***************************************************************** 02/14/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.41 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Leavitt may have to wait for funds to fight N-waste storage 2 NRC seeking LV locale for Yucca licensing hearings 3 USEC to cut 25 percent of work force - 4 USEC To Cut Headquarters Operating Costs By 20 Percent 5 Taiwan Restarts Nuclear Project 6 AEC Denies Talks with Russia on Storage of Taipower Nuclear Waste 7 DPP Faction to Call Anti-Nuclear Demonstration 8 Government gives in on power plant 9 LVCVA adds voice to anti-dump forces 10 Starting a rational energy debate 11 Ionizing Radiation Sources Buried Near Chechnya's Tolstoi-Yurt 12 Temelin blockade during IAEA inspection 13 Vienna and Prague Agree on Blueprint for Nuclear Plant Study 14 Imported spent fuel may not reach destination 15 DOE agrees to review Yucca design report 16 Anger at Taiwan government nuclear U-turn 17 Toxic Utah: Goshutes divided over N-storage 18 Revenue generation makes waste-disposal industry a heavy hitter NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Hanford cleanup funding expected to increase 2 Many at lab hope modernization isn't swan song for pond, birds 3 Y-12 preserving Smokies' priceless artifacts 4 Decision on layoff-related resolution is stalled 5 SRS workers find likely leak sources 6 Uranium, chemicals found in apartment of dead chemist 7 Bring back the bomb! 8 U.S. nuclear sub struck like a passing demon 9 Ehime Maru-sub collision demands full investigation 10 Swiss find scant plutonium traces in Balkans 11 UK: MoD seeking opinions on DU 12 Kursk's Torpedoes Played Role in Submarine's Demise 13 Lost Bomb: Sleeping Relic, or Disaster in Waiting? 14 Anti-nuke Shundahai Network moves headquarters to Pahrump - 15 Chemical warfare has a long and terrifying history ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Leavitt may have to wait for funds to fight N-waste storage Tuesday, February 13, 2001 Committee leaves money for strike force, publicity out of budget By Donna Kemp Spangler Gov. Mike Leavitt may want $1.6 million to continue his "over my dead body" fight against a high-level nuclear waste site on Goshute tribal lands in Tooele County. But he may have to wait awhile. The Transportation and Environmental Quality Appropriations Committee has approved a $70.6 million budget for the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). But absent from the budget is the governor's request for funds to pay for a legal strike force and a publicity campaign, and another $2 million in economic development alternatives for the Goshutes. That means Leavitt's proposals are relegated to a "priority list" along with millions and millions of dollars' worth of other state needs. Lawmakers typically wait until the end of the session to decide which programs from the priority list get funded, either in whole or in part. Dianne Nielson, executive director of DEQ, has received assurances that her department will receive $300,000 from the current budget surplus to go toward the nuclear waste fight. Leavitt's office was unavailable for comment early Tuesday. Waste battles aside, Nielson battled with the appropriations committee just to keep her current staff intact. Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, wanted to cut her day-to-day budget by $500,000, or about 10 employees, and divert the savings to fight nuclear waste. "I'm just concerned there's not enough money on this nuclear waste battle," Harper said. Harper's proposal was voted down. "We can't trade one thing we have to do for another thing we have to do," said Sen. Terry Spencer, R-Layton. "I'm going to have to beg and plead for what else I can get" for the nuclear waste battle, added Spencer, who is the sponsor of Leavitt's legislation to fight nuclear waste. One of Spencer's bills calls for $150 billion in cash up front by nuclear power utilities, another 75 percent tax on businesses supplying services to the site, and it would make all company officials and shareholders personally liable in the event of an accident. That bill has the attention of representatives of Private Fuel Storage, the consortium of mostly Eastern nuclear power utilities that wants to ship high-level nuclear waste to Utah. PFS officials attended Monday's committee meeting and walked into a whirlwind of criticism from lawmakers. Project manager Scott Northard repeated there has never been an accident with a waste storage cask, and they are designed so they can never breach, much like a black box on an airliner. There have been more than 3,000 shipments of nuclear waste without an injury or fatality, he said. In a meeting earlier with the Deseret News, Northard criticized lawmakers who have not spent the time to research the project design or visit the Goshute site. "We are faced with a lot of fear and exaggeration," he said. Tribal Chairman Leon Bear is not concerned about the hazards. He plans to live about four miles from the proposed storage site and hopes to work there. Also on the agenda was increased revenue projected from Envirocare's proposal to increase disposal of a different kind of Class A radioactive waste, to be stored in sealed containers. The storage of this low-level waste would generate about $300,000 in additional state revenue, which mostly would go to hire four additional state regulators to monitor the disposal. Lawmakers are still pondering the idea of a tax on Envirocare's low-level radioactive waste that could go as high as $100 million a year. The state currently receives about $2.50 per ton on Envirocare's waste, which is just enough to cover the costs of regulating the disposal. "We need to have a fee," said Sen. Mike Waddoups, R-Taylorsville. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *E-MAIL: donna@desnews.com* © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 2 NRC seeking LV locale for Yucca licensing hearings Las Vegas SUN February 14, 2001 By Mary Manning The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that is charged with licensing a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, is searching for space in Las Vegas for future hearings on the license. The search comes long before the officials can be sure there will be hearings, and that rush might indicate a bias in favor of a repository, Bob Loux, director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, said Tuesday. NRC officials say they are just gathering information to prepare for the agency's budget two years from now. Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being studied to hold 77,000 tons of the nation's nuclear waste. The Energy Department is not expected to make its recommendation to Congress and the president on whether to build a repository until the end of this year. The repository, if approved, could open by 2010. Already the DOE is the subject of two federal investigations into a possible conflict of interest between the agency, its contractors and the nuclear industry. The investigations are looking into evidence of a possible DOE bias in favor of a repository. The DOE and the NRC by law are required to remain unbiased throughout the process. Loux said on Tuesday that he fears the DOE and the NRC share a common goal: build a Yucca Mountain repository at all costs. "There is a huge level of shared bias and belief between these two federal agencies and their contractors that the site is suitable," Loux said. In a Jan. 23 e-mail to the commission's Las Vegas field office, NRC attorney Mitzi Young said the agency "might plan a scouting trip" at the end of April to find a hearing room that can hold up to 500 people. The NRC needs a hearing room, meeting rooms, office equipment such as phones, computers, faxes, copiers and hotel rooms for two six-month periods, Young wrote. By arranging meeting rooms for a licensing hearing, the NRC "has bought into the idea that the site is suitable and licensable," Loux said. By law the NRC has three years to examine all of the scientific evidence gathered by the DOE and critics such as the state, then decide if the mountain can safely contain the waste. Rather than similar interests between the NRC and the DOE driving the search for meeting space in Las Vegas, the commission is simply trying to justify its budget, which is set two years in advance, Las Vegas field representative William Belke said. "I think what they are trying to do is budget the process," Belke said. "They must plan for the future even though the site hasn't been confirmed," he said. "Right now nothing is concrete," Belke said. The DOE doesn't expect to recommend Yucca Mountain as a repository until the end of this year. XXX * All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. XXX * ***************************************************************** 3 USEC to cut 25 percent of work force - Washington Business Journal Sean Madigan Staff Reporter USEC announced today it will slash 40 to 50 jobs -- or about 25 percent of its work force -- in a cost-cutting measure the company hopes will reduce costs at its Bethesda, Md., headquarters by about $10 million for its 2002 fiscal year. Company officials say the cost reductions already are reflected in the company's preliminary 2002 earnings estimate of $40 million. USEC, which supplies enriched uranium to nuclear power plants, said it will cease enrichment operations at its Portsmouth, Ohio, plant in June and consolidate its enrichment operations at its Paducah, Ky., plant. Including charges, the company ended its fiscal year June 30 earning $8.9 million, or 10 cents a share, on revenue of $1.49 billion. Shares of USEC's stock (NYSE: USU) were up a penny to $6.25 during midday trading. ***************************************************************** 4 USEC To Cut Headquarters Operating Costs By 20 Percent BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 2001--USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU - news) announced today that in continuation of its ongoing company-wide cost reduction efforts, the Company is taking action to reduce its headquarters costs by 20 percent. The Company has targeted a reduction of $10 million in headquarters costs for fiscal 2002. These savings are reflected in the Company's preliminary earnings estimate of approximately $40 million for fiscal 2002. The Company expects to achieve the cost savings primarily through a significant reduction in use of consultants, an employee workforce reduction of 40-50 positions at headquarters and consolidation of office space. ``While it is imperative that USEC continues to focus on reducing costs, we regret the impact it will have on employees,'' said William H. Timbers, President and Chief Executive Officer of USEC. ``These initiatives, including a 25 percent reduction in headquarters positions, are a continuation of our ongoing company-wide cost reduction efforts. They will further align our headquarters operations with the rest of the organization when we move to a consolidated plant operation this June.'' USEC previously announced that it is ceasing enrichment operations at the Portsmouth, Ohio gaseous diffusion plant in June 2001, and consolidating enrichment operations at its Paducah, Kentucky plant. USEC Inc., a global energy company, is the world's leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. *Contact:* USEC Inc. Charles Yulish, 301/564-3391 or Ron Seeholzer, 301/564-3225 Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of ***************************************************************** 5 Taiwan Restarts Nuclear Project Las Vegas SUN February 14, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan's government ordered construction to begin again on the island's fourth nuclear plant Wednesday, sacrificing a key policy goal for political and economic stability. Restarting the nuclear project was the first major defeat for President Chen Shui-bian's administration, which infuriated the powerful opposition by trying to cancel the plant three months ago without seeking lawmakers' approval. Political feuding over the plant that ravaged investor confidence in the stock market officially came to an end when Premier Chang Chun-hsiung reinstated the $5.4 billion plant, the pet project of the previous government. During a news conference, Chang -- Taiwan's No. 3 ranking leader - said several times that restarting the plant was a "painful decision." But he said, "If we allow this standoff to continue, it will cause economic and social chaos." The announcement came a day after the government cut a deal with the opposition, capping days of tense negotiations. The agreement includes a pledge to work together on a nuclear energy bill, which the government hopes will phase out nuclear power. Restarting the nuclear project, one-third complete, was an agonizing decision for the president because his Democratic Progressive Party has spent years campaigning to spike the project. The DPP argues the plant would be unsafe on the earthquake-prone island and that other energy sources would be cleaner and more practical. But the recent battle over the plant was more about political power than nuclear energy. The opposition-controlled legislature argued that the minority government exceeded the limits on its power by unilaterally canceling the plant. The opposition refused to cooperate with the president on other issues, causing gridlock that helped cause the stock market to lose 44 percent of its value last year. The president was long reluctant to cave in because he needs the support of anti-nuclear factions in his party to battle the huge opposition, said Philip Yang, a political science professor at National Taiwan University. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 AEC Denies Talks with Russia on Storage of Taipower Nuclear Waste XXX 2001.02.14¡@2:45am Taiwan time updated Taipei, Feb. 13 (CNA) The Cabinet-level Atomic Energy Council (AEC) denied Tuesday that it has talked with Russian officials about storing state-run Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) nuclear waste in Russia. AEC Vice Chairman Chou Yuan-ching issued the denial in reaction to rumors that AEC officials have gone to Russia in the past year for talks on the issue. Nuclear waste can be divided into two kinds -- high radiation and low radiation. At present, Taipower disposes of high radiation waste by storing it in nuclear plant areas, Chou said, adding that as Taipower could build an interim storage facility for a storage period of 40 years, it is not a matter of great urgency to seek storage areas for high radiation nuclear waste, he claimed. He said that Taipower now badly needs low radiation waste storage sites and noted that even if Russia loosens restrictions on the import of high radiation waste, as has been reported, it will do little to help solve Taipower's problem of low radiation waste storage. Taipower in the past has dumped its low radiation nuclear waste on offshore Orchid Island, but increasing opposition by the indigenous residents of the island put a stop to the practice. Chou said the AEC has picked a small island in the Matsu island group named Hsiao Wuchiu as a possible dump site, but an evaluation of the nuclear waste's effect on the environment must be completed before the small island can be used to store the nuclear waste. China Times Inter@ctive Main Page (in Big-5 Chinese) ***************************************************************** 7 DPP Faction to Call Anti-Nuclear Demonstration XXX 2001.02.14¡@2:45am Taiwan time updated Taipei, Feb. 13 (CNA) Lawmaker Hung Chi-chang, also chief of the New Tide faction under the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), urged supporters Tuesday to take part in a mass rally to protest the government's compromise over the fourth nuclear power plant. Hung claimed that although the New Tide faction understands that the Executive Yuan's offer of a three-point compromise is aimed at ending the political stalemate over the nuclear plant issue, the vast majority of DPP members are against continued construction of the plant. Citing a recent survey conducted by the DPP, Hung said that as many as 64 percent of all DPP supporters are opposed to continued construction. He therefore has called on DPP supporters to take to the streets Feb. 24 to condemn the opposition coalition, which has majority control in the Legislative Yuan, and to express their desire for a public referendum to decide the fate of the plant. Stressing that the New Tide faction will not allow backers to lose faith in the DPP, Hung said that his faction will continue promoting the goal of building Taiwan into a homeland free from nuclear power by joining forces with the public. Meanwhile, leaders of the anti-nuclear movement strongly criticized the Executive Yuan for giving way to the opposition coalition on the issue, arguing that they cannot accept the compromise reached between the two sides on continued construction of the plant. Kao Cheng-yen, a heavyweight of the Green Party, described President Cheng Shui-bian as a "comrade" without determination on anti-nuclear stance, while S. M. Shih, head of the Environmental Protection Alliance, blasted Chen for breaking his election promises. According to the two men, DPP leaders, such as former chairman Lin Yi-hsiung and many of the president's advisors, will also participate in the planned rally. DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen, a staunch anti-nuclear supporter, remained unwilling to answer questions from the press regarding the controversial issue. But according to sources close to the secretary-general, Wu said Monday that the DPP will reluctantly accept the Executive Yuan's compromise over the issue. China Times Inter@ctive Main Page (in Big-5 Chinese) ***************************************************************** 8 Government gives in on power plant The Taipei Times Online: 2001-02-14 Wednesday, February 14th, 2001 POLICY REVERSAL: The premier agreed yesterday to resume construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, a decision met with howls of derision from anti-nuclear activists Chang's remarks, however, immediately drew severe criticism from anti-nuclear activists. "Punishment to the traitor -- we now declare a full-scale war on the DPP. The DPP will have to take full responsibility for cheating the public," said a statement released by the Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association (ÆQ¼d¤Ï®Ö¦Û±Ï·|). A 100,000-person parade will also be held on Feb. 24 in protest at the Cabinet's announcement. Former DPP chairman Lin Yi-hsiung (ªL¸q¶¯), faction leader Chang Chun-hung (±i«T§») and other DPP legislators have promised to attend and stand in line with protesters. Still, President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó) yesterday attempted to portray the agreement as a victory for anti-nuclear forces. "The nation's people should value the consensus of `building a non-nuclear country,' which was made by both the government and opposition alliance," Chen said yesterday, quoted by Chiou I-jen (ªô¸q¤¯), secretary-general to the premier. Meanwhile, Ta Tung Construction (¤j´É), the builder of a special dock that is to receive the plant's two nuclear reactors, said yesterday it was calling it quits on its NT$1.17 billion contract with Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, ¥x¹q). Taipower has previously said delivery of the two 1,350-megawatt reactors being built by GE could be delayed by up to six months for the time it takes to find a new contractor to complete the dock's construction. Chen Chuan-lin (³¯¤tªL), chairman of Ta Tung, said the company decided to quit the project because "there are still many problems in the foreseeable future ... and the company finds it difficult to control the construction process." Ta Tung originally expected to complete the dock's construction in two years, but has only managed to finish about 30 percent of its scheduled work over the last three years. The ideal of a nuclear-free country has been a part of the DPP's platform for years, and ever since it came to power, the DPP government has insisted on getting rid of the plant. Former premier Tang Fei (­ð­¸) resigned because of his disagreement with President Chen on the plant's fate, making him the shortest-serving premier in the history of Taiwan. Chang succeeded Tang in early October of last year and unilaterally announced the scrapping of the plant on Oct. 27 -- only half an hour after the much-heralded "Bian-Lien meeting" («ó³s·|) in which KMT Chairman Lien Chan (³s¾Ô) first proposed a new energy law that would shut down the first, second, third plants earlier than scheduled in exchange for continuing the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. Chang, however, was later declared persona non grata by the legislature and forbidden by the opposition alliance from attending all legislative functions. This story has been viewed 867 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/02/14/story/0000073591] Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 LVCVA adds voice to anti-dump forces Las Vegas SUN February 14, 2001 By David Strow LAS VEGAS SUN The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has joined the battle against a proposed nuclear waste storage depot at Yucca Mountain. After little debate and no opposition, the LVCVA's board voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a resolution "opposing the use of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository." The LVCVA's move follows in the footsteps of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, which voted Jan. 31 to oppose the proposed dump. Manny Cortez, president of the LVCVA, said the move was crucial to the LVCVA's mission of attracting tourists to the Las Vegas Valley. "We probably should have done it earlier," Cortez said. "It's important that we as a convention authority make this statement. "Tourism and travel is a very sensitive industry. If, God forbid, something happens as a result of that waste, it would create adverse publicity and hurt tourism." The Yucca Mountain site, located 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only location being considered by the Department of Energy for the permanent storage of as much as 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste from reactors across the country. The LVCVA's motion came at the behest of Clark County Commissioner Mary Kincaid, chair of the LVCVA board. "Everyone else has already made a stand," Kincaid said. "I think we should make a stand, too." The LVCVA's resolution essentially seconds resolutions already passed by the Chamber of Commerce and the Nevada Resort Association, which represents big casino resorts. The chamber's resolution was approved in January; the NRA's was approved in 1991. The chamber's resolution states that "one accident involving the transportation of nuclear waste, no matter how minor, could create fears and hysteria among the general public and cause fewer tourists to travel to Southern Nevada, even if scientists determine these fears are unfounded." It also argues that "the mere threat of a nuclear waste accident could have a significant adverse impact on the property values of Las Vegas residents." The NRA's resolution takes a similar tack, saying that "news stories about the repository and associated transportation of radioactive materials to it could cause special damage to the reputation enjoyed by Las Vegas and the success of its tourism promotion efforts." "The establishment of a high-level nuclear waste repository in Nevada is inconsistent with the positive image the state seeks to present to the world," the NRA resolution states. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 10 Starting a rational energy debate The Taipei Times Online: 2001-02-14 Wednesday, February 14th, 2001 By Cheng Tien-tso ¾G¤Ñ¦õ `The biggest drawback in resuming construction of the plant lies in the management of nuclear waste. Irrespective of whether construction of the plant continues, the government must use the most advanced technology to process nuclear waste, so that people won't fear the use of nuclear energy.' An end to the debate over the plant as soon as possible is the wish of the majority of the people. Both government officials and elected legislative representatives must respect the popular will and our constitutional system of government. They must not make more trouble. Let the storm end here once and for all. Let us hope that everyone has learned valuable lessons from the whole affair to be used as a reference in the handling of major policy decisions in the future. After the controversy has ended, many matters will be waiting for appropriate resolution, and I would like to submit my opinions on some of them. One, if construction of the plant is resumed, the quality of the construction is of the utmost importance, as the plant will either be put into use or considered a back-up energy source. While the controversy has been raging, the morale of the workers has nosedived to an all-time low. It is worth examining whether the quality of construction was affected during that period. The quality of construction must be guaranteed, and the safety of the power plant should not be at issue under any circumstances. Two, the biggest drawback in resuming construction of the plant lies in the management of nuclear waste. Irrespective of whether construction of the plant continues, the government must use the most advanced technology to process nuclear waste, so that people won't fear the use of nuclear energy. Three, the government must provide the best care possible for the residents of the area surrounding the power plant, and give them adequate compensation. The government should beautify the environment of the surrounding area to minimize nearby inhabitants' resentment and fears towards the power plant. Four, research and development of recycled energy should be conducted with the goal of replacing nuclear power within the shortest time period. We should not forget the importance of exploring recycled energy just because energy will be plentiful in the next few years as a result of the new plant's construction. Five, an all-encompassing but flexible energy law should be drafted. With the rapidly evolution of technology, resources and forms of energy considered to be the best now could be replaced within a few years. Likewise, forms of energy and resources considered least desirable now may become our only option within a few years. Drafting a dogmatic law will only create endless dispute. Six, Taiwan's economic development strategy should be fully reviewed. Taiwan is an over-populated country lacking in natural resources. Taiwan's greatest resources are its manpower and brainpower. Improving people's knowledge and creativity through education, in the hope of moving toward high-knowledge-based and low-pollution industries, should be the most pressing task facing the government. We should not fear the relocation overseas of high-energy consuming and high-pollution industries. What we need to worry about is the inability to create new industries. Seven, we should actively promote energy conservation among our citizens. Last year, I had the opportunity to visit Denmark, an energy exporting country. When our train entered Denmark at night, my first impression was dimness. It was an entirely different scene from the bright lights of Taipei. The people of Taiwan love their night life and do not make good use of precious daylight. Why can't we change our lifestyles to conserve energy? In Taiwan, stores are open from 11am to 9pm. Why can't we follow most other countries and change the opening hours to 8am to 6pm? The number of hours would be the same. Contrary to what a small number of experts tell us, solar energy is not easily developed. They have forgotten the enormous amount of energy consumed and the large amount of poisonous fumes caused by the production of solar batteries. The easiest way to make good use of solar energy is to change our life styles. Changing a minor component of our daily routine often conserves a great amount of energy, while also protecting the environment. Eight, the word is spreading overseas that a minority of people insist on resuming construction of the plant in order to receive kickbacks. In the name of the rule of law, the government is obligated to investigate whether these are merely rumors made by the plant's opponents to deceive the public. Seeking popular support through unfair practices is an illness of democratic societies. Of course, the receipt of kick-backs -- if these rumors are true -- is illegal. In a diversified society, everyone may hold different views and beliefs. No one knows everything about issues involving multi-dimensional technology. What is important is staying rational and objective in discussions, irrespective of whether you are a government official, expert or scholar. We must not confuse professional, legal and policy issues. Do not stubbornly insist on engaging in pointless disputes. Recognition of this is for the benefit of the people and consistent with the spirit of democracy. *Cheng Tien-tso is a research fellow at the Academia Sinica.* This story has been viewed 189 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/02/14/story/0000073644] Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Ionizing Radiation Sources Buried Near Chechnya's Tolstoi-Yurt Russia Today - GROZNY, Feb 13, 2001 -- (Military News Agency) Experts of the Russian Emergencies Ministry buried on Tuesday eight ionizing radiation sources found in Chechnya, a source in the ministry's North Caucasus regional center told the Military News Agency. The sources, including two industrial containers weighing 55 kilogram each, were buried in a special radioactive waste burial center near the village of Tolstoi-Yurt, the source noted. The radioactive substances were found in the territories of a chemical plant, the Krasny Molot plant and Secondary School 38 in the Zavodskoi and Leninsky districts of Grozny. The radiating power of some of them exceeded 400 milliroentgen per hour. The plants and the school will undergo decontamination in a few days, the source said. According to the ministry, the radiation background near the school makes 350 milliroentgen per hour. A spokesman for the ministry's regional department told the Agency that its experts carried out a major share of decontamination works in summer 2000. They exposed a huge amount of ionizing radiation sources at five industrial installations in Grozny and took them out of the city using special robots. As many as 27 participants of the operation received state awards, 10 of which got the Order of Courage and the Order for Military Merits, the spokesman said. (C) 2001 Military News Agency ***************************************************************** 12 Temelin blockade during IAEA inspection CZECH REPUBLIC: February 13, 2001 PRAGUE - A group of demonstrators blocked the entrance to the Czech Temelin nuclear power plant yesterday just hours after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began a safety inspection of the Soviet-designed facility. The CTK news agency reported that some 30 environmentalists occupied the main entrance to the plant for just over an hour around lunch time to protest about technical problems at the plant, which has had operations halted several times in recent months. The blockade ended at 1207 GMT without incident, it added. The IAEA mission - with experts from many countries including the US, France, Britain, Germany and Russia - is expected to finish its inspection on March 1. Temelin has been the focus of a bitter diplomatic row between Prague and Vienna. Fiercely anti-nuclear Austria says the Soviet-designed Temelin station, built some 50 km (30 miles) from the Austrian border and which began operating last October, is unsafe. It has threatened to block Prague's bid to join the European Union unless its demands for full safety inspections are met. The Czechs say the plant, which has been upgraded with western control systems, is safe. In December, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman and Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel agreed another safety inspection would be carried out. A number of incidents since test operations started have heightened concerns over the plant. Most recently, testing operations at the plant were stopped in mid-January over a problem with steam pipes in the plant's secondary, non-nuclear circuit. Plant owner CEZ has said it hopes to renew testing on February 20 once the problem is repaired. Temelin has one operating 981-megawatt reactor and one under construction. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 13 Vienna and Prague Agree on Blueprint for Nuclear Plant Study Central Europe Online Daily News - VIENNA, Feb 14, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Austrian and Czech leaders agreed Tuesday on a plan for an environmental and safety study of a controversial Czech nuclear plant located near the Austrian border. In an accord settled in Melk, Austria in December, Prague agreed that the Temelin plant would not go into commercial operation until such a study had been completed and Austrian fears assuaged. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan and Austrian Environment Minister Wilhelm Molterer declared after meeting here on Tuesday that the study would be carried out by four experts nominated by the Czech Republic, two by Austria and two by Germany "under the direction of the European Commission." The criteria for the evaluation would be adopted by the commission based on the opinions of the countries concerned, the joint statement read. This will include Germany, which also borders the Czech Republic. "The results of the study will be binding and must be implemented" by the Czech government, it added. The fight over the plant, some 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the Austrian border in southern Bohemia, came to a head in October when Prague approved its partial firing up despite fierce opposition from Vienna. Anti-nuclear activists launched border blockades in protest, but the December agreement stipulated that Austria would ensure the free movement of traffic over the border in return for Prague's cooperation on the plant. But as the ministers' declaration was released on Tuesday, anti-nuclear protesters gathered to discuss the possibility of further blockades but postponed a decision on action until Thursday. Construction of the station -- originally designed to comprise four Russian-style VVER-1000 megawatt reactors -- was started in the 1980s, but plans were totally reviewed after the collapse of communism. Temelin's sole reactor had to be shut down on January 17 after a series of glitches, but will be started up again later this month. Austria, which voted in a referendum to be nuclear-free in 1978, believes itself to be at risk from the plant. *((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)* ***************************************************************** 14 Imported spent fuel may not reach destination Spent fuel import Russian Ministry of Nuclear Energy (Minatom) is actively promoting the project to import spent nuclear fuel to Russia from foreign countries for storage/reprocessing. The project may turn Russia into an international nuclear dumpsite. [ border=] In response to the plans to import spent nuclear fuel Russian envirogroups say Russian railways are not ready to ship the fissile materials. Vladislav Nikiforov, 2001-02-14 00:00 In response to Russia’s nuclear lobby plans to import foreign spent nuclear Russian environmental groups presented report titled Transportation of Radioactive Materials and Nuclear Fissile Materials in Russia: Practice of Unavoidable Risks. The poor maintenance of the Russian railway network and a long list of incidents documented during the past years prove the risks outlined in the report. The report was co-authored by Russian environmental group Ecodefense and Vladimir Kuznetsov, expert for the Anti-Nuclear Campaign of the Socio-Ecological Union and former inspector of the Russian Nuclear Regulatory (GAN). The research was performed in order to confront the successful lobby attempts of the Russian Nuclear Ministry, Minatom, to push the amendments to a number of Russian federal laws through the State Duma, lower house of the Russian parliament. The Duma approved the amendments in the first reading in December 2000. The new bills can lift the ban on importing spent nuclear fuel from all over the world. To become a law, the bills must be approved by the Duma in the second and the third readings, then by the Federation Council, and finally by the president. After that hundreds of new nuclear shipments will flow across the country. Taking into consideration the technical quality of the Russian railroads and management problems, nuclear transportation in Russia will dramatically increase the danger of serious accidents involving highly radioactive materials, authors of the report said. Minatom plans to earn $20 billion on importing 20,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel. The environmentalists calculated that each Russian citizen will get in average 140 grams of foreign nuclear waste and $3.5. According to the authors of the report, only a part of the study is finished and presented, but the work will be continued through 2001. The report included chapters: on accidents documented during transporting radioactive materials in 90s, the Russian new containers and their safety, general issues of safety on railroads. The document will be mailed to the Russian prime minister, all members of the State Duma, several Russian federal ministries, the authors of the report said. Each year hundreds of nuclear transports cross the globe. According to the report, the number of accidents in Russia is two to three times higher compared to the West. Some of the incidents were described in the study: - The Ural Electrical-Chemical Plant in Novouralsk often practises transportation of various radioactive materials. In 1994, the train carrying a radioactive solution containing uranium crashed what caused release of 1,000 litres of uranium-containing solution on the railroad outside the plant, contaminating the ground near densely populated cities; - A special truck carrying containers with Ir-192 and Co-60 collided with a bulldozer near Tubuk village, Chelyabinsk region, on September 11th 1997. The sealed containers were broken and released radioactivity into the environment; - On September 20th 1991, an accident happened at Bilibino nuclear plant, in the Russian Far North. While transporting the radioactive waste to the storage, one of the containers fell on the ground what caused radioactive contamination. In 1999, there were two cases of illegal shipments of radioactive waste through Russian railroads. Also during 1999, four big accidents happened with crashed trains on the South-East railway and the North-Caucasus railways. Safety conditions of the Russian railways are getting worth with each year. According to the report, the containers used in Russia for transporting radioactive materials violate the safety regulations. At the Siberian Chemical Plant in Tomsk-7 it was revealed that transportation of the nuclear materials is carried out in the containers of AT-316 and BT-134 types, while such containers do not meet Russian nuclear safety norms. The plant transported nuclear materials without appropriate certificates and licenses. The same containers without necessary approvals are widely used by the Mayak reprocessing plant near Chelyabinsk, in the southern Ural. According to the authors of the report, the Russian nuclear safety norms are far from being ideal. But even in such situation the Russian Ministry for Nuclear Energy regularly violates the Russian nuclear safety norms. The main reason is a lack of respect for legislation developed by the Russian Nuclear Regulatory. "The Minatom's plan to import nuclear waste for storing/reprocessing on commercial basis must be reviewed and disapproved by the Russian legislators. Extremely dangerous nuclear shipments may result in great accidents causing wide-spread contamination of the environment, exposing many people to radiation, paralysing the main transport roads in the country,” the report concludes. Publisher: , President: Frederic Hauge XXX Information: , Technical contact: XXX Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 15 DOE agrees to review Yucca design report [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Wednesday, February 14, 2001 By STEVE TETREAULT DXXX WASHINGTON -- Energy Department investigators have agreed to review a Yucca Mountain design report that a Nevada lawmaker considers evidence of political bias coloring work performed at the proposed nuclear waste dump. Gregory Friedman, the department's inspector general, said a report prepared by project contractor TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc., in August will be examined at the request of Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "The review team has in its possession a copy of the document," Friedman wrote in a letter Berkley received and made public Tuesday. "It is included among the documents to be considered as part of our current evaluation." The 51-page report discussed design of the high-level nuclear waste repository, which would be carved into the mountain ridge 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It includes statements indicating that repository designs can reasonably assure safe disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Berkley asked Friedman last month to examine the report, charging it amounted to an "irresponsible recommendation" of Yucca Mountain even though site studies haven't been completed. Yucca Mountain Project spokesman Allen Benson said the document was a reference design report that showed what a repository could look like. "This is not the official design, which would appear in an environmental impact statement or license application," he said. Friedman declined to pursue a second Berkley request: an evaluation of a $16 million contract the Energy Department awarded in September 1999 to the Winston &Strawn law firm to review its waste license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Friedman said a review would not be appropriate now because the matter is the topic of a lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court. A competing firm, New York-based LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene &MacRae, has charged in a lawsuit that Winston &Strawn has a conflict of interest because of a prior relationship with TRW. XXX ***************************************************************** 16 Anger at Taiwan government nuclear U-turn BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC | Wednesday, 14 February, 2001, 12:38 GMT Anti-nuclear groups in Taiwan have reacted with anger to the government's decision to re-start work straight away on a controversial nuclear power station. The groups -- which helped vote in the government because of its promise to scrap the plant -- now say they're planning a series of protest demonstrations. One official in a town Kungliao near the the power plant said people were disgusted that politicians had betrayed their consciences and abandoned their principles. The prime minister, Chang Chun-hsiung, said the decision to resume work was bitter, but unavoidable. The government changed its mind on the nuclear plant under pressure from parliament, which is dominated by the opposition. *From the newsroom of the BBC World Service* ***************************************************************** 17 Toxic Utah: Goshutes divided over N-storage [deseretnews.com] Wednesday, February 14, 2001 By Jerry D. Spangler and Donna Kemp Spangler To get to the 18,000-acre Goshute Indian Reservation, head west from Salt Lake City on I-80 past the slag piles of the Kennecott smelter, then past the turn-off to the Deseret Chemical Depot, where the nation's deadliest chemical and biological weapons are stockpiled prior to incineration. About 45 miles west of downtown Salt Lake, turn south just before you get to two hazardous waste incinerators, a hazardous waste dump and a radioactive waste facility. You get to the reservation about 25 miles later, or about 10 miles before the Dugway Proving Ground, home of some of the nastiest byproducts of military weapons testing. These days, the reservation boundary is marked only by a nondescript sign, a cattle guard across the road and a billboard inviting travelers to stop at the Pony Express Store, a two-pump pullout with sparsely stocked shelves. It is the only business on the reservation. About 25 people live in this sun-baked desert where the only sound is the occasional scream of a car engine as it races along the arrow-straight highway to some place else. A treaty more than 130 years ago exiled a small band of Goshute Indians out of sight and out of mind in one of the harshest landscapes imaginable, a place so desolate it was appropriately named Skull Valley. "Our homeland was the Tooele Valley, but the pioneers kept pushing us west," said 44-year-old Leon Bear, just elected to his second term as chairman of the 112-member band, most of whom live in towns far removed from the reservation. "They pushed and pushed." The Goshutes are now pushing back, tweaking the nose of Gov. Mike Leavitt and Utah's political establishment by entering into a lease agreement to allow a consortium of nuclear power utilities to store up to 40,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in above-ground casks on tribal lands. Because the tribe has sovereignty over what happens on the reservation, the state has struggled mightily with how to stop the Goshutes from accepting the most lethal wastes known to man. The proposal calls for temporary storage of the waste. But opponents believe once it's here, it'll stay. But the proposal has bitterly divided the tiny tribe. Margene Bullcreek is leading a small group of "traditionalists" who do not want their ancestral homeland turned into a toxic waste dump. "(Leon) is trying to convince himself that what he is doing is right," said the 54-year-old Bullcreek. "(But) this waste will destroy who we are." The dispute is far more than a small Indian tribe going to war with a state bent on keeping the waste out. Rather, the lease agreement thrusts the Goshutes into the middle of a national debate over the nation's nuclear policy, which has failed for more than 50 years to come up with a plan to dispose of nuclear waste. It seems the only ones who want the waste are the Skull Valley Goshutes, who say their reservation, already tucked between toxic waste dumps and incinerators, is not only a suitable site, but the only real option the tribe has for drumming up jobs. The tribe has tried but failed to attract other businesses. A rocket test range that the Hercules Corporation used to test satellite launch rockets since 1975 now sits idle on the reservation, the company recently declining to renew its contract. In 1993, the tribe invested in a glass and aluminum recycling plant that went bankrupt. Other prospects didn't pan out either. Three years ago, Bear signed a lease with PFS, but he won't disclose the financial details. "Some things," he said, "are nobody's business." National dilemma What to do with nuclear waste has become a huge national problem, not just for the nation's nuclear power plants, which provide 20 percent of the country's power, but for the federal government that needs a place to dispose of waste from nuclear submarines, decommissioned nuclear missiles, nuclear testing laboratories (including two in Utah) and thousands of fuel assemblies from nuclear power plants in foreign countries. In 1983, Congress passed legislation committing the government to have a permanent repository for the nuclear waste in place by Jan. 31, 1998. Now the government is saying a permanent facility will not be ready before 2010 at the earliest. And no one inside the industry believes the government will meet that deadline, either. Most agree a permanent nuclear waste facility will someday be built deep inside Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. Scientific tests on the suitability of the site continue, but actual construction is years away. Government officials recognized years ago they would not meet the storage deadline passed by Congress. In the early 1990s, the Department of Energy invited communities and Indian tribes to apply for grants to study the possibility of temporarily accepting nuclear waste pending completion of a permanent site. The Goshutes were among two Indian tribes that responded. They accepted two grants totaling $300,000 to conduct studies and visit nuclear power plants around the world. "Initially, it bothered us that they seemed to be targeting Indian reservations," said Bear, who at the time was tribal secretary. "Then we went through the studies and decided it was feasible to store it, that it was safe." A general meeting of tribal members passed a resolution supporting the idea. In 1997, the tribal council, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a consortium of nuclear power companies signed a 40-year lease agreement for temporary storage of nuclear waste, emphasizing to a wary public that the Skull Valley facility is a stop-gap only until the federal government completes a permanent facility. Even at a cost of $3 billion, it is money well spent if it avoids the shutdown of 10 to 20 nuclear reactors, says Scott Northard, PFS project manager. The Skull Valley facility would cover 820 acres, most of which would be covered by rows of some 4,000 stainless steel canisters, each 18 feet tall, enclosing spent nuclear fuel rods transported to the site by rail from nuclear power plants around the nation. If all goes as planned and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission grants the Goshutes and PFS a license to store the wastes, construction could begin by 2002. Not only will Goshutes be given preference in the construction jobs, but they will have first crack at 43 full-time jobs at the site, Bear said. It's just the kind of economic development, Bear said, that will draw tribal members — most now living in Grantsville, Tooele and Salt Lake City — back to the reservation. And the financial windfall, he said, will help create the infrastructure that will give them something more than jobs. Tribal survival For most of the past century, few Goshutes have actually lived in Skull Valley. Most drifted to white communities where they could find jobs and their children could be taught in public schools. Bear grew up playing in the arsenic-contaminated dirt of Stockton, just south of Tooele. He worked awhile as a security guard at the missile test facility before moving permanently to the reservation in 1980 with his wife, a Paiute, where they raised their two daughters. He doesn't speak the Goshute language. In contrast, Bullcreek and her family have always lived on the reservation. Her brother, the late Bert Wash, was the tribal chairman before Leon Bear's father, Richard, replaced him. Fluent in the Goshute tongue, she calls herself a traditionalist. She feels that the large utility corporations are invading their small tribe because they don't recognize their traditions. "You don't have to live in teepees to be a traditionalist," she said. Bullcreek and her neighbor, Sammy Blackbear, have been leading the fight against the nuclear waste storage facility since Bear signed the lease with Private Fuel Storage in 1997. They organized a small opposition group called Ohnogo Gaudadeh Devia (Goshute for "mountain community"), mustering support from other Native American tribes, environmentalists and politicos. "I felt I had to be outspoken or lose everything that has been passed down from generations," Bullcreek said. "The stories that tell why we became the people we are and how we should consider our animal life, our air, things that are sacred to us." Bullcreek has a powerful ally on her side. Gov. Mike Leavitt is confident the state can block the waste through a series of legal and regulatory challenges to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing process. Leavitt is also looking to Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, chairman of the House Resources Committee, to exert congressional muscle to thwart PFS. And he considers President George W. Bush a friend who could feasibly block the deal through executive order. But Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is warning the governor that there is little that can be done in Washington to block the nuclear waste dump, and that powerful political forces are at work to make it happen. And make no mistake about it, he said: If nuclear waste comes to Utah, it will be permanent. "The state needs to do some clever, creative thinking about how to stop this," Hatch said. Leavitt insists he is. He plans to twist the arm of Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura to put the political stops on Minnesota-based PFS from shipping nuclear wastes from power plants there. Closer to home, Leavitt is pushing the Utah Legislature to pass a law prohibiting Tooele County from providing electricity or water or other public services to the site. And he wants lawmakers to give him $1.6 million for a legal and public relations war on PFS. And the war will be carried outside of Utah where accidents during rail transport of nuclear wastes could expose millions to the dangers of nuclear contamination. Bear approaches the state's opposition with Zen-like indifference. Maybe the Goshutes win, maybe the state does. But if the proposal falls through, all is not lost. "We're not dead in the water yet," he said. "We'll look for something else." Front Page © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 18 Revenue generation makes waste-disposal industry a heavy hitter [deseretnews.com] Wednesday, February 14, 2001 By Jerry D. Spangler and Donna Kemp Spangler What's a five-letter word for garbage? Maybe "waste" or "trash?" In Utah, the correct response is inevitably "money." In fact, the disposal of waste is a huge industry here. Collectively, these businesses generate hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate revenues, employ hundreds of workers and sweeten state and local coffers through millions in fees and taxes. In fact, the Tooele County budget is largely dependent on waste industries. In all, Utah is home to one hazardous waste landfill, two hazardous waste incinerators (one is currently shut down), two radioactive waste dumps, a chemical weapons incinerator, a massive commercial landfill that accepts some wastes deemed hazardous in other states but not in Utah, and a facility that burns municipal waste. Each is regulated to some degree or another by the state Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and/or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Each, to one degree or another, is subject to fierce criticism from environmentalists who scrutinize every nuance of their disposal licenses, applications for changes in their permits, and violations issued by regulators. Now add to the brew the inescapable fact all operate in a highly charged political atmosphere and a volatile business climate where the market for waste is constantly changing. "In this business, you change or you aren't in business anymore," said Charles Judd, president of Envirocare of Utah, a commercial low-level radioactive waste facility in Tooele County that generates about $100 million a year in revenue. Changes in the market for the nastiest of human-caused wastes have already led to the demise of one hazardous waste incinerator (it operated only a few months before it was shut down for lack of waste to burn). And Safety-Kleen, owners of a hazardous waste landfill in Tooele County, recently filed for bankruptcy protection. Envirocare is also faced with declining revenues, forcing them to lay off workers. The result is an industry that is struggling to stay alive. And Judd warns that companies that don't change are going to be out of business. When Judd says "change" what he means is they must be allowed to accept different kinds of wastes above and beyond what was originally authorized. Envirocare had planned to petition Utah lawmakers and the governor this legislative session for permission to accept radioactive wastes thousands of times hotter than they are currently licensed for now. Called Class B and C wastes, these materials are remnants from the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, as well as wastes from research labs and hospitals. Some of the shipments will be so lethal that if somebody got close enough, they could receive a fatal dose, noted Bill Sinclair, director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control. But the company decided to wait, given that lawmakers are uncomfortable about addressing the issue before the public comment period has ended. Without the permit, Judd said Envirocare will be in serious financial trouble as its current supply of waste — low-level radioactive soils called Class A wastes — runs out in the next few years. Several years ago, Safety-Kleen had approached lawmakers about its plan to accept the same Class A radioactive wastes that constitute the bulk of Envirocare's business. But those attempts were blocked by Envirocare and Tooele County commissioners who argued there was not enough of the waste to sustain both the existing Envirocare facility and an expanded Safety-Kleen. For more than a decade, Envirocare has deftly navigated the stormy political waters surrounding the commercial storage of mildly radioactive waste. But many lawmakers simply don't like the fact Utah has become a national dumping ground for radioactive and hazardous wastes, and they can't see allowing wastes that are even more toxic. Envirocare and its owner, Khosrow B. Semnani, have responded by contributing generously to Utah political campaigns and political parties — Almost $100,000 over the past two years — winning friends on Capitol Hill. Envirocare sees its two primary sources of waste —11e2 and Class A wastes that currently combine for 80 to 90 percent of their business — largely disappearing over the next several years. It's not so much that supplies of waste have disappeared as it is government regulators are looking for less-costly ways of disposing of contaminated soils. Most federally funded cleanups now involve building storage cells on or near the contaminated site. For example, the 10 million tons of uranium tailings at the Atlas mill near Moab is something that in years past could have been earmarked for disposal at Envirocare. But Atlas cleanup plans call for the tailings to be shipped to a site near the Moab airport where they will be buried. Government regulators with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have also changed the rules on disposal of low-level radioactive wastes. Some materials once targeted for Envirocare are considered so benign they can now be discarded in public landfills. Other contaminated soils can be recycled for traces of uranium. Despite objections by the state, the NRC is allowing International Uranium Corp., which operates a uranium processing mill near Blanding, to accept contaminated soils and mill tailings for recycling. The small traces of uranium being extracted cannot be justified given low market prices for uranium, but the company also gets paid cleanup fees for taking the materials. State regulators argue that is nothing more than a sham for disposing of radioactive wastes without state oversight, and that taxpayers will be left with cleaning up a huge tailings pile once the company walks away from the Blanding mill. The company argues, and the NRC agrees, that recycling, whether subsidized with cleanup payments or not, makes good economic and environmental sense. Ironically, the state's dispute with International Uranium has resulted in a strange alliance: Environmentalists often critical of the state's pro-industry posture toward waste disposal have been wholeheartedly supporting the state's position that radioactive wastes should be properly discarded in regulated facilities like Envirocare. "It is painful (to admit), but yes, sites like Envirocare are needed to serve the public good by cleaning up these cultural nightmares sitting next to schools and airports," said J. Preston Truman, founder of Utah Downwinders and a frequent critic of Envirocare's business practices. "Does it mean it all has to be shipped to Utah? I don't think so," he said. "The nation has to come to task with those already sacrificed on the nuclear altar, the Utahns and Nevadans and Idahoans who have already given their lives." *E-MAIL: spang@desnews.com; donna@desnews.com* © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Hanford cleanup funding expected to increase This story was published 2/14/2001 By Les Blumenthaland John Stang XXX Herald staff writers WASHINGTON -- As reports circulated Tuesday that the Bush administration is considering up to a $1 billion cut in its fiscal 2002 budget request for cleaning up Hanford and other contaminated Department of Energy sites, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she had received assurances the White House will increase funding. Murray said she had spoken to Mitch Daniels, director of the White House budget office, who denied the reports about a major cut in funding for DOE's cleanup program that have been circulating on Capitol Hill for weeks. "Mr. Daniels assured me that the Bush administration plans to increase, not cut, funding for the Hanford cleanup," Murray said in a statement. "As the budget process moves forward, I intend to hold the administration to its word." DOE officials in Washington, D.C., declined comment on the cleanup budget for fiscal 2002, which starts Oct. 1. "We are in the middle of the budget process," said Joe Davis, a DOE spokesman. "We are not commenting." If Hanford's fiscal 2002 budget falls below the approximately $1.5 billion being spent in 2001, it would torpedo the site's current cleanup plans and legal obligations. In fact, DOE's two Hanford agencies -- the Richland office and the Office of River Protection -- want about $1.9 billion appropriated to Hanford in 2002. Most of the extra $400 million is needed to keep Hanford's radioactive waste glassification venture on track to meet its Tri-Party Agreement legal obligations. The rest is needed for a plan to accelerate cleanup along the Columbia River shore. The bottom line is Hanford needs an extra $350 million to $400 million just to meet its cleanup obligations. And the state has repeatedly declared it won't cut DOE any legal slack if it does not request enough money to meet the Tri-Party Agreement obligations. In recent years, DOE's master plan has been to keep its nationwide cleanup budget about level in the $5.8 billion to $6 billion range. Hanford traditionally accounts for slightly more than 20 percent of that overall cleanup budget. Not only is Hanford seeking extra money, other DOE sites also are. Last week, Georgia's and South Carolina's four U.S. senators wrote to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, asking for more money for Savannah River's aging infrastructure. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the administration was eyeing a $400 million reduction in DOE's nationwide cleanup budget. And congressional aides indicated to the Herald that the cut could be up to $1 billion. DOE's Hanford leaders contacted Tuesday had no idea where the rumored $1 billion and $400 million cut figures could have come from. The Herald has tried several times in the past few weeks to schedule an interview with Abraham but has been unsuccessful. The White House is expected to release its budget request sometime in the next several weeks, although it is expected to be more of a general outline than a detailed document. A more in-depth budget proposal is expected in March or April. Murray was not the only one on Capitol Hill concerned about possible cuts in the department's budget. Todd Young, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said the congressman has been talking to DOE about the budget and is convinced Abraham is trying to fight any cuts. "There is no doubt the secretary is committed to full funding," Young said. "The congressman is very concerned. There shouldn't be a cut, there should be an increase given DOE's legal obligations." Murray said she would fight any cuts that would prevent the department from meeting its legal obligations. Though Murray said she had received assurances from Daniels, she remained skeptical about the administration's intentions, especially in light of Bush's proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut. "Last week, we heard from the Bush administration about the need for a sweeping tax cut," she said. "Again, I support a tax cut, and there are areas of tax policy on which I will agree with this administration. "We simply cannot pay for a tax cut by failing to meet our legal, environmental and moral obligations," she added. Murray also said the administration needs to view the cleanup at Hanford and other DOE sites as a part of its plans to increase defense spending. "The administration needs to remember that the legacy of securing the world's freedom lies in the underground tanks only hundreds of yards from the Columbia River," Murray said. Back to top stories ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2000 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 2 Many at lab hope modernization isn't swan song for pond, birds February 12, 2001 By Frank Munger News-Sentinel senior writer The Swan Pond, a pretty place at the entrance near the Holifield accelerator, is a fixture at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and some scientists and staff members are passionate about its health and upkeep. In recent times, however, the pond has been the scene of some fowl carnage. A swan was rushed to the University of Tennessee Veterinary School one morning a couple of weeks ago after lab employees found the bird bleeding on a bank. The swan, which had been attacked by an unidentified predator, died following surgery. All of the swan babies born the year before reportedly were lost in a similar manner. Observers recount torn wings and other horror stories from times past and say the situation is only going to get worse, largely because of the deteriorating condition of the fence around the Swan Pond. Thus, the question: How much are these swans worth? Pond supporters last year tried to push through a proposal to repair or replace parts of the fence, a project with a reported price tag of $17,000. That proposal didn't get funded and UT-Battelle, the new contractor that took over management of the lab April 1, apparently isn't inclined to make that kind of investment either -- at least not yet. Jeff Smith, the lab's deputy director for operations, said UT-Battelle plans to begin construction this summer on a new building adjacent to the pond as part of the five-year lab modernization program. If a new fence were purchased and installed around the pond, Smith said, it might get damaged during construction of the Research Support Center -- which will house the lab's new cafeteria, offices and meeting rooms. In fact, the swans may have to be relocated temporarily so they're not endangered during construction, he said. "We think that the pond itself and the animal life that take advantage of that pond are an important part of the laboratory, and we'd like to preserve that," Smith said. Indeed, the design of the Research Support Center may allow cafeteria diners to overlook the Swan Pond while they're eating. At this point, however, UT-Battelle is not promising to build a new fence to protect the swans. That could change, depending on the availability of funds and the level of interest. Owen Hoffman, a former research scientist at ORNL who heads SENES Oak Ridge Inc., has been asked to be an expert witness in the class-action lawsuits seeking damages for illnesses attributed to Oak Ridge radiation exposures. The lawsuits were filed in Federal Court in mid-January. Hoffman is one of the nation's experts in calculating exposures to radioactive iodine-131 from A-bomb fallout and other sources, such as nuclear processing activities at ORNL in the 1950s. Radiation doses from I-131 have been linked to development of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases. The scientist said he was approached by representatives of Short, Cressman &Burgess, a Seattle-based law firm that is part of the national consortium of law firms involved in the actions against past and present Oak Ridge contractors. Hoffman acknowledged he was interested in the offer but hadn't made a decision. He and SENES staff members were architects of the I-131 dose reconstruction in the Oak Ridge Health Studies, a 1990s project that looked at the impact of historic releases from the federal nuclear facilities. Hoffman and his associates also have developed computer software that can evaluate the cancer risk of individuals who lived in East Tennessee during the period when ORNL released I-131 in significant quantities. Those radiation doses would have been in addition to fallout from aboveground weapons testing in Nevada. He has expressed concern that the final Health Studies report did not include all results of his work on I-131 exposures in the Oak Ridge area or fully convey the significance of the threat to the regional population. In a recent statement, Hoffman suggested that people who grew up in this area during the late 1940s and '50s and later developed thyroid cancer might be able to link their illness to the radioactive discharges. "If the same criteria now proposed by DOE for sick workers and by the Veterans Administration for military personnel exposed to radiation were to be applied to the public who were exposed to multiple sources of I-131, most everyone who consumed milk in the general region of Oak Ridge who were in childhood at the time of the exposure would be eligible for medical care and compensation (if they developed thyroid cancer or other growth on the thyroid gland). "The general region includes residents as far away from Oak Ridge as Farragut, Lenoir City, Oliver Springs, Maryville, Sweetwater, Rockwood, Harriman, Kingston, Knoxville, Wartburg, Clinton and Lake City." Senior writer Frank Munger can be reached at 482-9213 or by e-mail at twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. This weekly column on science and technology also is available on our Web site at http://www.knoxnews.com/science/munger/. Keep informed! Join the KnoxNews.com mailing list. ***************************************************************** 3 Y-12 preserving Smokies' priceless artifacts Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:49 p.m. on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 by Thomas Fraser XXX The (Maryville) Daily Times In eight rooms of an aging biology building at Y-12 National Security Complex, the Smokies' most priceless artifacts are being cared for, catalogued and preserved for future generations. The project is a far cry from the cutting-edge health and genetic work that the building is most known for; the building is a far cry from the poor conditions the relics of Appalachia were stored in until three years ago. There are 20,949 cultural artifacts in possession of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and until an agreement was reached with the Department of Energy and its Y-12 managers, they were poorly housed in the Oconaluftee Visitors Center and fell prey to the ills of all improperly stored artifacts: mold, mildew, water damage and accelerated aging. Now, on a complex that still represents the height of American technological capabilities and is protected by some of the nation's best security, thousands of items, ranging from quilts to tomahawks to the chair on which President Franklin Roosevelt sat at the park's dedication, are being preserved for all Americans, and the world. NPS Volunteer Larry Alcorn  gently lifts pieces of a loom from a crate that also contained bed pieces that once belonged to the Walker Sisters. The artifacts had been crated and stored for over 20 years. ** The carefully monitored climate controls and security are a vast improvement from the flood-prone former facility, which lacked even consistent heating and cooling capabilities. Maryann Neubert is the park's first museum technician, and came from the Grand Canyon in September to inventory and preserve the park's collection of cultural artifacts. The items came into the park's possession in a number of ways. They were collected in a cultural canvass of the park in the 1930s, they were donated to the park, or they were passed on by some of the last living inhabitants of the park, such as the Walker sisters. Some interesting pieces are still stumbled upon in the park from time to time, such as the latest addition to the collection, a 70-pound mill wheel found recently along the Boogerman Trail in North Carolina. ** The millstone, incidentally, is worth about $700, Neubert said. As for the vast majority of the park's collection? An economic value can hardly be applied, she said. "In terms of heritage, these things are priceless," she said. "You can find reproductions everywhere," she said, "but they don't have the history at all. The brooms, the farming equipment, you're never going to find that, ever again." One of the brooms in question consists of a sapling cut at the base and then peeled and split all the way down the trunk to form a brush at the end. That's an easily identifiable tool; some of the artifacts, however, like a two-pronged farming implement sharing the room with the broom, escape definition and identification. "A lot of this stuff we look at and say: 'What was this used for?'" But simplicity and self-sufficiency mark most the objects in the collection, like gourds, corncob stoppers and ceramic moonshine containers made from mountain clay and glazed with black walnut. "It's incredible workmanship," Neubert said of one of the vintage moonshine jugs. "It's in pristine condition -- it needs a little cleaning -- but the glaze is still shiny." There's also enough copper tubing and distillery equipment to concoct a brew to fill those jugs. Impeccable craftsmanship can also be found in the park's collection of 25 quilts, most of which belonged to the Walker sisters, the last of whom lived in Greenbrier until 1964. A quarter of the park's entire cultural artifacts collection -- most of which dates between 1900 and 1950 -- can be traced to the sisters. An Irish Charm Quilt in pristine condition always catches Neubert's eye. "This quilting is enviable, because I quilt. I wish I could be that straight and even.'' Of course, there are artifacts found in the park that predate all European settlement. Neubert also oversees the park's collection of prehistoric and early settlement artifacts. A drawer holds items ranging from a 1700s musket ball to a prehistoric pestle and cutting tool. "This is the oldest stuff the park has,'' Neubert said; some of the park's prehistoric collection can also be found at the Southeastern Archaeological Center in Tallahassee. Other items in the park's collection are also kept elsewhere, such as the art collection at Sugarlands; the park's extensive natural history collection is also kept at Sugarlands, and while the Y-12 facility boasts traps designed for the capture of creatures ranging from fish to bear and raccoons, the park's gun collection is also stored at Sugarlands. Each of the thousands of artifacts haa been assigned a number and catalogued; Neubert's first task is to ensure all items are present in the collection as catalogued. Each item is also being digitally photographed. Some things are still being unpacked at the Y-12 facility. Thursday, with the help of two of the three volunteers who assist in her task, Neubert unpacked a crate that was sealed in the 1970s by the park service's preservation headquarters at Harpers Ferry, W.Va. The crate, which showed signs of water damage from the Oconaluftee facility's propensity to flood, was opened by the two volunteers, a Y-12 fireman and a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent. It contained portions of a loom, a bed, and one crushed, dessicated mouse. Neubert examined the headboard as it rested on a counter in the climate-controlled environment, which, ideally, never exceeds 45-percent humidity. Aside from a few patches of mold, the headboard is in very good shape. "It needs a little cleaning, but it's structurally sound.'' Purveyors of pre-park culture need not be alarmed at the removal of the bed from its protective crate of almost 30 years. The park collection will be kept in the safe confines of the Y-12 rooms until a new permanent facility, still several years away, is constructed on national park property. The use of the Oak Ridge facility stems from an agreement reached five years ago with former park superintendent Karen Wade; the agreement is in no danger of termination, even given recent managerial changes in Oak Ridge. Previous plant managers entered into a volunteer agreement with the park, and that in turn led to discussion of how Y-12 technical expertise and storage space could be put to work to benefit the park. "In a meeting,'' said Bob Presley, protocol officer with BWXT Y-12, the company that manages Y-12 for the Department of Energy. "it was brought up that a tremendous amount of artifacts were literally being ruined.'' Thus the agreement to allow storage at Y-12. "The magnitude of the collection,'' said Presley, is its most impressive attribute. "The fact that they have so much, and it is in such good condition. It is unreal what they have here.'' And it is unreal what the park almost didn't have any longer. "This stuff was sitting in boxes and cases, and no one had been taking care of it. That's my position,'' Neubert said. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 4 Decision on layoff-related resolution is stalled Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:55 p.m. on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 by Paul Parson XXX Oak Ridger staff A resolution calling for changes in workforce reductions has been stalled on the bottom rung of the support ladder. Members of the Citizens' Advisory Panel of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee postponed taking a stance on the resolution during its meeting Tuesday evening at the local office of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Norman Mulvenon, chairman of the Citizens' Advisory Panel, said the reason was because the resolution requires some revision. The resolution was drafted over a three-week period by the Citizens' Advisory Panel's Economic Transition and Work Force Issues Subcommittee and a group of laid-off workers from Department of Energy sites in Oak Ridge. The resolution was spurred by the recent job cuts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Currently, the resolution encourages DOE and its contractors to remove pension-reduction penalties for employees let go due to workforce reductions, to lessen the number of layoffs required and to help impacted employees locate new jobs consistent with their experience and skills mix. The resolution also asks DOE to conduct an analysis on layoff data from 1988 to the present to determine if age discrimination or "whistleblower" retaliation were factors in the layoffs. A request is included in the resolution to provide the results of the analysis to the public. However, some Citizens' Advisory Panel members voiced concerns with portions of the resolution's content and wording. "We have to be able to substantiate [the resolution] in every way," Mulvenon said. "The information needs to be strengthened with more facts and less emotion. If you want to accomplish something, you have to tell a good story. Perceptions are important. Let's get it right." The Citizens' Advisory Panel did agree to critique the resolution and then give it back to the subcommittee for revision. The resolution is expected to be brought back before the Citizens' Advisory Panel for possible endorsement on March 13. If accepted, the resolution could then be sent to the Local Oversight Committee board of directors for endorsement. "What I'm looking at is strengthening this resolution so the LOC board and DOE will take a good look at it," said Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Local Oversight Committee. Mulvenon added, "When we get the LOC board to endorse it, [the resolution] will have some meat to it. "We don't want you to give up," he then told the small crowd of laid-off workers attending Tuesday's meeting. The Local Oversight Committee, a nonprofit organization funded by the state of Tennessee, provides advice to local, state and federal officials regarding DOE operations and environmental management decisions. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 5 SRS workers find likely leak sources Augusta Georgia: technology@ugusta: *Site official says spots in tank do not appear to be actively releasing more waste * *Web posted Wednesday, February 14, 2001 *Staff Writer* Savannah River Site engineers say they might have located the sources of a recent leak in one of the site's radioactive-waste tanks, an SRS spokesman said Tuesday. Using a remote-controlled robot to inspect the tank's walls, workers at the federal nuclear-weapons site have found five spots suspected of leaks, said Dean Campbell, a spokesman for Westinghouse Savannah River Co. Westinghouse operates SRS for the U.S. Department of Energy. Three of the spots are damp, Mr. Campbell said, but none appears to be actively leaking. Anti-corrosion chemicals placed in the tanks are designed to crystallize around any leaks to plug them, he said. Site officials have not determined what to do with the tank, Mr. Campbell said. In the meantime, workers continue to use a ventilation system around the tank to evaporate a puddle of waste caused by the leak. The puddle, which has been estimated to contain about 90 gallons of waste, is pooled in a steel, saucer-like vessel beneath the 750,000-gallon tank, Mr. Campbell said. The tank and its saucer are encased in concrete. The waste did not escape the saucer into the soil and ground water, Mr. Campbell said. The puddle is made up of water that contains a small amount of radioactive tritium, Mr. Campbell said. Tritium is a gas used to boost the power of nuclear weapons. The site has 51 radioactive-waste tanks, two of which are no longer used. Nine of the tanks have developed leaks over the years, Mr. Campbell said. In 1960, one leak, of less than 100 gallons, leached into the soil, he said. Reach at (706) 823-3409. All contents © 1996 - 2001 *The Augusta Chronicle*. All ***************************************************************** 6 Uranium, chemicals found in apartment of dead chemist Posted at 9:30 p.m. EST Tuesday, February 13, 2001 AP Photo OHMAN101 --> BY MARK WILLIAMS *Associated Press Writer * CARDINGTON, Ohio (AP) -- A chemist, found dead in his apartment surrounded by low-grade uranium, 17 pounds of mercury and other containers of chemicals, was a brilliant man who had used the materials for research, his brother said Tuesday. The chemicals were found in the apartment that Thomas Beiter had rented in this central Ohio village since 1994. The body of Beiter, 54, was found Thursday after neighbors had called to complain about an odor coming from the apartment. ``All of this stuff he had was in the pursuit of knowledge,'' said his brother, P. William ``Bill'' Beiter, 62, of Lancaster in southeastern Ohio. He said his brother would be mortified by the reaction of people concerned about the uranium and chemicals found in the apartment. ``By nature, he was just a quiet and gentle person,'' Beiter said. ``He was very brilliant. I don't think there was any part of math he didn't understand.'' The three-story apartment building in this village of about 2,200 nearly 40 miles north of Columbus was evacuated Monday night. Authorities and a company hired by the village, Clearwater Environmental Inc., a Lancaster company that specializes in environmental cleanups, removed the materials. Brad Hutchinson, president of Clearwater, said that 139 substances were found in all, not including the uranium and another radioactive substance. Joe Edwards, the Morrow County Emergency Management Agency director, said the building was evacuated until 5 a.m. Tuesday as a precaution while the chemicals were removed. Authorities had been investigating the chemicals since finding Beiter's body. The chemicals included several kinds of acids and three, one-gallon containers of uranium. The uranium had low levels of radioactivity, not enough to pose any threat, said Jay Carey, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health, which confirmed the substance as uranium Tuesday. ``They were in such small amounts that anyone could've gotten them through a science or chemical supply,'' he said. ``You don't need any kind of a license or a permit for these amounts.'' Edwards said the chemicals will be incinerated. The uranium is being kept in a village garage until it can be disposed. He said it would have to be buried. Beiter said his brother likely used the chemicals while working on his doctorate in chemistry at Miami University. Even though he finished his degree in 1992, he may have kept the chemicals because he thought he may need them at some point or he may have kept them as a collection. ``He just didn't like to throw stuff away,'' Beiter said. Authorities said they found his apartment stuffed with so many papers, journals and magazines that it was difficult to get around. Miami chemistry professor Joseph Cantrell, Beiter's dissertation mentor, said Beiter devised equations and programs for crystal structures considered important for medical research. Crystal structures can range from simple things like salts and metals to organic and biochemical proteins. Beiter's 150-page dissertation was published as several papers. He said he recently presented a paper in Australia based on Beiter's studies. Beiter said he last talked to his brother Feb. 2. He said his brother chose to live in Cardington because it was close to Ohio State, but far enough away to be in a rural area. A restaurant, video store, barbershop and other businesses are near the 30-unit building. ``He liked places that were quiet and kind of rural,'' he said. He said it isn't clear what caused his brother's death. Beiter had severe allergies that often led to coughing spasms. He said his brother may have choked or suffocated. Beiter's neighbors said they heard Beiter in his apartment and that he would say hello if they passed in hallway, but they didn't know his name until after he died. They also didn't know about the chemicals. ``We had no idea,'' said Ann Stalnaker, who lived next to Beiter for 1 1/2 years. Beiter will be buried Wednesday at Forest Rose Cemetery in Lancaster. AP-CS-02-13-01 2104EST --> ***************************************************************** 7 Bring back the bomb! Salon.com People Nuclear paranoia fit perfectly with my adolescence in the '80s. Then one day, while I was writhing in the gutter, it simply stopped. By Dana Hull Feb. 13, 2001 | Dread was delicious. It arrived when I was about 12, a suburban kid living outside Baltimore. It was the early 1980s, and the scene unfolding was not a good one. My parents had bitterly divorced. The country was in a recession and Ronald Reagan was in office. John Lennon was murdered, the pope shot, Egypt's Anwar Sadat assassinated. I quit the Girl Scouts. I was tired, mostly of trudging to the mall to watch bad teen movies. I asked my mom if we could possibly move to a more exciting place. I was too old to play with my kid brother, was too young to date and yawned when I thought of my friends. Thus began a predictably long phase of staying up late, burning candles and listening to dreary records. I also discovered paranoia, and made it my motif. I vaguely knew about the nuclear thing. Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear accident had occurred a few years earlier, and Maryland residents worried about living downwind and downstream. In school we learned that the Soviet Union was bad. The children there had to wear uniforms and study all the time, plus work in the fields and factories because their bland, cold and sinister country wanted to take over the world. And "The Day After," a made-for-TV movie that dramatized the effects of a nuclear missile attack on a Kansas town, was about to air. The movie generated enormous controversy in 1983. No network had ever attempted to bring the horror of nuclear war to America's living rooms, much less during sweeps week. Critics warned that it was relentlessly depressing and deeply disturbing -- two punishing prime-time hours of Hiroshima in the Heartland. The network warned parents that impressionable young viewers should not see the movie, which included graphic sequences of mass death and destruction. I demanded to be allowed to watch it. Nuclear war and radiation poisoning sounded very grown-up. I was ready to have a ringside seat to Armageddon and all of its secrets. If we were going to be blown up, I argued, I should be prepared. I even had a holocaust-appropriate wardrobe: black sweaters and old Army fatigues. I don't remember actually sitting down to watch the Sunday night special in our house. But I vividly remember certain scenes, images that immediately seared into my psyche. When the nuclear missiles hit, wind and flames engulfed the region. The rolling Kansas prairie charred to black soot and became littered with the corpses of cows and horses. An entire kindergarten class vaporized during a bright orange blast of fire, instantly turning to skeletons. Green and hairless people with boils on their faces staggered Quasimodo-like along a desolate road in search of food. Jason Robards cried in the rubble. As the credits rolled, a weak call for help came from a basement bunker on a radio. "This is Lawrence, Kan. Is anybody out there? Anybody at all?" Nearly 100 million people watched the movie. We talked about it in social studies class the next day, and some students delighted in sharing their nightmares, or acting *really freaked out.* The day after "The Day After" was high drama in junior high -- being traumatized was all the rage. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited Copyright 2001 Salon.com Salon, 22 4th Street, 16th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103 Telephone 415 645-9200 | Fax 415 645-9204 E-mail | Salon.com Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 8 U.S. nuclear sub struck like a passing demon asahi.com news February 14, 2001 `Tohri-ma''(literally ``passing demon'') is Japanese for a phantom or ``faceless'' attacker who harms anyone and anything in his path. The expression ``umi no tohri-ma'' (phantom attacker on the high seas) popped into my mind when the Japanese fisheries training vessel Ehime Maru was hit by a nuclear-powered submarine of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in daylight off Oahu, Hawaii. The crew of the Japanese ship included students of Uwajima Fisheries High School in Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture. The sub ``surfaced suddenly,'' according to the captain of the Ehime Maru. His ship was a little less than 500 tons, while the sub displaced nearly 7,000 tons. It was as if a tiny rowboat was suddenly confronted by a gigantic whale. The boat did not have a chance. Submarine operators take every precaution when the vessel is about to surface. A thorough acoustic search is done to make sure the coast is completely clear. If there is a ship in the vicinity, the submarine's sonar device would pick up the sounds of the screw or engine. And when the sub gets to about 20 meters below the sea surface, a visual search is done with the periscope. All these safety procedures must be taken before the sub finally surfaces. But obviously, the vessel in question did a very sloppy job. Ehime Maru was completely helpless to avert a collision when the submarine's gigantic bulk emerged without any warning. Local TV coverage of the disaster showed the rescued students and crew members dripping wet and smeared with oil slick. Most were not wearing life jackets. Twenty years ago, a Japanese freighter, Nissho Maru, was hit and sunk by a surfacing nuclear submarine of the U.S. Navy. The impact threw the entire boat's crew into the sea, killing two. It was a hit-and-run. It was not until 35 hours later that the U.S. government informed the Foreign Ministry of this ``accident.'' A U.S. Navy investigation revealed the submarine had failed to do a visual search with its periscope prior to surfacing. The recent tragedy off Hawaii has brought to mind this outrageous incident of two decades ago. I am inclined to think professional negligence was again the cause. I pray for the safety of those who are still missing, but I am, frankly, not optimistic. I understand the Ehime Maru arrived in Hawaii ahead of schedule because its air conditioning system had broken down. The vessel had weighed anchor just before it was hit. The more I reflect on the tragedy, the harder it is to accept. Asahi Shimbun Copyright 2001 Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction or ***************************************************************** 9 Ehime Maru-sub collision demands full investigation asahi.com news *The Japanese government should not be overeager to demonstrate `understanding' to the U.S. government, but should instead make its demands clear.* Asahi Shimbun February 14, 2001 Five days have passed since the Ehime Maru, a fishing boat used for training by the Uwajima Fisheries High School in Ehime Prefecture, was capsized and sunk Friday in a collision with the USS Greeneville, a nuclear submarine that suddenly surfaced off the coast of Oahu Island, Hawaii. Nine teachers, students and crewmen are still unaccounted for out of 35 aboard, despite around-the-clock search efforts since Friday. At the site where their loved ones probably died, bereaved relatives cried out in anguish. In empathy, we pray that all possible effort will be applied to find and retrieve them. Those missing may be trapped within the hull of the trawler, now at the bottom of the ocean. The United States and Japan must cooperate to find the vessel. The possibility of recovery must also be explored. At the same time, investigation of the cause of the tragedy is essential to prevent recurrence. The United States government has expressed its apology to Japan through many channels. That was probably because of a desire to minimize the possible effect of the accident upon bilateral relations. While the Americans should naturally apologize, the most important thing is to have a thorough investigation into the cause of the collision and full public disclosure. The details of the accident should not be lost in apologies and expressions of condolence by the Americans. U.S. Navy officials say the submarine rose near the surface through routine surfacing procedures before the collision with periscope raised. It submerged again, however, before breaking the surface, then hit the fishing boat. In a normal surfacing routine check for safety, what kind of safety was confirmed? Many elements, such as the sub's log, periscope image recordings and transcripts of interviews with the submarine's crewmembers need to be disclosed. If the periscope is a submarine's eye, sonar is its ear. It is reported that the Greeneville was running on passive sonar-able to hear propellers of nearby vessels-rather than active sonar, which issues ultrasonic ``pings'' and measures their return echo off nearby objects, at the time of the collision. From experience with a similar accident, the National Transportation Safety Board had recommended that U.S. Navy submarines use active sonar. Since active sonar use discloses a submarine's position to enemy ships, however, submarine commanders are said to often avoid using it. Could the military mindset and procedure have taken precedence over confirming safe conditions? It has been reported that civilians were also aboard the Greeneville. Could their presence have had anything to do with the sudden surfacing procedure? Evidence from those civilians aboard will also be important evidence in determining the cause of the accident. We urge the U.S. government to conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident, release the findings and take specific steps to avoid similar accidents. The Japanese government should not be overeager to demonstrate ``understanding'' to the U.S. government, but should instead make its demands clear. This accident demonstrates the dangers on the high seas where submarines operate. They navigate in stealth, submerged in areas crossed by fishing vessels and training ships, then surface without warning. Some critics assert that their missions are in the interest of national security. But we cannot help asking whether security must come at the expense of people's lives. Copyright 2001 Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction or ***************************************************************** 10 Swiss find scant plutonium traces in Balkans Reuters | BBC News | Sky News | Photos Wednesday February 14, 10:08 AM ZURICH (Reuters) - A Swiss laboratory has found only minute traces of plutonium in NATO depleted uranium (DU) weapons used by NATO-led forces in the Balkans, according to Swiss radio. "It is already clear that only extremely small -- if any -- traces of plutonium were found in the shells and shell fragments that were checked, and these in no way pose a potential health risk, according to scientists," the radio reported on Wednesday. The possible danger of contamination from armour and other targets hit by cheap and highly-effective shells tipped with depleted uranium during the Gulf War -- and more recently in southern Serbia -- has caused an outcry in some Western states. Britain and the United have insisted the risks are minimal. Swiss defence ministry spokesman Oswald Sigg told the radio: "We will release the detailed findings of the Spiez (weapons lab) plutonium investigation this week, but we can already confirm the same trend that the German investigation found." He was referring to reports that Germany's GSF research lab had also found no traces of highly toxic plutonium in NATO ammunition used in the Balkans. Last month Switzerland ordered the lab to check DU weapons samples from Kosovo for plutonium amid concern -- played down by defence experts -- that the munitions may have posed health risks to peacekeepers, aid workers and civilians in areas of the Balkans where NATO used them to blast Serb tanks. The United Nations' Environmental Programme (UNEP) sent a mission to Kosovo earlier this month as the storm broke in Europe over reports that foreign troops who served in the Balkans and the Gulf over the past decade may have been exposed to contaminated sites that could cause cancer. The 14 experts collected 340 samples of soil, water and vegetation, conducted smear tests on buildings and destroyed Yugoslav army vehicles, and found remnants of DU ammunition at eight of the 11 sites they visited. UNEP is working with the World Health Organisation and the International Agency for Research on Cancer to try to determine exactly what risks soldiers and civilians run from DU weapons. UNEP had asked the Spiez lab to check the samples for enriched uranium, and it found traces of uranium 236, created during processing in nuclear power plants. But UNEP has said the traces were so small that the weapons containing it would have been no more dangerous than purely DU arms. ***************************************************************** 11 UK: MoD seeking opinions on DU Ministry of Defence The MoD is seeking the views of experts on proposals for a screening programme for personnel with concerns about possible depleted uranium exposure. A consultative document, setting out the technical and scientific issues associated with possible screening programmes has been published today. The document invites advice and comment from a wide range of expert bodies. Armed Forces Minister, John Spellar, said: *"Now that the first phase of work has been completed, the next step is to develop proposals for screening taking into account the advice and comments we receive in response to this document. I am committed to ensuring that we take this matter forward quickly on the basis of the best possible expert advice and the consultative document is part of that process."* Comments on the draft screening process are requested by 9 March 2001. By 24 March the MoD intends to make firm proposals for an appropriate screening programme, taking into account any responses to this document. Further consultation with the scientific, medical and veterans communities will follow. ***************************************************************** 12 Kursk's Torpedoes Played Role in Submarine's Demise Russia Today - MOSCOW, Feb 14, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) The torpedoes of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea last August with 118 men aboard, played a role in its demise, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said Tuesday. "It is certain that the torpedoes played a role from the start of the catastrophe," Klebanov, heading the inquiry into the August 12 disaster, told the Interfax news agency. "Either something reacted with the torpedoes from outside the craft, which could have caused the catastrophe, or something happened with the torpedoes themselves," the deputy prime minister added. The exact cause of the incident is still unclear, but U.S. experts supported the theory that two consecutive explosions occurred aboard the sub, one of which they said had the force of a modern torpedo warhead. Russian authorities have long backed the notion that the Kursk collided with a foreign submarine, causing it to sink to the floor of the Barents Sea. The commission of inquiry led by Klebanov is examining the type of torpedoes used on the Kursk, as well as the remains of those recovered from the accident site. *((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)* ***************************************************************** 13 Lost Bomb: Sleeping Relic, or Disaster in Waiting? Tuesday, February 13, 2001 By Kris Osborn [FOXNews.com] TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. — A Mark 15 nuclear bomb, deemed "irretrievably lost" by the U.S. Air Force, has been lying on the ocean floor off the coast of Georgia since 1958. That one fact, perhaps, is all that can be agreed upon 43 years later. The bomb — and questions about its potential danger — are the focal point of a growing controversy. Military veterans like retired Air Force pilot Derek Duke, along with a number of local politicians, say the bomb is very dangerous and must be retrieved. "I believe this bomb contains a plutonium capsule, the essential ingredient which could cause a nuclear detonation. This bomb is 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima," Duke told Fox News. Although Duke says safeguards would make such a detonation unlikely, he has assembled a team of nuclear and military experts who stand ready to search for the missing weapon. The U.S. Air Force, however, believes a search is not necessary. The service claim the weapon did not have the plutonium capsule and as a result, poses little danger to the area. In 1958, the bomb was jettisoned into the ocean off the coast of Tybee Island, after two U.S. Air Force planes collided while flying on a training mission. The pilot of one of the planes, a crippled B-47 bomber, dropped the warhead into the ocean in order to avoid an explosion during landing. The Air Force searched for the weapon but could not find it, and called off the search after nine weeks. Maj. Donald Robbins, an Air Force nuclear expert, said the B-47 carried a "simulated" bomb that did not contain the plutonium capsule. As a result, "it's not a full-on bomb," he told Fox News. The retired Air Force pilot who flew the original B-47, Howard Richardson, agrees. "The bomb on the plane I flew did not contain the plutonium capsule," he said. "The weapon was not fully assembled and therefore could not cause a nuclear explosion." The Department of Energy recently submitted an internal report to the Air Force, saying the bomb does not present a significant threat. They point out the weapon is likely submerged beneath five to fifteen feet of sand, and poses little danger if left undisturbed. But that's not what Duke sees. He points to a 1966 Department of Defense document in which W.J. Howard, then assistant secretary of defense, describes the bomb as a "complete weapon." Duke says nuclear experts have advised him that even if the weapon did not contain the plutonium capsule, it nevertheless contains a dangerous amount of nuclear materials which could prove hazardous. "The nuclear materials have not shown up environmentally yet. Once they do," he said, "it will be too late." In response to Derek Duke's inquiries, Tybee Island Mayor Walter Parker will host a special city council meeting on Thursday. The council meeting, to be attended by military and nuclear experts, will seek to marshal support for a resolution asking Congress to fund a search for the bomb. Duke says he plans to present a credible witness with vital information on the issue. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., has expressed interest in getting to the bottom of the issue. "I couldn't think of anything worse than a bomb suddenly exploding off Tybee Island," he said. "But by now it could have drifted away, or could no longer present any kind of threat, so we want to be sure we have some solid scientific answers instead of just resolving it on an emotional basis." ***************************************************************** 14 Anti-nuke Shundahai Network moves headquarters to Pahrump - By Joe Cross Pahrump Valley Gazette By Joe Cross XXX February 8, 2001 The Shundahai Network is an organization that has become well-known among protesters at the Nevada Test site over the years with a number of its members more than willing to go to jail to show their opposition to nuclear testing. Now not only has it changed its focus, it has moved to a new headquarters in Pahrump as it joins the battle to keep high-level nuclear waste from being brought to Nye County's Yucca Mountain. According to Shundahai spokesperson MerLynn Rose, the group had spent the last 3.5 years based in Las Vegas But decided recently to relocate here "So we could work with Pahrump and the other more affected communities to make (more people) aware of what's going on at Yucca Mountain. With that in mind, Rose said Shundahai has scheduled monthly informational meetings to explain about high-level waste and the potential problems it could bring to the county - as well as what people can do to help fight the governments efforts. The next one of those sessions will be held at the new Community Public Library from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 24. . Rose said Shudahai's goal is simple:, Me want to get (storing high-level waste at) Yucca Mountain stopped." She said that despite reports out of Washington, DC, that it was only a matter of time before Congress gives the go-ahead to turning Yucca Mountain into the temporary repository for the more deadly waste material, "We don't consider it a done deal:" Rose said that she, along with other Shundahai officials, believe that Nevada is going to be joined in the fight by other states when they realize that the material will be shipped through their areas on the way to Nevada. Another Shundahai official, Piper Weinberg, said that the organization believes it is important that people in Pahrump get involved irk the fight. "The people in Pahrump have to have s voice that is unified so (they) could (get) the town to take an official stance," Weinberg said. By getting a unified voice, Weinberg said the community could have an impact in the eventual decision-making "because of its proximity" to Yucca Mountain.; "Since the Department of Energy hasn't been listening to scattered voices (by unifying) the Town of Pahrump, if it chooses, could stop the shipments." Both Rose and Weinberg said that they feel the government has yet to prove the safety of shipping the deadly materials to Nevada. "The truth of the matter is that nobody knows how to contain (the waste)," Weinberg said. Rose noted that the DOE and other governmental agencies involved in the study of Yucca Mountain as a permanent site for keeping the high-level waste are still uncertain as to its reliability. "They keep saying that they (need to drill more) holes," she said of testing at the mountain. "They (still) don't even know where to start (the inspection process)." Also taking part in the move to Pahrump was the founder of Shundahai who has become known worldwide not only for his opposition to the use of nuclear energy but also to other growing problems with the environment. He is Corbin Harney, a spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone who said that besides the dangers involved with nuclear waste, there has been a lot of misinformation about the tribe's stand on storing it in Nevada - on what is actually Western Shoshone land. Noting that Yucca Mountain was included in the 1863 Ruby Valley Treaty "that said (all people) would have safe passage" through the entire area. However, Harney said, when the government decided to start testing Yucca Mountain as the long-term location for the storage of high-level nuke waste, "They never bothered to ask the Western Shoshone people" about turning their land over for the site. Harney said that somehow, the idea that the Shoshone had given their approval has been floating around for years and pointed to a recent study on Yucca Mountain that was prepared by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which once again made the claim. Harvey, who lives in Tecopa, said that not only have the Shoshone never given their backing to the storage plan or, for that matter, about using the Test Site for nuclear testing, they were never asked for a reaction when the nuclear testing era began; decades ago. "The Shoshones' concerns (about nuclear testing or storage) have always been there form the beginning... (when) president Truman set aside (the land) for military use," he said, noting that Truman kept secret the fact the land was to be used to test nuclear weapons above ground. ' "Our way of life is to protect the land," Harney said, "Everybody survives on (this planet because of being able to use the land). We want to talk of our Mother Earth (because all the living things - animals, birds, plantlife - need it to survive. " Animal life has told us from the beginning - you protect us and we wilt protect you. Now their food is running out. We need to take care of the water, air and animal life (but) today nuclear energy is destroying those things and it will get worse as time goes along." He said that the DOE "doesn't understand the things that they are doing (to the earth)." In a Shundahai Network brochure, they point out that, among other things, "DOE studies have shown that water flow through Yucca Mountain is quick and groundwater is already showing contamination from nuclear testing." It also contended that "more than 40 million people are at risk from nuclear accidents if truck or train waste shipments to Yucca (Mountain begin." The Shundahai. Network was formed in 1994 at the test Site by a council of long-term nuclear disarmament activists at Homey's request. It has since evolved into an international network of activists and organizations that bridges, as officials noted in a brochure, "the gap between the environmental, peace, justice and indigenous land rights communities." Corbin said the, since the organization was created he spent three years living in Washington, DC, attempting to get Congress to take a new look at the use of nuclear material from building bombs to energy plants. Then, in 1996, the headquarters were moved to Las Vegas as. a way of "better monitoring the Test Site." ***************************************************************** 15 Chemical warfare has a long and terrifying history [deseretnews.com] Wednesday, February 14, 2001 By Joe Bauman Chemical warfare has a long history, probably starting with the first stone-age warrior who smeared the juice of poisonous berries on his spearhead. One of the earliest recorded examples of chemical warfare dates to about 429 B.C., during the Peloponnesian War. Thebes was besieging the city Plataea and unable to penetrate the town's defenses. As Thucydides reported in "History of the Peloponnesian War" (translated by Richard Crawley in 1910), the Thebans "determined to try to effects of fire and see whether they could not, with the help of a wind, burn the town. . . . (they) lighted the wood by setting fire to it with sulphur and pitch. "The consequence was a fire greater than anyone had ever yet seen produced by human agency. . . . A great part of the town became entirely inaccessible, and had a wind blown upon it, in accordance with the hopes of the enemy, nothing could have saved them." But a thunderstorm intervened, putting out the choking fumes. Sulfur also was a component to the chemical weapon known to the Eastern Roman empire as "Greek Fire." A mixture that also included naphtha and quicklime, the Byzantines shot it from bronze tubes mounted on their warships. They destroyed two Arab fleets with it in 678 and 717-18. During World War I, 1914-18, both sides used poison gas, notably chlorine. One estimate is that 100,000 were killed and 900,000 injured by the blinding, choking fumes. Often soldiers were killed immediately by the drifting clouds of green-gray gas, but many died of pneumonia weeks after they were attacked because their lungs were damaged. The combatants also used mustard agent, which burns skin and and lung tissue, and breaks the body's white blood cells and lymph tissues. Italians gassed barefoot Ethiopian soldiers in the 1930s. Gas was used in the Iraq-Iran War. In 1987-88, Saddam Hussein's troops reportedly used poison gas on Kurds in Iraq. When World War II began, President Franklin Roosevelt announced this country would not be the first to use poison gas, but would respond in kind if American troops were attacked. In a war that featured saturation bombing, incendiary bombing, terror rocket attacks and the atomic bomb, poison gas was not used. Although neither side actually fired chemical weapons in World War II, Germans killed tens of thousands of concentration camp victims with Zyklon-B. Reportedly, Japanese also killed 3,000 prisoners of war in Zyklon-B experiments. In one of the strangest tragedies of World War II, scores of Americans were killed by this country's own chemical weapons. On Dec. 2,1943, German bombers attacked American ships in the harbor at Bari, Italy. As summarized on an Internet site maintained by professor John H. Lienhard of the University of Houston, the bombers sank 16 ships, partially destroyed four others and set off two major explosions. Fires burned while rescuers pulled hundreds of sailors from the harbor. "At first, many of the survivors seemed to be all right, though a few mentioned the odd smell of garlic," Lienhard wrote. "Soon they began showing symptoms — stinging eyes, skin lesions, a variety of internal problems. Four survivors died later the first day, nine the next. By the end of a month 83 men, out of the 617 who'd made it to the hospital, had died." One of the ships had carried 100 tons of mustard gas, which the Army later said was carried as a deterrent, according to Lienhard. The United States built up an enormous stockpile of nerve and blister agent in the years after World War I. These deadly weapons were collected at nine Army bases including Tooele Army Depot in Utah's western desert. About 44 percent of these deadly chemical weapons were collected at Tooele Army Depot. The arms storage area later was renamed Deseret Chemical Depot. By the middle 1990s, munitions and chemical agent stored at Deseret Chemical Depot amounted to 13,616 tons of VX and GB nerve agent, mustard and Lewisite (made by mixing mustard agent with arsenic). All are deadly. VX is so toxic that a minute drop of it on the skin can kill. The chemicals were in steel containers holding about one ton of GB, and in battlefield weapons — spray tanks to be mounted on airplanes; projectiles; cartridges; land mines; rockets. Of 30,000 rockets at the Tooele base, at least 1,000 leaked. When leakers are discovered, to contain the vapors they are placed in special devices called "overpacks." In 1985, Congress passed Public Law 99-145, which requires the destruction of all chemical arms. In 1993, this country signed the Chemical Weapons Convention; the Senate ratified the treaty in 1997. This international treaty commits signatory countries to the safe destruction of their chemical arms by 2007. The Army decided the safest method was to destroy the material where it was stored, rather than move it to some central location and get rid of it there. A prototype incinerator was built at Johnston Atoll. It began to burn chemical arms in 1990. The Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System ended its task on Nov. 29. It had safely destroyed 412,732 rockets, projectiles, bombs, mortars, ton containers and land mines containing chemical agent, according to the plant's project manager, Gary McCloskey. Johnston Island's weapons held 2,031 tons of chemical agent, less than 15 percent of the amount originally stored in Tooele County. Utah's Deseret Chemical Depot near Stockton, Tooele County, is the location of storage igloos holding those thousands of chemical weapons. It is also the site of the first such incinerator built in North America. After years of public hearings, environmental assessments and hearings, the $1 billion plant — its formal name is the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility — began destroying chemical weapons on Aug. 22, 1996. Lewisite will not be burned because arsenic is a deadly element, which cannot be destroyed by incineration. Utah's lewisite will be eliminated by chemical neutralization. Special processing facilities are to be built for it at the Chemical Agent Munitions Disposal System at Deseret Chemical Depot. The Tooele incinerator has been a continuous source of controversy. Yet it is getting the job done. If no unforeseen circumstances interfere, the incinerator should complete its work by early 2004. Front Page © 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************