***************************************************************** 03/12/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.64 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Zero tolerance urged for Yucca Mountain radiation 2 NRC okays Millstone nuke license transfer to Dominion 3 DESIGN, LICENSE AND MANUFACTURE A FLEET OF TRANSPORTATION CASKS 4 Melbourne's secret nuclear hazard 5 Nuclear agency denies truck cover-up 6 Kungliao residents mull legal strategy in anti-nuclear fight 7 Yucca could be costliest project in history 8 Greens Forge Compromise On Nuclear Transport Protests NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Letter: Outraged by sale of DOE land for $54/acre - Ron Hoff 2 SRS scientist stresses ethics 3 Atomic dustbin 4 2 Reports: Kaliningrad Has Arms 5 Heeding Western Shoshone concerns, BLM to delay f... 6 Unknown dangers at IAAP 7 For Whistleblowers, Ethical Mile is a Hard Walk 8 Beryllium Report index 9 Still no answers about Hanford's cleanup budget 10 Meetings focus on cleanup, layoffs 11 PNNL device going down with Mir **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Zero tolerance urged for Yucca Mountain radiation March 12, 2001 By Mary Manning LAS VEGAS SUN Environmental groups called today for standards that would prevent any radiation from escaping a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. The 35 groups, primarily from Nevada and California, sent the four-page letter to the Bush administration asking it to reject any proposed standards that allow radiation to be released in air, water or soils from a respository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a 15-millirem limit for radiation escaping from 77,000 tons of buried nuclear waste from commercial reactors and defense activities. That is roughly 1 1/2 chest X-rays. The EPA standards also would restrict radiation in ground water to 4 millirems. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that will have to license a repository if the site is scientifically sound, has offered a 25-millirem total radiation standard without a ground water limit. The entire project is "dangerous and a horrendous waste of American tax dollars," the environmental groups' letter said. The DOE's environmental studies indicate that ground water would be the major carrier of radiation escaping the repository. But the environmental groups are not comfortable with the government's assurances. "Our children's children are the 'acceptable' deaths under consideration in the proposed standards," the letter stated. Citizen Alert, a Nevada environmental watchdog group, and other concerned consumer groups, including the Nuclear Information and Resource Service of Washington, D.C., are asking the new administration to guarantee the repository won't leak any radiation, said Kalynda Tilges, nuclear waste coordinator for Citizen Alert's Las Vegas office. "We would like to see zero radiation discharged," Tilges said. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 NRC okays Millstone nuke license transfer to Dominion [Reuters] Monday March 12, 8:05 am Eastern Time NEW YORK, March 12 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved the transfer of operating licenses for the Millstone nuclear power plant units 1, 2 and 3 to Dominion Nuclear Connecticut Inc. on Friday, March 9. The licenses had been held by Northeast Nuclear Energy Co., a unit of Northeast Utilities (NYSE:NU - news) of Berlin, Conn., which operated the 871-megawatt (MW) unit 2 and 1,154-MW unit 3, in Waterford, Conn. Unit 1 was permanently shut down in 1998. Dominion Nuclear Connecticut is an indirect subsidiary of Dominion Energy, which is in turn owned by Dominion Resources Inc. (NYSE:D - news) of Richmond, Va. Dominion also operates the Surry and North Anna nuclear power plants in Virginia. In August 2000, Dominion agreed to buy Millstone for $1.28 billion in a deal that was expected to close in April 2001. On August 31, 2000, Northeast Nuclear and Dominion Nuclear Connecticut submitted an application to the NRC requesting approval for the license transfer. The key issues considered by the NRC technical staff included decommissioning funding, insurance and Dominion's technical and financial qualifications. NRC's approval becomes effective immediately, but the actual transfer of ownership will occur on a date mutually agreeable to Northeast Nuclear and Dominion. Dominion will be the sole owner of, and authorized to maintain Millstone unit 1. It will be the sole owner and operator of Millstone unit 2, and will own 93 percent and be the sole operator of unit 3. Central Vermont Public Service Corp. (NYSE:CV - news) and Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co., which also own portions of Millstone unit 3, were not involved in the license transfers. Northeast Utilities owns all of units 1 and 2. The owners of unit 3 are Northeast Utilities' Connecticut Light &Power (53 percent), Western Massachusetts Electric (12) and Public Service Co. of New Hampshire (3), National Grid Plc's (*quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland*: NGG.L) New England Power (12) and Montaup Electric (4), United Illuminating (NYSE:UIL - news) (4), Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric (5), Energy East Corp.'s (NYSE:EAS - news) Central Maine Power (3), Central Vermont (2), Unitil Corp.'s (AMEX:UTL - news) Fitchburg Gas &Electric Light Department (>1), and others. --Scott DiSavino, New York Power Desk, +212-859-1622, fax +212-859-1758, e-mail scott.disavino@reuters.com Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 DESIGN, LICENSE AND MANUFACTURE A FLEET OF TRANSPORTATION CASKS -- Potential Sources Sought Alerts Summary: Mar 13, 2001 (FIND, Inc. via COMTEX) --; NOTICE TYPE: Potential Sources Sought; NOTICE DATED: 030901; OFFICE ADDRESS: Bechtel BWXT Idaho,LLC, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 8ime operating contractor for the Department of Energy at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). The purpose of this request is to obtain expressions of interest and budgetary estimates from companies interested in designing, licensing, and manufacturing a fleet of transportation casks to be used to transport U.S. DOE Environmental Management's spent nuclear fuel from various sites around the United States to a central repository. Engineering design and licensing services will be in strict compliance with the requirements of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission promulgated in Part 71 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10CFR71), including the quality assurance requirements provided therein. Potential suppliers expressing interest in this RFI shall provide a list of similar transportation systems which their firm has designed, licensed and/or manufactured and a statement of qualifications including having a quality assurance program in place approved by the Nuthe general requirements provided hereafter. The system shall be based primarily on transportation by rail; however, provisions shall be made for overland heavy-haul transportation also. The transportation casks shall have an approximate payload cavity displacement of 5 feet 10 inches in diameter by 15 feet 1 inch long and an estimated weight capacity (payload) in the 30-ton range. A draft copy of the specifications can be obtained by contacting the POC. The Department of Energy anticipates publication seeking proposals by the end of calendar year 2001 followed by supplier selection and contract award in June 2002 time frame; however, nothing in this RFI constitutes an obligation on the part of BBWI or the Department of Energy to issue such; and/or to award a contract for the aforementioned system. Interested parties should send e-mail to rvn@inel.gov or mail to Rod V. Nelson, BBWI, P.O. Box 2525, Idaho Falls, ID 83415-3975 before 5-8-01. - Idaho National Engineering &Environmental Laboratory Procure; RND; A; --; Research; and; Development* Source: Commerce Business Daily - FIND Date: 03/12/2001 12:47 Price: Free Document Size: Very Short (347 words) Document ID: FB20010312500000013 DESIGN, LICENSE AND MANUFACTURE A FLEET OF TRANSPORTATION CASKS -- Potential Sources Sought Story Filed: Monday, March 12, 2001 12:47 PM EST Mar 13, 2001 (FIND, Inc. via COMTEX) -- NOTICE TYPE: Potential Sources Sought NOTICE DATED: 030901 OFFICE ADDRESS: Bechtel BWXT Idaho,LLC, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 8ime operating contractor for the Department of Energy at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). The purpose of this request is to obtain expressions of interest and budgetary estimates from companies interested in designing, licensing, and manufacturing a fleet of transportation casks to be used to transport U.S. DOE Environmental Management's spent nuclear fuel from various sites around the United States to a central repository. Engineering design and licensing services will be in strict compliance with the requirements of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission promulgated in Part 71 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10CFR71), including the quality assurance requirements provided therein. Potential suppliers expressing interest in this RFI shall provide a list of similar transportation systems which their firm has designed, licensed and/or manufactured and a statement of qualifications including having a quality assurance program in place approved by the Nuthe general requirements provided hereafter. The system shall be based primarily on transportation by rail; however, provisions shall be made for overland heavy-haul transportation also. The transportation casks shall have an approximate payload cavity displacement of 5 feet 10 inches in diameter by 15 feet 1 inch long and an estimated weight capacity (payload) in the 30-ton range. A draft copy of the specifications can be obtained by contacting the POC. The Department of Energy anticipates publication seeking proposals by the end of calendar year 2001 followed by supplier selection and contract award in June 2002 time frame; however, nothing in this RFI constitutes an obligation on the part of BBWI or the Department of Energy to issue such; and/or to award a contract for the aforementioned system. Interested parties should send e-mail to rvn@inel.gov or mail to Rod V. Nelson, BBWI, P.O. Box 2525, Idaho Falls, ID 83415-3975 before 5-8-01. - Idaho National Engineering & Environmental Laboratory Procure RND A -- Research and Development *Copyright © 2001, Commerce Business Daily - FIND, all rights reserved.* ***************************************************************** 4 Melbourne's secret nuclear hazard news.com.au - By NICK PAPPS 12mar01 CARGOES of nuclear waste are being secretly driven across Melbourne after a government agency ordered radiation warning signs be removed from trucks. The cover-up, ordered by the Federal Government's top nuclear agency, has sparked fears that emergency workers or members of the public could be exposed to radiation in an accident. The move is revealed in a top-level State Government report seen by the *Herald Sun.* The report, by the State Government's Radiation Advisory Committee, says the Federal Government's nuclear organisation ordered trucks carrying the dangerous waste to hide their radiation signs. It details how Australian Radioisotopes, the private arm of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, requested all radiation warning symbols be deliberately obscured. The report, which examines radiation safety throughout Victoria, states: "If . . . the transport vehicle was involved in an accident there would be no warning that radioactive materials may be involved." Local councils and firefighters attacked the secret policy, saying it put lives at risk. The report and an investigation by the *Herald Sun* have also revealed: RADIOACTIVE waste with a half-life of 1600 years is being stored in paint cans in the city centre. LAX security at the state's radiation main store has fuelled fears radioactive waste will be the target of criminals. RADIOACTIVE waste is buried at Bairnsdale TAFE college, where hundreds of students attend. A CRACKDOWN on rogue radiation transporters has been ordered. Victoria produces up to three cubic metres of radioactive waste each year in hospitals and industry – from radiation therapy and diagnosis equipment and gauges used in industrial processes. The medical waste is kept in 20 storage facilities across Victoria, transported from sites around the state to the main waste-storage facility at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute. The most dangerous waste is transported to Melbourne airport where it is flown to the Lucas Heights nuclear facility in Sydney. The Radiation Advisory Committee report also reveals that in one case signs were obscured and the cargo of cylinders or generators containing radioactive waste was transported too early – before the radiation had abated to safe levels. "The RAC was concerned that decayed generators returned to ARI by road are classified as non-radioactive and ARI request that all radiation warning symbols are deliberately obscured," the report said. A Human Services Department spokesman told the *Herald Sun* the generators mentioned in the report were from a Gippsland Hospital in April and were being trucked to the airport for freight to Lucas Heights. The spokesman said no action was taken against the ARI, with the organisation just being told of its obligations. A spokesman for ARI said all government regulations were followed and the error was made by the hospital which sent the generator back too early, before it had decayed enough. ARI's Ken Sutter said government regulations required any symbols to be covered. "We supply them with labels and they put them over the top," he said. But the state's top medical officer, the Director of Public Health and Development, Professor John Catford, said tougher laws on transporting radioactive waste were being looked at. "We are wanting to see a much tighter code of practice developed and enforced," he said. The *Herald Sun* investigation has also revealed authorities fear radioactive waste stored in the city could attract thieves. Professor Catford said he had security concerns about the State Government radioactive waste repository at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute in the city. Hundreds of radioactive items are stockpiled in the basement of the institute, including more than 100 radioactive needles with a half-life of 1600 years stored inside paint cans and technical equipment such as gauges with a half-life of 430 years. The half-life is the time it takes for half of the radioactive material to decay. The *Herald Sun* visited the store, which is secured behind a door opened with a single key in the basement of the centre. Professor Catford admitted the security was a concern. "The waste we have at Peter MacCallum is safe. We have no concerns about it – more of a risk is security, rather than the hazard," he said. Professor Catford admitted that many of the items should not be stored at the hospital, but rather at a medium-level store in a remote location. "We have some old radium needles with a half-life of 1600 years," he said. "If it's over 100 years, it needs to be going into the store." Professor Catford said he supported the Federal Government move to establish a medium-level radioactive waste repository in outback Australia. "Once this new site's established, we would transport this material. There's a risk and we try to minimise the risk," he said. "Those with a long half life need to be in a permanent store. "If it's over 30 years, it's a long half-life." Yesterday, United Firefighters Union branch secretary Peter Marshall said the lack of signs put lives at risk. "It's immoral and it's putting my members' and the public's lives at risk," he said. Gary Jungwith, the Mayor of Hume Council, which includes Melbourne airport, said he was appalled by the signs being obscured. "If this is a deliberate policy, I'm appalled," he said. "And I would be sure every local government would be appalled by this situation." The Australian Conservation Foundation's David Noonan yesterday accused ARI of a cover-up. "People have a right to know what is being transported," he said. "It's against the principle of an open society. "It's a cover-up." The Australian Daily Telegraph ***************************************************************** 5 Nuclear agency denies truck cover-up The Age: NUCLEAR FALLOUT By XAVIER LA CANNA AGE ONLINE Monday 12 March 2001, 02:34 PM Full text of ANSTO statement The federal government's top nuclear agency today rejected claims it had urged truck drivers to obscure or remove labels identifying radioactive cargo. The Australia Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation said it had issued no instructions to remove the labels if they were required by regulations. It was reported in *The Herald Sun* newspaper today that the agency had ordered trucks carrying radioactive waste to obscure signs on the vehicles. "No instruction has been issued by ANSTO at any time, to any agency, to cover and/or remove labelling from radioactive materials" a statement from ANSTO today read. A state government report prepared by Victoria's Radiation Advisory Committee alleged the practice was being urged by ANSTO, it was reported. The ANSTO statement said Victorian state regulations ensure radiation warning signs or trefoils are visible on all vehicles that transport the waste. ANSTO was not consulted by the committee before it published it's report, the statement said. Earlier today anti-nuclear campaigners called on the government to review the transport of radioactive waste following the Victorian government report. Friends of the Earth nuclear campaigner Bruce Thompson said the action was a "shonky practice". He called on the federal government to review the practice of trucking nuclear waste around Australian cities. "I would imagine that its at the very least an underhanded policy and it would possibly be illegal and definitely in breach of guidelines," Mr Thompson said. The Victorian committee also reportedly found evidence low level radioactive waste was being stored in paint cans in the city centre. A spokeswoman for federal Environment Minister, Robert Hill, was unable to immediately comment. Copyright © The Age Company Ltd 2001. Any unauthorised use, ***************************************************************** 6 Kungliao residents mull legal strategy in anti-nuclear fight The Taipei Times Online: 2001-03-12 Monday, March 12th, 2001 By Chiu Yu-Tzu STAFF REPORTER Kungliao residents are putting down their protest placards and picking up law books in their efforts to fight the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (®Ö¥|). Now that the DPP government has caved in on the power plant issue, residents of Kungliao, where the plant is located, have given up hopes for a political solution to the battle against the nuclear plant. Instead, residents are working with a group of law school professors and lawyers to uncover administrative flaws in the plant's construction, which has dragged on for roughly two decades. "We believe the whole project should be reviewed according the Administrative Procedure Law that went into effect on the first of this year," Chen Hwei-syin (³¯´fÄÉ), one of group's leaders, told the *Taipei Times*. Chen, a law professor at National Chengchi University, said that members of the group will review administrative defects in the project's approval process. "For example, why was it that Taipower (¥x¹q) began to manage the plant's construction site in the early 1990s before receiving a construction license from the Atomic Energy Council [which it didn't until] 1999?" she said. Chen said the group would ask the Cabinet to provide an answer to that question. In addition, the legal experts plan to gather information about one of the most controversial aspects of the project -- the plant's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). As early as 1995, activists have protested the fact that the plant's two planned reactors were changed from 1,000 megawatts each to 1,350 megawatts -- though no new EIA was ever performed to reflect the switch. In addition, the Control Yuan in 1995 censured seven administrative units -- including the Cabinet, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) -- because a second EIA had not yet been performed. At the time, the censure was ignored by the then KMT-led Cabinet, which supported the project. In addition, in March 1999, the AEC issued a construction license for the plant, even though it had still not dealt with the Control Yuan's censure. Environmentalists applaud the legal strategy and say the government is ignoring potential threats that the proposed nuclear plant poses to public safety. "We believe that the project will eventually be cancelled for its failure to pass a re-assessment," said Lai Wei-chieh (¿à°¶³Ç), secretary-general of the Green Citizens Action Alliance. In addition to the change in the wattage of the two reactors, there have been several other changes that may warrant a new EIA. "For example, a temporary repository for radioactive waste is under construction at the site. That's not originally part of the project," Lai said. Lai said that the alliance plans to organize Kungliao residents to petition new EPA head Hau Lung-bin (°qÀsÙy), who has stated that he will follow the law regarding EIAs in determining whether a new assessment should be conducted. This story has been viewed 164 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/03/12/story/0000077201] Copyright © 1999-2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 Yucca could be costliest project in history March 09, 2001 By Benjamin Grove <> and Mary Manning LAS VEGAS SUN For almost 200 years leaders in Britain and France dreamed of digging a tunnel under the English Channel. French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned plans. A long series of failed attempts began in 1880. So when the $20 billion "Chunnel" was completed in 1993, the mammoth project was celebrated as a testament to man's determination -- and his will to build big. The planet is sprinkled with awe-inspiring construction projects that have boggled minds, sparked controversy, inflamed critics and cost fortunes: the Empire State Building, Golden Gate Bridge, Panama Canal and Hoover Dam. Now another engineering marvel may take shape in the Nevada desert: A cavernous tomb 1,000 feet under Yucca Mountain is designed to permanently store the nation's high-level nuclear waste, among the nastiest substances on Earth. Yucca Mountain could prove to be one of the most costly and unusual projects ever undertaken. To be sure, Yucca would be a complex and expensive project. The Energy Department wants to haul 77,000 tons of high-level waste by truck and train to be carefully placed in tunnels deep in the Earth's crust. Here's how Yucca ranks in cost, size and scope compared to some other notable engineering achievements: Cost As with most large-scale, first-of-its-kind projects, it's difficult for experts to say what Yucca will cost. But if approved and completed, Yucca could be one of the nation's most expensive projects ever. About $6.7 billion has been spent on Yucca during the 14 years of site study. If the project is approved, actual construction would not be completed until 2010 at the earliest. The DOE's latest cost estimate made this year, including the waste's storage, is $58 billion. Officials estimate 1,637 workers would be needed by 2006, Yucca's peak year of construction. But internal DOE reports show that the estimate increases to $75 billion if all public health and safety measures are included, such as shields to protect buried containers from ground water. "In terms of cost, it's going to be a huge number," said William Ibbs, a University of California, Berkeley civil and environmental engineering professor who has studied the Yucca project. "Quite frankly, I wouldn't trust any cost number I see at this point." By way of comparison: * Hoover Dam had a $165 million price tag when it was completed in 1935 (roughly $1.7 billion in 2001 dollars). Two years later in San Francisco workers finished the $35 million Golden Gate Bridge -- at a time of bread lines in America. * The once-vilified, now often-praised Denver International Airport, the nation's newest major airfield, cost $5 billion by the time it opened in 1995. Washington's 103-mile Metro subway system, launched in 1967 and still expanding, also cost about $5 billion. * The U.S. interstate system, about 43,000 miles of roadway projects launched in 1956 despite some congressional criticism, cost about $129 billion by the time it was completed in 1991. "There were people at the time who said it was pie-in-the-sky and would never be realized, but you could get that kind of reaction with anything you want to do," UNLV engineering professor Walter Vodraska said of the interstates. "It turned out to be a tremendous boon." Today many engineers say that the most expensive project under construction is Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel project (locals call it the Big Dig), "the largest, most complex and technologically challenging highway project ever attempted in American history," its website says. In Boston, 4,500 workers are building a tunnel to Logan Airport, a bridge over the Charles River and an underground expressway to replace elevated highways in the city's core. The 10-year-old project is scheduled to be finished in 2004. The latest cost estimate is $14 billion (federal taxpayers pay 80 percent). The Big Dig's cost was estimated at $3.2 billion in 1987. In April, Massachusetts Turnpike Chairman James Kerasiotes and his top project officials were fired when it was learned that the Big Dig would cost more than the $10.8 billion he claimed. The Big Dig, like Yucca, is plagued by controversy and costs that exceeded estimates. Still, many Bostonians take a perverse pride in it. "People love to hate it," Dan McNichol, a former Big Dig spokesman who wrote a book about the project, told the Hartford Courant. "It's like the Red Sox." Overruns on large-scale projects are common, said David Luberoff, a Harvard University professor and public works expert who studies the Big Dig. Often costs are difficult to estimate for a variety of reasons: Complex mechanical expenses and permit costs can quickly skyrocket, Luberoff said. Sometimes accountants on long-term jobs don't adjust for inflation. Other times it's plain old politics. "Sometimes, it's simply a case of if you put the actual price tag out there, you'll never get the go-ahead," Luberoff said. "It's not unusual for major public works projects to be more expensive than people estimate. And it's not uncommon for them to be intensely controversial." Size In terms of size, it's difficult to compare Yucca with other large-scale engineering feats. It depends or how a person defines "big." Is it the amount of earth moved or geographical girth or its effect on people? By any of these criteria, Yucca's size likely would rank high on the list of notable public-works projects -- if not at the top. Consider: * The 1.2-mile Golden Gate Bridge opened in May 1937 as the world's longest suspension bridge after weathering years of criticism that it could never be done. The 746-foot-tall, 887,000-ton bridge was designed to last 200 years, today's engineers say. About 42 million vehicles crossed it in 1999. * The 50-mile Panama Canal was completed in 1914 for $380 million -- a project that was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. Workers excavated more than 329 million cubic yards of earth. More than 700,000 vessels have passed through the canal, changing world commerce. * Perhaps the "biggest" engineering project in the world today in terms of geographical impact is China's Three Gorge project that will dam the Yangtze River and create a massive 350-mile-long reservoir, flooding entire towns and -- talk about controversy -- displacing more than 1 million people. The estimated cost so far is $27 billion. The 7-year-old project to be completed in 2010 aims to control flooding and produce up to 11,000 megawatts of power a year -- close to 10 percent of China's energy. (Hoover Dam produces about 2,000 megawatts.) It will be the world's largest hydroelectric project. By comparison, Yucca Mountain would be the world's largest -- its only -- high-level nuclear waste dump. It would resemble a large mining complex, 1,000 feet below the surface and 1,000 feet above the water table. That underground catacomb, along with surface facilities, would cover 1,400 acres. Scope What truly ranks Yucca Mountain among the biggest engineering projects ever is not its physical size, but the size of its purpose and the uniqueness of its goal: sealing hazardous material away from humanity forever. A national nuclear waste dump is a first-of-its-kind endeavor, engineers say. It could become a model for other nations -- or a permanent lesson on what not to do. Yucca represents the first time that engineers have been so driven by such high stakes to design a project that must not fail for eons. Ibbs likened Yucca to the transcontinental railroad or the Panama Canal. "They really were unique," he said. "No one had ever tried anything like that before." University of Nevada, Reno, seismology professor John Louie compared the scope of Yucca to Hoover Dam. Hoover, like Yucca, poses a threat of failing -- albeit debatably small -- that could be catastrophic, Louie said. A disastrous dam failure could cause widespread death, flooding, power outages. A Yucca failure could spark "catastrophe like we have never seen," Louie said. "But people have embarked on these high-profile, monumental projects before, even when a failure of the project would be catastrophic," Louie said. DOE officials say they expect the first failure at Yucca wouldn't occur for maybe 10,000 years. But one geotechnical-engineering consultant who advised the DOE on Yucca said some project managers are shooting for a nuclear waste site that would remain secure for up to 1 million years. "They said we couldn't fly to the moon," said the DOE-paid consultant, who strongly believes in the success of the project and declined to be named. "But we did that, and there would not have been any lasting effects on us if we had not flown to the moon. But there are truly consequences to not solving this problem. They say this can't be done. But this is one of those things that damn well has to be done." Of course, Yucca opponents disagree. "It's a boondoggle of incredible magnitude," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., one of the state's four delegates to Congress who are battling to kill the project. The delegation is joined by Gov. Kenny Guinn, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and other high-profile politicians who are waging a war of words and money against the DOE's plans for Yucca. Berkley said large-scale projects such as dams and bridges have a positive effect on people's lives and commerce. But Yucca represents potential catastrophe for the environment, human health and Nevada's economy, she said. "For those three reasons, this engineering marvel isn't very impressive," Berkley said. Environmentalists decry Yucca for threatening the water for future generations. They fear future volcanoes, earthquakes and other disasters that could release nuclear waste into the environment and create disaster. "Just because we are capable of rising to the challenge of accomplishing this project scientifically doesn't mean it's a good thing to do," said Lisa Gue, policy analyst for the Washington-based environmental and consumer organization Public Citizen. Critics assailed the Chunnel, too, said Jack Lemley, a 40-year veteran engineer who supervised its construction. The leading trade digest, Engineering News Record, named Lemley one of the 125 top people of the century. Yucca and the Chunnel have a lot in common, he said. The biggest challenge for any massive project is not the actual construction, Lemley said. It's the bureaucratic bogs -- approval processes, regulatory oversight, scheduling, funding. "(Yucca) is certainly not going to be an exception," Lemley said. Lemley's work turning around the troubled Chunnel and completing it after seven years of construction was the culmination of a career of building big: Tennessee's Tombigbee Waterway, Mica Dam in British Columbia, King Kalide Military City in Saudi Arabia. Lemley likes the Yucca project and hopes it succeeds, he said. The technical and regulatory complexity, along with the "enormous size" make it among the biggest projects in the world, Lemley said. "Mankind has always looked for new frontiers," Lemley said. "There are aspects of human nature that want to explore the unknown and there are fewer physical frontiers left to conquer. There is now a search under way for new infrastructures -- new ways to have influence on life." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 8 Greens Forge Compromise On Nuclear Transport Protests F.A.Z. - English Version [Frankfurter Allgemeine] * By Stephan Löwenstein * STUTTGART. Faced with a bitterly divisive issue that pits its interests as a party of government against its environmentalist tradition, Alliance 90_The Greens used a weekend conference to forge a fragile trade-off over nuclear transports. The conference decided that party members can protest the transports, which are due to resume late this month, but not the "nuclear compromise" worked out by the Greens and their senior coalition partner in the German government, the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The issue was not one the party leadership wanted to deal with at a conference dedicated to electing a new party cochairwoman, Claudia Roth, two weeks ahead of elections in two German states. But "fundamentalist" Greens had rejected entreaties from Greens inside the government, who had argued that the protests would be irresponsible in view of the legislation passed by the SPD-Green government to gradually phase out nuclear energy in Germany. Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin, who negotiated the nuclear phaseout legislation with the SPD and the nuclear power industry, made one last unsuccessful appeal to the hard-core anti-nuclear wing of the party to let the "necessary" shipments go ahead. "You can't dump rubbish on your neighbor's doorstep," he said, adding that the Green leadership was doing "everything within its power to prevent unnecessary" transports. But the militants refused to back down, saying they would use passive resistance tactics to make the transports as expensive and difficult as possible for the government when the transports begin moving nuclear waste into Germany. The material is being returned from a French reprocessing facility and sent to the storage facility at Gorleben, in Mr. Trittin's home state of Lower Saxony. In the end, a big majority of delegates agreed only that "we will not call for actions, demonstrations or blockades directed against the consensus." At the conference, which saw Ms. Roth elected by an overwhelming 91.5 percent margin as coleader on Friday evening, delegates narrowly passed a requirement that any Green member of the German parliament being elevated to the cabinet would have to resign his or her parliamentary seat. Observers said Green ministers would likely fight to have the measure dropped before next year's general election, but its sponsor, Hans-Christian Ströbele, a Green member of parliament, said it was necessary "even for members of a governing party" to monitor the cabinet and hold it accountable. Ms. Roth said that despite the controversies, the party was sending out a positive image ahead of the March 25 state elections in Baden-Württemberg, of which Stuttgart is the capital, and Rhineland-Palatinate. "What's wrong with harmony?" Ms. Roth asked during her first formal appearance as party cochairwoman on Sunday, after it was suggested the party conference had been remarkably harmonious given the divisive nature of some of the agenda items. "I hope you don't regret voting for me for a very long time," added Ms. Roth, 45, a Bavarian native who replaced Germany's new minister for consumer protection, food and agriculture, Renate Künast. Ms. Künast was forced to give up the coleadership because of a Green stipulation that national party leaders cannot simultaneously hold government or state offices. Ms. Künast now has what is widely acknowledged to be one of the most difficult jobs in Germany, amid the continuing crises over BSE and foot-and-mouth disease, and agricultural reform received extensive attention at the conference of a party with a significant membership opposed to "industrial farming" methods. Ms. Künast, now in difficult negotiations with farmers and officials from the European Union and other EU countries, said the government was looking for ways to get farmers to produce "quality instead of quantity." "Nothing will be the way it was" in the agricultural sector and consumer protection, she said, adding that farmers were not necessarily being well served by their lobby groups. On another issue, a slim majority of Greens called for their representatives to "submit a legislative proposal with the aim of restoring the basic right to asylum in its unqualified form" Mar. 11, 2001 © Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2000 All ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Letter: Outraged by sale of DOE land for $54/acre - Ron Hoff OPINIONS Oak Ridger Online -- > Story last updated at 2:42 p.m. on Monday, March 12, 2001 Letters to the Editor To The Oak Ridger: I would like to express my outrage at the recent sale of 182 acres of DOE riverfront property to an Oak Ridge land developer for $54/acre. As it was pointed out in an article by the Knoxville News-Sentinel, this property was deemed of significant biological importance by the Nature Conservancy, yet it was virtually given away, not to somebody like TWRA, but to a developer. What do you think they'll charge for this property? I recently saw a piece of property near the intersection of Highway 62 and Outer Drive, and the Realtors wanted $40,000 plus for about 1.5 acres. What's wrong with this picture? If I remember the article correctly, the government spokesperson said that they thought this was a fair value for this piece of property. It probably was in 1895! Obviously the government's process for evaluating what property is worth is extremely flawed. Is it any wonder why most of the world laughs at us and the United States government is $6 trillion in debt? Here was a chance to do the right thing and protect some of our water frontage and they blew it again. Whatever happened to "no net loss of wetlands"? What a slap in the face of citizens who want to leave something of value to future generations! Shame on everyone associated with this. Ron Hoff Clinton ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 2 SRS scientist stresses ethics Augusta Georgia: Metro: *Web posted Monday, March 12, 2001 By *Staff Writer* M.R. ``Mac'' Louthan Jr. knows why stuff falls apart. He has devoted his life to the study of that very phenomenon. SRS scientist M.R. ``Mac'' Louthan Jr. says his legacy will be his oft-delivered speech that explains why things fall apart in life. *JONATHAN ERNST/STAFF* But he takes far more pleasure in helping people keep stuff together. Since 1978, the Savannah River Site scientist has delivered his signature lecture, Why Stuff Falls Apart, hundreds of times. Its message, whether delivered to fellow engineers, civic clubs, church groups, schoolchildren or postal workers, is always the same - ethical behavior is essential to any endeavor, be it construction of a skyscraper or creation of a marriage. His lectures, and his stature as an internationally renowned materials scientist and an expert on corrosion, led the Aiken group Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness to name Dr. Louthan its distinguished scientist for 2000, said J. Malvyn McKibben, the group's executive director. ``His relationship with the public is one of the things that drew us to him,'' Mr. McKibben said. ``Mac Louthan has been one of the outstanding researchers, and also one of the outstanding speakers, from SRS for many years. ``He is widely appreciated in our community for his ability to give not only insightful talks, but very entertaining talks. He stood out not only for the fact that he is internationally recognized, but for what he has done to promote the understanding of science among students and others.'' On a recent afternoon in a conference room only yards from his office, Dr. Louthan delivered one of his talks. ``Defects in life, left unattended, grow bigger,'' Dr. Louthan said to a room crowded with about 70 of his fellow SRS engineers, his voice booming at first, then trailing off for emphasis, words dripping out in the pronounced drawl of a man from the mountains of western Virginia. He paced across the front of the room, his arms drawing portraits in the air of the events he described. Often, those events involved hilarious anecdotes about his days as a student and professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute or yarns about Southeastern Conference football. But the laughs usually were followed by sobering accounts of the consequences of unethical decisions and cost-cutting shortcuts: the deadly collapse of a suspended walkway at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency in 1981, the failure of the steering mechanism in a minivan. ``In life, we are almost always faced with challenges between what's proper and what's profitable,'' Dr. Louthan said. ``Our careers are often the only gift we give society. Are we giving people cubic zirconia, or are we giving them the real thing?'' He closed by relating a tale about how, when his car made a new rattle or hum along the highway, he ``fixed'' the problem by increasing the volume of the radio. ``A lot of us service things in life by turning up the radio,'' Dr. Louthan said. ``But the structures we build, the marriages we form, the children we raise, the life that we lead, need service, and we've got to be sure that we give it the proper service. ``Ethics are essential.'' Dr. Louthan said he learned that lesson in childhood from his father, a teacher. ``There were just certain things Louthans didn't do,'' he recounted while sitting in his small office decorated only with family photos and one of those red-and-black calendars given away by banks and feed stores. ``There are rights and wrongs in this world. We cannot look at the world through various shades of gray.'' Since 1978, Dr. Louthan has recited the lecture at least 250 times, maybe 300, by his estimation. Along the way, he has garnered numerous professional accolades, including teaching awards from his alma mater, the 1994 President's Award from the International Metallographic Society, and the Don Orth Award and four George Westinghouse Signature Awards from his employer, Westinghouse Savannah River Co. He has written more than 200 scientific papers and edited nine books, and he serves as editor of the technical journal *Practical Failure Analysis.* He is a former president of the International Metallographic Society and a trustee for the National Youth Science Foundation. But his career's legacy, he said, will be his lecture. ``I think my greatest gift is this talk,'' he said. ``I truly believe that this is the keystone of my career. It's impacted more people than anything else I've done.'' All contents © 1996 - 2001 *The Augusta Chronicle*. All rights ***************************************************************** 3 Atomic dustbin Guardian Unlimited | Archive Search John Darwell risked his life when he photographed the Chernobyl exclusion zone. But at least they gave him a pair of protective wellies. Phil Daoust reports Phil Daoust Guardian Monday March 12, 2001 John Darwell knows a thing or two about nuclear contamination. He lives 20 miles from the Sellafield reprocessing plant and has spent most of the past six years photographing the landmarks of the atomic age: Los Alamos, where the Americans developed the atom bomb; Trinity, where they first tested it; Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, where a power station came terrifyingly close to meltdown. And he was in Japan in 1995 for the 50th anniversary of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nevertheless, he still felt worried as he neared the exclusion zone around Chernobyl power station, site of the world's worst nuclear accident. Thirty-one people died immediately after the reactor fire in 1986; Ukraine has blamed the radiation that spewed out for at least 8,000 more deaths. More than 130,000 people had to be evacuated, and, 15 years on, soldiers still bar entry to 2,800 sq km of land around the power station. "It was grey and overcast, one of those really murky days," Darwell recalls. "I was thinking, 'What am I doing here? What am I doing here? ' And then my driver started playing The Road to Hell, by Chris Rea. And I thought, 'That about sums it up.' " Yet what he found on the other side of the checkpoint was far more complex. "Part of me was expecting a devastated wasteland but everything was growing and lush. The locals did point out mutations - like branches growing on trees where they shouldn't be - but the zone is almost like a wildlife park. There's no folk, so you see herds of elk and wild boar wandering around. Mind you, some of them were showing mutations too." Darwell's photographs from that trip in late 1999 can now be seen in a book and exhibition called Legacy. There's the snap he took while waiting to pass through the outer cordon, still 30km from the power station - a dog resting in the middle of the road, as if that's the last place it would be disturbed. It brings to mind the beautiful beast from Stalker, Andrey Tarkovsky's eerie 1979 movie. That too featured a danger zone guarded by gun-toting guards, almost empty of humans and green with an obscene fertility. Inside Chernobyl's exclusion zone, weeds grow knee-high, trees poke up through abandoned homes, flowers bloom among fire engines used during the crisis and too radioactive ever to serve again. There's no artifice to Darwell's pictures, no fancy filters or tricksy angles, so you have to think about the subject rather than its presentation. One shot shows half a dozen military helicopters slowly rotting in a field, the red stars on their fuselages still visible. How bad must things get, you marvel, for a government to throw away aircraft? And then you remember the pilots who died after dumping their loads of sand and chemicals onto the flaming core of reactor number four. The Ukrainians spent six months removing and burying contaminated material from around the reactor: machinery, buildings, trees, soil. Of course, the clean-up claimed more lives. Darwell visited a landfill site at Buryakovka, and there's something shocking about his picture of a nondescript field with a radiation hazard sign planted where a scarecrow should be. He was led around by workers with Geiger counters, who steered him away from any hot spots. The Ukrainians were protected by the sort of paper masks used by decorators. Darwell was slightly better off: he had been lent a pair of wellies when he passed through the zone's inner cordon, 10km from the power station. He also wore a special badge to record his exposure, but could not have it checked until he returned to Britain. "The best way to describe it is a miner's canary - only you don't know it's dead until three weeks later." When Chernobyl went mushroom-shaped, it took the authorities a day and a half to begin bussing the locals out. At first they claimed the power plant was simply venting steam as usual. Darwell's pictures suggest the panic that ruled once the truth got out: a kindergarten floor scattered with crushed dolls; dodgem cars abandoned between bumps; portraits gathering mildew on mantelpieces; washing left on clothes lines. It took Darwell 18 months to get permission to visit the exclusion zone, so he made the most of his three weeks there. He took in the power station itself, which only closed down last December ("It was like visiting a factory - we went and had tea at the canteen"), many of the 70 empty villages and the city of Pripyat, which bars visitors whenever the radiation readings blip upwards. "It's all concrete," he explains. "It absorbs radiation like a giant sponge. They can't even knock it down because the dust would be too dangerous." In the world's most radioactive city, among all the rubble and rust and peeling paint, he photographed a lecture room full of charts cataloguing enemy nuclear weapons and the pointless precautions to be taken in the event of a missile strike. The zone's guards were relaxed chaps, keen to talk about fishing and show their snapshots of the giant catfish they caught in Chernobyl's outflow. So Darwell's scene of a militia man standing alone in the middle of a field "to prevent homeless people from moving into the village" may raise a hollow laugh. Yet a few of the older locals have returned, feeling safer in their old homes than in the prefab blocks on the edge of Kiev, where too many of their friends have sickened and died. The government seems to have decided it's not worth trying to kick them out again. So there they are living off the contaminated land, growing crops, using wells, keeping cattle. In the village of Opachichi, Darwell drank the milk from the local cows, which was "rather frightening". "A little radiation is very good for you," one of the locals told him. "It will make your hair grow - look at the vegetables and flowers." There's a lovely shot of a couple called Nicholai and Anastasia, who must be in their 60s or 70s, sitting in their Soviet-floral-horror sitting room and looking as if they've got a bit of a buzz on. The villagers make their own vodka and, when Darwell dropped in, the pair plied him with moonshine for five hours. "I was absolutely out of my mind," he says. Elsewhere, three babushkas from the same village pose with their buckets by a well; one of them tells a great story that sadly finds no place in the book's brief introduction. She was a PoW in Germany during the second world war and walked all the way back to Ukraine. "Later," says Darwell, "her husband left her and the house burned down . . . and then there was Chernobyl." But she returned a second time. Darwell's book gives her no words, so let's use what Tarkovsky's Stalker said when he found himself back in his own strange world: "Everything I have is here. Here in the zone. My happiness, my freedom, my dignity." Chernobyl's returnees may be happy to live with the risks of low-level radiation, but Legacy ends on a sombre note. "The concrete sarcophagus surrounding the damaged reactor is now in imminent danger of collapse. This would lead to a second Chernobyl disaster, with tons of highly radioactive dust released into the atmosphere. Some scientists believe the probability of this happening within the next few years to be 'extremely high'." So is this the most alarming trip Darwell has ever made? Oh no, he says. "There's only one place I've ever had trouble. They actually came with dogs and guns when I was photo-graphing. I was on the public highway but they didn't seem to appreciate that fact. As soon as I turned up, the police would arrive. It got to a point where they'd just recognise my car. "Yes, Sellafield was slightly hairy." • Legacy the book is published by Dewi Lewis, price £10.99. The exhibition is at Tullie House, Carlisle (01228 534781), until April 1. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 4 2 Reports: Kaliningrad Has Arms Monday, Mar. 12, 2001. Page 7 By Doug Mellgren The Associated Press OSLO, Norway — U.S. intelligence has comprehensive evidence that Russia moved nuclear weapons into Kaliningrad, a leading Norwegian newspaper claimed. The news media in neighboring Sweden has made similar claims. For months, Russia has denied reports that it secretly moved atomic weapons into Kaliningrad. U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity in January, said there were strong indications of such a deployment, but Washington has offered no public confirmation. The respected Oslo newspaper Aftenposten said last week that top military officers in Norway — a NATO member — confirmed the existence of U.S. intelligence reports on the deployment and said the reports cover a Russian nuclear weapons buildup in the Baltic Sea area. Moscow opposed the 1999 expansion of NATO to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and it fears that a possible expansion to include the former Soviet Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia could be a potential military threat. Aftenposten said the weapons were transported to St. Petersburg on a special train, then shipped to Kaliningrad on Russian navy ships. The newspaper said all top Norwegian officers it talked to confirmed the report, but they refused to go on the record. The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet also last week said that U.S. satellites tracked the weapons on that route to a Kaliningrad airfield. "There are nuclear weapons there," a U.S. government representative was quoted as telling Svenska Dagbladet on condition of anonymity. "If Russia has deployed tactical nuclear arms in Kaliningrad and at the same time denies this, it is very serious," said Stefan Noreen of the Swedish government's European Union unit. The Norwegian Supreme Defense Command and the Defense Ministry both declined comment. "The defense minister has said he is aware of the claims about Kaliningrad but we can't comment on any intelligence reports as a matter of principle," said ministry spokesman Kirsti Skjerven. *© 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may ***************************************************************** 5 Heeding Western Shoshone concerns, BLM to delay f... LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: NEWS: Western Shoshone National Council official Ian Zabarte issued a statement expressing concern that planned burns on public lands near Ely may send radioactivity into the air. Photo by Clint Karlsen. Monday, March 12, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Part of a fire management plan for public lands near Ely has been put on hold because of concerns raised by Western Shoshones, according to a Bureau of Land Management official. The portion of the 20-year plan that calls for using planned burns to reduce the potential for large wildfires won't be implemented until the BLM completes an environmental impact statement, said Gene Kolkman, the BLM's Ely field manager. "We'll put a hold on those large, prescribed fires," Kolkman said last week. He said it will probably take about two years to draw up and finalize an impact statement. The fire management plan for the district's 12 million acres was completed in December despite a last-minute protest from the Western Shoshone National Council. The council expressed concern that the plan allows for incineration of thousands of acres of pinyon pine, a traditional food source that goes back thousands of years. After reviewing the plan, the council and tribal members from Austin told BLM officials the plan should be revamped because it doesn't address the effects of burning areas where poisonous herbicides have been sprayed and radioactive fallout lingers from historic atmospheric nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site. In a March 3 statement, one council official, Ian Zabarte, said, "We are concerned that some areas of dead trees considered high fuel areas by the BLM may be the result of radioactive fallout. If this is the case, then igniting these areas could send radioactivity back into the air, threatening communities downwind." The council's chief, Raymond Yowell, cautiously welcomed the BLM's decision to complete a formal impact statement. "It is good for the BLM to follow its regulations, but the Western Shoshone Nation still has serious concerns about the violations of Western Shoshone customary law," he said, referring to the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The treaty, forged between the United States and the Western bands of the Shoshone Nation, was ratified by Congress and signed by President Lincoln because of the need for a safe route to the California gold fields to help finance the Civil War. The treaty allows U.S. citizens to travel through Western Shoshone territory to mine, ranch and create agricultural settlements. But the council contends it doesn't imply that the Western Shoshones sold, gave or transferred title of its lands to the United States. The U.S. government's stance is that the State Department doesn't recognize Western Shoshones as a nation. -- KEITH ROGERS webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 6 Unknown dangers at IAAP The Hawk Eye Special: IAAP Sunday, March 11, 2001 Line 1 workers identified By Mike Augspurger The Hawk Eye · Researchers ID 2,500 former IAAP workers. University of Iowa health researchers so far have determined that more than 2,500 people assembled nuclear weapons at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant. For several weeks. Project Director Kristina Venske said staff members have gone through 36,315 index cards at the IAAP facility in Middletown. The cards showed the workers' Social Security numbers, hiring dates, termination dates and job codes. The university's College of Public Health is funded with a $500,000 grant from the Department of Energy to find and screen for health problems people who helped build nuclear bombs for the Atomic Energy Commission from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s. For the most part, Venske said, the cards weren't clear if a worker was employed by the Department of Defense or the Atomic Energy Commission -- the former operated the non-nuclear portions of the plant and the latter rented space for the nuclear operations. The next step is to look at the job codes to see which ones were specific to Line 1. Researchers have learned from former workers what codes are related to that production line. Howard Nicholson, also a member of the team, said so far the index cards showed 2,146 names of people who were on Line 1. "We had an educated guess that the number may have been up to 4,000 people who worked there," he said last week. In addition, 437 people have contacted the U of I researchers to say they worked on Line 1. Nicholson said residents in 28 states have contacted them. "It's been fairly interesting. Many of the people who called in from out of state have relatives in the area or heard about the former worker program," he said. Some people have told researchers that they weren't full-time on Line 1. Rather, they worked in other areas of the plant and were pulled off those stations to occasionally help on Line 1. Nicholson said so far officials have not be able to determine those patterns by IAAP records. Of the total number, officials are not sure how many of the former workers are alive. Researchers plan to contact the Social Security Administration which will assist in verifying a person's status. All the information is confidential, he said. "From the information we've had to work with, I'm real pleased to get that many names," Nicholson said. "The response from the public has been outstanding." The search is not done, however, and U of I officials still want people who worked on Line 1, or their relatives, to contact them -- especially with current addresses. Venske said some information has been found in industrial hygiene records, which list radiation exposures an employee may have received. "We've had several of those, especially from the late 1960s into the 1970s," she said, noting officials now have requested information back to the 1950s. The hygiene information gives health researchers an idea what kind of exposure people were receiving, she said. "By and large, the readings on their film badges have been very low," she said. "We've only seen a few years work and have no conclusions on that yet." Because of delays in finding information, Venske said the health officials have not yet sent out health and job surveys to those who have contacted the university. Before the surveys can be sent out, researches must determine what workers' job were and what exposures may have been associated with their jobs. They have had difficulty in tracking down all the records needed to complete the task, she said. Those records, which include environmental reports and the personal hygiene data, include anything having to do with the AEC. "There's a whole lot of bureaucratic red tape that slows down the process," she said. Besides the Social Security route, U of I officials also plan to check with the state health registry and track down death certificates that would list the cause of death. "We need to get a feeling of whether there are higher incidents of cancer or not when compared to the general population," she said. Although officials are concentrating on Line 1 workers, they also feel they may miss other workers associated with the area, such as people in laundry, maintenance or construction. "The ultimate goal is to provide medical screenings for these people," she said. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk ' ' '| ' ' '319-754-6824 FAX ' ' '| ' ' ' 1-800-397-1708 Outside Burlington [this is a line and that's all that it is] ©' 2000 The Hawk Eye, ***************************************************************** 7 For Whistleblowers, Ethical Mile is a Hard Walk NSPE's Engineering Times March 2001 *By Rachel Davis Associate Editor* "I don't even want to think about the pain I was going through from December through May of last year," remembers nuclear engineer and whistleblower David Lappa. That was the period during which he waited for a federal judge to rule on whether his Freedom of Information Act suit against the Department of Energy (DOE) would yield the evidence he needed to be successful in his whistleblower reprisal lawsuit against his employer. As a full-time employee of DOE contractor Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at the University of California (UC), Lappa had a successful career, serving as a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency and as a task leader responsible for modeling the nuclear waste packages for Nevada's Yucca Mountain repository. Then, in 1997, after nearly two decades of work at Livermore, he refused to sign a committee report that he claims failed to disclose important evidence that the committee's research had uncovered—evidence showing that employees of the university had willfully mishandled plutonium. Following his refusal, Lappa says that his signature line was removed from the report and he was denied authorization to write a dissenting report. Lappa says his employer's retaliation included harassment and forced him to resign from his 20-year career at Livermore. Although the U.S. Secretary of Labor ruled that UC had retaliated against Lappa for his protected activities under the Nuclear Whistleblower Protection Act, he says he still had to sue DOE to obtain the evidence he needed to pursue his state court suit against UC. In the press, before the ruling in Lappa's DOE lawsuit, the agency denied his allegations that it was trying to thwart his complaints of retaliation. Although special interest groups and a few professional organizations have taken steps to help whistleblowers, many engineers like Lappa who choose to blow the whistle end up in a drawn-out battle that can inflict financial, emotional, and career wounds. This is a battle many whistleblowers feel they are fighting alone. Lappa says that despite a lack of support from engineering organizations and the government, he won his lawsuit against DOE. His state suit against the university is still pending. However, because of the ordeal, Lappa has moved to his wife's native Australia to cope with the career setback and mental havoc the experience has caused. "It's outrageous what I've had to endure, and the consequences for my wife and my kids," says Lappa. Now he is working in quality assurance for Internet-related software, while carrying out his lawsuit through his attorneys. "I'm not using any of my nuclear engineering education," he says. "I don't intend ever to work in the nuclear industry again." He adds that along with the burdens of experiencing retaliation and taking on a lawsuit, whistleblowers must also deal with being perceived as a "whiner"—or "whinger," as they say in Australia. He feels that in society, especially for males, a whistleblower is viewed as being weak or "a snitch." Professional Engineer and NSPE member Joe Carson, a DOE whistleblower, says that after his excruciating experience, his advice to any federal employee thinking about blowing the whistle would be, "If you can live with yourself looking the other way, look the other way." He adds, "That's not to say I wouldn't do the same thing [again] . . . but this is a system with extraordinarily cruel rules." Still holding onto his employment as a DOE safety engineer, Carson blew the whistle on safety and security violations at the nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He filed his first complaint of employer reprisal in 1992 and made his first appeal to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board in 1993. Carson has prevailed seven times against DOE in court since then, and the agency has paid almost $400,000 of his legal fees and costs (with more than $100,000 in legal costs and consequential damages still in litigation). Additionally, he says he is still incurring thousands of dollars per month in legal bills. He explains that his career and personal life have greatly suffered, despite his wins in court (see the June 2000 issue of *ET* for details on Carson's case). 'Zero Tolerance' Both Carson and Lappa say they have difficulty stomaching their experiences in light of former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary's 1994 launch of DOE's era of "zero tolerance" for whistleblower reprisal. Both are also fed up with the law. Although there are federal statutes and constitutional protections for employee whistleblowers, the "patch work" nature of these remedies weakens whistleblower protection, according to the National Whistleblower Center. The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, which was enacted in the wake of whistleblower activity surrounding the Challenger disaster, "gives very poor protections," explains Tom Carpenter of the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit organization that has provided legal counsel for both Lappa and Carson. Although they may be few and far between, there are resources for engineer whistleblowers (see box). In addition, some professional organizations have attempted to set up programs to give advice or public recognition to whistleblowers. A circle of engineers at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., for example, has over the years tried to set up programs to help peers through difficult ethical situations. Above, engineer whistleblower Peter Atherton (far left), who lost his job after expressing concerns about the "Maine Yankee" nuclear power plant's electric cable system, attends clinic social worker Don Soeken's "Whistle Stop" retreat with whistleblowers (left to right) Ern Reynolds, former Department of Justice attorney; former FBI agent Fred Whitehurst; clinical social worker Donald Soeken; soil conservation expert Arnold Watson; former FBI agent Mike Chamberlain; federal mine inspector Charles Coffield, and others at Soeken's "Whistle Stop" retreat. Between 1995 and 1997, IEEE formed its Ethics Committee, published a bimonthly column on ethics, and started the Ethics Hotline, which ran for about a year before it was discontinued. The hotline provided moral support to engineers and referred several cases to the IEEE Member Conduct Committee, which voted to submit friend-of-the-court (amicus curiae) briefs in two cases. However, those cases are still pending and the briefs have not yet been filed, according to computer science professor Stephen Unger, former chairman of the IEEE Ethics Committee. Now Unger and other engineers involved in IEEE's ethics endeavors respond to cases on the Ethics Help-Line (e-mail address: helpline@onlineethics.org) sponsored by the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science at www.onlineethics.org and cosponsored by the NSPE-created National Institute for Engineering Ethics. However, the Help-Line does not give legal advice, nor does it have the resources to conduct investigations. Unger says engineers also need money to cover their legal fees as they search for new jobs under possible blacklisting conditions. He suggests that professional societies set up ethics support funds to aid whistleblowers who suffer retaliation for defending professional ethics. Currently, minor aid is provided through the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology's Carl Barus Award for Outstanding Service in the Public Interest, he says. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has also given its Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award to whistleblowers such as engineer Inez Austin, who spoke out against potential safety hazards from nuclear waste contamination at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state. NSPE recently formed the Ethics in Employment Task Force to develop a statement of ethical principles to give some direction to engineers who are faced with ethical concerns in the workplace. NSPE plans for the statement to identify appropriate and reasonable methods for engineers to try to resolve these concerns within the framework of their ethical and professional obligations to their employer and the public. This could include a checklist of "do's and don'ts" for an engineer's interactions with an employer. The task force's goal is to have a written report available for the NSPE Board to consider in the next few months. Cite and Censure? Unger suggests that another way for engineering groups to help whistleblowers would be to establish a program similar to the American Association of University Professors' system of defending academic freedom. If a professor claims that his freedom has been infringed at a university, AAUP investigates and writes a report. A special committee then considers the issue and determines whether the report should be published and the university censured. Engineering groups could also set up informal conflict resolution programs to head off major confrontations and lobby for legislation and regulations that protect whistleblowers, Unger proposes. Why don't engineering organizations take more concrete actions like these to help whistleblowers? Budget constraints, lack of resources and specialized expertise to conduct investigations, conflicts of interest, and wariness of lawsuits are realities that professional associations must grapple with. However, engineers who have blown the whistle insist that there is more that can be done. "Don't defend me, defend the concept," Carson challenges professional societies, many of which have chosen not to support his legal battles. He suggests that societies establish a procedure for filing a somewhat generic amicus curiae brief, in any non-frivolous case, that would disavow knowledge of the specific claims of an individual's case and instead focus on defending the Code of Ethics. Carson's status as a PE allows him to cite the legally binding rules of professional conduct of his state board, which incorporate much of the Code of Ethics. The American Engineering Alliance initiated an amicus curiae brief, joined by the Coalition for a Healthy Environment and the Oak Ridge Health Liaison, which a federal judge admitted in Carson's pending Freedom of Speech lawsuit against DOE. The Center for Government Accountability, Standing for Truth About Radiation, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility have also agreed to join the brief. Carson says that engineering groups should also follow up on court cases in which whistleblowers are vindicated to address the workplace culture that permitted the whistleblower reprisal. Engineers point out that whistleblowers, who may still be looking for an anchor to keep them from being cut adrift, need moral support from their colleagues in engineering as well. Clinical social worker Donald Soeken, former whistleblower and founder of a West Virginia retreat for whistleblowers, says that about half of the people who come to him for help with their mental outlook, or what he calls "bio-psycho-social" counseling, are engineers or auditors. Engineers are "particularly vulnerable" because they are often absolutists who are trained to be accurate and protect the public, he says. At "The Whistle Stop" retreat, located on a 50-acre farm in the Appalachian Mountains, Soeken leads the whistleblowers in breathing exercises, stress reduction techniques, and discussions to help them relax and recover from their ordeals. Even with the support of their colleagues, whistleblowers often experience family turmoil, anxiety, and severe depression. "I was fighting back tears on Bay-area television when people were asking, 'What have been the personal consequences to you?'" says Lappa. "But at the same time, I'm very proud of what I did, and I wouldn't do it any other way, looking back. I stood on my hind legs, and I told them, 'This is the way it's going to be.'" Resources for Whistleblowers • Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science (www.onlineethics.org) and the Online Ethics Center Help-Line (at e-mail address helpline@onlineethics.org)—counsel engineers and scientists faced with ethical problems that may involve conflicting responsibilities. The Online Ethics Center recommended many of the resources on this list. • Government Accountability Project (www.whistleblower.org)—a nonprofit organization that protects and provides legal counsel to whistleblowers employed by the federal government and government-regulated industries (concentrates on the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the timber industry). • Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (www.peer.org)—a nonprofit organization that gives environmental whistleblowers an avenue to report and publicize misconduct in resource and land management, often without revealing their identities. • Taxpayers Against Fraud (www.taf.org)—nonprofit group that assists individuals with information concerning fraudulent claims for payment submitted by private entities to the federal government. • National Employee Rights Institute (www.nerinet.org)—provides information, litigates cases, and promotes legislation to advance employee rights. • The Project on Liberty and the Workplace (www.projectlaw.org)—a public interest law firm committed to defending the civil rights of individuals and community groups threatened by powerful institutions. • NSPE Board of Ethical Review cases and NSPE ethics resources (www.nspe.org/ethics). • Public oversight agencies—U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission, and the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. • National Employment Lawyers Association (www.nela.org)—gives information and assistance to employees on employment rights and legal protections, litigates key cases, and fosters the development of new employment law advocates. • The American Chemistry Council (www.americanchemistry.com)—has an award-winning program called Responsible Care, which promotes reducing safety risks at facilities to protect the environment, employees, and the public. *Engineering Times* NSPE Orders| NSPE Member Services| Webmaster NSPE: 1420 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 / 703-684-2800 Copyright © 2001 National Society of Professional Engineers ***************************************************************** 8 Beryllium Report index Beryllium The "Double Standard" Standard "To talk about the history of our Brush Beryllium Company I shall have to talk little about the history of beryllium, because I want to show particularly how much of that history was shaped by us in the last three decades." C.B. Sawyer, Remarks at Elmore Plant Dedication, November 18, 1957. "Harry Dodd's men on the platform are highly sensitive to fumes and thereby serve as test canaries for the plant." - May 21, 1947, Memo from CB Sawyer President of Brush "In my recent visit to the laboratories in Rochester, New York, I became intensely interested in the complete absence of beryllium in the air of the experimental department…- March 1, 1948 - Letter JM DeNardi MD [Brush medical director] to CB Sawyer, President of Brush "Government and medical standards use 2 mg/m3 as the air count limit, but the committee thought that this could be unacceptable at St. Clair because personnel [Brush corporate officers and research staff] are used to a greater margin of safety. ...While the committee realized that some personnel would be critical of anything besides zero level, it agreed to use a 0.05 mg/m3 'for purposes of discussion'." May 24, 1991, Dombrowski to Kelly There has not been a case of occupational CBD where the documented exposures were at or below the 2 ug/m3 standard. 1991 Otto Preuss MD, Brush Medical Director (retired) in Beryllium: Biomedical and Environmental Aspects Report of David S. Egilman, MD MPH in the case of Ballinger v. Brush Wellman, Inc, Civil Action No. 96CV2532, December 15, 2000 ***************************************************************** 9 Still no answers about Hanford's cleanup budget Published March 9, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer No budget. No public questions. No public feedback. That sums up a Richland public feedback session Thursday evening on what Hanford's fiscal 2003 cleanup budget should look like. Right now, the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., has not provided a clue on what Hanford's fiscal 2002 budget will be, which is needed to make an legitimate guess on the site's fiscal 2003 figures. On Feb. 28, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced DOE will seek $19 billion from Congress for all of its programs, ranging from cleanup to research to dealing with oil to stockpiling nuclear weapons. That budget request had no details on how money may be allocated to DOE's cleanup programs nationwide. And that $19 billion request is a $700 million cut from DOE's 2000 budget. On Thursday, DOE officials rehashed plans and figures discussed in public meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Washington Department of Ecology officials rehashed their initial concerns to about 35 people at the Richland Red Lion hotel. More than half the crowd consisted of federal and state officials waiting to see what the public thought. No one from the public spoke or asked a question at the session. DOE officials talked about Hanford's Office of River Protection and Richland office wanting to spend almost $1.9 billion in fiscal 2002 to kick cleanup efforts into a higher gear. That higher gear consists of starting construction of a waste glassification plant and accelerating cleanup along the Columbia River. Right now, no one at Hanford has any idea if those requests will survive, with many observers expecting them to be trimmed. EPA and state officials repeated their concerns about Hanford not getting enough money to meet its legal obligations. "It's certainly frustrating to trying to figure out what requirements won't get done," said Doug Sherwood, the EPA's Hanford site manager. DOE's Hanford officials believe anything less than their $1.9 billion request will violate the Tri-Party Agreement, the legal pact governing Hanford's cleanup. In fact, DOE has circulated some speculative figures that a $1.9 billion budget in 2002 could fall $21 million short of meeting the site's legal obligations, and a $1.9 billion budget in 2003 could fall short by $49 million. However, DOE officials cautioned these estimates are extremely soft and likely will change. Also, EPA and state officials repeated concerns that DOE recently signed major cleanup contracts that call for some work not covered by the Tri-Party Agreement, which they believe will take money from efforts to meet Hanford's legal obligations. Federal officials are speculating that DOE in Washington, D.C., will unveil detailed proposed allocations for 2002 in April - maybe. The later these details are revealed, the later that delays will be for nailing down Hanford's plans for fiscal 2002, which begins this Oct. 1. "This has the potential for us to start (planning) work late in the year, and that has the potential to hurt us," Sherwood said. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 10 Meetings focus on cleanup, layoffs Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:41 p.m. on Monday, March 12, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff Layoff procedures, the Department of Energy's environmental management budget and an upcoming health assessment top the agendas for three upcoming meetings. A resolution calling for changes in workforce reductions will once again be up for endorsement Tuesday evening by the Citizens' Advisory Panel of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee. The resolution was drafted by the Citizens' Advisory Panel's Economic Transition and Work Force Issues Subcommittee and a group of laid-off workers from DOE sites in Oak Ridge. The resolution was spurred by the recent job cuts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. At its February meeting, the Citizens' Advisory Panel postponed taking a stance on the resolution until it could review the document and determine if revisions were required. The Citizens' Advisory Panel meeting begins at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday in the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation building at 761 Emory Valley Road. The Citizens' Advisory Panel provides advice to local, state and federal officials regarding DOE environmental management decisions. The Local Oversight Committee is a nonprofit organization funded by the state of Tennessee. On Wednesday night, Barbara Brower with DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office will discuss the status of DOE's local environmental management budget for 2001 during the Oak Ridge Site-Specific Advisory Board meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Garden Plaza Hotel, 215 S. Illinois Ave. The Site-Specific Advisory Board is a federally appointed citizens' panel that provides advice and recommendations to DOE on its Oak Ridge environmental management program. The group was formed in 1995 and chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Discussion of an upcoming community needs assessment and a public health assessment will be on the agenda for the Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee's March meetings. The community-needs assessment will provide a basis for developing and implementing community health education programs that relate to Oak Ridge, while the public health assessment will entail reviewing information on local hazardous substances and determining whether exposure to them would cause public harm. The subcommittee will meet from noon to 7 p.m. Monday, March 19, and from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 20, in the Crown Conference Center at Oak Ridge Mall. The subcommittee consists of citizens primarily from the Oak Ridge area, including Knoxville and Roane County, who are working with community members and advocacy groups to offer advice and recommendations to several federal agencies regarding health concerns in Oak Ridge. Those concerns include exposure to contaminants from DOE facilities in Oak Ridge. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 11 PNNL device going down with Mir This story was published 3/12/2001 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer When the Russian space station Mir crashes to Earth later this month, it will bring a part of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's history down with it. Cosmonauts, astronauts and Hanford nuclear workers face one of the same workplace hazards -- the potential for exposure to radiation. But while Hanford workers wear dosimeters that tally total radiation exposure, people bombarded by the wide variety of energy in space want to know the radiation activity in any given minute. The Richland laboratory began working on a radiation measurement device to do that more than 20 years ago. Since then, it's been used not just on Mir, but also on shuttle flights and the international space station. It's also beginning to be used closer to Earth to measure the radiation that flight crews receive on long commercial flights. "Lots of devices measure radiation," said Tom Conroy, a former chief engineer at the Richland lab and now a scientist for Far West Technology's Richland office. "This measures a wide variety of radiation particles -- neutrons, gammas, mu-mesons." Space travelers don't have Earth's atmosphere to protect them from radioactive particles thrown off by the sun and other stars. Some high-energy particles may pass through their body and do no harm, but others may hit something in the body and release energy. "Biologists want to know what energy is deposited in the tissues," Conroy said. If the energy breaks a DNA strand and the body repairs it incorrectly, it causes a mutation that can lead to cancer. To see how much energy is deposited in an area the width of a DNA strand -- an area relatively small compared to the nucleus of a cell -- former Richland physicist Les Braby developed the "tissue equivalent proportional counter." The device uses propane sealed in a container because it contains elements in proportions similar enough to mimic that of the human body, Conroy said. But because propane is a gas, a small amount can be spread over a large area. The devise measures the pulse of current that results when a highly charged particle hits the propane and loses some of its energy -- the equivalent of possibly damaging a human cell. Depending on the size of the detector, it could record 1,000 counts a minute in space. However, when orbiting astronauts pass through a belt of radiation that collects around Earth, the pulses may increase to 10,000 to 100,000 counts per minute. Astronauts are allowed a dose of radiation of 100 rems over their career, Conroy said. But in some cases, such as the Hubble space telescope repair mission, they can get up to a tenth of that dose in a few days, he said. By comparison, the Department of Energy limits nuclear workers to 5 rems per year, and most of DOE's contractors set much lower limits. The first of the detectors built in Richland were about the size of an oil drum and used 1,000 watts of power -- making them impractical for space travel. Conroy has worked to shrink the electronics to about the size of a brick. The latest models use less than a watt of power. The devices have been official equipment on every shuttle mission since 1996 and were on board earlier as experimental equipment. Mir began using the radiation detector in 1994. However, because of an engineering flaw, one of the circuit boards had to be brought back to Earth for repairs. It was reinstalled in early 1995. The Russians plan to bring the aging Mir out of orbit in about a week, crashing it into the Pacific Ocean. Then, Russia will concentrate its efforts on the international space station. PNNL also supplied several of the radiation detection devises to NASA for the international space station. They're being used not only in space, but also for training of astronauts who live on the station. Now, Far West Technology also is building selling some to commercial airlines in Europe, particularly those that make long flights. New European regulations require that airlines measure doses received by flight crews. Back to top stories Copyright 2000 Tri-City Herald. 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