***************************************************************** 02/13/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.40 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Editorial: Even more evidence of ineptitude 2 College to Work With WIPP 3 Maine Yankee names new president 4 New president to oversee Maine Yankee demolition 5 Site gives insight to residents 6 U.S. Energy says Judge backs it on uranium contracts 7 Greenpeace plans plutonium ship protest off Australian coast 8 Deal Reached on Taiwan Nuke Plant 9 Taiwan politicians strike deal permitting new nuclear plant 10 Oil slick threatens Taiwan's nuclear power plant 11 Power plant compromise approaching 12 Firms in N Korean Nuclear Project Look to Fill Dong Ah's Place 13 Czech N-plant protest 14 Review of Die Grunen n-waste policy development 15 FORATOM: Nuclear power growth `Possible - perhaps necessary` 16 Probe of Yucca requested by Nv rep. 17 UN WANTS TO ESTABLISH NUCLEAR FACILITY IN JORDAN 18 NUCLEAR-SHIPMENT NUCLEAR SHIPS ROUND CAPE 19 Japan to go ahead with construction of reactors 20 Taiwan Looks to Russian Parliament Bill to Solve Nuclear 21 Uranium mining left a legacy of death 22 Compensation elusive for most Navajo radiation victims 23 Mum's word on N-waste man 24 Areas suspected of contamination 25 Storage firm insists nuclear waste is low-risk NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Dick Smyser: Y-12 silver and firefly clarifications, concern for 2 US promises transparent submarine inquiry 3 terror targets 4 Update on Scotisth anti nuclear protest 5 MoD expected to seek uranium aid 6 MoD expected to seek uranium aid 7 Downwinders still fighting for redress ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Editorial: Even more evidence of ineptitude February 13, 2001 Las Vegas Sun subscribers have grown accustomed to stories about inept management and faulty science that are virtually embedded in the Yucca Mountain Project. But last week an anonymous letter surfaced, apparently written by a project insider, that will shock even jaded Nevadans. The letter to the U.S. Department of Energy's inspector general not only describes a project that is near failure, but it also details mismanagement, the skyrocketing costs of burying 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste and the project's adversarial relationship with a federal panel providing technical oversight. Anonymous letters should be taken with a grain of salt, but this one contains details that indicates it came from an employee who has considerable knowledge about the program -- from top to bottom. The letter also should provide more fodder for a probe of the Yucca Mountain Project that already is under way. The DOE's inspector general started an investigation of the Yucca Mountain Project last month after the Sun reported that the federal department apparently had been collaborating with the nuclear power industry to gain approval to build a repository at Yucca Mountain. The letter also mentions the program's out-of-control costs. The projected cost in 1995 was $36 billion, but today it's ballooned to $58 billion. An independent internal estimate, according to the letter, is that the cost actually will be $62 billion -- and possibly more. Aside from the costs, which are a critical issue in determining the feasibility of a repository, there also is the problem of Yucca Mountain's unsuitability to safely store high-level nuclear waste. It is disturbing to read the writer's acknowledgement that the DOE's rift with the Technical Waste Review Board, which provides guidance to the project, has hampered Yucca Mountain's assessment. The writer also provides an internal board memo from the technical review board's executive director, Bill Barnard, who noted the disarray inside the DOE. "Without a well-defined plan for creating a technically defensible process for the secretary to select a repository design concept, it appears the DOE may be trying to sell 'a pig in the poke,' " Barnard wrote. Bob Alvarez, an employee under former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, told the Sun that the letter cites common DOE management problems. "Typical of a large DOE project, and that includes Yucca Mountain, contractors are virtually given a blank check and there's no oversight," Alvarez said. If the Yucca Mountain Project were any other federal program with such huge cost overruns and mismanagement, it would have been shut down years ago. But this program has the kind of benefactor that other projects don't have -- namely the nuclear power industry, which provides a huge infusion of campaign contributions to members of Congress. Instead of canceling the program, congressmen often go out of their way to keep this project alive -- even if it means trying to weaken radiation safety standards so that it makes it easier for the repository to pass regulatory muster. Many members of Congress also have looked the other way on problems at Yucca Mountain because they don't want the waste to stay on-site at the nuclear power reactors in their home states, or they don't want their own back yards to be considered for a repository if Yucca Mountain doesn't get approved. But as more evidence gathers about the folly of a repository in Nevada, and word spreads about the danger of shipping man's deadliest waste cross-country, the voices of reason are being heard. While a new contractor took over the reins of the Yucca Mountain Project on Monday, the problems there are so pervasive that it is essential the inspector general's probe continues unabated. 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 College to Work With WIPP Tuesday, February 13, 2001 Albuquerque Journal--> *Journal Staff Report* The College of the Southwest is teaming up with the operator of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in an effort to help make southeastern New Mexico a center for environmental management education. The college already has an undergraduate program in environmental management but plans to beef it up with assistance from experts at WIPP, the federal Department of Energy's underground nuclear waste dump near Carlsbad. Environmental management encompasses such things as hazardous materials cleanup and natural resource and economic issues. College of the Southwest will elicit help from WIPP operator Westinghouse TRU Solutions LLC and Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories, college President Joan Tucker said Monday. "The opportunity to create a global center of excellence in environmental management in our particular region is extremely logical and quite feasibly one of the most important economic steps we could take," she said. A task force will be formed soon to map out goals, she said. The program will include environmental law, engineering and research. Students who graduate from the new program could enter a variety of work in oil, chemical and other industries. The new program also will help educate the public, said Westinghouse spokeswoman Kate Foster. College of the Southwest, which has campuses in Hobbs and Carlsbad, is based in Christian principles and free enterprise education. Copyright Albuquerque Journal ***************************************************************** 3 Maine Yankee names new president By Associated Press, 2/12/2001 10:01 WISCASSET, Maine (AP) Directors of Maine Yankee have elected Wayne Norton as company president, a post that includes overall responsibility for managing the decommissioning of the closed nuclear power plant, the company announced Monday. Norton has worked at Maine Yankee since 1991 and was named nearly a year ago as vice president for decommissioning. ''Wayne Norton has exceptional project management, construction expertise and leadership skills which will be especially critical as we move into the dismantlement and restoration aspects of decommissioning,'' said Gerald Poulin, board chairman. Norton succeeds Mike Meisner, an Entergy executive who served under contract as Maine Yankee president since 1998. Meisner has been named chief nuclear officer at Entergy. The decommissioning at Maine Yankee began in 1997 and is now about 40 percent complete. The project is scheduled to be finished in 2004. Boston Globe Online: ***************************************************************** 4 New president to oversee Maine Yankee demolition Tuesday, February 13, 2001 By TUX TURKEL, Staff Writer Copyright © 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. An executive with experience in construction and contractor management has been chosen by Maine Yankee's board of directors to oversee demolition of the defunct nuclear plant. Wayne Norton, who served most recently as vice president for decommissioning, has been named president by Maine Yankee's board. Norton succeeds Mike Meisner, who has been named chief nuclear officer. The realignment of top management means Norton will have overall responsibility for management of decommissioning and Meisner will concentrate on nuclear safety and regulatory matters. "The focus of this project is moving to physical demolition," said Eric Howes, a spokesman for Maine Yankee. Decommissioning at Maine Yankee began in 1997 and is now 40 percent done. The process is scheduled to be completed in 2004. Norton has worked for Maine Yankee since 1991, starting as a construction coordinator. He has served as contracts manager on all contracts and vendors, and has held several senior management positions. Norton's selection for the top post reflects the decision by Maine Yankee to take over decommissioning, after terminating its contract last spring with financially troubled Stone &Webster Engineering Corp. Since then, workers have completed the concrete pads for a dry fuel storage facility and have been pouring the concrete casks that will hold the fuel. In May, Maine Yankee expects to start loading spent nuclear fuel into the casks. Demolition will also begin around that time, Howes said, starting with the turbine building. By November, Maine Yankee plans to remove the reactor vessel and ship it by barge from Wiscasset to a radioactive waste disposal site in South Carolina. That will pave the way for demolishing the plant's containment dome next year. Norton's selection is of interest to the Friends of the Coast, an anti-nuclear group. Ray Shadis, a group spokesman and a member of the plant's Community Advisory Panel, said he wondered whether Norton's appointment would create a new layer of management for dealing with nuclear safety matters. Friends of the Coast has concerns, for instance, about the level of security that will be put in place at the dry cask storage facility. The group has been dealing primarily with Meisner on these questions. "He's been making the broad policy decisions," Shadis said of Meisner. "Now we have an unknown. We'll have to wait and see how this affects the community's interests." *Staff Writer Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or at: *tturkel@pressherald.com ***************************************************************** 5 Site gives insight to residents *SRS officials inform locals of their cleanup efforts, educate on ways to speak out about future projects * *Web posted Tuesday, February 13, 2001 By Brandon Haddock *Staff Writer* Savannah River Site long has affected the health, economy and environment of local residents. Some of those people spent Monday night learning how to discover what those effects are. About 30 people attended a public meeting in New Ellenton to hear briefings about the federal nuclear-weapons site, and to find out how to become involved in its activities. ``We often hear, `Here is the government view and here is the other view,''' said Mildred McClain of Citizens for Environmental Justice, a Savannah-based organization that held the meeting. ``What we are saying is, `Here is a set of views.' ``Most people want to know, `If you do this, not only how is it going to affect our pocketbooks, but how is it going to affect our health?''' Citizens for Environmental Justice aims to help communities, particularly minority and low-income communities, understand the effects the Savannah River Site and other industrial plants have on them. Monday's meeting was the latest in a series held across South Carolina and Georgia, Dr. McClain said. SRS officials presented information to attendees about the site's efforts to clean SRS areas polluted by site operations. They also told residents how to speak out about future SRS projects using the National Environmental Policy Act. The federal law requires agencies to solicit public comment before deciding on a location for new facilities. Some attendees pushed site officials to speak more often, and more freely, about the potential impacts of SRS activities on their economic standing and health. ``As long as you've got waste, you've got a problem,'' said Hezekiah Pressley, a Beech Island resident. ``I know we look at the income, and the income is good. But how much impact is it going to have on our health?'' Reach Brandon Haddockat (706) 823-3409. 1996 - 2001 *The Augusta Chronicle*. All rights ***************************************************************** 6 U.S. Energy says Judge backs it on uranium contracts RIVERTON, Wyo, Feb 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Corp. (NasdaqNM:USEG - news), a mineral development and extraction company, said Monday a federal court judge ruled in the company's favor in a dispute with partner Nukem Inc. over uranium contracts with members of the former Soviet Union. The Riverton, Wyo.-based company said a judge in the U.S. District Court of Colorado ruled that Nukem Inc. used assets from its Sheep Mountain Partners venture with U.S. Energy to obtain contracts to purchase and market uranium with three former Soviet republics. The preliminary ruling backed up an arbitration panel decision that U.S. Energy was entitled to half the profits and purchase rights of the 120 million pounds of uranium that Danbury, Conn.-based Nukem obtained between 1992 and in contracts that may continue until 2006. U.S. Energy said it would not know what the value of the countracts will be and is seeking further accounting from Nukem. The company also said some contracts may have been extended beyond 2006. Shares of U.S. Energy halted trading on the Nasdaq stock market prior to the news release. Upon resumption, shares traded up 2.44 percent, or 1/16, to $2-5/8, in the middle of a 52-week range of $3-7/8 to $1-1/2. 2001 Reuters Limited. ***************************************************************** 7 Greenpeace plans plutonium ship protest off Australian coast [Yahoo! Singapore News] Home - Yahoo! - Help Tuesday, February 13 11:11 AM SGT SYDNEY, Feb 13 (AFP) - A flotilla of seven yachts will take part in an open-sea protest against two British plutonium-carrying ships due to pass close to the West Australian coast in 11 days, Greenpeace said Tuesday. The ships, carrying 230 kilograms of plutonium and four tonnes of uranium, left the French port of Cherbourg last month to sail more than 20,000 kilometres (12,500 miles) to Japan. The environmental group said its activists were preparing on Tuesday to leave Australia and New Zealand to monitor the supposedly "secret" shipment passing through the Tasman Sea during its voyage. Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Stephen Campbell said the flotilla planned to form a symbolic chain across the 75-nautical mile stretch of international waters between Lord Howe and Norfolk Island where the last plutonium shipment passed in 1999. According to Greenpeace, the British-flagged ships Pacific Teal and Pacific Pintail are operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd, which is 60 percent owned by British Nuclear Fuels. The two ships are armed with three naval cannons and were carrying a contingent of armed civilian police from the British Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary, Campbell said. He claimed the shipment was part of an escalation in nuclear shipments through the Pacific region. "Despite massive international opposition to these deadly transports, the nuclear industry and the governments of Japan, the UK, France and Australia continue to put the environment, health and livelihoods of millions of people en route in danger," Campbell said. "They refuse to consult governments, such as New Zealand and Pacific Island nations, and they reject calls for an international environmental impact assessment. "If it's so safe, why is it so secret?'" The ships were about 315 nautical miles west of the South African port of Cape Town at the weekend. Questions or Comments XXX *Copyright © 2000 AFP. All rights ***************************************************************** 8 Deal Reached on Taiwan Nuke Plant Las Vegas SUN February 13, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- The government struck a deal with the powerful opposition Tuesday to restart construction on Taiwan's fourth nuclear plant, ending a three-month feud that took a severe toll on the stock market and public confidence. The agreement came after President Chen Shui-bian caved in to lawmakers' demands and retreated from his campaign promise to spike the partially built nuclear project, approved by the previous government. Announcing that the opposition would accept the government's proposal with minor changes, the Legislature's president, Wang Jin-pyng, said, "We have demonstrated our utmost goodwill. We did this so that the economy can quickly recover, and people can feel at ease." Later, at a signing ceremony, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung, Taiwan's No. 3 ranking leader, said, "We reached the agreement as the Cabinet considered the people's expectations for early political stability and our party's minority status in the legislature." The dispute has been more about the limits of power than the merits of nuclear energy. When the government canceled the $5.4-billion project in October, the opposition-controlled legislature was furious that lawmakers were not asked to endorse the move. Legislators said they approved the plant's budget and should have had a say about its future. But the government argued that it had the power to unilaterally cancel a plant that would be unsafe on earthquake-prone Taiwan. The political squabbling was a major factor in the stock market's 44 percent plunge last year and a steep drop in the approval ratings for the president and opposition lawmakers. The island's highest court eventually ordered the two sides to negotiate a settlement. Chen's Democratic Progressive Party has long been opposed to the fourth nuclear plant. The DPP has accused the former Nationalist Party government of railroading the project through the legislature. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 9 Taiwan politicians strike deal permitting new nuclear plant By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (February 13, 2001 7:43 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - The government gave in to the powerful opposition Tuesday to restart construction on Taiwan's fourth nuclear plant, ending a three-month feud that took a severe toll on the stock market and public confidence. The agreement came after President Chen Shui-bian caved in to lawmakers' demands and retreated from his campaign promise to spike the partially built nuclear project, approved by the previous government. Announcing the opposition would accept the government's proposal with minor changes, the Legislature's president, Wang Jin-pyng, said, "We have demonstrated our utmost goodwill. We did this so that the economy can quickly recover, and people can feel at ease." Later, at a signing ceremony, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung, Taiwan's No. 3 ranking leader, said, "We reached the agreement as the Cabinet considered the people's expectations for early political stability and our party's minority status in the legislature." The dispute has been more about the limits of power than the merits of nuclear energy. When the government canceled the $5.4 billion project in October, the opposition-controlled legislature was furious that lawmakers were not asked to endorse the move. Legislators said they approved the plant's budget and should have had a say about its future. But the government argued it had the power to unilaterally cancel a plant that would be unsafe on earthquake-prone Taiwan. The political squabbling was a major factor in the stock market's 44 percent plunge last year and a steep drop in the approval ratings for the president and opposition lawmakers. The island's highest court eventually ordered the two sides to negotiate a settlement. Chen's Democratic Progressive Party has long been opposed to the fourth nuclear plant. The DPP has accused the former Nationalist Party government of railroading the project through the legislature. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media ***************************************************************** 10 Oil slick threatens Taiwan's nuclear power plant Tuesday, February 13 7:04 PM SGT TAIPEI, Feb 13 (AFP) - Taiwan authorities were on full alert Tuesday amid fears a nuclear power plant could be damaged by its ocean water intake after the surrounding seas were polluted by a major oil spill. "Our patrol boats at around 7:00 pm yesterday (1100 GMT Monday) found oil near the power plant, with the slick measuring one kilometer (0.6 miles) in length and 0.3 kilometer in width," said coast guard officer Chu Chen-liang. The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), in charge of the maritime accident, shrugged off the threat to the island's third nuclear power plant in Pingtung, southern Taiwan. EPA chief Lin Jun-yi said floating oil was "unlikely to drift toward Nanwan (South Bay)," where the nuclear plant was located. The state-run Taiwan Power Plant (Taipower) which owns the plant denied that oil from the broken and stranded Greek-registered Amorgos cargo vessel had been found near the plant. However, Taipower said it had taken preventative measures but would not shut the station down. Floating nets had been set up to prevent possible oil from infiltrating the pipes through which ocean water was pumped in as a coolant, said Lee Wen-cheng, an official at the power plant, told AFP. The oil spill occurred when the ship, carrying 60,000 tonnes of iron ore, ran aground off the Kenting National Park on January 14. Some 1,300 soldiers had been mobilised to combat the slick which also threatened to destroy parts of the island's "Greater Barrier Reefs." Hundreds tonnes of oil gushed out of the vessel, threatening the national park's fragile Lungkung preservation area. The 35,000-tonne ship was heading for Nantong in China from Singapore when it developed a mechanical problem and began to drift. All 25 crew, from Romania, Greece and the Philippines, were rescued, before the ship broke into two sections. Local conservationists said serious damage had already been inflicted on the reserve -- a sanctuary for tropical fish, coral reef, seaweed, and lots of marine species. The military stepped in after the EPA was castigated for what conservationists said was a slow response to the oil spill. "About 1,300 soldiers are being mobilised. They worked in two shifts beginning from 06:00 am to 06:00 pm," a defense ministry spokesman told AFP. "Because of the geological limits, the soldiers had to use buckets and shovels to scoop up oil," which was dumped into plastic barrels transported along human chains, the spokesman said. Some 100 tonnes of oil have been removed from the rocky shoreline since the military took over the cleanup three days ago. The military estimates there are 500 tonnes of oil stuck on the reef while 200 tonnes are floating on the waters around the shipwreck. "It is estimated the spill could be removed in two weeks," the spokesman said. EPA chief Lin Jun-yi apologised for not handling the issue well although insists his agency had adopted some measures to deal with the spill. The ship's senior crew, including the captain, chief officer and chief engineer, have been barred from leaving the country pending further investigations. The national park administration and fishermen are considering filing a claim for environmental damage. Tseng Yung-chuan of the opposition Kuomintang party estimated the spill would eventually cause six billion Taiwan dollars (186 million US) worth of damage to the fishing and tourism sectors. Copyright © 2000 AFP. All rights ***************************************************************** 11 Power plant compromise approaching The Taipei Times Online: 2001-02-13 Tuesday, February 13th, 2001 CLOSING THE GAP:The Executive Yuan and legislators are narrowing their differences on whether to allow building of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant to continue (±i«T¶¯) and major DPP faction leaders. While the Executive Yuan had been expected to announce a resumption of the plant's construction last Monday, a strong backlash from within the DPP prevented the premier from doing so, and interrupted negotiations between the Executive Yuan and the opposition. After the meeting, Su Tzen-ping (Ĭ¥¿¥­), director of the Government Information Office, announced that the revised agreement would state that "following negotiations between the Cabinet and Legislative Yuan," the Cabinet is willing to reactivate the budget for the plant and let the construction work continue. This expression, which is obviously a plain description of the current situation, replaced a Feb. 6 proposal that said the Executive Yuan was willing to do so "with the coordination of the president." Secondly, Su said, subsequent budgets for the project will be handled "in accordance with the law," replacing a previous expression that they would be handled by "the newly-elected legislators based on the most recent public opinion," meaning those elected in this December's legislative election. Finally, the Executive Yuan will draft an energy law, and the legislative process for the law will be completed via negotiations between ruling and opposition lawmakers, Su added. This is different from a previous proposal, which asked for negotiations before the draft is raised. The opposition had rejected the Feb. 6 proposal, saying the plant was a "major national affair" on which the legislature had the constitutional power to make resolutions, and thus did not require coordination by the president. In addition, the opposition saw the proposal to have the next legislature handle the project as undermining sitting legislators and as a ploy to win the sympathies of anti-nuclear voters in the year-end elections. Responding to the Executive Yuan's revised proposal, Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (¤ýª÷¥­) said it had showed a narrowing of the gap between the two sides. "[The revised version] is very close to the legislature's basic position," Wang said. Leaders of the KMT, People First Party and New Party caucuses, meanwhile, unanimously said that if what Su announced yesterday is the final version that the Executive Yuan will send to the legislature, they will accept it. "[The version] is similar to what the opposition coalition proposed on Feb. 5," said KMT caucus whip Cheng Yung-chin (¾G¥Ãª÷). The Executive Yuan is expected to present the revised version to the nine-man panel hosted by President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó) for a final discussion tonight, before it is submitted officially to the legislature. No announcement of resumption of construction of the plant is expected before tomorrow at the earliest. This story has been viewed 732 times. Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 Firms in N Korean Nuclear Project Look to Fill Dong Ah's Place Tuesday, February 13 10:30 AM SGT SEOUL, Feb 13 Asia Pulse - Partners in the North Korean light-water nuclear reactor consortium hope to expand their roles in the project if Dong Ah Construction falls out due to bankruptcy. Industry sources said Tuesday, leader of the consortium, Hyundai Construction, signed a contract worth 934 billion won (US$740 million) with Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) last Dec. 22 for the third stage of the project. The four firms in the consortium -- Hyundai Construction, Daewoo Construction, Korea Heavy Industries and Construction (HANJUNG) and Dong Ah Construction -- will launch work based on this contract Sept. 3 and finish facilities to house the light-water nuclear generators and turbines around January 2009. Under the contract, Hyundai Construction has the largest share with 50 per cent, followed by Dong Ah Construction with 20 per cent and Daewoo Construction and HANJUNG with 15 per cent each. The contract assigns joint responsibility to all the partners, meaning if something goes wrong with one of them, the other three will take over that company's duties. Should the court declare Dong Ah insolvent, the company will no longer be able to continue as a consortium partner, especially its share of the third stage. Under these circumstances, the other three partners would have to split Dong Ah's duties among them since no other domestic firm is qualified to replace the insolvent firm. Hyundai Construction believes that it alone should be entitled to take over Dong Ah's portion since it provided the performance guarantee for Dong Ah last December when the third stage contract was signed. Dong Ah couldn't secure a guarantee on its own. However, Daewoo and HANJUNG insist Dong Ah's share be divided according to the existing work share ratios among the three other partners since the contract stipulates that all parties are responsible for completion of the work. The project calls for the construction of two 1 million-kilowatt Korean-standard light-water nuclear reactors for North Korea. It was part of the 1994 Agreed Framework between the U.S. and North Korea in which the North agreed to halt its nuclear weapon's development in exchange for fuel and civilian-oriented nuclear reactors. KEPCO signed the exclusive contract with the Korea Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) to provide and build the reactors. Currently, around 900 workers along with some 200 pieces of heavy equipment are in the Kumho region of North Korea engaging in infrastructure construction such as road and power supply as well as supplementary facilities, including dormitories and restaurants. (YONHAP) XXX *Copyright © 2000 Asia Pulse Pte Ltd. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 Czech N-plant protest BBC News | EUROPE | Monday, 12 February, 2001, 17:09 GMT The Czech authorities say the Temelin plant is safe An international team has begun a two-week inspection of the controversial Temelin nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic. While the team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was inside the plant, environmental protesters blocked the main entrance for about an hour. Environmentalist Josef Puehringer They were protesting about technical problems which have shut down the Soviet-designed plant six times since it began operating in October. The Temelin plant is 30 miles (50km) from the Austrian border and has been the focus of a bitter diplomatic row between the Czech Republic and Austria, which fiercely opposes Temelin. Repair delay The IAEA inspection team will be examining operating systems at the plant, but will not be looking into the technical faults. [Anti-nuclear protests] Protesters are planning more demonstrations The sole reactor was shut down on 17 January for three weeks to repair turbine pipes in the cooling system, but a spokesman said the work would now not be completed until 20 February at the earliest. Josef Puehringer, an Austrian environmental campaigner, said: ''The turbine problems and the crack in a vapour pipe are the climax of a series of problems at the plant, which confirm fears about insufficient security." The Czech government says the plant, which is still not producing electricity, is safe. Border blockades But Austria , which rejected nuclear energy in a referendum in 1978, has threatened to stall talks over Czech membership of the EU because of the plant. Construction of the plant began in 1980 and the technology was updated the US firm Westinghouse in the 1990s. Austrian protesters are planning more protests, including blockades of the border. The Austrian and Czech authorities have agreed that environmental and security studies should be carried out before Temelin begins commercial operation. Search BBC News Online ***************************************************************** 14 Review of Die Grunen n-waste policy development GERMANY: February 12, 2001 FRANKFURT - Talks among German Green Party members on Friday ended without a consensus on participation in planned demonstrations against the Castor transport of nuclear waste, party chief Fritz Kuhn said. The party leadership backed demonstrations for the Green Party's energy goals, but did not support road blockages during the anticipated transport of German nuclear waste from France to a storage site in Gorleben at the end of March, he said. Talks with different factions within the party would continue ahead of a Party Conference on March 9-11, he added. Kuhn's statement came after a local party meeting in Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony state, where Gorleben is located. Local Green Party members, according to their leader Rebecca Harms, said they would not forfeit their right to participate in peaceful blockades. Germany is committed to take back nuclear waste as part of a compromise deal last summer when the nuclear industry and the government agreed on phasing out atomic energy by the mid-2020s. The Green party leadership would stand by last summer's compromise, but empathized with concerns about the use of Gorleben as a permanent waste disposal site, Kuhn said earlier this week. XXX REUTERS NEWS SERVICE XXX ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS SEARCH XXX Enter your keywords to search our news archive by subject. Type "Greenpeace", for example, into the box below and you will be given a listing of all Planet Ark's news and images relating to Greenpeace. XXX * * XXX *Sort by relevance *Sort by date XXX Alternatively, why not check out our news archive on an issue by issue basis? Select a topic from the list below to learn everything you need to know about the topics contained within this search engine. 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All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. [top] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 FEB 2001 EXXX XXX CANADA: previous day XXX XXX This site developed by , and managed using RPM-NT. ***************************************************************** 15 FORATOM: Nuclear power growth `Possible - perhaps necessary` [M2 Communications Ltd.] Story Filed: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 6:24 AM EST Brussels, Feb 13, 2001 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- Growth in the use of nuclear power in Europe over the next 20 years is "possible - perhaps necessary - and cannot be ruled out". This was one of the main points made in a speech in Brussels today (Monday) by one of Europe`s top power company chiefs. Nils Andersson, Director (Generation) with Vattenfall AB of Sweden, addressed a meeting of the Brussels Energy Round Table, a business and industry forum, on the theme: "A vision for nuclear energy in Europe for the next two decades". He said he disagreed with a statement contained in the European Commission`s Green Paper on security of energy supply, published at the end of last November, that renewed growth in nuclear energy "seems unlikely". Dr. Andersson said: "If the economic need becomes strong enough, the next two decades may well see the construction of new nuclear power plants in Europe." He suggested that the Californian power crisis might not have occurred if there had been more nuclear generating capacity available. He also referred to the application by the Finnish power company TVO for a government decision favouring construction of a new reactor unit in Finland, the country`s fifth. It was possible that the conditions prompting that application could be replicated in others parts of Europe. These included increased electricity demand, the future closure of ageing fossil fuel-burning power plants and the need to develop clean energy sources in order to meet the Kyoto targets. "It is in just such a scenario that nuclear becomes an obvious choice for new investment," said Dr. Andersson. Regarding the planned development of deep underground repositories for nuclear waste in Europe, Dr. Andersson said the obstacles involved were largely political. With the technology and finance already in place, the only thing needed was the political will to make further progress. He added that the European Commission could play an important role, in highlighting the need for national governments to press ahead with repository projects. The Green Paper called for research into radioactive waste management technologies to be actively continued - a recommendation that the European nuclear industry has welcomed. CONTACT: Jack Ashton, Media Relations Manager Tel: +32 2 505 32 26 e-mail: ja@foratom.skynet.be Karen Daifuku, Communications Director Tel: +32 2 505.32.20 e-mail: kd@foratom.skynet.be Copyright 1994-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD ***************************************************************** 16 Probe of Yucca requested by Nv rep. [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Tuesday, February 13, 2001 By STEVE TETREAULT WASHINGTON -- The agency that conducts investigations for Congress was asked on Monday to initiate a probe of fresh allegations involving the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste program. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., requested the General Accounting Office look into an anonymous six-page letter whose author charged "gross mismanagement by senior career federal staff" overseeing studies at the proposed waste burial site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Although its author is not known, Berkley said the letter appeared to show a level of expertise about nuclear waste and familiarity with the Yucca Mountain program that may give it credibility. Among accusations were that program managers have failed to anticipate costs and have failed to heed advice from the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a scientific advisory panel. The author also questioned overseas travel by Yucca Mountain staff and the expertise levels of several key managers. "Yet once again, facts seem to imply that plans to store the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain are tainted," Berkley said in a letter to Comptroller General David Walker. Allen Benson, Yucca Mountain Project spokesman, defended the program and its managers when the letter surfaced late last week, saying travel was justified and project managers have been certified for their jobs. Regarding costs, Benson said they naturally have risen as scientists have learned more about the scope of the project. Energy Department officials declined on Monday to add to those comments. Spokesman Joe Davis said a copy of the anonymous letter was forwarded to the Energy Department inspector general. Department investigators already have been conducting interviews in Nevada at the request of former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson following earlier allegations that Yucca Mountain managers may be pre-disposed to getting the site approved as a repository despite questions about its suitability. A copy of the anonymous letter was sent to the inspector general late last month, with copies to Nevada lawmakers and Senate staff members who monitor the nuclear waste program. Wilma Slaughter, a spokesperson for Inspector General Gregory Friedman, declined to comment on the letter or whether it had been received by Friedman. The Inspector General's Office said last month it would have no comment on Yucca Mountain until its investigation is finished. No timeline was given. XXX ***************************************************************** 17 UN WANTS TO ESTABLISH NUCLEAR FACILITY IN JORDAN Middle East Newsline - Area News - Updated Daily [February 13] Tuesday Issue No.1071 AMMAN [MENL] -- The United Nations has offered to establish a regional nuclear research facility in Jordan. The facility would enable scientists from the Middle East to conduct research on advanced equipment. This would include an accelerator and produce radioactive emissions as part of a project called the Synchrotron Light for Experimental Science and Applications for the Middle East. The $100 million project is being discussed by Jordan's parliament. The UN agency Unesco would operate the facility. Officials said the facility will be established around 30 kilometers from Amman and hosted by the Balqa University for Applied Sciences. They termed the facility as a project meant to advance applied sciences as well as research and technology. "It will be used for peaceful purposes like water desalination, pharmaceutical industries and nuclear medicine," Jordanian parliamentary chairman Ali Abu Rubeiha said. "It will not be used for generating electricity because its power is limited." [To read the full Middle East Newsline reports, Subscribe or use our Free One Week Trial Offer by entering your e-mail address in the form on this screen.] ***************************************************************** 18 NUCLEAR-SHIPMENT NUCLEAR SHIPS ROUND CAPE anc nw20010213/25: NUCLEAR-SHIPMENT [ MISSION-PAHAD < by subject > PORTUGAL-ACDP ] [XXX Two ships transporting a cargo of deadly plutonium fuel have rounded the Cape of Good Hope, Greenpeace spokesman Mike Townsley said on Monday.. He said the Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Teal, en route from France to Japan, were probably off Cape Agulhas by Monday afternoon, and would be well away from South Africa in the next 24 hours. The vessels, which the South African government has asked to stay out of its economic exclusion zone, are expected to head across the Indian Ocean and around the bottom of Australia before turning north. New Zealand has said it will lodge formal protests with Japan, France and Britain over the passage of the British-registered ships. Townsley said the South African government response to the shipment was neither adequate nor strong enough. Although South Africa opposed the shipments, it was putting up less resistance than countries on other routes, such as around Cape Horn. "What we are going to see is the Cape of Good Hope turned into essentially a nuclear highway," he said. Greenpeace, which says an accident involving the ships could have catastrophic environmental consequences, calculates another 78 similar shipments are needed to move all the Japanese-owned nuclear material currently in Europe. The cargo is MOX fuel, a mixture of plutonium and spent uranium. The ships are expected to arrive in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in western Japan in about a month. http://www.anc.org.za/anc/newsbrief/2001/news0213--> ***************************************************************** 19 Japan to go ahead with construction of reactors : February 12, 2001 TOKYO - Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Sunday construction of its nuclear power plants would proceed as planned, after saying last week it would temporarily suspend development of new plants. At the weekend, Japanese media reported TEPCO President Nobuya Minami as saying the company had no plan to halt development of nuclear power plants because these were vital for energy security and environmental protection. This came after Vice President Takeshi Taneichi hinted on Thursday that the firm's nuclear power plants would be among those suspended due to weak energy demand. These remarks caused shock in Fukushima Prefecture, where two reactors are scheduled to be opened in 2006 and 2007 and Aomori Prefecture, where two others are to start operating after 2010. A spokesman for TEPCO said: "We would like to proceed with construction as planned, with the cooperation of all those involved." The statement appeared to leave TEPCO's plans unclear. Until Thursday it had plans on the table for construction of 12 plants, including a new nuclear power plant. It also plans an expansion of an existing nuclear plant. Company Vice President Taneichi told a news conference all plans would be postponed for the next three to five years, although plants that were due to be completed this summer and where construction could not be halted would be built as scheduled. A final decision would be made at the end of March. Taneichi said TEPCO also hoped to keep capital investment below one trillion yen ($8.57 billion) for the next business year starting in April, compared with a planned 1.08 trillion yen this business year. TEPCO's annual capital investment has been above one trillion yen since the 1979/80 business year, but the figure has been falling since hitting a peak of 1.68 trillion yen in 1993/94. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 20 Taiwan Looks to Russian Parliament Bill to Solve Nuclear Inside China Today - Waste Problem Taiwan Looks to Russian Parliament Bill to Solve Nuclear Waste Problem Feb 12, 2001 -- (BBC Monitoring) Text of report in English by Taiwanese Central News Agency web site. Taipei, 12 February: The Republic of China [ROC] government will place the top priority on national interests in considering disposal of nuclear power plants waste, Vice-Economics Minister Lin Yi-fu said Monday [12 February]. Lin made the remarks in response to a press inquiry about his views on a report that the lower house of the Russian parliament, or State Duma, is likely to pass a new environmental bill to pave the way for legal entry of foreign radioactive waste for treatment and permanent disposal. Lin said the ROC's state-run Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) once struck a deal with Russia on the treatment and disposal of its nuclear power plants waste. Noting that Taipower has been actively seeking domestic and offshore nuclear waste dumps in recent years, Lin said if the Russian State Duma truly passes an amendment to its current environmental law to allow legal entry of radioactive waste for treatment, the possibility of Russia substantiating its contract with Taipower will increase. Lin added that the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which oversees Taipower operations, will consider the Taipower-Russian deal from the angle of "meeting our best national interests". Taipower signed an agreement with the Russian national science academy through the mediation of a private Russian firm a few years ago on the treatment and disposal of 5,000 barrels of low-radioactive waste from its three existing nuclear power plants. Taipower officials said once the Russian State Duma completes legislation of the new environmental bill and that its Russian cooperative partner obtains a nuclear waste import permit from Russian authorities, Taipower will first ship low-radioactive waste now stored at its three nuclear power plants to Russia for treatment and disposal. According to the officials, the agreement with the Russian academy on the disposal of 5,000 barrels of nuclear waste is just a "pilot" project. "If the project proceeds smoothly, we'll negotiate with the academy for treatment of additional waste," said a Taipower senior executive. Taipower currently has 30,000-plus barrels of nuclear waste stored at its three nuclear power plants and more than 90,000 barrels of similar waste stored on the Orchid Island off southeastern Taiwan coast. In addition to Russia, Taipower also reached a nuclear waste disposal agreement with North Korea several years ago for disposal of up to 60,000 barrels of its nuclear waste. However, shipment has so far not been made because of some complex reasons, including strong opposition from neighboring South Korea and world environmental groups. Taipower sources said the company will ship its nuclear waste stored on the Orchid Island to North Korea for permanent disposal when North Korea completes construction of relevant storage facilities and some technical problems are resolved. Meanwhile, Taipower is also seeking the approval of the local government and residents of the offshore islet of Wuchiu of its plan to build a facility there for storing its low-radioactive nuclear waste. Difficulties in disposing of nuclear waste have been a major reason for local environmentalists to strongly oppose construction of Taipower's fourth nuclear power plant. According to foreign wire service reports, the Russian State Duma is scheduled to conduct a second reading of the controversial environmental amendment bill on 22 February. As Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly supports the amendment bill, the State Duma is very likely to pass it in the near future. The reports quoted Russian energy officials as saying that once the bill clears the legislature, Russia will import about 20,000 tons of nuclear waste from Taiwan, South Korea, Switzerland, Japan, India and mainland China for treatment. And the business is expected to earn 21 billion U.S. dollars for cash-strapped Russia over the next 10 years, according to the reports. Source: Central News Agency web site, Taipei, in English 0725 GMT 12 Feb 01 (C) 2001 BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 21 Uranium mining left a legacy of death [deseretnews.com] Tuesday, February 13, 2001 Compensation elusive for most Navajo radiation victims By Jerry D. Spangler and Donna Kemp Spangler Deseret News staff writers Behind patriarchal wrinkles, DeVar Shumway's eyes still twinkle as he recalls the glory days of uranium mining with his sons in southeastern Utah. For decades, Shumway and his family burrowed deep into the uranium-rich Colorado Plateau, emerging triumphantly with tons of ore from which soft "yellowcake" would be extracted to feed the insatiable Cold War nuclear appetite of the U.S. government. Historians call it the "uranium frenzy," a time when the Cold War was hot and nothing — including the sacrifice of thousands of human lives — was too great a price to pay to stockpile the powder needed to trigger the nation's nuclear arsenal. America may have won the Cold War, but a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Utah is left with a toxic legacy that has killed and sickened untold thousands of uranium miners and mill workers, contaminated water supplies for generations to come, and infected an otherwise stunning red-rock landscape with millions of tons of radioactive mill tailings that will cost American taxpayers billions of dollars to remove and bury safely out of sight. Engineers say cleaning up the mill tailings at a single site, the defunct Atlas mill on the banks of the Colorado River just outside of Moab, could cost $300 million. Those living in downstream states like Arizona and California say it is a small price to pay for safe drinking water. Survivors of the uranium frenzy scoff, recalling how they dumped countless tons of radioactive tailings into the Colorado, San Juan and La Plata rivers over the years. Piles of raw ore with unprofitable concentrations of uranium now lie beneath Lake Powell. "Las Vegas residents are drinking Colorado River water enriched with uranium," Shumway says with a chuckle. But families of those who did not survive the effects of prolonged exposure to radiation are not laughing. The dead and dying include miners and mill workers, innocent children who found mill tailings to be an inviting sand box, mothers who swept and dusted the wind-borne radioactive dust that filtered into their homes. Chip Ward, an environmental activist and author of the book "Canaries on the Rim," argues the U.S. government officials knowingly and willfully sacrificed rural Utahns' health and safety in their urgency for nuclear superiority. Anxious to prove their patriotism, rural Utahns embraced the uranium frenzy with trusting abandon, Ward believes. So did destitute Navajos. So did cash-poor ranchers and farmers elsewhere in the Four Corners area of neighboring Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Government and mining company officials assured them there were no risks. Dead and dying Dale Maughan, the former principal of Monticello High School, rues the day he moved his family to southeastern Utah. "My son would still be alive today," he says, pointing the finger of blame unmistakably at the government. Jon Alan Maughan died July 5,1966, of leukemia two months before his 17th birthday. The captain of his high school basketball team, Jon Alan used to swim with friends in the pond of water that collected at the uranium mill on the outskirts of this small town of less than a thousand people. Within a radius of five or six blocks of the Maughan home, six other young people died of leukemia, the oldest a young mother in her 20s, the youngest a child of 4. Most were teenagers. Rell Frederick, now 68, lost a lung to cancer working in the uranium mines in Marysvale in the 1950s. Most of his co-workers are dead from emphysema and various forms of cancer, mostly lung cancer. After a long shift in the mines, some miners would playfully blow across a device that measured radiation. The Geiger Counter would jump to life. In 1951 and 1952, safety officials measured the amount of radiation in one Marysvale mine at 6,000 "working levels" at a time when four was considered safe. Frederick later joined the military where he was involved with nuclear testing and learned about the effects of radiation. Wiser and somewhat frightened, he returned to the Marysvale mines asking questions about safety measures. "I was told it was radon gas, that it was different from nuclear fallout and there was no danger," he said. "I was a good ol' country boy and I believed them." He still believed them even after U.S. Health Service officials came to the mine to test the miners. The miners were told they would be notified immediately if the tests showed anything was wrong. None of the miners ever got a call. Frederick later went to work as a safety inspector for the U.S. government where he was trained in the dangers of radiation and how it affected the human body. "It was a completely different story than what I was told when I worked in the mines," he said. Arden "Tommy" Higgins, 67, worked 12 years in the mines. He lost part of a lung to cancer and later an ear. He considers himself lucky. "Most of 'em are dead now, and the ones that are left have some serious problems," he said. "I blame the government. . . . Had I known, I would never have worked there." Admitting guilt Congress acknowledged limited government responsibility when it passed in 1990 the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which provides $100,000 to each underground uranium miner who has one of six lung diseases linked to radiation exposure. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch recently pushed through legislation that expanded the program to include more uranium workers and different types of cancers. Additionally, the government has sponsored two massive health and mortality studies of former uranium mill workers. The results of the studies should be available this year, according to the Department of Energy. "It helps that they have admitted some of their guilt," Maughan said. "But it doesn't help when your boy dies. Nothing can compensate for that." Others, like Shumway, stubbornly assert there are no ill effects from uranium, despite many miners who are dead or dying from cancer blamed on exposure to radiation in the mines. After all, 80-year-old Shumway is still alive. "I've got more exposure than most and have been patiently waiting 80 years to get paid the $100,000 if you have lung cancer," he said. Former San Juan County Commissioner Cal Black, one of the most famous uranium prospectors in the region, dismissed the dangers of uranium. He even wore a uranium-laden bolo tie from time to time. He died of cancer, and now his sons, who worked in the mines with him, are showing signs of lung ailments. The mess we made State and federal officials are now coming to grips with the stark realization that the legacy of uranium mining extends far beyond the dead and dying. Water and soils contaminated with radiation plague much of rural Utah, and an entire generation unfamiliar with the Cold War frenzy may yet feel its effects. And then there is the problem of an estimated 5,000 abandoned uranium mines. Mark Mesch, who heads the state's abandoned mine reclamation program, recalls how in 1998 he was conducting a bat survey inside one mine near Blanding when he noticed a bright orange object tucked into a drill hole. It was a plastic egg, presumably left behind by a family who used the mine for an Easter egg hunt. The radiation level inside the abandoned mine was nine times what is considered safe. "You've got kids playing in a mine? How dangerous is that?" Mesch said. The state is now working with the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service on a pilot project that could spend up to $1.2 million to close an estimated 200 uranium mines in Cottonwood Wash and then restore the water quality to safe levels by removing the waste rock and tailings left behind a generation ago. Almost $500,000 was spent by the state closing more than 200 uranium mines in the Marysvale area. And state and federal officials are hoping to finalize a deal to close hundreds more in the Tuscher Mountains south of Richfield. Yet thousands more mines, mostly in uranium-rich southeastern Utah, await their turn on the priority list. Quite simply, there isn't enough time or money to close them all quickly or efficiently. If the price of the Marysvale closures is any indication, it could cost taxpayers $125 million to close just the abandoned uranium mines. The amount of money being spent to close dangerous mines is miniscule compared to that being spent by Congress to clean up defunct uranium mills. The most costly of the cleanups could be the Atlas site where 10,000 tons of contaminated soils are currently leaching into the Colorado River. The Department of Energy has already funded cleanups of four uranium mills in Utah and 20 other mill sites around the West. To date, the federal government has spent $15.2 million capping a tailings pile east of Green River in Grand County, $44 million consolidating and burying tailings at a mill on Navajo lands near Mexican Hat, and $84 million moving radioactive tailings from the Vitro site in South Salt Lake to an isolated dump site in Tooele County. The DOE has spent $237 million cleaning up the Monticello mill site, and before all the monitoring is done in 2005 the number will reach $248.7 million. Toxic legacy Undoubtedly, the question of how much the government knew about the dangers of uranium mining will be debated for years to come. But the toxic legacy will remain a permanent fixture in Utah, not only in the haunting faces of the dead peering from family photo albums but in the contaminated water and soils that may yet sicken future generations. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of this toxic legacy, Ward believes, is that victims of uranium mining, whether miners or innocents caught in the crosswinds, will remain forgotten soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country in the Cold War. "The Cold War mentality was one where most people accepted there was a war on and there would be casualties," Ward said. As more and more evidence from the Cold War is made public, those casualties are coming to see what they have all long suspected: Everyone knew the risks except for those actually taking the risks. Eunice Manzanares didn't know the risks. She was an eighth-grader who suddenly stopped coming to school. "The next thing I knew she had died," said Maughan, her teacher. "It was leukemia, just like the others," he said. "There is no question in my mind who is at fault." © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 22 Compensation elusive for most Navajo radiation victims [deseretnews.com] Tuesday, February 13, 2001 Lung diseases blamed on work in uranium mines By Jerry Spangler For the better part of two decades, John Bill Maryboy was a driller in the uranium mines of southern Utah and northern Arizona, blasting holes into the soft red sandstone in search of uranium ore. He had been born and raised in the redrock canyons. He had married and raised his family here on Navajo tribal lands, his lands. Maryboy enjoyed his job, not worrying much whether the mines were ventilated or if the water inside the mines was safe to drink. Like the other miners, he believed the government and industry officials who promised there were no dangers. Trust came easy, and with poverty running rampant on the reservation, John Bill was just glad to have a job that could provide the basics of life for his wife and seven children. John Bill was 51 when he succumbed to lung cancer in 1977. "All of a sudden he got sick," said his son, San Juan County Commissioner Mark Maryboy. "He certainly didn't expect to die so early." There's not a shadow of doubt in Mark Maryboy's mind that his father was a victim — one of thousands on the Navajo Reservation — of a government conspiracy that sacrificed indigenous peoples in the name of Cold War nuclear superiority. It is a conspiracy that Congress has tacitly admitted by agreeing to compensate uranium miners and mill workers across the West who were deceived about the effects of uranium that sickened and killed them. The Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims Committee estimates 400 Navajo miners have already died of lung diseases caused by working in the 1,100 mines on tribal lands in the Four Corners area. Maryboy believes many times that number are sick and dying, all because the government decided Navajos were dispensable. "Definitely, the government discriminated against us," he says. "The government knew the effects of radiation, but with the Navajo people, with any minority, they didn't see the need to provide the necessary equipment to protect them. And now you see suffering everywhere." Maryboy, who also serves in the Navajo legislature, is one of many who now champion the cause of government compensation for Navajo uranium workers, not just those in Utah but those throughout the region who answered the siren call to work in the mines. Another is Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who last year pushed through amendments to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that allows more uranium miners to qualify for compensation. "The next battle is for appropriate funding for the trust fund," Hatch said. "It's currently broke." Advocates are encouraged that Congress again admitted culpability, but they are frustrated at interminable delays that have persisted more than a decade since the original compensation bill, also sponsored by Hatch, was passed in 1990. That bill was supposed to offer "compassionate payments" to Navajos, among many others, who worked the mines and were victimized by radioactive fallout. But of more than 3,000 Navajos who registered for payments only about 500 requests were granted. Navajo victims and their families found themselves lost within a bureaucratic maze. Many could not speak, read or write fluent English, and filling out the mountains of paperwork demanded by the Department of Justice became an impossible task. Many couldn't prove they actually worked the mines. They were migrant workers who traveled from mine to mine, were paid in cash and left behind no employment records. Surviving spouses were often denied compensation because they couldn't produce a marriage certificate — a common situation on reservations where traditional wedding ceremonies are conducted by tribal elders. The Hatch amendments are supposed to correct such shortcomings in the 1990 legislation. But advocates say there are still too many workers falling through bureaucratic cracks. Those who worked in the mines after 1971 are still not eligible. Neither are family members who got sick from radiation brought home on workers' clothing, Neither are the children who played on tailings piles. Maryboy blames the cancer death of his sister on the fact she played in the spent uranium ore stacked outside one southern Utah mine where his family lived. "As poor as people were, they would move to the mine to work and use materials from the mines to build their shelters," Maryboy said. "And kids being kids, they played in the yellowcake. I was 3 or 4 at the time. I probably played in it too." Phil Harrison, a consultant with the Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims Committee, suffers from several ailments he attributes to working in uranium mines in the early 1970s. He is not eligible for compensation, but his family could be. His father died of lung cancer in 1971 after years in the mines. It is a small price to pay, Harrison said, for the government to admit it victimized thousands of American Indians, many of them war veterans who served their country with distinction. These were workers who were paid half of what white miners were and who were subjected to then-secret government experiments on the effects of radiation on the human body. The 1990 compensation act, which addresses downwind victims throughout the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau, acknowledges the government made mistakes in failing to warn citizens of the deadly effects of radiation. "The government did lie to them and frankly we proved it," Hatch said. "I think the Navajo people were sacrificed," Maryboy said. "You hear the cries of people who are dying (from uranium exposure) on a daily basis," he adds, "and when you are in constant contact with people like that it makes you think. You just don't want to see anything like that happen again." © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 23 Mum's word on N-waste man [deseretnews.com] Monday, February 12, 2001 State consultant who quit suddenly won't be identified By Bob Bernick Jr. Utah House GOP legislative leaders said Monday they don't have to name the mystery consultant who quickly resigned last week apparently fearing a confrontation with an old employer — Envirocare of Utah. House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, said chief legislative attorney Gay Taylor found that because the South Carolina consultant didn't accept any state funds, nor did he present his results in an open forum, "we'll honor" his request to remain anonymous. The Deseret News submitted a GRAMA request to find out the man's name and how much the state had spent on the work. The man had a verbal agreement with the Office of Legislative Fiscal Analyst "for between $5,000 and $10,000" to look into the state placing a tax on Class A radioactive hazardous waste, Stephens said. As of now, only Envirocare of Utah has a Class A permit, and during this session some House Republicans want to look into taxing that waste. Class A waste is primarily soils slightly contaminated with radioactivity, such as uranium mill tailings. The consultant told state budgeters that he had worked for Envirocare several years ago. But Stephens said the man believes he had a "one-time" contract that has ended. Stephens said Envirocare officials claim the man had an open-ended consulting contract and couldn't turn around and use any information he gleaned from Envirocare to help the state place a new tax on the hazardous waste firm, whose dump is in Utah's West Deseret. Tuesday, a legislative fiscal analyst will present to House Republicans figures and a preliminary study that shows the state could collect around $100 million a year by taxing Envirocare's Class A wastes. One GOP source said last week that the consultant decided to back out of the consulting contract after receiving a telephone call "that scared the hell out of him." Charles Judd, Envirocare president, declined last week to tell the Deseret News the man's name or to affirm that he was the person who called the consultant, although Judd later told another news organization he made the call. Judd told the Deseret News he didn't threaten anyone. Judd on Monday confirmed he made the call to the consultant. "I did not know it was the same one," Judd said. "Later on in the day the consultant said, yes, he was the one (who provided the report)." Judd and Envirocare founder Khosrow Semnani were at the Capitol Monday talking to lawmakers about their concerns on any pending legislation that would raise the company's taxes or fees. "We would like to be involved in any proposals," Judd said he told lawmakers. The six-page report obtained by the Deseret News says the state could be receiving $110 million a year in tax revenues from waste generators. The consultant also said the tax would not make Envirocare less competitive in the exclusive radioactive waste industry. Yet Judd said he was encouraged that lawmakers were asking questions about the marketplace on waste disposal. House Democrats complained Monday that they were never told about the consultant or how much was being spent on him. Legislative staff is nonpartisan and is supposed to represent GOP and Democratic members equally. Stephens said it is not unusual for legislative staff to do private work for individual members and "in a partisan" way keep items from the other party. But Stephens said he and other leaders will likely revisit the way that staff enters into verbal contracts with consultants. Legislative fiscal analyst John Massey "has in his budget monies to hire consultants as requested by leaders," and it was not unusual for him to do so in this case. Massey asked the man if he had a conflict. He said he had done work for Envirocare but didn't have a conflict now, Stephens said. *Contributing: Donna Kemp Spangler. *E-MAIL: bbjr@desnews.com* © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 24 Areas suspected of contamination [deseretnews.com] Monday, February 12, 2001 Here is a description of just a few of the major BLM areas suspected of being contaminated with old conventional, germ and chemical weapons: + The "Southern Triangle." It is a 32-square-mile area south of Dugway Proving Ground. It was used as a mortar impact range during the '50s and '60s — including for chemical and biological rounds. After Deseret News stories disclosed threats there in 1989, the military proposed annexing part of it to Dugway — but the BLM opposed that and wanted it cleaned instead. That area contains the "Rising Sun" grid, used to simulate Japanese tunnels and bunkers in World War II. Mustard agent was used to attack it. Unlike most other possibly contaminated areas, that old grid has been fenced and posted. + "Yellow Jacket Area." The 9-square-mile area also south of Dugway was used as a test area for chemical arms, fire bombs, rockets and smoke and mortar rounds during the 1950s. + I-80 corridor, Tooele County. The corridor between bombing ranges of Hill Air Force Base's Utah Test and Training Range covers 898 square miles. BLM studies say some land was used as a target area during World War II, and the BLM receives periodic reports of munitions found in the area. XXX + Newfoundland Mountains. About 186 square miles of the desert range (part of which is adjacent to the Utah Test and Training Range) is suspected to have unexploded munitions. XXX + Carrington Island. The 1,200-acre island in the Great Salt Lake was used as a target during World War II, so some amount of unexploded munitions are suspected. XXX + Little Davis Mountain. A 250-acre area south of the Tooele County mountain was a disposal area for such items as nerve gas and live foreign chemical arms. Radioactive wastes were removed from the site in 1986. XXX + Dugway Mountains. Ordnance is suspected throughout a 27-square-mile area in the range. The BLM had also called in the early '90s for a study of mines in the range saying "based upon documented incidents involving both unexploded ordnance and chemical residue, it is highly probable that these mine areas are potentially hazardous from a wide variety of munitions." XXX + "Magcorp Ponds." The BLM reported that when the Tooele County area was examined in 1986 for possible use as an evaporation pond, many "projectiles were seen covering a vast area of public lands." It said the situation was reported to the Air Force, but it never received any follow-up — and doubts the site was cleared. © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 25 Storage firm insists nuclear waste is low-risk XXX w w w . s t a n d a r d . n e t ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Tuesday, February 13, 2001* By CHARLES F. TRENTELMAN Standard-Examiner staff SALT LAKE CITY -- A representative of the company that wants to store nuclear waste in Utah's West Desert told a legislative committee Monday that nuclear power is a good thing for the nation and the economy, and that storing the radioactive waste would not be dangerous. "It's a natural thing that we all deal with," said Scott Northard, a project manager for Private Fuel Storage, which wants to store tons of high-level nuclear waste in on the Goshute Indian Reservation. "It's in the rocks and this building. The amount of radiation that a facility like the one I propose in Skull Valley will generate is very, very much less than you get in your natural surroundings," he said. Northard appeared before the Transportation, Environmental Quality appropriations subcommittee Monday, days after Sen. Terry Spencer, R- Layton, introduced a bill he said would tax the company to death if it ever set up operations in Utah. Among other things, Spencer's bill would require the company to put up as much as $150 billion in cash, the expected cost of cleaning up after a nuclear accident, before it started work. The committee did not vote on the bill Monday. Northard told the committee that several assumptions in Spencer's bill were very wrong. For example, he repeatedly insisted that accidents with the containers hauling the nuclear waste simply couldn't happen, but, if they did, the danger would be minimal. Rep. Stephen Clark, R-Provo, tried several times to get Northard to admit the casks are capable of breaking at all. Clark asked him about the cost of cleaning up after such an accident, and Northard's answer was that "they're designed so that can't happen." So, Clark said, "say a one- in-a-million chance. What happens? What is the cost? What is the loss of lives?" Northard said what Clark was asking, then, was for an "unrealistic disaster scenario." He said the radius of danger around a damaged casket, if spent fuel pellets did escape from it, was 17 feet, "but that's only if the pellets get out of these containers, which are designed not to fail." Sen. Spencer asked Northard if stockholders in his company had been told that they would all be personally liable for payment for any damages if there were an accident at the storage site. Northard said they had not, yet, because his company was still studying the legislation. A spokesman for his company said last week the bill would probably be contested in court if the Legislature passed it. Leon Bear, a representative of the Goshute Indians on whose land the facility would go, said he has studied the situation carefully and is confident it is safe. He said he lives just five miles from the facility, and "I plan to work there. This is an opportunity I plan to take up." Rep. Joe Murray, R-Ogden, said he is puzzled by the need for the facility at all, since it is only temporary until a national permanent waste facility is finished, in 10 to 15 years. "I just can't for the life of me see the rationale of moving this stuff from a temporary storage area to a temporary storage area somewhere else and then to a permanent one," he said. Northard said the problem is that high-level nuclear waste, mostly spent fuel from nuclear reactors, is now stored at the reactors which produce it. Those reactors are running out of room and need a better place to put it, he said.  ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Dick Smyser: Y-12 silver and firefly clarifications, concern for Joanne, other items Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:36 p.m. on Tuesday, February 13, 2001 A mix of mentions on Valentine's Eve: In this column Jan. 11, I referred to Y-12 as "the Fort Knox of uranium." I then went on to recall silver being borrowed from Fort Knox, Ky., during the early years of the Manhattan Project for use as conductor material in the electromagnetic uranium separation process at Y-12 -- the process that produced the U-235 for the Hiroshima bomb that, lest we forget, ended World War II. Dick Raridon writes: "When silver was borrowed during the war for use at Y-12, the silver depository was at West Point. Has it moved?" It hasn't moved and, of course, I was in error. Fort Knox is the site of the nation's gold depository. West Point remains the site of the U.S. silver stash. Indeed the silver borrowed for Y-12 came from West Point -- $300 million worth of it, according to "Now It Can Be Told," the memoir written by Gen. Leslie R. Groves, Manhattan Project chief. And all but .035 of 1 percent was safely returned. Fort Knox, Gen. Groves wrote, was briefly considered very early in the project as a place to store what then was this nation's very limited supply of uranium ore. But the crucial material remained instead in a warehouse on Staten Island. * * * John Totter was much involved with research on bioluminescence and thus with the effort to recruit Oak Ridge kids to collect fireflies each summer. Their catch was then used in the bioluminescence studies at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, studies which Totter joined in 1952. The firefly collecting, however, had begun two years earlier under the direction of Dr. Bernard Strehler of the ORNL Biology Division. I remember it well because the first collections were at The Oak Ridger office on a very hot day in midsummer of 1950. The young firefly collectors, many accompanied by a parent, lined up for blocks -- so many of them that Strehler ran out of money to pay the 25 cents per hundred fee and had to make an emergency loan from The Ridger, this to prevent rebellion among the kids and parents sweltering in the intense heat as they waited. * * * Fellow columnist Joanne Gailar has been one of the most enthusiastic contributors to my varied collections of vogue words and phrases. In December she sent me three more sightings of "things from hell": "Her parents lovingly called her their 'baby from hell,'" from a calendar that features short essays for each day; "That house guest from hell," from a column by Ann Landers; "... a civics course from hell," from a New Yorker magazine piece on the presidential election in Florida. Joanne, I fear, will have some "things from hell" of her own to write about when she does what surely she must do (we are all so concerned and anxious to know): write about the fire that destroyed her home off Pellissippi Parkway in Knox County last week, she and husband Norman and son Ralphie escaping physically unhurt but losing just everything of their household goods and personal possessions. Friends have rallied to help and the good news is that the Gailars will live in Oak Ridge. And l am off to the bookstore, or Amazon.com, to buy Joanne a must for her reconstructed library, an anthology of Emily Dickinson. * * * Speaking of which -- collections of vogue words and phrases -- the latest addition to my file of "101" things is rather special. In a CNN report evening of Jan. 17, Elizabeth Cohen spoke of "Mad Cow 101." * * * Add things of which I am suddenly very tired, emergency at least second listing: "Doing the math" or "You do the math." * * * And still more classic '30s and '40s popular songs rediscovered and exploited, happily, by television commercial writers: "We're In The Money" and "The Glory of Love" for WBIR-TV, Channel 10 (Cable 13). "I Like The Likes of You" for Toyota. "Whatever Lola Wants" for Levis. "Blue Moon" for Jaegure-LeCoulte watches. "Cheek to Cheek" for Jeep. "The Summer Wind" for Lexus with a scene set on an Italian piazza that makes one want to dance each time it's seen, heard. * * * And further re "Major," the dog which Knoxville New-Sentinel Columnist Bert Vincent once called "The Mayor of Jackson Square" as he lay peacefully each day outside his master's (Oscar) Schubert's Shoe Repair, where Hall's has been since the mid-1950s. The Schubert shop was, in the mid-1940s, one of Oak Ridge's very first private business places. Betty (Mrs. Ray) Schubert informs me that, before her father-in-law's dog got tagged with "Major," he was known by patrons at the old Central Cafeteria just down Central Avenue as "Treve." -- RDS *Richard D. Smyser is founding editor of The Oak Ridger. You can reach him by e-mail at rdsandmps@aol.com* All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 2 US promises transparent submarine inquiry Reuters | BBC News | Sky News | Photos Monday February 12, 02:50 PM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States pledged to conduct a "complete and transparent" investigation of the deadly weekend sinking of a Japanese trawler off Hawaii by a U.S. nuclear submarine. The USS Greeneville, a 360-foot, 6,900 tonne attack submarine based in Pearl Harbour surfaced suddenly on Friday, crashing into the trawler, which was carrying 35 people and sank in minutes. Nine people, including four 17-year-old fishery students, are still missing and 26 people were rescued. "We are absolutely committed to a transparent and complete investigation of what happened. It is a very, very sad incident. We are very apologetic about it," said Condoleezza Rice, President George W. Bush's national security advisor. In an interview with NBC's "Today" show, Rice said there was no evidence so far that the commander of the U.S. submarine had not followed correct procedures. "But it's an issue that has to be examined in-depth," she said. The captain of the Japanese trawler, Hisao Onishi, said the sub's crew members had not acted quickly enough to help people on the trawler. Rice said the U.S. investigation would look at whether proper aid was given, adding that she could not comment further and would wait to see what came out of the inquiry. She said the U.S. president was closely monitoring the situation and had talked to his cabinet members several times over the weekend, adding that Bush may speak to Japan's Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori about the accident. Asked about Japan's request for the United States to consider raising the trawler, Rice said no decision had yet been made to do this. 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or ***************************************************************** 3 terror targets WorldNetDaily: Defense labs Tuesday, February 13, 2001 By Paul Sperry © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com The nation's nuclear weapons laboratories are easy targets for terrorists looking to steal nuclear materials, a lab security consultant has warned new Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in a blistering 4-page letter, a copy of which was obtained by WorldNetDaily. The long-time Energy contractor, RETA Security Inc., charged that the Clinton administration -- which recently assured the public that the labs are "safe and secure" -- ignored its warnings over the past eight years that the nuclear stockpile is at risk. "Considering the lax security at DOE (Department of Energy) ... terrorists have a ready supply of special nuclear materials already existing and available within our borders," said RETA President Ronald E. Timm in his Feb. 9 letter, which he also sent to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the chairmen of the congressional intelligence committees. "The DOE has avoided addressing this serious fact for the past eight years," he said. Timm also charged that Energy's inspector general "minimized" the contractor's warnings in reports issued last year, even though RETA had provided more than 200 classified documents "clearly exposing the risk" at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site and the Transportation System Division. What's more, Timm claims the Clinton administration retaliated against whistleblowers within the department, including a senior security analyst who tried to provide details of security dangers at Los Alamos to the media. "He has been placed on temporary assignment and has had his clearance suspended," Timm said without naming the worker. Last year, two hard drives containing highly classified nuclear-bomb data were found missing from an emergency-response kit at Los Alamos, prompting former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to name a "security czar" to tighten security at the labs. But Timm asserts that nuclear materials continue to be vulnerable to sabotage or theft. "Shockingly, nothing was done," he said. "I urge you to take this matter seriously," Timm wrote Abraham, "and provide the leadership necessary to resolve these dangers to our nation before an accident or deliberate terrorist action causes the loss of many lives, or even the loss of one of our cities." Energy spokesman Joe Davis says he's not aware of the letter. "I can't confirm that we have it," he said. "But I do know that security at our national labs is a high priority for the secretary." Davis added that Abraham is working with Gen. John A. Gordon of the National Nuclear Security Agency to "address the issue." Last year's shocking news of the missing nuke hard drives, which mysteriously turned up later behind a lab copying machine, followed on the heels of a bipartisan congressional report documenting massive Chinese espionage at the labs, including the theft of design secrets to all the warheads in the U.S. arsenal. Eight of the 11 reported incidents occurred during the Clinton administration. Also last year, former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee was convicted of stealing the historic library of secret codes to U.S. nuclear warheads, including bomb-testing data extremely valuable to ambitious nuclear nations such as China. Several of the computer tapes onto which Lee downloaded the classified data are still missing. "There's nothing left for the Department of Energy to lose except for an actual weapon," said a former Energy security official. *is Washington bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.* ***************************************************************** 4 Update on Scotisth anti nuclear protest The Scotsman Online - Scotland's best selling quality national newspaper ALMOST 400 people, including 15 members of the clergy, were arrested for blocking the entrance to the Faslane naval base yesterday, in the biggest ever demonstration against nuclear weapons at the site. George Galloway, Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin, and Tommy Sheridan MSP, the leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, were among those arrested. Strathclyde Police last night put the total number of arrests at 373 - made up of 195 women and 179 men - twice the total arrested at a similar demonstration last February. Organisers claimed that 1,000 demonstrators gathered at the north and south gates of the Helensburgh base for the annual Big Blockade, aimed at preventing workers entering the site. They said the protest, which began at 7am, had snowballed since the first three years ago because the Scottish parliament and the anti-capitalist demonstrations in Seattle had revived the confidence of the protest movement. The author Alasdair Gray, Ian Hamilton, QC, William Wolf, former leader of the SNP, and the Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas were among those arrested - along with the Rev Flora Munro, the minister of Cults East church in Aberdeen. Gray, the author of Lanark, was arrested after an hour of sitting in the road. Minutes before her arrest, Ms Munro, 55, said: "I am quite prepared for this, even though it will be the first time. "It is being done for our future and unborn generations in the hope that we can stop this abomination which is doing untold damage to humanity and creation." The demonstration was organised by the anti-nuclear groups Trident Ploughshares and Scottish CND. They claim the nuclear weapons carried by the four Trident submarines at the base breach international law because they cannot distinguish between civilian and military targets. The Scottish CND administrator John Ainslie said: "This is the biggest protest in Scotland since 1961 and it is the biggest ever held at Faslane." The Rev Norman Shanks, leader of the Iona Community, and one the clergy arrested, said: "The church ministers are here to show their opposition to Trident and that’s a Christian opposition. There’s a strong Christian tradition of civil disobedience." Other clergy arrested included Norman Shanks, leader of the Iona Community, Griff Dines, the provost of Glasgow’s Episcopal St Mary’s Cathedral, and Gilbert Markus, the Catholic Chaplain to Glasgow University. More than 300 police officers were drafted in from around the Strathclyde area. Chief Superintendent Harry Bunch said the day had passed peacefully. ***************************************************************** 5 MoD expected to seek uranium aid The Times TUESDAY FEBRUARY 13 2001 BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR THE Ministry of Defence is expected to call on independent laboratories today to produce a scientific method for testing levels of depleted uranium in Balkans and Gulf War veterans. Last month the MoD announced that it was to offer health screening for soldiers who served in Bosnia and Kosovo if they believed that their health had been affected by the use of depleted uranium (DU) shells. The Royal Society, which is conducting its own research into depleted uranium, advised the MoD to arrange for an independent body to carry out the screening. The society also advised the ministry to make comparisons with other personnel who had not served in the Balkans. The MoD is now expected to seek help from specialisd laboratories experienced in dealing with uranium. The laboratories will be required to demonstrate their ability to run an effective screening system before the MoD decides which one to choose for the tests. The MoD has insisted that the potential health risks from DU are low. A study carried out by the United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep) at 11 sites in Kosovo that had been hit by DU shells, found a slight increase in radioactivity at eight locations. Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided on Times ***************************************************************** 6 MoD expected to seek uranium aid The Times TUESDAY FEBRUARY 13 2001 BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR THE Ministry of Defence is expected to call on independent laboratories today to produce a scientific method for testing levels of depleted uranium in Balkans and Gulf War veterans. Last month the MoD announced that it was to offer health screening for soldiers who served in Bosnia and Kosovo if they believed that their health had been affected by the use of depleted uranium (DU) shells. The Royal Society, which is conducting its own research into depleted uranium, advised the MoD to arrange for an independent body to carry out the screening. The society also advised the ministry to make comparisons with other personnel who had not served in the Balkans. The MoD is now expected to seek help from specialisd laboratories experienced in dealing with uranium. The laboratories will be required to demonstrate their ability to run an effective screening system before the MoD decides which one to choose for the tests. The MoD has insisted that the potential health risks from DU are low. A study carried out by the United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep) at 11 sites in Kosovo that had been hit by DU shells, found a slight increase in radioactivity at eight locations. Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided on Times ***************************************************************** 7 Downwinders still fighting for redress w w w . s t a n d a r d . n e t ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Tuesday, February 13, 2001* SALT LAKE CITY -- Downwinders and their backers in Congress are renewing efforts to get compensation into the hands of possible radiation victims. Under the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, the federal government pledged to help uranium workers, ore transporters, nuclear testing participants and people exposed to downwind fallout from the nation's nuclear testing program. So far, some $266.4 million has been approved to cover 690 claims. But the program is plagued with trouble, including the government being unable to pay 255 people this year because the fund is at least $80 million short. "Everybody thinks we are getting that money," said Utah downwinder Dave Timothy, "But we are not." Lawmakers representing some Western states have led the fight to finance the program. Democratic Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah, Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico wrote President Bush last week, urging that future funding for this program be made automatic rather than optional from year to year. "Our government agreed to pay compensation to people who were unfairly exposed to radiation in order to right the wrong that was done to them," they said. "It just makes sense that we streamline the claims process so that this long ordeal comes to an end." The three also asked Bush to move the program from the Justice Department to the U.S. Labor Department, which administers similar funds for certain nuclear-program workers and miners with black lung disease. Also working on the downwinders case is Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who has asked Timothy to draft a proposal to redirect $20 million originally budgeted for administering the program directly to radiation victims.  ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************