***************************************************************** 07/13/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.172 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 NUCLEAR WASTE: Reid uses influence on Yucca 2 Nuclear desalination still a remote solution 3 Yucca project budget sliced 4 Hospital staffs get training for radioactive-waste mishap 5 Senate Panel Cuts Yucca Mountain Waste Site Funds 6 Alfyorov To Head Nuclear-Waste Committee - 7 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Friday, July 13, 2001 8 Alfyorov Can't Stop Sale of the Environment 9 Fascinating chronology -- milestones, anecdotes -- of Y-12's 10 Radioactive waste may go to Russia 11 NRC to Meet With AMEREN/UE to Discuss Safety Performance at 12 NRC TO MEET WITH EXELON COMPANY TO DISCUSS SAFETY 13 China's Releases 5-Yr Development Plan for Power Industry 14 Reid proposal slashes budget for Yucca Mountain research NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Nuclear threat drives summit with Pakistan -- 2 Papers fuel N-test exposure fears 3 Maralinga documents reveal Australian safety concerns 4 DOE: Impact of cleanup cuts unknown 5 Exposure victims seek compensation 6 Pantex workers meet with officials 7 Committee bill gives money to cleanup 8 Uranium contamination shown in urinalysis 9 Starting a nuclear arms race 10 Operation Plutonium Completed 11 Cannon, Hansen Help Defeat Demo Push for Downwinder Funds ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 NUCLEAR WASTE: Reid uses influence on Yucca LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: NEWS: Sen. Harry Reid Friday, July 13, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Senate subcommittee inflicts deep budget cuts on project By STEVE TETREAULT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, flexing his new muscles as a Senate leader, inflicted a deep budget cut Thursday in the government's pursuit of nuclear waste burial in Nevada. Debuting as chairman of the Senate's energy and water subcommittee, Reid, D-Nev., unveiled a spending bill that reduces the Bush administration's budget for radioactive waste disposal by 38 percent in 2002. It passed the Senate Appropriations Committee without dissent and is expected to be debated in the full Senate starting on Monday. Energy Department managers of the program that has been studying Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as a possible nuclear repository, would be given $275 million for next year, a far cry from the requested $445 million. An official said the department would not immediately comment on implications of what would amount to a sixth consecutive year of Yucca Mountain budget cuts, and possibly the deepest after Congress completes work on the bill later this year. Yucca Mountain was the only major program that took a hit in a $25.4 billion energy and water bill formulated by Reid and written by his Appropriations staff, according to a committee breakdown. Reflecting Reid priorities, the legislation contains $705 million more than Bush requested for nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship, a portion of which is spent at the Nevada Test Site. It funds environmental cleanup at weapons sites at $900 million above the president's budget. Renewable energy research would receive $160 million more than requested. The bill also contains $70 million for research into accelerated transmutation, a process of reformulating nuclear waste into a condensed and less poisonous substance that some scientists say could reduce the need for a large underground repository. Reid identified more than $137 million in the bill for energy and water projects in Nevada, many of them earmarks for research at UNLV and the University of Nevada, Reno and for Nevada Test Site improvements. The bill marks Reid's first big swipe at the Yucca Mountain program since Democrats regained control of the Senate in May and the Nevadan ascended to majority whip and chairman of the key energy and water subcommittee. Like most Nevada elected leaders, Reid believes the government is intent on burying highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain despite questions about its safety. Energy Department scientists say a repository can be safely built and maintained to store fuel thousands of years into the future. Appropriations Committee staffers said the Yucca Mountain figures will likely be increased when the Senate bill is negotiated with a House version that allocates $443 million for nuclear waste disposal, only $2 million less than what the Bush administration requested. If negotiators split the difference, as they often do, the Energy Department still would suffer a substantial reduction in the nuclear waste program. Budget cuts in recent years have forced managers to delay by a year key decisions on whether Yucca Mountain is suitable for storage. Officials have said they expect President Bush to decide late this year whether to ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license the site and proceed to construction and waste burial by 2010. Reid said in forming the bill he needed to juggle the desires of the Bush administration and those of senators who submitted about 1,500 requests for funding. "We had a limited amount of money," he said. "I had a lot of demands from different senators and I would rather take money from (Yucca Mountain) than from other places. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., formerly the subcommittee chairman and a supporter of nuclear energy, shrugged at the budget cut for nuclear waste disposal. As is custom, "the chairman prevails," he said. "The chairman wants that." The bill was accompanied by a committee report, also authored by Reid, highly critical of the Energy Department's work at Yucca Mountain. It echoes charges made by Nevada officials that the department has sought to change selection criteria to justify picking the site. The report recommends the department identify and seek public input on cross country transportation routes that nuclear waste would travel on its way to Nevada, and to complete that project before making a site recommendation to President Bush. It also calls for the completion of an environmental study on transportation. webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 2 Nuclear desalination still a remote solution -- The Washington Times July 13, 2001 KYODO NEWS BEIJING -- As the worst drought in a decade leaves millions short of water in northern China, a handful of officials and scientists are pushing plans to use nuclear power to desalinate seawater for drinking. Although the technology for nuclear desalination exists, critics say, the cost is likely to be prohibitive for many years to come. Plans are being vetted for a nuclear-powered desalination plant in parched coastal Shandong Province that would yield 160,000 tons of fresh water daily, said academician Li Zhaohuan of the China Society of Nuclear Science. He said, however, that the plan is far from winning government approval and would take "at least 10 years" to materialize. China has one desalination plant in operation -- an electric-powered facility on Xingshan island off the coast of Zhejiang Province. It provides only 500 tons of potable water daily, and is designed to meet the needs of a local population previously dependent on water shipped from the mainland at high cost. A similar desalination plant, to turn out 1,000 tons per day powered by remotely generated electricity, is planned for Shandong's Chang island. For large-scale desalination, however, the only feasible energy source is nuclear power, Mr. Li said. "Nuclear power is cheap," and the expense of using conventional energy sources to remove salt is prohibitive. Shandong -- short on water and relatively wealthy -- is the obvious place to start. Mr. Li and other nuclear-desalination boosters are plugging for a 160,000 ton-per-day plant in the port city of Dalian. The project would cost "several billion yuan," or hundreds of millions of dollars, but would be able to provide fresh water at a cost of 4 yuan per ton, he said. That is four times as much as most Chinese consumers are paying for their subsidized drinking water, but it is about on par with what they will have to pay when China's tentative policy of "rational pricing" for water takes hold, industry sources say. Skeptics, however, say nuclear-powered desalination is a pipe dream. "The real price ends up being more like $800 to $1,600 per ton, if you include all the costs of constructing and maintaining a nuclear plant," said nuclear scientist Dong Duo of Qinghua University's Nuclear Research Institute. "There is a very serious drought this year in Shandong, so people are kicking around this idea as one possible solution," he said. "But there is no plan for a project yet." Shandong has no nuclear-power plant, and indeed China suspended all nuclear-power development in 1997 when a host of new thermal generators came on line, creating an energy glut. "If they are linking nuclear power to the effort to solve China's water problems, I would say that is some very creative thinking," one power analyst told Kyodo. All site contents copyright © 2001 News World ***************************************************************** 3 Yucca project budget sliced July 13, 2001 Senate panel, led by Reid, approves funding reduction By Mary Manning and Benjamin Grove LAS VEGAS SUN WASHINGTON -- A Senate panel on Thursday slashed funding for the Yucca Mountain project, setting up a battle with pro-Yucca lawmakers. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $25.1 billion energy and water bill that included the smallest budget in six years for the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. The clout of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., led to the Yucca budget cuts. The No. 2 Senate Democrat wrote the funding details for the overall bill. He is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. Reid leads the Nevada delegation in its battle against the proposed Yucca Mountain project, a federal plan to bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste in underground tombs beneath the desert ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. While the Bush administration asked for $445 million to complete studies at Yucca Mountain, the only site under study by the Department of Energy as a permanent burial ground for 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, the Senate Appropriations Committee, at Reid's direction, sliced the request to $275 million. "There are other priorities," Reid spokesman Nathan Naylor said. "When he looked around at all these competing requirements for renewable energy programs and water appropriations for the entire country, the funding for some of these Yucca Mountain initiatives were low on his list of priorities." But the Yucca budget is hardly final -- the committee vote merely sets up a skirmish on project spending. The House last month approved $443 million for Yucca, nearly what the DOE requested. After the full Senate approves the energy and water budget -- likely next week -- a "conference committee" panel of both House and Senate lawmakers would meet to iron out differences between the bills. A number of pro-Yucca House and Senate lawmakers likely will fight to increase the project budget. Yucca has stalwart defenders in both chambers, among them Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House energy and air quality committee. Barton "definitely" will fight to give the DOE the money it requested this year, Barton spokeswoman Samantha Jordan said today. Barton has served on previous energy and water conference committees. Barton wants to take Yucca spending decisions from Congress altogether. Barton has said he is tired of Congress every year limiting the amount of money the DOE can spend out of the $10 billion national nuclear waste fund. Barton is fighting for legislation to give the DOE free access to the whole fund to spend however and whenever DOE officials deem appropriate -- without being subject to annual spending limits set by Congress. Utility ratepayers who use electricity generated by nuclear power pay a special tax that feeds the fund. Reid's slashing of the Yucca budget is another argument for taking Yucca spending decisions from Congress, Jordan said. The DOE had no official comment on the proposed cuts. For now, Yucca projects continue. DOE spokeswoman Gayle Fisher said the agency is not yet changing its plans for completing studies and recommending the site later this year. "(The budget) is not final," she said. Reid also touted other pieces of the bill, which funnel $137 million to Nevada for energy and water projects. Projects include $1 million for the national Million Solar Roofs project and $5 million to establish a National Renewable Energy Laboratory site. "I am especially pleased with the funding now available for alternative energy development," the senator said. The largest project in Nevada's share of the funding earmarks $30 million to build flood control projects on the Flamingo and Tropicana washes west of Las Vegas. Other significant funding for Southern Nevada projects includes $6.2 million for electric power, safety, communications and bus upgrades at the Nevada Test Site, $6 million for UNLV research into economic and environmentally sound ways to transform high-level nuclear waste into less harmful byproducts and $6 million for developing ways to manage nuclear worker medical records for the DOE. Reid also authorized $6 million for oversight by 10 counties affected by a proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and $4 million to study ground water under the Nevada Test Site -- where more than 1,000 nuclear weapons were detonated from 1951 until 1992 -- and Yucca Mountain, adjacent to the site. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 4 Hospital staffs get training for radioactive-waste mishap 07/12/01 By JOHN C. KUEHNER Emergency room staffs at six hospitals along a railroad route across Ohio have been prepared to treat injuries in case a train carrying radioactive waste wrecks. This is the first time the state has trained hospital staff how to handle a patient contaminated after a truck or train accident, even though nuclear material has crossed through Ohio periodically since the 1940s. The federal government provided the money for the training in expectation of a train that is to carry waste nuclear fuel from western New York through Ohio by the end of the summer. The waste fuel is so hot that exposure for a few seconds can cause cancer. A few minutes can bring death. "We're not trying to make more out of it than it is, but we feel we need to be prepared just in case," said Bob Owen, manager of technical services for the Ohio Department of Health. "Realistically, the probability of something like this occurring is very small." The Department of Energy is removing the waste from a closed reprocessing plant outside Buffalo, where it has been since the early 1970s, and moving it to a federal lab in Idaho in heavily shielded casks. The waste will be stowed in 120-ton, bright-white, dumbbell-shaped containers on two flatcars as part of a seven-car train, DOE spokesman John Chamberlain said. The federal government has no plans to make public the date when the radioactive waste will move through Ohio, but the appropriate authorities and agencies will know, he said. This shipment is seen as a herald of thousands more waste fuel shipments to come in the next decades. Nuclear waste is piling up at nuclear power plants across the nation, waiting for the federal government to open a permanent disposal site, which is being studied in Nevada outside Las Vegas. If the Nevada site opens, radioactive waste from power plants in the eastern United States will cross through Ohio, either by truck or train on its way west. A federal study found that if waste is moved by truck, it would take 11,200 shipments. If it is moved by train, it would take 2,700 shipments, plus 1,600 by truck. At a news conference in Cleveland yesterday, anti-nuclear activists called for the nuclear industry to "turn off the tap" and quit creating the waste. "This is a health risk," said Chris Trepal of the Earth Day Coalition of Cleveland. "Accidents will happen." The Battelle Memorial Research Laboratory outside Columbus and an atomic facility outside Dayton also are expected to start shipping radioactive waste within the next year to a federal underground repository in New Mexico, said Fred Agler, Public Utilities Commission transportation director. Besides training 17 hospital staff members, the Ohio Emergency Management Agency has trained emergency responders in counties along the route, said Carol O'Claire, the agency's radiological branch chief. The Energy Department will track the train by satellite and share the data with the state, she said. Utilities commission staff members have inspected the route's rails. The Ohio Department of Health will send specialists to inspect the cars before the train leaves West Valley to be sure radiation levels are safe, Owen said. The cars will be inspected at a stop in New Castle, Pa., where a new crew will take over, and again in Fostoria, where crews again will be switched. Workers from hospitals in Defiance, Tiffin, Findlay, Ashland, Ravenna and Wadsworth were trained, as well as emergency medical staff from Hancock County, Owen said. The state has not had the money or support to do the training, Owen said. Similar training has been done yearly at hospitals near the Perry and the Davis-Besse nuclear power plants. E-mail: jkuehner@plaind.com Phone: 216-999-5325 © 2001 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 Senate Panel Cuts Yucca Mountain Waste Site Funds Sources: Reuters | AP | ABCNEWS.com Thursday July 12 5:44 PM ET By Vicki Allen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate panel on Thursday passed a $25 billion bill for energy programs that slashes funds for a nuclear waste dump in Nevada while it boosts resources to tend the nation's nuclear arsenal and reclaim sites contaminated in its development. The bill to fund energy and water projects with the Oct. 1 start of the next fiscal year passed unanimously by the Democratic-led Senate Appropriations Committee, is $2.6 billion more than President Bush sought and $1.4 billion above the version passed by the Republican-led House of Representatives. While committee members said their bill would fix shortcomings in Bush's budget, they warned that funds likely would drop as differences are worked out with the House bill and lawmakers struggle to stay within overall budget limits. In a bow to Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the assistant majority leader who also chairs the subcommittee that crafted the bill, $125 million was sliced from a program to build an underground dump in Nevada's Yucca Mountain to hold radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants. Nevada is fighting the nuclear power industry's push to make it the nation's repository for spent fuel that remains dangerous for thousands of years and is accumulating in above-ground storage at plants across the country. Some $8 billion has been spent over the last 20 years to determine if Yucca Mountain will offer safe storage, with critics contending the studies have shown it is unsuitable. The House's energy and water bill has the $435 million for Yucca Mountain that Bush sought, while the Senate panel provided $275 million. The Senate committee bill contains $6 billion to maintain the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, up $925 million from the House bill and $705 million more than Bush had sought. To continue to clean-up the radioactive mess at various sites across the country left by building the arsenal, the bill earmarks $7.23 billion, $200 million above the House allocation and $900 million more than had Bush wanted. While the Senate bill emphasized the nuclear weapons complex, it offers less money than the House version to the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control, river dredging and other water projects. The Senate plan has $4.3 billion for water projects, $162 million less than the House but $405 million more than Bush's plan, which targeted them as unnecessary pork. But the Senate offered more money for research and development of renewable energy sources such as solar and biomass, providing $435 million, compared with the House's $375 million. Bush sought $275 million. Copyright © 2001 . All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 Alfyorov To Head Nuclear-Waste Committee - The St. Petersburg Times. General news from St.Petersburg and Russia #686, Friday, July 13, 2001 By Charles Digges STAFF WRITER Photo by SERGEY GRACHEV/SPT Along with giving his approval of a controversial nuclear-waste import law, President Vladimir Putin named local Nobel laureate Zhores Alfyorov to head a special committee that will oversee implementation of the project. Putin signed the law, which allows Russia to accept spent nuclear fuel for storage and reprocessing, at the Kremlin on Wednesday. Alfyorov's Committee for Issues on Reprocessed Nuclear Fuel is envisioned as a public information clearing house on the project, as well as a safety watchdog. "The creation of this commission is not to calm fears, but rather to move in the direction of society to review the issues surrounding the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel," Alfyorov told a press conference at the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Wednesday. According to Nuclear Power Ministry officials, shipments of spent nuclear fuel could begin arriving in about a year. Alfyorov, who is a Communist Duma deputy, has championed Russia's decaying scientific infrastructure since his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for physics in December. He has stated that he sees the waste-import program promoted by the Nuclear Power Ministry as crucial to solving that problem. If the imports go ahead as planned, proponents of the law say that Russia could earn $20 billion over the next 10 years by importing about 20,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel. The imported fuel is due to be stored until 2021 while Russia upgrades its reprocessing facilities with money earned from exporters such as Taiwan, Japan, China, and Iran. But despite its success in the Duma and the Federation Council, the law has been vociferously opposed by Russian citizens and environmentalists, who have revealed their distaste for the project in demonstrations and polls. Opinion polls have consistenly shown that about 90 percent of the public opposes the plan. Vladimir Slivyak, chairman of the environmental group Ecodefense, said in a telephone interview from Moscow on Thursday that the project "will turn Russia into the world's nuclear toilet." Opponents also say that rampant corruption and Russia's spotty nuclear-safety record cast doubt on the country's ability to handle the spent fuel safely. The U.S. State Department criticized the law and demanded that strict safety measures and audits be put in place, said a department official by telephone, who declined to be named on Wednesday. While conceding he had "no idea" how the money for imports would be accounted for, Alfyorov promised transparency, and said he "trusts implicitly his colleges at the Nuclear Power Ministry" who will be handling the finances. Alfyorov will head a 20-person committee responsible for overseeing all deals under the law, and which will be empowered to reject those it considers dangerous. However, in making such judgments, the committee will rely on information provided by the ministry. Although the rest of the committee has not yet been named, the presidential order stipulated that it include 20 people - five from Putin's administration and an equal number from each of the government, the Duma and the Federation Council. It is unclear when the committee will meet for the first time. But the 71-year-old Alfyorov - although enthusiastic - demurred at his appointment, citing his partiality to solar energy as a clean and potentially inexhaustible source of energy. He said that he saw his acceptance of the appointment as a choice between the lesser of two evils, and voiced the hope that some of the money expected from the import project could finance solar experiments. "As energy options, solar power is the cleanest. But the law [on importing nuclear waste] is the law," said Alfyorov. "No research money is being devoted to solar power, so I took this position because nuclear power is the next cleanest thing available. The 21st century is the century of nuclear energy, not only in Russia but around the world." Alfyorov also confessed to his own lack of experience in nuclear physics. His Nobel work, completed 20 years ago, involved the use of semiconductors and led to the development of such inventions as compact-disc players and mobile telephones. Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said at a Moscow press conference on Wednesday that the first loads of waste could begin arriving in a year, although media reports indicated some shipments are already on the way or may even have already arrived. "We are in contact with foreign colleagues on this issue, but have no concrete customers at the moment," said Rumyantsev, according to Interfax. "We hope that during that time we can actively work on further safety improvements in our handling of nuclear waste," he said, adding that Russia could possibly corner 10 percent of the nuclear-waste reprocessing business by 2005. Rumyantsev also welcomed the creation of Alfyorov's oversight committee, albeit with faint praise. "We're not going to discuss [the law], we are just going to fulfill it," Rumyantsev said. "The law signed by the president supports this home-grown production of nuclear fuel. And now, customers abroad will know that Russia will take its used fuel back." Rumyantsev said that France and Britain have carved up the market for depleted nuclear fuel, and Russia will have to fight to secure a share. Reprocessed fuel can be used again, leaving small quantities of unusable radioactive waste. The Nuclear Power Ministry is notorious for its reticence and secrecy. Rumyantsev's predecessor, Yevgeny Adamov, who authored the import plan, was fired in March following allegations that he had illegally continued to engage in business activities and had used his post to appoint his unqualified business associates to ministry positions. This, according to the Greenpeace Moscow project coordinator Vladimir Chuprov, accounts for Alfyorov's cool reception by Rumyantsev and his own misgivings about the project. "Nothing about the Nuclear Power Ministry, especially its finances, is transparent, and Alfyorov is a liar or a fool if he thinks he can change that," Chuprov said in a telephone interview from Moscow. "It is all a public-relations stunt, trying to make people think a 'civilian' organization will have some say in the process, when it has already been stated that all positions in Alfyorov's committee go to government suits." Greenpeace has called for a national candlelight vigil to protest the passage of the law for 10 p.m. on Thursday. Chuprov said he expected "hundreds of thousands" to turn out. [Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2001 ***************************************************************** 7 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Friday, July 13, 2001 State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects ADAMS - Items of Interest Recent Released Documents Added - Friday, July 13, 2001 These documents and others may be retrieved at the NRC PERR web site ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item ID: 011930180 Accession Number: ML011910027 Date Added: 7/12/01 10:20:47 AM Title: 06/27/2001 - Summary of Public Meeting with Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) to Discuss Resolution of the Staff's Comments on NEI 00-04, Rev 2, Option 2 Implementation Guideline, and Status of Pilot Activities. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DRIP Document/Report Number: NEI 00-04 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930006 Accession Number: ML011860462 Date Added: 7/12/01 9:11:32 AM Title: 07/03/2001 Meeting Notice No. 01-037 with Temple University on 7/9/2001 Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-I/DNMS, NRC/RGN-I/DNMS/NMSB1 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930278 Accession Number: ML011930276 Date Added: 7/12/01 2:12:31 PM Title: 07/16/01 - 08/20/01 Commission Meetings - FRN Author Affiliation: NRC/SECY Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930152 Accession Number: ML011830161 Date Added: 7/12/01 10:16:11 AM Title: 07/17/2001 Meeting with Tennessee Valley Authority re: Annual Performance Assessment of the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-II Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930329 Accession Number: ML011930295 Date Added: 7/12/01 4:17:02 PM Title: 07/24/2001 - Notice of Meeting with Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Regarding Electrical Grid Reliability Issues. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DRIP/RGEB Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930332 Accession Number: ML011930448 Date Added: 7/12/01 4:17:58 PM Title: 07/26/2001 - 07/27/2001 Meeting with Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and Industry Regarding PWR Sump Strainer Concerns. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DRIP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930218 Accession Number: ML011920581 Date Added: 7/12/01 10:35:53 AM Title: 8/2/01 Meeting with Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Part 70 Licensees to Discuss NRC's Draft NUREG-1520, Standard Review Plan, Chapter 3 and its Appendix. Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/FCSS Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930040 Accession Number: ML011840254 Date Added: 7/12/01 9:17:19 AM Title: Envirocare of Utah, Inc. - Shipment Discrepancies, Problem Report #E01-005. Author Affiliation: Envirocare of Utah, Inc. Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930042 Accession Number: ML003771524 Date Added: 7/12/01 9:17:27 AM Title: G20000547/LTR-00-0698 - Ralph E. Beedle, Nuclear Energy Institute Ltr re SECY-00-198, "Status Report on Study of Risk-Informed Changes to the Technical Requirements of 10 CFR 50 (Option 3) and Recommendations on Risk-informed Changes to 10 CFR 50.44." Author Affiliation: Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930043 Accession Number: ML010470406 Date Added: 7/12/01 9:17:32 AM Title: G20010079/LTR-01-0109 - Rep. Michael Bilirakis Ltr re: Exelon Proposal of an Electrical Power Generator Fueled by Uranium (Rodney M. Adams) Author Affiliation: US HR Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930045 Accession Number: ML011840476 Date Added: 7/12/01 9:17:44 AM Title: IR0408989/2001-002 Envirocare of Utah, Inc., 07/03/2001 Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-IV/DNMS/FCDB Document/Report Number: IR-01-002 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930069 Accession Number: ML011770430 Date Added: 7/12/01 9:39:43 AM Title: Letter- Meeting Announcement- Closed pre-Decisional Enforcement Conference of University of Missouri-Columbia. Author Affiliation: NRC\NRR\DRIP\REXB Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930214 Accession Number: ML011920569 Date Added: 7/12/01 10:35:41 AM Title: Modification No. 001, Task Order No. 010, Entitled, "Geological and Seismological Characteristics for Siting and Design of Dry Cask Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations, 10 CFR Part 72" Under Contract No. NRC-02-00-003. Author Affiliation: NRC/ADM/DCPM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930269 Accession Number: ML011910118 Date Added: 7/12/01 2:11:24 PM Title: MOX Response to Letter Dtd June 22, 2001, Re: Request for NRC to Respond to Letter from Bruce Duncil re: Proposed MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility @ Savannah River Site Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930204 Accession Number: ML011920542 Date Added: 7/12/01 10:35:06 AM Title: Press Release-I-01-014: Note To Editors: New Time For NRC Chairman's Press Briefing At Indian Point 2. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-I/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-I-01-014 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011930196 Accession Number: ML011920495 Date Added: 7/12/01 10:34:12 AM Title: Press Release-II-01-020: NRC To Meet With Southern Nuclear Officials To Discuss Safety Performance At Hatch Nuclear Power Plant. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-II/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-II-01-020 ***************************************************************** 8 Alfyorov Can't Stop Sale of the Environment Opinion - - The St. Petersburg Times. General news from St.Petersburg and Russia #686, Friday, July 13, 2001 ALTHOUGH we've known for months now that things were coming to this, the final approval of the obscene plan to import nuclear waste for storage and reprocessing still comes as a heavy blow. President Vladimir Putin signed the measure on Wednesday, clearing the way for the Nuclear Power Ministry to begin the virtually unsupervised sale of the Russian environment. The facts of the case are simple. The Soviet and Russian nuclear programs have an appalling record of absolute disregard for safety and the environment. Hundreds of thousands of people - perhaps millions - are suffering today from this callous indifference. Many more have already died. Now, the ministry has the temerity to use this history as an excuse for new atrocities, claiming that it will use part of the revenues generated to clean up the messes with which it has littered the country over the last half-century. What is more, 90 percent of the Russian people - both those who live in irradiated zones and those who, thankfully, so far do not - oppose this plan. Nonetheless, the country's democratically elected leaders have contemptuously ignored their views. A petition to force a national referendum on the subject was quashed by the Central Elections Commission last November, in what was patently a successful effort to steamroll public opinion. This incident will go down as one of the low points of Russian democracy. Now, as a sort of cynical gesture that is being pitched as a sign of concern for the people's well-being, Putin has created an oversight committee and nominated local Duma deputy and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Zhores Alfyorov to head it. Few doubt the sincerity of Alfyorov's commitment to excellence in Russian science. However, he must realize that such excellence depends at least as much on the wholehearted support of the public and the pride that the people take in the nation's achievements, as it does on state support or budgetary funding. Alfyorov and his committee will not be able to ensure that the imported waste is properly transported and stored. He should take a lesson from the United States - a country with its own history of irradiating its citizens - which spent $6 billion just studying a proposed site for its nuclear-waste storage facility. Alfyorov and his committee will not be able to ensure that any money earned is spent on clean-ups. No one has been able to force the Nuclear Power Ministry to spend the funds that Western governments have already given it for such purposes as they were intended. Environmentalists held a nationwide candlelight vigil last night. It would seem that, at this point, there is nothing else to do. [Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2001 ***************************************************************** 9 Fascinating chronology -- milestones, anecdotes -- of Y-12's three 'Eras' 07/12/01 The Oak Ridger Online - Opinion - Story last updated at 2:33 p.m. on Thursday, July 12, 2001 Editor's License Dick Smyser An electric shaver brought from home one morning solved a major equipment snarl at Y-12. Bear Creek Valley Road, main highway entrance to this vast plant complex bordering close on the Oak Ridge community, was closed off on just hours' notice one Thanksgiving Eve. Security officials hastily improvised Dempster Dumpsters filled with sand to block public traffic. Concluding that "too many cooks" offering advice -- making suggestions -- were hindering fabrication of key parts for an important project, a Y-12 supervisor physically removed security badges from the guard station at the building's entrance, effectively barring all but a few key personnel. These anecdotes and quantities of other fascinating information are within the 71 pages of "An Overview of the History of Y-12, 1942-1992" authored by William J. Wilcox Jr. with the help of 23 fellow Y-12 retirees and colleagues. Wilcox, long the technical director for not just Y-12 but also Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, divides his history into three time periods: Y-12's First Era, 1942-1947: Its employment peaking at 22,000 in May 1945, Y-12 separates the U-235 that fueled the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, Aug. 6, 1945. World War II ends the following week. Second Era, 1947-1992: Its employment pared to 1,657 by the end of 1946, Y-12 regroups and becomes one of 12 primary U.S. nuclear weapons manufacturing plants for the next 46 years -- until 1992. Third Era, 1992 to present: Y-12 becomes a prime site for weapons dismantling and storage of special nuclear materials. And through all of the plant's now 59 years, Y-12 not just retains but embellishes its reputation as a "can do" outfit capable of precision workmanship virtually without peer. Wilcox says a primary purpose in his compiling what is obviously a major contribution to Oak Ridge history has been to assist Mick Wiest in his collection of historical information for the Department of Energy in compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act. Wiest, longtime Y-12 worker, is president of the newly organized Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. "Overview" is filled with choice Y-12 stories like those mentioned above: the electric shaver helped steady a vibrating stylus which was inhibiting the fine-tuning of some lathes; the abrupt road closing was ordered by DOE that night in November 1984 out of concern for terrorist acts committed and threatened elsewhere; the "too many cooks" situation and the innovative employee ban to solve it involved work in the Thorium Shop. Other interesting items at random: + The roof of Building 9206, a chemical recycling facility, was designed to be kept flooded to help cool the interior, this before air conditioning for large industrial spaces was available. + In 1947 when Atomic Energy Commission officials decided that the postwar plant could become an important weapons facility, a team of three -- Jack Case, Wimpy Hilton and John Strohecker -- were dispatched to Los Alamos to be briefed on weapons work there. At first Los Alamos officials were cordial but then abruptly told them to leave. It took three weeks before they were allowed back in. + Author Wilcox, arriving at the security gates one morning, was suddenly commandeered by a military policeman who jumped on the side of his 1938 Chevy coupe and ordered Bill to head off the car that had just preceded him through the gate. The MP was upset that an officer -- "that brass" -- had not slowed properly. And not just anecdotes, but important milestones and turning points are recorded: + "The 42 Games Experiment," a competition with Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Bendix-Kansas City to judge which facility could do the most precise machining and in which Y-12 was the undisputed winner. + "The 18-Day Turnaround," a proven can-do boast by Y-12 that it could move weapons components from machining to inspection to certification within 18 days. + How in 1967 Y-12 fabricated the "Rock Boxes" taken to the moon in July 1969 in which to collect moon rocks -- boxes machined from a solid block of aluminum so as to be utterly leakproof, strong but also light and squeaky clean. + The realization in 1955 that large quantities of mercury were being lost in lithium operations related to thermonuclear weapon operations. + DOE's adoption in 1987 of stricter standards for the handling of uranium leading to dramatic tightening of controls on personal exposure. + The completion of the Advanced Analytical Laboratory building in 1952 which Wilcox, a chemist, says, "allowed Y-12 to move into the forefront of most, if not all of the Nuclear Weapons Complex plants in the analytical chemistry field during the years to come." And one more "Y-12 Twicetold Tale" as related by George Jasny, former top Y-12 official for engineering and chemical operations and ultimately vice president for Martin Marietta Energy Systems, now retired and one of Wilcox's collaborators. On June 16, 1958, the day of Y-12's most serious radiation incident, he -- Jasny -- was in his office when the radiation alarm went off. George grabbed his portable radiation meter, left the office where he encountered others including Roger Hibbs, then head of Y-12 chemical operations. George looked at his meter, saw that it was highly agitated and assumed it was malfunctioning. Hibbs looked at his meter and yelled "Let's get the hell out of here." Which is why, George has said in later references to that dramatic day, "he (Hibbs) and not I became president of the Nuclear Division." -- RDS Richard D. Smyser is founding editor of The Oak Ridger. You can reach him by e-mail at All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 10 Radioactive waste may go to Russia The Taipei Times Online: 2001-07-13 Friday, July 13th, 2001 NUCLEAR POWER: A new Russian law is to allow the import and storage of nuclear waste, providing a possible solution to Taiwan's nuclear-waste problem By Chiu Yu-Tzu STAFF REPORTER, WITH THE GUARDIAN, MOSCOW A decision by Russia on Wednesday to accept shipments of nuclear waste from foreign countries may provide Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, ¥x¹q) with a long-awaited solution to Taiwan's growing nuclear-waste problem. It was unclear, however, how much such a solution would cost and when the waste could be shipped to Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday approved a law on nuclear-waste imports, but proposed that such imports would be subject to approval by a special commission. The law will come into effect once it is published in full in the state-run press in coming days, ITAR-TASS news agency reported. The new law could reportedly earn Russia as much as US$22 billion over the next 10 years for reprocessing and storing approximately 20,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel. In addition to Taiwan, countries such as India, China, South Korea, Japan and Switzerland are also interested in the proposal. Taipower officials yesterday said that they are already looking into the possibility of signing an official contract with Russia to replace an existing memorandum, but denied that a new deal would mean Taiwan would ship more waste to Russia. The memorandum was a preliminary plan which involves 5,000 barrels of low-level radioactive waste. However, Taipower officials told the Taipei Times yesterday that the policy of nuclear-waste management would not change until Taipower's contracted Russian agent provided them with details of the new law. "We have to make sure exactly what kind of radioactive waste ... will be accepted," Huang Huei-yu (¶À´f¤©), division head of Taipower's public affairs department, said yesterday. It is estimated that Taipower has produced approximately 300,000 barrels of radioactive waste, including around 100,000 barrels of low-level waste stored on Orchid Island awaiting disposal. Environmentalists both overseas and in Taiwan responded with fury to Putin's decision, saying that it would turn Russia into a dumping ground for the world's nuclear waste. Russia's preliminary plan is to put most of the waste in storage at two of Russia's biggest nuclear sites: the 40-year-old Mayak site in the Urals and Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. "After a series of accidents, Mayak is now considered to be the most contaminated spot on earth," Tobias Muenchmeyer of the environmental watchdog Greenpeace said. "The state of both of these sites clearly demonstrates that Russia is the worst possible place to [take] nuclear waste." Activists in Taiwan were also strongly opposed to the shipment of waste to Russia. "It's unethical to dump waste in a neighboring area. This will definitely create a notorious image for Taiwan in the international community," said Pan Han-chiang (¼ï¿«Ã¦), vice secretary-general of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration. Pan said that abandoning nuclear energy was the only way to ensure a safe future for Taiwan because existing technologies could do little to ensure the safety of nuclear power. "[Moving] radioactive waste from Orchid Island to Russia does not mean that the problem of disposing nuclear waste will be solved," Pan said. Traumatized by memories of the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe, most Russians are firmly opposed to the idea of nuclear waste imports: an opinion poll earlier this year showed that 89 percent disapproved of the proposal. Environmentalists in Russia have vowed to fight the proposal. This story has been viewed 429 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/07/13/story/0000093911] Copyright © 1999-2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 NRC to Meet With AMEREN/UE to Discuss Safety Performance at Callaway Nuclear Station Region IV -- 2001- 38 - UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 No. IV-01-038 July 12, 2001 CONTACT: Breck Henderson Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227 e-mail: bwh@nrc.gov The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with officials of Ameren/UE on Thursday, July 19, to discuss the results of NRC's annual assessment of safety performance at the Callaway Nuclear Station near Fulton, Missouri. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Capitol Plaza Hotel, 415 W. McCarty St., Jefferson City, Mo. The public is invited to observe the meeting. NRC officials will be available after the meeting to answer questions. A letter sent from NRC Region IV to Ameren/UE, which addresses plant safety performance during the previous year and forms the basis of the meeting discussion, is available from the Region IV Office of Public Affairs or on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/ppr/.Current safety performance information for Callaway is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/CALL/call_chart.html. ***************************************************************** 12 NRC TO MEET WITH EXELON COMPANY TO DISCUSS SAFETY PERFORMANCE AT THE QUAD CITIES NUCLEAR STATION Region III -- 2001 - 039 -- UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 No. III-01-039 July 13, 2001 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630)829-9663/e-mail: rjs2@nrc.gov Pam Alloway-Mueller (630)829-9662/e-mail: pla@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet with Exelon Generation Company officials July 19 to discuss the NRC's annual assessment of safety performance at the Quad Cities Nuclear Station in Cordova, Illinois. The meeting will begin at 1 p.m. CDT and will be held at the station's Training Center, 22712 206th Avenue N. in Cordova. The public is invited to observe the session. NRC officials will be available afterwards to answer questions. The annual assessment, referred to as the End-of-Cycle assessment, evaluates safety performance at the Quad Cities station from April 2000 through March 2001, and informs station officials of the NRC's plans for future inspections at the facility. In a letter to Exelon officials addressing the plant's performance, NRC officials said that the plant had performed safely during the assessment period, but noted that there had been a decline in performance in some areas. NRC Region III Deputy Administrator James Caldwell will participate in the July 19 assessment meeting because of that decline in performance which has resulted in increased NRC oversight, including additional inspections. The areas for increased NRC inspection efforts included plant security, radiation protection planning for work during outages, and the availability of certain safety systems. NRC staff members also met earlier this year with Exelon management to discuss these issues. The Quad Cities assessment letter and inspection report are available at http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/ppror from the Region III Public Affairs Office. Current performance information for the plant is available at http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/index.html. ***************************************************************** 13 China's Releases 5-Yr Development Plan for Power Industry Welcome to The PMA OnLine Power Report ( July 11, 2001 ) BEIJING, July 11 Asia Pulse - The following is the 2001-2005 development plan for the power industry as announced by the State Economic and Trade Commission recently: 1. Targets of development: (1) Installed capacity: China's installed capacity of power production is expected to reach 390 million kW by 2005, including 95 million kW of hydropower, 286 million kW of thermal power, 8.7 million kW of nuclear power, and 1.2 million kW of new forms of energy such as wind power and solar energy. (2) Power grid: By 2005, all neighboring power grids, except those in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hainan, will be connected up and the structure of power grids will become more rational. By then, the length of 220-kV and above AC and DC transmission lines will reach 230,000km; the capacity of transformer will reach 670 million KVA; the reliability of power supply by urban power grids will average 99.99 per cent; and the line loss will be controlled below 7 per cent. (3) Environmental protection Major thermal power plants will maintain their annual discharge of major pollutants in the next few years at the level of 2000 or even lower. The discharge of sulfur dioxide will be effectively controlled and the recycling of waste water will exceed 60 per cent. (4) By 2005, power supply will be available to all villages in China. 2. Priorities of development: (1) To strengthen construction of power grids and promote national integration of power grids China will increase investment in power grids so to keep up with the pace of power plant construction. Construction of the Three Gorges Transmission and Transformer Project will continue to follow the principle of high standards and high quality; construction of the three west-to-east power transmission lines in the south, central and north China areas will be sped up. To be connected in the next five years are the Northeast and North China power grids; the Fujian and East China power grids; the Northwest and Central China power grids; the central and north China power grids; the Sichuan-Chongqing and Northwest China power grids; the Shandong and north China power grids; and the power transmission from the Three Gorges to Guangdong. Preliminary work of connecting Shandong and east China power grids will start. (2) To renovate and upgrade 200,000-kW and 300,000-kW thermal power generating units The average coal consumption by power supply will be reduced by 10-15grams/kWh, and the peak regulation capacity of large thermal generating units will reach 50 per cent. Thus the life span of generating units will be prolonged. (3) To restructure power source China will energetically develop hydropower, mainly in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Hongshui River, the middle and lower reaches of the Lancang River, Wujiang River and the upper reaches of the Yellow River. In the next five years, construction of some large hydropower stations, including Longtan, Xiaowan, Shuibuya, Goupitan, Sanbanxi, Gongboxia, and Pubugou, will start. Meanwhile, China will selectively develop thermal power stations and close down 25 million kW of small and backward thermal power units. Construction of conventional thermal power projects will be strictly controlled; combined production of heat and power and power production by comprehensive utilization will be promoted to protect the environment and improve the efficiency of energy utilization. (4) To promote power transmission from the western to eastern China In the next five years, China will mainly construct 500-kV AC transmission line from Tianshengqiao to Guangdong; from Kunming to Tianshengqiao through Luoping; from Guizhou to Guangdong through Guangxi and 500-kV DC transmission line from Guizhou to Guangdong and from the Three Gorges to Guangdong. The central China power grid will mainly construct the Three Gorges Transmission and Transformer Project, 6,900km of 500-kV AC transmission line; 2,200km of 500-kV DC transmission line; 24.75 million KVA of 500-kV AC transformer capacity and 12 million kW of DC transformer capacity. About 60 per cent of the work of the Three Gorges project will be completed in the next five years. (5) To pay attention to environmental protection On the basis of reclaiming various pollutants discharged, China will tighten its control over discharge of sulfur dioxide. By 2005, the industry of desulfurization will take shape and home-made 300,000-kW and above wet method desulfurizing units will go into operation. 3. Policies and measures China will deepen the market-oriented reform of the power system and will gradually separate power plants from grids. All power plants will join the competition to sell their electricity to power grids and establish a modern enterprise system. Meanwhile, foreign loans and advanced technologies and equipment will be introduced to enhance the technological and equipment level. China will create a better investment environment for foreign investors and encourage them to participate in fair market competition. (XIC) www.powermarketers.com ***************************************************************** 14 Reid proposal slashes budget for Yucca Mountain research July 13, 2001 LAS VEGAS (AP) - U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, flexing new political muscle, has taken the knife to the proposed federal budget for research into burying nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Debuting as chairman of the Senate's energy and water subcommittee, Reid, D-Nev., unveiled a spending bill Thursday in Washington that reduces the Bush administration's budget for radioactive waste disposal by 38 percent in 2002. "Sen. Reid believes our nation and our state have higher priorities than excessive funding for Yucca Mountain," Reid aide Nathan Naylor said Friday. "The guiding philosophy is this: We're entering a period of fiscal constraints. We're being asked to do more with less, nationally." The spending measure passed the Senate Appropriations Committee without dissent and is expected to be debated by the full Senate starting Monday. It allocates $275 million for the Energy Department study of Yucca Mountain as a possible nuclear repository - far less than the requested $445 million. The appropriation could be increased when the Senate bill is mated with a House version, which allocates only $2 million less than the Bush administration requested. Committee negotiations often split the difference. Yucca Mountain is on the western edge of the Nevada Test Site, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It is the only place being studied to entomb the nation's 77,000 tons of radioactive commercial, industrial and military waste. The Energy Department wouldn't immediately comment on the possibility of a sixth consecutive year of Yucca Mountain budget cuts. "Until we see what the final numbers are from the conference committee, we're not going to comment," said Gayle Fisher, spokeswoman for the Energy Department's Yucca Mountain project office in Las Vegas. Yucca Mountain was the only major program to be slashed in the $25.4 billion energy and water bill formulated by Reid and written by his staff. Reflecting the new Senate majority whip's priorities, the legislation contains $705 million more than Bush requested for nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship, a portion of which is spent at the Nevada Test Site. It allocates $900 million more for environmental cleanup at weapons sites than the president requested. Renewable energy research would receive $160 million more than requested. The bill also contains $70 million for research into accelerated transmutation, a process of reformulating nuclear waste into a condensed and less poisonous substance. Some scientists say the process could reduce the need for a large underground repository. Reid identified more than $137 million in the bill for energy and water projects in Nevada - mostly for research at the University of Nevada campuses in Las Vegas and Reno, and for Nevada Test Site improvements. The bill marks Reid's first big swipe at Yucca Mountain since Democrats regained control of the Senate in May and he ascended to the No. 2 majority post and chairman of the key energy and water subcommittee. The government has spent $7 billion since 1982 studying the science, safety and feasibility of burying highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain for thousands of years. The entire Nevada congressional delegation, most state lawmakers and local groups ranging from the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce to environmentalists oppose the Yucca Mountain repository idea. Budget cuts in recent years have delayed decisions on whether Yucca Mountain is a suitable site. Officials say they expect to forward a recommendation to President Bush late this year on whether to ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license the site. The repository could open in 2010. The spending bill was accompanied by a committee report, also authored by Reid, highly critical of the Energy Department's work at Yucca Mountain. It echoes charges made by Nevada officials that the department has sought to change selection criteria to justify the site. The report recommends the department identify nuclear waste transportation routes to Nevada, seek public comment and complete an environmental study before making a site recommendation. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Nuclear threat drives summit with Pakistan -- The Washington Times July 13, 2001 By Ben Barber THE WASHINGTON TIMES Leaders of South Asia's two nuclear-armed giants, India and Pakistan, are squaring off in the press in advance of their first summit Sunday in Agra, India, better known for its temple to love, the Taj Mahal. Avoiding a nuclear war is driving the meeting, say some sources. "We have to be mindful that both countries have been at each other's throats and have nuclear weapons," said a senior U.S. official. "The conflict could get out of hand or they could have accidents." Pakistani military strongman Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who appointed himself president a few weeks ago, says he wants only to discuss Pakistan's claim to Kashmir, the picturesque fruit-rich valley turned into a blood bath by a Muslim separatist movement since 1989. Indian nationalist Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee blames Pakistan for fueling the Kashmir conflict and warns that letting Kashmiris vote on independence or joining Pakistan is a non-starter. He wants to discuss security of the nuclear weapons each side has revealed in 1998 tests, conventional forces, tension reduction, terrorism, hot lines, trade, visas, water and other issues. Kashmir "is not the core issue," Indian Foreign Minister Jasawant Singh said yesterday, repeating Indian insistence it alone has sovereignty over Kashmir. Indian political leaders also have announced they will boycott a tea party tomorrow at Pakistan's embassy in New Delhi with Gen. Musharraf because the latter has invited separatist Kashmiri leaders of the Hurriyat Conference. Expectations for the Indo-Pakistani summit hardly could be much lower. At most, officials hope the summit will lead to a resumption of some sort of dialogue between the leaders of India's 1 billion people and the 140 million Pakistanis, violently separated at the birth of both countries in 1947. Gen. Musharraf, speaking on state television Wednesday, said: "I go [to India] with all seriousness to initiate a process of movement toward the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. "The entire world's attention is focused on this dialogue. So I only hope that we achieve progress in the dialogue toward resolution of the core dispute of Kashmir." The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, "I have no reason to think that a breakthrough is likely. "Musharraf continues to insist that there can be no progress in other areas unless Kashmir is addressed. But there is no indication Musharraf is interested in making a deal on Kashmir. "And there is a question as to whether he has the power" to make a compromise on Kashmir, given the deep emotional commitment in Pakistan to winning Kashmir away from India, the official said. "That's why I don't think a breakthrough is possible." The president of the Pakistan-American Congress, Nisar Chaudhry, said that "neither side can risk a backlash" by radicals at home by appearing to be weak. The deputy chief of Pakistan's embassy in Washington, Zamir Akram, said the summit is unlikely to end the state of near war that has dominated most of the past half century in South Asia. "We are realistic, and it is best to have modest expectations instead of expecting a major breakthrough," Mr. Akram said in an interview in his embassy office in a turret overlooking Massachusetts Avenue. "It's hard to expect five decades of distrust to be washed away in one meeting. At best, the summit may put a dialogue in place to discuss Kashmir and other issues." U.S. officials were surprised when Mr. Vajpayee invited Gen. Musharraf to a meeting in India, the Brookings Institution said in a statement. Anger remains deep in India because an earlier Vajpayee summit with Pakistan in 1998 was followed by a Pakistani incursion at Kargil, Kashmir, that killed close to 1,000 Indian troops. The fighting in Kargil, which began after both sides tested nuclear weapons in May 1998, ended after President Clinton pressured Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to withdraw during a July 4, 1999, meeting in Washington. Mr. Sharif later was overthrown by Gen. Musharraf in a coup. Some Pakistani journalists have broken a taboo by writing that it is apparent India will never relinquish Kashmir for fear it would spark other ethnic separatist movements inside India. They proposed that the Line of Control dividing Kashmir become an international border and that India grant some autonomy to the mainly Muslim inhabitants of its portion. However, Mr. Akram said Pakistan's government does not accept such a view. All site contents copyright © 2001 News World Communications, . ***************************************************************** 2 Papers fuel N-test exposure fears news.com.au - 13 July 2001 From AAP MORE documents which could support claims Australian army personnel were exposed to nuclear tests in the 1950s were released today. Scottish researcher Sue Rabbitt Roff said documents held by the National Australian Archives also showed the army was concerned about the level of protection offered to staff during nuclear tests. She said around 50 members of the Australian Radiation Detection Unit were exposed to radiation as part of their training course in the 1950s. Earlier this year, Ms Rabbitt Roff publicised previously classified documents which showed Australian soldiers had been used in nuclear experiments. The documents contradict previous assertions by the British government that no personnel had been used during its nuclear testing in the Australian outback. The Government is seeking information from Britain about Ms Rabbitt Roff's initial claims. Today's revelations include a memo which says the most senior person on the radiation safety team delegated to Australian personnel was not qualified and had only the most basic education. Another questioned the allocation of some army personnel as they could not read the required instrumental dials used to measure radiation. A Centurian tank, irradiated at ground zero in one test, was taken to the Puckapunyal army base north of Melbourne where it posed a risk to staff for months. "Although the present activity of the vehicle does not present any hazard to personnel in the vicinity, the material remaining could be ingested into the body with some effect," one document stated. Ms Rabbitt Roff said the new documents were further evidence of the danger which Australian personnel faced. "Radiation protection regimes at Maralinga relied on very simplistic cleaning techniques including vacuuming of contaminated vehicles, scrubbing under finger nails, and washing garments separately used during decontamination," she said. "But now we have very sophisticated radio biological tests to measure radiation exposure in those people, even from 50 years ago." Ms Rabbitt Roff said Australia should work with a consortium of Scottish and New Zealand researchers who are refining tests for British and French nuclear veterans. Australian Democrats nuclear spokeswoman Lyn Allison said the Government had to start taking notice of Ms Rabbitt Roff's research. "I challenge (Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Scott) to stop stalling, hiding behind epidemiological tests, and to participate in this consortium that will give veterans real answers about their exposure and be vital to cancer research in general," she said. www.news.com.au ***************************************************************** 3 Maralinga documents reveal Australian safety concerns ABC News - 13 Jul 2001 15:43 ACST It is claimed that Australian officials were alarmed by the safety measures available to workers at the Maralinga nuclear weapons tests. British researcher Sue Rabbitt Roff says archival documents just obtained reveal concerns by senior officials that the manager of the Australian Radiation Detection Unit had no higher qualifications than his school leavers certificate. She says the 50 members of the unit took part in a two-week training course before becoming responsible for the health and safety of thousands of men working at Maralinga during the 1950s. Ms Rabbitt Roff says radiation protection regimes at Maralinga relied on very simplistic cleaning techniques, such as scrubbing under fingernails. "I think what it shows is the lack of concern, under the period of great pressure that the British were under... that they didn't prioritise this work," she said. "You'd think that having your own citizens on the ground at a nuclear weapons test you might put them first, but what the British Government was most concerned about was to analyse the contents of the bomb as they were being developed." 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 4 DOE: Impact of cleanup cuts unknown The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:05 p.m. on Thursday, July 12, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff A manager for the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge cleanup effort says he doesn't "have a clue" what the impact to his program will be if the agency's fiscal year 2002 budget is cut. "It's really too early to tell," said Rod Nelson, assistant manager for DOE's Oak Ridge Environmental Management program, during the Oak Ridge Site-Specific Advisory Board's meeting Wednesday night in the Garden Plaza Hotel. When Mary Lynn Fletcher, an SSAB member, and Norman Mulvenon, an audience member, asked for specifics regarding the cuts, Nelson was reluctant to discuss what projects and how many jobs would be affected. "It's speculative," Nelson said, adding that he is concerned about possible budget cuts. Mulvenon, an Oak Ridge resident, said he wasn't asking for Nelson to be clairvoyant but felt the DOE official should attempt to answer the question. Nelson then said that as a worst-case scenario, the "majority of environmental restoration work would not be performed." He provided no other details, though. Nelson's response, or lack of one, was really no surprise. DOE officials have been tight-lipped about the FY 2002 budget since it was presented earlier this year. Some officials have even said that DOE headquarters implemented a gag order on discussing the budget with media and the general public. Justin Wilson, deputy to the governor, when contacted by The Oak Ridger last week, was also reluctant to discuss what cuts in cleanup funding would mean for Oak Ridge. The House has already approved its version of the DOE funding bill and the Senate is working on its version. As it stands, funding for local cleanup efforts could be reduced by $90 million in FY 2002 when compared to the current fiscal year. That's a drop from $423.7 million to $332.457 million. What does this mean? It means that out of 16 ongoing projects and 23 projects with new phases planned to begin, 30 will be eliminated and two will have seriously reduced efforts. And that means layoffs. The only salvation, if any, could occur when members of the House and Senate meet in conference to hammer out the specifics of the funding bill. At its meeting, the SSAB voted to send letters to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist encouraging efforts to restore adequate funding for cleanup efforts to the budget. The SSAB joins the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee as the only two local entities that have officially expressed concern over the cleanup cuts. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 5 Exposure victims seek compensation 07/13/01 Amarillo Globe-News: Local News: Compensation claim forms are available at www.dol.gov or by calling 1-866-888-3322. "It doesn't make sense," she said. "They were the ones who poisoned me."

She did not get her question answered.

The Clutes, along with almost 350 people, attended the night meeting Thursday to discuss compensation programs administered by the Labor Department.

Nuclear weapons workers and their survivors grilled federal government officials about a compensation program to pay for cancers and other illnesses caused by radiation and beryllium exposures.

"They're worried about beryllium, but we don't know what all we've got," said Gordon Brattin, a 25-year Pantex Plant employee.

Hal Glassman, a Labor Department spokesman, told Pantex Plant workers the government will work to process claims. He suggested employees should try to get medical records and document their work history.

"The key to being eligible for compensation is that you got either cancer Š or beryllium related to the work you did on the job," Glassman said. "If they are determined eligible, they get a check: $150,000."

Ted Shutt, a former Pantex production technician who lost part of a lung to cancer, said he is concerned Pantex might not have adequate records to reconstruct workers' radiation exposure.

"What my concern is they are talking about these radiation doses. They lost all my records back in the '80s. They start from scratch," he said. "I worked on all the hot stuff out there for years and years and years. Every dirty thing out there I've worked with."

A worker's documentation will be presented to the Health and Human Services Department, which will review the records and determine eligibility.

A federal law, which was passed in October and will go in effect on July 31, will provide $150,000 tax-free in lump-sum compensation and related medical expenses to weapons workers who became seriously ill from exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica.

"If you worked there, we sincerely look at you as a dedicated patron who helped us win the Cold War," Glassman said. "For that, we want to thank you."

2001 Amarillo Globe-News ***************************************************************** 6 Pantex workers meet with officials Amarillo Globe-News: Local News: 07/12/01 Pantex workers grilled federal government officials Thursday about a compensation program to pay them for cancers and some illnesses caused by radiation and beryllium exposures during nuclear weapons workers.

About 400 people attended a meeting Thursday to discuss compensation programs that will be administered by the Labor Department.

Hal Glassman, a Labor Department spokesman, told Pantex workers that the government will work with them to process their claims and said employees should try to get medical records and document their work histories.

Many workers or their survivors questioned whether Pantex had adequate record-keeping during the Cold War. Others wondered if their Pantex medical records were still available.

Ted Shutt, a former Pantex production technician who lost part of a lung to cancer, said he is concerned that Pantex might not have adequate records to reconstruct workers' radiation exposures.

"What my concern is they are talking about these radiation doses. They lost all my records back in the '80s. They start from scratch," he said. "I worked on all the hot stuff out there for years and years and years. Every dirty thing out there I've worked with."

Workers no are preparing to submit claims under a federal program that will provide $150,000 in lump sum compensation and related medical expenses to weapons workers who became seriously ill from exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica.

Compensation also will be available to some survivors who are eligible for benefits.

www.amarillonet.com ***************************************************************** 7 Committee bill gives money to cleanup The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Friday, July 13, 2001 Staff, AP reports The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday approved nearly $140 million for Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant work and $800,000 to help its raw-product supplier, the Honeywell plant at Metropolis, Ill. The Energy and Water Appropriations bill, which now goes to the full Senate, also contains $23 million for the Kentucky Lock project and $41 million for the Olmsted Lock and Dam. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, a senior member of the appropriations panel, said the bill has $103 million for Paducah plant cleanup, $31 million more than the House version. It also has $34 million for converting hazardous depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF6) at the plant into safer material. The money will fund planning, engineering, design, site characterization and preparation work for conversion facilities to be built at the Paducah and Portsmouth, Ohio, uranium enrichment plants by 2004. Prior legislation drafted by McConnell set aside more than $370 million to build the facilities. The bill approved Thursday has language requiring an annual report on the status of the money, he said. Funding for the Honeywell plant, which makes UF6 for enrichment at Paducah, was included at the request of Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. The plant employs about 325 people, about 260 of whom are involved in UF6 production. As part of the 1998 deal privatizing the USEC Inc., which runs the Paducah plant, the federal government transferred its commercial-grade uranium stockpiles to the new entity. That, along with a worldwide glut of uranium, flooded the market and led to depressed prices that have devastated facilities like Honeywell, Durbin said. Just last year, plant officials were seeking $9 million from the federal government, saying the plant was likely to shut down without it. Now the market is beginning to rebound, and Durbin hopes that means the company can make do with far less. The energy bill also provides $2.5 million for the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky School of Public Health to continue studying current and former workers to determine how much radiation exposure they sustained while working at the Paducah plant, McConnell said. Other money in the bill is earmarked to continue replacing outdated locks on the Ohio River at Olmsted, Ill., and double the size of Kentucky Lock at Kentucky Dam. ***************************************************************** 8 Uranium contamination shown in urinalysis charlotte.com - Published Friday, July 13, 2001 simpsonville-fountain inn wells Uranium contamination shown in urinalysis DeMint's office considers level of radioactivity seen in test results alarming By KIM BACA Associated Press COLUMBIA -- Urinalysis from 94 Simpsonville-Fountain Inn area residents who had uranium contamination in their wells has shown elevated levels of the metal, state officials reported Thursday. But Jason Elliott, an aide to U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said Wednesday the state and federal tests showed the level of radioactivity was alarming. Thom Berry, state Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman, did not immediately return a phone call for comment Thursday. Uranium, formed from radium, can occur naturally and is a radioactive heavy metal. Prolonged exposure to uranium can cause kidney problems or cancer. Radium can also result in anemia, cataracts and fractured teeth, according to the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry. DHEC said test results for 105 people were sent to them this week. Elliot would not reveal the names of those affected or the number of households involved. The findings were released by state DHEC and federal Environmental Protection Agency officials after analysis, said Elliott. DHEC said it will have two public meetings in the Simpsonville-Fountain Inn areas July 24 to provide the latest information about uranium in the area's ground water. Uranium was found in the area's wells seven months ago, but DHEC said in March that after testing water from 11 wells, the amounts were safely within what is considered safe for drinking water. ***************************************************************** 9 Starting a nuclear arms race Web Exclusives | Editor Matthew Rothschild | The Progressive magazine Editor Matthew Rothschild comments on the news of the day. July 11, 2001 My dad used to say, about someone with inferior intelligence, that the person was "powerfully dumb." That's certainly the case with George W. Perhaps the most powerfully dumb thing Bush has done so far is to show his willingness to start a nuclear arms race. First, he's insisted on charging ahead with missile defense. This is likely to make Russia put multiple warheads on its missiles, as Putin has already threatened. And it's likely to make China greatly increase its nuclear stockpile from its modest twenty of today to perhaps hundreds in the future. That won't make us any safer now, will it? The Bush Administration also wants to deep-six the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which is one of the primary tools for clamping down on the arms race. If a nation can't test a nuclear device, it's unlikely to use it, because it would have no assurance that it would work. And if the nation launched it during a conflict and it was a dud, the nation would expose itself to massive retaliation. The treaty, unratified by Congress but ratified by 77 other nations, "does not help our nonproliferation goals," said a Bush official. But why is that? Surely, the Administration doesn't want other countries to be able to test with impunity, does it? Maybe the Administration thinks it can counter any other nuclear nation with the mythic missile defense system. Or maybe it just doesn't care. What seems to be driving the Administration is its own narrow and reckless unilateralism. It wants to be able to test its own nuclear weapons, and it has asked the nuclear labs to examine how urgently testing is needed. You can bet they'll say it's very urgent. And that'll suit the Bush Administration just fine, because it wants to build new nuclear weapons. In the latest issue of The Progressive, Alistair Millar of the Fourth Freedom Forum shows how the Bush Administration is gung-ho on a so-called "bunker buster" nuclear weapon that would burrow deep into the ground, ostensibly to attack some rogue dictator like Saddam Hussein. But Saddam Hussein would not be the only victim. Twenty thousand Iraqis would go down with him, Millar says, and the environment would turn radioactive. Bush's reckless unilateralism reminds me just how dangerous it is to couple ignorance with power. --Matthew Rothschild ***************************************************************** 10 Operation Plutonium Completed Friday, Jul. 13, 2001. Page 1 By Christopher Pala Special to The Moscow Times ALMATY, Kazakhstan — U.S. officials are expressing quiet satisfaction after an enormous stockpile of weapons-grade plutonium, located in a sensitive zone in Kazakhstan, was made theft-proof in what the Energy Department calls "one of the world's largest and most successful nonproliferation projects." More than 3 tons of plutonium, enough to make 400 bombs, had been stored in a fast-breeder reactor on the Caspian Sea shore under security that one early visitor likened to that of an office building. Today, the plutonium has been fully secured, said Trisha Dedik, director of the U.S. Energy Department's office of nonproliferation policy, in an interview. "It's been a great success." On Thursday, Dedik and others took part in a ceremony in the city of Aktau with Kazakh officials celebrating the end of the project. The plutonium was produced by a BN-350 fast-breeder nuclear reactor located on the arid northwestern shore of the Caspian Sea, a few kilometers from Aktau. Both the city and 350-megawatt power plant, the first-ever commercial breeder reactor, owed their location to considerable uranium deposits that were mined nearby. The plutonium was designed to be shipped to other parts of the Soviet Union for use as fuel in other reactors like it, but only one, the BN600, was ever built. Located near the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, it ultimately took little or no plutonium from the BN-350, so the material just piled up. The plant closed in 1999, at the end of its useful life. After 26 years of providing electricity and water by powering a desalinization plant to the Aktau region, there was an accumulation of 3,000 five-meter cylinders called fuel assembles containing spent nuclear fuel, from which a total of 3,250 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium could be extracted with relative ease, according to the Energy Department. Nearly half the assemblies emitted little radiation and could be safely handled by men wearing light protection. The other half were too "hot" to be handled by anything but robots. All spent years in a football field-sized cooling pond in the plant. "When I walked in there the first time, back in 1995, it had all the security of a modern office building," recalled Fredrick Crane, an American physicist familiar with the plant. "It was a clean and well-run reactor, there were some guards but otherwise all you needed was one code, like in an airport terminal, and you were in." With each fuel assembly weighing 135 kilograms, a couple of strong men with accomplices inside could spirit out the half-dozen cylinders required to make a bomb. "It was attractive material and it was accessible," said Dedik of the Energy Department. Just 800 kilometers to the south along the Caspian coastline lies Iran and what U.S. officials say is a covert nuclear-weapons program. About 1,300 kilometers to the southeast is Afghanistan, home to accused terrorist Osama bin Laden, and due west, straight across the Caspian, Chechnya smolders. "There are fast-breeder reactors in Western Europe and Japan, but the plutonium produced there doesn't accumulate like it did in Aktau, it's reprocessed pretty quickly," Dedik said. "There just aren't any big stockpiles. Remember, most weapons-grade plutonium is produced by dedicated reactors, controlled by the military, and they're usually much better guarded than this one was." So in 1996, the government of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United States quietly set up a program to immediately increase security and, starting 1998, to package the fuel assemblies to make them impossible to be stolen. Dedik and Crane were among several dozen Americans who worked on the project, which was funded by the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program under the Nunn-Lugar Act. A torpedo factory in Almaty that had converted to civilian work was assigned to manufacture big steel canisters in which four or six of the plutonium-rich assemblies — some "hot," some "cooled" — were packed together and sealed before being returned to the cooling pond. Weighing well over a ton, the filled canisters are far too heavy to be handled by anything but a large robot, and all of them now emit lethal doses of radiation. Last month, after nearly three years and $43 million in U.S. aid money, the 478th and last canister was welded shut and lowered into the cooling pond. At the plant, Crane said, there are now manned gates, closed-circuit televisions, x-ray machines and turnstiles with magnetic cards, along with sensors that monitor the materials around the clock. The packing is designed to last 50 years, but the plutonium isn't destined to stay at the closed Aktau plant that long. Eventually, under a decree signed six months ago by Nazarbayev, the canisters will be taken 4,400 kilometers by train to the former nuclear testing grounds at Semipalatinsk, on the other side of this nation the size of Western Europe. There, silos will be dug into the vast steppe and the fat cylinders will be buried, using a technique perfected in the United States. "It will be the longest rail shipment of plutonium ever attempted," said Dedik. "They will have to design special transportation casks." And since the rail line wanders through what is now Russia and Kyrgyzstan, special loops will have to be built so that the plutonium stays in Kazakhstan during its whole voyage. ***************************************************************** 11 Cannon, Hansen Help Defeat Demo Push for Downwinder Funds The Salt Lake Tribune -- Friday, July 13, 2001 BY JIM WOOLF Utah Rep. Jim Matheson joined House Democrats in a last-minute attempt Wednesday to assure that $84 million for radiation victims is included in a supplemental spending bill. The attempt was blocked by Republicans, including Utah Reps. Chris Cannon and Jim Hansen, who described the move as little more than a publicity stunt. A Cannon aide said Utah's entire congressional delegation is committed to winning approval for this funding. But Cannon objected to the surprise method Democrats used to try to force approval for the measure. "It was a cheap shot aimed at trying to create press for the Democrats," said Jeff Hartley, a spokesman for Cannon. Congress in 1990 passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) that provides federal compensation to people who were injured during America's rush to develop nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Those eligible are: uranium miners, uranium millers, ore transporters, Downwinders exposed to fallout from nuclear tests and on-site participants in nuclear tests. Because of an administrative error last year, the federal government did not request enough money to pay all of the claims. So hundreds of sick people in Utah and other states now have the equivalent of an "IOU" until Congress comes up with the cash. Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett managed to get the $84 million included in the Senate version of the supplemental spending bill approved earlier this week. Language expressing intent to fund RECA was included in the House version, but it did not include a specific request for the $84 million. Since language in the two bills is different, they will be sent to a conference committee to work out a compromise. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., introduced a motion Wednesday that would have directed House members of the conference committee to vote in favor of the $84 million for RECA, saying it was only fair to help people who were "fried by their own government." In addition, he wanted House conferees to insist on $35 million to monitor livestock diseases and extra funding for disaster assistance in Texas. Matheson spoke in favor of the motion, noting: "Downwinders in Utah have been living with the terrible consequences of their government's deception regarding the effects of open-air atomic tests." The first-term congressman whose father, the late Gov. Scott Matheson, was a Downwinder, added, "The IOUs they've been given by the Justice Department is the final insult in a long list of injuries and we need to fix the problem now." Obey's motion died on a party-line vote of 219 to 205. Both Cannon and Hansen voted against it. "This shows no lack of commitment for funding RECA," stressed Hartley about Cannon's nay vote. He said Cannon objected to the "pork barrel spending" proposed for disease monitoring and he didn't like restricting the negotiating ability of House members who will be involved in the conference committee. "We fully expect the negotiators from the House to fund RECA at the $84 million level," Hartley said. jwoolf@sltrib.com © Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************