***************************************************************** 01/12/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.11 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Effort to target nuclear waste 2 N-waste firm files defamation suit against 10 3 Low Level Mixed Waste Vitrification Facility Goes Online 4 Planned Murmansk nuclear repossessing plant in difficulties 5 WELLS COUNCIL HEARS UPDATE ON YUCCA MOUNTAIN ISSUES 6 ENVIROCARE OWNER FILES DEFAMATION SUIT 7 REPORT PROBES RISKS OF STORING SPENT FUEL IN OFF-LINE NUCLEAR PLANTS 8 Trespassing charges dismissed against 3 anti-nuclear activists 9 SMUD may go solo to build new plant 10 THE NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY IS TAKING STEPS TOWARD BECOMING AN 11 Beaver Valley nuclear plant gets good reviews - 12 US ITC READIES URANIUM RULING 13 Diablo Canyon plant hit by ocean swell delay 14 Court blocks nuclear ship from Argentine waters - 15 Argentina sends in the navy as a British nuclear waste ship heads 16 Four Nuclear Power Stations to Generate Electricity in Next Five 17 Taiwan Judiciary-Nuclear: Serious Procedural Flaws 18 Taiwan Stocks Review: Down; caution ahead of nuclear plant ruling 19 Official says nuclear workers will be compensated NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 DOE facilities where beryllium was handled 2 MEDINA BASE ON NUCLEAR SITE LIST 3 Radiation victims could get choice in compensation 4 Nuke workers may get lost pay 5 DOE favors expanding options for sick workers 6 Sick workers criticize proposed amendments 7 Thompson supports DOE plan to expand options for sick workers 8 ORNL to help with stable isotope project 9 Sick workers' benefits added for Honeywell - 10 Paducah Radiation Study Released 11 Amendments may help plant workers 12 Sick workers may get more compensation 13 DOE cleanup figures irk EPA officials 14 Liquid combats Hanford tank corrosion risk 15 Complete UN Kosovo Coverage 16 Fluor gets fair marks from DOE 17 Worry Over Contaminated Kosovo Site 18 Thomasboro man providing info on uranium';s effects 19 Nato brings out big guns to kill off cancer scare 20 Depleted uranium ammunition once fired in Jericho 21 Uranium Contamination Sealed Off in Kosovo 22 Depleted Uranium in Aircraft 23 Yugoslav Villagers Gripped By Fear of Uranium Ammo 24 Congress gets nuclear-worker compensation plan 25 Depleted uranium precautions urged 26 Britain to Extend Depleted Uranium Screening 27 PDFORRA to seek uranium weapons - curb 28 $70m Kursk salvage set for April 29 Iraq: Depleted Uranium's Use In Gulf War Still Controversial 30 First segments of nuclear power plant sent to Iran 31 Hanford on list of sites with beryllium hazard 32 Energy Department Exercises Savannah River Contract Option for 33 Malpractice award upheld 34 Opinion - Dick Smyser: 55 Feds at Y-12; mooching herons at Eagle 35 No solution yet to cleanup suspension 36 Tennessee Supreme Court upholds malpractice judgment 37 DOE awards Bechtel Jacobs almost $17 million 38 Proposal would expand program 39 Energy Department To Build High-Tech Facility at Tennessee State University 40 Puerto Rico Wants Uranium Probe 41 U.S. Releases Nuclear Plants List 42 CARE assures staff over Balkans cancer risk 43 Radioactive fallout 44 Tension continues over use of depleted uranium in Balkans. 45 Russia wants summit on depleted uranium munitions 46 Depleted Uranium Sites in Kosovo Detailed by UNEP 47 Cheap and lethal nuclear by-product 48 Gulf veterans can have uranium tests 49 Germany issues uranium 'all clear' - 50 Hoon is urged to 'come clean' over uranium report 51 NATO: Commission To Probe Effects Of Depleted Uranium Ammunition 52 NATO's Use of Depleted Uranium Munitions a 'Crime Against 53 "Cheap" NATO Must Fund Uranium Cleanup, Russia Says **************************************************************** **************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Effort to target nuclear waste Friday, January 12, 2001 Copyright c Las Vegas Review-Journal ANN MORRISON REVIEW-JOURNAL Las Vegas businessman Steve Cloobeck wants to raise an estimated $5 million to $10 million to launch an out-of- state media campaign to warn people of the dangers of transporting nuclear waste through their states. Cloobeck called a meeting Thursday to see if anyone was interested in donating to an educational nonprofit. "If you don't fight, who else will?" he asked a crowd of fewer than 90 people. His most vocal opposition came from state Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, who believes it's inevitable that nuclear waste will be stored in Nevada and that the state should negotiate for benefits. He questioned the wisdom of a marketing campaign that might scare out-of-staters from coming to Las Vegas. "I'm highly concerned about this hysteria certain people are doing to heighten their exposure to politics, at the same time scaring people away from Las Vegas, " O'Donnell said in an interview. Although Cloobeck considered running for the U.S. Senate in 2000 as a Democrat, the Polo Towers executive denied this is an effort to raise his profile for any future political campaign. He said he wasn't interested in a congressional seat because his children are toddlers. In one exchange, O'Donnell said Cloobeck needed to be working on convincing Congress to study someplace other than Nevada, the only site now being considered. "Who are you fighting?" he asked. "I'm willing to lay down in the middle of I-15, are you?" Cloobeck asked. A number of those who turned up admitted they were there simply to see who else attended. Some already committed to fighting nuclear waste, such as Citizen Alert, were there to support Cloobeck and see if he can reach the business community, which they have been unable to do. The meeting consisted of a presentation on the transportation and economic concerns if nuclear waste is stored in Nevada, either at the Nevada Test Site on a temporary basis or permanently at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Cloobeck said he'll have another meeting in about two weeks and should have a better idea by then how much interest there is in his ideas. The crowd included representatives from the Realtors, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, chambers of commerce, Station Casinos, MGM-Mirage, the governor's office, the congressional delegation and members of the Greenspun media family and their businesses. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., attended in person and gave Cloobeck's effort her full support, welcoming "a new voice" to the fight. U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a telephone interview it was "a great idea" because "for the first time, the business community, led by Steve Cloobeck, is marshaling against nuclear waste." ***************************************************************** 2 N-waste firm files defamation suit against 10 Friday, January 12, 2001 Deseret News staff writer A former Utah lawmaker has been named in a defamation lawsuit filed by Envirocare of Utah against the radioactive waste firm's harshest critics. David Adams, who served in the Legislature from 1985 to 1992, rising to leadership ranks, was caught off guard by the news that he is one of 10 people named in the lawsuit, along with 10 "John Does" accused of trying to destroy Envirocare. The company is seeking permits to expand its business so it can accept low-level radioactive waste thousands of times hotter than its current license allows at its landfill in remote Tooele County. In 1993, Adams worked as a lobbyist for an Envirocare competitor on Utah's Capitol Hill. He denied Thursday that he had initiated any of the "rumors" about Envirocare that are central to the lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in 3rd District Court, accuses Adams and others of damaging the reputation of Envirocare owner Khosrow Semnani by spreading allegations ranging from bribery of state regulators to illegal arms trading. It seeks at least $5 million in damages, but Envirocare attorney Brent Hatch said it ultimately could be closer to $60 million. Besides Adams, the lawsuit also names Cynthia King, an environmental activist with the Sierra Club's Utah chapter. The rest of the defendants live out of state, and many of them have ties with Waste Control Specialists, a fierce competitor of Envirocare that wants to operate a low-level radioactive waste dump in Texas. The lawsuit accuses Adams and King of saying Semnani had sex with women regulators and that he "hired a woman to perform sexual favors for a state regulator." Hatch called the allegations "unbelievably outrageous." He said the lawsuit was filed because "they are just so abjectly false." Adams, now a retired rancher from Monticello, said he doesn't know whether the alleged accusations regarding Envirocare are true or not, but he's had people ask him about the rumors. He said that while he's heard them, he never initiated them. "I've been in rooms where I've heard that type of conversation," he said. King wouldn't comment on the lawsuit. Among numerous claims, Envirocare accused an unnamed state regulator of making "outrageous and false claims" in an effort to destroy Envirocare. Envirocare has withheld the name of the state regulator out of "courtesy to the state," Hatch said. "We want to address that matter directly with the (Department of Environmental Quality) and the attorney general. We want to sit down with them," he said. "We're out to stop people from (spreading rumors). If we can get them stopped through less onerous means, we'll do it," he added. According to the lawsuit, the state employee has said that Envirocare has never paid "a penny in penalties" and that the state falsified records to make them appear that payments were made. Bill Sinclair, director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control, a division within the DEQ that oversees Envirocare's business, said that is not the case. Envirocare has paid its fines, he said. And the state aggressively enforces violations by thorough oversight. Someone from the state office is "on site (at Envirocare) every day of the week," he added. The lawsuit alleges that the people named in the lawsuit in some cases embellished the defamatory statements made by the state employee. For instance, the lawsuit claims Dewey Alford, an employee of Waste Control Specialists, said that "Envirocare was secretly receiving CIA protection because of alleged ties with the Iranian government." Stephen Romano, who works for another one of Envirocare's competitors, is accused of alleging that Semnani "is a relative of the former Shah of Iran, and that by virtue of that connection has received preferential treatment from the U.S. Government." And Mark Gibson, who also works for one of Envirocare's competitors, is accused of repeating a rumor that Semnani "was financing Mideast extremist (terrorist) groups and diverting radioactive materials to weapons brokers for delivery to Arab countries." Envirocare attorneys came across this information in court documents related to the lawsuit Envirocare filed in April against Waste Control Specialists, its president and Southwest Security and Investigations, a private investigation company that was hired by Waste Control Specialists to look into Envirocare's business. That lawsuit is still pending in federal court. "In going through the reports we found out the actual people named in this complaint, many of them were saying outrageous things," Hatch added. E-MAIL: [*]donna@desnews.com [I] [I] [I] [I] ***************************************************************** 3 Low Level Mixed Waste Vitrification Facility Goes Online FREMONT, CA, January 11, 2001 - ATG, Inc., a leading provider of low- level radioactive and low-level mixed waste treatment services, has announced the successful startup of its GASVIT™ melter and the processing of low level mixed waste, or waste with both hazardous and radioactive components. GASVIT is a gasification/vitrification technology installed at the company's Low Level Mixed Waste ("LLMW") facility in Richland, Washington. The GASVIT process destroys organic compounds using a high-temperature plasma, and then stabilizes the residual inorganic constituents into a glass matrix (a.k.a. vitrification) that can be disposed of. According to ATG, the process is suited for almost any mixed waste requiring thermal treatment, including wastes containing metals, corrosive materials, aqueous and organic liquids, sludges, and solids. ATG used this technology to successfully convert LLMW into high integrity glass material at the Richland facility. The mixed waste, which came from the US Department of Energy's Hanford site, consisted of granular activated carbon containing regulated chemical and radioactive constituents. "I am pleased that we have started our state-of-the-art LLMW vitrification GASVIT facility," said Doreen Chiu, president and chief executive officer of ATG Inc. "It marks the successful administration of five years of cooperative efforts between the regulatory agencies, ATG, the US Department of Energy, and Fluor Hanford Inc. With the first comprehensive licensed facility in the country we will play a key role in the treatment of DOE and commercial LLMW." During the early waste processing phase of the GASVIT facility, ATG will process waste while confirming equipment performance. LLMW will be processed at rates up to the maximum permitted rate of 350 pounds per hour the company notes. ***************************************************************** 4 Planned Murmansk nuclear repossessing plant in difficulties The Norway Post - Doorway to Norway 11. Januar 2001 A planned repossessing plant for liquid nuclear waste in the Russian city of Murmansk, which was to be financed by Norway and the US, is in difficulties, according to Aftenposten. The plant is still not ready for production, six years after the project was started. The US has withdrawn from the project, but the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority is still of the opinion that Norway ought to grant more money, Aftenposten writes. The paper has been given access to an internal report written for the Authority. Norway had first agreed to take part in the building up of the reposessing plant, but it soon became apparent that a secure storage plant was also needed, and Norway has now agreed to pay for this as well. (NRK/Aftenposten) Rolleiv Solholm ***************************************************************** 5 WELLS COUNCIL HEARS UPDATE ON YUCCA MOUNTAIN ISSUES Elko Daily Free Press: Content "Things are coming to a head," Strolin said, "after years of indecision, the Department of Energy will soon make a site recommendation [for nuclear waste storage], then the president will make [a site] recommendation to Congress. At this point the state can oppose the recommendation ... but Congress can override." The site in question is the Yucca Mountain Repository for Nuclear Waste, and Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn and Nevada lawmakers have been battling against putting nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Strolin suggested that the state would have more influence in federal court to fight a congressional decision to declare the Yucca Mountain facility as the prime storage facility for nuclear waste. Strolin said that a court battle would challenge constitutional issues, such as whether the federal government can impose its will on a reluctant state? The transportation of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear sites across the country for storage in Yucca Mountain may continue for 40 years or longer, Strolin said. One problem the DOE faces is the enormous cost of the project. The projected cost of nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain is about $60 million. A fee assessed against nuclear power plants will garner about $26 million ... "that leaves another $30 million in unfunded expense," Strolin said. At issue is what happens if the state isn't successful in fighting the Department of Energy and the Yucca Mountain project becomes a reality. Strolin suggested that the earliest date Nevada would have to deal with the reality of the transportation of spent nuclear fuel through northeastern Nevada would be 2010, 2015 or 2020. Halstead, transportation consultant for the Agency for Nuclear Projects, continued the presentation. "I'll talk as though the Yucca Mountain project were going to happen .. I'm the " insurance man" ... I try to reduce the risks, and I disagree with Joe [Strolin] on this. I think we could be seeing high level nuclear waste move to Yucca as early as five years from now," Halstead told the council. "Right now, we have to guess at the DOE's mindset," Halstead said. Halstead said that there are many unresolved site-specific issues in the Yucca Mountain Transportation scenario. The DOE has not specified which highways and railroads will access the Yucca Mountain site. Maps don't show "heavy haul truck" routes. There are no clear-cut defined routes in proximity to USAF bombing ranges. Halstead suggested that DOE has intentionally left many issues vague, with the hope that Congress will vote to use the Yucca site. Once the Yucca site is selected, DOE will have a mandate to act, and it will be too late to formulate protests, or provide input on transportation issues. "The time to act is now," Halstead said. "The state is adamantly opposed to nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain." Mayor Rusty Tybo asked the speakers for a recommendation on how to deal with the potential of the transportation of nuclear waste through Wells. "Pass resolutions opposing the transportation of nuclear waste through the community," Halstead said. "But if the state is unsuccessful in its opposition, then we must develop contingency plans ... understand land use and the geology and the hazard areas along transportation routes. Develop emergency response capability ... pressure the DOE for funding." Halstead said that currently Elko County is the only highly affected Nevada county that isn't getting any state and federal funding to deal with the potential impact of the transportation of spent nuclear fuel through the communities. In other matters, the council accepted a check for $2,726 from the Next Dollar Foundation for portable bleachers and a $600 check from Next Dollar Foundation for picket fencing around the Coryell House. The council also voted to table a decision to select a company to provide employee health insurance. First Source Insurance spokesman Don McDonald said, "I recommend you don't make a move ... just yet." McDonald said he is sure the city's current insurance company, Home Town Insurance, will raise rates. If that happens then First Source will be competitive. The city voted to submit two projects for Community Development Block Grant funding consideration. The first project involves the replacement of a section of sewer at the end of Ninth Street. City Manager Jolene Supp said the project would repair a bottleneck where the sewer on Ninth Street meets the sewer coming from the Heavy Industrial Park. The city will also seek funding for a planning grant to study the feasibility of a transfer station for garbage. The transfer station will deal with construction waste problems, and it will include plans for recycling bins, a trash compactor and a containment area. In other business, the council: * Voted to let bids for plumbing materials for the Wells Resource and Cultural Center construction project. * Agreed to meet in committee Jan. 30 to work on the brothel code * Invited the public to attend the senior citizen fund-raising breakfast on Saturday. Guest chef will be Vice Mayor Kerry Robinson. cElko Daily Free Press 2001 Copyright c 1995-2000 PowerAdz.com, LLC. Zwire!, AdQuest, LLC. ***************************************************************** 6 ENVIROCARE OWNER FILES DEFAMATION SUIT The Salt Lake Tribune--Utah's Statewide Newspaper Friday, January 12, 2001 BY BRENT ISRAELSEN AND JIM WOOLF The owner of a Utah radioactive-waste disposal company that has been under intense public scrutiny during the past four years has taken the offensive against his competitors and critics. Envirocare of Utah founder Khosrow Semnani filed a defamation lawsuit this week seeking at least $5 million in damages. Semnani says up to 25 people, including an unnamed state official, have conspired to harm him and his company by spreading false and malicious rumors. Most of the rumors, according to the lawsuit, center on Semnani, whom his detractors allegedly have accused of sleeping with female regulators, hiring a prostitute for a regulator, illegal arms trading, financing Middle East terrorists and making death threats. The alleged rumors also accuse Envirocare of collusion with state officials. "These are not the kind of things you can let people say about you," said Envirocare attorney Brent Hatch. "The falsehoods are so outrageous and unconscionable they demand a response." Hatch and attorneys from two other Salt Lake City law firms filed the complaint in Utah's 3rd District Court, naming 15 individuals and 10 "john does." These defendants "formed a loose coalition with the purpose of conspiring to harm Mr. Semnani . . . and accomplish the destruction of Envirocare," the lawsuit says. Envirocare, which runs a low-level radioactive- waste landfill about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City, has been fighting for years with out-of-state competitors for a share in the nation's lucrative nuclear-waste cleanup market. The competition allegedly turned ugly in 1996 when Waste Control Specialists (WCS), based in Pasadena, Texas, and environmentalists became aware of each other's common distaste for Envirocare and began their conspiracy, according to the lawsuit. Named as defendants are Dewey L. Alford III, Charles W. Bernhard, Joseph R. Egan, Mark Gibson, Cliff Honicker, Cynthia King, John R. Kyte, Alan Messenger, Stephen A. Romano and David Adams. King is an activist for the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club, Honicker is an activist from Tennessee and Adams is a former state legislator who worked for Umetco, an Envirocare competitor in Colorado. The rest of the defendants worked for WCS or other Envirocare competitors as consultants, lawyers or employees, Hatch said. Romano, vice president of Boise-based American Ecology, which runs a low-level waste dump in Washington, said the lawsuit is "kind of silly and paranoid." The lawsuit accuses Romano, who once consulted for WCS and ran a newsletter that tracked radioactive-waste issues in Utah, of telling others Semnani, a native of Iran, is a relative of the former Shah of Iran and that the pro-Shah U.S. government, therefore, gave Semnani preferential treatment. Gibson, the lawsuit alleges, perpetuated a rumor that Semnani was financing Middle East terrorist groups and diverting radioactive materials to nuclear-arms brokers dealing with Arab countries. Contacted in Denver, Gibson denied making such a claim. "There is no shortage of rumor, innuendo and bullsh-- in this industry about Mr. Semnani," he said. "What in the hell is this guy doing plugging up the courts with this kind of nonsense?" King said she was not surprised by the lawsuit but declined to comment. Bernhard also declined to comment. The remaining defendants could not be reached or did not return Tribune phone calls. Envirocare first became aware of the alleged conspiracy on Jan. 11, 2000. Hatch said that on that date, Envirocare received documents related to a private investigation contracted by WCS to discredit Envirocare. Hatch would not specify who gave the documents to Envirocare. Depending largely on the documents, Envirocare last April filed a defamation lawsuit in federal court against WCS, its president and Southwest Security and Investigations, the private investigation company. Hatch said this week's lawsuit is based on information in the documents and on depositions in the federal lawsuit. ***************************************************************** 7 REPORT PROBES RISKS OF STORING SPENT FUEL IN OFF-LINE NUCLEAR PLANTS Bangor Daily News Article Thursday, January 11, 2001 The Associated Press WISCASSET — Maine Yankee and anti-nuclear activists are awaiting a Nuclear Regulatory Commission report on the risks of storing spent fuel at nuclear power plants that have been taken off line. The report could raise new questions about radiation dangers posed during a catastrophic event such as an earthquake or terrorist attack at decommissioned plants. The NRC has been working with the nuclear power industry for the past 1½ years on the issue of spent fuel storage at off-line plants such as Maine Yankee, where fuel rods now sit underwater in a pool. The report could be released later this week. Despite much speculation, its contents are unclear. “I just can’t comment on a report that’s not been released yet,” said Victor L. Dricks, a NRC spokesman in Washington, D.C. The NRC began the new risk assessment after Maine Yankee obtained permission to reduce its off-site emergency planning. The agency agreed with Maine Yankee that any credible accident scenario would not result in a significant health risk to the public. Anti-nuclear activists and state emergency management officials opposed the plan to eliminate emergency evacuation drills and sirens in neighboring communities to warn the public of accidents at the plant. Eric Howes, a Maine Yankee spokesman, would not comment on the new report. “We haven’t seen it, so it’s not fair for us to speculate on what might be in it,” he said. But David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists and a longtime critic of nuclear power, said the report will conclude that, in the event of a catastrophe, spent nuclear fuel rods pose a greater public health risk than previously thought. “It may be that some additional security is required around plants, and it may be that some plants are OK today,” Lochbaum said. “The first step in that is to know what the danger is, and I think this report tells us that.” Lochbaum said he has not read the report himself, but has spoken with NRC staff about it and participated in discussions of its contents. Kris Christine, an anti-nuclear activist who lives in Alna, said it was “outrageous” that the NRC allowed Maine Yankee to drop its off-site emergency preparedness in the first place. “No longer do fire departments and emergency crews practice drills in the event of a radiological emergency,” she said. “Now all of sudden we’re finding that spent fuel poses more of a risk than previously believed. It’s so infuriating when you have a family and you’re concerned c2000 Bangor Daily News. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Trespassing charges dismissed against 3 anti-nuclear activists THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH Prosecutors dismissed trespassing charges yesterday against three anti-nuclear activists who blocked a door to Carolina Power & Light headquarters in October. Meanwhile, two legislators have asked the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to provide more information about why the commission's staff approved a nuclear-waste project three weeks ago. Police had filed second-degree trespassing charges against Jim Warren, Lewis Pitts and the Rev. Carrie Bolton--all connected with the N.C. Waste Awareness & Reduction Network. For two years, N.C. WARN has opposed a CP&L plan to expand the storage of used nuclear-fuel rods at the utility's Shearon Harris plant in southern Wake County. The three were prepared to go to trial in Wake District Court before a last-minute decision by prosecutors to dismiss the charges. The three say that the sit-down was an act of civil disobedience. Although there were elements of trespassing in the case, the defendants may not have understood the CP&L property boundaries, according to dismissal papers. The Oct. 17 arrests also came during an otherwise peaceful protest in downtown Raleigh, the papers said. CP&L officials asked prosecutors yesterday not to prosecute, CP&L spokesman Mike Hughes said. The three could have received a maximum of 15 days in jail. ''There was nothing to be gained by creating a criminal record for the people,'' Hughes said. The three had tried to ask William Cavanaugh, CP&L's chief executive, to sign an agreement pushing for open, public hearings on the project. When they were denied entry to the headquarters, they sat down in a doorway and refused to leave. They were arrested. On Dec. 21, the NRC staff approved CP&L's plans to bring online two additional pools in which to store fuel rods from the utility's nuclear plants. The staff said that storing rods in the pools constructed years ago posed no significant hazards. Two pools already are in use; the new pools could be ready for use this year. Orange County is appealing the staff ruling. An Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel independent of the NRC examination is still looking at questions raised by Orange County. CP&L officials have said that the chance of a nuclear accident as posed by Orange County to occur was three in 100,000,000; Orange County said that it was hundreds of times greater. U.S. Sen. John Edwards and Rep. David Price asked the NRC chairman, Richard Meserve, last week to explain more fully how the NRC staff can approve the project while safety concerns are still being reviewed by the ASLB. ''What complications do you foresee if the ASLB eventually rules in favor of Orange County after used nuclear-fuel rods have begun to be installed?'' Edwards and Price wrote in the letter dated Jan. 5. The Democrats also asked the NRC to reassure the public that decision- makers examine issues such as those raised in the ASLB proceedings. PUBLISHED: JANUARY 12, 2001 ***************************************************************** 9 SMUD may go solo to build new plant sacbee Local News: BY CARRIE PEYTON Bee Staff Writer (Published Jan. 11, 2001) The Sacramento Municipal Utility District may work alone to build a power plant beside the husk of Rancho Seco, a strategy that SMUD directors rejected last year as too risky. After six months of trying to attract private partners to build next to the closed nuclear power plant and sell electricity back to SMUD, no good offers have emerged, utility directors were told Wednesday evening. The Sacramento region badly needs power upgrades--either new power plants to meet growing demand or expensive transmission line improvements to pull in more electricity from elsewhere. Without one or the other, SMUD has predicted, the region's electric grid could be stressed to near-collapse within a few years. The directors agreed informally Wednesday to reject bids from Calpine Corp. and FPL Energy and move on their own to obtain a plant license and air permits. The decision makes it more likely SMUD ultimately will build the plant itself, several staff members and directors said, although it also positions SMUD to try to find a partner once it has valuable regulatory approvals in hand. "If we have to do it alone, we'll have to do it alone, even if I don't like the approach," director Karal Cottrell said. The final decision could be up to a year away. The ratepayer-owned utility, a focal point of community turmoil in the 1980s when nuclear plant breakdowns triggered repeated rate increases, spent most of the 1990s trying to minimize risks. It built a string of smaller plants so its future wouldn't ride on a single big one, lined up secure pipeline space for natural gas deliveries and even bought "weather futures," a sort of insurance against too little rain for its hydroelectric plants. SMUD had hoped to take the same cautious approach to putting a new natural-gas-burning power plant beside the nuclear hulk in southeastern Sacramento County. Voters called for the nuclear plant's closure in 1989. The idea was that SMUD would provide land and transmission lines and that an experienced power plant construction company would do the rest, offering SMUD a good deal on long-term power as part of the package. That way, the plant's owner would bear the risk of electricity prices dropping rapidly once more plants come on line in California. The offers from the San Jose and Florida companies were confidential and SMUD declined to release details, except to say that the offers did not recognize the real value of the Rancho Seco site. "We have a very valuable asset out there," said director Susan Patterson. A 500-megawatt natural-gas-burning plant can easily cost $400 million, and SMUD directors had hoped they wouldn't have to sink that kind of money into the site, committing the utility to long-term debt and fixed power costs. With electricity markets in shambles, the risk is that no one can guess whether the new plant's output could be undercut by cheaper power at a time when SMUD still would be paying off the construction loans. That could leave it vulnerable to losing big customers to competitors -- if California still has a deregulated electricity market by then. But if power stays costly, SMUD would come out a winner. "If we had it today, it would look wonderful" to have a fully SMUD- owned plant, said district business planner Jim Tracy. "But the plant isn't going to be there until 2004, whoever builds it." There is also a middle ground, said assistant general manager Jim Shetler. Because natural gas plants usually have several units, SMUD could build the plant in phases or even end up with some SMUD-owned units and some privately owned ones, he said. Shetler said Wednesday's decision probably means there's a 50-50 chance of SMUD building at least the first phase on its own, although several directors said they still hoped for a partner. What is certain, said director Howard Posner, is "somebody needs to build out there to meet our needs, and if we can't get a good offer, we'll build on our own." SMUD will seek permission from the state Energy Commission to build up to a 1,000-megawatt plant, enough to supply up to half a million homes. But it could begin with as little as 250 to 300 megawatts. SMUD's record peak usage is 2,759 megawatts. The district estimates the licensing process will cost about $2 million and air permits, air pollution credits, other environmental requirements and a pipeline right-of-way could add $6 million to $12 million. THE SACRAMENTO BEE ***************************************************************** 10 THE NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY IS TAKING STEPS TOWARD BECOMING AN ENVIRONMENTALLY SAFE SOURCE OF ELECTRICITY. The Daily News BY PATRICK CLOONAN, Daily News Staff Writer January 12, 2001 "The industry we serve is coming back," Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman J. Scott Peterson said. "People are beginning to talk about it," added Westinghouse President/ CEO Charlie Pryor. They were among the speakers at a seminar yesterday focusing on "Global Warming and Nuclear Power: The Case For Clean Technology." It was held at Westinghouse Electric Co.'s energy center complex. Nuclear energy as clean energy is not a new argument. "They knew about it in Pittsburgh in the '40s and '50s," Peterson said. Westinghouse Electric worked with the federal government and Duquesne Light to develop the pioneer Shippingport nuclear plants, which came on-line in 1957 in Beaver County. Much of the seminar discussion centered on a simplified water-cooled reactor, the AP600. AP600 was developed by Westinghouse in partnership with companies and agencies in 22 other countries. In Korea, Pryor said, Westinghouse will supply one nuclear generator a year over the next 15 years. "It's quite an exciting program for us to be involved in," he said. "(By comparison), we haven't built a plant in this country in 25 years." Westinghouse also is involved in developing reactors with Mitsubishi in Japan. "Asia is really the bright spot," Pryor said, adding central/eastern Europe is a distant second. He said many of the countries are seeking to enhance the safety of former Soviet nuclear plants. He said no new construction is on the horizon in western Europe, but France may build again in the next couple years, to keep the industry going. Westinghouse said it has support within the U.S. for AP600 from Penn State and 11 other colleges and companies. It received a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December 1999 - after a 7.5-year wait. "They have now certified it as safe and that the public has reviewed it," Westinghouse Vice President/Chief Technology Officer Howard Bruschi said. "The only carbon dioxide released is in the breathing of the engineers, and we've cut down the number of them." Bruschi said that compares to oil-fired generators (800 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per gigawatt hour), coal (1,000 tons) and natural gas (600 tons). Peterson argued that allowing new nuclear plants on-line will lead to further reductions in carbon and sulfur emissions associated with fossil fuels. "Even though the U.S. economy grew by 8 percent over the last two years, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased by only 1 percent, " he said. Peterson said U.S. State Department negotiators made that point in recent negotiations at The Hague in the Netherlands. Those talks were a follow-up to a United Nations conference in Kyoto, Japan, at which a protocol was drawn up to deal with global climate changes. He said if coal-fired generators replaced nuclear plants in Pennsylvania, the state would exceed caps for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide set in the federal Clean Air Act by 41 percent. "Without nuclear energy, the resulting higher emissions would be the equivalent of having an additional 9.5 million passenger cars on the road for a whole year," Peterson said. Participants expressed the hope policy changes in Washington will allow Westinghouse and others in the industry to tackle its main problem: How to dispose of nuclear waste material. "Nuclear power also makes exponential use of uranium fuel that has no other beneficial uses," Peterson said. "In the U.S. ... every used fuel rod is accounted for and safely stored. That is why nuclear energy must be included in any global mechanism designed to provide the world with electricity in a sustainable way." Bruschi said European countries reprocess of fuel rods. "It's not a technical matter we're dealing with, it's kind of a politicized matter," he said, noting the Carter Administration banned reprocessing. He said that ban was reversed under President Reagan, but had little effect. Seminar participants noted the U.S. Department of Energy is studying whether Nevada's Yucca Mountain is a suitable place to build a geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from commercial and defense sources. That study began in 1998, with an eye toward having it in operation by 2010. Currently, nuclear plant operators must store waste in secure facilities at plant sites. Seminar participants said operators are running out of storage space. The Yucca Mountain proposal is being challenged by Nevada state officials, whose Web site details a long list of documents questioning DOE's plans. Bruschi noted another factor now being experienced in the Mon-Yough area: an increase in natural gas prices by 40 to 50 percent. Rising prices have made AP600 competitive as an alternate source of power, he said. "(Gas prices) has tripled and in some places quadrupled in the U.S. (since the mid-1990s)," the Westinghouse vice president said. Meanwhile, utility deregulation has had disastrous results in California. Peterson said California approached deregulation differently than Pennsylvania. While Pennsylvania depended on free market economics to lower utility bills, Peterson said California put a lid on how much a utility could charge. As a result, he said, utilities are losing millions of dollars. "AES was faced with the prospect of shutting down three plants," Peterson said of one California gas-fired utility. It didn't shut down, but Peterson said it paid $130 million in EPA fines, costs for installing new stack scrubbers and other pollution controls, and in credits from other companies. Bruschi said it has ruined such formerly safe investments as Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric. Bruschi said energy will be a top priority for the incoming Bush Administration. Peterson said comprehensive legislation is needed to maintain the infrastructure for coal, encourage oil and gas exploration and to push the construction of new nuclear plants. The seminar was sponsored by British American Business Council's Pittsburgh Region chapter. BNFL, a company wholly-owned by the British government, bought Westinghouse four years ago. Pryor said Westinghouse's nuclear business has tripled since then. "The past four years have been tumultuous and volatile for all of us here," he said. "But this is changing." Westinghouse Electric spokesman Vaughn Gilbert said his company now has approximately 9,300 employees throughout the world, 33 percent of whom work in Western Pennsylvania. cThe Daily News 2001  Copyright c 1995-2000 PowerAdz.com, LLC. Zwire!, AdQuest, AdQuest Classifieds, AdQuest 3D R are Trademarks of [*]PowerAdz.com, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Beaver Valley nuclear plant gets good reviews - 2001- 01-12 - Pittsburgh Business Times Beaver Valley Power Station, in Beaver County northwest of Pittsburgh, received improved reviews from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. Beaver Valley employees worked more than 2.5 million hours in 2000 without a lost-time accident, giving the plant one of the best industrial safety records in the nuclear industry. Since 1999, Beaver Valley has reduced its accident rate by 54 percent. In their annual reviews of the plant, INPO and the NRC cited various improved performance factors, including overall management, work management practices and heightened awareness of safety activities and issues. The plant operated an average of 317 out of 365 days in 2000 and generated more than 12.1 million megawatt-hours. The station achieved this operating record in a year when both units were out of service for planned refueling outages. The station also completed its shortest refueling outage--32 days. The plant has been owned by FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, Ohio since December 1999. Copyright 2001 American City Business Journals Inc. ***************************************************************** 12 US ITC READIES URANIUM RULING By Nancy Dunne Published: January 11 2001 21:51GMT | Last Updated: January 11 2001 22:59GMT The International Trade Commission, the independent US agency, is due in 10 days to issue a ruling crucial to the US uranium enrichment industry, a US-Russia business agreement and, some believe, US national security. Usec, the uranium enrichment company privatised in July 1998, is seeking protection from its two European competitors which, it alleges, have been dumping subsidised uranium on US markets and depressing prices. The ITC is to give a preliminary ruling on whether Usec's troubles stem from dumping and subsidies or simply conditions created by an oversupplied world market. Unless it returns a finding of "injury", the case will end. If it agrees, then duties will be levied on Cogema of France and Urenco, a British-Dutch-German consortium. Usec says it has recently lost long-term contracts to the "unfair" competition of a product sold in the US market at less than "fair market" price. It is meanwhile facing another threat in July when restrictions imposed during its privatisation that limited stock ownership expire. The company could be taken over or broken up or some functions returned to government hands. The incoming administration of President-elect George W. Bush will have to decide whether it is necessary for US national security to maintain uranium enrichment capacity in the US. If it is ever to regain its health, Usec will have to employ new technology, and it wants the government to help pay for it. The administration will also have to decide how to handle an agreement with Russia to buy 500 tonnes of highly enriched uranium, extracted from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons, over a 20-year period. Some analysts have suggested that the government buy the Russian uranium and keep it off the market. "It was clear to many in the industry in the mid-1990s that Usec had an excess productive capacity that could only increase as the quantities of Russian uranium increased," said Julian Steyn of Energy Resources International, an energy consulting company, who testified for Urenco and Cogema at an ITC hearing in December. The trade cases are highly controversial. The unions joined in - it is hard to find trade cases unions do not like - but utilities, which use its services and are under cost pressures from deregulation, tried to block it. At a hearing before the ITC last month Phil Sewell, Usec's senior vice-president, said revenues had been flat since privatisation but they showed "a significant drop" in the first quarter. Dick Cunningham, Usec's lead trade lawyer, said Eurodif (the enrichment arm of Cogema) and Urenco both posed a competitive threat to Usec. Cogema was operating well below capacity and it was searching for additional sales in the US market. Urenco meanwhile "goes out, expands its market share, gets additional sales and expands capacity then to meet that. They have announced plans for increased capacity in response to the sales they have already gotten . . ." Bob Van Namen, Usec vice-president of marketing and sales, said: "The unfair competition that Usec has faced over the past three years is the direct cause of Usec's loss of sales and the alarming decrease in . . . prices." Urenco and Cogema deny dumping and accuse Usec of trying to create a monopoly market in the US. Charles Yulish, a spokesman for Usec, said the company's officials had soldiered on in trying circumstances, reducing costs and closing one of its two plants. They renegotiated more favourable terms to the agreement with Russia. Neither the US nor Russia have yet signed the deal and a final attempt by Bill Richardson to agree terms with Russian officials failed last weekend in Vienna. Meanwhile, many of the companies' critics are dismissing the dumping case as an act of desperation. "Usec was privatised with the intent of creating a more business- like competitive company that would provide US consumers with supply at the lowest possible cost by eliminating government 'inefficiencies', " said Tom Neff, a national security specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who conceived the US-Russian uranium pact. "The irony is that Usec can now only survive if it receives protection from foreign competition and exclusive rights to Russian supply at below-market prices. If Usec wins, prices will be higher for electricity, and they are likely to close the remaining enrichment plant, making us totally dependent on foreign supply." ***************************************************************** 13 Diablo Canyon plant hit by ocean swell delay Updated 7:07 PM ET January 11, 2001 SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) - The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on the central California coast is expected to continue operating at 20 percent power into Friday morning, the California Independent System Operator (ISO) said Thursday. Earlier, Diablo Canyon was expected to start increasing power at about 8 p.m. Thursday , a plant spokesman said. Power generation at the plant's two 1,100 megawatt (MW) units was cut to 20 percent in the early hours Thursday because big ocean swells, whipped up by a powerful Pacific storm, clogged the plant's cooling water intakes with ocean kelp and debris. A spokesman for the plant's operator, San Francisco-based utility Pacific Gas and Electric Co., said ocean swells were expected to peak between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., delaying any increase in output from the two units. The company had earlier said the swells would likely start to subside by midday Thursday. Kellan Fluckiger, chief operating officer of the ISO, which manages most of state's power grid, told a news conference Thursday that the ocean swells now are expected to stay as high as 19 feet through the Friday morning peak demand hours for electricity, typically between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. A plant spokesman said it would take several hours to bring the plant back up to full power once the threat passed. The Diablo Canyon plant is located at Avila Beach in central California. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is a unit of PG&E Corp. REUTERS BUSINESS REPORT ***************************************************************** 14 Court blocks nuclear ship from Argentine waters - 1/11/2001 - ENN.com Thursday, January 11, 2001   [I] An Argentine court ordered the government Wednesday to prevent a British ship carrying nuclear waste from entering waters under its control, arguing it put the country's shoreline at risk from a toxic spill. The order means the Argentine government must eject the British-owned Pacific Swan if it enters what the court called the country's "jurisdictional" waters. While environmental group Greenpeace and other sources said "jurisdictional" waters entailed an area 200 miles off the country's shore, Argentina's Foreign Ministry said the vessel had the right to travel up to 12 nautical miles from the shoreline under international shipping agreements. The court's order was vague in its meaning and was issued in response to a request by the country's ombudsman. The Pacific Swan, carrying an 80-ton cargo of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel to Japan, was last spotted by the Argentine navy on Tuesday, approximately 200 miles from shore midway down the country's coast. Greenpeace, which dubbed the vessel's cargo "the equivalent of a floating Chernobyl," told Reuters it had learned from the Argentine navy that the boat was 190 miles from the shore. A navy spokesman said he could not confirm the report. If forced to stay more than 200 miles away from the shoreline, the Pacific Swan would have to travel even farther south as it navigates the treacherous waters around Cape Horn. The shipping of the highly radioactive cargo around the icy tip of South America has alarmed Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, whose coastlines are all on the route. The Pacific Swan, which is owned by British Nuclear Fuels, set sail from Cherbourg, France, on Dec. 19 with a cargo of Japanese nuclear reactor waste mixed with glass. The vessel is due to dock in Aomori in northern Japan in February. Greenpeace fears the passage around Cape Horn could become the preferred route for transporting nuclear waste between Europe and Japan, replacing the traditional, shorter journey through the Panama Canal. It has sent its own boat full of protesters to monitor the Pacific Swan and ensure it stays out of Argentine waters. Copyright 2001, Reuters All Rights Reserved More ENN news ***************************************************************** 15 Argentina sends in the navy as a British nuclear waste ship heads for Cape Horn Independent By Steve Boggan 12 January 2001 The Argentinian navy is on the alert to intercept a British ship carrying enough nuclear waste to give off twice the amount of radiation as the Chernobyl disaster. The British Nuclear Fuels vessel Pacific Swan is rapidly becoming the pariah of South America because the captain intends to negotiate the treacherous waters of Cape Horn with 90 tons of waste vitrified in 192 glass blocks. The shipment, bound for Japan where the original waste came from in the Seventies, has been criticised by Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Uruguay. On Wednesday, the Argentine federal court of appeal in Buenos Aires ordered its government to prevent the vessel entering waters under its control, saying the shoreline faced the risk of a toxic spill. The cargo of the British-registered Pacific Swan, which left Cherbourg on 19 December, was reprocessed by the French company Cogema. Greenpeace International estimates that nuclear waste shipments will rise to one every six months over the next 10 years. Agreements between Japan, Britain and France originally specified that reprocessed waste would eventually be returned to its country of origin. BNFL said the ship had been built to extremely high specifications with such cargoes in mind. It has a double hull and back-up power and navigation systems. "This is one of the safest ships to sail the seas," said Paul Vallance, a company spokes-man. "All hulls could be flooded and the ship would still float." He said the ship was not scheduled to enter Argentinian waters on its way to Rokkasho-Mura in Japan, but Greenpeace said it came close yesterday to infringing Argentina's 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The countries of South America, fearful that the Cape Horn may become BNFL's favoured route, do not accept the company's assurances on safety. In a joint statement, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay expressed concern over the risk of a shipwreck and the "vulnerability of the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic ecosystems". They added: "[These] governments are concerned about the eventual harmful effects this type of shipment may cause to the coastal human population and the integrity of the maritime environment of the region through which the waste will pass due, to the intrinsically dangerous nature of it." Feeling among the populations of countries past which the ship will sail is running high. Earlier this week, protesters gathered outside the British embassy in Argentina, took down the Union Jack and hoisted in its place a skull-and-crossbone flag bearing the words "No Plutonium". The Argentinian court's ruling appeared to refer to the country's EEZ, but the country's Foreign Ministry said the vessel had the right to travel up to 12 nautical miles from the shoreline, under international shipping agreements. Environmentalists were delighted by the court's decision. Martin Prieto of Greenpeace Argentina said: "The ruling is clearly in line with the Argentine constitution and recognises developments in the international law which try to protect the environment and public health. "The Argentinian President, [Fernando] De la Rua, should take immediate action to force this deadly shipment out of our waters and should support our neighbours in doing the same." The last time a BNFL ship attempted to sail the same route, it was escorted from Chilean waters by naval vessels. They would be waiting again this time, but only to provide support during the hazardous journey round the cape, said Gloria Navarrete, the first secretary at the Chilean embassy in London. "Ideally, we would prefer these shipments did not take place," she said yesterday. "Cape Horn is a very dangerous stretch of water and there is concern over the effects an accident could have. Public opinion is inflamed against Japan, France and Britain. "There needs to be some sort of international agreement on these kinds of shipments to lay down standards on security, routes and safety. As things stand, we can't do anything if the ship remains outside our 12-mile territorial waters. "Even if it enters our 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone, we have to give it free passage." Greenpeace claims the waste, if exposed, could give off 96,000 curies of radiation, almost double the 50,000 emitted after Chernobyl. BNFL says a leak would be improbable. The waste is sealed in glass, contained inside 10in- thick steel casks. A spokesman said more than 4,000 casks of nuclear waste material have been safely transported by sea since the Sixties in more than 160 shipments. But BNFL will face even more opposition next week when two more of its ships are to transport a controversial cargo of French mixed oxide fuel (Mox) to Japan. In 1999, The Independent revealed that tests on similar Mox fuel made at the Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria had been falsified. Subsequently, all business between BNFL and the Japanese was suspended, several senior staff were fired and the company agreed to take back the fuel. While the latest consignment makes its way to Japan, that tainted fuel batch still lies unused, and it is waiting to be collected. ***************************************************************** 16 Four Nuclear Power Stations to Generate Electricity in Next Five Years Thursday, January 11, 2001, updated at 14:10(GMT+8) Currently, altogether four nuclear power stations are under construction in China, and they are planned to generate electricity within five years. According to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), the proportion of homemade equipment for these nuclear power stations will gradually increase and finally will reach 80 percent. The four nuclear power stations respectively are the 2nd-phase and Except for the two generating units of Tianwan nuclear power station are scheduled for business operations respectively in 2004 and 2005, the other three stations will produce power before 2003. BY PD ONLINE STAFF MEMBER HUANG YING Currently, altogether four nuclear power stations are under construction in China, and they are planned to generate electricity within five years. According to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), the proportion of homemade equipment for these nuclear power stations will gradually increase and finally will reach 80 percent. Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 17 Taiwan Judiciary-Nuclear: Serious Procedural Flaws Asia's best news sources. Updated 24 hours a day. FRIDAY, JANUARY 12 5:58 PM SGT TAIPEI (AP)--Taiwan's highest court will announce a ruling Monday about whether the premier violated the constitution by scrapping a partially built nuclear plant, an official said Friday. The Grand Justices' deliberations have attracted much attention in recent weeks because their decision could force Premier Chang Chun- hsiung to resign. The panel, made up of 15 judges, has reached a tentative conclusion but will hold a final meeting on Monday before making an announcement, said Wang Yu-fen, spokeswoman of the Judicial Yuan. (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 12-01-01 Wang would not give further details about the long-awaited ruling. On Friday, Taiwan's leading evening newspapers all predicted that the Grand Justices are likely to announce that the premier, Taiwan's No. 3 ranking leader, made "serious procedural flaws" in scrapping the project on Oct. 27 without consulting the legislature. Chen Horng-chi, a lawmaker of the opposition Nationalist Party, said if the premier is judged to have made a mistake, President Chen Shui- bian should make amends by replacing him. The president appoints the premier, who heads the cabinet. If the president doesn't sack Chang, there will be new round of fierce feuding in the opposition-controlled legislature, the Nationalist lawmaker told reporters. The Nationalists, the largest opposition party, approved the plant in 1980 when they controlled the presidency. The party said that stopping the nuclear project would be a tremendous waste of taxpayers' money. But the new government says halting the project is necessary to protect future generations from possible radiation contamination. Officials have also said that Taiwan cannot store the nuclear waste and that alternative energy sources would better suit the island. If the justices rule against the premier, it would give the opposition impetus to pressure President Chen to allow the Nationalist Party to form a new cabinet. Dow Jones news delayed 20 minutes. Copyright 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Copyright c 1994-2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 Taiwan Stocks Review: Down; caution ahead of nuclear plant ruling thestar.com.my: Business News By Stephen Burstein, BridgeNews Taipei--Jan. 12--Taiwan stocks fell Friday, with some investors taking profits and retreating to the sidelines ahead of an impending decision by Taiwan's grand justices that will likely determine the fate of the fourth nuclear power plant, brokers said. The index fell 29.84 points to 5,339.40. Turnover for the 4.5-hour trading session was New Taiwan $85.2 billion, down from Thursday's final tally of $127.0 billion. The market opened higher in response to the overnight strong gain on the Nasdaq, but the rise was fleeting. "First of all, high-tech shares have already put in a long string of gains here. Many are eager to take profits," said Austin Hung, a broker at Concord Securities. Hung added that many investors also are turning cautious on adding to portfolios ahead of the nuclear plant decision. The government in November announced a halt to construction. However, the grand justices are now determining whether the move to end construction of the plant, which was initiated by a previous government and for which the budget was already approved, was constitutional. There have been signs that the court may recommend the government hold talks with the legislature on the issue, and many believe that further legislature deliberation would ultimately lead to a continuation of the plant. "If plant construction is ultimately continued, the market would likely rally for a few days. On the other hand, a final halt to the project could spark more profit-taking. In any event, investors who have already made a few bucks in the recent rally are content to cash in now," Hung said. High-tech shares were mixed. Some titles that have risen sharply in recent sessions met with profit-taking, while other titles continued to rebound. DRAM chipmakers Mosel Vitelic and Winbond Electronics rose 2.2% and 1.0%, respectively, in response to strong gains by their U.S. counterparts overnight. Personal computer giant Acer Inc. ended limit-up on bargain-hunting. ASE, however, fell 2.9% to $30.2 after a few sessions of gains. Financials were broadly lower on profit-taking and a lack of fresh incentives after recent gains. Some who bought banks mid-session Thursday on expectations of a banking merger announcement by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) sold Friday when it turned out the MOF announcement wasn't merger-related. The "big 3" commercial banks shed 3.4-3.7%. Cathay Life Insurance outperformed, ending at $60.5, up $1.0, on a report that it has gotten verbal approval from Chinese authorities to set up a representative office in China. Traditional industrial shares were mixed to lower on a lack of news and also as selective shares have rebounded sharply from their oversold state in recent sessions. Traders said that the trend of declining turnover is likely to continue in the coming sessions ahead of the final trading day before the Lunar New Year on Thursday. The market will be closed for over a week for the holiday. "After recent gains, there really isn't much incentive to buy again before the holiday, especially since it is so long this year. Investors feel that it would only open them up to a high degree of risk," said Burt Lai, manager at First Securities. Lai added that the market continues to face resistance above 5,400 points and more consolidation will be needed before another attempt to effectively crack that level is seen. A modest round of bargain-hunting enabled the index to end off lows. The electrical machinery sector eked out a fractional gain as a whole, but all other sectors fell, with construction titles dropping the most. The index Monday is seen trading between 5,250 and 5,450 points. FUTURES The January TAIFEX Taiwan index futures contract closed at 5,378, up from Thursday's close of 5,340 points. Volume was a preliminary 9,240 contracts. Meanwhile, the January MSCI Taiwan index futures contract ended at 252.4, up from Thursday's close of 250.5 on a preliminary 10,962 contracts. ***************************************************************** 19 Official says nuclear workers will be compensated postnet.com | News | GOOD EVENING, ST. LOUIS Posted: Thursday, January 11, 2001 | 8:16 p.m. Breaking story Of the Post-Dispatch Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson said Thursday a change in administration should not make a difference in plans to compensate workers who were sickened or died from exposure to radiation or other hazardous substances while working on nuclear weapons. "This is the law. It is an entitlement program not dependent on appropriations," Richardson said. "This is going to happen." Several thousand workers in the St. Louis area may be covered under the law, which was passed in October to compensate "warriors of the Cold War" who worked for private defense contractors making nuclear weapons. Also Thursday, the Energy Department released a list of more than 300 work sites whose workers may be covered. Nine sites were listed in the St. Louis area - two in Metro-East and five in Missouri. In one of his last speeches before leaving office, Richardson proposed amendments to carry out the program, which he said had solid bi-partisan support when it passed. The law provides for a lump sum payment of $150,000 and coverage of medical bills for workers (or their survivors) with beryllium disease or silicosis, or cancer linked to exposure to radiation on the job. Most of the amendments presented Thursday would clarify which department would be responsible for the details and sets up an appeals process. Under the amendments and an order issued by President Clinton last month, the Department of Labor will have overall responsibility for creating a database of eligible participants. The Department of Health and Human Services will research employment and medical records and estimate radiation exposure. The program is expected to cost $1.6 billion over 10 years. An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people worked on weapons-related projects at the sites on the list, including 3,000 St. Louis-area residents who worked for Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. , which refined uranium ore for bombs from 1942 to 1966. The number of people who eventually receive compensation may total "in the low hundreds," said David Michaels, Assistant Energy Secretary for Environment, Safety and Health. The work sites range from "Mallinckrodt in St. Louis where thousands of tons of uranium was processed, to companies that tested five pieces of uranium for a day." Michaels said. "Some are immense exposures. We will put our resources into places where people deserve compensation." One of the people who believes she may qualify is Joan Biest, of Maryland Heights, whose husband, Warren Biest, died of liver cancer at the age of 47. Warren Biest worked in uranium processing from 1954 to 1966, at Weldon Spring. He died in 1983, on the day his youngest child, Scott Biest, started college. Compensation for her husband's death would be "late in coming, " Biest said Thursday. "I could have used help monetarily when our family was young. I depleted my savings to finish raising the children," Biest said. "We're fine now. It's a sad thing that (the workers) weren't monitored the way they should have been. But life does go on." The law covers workers sickened as a result of their work in support of nuclear weapons production activities, says a statement from the Energy Department. It is not intended to cover all workers at each site on the list. These are the sites listed in the St. Louis area: Granite City Steel, Granite City. Speculite Consortium Inc., Madison. Mallinckrodt Chemical Co., Destrehan Street plant. Mallinckrodt, Weldon Spring plant. St. Louis airport nuclear waste dump (associated with Mallinckrodt). Latty Avenue nuclear waste site, (associated with cleanup work of airport site). Tyson Valley Powder Farm. Medart Co. This was a company that made sporting goods. It may have done some contract work for Mallinckrodt in the early years. United Nuclear Corp., Hematite. Another 27 sites were listed in Illinois - most in or around Chicago - and three sites in Missouri - two in Kansas City and one in Joplin. Anyone who worked with radioactive substances as part of a nuclear weapons contract - and who suffered cancer or other radiation-linked disease - at the sites listed by the Department of Energy may be eligible for $150,000 compensation and payment of medical bills. "Workers need to contact us," said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. "But the burden of proof is on the government, not the workers. We will help workers determine their eligibility." To be considered for compensation or for more information about the program, call the Department of Energy Worker Advocacy Office's toll free number: 1-877-447-9756. Information is also available online at www.eh.doe.gov/benefits. REPORTER VIRGINIA BALDWIN GILBERT: E-MAIL: VGILBERT@POST-DISPATCH.COM PHONE: 314-862-2153 ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 DOE facilities where beryllium was handled Associated Press The Energy Department’s list of facilities that handled beryllium or radioactive materials for the government during the Cold War. The list includes some facilities that were managed by the Energy Department but not involved in nuclear weapons production. ALABAMA Southern Research Institute, Sylacauga Speed Ring Experimental & Tool Company, Culman Tennessee Valley Authority, Muscle Shoals ALASKA Amchitka Island Nuclear Explosion Site, Amchitka Island Project Chariot Site, Cape Thompson CALIFORNIA Arthur D. Little Co., San Francisco Atomics International, Canoga Park Burris Park Field Station, Kingsburg Ceradyne, Inc., Santa Ana Dow Chemical Co., Walnut Creek Electro Circuits, Inc., Pasadena Energy Technology Engineering Center, Santa Susana General Atomics, La Jolla General Electric Vallecitos, Pleasanton Hunter Douglas Aluminum Corp., Riverside Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research, Davis Laboratory of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, Los Angeles Laboratory of Radiobiology and Environmental Health, San Francisco Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore Sandia Laboratory, Salton Sea Base, Imperial County Sandia National Laboratories - Livermore, Livermore Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Palo Alto Stauffer Metals, Inc., Richmond University of California, Berkeley COLORADO Coors Porcelain, Golden Project Rio Blanco Nuclear Explosion Site, Rifle Project Rulison Nuclear Explosion Site, Grand Valley Rocky Flats Plant, Golden Shattuck Chemical, Denver University of Denver Research Institute, Denver CONNECTICUT American Chain and Cable Co., Bridgeport Anaconda Co., Waterbury Bridgeport Brass Co., Havens Lab., Bridgeport Combustion Engineering, Windsor Connecticut Aircraft Nuclear Engine Lab. (CANEL), Middletown Dorr Corp., Stamford Fenn Machinery Co., Hartford New England Lime Co., Canaan Seymour Specialty Wire, Seymour Sperry Products, Inc., Danbury Torrington Co., Torrington DELAWARE Allied Chemical and Dye Corp., North Claymont DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA National Bureau of Standards, Van Ness Street Naval Research Laboratory FLORIDA American Beryllium Co., Sarasota Armour Fertilizer Works, Bartow C.F. Industries, Inc., Bartow Gardinier, Inc., Tampa International Minerals and Chemical Corp., Mulberry Pinellas Plant, Clearwater University of Florida, Gainesville Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corp., Nichols W.R. Grace Co., Agricultural Chemical Div., Ridgewood IDAHO Argonne National Laboratory-West, Scoville Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Scoville ILLINOIS Allied Chemical Corp., Metropolis American Machine and Metals, Inc., E. Moline Argonne National Laboratory-East, Argonne Armour Research Foundation, Chicago Blockson Chemical Co., Joliet C-B Tool Products Co., Chicago Crane Co., Chicago ERA Tool and Engineering Co., Chicago Fansteel Metallurgical Corp., North Chicago Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia Granite City Steel, Granite City Great Lakes Carbon Corp., Chicago GSA 39th Street Warehouse, Chicago International Register, Chicago Kaiser Aluminum Corp., Dalton Lindsay Light and Chemical Co., W. Chicago Madison Site (Speculite), Madison Midwest Manufacturing Co., Galesbury Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago National Guard Armory, Chicago Podbeliniac Corp., Chicago Precision Extrusion Co., Bensenville Quality Hardware and Machine Co., Chicago R. Krasburg and Sons Manufacturing Co., Chicago Sciaky Brothers, Inc., Chicago Swenson Evaporator Co., Harvey University of Chicago, Chicago W.E. Pratt Manufacturing Co., Joliet Wycoff Drawn Steel Co., Chicago INDIANA American Bearing Corp., Indianapolis Dana Heavy Water Plant, Dana General Electric Plant, Shelbyville Joslyn Manufacturing and Supply Co., Ft. Wayne Purdue University Van der Graaf Lab., Lafayette Washrite, Indianapolis IOWA Ames Laboratory, Ames Iowa Ordnance Plant, Burlington Titus Metals, Waterloo KANSAS Spencer Chemical Co., Jayhawks Works, Pittsburg KENTUCKY Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Paducah MARSHALL ISLANDS Eniwetok Test Site, Marshall Islands MARYLAND Armco-Rustless Iron & Steel, Baltimore W.R. Grace and Company, Curtis Bay MASSACHUSETTS American Potash & Chemical, West Hanover C.G. Sargent & Sons, Graniteville Chapman Valve, Indian Orchard Edgerton Germeshausen & Grier, Inc., Boston Fenwal, Inc., Ashland Franklin Institute, Boston Heald Machine Co., Worcester La Pointe Machine and Tool Co., Hudson Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge Metals and Controls Corp., Attleboro National Research Corp., Cambridge Norton Co., Worcester Nuclear Metals, Inc., Concord Reed Rolled Thread Co., Worcester Shpack Landfill, Norton Ventron Corporation, Beverly Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center, Winchester Woburn Landfill, Woburn Wyman Gordon Inc., Grayton, North Grafton MICHIGAN AC Spark Plug, Flint Baker-Perkins Co., Saginaw Carboloy Co., Detroit Extruded Metals Co., Grand Rapids General Motors, Adrian Gerity-Michigan Corp., Adrian Mitts & Merrel Co., Saginaw Oliver Corp., Battle Creek Revere Copper and Brass, Detroit Speed Ring Experimental & Tool Company, Detroit Star Cutter Corp., Farmington University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Wolverine Tube Division, Detroit MINNESOTA Elk River Reactor, Elk River MISSISSIPPI Salmon Nuclear Explosion Site, Hattiesburg MISSOURI Kansas City Plant, Kansas City Latty Avenue Properties, Hazelwood Mallinckrodt Chemical Co., Destrehan St. Plant, St. Louis Medart Co., St. Louis Roger Iron Co., Joplin Spencer Chemical Co., Kansas City St. Louis Airport Site, St. Louis Tyson Valley Powder Farm, St. Louis United Nuclear Corp., Hematite Weldon Spring Plant, Weldon Spring NEBRASKA Hallam Sodium Graphite Reactor, Hallam NEVADA Nevada Test Site, Mercury Project Faultless Nuclear Explosion Site, Central Nevada Test Site Project Shoal Nuclear Explosion Site, Fallon Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project, Yucca Mountain NEW JERSEY Aluminum Co. of America (Alcoa), Garwood American Peddinghaus Corp., Moonachle Baker and Williams Co., Newark Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill Bloomfield Tool Co., Bloomfield Bowen Lab., North Branch Callite Tungsten Co., Union City Chemical Construction Co., Linden Du Pont Deepwater Works, Deepwater International Nickel Co., Bayonne Laboratories, Bayonne J.T. Baker Chemical Co., Phillipsburg Kellex/Pierpont, Jersey City Maywood Chemical Works, Maywood Middlesex Municipal Landfill, Middlesex Middlesex Sampling Plant, Middlesex National Beryllia, Haskell New Brunswick Laboratory, New Brunswick Picatinny Arsenal, Dover Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton Rare Earths/W.R. Grace, Wayne Standard Oil Development Co. of NJ, Linden Tube Reducing Co., Wallington U.S. Pipe and Foundry, Burlington United Lead Co., Middlesex Vitro Corp. of America, West Orange Westinghouse Electric Corp., Bloomfield Wykoff Steel Co., Newark NEW MEXICO Chupadera Mesa, Chupadera Mesa Los Alamos Medical Center, Los Alamos Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Albuquerque Project Gasbuggy Nuclear Explosion Site, Farmington Project Gnome Nuclear Explosion Site, Carlsbad Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque South Albuquerque Works, Albuquerque Trinity Nuclear Explosion Site, White Sands Missile Range Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Carlsbad NEW YORK Allegheny-Ludlum Steel, Watervliet American Machine and Foundry, Brooklyn Ashland Oil, Tonawanda Baker and Williams Warehouses, New York Bethlehem Steel, Lackawanna Bliss & Laughlin Steel, Buffalo Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton Burns & Roe, Inc., Maspeth Colonie Site (National Lead), Colonie Columbia University, New York City Electro Metallurgical, Niagara Falls General Astrometals, Yonkers Hooker Electrochemical, Niagara Falls International Rare Metals Refinery, Inc., Mt. Kisko Ithaca Gun Co., Ithaca Lake Ontario Ordnance Works, Niagara Falls Ledoux and Co., New York Linde Air Products, Buffalo Linde Ceramics Plant, Tonawanda New York University, New York Peek Street Facility, Schenectady Radium Chemical Co., New York Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy Sacandaga Facility, Glenville Seaway Industrial Park, Tonawanda Seneca Army Depot, Romulus Separations Process Research Unit (at Knolls Lab.), Schenectady Simonds Saw and Steel Co., Lockport Staten Island Warehouse, New York Sylvania Corning Nuclear Corp., Hicksville Sylvania Products Corp., Bayside Titanium Alloys Manufacturing, Niagara Falls Trudeau Foundation, Saranac Lake University of Rochester Medical Laboratory, Rochester Utica St. Warehouse, Buffalo West Valley Demonstration Project, West Valley NORTH CAROLINA Beryllium Metals and Chemical Corp., Bessemer City University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill OHIO Air Force Plant 36, Evandale Ajax Magnathermic Corp., Youngstown Alba Craft, Oxford Associated Aircraft Tool and Manufacturing Co., Fairfield B & T Metals, Columbus Baker Brothers, Toledo Battelle Columbus Laboratories, Columbus Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Beryllium Production Plant (Brush), Luckey Brush Beryllium Co., Elmore Brush Beryllium Co., Cleveland Brush Beryllium Co., Lorain Cincinnati Milling Machine Co., Cincinnati Clifton Products Co., Clifton Clifton Products Co., Painesville Copperweld Steel, Warren Du Pont-Grasselli Research Laboratory, Cleveland Extrusion Plant, Ashtabula Feed Materials Production Center, Fernald General Electric Company, Cincinnati/Evendale Gruen Watch, Norwood Harshaw Chemical Co., Cleveland Herring-Hall Marvin Safe Co., Hamilton Horizons, Inc., Cleveland Kettering Laboratory, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Magnus Brass Co., Cincinnati McKinney Tool and Manufacturing Co., Cleveland Mitchell Steel Co., Cincinnati Monsanto Chemical Co., Dayton Mound Plant, Miamisburg Painesville Site (Diamond Magnesium Co.), Painesville Piqua Organic Moderated Reactor, Piqua Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Piketon R. W. Leblond Machine Tool Co., Cincinnati Tech-Art, Inc., Milford Tocco Induction Heating Div., Cleveland Vulcan Tool Co., Dayton OKLAHOMA Kerr-McGee, Guthrie OREGON Albany Research Center, Albany Wah Chang, Albany PENNSYLVANIA Aeroprojects, Inc., West Chester Aliquippa Forge, Aliquippa Aluminum Co. of America (Alcoa), New Kensington Babcock & Wilcox, Parks Township Beryllium Corp. of America, Hazleton Beryllium Corp. of America, Reading Birdsboro Steel & Foundry, Birdsboro C.H. Schnoor, Springdale Carnegie Mellon Cyclotron Facility, Saxonburg Carpenter Steel Co., Reading Chambersburg Engineering Co., Chambersburg Foote Mineral Co., East Whiteland Township Frankford Arsenal, Philadelphia Heppenstall Co., Pittsburgh Jessop Steel Co., Washington Koppers Co., Inc., Pittsburgh Landis Machine Tool Co., Waynesboro McDaniel Refractory Co., Beaver Falls Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp., Apollo Penn Salt Co., Philadelphia Philadelphia Naval Yard, Philadelphia Shippingport Atomic Power Plant, Shippingport Superior Steel Co., Carnegie U.S. Steel Co., National Tube Division, McKeesport Vitro Manufacturing, Cannonsburg Westinghouse Atomic Power Development Plant, East Pittsburgh PUERTO RICO BONUS Reactor Plant, Punta Higuera Puerto Rico Nuclear Center, Mayaguez RHODE ISLAND C.I. Hayes, Inc., Cranston SOUTH CAROLINA Savannah River Site, Aiken TENNESSEE Clarksville Facility, Clarksville Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (K-25), Oak Ridge Oak Ridge Hospital, Oak Ridge Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education, Oak Ridge Oak Ridge National Laboratory (X-10), Oak Ridge Vitro Corp. of America, Chattanooga W. R. Grace, Erwin Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge TEXAS AMCOT, Forth Worth Mathieson Chemical Co., Pasadena Medina Facility, San Antonio Pantex Plant, Amarillo Sutton, Steele and Steele Co., Dallas Texas City Chemicals, Inc., Texas City VIRGINIA Babcock & Wilcox Co., Lynchburg Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News University of Virginia, Charlottesville WASHINGTON Hanford, Richland Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WEST VIRGINIA Huntington Pilot Plant, Huntington WISCONSIN Allis-Chalmers Co., West Allis, Milwaukee Besley-Wells, South Beloit LaCrosse Boiling Water Reactor, LaCrosse Ladish Co., Cudahy January 12, 2001 Copyright 2000 The Daily Camera. All rights reserved. Any copying, ***************************************************************** 2 MEDINA BASE ON NUCLEAR SITE LIST MySanAntonio: Express-News: Military Express-News: Military BY KATHERINE RIZZO Associated Press WASHINGTON — Former workers at Medina Base in San Antonio who may have been made ill by handling nuclear materials during the Cold War could receive compensation from the U.S. government. The facility, now known as the Lackland Annex, was one of six Texas sites named Thursday in an Energy Department report, which examined records going back 60 years in an effort to document every facility that handled the deadly metal beryllium or radioactive materials. The government even listed mills, foundries and factories in a step toward identifying workers who may qualify for compensation. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson urged sick workers who were employed at the facilities to contact the government. "The burden of proof is on the government, not the worker. We will be open and candid this time, not like in the past," he said at a news conference. The list includes 317 sites that employed 600,000 people in 37 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Marshall Islands. Some were government-owned, but most were private companies that did business for the Energy Department or the Atomic Energy Commission. The Medina facility was a government-run center that maintained nuclear bombs and warheads in the U.S. arsenal, said Peter Tyler, a staffer for U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Beaumont. As many as 500 people were employed at the San Antonio facility from 1958 through 1966, when it closed, he said. Many of its functions were transferred to Pantex, a facility outside Amarillo. "The Department of Energy announcement is an important step in recognizing our forgotten nuclear workers," said Lampson, a member of the House Science Committee. "However, the federal government has more work to do. It will be up to the new administration to turn this legislation into a real program." David Michaels, the Energy Department's top health official, cautioned that some of the sites played minor roles in the history of weapons production. For example, while Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. in St. Louis processed thousands of tons of uranium, Star Cutter Corp. in Farmington, Mich., only had five pieces of uranium on site for one day while testing a special saw. Ailing workers and the families of many dead workers spent years pushing the government to take responsibility for illnesses caused by on-the-job exposure to high levels of radiation. Many sick workers complained they could not get adequate care because the substances to which they were exposed were considered classified information. As recently as President Clinton's first term, the government routinely fought worker compensation claims. Under a program approved by Congress last year, employees of facilities that did Energy Department work are eligible to receive government compensation for their medical care plus $150,000. Those who contracted a lung disease from beryllium or silica also are eligible. The first checks should go out later this year. The Energy Department's toll-free number for workers seeking information is (877) 447-9756. The former employees must show they were employed at one of the nuclear weapons sites and that the work they performed could have contributed to their illness, Tyler said. The records, though, may often not exist for those who worked at such smaller, "forgotten" facilities as Medina and a chemical facility that closed in the early 1950s in Texas City and employed only a few dozen workers, he said. Tyler urged former workers to write down every memory they have of their time in the plants. That will help them, or their families, make claims with the government, he said. Like Texas City Chemicals Inc., many of the privately owned sites have not performed work for the Energy Department for decades. Other Texas sites on the list are AMCOT in Fort Worth; Mathieson Chemical Co. in Pasadena; Sutton, Steele and Steele Co. in Dallas; and the Pantex plant. Express-News Staff Writer Sig Christenson contributed to this report. 01/11/2001 CONTACT US to 210-250-3105. ***************************************************************** 3 Radiation victims could get choice in compensation NICK REIHER STAFF WRITER [I] Proposal to Congress: Would allow workers to collect lost wages Employees at three local plants who were exposed to uranium and other dangerous materials during Cold War nuclear weapons manufacturing could be eligible for even greater compensation under legislation proposed to Congress on Thursday. President Clinton last month signed an executive order expediting a compensation package already approved by Congress in the fall. That package provided a lump-sum payment of $150,000 to the workers or their survivors, as well as medical benefits for the former workers. The new legislation proposed Thursday by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman would give workers a choice of the lump-sum $150,000 payment or compensation for lost wages due to illness. Both sets of legislation include the payment of medical expenses. The proposed amendments also include an appeals process, said Jeff Sherwood of the U.S. Department of Energy. If the amendments offered Thursday are approved by Congress, workers dissatisfied with their compensation package or turned down outright would be able to appeal the decision. The option of the compensation for lost wages could amount to more than the $150,000, said U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, R- Morris, who was happy to hear about the proposed amendments. While holding to the original allocation of $275 million over five years is important, Weller said the prime concern is to take care of the workers who were unknowingly exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and suffered life-threatening or fatal consequences while working for their country. He noted that the current compensation package and the proposed amendments cover only those employees who worked at the plants during the times of the government contracts. Area plants The legislation, current and proposed, would cover former employees of the Blockson/Olin plant south of Joliet; the William E. Pratt Co., formerly at Cass and Henderson streets in Joliet; and some 2,300 people at the University of Chicago, and later Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont, who worked with the dangerous metal beryllium during atomic bomb research in the 1940s. Dozens of workers at the now-closed Blockson Chemical plant, later Olin, at Patterson near Brandon roads, were exposed to uranium they extracted under a secret government weapons contract from 1952 to 1962. Workers at the former Pratt company were involved in grinding uranium rods for nuclear fuel. Scores of workers at Argonne and Blockson/Olin believed for years their cancers and other physical ailments were caused by their exposure with the radioactive materials. But it wasn't until early last year that the federal government admitted that more than 10,000 workers at some 200 private companies nationwide would have been exposed unknowingly as the companies had secret contracts with the government. Burden of proof U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Hinsdale, whose district includes Argonne, was more guarded about the proposed amendments. While she supported the current legislation, she, like House leaders, had some concerns. She said she would support the amendments so long as they were "necessary and fair and protected against fraud." Weller noted that the former employees or their survivors need only show that they or their loved ones worked at the plants during the times of the government contracts. It will be the burden of the government to show that the cancers and other diseases the victims suffered could not be traced to their secret government work. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will develop guidelines for the Department of Labor to determine whether a cancer is likely to be related to a worker's occupational exposure to radiation, Richardson said. Guidelines also will be set to establish methods to estimate worker exposure to radiation and to develop estimates for those who have applied for compensation. A presidential advisory committee will oversee those guidelines. DOE's Sherwood said they hope to have the application process in place by late summer or early fall. Until then, he encouraged former workers or their families to call the DOE hot line at (877) 447-9756. Weller said those interested could also call his Joliet office at (815) 740-2028 to register. Biggert said constituents, especially those affected by the beryllium contamination, could call her Hinsdale office at (630) 655-2052. The issue was originally brought to light by a series of USA Today articles released last fall. Assistant City Editor Nick Reiher can be reached at (815) 729-6050 or via e-mail at nick.reiher@copleypress.com. ***************************************************************** 4 Nuke workers may get lost pay Clinton plan would compensate those made ill at Rocky Flats DENVER ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS STAFF WRITER The Department of Energy moved Thursday to compensate workers at Rocky Flats and other nuclear facilities who developed serious diseases, such as cancer. The proposal, one of the final acts of the Clinton administration, would reimburse the workers for lost wages after they became ill. It must be approved by Congress. But outgoing Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said that a related bill last year to help "our Cold War heroes" was supported by both parties. President Clinton Last month issued an executive order directing the Department of Health and Human Services to reconstruct the exposure levels of current and former nuclear workers who have become ill. The project will help establish whether the diseases are occupational. An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 workers nationwide could be affected. At Rocky Flats, 2,000 people could have claims, said spokeswoman Karen Lutz. Costs for the next 10 years are estimated at $1.66 billion. Those who believe they have claims should call a federal hotline at (877) 447-9756. In the past, the federal government had fought worker claims. Many workers felt they had been abandoned by the government they had served, a view Richardson shares. "Somehow we forgot what a handshake meant, what our word meant - especially the word of our country," he said. "For many years, the government promoted a legacy of neglect toward those workers who helped build the strongest national security in the world." George Barrie, a former Rocky Flats machinist who lives in Craig, said he's glad the government will open the records to determine worker exposure levels. Barrie has degenerative bone disease, as well as digestive problems, which he attributes to his work. Barrie inhaled Americium, a by-product of plutonium, when the seal failed on a piece of protective glass. But how much was never established, he said Thursday. "I'm happy with them now. They're going as fast as they can," Barrie said of Clinton Administration efforts to compenstate the injured workers. The bill passed last year authorizes the government to cover the medical costs of the Cold War workers and to pay them - or their heirs - a lump sum of $150,000 for lost wages. But lost wages could total far more than that for some employees who were sick for years. The new bill would cover the higher costs, although it would not be retroactive, said Shelby Hallmark of the Department of labor, which will administer the payments. In addition to the Rocky Flats workers, compensation could go to people who worked at private companies with defense connections, such as Coors Porcelain, which processed beryllium for use in nuclear weapons. JANUARY 12, 2001 ©Copyright, Denver Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 5 DOE favors expanding options for sick workers News-Sentinel Washington bureau DOE FAVORS EXPANDING OPTIONS FOR SICK WORKERS 200 at Oak Ridge may qualify WASHINGTON--The Department of Energy proposed Thursday that Congress expand the compensation options for former contract workers at Oak Ridge and other sites who became ill from years of exposure to radiation and other hazards. An estimated 200 former Oak Ridge workers or their survivors may qualify for the $150,000 lump sum and medical reimbursement passed by Congress last year. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Thursday that Congress also should provide a better option to the lump sum, which would be a reimbursement for lost wages. DOE also listed 317 work sites where sick workers may be covered. Facilities at Oak Ridge that were included are: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y-12 Plant, K-25 Plant, former Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies Cancer Research Hospital and Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. Richardson said: "The legislative changes we are proposing today are an opportunity to build upon our commitment to do what is right for our employees and for this nation by showing we have listened to what our workers want--more choices in benefits and more fairness in adjudicating claims." However, Congress last year could not agree to support reimbursing workers for lost wages. Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, one of the leaders of last year's compromise, said he agreed with DOE that workers should be given a choice of compensation that includes lost wages. "I am pleased that the (Clinton) administration is moving forward to implement the law we passed last year," Thompson said. "I look forward to working with the new (Bush) administration to implement the law as quickly as possible so that those who are entitled to compensation will finally receive it." Vikki HatField of Kingston appeared with Richardson at the DOE press briefing to praise the department's progress toward aiding affected families. Hatfield's father, who worked at Oak Ridge for 31 years, is very ill from exposure to hazardous materials. During congressional debate last year Thompson backed reimbursing sick workers for their medical bills, plus either a $200,000 lump sum or compensation for lost wages. The compromise that passed was medical care and up to $150,000. That package is expected to cost $1.6 billion over 10 years. If Congress does not agree to change last year's law by July 31, workers will start receiving that compensation in August, DOE said Thursday. Workers with chronic beryllium disease, an incurable respiratory illness, also are covered. Any workers or their survivors seeking information on whether they qualify for compensation are urged by DOE to call a toll-free number, 1-877-447-9756. DOE also listed a few other Tennessee sites where former workers may be covered for compensation. They are W.R. Grace in Erwin, Vitro Corp. of America in Chattanooga, and the Clarksville Facility in Clarksville. Other sites on the list may be found at www. eh.doe.gov/benefits/laws/faclist.pdf. Richard Powelson may be reached at 202-408-2727 or PowelsonRshns.com Copyright 2000 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 6 Sick workers criticize proposed amendments Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 3:35 p.m. on Friday, January 12, 2001 BY PAUL PARSON Oak Ridger staff Despite proposed amendments to existing legislation that provides compensation for current and former workers at federal nuclear facilities, some Oak Ridgers still say the plan only provides "justice for a few." Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced the amendments to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 Thursday afternoon during a press conference call from Washington, D.C. Under the proposed amendments, a covered worker will be provided a choice of compensation remedies. The worker may choose to receive a lump sum payment of $150,000, as provided in the current law, or compensation for lost wages provided by the new legislation. Compensation for lost wages is the traditional remedy for workers' compensation under federal and state compensation programs. Both the new legislation and current law provide for payment of medical expenses. Other changes include clarifying agency responsibilities for various activities and providing appropriate review of eligibility and other determinations made in implementing the compensation program. The reviews include an appeals process for workers who may disagree with findings on their claims. The Department of Labor has primary responsibility for administering the compensation and medical benefits program, including determining eligibility requirements and adjudicating claims. The Department of Health and Human Services will develop guidelines for the Department of Labor to determine whether a cancer is likely to be related to a worker's occupational exposure to radiation, to establish methods to estimate worker exposure to radiation and develop estimates for those who have applied for compensation. A presidential advisory board is currently being selected to provide oversight and assure confidence in the scientific validity and quality of this work, Richardson said. Glenn Bell, an Oak Ridge resident who suffers from chronic beryllium disease, has voiced dissatisfaction with the compensation plan for months and said Thursday his concerns remain the same. Bell wants to see "all inclusive" medical insurance, all victims compensated equally without the involvement of state workers' compensation and a return to the Senate's version of at least $200,000 as a minimum lump sum. Janet Michel, a member of Coalition for a Healthy Environment, pointed out that the amendments offer some good to a program that's far from being perfect. CHE represents workers and residents who believe their illnesses have been caused by exposures originating at DOE facilities. "Some of the wording helped to clarify the program," she said. "And it looks like they have tried to improve the appeals process. That's a slight improvement. It's a long way from great." Michel said the proposed offering of replacement wages instead of the lump sum payment is far more meaningful than the lump sum payment of $150,000. "The lump sum payment is a pathetic amount of money," Michel said. Michel said she's also distressed to hear that workers who fall under the category of "other toxic exposures" will have to file a claim under their respective state's workers' compensation system. "The majority of people fall into the other toxic exposures category, " Michel said. "This bill will only help a select few--probably only 5 percent of affected workers. It's justice for a few. It's not comprehensive justice. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done." DOE also released a list of 317 sites in 37 states where workers may be covered. Local sites include the Oak Ridge K-25 Site; the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, recently renamed the Y-12 National Security Complex; Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies cancer research hospital; Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (X-10). DOE's toll-free number for workers seeking information on whether they qualify for the compensation plan is 1-877-447-9756. The proposed legislation, the list of facilities and information benefits [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 7 Thompson supports DOE plan to expand options for sick workers Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:54 p.m. on Friday, January 12, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP)--In the waning days of the Clinton administration, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is urging Congress to expand compensation options for sick nuclear weapons workers to include reimbursement for lost wages. U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., who co-sponsored sick worker legislation that passed last year, said he fully supports the initiative. "I am pleased that the (Clinton) administration is moving forward to implement the law we passed last year," Thompson said Thursday. Moreover, he said, "I look forward to working with the new (Bush) administration to implement the law as quickly as possible so that those who are entitled to compensation will finally receive it." Richardson made the request Thursday as DOE released a list of 317 work sites where sick workers may be covered. The list includes several locations in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the once- secret city that helped develop the nuclear bomb, including the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. Other Tennessee sites were: W. R. Grace in Erwin, Vitro Corp. of America in Chattanooga, and the Clarksville Facility in Clarksville. Congress last year passed a bill that would give an estimated 200 Oak Ridge workers or their survivors a $150,000 lump sum and medical reimbursement. However, Congress could not agree on reimbursement for lost wages. "The legislative changes we are proposing today," Richardson said, "are an opportunity to build upon our commitment to do what is right for our employees and for this nation by showing we have listened to what our workers want--more choices in benefits and more fairness in adjudicating claims." Joining Richardson at a news conference Thursday was Vikki Hatfield of Kingston, Tenn. Her father, who worked at Oak Ridge for 31 years, is very ill from exposure to hazardous materials. The benefits package is expected to cost $1.6 billion over 10 years. If Congress does not agree to change last year's law by July 31, workers will start receiving compensation in August, DOE said. [*][I] All Contents.cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 8 ORNL to help with stable isotope project Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 3:35 p.m. on Friday, January 12, 2001 BY PAUL PARSON Oak Ridger staff A joint project between the Department of Energy and Tennessee State University in Nashville is expected to construct a facility that will provide U.S. researchers with a reliable supply of stable, nonradioactive isotopes, officials say. And an Oak Ridge facility will assist in the venture. Stable isotopes are materials essential for a wide range of advanced research in such fields as medical science, earth science, and many areas of physics and chemistry. Use of stable isotopes is on the increase in the United States, according to information from DOE. They are used in nutritional studies and also as feed materials to produce vital medical isotopes used for diagnosing heart ailments, cancer and other illnesses. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which until recently provided stable isotopes to researchers and industry, will apply its expertise in the production of stable isotopes to assure that the new facility is installed and operated in a manner that best suits the varied needs of the U.S. research community. "Isotope separation has been a research interest at Oak Ridge for more than 55 years, ranging from calutrons and the plasma separation process to centrifuges and diffusion processes," said Gordon Michaels, director of Nuclear Technology Programs at ORNL. "We're very excited about this new opportunity to partner with Tennessee State University in isotope separation technology and to assist with development of educational programs in isotope research." The new facility could be operational in approximately two years, according to DOE information. [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 9 Sick workers' benefits added for Honeywell - By Bill Bartleman The Paducah Sun Friday, January 12, 2001 The DOE payments for the Paducah plant, too, are expected to be more flexible than in the law that was approved earlier. Workers at the Honeywell plant in Metropolis, Ill., have joined those at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in eligibility for benefits under a new federal compensation program for nuclear plant workers. The plants were included on a list of 317 work sites in 37 states where workers may have become ill because of exposure to radioactive materials used in the production of nuclear fuel and nuclear weapons. It was the first time that Honeywell workers were included in the eligibility list. The plant, originally built by Allied Chemical Co., converts natural uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6), that is enriched at the Paducah plant for use in nuclear fuel. Honeywell is the only plant in the country that handles uranium conversion. The expanded list was released Thursday by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who also proposed changes in the compensation program approved by Congress in October. Richardson said a bill containing the changes has been sent to Congress. The major change is to allow sick and disabled workers to choose between a lump-sum payment of $150,000 or being paid paid lost wages. The current provision includes only the lump-sum option. The amendment allows surviving family members of workers who died to have the same choice. The lost-wages benefit would not be retroactive to the time of the disability or death, but would begin on the date a claim is filed, said Shelby Hallmark, acting director of worker compensation programs for the Department of Labor. U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville, supports the changes and pledged to help force a bipartisan effort to get congressional passage prior to a July 31 deadline for changing the act. "It is the most important piece of legislation that I have been involved with since I've been in Congress," Whitfield said, referring to initial approval of the act last year. The Department of Labor has primary responsibility for administering the compensation and medical benefits program, including determining eligibility requirements and judging claims. The Department of Health and Human Services is developing guidelines to determine whether a cancer is likely to be related to an occupational exposure to radiation. Hallmark said the program will be in place by July 31 and the first compensation checks should be issued in August. However, Whitfield said it could be the end of the year before checks are issued. Last year, Congress rejected the idea of paying employees for lost wages because of concerns over the long-term cost and how it would be implemented. Saying the concerns have been resolved, Richardson predicted easy passage of the amendment. "There was bipartisan support for this when it was first approved last year, and I think that will continue," he said. Whitfield agreed, but also forecast opposition from members of Congressmen who oppose this and other entitlement programs. Richardson, at a Washington news conference, said his legacy in running the U.S. Department of Energy will be the compensation program for nuclear plant workers. It was Richardson who acknowledged in a speech in Paducah in fall 1999 that the federal government was negligent by not telling workers about the risks of working in the nuclear plants. It marked the first time the federal government admitted responsibility for some workers' contracting cancer and other fatal and debilitating illnesses. "For many years, the government promoted a legacy of neglect toward those workers who helped build the strongest national security in the world," Richardson said. "We failed to take care of our workers who became sick. "We have put forth a program that has brought justice and righted a wrong," he said. "This sets a course for this department and the country to say 'thank you' to our Cold War heroes who have been neglected." Dr. David Michaels, assistant energy secretary for environmental safety and health, said as many as 10,000 current and former workers may qualify for benefits costing $1.6 billion over the next 10 years. Richardson, whose tenure ends Jan. 20, said proposed amendments to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 were sent to Congress Thursday. Hallmark said the legislation also makes changes necessary to effectively administer the program. The changes include clarifying agency responsibilities for various activities and implementing an appeals process for workers who may disagree with findings on their claims. "The legislative changes we are proposing today are an opportunity to build upon our commitment to do what is right for our employees and for this nation by showing we have listened to what our workers want — more choices in benefits and more fairness in adjudicating claims," Richardson said. ***************************************************************** 10 Paducah Radiation Study Released PADUCAH, KENTUCKY, January 11, 2001 (ENS) - The Energy Department has released a study of possible past radiation exposures to workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Kentucky. The study was prepared for the department by researchers at the University of Utah and the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union. "This report identifies the type of work which, in the past, posed the greatest risk to Paducah workers," said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. "It will serve as a basis for further study to ensure that workers made sick at Paducah get the compensation they deserve." The study concluded that from 1952 to 1991, an estimated 2,500 to 4,000 employees worked in areas which increased their potential radiation exposure beyond that expected for workers elsewhere at the nuclear weapons plant. These highest risk areas included the Feed Plant, the Decontamination Building, the Metals Building and the Cascade Buildings. The tasks which had the most potential for increased exposure included ash handling, cylinder heels cleaning, derbies processing, pulverizer operation, flange grinding and baghouse filter changing, the report says. Richardson said the study will help focus future health studies by identifying the job types, locations and time period that could have posed the highest risk. The study did not attempt to estimate doses for individual workers. While all types of possible radiation exposures were considered in the study, particular attention was given to potential exposures to transuranic elements, including neptunium and plutonium. Current practices at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant keep worker exposures well below historic levels. A public meeting on the study will be held on February 1, 2001, in Paducah. Representatives of the University of Utah, Paper, Allied- Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union and DOE will be available to respond to workers and interested citizens. ***************************************************************** 11 Amendments may help plant workers HoustonChronicle.com Jan. 12, 2001, 1:05AM BY DALE LEZON COPYRIGHT 2001 HOUSTON CHRONICLE Workers at two defunct Houston-area chemical plants may benefit from proposed changes to the federal compensation program for work-related radiation exposure. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson on Thursday announced proposed amendments to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 to better serve workers. Nationwide, about 300 plants, including the now-closed Texas City Chemicals in Texas City and Mathieson Chemical Co. in Pasadena, participated or continue to participate in the nation's nuclear weapon program. In the 1950s, Texas City Chemicals and Mathieson Chemical were part of a pilot project to extract uranium from phosphate ore used to manufacture fertilizer. Each produced about 50 pounds of uranium. The amendments are a step in the right direction, said U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Beaumont, who fights for coverage of workers at the two plants. However, it is unclear when compensation will be available to those eligible. The amendments must be approved by Congress and signed into law by the president. The proposed changes would give a variety of compensation packages. Eligible people could take a lump sum payment of $150,000 or compensation for lost wages because of work-related illnesses such as cancer caused by radiation exposure. The amendments also would establish an appeals process for people who challenge their compensation allotments. The Department of Labor would administer the compensation program. The Department of Health and Human Services would develop guidelines to determine whether radiation caused a persons's cancer. Workers at the plants would have to be interviewed to help determine if they were exposed to radiation. Information about the compensation program can be obtained by calling the DOE at 877-447-9756. Other Texas facilities identified by the DOE whose workers may be covered are Amcot in Fort Worth, Medina Facility in San Antonio, Pantex Plant in Amarillo and Sutton, Steele and Steele Co. in Dallas. ***************************************************************** 12 Sick workers may get more compensation This story was published 1/12/2001 BY LES BLUMENTHAL HERALD WASHINGTON, D.C., BUREAU WASHINGTON--Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation could receive more than the previously announced $150,000 in compensation for medical problems associated with exposure to radiation or certain hazard materials, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Thursday. Richardson announced proposed amendments to recently passed legislation compensating those who became ill performing work related to nuclear weapons programs and provided a list of the 300 sites which would be covered by the new program. In addition to Hanford, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland also is on the list. The proposed amendment would allow workers to claim compensation for lost wages or $150,000, whichever is more. The current law provides only a lump-sum payment of $150,000, but workers' compensation programs have traditionally offered reimbursement for lost wages. "One-hundred and fifty thousand dollars might not be adequate, " said David Michaels, the Energy Department's assistant secretary for environment, safety and health. Medical expenses also would be covered under the current law and the amendment. The amendments also would give the Department of Health and Human Services the responsibility of setting guidelines to determine whether illnesses were caused by workplace exposures. It will determine whether a cancer is likely to be related to a worker's exposure to radiation, establish methods to estimate radiation exposure and develop estimates for those who have applied for compensation. A presidential advisory board is being selected to provide oversight and assure confidence in the scientific validity of the work. The scientific community has debated for decades how much of the cancer found in nuclear workers may be attributed to radiation exposure. Until recently, DOE has fought most claims of cancer caused by workplace exposure. Richardson said he expected the incoming administration will support the new program, which was approved by Congress last year with strong, bipartisan majorities, and he planned to talk about it with President- elect Bush's nominee for Energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, next week. "It's the law of the country," Richardson said. "It's an entitlement program. Sure there can be problems, but this is not subject to (annual) appropriations. Be assured this will go forward." Other federal entitlement programs include Social Security and Medicare. Richardson made public a list of 317 sites in 37 states covered by the program under which compensation will be provided to Energy Department workers or their survivors, who have suffered occupational illness from radiation exposure. "We want workers from these facilities to contact us," Richardson said. "They need to contact us." Richardson said the burden was on the federal government to ensure that once a worker files a claim, they are treated fairly. "We will be open and honest, not like in the past," he said. Sites in California include the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, the Laboratory for Energy- Related Health Research in Davis and Burris Park Field Station in Kingsburg. Also included were the department's Savannah River site in South Carolina and the Elk River Reactor in Minnesota. Other amendments would streamline the compensation program. The Labor Department would administer the compensation and medical benefits program, the Department of Health and Human Services would establish eligibility guidelines, and the Energy Department would provide exposure data. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the program could cost $1.6 billion over 10 years. No one is quite sure how many workers or their survivors may be eligible. During the Cold War the Energy Department, its contractors and subcontractors employed thousands of workers in the nation's nuclear weapons programs. The compensation program also covers employees of companies that provided beryllium for the department. "This could be the legacy I am most proud of," Richardson said, adding that the program "brought justice, righted an old wrong and set a course for the future. For many years the government promoted a policy of neglect toward our workers and, in doing so, we turned our back on some of the bravest Americans." Under the current law, the Labor Department has until May 31 to issue regulations for administering the program and until July 31 to ensure the proper claim forms are available in both paper and electronic formats. "We are committed to implementing the program on time and to make it a quality program," said Shelby Hallmark, acting director of the Labor Department's Office of Worker Compensation. Richardson said the amendments he proposed Thursday would strengthen the original law. "We are taking another necessary and important step," he said. "We wanted to move forward to keep the momentum." Michaels said the department hoped to have a Web site up and running by next week to provide more information on the program. ***************************************************************** 13 DOE cleanup figures irk EPA officials This story was published 1/12/2001 BY JOHN STANG HERALD STAFF WRITER Hanford's latest figures on moving fuel-filled canisters out of the K Basins by Sept. 30 are 40 percent of what the Department of Energy earlier said it would do. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is really peeved about that. That's because DOE announced on Jan. 2 how much spent nuclear fuel it expects to haul from the K Basins to an underground storage vault in 2001. Those projections indicated 21 "Multi-Canister Overpacks," or MCOs, are to be moved by Sept. 30. An MCO is a special transportation- and-storage container that holds spent nuclear fuel as it is removed from the K Basins and moved to the central Hanford vault. Doug Sherwood, the EPA's Hanford site manager, said DOE and the EPA agreed last spring on a technical schedule in which the project would move 51 MCOs from the K West Basin by Sept. 30. Sherwood said DOE did not consult with the EPA before announcing the 21-MCO figure when DOE Hanford Manager Keith Klein unveiled a public "scorecard" on Jan. 2 of goals that the agency plans to achieve in 2001. Those figures translated to 21 MCOs moved by Sept. 30. "My concern is DOE lowering the bar for the contractors to meet, " Sherwood said. Phil Loscoe, DOE's K Basins project manager, said the 21-MCO figure came from a combination of slower-than-expected movement within the K West Basin, plus an unofficial preliminary number being tossed around enough that it mistakenly become the real one. The K Basins are two indoor, water-filled, leak-prone pools near the Columbia River that hold 2,300 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. This project is Hanford's second-hardest cleanup venture, with the underwater tank wastes being the most difficult. Fuel removal began last month in the K West Basin. The Tri-Party Agreement, the legal pact that governs Hanford's cleanup, calls for all the K West Basin's 1,210 tons to be removed by Dec. 31, 2002. The rest of the fuel in the K East Basin is supposed to be moved by mid-2004. Before the fuel is put inside an MCO, it has to be moved by remote control to a long, underwater table. There, the loose fuel bits are removed, and the fuel rods are inserted into baskets to eventually be put inside the MCOs--all before being removed from the pool. When Fluor Hanford moved the first fuel last month, the underwater process took much longer than expected, Loscoe said. Consequently, DOE's and Fluor's experts began discussing how to speed up the process and if schedules should be changed. The 51-MCO target did not look achievable as the K West Basin's system is currently set up, Loscoe said. Those discussions started tossing around a possible 21-MCO target figure so much that people began to incorrectly assume it was the official figure, and that's how it worked its way into Klein's scorecard announcement, Loscoe said. The problem with a 21-MCO figure is that extrapolates to 128 tons being moved in 2001 and more than 1,000 tons of spent fuel being moved in 2002. Loscoe said Fluor is expected within a month to come up with a proposal to speed up the underwater work at K West Basin. Possibilities include adding shifts or extra underwater processing equipment, he said. Fluor intends to meet the Tri-Party Agreement's deadlines, said company spokesman Craig Kuhlman. "This is a new production facility, and we're refining our plan that will ramp us up both from a staffing and technical basis," Kuhlman said. He added: "That includes running three shifts a day, from the one we're running presently, with the equipment to support the volume. To go into any more detail than that right now would be premature. But it will be reflected in the proper documentation later this month." Sherwood voiced concern that adding shifts and equipment might increase the K Basin's expenses in a time when many Hanford projects, including efforts to speed river shore cleanup, are fighting for money under a tight Hanford cleanup budget. Loscoe said DOE has the same concern. But he added that DOE intends to press Fluor to keep costs from zooming up while staying on schedule. ***************************************************************** 14 Liquid combats Hanford tank corrosion risk Jan. 11, 2001: BY THE HERALD STAFF Hanford workers expect this week to finish adding a caustic liquid to the first of four underground waste tanks to reduce the risk of corrosion. The acidity of the highly radioactive liquids inside each tank is high enough to increase the risk of corrosion, although no significant damage has show up in so far, said Dale Allen, senior vice president at CH2M Hill Hanford Group, which manages the tank farms. Three of the double-shell steel tanks--AY-101, AN-102 and AN-107 -- have been on list of tanks that did not meet the safety criteria set by then-U.S. Rep. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in a 1984 bill. The major safety problems--such as the potential to produce flammable gases--have been taken care of. The acidity level problems were a lower priority in the Wyden bill's criteria. Allen said analyses of the wastes of Hanford's other 24 double-shell tanks show no signs of this acidity problem. Last month, CH2M Hill began pouring 40,000 gallons of caustic sodium hydroxide solution into Tank AY-101 to reduce its acidity level. Workers plan to begin adding sodium hydroxide into the other three tanks later this year. COPYRIGHT 2000 TRI-CITY HERALD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS ***************************************************************** 15 Complete UN Kosovo Coverage TOP UN PEACEKEEPING OFFICIAL BRIEFS SECURITY COUNCIL ON KOSOVO 18 JANUARY - The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has made "impressive progress" in many areas over the past 18 months, particularly in strengthening the local police and reconstructing homes and schools, a top UN peacekeeping official told the Security Council today as it met to discuss the situation in the province. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno also stressed that UMMIK had continued to work to create inclusive local administrative structures. At the provincial level, the Kosovo Transitional Council (KTC) had been partially expanded, with further enlargement planned for the future. Despite incidents of violence, UNMIK had also made significant progress in strengthening the rule of law in the province. "The police service has improved in both quantity and quality," Mr. Guéhenno said, adding that the officers were performing in a professional manner in spite of threats and intimidation against them. In the area of civil administration, key developments had taken place as well, including the opening of employment offices in a growing number of communities and the recent launch of an initiative to place a youth worker in every municipality. By the end of 2000, more than 100 schools had been constructed, and 46,000 families were receiving social assistance, Mr. Guéhenno said. In his briefing, Mr. Guéhenno also noted the work done by the UN to deal with the possible depleted uranium problem in Kosovo. He said that an initial survey by the World Health Organization and UNMIK's Department of Health and Public Welfare indicated that the incidence of leukaemia in adults in Kosovo had not increased. However, he added, the Mission has posted warning signs in all areas known to have been targeted by shells containing depleted uranium, and WHO is dispatching to Kosovo specialists who can assess the consequences of exposure to the substance. During the discussion that followed the Under-Secretary-General's briefing, speakers expressed their support for the new head of UNMIK, Hans Haekkerup, underlined the importance of cooperation between the parties in the region, and stressed the need to curb continuing ethnic violence and address the issue of Kosovo-wide elections. Meanwhile in Pristina, the new UNMIK chief today held his first meeting with the KTC, during which he outlined his priority issues--the rule of law, the economy, and the question of detainees and missing persons. [*][I] URANIUM 236 FOUND IN AMMUNITION TIPS AT NATO-TARGETED SITES IN KOSOVO: UNEP 16 JANUARY - Early laboratory results confirm that pieces of ammunition tips found at sites targeted by NATO during the 1999 Kosovo conflict contain Uranium 236, indicating that the uranium was reprocessed, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said today. Scientists working for the UNEP Depleted Uranium Assessment Group are analysing the contents of seven penetrators--ammunition tips made out of depleted uranium--found during a UNEP field mission to Kosovo in November 2000. Their tests show that 0.0028 per cent of the uranium in the penetrators is in the form of isotope U-236, which indicates that part of the depleted uranium came from reprocessed uranium. According to the laboratory which provided the information, the content of U-236 in the depleted uranium is so small that the radiotoxicity is not changed compared to depleted uranium without U-236. However, the final assessment by UNEP will be made only once results from all laboratories are available. "This is the first laboratory result based on our field work," said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. "We have asked the World Health Organization (WHO) and all of our other partners for their assessments of this finding while we continue with the scientific analysis." UNEP's Kosovo field mission team, consisting of 14 experts from several countries, collected soil, water and vegetation samples, conducted smear tests on buildings and destroyed army vehicles, and located penetrators and sabots. Remnants of depleted uranium ammunition were found at eight of the 11 sites that were visited. The 340 samples collected are now being analysed for both toxicity and radioactivity in five European laboratories in an effort to determine whether the use of DU during the Balkans conflict may pose any risks to human health or the environment. The results of the tests will be ready in early March, when UNEP will publish a full report of its findings. [*][I] UN IN KOSOVO TAKES STEPS TO THWART POSSIBLE ILL EFFECTS OF DEPLETED URANIUM 11 JANUARY - As the lead organization dealing with all public health aspects relating to depleted uranium in Kosovo, the United Nations has taken several measures to protect the civilian population against any possible ill effects from the ammunition used by NATO during the 1999 air strikes, the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) said today. UNMIK has begun posting signs at the sites that are known to have been targeted by shells containing depleted uranium, and is working together with the KFOR international security force to identify all possible locations. The posted signs are captioned: "Caution--Area May Contain Residual Heavy Metal Toxicity--Entry Not Advised," according to an UNMIK statement released today in Pristina. On UNMIK's request, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) is sending toxicology and radiation specialists to Kosovo to assess the possible consequences of depleted uranium exposure. The health agency is also helping to set up a voluntary testing program for Kosovars at Pristina Hospital and to establish ties with all national and international bodies that have direct interest in the depleted uranium issue. In another move, the head of UNMIK, Dr. Bernard Kouchner, has initiated a search for organizations that could assist in formulating longer- term initiatives regarding depleted uranium. A public information campaign about depleted uranium is also being developed to alert all residents and visitors of Kosovo about possible risks. Meanwhile in Geneva, the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, Klaus Toepfer, unveiled today the full details of the map he received from NATO which shows the 112 sites where depleted uranium weapons were used. At a joint press conference with Pekka Haavisto, the chair of the UNEP Balkans task force, Mr. Toepfer also gave the exact location of the 11 sites that had been visited by atask force mission. The UN officials stressed the importance of taking precautionary measures at these sites. "At places where contamination has been confirmed, measures should be taken to prevent access," Mr. Toepfer said. "The local authorities and people concerned should be informed of the possible risks and precautionary measures." The need for caution was also emphasized by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei. In a statement issued today at the UN agency's Headquarters in Vienna, Mr. ElBaradei said that before an authoritative conclusion could be reached it was essential to carefully assess the impact of the substance in the special circumstances in which had been used, and to carry out a detailed survey of the affected territory and people. "In the meantime, it would be prudent, as recommended by the leader of the November UNEP mission, to adopt precautionary measures," he said. "Depending on the results of the survey further measures may be necessary." KOUCHNER VISITS DEPLETED URANIUM SITE IN KOSOVO HEAD OF UN KOSOVO MISSION VISITS SITE HIT BY DEPLETED URANIUM AMMUNITION 9 JANUARY - The head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) today visited a site which was hit by ammunition containing depleted uranium during the 1999 Balkans conflict. At a destroyed bus station in Klina, Dr. Bernard Kouchner witnessed a demonstration by Italian troops of their techniques in seeking radiation left by depleted uranium. Specialists wearing white uniforms and masks deployed monitors on the ground and in the air amid the twisted shards of vehicles. "We took and are still taking this threat very seriously: on the one hand, we are checking the radioactivity with testing not only by the soldiers but also by the United Nations Environmental Programme [(UNEP)]," Dr. Kouchner told reporters on the scene, referring to the UN agency which collected samples of depleted uranium in Kosovo that are now being analyzed in European labs. "On the other hand, we have also demanded an investigation by the World Health Organization [(WHO)] into the health of the population," he added. In addition to asking WHO for a team of experts to assess the situation, Dr. Kouchner said he would invite specialized non-governmental organizations to Kosovo to study of the health risks of depleted uranium. "I'm suggesting that an independent body, such as Friends of the Earth, should come and freely make their own exploration and investigation, " he explained, noting that the idea had been endorsed by NATO Secretary General George Robertson. The UNMIK chief said he had proposed the establishment of a working group of Albanians and Serbs to liaise with WHO and public health institutions on the matter. The issue of depleted uranium was also discussed today in Kosovo's Interim Administrative Council, which Dr. Kouchner addressed for the last time as head of UNMIK before completing his assignment later this week. He took the occasion to urge members of that body to "reject intolerance and use your influence as political leaders to curb extremism." Meanwhile, UNEP spokesman Michael Williams told reporters in Geneva today that the agency hoped to send a mission to Serbia and Montenegro in April or May to examine sites hit by ammunition containing depleted uranium. NATO provided UNEP with a map of 112 such sites, of which nine were in Serbia and Montenegro and the rest in Kosovo and surrounding regions, he said. [*][I] UN CHIEF IN KOSOVO SEEKS HEALTH EXPERTS' OPINION ON EFFECTS OF DEPLETED URANIUM 8 JANUARY - Secretary-General Kofi Annan's chief envoy in Kosovo is seeking a team of health experts to assess the effects of depleted uranium resulting from the Balkans conflict of 1999, a United Nations spokesperson told reporters in Pristina today. Susan Manual, a spokesperson for the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said UNMIK Chief Dr. Bernard Kouchner had urgently appealed to the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) "to send public health experts to assist in monitoring any possible health consequences of the use of depleted uranium among the civilian population." Initial findings from WHO and the Kosovo Department of Health revealed "no increase in the incidence of leukemia among adults over the past four years," Ms. Manuel said, adding that the assessment would continue. Dr. Kouchner is also in touch with NATO Secretary-General George Robertson on how to coordinate their approach to the issue of depleted uranium. Samples collected by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) from sites hit by depleted uranium during the conflict are now being analyzed in five European laboratories. The results of the tests will be ready in early March, when UNEP is to publish a full report of its findings. When asked about the issue at UN Headquarters in New York this morning, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted that the UNEP tests were ongoing. "Once we have concluded the tests, we will know precisely what environmental and health damage the depleted uranium weapons pose, if any," he said. Depleted uranium, a byproduct of nuclear power, is used for heavy tank armour, anti-tank munitions, missiles and projectiles. According to WHO, the health effects of the substance are "complex" due to its chemical, radiological and physical characteristics. The agency is currently involved in setting guidelines that would be applicable to depleted uranium, while conducting ongoing research on its impact on human health. [*][I] DEPLETED URANIUM SAMPLES FROM KOSOVO ANALYZED IN EUROPEAN LABS: UN AGENCY 5JANUARY - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today that samples of depleted uranium (DU) from Kosovo were now undergoing rigorous analysis in five European labs to determine whether the use of the substance during the Balkans conflict may pose any risk to human health or the environment. The samples were collected last November during a UNEP mission covered 11 of the 112 sites in Kosovo that were identified as being targeted by ordnance containing depleted uranium, including five in the Italian sector of operation and six in the German sector. The field visit was carried out in close cooperation with the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the international security force, KFOR. Although the final conclusions of the scientific assessment can only be made after the laboratory results are available, UNEP said today that its preliminary findings call for precautions to be taken when dealing with ammunition containing depleted uranium. The samples are being analyzed for both radioactivity and toxicity by the Swedish Radiation Protection Institute (SSI) in Stockholm; AC Laboratorium-Spiez in Switzerland; Bristol University's Department of Earth Sciences in the United Kingdom; the International Atomic Energy Agency Laboratories (IAEA) in Seibersdorf, Austria; and the Italian National Environmental Protection Agency (ANPA) in Rome, Italy. The assessment work on depleted uranium has been financed by the Government of Switzerland. The results of the tests will be ready in early March, when UNEP will publish a full report of its findings. UNEP also said today that it had been in contact with authorities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to plan a similar field mission this Spring to Serbia and Montenegro, where a number of the 112 NATO- identified depleted uranium sites are located. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for UNMIK told reporters in Pristina today that the head of the Mission, Dr. Bernard Kouchner, planned to meet with representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) who are also studying the risks associated with depleted uranium. Referring to reports of possible radiation from the substance, spokesperson Susan Manual said, "We are taking these reports very seriously, however we have little concrete information at this point." ***************************************************************** 16 Fluor gets fair marks from DOE This story was published Thu, Jan 11, 2001 BY JOHN STANG HERALD STAFF WRITER Fluor Hanford received overall good marks on its last annual evaluation, earning the company $19.9 million out of a possible award fee of $34.5 million for fiscal 2000. The Department of Energy sent a letter to Fluor about the fee-- essentially the company's annual profit--in late December. Fluor earned good marks across the board, with a few glitches showing up, said Bob Rosselli, DOE's deputy manager for support functions, and Lloyd Piper, head of DOE's evaluation effort. However, last year DOE drastically reorganized how it grades Fluor's performance and how it calculates the award fee. Consequently, an apples-to-apples comparison of Fluor's fiscal 2000 performance with previous annual evaluations is impossible. The fiscal 2000 bottom line is that Fluor earned 58 percent of the maximum possible $34.5 million. Under the previous grading system, Fluor earned $36.2 million out of a possible $42.3 million for fiscal 1999--86 percent of the possible total. For fiscal 1998, Fluor earned $32.2 million, which is 72 percent of a possible $44.6 million. And Fluor tallied $29.9 million out of a possible $54 million in fiscal 1997, when several Hanford projects stumbled badly. Rosselli and Piper said the fiscal 2000 standards to earn any fee on an individual project were significantly raised to spur Fluor to stay on schedule and meet tough quality expectations. Consequently, Fluor had to work harder to earn a lesser percentage of the total possible fee, they said. They said another sign of Fluor's good record is that DOE recently extended Fluor's five-year contract--due to expire Sept. 30-- by five more years. Fluor Hanford President Ron Hanson said: "I would have loved to have earned every single dollar. ... But we had a helluva year." Hanson zeroed in on Fluor posting a still-intact streak of 11 million man-hours worked without suffering an accident resulting in an employee losing a day on the job. "That's something I'm extremely proud of. The credit has to go to the workers on the site," he said. DOE's fee letter to Fluor singled out three projects for extra praise. One was shipping the first truckload of transuranic wastes--junk contaminated by extremely long-living radioactive particles--to New Mexico. That same program also disposed of a significant amount of low-level radioactive wastes that had chemicals mixed in and had begun preparing T Plant to store radioactive sludge to be taken from the K Basins. Another project praised by DOE was the Plutonium Finishing Plant getting up to convert plutonium into safer forms. However, Fluor overestimated how fast it could convert plutonium-laced liquids into safer orders and fell behind schedule on that process. Hanson said those estimates have been recalculated and inserted into the PFP's master timetable. The other main kudo went to the project to remove spent nuclear fuel from the K Basins, which began actually moving fuel in early December. Besides the slow work powderizing plutonium out of liquids, Fluor was criticized for not deciding by last summer whether to extend or redo the contracts for its four enterprise companies. These are firms created in 1996 as Hanford subcontractors designed to pick up outside business as well as their on-site work. The four are Fluor Federal Services, Lockheed Martin Services Inc., Cogema Engineering Corp. and GTS Duratek Technical Services. Fluor was holding off on those decisions until it knew if its own contract would be extended, Hanson said. Fluor is pondering what it wants to do with its relationships with the enterprise companies, but Hanson declined to elaborate. Also, Fluor was supposed to figure out how to save $30 million in administrative costs in 2000, with the savings supposedly being shifted to cleanup work. Last spring, Fluor identified $18 million in administrative savings, but then it bogged down on its studies into this subject, Hanson said. Fluor recently finished identifying the $30 million and is tackling shifting that money to cleanup programs, he said. COPYRIGHT 2000 TRI-CITY HERALD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS ***************************************************************** 17 Worry Over Contaminated Kosovo Site January 11, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS RELJAN, Yugoslavia (AP)--The unexplained death of a local shepherd. Mysteriously sickened people and livestock. Fruit drying on the branch. Normally the stuff of local folklore, such occurrences have unnerved villagers living next to a patch of land cordoned off as one of six sites in southern Serbia contaminated by depleted uranium ammunition during NATO's 1999 air campaign against Yugoslavia. "Who knows what those planes dropped on us. It thundered endlessly, " said Miroljub Milic, 46. Milic's home is on the edge of a cluster of 70 Serb homes in Reljan, 185 miles southeast of Belgrade. Some 140 ethnic Albanian houses are farther away, and the two communities rarely mix. But both share a common fear of sickness--or worse--from exposure to NATO munitions containing depleted uranium. Concerns that depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal used in armor-piercing ammunition, could cause cancer were unleashed last month after Italy began studying the illnesses of 30 Balkans veterans, seven of whom died of cancer, including five cases of leukemia. Other European countries have begun screening soldiers who served as peacekeepers in the Balkans. Many civilian aid agencies followed suit, although NATO maintains there is no evidence of a health risk. On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said more research was needed to determine whether radiation from NATO weapons had damaged the health of peacekeepers and civilians in Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav government on Wednesday formed a special committee for monitoring the effects of depleted uranium in southern Serbia and in Montenegro. In Kosovo, which bore the brunt of the NATO bombing, the U.N. mission has begun marking sites where depleted uranium ammunition is known to have been used. The U.N. mission is also starting a voluntary testing program at the main hospital in Pristina, the capital, for heavy metal and radiation levels. These days, an eerie silence shrouds Reljan as villagers watch the Yugoslav army hauling equipment to test radioactivity levels. Their main pasture has been declared a contaminated area and sealed off. Yugoslav soldiers ring the 7.5-acre area in barbed wire and construction teams plan to erect concrete slabs to make it even more inaccessible, said Col. Cedomir Vranjanac. The jury is still out on whether contact with depleted uranium ammunition is detrimental to health, but some on the site Thursday had already made up their minds. "This land is permanently contaminated and unusable," Vranjanac said, adding that it threatens the villagers, their livestock and crops. Milic said he remembered the day in May 1999 when seven Yugoslav soldiers died from NATO bombs not far from his home. The army had positioned itself on the hilltop and seven military trucks were also shelled in the attack. "No one else was killed around here afterward. But the curse came much later," he said. "Bees left our forests, healthy people suddenly became ill. Three of my sheep died in three days." Milic claims his wife, Nada, is one of the afflicted. She fainted a few months after the bombing and has had the "shakes" ever since. "Nothing helps, said the 46-year-old woman. "I keep shaking and the doctors don't know what's wrong with me." The unexplained death last week of a local shepherd has added to the unease. The 35-year-old, known only as Milko, was "always the image of health, so brave it was crazy," Milic said. "He would take the cattle out to the pasture even during the bombing." "We sat drinking ... together," Milic recalled. "The next day, he died." Another Reljan villager, Mita Paunovic, 72, is more concerned for his goats. "The army warned us the hill was contaminated but we didn't believe them," Paunovic said, adding that he and others tore down the fence erected by the military to get to pastures. Paunovic now believes they made a "fatal mistake." "I don't take my goats to the pasture any more," Paunovic said. "But what about the water that streams down and the wind that blows from the hill?" ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 18 Thomasboro man providing info on uranium';s effects The News-Gazette Online: By JODI HECKEL Published Online January 11, 2001 p;RURAL THOMASBORO - A Thomasboro farmer who is also a former University of Illinois physicist and Army expert on depleted uranium is in Italy to provide information about the possible health effects of the metal. Doug Rokke of rural Thomasboro flew to Rome on Wednesday, along with other experts on depleted uranium, to speak about the health and environmental consequences of its use. "This is an absolute nightmare," Rokke said. "This is real. People are suffering. We have to decide whether to make a commitment or not. "I'm not going to make the decision whether to use it in combat," he said. "But if we use it, we need to provide complete medical care for everybody exposed, military and civilians, and we need to do total cleanup." NATO and the European Union have been looking into the possible health risks since Italy began investigating illnesses among its soldiers deployed in Kosovo after airstrikes there in 1999. NATO announced Wednesday it will set up a group to exchange information, but said there is no scientific evidence that exposure to the munitions poses a significant health risk. The United States, which used depleted uranium munitions during its air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999 and in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, as well as in the Gulf War, also has said it is not a significant health threat. But Rokke, who is an Army officer and was a UI staff physicist from 1977 to 1996, said the government has known since 1943 that depleted uranium has adverse health effects, including respiratory disease, gastrointestinal problems, neurological disorders, kidney stones, skin and vision problems, various forms of cancer and birth defects. "We threw this stuff all over the place, and we've got sick people all over the place," Rokke said. "There are 350 tons of it in the gulf. We've done it in Kosovo. We walked away, and the contamination is still there and it's high." Rokke said the military uses depleted uranium against tanks because the slightly radioactive metal is very dense and heavy, and when it is fired at high speed, it can penetrate tank armor. The rounds used against tanks are 3/4 inch in diameter, 18 inches long and contain 10 pounds of solid uranium. The metal is also soft and malleable, and when it penetrates a target, pieces of the metal are shaved off and catch fire. NATO has acknowledged there is a risk of contamination from breathing dust from an exploded depleted uranium shell. Rokke has seen the effects of depleted uranium firsthand. He was in the Persian Gulf in 1990 as part of an Army medical team that was to provide recommendations on training for military personnel who might come in contact with depleted uranium, medical care for those exposed to it and recovery of contaminated equipment. He said members of the Persian Gulf team got sick within a week of exposure, and 20 of the 100 active team members have died. Rokke said he has had respiratory and skin problems, and his commander was diagnosed with cancer about seven months after his return from the gulf. ***************************************************************** 19 Nato brings out big guns to kill off cancer scare Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | ANDREW OSBORN IN BRUSSELS THURSDAY JANUARY 11, 2001 Nato yesterday launched a massive damage limitation exercise it hopes will defuse growing concern that its use of armour-piercing depleted uranium-tipped shells in Kosovo may be the cause of unexplained cases of cancer among its troops. In a carefully orchestrated publicity campaign at the alliance's Brussels headquarters, Nato's secretary general, Lord Robertson, told reporters that "no link of any kind" had been discovered between the use of depleted uranium (DU) shells and leukaemia or other illnesses. "I do not believe the public should have been as excited as it has been. We are confident that there is little risk from DU munitions, but we refuse to be complacent," he said after a meeting of the alliance's top policy making body, the North Atlantic Council. However he was adamant that even temporarily banning the use of such shells would be a grave mistake. "We must base our analysis on facts and not be swayed by perceptions," he said. "I would not agree to the use of the munitions if I believed there was a hazard." Italy, Germany and Greece all pushed for a moratorium on the use of DU yesterday, but opposition from Britain and the US meant that the proposal was stillborn. Norway later said it too wanted a ban. Nato's 19 ambassadors did agree to set up a working party to coordinate information on DU shells, a move which will go some way to assuaging Italy and other states which are pressing for a full inquiry. But the alliance will not conduct its own inquiry, preferring to leave it to organisations such as the UN, which it believes are better equipped for the job. It has, however, already passed on the location of 112 sites in Kosovo where DU shells were used against Serb armour, and which it suspects may be contaminated. The UN said yesterday that it would consider marking and possibly sealing off these sites, and Nato has pledged to help with a clean-up. Acutely aware of public anger in countries such as Italy over the perceived dangers of the shells, the alliance yesterday distributed a thick dossier of scientific reports debunking claims that DU was dangerous to health, and wheeled out two US medical experts from the Pentagon who claimed that the metal was practically harmless. A former BBC defence correspondent, Mark Laity, now a Nato spokesman, also did his best to dampen rising alarm, in front of the biggest turnout of journalists since the Kosovo conflict in 1999. Seated behind a 30mm DU-tipped shell of the kind fired by American tank-busting A-10 planes, Mr Laity criticised the media for blowing the issue out of all proportion. He said DU also had several civilian applications and was used as ballast in airliners and in the keels of many yachts. But the concerns refuse to fade and have been fuelled by the death of six Italian Balkan peacekeepers from cancer. Iraq yesterday demanded an inquiry into the use of DU shells in the 1991 Gulf war, suggesting that its cancer rates have soared in the aftermath. Guardian Unlimited c Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 20 Depleted uranium ammunition once fired in Jericho The Rutland Herald Online - January 12, 2001 The Associated Press JERICHO - Military ammunition made of depleted uranium, suspected by some of causing cancer in soldiers who served in the Balkans, was once fired at the Ethan Allen Firing Range. But the material hasn't been used at the firing range in nearly two decades and there is no detectable levels of radiation remaining on the site, said Lt. Col. Ray Bouchard, the environmental chief for the Vermont Army National Guard. Depleted uranium is a dense metal used in projectiles fired against armored vehicles because of its ability to penetrate armor. The material has raised an outcry in recent weeks because a number of European soldiers who served in the Balkans are sick with cancer and other ailments. Depleted uranium weapons were used against Yugoslav military targets in attacks in 1994, 1995 and 1999. Many of the soldiers and activists blame exposure to depleted uranium for the illnesses. The former General Electric, now General Dynamics Armament Systems, in Burlington, tested weaponry that contained the uranium at the firing range between 1969 and 1982, said Ken Morgan, vice president of operations for General Dynamics. But soil involved in those tests has long since been removed from the 11,218-acre range, which straddles the Jericho and Underhill border. "No residues were found at the site. It tested clean," Bouchard said. The National Guard does not use uranium-tipped ammunition in its training exercises at the range because such weaponry is too expensive, Bouchard said. Back in the early 1980s, when General Electric was testing depleted uranium-tipped ammunition, a committee in Jericho and Underhill was formed to study the issue. John Barbour, a member of the committee, said he had lingering concerns about the firing range. "I'm always just curious," Barbour said. "I'm not real excited over the fact they were using depleted uranium, where it can get into the groundwater and soil. But I'm not sure anybody really found evidence of it." General Dynamics continues to test ammunition at the Ethan Allen Firing Range, but nothing involving depleted uranium, Morgan said. "Most of the attention to having a penetrator shifted to other materials like tungsten, which is environmentally safer," Morgan said. Rutland Herald 27 Wales Street, P.O. Box 668 Rutland, Vermont 05702-0668 Tel (802) 747-6121 Fax (802) 775-2423 This website is currently under construction. If you have questions, ***************************************************************** 21 Uranium Contamination Sealed Off in Kosovo Environment News Service: PRISTINA, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA, January 11, 2001 (ENS) - More than 18 months after NATO stopped firing shells containing depleted uranium on Serb troops in Kosovo, civilians there are being protected from possible ill effects from the ammunition. The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) today began posting signs at sites known to have been targeted by shells containing depleted uranium. UNMIK chief Dr. Bernard Kouchner watches a demonstration by Italian troops of their techniques in seeking radiation left by depleted uranium. (Photo courtesy United Nations) The signs say, "Caution - Area May Contain Residual Heavy Metal Toxicity - Entry Not Advised." Depleted uranium is a dense waste product of the natural uranium enrichment process used in nuclear power. It is used to strengthen heavy tank armor, anti-tank munitions, missiles and projectiles. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depleted uranium's health effects are complex due to its chemical, radiological and physical characteristics. In 1998 and 1999, the largely Albanian population of Kosovo was plunged into a war for independence from the Serb dominated Yugoslav government. It resulted in NATO undertaking an aerial bombardment of selected targets in Yugoslavia in 1999. NATO fired 31,000 depleted uranium shells during the Kosovo campaign. After a peace agreement in the summer of 1999, that saw Serb forces withdraw from Kosovo to be replaced by NATO peacekeepers, the United Nations set up a task force to assess the environmental damage of the Kosovo conflict. Last summer, the Balkans Task Force set up by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) received exact coordinates of NATO's target sites. Last November, the task force visited 11 sites in Kosovo that were targeted by weapons containing depleted uranium. Out of the 11 sites visited, the team found eight sites with slightly higher amounts of Beta-radiation immediately at or around the holes left by depleted uranium ammunition. Map of the Balkans, showing Kosovo. (Map courtesy UNEP) Earlier this week, task force chairman Pekka Haavisto said he was surprised to find remnants of depleted uranium ammunition still lying on the ground, 18 months after the conflict. "The ground directly beneath the depleted uranium ammunition was slightly contaminated," said Haavisto. "For this reason, we paid special attention to the risks that uranium toxicity might pose to the groundwaters around the sites." Today, UNMIK asked the World Health Organization to send toxicology and radiation specialists to Kosovo to assess the possible consequences of depleted uranium exposure. WHO is helping to set up a voluntary testing program for Kosovars at Pristina Hospital and to coordinate national and international bodies that have direct interest in the depleted uranium issue. UNMIK chief Dr. Bernard Kouchner has called for organizations that could assist in formulating long term initiatives regarding depleted uranium to come forward. A public information campaign about depleted uranium is being developed to alert Kosovars and visitors to Kosovo about possible risks. Map showing the 11 sites visited by UNEP's team in Kosovo. (Map courtesy UNEP) In Geneva, UNEP executive director Klaus Toepfer unveiled the full details of the map he received from NATO, which shows the 112 sites where depleted uranium weapons were used. Toepfer also gave the exact location of the 11 sites that had been visited by the task force. "At places where contamination has been confirmed, measures should be taken to prevent access," said Toepfer. "The local authorities and people concerned should be informed of the possible risks and precautionary measures." Director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei issued a similar statement today, advising precautionary measures. ElBaradei said that before an authoritative conclusion could be reached it was essential to assess the impact of the substance in the special circumstances in which had been used, and to carry out a detailed survey of the affected territory and people. UNEP executive director, Klaus Toepfer. (Photo courtesy UNEP) Some 340 samples were collected during last November's survey. They are being analyzed for both radioactivity and toxicity by five European laboratories. The samples include 247 soil samples, 45 water samples, 30 vegetation samples, 10 smear tests, five sabots, two penetrators, and one penetrator fragment. Penetrators and sabots are specialized weapons parts. The results of the tests will be ready in early March, when UNEP will publish a report of its findings. UNEP has contacted Yugoslavian authorities in order to plan a similar field mission to Serbia and Montenegro this spring, where several of the 112 NATO-identified depleted uranium sites are located. On Tuesday, Kouchner visited a destroyed bus station in Klina, Kosovo, to see a demonstration by Italian troops of their techniques in seeking radiation left by depleted uranium. Specialists wearing white uniforms and masks deployed monitors on the ground and in the air amid the twisted shards of vehicles. Director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei. (Photo courtesy IAEA) "We took and are still taking this threat very seriously," said Kouchner. "On the one hand, we are checking the radioactivity with testing not only by the soldiers but also by UNEP. "On the other hand, we have also demanded an investigation by the World Health Organization into the health of the population." Kouchner plans to invite specialized non-governmental organizations to Kosovo to study the health risks of depleted uranium. "I'm suggesting that an independent body, such as Friends of the Earth, should come and freely make their own exploration and investigation, " he said, adding that the idea had been endorsed by NATO Secretary General George Robertson. On Tuesday, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence followed the lead of several other European nations by announcing it will screen soldiers who served in the Balkan and Gulf wars for exposure to depleted uranium. According to a report in the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper today, armed forces were warned four years ago that exposure to dust from exploded depleted uranium ammunition increased the risk of developing lung, lymph and brain cancers. ***************************************************************** 22 Depleted Uranium in Aircraft FTW SUBSCRIBER BULLETIN 01-01 1984 FAA MEMO: DEPLETED URANIUM USED COMMONLY IN AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURE POSES SERIOUS HAZARD TO CRASH INVESTIGATORS (c) COPYRIGHT 2001. FROM THE WILDERNESS PUBLICATIONS. www.copvcia.com. 818-788-8791. 01/11/01 - As the scandal regarding the 1999 U.S. use of depleted uranium (DU) rounds in Kosovo spreads and re-ignites controversy about the Gulf War Syndrome that has damaged the health of thousands of veterans, "From The Wilderness" has today obtained a copy of a 1984 FAA Advisory Circular - still in effect - that shows that DU has been in use as a component in aircraft manufacture for years and that the U.S. government has always treated DU as a hazardous material in full awareness of health risks it presents. The existence of this advisory bulletin belies the official U.S. Government position that it was largely unaware of health risks connected with DU and raises questions about U.S. prioritization of the relative value of human lives as it becomes increasingly apparent that the United States Government chose to not advise NATO allies in Kosovo or Iraq, or even certain members of its own armed forces of known dangers connected with DU exposure. Moreover, the bulletin specifically indicates that U.S. aircraft manufacturers like McDonnell-Douglas, now owned by Boeing, routinely posted health advisory and safety precautions in aircraft manuals as far back as 16 years ago. This was, according to the FAA, a result of cadmium-plated DU being used as weights to balance "ailerons, rudders and elevators on certain jet aircraft and certain helicopters." FAA Advisory Circular 20-123, dated 12/20/84 is entitled "Avoiding or Minimizing Encounters With Aircraft Equipped With Depleted Uranium Balance Weights During Accident Investigations." The two-page memo was written to warn FAA crash site investigators that, as a result of an air crash, DU weights in various parts of the aircraft might have had their cadmium plating removed. The memorandum states "While the depleted uranium normally poses no danger, it is to be handled with caution. The main hazard associated with depleted uranium is the harmful effect the material could have if it enters the body. If particles are inhaled or digested, they can be chemically toxic and cause a significant and long-lasting irradiation of internal tissue." FAA spokesman Les Dorr today confirmed for FTW that the 1984 Advisory was valid and still in effect. The memo also contains the somewhat ironic statement, "... only 'depleted' uranium is used, which means it has been processed to remove most of its uranium 235, the most highly radioactive form used in nuclear power plants." The 1984 memorandum, written by FAA Director of Airworthiness, M.C. Beard, and circulated to all FAA crash site investigators, ends with a list of safety precautions for investigators at crash sites including protective gloves, eye protection, respirators and other protective clothing. The memorandum ends by stating that all such protective clothing should be discarded in containers labeled "radioactive waste" and disposed of accordingly. A full copy of the FAA memorandum, including FAA verification of its authenticity can be found at the end of this document. While the advisory itself does not specifically list which military or commercial aircraft are currently equipped with DU components FTW has contacted corporate spokespersons for the Boeing Aircraft Corporation in Seattle. As of this writing no response has been received. The current revelation, along with developing stories on Sarin Gas and CNN's wrongful termination of producers April Oliver and Jack Smith as well as the U.S. Government's insistence on the use of the fungicide fusarium oxysporum in Colombia are strong indicators that charges that the Unites States has assumed an arrogant and careless posture with regard to human life are well founded. As the major media ignore or downplay the damning evidence of American guilty foreknowledge in the use of DU, European media and European military allies increasingly wonder whether the U.S. has assumed an Imperial posture in its dealings with the rest of the world. This would include its so-called NATO allies who were reportedly not warned of the dangers of DU use in either the Middle East or the Balkans. Such questions also give new credibility to continuing claims from U.S. Gulf War veterans that they were used as Guinea Pigs in a conflict where DU was a main staple of the U.S. military machine. The FAA Advisory Circular was reported on by author journalist Craig Roberts ("The Medusa File")and disclosed in a casual e-mail on a list-serve discussion group this morning. FTW Publisher Mike Ruppert saw the e-mail and immediately notified Gulf War Vet Spokesperson Joyce Riley and French documentarians Audrey Brohy and Gerard Ungerman whose new documentary on the Gulf War, "The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" will air throughout Europe on January 17. Both have done extensive research on DU and both found the existence of the FAA memorandum to be "devastating" to the official U.S. positions on the subject. A more complete story will be published in the January 31, issue of FTW which will mail to paid subscribers only.   [I] [I] (c) COPYRIGHT 2001. FROM THE WILDERNESS PUBLICATIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. www.copvcia.com. 818-788-8791. P.O. Box 6061-350, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413 * (818)788-8791 * fax(818)981- bsp;* RUPPERT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ***************************************************************** 23 The Salt Lake Tribune-- Yugoslav Villagers Gripped By Fear of Uranium Ammo document.write(Banner("area=slt.world_nation.articles/adsize=banner1", 468,60)) YUGOSLAV VILLAGERS GRIPPED BY FEAR OF URANIUM AMMO FRIDAY, January 12, 2001 BY DRAGAN ILIC THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RELJAN, Yugoslavia--The unexplained death of a local shepherd. Mysteriously sickened people and livestock. Fruit drying on the branch. Normally the stuff of local folklore, such occurrences have unnerved villagers living next to a patch of land cordoned off as one of six sites in southern Serbia contaminated by depleted uranium ammunition during NATO's 1999 air campaign against Yugoslavia. "Who knows what those planes dropped on us. It thundered endlessly," said Miroljub Milic, 46. Milic's home is on the edge of a cluster of 70 Serb homes in Reljan, 185 miles southeast of Belgrade. Some 140 ethnic Albanian houses are farther away, and the two communities rarely mix. But both share a common fear of sickness or worse--from exposure to NATO munitions containing depleted uranium. Concerns that depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal used in armor-piercing ammunition, could cause cancer were unleashed last month after Italy began studying the illnesses of 30 Balkans veterans, seven of whom died of cancer, including five cases of leukemia. Other European countries have begun screening soldiers who served as peacekeepers in the Balkans. Many civilian aid agencies followed suit, although NATO maintains there is no evidence of a health risk. Australia also planned to screen about 200 soldiers who served in the Balkans. On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said more research was needed to determine whether radiation from NATO weapons had damaged the health of peacekeepers and civilians in Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav government on Wednesday formed a special committee for monitoring the effects of depleted uranium in southern Serbia and in Montenegro. In Kosovo, which bore the brunt of the NATO bombing, the U.N. mission has begun marking sites where depleted uranium ammunition is known to have been used. The U.N. mission is also starting a voluntary testing program at the main hospital in Pristina, the capital, for heavy metal and radiation levels. These days, an eerie silence shrouds Reljan as villagers watch the Yugoslav army hauling equipment to test radioactivity levels. Their main pasture has been declared a contaminated area and sealed off. Yugoslav soldiers ring the 7.5-acre area in barbed wire and construction teams plan to erect concrete slabs to make it even more inaccessible. END OF CLICK HERE TABLE --> c Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on Utah OnLine is copyrighted The Salt Lake Tribune and associated news services. No material may be reproduced or reused without explicit permission from The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 24 --> Congress gets nuclear-worker compensation plan courier-journal.com Æ The Courier-Journal Æ Louisville, KY Æ Local and Regional News Friday, January 12, 2001 Staff and retirees at 317 sites eligible to submit claims By JAMES MALONE, The Courier-Journal The U.S. Energy Department sent to Congress yesterday legislation establishing a framework to compensate thousands of former nuclear weapons-plant workers in Kentucky and other states. The proposal gives workers the option of collecting wages for time lost because of job-related illnesses in lieu of taking a $150,000 lump-sum payment. It also sets up an appeals process for denied claims. The department designated 317 facilities from which workers and retirees would be eligible to file claims. The only Kentucky facility listed is the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, where uranium was enriched for use in nuclear weapons. Also listed were weapons plants in Huntington, W.Va.; Clarksville, Tenn.; Cincinnati; and Metropolis, Ill.--all near Kentucky. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said the program could cost $1.6 billion over the next decade. It is unclear when the first claims will be paid. But Clara Harding of Paducah, who has waged a 20-year court battle with the government and its contractors over her husband's death in 1980, said the wait has been needlessly long. Harding's husband, Joe, who worked at the Paducah plant, died of what was alleged to have been the result of radiation-induced cancer. Clara Harding said yesterday that she has not received any word recently from the Energy Department on her claim. "I'd think (my claim) would be among the first they would pay," Harding said. "It's about time. I've gone long enough." Officials said 8,000 to 10,000 workers are eligible for settlements. The Department of Health and Human Services will determine if illnesses are related to weapons-plant work. Using historical records, the agency will attempt to reconstruct the radiation dose that a worker received in his lifetime. In cases where records do not exist or are inconclusive, workers will be given the benefit of the doubt, said David Michaels, assistant energy secretary for environment, safety and health. In the case of worker compensation claims that the government and its contractors fought in court, Michaels said the claims can be refiled, even if the worker lost the case. The program to compensate workers arose in 1999 after a series of disclosures about the Paducah plant alleging that contractors who operated the facility concealed radiation dangers from workers. Workers with questions about filing a claim can call the government toll-free at (877) 447-9756. Copyright 2000 The Courier-Journal. (updated April 2000). ***************************************************************** 25 Depleted uranium precautions urged Friday, January 12, 2001 The Halifax Herald Limited From Our Wire Services Geneva - A UN field survey of Kosovo sites assaulted by depleted uranium ammunition suggests that many could be contaminated, prompting demands Thursday that the areas be cordoned off and local people warned to stay away. While it's not clear the contamination poses a danger, precautions should be taken, the UN Environment Program said, adding that children and farm animals are wandering into the sites freely. "It was a little bit disturbing, an uncomfortable feeling that people were just living their normal lives in the middle of all this mess after the war," said Pekka Haavisto, leader of the UN team that checked the sites for radiation left over from NATO attacks in spring 1999. "Some of these sites were near villages or in the middle of villages. Cows were there, children were there," Haavisto said. Last July, NATO gave the UN Environment Program a list of 112 sites where depleted uranium ammunition was used in 1999, and the team took samples from 11 sites last November. The sites visited included Vranovac Hill in western Kosovo, where NATO said it had fired 2, 320 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition. Of the 11 sites, eight were found to show signs of slight contamination, and a number of pieces of ammunition were found intact, the UN program said. The program's executive director, Klaus Toepfer, said it was too early to tell whether depleted uranium at the unmarked bomb sites poses a danger, but precautions should be taken in the meantime. Haavisto said local people apparently had not been given advice on the possible risks they face. A total of 340 samples taken during the two-week mission to Kosovo have been sent to five European laboratories for analysis. Results are expected in early March. Toepfer said all 112 sites should be visited, checked and clearly marked to protect the local people. Entry to contaminated areas should be blocked, he said. Depleted uranium is a heavy metal used in ammunition for its armour- piercing capabilities. Some medical experts have said exposure to radioactive dust from depleted uranium shells might lead to the development of cancer. Depleted uranium was used by NATO in Kosovo and also earlier in Bosnia. NATO maintains that there is no evidence that remains of depleted- uranium rounds pose a health risk, but cases of illness fuel the controversy. On Thursday, Dutch officials said four Dutch soldiers who served in the Balkans in the 1990s have since died of leukemia, but ruled out a connection with exposure to the weapons. Last month, Italy began studying the illnesses of 30 Balkans veterans, seven of whom died of cancer, including five cases of leukemia. In France, four soldiers are being treated for leukemia. Several European countries have begun screening soldiers who served as peacekeepers in the Balkans. ***************************************************************** 26 Britain to Extend Depleted Uranium Screening FRIDAY JANUARY 12 3:21 AM ET By Giles Elgood LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is now ready to test Gulf War veterans for the effects of exposure to depleted uranium munitions blamed the cause of illness or death among Balkan peacekeepers. The announcement by Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon Thursday marked another U-turn in the British government's reaction to a crisis over the armor piercing shells that has threatened to split the NATO alliance. After insisting there was no evidence of health problems from DU munitions, Britain reversed its policy this week, by agreeing to test soldiers who had served in the Balkans. The screening was not initially offered to veterans of the Gulf War. Similar weapons were used there and many who fought in the 1991 war against Iraq complain of serious illness. ``There is already a screening system for Gulf War veterans and indeed I see no reason why, if they remain concerned about their potential exposure, they should not take the benefits of the procedures we are putting in place specifically at the moment as far as Kosovo veterans are concerned,'' Hoon told ITN television news. He denied any attempt to cover up the risks associated with DU munitions. His ministry had published details of the risks associated with the shells on its own Web site. He insisted there was no evidence of any illness linked to depleted uranium. RIGOROUS CHECKS officials called for rigorous checks for possible health risks at war sites not only in Kosovo, target of intense NATO air attacks in 1999, but also in Bosnia. Britain, along with NATO and the United States, insists there is no evidence of a link between the use of DU weapons and cases of leukemia in troops who have served in the Balkans. Reuters Photo But Italy has demanded NATO investigate whether the deaths of at least seven of its soldiers from leukemia after tours of duty in Kosovo and Bosnia were due to so-called ``Balkans Syndrome.'' Cases of cancer have also been reported among soldiers from France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and Portugal. Hoon rejected suggestions that his ministry had been less than candid in its response to the crisis. ``The idea that we are hiding something is preposterous,'' he said. ``We've set out clearly for the benefit of our armed forces what the risks are and we've given clear instructions how they deal with those risks,'' he told Channel Four television news. ``The reality is that there is no illness arising out of those risks.'' The only risk would come if soldiers entered a tank destroyed by DU shells immediately after it had been hit. Hoon rejected a leaked British army medical report's conclusion that exposure to depleted uranium heightened the risk of soldiers suffering lung, lymph and brain cancer. The report was only one of a range of documents put together as advice to defense ministers and Hoon said its conclusions contained significant scientific errors. NATO agreed Wednesday to look into the effects of the ''Balkans Syndrome'' but stuck to its statement that it posed a minimal health risk. reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is ***************************************************************** 27 PDFORRA to seek uranium weapons - curb ireland.com - The Irish Times - IRELAND Thursday, January 11, 2001 BY ALISON O'CONNOR, POLITICAL REPORTER Prompted by the alarm about the use of depleted uranium, PDFORRA has called for an international representative body for soldiers. Mr John Lucey, general secretary of the representative body for members of the Defence Forces, said recent revelations concerning the health effects of radiation from depleted uranium meant that such a body was now necessary. "At present individual coun tries such as Ireland, Germany, Belgium and Holland have representation, but this is much less effective without a formally accepted structure at the highest levels within the EU," he said. The difficulties with regard to depleted uranium should have emerged far sooner in Ireland, he said, since it was being reported in other countries over recent months. The association was "happy enough" that the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, had been proactive in this matter. It accepted assurances given in relation to the present situation in Kosovo. However, it was important that such a situation was not repeated while Irish soldiers were on service with EU and UN forces. The Green Party called on the Government to insist on an immediate ban on the use of depleted uranium weapons. "The Government should follow in Germany's footsteps and insist on a complete ban on the use of depleted uranium. The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, has so far failed to call for a ban, unlike his fellow EU partners," said the Green Party TD, Mr John Gormley. He said that, contrary to NATO claims, depleted uranium, when disseminated as particles in the air, was extremely dangerous for military and civilian populations and the environment. The Labour Party spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Michael D. Higgins, said he had written to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, asking her to investigate the use of depleted uranium and chemical substances in warfare. Mr Higgins said he had made the request in light of the rise in the number of cases of leukaemia and cancer-related illnesses in conflict regions, particularly affecting children. ***************************************************************** 28 $70m Kursk salvage set for April - January 12, 2001 CNN.com - BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)--Efforts to raise the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk from the bottom of the Barents Sea will begin in April, according to a member of the salvage team. The Kursk Foundation, which is leading the $70 million operation, said on Friday that it had laid out plans for the vessel's recovery. The foundation was set up last September to coordinate the recovery of the submarine that contains 106 bodies of the 118 crew members on board when it sank last August. "There is no question the boat should not be left alone on the bottom of the sea. It should be lifted," former Russian foreign minister Alexander Bessmertnykh, who co-chairs the international foundation with former Dutch Defence Minister Willem van Eekelen, said. Two nuclear reactors and about 22 armed missiles are still on the vessel lying 108 metres below the surface and there are concerns that, if left too long, the hull of the submarine could corrode, causing radioactive material to leak out. "Over time it is the spread of minute particles of radioactive material which could be inside fish, and then, well, you can imagine what could happen to the fishing industry," van Ekelen said. -=- [TABLE] Russia has reassured the international community that the reactors on board were automatically shut down when the vessel exploded and sank. Van Eekelen, who said the foundation presented plans to salvage the submarine to the European Union on Thursday, said the group was seeking financial support from the EU and from the U.S., Japan and Canada. "We are preparing for an operation to commence in April. With the final recovery of the Kursk in August of this year," said Colin Schofield, a production manager for the consortium of Dutch, U.S. and Russian companies that will try to bring up the Kursk. Schofield said the salvage operation had to take place during summer. Russian and Norwegian divers retrieved 12 bodies from the Kursk in November but their mission was called off because of rough weather and the danger from broken equipment inside the submarine. "All necessary barges and cranes will be available this summer," Schofield said. His Dutch company Heerema Marine Contractors will provide the submersible double crane that will be used to lift the Kursk. U.S. company Halliburton, and Russian submarine builder CDB Rubin are also involved in the project. Divers will attach more than 20 cables from the cranes to the top of the submarine while the front section, which was damaged during the explosion, will be removed and left behind. Special attention will be paid to secure both the reactors and the missiles on board, Russian Admiral Mikhail Barskov said. "The cruise missiles will be taken out when the submarine reaches dock," Barskov said. Environmental groups have said lifting the Kursk would be too dangerous, risking a possible breakup of the vessel, rupture of the protective casings around the reactors and a radioactive spill. Work by a Russian commission investigating the cause of the disaster has still not determined what happened. The [*]Associated Press contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: c 2001 CABLE NEWS NETWORK. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 29 Iraq: Depleted Uranium's Use In Gulf War Still Controversial By Charles Recknagel The controversy over the use of depleted uranium ammunition has become a front-page story after several NATO peacekeepers who served in the Balkans have died of cancer. But the debate has deep roots, going back to the first use of such weapons in the 1991 Gulf War. Prague, 11 January 2001 (RFE/RL)--Nobody debates the effectiveness of using ammunition hardened with depleted uranium, or DU, for penetrating enemy armor and destroying it. The metal has a density almost twice that of lead, allowing it to pierce steel that is several centimeters thick. And it is inexpensive and readily available, being a byproduct of converting uranium into fuel for nuclear reactors or bombs. During the Gulf War, U.S. and British forces fired some 320 tons of DU-hardened ordinance, or some 25 times that used in NATO-led campaigns in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. Military experts say the weapons contributed to the overwhelming success of coalition forces during the Gulf War, in which hundreds of Iraqi tanks were destroyed on the battlefield. But if military planners are convinced of the strategic advantages of using DU, a fierce debate has long raged over whether it poses a health hazard to forces who use it and to civilian populations. Immediately after the Gulf War, tens of thousands of U.S. and British veterans began to complain of a mysterious illness they said they contracted while at war. The symptoms began with losing teeth and hair and suffering from chronic fatigue. Over time, dozens of the veterans developed cancer. The symptoms were so consistent that the illness was given a name, Gulf War Syndrome, even though its cause or causes remain unexplained. At the same time, Iraqi health officials have reported a rise in cancers inside the country since the Gulf War. In 1990, some 4,340 cancer cases were registered in Iraq. But by 1992, the figure had increased to some 6,160--a more than 40 percent jump. After a decade of research, most western medical experts believe that Gulf War Syndrome is associated with the destruction of Iraq's chemical weapons depots, which released particles of substances such as Sarin into the air. They also attribute it to the burning of Kuwait's oil fields, which were set alight by retreating Iraqi troops and sent massive clouds of smoke containing carcinogens into the atmosphere. And some studies have even disputed whether the Gulf War can be linked to any cancer increases at all. One recent survey by the Manchester University in Britain showed that among some 50,000 British troops who served in the Gulf, about 65 died of cancer by last year. That was about the same rate for a similar group of soldiers who did not serve in the war. U.S. defense officials stated over and over this week their belief that DU has no link to cancer. Michael Kilpatrick, of the U.S. Department of Defense's Gulf War Illnesses section, told a press conference in Brussels yesterday: "There is no medical evidence in the literature or any scientific studies that have been done that natural or depleted uranium causes cancers or any kinds of illness." Some dozen NATO peacekeepers are reported to have died of cancer, mostly leukemia, since serving in the Balkans. NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said yesterday NATO would create a commission to probe the health effects of the use of DU in Bosnia and Kosovo but repeated NATO sees no link to DU in the cases. Despite such official positions over DU, numerous groups of Gulf War veterans in the U.S. and Britain continue to press claims against their governments over cancer symptoms they say arose after direct contact with targets hit by the weapons. Those claims remain unresolved. If there still is no end to the debate over what caused Gulf War Syndrome, it is in part because there has been little chance for Western health experts to study what happened in the Gulf War in- situ, that is, in Iraq itself. One independent agency which might have done that is the UN's World Health Organization (WHO). But officials there say this has so far proved impossible in the highly charged political atmosphere of UN sanctions upon Iraq and the objections of some UN member countries. Michael Repacholi, coordinator for occupational and environmental health at WHO in Geneva, told RFE/RL that after the Gulf War the agency found itself unable to make the kinds of extensive measurements in Iraq needed to assess health risks to the population. "In general it seemed that there was a lot of difficulty in getting access to make the measurements. And obviously it is a political thing and WHO can go in only on invitation of member states and do what it can under the political constraints that are provided." The organization maintains an office in Baghdad and has plans soon to set up cancer registries to determine whose health has been affected by the Gulf War and what levels of danger may remain in the environment. But Repacholi says that it will be difficult 10 years later to reconstruct the war's events and identify the health risks accurately. Repacholi says that whether or not DU causes health problems, it has gained public notoriety in the Gulf War, and now the Balkans conflicts, because it is a material with about 40 percent the radioactivity of natural uranium. And in a battle, that mild radioactivity gets spread liberally around the war zone. Repacholi says: "Depleted uranium is a material that is exactly the same as uranium except that it has had the most radioactive isotope taken out or reduced. And hence when the munitions are used you are spreading around radioactive material in the war zone so that when populations come in later they are coming into a more radioactive area than they were living in before." He says that how long that radiation remains in a battle zone appears to depend on the environment. In arid regions like Iraq, dust from exploded DU munitions settles on the sand and is dispersed widely by the wind. In areas of high rainfall, the dust percolates into the water table and concentrates there. But how that happens, and with what health risks, remains something requiring further study. Repacholi says: "There are major gaps in our knowledge that need to be filled and if there is continuing to be use of depleted uranium in conflicts then we do need to make studies of what occurs in the environment after the conflict." The expert says that to assure public safety, international organizations should clean up a war zone after weapons with potentially hazardous after-effects are used. That may now be too late to do effectively in Iraq but it could still be done in Kosovo--if only to reassure civilian populations they are out of danger. (RFE/RL's Ahto Lobjakas contributed audio to this report.) P; BSP;REALAUDIO c 1995-2001 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc., All Rights Reserved. http://www.rferl.org b ***************************************************************** 30 First segments of nuclear power plant sent to Iran ITAR/TASS NEWS AGENCY Story Filed: Friday, January 12, 2001 1:21 PM EST VOLGODONSK, Rostov region, January 12 (Itar-Tass) - Atommash, Russia's largest producer of equipment for nuclear power plants, has started supplies to Iran. The footing for a reactor of the Iranian first nuclear power plant in Bushehr was consigned from Volgodonsk to Iran last night, a source in the Atommash press service told Itar-Tass on Friday. German engineers started to build the power plant several years ago, but Germany did not complete the project. At present Russian specialists are finalizing the construction and bringing the plant in compliance with the Russian standards. A large part of the equipment will be manufactured by Atommash. It will make four tanks for automatic cooling of the reactor's active section, a mechanism for reloading nuclear fuel and other elements. The contract is very important for Atommash, which has been hungry for nuclear orders for years, the press service chief said. All the supplies are made on time. yer/kam (c) 1996-2001 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 Hanford on list of sites with beryllium hazard Friday, January 12, 2001 BY LINDA ASHTON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS YAKIMA--Terry Cherney doesn't know exactly when or where he was exposed to beryllium, a rare metallic element once used for nuclear fuel rod construction at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. But three years ago, a blood sample showed he had been exposed to the metal, which can cause chronic, disabling respiratory illness and sometimes death. Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Energy identified 317 sites that employed 600,000 people in 37 states and elsewhere for nuclear weapons- related work during the Cold War. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson urged sick workers who were employed at the facilities to contact the government because they might qualify for compensation under a federal program enacted last year. Hanford, where plutonium was made for nuclear bombs for 40 years, and DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are on the list. Twenty-five Hanford workers so far have been identified as being affected by beryllium, said Cherney, 47, a health physics technician who's worked at the site for more than 20 years. Three of those have chronic beryllium disease, the other 22 are diagnosed as beryllium sensitive. Beryllium was used at 55 Hanford facilities from the 1950s until 1987. c 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material c1999-2001 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 32 Energy Department Exercises Savannah River Contract Option for $8.4 Billion WASHINGTON, January 10, 2001 - Westinghouse Savannah River Company LLC, led by Washington Group International Inc., has received an $8.4 billion contract extension to manage and operate the US Department of Energy's Savannah River Site, near Aiken, South Carolina. Savannah River's primary missions include environmental remediation, waste management, nuclear legacy material disposition, and tritium processing to support the nation's remaining nuclear weapons stockpile. In addition to these responsibilities, the site has been charged with converting the nation's excess plutonium reserves into material that cannot be used in nuclear weapons. The contract extension, which formally began on Oct. 1, 2000 to include the final year of the current contract, runs through September 30, 2006 and replaces the former award-fee-based contract with one that includes both short-term and multi-year performance-based incentives. "The department has negotiated a contract extension with Westinghouse Savannah River Company that will promote efficiency and focus attention on the critical missions at the Savannah River Site," said Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson in announcing the extension. "The revised contract framework and structure provide value to the department and offer challenging, yet achievable, financial incentives to the contractor for high productivity and delivery on the job." "Winning this contract extension reflects the exceptional performance of our men and women at Savannah River for the past 11 years," said Dennis R. Washington, company chairman and chief executive officer. "It also validates the capabilities we've assembled with the formation of Washington Group." Westinghouse Savannah River Company is comprised of Bechtel Savannah River, Inc., BWXT Savannah River Company, and British Nuclear Fuels. ***************************************************************** 33 Malpractice award upheld OAK RIDGE--The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld a 1999 malpractice judgment against Dr. Kenneth Carpenter, a Knoxville psychiatrist whose evaluation reportedly cost an Oak Ridge worker her security clearance and, ultimately, her job. The appeals court, in a Jan. 8 ruling, affirmed the verdict of an Anderson County jury which sided with Sherrie Farver, a former radiological technician who worked at two U.S. Department of Energy plants in Oak Ridge. The jury awarded her $600,000 in damages. Farver was fired from the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, and her lawyer claimed it was the trickle-down effect of an erroneous evaluation by Carpenter. Upon learning of the state Supreme Court's ruling, Farver said Wednesday, "I will forever be thankful that justice was served in this case. The verdict and judgment delivered by an Anderson County jury of my peers and now affirmed by the Tennessee Supreme Court will impact the rest of my life and speak for others in similar circumstances." Carpenter, who was under contract to DOE's security office in Oak Ridge, found that Farver had a "paranoid delusional disorder" based on an hour-long interview and testing. In his report to DOE, he said, "I would (be) concerned about her in a security setting because of her poor common sense, logic and judgment and because of her paranoid delusion symptoms." Farver had acknowledged a long-term battle with depression and taking anti-depressant drugs, but she and her lawyer, Ed Slavin, said Carpenter's evaluation was off-base. They argued that the psychiatrist made little effort to verify that Farver was paranoid and did not even look at her medical records. Carpenter, a board-certified life fellow in the American Psychiatric Association, was unavailable for comment Wednesday. After the initial ruling, he emphasized that Farver was not a patient of his and that his report was a one-time evaluation for DOE. DOE spokesman Steven Wyatt declined comment. Farver has been publicly critical of health and safety conditions at DOE's Oak Ridge plants, suggesting some of her health problems were linked to workplace exposures. "There has been incredible trauma, worry, and pain," she said Wednesday. "Raising health and safety concerns as a DOE contractor employee became a long and hard road to travel, but it was the right thing to do." Frank Munger can be reached at 865-482-9213 or twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. Copyright 2000 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 34 Opinion - Dick Smyser: 55 Feds at Y-12; mooching herons at Eagle Bend; ORNL names in Antarctica 01/11/01 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:29 p.m. on Thursday, January 11, 2001 Editor's License DICK SMYSER Y-12 is properly conscious of the reality that its nuclear operations are relatively close to the Oak Ridge community, Bill Brumley assured members of the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge at the service club's luncheon meeting at the Elks Lodge Thursday. "If at any time we don't think our operations are safe and secure, we won't operate," said the recently appointed manager of the Y-12 Site Area for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The NNSA is the new federal agency created by the Congress in reaction to recent security concerns at Los Alamos National Laboratory. And it is a single-minded, single-purpose agency, Brumley emphasized, with security its preeminent mission. That NNSA is so specifically focused, Brumley feels, enhances its effectiveness. Brumley came to Y-12 only months ago from the Department of Energy's facilities at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., a sprawling complex where operations are well away from any civilian population. It is the contrast--Y-12 only a few miles from residential areas -- that requires operations there to be especially sensitive to their location, he said. Brumley sees a promising future for Y-12. First, he stresses, there will be no interruption of NNSA continuity during the change of administration in Washington. Gen. John Gordon is secure as head of the agency, Congress having mandated that that post be apolitical. Brumley called attention to the new signs at plant entrances, "Y- 12 National Security Complex," acknowledging that the plant area might also be called "The Fort Knox of Enriched Uranium." This material so vital to national security is under care at Y-12 as the nation's silver stash is secured at Fort Knox in Kentucky. Work for Y-12 is already backed up through the rest of this first decade of the new century, Brumley said. And as this backup is being dealt with, he said, major improvements at Y-12 will facilitate the job. Planned are a large vault for the storage of the enriched uranium stockpile, a new special materials complex for process operations and major upgrading of infrastructure--utilities, roadways--in the Y-12 area. Under present conditions, he said, uranium must be moved as much as seven miles during processing. With the new facilities this distance will be reduced to hundreds of yards. That there are now 55 federal employees located at Y-12, Brumley said, is indicative of the extent and impact of the "single-minded" NNSA's presence. * * * An uninvited but not totally unwanted establishment of 40 to 50 great blue herons are devouring $25,000 to $35,000 worth of newly hatched fish annually at the state's Eagle Bend Fish Hatchery at the headwaters of Melton Hill Lake at Clinton. Mike Smith, wildlife manager for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, exposed these avian freeloaders in a talk to the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge on Dec. 14. Smith has been at the 100-acre hatchery off Charles Seivers Boulevard since 1976. There, in 40 acres of warm-water ponds, the agency produces millions of fingerlings each year. It ships out the hatchlings by commercial air when they are just five to seven days old. In its earliest years, the hatchery produced only lake muskie and striped bass. Now, however, its "repertoire" has been greatly expanded to include walleye, sauger, white and black crappie, largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass, bluegill, sunfish, carp, paddlefish, both channel and blue catfish and others. Spawning techniques used are tank spawning, manual spawning and post spawning. Nor is fish hatching the state agency's only business in this area. Only recently, Smith told the Rotarians meeting at the Elks Lodge, 50 elk were released in the Royal Blue area of Campbell County. The fish hatchery is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Visitors are welcome, but it is best to call ahead. March, when spawning and hatching activity is high, is one of the better times to visit. And if you are lucky, you might see more than fish hatchlings and mooching herons. Early in December, Smith said, a mute swan, apparently taking a rest during migration, visited the hatchery for a week. * * * This most welcome contribution from Henri Levy, pioneer Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientist: "Here's an old item that was just brought to my attention concerning Antarctica and Oak Ridge: "'The Antarctic Place-names Committee (British) in 1961 or 1962 decided to name the small islands and rocks in Crystal Sound after the investigators of the structure of ice crystals. Among the little islands listed on the map of Antarctica are: Pauling Islands, Shull Rocks, Wollan Island, Peterson Island, Levy Island.' "Linus Pauling visited Oak Ridge several times; Cliff Shull, Ernie Wollan, and Selmer Peterson lived here and worked at ORNL for many years. I'm the only one still here. I left ORNL five years ago and am now starting my 58th year of residence in Oak Ridge. "Crystal Sound is on the west coast of the peninsula jutting out from the main body of Antarctica towards Australia. "As you can imagine our three granddaughters (13, 15 and 19) are delighted that their grandfather is finally on the map." Henri and his wife, Betty, are longtime residents of Meadow Road. Cliff Shull is Oak Ridge's lone Nobel Prize winner, the physics award in 1994 for work he did at ORNL where he also collaborated in research with Wollan.--RDS Richard D. Smyser is founding editor of The Oak Ridger. You can [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 35 No solution yet to cleanup suspension Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 3:01 p.m. on Thursday, January 11, 2001 BY PAUL PARSON Oak Ridger staff Officials are still trying to resolve the suspension of a cleanup project at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site that was reportedly halted due to a "funding issue." Lance Escue, vice president and general manager of Decon and Recovery Services of Oak Ridge, said Tuesday that his company and the Department of Energy are meeting to remedy the situation. "We're hopeful this will be resolved," Escue said. DOE spokesman Steven Wyatt agreed. He said the federal agency expects this matter to be resolved as soon as possible to allow this work to continue on schedule. Until then, work is still suspended. Cleanup activities were first halted Friday in Building K-1420 at K-25, but there seems to be some disagreement on the matter. DOE officials say the work was voluntarily suspended, but Escue said it was an involuntary suspension. However, both sides admit the suspension was due to budget issues. Escue said DOE has not obligated the necessary funds for the current work, but DOE officials did not elaborate on the budget problem. K-1420, which was contaminated with uranium and other radioactive materials, was used to dismantle and clean up equipment from the gaseous diffusion processing buildings at K-25. K-1420 has been idle since early 1989. Decon and Recovery Services was awarded a $10 million contract to decontaminate and decommission the 80,000-square-foot building in 1997. [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 36 Tennessee Supreme Court upholds malpractice judgment Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 11, 2001 Farver BY PAUL PARSON Oak Ridger staff Sherry Farver says she constantly kept her faith while trying to "right the wrong" that was done to her. That wrong, she says, has now been righted with a recent decision by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Farver said the Supreme Court has upheld a 1999 malpractice judgment against a Knoxville psychiatrist whose diagnosis resulted in her losing her security clearance and then her job. "I'm happy it's over with," Farver said. Farver filed a lawsuit against Kenneth Carpenter in 1997 after the psychiatrist diagnosed her as having a "paranoid delusional disorder." His diagnosis was the result of a one-time visit, said Farver, who added she was not a patient of his. Carpenter, whom The Oak Ridger was unable to reach for comment this morning, was working under contract with the Department of Energy's security office in Oak Ridge at the time he gave that diagnosis to Farver. "To be labeled paranoid delusional, it was disturbing," she said. "It was embarrassing. In my heart, I knew that diagnosis was not true. Putting that label on me, it cost me my employment. It made it difficult to find another job." Farver, a radiological technician, was working at the Oak Ridge Y- 12 Plant when she was terminated in March 1999. She had previously worked at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site. An Anderson County jury in April 1999 awarded Farver $600,000 in damages as a result of her lawsuit. And that judgment was affirmed by the Supreme Court's recent ruling. "I had a constant faith that the truth would come out," she said. "I had nothing whatsoever to hide. Win or lose, it was important for me to see this thing through." [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 37 DOE awards Bechtel Jacobs almost $17 million Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 11, 2001 BY PAUL PARSON Oak Ridger staff The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Operations office awarded Bechtel Jacobs Co. a fee of almost $17 million for fiscal year 2000, according to a recent annual review. DOE's review said the company demonstrated significant improvements in safety for the fiscal year 2000. The company holds a five-and- a-half-year, $2.5 billion management and integration contract to clean up the Oak Ridge K-25 Site and the DOE sites in Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky. The contract began April 1, 1998. Bechtel Jacobs received $16,228,813 in performance-based fees for work conducted from Oct. 1, 1999, to Sept. 30, 2000, according to the review. Those fees were 91 percent of the available fee of $17, 763,705. Additionally, Bechtel Jacobs earned $590,375 of the $1 million available in management evaluation fees. While DOE's review indicated Bechtel Jacobs demonstrated significant improvements in safety for fiscal year 2000, it also stated the company could make improvements in its Integrated Safety Management program due to a few incidents during the past fiscal year. Also, the review states that on two occasions a significant percentage of Bechtel Jacobs' senior management team were on travel when "significant issues" arose. Upon learning of these issues, the team members did not return to the Oak Ridge site. The review suggests that Bechtel Jacobs should ensure adequate management coverage. Bechtel Jacobs has not been responsive or timely in its dealings with shock sensitive chemical issues, the review states. The company lacks a "timely corrective action plan" to mitigate these issues. Regarding the review, Bechtel Jacobs spokesman Mark Musolf this morning said, "We're pleased with the 91 percent rating--not ecstatic, but very pleased. It tells us we are out in the field getting important cleanup work done. It also tells us there is room for improvement. We intend to make those improvements." K-25 began operations in World War II as part of the Manhattan Project. Its original mission was to produce enriched uranium for use in atomic weapons. K-25 produced enriched uranium for the commercial nuclear power industry from 1945 to 1985 and was permanently shut down in 1987. Reindustrialization of the site began in 1996. [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 38 Proposal would expand program Friday, January 12, 2001 Copyright c Las Vegas Review-Journal DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON--The Clinton administration on Thursday proposed Congress expand a nuclear compensation program passed just months ago to qualify hundreds of more workers who contracted lung disease after working in dusty tunnels at the Nevada Test Site. A bill sent to Capitol Hill would enable former test site workers to collect medical expenses, plus an automatic payment of $150,000 or lost wages, if they produce X-ray evidence they have contracted lung-disabling silicosis. It relaxes a standard set by lawmakers last October that required X-rays showing the lung disease had progressed to a more advanced stage for a worker to qualify for benefits. The disease develops from the inhalation of silica dust particles, which scar lungs over time. Doctors who specialize in occupational health said the tougher standard excludes more than half the patients who have been diagnosed with silicosis after working underground while employed by test site contractors as miners, engineers and laborers. Their X-rays show the presence of particles associated with silicosis but not to the level of severity. Health professionals from Boston University have been screening former test site workers under contract with the Energy Department. If the program reaches its goal of checking at least 5,000 former workers, the total number of victims deprived of compensation could reach into the hundreds, doctors have said. The silicosis provision was among dozens of items in the legislation, which officials described as a fine-tuning of the nuclear worker law that was put together in a hectic atmosphere last fall. The law establishes automatic $150,000 payments to thousands of defense industry workers who developed illnesses years after handling poisonous metals or being exposed to radiation on their government jobs. Much of the bill clarifies procedures to be followed by the three federal departments that have a hand in running the new compensation program -- Energy, Labor and Health and Human Services. The biggest change would allow injured workers to choose to collect lost wages instead of a lump sum $150,000 payment. For younger workers, collecting lost wages would carry more benefit, said David Michaels, the Energy Department's top health official. Lost wages were rejected by congressional negotiators last fall, but federal officials said that was because it got tied to other issues. "The case can be made that this is the right thing to do," Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said in announcing the legislation. The legislation was proposed just a week before Clinton officials are to leave office. It was not immediately clear whether the incoming administration of President-elect Bush would embrace the bill. The Bush transition office did not respond to a request for Bush's position. The views of Energy Secretary-designee Spencer Abraham also were not clear. Abraham was a Michigan senator last year, but did not become involved in the nuclear worker issue because it did not affect his state heavily, officials said. Richardson said he planned to speak to Abraham when they meet in the next few days. Abraham also may be quizzed on nuclear worker compensation when he faces a confirmation hearing next week before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Nevada officials complained loudly when the silicosis standard was toughened last fall, and they applauded the new bill. "We were not overjoyed by those standards because they excluded a large number of people," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "We contacted Richardson and anyone else in the administration who was willing to listen." Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., also pushed the Energy Department to change the silicosis standard, officials said. He was flying to Nevada on Thursday and was not available. "I anticipate there will be a committee hearing and I anticipate there will be support for this," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. Gibbons was among a group of Republicans who pressured House leaders last fall to accept a compensation bill for nuclear workers. Also Thursday, the Energy Department released a list of 319 facilities where workers may have been exposed to toxic substances that could qualify them for compensation. Besides the test site, it included two other locations in Nevada where nuclear tests were conducted. Workers may qualify for benefits if they participated in the Project Shoal nuclear test that was detonated on October 26, 1963, about 30 miles east of Fallon, the department said. Also, workers who took part in the Project Faultless test on January 19, 1968, in central Nevada may qualify. Also listed is the Yucca Mountain site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Allen Benson, a spokesman for the Yucca Mountain project, said program officials were puzzled by its inclusion. "There's no nuclear material involved in any of the work that we've done," Benson said. "They just listed every energy facility, I presume, and at some point it will be removed." ***************************************************************** 39 Energy Department To Build High-Tech Facility at Tennessee State University energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release New Facility at Historically Black University Will Replace Decades- old Isotope Production Source, Support U.S. Researchers Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson today announced a joint project with Tennessee State University that will provide U.S. researchers with a reliable supply of stable, non-radioactive isotopes. Stable isotopes are special materials essential for a wide range of advanced research, including medical science, earth science, and many areas of physics and chemistry. "This partnership will put Tennessee State at the center of a critical part of the nation's science and technology infrastructure and provide its students access to equipment available at no other university, " said Secretary Richardson. "It enables the Energy Department to serve the U.S. research community in smarter, more cost-effective ways while also providing students with unique technological opportunities that will help them to become the next generation of scientists." Use of stable isotopes is on the increase in the United States. Stable isotopes are invaluable in a wide array of scientific analyses, particularly for high-accuracy mass spectrometry. They are used in nutritional studies and also as feed materials to produce vital medical isotopes that are used 600,000 times each year in the U.S. for diagnosing heart ailments, cancer, and other illnesses. Until recently, the Department of Energy (DOE) provided stable isotopes to researchers and industry at its Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and used Manhattan Project-era machines called calutrons to manufacture them. Industrial customers are now being served by overseas suppliers, leaving the existing U.S. capacity too large and too expensive for the needs of researchers. After a search for an industrial partner to operate the calutrons proved unsuccessful, DOE decided to mothball the calutrons and design a new, more cost- effective production facility. The existing machines were too large and inefficient to produce small quantities of the large variety of isotopes needed for research. Oak Ridge National Laboratory will apply its expertise in the production of stable isotopes to assure that the new facility is installed and operated in a manner that best suits the varied needs of the U.S. research community. The new facility could be operational in approximately two years. Tennessee State University will provide infrastructure support for the facility and work with the Energy Department to establish new educational programs for students at the university and other institutions in the region. In addition to providing its technical expertise to support the operation of the new facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory will work closely with Tennessee State to develop a joint educational agenda in stable isotopes research. MEDIA CONTACT: Hope Williams, 202/586-5806 Release No. R-01-010 ***************************************************************** 40 Puerto Rico Wants Uranium Probe January 11, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)--Puerto Rico's government plans to ask the European Union to include a U.S. Navy bombing range on Vieques island in its investigation of the effects of depleted uranium, a senator announced Thursday. The announcement comes with a debate raging in Europe that depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal used in armor-piercing ammunition, could cause cancer. Such weapons were used by NATO-backed forces during fighting in the Balkans. NATO has maintained that there is no scientific evidence that exposure to weapons containing depleted uranium posed a significant health risk. A EU study into health risks is to be completed by February. The Navy has admitted firing 263 depleted uranium-tipped bullets, of which it recovered 57, on the training range on Vieques. But the Navy said it was an accident, noting that it's against federal law to use those armaments on such exercises. The U.S. Caribbean territory's legislature expects to pass a bill asking to be included in the European investigation in several days, Senate Vice President Velda Gonzalez told a news conference Thursday. Anti-Navy activists long have blamed the Navy bombing for higher than average cancer rates on Vieques. The Navy says there is no evidence the bombing damaged anyone's health. And Navy spokesman Jeff Gordon said he resented the comparison of the use of the ammunition in the Balkans to the incident on Vieques. "In Kosovo, NATO shot 31,000 bullets only meters from people, and here in Vieques there were only 263 that were more than 9 miles away from the population," Gordon said. Gov. Sila Calderon told reporters Thursday that she would welcome the EU investigation. Calderon supports islanders who reject an agreement between President Clinton and former Gov. Pedro Rossello for a referendum on Vieques that would allow islanders to vote this year for the Navy to withdraw, but only in 2003. ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 41 U.S. Releases Nuclear Plants List January 11, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP)--The government identified the hundreds of mills, foundries and factories that did nuclear weapons work during the Cold War in a step Thursday toward identifying workers who might qualify for compensation because they were made sick by their jobs. The Energy Department examined records going back 60 years in an effort to document every facility that handled the deadly metal beryllium or radioactive materials. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson urged sick workers who were employed at the facilities to contact the government. "The burden of proof is on the government, not the worker. We will be open and candid this time, not like in the past," he said at a news conference. The list includes 317 sites that employed 600,000 people in 37 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Marshall Islands. Some were government-owned, but most were private companies that did business for the Energy Department or the Atomic Energy Commission. David Michaels, the Energy Department's top health official, cautioned that some of the sites played very minor roles in the history of weapons production. For example, while Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. in St. Louis processed thousands of tons of uranium, Star Cutter Corp. in Farmington, Mich., only had five pieces of uranium on site for one day while testing a special saw. Ailing workers and the families of many dead workers spent years pushing the government to take responsibility for illnesses caused by on-the-job exposure to high levels of radiation. Many sick workers complained they could not get adequate care because the substances to which they were exposed were considered classified information. As recently as President Clinton's first term, the government routinely fought worker compensation claims. "We failed to take care of workers that got sick from exposure," Richardson said, adding it now is time "to settle the score with our workers." Under a program approved by Congress last year, employees of facilities doing Energy Department work who contracted cancer as a result of radiation exposure, as well as those who contracted a lung disease from beryllium or silica, can receive government-paid medical care plus $150,000. The first checks should go out later this year. Many of the privately owned sites have not performed work for the Energy Department for decades. Still to be decided is how the compensation program will determine which people from such sites got sick because of work done for the government "This is a very sensitive area," said Richard Miller, a workers' advocate from Holyoke, Mass. "There are places where the DOE had no contract for, for instance, beryllium after a certain date, or a mill didn't roll uranium after a certain date, but the buildings remained contaminated." The Energy Department's toll-free number for workers seeking information is 1-877-447-9756. //www.eh.doe.gov/benefits ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 42 CARE assures staff over Balkans cancer risk 18:18 AEDT FRIDAY 12 JANUARY 2001 [I] CARE CEO PAUL MITCHELL SAYS THERE IS A POSSIBILITY CARE WORKERS Aid agency CARE Australia has moved to reassure staff who served during the Balkans conflict they were at little risk of getting cancer from exposure to ammunition. The Australian Defence Force is screening staff who served in the Balkans for possible radioactive exposure caused by ammunition containing depleted uranium, and about 30 CARE workers may also be affected. CARE chief executive Paul Mitchell said the risk was low and he had personally spoken to many staff to reassure them. "The ones that I have spoken to are happy that we are handling it in an appropriate manner. They're normally pretty robust sorts of people and they are exposed to a greater degree of risk than many people would be in their job," he told the Nine Network. "They understand the risk an most of them seem to think it's being handled appropriately." The debate over the safety of the armour-piercing depleted uranium projectiles has split the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Britain and the United States argue there is no health risk, while Germany, Italy, Portugal and Belgium are demanding a full inquiry. Mr Mitchell said CARE staff would not have been present during the most dangerous times, when the ammunition was actually being fired, but could have inhaled radioactive dust. "Our people were obviously not there when those sorts of activities (firing) were going on but in some cases they were there very soon afterwards, possibly within a day in some parts of Kosovo," he said. "As we understand it ... where there was depleted uranium in the dust or in the ground and the dust become disturbed, it's quite possible that they could have inhaled it and if that is so they could be at some risk." cAAP 2001 c 1997-2000 ninemsn Pty Ltd - All rights reserved - Terms ***************************************************************** 43 Radioactive fallout Salon.com News | Portuguese and Italian soldiers measure radiation levels on a Yugoslav army tank near the Kosovo town of Klina Tuesday. The tank was destroyed during the NATO bombings. Radioactive fallout Did exposure to American depleted-uranium-tipped weapons cause the cancer deaths of some European peacekeepers who served in the Balkans? - - - - - - - - - - - - BY LAURA ROZEN Jan. 12, 2001 | Did exposure to depleted-uranium-tipped weapons dropped by the United States during NATO's Yugoslavia bombing campaigns cause the cancer deaths of 19 European peacekeepers serving in the Balkans? The science says probably not. But a wave of panic in Europe over the deaths--the latest, of an Italian peacekeeper who served in Bosnia, occurred last week--has given psychological credence to what Europeans newspapers are calling "Balkans syndrome." [*][I] [*]Print story [*][I] [*]E-mail story [*][I] [*]View Salon privately with SafeWeb phrase Europeans use for the unexplained illnesses and cancers that about a dozen NATO peacekeepers serving in Bosnia and Kosovo have been stricken with. As occurred after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, some blame the illnesses on exposure to depleted-uranium-tipped munitions. The United States used the special armor-piercing weapons for the first time in the Gulf War, and then again in Bosnia and Kosovo. So far, two Portuguese, two Spaniards, five Belgians, four Dutch and six Italians who served in the Balkans have died of cancer, as many as 14 of them from leukemia. A seventh Italian who handled the same type of munitions in Italy but wasn't on the ground in the Balkans, and a Czech military pilot, have also died of cancer. In addition to those who have died, four French, four Belgian and two Spanish peacekeepers are now being treated for cancer, and 23 Italian soldiers are being treated for other illnesses. Further, the Norwegian media reports several leukemia cases among Norway's soldiers. But looked at statistically, the deaths do not constitute overwhelming evidence of Balkans syndrome. The six Italians who died of cancer make up only a handful of the more than 75,000 Italian troops who have served in the Balkans. According to the World Health Organization, the normal incidence of leukemia among men in Italy is 13 out of 100,000, about the same rate. Experts with the WHO said this week they doubt radiation from D.U.- tipped weapons was responsible for the peacekeepers' cancers. "Based on our studies, and the evidence we have, it is unlikely that soldiers in Kosovo ran a high risk of contracting leukemia from exposure to radiation from depleted uranium," WHO official Michael Repacholi said at a press conference in Geneva Monday. A WHO survey found that the incidence of leukemia among troops in Kosovo actually decreased slightly in 2000 compared with '97 and '98. More "detailed surveys are needed before better conclusions can be made," added WHO policy advisor Daniel Tarantola. But while the United Nations agency downplayed the link between the peacekeepers' leukemia and D.U.-generated radiation, Tarantola added, "Breathing ultrafine particles could lead to a theoretical risk of cancer." The Pentagon, which introduced the D.U.-tipped munitions in its stockpiles in in the 1970s, under the watch of then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, says its extensive studies of the health risks of these weapons have failed to turn up evidence of a link between the weapons and soldiers' illnesses. "We are not aware of any U.S. soldiers suffering from any unknown illnesses as a result of serving in Kosovo," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Phillips said Thursday. "We remain convinced based upon evidence gathered that the use of depleted-uranium munitions does not pose significant or residual environmental or health risks to service members or civilians." Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibitedCopyright 2001 Salon.com Salon, 22 4th Street, 16th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103Telephone 415 645-9200 | Fax 415 ***************************************************************** 44 Tension continues over use of depleted uranium in Balkans. By Jason Topping Cone The Earth Times/ENVIRONMENT: [I]nited Nations environmental officials that have been studying sites where NATO forces used depleted uranium munitions during the conflict in Kosovo reiterated Thursday their call to isolate areas believed to be contaminated. The statements came as the British government denied leaked reports of the health risks of exposure to dust from these munitions. "At places where contamination has been confirmed, measures should be taken to prevent access," said Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). "The local authorities and people concerned should be informed of the possible risks and precautionary measures." Concern over health risks of sites contaminated by depleted uranium were raised as a number of deaths of people working the region had died of leukemia and other cancers. Seven Italian soldiers and one aid worker, five Belgian peacekeepers, two Dutch nationals, two Spaniards, two Portuguese, and a Czech have died from cancer or related illnesses after tours of duty in the Balkans. Depleted uranium is used in the tips of anti-tank shells used by fighter planes. UNEP has inspected 11 of the 112 sites that NATO reported depleted uranium based on the amount of ammunition used and relevance of sites to the environment and local populations. The water, soil, vegetation, and dust samples are being tested for contamination. Out of the 11 sites visited, the team of scientists, found three sites with no signs of higher radioactivity, nor any remnants of depleted uranium ammunition, according to Pekka Haavisto, who leads the Balkans Task Force team. At eight of the sites slightly higher amounts of Beta-radiation were found, he added. UNEP's initial reports were released as the British government was denying the veracity of a leaked British army medical report. The British media quoted the report as saying "Uranium dust inhalation carries a longterm risk...The (dust) has been shown to increase the risks of developing lung, lymph, and brain cancers." A spokesman from the British Defense Ministry denied the report according to a dispatch by Reuters, calling it "flawed" and saying it was done by a trainee. "It was never endorsed by senior staff. It was not taken forward," the spokesman said. United States fighter planes fired some 31,000 depleted uranium rounds during the NATO air campaign, according to the Pentagon. Another 10,800 rounds were fired in 1994-95 in Bosnia. Toepfer recommended that studies be conducted of the use of depleted uranium shells in Bosnia. Copyright c 2000 The Earth Times All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 45 Russia wants summit on depleted uranium munitions ALERTNET PARTNERS 2001-01-12 21:07:17 GMT (REUTERS) By Ross Colvin LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Russia on Friday demanded a summit on the dangers of depleted uranium ammunition, as growing alarm over its alleged toxicity prompted Greece to tell its troops to leave the Balkans if they feared for their health. NATO held briefings in Brussels in its first concerted effort to reassure the public and contain the media furore that has erupted over the alleged health risks of depleted uranium, a radioactive heavy metal used in tank-busting munitions. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was planning a study to assess whether there had been an increased rate of cancer among military personnel who served in the Gulf War or Balkans, as well as among exposed populations. But it said it was unlikely that exposure to NATO weapons containing depleted uranium could have led to a higher risk of cancer among military personnel who served in the Balkan conflicts. NATO member Turkey said two of its soldiers had been exposed to depleted uranium munitions used during the Balkans conflicts. "We have two personnel who had been affected at a benign level, " Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Dirioz told a news briefing. DU munitions can pulverise on impact, creating radioactive dust which can enter the human body via the lungs. Russia warned NATO that the furore over depleted uranium was only just beginning and said international experts should meet to discuss the dangers. "We will make a proposal to Russia's president on holding an international conference of specialists on this problem within the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) or the UN," Interfax news agency quoted Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev sas saying. He said the conference would allow experts to "objectively work out the degree of danger the use of these weapons presents to human life." GREECE SAYS TROOPS CAN GO HOME NATO insists there is no proven link between the arms and cancer. But at least seven deaths from leukaemia among Italian troops and illness among servicemen from France, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and Portugal have been blamed on depleted uranium, and driven rifts through the alliance. Greek Defence Minister Apostolos Tsochatzopoulos said any of his country's peacekeepers already serving in Kosovo who were bothered about the risks of depleted uranium would be allowed home. Tsochatzopoulos said radiation measurements by KFOR peacekeepers had given no cause for alarm and Greek soldiers had taken protective measures, including importing water and wearing special suits. "We don't want even one soldier to stay against his will," Tsochatzopoulos told reporters during a visit to Kosovo. "Anyone who wants to leave will immediately be replaced." Greece now has 1,481 peacekeepers deployed in Kosovo, some of whom have already expressed a desire to terminate their tour of duty. In Athens, a military official said nearly a third of the soldiers who had applied for a tour of duty in Kosovo have changed their minds because of concern over DU munitions. GERMAN SOLDIERS GET ALL CLEAR Portuguese soldiers serving in the Balkans are likely to encounter higher background uranium radiation at home than on their Kosovo and Bosnia missions, a special NATO meeting was told in Brussels. Portuguese officials said early results of an on-the-spot study of 50 depleted uranium sites closest to where Portuguese troops with NATO are based "showed overall natural levels of uranium are actually lower than in Portugal itself". "The idea of a general risk of contamination is false," a NATO statement quoted an official as telling a special meeting of some 60 representatives of NATO and non-NATO countries who have contributed troops to the peacekeeping missions. A new study showed that German peacekeepers serving in Kosovo had shown no signs of exposure to debris from depleted uranium ammunition fired during NATO's air war against Yugoslavia. "All measurements of uranium were around levels we would expect from groups which have not been exposed," said Paul Roth, a radiation expert at the research body which carried out the tests for the German Defence Ministry. ©Reuters Limited. ***************************************************************** 46 Depleted Uranium Sites in Kosovo Detailed by UNEP GENEVA, January 11, 2001 - Full details of the sites where depleted uranium (DU) weapons were deployed in Kosovo and inspected by United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) scientists were unveiled at a press conference in Geneva today. The information on all 112 sites where depleted uranium was used was supplied to UNEP by NATO. In total, 11 sites were inspected by UNEP's Balkans Task Force team, which was led by Mr. Pekka Haavisto, former Finnish Environment Minister. The criteria for selecting the 11 sites were based on the amount of ammunition used and the relevance of the sites to the environment and the local population. Three-hundred-and-forty samples were taken at the 11 locations. These included water, soil, vegetation, dust from vehicles and fragments of armaments such as penetrators. The full findings from the scientific team will be released by early March. The samples are being analyzed by the Swedish Radiation Protection Institute (SSI) in Stockholm; AC Laboratorium-Spiez in Switzerland; Bristol University's Department of Earth Sciences in the UK; the International Atomic Energy Agency Laboratories (IAEA) in Seibersdorf, Austria; and the Italian National Environmental Protection Agency (ANPA) in Rome, Italy. The assessment work on depleted uranium has been financed by the Government of Switzerland. Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP, said yesterday, "These leading institutes will assure that we receive an independent and detailed analysis of the samples for both radiation and toxicity. "The team's aim was to obtain basic scientific information that can form a vital input into the ongoing discussion of the potential overall risk that ammunition containing DU may pose for the environment and for human health," he said. Mr. Haavisto and Mr. Toepfer underlined that the investigation was constructively supported by NATO, its Kosovo Force (KFOR) and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). "Out of the 11 sites visited, the team found three sites with no signs of higher radioactivity, nor any remnants of DU ammunition. At eight sites, the team found either slightly higher amounts of Beta-radiation immediately at or around the holes left by DU ammunition, or pieces and remnants of ammunition, such as sabots and penetrators," said Mr. Haavisto. Mr. Toepfer reiterated the recommendations made in 1999 by the Balkans Task Force: "Highest priority should be given to finding pieces of depleted uranium and heavily contaminated surfaces. Measures should be taken for the secure storage of any contaminated material recovered." "At places where contamination has been confirmed, measures should be taken to prevent access. The local authorities and people concerned should be informed of the possible risks and precautionary measures, " he said. To follow-up on the results of the November mission to Kosovo, a further assessment team may need to be sent to Kosovo in the spring of 2001 to complete the assessment required for the formulation of conclusions. The original large-scale map of the 112 sites was displayed at today's press conference. A small-scale version, together with additional are identified through reference points on the military grid system. For the map and other information, see the above website. Photographs of the mission are ***************************************************************** 47 Cheap and lethal nuclear by-product Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | The background: DU weapons Special report: depleted uranium PAUL BROWN, ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT FRIDAY JANUARY 12, 2001 Thousands of tonnes of depleted uranium are stored in high security compounds in Britain and other nuclear states with owners having no idea what to do with them. The exact quantity in the UK is an official secret. Unlike other weapons that cost millions, depleted uranium is free because it is a waste by-product of producing nuclear weapons and has been stockpiled since the 1950s. The big nuclear weapons states, Russia, the US, France and Britain, all use DU in anti-tank weapons. For the Ministry of Defence the discovery that it could use a waste material as a potent weapon, with 20% better killing power than the expensive alternative tungsten alloy, was a bonus. When a new tungsten- based 120mm tank round developed by BAE Systems and Vickers Defence Systems for the British Army's Challenger 1 and 2 main battle tanks was offered to the MoD last year it was declined, according to the authoritative Jane's Defence Weekly. It is hard for the military mind to give up a free weapon that works on the unproven grounds it might harm soldiers and civilians after the war is over. The DU is continuing to be produced in large quantities - the unwanted leftover of making fuel for nuclear reactors and of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to take out the plutonium. In making fuel from ore the active uranium 235, capable of producing a nuclear reaction, is separated off as fuel and the mildly radioactive "depleted" U238 is stored in giant stockpiles. For every kilogram of nuclear fuel produced there are eight kilograms of waste DU in store at the Capenhurst production plant in Cheshire. At the other end of the fuel cycle, when the uranium is taken out of reactors and reprocessed at Sellafield in Cumbria for every kilogram of plutonium produced there are 100 kilograms of spent uranium. There are at least 20,000 tonnes of DU in store at Sellafield alone. Tiny amounts have been used as balancing weights in commercial aircraft such as jumbos and in yacht keels because it is extremely heavy but this is being phased out on safety grounds because of the radioactivity and toxic dangers in case of accident. The most likely future for unwanted uranium is as nuclear waste - eventually to be dumped in an underground depository. This is especially true of DU recovered from reprocessing plants at Sellafield which is contaminated with other fission products because it has been inside a nuclear reactor. The discovery in the 1980s that the depleted U238 had properties as a potent armour piercing weapon gave it a new potential value. A series of shells and missiles was developed with DU tips to destroy tanks and other armoured defences. Uranium was also used to shield tanks against attack by conventional armour piercing weapons. When DU penetrator hits the tank armour both the penetrator and armour partially liquefy under pressure. Once the armour has been perforated that part of the penetrator which has not melted, together with the molten armour and fragments that break away from the interior, ricochet inside the vehicle. This usually causes a fire. Studies in the US, Britain and France show that when an armoured vehicle burns at about 10,000C, the resulting oxidisation of the materials aboard, including benzene products and depleted uranium, can create particulates that are harmful to the human body; ingested they can affect the lungs and kidneys. British Nuclear Fuels, which operates MoD reactors at Calder Hall at Sellafield and Chapel Cross in Dumfries, said yesterday that it had supplied DU components to the MoD during the Gulf war but had not done so since. Its DU was safely stored at its plants. The MoD has consistently refused to disclose its stockpiles of DU but concedes it uses it as an anti-tank weapon "in time of war". The army fired 88 DU rounds in the Gulf war. None was fired in Kosovo because there was no ground war and because no British aircraft use them. Guardian Unlimited c Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 48 Gulf veterans can have uranium tests Independent BY Andrea Babbington 12 January 2001 Gulf veterans worried about the risk from depleted uranium will be able to take advantage of a new health screening programme, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has promised. Mr Hoon said that Gulf veterans would have access to the programme of medical tests announced by Armed Forces Minister John Spellar on Tuesday for service personnel and civilians who served in the Balkans. Mr Hoon said there was already a screening system for Gulf War veterans and he could see no reason why any concerned about depleted uranium should not benefit from the measures set up for Kosovo veterans. However, the Defence Secretary rejected an internal Army medical report's conclusion that exposure to depleted uranium heightened the risk of soldiers suffering lung, lymph and brain cancer. He insisted that the report had contained significant errors, and that he had been assured that its central conclusion was incorrect. But he did acknowledge that in some extreme circumstances, exposure to depleted uranium could pose a risk to health. And he added to confusion about the status of the report by saying that the document was not passed down the Army chain of command. ***************************************************************** 49 Germany issues uranium 'all clear' - CNN.com - January 12, 2001 Tests show no German soldiers ingested DU in Kosovo GENEVA, Switzerland--Tests on German peacekeepers serving in Kosovo have revealed no signs of exposure to debris from depleted uranium ammunition. The results were disclosed after the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was "unlikely" that DU ammunition fired during NATO's air war against Yugoslavia could have caused cancer. A special NATO meeting was also told on Friday that Portuguese soldiers serving in the Balkans are likely to encounter higher background uranium radiation at home than on their Kosovo and Bosnia missions. But Turkey said two of its soldiers who served as NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo had been affected by exposure to DU munitions. German researchers said urine tests carried out by a medical body at the request of the Defence Ministry showed no unusual traces of depleted uranium (DU). Paul Roth, a radiation expert at the research body that carried out the tests, said: "All measurements of uranium were around levels we would expect from groups which have not been exposed. "Our results showed that none of the soldiers we tested had ingested depleted uranium, and where there is no uranium, there cannot be any illnesses caused by uranium." Responding to reports in Italy that several deaths of former peacekeepers from leukaemia resulted from a so-called Balkans Syndrome caused by exposure to DU munitions, Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping called the risk to German soldiers "negligible." Scharping has ruled out comprehensive testing on all of the 60,000 German group troops who have seen peacekeeping action in the Balkans. That position contrasts with the line taken by the British government, which has extended screening to include not only troops who served in the Balkans but also veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. Roth's institute tested a sample of 121 German troops before, during and after their Kosovo deployments. Some had been involved in clearing the wrecks of vehicles destroyed by DU munitions. A control sample of a further 200 volunteers from Germany also took part. The WHO, the Geneva-based United Nations health agency, issued its first recommendation on the ammunition since the beginning of the current controversy over potential health risks. The body concluded it was "unlikely" that exposure to NATO weapons containing depleted uranium could have led to a higher risk of cancer among military personnel who served in the Balkan conflicts. But it said that it plans a study to "assess whether there has been an increased rate of cancer amongst military personnel who served in the Gulf War or Balkans, as well as amongst exposed populations." A pile of depleted uranium anti-tank rounds at a former military factory near Sarajevo   It also called for the cordoning off and cleaning up of sites in Kosovo where DU ammunition landed during the NATO air campaign. A WHO spokesman told CNN their research showed there was no link between DU and leukaemia, but there might be links with other forms of cancer. "Until we know what is going on, it is better to be cautious," he said. The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has called for a more extensive survey of sites in the Balkans that were hit by NATO shells containing depleted uranium. An IAEA spokesman said checks on at least 30 sites were required for a satisfactory survey to determine whether debris from the shells could cause cancer. Portuguese officials said early results of an on-the-spot study of 50 depleted uranium sites closest to where that country's troops with NATO were based "showed overall natural levels or uranium are actually lower than in Portugal itself." "The idea of a general risk of contamination is false," a NATO statement quoted the official as telling a special meeting of some 60 representatives of NATO and non-NATO countries who have contributed troops to the peacekeeping missions. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Dirioz said: "We have two personnel who had been affected at a benign level,". He did not elaborate on the exact nature of their health complaints. Ankara earlier said it had found no such cases but would study the subject and share information with NATO allies. [*]Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: -=- [PREFORMATTED] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ˙˙˙ [*]Belgrade: NATO contaminated our land January 11, 2001 [*]NATO to investigate uranium threat January 10, 2001 [*]Danger signs go up at uranium sites January 11, 2001 [*]Germany confirms weapons warning January 8, 2001 c 2001 CABLE NEWS NETWORK. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 50 Hoon is urged to 'come clean' over uranium report ISSUE 2058 Friday 12 JANUARY 2001 BY MICHAEL SMITH, DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT - MINISTRY OF DEFENCE ˙[I][*]International: Lawyer blames Italian's death on benzene [I][*]Leukaemia link 'is implausible' OPPOSITION parties demanded yesterday that Geoff Hoon, Defence Secretary, should "come clean" over an Army document that said inhalation of depleted uranium dust increased the risk of contracting lung, lymph and brain cancer. They had previously been prepared to accept a statement by John Spellar, Armed Forces minister, that there was minimal risk to British Servicemen from the use of the ammunition. of the cancer risks as a "discredited document written by a trainee" backfired. Iain Duncan Smith, shadow defence secretary, pointed out that a covering letter, suggesting that the document be given wide distribution, was written by an RO2, A H Lyall Grant, on behalf of the Chief of Staff of the Quartermaster General's Department. Defence sources said that an RO2 was an experienced staff officer of major rank who would not have distributed the document without knowing that the Chief of Staff wanted it to be done. Mr Duncan Smith said: "The Government have to stop playing this silly game, pretending they know everything and don't have to tell anybody. They should clarify things once and for all." The document, issued by UK Land Forces in early 1997 to all units and ranges using the ammunition, said inhalation of insoluble uranium dioxide dust created by its impact with a target might never leave the lungs, resulting in cancer. The MoD initially admitted that it was genuine but said that it had been based partly on a draft written in 1993 by a trainee and that as a result some of its content was "misleading and inaccurate". When asked what parts were inaccurate or misleading, the MoD pointed to three paragraphs of the document that had no relevance to the media reports on the increased risks of contracting cancer. By yesterday morning the 1997 document was itself being widely dismissed by MoD officials as having been written by a trainee. Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said the Government's attempts to explain the document lacked credibility. "The March 1997 document is not a draft and appears to be official. The contents are clear and unqualified. The confusion ought to be cleared up as soon as possible." In a letter to Geoff Hoon, Mr Duncan Smith said it was clear from the letter that the Quartermaster General's Department was concerned. If it was later found to be inaccurate then it must have been rescinded, Mr Duncan Smith said. The MoD had only to produce those documents to show that the advice was, as it claimed, inaccurate. The MoD's Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Keith O'Nions, insisted that the medical report contained "many, many scientific errors" and did not form any part of the advice given to ministers. "It is not part of the approved advice stream to ministers," he said. ***************************************************************** 51 NATO: Commission To Probe Effects Of Depleted Uranium Ammunition Brussels, 11 January 2001 (RFE/RL)--NATO says it will create a commission to probe the health effects of its use of depleted uranium ammunition in the Balkans. The move comes amid continuing concern among European nations that the use of the ammunition could be linked to serious illnesses among troops who served in the Balkans. NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said yesterday the probe will go ahead because NATO has "nothing to hide." Robertson said there is no evidence to suggest the controversial weapons pose significant health risks. The commission will examine the risks posed by the use of U.S. forces of depleted uranium rounds in NATO's air war against Yugoslavia in 1999 and in the 1994-1995 conflict in Bosnia. But there was reluctance for the investigation from Britain and the U.S., which, along with France, are the only NATO members acknowledged to use the ultra-dense ammunition. The outgoing head of the UN administration running Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, said late yesterday there was no radioactivity detected in the Yugoslav province. Meanwhile, the BBC and British newspapers today quoted a British Army report that warned almost four years ago that soldiers exposed to dust from depleted uranium shells might be at risk of developing lung, lymph, and brain cancers. The draft document, prepared as an internal document for military officials, said soldiers doing salvage and repair work inside vehicles which had been hit by the depleted uranium shells faced up to eight times the acceptable level of uranium exposure. The British Ministry of Defense called the report a "discredited" draft paper prepared by a trainee and never endorsed by senior staff. The ministry said in a statement that "certain elements are scientifically incorrect or misleading." The British government repeated its position that medical evidence has so far failed to prove any link between the ammunition and health risks. P; BSP;REALAUDIO c 1995-2001 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc., All Rights Reserved. http://www.rferl.org ***************************************************************** 52 NATO's Use of Depleted Uranium Munitions a 'Crime Against Humanity', Says China Inside China Today - BEIJING, Jan 12, 2001--(Agence France Presse) China said Friday that NATO's use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions in the Balkans was a crime against humanity. An editorial in the official China Daily said U.S. and British denials that DU munitions were responsible for illnesses including cancer had been shown to be hollow. And the commentary scoffed at NATO's military intervention in Kosovo in 1999 on humanitarian grounds, a move China strongly opposed, and questioned NATO's concern for the new "humanitarian crisis" emerging over DU shells. It said U-238, the main component of depleted uranium, was "intrinsically nuclear" and therefore DU munitions used by the United States in the 1991 Gulf War and the Kosovo conflict should not be considered conventional weapons. "Because of the indiscriminate harm it has caused to all lives in the hit areas long after combat, random use of such weapons amounts to a crime against humanity," said the editorial. Fears over the side-effects of DU munitions has emerged following the deaths of some 16 NATO peacekeepers from illnesses such as leukemia after they served in either Bosnia or Kosovo. The United States has said its aircraft fired 31,000 DU rounds during the 1999 Kosovo campaign and that another 10,800 rounds were fired during 1994/5 in Bosnia, where many of those afflicted were stationed. NATO succumbed to mounting pressure on Wednesday by agreeing to set up a special committee to study the possible health risk of DU shells, but the United States continues to stress there is no evidence to link any illnesses with the use of DU munitions. The China Daily editorial said NATO owed its peacekeepers a "thorough and honest" investigation, but it questioned whether the alliance cared about the impact of DU shells on civilians in the Balkans and Iraq. "It is both hypocritical and bizarre that the whole fuss over DU- related health risks in NATO countries has occurred without regards for the larger number of victims in other communities," said the paper. "Where is the 'humanitarian concerns NATO so fervently cited to justify its aggression in Yugoslavia. Where is the altruist NATO committed to the prevention of a 'humanitarian disaster' now that a real such disaster is before its eyes," it said. China opposed NATO's intervention in Kosovo on the grounds the humanitarian crisis in the region was the internal affair of Yugoslavia. Official Chinese media did not report atrocities by Yugoslav forces against Kosovar civilians during their coverage of the conflict. ((C) 2001 AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE) ***************************************************************** 53 "Cheap" NATO Must Fund Uranium Cleanup, Russia Says Russia Today - NATO on Thursday of using Serbia as a dumping ground for depleted uranium ammunition it needed to get rid of and called on the alliance to pay for any cleanup. Russia's air force chief General Anatoly Kornukov denounced the Western military alliance for penny-pinching, saying NATO had used its 1999 air raids to dispose of depleted uranium munitions rather than dispose of them properly. "It is clear to me they dropped the (munitions) they needed to destroy, as purely destroying them would have been several times more expensive than dropping them during bombing", he said in televised remarks. "Of course there is an (environmental) effect, there's no question about that. But at least we do not have these (munitions). We got out of this a long time ago and this is a totally incorrect approach, " he said. "All statements made on this matter by the official representatives of the U.S. administration, including (Secretary of State) Madeleine Albright, are aimed at amateurs," RIA Novosti quoted Kornukov as saying. Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, the Defense Ministry's international relations chief and leading hawk, told Interfax news agency that NATO had a duty to check the health of all Yugoslavs, not just troops in Kosovo, and to foot the bill for any cleanup operation in the region. "It is extremely important that NATO countries pay attention not only to damage which may have been caused to the health of servicemen in the...Kosovo operation, but to all damage caused in Yugoslavia, to its people and ecology," he said. "All actions in assessing this damage and in dealing with the consequences must be conducted by countries of the North Atlantic alliance at their expense." Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev will raise the use of depleted uranium munitions in Yugoslavia and Bosnia during a scheduled February 6-8 visit to the Balkans, domestic news agencies reported, citing "informed sources." Moscow has already called for a thorough probe by respected international organizations of the possible health risks associated with the ammunition. On Wednesday, NATO ambassadors promised to investigate the effects of depleted uranium but said it posed a minimal health risk. It pledged to do all it could to reassure troops and civilians worried by cancer scares. Russia fiercely opposed NATO's 11-week 1999 air campaign on Yugoslav targets, launched in response to Belgrade's crackdown on the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo province. Moscow later contributed peacekeepers to a U.N.-backed force. Russia says it wants to test as many as possible of its 10,000 Balkan veterans and the roughly 3,000 peacekeepers it has in Kosovo and 1,000 men stationed in Bosnia. So far, it has found no one suffering from leukemia. (C)2001 Copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters Limited. 1995-2001 European Internet Network Inc. 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