from where, in case of a nuclear attack a nuclear offensive can be directed and launched.'' In the ever-escalating nuclear arms race, both the countries will be sucked in sooner than later at enormous cost to their people, he added. Can nations as underdeveloped and impoverished as India and Pakistan indulge in the sheer profligacy of a nuclear weapons programme, while millions of its citizens perish from malnutrition and disease? asked freedom fighter and noted Gandhian Satyavratha. ``The only hope for permanent peace between the two countries is to come together at the negotiating table, while simultaneously rolling back their nuclear weapons programme,'' he said. While noting that a few political parties are contemplating on these lines, the platform felt that the public needs to be mobilised and impress upon the government to roll back their present strategy and realise that the country cannot afford a suicidal arms race. Social activist Shubha Chacko was present. rights:Times Syndication Service ***************************************************************** 14 Russia Approves Nuclear Fuel Plan But Demands Cash [Reuters Online] Story Filed: Friday, May 11, 2001 12:38 PM EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia approved a treaty to turn plutonium from nuclear weapons into civilian reactor fuel on Friday, boasting of its commitment to arms reduction on a day when U.S. officials were in town pitching missile defense plans. But Moscow said it needed billions of dollars from Washington and other Western partners to make the swords-into-plough shares program a reality. Last summer, Russia and the U.S. signed a memorandum to each turn 34 tons of weapons plutonium into reactor fuel over 25 years, but analysts have said new White House incumbent George W. Bush may cut funding for Moscow's nuclear clean-up. The Russian government said in a statement it had approved the agreement and passed it to parliament to become law. ``The realization of this agreement will clearly demonstrate Russia's adherence to the further development of the nuclear disarmament process and allow the development of Russian-American scientific cooperation,'' the statement said. Russia said the agreement foresees large-scale international funding, including the U.S. paying at least $200 million toward building plants to store and salvage the plutonium. ``Russia would not have to begin building or modifying facilities for salvaging plutonium without the creation of an essential international fund, to allow salvaging to go ahead at a rate of two tons of weapons-grade plutonium a year,'' the government said in a statement. The project aims to soothe fears that ``rogue states'' could somehow acquire ex-Soviet plutonium. Through the 1990s, the U.S. spent billions of dollars on programs securing Russian nuclear stockpiles against theft. But Bush has ordered a review of such financing and Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry said last month that Western partners had only offered about $600 million of the $2 billion needed to build two vital plutonium salvaging plants in Siberia. The government's decision to pass the bill to parliament for full ratification came as U.S. officials visited Moscow to convince Russia to accept their plans for a missile defense. Bush says U.S. national security could be threatened by adversaries like North Korea, Iraq and Libya, who he insists could acquire a nuclear capability. The U.S. says stray ex-Soviet nuclear fuel could spark such a proliferation. Russia, like China, says the U.S. missile shield would wreck the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and also prompt an arms race. *Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Russia hopes to build first NPP in Egypt [ITAR/TASS News Agency] Story Filed: Friday, May 11, 2001 12:03 PM EST MOSCOW, May 11, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Russia hopes to sign a contract with Egypt on the construction of the first nuclear power plant in that country. "Negotiations are underway," Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Yevgeny Reshetnikov has told Itar-Tass. Russia offers to build a VVER-640 water-moderated water- cooled reactor. The construction site will be chosen by Egypt. Egypt has not chosen the contractor, but "we hope to get that contract," Reshetnikov said. It takes 70 months to build a power plant unit. The project cost depends on the power plant location, design and capacity. An average world price varies from 1.5 billion dollars to 2.2 billion per one unit. Russia is building nuclear power plants in Iran and China. It will soon start the construction of a nuclear power plant in India. Russia is also reconstructing the Kozlodui nuclear power plant in Bulgaria. By Veronika Voskoboinikova (c) 1996-2001 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 Bushehr NPP to be put into commission with a year delay [ITAR/TASS News Agency] Story Filed: Friday, May 11, 2001 11:27 AM EST MOSCOW, May 11, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- The Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy is doing its best to catch up with the plan of the construction of a nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran. Yet the works are 12 months behind the schedule, and the plant will be put into commission approximately a year later than it was initially planned -- in 2004, Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Yevgeny Reshetnikov has told Itar-Tass. A reason for the delay is that Germany was the one that started the nuclear power plant construction in Bushehr. Russia signed a contract to finalize the construction in 1995 and had to start almost everything anew. "We have to combine our structures with those of Germany," and it takes much time, Reshetnikov said. Last year the lag was 16 months. There is no doubt that Russia will meet its commitments and build the power plant, he noted. Reshetnikov described as absurd the American claims that Russia allegedly handed over nuclear technologies to Iran. "We are building a purely peaceful object," he remarked. He said the accusations aimed to compensate the American failures in the Middle East and take hold of the atomic energy market. By Veronika Voskoboinikova (c) 1996-2001 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 17 Moldova likely to ratify nuclear fuel transit deal [ITAR/TASS News Agency] Story Filed: Thursday, May 10, 2001 8:50 AM EST KISHINEV, May 10, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Moldova is ready to ratify an accord with Bulgaria on transit of spent fuel from its Kozloduj nuclear power plant to Russia in exchange for cheaper entry visas for Modlovan residents, President Vladimir Voronin said. He told reporters on Thursday that he had discussed the matter with Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov during theiys,+inc.[(wlda)] continental+airlines,+inc.[(cal)] northwest+airlines+corp.[(nwac)] trans+world+airlines,+inc.[(twaiq)] united+parcel+service,+inc.[(ups)] 602000 620068World Airways Announces Teaming Arrangement for FY 2002 AMC Contract PEACHTREE CITY, Ga., May 10, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- World Airways, Inc. (Nasdaq: WLDA) today announced that the U.S. Air Force has approved teaming arrangements for FY 2002. The Air Mobility Command of the Air Force has approved teaming agreements for fiscal year 2002 beginning October 1, 2001. The 2002 Emery Worldwide Airlines Contractor Team led by Emery will include World Airways, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Evergreen International Airlines, North American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Trans World Airlines, United Parcel Service and US Airways. In addition, the team will be acquiring mobilization points from United Airlines. With this strong team, World Airways expects to receive as much or more in fiscal 2002 than fid looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the impact of competition in the market for air transportation services, the cyclical nature of the air carrier business, reliance on key marketing relationships, fluctuations in operating results and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with the SEC (which reports are available from the Company upon request). These various risks and uncertainties may cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any of the forward looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the Company in this release.) SOURCE World Airways, Inc. CONTACT: Gil Duarte, CFO of World Airways, Inc., 770-632-8003; or Investor Relations: Doug Poretz, 703-744-7810, or Karen Vahouny, 703-744-7809, increased approximately 7.6% above existing store sales for the similar period in the prior fiscal year, including increases of approximately 10.6% in sales of hardlines and approximately 0.3% in sales of softlines. For the nine week period ended May 5, 2001, sales were approximately $608.6 million, or 14.8% above sales of $530.0 million for the similar period in the prior fiscal year. Sales in existing stores for the nine week period ended May 5, 2001, increased approximately 3.9% above existing store sales for the similar period in the prior fiscal year, including an increase of approximately 8.5% in sales of hardlines and a decrease of approximately 8.8% in sales of softlines. For the thirty-six week period ended May 5, 2001, sales were approximately $2,466.1 million, or 17.6% above sales of $2,097.1 million for the thirty-five week period ended April 29, 2000. The calendar followed by the Company and most retailers included a non-comparative fifth week in January resulting in an extra week ins On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/300875.htmlor fax, 800-758-5804, ext. 300875 URL: http://www.familydollar.com http://www.prnewswire.com (C) 2001 PR Newswire. All rights reserved. KEYWORD: North Carolina INDUSTRY KEYWORD: REA SUBJECT CODE: *Copyright © 2001, ITAR/TASS News Agency, all rights reserved.* ***************************************************************** 18 Russia may build more nuclear power plant units in Iran [ITAR/TASS News Agency] Story Filed: Friday, May 11, 2001 12:02 PM EST MOSCOW, May 11, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Russia is holding negotiations with Iran to build at least five more nuclear power plant units in addition to the one under construction in Bushehr, Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Yevgeny Reshetnikov told Itar-Tass on Friday. A feasibility study of the project is being drafted. Sites for nuclear power plants are being chosen, the project cost is being assessed, and payment terms are being specified. Therefore it is unknown when the contracts will be signed, Reshetnikov said. Bushehr, Karun and Iranian northern area near the Caspian Sea are considered as possible sites for the construction of nuclear power plants, he noted. It takes 70 months to build a power plant unit. The project cost depends on the power plant location, design and capacity. An average world price varies from 1.5 billion dollars to 2.2 billion per one unit. "That will be the basis for the assessment of costs in Bushehr. We build everything at world prices," Reshetnikov said. When cooperating with Iran in atomic energy, Russia does not violate any international agreements, he noted. By Veronika Voskoboinikova (c) 1996-2001 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 19 Eskom's Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Leads Nuclear Project [Africa News Service] Story Filed: Friday, May 11, 2001 10:21 AM EST Woza Reporter, May 11, 2001 (WOZA/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX)-- Although South Africa has no intention to expand nuclear power generation with existing nuclear reactor technology, Eskom is continuing its investigations into new technology called the pebble ged modular reactor (PBMR), Deputy Minerals and Energy Minister Susan Shabangu said this week. Eskom holds 30% of the PBMR project and has concluded contracts with the Industrial Development Corporation (25%) and two overseas companies, British Nuclear Fuel (22.5%) and US electricity utility Exelon (12.5%). The remaining 10% is reserved for black economic empowerment. In her budget vote speech to the national assembly on Tuesday, Shabangu said that foreign investment from these contracts amounts to R166 million so far. Eskom is expected to complete a detailed feasibility study (DFS) and environmental impact assessment this year within its budget of R437 million, Shabangu told the national assembly, and this will be reviewed by an independent panel being set up by the department of minerals and energy. Cabinet will then decide whether to give the go-ahead for the subsequent phases of the project, namely construction of a demonstration plant, nuclear commissioning and final commercialisation. "My department has established an interdepartmental co-ordinating committee on the PBMR and consults as widely as possible on these investigations", Shabangu said. "In March this year, I led a delegation to Germany, France and the United Kingdom on an overseas fact-finding mission which will inform the decision-making process on the possible future expansion of nuclear power in South Africa." Shabangu said that there is great international interest in the PBMR, especially the United States, which faces looming shortages of electricity. "Hence Exelon's position that it is set to apply for a US license to build a number of PBMRs, pending the successful outcome of the environmental impact assessment and feasibility study." SA's nuclear energy industry employs approximately 2 700 people. In 2000, it accounted for forex earnings of R330 million, mainly through the export of uranium oxide by the Nuclear Fuels Corporation of SA and medical isotopes by the SA Nuclear Energy Corporation. In addition, Koeberg in the Western Cape - SA's only nuclear power station - accounts for approximately 6.8% of the country's electricity production. Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka will be among the speakers at the second national nuclear technology conference starting in Cape Town on Saturday and ending on Monday. Shabangu told the national assembly that international pressures and the ever-increasing reality of global warming are of concern to SA as an energy-intensive economy, "particularly because of our dependence on fossil fuels." She said that her department will strengthen its participation in national, regional and international forums on the environment, to ensure "the sustainable development of the South African energy sector [and] increased investments in clean energy technologies." Growing awareness has shown that the conventional electricity grid will not reach people living in remote rural areas, Shabangu told the national assembly, "and it has been reckoned that renewables are going to be significant energy sources for the future", being well-suited to decentralised and small-scale electricity generation. Shabangu said her department has completed a consultative process towards the development of a strategy for the iplementation of renewable energy, and a final document will be available by June. Copyright WOZA. Distributed by All Africa Global Media(AllAfrica.com) KEYWORD: Energy and Petroleum South Africa *Copyright © 2001, Africa News Service, all rights reserved.* ***************************************************************** 20 O'Donnell says Nevada must stop hysteria over nuke dump May 10, 2001 By Cy Ryan <> SUN CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- State Sen. Bill O'Donnell says Nevadans must "stop this hysteria" surrounding the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. O'Donnell, in a floor speech Wednesday, criticized the state's fight against all aspects of the Yucca study and pushed his resolution of keeping the transportation of any nuclear waste outside the Las Vegas area. "I think it's a shame we have to bury our heads in the sand," O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, said. "I hope we have a change of heart pretty soon before we get this thing rammed down our throats. "We can either be part of the solution or part of the problem," he said, adding the state must support its congressional delegation. Critics have complained that the resolution sends a mixed message to the federal government that Nevada is not united in its efforts to stop the Yucca Mountain project. O'Donnell also referred to remarks by Vice President Dick Cheney, who said Tuesday that there should be a permanent repository for the high-level nuclear waste piling up at reactors across the country. Cheney did not identify where the government might place the repository, but Yucca Mountain is the only site being studied to contain 77,000 tons of commercial and defense radioactive waste. O'Donnell said the state must make every effort to avoid the "real and terrible" threat that trucks hauling the waste would run through Las Vegas. "It is not the intent of SJR4 to send a message to the federal government that Nevada is caving in on the repository issue. "However, it is the intent of the resolution to plan ahead to protect the most populated region in Nevada if the repository is forced upon us," he said. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 21 DOE faces unresolved Yucca issues May 10, 2001 By Benjamin Grove LAS VEGAS SUN WASHINGTON -- Four critical issues under study at Yucca Mountain remain unresolved as the Energy Department this year finalizes plans to recommend the site as the nation's nuclear waste dump. That's the opinion of the independent U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, Chairman Jared Cohon said Wednesday. Cohon said DOE scientists have these important tasks left unfinished: + Understand how fast nuclear waste containers corrode. + Further evaluate the underground repository design. + Develop more evidence proving the repository safe. + Quantify uncertainties in the plan, including whether the overall proposal to bury 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste will work at all -- and for how long. Cohon said observers often ask: Should the DOE recommend Yucca Mountain before it answers these questions? Policymakers, not scientists who make up the board, should make that call, Cohon said. But with more answers in hand, "the more likely it is that the technical basis for the decision will be strengthened," Cohon said in a written statement. The 11-member board was created by Congress in 1987, the year lawmakers designated Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the burial ground for the nation's nuclear waste. The board answers to Congress and reports to the energy secretary about the scientific validity of DOE studies at Yucca. The board discussed a number of scientific issues pending at Yucca at a regular meeting in Arlington, Va. Among the controversial debates that percolated: Whether ancient paths of hot water inside the mountain's cracks constituted a Yucca "show stopper." A Russian geologist and contractor for the state of Nevada said his research shows water triggered by an earthquake bubbled up from beneath Yucca and into the mountain. That kind of water movement could happen again, which would be dangerous if Yucca was full of radioactive waste, Yuri Dublyansky said. The Yucca project "is not doable," Dublyansky said in an interview. But a number of other scientists disagree. Several officials from the U.S. Geological Survey said evidence of ancient water trapped inside Yucca crevices likely trickled down from the surface, rather than bubbling up from the earth. The water could have been heated by a giant magma mass inside the Earth millions of years ago, Joe Whelan of USGS said. "If we are correct, and we believe we are, there are no (hydrology) show-stoppers (at Yucca)," Whelan said. UNLV scientist Jean Cline, who led a widely respected two-year study of water movement at Yucca, agreed. Cline reasserted her findings released earlier this year: Hot water moved through Yucca, but it was at least 1.9 million, possibly 5.7 million years ago. That's too long ago to suggest it would happen again, she said in an interview. "We don't see this as being a significant issue," she said. The DOE sides with Cline, the USGS and others who agree ancient water paths are not problematic, including geochemical expert Robert Bodnar of Virginia Polytechnical Institute, who acted as Cline's team consultant, one DOE official said. "Unanimity (of opinion) is not required here," William Boyle, a senior DOE adviser, said in an interview. "It will be up to us to make a convincing argument to the NRC, and explain our position. We will say, 'Here is what we think. Here is what (Dublyansky) thinks.' " Also at issue Wednesday was the metal waste container that would store the bundles of spent uranium fuel rods for thousands of years. Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are studying how the proposed metal, an alloy called C-22, would stand up to high temperature, rock falls, drips, dust and other disturbances. A container wall of C-22 alloy 20 millimeters thick could last an estimated 30,000 to 1 million years, said Narasi Sridhar of the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analysis, a federally funded center sponsored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Other scientists have said the first container failure would occur around 10,000 years, although one board member said it was "hopeless" to know how long the container would last, given just a few years of research. The meeting opened with a review of some of the other scientific questions, including whether radioactive chlorine found inside Yucca Mountain along earthquake faults came from 1950s above-ground nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific. That would indicate rainwater had moved down through the mountain in just 50 years. Other unresolved issues: How the repository should be ventilated; how falling rocks inside the repository could damage waste canisters and drip shields; and whether water found inside the Yucca testing areas "seeped" inside or was condensation. One anti-nuclear activist spoke, saying the general public is upset that many questions formally submitted during other hearings to the DOE have gone unanswered. Kevin Kamps of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, has traveled around the nation trying to draw attention to what NIRS considers the danger of hauling nuclear waste by truck and train cross-country to Nevada. "It's important to say that the public sees this board as one of the last lines of defense on a very politically charged issue," Kamps said. The board plans a public meeting in September in Las Vegas. * All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 DOE chief set to sell Hanford budget This story was published Thu, May 10, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham will try to sell a trimmed-down Hanford 2002 budget to a U.S. Senate committee today. He is scheduled to discuss the Department of Energy's proposed 2002 budget with the Senate's Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. That will put him in the same room as committee member Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., whose staff said she plans to pressure Abraham to increase Hanford's funding to meet the site's obligations in 2002. The Bush administration has sent a budget request to Congress that proposes cutting DOE's nationwide nuclear cleanup budget from $6.267 billion in 2001 to $5.913 billion in 2002. The administration contends cleanup efforts should become more efficient. That means Hanford's budget would drop from $1.456 billion in 2001 to $1.4 billion in 2002. That reduction would keep the K Basins and Plutonium Finishing Plant projects on their legal timetables, but would stop most major Hanford projects from meeting their legal deadlines for 2002. A bipartisan effort in Congress has staked out an initial bargaining stance of about $6.6 billion for nationwide nuclear cleanup as DOE's $5.9 billion proposal begins its months-long journey through Congress. "We're short a significant amount of money in the president's budget (for nuclear cleanup). ... I'm still working on that," Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said Thursday. Domenici is chairman of the Senate's Budget Committee and chairman of the energy and water appropriations subcommittee that has a big say on DOE's cleanup budgets. Abraham's testimony today is expected to repeat his remarks made last week to a U.S. House subcommittee, according to his prepared statement, which was provided to the Herald. His prepared statement says increasing Hanford's radioactive waste glassification project's budget by $124 million to $500 million in 2002 will meet the legal deadline to glassify its first wastes in 2007. But that statement contradicts a long-standing and still-current DOE estimate that $690 million will be needed in 2002 to make the 2007 deadline mandated by the Tri-Party Agreement, which is the legal pact governing Hanford's cleanup. Abraham also said DOE will conduct a full review of its cleanup programs to try to improve them. No timetable has been announced yet for that effort. And he said DOE wants to meet with governors of states with DOE sites to discuss how to improve the legal cleanup agreements for those sites. The state of Washington has growled that it won't back away from any current deadlines. Meanwhile, Cantwell plans to send a letter today to Abraham to push for full funding of Hanford's obligations. That would increase DOE's proposed $1.4 billion Hanford budget to at least $1.87 billion next year. "To fall behind in the cleanup is an unacceptable risk," she wrote. Cantwell's letter notes Abraham told the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee during his confirmation hearings that Hanford's cleanup would be a top DOE priority. Her letter also recalls Abraham said he would try to improve the strained relationships between DOE and state enforcement officials. Right now, state officials are researching whether to file a lawsuit against DOE over predicted cleanup budget shortfalls. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 2 Feds, Fluor Daniel settle overcharge suit This story was published Thu, May 10, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer The federal government and Fluor Daniel Inc. settled a lawsuit Monday that alleged the corporation padded overhead bills by $5.9 million in the mid-1990s. Fluor will pay the federal government $8.2 million, which is less than half of the more than $18 million in potential penalties Fluor faced if it lost. A small amount of that alleged overcharging involved Richland-based Fluor Daniel Northwest in 1996 and early 1997, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Plessman of the Justice Department's Los Angeles office. Fluor Northwest now is Fluor Federal Services. Fluor Daniel now is Fluor Enterprises Inc. and is a subsidiary of California-based Fluor Corp. None of the alleged overcharges was tied to Richland-based Fluor Hanford, Plessman said. Fluor Corp. contends it is innocent of any wrongdoing. "This is a difference in opinions between the Justice Department and Fluor on how we interpreted the accounting procedures," said Fluor spokesman Keith Karpe. Fluor checked its accounting with outside experts who agreed with the corporation's interpretations, he said. Karpe said Fluor did not want to be tied up for years in expensive litigation that could cost more than this week's settlement. Also, the federal government had put on hold payments and other actions regarding other Fluor invoices -- none related to Hanford -- submitted in 1995 and 1996. With the settlement, Fluor could collect on those bills, Karpe said. Meanwhile, Fluor agreed to pay an additional $1.8 million plus $300,000 in attorneys' fees to Patrick Hoefer, Fluor Daniel Inc.'s former director of government finance compliance, who levied the original overcharging allegations against Fluor. He filed a lawsuit against Fluor in 1997, alleging he was retaliated against for bringing improper accounting practices to his superiors' attention. In 1999, the federal government took over from Hoefer as the lawsuit's chief plaintiff. The Justice Department and Hoefer alleged that Fluor Daniel set up a division called the Technology Operating Co. in 1994 to find and evaluate new technologies that Fluor could use. At that time, about 95 percent of Fluor Daniel's work was commercial and about 5 percent was with federal contracts. As a start-up division, most the Technology Operating Co.'s costs were overhead, which were supposed to be charged to the specific Fluor subsidiaries and subsidiaries' customers that would benefit from any new technology the new company would acquire. However, the federal government's lawsuit alleged most of the Technology Operating Co.'s overhead costs were put into invoices that were charged against Fluor's federal government customers, which did not benefit from any Technology Operating Co. work. The federal government alleged Fluor knew those charges were excessive and violated federal law. The Technology Operating Co. folded in mid-1997 because it never acquired any significant profitable technologies. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 3 Shipp becomes president of INEEL facility IdahoStatesman.com May 11, 2001 The Associated Press IDAHO FALLS -- Bill Shipp, who has been the laboratory director since Bechtel BWXT Idaho began operating the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in October 1999, was named president and general manager of the federal facility on Thursday. Shipp, who had spent 15 years with Batelle in Richland, Wash., before joining Bechtel in 1999, will take over on Aug. 1 from Bernie Meyers, who is returning to Bechtel Corp. for an unspecified special assignment. Shipp, who has led research, development, and commercialization of environmental remediation and nuclear science technologies, has also served the past two years as science and technology adviser to Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne. Shipp will continue in that capacity. Paul Divjak, who has been vice president of operations, will succeed Shipp as deputy general manager and chief operating officer. ***************************************************************** 4 Weekly Defense Monitor - Volume 5, Issue #19 - May 10, 2001 The Center for Defense Information [Weekly Defense Monitor] Center for Defense Information 1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW * Washington, DC 20036 (202)332-0600 * Fax (202)462-4559 * www.cdi.org TABLE OF CONTENTS + The Future of Missile Defense + Bush Administration officials are making the rounds trying to sell the President's "vision" of missile defense coupled with reductions in offensive nuclear weapons. But it may be a hard sell. The vision was short on details, which leads some to believe that the "consultation" blitz is really aimed at muting foreign criticism long enough to deploy some form of missile defense that will de facto break the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, thereby removing all restraints. + U.S. Loses Spot on Human Rights Commission + In a stunning vote last week, the United States lost its position on the United Nations Human Rights Commission. + CDI's "Briefing Room" + News updates on security issues from around the world. + This Week On America's Defense Monitor: "Military Nuclear Mess: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?" + The Future of Missile Defense Colonel Daniel Smith, USA (Ret.), Chief of Research, dmsmith@cdi.org This week and next, emissaries from the Bush Administration are fanning out across the globe to press allies, friends, and even a few potential adversaries on the benefits of President Bush's missile defense (note: no longer national missile defense) proposal made last week. Judging from initial reactions which were heavily weighed toward fence sitting and opposition, it will be a tough sell. Three reasons for the high degree of ambivalent negativeness from other nations are apparent. First, the President's speech was long on ambiguity and short on details. He mentioned a tripartite layered defense involving land, sea, and air systems, apparently taking a cue from the evolving theater missile defense projects of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. But he omitted completely any reference to the crown jewel of National Missile Defense advocates -- space-based systems. Second, no mention was made of costs, those for the individual systems and for integrating and maintaining them, and the opportunity costs associated with not spending the $100 to $200 billion (estimates by outside organizations) on other pressing defense or non-defense programs. Third, and perhaps the most significant for other countries, the President again said that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty was an anachronism. "...we must move beyond the constraints of the 30 year old ABM Treaty. This treaty does not recognize the present, or point us to the future. It enshrines the past. No treaty that prevents us from addressing today's threats...is in our interests or in the interests of world peace." This to many sounded like an American *dictat* -- no real consultation, no real listening to the views of others. Moreover, since the President's speech, reports have surfaced that the Administration wants to field an "emergency" capability (Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's term). This reportedly would be a "handful" of interceptors (less than the 20 proposed by Clinton, perhaps as few as 5) by 2004, a year before the 2005 deployment date under the original Clinton plan. Other reports have suggested that the crucial X-band tracking and warhead discrimination radar needed to make NMD work could be mounted on a ship or even an oil derrick and put where needed, thereby removing the constraints imposed by trying to build a radar site on Shemya Island in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Such a deployment scheme, whether or not the system really worked reliably, would accomplish what seems to be the main goal of NMD advocates: abrogation of the ABM treaty. Can world peace and stability live with this American *fait accompli*? Perhaps, but it will take something akin to the perfect alignment of the sun, moon, and planets to produce an outcome that will move the nuclear weapons states and those aspiring to such status to accept the "clean break with the past" called for by Mr. Bush. The key to such acceptance lies in another statement by the President: "I am committed to achieving a credible deterrent with the lowest-possible number of nuclear weapons consistent with our national security needs, including our obligations to our allies. My goal is to move quickly to reduce nuclear forces. The United States will lead by example...." Currently, the Joint Chiefs of Staff believe they can execute the U.S. nuclear warfighting plan with a minimum of 2,500 weapons. The President reportedly is prepared to go down to 1,500 weapons, a number suggested not too long ago by the Russians, if this reduced arsenal is complemented by a multi-layered NMD system. What are the hurdles to creating a new Comprehensive Nuclear Weapons Reduction and Protection framework that combined both elements? First there is the Pentagon. The Chiefs would have to revise their nuclear war plans to reflect fewer targets. This should be done anyway if the nation really believes, in the President's words, that "Today's Russia is not our enemy, but a country in transition with an opportunity to emerge as a great nation, democratic, at peace with itself and its neighbors." Second, Congress would have to lift the ban on cutting U.S. nuclear forces below START I levels, a restriction imposed to induce the Russian Duma to ratify START II (which it did, but not in the same form as the U.S. ratification). If the ban is removed, President Bush could unilaterally reduce the U.S. arsenal without waiting for formal negotiations. Russia is being forced to cut its nuclear arsenal because it does not have the money to maintain it or to field replacements on a one-for-one basis. Congress might seek to -- and perhaps should -- impose other conditions in exchange for lifting the ban. For example, it could insist that the Administration undertake negotiations with Russia to formalize the lower offensive nuclear weapons ceilings with provisions for periodic reviews to further reduce the 1,500 total and a verification regime. Separate agreements with Britain and France should be pursued -- with China invited to participate -- to initiate multilateral talks on reducing their nuclear arsenals once the United States and Russia go below 1,500 weapons each. Eventually, India, Pakistan, and Israel would have to be induced to accept ceilings on their arsenals as well if the larger nuclear weapons states continue with their own reductions. There is one deal-breaker in all this: the definition of "limited" missile defenses. What other world leaders focused on was Mr. Bush's reference to "an *initial capability* against limited threats" [emphasis added]. It is not the initial capability but the final architecture of NMD that concerns friends and competitors alike. Coupled with significant reductions in offensive weapons, an unconstrained, constantly expanding NMD would be unacceptable to other nations who would see such a combination as inherently unstable in that an invulnerable United States would be able to threaten any other nation with (or without) nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons impose an irreducible risk that is best handled -- short of enforceable abolition -- by being shared at the lowest possible level by the fewest possible nations. Just as the perfect is the enemy of the good, so too, in a world of competing nation-states, the drive for "absolute security" for one means insecurity for all. U.S. Loses Spot on Human Rights Commission Rachel Stohl, Senior Analyst (rstohl@cdi.org) and Michael Stohl, Professor, Purdue University (mstohl@purdue.edu) In a vote that shocked international and U.S. diplomats, the United States lost its seat on the UN Human Rights Commission last week, a position that had been held since the Commission's founding in 1947. In a secret ballot vote, the United States received 29 votes out of a possible 54 votes from the Member States of the Economic and Social Council. Only India and Russia have served on the Commission since its creation (they face reelection in 2003). Critics of the UN system maintain that the removal of the United States from the Commission is hardly cause for despair. They argue that the Commission is a hypocritical body that allows serious human rights abusers to participate and doesn't do anything beyond talk. But as Harold Koh, former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, has said, the Commission is a valuable body for the furtherance of global human rights. Indeed, Koh said, "...the Commission has also showed an unrivaled capacity to spotlight abuses, develop important statements of principle, build consensus responses to emerging human rights issues and mobilize international attention by sending commissions of inquiry and special rapporteurs to investigate violations in human rights hot spots." The United Nations describes the Commission's current work as providing states "with advisory services and technical assistance to overcome obstacles to securing the enjoyment of human rights by all. At the same time more emphasis has been put on the promotion of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development and the right to an adequate standard of living. Increased attention is also being given to the protection of the rights of vulnerable groups in society, including minorities and indigenous people and to the protection of the rights of the child and of women, including the eradication of violence against women and the attainment of equal rights for women." Arguing that the United States was kicked off the commission, while countries like Sudan and Pakistan remained, has been the irrelevant but politically powerful response of conservative critics of the United Nations. However, the United States wasn't competing with those states for a seat on the Commission. Under the regional representation system of the Commission, the United States was denied a seat by the election of Austria, Sweden, and France -- countries which did not bow out of the race after requests from the U.S. delegation. This is not about "global ingratitude," as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield characterized the vote earlier this week. It's also not about the United States being "too strong on the human rights agenda" as National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice surmised. Nor was it the case that "Slavery Triumphs" as trumpeted by New York Times columnist, William Safire. The vote should more accurately be read as the result of our friends and allies joining with those traditionally hostile to the United States to protest the unilateralism and exceptionalism that was proudly articulated in the recent presidential campaign and evidenced in the first hundred days of the new Bush Administration. While one cannot demonstrate that the vote resulted from international displeasure over United States withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol on the environment, or the announcement of U.S. intentions to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty so it can build a new national missile defense system (and ignoring most of its European friends while doing so), it is clear from the comments coming from European capitals that there is great unease with the new Administration. Further, the Administration's public disinterest in the United Nations -- it has failed yet to submit its nominee for Ambassador, John Negroponte, to the Senate -- also may have left it shorthanded and vulnerable in the corridors of the United Nations. As former ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick remarked, "Somebody wasn't watching the store." The administration's claim, voiced by Secretary of State Colin Powell, that they had 43 written assurances of votes, only strengthens Kirkpatrick's critique. To be fair to the Bush Administration their new positions and lack of ambassador alone weren't the entire story. The reaction against the U.S. position is the result of a longer United States abrogation of collaborative international leadership and reluctance to participate in international human rights treaties. Until the last possible day for eligibility, the United States had not signed on to the International Criminal Court Statute. The United States will soon be (after the pending ratification by Turkey) the only NATO member not to be a party to the Landmine Convention. The United States is the only country in the world, besides Somalia, a country with no functioning government, to have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child which has such controversial declarations as children have a right to a name, a religion, and a home. And, the United States hasn't ratified the Optional Protocols on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography. Further, while ambassador Holbrooke brokered a compromise payment plan for overdue assessments owed to the United Nations (but leaving $582 million still in arrears) by the United States, the current Congress has yet to move the agreement along. Mr. Bush, Ms. Rice, General Powell and other Administration spokesmen, throughout the campaign and in their opening days in office, have argued that the United States needs to more clearly identify and pursue its own national interests. If they do not recognize that national interests require working more closely with friends, allies and the international community, continually renewing friendships and earning respect, and choose to stress American unilateralism, exceptionalism, and build America's military might, we can expect many more snubs, slaps and diplomatic losses in the next four years. In a footnote to last week's vote, U.S. officials confirmed Monday that the seat of Herbert Okun on the International Narcotics Control Board was also lost last week in a secret ballot by the same 54 member UN Economic and Social Council. CDI's "Briefing Room" 100 Members of UK Parliament Oppose NMD -- More than 100 members of the British parliament, most of them members of the ruling Labour party, signed a letter expressing "grave doubts" about U.S. plans to deploy a global missile defense system. The MPs urged the U.S. government to explore other ways of fighting proliferation of missiles and weapons of mass destruction. The letter was circulated on the same day as a U.S. delegation, headed by U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, made a pitch to U.K. government officials on benefits of NMD. The delegation was dispatched by President Bush as a part of his pledge to consult friends and allies before making a decision on NMD deployment. Macedonia Crisis Deepens -- Nearly 8,000 ethnic Albanians arrived in Kosovo from Macedonia, displaced by fighting between government troops and militant Albanian forces. Government troops have been bombarding a cluster of villages in Macedonia's north for over a week with artillery and helicopter gunships. The villages were taken over by underground forces fighting for more rights or outright independence for ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. The republic's government is also seeking to create a grand coalition between parties representing the Slav majority and the three main ethnic Albanian parties in hopes of diffusing the crisis and marginalizing the militants. US Accidentally Shells German School -- The U.S. Army reported that two artillery training rounds fell on the roof of an elementary school on Tuesday. Classes were over for the day at the school and no one was injured, although children were in the school yard at the time of the incident. The school is located in the town of Kirchenthumbach in Bavaria, a half-mile from the Army's Grafenwoehr training range, the largest U.S. Army training range in Europe. According to Capt. Jeff Settle, the public affairs officer of the 7th Army Training Command, the rounds, fired about two miles from the school, "went in the wrong direction." An Army investigation has been ordered. TRW Cleared in Missile Defense Testing Fraud Case -- The FBI has cleared TRW Inc. of charges of fraud and cover-up stemming from the 1997 flight test of the National Missile Defense (NMD) system. The FBI launched the investigation at the urging of 53 members of Congress after MIT scientist Theodore Postol and former TRW expert Dr. Nina Schwartz alleged that TRW manipulated data to produce a successful test result. The FBI dismissed the lawsuit saying that it is a scientific dispute with no criminal basis. Quotation of the Week -- "Yes, sir, if you want one," Lt. Gen. Russell C. Davis (USAF), Chief, National Guard Bureau, in response to a question by Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) whether it would be "prudent" to have a National Guard terrorism response team assigned to West Virginia, Senate Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities hearing, May 1, 2001. This Week On America's Defense Monitor: "Military Nuclear Mess: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?" For the past fifty years, the United States government has produced hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of nuclear waste. With the Cold War over, it is time to begin the process of disposing this military nuclear mess. The Department of Energy has created an underground disposal facility called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to permanently store military generated waste which contains, among other deadly toxins, plutonium. However, whether this facility will safely store the nuclear material for the 24,000 years dictated by the half-life of plutonium, is greatly debated. Is WIPP the answer to our nuclear disposal problem, or is it simply a way to bury it out of sight and out of mind? Airs in Washington, DC on Sunday, May13 at 10:30 a.m, on Channel 32. Airs in NYC on Saturday, May 19 at 7:00 a.m. on Channel 13. Visit our web sitefor transcripts, CDI resources, and related links. Regular Price: $39 each INTERNET PRICE: $29 Order at 800-CDI-3334, or on the web. ***************************************************************** 5 Card breezes toward Energy post Denver Post.com By The Denver Post Washington Bureau --> Thursday, May 10, 2001 - Robert Card's nomination as undersecretary of energy appeared to be headed for quick confirmation in the U.S. Senate after the Colorado executive easily answered two critical questions Wednesday about his firm's handling of the cleanup at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver. Card, president and chief executive of Kaiser-Hill Co., which manages the cleanup, defended his company's safety record in the face of questions from Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. "We have worked over 50 million hours without a single injury or (nuclear) exposure," Card said. Last year, Kaiser-Hill had its best safety record, he said. Bingaman also asked Card why he opposed new worker safety rules for cleanups. "I saw additional bureaucracy without any additional worker safety," Card replied. The proposed rules would have been expensive, he said, citing instances in which "simple" rule changes can cost $1 million. Despite his questions, Bingaman announced he would vote to confirm Card. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., praised Card, saying, "Bob had to make some very tough decisions" at Rocky Flats. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., also hailed the nominee but added, "The entire (Energy) department is in need of an overhaul." All contents Copyright 2001 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 6 Australia to Study Nuclear Claims May 11, 2001 CANBERRA, Australia- The government said Friday it would investigate claims that Australian soldiers were used as guinea pigs in British nuclear tests during the 1950s and 1960s. The troops were exposed to radioactive fallout just hours after bomb tests and tried out different types of clothing to determine what protection they offered against radiation, Professor Sue Rabbitt Roff, a senior research fellow at Scotland's Dundee University, said Australian archive documents showed. "No doubt it's going to be helpful if this new information that has been revealed is passed to Australian authorities so they can investigate it," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said. Rabbitt Roff said the document contradicted British government assertions in the European Court of Human Rights in 1997 that no humans were ever used in experiments in nuclear weapons trials. "This document lists 24 Australian personnel who were used directly for clothing trial experiments to see what sort of clothing would be more protective to men in a nuclear war situation," she told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "They were asked to wear particular types of clothing and to crawl and walk through ground zero some hours and days after the detonation of nuclear weapons at Maralinga in order to see whether their clothing would give them any sort of protection from the radioactive materials," she said. The British government conducted a series of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests at Monte Bello Island, off Western Australia, and at Maralinga in the deserts of southern Australia. Opposition leader Kim Beazley described the claims as "very disturbing" and called for a full inquiry. "We've had formal investigations in relation to Maralinga before which to my recollection have not turned up with anything quite like this," he said. Mark Croxford, a spokesman for Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Scott, said Scott had asked officials to contact Rabbitt Roff for a copy of the documents. Croxford said the government is compiling a register of people who worked on the tests. The register would be completed midyear and used to begin a study into cancer rates among participants. Rabbitt Roff said the named servicemen could be tracked to determine if the tests affected their health. Lawyer Morris May, who represents a group of 30 Australian test victims seeking compensation, said the men had long claimed they were used as guinea pigs. May said one Australian driver had described how he and a group of British officers had been instructed to walk through an area contaminated by a recent explosion while wearing army issue woolen clothing. "He found that a bit odd because it was very hot and normally woolen clothing would not be used at Maralinga at that time," May told ABC radio. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 Minister says cancer study of Maralinga servicemen underway ABC News - Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Scott says a study is already underway into the incidence of cancer among Australian servicemen who worked at Maralinga during nuclear testing in the 1950s. His comment follows claims by a British researcher that she has unearthed documents which prove the men were used as human guinea pigs. A senior research fellow at Scotland's Dundee University, Sue Rabbit Roff, says the documents, which she found at the National Archives of Australia detail how servicemen were used to test the effectiveness of different types of protective clothing against radioactive contamination. In a compensation case before the European Court of Human Rights in 1997, the British Government had stated no human had ever been used in experiments during British nuclear weapons trials. But Ms Rabbit Roff, says the document is significant. "It puts the lie to the British Government's claim that they never used humans for guinea pig type experiments in nuclear weapons trials in Australia and that claim they made very strongly," she said. Mr Scott says he is very concerned by the claims and wants to see the material. "[Ms Rabbit Roff] is coming to Australia in July and would also want my department to be able to meet with her and discuss any other finding that she may have," he said. Retired Army Major Alan Batchelor was among those who served at Maralinga and says there is no question they were placed at extreme risk. "We had to go in and uncover equipment shelters that were located somewhere between 100 and 150 metres away from ground zero," he said. "We would do that commencing at about one hour afterwards, without protective clothing." Major Batchelor has also disputed the Minister's claim that a mortality and morbidity study of the victims is underway. He says it was due to have begun last January, but never got off the ground. 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 8 'Radiation guinea pigs' investigated - CNN.com - May 11, 2001 CANBERRA, Australia -- The Australian government says it will investigate claims that its soldiers were used as guinea pigs in British atomic tests. The statement came amid allegations made by a Britain-based researcher, who said she had found documents to prove men had been used as human guinea pigs. Sue Rabbitt Roff, a senior research fellow at Scotland's Dundee University, said she uncovered documents at the National Archives of Australia, which detail how servicemen were used to test the effectiveness of certain types of clothing against radioactive contamination. Rabbitt Roff said the documents contradicts British government assertions made in 1997, that no humans were ever used in experiments during atomic weapons trials. "They were asked to wear particular types of clothing and to crawl and walk through ground zero some hours and days after the detonation of nuclear weapons at Maralinga (in South Australia) in order to see whether their clothing would give them any sort of protection from the radioactive material," the researcher was quoted by Australia's The Age news website as saying. The British government had conducted a series of atmospheric tests at two sites: Monte Bello Island off Western Australia, and Maralinga in the deserts of southern Australia. 'Very disturbing' Australia's opposition leader Kim Beazley has described the Rabbitt Roff comments as "very disturbing," and called for a full inquiry. But Foreign Minister Downer believes the opposition's calls for an inquiry may not be necessary. "The Opposition spent 13 years in government . . . whilst they did do a bit in relation to the Maralinga cleanup, they set up a Royal Commission into that issue but nevertheless they never came across this information," the Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted Downer as saying. Mark Croxford, a spokesman for Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Scott said Scott had asked officials to contact Rabbitt Roff for a copy of the documents. Croxford said the government is compiling a register of people who worked on the tests. The register would be completed midyear and used to begin a study into cancer rates among its participants. But the study confirms what servicemen say they've suspected all along. Australian Broadcasting quotes retired army Major Alan Batchelor as saying there was no question he and other fellow servicemen were placed at extreme risk. "We had to go in and uncover equipment shelters that were located somewhere between 100 and 150 meters away from ground zero," he said. "We would do that commencing about one hour afterwards, without protective clothing," Batchelor was quoted as saying. The Age news site also quotes a lawyer representing 30 test victims, who have long claimed they were used as guinea pigs. Morris May said one Australian driver described how he and a group of British officers had been instructed to walk through an area contaminated by a recent explosion while wearing army issue wollen clothing. "He found that a bit odd because it was very hot and normally wollen clothing would not be used at Maralinga at the time," May was quoted as saying." "It (his statement) was treated with utmost skepticism. It just wasn't believed," May said The Associated Press contributed to this report. ***************************************************************** 9 Oz troops used in Brit nuke tests 11/05/2001 10:01 - (SA) Canberra, Australia - The opposition called on Friday for an inquiry into claims that Australian soldiers were used as guinea pigs in British nuclear tests during the 1950s and 1960s, being exposed to radioactive fallout just hours after bomb tests. Professor Sue Rabbitt Roff, a senior research fellow at Scotland's Dundee University, said Australian archive documents showed that the servicemen tried out different types of clothing to determine what protection they offered against radiation right after bomb tests. She said the document contradicted British government assertions in the European Court of Human Rights in 1997 that no humans were ever used in experiments in nuclear weapons trials. "This document lists 24 Australian personnel who were used directly for clothing trial experiments to see what sort of clothing would be more protective to men in a nuclear war situation," she told Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) radio. "They were asked to wear particular types of clothing and to crawl and walk through ground zero some hours and days after the detonation of nuclear weapons at Maralinga in order to see whether their clothing would give them any sort of protection from the radioactive materials," she said. The British government conducted a series of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests at Monte Bello Island, off Western Australia, and at Maralinga in the deserts of southern Australia. Opposition leader Kim Beazley described the clams as "very disturbing" and called for a full inquiry. "We've had formal investigations in relation to Maralinga before which to my recollection have not turned up with anything quite like this," he said. "In which case it may well require a similar formal inquiry now." Mark Croxford, a spokesperson for Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Scott, said Scott had asked officials to contact Rabbitt Roff for a copy of the documents. Croxford said the government is compiling a register of people who worked on the tests. The register would be completed mid-year and used to begin a study into cancer rates among participants. Rabbitt Roff said the named servicemen could be tracked to determine if the tests affected their health. Lawyer Morris May, who represents a group of 30 Australian test victims seeking compensation, said the men had long claimed that they were used as guinea pigs. May said one Australian driver had described how he and a group of British officers had been instructed to walk through an area contaminated by a recent explosion while wearing army issue woollen clothing. "He found that a bit odd because it was very hot and normally woollen clothing would not be used at Maralinga at that time," May told ABC radio. May said the document appeared to confirm what many veterans had long asserted. - Sapa-AP ***************************************************************** 10 Downer holds off raising Maralinga issue with UK Govt ABC News - The Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says he will wait to analyse documentation relating to the British atomic tests involving Australian service personnel at Maralinga in the1950's, before raising the matter with the British Government. A senior research fellow at Dundee University, Sue Rabbit Roff, says the documents, which she found at the National Archives of Australia, detail how servicemen were used to test the effectiveness of different types of protective clothing against radioactive contamination. While Mr Downer supports further investigation of the information and its implications, he has attacked the Federal Opposition over its call for an inquiry. "The Opposition spent 13 years in government, no doubt in their 13 years in government they could have been exploring these sorts of issues and whilst they did do a bit in relation to the Maralinga cleanup, they set up a Royal Commission into that issue but never the less they never came across this information," he said. © 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 11 'Whistleblower center' to help employees fight corruption in government, business Korea Herald!!_National Korea's first "whistleblower center" is nearing completion, providing a place of refuge for citizens who want to disclose corruption and misconduct within their companies or the government. Lee Ji-moon, 33, who revealed election irregularities in the military, will open the Korea Whistleblower Research Center (KWRC) this September. Lee reported military voting irregularities in the 1992 general elections. He was an active-duty first lieutenant at the time. "People have the right to disclose any wrongdoing that threatens the public's well-being, whether it's committed by the government or by the company they work for," Lee said in an interview with The Korea Herald. "More people will be less afraid to do so if there is a center that can assist and protect them." Because many whistleblowers risk losing their jobs, as well as being ostracized by co-workers and society, the center will provide counseling and various protection programs, guidance, and legal aid, Lee said. Such services will be given with the cooperation of lawyers, certified public accountants, licensed tax accountants and other specialized counselors. "An employee for the office of Korean National Railroads committed suicide last summer after alerting people to the wrongdoings within his agency, because he ended up feeling that the whole world was against him," Lee said. "I wish I could have helped him then." To help similar victims, the KWRC will also provide information on the rights of whistleblowers, and information on corruption cases, as well as links to other related websites. These sources are available on its Internet home page, www.whistleblower.or.kr, which opened Thursday. Lee said whistleblower centers have already been in existence worldwide as nonprofit, educational and advocacy organizations promoting environmental protection, nuclear safety, civil rights, government accountability, and protecting the rights of whistleblowers. "I hope to spread the practice of whistleblowing across the country and let everyone know they have the right to speak the truth as employees," Lee said. (sohjung@koreaherald.co.kr) By Yoo Soh-jung Staff reporter (C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 Russia to Announce Plan to Lift Sunken Submarine Friday May 11 9:47 AM ET MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said it will announce final plans next week to raise the Kursk ( - ) submarine, which sank last year with 118 crew on board, a senior cabinet minister said on Friday. Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov told reporters that the announcement will be made at a cabinet meeting on Monday. Russian authorities have promised since the nuclear-powered submarine sunk that they would raise it from its position about 43 miles north of the Russian port Murmansk and 328 feet beneath the surface of the Barents Sea. The date and technical details for the project will be set on Monday, Klebanov said. He said they would also provide guarantees for government funding. Plans previously called for the wreck to be raised in August or September. The Kursk, one of Russia's most advanced submarines, plunged to the bottom of the Barents Sea last August after two unexplained explosions ripped through it during a training exercise. Twelve bodies have already been recovered but work to reclaim the rest was canceled after authorities determined conditions inside the wreck were too dangerous to continue. Russian news reports have said a lack of funds delayed the estimated $70 million operation to raise the submarine. The Brussels-based Kursk Foundation is trying to gather half the funding to raise the submarine from Western donors. Dutch shipping group Smit Internationale NV said earlier this year that it expected to win a multi-million dollar order with consortium partners to salvage the vessel. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 Reducing a Common Danger: Improving Russia's Early-Warning System Cato Policy Analysis No. 399 May 3, 2001 *Reducing a Common Danger: Improving Russia's Early-Warning System * by Geoffrey Forden Geoffrey Forden is a senior research fellow with the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Executive Summary During the past 20 years the world has survived at least four false alerts for nuclear war. Each time, space-based early-warning systems played a major role. In three of the four false alerts, two involving U.S. forces and one Russian forces, reliable space-based sensors assured leaders that they were not under attack when other systems indicated that nuclear annihilation was imminent. In the fourth, in 1983, a relatively new Soviet satellite system falsely indicated that the United States was launching a nuclear attack. All four cases show the importance of both sides' having reliable space-based early-warning systems. Because of that need, Russia's continuing economic difficulties pose a clear and increasing danger to itself, the world at large, and the United States in particular. Russia no longer has the working fleet of early-warning satellites that reassured its leaders that they were not under attack during the most recent false alert—in 1995 when a scientific research rocket launched from Norway was, for a short time, mistaken for a U.S. nuclear launch. With decaying satellites, the possibility exists that, if a false alert occurs again, Russia might launch its nuclear-tipped missiles. The Bush administration could help Russia obtain and maintain an effective, economic, and reliable space-based early-warning system in both the short and the long term. Such assistance would improve U.S. security by helping to prevent Russia from mistakenly launching a nuclear attack. The primary measure initiated by the Clinton administration—the Joint Data Exchange Center—is inherently ineffective because the Russians may not believe U.S. early-warning data. Instead, U.S. assistance should be focused on helping Russia to improve its own space-based system. Only then will the Russians have confidence that no U.S. launches have occurred. Joint early-warning centers can, however, have a stabilizing influence on the tensions among China, India, and Pakistan. New nuclear states run a substantial risk that their nuclear weapons may accidentally explode, perhaps triggering an inadvertent nuclear war. In that case, joint centers— supplying information from the sensors of nations not involved in the conflict (Russia and the United States)—might prevent a tragic accident from escalating into a regional nuclear war. Text of Policy Analysis No. 399 (PDF, 20 pgs, 114 Kb) *© 2001 The Cato Institute Please send comments to webmaster. * ***************************************************************** 14 Opinion - Still MAD - The St. Petersburg Times. General news from St.Petersburg and Russia #668, Friday, May 11, 2001 By Michael Kinsley IT used to be the left that ridiculed MAD, the nuclear strategy of "mutually assured destruction." The anti-nuclear movement of the early 1980s blindsided the political establishment like the anti-global-trade movement of the past couple of years. Ronald Reagan's original "Star Wars" proposal was an act of political jujitsu, attempting to co-opt public fear of the nuclear standoff on behalf of military hardware instead of treaties or (worse) unilateral disarmament. This didn't work - mainly because the hardware didn't work. But strategic defense, and ridicule of MAD, became essential elements of the American conservative theology. The flame of faith was kept alive through the cold 1990s by movement monks at Washington think tanks and devotional conferences around the world. Silent prayers were said in the offices and boardrooms of defense contractors throughout the land. Now, the second coming. President Bush doesn't pretend or imagine, as Reagan did, that strategic defense can be an "invisible shield" that would free us from all physical danger of nuclear attack (and thus, if we wished, from all moral danger of having to threaten one). Nevertheless, in his speech Tuesday, he twice described the "grim premise" of MAD as a historical relic. It is not. As long as we have no Reaganesque perfect shield, we still live in the world of MAD. And as long as we live in that world, MAD complicates the case for strategic defense in ways Bush does not acknowledge. MAD is underappreciated. It is not simply a matter of the nuclear powers agreeing to hold each other hostage. In fact "agreeing" has almost nothing to do with it. The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), which is getting so much attention, did help make the nuclear stalemate somewhat less costly and nerve-racking. But the stalemate itself - our ability to destroy any other nation in the world, and at least one other nation's ability to destroy us - would exist without the ABM treaty and will exist even if we walk away from it. Furthermore, under the theory of MAD, we leave ourselves vulnerable in certain ways not because we have no choice, and not because we've agreed to do so, and not because protecting ourselves might upset the Europeans, but because it is in our own unilateral self-interest. Specifically, it is important to be vulnerable to a "second strike" - that is, a retaliatory strike by an arsenal crippled by your potential "first strike." Why? Because you don't want anybody with nukes pointed at you to think they have to use 'em or lose 'em. As long as they can rain cataclysmic damage on us by striking second, they have no more incentive than we do to strike first. The concern in the 1980s was that strategic defense would never be good enough to protect against a massive first strike, but might be good enough to protect against a crippled second strike. If America had the ability to strike first and then be invulnerable, any nuclearized enemy in a crisis would face the choice of either starting a nuclear war or accepting defeat. The approach of such American invulnerability might even cause such a crisis, as other nuclear powers faced the prospect of being effectively demoted out of the nuclear club. It's true that the world is different now. Russia is hardly the enemy that the Soviet Union was, and there are new - or at least newly noticed - threats from so-called rogue nations and kooky dictators. But that also does not change the basic logic of MAD. President Bush says he wants to negotiate radical mutual reductions in the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia. Good luck to him, by all means. But is he prepared to negotiate away our ability to launch a damaging first strike? If not, any defense that might work even against a crippled retaliation is a danger to the United States as well as to Russia. And then there's China - a major unofficial target of the whole Star Wars II enterprise, and leading contender for the starring role in Cold War II, which hopeful ideologues are penciling in for later in this decade. If that should happen, the perverse-but-solid safety-from-vulnerability logic of MAD will apply in full force. So we can't have a perfect invisible shield. And we don't, or shouldn't, want an imperfect invisible shield good enough for Round 2 against Russia or China or any other grown-up nuclear power. It would be nice to have a strategic defense system just good enough to snare an incoming nuke from an Iraq or Afghanistan - and no better. But even that dream defense would work only if the bomb is delivered via ICBM, which may be less likely than BMW or UPS. There's no good reason for theological objection to strategic defense. But when you add up all the situations where it can't or shouldn't be allowed to work, factor in the odds that it won't work at all, and start thinking about the cost, its theological enthusiasts seem to be making a leap of faith the country needn't follow. *Michael Kinsley, editor of Slate, contributed this column to The Washington Post.* The Moscow Times [ ] [Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2001 ***************************************************************** 15 NIF foes clash with DOE estimates *May 10, 2001* By Glenn Roberts Jr. STAFF WRITER LIVERMORE -- A report sponsored by a Livermore nuclear watchdog group, released Wednesday, estimates that a massive laser project at Livermore Lab will cost about $32.4 billion over its 30-year lifetime -- about $25 billion more than federal estimates. Robert Civiak, who served from 1988-99 as a program and budget examiner for the Energy Department's Office of Management and Budget, prepared the report for Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment. Livermore Lab officials said the report is inaccurate and misleading. Energy Department officials have estimated that the National Ignition Facility laser project, a nuclear weapons research tool under construction at Livermore Lab since 1997, will cost about $3.5 billion to build and $108 million per year to operate during its expected 30-year lifespan. The total cost of the project and its operation is estimated at $6.74 billion, lab spokeswoman Susan Houghton said Wednesday. NIF is expected to blast BB-sized radioactive fuel pellets with 192 powerful ultra-violet laser beams, creating thermonuclear explosions on a small scale. But Civiak's report estimates that the cost of building and commissioning NIF will be about $5 billion, or $1.3 billion higher than Energy Department estimates, based on $180 million worth of "likely enhancements" to the project and other budget projections. In addition, operating costs could rise as high as $440 million per year for 30 years, the report also concludes. The Energy Department's own operating cost projection "excludes overhead costs and it excludes much of the cost of programmatic activities that (the Energy Department) plans to carry out at the facility." Houghton said, "The bottom line on this report is that there are lots of things Mr. Civiak has thrown in that just don't make sense. He's making assumptions that just aren't true about the project." "NIF has been reviewed extensively. The cost and schedule ... we believe are realistic," Houghton said. Civiak's report states, "We have documented a continuing pattern of increasing cost and declining performance expectations for the National Ignition Facility." The report also suggests that technical problems "could cause additional schedule delays and cost increases." In August 1999, Livermore Lab officials made public an expected cost overrun and delay with the NIF project. The project has doubled in cost since construction began, and it is six years behind schedule. ***************************************************************** 16 Bush gets pressure on funding Hanford cleanup The Seattle Times: Local News: May 11, 2001 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific By Kevin Galvin *Seattle Times Washington bureau* WASHINGTON - The Washington state congressional delegation is pressing the Bush administration to fully fund the cleanup of the Hanford nuclear reservation. The administration's 2002 budget proposal calls for $5.9 billion for the U.S. Department of Energy's environmental-management program - 5.7 percent below the fiscal 2001 figure for cleanup of nuclear sites around the nation. Critics say that's $1 billion below what's needed to meet cleanup deadlines. "The United States government has an ongoing obligation to protect people from the hazards of nuclear waste," U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said in a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. "A timely cleanup is essential to the quality of our Washington state water and environment, as well as our public safety." The letter was delivered yesterday to Abraham, who at the time was defending the administration's budget before the Senate Energy Committee. In his testimony, Abraham noted that his department's entire environmental-management program was under review to see whether cleanups around the nation could be carried out more efficiently. Joe Davis, a spokesman for Abraham, said that until the review is done, department officials were being cautious about allocating funds "where maybe we can refocus and retool." Hanford was a top-secret nuclear-research facility during World War II. Fifty-three million gallons of high-level radioactive waste are stored in underground tanks in the area near the Columbia River. The cleanup is being conducted under a consent agreement among the state, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department. State Attorney General Christine Gregoire has said Bush-administration funding proposals would leave the state "with no choice but to engage in lengthy and expensive litigation." U.S. Rep. Richard "Doc" Hastings, R-Pasco, met with Office of Management and Budget director Mitch Daniels to discuss the budget, including funding for the Office of River Protection to build a treatment facility at Hanford. The administration would increase funding for that project to $500 million in the next fiscal year, Hastings said, although the project needs at least $690 million to stay on track. "He was very encouraged," said Hastings' spokesman, Todd Young. Hastings also worked to get language into the House budget resolution that passed this week, calling for $1 billion more for nuclear-waste cleanup. At his hearing, however, Abraham highlighted the increased funding for the treatment facility without acknowledging the shortfall. He also said he had no indication White House officials were reworking their budget figures. Cantwell's letter focused on what she sees as differences between the administration's rhetoric and its actions, pointing out that Abraham had assured her during his confirmation hearings that "cleaning up the legacy of nuclear-weapons research and production will be one of my priorities." ***************************************************************** 17 Energy chief says cleanup funds fine This story was published Fri, May 11, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer WASHINGTON -- Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told a U.S. Senate committee Thursday that he does not believe the Department of Energy's nuclear cleanup budget needs more money for fiscal 2002. Two members of the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee -- U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho -- tried unsuccessfully to prod Abraham into saying more cleanup money is needed for 2002. Meanwhile during the hearing on DOE's proposed budget, the committee's chairman, U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, voiced ambivalence toward increasing Hanford's cleanup funds for 2002. The Bush administration sent Congress a DOE budget request of $19.2 billion for 2002, which is less than the 2001 budget of $19.7 billion. Much of Thursday's hearing addressed energy crisis issues. DOE's request also wants to cut its nationwide nuclear cleanup budget from $6.27 billion in 2001 to $5.91 billion in 2002. A bipartisan effort is under way in both congressional chambers to increase DOE's 2002 nationwide cleanup budget to $6.6 billion. Cantwell and Craig are part of that effort. All this means DOE wants to shrink Hanford's 2001 budget of $1.46 billion to $1.4 billion in 2002. The site needs at least $1.87 billion to meet its legal cleanup obligations for 2002. The Herald received a written transcript of Thursday's DOE budget hearing. At the hearing, Cantwell asked Abraham: "What is the administration's current position on restoring the $400 million to $500 million shortfall in the Hanford cleanup?" Three times in the transcript, Abraham balked at saying more cleanup money is needed in 2002. He framed those statements in the context that a DOE estimate that nationwide nuclear cleanup will take $300 billion over 70 years is too expansive and too slow, and that the overall cleanup program needs to be overhauled. He wants DOE to come up with a master cleanup plan to become faster and more efficient. Abraham said: "Some say, 'Well, this ($5.9 billion) budget isn't enough.' But in my judgment, a billion more dollars isn't going to do much more because ... most of the (DOE cleanup) sites don't have a short-term game plan. They've got some milestones in some places, but not ones that are going to bring about cleanup in a short time frame." A second time, Abraham said he has read about congressional members and the administration's Office of Management and Budget discussing DOE cleanup budget. "I have received no new guidance that may be in consideration from that which we've presented in the ($5.9 billion) budget that you have before you," Abraham told the senators. And a third time, Abraham referred to his budget discussion last week with the U.S. House's energy and water appropriations subcommittee. "I was constantly offered more resources for my department by people across the board on that committee. And obviously, we've presented the budget that we think is appropriate for the department. But the process will continue," he said. Hanford's cleanup is governed by the Tri-Party Agreement, a legal pact signed by DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Washington. Regulatory agencies' officials and local DOE officials say many legal deadlines in 2002 won't be met with a $1.4 billion budget. Other DOE sites face similar dilemmas. However, on Thursday, Abraham said: "I'm not prepared to say that any compliance will not be met." When Cantwell pushed Abraham on Hanford's budget shortfall, he replied that Hanford received a greater commitment from DOE on one program -- the tank waste glassification project. He said DOE wants to increase the glassification project's budget by $124 million to $500 million in 2002. Abraham has previously contended that $500 million is sufficient to keep that project on track to meet a legal deadline of 2007 to convert the first wastes into glass. However, Abraham did not mention that DOE's long-standing estimates say $690 million is needed in 2002 to make the 2007 "hot start" deadline. That $690 million figure for 2002 is already installed in Bechtel National's contract to build the glassification plants. Meanwhile, committee chairman Murkowski said Hanford's environmental problems are considerable but that cleanup efforts appear to have no end in sight. "The problem of cleanup has almost been beyond the comprehension of achieving significant advances. I couldn't begin to tell you how much money has been expended. ... We're just throwing more money at it, and I question whether this money is adequate enough for the next stage." Murkowski said Hanford's cleanup has muddled along from presidential administration to presidential administration. He told Abraham: "The question of to what level you clean up these sites is a question (of how to) ensure the most effective and cost-efficient cleanup. Some have suggested on some sites that you simply fence them off in perpetuity. That sounds like a crass approach. But on the other hand, it may have some practicality." Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 18 State fines Washington Group This story was published Fri, May 11, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer The No. 2 company on Hanford's top-priority waste glassification project was fined $48,500 last year for numerous safety violations at a federal Superfund site in Seattle. The state's violation notices outline a pattern of ignoring safety training and rules at Harbor Island on Seattle's industrial waterfront. Washington Group International is appealing the fines levied by Washington's Department of Labor and Industries -- contesting the validity of the state's charges. "We're maintaining we did everything right," said Washington Group spokesman Rod Hunt. Boise-based Washington Group is the chief subcontractor under Bechtel National, which is the company in charge of designing, building and testing plants to convert Hanford's radioactive tank wastes into glass. Bechtel and Washington Group officials also said Washington Group will provide technical advisers and designers at Hanford, as opposed to the company's role of managing on-the-ground efforts at Harbor Island. Washington Group bought the old Westinghouse Electric Co.'s nuclear programs branch, which built glassification plants at the Department of Energy's sites at Savannah River, S.C., and West Valley, N.Y. So Washington Group brings in former Westinghouse experts in designing and operating glassification plants, corporate officials said. And Westinghouse posted good safety records at Savannah River and West Valley, they said. At Hanford, Bechtel is in charge of actually hiring and managing at least 3,000 construction employees who must work among radioactive waste tanks and chained-off sites that have greater contamination problems than Harbor Island. Harbor Island is mishmash of old oil and chemical spills plus numerous, uncharted underground petroleum tanks. The presence of oil, lead, arsenic, cadmium and other toxic substances in the soil led to the island becoming a Superfund site in 1983. The original Washington Construction Co. merged with a bankrupt Morrison Knudsen Corp. in the mid-1990s, keeping the Morrison Knudsen name. The still financially troubled company became Washington Group International last year after some more corporate acquisitions. Morrison Knudsen won a contract to demolish old buildings and build new ones on the Port of Seattle's Harbor Island. Then, in 2000, state inspections found at least 30 safety violations at Harbor Island. Washington Group has appealed the violation notices to a special state board. The company also obtained a legal order that prevents state inspectors from discussing the matter and from releasing the violation notices while the appeal is under way. The Herald obtained copies of the violations notices outside of state channels. Those violations notices said that at various times: n The company's supervisors, including the safety manager, on the site did not have the required hazardous materials safety training. n The safety manager did not cooperate during one inspection and claimed Harbor Island was not a Superfund site. The project's specifications say Harbor island is a Superfund site. n Workers moved barrels with unknown contents in contaminated areas. n An employee had his clothes soaked with a hazardous substance, and the company failed to have him remove his clothes and take a shower. n Workers were not told of contaminant and health hazards and were not provided the proper training or protective gear. n No air monitoring was conducted regarding blowing, potentially contaminated dirt. n Contaminated zones initially were not chained off with properly controlled entry and exit points. Then after those spots were chained off, people often stepped over them without going through the proper control points. Proper decontamination procedures were not in place for people leaving the area. n The company did not do health checks on employees facing the most likely exposure to contamination. Two experienced former Washington Group employees told the Herald about being unable to get life jackets for people working next a 30-foot drop to Elliott Bay's deep waters, of spraying trucks leaving contaminated area with a hose instead of using a full decontamination facility and of incidents reflecting the state's violation notices. Ron Slater of Cle Elum, a work superintendent, quit the project after he said he was demoted for raising safety concerns to his superiors. Water truck operator Larry Rogers of Cle Elum said he quit because of the lack of health monitoring. "No one at Harborview (Medical Center) or anywhere else can now tell me what will happen to (my health) 30 years from now," Rogers said. Hunt described the complaining workers as disgruntled former employees. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************