***************************************************************** 12/11/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.292 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Protesters picket over Fort Calhoun nuclear plant 2 Bellona calls on EU to ban export of nuclear waste to Russia 3 Prehearing Conference Scheduled on Mcguire And Catawba Nuclear 4 FDA Issues Instructions on Antidote 5 Nevada demands DOE postpone Yucca Mountain decision 6 Nevada officials set stage for lawsuit on Yucca Mountain 7 Ukraine, European Bank to set up group to study reactor project 8 Nevada demands DOE postpone Yucca Mountain decision 9 Guinn, Del Papa urge DOE to delay Yucca action 10 Ferraro receives Berkley barrage 11 Letter: Fear-mongering over nuclear power accident 12 FDA Urges Pill to Combat Radiation 13 DOE Amends Rules on Nevada Nuclear Waste Site 14 Ling'ao Nuke Plant Begins Trial Operation 15 IAEA Daily Press Review Date 2001-12-10 Number 235 16 New US uranium enrichment plant would need NRC okay 17 Letter from Governor Guinn to Secretary of Energy Spencer 18 Governor, Attorney General seek Yucca Mountain site recommendation postponement 19 Output cut at Russian nuclear station after coolant leak 20 Public Service Board tells Yankee to reveal bid info 21 Sept. 11 seen as blow to nuclear industry, as security jitters follow 22 Yggdrasil Institute - Uranium Enrichment Newsletter - December 2001 23 Stormont Executive urged to join Sellafield fight 24 Ireland: Letters: Nuclear nonsense 25 Ireland: Letters Airport radiation 26 UK ports on nuclear threat alert 27 Czech, Austrian minister approve timetable of nuclear plant deal NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Government finds higher rate of Lou Gehrig's disease in Gulf 2 [southnews] Bush says ABM treaty's days are numbered 3 Hanford Advisory Board worried about future 4 Study Links Gulf Illness, Gehrig's 5 Pakistan rejects nuclear scientist reports 6 Governors Seek Funds for Homeland Security 7 Problems arise in promoting DOE's 'security' presentation 8 Crane devices could detect ''dirty bomb'' radiation at port 9 Terrorists shop in Russia for nuclear 'dirty bombs' 10 Russia: Police: Seized Uranium Was Not Weapons-Grade - 11 Putin presses US to sign treaty on nuclear cuts 12 The nuke pipeline 13 Indian premier departs Japan; comments on Afghan, nuclear, 14 Congressmen tour SRS 15 We can't end peril, but we can prepare for it ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Protesters picket over Fort Calhoun nuclear plant Omaha.com December 11, 2001 BY HENRY J. CORDES WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER About a dozen environmentalists and nuclear power opponents picketed outside OPPD's downtown headquarters Monday calling on the utility to postpone a decision on extending the life of Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station. The Omaha Public Power District's board is to vote Thursday on a proposal to ask federal regulators for a 20-year license extension on the nuclear plant. Monday's pickets said they wanted the utility to delay a decision at least 30 days to allow more public comment and input. They said they were particularly concerned that OPPD has not considered the increased threat to the public that would be posed by a terrorist attack on the plant, which is 15 miles north of Omaha. Frances Mendenhall, a leader in the Nebraska Green Party, and other pickets urged the utility to look at wind power. Jeff Hanson, a spokesman for OPPD, said the board will take public comment on the license extension during its Thursday morning meeting. It would be up to the board to decide whether to postpone the decision, he said. OPPD is exploring wind power and is planning to launch its first wind plant in Valley this month. But Hanson said wind is not reliable enough to consider shutting down a plant. Frances Mendenhall wrote: Wind energy is already 38% in Nebraska when the turbines are sited optimally. Science is on the verge of storing energy, including wind, as hydrogen with fuel cells. By contrast, the nuclear industry has promised us for thirty years that their waste could be safely stored, but a solution is nowhere in sight and the waste will be lethal for hundreds of thousands of years. ©2001 Omaha World-Herald. ***************************************************************** 2 Bellona calls on EU to ban export of nuclear waste to Russia The Russian Ministry of Nuclear Energy (Minatom) is actively promoting plans for large scale imports of spent nuclear fuel to Russia for storage or reprocessing. Bellona calls on EU to ban export of nuclear waste to Russia (Brussels:) At a seminar in the European Parliament today, the Bellona Foundation raised the need for a common European Union ban on export of spent nuclear fuel to Russia. Such ban should include all current member states but also affect the coming member states from Eastern Europe. Thomas Nilsen, 2001-12-11 18:21 Earlier this year, the Russian State Duma approved three bills favouring importation of spent nuclear fuel. With Russian President's signature on the bills in July this year, Russia is in principle open for receiving spent nuclear fuel from countries which do not want to take their own responsibility for their nuclear waste. It is a well-known fact that Russia is not coping with the enormous waste issues of her own nuclear industry. There are currently around 15,000 tonnes accumulated in Russia. The Russian Ministry for Nuclear Energy, or Minatom, is proposing to import 20,000 tonnes more. For that the ministry counts on receiving around $20bn. Several countries in the European Union (EU) have already been in contact with Russia for such solutions. In addition, several countries in the Eastern Europe, which apply to become member states in the EU have shipped spent nuclear fuel from their power plants to Siberia for storage and reprocessing. Many Russian environmental groups have protested the plans, stating that this might bring Russia into a position of world’s nuclear waste dumpsite. Public polls show extreme opposition to Minatom’s plans – between 70 and 90 percent oppose the importation project. Many members of the European Parliament attended the Bellona seminar in Brussels, together with officials and representatives of private business. Bellona representative Aleksandr Nikitin outlined the scope of the problems which will very well be the result of importing spent nuclear fuel to Siberia. Nikitin especially pointed out the lack of civilian control over the Russian nuclear industry. He fears that the import of spent nuclear fuel to Russia will contribute to further decrease of the environmental situation in Russia. - Shipping spent nuclear fuel to Russia could sound like a “easy solution” for many decision makers in Europe, but in fact it will only increase the problems in a part of the world (Siberia) where the problems are much worse than in rich countries inside the European Union, Nikitin said. In response, Elisabeth Scroedter, European Parliament member from Greens, suggested to create a parliamentarian commission, which could evaluate eventual attempts of some EU member states to send nuclear waste to Russia. Bellona has for many years worked actively within EU to promote efforts to assist Russia securing its spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. Bellona President Frederic Hauge said rounding up the seminar that you do not assist nuclear safety work in Russia by sending in more waste. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 3 Prehearing Conference Scheduled on Mcguire And Catawba Nuclear Plant License Renewal NRC: Press Release Region II - 2001 - 49 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region II 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, GA 30303 Web Site: what-we-do/public-affairs.html No. II 01-049 December 10, 2001 CONTACT: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416/e-mail: kmc2@nrc.gov [kmc2@nrc.gov] Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417/e-mail: rdh1@nrc.gov [rdh1@nrc.gov] A Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will hold a prehearing conference on December 18 and 19 in Charlotte, North Carolina, in a proceeding involving an application to renew the operating licenses for both nuclear units at the McGuire nuclear power plant in North Carolina and both nuclear units at the Catawba nuclear power plant in South Carolina. Duke Energy Corporation is seeking the license renewals, which would permit the units to operate an additional 20 years beyond their current license expiration dates. McGuire Units 1 and 2, and Catawba Units 1 and 2 currently have operating licenses set to expire in 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2026, respectively. The Nuclear Information and Resource Service and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League have petitioned to intervene in the license renewal proceeding. At the conference, the Licensing Board will hear arguments on the standing of the petitioners to participate in the proceeding and the admissibility of their contentions challenging various aspects of the renewal application. The Board will issue its decision on standing and contentions in late January 2002. The Licensing Board is made up of Administrative Judge Ann Marshall Young, Chair; and Administrative Judges Dr. Charles N. Kelber and Lester S. Rubenstein. The conference will be held on December 18 and 19, in Courtroom 2 of the U.S. Courthouse, 401 W. Trade Street, Charlotte, North Carolina, commencing at 9:00 a.m. each morning and continuing into the evening as required. ***************************************************************** 4 FDA Issues Instructions on Antidote Las Vegas SUN December 10, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - The government issued instructions Monday for use of a drug that can protect against thyroid cancer in case of a nuclear accident or terrorism. The Food and Drug Administration began updating the nuclear antidote instructions more than a year ago, but finalized them amid heightened tension following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The new instructions deal with emergencies involving the release of radioactive iodine. This compound, either inhaled or ingested through contaminated food or milk, can cause people to develop thyroid cancer. Children are most at risk, and can be harmed by radiation levels far lower than those that endanger adults. Indeed, four years after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, children who had lived downwind of the site experienced a 30- to 60-fold increase in thyroid cancer, according to studies FDA cited. Potassium iodide, or KI, has long been known to reduce that risk and has been used as an antidote after nuclear accidents. But results from Chernobyl showed the FDA that its last dosing instructions for KI, issued in 1982, needed to be updated. The big change: Instead of one dose for babies and another for all other ages, the FDA now recommends far different doses for children of different ages. Also, the antidote should be administered to children and pregnant or nursing women when they are exposed to doses of radioactive iodine that are one-fifth the level previously thought harmful, the FDA concluded. In contrast, adults over age 40 wouldn't need the antidote unless they were exposed to a massive dose, and young adults would be treated if contamination was in a mid-range. Besides other protective measures, such as evacuating people out of danger zones and providing safe food, newborns would need a daily dose of 16 milligrams of KI until exposure was deemed over, the FDA instructions say. Children ages one month to 3 years would get 32 mg; children ages 3 to 18 65 mg; and 130 mg for adults. On the Net: Food and Drug Administration guidelines: http://www.fda.gov/cder/guidance/4825fnl.htm [http://www.fda.gov/cder/guidance/4825fnl.htm] All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Nevada demands DOE postpone Yucca Mountain decision Las Vegas SUN December 10, 2001 LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada threatened Monday to go to court to stop the federal Energy Department from burying the nation's nuclear waste 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Gov. Kenny Guinn and state Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa sent a letter demanding Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham postpone what they termed an "apparently imminent" recommendation to President Bush on the Yucca Mountain proposal. "This is basically the initiation of a lawsuit," said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada state Nuclear Projects Office and Guinn's top administrator working to stop the Yucca Mountain project. An Energy Department spokesman denied Abraham has made a decision on whether to entomb the nation's most radioactive waste beneath the volcanic ridge at the western edge of the Nevada Test Site. "We've always said we're proceeding according to the law and will make a decision based on science," Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said Monday in Washington, D.C. He said a recommendation is due this winter. "We haven't made a decision," Davis said, "so we haven't scheduled a recommendation." Guinn and Del Papa ask Abraham to postpone implementation of site suitability guidelines that are scheduled to go into effect Friday. Loux said Nevada officials don't believe Abraham will pull the plug on the project after 20 years and some $7 billion worth of study. Bush administration officials have made disposal of spent nuclear fuel a key component of the nation's energy plan. Yucca Mountain is the only place in the nation under study. Loux said he expects the state will seek an injunction next Monday asking the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to stop the process according to terms specified in a 1982 congressional act. Guinn and Del Papa contend that site selection, along with DOE steps toward obtaining a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for the dump, have been tainted by conflicts of interest on the part of a law firm that quit working for the Energy Department last week. Del Papa, in a statement, asserted that the Energy Department is relying on "legally and technically invalid" scientific findings to make its recommendation. With their letter, the governor and attorney general sent Abraham a 26-page affidavit from Victor Gilinsky, a physicist who left the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1984. They said the document underscores the state's position that when Congress started a site-selection process with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982, it directed the Energy Department to find a site where the release of radioactivity would be prevented through natural, geologic means. The state says the Yucca Mountain proposal relies too heavily on scientists and technicians to design, develop and maneuver man-made casks into place in mined tunnels some 1,000 feet below the mountain. "The (Energy Department) is proposing an elaborate engineering scheme to achieve safety," Loux said. "What the DOE is proposing isn't geologic disposal, therefore it's not acceptable." In the letter, Guinn and Del Papa point to last week's congressional General Accounting Office recommendation that the Bush administration indefinitely postpone a decision on Yucca Mountain. The GAO reported that the Energy Department's general contractor, Bechtel SAIC Co., doesn't expect to resolve some of at least 293 unresolved technical issues until 2006. The state and its congressional delegation also have raised concerns about the safety of transporting nuclear waste from more than 100 storage sites around the country to Nevada. The Energy Department says it cannot address the transportation issue until after a site is picked. The 77,000 tons of nuclear waste would include spent commercial nuclear reactor pellets, along with liquid radioactive industrial and military waste. The state ultimatum comes with the last of some 66 public hearings about the Yucca Mountain project scheduled Wednesday in Las Vegas, Amargosa Valley and Caliente, Nev. -- All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 Nevada officials set stage for lawsuit on Yucca Mountain VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: NEWS: GAO REPORT The Review-Journal has posted on its Web site the 25-page draft report by the General Accounting Office, titled, "Technical, Schedule, and Cost Uncertainties on the Yucca Mountain Repository Project." The report by auditors for the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, criticizes the federal government's plans for disposing of high-level nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, northwest of Las Vegas. Requested by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., details of the draft document appeared in a Review-Journal story Nov. 30. The text of the draft report later appeared on the Web site for Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency. GAO officials last week asked Gov. Kenny Guinn's office to remove the draft report from the state's Web site because it lacked response from the Department of Energy and was incomplete. The governor's office granted the GAO's request. See the draft obtained by the Review-Journal at http://www.lvrj.com/ gao_draft_report -- REVIEW-JOURNAL Tuesday, December 11, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Nevada officials set stage for lawsuit on Yucca Mountain State wants decision on nuclear waste site postponed until it reviews new guidelines By STEVE TETREAULT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials signaled Monday that they are ready to file a lawsuit within a week challenging the Energy Department's proposal to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Gov. Kenny Guinn and Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa asked Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to postpone decisions on the Nevada site until the state can challenge new site guidelines in federal court. They said the guidelines, scheduled to take effect Friday, are contrary to what Congress intended when it passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the 1982 law that set the federal government on a search for a repository to hold 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel from commercial power plants. Five years later, Congress amended the act to make Yucca Mountain the only site to be studied for nuclear waste storage. Activation of the site guidelines is one of the milestones expected to lead to Abraham's expected announcement this winter whether to recommend Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for waste burial. "Nevada intends to seek judicial review of the new rules immediately upon their taking effect," Guinn and Del Papa told Abraham in a letter. The state's lawsuit, to be filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, will ask that the site selection process end immediately, officials said. While original guidelines for nuclear waste disposal required that a site's natural geology be the primary criteria to judge its ability to contain radiation for tens of thousands of years from nuclear waste, Nevada officials charge the reworked rules, first proposed in 1996, rely heavily on storage containers and other "engineered barriers" to do the job. They say the rules were changed to qualify Yucca Mountain, a site government scientists have found more challenging than originally thought. By the measure of the new standards, Guinn and Del Papa said, nuclear waste could be suitably stored "on the shores of Lake Tahoe." The officials also cited a draft General Accounting Office report made public late last month that concluded the department "is not ready to make a site recommendation." The Nevadans also sent Abraham an affidavit from Victor Gilinsky, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and now a consultant. Gilinsky declared the site guidelines "a radical and imprudent departure" and "inconsistent with Congress's mandate for safe and environmentally acceptable disposal of high-level radioactive waste." Bob Loux, head of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, described the letter as a necessary prelude to an expected Nevada lawsuit. The state has threatened to file several court challenges to the Yucca Mountain process. Guinn and Del Papa asked that Abraham respond to their request by Friday. Anticipating the energy secretary will decline to stop the site selection process, Loux said the state then will go to court, most likely Dec. 17. webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 7 Ukraine, European Bank to set up group to study reactor project BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 10, 2001 Text of report by Ukrainian Inter TV on 10 December Ukraine and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development [EBRD] are planning to set up a working group to discuss the EBRD's possible participation in the completion of construction of two nuclear reactors at Rivne and Khmelnytskyy nuclear power plants. This was agreed by EBRD representatives and members of the Ukrainian delegation led by the first deputy prime minister, Oleh Dubyna, during their talks in London today. The sources of this information say that the parties discussed the project cost as well as electricity tariffs [which have been stumbling blocks in Ukrainian-EBRD loan talks]. I would like to remind you here that official Kiev believes the EBRD previous requirements are unacceptable, as [the price of] electricity would increase almost by one-third. [Earlier Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma had said that his country would rely on Russian help to complete the reactors, describing EBRD loan conditions as "slavery", but adding later on that Ukraine was still ready for further talks with the bank.] Source: Inter TV, Kiev, in Russian 1800 gmt 10 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 8 Nevada demands DOE postpone Yucca Mountain decision [RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL] December 11, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS Las Vegas- Nevada threatened Monday to go to court to stop the federal Energy Department from burying the nation’s nuclear waste 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Gov. Kenny Guinn and state Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa sent a letter demanding Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham postpone what they termed an “apparently imminent” recommendation to President Bush on the Yucca Mountain proposal. “This is basically the initiation of a lawsuit,” said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada state Nuclear Projects Office and Guinn’s top administrator working to stop the Yucca Mountain project. An Energy Department spokesman denied Abraham has made a decision on whether to entomb the nation’s most radioactive waste beneath the volcanic ridge at the western edge of the Nevada Test Site. “We’ve always said we’re proceeding according to the law and will make a decision based on science,” Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said Monday in Washington, D.C. He said a recommendation is due this winter. “We haven’t made a decision,” Davis said, “so we haven’t scheduled a recommendation.” Guinn and Del Papa ask Abraham to postpone implementation of site suitability guidelines that are scheduled to go into effect Friday. Loux said Nevada officials don’t believe Abraham will pull the plug on the project after 20 years and some $7 billion worth of study. Bush administration officials have made disposal of spent nuclear fuel a key component of the nation’s energy plan. Yucca Mountain is the only place in the nation under study. Loux said he expects the state will seek an injunction next Monday asking the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to stop the process according to terms specified in a 1982 congressional act. Guinn and Del Papa contend that site selection, along with DOE steps toward obtaining a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for the dump, have been tainted by conflicts of interest on the part of a law firm that quit working for the Energy Department last week. Del Papa, in a statement, asserted that the Energy Department is relying on “legally and technically invalid” scientific findings to make its recommendation. With their letter, the governor and attorney general sent Abraham a 26-page affidavit from Victor Gilinsky, a physicist who left the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1984. They said the document underscores the state’s position that when Congress started a site-selection process with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982, it directed the Energy Department to find a site where the release of radioactivity would be prevented through natural, geologic means. The state says the Yucca Mountain proposal relies too heavily on scientists and technicians to design, develop and maneuver man-made casks into place in mined tunnels some 1,000 feet below the mountain. “The (Energy Department) is proposing an elaborate engineering scheme to achieve safety,” Loux said. “What the DOE is proposing isn’t geologic disposal, therefore it’s not acceptable.” In the letter, Guinn and Del Papa point to last week’s congressional General Accounting Office recommendation that the Bush administration indefinitely postpone a decision on Yucca Mountain. The GAO reported that the Energy Department’s general contractor, Bechtel SAIC Co., doesn’t expect to resolve some of at least 293 unresolved technical issues until 2006. The state and its congressional delegation also have raised concerns about the safety of transporting nuclear waste from more than 100 storage sites around the country to Nevada. The Energy Department says it cannot address the transportation issue until after a site is picked. The 77,000 tons of nuclear waste would include spent commercial nuclear reactor pellets, along with liquid radioactive industrial and military waste. The state ultimatum comes with the last of some 66 public hearings about the Yucca Mountain project scheduled Wednesday in Las Vegas, Amargosa Valley and Caliente, Nev. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal ***************************************************************** 9 Guinn, Del Papa urge DOE to delay Yucca action Las Vegas SUN Today: December 11, 2001 at 8:51:21 PST By Cy Ryan < [cy@lasvegassun.com] > SUN CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn and Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa are asking Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to delay recommending Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste repository. The timing of their request is critical because Abraham plans to make a recommendation about the Yucca site to President Bush in the coming weeks. And that recommendation will be based on new federal site suitability guidelines that take effect Friday, which Nevada officials plan to immediately challenge in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The new DOE rules allow the government to rely more on metal waste storage containers to isolate waste from the environment, as opposed to the geologic advantages of underground tunnels at Yucca Mountain. Nevada officials say the DOE is changing the rules because studies at the Yucca site have raised doubts about whether the site itself could contain radioactive waste for thousands of years. Guidelines for selecting a site, Guinn and Del Papa said, "are neither legally nor scientifically sound," and the two want a chance to challenge the guidelines in court before Abraham makes his recommendation. The governor and attorney general, in a letter to Abraham Monday, said the guidelines are "scientifically specious and blatantly violative of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act." The guidelines, they said, would permit "literally any site in the world" to be designated as a nuclear repository. In their letter, Guinn and Del Papa included a report from Victor Gilinsky, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who was hired by the state to review the rules. Original Department of Energy guidelines required that engineered barriers -- such as high-tech alloy waste casks covered by "drip shields" -- would never be used to compensate for poor site geology, Gilinsky said. He said the "natural barriers were to be the primary basis for repository site selection and approval." And the containers in which the nuclear waste would be stored have yet to be proven structurally sound, Gilinsky said. "There could be an error in analysis or in the research. There could be an undiscovered manufacturing flaw that affects all the containers," he said. As a result, he said, it is possible that radiation could leak from the casks. Gilinsky said the department has spent $8 billion developing Yucca so far, and construction and operation of the facility will cost another $50 billion. He expects that to be a low estimate. "It is a gigantic amount to risk on a review process that still has many technical and regulatory hurdles to cross." He said the "selection of a nuclear waste repository should be based primarily on its natural, geologic characteristics, and not those of an engineered waste container which could be placed almost anywhere as appropriately as it could be in Nevada." Del Papa said it would be unwise for the energy secretary to proceed in the approval process, "particularly in light of technical defects in the site identified by the National Academy of Science, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board and others." Guinn and Del Papa agreed with findings in a draft of a General Accounting Office audit, which concluded the DOE is not ready to recommend the site to President Bush. Bush has said the selection will be based on scientific evidence and would not be influenced by politics. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 10 Ferraro receives Berkley barrage Las Vegas SUN Today: December 11, 2001 at 8:43:39 PST Congresswoman upset by former N.Y. rep's Yucca job By Benjamin Grove WASHINGTON -- Shortly after Geraldine Ferraro agreed to lead a national lobby campaign on behalf of the Yucca Mountain project, she received a phone call from an irked Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. Ferraro expected it. "She's a friend of mine," Ferraro said in an interview with the Sun. "I felt terrible. It pained me to be on the opposite side of an issue from her. But as I said to her, we've got to move this (nuclear waste). It's a matter of the public health and safety of people throughout this country." Ferraro, who in 1984 was the first woman vice presidential candidate, turned a few heads inside the Democratic Party -- mostly in Nevada -- when she signed on with former President Bush chief of staff John Sununu to lead a Yucca lobby campaign sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Yucca Mountain is the proposed site of the nation's first high-level nuclear waste burial ground and is fiercely opposed by Nevada officials. The U.S. Chamber launched a public relations offensive on Nov. 15 to urge Congress and President Bush to move the project forward. Ferraro said Sununu, a political opposite but longtime friend and former CNN "Crossfire" co-host, gradually recruited her to help him lead the Chamber effort. Ferraro said she agreed after conversations with him about national security. Ferraro said she had never been a nuclear industry advocate and would not have accepted the pro-Yucca lobby job before Sept. 11. But since terrorist attacks in her home state, the former New York congresswoman has come to believe that nuclear waste should be buried in a central location far underground -- not stored in above-ground containers and in cooling pools at nuclear plants nationwide, she said. New York has six nuclear plant reactors. Ferraro added she would be "screaming and yelling" to stop Yucca if she represented Nevada. "I can understand the perspective of people in Nevada," Ferraro said. "They don't want it in their back yard. I don't blame them. But what are you going to do?" Ferraro said she was being paid for her pro-Yucca efforts for the Chamber, but she would not say how much. Ferraro, 66, is a consultant with Golin Harris McGinn, an international public relations firm. Ferraro, who in June announced she was successfully battling cancer with the controversial drug thalidomide, has been U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, a Georgetown University teacher, political pundit, author, lecturer and New York Times columnist. Berkley said she had a "spirited" conversation with Ferraro during the phone call and explained Nevada's objections to the Yucca plan. Berkley told Ferraro that burying waste in Nevada is not a good way to reduce terrorism risks at nuclear power plants nationwide. Nuclear reactors would be terrorist targets with or without waste, Nevada lawmakers have argued. Nevada lawmakers say trucks and trains hauling waste to Nevada, as well as the Yucca site itself, also offer terrorists more targets. "If she is losing sleep, believe me, I am losing more sleep over having this (waste) in my back yard," Berkley said. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 11 Letter: Fear-mongering over nuclear power accident Las Vegas SUN Today: December 11, 2001 at 8:51:21 PST I really have to take exception to your Nov. 20 editorial concerning the federal "insurance" that would cover any costs due to an accident to the nuclear power industry in excess of $9.5 billion. First, you talk of a "Chernobyl-like" accident, as if that were a possibility in the United States. It's like saying that tax dollars may someday be spent to clean up an "Exxon Valdez-like" accident on Lake Mead. The design and containments of Russian and U.S. reactors are near complete opposites. The Russians have to work very hard to keep their reactor from going super critical (blowing up). The American have to work very hard to keep our reactors critical (not shutting down). Of course, you could have used Three Mile Island as an example, and I would have had to say: "And ..." I know there were no deaths associated with Three Mile Island and I believe there were no taxpayer costs associated with the cleanup. Does the word fear-mongering come to mind? Second, this money is not like the $15 billion already given to the polluting, moribund, deadly airline industry. This money is like Social Security, it's not really there until it's needed, it's promissory. If you have a nuclear accident and the cost of cleanup is more then $9.5 billion then the government will pick up the remainder of the tab. The government is not putting money in a "lock box" to cover a potential nuclear accident any more then it is putting money in a "lock box" for Social Security. It is very disingenuous of Rep. Shelley Berkley to talk of "highway robbery" and "... government subsidy of the worst kind," when no money is going anywhere except in the very unlikely event there is a nuclear accident. OSCAR R. FICK All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 12 FDA Urges Pill to Combat Radiation (washingtonpost.com) Inexpensive Iodine Drug Known to Cut Risk of Thyroid Cancer From Fallout FDA's guidance [http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/2001/ANS01126.html] on protection against thyroid cancer in the event of nuclear attack By Justin Gillis Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 11, 2001; Page A17 Spurred by fears of nuclear terrorism, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday called for widespread use of a cheap, readily available pill soon after an attack to protect people against thyroid cancer. The FDA issued new guidelines for the use of a drug called potassium iodide. They break relatively little medical ground. But by emphasizing the proven usefulness of the drug in countering radioactive fallout, the FDA's action is likely to feed a growing discussion in the country about how broadly the drug should be stockpiled. Authorities have known for decades that taking potassium iodide before or right after exposure to radioactive fallout can prevent some ill effects, especially in young children, who are most vulnerable to thyroid cancer. The revised FDA guidelines use studies done after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster to recommend new dosage levels for various groups, replacing guidelines based on studies of the atomic bombings in Japan in 1945. Only a handful of states maintain stockpiles of the drug. The Department of Health and Human Services is studying whether to add potassium iodide to a national stockpile it maintains of drugs and supplies to counter large-scale terror strikes. Some groups, noting that the drug costs as little as 10 cents a dose in bulk, have called for even broader stockpiling -- for instance, in all schools and homes that could be affected by the bombing of a nuclear plant. "All the studies I've seen have shown that it does provide protection, particularly for young children," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group. "Considering its price, it just seems like a no-brainer. We should have been doing this a long time ago." He cautioned, however, that potassium iodide protects against only one type of radiation exposure and is no substitute for preventing attacks or for evacuating people after an attack. Some state officials are skeptical of stockpiling the drug for the same reason, saying their main focus would be on moving people out of the path of a fallout plume and preventing contamination of the food supply. Alabama, Arizona, Maine and Tennessee are the only states with large stockpiles of potassium iodide. A handful of states maintain smaller stockpiles, and many others have begun discussing the issue since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, realizing that nuclear plants could be prime targets. The FDA emphasized yesterday that potassium iodide should be taken within hours of a radiation release and this "requires a ready supply" of the drug. The biology works this way: The one organ in the body that uses a lot of iodine is the thyroid gland, which produces substances that help regulate metabolism. Iodine is such an important nutrient that a form of it is routinely added to salt to help prevent deficiencies. Iodine is not normally radioactive. However, one of the prime consequences of nuclear attack or accident would be the release of radioactive forms of the element into the air and possibly the food supply. The radioactive iodine could concentrate in the thyroid glands of exposed people, particularly fast-growing children, elevating their risk of thyroid cancer. The absorption of radioactive iodine can be slowed, however, if exposed people quickly take a large dose of nonradioactive iodine -- "flooding" the thyroid gland with the safe form of the element. Potassium iodide pills are the preferred way to do this. The pills would ideally be taken by anyone who could be exposed to fallout within a few hours of a nuclear-plant bombing or other release of radioactivity. The FDA emphasized yesterday that the benefits of potassium iodide in the midst of a radiation disaster are clear, and the risks minimal even if people overdose on the drug. Potassium iodide is not a prescription drug, and anybody who wants to can buy it, though most pharmacies don't stock the drug. The new guidelines call for daily doses of potassium iodide at the following levels for those likely to be exposed to radioactive fallout: • Infants less than 1 month old: 16 milligrams. • Children aged 1 month to 3 years: 32 milligrams. • Children 3 to 18 years old: 65 milligrams. • Adults, including pregnant and lactating women, and adolescents over 150 pounds: 130 milligrams. © 2001 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 13 DOE Amends Rules on Nevada Nuclear Waste Site (washingtonpost.com) By Eric Pianin and Peter Behr Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, December 11, 2001; Page A09 The Department of Energy has changed the rules for a proposed permanent nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada so that the government no longer must prove that the site's underground rock formations would prevent radioactive contamination of the environment. The new rule, which takes effect Friday, permits energy officials to rely on a combination of advanced storage containers and natural geological barriers to satisfy new, rigorous environmental standards for protecting ground water and the atmosphere from the release of dangerous levels of radioactive material. DOE officials said yesterday they were justified in making the changes based on an extensive review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency, but Nevada's governor and attorney general accused the DOE of lowering standards to win approval for the long-debated Yucca Mountain storage site. They said they plan to challenge the new rules in court. "The Department should not be evaluating the suitability of the site based on rules that were transparently reconfigured at the eleventh hour because DOE could not meet the statutory demands of Congress nor the scientific recommendations" of other agencies and groups, said Gov. Kenny Guinn (R) and state Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa in a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. They and other critics argued that under the changed rules, downgrading the importance of the geological barriers, the nuclear waste repository could be placed just as easily in the basement of DOE headquarters in Washington as in the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In ordering the DOE to begin studying Yucca Mountain as the repository site in 1982, Congress specified that decision should be based primarily on geological characteristics that would ensure that the nuclear waste would be safely isolated for thousands of years. But Congress authorized a subsequent review, and as the government has moved closer to a final decision, significant problems have turned up with the site. These include earthquake fault lines and areas of loose rock that, instead of acting as a barrier, could actually channel water and spread radioactive material. Now the DOE is considering an approach that would store the nuclear waste in pellet form in cylindrical casks in a series of parallel tunnels, in the hope that the combination of engineered and geological barriers would provide adequate protection from pollution and meet tough standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency last summer. "We are basing the decision both on the science of the mountain and the engineered barriers that would be put in place," said Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Energy Department. "We believe we have to rely on both." But Victor Gilinsky, a Cal Tech-trained physicist and a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, charged yesterday that the DOE's rule, published Nov. 14, "is a radical and imprudent departure from the current rule . . . and is inconsistent with Congress's mandate for safe and environmentally acceptable disposal of high-level radioactive waste." In an affidavit he prepared for the state of Nevada, Gilinsky noted that the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act required that detailed geologic considerations "shall be primary criteria for the selection of sites" and that the law imposed separate performance requirements for each of the natural barriers. "The new rule lumps all of the natural and engineered barriers together and applies only one overall requirement -- that the computer model estimates of the future radiation dose to a population some distance away from the Yucca Mountain site meet the licensing standard for 10,000 years," he said. Gilinsky's affidavit and the threat of legal action by Nevada officials are the latest in a series of challenges to the administration's aggressive schedule, which calls for Abraham to recommend to President Bush this winter whether to formally designate Yucca Mountain as the site for 78,000 tons of radioactive waste. Abraham is certain to urge Bush to move ahead with the project, according to administration and industry sources. Industry officials are pressing the administration to move ahead to remove spent reactor fuel from the nation's 103 nuclear power plants because of the vulnerability of temporary storage facilities to terrorist attacks. Administration officials have predicted that the site could be opened as soon as 2010. But the General Accounting Office, in a recently completed draft report, urged the administration to indefinitely postpone a decision because of uncertainties over the planning, design and cost estimates. The project is widely unpopular in Nevada and has drawn strong opposition from lawmakers and state officials, including Senate Majority Whip Harry M. Reid (D) and Guinn. Some anti-nuclear activists argue that the DOE's new rule would permit Abraham to approve the Yucca Mountain site on the grounds that improved storage systems offset uncertainties about the site's geological sturdiness over the thousands of years that fuel would be in storage. © 2001 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 14 Ling'ao Nuke Plant Begins Trial Operation Xinhuanet 2001-12-11 16:25:48 SHENZHEN, December 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese workers loaded the reactor with fuel Saturday night on the first generating nuke island of the Ling'ao Nuclear Power Plant in Shenzhen, south China 's Guangdong Province. This is the first generating unit that has started a trial operation and the nuclear plant operator has taken over the responsibility for nuclear security. Construction of Ling'ao began in 1997. It is the second largest commercial nuclear power plant built in Guangdong, following the one on Daya Bay, and was one of the major power projects in China for the 1996-2000 period. According to the construction plan, four nuclear generators with a combined generating capacity of one million kw, will be installed at the plant. For the first phase of construction, two nuclear generators will be installed at the plant at a cost of four billion U.S. dollars. The first and second nuclear generators will start commercial operation in July 2002 and March 2003. The electricity generated will be brought into the local power grid in Guangdong Province, one of the country's economic powerhouses. At present, four nuclear power projects are being built in China. The other three are the second and third phases of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant in east China's Zhejiang Province, and the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant, a Sino-Russian joint venture, at Lianyungang on China's east coast. Enditem Copyright © 2000 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 IAEA Daily Press Review Date 2001-12-10 Number 235 1. Non-proliferation Report on upcoming US/Russia discussions on how to apply verification measures from earlier START-1 and START-2 treaties to new limits proposed for offensive weapons. (IHT - 10/12) Russian Federation; START II; United States of America 2. IAEA US Secretary of Energy urges IAEA to expand its role in ensuring physical security of nuclear materials as part of the global fight against terrorism. (WF - 7/11) IAEA; United States of America 3. Illicit trafficking More on uranium confiscated in Moscow region: Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry excludes possibility of theft from Russian facilities of any nuclear material that could be used in making weapons. (BBC - bbc) Russian Federation 4. Terrorism UN SG, Kofi Annan, warns US not to take action against Iraq as part of its declared war on terrorism. US reportedly asks Pakistan to question two of its nuclear weapons scientists it (US) believes may have links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. According to report, US DoD is pressing for approval of new drug that could help against radiation amid worries of nuclear threat. Special devices to prevent smuggling of nuclear material to be installed at British ports. (BBC; DAW; IHT; R; T; TI - 10/12) Pakistan; United Kingdom; United States of America 5. Nuclear power Head of Armenian State Energy Supervision says country's NPP might be phased out in 2008. Managing director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre praises safety record of Indian NPPs. (R - 10/12) Armenia; India 6. Nuclear Safety Negligence on part of Chubu Electric Power Co. in making changes to pipes in emergency core cooling system (ECCS) in Hamaoka NPP's No. 1 reactor is believed to have caused rupture of one of the pipes. Kazakhstan completes another experiment on the IVG.1.M atomic reactor at the National Nuclear Centre located on the territory of the former Semipalatinsk nuclear test range. (BBC; FT- 8/12) Japan; Kazakhstan ***************************************************************** 16 New US uranium enrichment plant would need NRC okay [Reuters] Monday December 10, 4:58 pm Eastern Time By Chris Baltimore WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. subsidiary of European consortium Urenco Ltd. may file a preliminary application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in early 2002 to build a new $1 billion U.S. uranium enrichment facility, a company executive said on Monday. The plant, estimated to cost $1 billion, would be only the second to operate in the United States, converting raw uranium to fuel used by nuclear power plants to make electricity. Urenco's plan would dovetail with the Bush administration's national energy policy for the U.S. to build more nuclear power plants. If built, the Urenco plant would also stir competition in the U.S. enrichment market now dominated by USEC Inc. subsidiary United States Enrichment Corp. USEC's Paducah, Kentucky, plant supplies up to 70 percent of U.S. material. Paducah has boilerplate capacity of about 11 million units of uranium annually -- enough to power about 109 nuclear plants for a year. But yearly production often comes in below that figure, USEC said. ``We don't have domestic production capacity to meet all U.S. demand,'' said Charles Yulish, a USEC spokesman. ``This is a competitive market.'' It takes about 100,000 units to power typical 1,000 megawatt nuke plant for a year, according to the USEC website. There are 103 active U.S. nuclear plants, and a megawatt powers about 1,000 homes. Nuclear plants produce about 20 percent of all U.S. electricity. Preliminary plans call for Urenco's plant, which has no designated site, to produce about 3 million units of uranium each year, said Peter Lenny, president of Urenco Inc., the U.S. arm of the British, Dutch and German consortium. ``This is in the very preliminary stage,'' Lenny said in a Reuters interview. ``We are very optimistic that these applications and steps will be taken.'' Urenco would partner with Duke Energy Corp., Exelon Corp. and possible other firms to build the plant, he said. Lenny, along with Urenco Ltd. Chief Executive Klaus Messer and executives from Exelon, met with NRC officials last week to discuss the approval process, Lenny said. After an internal review, Urenco could make a preliminary filing with NRC in early 2002, with a site-specific application later in the year, he said. The plant could be operational within the next five years, he said. NRC approval would likely take several years, an agency spokeswoman said. ``It would take roughly three years from the date of the application to the date of the decision on whether or not to issue a license,'' NRC spokeswoman Sue Gagner said. NRC's review would focus on safety and environmental impact issues rather than market competition, she said. FIRMS SEE BENEFIT OF COMPETITION Duke said it will support the project because it will lead to more competitive suppliers. ``We do feel very strongly ... the need for (uranium enrichment) competition in the U.S.,'' said Tom Shiel, a Duke spokesman. Duke operates three nuclear plants with seven total reactor units that generate about 7,000 megawatts of electricity. On Oct. 25, Duke and Exelon executives sent a letter to President George W. Bush stating that a group of U.S. firms is ``actively seeking to deploy proven and competitive enrichment technology in the U.S.'' USEC has brought anti-dumping charges against Urenco, charging the firm of flooding U.S. markets to suppress prices. The U.S. Department of Commerce could complete its findings on the case on Friday, USEC said. The same Urenco consortium in 1998 shelved plans to build an enrichment plant in Louisiana because the NRC delayed its approval. ``It took seven years to get through the process and by that time conditions had changed dramatically,'' Lenny said. Urenco does not expect a repeat of its earlier problem, Lenny said, because the NRC has a more progressive attitude toward site permitting. The firm is considering all potential sites, but would prefer to locate the plant on an existing nuclear site, such as the ones in Kentucky and Ohio, he said. SWORDS TO PLOWSHARES USEC is the sole executive agent the U.S. government allows to purchase highly enriched uranium from dismantled Russian missiles in a 1993 swords-to-plowshares deal. USEC convert the uranium to low-power fuel and sells it to nuke plants. USEC has bought about $2 billion worth of Russian weapons-grade uranium, about 5,481 warheads, according to USEC congressional testimony. USEC's Paducah facility uses gaseous diffusion to boost the radioactive concentration of naturally occurring uranium to 5 percent. It changes uranium hexaflouride into U-235, which powers nuclear reactors. NRC currently regulates Paducah, USEC said. Four firms currently control the worldwide market for enriched uranium -- USEC, Urenco, along with French-based Eurodif-Cogema and Russian-based Tenex. (additional reporting by Tom Doggett) Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. ***************************************************************** 17 Letter from Governor Guinn to Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham - RE: Requests for Postponement of the Secretary's Yucca Mountain Site Recommendation and an Immediate Stay of DOE's New Site Suitability Guidelines, 10 CFR Part 963, Pending Judicial Review OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR One Hundred One North Carson Street Carson City, Nevada 89701 December 10, 2001 The Honorable Spencer Abraham Secretary United States Department of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue S.W. Washington, D.C. 20555 RE: Requests for Postponement of the Secretary's Yucca Mountain Site Recommendation and an Immediate Stay of DOE's New Site Suitability Guidelines, 10 CFR Part 963, Pending Judicial Review Dear Secretary Abraham: It is with the utmost urgency that we write concerning your apparently imminent Yucca Mountain Site Recommendation, to be made in reliance on the Department's new Site Suitability Guidelines, 10 CFR Part 963, which take effect on December 14, 2001. Insofar as the new guidelines permit a suitability determination to be made for literally any site in the world, they are scientifically specious and blatantly violative of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which sought to develop a viable geologic repository and not simply a glorified waste package whose setting could be gauged "suitable" even if sited on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Accordingly, Nevada intends to seek judicial review of the new rules immediately upon their taking effect. Because any site recommendation you may make at this time would necessarily be based on putative "site" suitability guidelines that are neither legally nor scientifically sound, we ask you to postpone your recommendation until after the Court of Appeals has had the chance to review the guidelines. In this request, we join ranks with the General Accounting Office, whose recent review of the Department's Yucca Mountain program concluded that "DOE is not ready to make a site recommendation," and that any such recommendation should be deferred pending the completion of numerous key scientific studies. Moreover, since the new guidelines would form the technical and legal basis for the Department's further review of Yucca Mountain, we ask you to stay immediately their date of effectiveness pending judicial review. The Department should not be evaluating the suitability of the site based on rules that were transparently reconfigured at the eleventh hour because DOE could not meet the statutory demands of Congress nor the scientific recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences, NRC's Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, and the Yucca Mountain Technical Review Board. Nevada's attorneys have engaged Dr. Victor Gilinsky, a former NRC Commissioner and an eminent Caltech-trained physicist, to review DOE's new guidelines from the standpoint of someone who was there at the time the Nuclear Waste Policy Act was enacted, and whose agency concurred in DOE's original Site Suitability Guidelines, 10 CFR Part 960. An affidavit from him in support of our requests is enclosed. As Dr. Gilinsky notes, NRC concurred in the original guidelines only on condition DOE add requirements that engineered barriers would never be used to compensate for poor site geology. The notion that geologic features must be the "primary form of containment" is not only explicitly required by the Act, but was always understood by NRC and DOE, he asserts, to be the primary objective of the Act, until DOE recently and conveniently changed its interpretation to suit its licensing and litigation needs. We now know, as a result of DOE's own site characterization activities, that engineered barriers make up nearly 100-percent of the isolation of the integrated "repository system." As Dr. Gilinsky concludes, this hardly makes the Yucca Mountain site a suitable geologic container for the hundreds of thousands of years it will take for the leaching wastes to reach their peak dose levels. On the heels of the GAO report, the Inspector General's determination that DOE's licensing attorneys have had an irreconcilable conflict of interest, and sweeping indictments by independent technical reviewers such as NAS, ACNW, NWTRB, and Physics Today that vast uncertainties remain in DOE's analysis of Yucca Mountain, it would be inappropriate and ill-advised to proceed with a site recommendation at this time. President George W. Bush assured Nevada that any determination of Yucca Mountain's suitability as a geologic repository would be based solely on the scientific merits. On that front, Dr. Gilinsky's affidavit, the independent reviewers, and DOE's own studies show that Yucca Mountain has utterly failed the test. Please let us know by no later than Friday, December 14, whether you intend to stay the effectiveness of the Part 963 guidelines and/or postpone your site recommendation to a legally and scientifically appropriate time. Sincerely, (signed) KENNY C. GUINN Governor (signed) FRANKIE SUE DEL PAPA Attorney General ***************************************************************** 18 Governor, Attorney General seek Yucca Mountain site recommendation postponement Governor Kenny Guinn FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: December 10, 2001 CONTACT: Greg Bortolin PHONE: 775-684-5670 FAX: 775-684-7198 CARSON CITY - Governor Kenny Guinn and Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa today sent a joint letter to Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham requesting that he postpone an apparently imminent Yucca Mountain Site Recommendation. In the letter, Guinn and Del Papa also urged the Secretary to stay the Department of Energy's recently announced site suitability guidelines, due to the fact that the guidelines fail to ensure geologic isolation of high-level nuclear waste, and permits a "glorified waste package whose setting could be gauged 'suitable' even if sited on the shores of Lake Tahoe." The letter also states that Nevada intends to seek judicial review of the site suitability guidelines immediately upon their taking effect. In seeking postponement of the site recommendation, the Governor and Attorney General join ranks with the General Accounting Office, whose recent review of the DOE's Yucca Mountain program concluded that DOE is not yet ready to make a site recommendation, and that any such recommendation should be deferred pending the completion of numerous key scientific studies. "Because the new guidelines form the technical and legal basis for DOE's further review of Yucca Mountain, we are asking the Secretary to immediately stay the effective date of the guidelines pending judicial review," Guinn said. Attached to the letter is an affidavit of Dr. Victor Gilinsky, a former commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner and a prominent physicist. According to Gilinsky, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act contemplated geological isolation of nuclear waste and not a system of engineered barriers as currently proposed by DOE. In addition to the findings of the GAO report, the Inspector General has determined that DOE's outside lawyers had undisclosed conflicts of interest that may taint many, if not all, of DOE's supporting documentation. "The current site suitability guidelines are clearly legally and technically invalid," Del Papa said. "It is clearly inappropriate and unwise for the Secretary to proceed at this time, particularly in light of technical defects in the site identified by the National Academy of Science, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board and others." The Site Suitability Guidelines are scheduled to take effect on December 14, 2001. Guinn and Del Papa are asking Secretary Abraham to notify them of his decision to move forward or to grant their request for a stay by no later than December 14. ***************************************************************** 19 Output cut at Russian nuclear station after coolant leak BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 11, 2001 Text of report by Russian news agency RIA Desnogorsk (Smolensk Region), 10 December: The capacity of the No.2 power set at Smolensk nuclear power station was cut by 50 per cent following a leak from a cooler filter in the No.3 turbogenerator on Monday [10 December]. The generator was shut down for repair work. RIA-Novosti news agency was told by the station's public information centre that the generating capacity of the second power set is now 500 MW and that of the first and third sets up to 1,000 MW. Radiation levels on and around the station premises are normal. Source: RIA news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1645 gmt 10 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to ***************************************************************** 20 Public Service Board tells Yankee to reveal bid info By Associated Press, 12/10/2001 07:33 MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) The Vermont Public Service Board has told officials from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to be prepared to turn over trade secrets to three environmentalist groups. But Vermont Yankee could face lawsuits from an unknown number of large utility corporations if it does so, said a banker who ran the auction of the nuclear reactor this spring. Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams said he couldn't comment on whether Yankee would comply until the board issued a written order. Paul Dabbar, vice president of J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc., said corporations which secretly bid on reactors and other power generation facilities have had their confidential information revealed to state public utility boards and ratepayer advocates, but never to intervening groups. ''Definitely there are bidders who are concerned about what's going on here,'' Dabbar said. ''There is (a) very large concern from people in the process about what's going on here today... and (if confidentiality agreements are) violated, they may take some action.'' Companies which publicly expressed interest in bidding on Vermont Yankee last spring -- in addition to the winning bidder, Entergy Nuclear -- included Constellation Energy of Maryland, Dominion Resources of Virginia, and AmerGen Energy Co. of Pennsylvania. However, who actually bid and what they offered is secret. When it signed the agreement, Yankee agreed it would not reveal the losing bids to anyone but the board and the state government's ratepayer advocate, the Department of Public Service. On Friday, the board indicated that, agreement or no agreement, public-interest groups have a right to participate fully in public processes. The board didn't issue a written order, but indicated clearly what the order would say when it is issued in the near future. ''At this point, we are not ordering you to share the information, but we are ordering you to plan to,'' Chairman Michael Dworkin told attorneys for Vermont Yankee and Entergy. The information in question includes the number of other offers, what the other offers included, and how J.P. Morgan analyzed the bids to determine which was best. In testimony Friday, Dabbar said that J.P. Morgan's process is, itself, a trade secret. ***************************************************************** 21 Sept. 11 seen as blow to nuclear industry, as security jitters follow By David Gram, Associated Press, 12/10/2001 19:13 BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) Diana Sidebotham attended her first public hearing as a critic of nuclear power when the Vermont Yankee plant's license was pending in 1971. Some 30 years and scores of such forums later, Sidebotham went to yet another one last week at the Brattleboro Union High School and encountered the biggest crowd she had ever seen at such an event, more than 500 people. Worries about nuclear power have taken on a new urgency since the attacks of Sept. 11, as the threat of terrorism has been added to the scale on which the issue is weighed. Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., who organized the meeting and assembled a panel of federal, state and Vermont Yankee officials to answer area residents' concerns, said he was ''amazed at the size of the turnout. Brattleboro (population about 10,000) is not the biggest city in America.'' ''In Vermont and throughout this country now there is very increased concern about the vulnerability of nuclear power plants to terrorist attacks and the huge consequences that an attack could bring forth,'' Sanders said in an interview two days after the hearing. Much of the concern is in the Northeast. In New York, the Westchester County Legislature has set a public hearing for Thursday in White Plains to examine whether the evacuation plan for two reactors at Indian Point would be adequate in the event of a terrorism attack or other disaster. A panel that advises Connecticut Gov. John Rowland and state lawmakers on nuclear issues passed a resolution two weeks ago saying the nation should consider arming nuclear plants with mobile air defense systems. The same week, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a doctor, reversed his earlier position and said he wants the state to stockpile the drug potassium iodide, which can protect against one form of nuclear radiation. New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen has asked the state's Anti-Terrorism Task Force to consider whether to impose a no-fly zone over the Seabrook nuclear plant; the task force has taken no action to date. Governors are clamoring for the federal government to open a long-delayed high-level waste disposal site and take spent fuel now stored in pools considered more vulnerable to attacks than the reactors themselves. Maine Gov. Angus King wrote recently to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission demanding that it ''demonstrate to Maine a constant and persistent advocacy'' to get the federal energy department to remove spent fuel from Maine Yankee, which closed five years ago. What sounds like a fresh debate to some sounds like an unhappy vindication to Sidebotham and many of her fellow nuclear critics. ''It's simply making clear to the public things we've known for a long time,'' she said. ''Now that a major disaster has occurred, people are beginning to understand that we are vulnerable.'' Defenders of nuclear power play down the vulnerability but at the same time say they are working to improve security at the nation's 103 reactors. Hubert Miller, regional administrator with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, repeatedly told the crowd at last week's hearing that security at Vermont Yankee was ''robust.'' He said that nuclear plants weren't designed with an attack by a large passenger jet in mind but added that the containments that surround reactors are among the strongest buildings in the country. Skepticism in the audience was fueled by the fact that just the week before, preliminary results had been released from a security drill Aug. 23 at Vermont Yankee in which the plant failed to repel a mock attack by terrorists. Vermont Yankee received the lowest grade in the industry. Improvements have been made since then, officials assured the audience. The new wave of concern about nuclear power comes just as its fortunes appeared to be improving after some lean times. No new U.S. nuclear plant has been ordered since before the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979. But just in the couple of years before Sept. 11, several utilities had won license extensions. Another sign of renewed confidence: The prices nuclear plants were fetching as they were sold in a newly deregulated electric market had been going up. After Vermont regulators rejected one proposed purchase of Vermont Yankee, the plant was put up for auction and brought more than seven times the earlier price. Regulatory review of the new deal is pending. Nuclear power also has some cheerleaders in the Bush administration, chief among them Vice President Dick Cheney, who points to the fact that unlike power generated by burning fossil fuels, it doesn't contribute to global warming. But the growing clamor for a new round of nuclear plant construction has been muted since the September attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Instead, the discussion has focused on whether states should provide National Guard troops to guard reactors and how effective emergency evacuation plans would be if needed. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is among the co-sponsors of legislation that would make nuclear plant security a federal responsibility. Dart Everett says he's heard it all before. Everett has lived in Brattleboro for the same three decades that Vermont Yankee has run in the adjacent town of Vernon. To him, Sidebotham and her fellow nuclear critics are merely singing an old and discordant tune and using a national tragedy to amplify their voices. A real estate appraiser, Everett says he has seen the economy of southeastern Vermont and nearby parts of New Hampshire and Massachusetts benefit greatly from Vermont Yankee's presence. The plant has employed up to 600 and generates about a third of the power consumed in Vermont. Everett says he occasionally worries about the possibility of a catastrophe at the nearby nuclear plant, but for reasons far different from those of Sidebotham. ''It's a loss of energy that concerns me much more than any potential radiation problem,'' he said. ''Wiping out the infrastructure to a major facility could be very detrimental to the Northeast and anywhere in the country.'' Nuclear critics readily acknowledge many of the issues they're raising have been around for a while. They call them unfinished business. When she and fellow members of the then-fledgling New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution went before the Atomic Energy Commission during the 1971 licensing hearings, Sidebotham recalled, ''Concerns were raised about the possibility of sabotage at a nuclear plant. It was very much pooh-poohed.'' ''We tried to raise the issue of nuclear waste,'' she added. ''We were told that issue did not apply to an individual plant's licensing proceeding and that it would be taken care of later. Well, now it's later.'' There's still no permanent disposal site for the roughly 40,000 tons of highly radioactive waste generated to date by the U.S. nuclear industry. Congressional investigators last month recommended that the government indefinitely postpone a decision on whether to build a nuclear waste dump at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, saying it may be years before some of the technical issues are worked out. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission the successor as industry cop to the AEC for years has responded to worries about accidents and sabotage at nuclear plants by saying the probability of such events is so low as to make such scenarios incredible. But Sept. 11, Sidebotham said, ''made the incredible credible.'' ***************************************************************** 22 Yggdrasil Institute - Uranium Enrichment Newsletter - December 2001 Uranium Enrichment Newsletter December 2001 The Uranium Enrichment Project publishes a monthly online newsletter summarizing events within the US uranium enrichment establishment. The newsletter is edited by Mary Byrd Davis, who can be contacted at [francenuc@francenuc.org] . A grant from The John Merck Fund makes the newsletter possible. 1. Oak Ridge 2. Paducah 3. Portsmouth 4. US Department of Energy 5. Us NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 6. us Enrichment Corporation 7. rUSSIA 8. aDVANCED TECHNOLOGY I. OAK RIDGE RESERVATION Safety issues In October John Conway, chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board sent a letter to Department of Energy (DOE) undersecretary Robert Card, which was highly critical of Oak Ridge's integrated safety management program." Conway said that DOE's Oak Ridge Operations Office and Bechtel Jacobs, the environmental contractor, had in many cases failed to correct long-standing problems. As a result of the letter, DOE revoked validation of the Integrated Safety Management System implemented by Bechtel Jacobs. The company will now have to go through the revalidation process. Also in October, Jessie Hill Roberson, DOE's assistant secretary for environmental management, sent a series of critical memos to Oak Ridge management and revoked the authority of the Oak Ridge Operations Office to approve safety plans. Roberson visited Oak Ridge November 13. November 8, DOE halted most work involving uranium at the K-25 site, because of various deficiencies, some of which concerned criticality regulations. British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL), which has a contract to remove equipment from the K-33, K-31, and K-29 buildings was most severely impacted by the halt. Work resumed the week of December 3, before BNFL had to furlough any employees. (Frank Munger, 11/9/01, 11/10/01; Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 11/15/01; Walter Perry, DOE Public Affairs, Personal Communication) Storage of Highly-Enriched Uranium Federal officials have indicated that groundbreaking for a new storage complex for HEU at Oak Ridge's Y-12 plant is tentatively scheduled for April, 2002. A contract to design the facility will probably be awarded in February; a construction contract will be awarded later. The Y-12 facilities that currently store HEU are thirty-five to fifty-five years old and "require significant maintenance and funding." DOE released the site-wide Environmental Impact Statement for Y-12 in mid-October. (Frank Munger, [Knoxville] News Sentinel, 11/25/01; OREPA News, 11/01) Possible health clinic The Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee is looking into the possibility of a health clinic that would assist residents and workers who have illnesses connected with DOE's. At a meeting in November, the Subcommittee heard from a representative of the Health Resources Services Administration, which helps to provide health care to low-income and uninsured people. The Subcommittee exists to provide recommendations in regard to health issues in Oak Ridge to certain federal agencies, including the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. (Paul Parson, Oak Ridger Online, 11/28/01) Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee An article by Paul Parson indicates that since fiscal year 1996 DOE has provided more than $26 million in funding to the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET), an economic development organization. Representatives of CROET and DOE say that the funding has created 2407 jobs in eastern Tennessee. CROET's president, Lawrence Young, says that the organization adopted a strategic plan last year, designed to make CROET less dependent on DOE grants. (Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 11/27/01) Authorization for restart of research reactor November 30, DOE authorized the restart of Oak Ridge's High Flux Isotope Reactor, which had been shut down for over a year for maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. The reactor, reported to have "the highest thermal neutron flux in the world," uses uranium fuel "with an enrichment level in the 'high 90s,'" according to Larry Boyd of DOE's reactor oversight team at ORNL. The fuel assemblies are stored in a vault at Y-12, about ten miles away, and trucked to the reactor under heavy guard. In the interests of non-proliferation many research reactors around the world have been switched from HEU to uranium with an enrichment of below 20%. The High Flux Isotope Reactor has not been switched, because the change would significantly impair its performance, Boyd says. (Frank Munger, News-Sentinel, 11/5/01 and 12/2/01) II. PADUCAH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT Public meeting on depleted UF6 conversion Citizens who had planned to attend a DOE-sponsored meeting November 6 to help prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on conversion of depleted DUF6, held an informal meeting on the subject that evening, because DOE postponed its meeting. Lisa Helms of the Maine-based Military Toxics Project and Vina Colley, a former worker at the Portsmouth enrichment plant, were among the participants. Helms explained that she hopes to coordinate public work on the conversion initiative in the Oak Ridge, Paducah, and Portsmouth areas and that her main concerns are that the UF6 be safely handled, transported, and, after conversion, disposed of. Ray English was among those expressing the concerns of local residents. The DOE meeting was rescheduled for December 9. (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun, 11/7/01) Revision of contamination levels DOE has taken new measurements of contamination around the Paducah plant and accordingly revised its maps depicting contamination. The new figures and maps indicate dramatically less contamination than was found by CH2M Hill, when it surveyed the area as much as a decade ago for DOE and Martin Marietta Corp. For instance, the new maps show not only fewer surface-water locations with plutonium, but reduce plutonium readings in a couple of locations to one fiftieth of the previous measurements. No neptunium is now shown in groundwater, and at only two sites is there now neptunium in the soil or sediment. (Revised maps for uranium are still being compiled.) John Volpe, manager of the Kentucky Radiation Health and Toxic Agents Branch, says that the original measurements included margins of error greater than fifty percent and contamination levels beyond those that the instruments were calibrated to detect. He is reviewing old data for the Energy Department and has already rejected about forty percent of the measurements that he has checked. Don Seaborg, DOE's site manager at the plant, says that the new figures do not change cleanup strategy. However, Mark Donham of the Site Specific Advisory Board, said that the new maps call DOE's "whole program into question. It's extremely hard for us to have any faith in their figures." A spokesperson for CH2M Hill said that the company is unaware of any problems with its past work. The 153 plant neighbors who are suing past operators of the plant through Lockheed Martin Corp. fear that the new maps will hurt their legal case. Ronald Lamb of Kevil is among the neighbors. He told reporters that one of the original maps showed plutonium contamination 45 times greater than "background" at a site behind his house; the new maps show no contamination there. Critics of DOE claim that the new maps were intended to hinder landowners' claims. The trial in the landowners' suit is set for November 4, 2002 in US District Court in Owensboro. (James R. Carroll, [Louisville] Courier Journal, 11/25/01) PACE contract November 26 members of Local 5-550 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy (PACE) Workers International ratified by a narrow, undisclosed margin, an 18-month contract with USEC. All members of the union bargaining committee had recommended ratification. The new contract is retroactive to Jul 31 when the previous five-year contract expired, and extends until January 31, 2003. Members of the union had been working under a temporary no-strike/layoff agreement since August 29. The new contract is not tied to implementation of the US-Russian HEU agreement. Attempts by USEC to link the contract to USEC's remaining sole executive agent for the agreement had prevented the union and USEC from coming to an agreement in the summer. The new contract extends a four percent pay increase agreed upon in the summer until next July 31. A 3.4 percent increase will then take effect. It increases from 9% to 10% the union's part of the cost of insurance, but raises from $18 to $50 the amount that USEC adds to monthly pension payouts due to the rising costs of health care. (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun, 11/27/01) Fiscal year 2002 Energy and Water appropriations In the conference report on the Fiscal Year 2002 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, the Paducah plant received special attention. Under Environment, Safety and Health, $1.75 million was appropriated for the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky to perform epidemiological studies of workers. The conferees provided $13,329,000 for the Paducah Disposal Facility, the amount requested in the budget. On the other hand, the conferees stated their belief that the cleanup issues before DOE at Paducah require continued strong management oversight from headquarters. They directed the secretary of energy to provide for the management of environmental matters (including planning and budgetary activities) with respect to Paducah through the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management. She is to ensure that direct communication and thorough consultation exists at all times between herself and the head of the Paducah environmental cleanup programs. (The Conference Report does not give the total environmental management funding for the various sites for FY 2002. We are trying to obtain this information and will add it to this newsletter online if we succeed.) (Conference Report 107-258 available on [http://thomas.loc.gov] ; Jim Bridgman, Analysis of the Conference Report, [http://www.ananuclear.org] ; and Jim Bridgman, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, Personal Communication) III. PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT Truck accident October 14 a flatbed truck carrying two 30-gallon cylinders of "fissile" uranium hexafluoride (UF6) was struck a glancing blow by an out-of-control tractor-trailer on the West Virginia Turnpike near Beckley. According to a newspaper report, the truck with the UF6 "barely avoided rolling over." An Alberta, Canada, company, RSB Logistics Inc., which owns the truck, "could only confirm" that it "was coming from the Midwest United States with a radioactive cargo" and that the "fissile" designation meant that the UF6 had not been used in a reactor. Presumably the truck was carrying UF6 from the Portsmouth plant. (Charleston Daily Mail, 10/15/01) Transfer of operations from Portsmouth to Paducah USEC is considering moving transfer and shipping operations from the Portsmouth plant to the Paducah plant, although the company, earlier this year, promised to continue to ship from Portsmouth, product enriched at Paducah for four or five years. The Portsmouth transfer and shipping operation employs 430 people. Elizabeth Stuckle, USEC spokesperson, said that USEC will probably not make a decision before the end of December. The change could be complete by mid-2002. USEC officials met with members of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission November 20 to outline a proposed timetable for the move. The company hopes to receive NRC authorization by April 30 to have the shipping and transfer capability installed at Paducah and by June 30 to have other aspects of the move in place. USEC believes that the change would make the company more efficient. The PACE union, Governor Voinovich, Representative Ted Strickland, and Ohio's Senators are protesting USEC's change of plans. (Jonathan Riskind, Columbus Dispatch, 11/21/01) Public meeting on depleted UF6 DOE held a public meeting November 28 at Vern Riffe Vocational School in Piketon to hear comments on the scope of an Environmental Impact Statement on the construction of facilities to convert depleted UF6 to a more stable form. The issue of possible off-site contamination of air, soil, and water was raised, as was effects on wildlife. The first draft of the statement is scheduled for June 2002; the final draft for January 2003. Construction is scheduled to begin by 2004. (Josh Hickle, Portsmouth Daily Times, 11/29/01) IV. US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) Off-specification highly enriched uranium A report by a DOE team recommends that the majority of DOE's surplus off-specification HEU be commercially processed to make reactor fuel. DOE has about 55 metric tons of off-specification HEU. It is off specification, because it contains abnormally high concentrations of certain isotopes, particularly uranium 236. The Tennessee Valley Authority is already scheduled to downblend 33 tons of off-spec HEU for fuel for its reactors. The report concerns the remaining 22 tons. Part of the portion that is not commercially processed could be reprocessed for reactor fuel at Savannah River Site's H Canyon; part could be immobilized as waste. (WNA News Briefing, 10/31/01-11/6/01; Platts Nuclear News Flashes, 11/1/01) Whistleblower suit The most recent deadline for the US Department of Justice to decide whether it will join a whistle-blower suit against Lockheed Martin and its predecessors expired November 12. Assistant US Attorney Bill Campbell filed a motion asking US District Judge Joseph McKinley Jr. for the eighth extension of the decision-making period-to February 15, 2002. According to the motion, the plaintiffs and defendants concurred with the request. The suit was filed in mid 1999 by the Natural Resources Defense Council, its nuclear program director Thomas Cochran, and three workers at the Paducah plant. Joseph Egan, attorney for the plaintiffs, reports that the plaintiffs will continue their case whatever the decision of the Justice Department and that "we found enough new material recently that we are considering a whole new case." (Bill Bartleman, Paducah Sun, 11/14/01) Worker compensation Nancy Zuckerbrod of Associated Press reports that workers are asking to be better represented on a committee that will advise the government on implementation of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). The committee is primarily to advise on reconstruction of workers' radiation doses when official records are missing or insufficient. The legislation requires the White House to appoint a panel with "a balance of scientific, medical and worker perspectives." Ten people, only one of whom is a worker, have been selected. Some people work for DOE or affiliated organizations, a watchdog group reports. Two hundred and fifty claims for dose reconstruction have been submitted since the EEOICPA program officially began operation in July of this year. (11/09/01) Access to information The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) faxed a letter to Secretary of Energy Abraham November 27 expressing its concern that "access to information necessary for monitoring DOE's compliance with air and water pollution control laws, regulations, and procedures, such as reports required to be made accessible under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), are being removed from public view under the guise of 'national security.'" The letter asked Secretary Abraham a series of questions beginning, "Under what legal authority is access to documents such as Environmental Impact Statements being reviewed, removed or restricted?" and ending "Is there any provision for appealing decisions to remove items from public purview?" The text of the letter is available at [http://www.ananuclear.org] . Low-level waste disposal The conferees on the Fiscal Year 2002 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill stated that DOE, where cost effective, should use existing Federal contracts to dispose of low-level and mixed low-level waste at commercial off-site disposal facilities. Before proceeding with any new on-site disposal cell, DOE is directed to submit to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations an objective analysis comparing the life-cycle costs of on-site versus off-site disposal alternatives. Such a report should address the concerns identified by the General Accounting Office in its recent report GAO -01-441. They did not define "new on-site disposal cell" or specify any sites. Therefore, it is not clear whether the statement applies to Paducah or Portsmouth. (Conference Report 107-258) V. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Legislation on nuclear security November 29 Representative Edward Markey introduced in the House and Senator Harry Reid in the Senate legislation "to amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 to strengthen security at "sensitive nuclear facilities." The bills both include gaseous diffusion plants in the definition of "sensitive nuclear facilities." The House bill (HR 3382) has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce; the Senate bill (S 1746) to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The bills require the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure the protection of each sensitive nuclear facility against the design base threat. This threat must include an event similar to the events of September 11. ( [http://thomas.loc.gov] ) VI. UNITED STATES ENRICHMENT CORPORATION Price Anderson Act November 27 the US House of Representatives passed HR 2983, which extends the Price Anderson Act until August, 2017. The Senate does not have a bill devoted only to Price Anderson. Reauthorization of the act is included in various pieces of legislation that also cover other subjects. (Energy Communities Alliance, Bulletin, 11/01) USEC's future The Paducah Sun reported that, prior to the signing of a labor contract between USEC and PACE Local 5-550, the Bush administration was in the process of determining whether to maintain USEC's role as sole executive agent for the US-Russian HEU agreement and whether to assist the company in other ways. A summary of a two-option administration proposal was obtained by the Sun. The main plan would allow USEC to remain sole executive agent for the HEU agreement, if USEC submits a business plan that includes continued operation of the Paducah plant for ten years; deployment of a pilot centrifuge plant, using European technology, within five years; and construction of a centrifuge plant using new US technology within ten years. The pilot plant would presumably be at Portsmouth; the industrial plant at Paducah. If USEC cannot operate the Paducah plant for ten years, the government would, according to the main plan, take over operation. The alternative plan allows the utilities industry to begin buying Russian uranium in a market-based approach. USEC has stated that it needs the Russian uranium in order to continue to remain profitable. According to the summary, the government would run the Paducah plant, if this alternative approach is followed and brings about the collapse of USEC. The contract between USEC and PACE has been signed, but the Bush administration must still decide whether to retain USEC as the sole executive agent for the US-Russian HEU agreement. (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun. 11/10/01) For background on USEC's current situation see, under I.D. Enrichment, [http://www.earthisland.org/yggdrasil/uep11_01.html] . VII. RUSSIA Agreement to purchase Russian natural uranium Cameco, Cogéma, and Nukem have agreed to purchase a total of at least 56,000 metric tons of Russian uranium over the next twelve years. In March 1999, the companies signed a 15-year agreement with the Russian Techsnabexport (Tenex) giving them an option to purchase 72% of the natural uranium component of blended down weapons uranium that entered the United States as a result of the US-Russian HEU agreement. The new agreement is in the form of an amendment to the 1999 agreement, and binds the companies to buying at least an amount equivalent to the US sales quota. Over the next twelve years, Cameco and Cogéma will each purchase at least 24,000 tons and Nukem at least 8,200 tons. (Financial Post [Canada], 11/28/01) For background to this amendment, see the Uranium Enrichment Project's report "Privatization and the Russian HEU Agreement" at [http://www.earthisland.org/yggdrasil/uep112_01.html] . Purchase of HEU The Uranium Enrichment Project's November report "A Viable Domestic Uranium Industry?" recommends that the United States buy outright from Russia all the HEU that it is willing to sell; enable Russia to downblend it quickly; and have it then stored in Russia. ( [http://www.earthisland.yggdrasil/uep11_01.html] ) VIII. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY China and centrifuges Under a 1992 bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement, Russia is helping China to construct a centrifuge enrichment plant. The first and second lines of the plant, which are located in Hanjun in Gansu Province, went into operation in 1998 and 2000 respectively. The third line, which is located near Lanzhou in the same province, has just been completed, two years ahead of schedule. (Platts Nuclear News Flashes, 11/12/01) Urenco in the United States The Financial Times reported December 6 that the Urenco goup is "set to seek regulatory approval in January" to build a new centrifuge enrichment plant in the United States. Its partners will be Exelon and Duke Power. Other partners may be added, because Urenco plans to create a worldwide syndicate to raise the $1 billion that the project is estimated to cost. Klaus Messer, Urenco's chief executive, met with regulators in Washington the week of December 3. Urenco expects to construct the plant at a current nuclear site, and is considering both Paducah and Portsmouth. (Nancy Dunne, Financial Times, 12/06/01) Return to: [http://www.earthisland.org/yggdrasil/] ***************************************************************** 23 Stormont Executive urged to join Sellafield fight MONDAY 10/12/01 17:50:58 The Stormont Executive has been urged to combine forces with the Dublin Government in a bid to bring about the closure of Sellafield. Both Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan and Environment Minister Sam Foster were probed on the Executive`s response to unanimous support in the Assembly for the closure of the controversial Cumbrian site. Kieran McCarthy, of the Alliance, asked Mr Durkan to put pressure on the Westminster Government through the British Irish Council. ``The Irish Government and indeed others must be congratulated on their determination to use all means at their disposal to see the end of the activities being carried out at Sellafield. He called on the Executive to ``take very seriously the potential for disaster both in terms of terrorist threat and human error and co-operate as far as possible with the southern Government``. Mr Durkan promised the matter would be discussed further in the Environmental sector of the British Irish Council. He added the Irish and Manx governments would be leading the work on radioactive waste at the meeting. ``The precise attitude that we might take to some detailed issues in that context is for the Executive to determine but certainly the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister is alert to some of the concerns that have been expressed in this chamber,`` he said. George Savage, of the UUP, said it was a disgrace that the Environment Minister had not been consulted over the commissioning of the Mixed Oxide (MOX) plant at Sellafield. He asked Mr Foster if there had been any contact between his department and the Irish Government on the matter. The Stormont Environment Minister said he would participate fully in the Environment sector of the British Irish Council on the Sellafield issue. ``As the member knows, neither I nor my department have any jurisdiction over the operation or regulation of the Sellafield plant. ``It would not therefore be appropriate or productive for these issues to be dealt with bilaterally between the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive.`` Eddie McGrady, of the SDLP, called on Mr Durkan to ensure Sellafield topped the agenda at the next British Irish meeting. ``I think we also need a pro-active, co-ordinated action to represent the views of this Assembly against the licensing and the continuation of Sellafield,`` he said. ***************************************************************** 24 Ireland: Letters: Nuclear nonsense Irish Independent > LettersIssue Date: Tue December 11th 01 Sir Whatever spin the Attorney General wishes to put on the outcome of the Hamburg judgment, he can't avoid the fact that the State was defeated. It failed to secure an injunction and that was its main objective. It's about time this State stopped interfering in the internal affairs of another sovereign state and sorted out their own problems. Our politicians seem to be suffering from a dose of anglophobia and some from a chronic strain. Why should the UK take any notice of interfering low-grade politicians from another state? The people of the Isle of Man seem to have no trouble with Sellafield; neither do the people of Cumbria or Liverpool and neither do the people of UK. So why does the Irish Government have a problem? They say that the Irish Sea is polluted, yet there has been no comprehensive evidence to justify such a claim. They say there is a possibility that a terrorist attack can be launched against Sellafield or there could be an accident. There could be. This could also be said about any nuclear station, such as Four Mile Island on the east coast of the US. If that was attacked, the fall out could reach Ireland as quick as it could from Sellafield. If you don't think that is possible, cast your minds back some years to the eruption of Mount Helen in Washington state. If you recall, dust from it settled on cars in Ireland and as far away as Poland. I would prefer that there were no nuclear stations and I support moves to encourage nuclear countries to move away from the use of nuclear energy but not in a confrontational manner. Let those that don't agree with nuclear power put out their stand and state their case. If it's solid, it will stand and succeed. But adding anglophobia or any other phobia to the argument, it will surely fail. Ireland has its own potential danger and threat to the health of all of the residents of Dublin and the surrounding areas. I'm referring to the oil and gas storage in the docks area. If a suicide bomber had the mind to crash a plane into them, we would all be in trouble. Think what damage that could do. It seems the State has no plans for such a disaster. Wait a minute, maybe they have another Jacob Plan up their sleeves to rescue us. Maybe the Government should consider moving this potential danger out of Dublin and secure safety for Dublin citizens instead of hallucinating on what might or might not happen across the water. Jim Yates, Old Bawn, Dublin 24 © Copyright Unison ***************************************************************** 25 Ireland: Letters Airport radiation Irish Independent > LettersIssue Date: Tue December 11th 01 Sir Having read your article "Flying with big brother" (Weekender, December 1), I was aghast to learn that airports across the globe are intending to install x-ray scanners, which is not only a gross and unacceptable invasion of an individual's privacy but also exposes people to potential dangerous levels of radiation. There have been no independent studies carried out into the safety of x-ray scanners or any x-ray device currently in use, and the levels quoted in your article are hardly credible as they were produced by a company which stands to make millions on the sale of these machines. In our daily lives, we are exposed to ever-increasing levels of radiation from a myriad of gadgets and devices and the over zealous use of x-rays by a cavalier medical profession. The number of people dying from cancer and cancer related diseases has reached epidemic proportions, far exceeding the number killed by terrorism. There should be a concerted effort to limit people's exposure to radiation, not increase it. As far as the counter-terrorism argument goes, the tragic events of September 11 were a direct result of the US government's corrupt foreign policy and the equally corrupt bias dealings of the UN. Terrorism and what is conceived as terrorism will never be defeated until the fundamental causes, which are injustice and poverty, are addressed. In the meantime, it is up to us all to protest and protect our rapidly dwindling civil liberties and freedoms. Air travellers should refuse to use airports where this equipment is in operation and holiday makers should ask tour operators when booking if they will be exposed to this treatment. It is also time things were put into perspective. The risk of dying in a terrorist hijacking of an airliner is slightly less than being killed in an air accident, but your risk of dying of cancer is one in three. Tom Murray, Rathcoole, Co Dublin © Copyright Unison ***************************************************************** 26 UK ports on nuclear threat alert Lloyds List; Dec 10, 2001 BY CARLY FIELDS AS of the increasing paranoia over the loopholes open to terrorist manipulation in the shipping trade, British ports are to fit special devices to prevent the smuggling of nuclear material. In an attempt to block the use of so-called 'dirty bombs', British ministers have ordered a cordon in ports including Dover, Southampton, Hull, Felixstowe, Ramsgate and Portsmouth capable of detecting radioactive material. The devices will seek out traces of plutonium or enriched uranium and can be either hand held or attached to a static object, according to security officials. A spokesman for Customs and Excise refused to be drawn into speculation on the subject, saying that it was not the agency's policy to discuss and security measures at British ports. The move will be welcomed by security officials, who have been rattled by reports that Osama bin Laden may be able to make a dirty bomb, known as the poor man's nuclear weapon. ***************************************************************** 27 Czech, Austrian minister approve timetable of nuclear plant deal BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 10, 2001 Vienna, 10 December: [Czech] Foreign Minister Jan Kavan and Austrian Environment Minister Wilhelm Molterer today approved a timetable of steps aimed at the implementation of the Brussels agreement on the [Czech] Temelin nuclear power plant, signed by Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman and Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel [on 29 November]... The Czech Foreign Ministry will publish the timetable on its website www.mzv.cz on Tuesday [11 December]... Source: CTK news agency, Prague, in English 2040 gmt 10 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to Copyright ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Government finds higher rate of Lou Gehrig's disease in Gulf Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 11:44:44 -0600 (CST) Government finds higher rate of Lou Gehrig's disease in Gulf War veterans By LAURA MECKLER, Associated Press WASHINGTON (December 10, 2001 05:33 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com ) - In the first acknowledgement of a link between service in the Gulf and a specific disease, the government reported Monday that soldiers who served in the Gulf War were nearly twice as likely to develop Lou Gehrig's disease as other military personnel. The Veterans Administration said it would immediately offer disability and survivor benefits to veterans who served in the Persian Gulf during the conflict a decade ago. "The hazards of the modern day battlefield are more than bullet wounds and saber cuts," said Anthony Principi, secretary of Veterans Affairs. The results released Monday have not yet been reviewed by other scientists or published in an academic journal, but officials said they were releasing them now to prevent further delay in compensating victims of the progressive, fatal disease. "They need help now and we will offer them that help," Principi said. The study compared nearly 700,000 military personnel who served in the Gulf War between August 1990 and July 1991 with another 1.8 million personnel who were not deployed to the region. It found that those who were deployed were nearly twice as likely to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal neurological disorder often called Lou Gehrig's disease. Among Gulf War veterans, the rate of disease was 6.7 people per million. Among other military personnel, it was 3.5 per million. The rate was not uniform among all personnel. Those who served in the Air Force were 2.7 times as likely to contract the disease, and those in the Army were twice as likely. Disease rates among Marine and Navy veterans were not statistically different from personnel not in the Gulf. Researchers do not know why Gulf War veterans were more likely to contract the disease, the cause of which is unknown. Principi said the VA would continue research on the connection between other illnesses and the Gulf War and increase research into ALS to try and find a cause, treatment and cure. Advocates for veterans have long maintained that Gulf veterans were more likely to develop ALS but earlier, smaller studies failed to prove a connection. The same will be proven true for other illnesses, predicted Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center. "We've been proven right, and we're going to be proven right on a lot of other things as well," he said. "This whole issue is about to blow wide open." ***************************************************************** 2 [southnews] Bush says ABM treaty's days are numbered Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 17:12:57 -0600 (CST) Tiny Wireless Camera under $80! Order Now! FREE VCR Commander! Click Here - Only 1 Day Left! http://us.click.yahoo.com/75YKVC/7.PDAA/ySSFAA/7gSolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ---------- Bush says ABM treaty's days are numbered AFP Wednesday December 12, 6:26 AM US President George W. Bush vowed not to let the 1972 ABM Treaty stop him from deploying a missile shield, amid reports he may announce USwithdrawal from the accord in days. "We must move beyond the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a treaty that was written in a different era, for a different enemy," the president told a rowdy crowd of students at a military college here. Bush's comments came after Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency, citing anonymous sources, said the United States was planning to announce unilateral secession from the agreement soon, perhaps as early as December 13. "The time is coming when we will need to move beyond the ABM Treaty," White House national security spokesman Sean McCormack on being asked about the reports. "The president will let you know. The time is near." ITAR-TASS indicated that Moscow had been informed of Washington's imminent decision during the just completed visit there of US Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell was returning to the United States from the trip on Tuesday, and a senior State Department official who spoke with the secretary's entourage on board his plane refused to confirm or deny the report. "The president made clear his intentions about the ABM Treaty when he took office and even before then, but when we move beyond it is up for him to decide," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. A second official said he understood that a decision on withdrawing would come "soon" but may not happen until January, a view shared by a Republican Congressional official. On Monday in Moscow, Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov acknowledged that Russia and the United States remained at odds over the ABM Treaty. The Cold War-era accord requires that a party desiring to withdraw must give the other six months advance notice. US officials have repeatedly said the missile defense program will "bump up" against the treaty's limits within "months, not years." And Bush himself has said that Washington will push ahead with such a shield whether or not Moscow agrees to scrap or amend the accord, which aides say restricts even US ability to test promising technology. "America and our allies must not be bound to the past. We must be able to build the defenses we need against the enemies of the 21st century," Bush said, stressing that the September 11 terror strikes made his case "even more clear." The president warned success would have been more elusive in Afghanistan if the Taliban militia or their "guest," suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, had weapons of mass destruction and missiles able to reach the United States or key allies now supporting the war on terrorism. "Our coalition would have become fragile, the stakes in our war much, much higher. We must protect America and her friends against all forms of terror, including the terror that could arrive on a missile," he stressed. "Last week we conducted another promising test of our missile defense technology. For the good of peace, we're moving forward with an active program to determine what works and what does not work," Bush said. In the past, Bush -- who blames bin Laden for the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center -- has focused his appeals for missile defense on the threat posed by possible attacks from so-called "rogue states" such as Iraq or North Korea. The September onslaught prompted a slight but perceptible shift to emphasize the risks of a "rogue state" passing such deadly technology to terrorist groups, who by their elusive nature are less easy to deter than nations. On Tuesday, Bush also took pains to praise Russia as a "crucial partner" in the war on terrorism and said Moscow and Washington would step up cooperation to halt proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. "Our two countries will expand efforts to provide peaceful employment for scientists who formerly worked in Soviet weapons facilities (and) the United States will also work with Russia to build a facility to destroy tons of nerve agents," he said in a speech here. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: southnews-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 3 Hanford Advisory Board worried about future This story was published Sat, Dec 8, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer PORTLAND -- The dissolving of its counterpart in north Texas has the Hanford Advisory Board worried about its own future. The board discussed the matter Thursday in Portland. Earlier this year a Texas version of HAB at the Department of Energy's Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas, dissolved because of a combination of internal splits and DOE drastically limiting its role. Pantex is a nuclear weapons production plant that also has caused environmental cleanup problems similar to Hanford's. For years Pantex's public advisory board dealt with both weapons and cleanup issues under the idea that the weapons mission contributes to the area's environmental problems. But several months ago DOE limited the Pantex board's role so it could not provide advice on weapons production matters. Meanwhile, the Pantex board operated in a manner similar to the Hanford Advisory Board, which represents 32 diverse Hanford constituencies. That similarity is that any decision must receive close to unanimous support from its board members. The Pantex board had problems achieving that unanimity, said Todd Martin, chairman of the Hanford Advisory Board. Martin has discussed the matter with the leadership of similar public advisory boards at other DOE cleanup sites. In accordance with a federal law, DOE set up the public advisory boards several years ago. Meanwhile, HAB members are worried about what they perceive as an increasing trend by DOE's headquarters in Washington, D.C., to shortchange public input into the federal agency's cleanup decisions. And Martin said he and the leaders of the other public advisory boards plan to meet in February, with one of their agenda items possibly being to write a letter to DOE expressing concern that other boards might meet the Pantex's board's fate. HAB member Susan Leckband, representing Hanford's nonunion workers, noted that the federal law creating the DOE advisory boards will expire in May 2002. "Pantex might be a portent of things to come. ... All they have to do is nothing. Present company excepted (referring to Hanford's DOE officials), DOE is very good at doing nothing," Leckband said. HAB member Keith Smith, representing Hanford's union workers, contended the Hanford board has been much more productive than Pantex's board. "We've demonstrated that we can put aside our differences to reach consensus," Smith said. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 4 Study Links Gulf Illness, Gehrig's Las Vegas SUN Today: December 11, 2001 at 6:05:23 PST WASHINGTON- Tom Donnelly didn't need a government study to tell him that his son's debilitating disease is linked to his service in the Gulf War. But after years of lobbying the Pentagon to take the issue seriously, he welcomed the official news: Americans who served in the Gulf War were nearly twice as likely to develop Lou Gehrig's disease as other military personnel. "This is scientific proof positive," Donnelly said. "I feel the government finally has done at the end of 10 years what it should have done then - take this thing seriously." The Department of Veterans Affairs said Monday it would immediately offer disability and survivor benefits to veterans with the disease who served in the Persian Gulf during the conflict a decade ago. "The hazards of the modern day battlefield are more than bullet wounds and saber cuts," said Anthony Principi, secretary of Veterans Affairs. The new research, which included nearly 2.5 million military personnel, is one of the largest epidemiological studies ever conducted and offers the most conclusive evidence to date linking Gulf War veterans to a disease. Still, researchers don't know why these veterans were more likely to get sick. The study, funded by the Defense Department, compared nearly 700,000 military personnel who served in the Gulf War between August 1990 and July 1991 with 1.8 million personnel who were not deployed to the region. It found that those who were deployed were nearly twice as likely to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Researchers worked with health associations, VA hospitals and veterans organizations and examined death certificates to find 40 Gulf veterans with ALS. About half of them have already died. Sixty-seven cases were found among other military personnel. Among Gulf War veterans, the rate of disease was 6.7 people per million. Among other military personnel, it was 3.5 per million. The rate was not uniform among all personnel. Those who served in the Air Force were 2.7 times as likely to contract the disease, and those in the Army were twice as likely. Disease rates among Marine and Navy veterans were not statistically different from personnel not in the Gulf. Veterans have long maintained that a variety of illnesses are associated with service in the Gulf War, but scientific evidence has been scant and the Pentagon has resisted making the connection. Last year, the National Academy of Sciences was unable to link any of these complaints to a specific cause associated with military service. "There was massive denial and obfuscation for years," said Donnelly, of South Windsor, Conn. The top health official at the Defense Department, Dr. Bill Winkenwerder Jr., said Monday that the conclusions are "not the study results we'd like to report." He allowed that Pentagon officials have taken complaints about Gulf War illnesses less seriously in the past. "There's been a maturation of thinking about health risks associated with deployed military service," said Winkenwerder, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. In October, a federally funded study suggested children of Gulf War veterans are two to three times as likely as those of other vets to have birth defects, but Defense officials questioned the research methodology and were skeptical of the results. The results released Monday have not yet been reviewed by other scientists or published in an academic journal, and officials cautioned that they are preliminary. They said they were releasing them now to prevent further delay in compensating victims of the progressive, fatal disease. "They need help now and we will offer them that help," Principi said. To qualify for benefits after leaving the military, veterans must prove that their illnesses are related to military service. Principi said all those with ALS who served in the Gulf War will be automatically approved. About 5,000 Americans are diagnosed each year with ALS, a fatal disease of the nervous system whereby muscles stop receiving signals to operate. Victims' bodies slowly shut down, losing their ability to move, to swallow and eventually to breath, though their minds remain alert. "I used to say if anybody called central casting and said, `Send up a fighter pilot,' this is the guy they would send," Donnelly said of his 6-foot-4-inch son. "Now he has wasted away to bones and skin." Principi said the VA would continue research on the connection between other illnesses and the Gulf War and increase research into ALS in search of a cause, treatment and cure. Connections will soon be proven for other illnesses, predicted Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center. "We've been proven right, and we're going to be proven right on a lot of other things as well," he said. "This whole issue is about to blow wide open." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Pakistan rejects nuclear scientist reports BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | 11 December, 2001, Two nuclear scientists picked up last month are still being questioned [Zaffar Abbas] By the BBC's Zaffar Abbas Pakistan has strongly denied media reports that some of its nuclear scientists were working for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network or were involved in any clandestine activity in Burma. This followed reports in the Indian and US media which suggested that apart from two former scientists detained by the Pakistani authorities, investigations had been launched on two more nuclear scientists. Reacting sharply to the reports, a Pakistani military spokesman, Major General Rashid Qureshi, said these were part of a malicious campaign against the country. He said most of these reports were originating from the Indian media and were then being picked up by some western publications without any verification. No basis General Quereshi said the latest report of the involvement of two more nuclear scientists with the Taleban or the Burmese authorities for building weapons of mass destruction had absolutely no basis. Pakistan and arch rival India are both nuclear powers He said two former scientists picked up by the authorities last month for allegedly having links with the Taleban were still in detention. But no other scientist had been arrested or been questioned for any illegal work, he said. He said even the names given by the media of these scientists were incorrect and said no one by such names works for the Pakistani nuclear establishment. Taleban 'links' Last month, Pakistani intelligence officers detained two nuclear scientists, Bashiruddin Mehmood and Chaudhry Majid. The two were being questioned about activities of their relief organisation in Afghanistan and their possible links with the Taleban or Osama bin Laden. At least five other members of their relief organisation, who had nothing to do with scientific activities, were also detained. The authorities have refused to divulge further information about the interrogation of the two scientists but they said none of the scientists presently linked to Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme was being questioned. ***************************************************************** 6 Governors Seek Funds for Homeland Security Environment News Service: By Cat Lazaroff WASHINGTON, DC, December 10, 2001 (ENS) - The nation's governors have asked Congress for at least $2 billion in federal funds to support efforts to improve the ability of state and local health systems to respond to bioterrorism. The governors say that their states cannot shoulder the responsibility of keeping the nation's populace safe from biological weapons such as anthrax and smallpox. [pipelines] States are spending millions of dollars to guard potential terrorist targets like these natural gas pipelines in West Texas, which serve power plants in Arizona, California and New Mexico (Photo courtesy El Paso Energy Co.) The National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices released preliminary survey results last week outlining the estimated costs to the states of reaching the security goals called for by President George W. Bush and the new Office of Homeland Security. Featuring data from 17 states and one territory, and representing more than 25 percent of the United States population, the survey predicts that the cost of homeland security to the states could reach about $4 billion in the first year alone. About $3 billion of the estimated costs would go toward emergency communications and guarding against bioterrorism, while the remaining $1 billion would fund protections for critical infrastructure such as water and sewage services. Vermont Governor Howard Dean cited new security responsibilities as significant problems for states already facing budget shortfalls. "Since September 11, it has become apparent that our emergency response and security networks were woefully underfunded. Governors were requested to assist in the security of our nation's borders, airports, nuclear power plants, dams and bridges, many of which fall under federal jurisdiction without a defined plan of reimbursement for the costs incurred," Dean said. "For the many states that are currently facing budget crisis, spending millions of dollars to purchase gas masks, communications equipment for first responders and maintain security at key facilities will require cuts in other state programs." Bioterrorism preparedness has taken on new urgency since the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the anthrax laden letters mailed in the following weeks. Everything from public buildings to drinking water sources to food supplies is now viewed as a potential terrorist target, and governments at all levels are scrambling to craft plans to counter or contain any attacks that might occur. Just last week, Governor Tom Ridge, head of the new White House Office of Homeland Security, warned the nation that intelligence offices had received word of potential new threats from terrorists. [Ridge] Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge (Photo courtesy Office of Homeland Security) "We are a nation at war. We are the targets of enemies who have demonstrated they have no remorse about killing thousands of innocent civilians," Ridge said. "The government will continue to do everything we can to find and stop those who seek to harm us. And I believe we owe it to the American people to remind them that they must be vigilant, as well." Several bills now before Congress would provide homeland defense funds only to federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Few people in Washington seem to understand that our nation's public health system is built and supported by state and local governments and that we, the states, will be held accountable for ensuring that resources are both available and properly distributed in case of a bioterrorism or chemical attack," said NGA executive director Ray Scheppach. "The NGA survey results make a strong case for the authorization of federal legislation to create funding that is sent directly to states to assist in the modernization of our public health infrastructure." Homeland Security Director Ridge has emphasized that cooperation between federal, state and local agencies will be crucial to protection America's citizens from bioterrorism. "We've been in frequent communication either with the organizations or with individual governors, and I think their work to date has reflected the kind of relationship between the federal and the state and local government that we need to make a permanent part of our homeland security defense," Ridge told reporters last week. But the nation's governors say more support for state and local efforts will be needed. [reservoir] Drinking water resources like Shasta Lake, California's largest reservoir, could be targest for bioterrorism (Photo courtesy NOAA) "We have sent a letter to all of the Congressional leaders that reiterates what states need in the final [funding] package - $2 billion to strengthen the public health systems ability to handle a bioterrorism attack and a substantial fund for state discretionary grants to protect vital infrastructure," said Governor Dean. To obtain a preliminary estimate of state costs for homeland security, the National Governors Association (NGA) surveyed governors in early November - just over six weeks since the September 11 attacks - to learn how much they had already spent and how much they expected to spend in the coming months. The NGA learned that since September 11, states have borne substantial costs for state and local law enforcement personnel - the first line of domestic defense - who guard energy supplies, water resources, bridges, tunnels, inland waterways, ports, and many local and regional airports. Many of these facilities were unprotected, lightly protected, or protected only by private security personnel before September 11. Police, fire and other emergency personnel have consumed millions of dollars in overtime costs in responding to actual terrorist threats, and continue to spend millions responding to false alarms involving bomb threats and suspicious mail. West Virginia, like many other states, has spent more than $500,000 so far on law enforcement overtime to protect transportation, industry and infrastructure. National Guard troops have been called up, and state employees have been asked to patrol and protect West Virginia's highways, bridges, waterways, refineries and public buildings for a cost of more than $4 million. Most of these new security measures are not temporary, and the state's entire concept of security has changed permanently. Other costs to the states involve upgrading the capacity of state health laboratories, emergency response personnel, and communication systems. [Daschle letter] Anthrax laden letters like this one have prompted state and local governments to expand the capacity of health facilities and laboratories (Photo courtesy FBI) Experiences since September 11 have demonstrated that even a relatively small number of mailings contaminated with anthrax can test the public health infrastructure in unexpected ways. Since the anthrax mail attacks this fall, many state health laboratories have been running around the clock to analyze suspicious substances found in offices or letters. Upgrading these facilities to meet the new demands is expected to costs millions of dollars. In Michigan, for example, the state has already spent $2,691,900 for epidemiologists, microbiologists and lab personnel to bolster the state's response capabilities for anthrax and other potential biological weapons. Kentucky, for example, the state has already spent $1.6 million to buy new equipment such as vehicles, chemical and biological weapons detectors, laboratory equipment, secure communications and other specialized gear. "If Congress only provides funds to the federal government for homeland security and bioterrorism, it will be making a large mistake," said Kentucky Governor and NGA vice chair Paul Patton. "State budgets are already burdened by the recession and we have responded to the requests of various federal agencies for assistance in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and to be blunt, these services aren't cheap. We need funds that will afford us the flexibility necessary to deal with the broad range of security responsibilities that now confront every governor." The NGA's Center for Best Practices plans to continually update the survey as results from additional states become available. ***************************************************************** 7 Problems arise in promoting DOE's 'security' presentation Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:25 p.m. on Tuesday, December 11, 2001 With all the talk these days about the Department of Energy's heightened security measures, it's still possible for some of the smallest things to just slip through the cracks. That was apparently the case last week when some folks got their feathers ruffled over what could be called a "public relations blunder." The hoopla centered around promoting last night's meeting of the Oak Ridge Site-Specific Advisory Board. Bechtel Jacobs Co., the DOE contractor who works with the SSAB, issued a press release Thursday concerning the meeting. The document stated, and I quote: "Oak Ridge Reservation security measures to be discussed at Site Specific Advisory Board meeting." Long before that, postcard notices of the security presentation were sent to a couple of local advisory groups that monitor DOE activities and SSAB officials even boasted about the talk during the group's November meeting. If you look at the minutes for that meeting, it clearly states that the December presentation would consist of a "panel discussion of safeguard and security measures for the Oak Ridge Reservation." However, somebody must have forgotten to tell DOE what they were supposed to talk about. Following the publication of a story I did Thursday previewing the meeting, I got a phone call from Dennis Hill, a public affairs official with Bechtel Jacobs, who indicated there was a problem with my story and asked if the situation could be rectified. In the past, it has been brought to my attention that DOE likes to look over the press releases issued by its contractors. So, I decided to consult DOE about this incorrect press release. "The SSAB press release incorrectly emphasized what the presentation was going to be about," said Walter Perry, a spokesman for DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office. He said the meeting would feature a presentation and discussion on emergency preparedness and emergency communications on the Oak Ridge Reservation, not security issues. Perry said DOE did not look over the SSAB press release before it was sent out. "That's one of the lessons learned on our end," he said. "It shouldn't have happened." While this whole scenario was playing out, I kept thinking about a time when a DOE official informed me that I needed to be very careful in writing my stories because mistakes were not acceptable. But, of course, this warning came from an agency that took a good year to get my name spelled correctly on a fax cover sheet. In closing, I will admit that I do agree with Perry that the situation should not have happened. But it was a mistake. Mistakes happen. We're only human. DOE'S LOSS: The Oak Ridge Site-Specific Advisory Board recently requested to be a part of the Department of Energy's Land-Use Planning Focus Group. The SSAB is a federally appointed citizens' panel that provides advice and recommendations to the Department of Energy on its Oak Ridge environmental management program. In a written response to the group, Leah Dever, DOE's Oak Ridge chief, basically said no. "We do not want to dilute any of your efforts in advising the department on (environmental management) matters," Dever wrote to Luther Gibson, chairman of the SSAB. Speaking of this land-use effort, officials involved with the focus group will hold an informal information session from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Cumberland Room of Oak Ridge Mall. GOODBYE: Oak Ridge's DOE cleanup program is losing an important figure. Rod Nelson, assistant manager for the agency's local Environmental Management program, is retiring. Paul Parson is the science and technology reporter for The Oak Ridger. He can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or [pparson@oakridger.com] . [http://www.oakridger.com/dailydouble] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 8 Crane devices could detect ''dirty bomb'' radiation at port HAMPTON ROADS - Business By DENNIS O'BRIEN, The Virginian-Pilot © December 11, 2001 The engineers hope to mount radiation detectors on the port's container cranes, which lift all containers onto or off ships. The Virginia Port Authority, which owns VIT, needs federal help to test the system using radioactive material. But port officials are frustrated by the glacial pace of the federal government. Their frustration is fueled by fear that terrorists will use the port to ship a ``dirty bomb'' -- a deadly mix of radioactive material and explosives that can spew enough radiation to poison people and render areas uninhabitable for years. Using intelligence information and educated guesswork, the U.S. Customs Service typically selects about 2 percent of inbound containers for inspection. About 400,000 containers were imported through the Port of Hampton Roads last year, with an equal number of containers exported. ... Read more in The Virginian-Pilot or at PilotOnline.com ThinkIn--> Engineers at Virginia International Terminals believe they have come up with a way to test every shipping container unloaded at the port for radioactive material that might be used by terrorists in a ``dirty bomb.'' The engineers hope to mount radiation detectors on the port's container cranes, which lift all containers onto or off ships. The Virginia Port Authority, which owns VIT, needs federal help to test the system using radioactive material. But port officials are frustrated by the glacial pace of the federal government. Their frustration is fueled by fear that terrorists will use the port to ship a ``dirty bomb'' -- a deadly mix of radioactive material and explosives that can spew enough radiation to poison people and render areas uninhabitable for years. Using intelligence information and educated guesswork, the U.S. Customs Service typically selects about 2 percent of inbound containers for inspection. About 400,000 containers were imported through the Port of Hampton Roads last year, with an equal number of containers exported. Concerns that an imported shipping container could hold radioactive material prompted VIT, the port authority's operating arm, to consider ways it could detect radioactive containers as they are unloaded, said Robert R. Merhige III, the authority's deputy executive director. C. Davis ``Dave'' Rudolf III, VIT's director of engineering and maintenance, and Richard N. Knapp, assistant general manager, think they have found a solution. Rudolf and Knapp, both experienced engineers, proposed mounting a radiation detector in a 2-by-3-foot box on the part of the crane that contacts containers. The box would also contain a wireless transmitter that would sound an alarm and disable the crane if radiation is detected. To test the idea, VIT contacted Bartlett Nuclear Inc., a leading supplier of radiation protection, detection and decontamination equipment based in Plymouth, Mass. Last month, Bartlett rigged the device designed by Rudolf and Knapp on the No. 2 crane at Norfolk International Terminals and conducted preliminary tests on the system. The system worked. ``We can put one of these on cranes and check every container tomorrow,'' Merhige said. Installing the equipment on VIT's 20 cranes would cost about $20,000 apiece, Merhige said. Considering that the cranes cost between $5 million and $6 million each, a $20,000 upgrade to ensure that radioactive material is not slipping through would be well worth it, Merhige said. ``That's nothing,'' he said. But first the authority would like proof that the system will in fact detect and stop a radioactive container. But the port authority lacks the expertise and equipment to safely conduct a test using radioactive material on its own. It would like the federal government to play an active role so that if the system does work, it can be implemented nationwide, Merhige said. The problem is that the federal government has shown little interest in the idea, he said, or in testing the equipment. The port authority first contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but the FBI ``never got back to us,'' Merhige said. For several weeks the port authority also has been trying to reach the appropriate people in the U.S. Department of Energy who could arrange safe testing. About two weeks ago, the VPA turned to Rep. Edward Schrock, R-2nd District, and asked him to act as a liaison to guide the port authority's testing request through the federal bureaucracy. ``Not knowing what's in those containers causes me great concern,'' Schrock said Friday. A staffer in Schrock's Washington office is working on the VPA's request, but ``it hasn't gotten very far yet,'' Schrock said. The freshman congressman said that one avenue to pursue might be to call Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge. ``I wouldn't hesitate for a second to call the director of homeland security,'' Schrock said. ``I haven't yet, but if it takes too long I'm going to call, and I'm not going to wait much longer.'' The U.S. Customs Service's Norfolk office used to have a truck-mounted X-ray machine that can scan shipping containers in six seconds without opening them, but that machine was shipped to the Port of New York/New Jersey a few days after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Since then, containers coming into Norfolk have been inspected by hand. The Customs Service told Schrock that it will return or replace Norfolk's container X-ray machine by February. By then, an estimated 84,000 shipping containers will have been unloaded from ships onto docks in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News. Port industry concerns about the potential for ``dirty bombs'' in shipping containers have been mounting since Sept. 11, and the possibility that one could be unloaded in Norfolk, within a stone's throw of the Atlantic Fleet, ranks at the top of nightmare scenarios regarding port security here. Heightening concerns, intelligence gathered after the fall of Kabul details al-Qaida's keen interest in nuclear terror. Among the intelligence: a ``dirty-bomb'' diagram found in a cache of documents abandoned by fleeing Taliban and al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported last week. Reach Dennis O'Brien at dobrien@pilotonline.com or 446-2355. Copyright 2001, HamptonRoads.com / PilotOnline.com Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 9 Terrorists shop in Russia for nuclear 'dirty bombs' Bill Wallace, Chronicle Staff Writer [bwallace@sfchronicle.com] Monday, December 10, 2001 Washington -- One November morning six years ago, Shamil Basayev, a Chechen rebel, tipped a Russian television reporter that a radioactive weapon had been buried in Izmailovo Park in downtown Moscow. It was a warning of the horror Russia could face if it continued military operations in Chechnya. In fact, a lead container with a quantity of radioactive cesium inside -- enough to irradiate a wide area if detonated properly -- was later recovered at the park. Such a weapon, known as a "dirty bomb," is "the most accessible nuclear device for any terrorist," said Bruce Blair, the director of the Center for Defense Information, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. Indeed, it's the terrorist weapon most feared in the wake of the September attacks on New York and the Pentagon. There is ample evidence that Osama bin Laden has tried to obtain nuclear devices, and the Washington Post reported last week that there was a deepening fear in the Bush administration that there could be such an attack. "It is something that the president is concerned about and takes seriously," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said at a press briefing last Wednesday, "and every precaution is being put in place." It's a reasonable fear, Blair told The Chronicle. "There is no question that there is plenty of radioactive waste around that could be acquired and turned into a dirty bomb just by wrapping it around dynamite," he said. "I am quite fatalistic about this threat." SHOPPING MALL FOR TERRORISTS Since the collapse of communism, the lax security and poor controls at Soviet nuclear warfare facilities have made Russia and its former satellites a key marketplace -- a virtual "Sharper Image" -- for terrorists. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that there are 603 tons of weapons- grade nuclear material inside the former Soviet republics, enough to build 41, 000 nuclear weapons. So far, only about 200 tons of this material have been properly secured with fences, alarm systems, detection sensors and gates, according to a recent study by the U.S. General Accounting Office. The Department of Energy estimates that security measures will not be in place at all Russian facilities until 2020. A Department of Energy report issued earlier this year by a task force headed by former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker and Washington power lawyer Lloyd Cutler put the peril posed by weak Russian nuclear safeguards bluntly: "The most urgent unmet national security threat to the United States today is the danger that weapons of mass destruction or weapons-usable material in Russia could be stolen and sold to terrorists or hostile nation-states and used against American troops abroad or citizens at home." The Izmailovo Park device offers a glimpse at the real threat that terrorists might devise and use a dirty, or radiation, bomb. "What it (the incident) demonstrates is that acquiring the materials you need to make a dirty bomb is really fairly trivial," Blair said. " . . . What this reveals is the attention that one terrorist group was willing to give to the potential for this type of weapon." STOLEN FROM NUCLEAR PLANT The material used in the Izmailovo Park weapon appears to have been stolen from one of Russia's many unsecured nuclear facilities. A week after the cesium was recovered from the Moscow park, Russian authorities found four 198- pound lead vessels in an abandoned mine shaft in the Ural Mountains that contained the same material. The cesium found in the Urals had been stolen from an industrial plant a short time before. It was not the first time radioactive material was lifted from a former Soviet facility, nor would it be the last. In 1993, scientists at the Sukhumi nuclear research center in Georgia fled oncoming Georgian insurgents, leaving behind two kilograms of highly enriched uranium, enough to make a deadly radiation bomb. When a Russian team returned four years later, the radioactive material was gone. "That is actually the most serious case," said Blair. "It doesn't get much more serious than that. That's the kind of material you use to make a real nuclear weapon, not just a dirty bomb." In 1996, Russian officials reported that a large cache of nuclear waste -- including plutonium and uranium isotopes used in atomic weapons -- was missing from a storage site in Chechnya. And just last year, authorities at the border between Uzbekistan and Pakistan seized ten lead-lined containers of strontium 90, a material that can be used to turn a conventional explosive device into a radiation weapon. There is little question that bin Laden has coveted nuclear weaponry for years. He once said that acquiring weapons of mass destruction for use in the war against the West was a "religious duty." In 1998, an aide to bin Laden, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, was arrested in Germany for reportedly attempting to obtain highly enriched uranium in the mid- 1990s. Testimony during recent trials of bin Laden associates in Egypt and the United States included word of his al Qaeda terrorist group's repeated efforts to buy nuclear weaponry and radioactive material. 'SUITCASE BOMB' In the past five years, bin Laden has spent more than $3 million attempting to acquire a portable nuclear device from sources in the former Soviet Union, said Yossef Bodansky, the staff director of the U.S. Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare and author of "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America." Bodansky said bin Laden had been most interested in obtaining a "suitcase bomb" that would be harder to detect and easier to deliver than a conventional bulky military weapon. "Although there is debate over the precise quantities of weapons purchased, there is no longer much doubt that bin Laden has finally succeeded in his quest for nuclear suitcase bombs," Bodansky said. Since 1991, the United States has spent roughly $2 billion on various programs to help prevent Russian nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists. The effort has succeeded in securing nuclear weapons and facilities in a number of parts of the former Soviet Union, and eliminating them entirely in Kazakstan and Ukraine. But policymakers and disarmament experts say the program has been underfunded and complicated by the fact that many Russian officials remain reluctant to allow U.S. personnel to enter secret facilities or have data on their nuclear arsenal. Whatever the reasons, experts say U.S. efforts to deny terrorists access to the store of Russian nuclear materials so far just haven't been good enough. "It's a serious threat, and one that requires serious attention," said Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and an assistant secretary of defense during the Clinton administration. "But if you look at our performance on preparing for chemical or biological or nuclear weapons, it looks a lot like airport security did before Sept. 11," he said. "If we were giving a report card, you would have to say we are failing." E-mail Bill Wallace at bwallace@sfchronicle.com [bwallace@sfchronicle.com] . ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle   Page A - 1 ***************************************************************** 10 Russia: Police: Seized Uranium Was Not Weapons-Grade - The St. Petersburg Times. #729, Tuesday, December 11, 2001 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW - The Interior Ministry said Saturday that the uranium seized last week when police arrested a half-dozen men allegedly trying to sell it was low-grade material that would have been useless to a nuclear terrorist. Police seized more than one kilogram of uranium from six suspects, who allegedly tried to sell it for $30,000 to an organized-crime group. The Interior Mi nistry moved quickly to say that it appeared to be a low-level deal between mob groups and not a bid to sell the material to a terrorist group. Nuclear experts were called in to analyze the seized uranium, contained in a safe capsule, to determine the exact level of its enrichment and origins. Officials said Saturday that the results of the analysis showed that the material was relatively low-grade. The suspects had "uranium tablets ... of the kind used in heat-releasing elements of power reactors at nuclear-power plants," Bulat Nigmatulin, deputy nuclear power minister, told Interfax. "Those tablets have nothing to do with weapons-grade uranium even theoretically." Viktor Zakharov, head of the Moscow region's Federal Security Service, said the material could even be handled with bare hands. Police arrested the six suspects overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday near a roadside cafe on the Gorky highway 19 kilometers southeast of Moscow. Investigators said the suspects allegedly belonged to the Balashikha criminal gang. In the economic turmoil following the Soviet collapse, there have been regular seizures of nuclear materials stolen by people who tried to sell them for profit, but all have involved low-active uranium or cesium unfit to manufacture nuclear weapons. Russian officials have repeatedly said that no weapons-grade nuclear materials have been stolen. [Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2001 ***************************************************************** 11 Putin presses US to sign treaty on nuclear cuts The Guardian - United Kingdom; Dec 11, 2001 BY IAN TRAYNOR IN MOSCOW The Kremlin called on Washington yesterday to join it in a new arms control treaty, committing the two countries to a radical reduction of nuclear warheads. President Vladimir Putin told the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, in the Kremlin that they should conclude the treaty when President George Bush visits Moscow for a summit, expected by the middle of next year. Both countries have said they are ready to agree on big nuclear arms cuts, but Washington is reluctant to sign a legally binding pact. Eager to do away with much of the nuclear arsenal Russia cannot afford to maintain, Mr Putin has spoken of reducing the stock of warheads to less than a quarter, around 1,500. In Texas last month, Mr Bush told Mr Putin that the US planned to cut its warheads from 7,000 to less than 2,200. But his government is averse to international treaties, preferring to maintain the maximum room for manoeuvre, and has said that Russia and the US could simply shake hands and agree to slash their arsenals. The Russians declined to say yesterday how many warheads they wanted to keep. ***************************************************************** 12 The nuke pipeline CNN.com - The nuke pipeline - December 17, 2001 The trade in nuclear contraband is approaching critical mass. Can we turn off the spigot? By Jeffrey Kluger Reported by Yevgenia Borisova/Moscow, Andrew Finkel/Istanbul, Andrew Purvis/Vienna, Jan Stojaspal/Prague, Michael Weisskopf/Washington, Regine Wosnitza/Berlin The six men who gathered at the roadside cafe southeast of Moscow last Thursday did not go there for the food. They went there for the uranium. Some of the men, members of the Balashikha criminal gang, claimed to be in possession of 2 lbs. of uranium 235, the kind of top-shelf radioactive material that can be used to build weapons. They were asking $30,000 for the deadly merchandise. The others--the buyers--seemed prepared to pay it. The deal may actually have gone off had Russian security forces not been watching. They swept in, arrested all six men and were led back to the apartment of a seventh, where a capsule containing the promised uranium was hidden. By that evening, the case--the first officially acknowledged theft in Russia of weapons-grade uranium--was getting big play on local TV. The Russian police had reason to be proud; the rest of the world had one more reason to be nervous. For while the bust was disturbing, it was hardly unique. After 60 years of building nuclear bombs and nuclear reactors, the world is fairly awash in radioactive slag--from spent fuel rods to medical waste and contaminated tools--much of it held under little if any security in labs, hospitals and factories. Even the high-test weapons-grade material that's supposed to be locked down at military installations is not as secure as it ought to be. Some weapons-storage facilities don't even have video monitors. That such deadly material is so loosely guarded has been the source of much anxiety since Sept. 11--most of it focused on Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Last week reports surfaced of a meeting in Afghanistan at which an al-Qaeda associate waved a canister of what he said was nuclear material in the air to demonstrate to bin Laden and others how much progress had been made in securing the stuff. But bin Laden is only a part of the nuclear terror problem. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of global terrorist groups, a new market has emerged to manage the increased supply of--and demand for--nuclear contraband. More and more radioactive material has been getting filched, bundled and sent flowing through an increasingly busy pipeline from Russia and the old Soviet states into the hands, it is feared, of people desperate enough to use it. The Russian government alone lists up to 200 terrorist organizations it believes may be trying to obtain nuclear material. In Istanbul last month, Turkish undercover officers arrested two smugglers who attempted to sell them more than 2.5 lbs. of non-weapons grade uranium for $750,000. In July police in Paris raided an apartment in which three men were holding a small quantity of highly enriched uranium and plane tickets to various East European countries. And these busts are only the high-profile ones. Russia has broken up 601 attempted transactions since 1998. The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna reports 376 since 1993, and Turkey has recorded 104 cases of non-weapons grade smuggling in that same time. Moreover, for every trafficker who has been caught, chances are that many more are still in the game--a fact that has security planners deeply worried. "The global effort to control nuclear weapons is based on control of nuclear material," says Matthew Bunn, a nuclear expert at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a former adviser to President Bill Clinton. "If that stuff gets on the market, nothing else we do will work." The likeliest source of most radioactive booty is Russia and the surrounding states, and the material they have to offer comes in two varieties. Top-quality, weapons-grade material is the only kind that can used to build a true nuclear-fission bomb, and is both hard to obtain and harder to turn into an explosive. But lower-grade radioactive rubbish is also dangerous. It can be fashioned into a so-called dirty bomb: a conventional explosive packed with waste that spreads radiation in all directions. There are at least 100 facilities around the former Soviet Union that store warheads and weapons-grade material, and most of them are reportedly not properly secured. Along the country's eastern coast, according to some sources, up to 80 abandoned, loosely guarded nuclear submarines are rusting in bays and inlets, their torpedo tubes and other openings providing possible access for intruders and an exit for radioactive leakage. The country's nuclear power plants may be just as porous. At the Leningrad facility near the Gulf of Finland, sources say vodka and drugs flow freely among the workers, most of whom earn barely 3,000 rubles a month--about $100. Poorly paid, highly inebriated men make a shabby line of defense against terrorists and traffickers. Vaclav Havlik, a Czech citizen who was part of a group of uranium smugglers arrested near Munich in 1994, told Time that obtaining material from Russia was no great chore. "It was like going for vacation by the sea and bringing back a sack of shells," he says. At the same time that smugglers are getting better at obtaining their merchandise, they are also getting smarter about transporting it. The first nuclear black marketeers carried their contraband straight out of Russia and into Europe, across some of the best-guarded borders in the world. As customs officials caught wise, the smugglers started shifting their route south, running a flanking pattern through Central Asia, the Caucasus Mountains and Turkey before resurfacing in Europe. This modified buttonhook play allows traffickers to take advantage of established drug routes--a smart strategy, since customs agents in a place such as Tajikistan, where 200 tons of drugs may cross the border on a busy day, can easily overlook a few ounces of nuclear contraband. The black marketeers who get caught are often carrying only a few spoonfuls of nuclear material, but that's little comfort. More and more, risk-averse traffickers travel with just a taste of what they're selling rather than the entire inventory. Once they find a buyer, they can attempt the riskier business of delivering the full supply. Just how little they would need to deliver is another source of worry. While a full-scale nuclear bomb may require 100 lbs. of enriched uranium, a more modest device, particularly one fueled by plutonium, could be built with just 10 lbs. (about 4 kg). "Four kilos of plutonium," says Lidia Popova of Russia's Center for Nuclear Ecology and Energy Policy, "is the amount that could sit in your palm." For terrorists who can't get their hands on any weapons-grade uranium, there's the option of the dirty bomb. Allied forces overrunning a suspected al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan a few weeks ago found at least one diagram suggesting the design of such a weapon. To build this type of explosive, terrorists could use almost any kind of nuclear rubbish--perhaps even the water in Russia's Lake Karachai, a nuclear dumping ground that fairly crackles with radioactivity. The International Atomic Energy Agency believes that dirty bombs may not be as lethal as many people assume. The explosion would be a conventional one, and the radiation might not pack much toxic wallop--depending on wind, topography and the radioactive material. The disruption, terror and economic impact, however, would be incalculable. Says Popova: "If such a bomb explodes in a city, very quickly panic will spread." Despite all this, antiterrorism forces have reason for hope. Turkey, with the help of the U.S., has instituted stepped-up security measures at its borders, installing radiation detectors at key crossings--particularly those leading from Iraq, Iran and Georgia. (Unconfirmed reports suggest that Iran and Georgia are doing the same.) The Turkish government won't say explicitly if its security efforts have been ratcheted up since Sept. 11. "The answer is pretty obvious," says Erdener Birol, acting head of Turkey's atomic-energy authority. Like so much else in the terror wars however, the job of truly securing the nukes--especially in Russia--may fall to the U.S. But Washington doesn't seem to be giving the problem top priority. When the Bush Administration took office, a program was already in place to help Russia dispose of 34 tons of surplus plutonium. When the program crossed the new President's desk, however, he slashed its projected $87 million price tag, seeking just $57 million. Washington and Moscow have also been hard at work in recent years improving security at Russia's nuclear-material storage sites, only 40% of which come up to U.S. standards. The Clinton Administration anticipated $225 million for the project this year, a 30% boost over the previous year. President Bush countered with a $30 million cut. Congress kept the funding at last year's level. Perhaps the most troubled of the existing antinuclear programs is one that relies on the power of capitalism. In 1993 the U.S. agreed to buy 500 metric tons of Russian nuclear material over 20 years, blending it down to a less potent form that could be used in American nuclear power plants. So far, 137 metric tons have been processed and carried off; they account for half the nuclear fuel used in the U.S. In 1998, however, the U.S. group authorized to buy the material was privatized. With the global market for nuclear fuel faltering, the newly profit-driven group found itself locked into the price Washington had agreed to in 1996. In an attempt to square things, the company is seeking a new contract with Russia that would guarantee it rates far below market, though talks last week in Moscow failed to resolve the matter. If the Russians--sellers with but a single major buyer--are told they have to go along with the price cuts, the program could collapse. For now, Washington is simply feeling its way, trying to balance security and cost while tending to the countless other battles it must fight on the home front. Given the power of even a single rogue nuke, however, this battle is clearly one of the most important. "The consequences of failure would be far worse than Sept. 11," says Alexander Strezov, a Bulgarian scientist who helps investigate trafficking cases. "To be honest, I don't want to think about it." The U.S., unfortunately, doesn't have that luxury. Cover Date: December 17, 2001 ***************************************************************** 13 Indian premier departs Japan; comments on Afghan, nuclear, terrorism issues BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 11, 2001 Tokyo, 11 December: ... On the reconstruction and rehabilitation of war-torn Afghanistan, India and Japan were of the view that the agreement reached on Kabul should be properly implemented and the two countries should work in close coordination for upliftment of the country. "We can help Afghanistan only in a limited way but Japan would have to bear the major burden," he said, adding a meeting was being convened on the issue. [Departing Indian Premier A.B ] Vajpayee said that the relations between Japan and India, strained by 1998 nuclear tests, were now getting back to normal and Tokyo appreciated India's concern about its security. On the issue of signing of CTBT [Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty], Vajpayee said that Japan accepted that many countries were yet to sign the treaty but it would be better if New Delhi came forward and initialled the treaty and "the matter ended there". He recalled that Tokyo had strongly reacted to India's nuclear tests and said "that there is no animosity now. This shows the maturity in our ties." Before leaving for India, the prime minister had an audience with Japanese emperor Akihito who hosted a lunch in his honour... He said that both India and Japan condemned terrorism and agreed that it cannot be justified wherever, whenever and for whatever reasons. Japan shared India's conviction that the fight against terrorism had to be comprehensive and sustained with the objective of total elimination of the menace everywhere. "Our efforts would be to ensure that terrorism does not raise its ugly head anywhere," Vajpayee said. In a statement before departure, the prime minister said the two sides agreed to work together for an equitable distribution of the benefits from globalization. "With India's development experiences and Japan's strong tradition of development assistance, there are obvious synergies between our two countries on this." He was satisfied that his visit had contributed to adding new dimensions and meaningful content to the global partnership between the two countries. "India and Japan have virtually identical perspective on Afghanistan. We agreed to cooperate closely with each other on the reconstruction of post-Taleban Afghanistan. India will participate in the international conference on Afghanistan being convened in Tokyo next month," the statement said... Source: PTI news agency, New Delhi, in English 0437 gmt 11 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 14 Congressmen tour SRS Augusta Georgia: Technology: 12/11/01 U.S. Reps. Charlie Norwood (left) and Saxby Chambliss, both Georgia Republicans, speak at the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce after examining the security system at Savannah River Site on Monday. ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF Congressmen tour SRS Chambliss, Norwood give praise, outline goals Web posted Tuesday, December 11, 2001 By Brandon Haddock [bhaddock@augustachronicle.com] Staff Writer Security at local nuclear installations is strong, two Georgia congressmen said Monday, but the federal government might be able to help improve it further. "Our number one goal as members of Congress is to ensure that every federally funded installation is well-protected against acts of terrorism," said U.S. Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who toured Savannah River Site and Plant Vogtle on Monday with U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood. Mr. Norwood, R-Ga., whose district includes the Augusta area, said he invited Mr. Chambliss to tour the installations to help address the concerns of his constituents. "So many of you want to know, and legitimately want to know, whether we are secure at SRS and Plant Vogtle," Mr. Norwood said. "We both wanted to see what is being done and what the American government needed to do." Both men said they were pleased with SRS security. They toured Plant Vogtle later in the day. "Based on what I've seen this morning, Savannah River Site is well-protected," said Mr. Chambliss, the chairman of the House subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security. "They've done their homework." There has been talk of federalizing security at nuclear-power plants and weapons installations, but Mr. Norwood said he is not considering it at this time. "It's not on my table," he said, praising Savannah River Site's security contractor, Wackenhut Services Inc., for its work. He also noted that Southern Nuclear Operating Co. Inc. had increased security at Plant Vogtle. But Mr. Norwood said Congress might be able to provide for even better security measures. "We are in discussions about what other things might be done to make it a little more secure," he said. The U.S. Department of Energy has spent at least $10 million since Sept. 11 to increase security at SRS, agency officials have said. Checkpoints have been added, personnel numbers have increased, and vehicle-free "clear zones" have been created around buildings. Plant Vogtle also has increased security, said Alice Gordon, a spokeswoman for Southern Nuclear. The plant soon will add 15 security workers, she said. "We're very pleased with our level of security, and we will continue to maintain the high level of security we've had since September 11," she said. Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or bhaddock@augustachronicle.com [bhaddock@augustachronicle.com] . http://www.augustachronicle.com] 1996 - 2001 The Augusta Chronicle. ***************************************************************** 15 We can't end peril, but we can prepare for it By PAUL TASH © St. Petersburg Times, published December 9, 2001 WASHINGTON -- As we learn to live with new risks and anxieties, consider these observations from people who have been thinking about terrorism since long before Sept. 11. There is no perfect defense, and if there was, even the richest country in history couldn't afford it. We can reduce risk, but not eliminate it. "Airplanes" and "anthrax" are only the beginning of the terrorist's catalog of options. Think "c" for cargo, "s" for smallpox and "u" for uranium. Because we cannot block every possible attack, we must also be ready to respond to one, to save as many people as possible. Just a block from the U.S. Capitol, newspaper editors and broadcasters gathered last week to hear from senior government officials and leading scientists about how worried we should be. It was a lot like telling grownup ghost stories around a campfire, except without the campfire. Tom Ridge, the new director of homeland security, focused largely on preparations to help Americans in case of more terrorist attacks. "We are engaged on two battlefields," he observed. "There is one in Afghanistan and one in this country." But on this battlefield, where are the fronts? At the ports, where thousands of cargo containers come into the U.S. every day? At the nuclear plants, where the radioactive rods of depleted fuel are kept in storage because their designated burial ground, a mountain in Nevada, is not yet open for business? On our computer networks, where we store the operating instructions that keep modern life humming? The scientists, coming from various backgrounds, could see the risks most clearly within their own areas of study. Nuclear physicist Richard Garwin noted that Russia still has hundreds of tons of weapons-grade uranium lying around from the Cold War and that inventory controls have slipped since the Soviet Union's demise. As if to reinforce the point, Russian television reported Thursday that police arrested seven gangsters trying to sell 2 pounds of weapons-grade uranium. "So, that's the nuclear weapon threat, all too real in my opinion," Garwin offered brightly. The bioterrorism expert passed around sheets comparing a veritable lineup of microscopic suspects. Anthrax is bad enough, but Dr. Margaret Hamburg worries more about smallpox. Anthrax is lethal, but not contagious. Smallpox is both. Hamburg was public health commissioner in New York in 1993, when terrorists first set off bombs at the World Trade Center. "We thought that was bad, but after Sept. 11, we learned (it) was really child's play," she told the editors, and she drew a parallel with the potential biological weapons: We would have a different view of anthrax once we had seen smallpox. Public health is not a specialty where many doctors find fame or fortune, but officials and scientists from other fields described it as a vital line of defense that badly needs reinforcement. In Florida, only one man died of anthrax because professionals recognized it quickly and responded vigorously. We need more doctors and nurses who can make connections between odd cases and a system that has imagined some dreadful scenarios. The best we can do, the experts agreed, is to improve our odds against terrorists. Even that will be difficult and expensive, and without guarantees. Anthony Cordesman, a national security expert who regularly shows up on the network news shows, referred to "actuarial" victory. "This will be a broad war," he said. "It will take decades. There will never be an absolute victory, and there will always be gaps in defenses." To reduce some risks and accept others, we have to understand them. To play the odds, we have to know them, and know what the worst case might be. Some readers may object that respected scientists would openly speculate about terrorist threats and possible defenses. Doesn't such discussion help point the bad guys toward more trouble? William Wulf, the president of the National Academy of Engineering, says such fears are naive. "There's very little that we could discuss that they haven't already thought of," Wulf said. "Simply by trying to hide a problem, you do not create security." Put it this way: Before Sept. 11, the people who realized how easy it would be to hijack airplanes and turn them into suicide missiles were the people who would do it -- not the people who might have stopped them. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************