***************************************************************** 12/14/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.295 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Leaked report calls for nuclear-free power 2 UK: (BNFL)Nuclear fallout 3 US experts complete penultimate stage in demise of Kazakh nuclear 4 Ukraine, Russia sign agreement on completing reactors to replace 5 Citigroup agrees to pay $7.2 million in project to clean Overland site 6 UK: Staff urged to join nuclear lobby 7 NRC Proposes $3,000 Fine for Centennial Engineering & Research, 8 UK: A leaked draft of the government's energy review says Britain 9 Germany OKs Law to Shut Nuclear Plants 10 Kentucky drops order against radioactive license 11 YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Critical juncture for project - 12 Consultant wants committee to review nuclear waste shipping - 13 Energy undersecretary meets with activists 14 Energy secretary's visit injects more yuks into Yucca Mountain process 15 Proposal by Reid cut from bill 16 New York security chief says Indian Point nuclear power complex 17 DOE eyes study of building nuke dump in stages 18 State readies federal suit over Yucca standards 19 Mobile Chernobyl information freeze 20 OPPD will seek approval to keep Fort Calhoun going through 2033 21 Austria makes requests on transit and nuclear power 22 GEORGIA ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP WINS HEARING ON PLUTONIUM FUEL (MOX) 23 Geraldton again considers nuclear ban 24 Protesters question Lucas Heights reactor safety 25 Nuclear agency defends Lucas Heights reactor forum. 26 Village ordered to return nuclear plant grants - 27 SYDNEY REACTOR WOULD BE PRIME TERRORIST TARGET:OPPONENTS 28 UK: Nuclear nuked NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Kazakh president signs law ratifying ban on nuclear tests 2 DOE must have plan by Feb. 1 for storage of Rocky Flats stocks 3 Money poor reward for loss of health, cancer sufferer says 4 Compensation checks arrive for only 20 so far 5 Russia puts a brave face on the inevitable 6 Powell Doubts New Nuclear Arms Race 7 Hanford project looks to recover 8 Postponed nuclear weapons test detonated at Nevada site 9 Oboe 7 nuclear experiment successful 10 NTS: Strike causes test delay 11 Expansion of IAAP benefits sent to Bush 12 Last tainted soil removed at Fernald 13 Recycling ban may be lifted for scrap metal 14 Prosecutor demands nine years **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Leaked report calls for nuclear-free power Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 06:38:28 -0600 (CST) Leaked report calls for nuclear-free power UK: December 14, 2001 LONDON - A leaked government report says Britain could phase out nuclear, coal and oil-fired power stations to become one of the world's greenest energy producers in coming decades, New Scientist magazine said. "The long-awaited study had been widely expected to embrace the nuclear industry's plans for up to 15 new nuclear stations," the weekly science magazine said yesterday. "Instead, it relegates nuclear power to an also-ran that could be totally phased out by 2050 if renewable sources deliver as expected." New Scientist said it had obtained the document through a leak. The draft report by the cabinet's Performance and Innovation Unit attempts to determine the best energy strategy for Britain for the next 50 years. It favours renewable energy, which it says is the most flexible way to reduce the gas emissions from oil and coal-fired generation which are blamed for contributing to global warming. The report also expresses concerns about radioactive waste, accidents and terrorism. The magazine said insurance costs made nuclear power very expensive. The draft report pushes for production of at least 20 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020, 10 percent more than the current official target for 2010. "The report will be a bitter disappointment to the nuclear industry, which had been expecting it to kick-start a nuclear renaissance," the magazine added. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 2 UK: (BNFL)Nuclear fallout Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | British Nuclear Fuels is bankrupt - and so is the policy of building new nuclear power stations. What will become of the company now? Paul Brown Friday December 14, 2001 [http://www.guardian.co.uk] Next time you feel bankruptcy coming on, comfort yourself with the thought that it is nothing more than a "net asset deficit" - the newspeak for what has happened to British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). Patricia Hewitt, the trade and industry secretary, has had to do some fancy footwork to avoid fallout from the state-owned nuclear giant's admission that it has developed a £1.7bn black hole in its accounts. This is how much liabilities officially exceed its assets. It was the confirmation of what critics of the industry had been saying for years. BNFL, employers of 10,000, custodians of the nation's plutonium and uranium stockpiles and an ever-growing mountain of nuclear waste, is bankrupt. So critical had the situation become that to avoid prosecution under the 1985 Companies Act the BNFL directors were forced on November 28 to call an extraordinary general meeting. The purpose was to inform the only shareholder, one Mrs Hewitt, that the company was in Carey Street. Mrs Hewitt responded in a way that must have been well planned in the Jo Moore school of spin doctoring. In a Commons statement late that same afternoon she announced a reorganisation of the nuclear industry. A new Liabilities Management Authority would be created to take control of the situation. It would not cost the taxpayer an extra penny, but the quango would take responsibility for and control of the nation's nuclear waste, including everything currently owned and run by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and BNFL. This would require a white paper in the spring with primary legislation later. At this point BNFL would be stripped of all its assets at Sellafield, as well as its liabilities, and they would fall directly into the ownership of the taxpayer. It took a little time for the implications of what she was saying to sink in, certainly it was too late on statement day for any serious coverage of this extraordinary policy change. In effect, all the nuclear facilities owned and operated by BNFL would be taken back into the direct public ownership of a quango. This means that the two giant reprocessing works, including the £2.3bn flagship Thorp plant, and the yet to be opened mox plutonium plant, will be directly owned by the taxpayer. Any money they make will never be enough to cover the liabilities of the enterprise, with the Treasury picking up what appears to be an ever increasing bill. The current estimate for the cost of dismantling the nuclear dream is £85bn - most of it incurred at Sellafield. That is currently about £4,000 each for every taxpayer, and it is expected to rise. Fortunately for Gordon Brown, the budget does not have to be adjusted to pay that now. The bill will be picked up at the rate of £1bn a year to 2010, with our children paying the bulk of it at some time in the future when the new quango has found somewhere to dispose of all this radioactive rubbish. This is unlikely to be for at least 20 years. It is the lack of attention to this problem that has always been the Achilles heel of the industry. Waste has been piling up, often untreated and inadequately packaged for 50 years. The costs have been consistently underestimated, hence the claim that the true costs of nuclear power have never been properly accounted for. It was a reassessment of the cost of disposing of a tiny part of this waste that pushed BNFL into insolvency. Some waste inadequately stored on the Sellafield site needed to be repackaged at a cost of £1.9bn, exactly £1.7bn more than the company's book value in this year's accounts. The forced reorganisation comes at an embarrassing moment for the Department of Trade and Industry and Tony Blair. Yesterday Downing Street was still briefing journalists that the idea of building new nuclear stations had not been dropped. Mr Blair, we are told, has an open mind as he stands by to receive the energy review he ordered from the Cabinet Office after the election. It is BNFL rather than the privatised arm of the nuclear industry British Energy, which wants no part of it, that has been canvassing the government heavily to build at least a dozen new nuclear stations. BNFL says they are needed to make up for the ones that are due to close in the next 20 years. It is all to stop our dependence on fossil fuels, particularly gas. The company has expanded to the US, where it owns Westinghouse, the US nuclear giant which has new designs for nuclear stations that have caught the eye of President Bush. It saw a golden future building new nuclear stations of its own design on both sides of the Atlantic. The future of these dreams, and the other bits of BNFL enterprises, which make nuclear fuel and have contracts to clean nuclear sites in the US, remains unknown. Once its Sellafield assets have been transferred to the new state quango in 2003, BNFL will be retained to manage the site for a year. After that the company will have to compete for a contract to continue in that role - although who else would be prepared to bid for the poison chalice that is Sellafield is not clear. Mrs Hewitt wisely put back until 2004 any attempt to privatise any remaining profitable bits of BNFL. Only then will the result of all these changes may become clear. In the midst of all this, it is hard to see how the prime minister could believe the company could ever be relied on to build new nuclear stations for the UK. · Paul Brown is the Guardian's environment correspondent. [paul.brown@guardian.co.uk] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 3 US experts complete penultimate stage in demise of Kazakh nuclear reactor BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 14, 2001 Text of report by Kazakh Commercial TV on 13 December [Presenter, over video of archive footage of a nuclear reactor] US experts have announced that they successfully completed the penultimate stage of the burial of a nuclear reactor at the Mangistau Nuclear Power Station. The experts from the US Department of Energy have cleaned the radioactive sodium coolers of the reactor to empty the tanks, which will be filled with inert gas. The gas will corrode the steel case of the BN-350 [fast neutrons reactor] and this will disable the reactor, which will not be able to produce plutonium. I will remind you that the fast neutrons reactor was built near Aktau [the centre of western Mangistau Region] in 1972 to carry out two tasks: to produce high-quality plutonium for military purposes and to produce fresh water. The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] recommended that the Kazakh leadership close the reactor for safety reasons in 1998. The US experts finished the first stage of mothballing the BN-350 by placing 478 canisters of spent nuclear fuel under water last summer. Source: Kazakh Commercial Television, Almaty, in Russian 1400 gmt 13 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material ***************************************************************** 4 Ukraine, Russia sign agreement on completing reactors to replace Chernobyl BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 14, 2001 Kharkiv, 14 December: The governments of Russia and Ukraine have signed an agreement in Kharkiv on completing and launching the No 2 power generation set of the Kmelnytskyy nuclear plant and the No 4 set of the Rivne plant. [Presidents Leonid Kuchma and Vladimir Putin are meeting in Kharkiv today.]... [The Khmelnytskyy and Rivne reactors are intended to make up for the power output lost through the closure of Chernobyl. Ukraine said earlier that the EBRD loan terms to complete the reactors, including a rise in electricity tariffs, were unacceptable, adding that negotiations with the bank would continue. The last Chernobyl reactor was shut down on 15 December 2000.] Source: UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1130 gmt 14 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 5 Citigroup agrees to pay $7.2 million in project to clean Overland site Toxic cleanup deal nears reality Rocky Mountain News: Local By Berny Morson, News Staff Writer A decade-long fight over radioactive waste buried in a Denver neighborhood neared an end Wednesday with a giant New York financial firm agreeing to pay $7.2 million toward the cleanup. The amount to be paid by Citigroup is less than the estimated $22.5 million cleanup cost. But the settlement may be the best that can be done since the Environmental Protection Agency botched the cleanup in the early 1990s, several observers, including U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, said. The money will be paid to the EPA and the state of Colorado to settle the dispute over waste left a few blocks northeast of Evans Avenue and Santa Fe Boulevard in the Overland Park neighborhood. The settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, won't take effect for more than a month, when it comes before a judge for approval. But preliminary work will begin as early as next week, said the EPA's Jim Hanley. And by early next year, the 5.9-acre site will be covered by an 8 1/2-story tall tent to prevent blowing dust as radioactive soil is scooped up and dumped into rail cars for shipment out of state, Hanley said. The waste was left behind by the defunct Shattuck Chemical Co., which processed various toxic materials there from 1917 to 1984. Citigroup is the last in a series of companies to acquire the Shattuck property. The EPA agreed in 1992 to allow the company to dispose of contaminated soil by heaping it in the middle of the Shattuck property, then covering it with clay and rocks. EPA reversed its decision last year under criticism from outraged neighborhood residents and numerous Colorado elected officials. They said the one-story-tall pile was a dangerous eyesore. The EPA's ombudsman backed the Coloradans. Removing the pile will take two years, Hanley said. In addition to paying $7.2 million, Citigroup will deed the property to the EPA for sale and redevelopment, which could bring in between $750,000 and $1.2 million. The agreement came after months of discussion between lawyers for EPA, Colorado attorney general Ken Salazar, the Justice Department and Citigroup. While the state and federal governments get less than the full cost of the cleanup, they avoid years of litigation, during which the pile would have remained, said EPA lawyer Richard Sisk. Also, the company gives up the right to sue for recovery of the $26 million it spent -- with EPA approval -- to build the pile as part of the rejected remedy, Sisk said. "They may have a case for seeking reimbursement," Sisk said. "On balance we would have to say this is a fair settlement." Jack Unruh, a leader of residents who fought to remove the waste, said of the agreement, "I think it looks pretty good . . . It's quite an achievement. It's hard to hammer things like this out." Unruh predicted a "hue and cry" over the fact that taxpayers will pick up most of the cost. But that's because EPA mismanaged the cleanup, he said. "The people of the United States are going to wind up spending a fair amount of money on this, but the EPA let the wrong thing happen in 1991, so we're paying for our share of the mistake," Unruh said. Allard said the action would not have been necessary if the EPA had handled the job properly in the early '90s. "The disappointing thing is that in the early 1990s it wasn't done right," Allard said. Ten other Denver sites were also contaminated by chemical companies during the early 1900s. EPA documents requested by the Rocky Mountain News showed that the decision to treat the Shattuck site differently from the others came after a closed door meeting between the regulators and a Shattuck lawyer. The future of the Shattuck site is the subject of a city study. The land, which has rail access, is zoned for industry. December 13, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 6 UK: Staff urged to join nuclear lobby Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent Friday December 14, 2001 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] The government yesterday rejected claims that its major review of energy policy will sound the death knell of the nuclear energy industry. But a leaked internal email from British Energy reveals that the company is urging its staff to mount a rearguard lobbying action to save the industry. British Energy is the United Kingdom's largest generator, producing a fifth of British electricity, and employing 8,000 staff worldwide. The internal email urges all staff to disguise their involvement with British Energy in an effort to increase the credibility and political impact of their lobbying. The memo, sent to all British Energy staff by John Short, director of information management, urges them to write to or email opinion formers making the case for nuclear energy. It says: "In my opinion, your communication will have a greater impact if you write as a member of the public. If you agree, do not use the British Energy email or letterhead, use your home address or system." The government's energy review proposes that targets for renewable energy should be increased to 20% by 2020. It opposes government intervention in the market to help the nuclear industry. It states: "There is no current case for public support for the existing generation of nuclear technology ... there are however good grounds for taking a positive stance to keeping the nuclear option open." Some reports suggest this refusal to intervene amounts to a death knell for nuclear energy; the energy minister, Brian Wilson, who oversaw the review, insisted the recommendations from the Cabinet Office would be balanced. He said: "It is going to be strongly pro-renewables, as I am, and will also have positive things to say about nuclear." Yesterday plans were unveiled for Europe's largest wind farm. If approved, 300 turbines will be built on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. The £600m project, by Amec and British Energy, could provide around 1% of the UK's electricity. Useful links British Nuclear Fuels Ltd [http://www.bnfl.co.uk/website.nsf/default.htm] Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [http://www.cnduk.org/] HSE nuclear glossary [http://www.hse.gov.uk/nsd/ilrwglos.htm] UK atomic energy authority [http://www.ukaea.org.uk/] National Radiological Protection Board [http://www.nrpb.org.uk/] World Nuclear Association [http://www.uilondon.org/] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 7 NRC Proposes $3,000 Fine for Centennial Engineering & Research, Inc. NRC: Press Release IV - 2001 - 52 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 Web Site: what-we-do/public-affairs.html No. IV 01-052 December 4, 2001 CONTACT: Breck Henderson Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227 e-mail: bwh@nrc.gov [bwh@nrc.gov] The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a fine of $3,000 against Centennial Engineering &Research, Sheridan, Wyoming, for violation of NRC administrative and radioactive material handling regulations. An NRC inspector identified three violations in early March. The inspector determined that Centennial failed to submit a license amendment request prior to designating a new radiation safety officer (RSO), used radioactive materials at locations not authorized by its license, and failed to ensure that radioactive material was transferred to a licensed entity. The violations did not result in radiation overexposure to any workers or members of the public. However, in failing to submit license amendment requests prior to appointing a new RSO and storing radioactive materials at a previously unauthorized location, company officials knew they were not in compliance with the regulations and failed to take action. This led the NRC to classify these issues as "willful" violations. The company has taken prompt corrective actions by sending the new RSO to a training course, submitting the required license amendment requests and committing to adhere to NRC regulations in the future. Centennial officials met with the NRC in Sheridan on October 4 to discuss the violations. The NRC has classified the two willful violations as a Severity Level III problem, which carries a $3,000 fine. The agency uses a four-level scale on which Level I is the most serious. Centennial is required to respond to the letter and Notice of Violation with actions the company is taking to assure future compliance with regulatory and license requirements. The company has 30 days to pay the fine or protest it. If the protest is denied, the company may request a hearing by the NRC. ***************************************************************** 8 UK: A leaked draft of the government's energy review says Britain could phase out nuclear, coal and oil-fired power stations. Simon Jeffery explains Guardian Unlimited | Archive Search Renewable energy Guardian Unlimited Friday December 14, 2001 What is the report? The government's energy review: a document produced by the cabinet's performance and innovation unit, a group that develops government policy, to determine the best energy strategy for Britain for the next 50 years. A leaked draft was printed in the New Scientist, though the actual report will be published within the next month. What does it say? Renewable energy sources - such as wind and wave power - could see nuclear power phased out within 50 years, and used to cut down on gas emissions from coal and oil-fired power stations blamed in part for global warming. It pushes for production of at least 20% of electricity renewable sources by 2020, 10% more than the official target for 2010. If the government accepts its recommendations, Britain is likely to become one of the world's most environmentally friendly energy producers. What are the problems with current energy sources? There are three: pollution (including the disposal of radioactive waste); the dependence on materials such as oil and coal that will run out; and the risk of a large scale disaster in the event of an accident or terrorist attack at a nuclear power plant. The west also depends on the Middle East for its oil, which does not come without military and political consequences. Could all our energy come from renewable sources? The government is committed to putting in place mechanisms that mean 10% of our energy will come from renewable sources by 2010 (3% at present), it has also agreed to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20% in the same timeframe. While this is a long way from a total dependence on renewable energy there is the potential to increase the proportion. Britain is the windiest country in Europe, and offshore wind farms are also a viable source of power - 500MW wind farms are currently being planned, which is almost as large as some nuclear plants. Denmark now employs more than 15,000 people in its wind energy industry and meets 13%of its domestic electricity demand from wind turbines. Wave and solar power (by fitting panels on the roofs of all new buildings) could also be used. What are the advantages and disadvantages? Wind power is clean, sustainable and inexpensive - Nick Goodall, chief executive of the British Wind Energy association, recently said that it was the cheapest fuel in Britain and did not need money to expand massively, the market and technology being there already. The key to its expansion is for local planning officers to approve more sites for wind farms, he said, but many people dislike seeing the turbines on open land and regard them as a form of environmental damage. The draft government review says that renewable energy schemes must be made more acceptable to local communities if they are to succeed. How many wind turbines are there in Britain? At present 862 turbines produce over 412MW of electrical power, enough to supply more than 260,000 homes. The government this week announced the building of Britain's biggest wind farm at Cefn Croes, near Aberystwyth. It will supply 40,000 homes. Plans for a 600MW farm on the island of Lewis, off the west coast of Scotland, were also announced by the energy and construction group Amec. A government subsidy of 3p a unit for renewable energy is expected to increase its use further. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 9 Germany OKs Law to Shut Nuclear Plants Las Vegas SUN December 14, 2001 BERLIN (AP) - The parliament approved a plan Friday to shut down Germany's 19 nuclear power plants within 20 years, the final hurdle for a pledge by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to the environmentalist Greens party. The law, signed by Schroeder in June, was passed by the lower house of parliament with votes from the coalition government of Schroeder's Social Democrats and the Greens. It does not need approval in the upper house. The leading opposition party, the conservative Christian Democrats, had argued that eliminating nuclear energy would force Germany to use dirtier power sources. Germany is the world's largest industrialized nation to forgo the technology willingly. Eliminating nuclear power has been a pet cause of the Greens, which for years backed protests focused on halting nuclear waste transports. The new legislation will end those transports by mid-2005. Social Democratic lawmaker Horst Kubatschka called the passage a "great reform" by the governing coalition. Under the new legislation, the first of the plants will be closed in 2003 and the last in 2021; nuclear waste will be permitted to be stored in the plants for up to 40 years. The measure includes a ban on the building of new nuclear power plants and regular safety checks until the current ones are taken off-line. The plants currently provide nearly a third of Germany's electricity. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 10 Kentucky drops order against radioactive license DAILY NEWS ONLINE - Bowling Green, Ky. Thursday, December 13, 2001 Deborah Highland, dhighland@bgdailynews.com -- 270-783-3242 State health officials lifted a Nov. 9 cease and desist order against Western Kentucky University and found the university in compliance with its radioactive materials license. The cease and desist order stems from a Nov. 2 incident in which the state found that Western physics professors George Vourvopoulos and Doug Humphrey operated a neutron generator in the parking lot of the Applied Physics Institute Annex on Nashville Road. Western is licensed to use the generator, but was not given the OK by the state to use a neutron generator outside, according to the state’s order. The generators emit radiation when they are turned on and because of that, their uses and locations of use are regulated by the state, state Cabinet for Health Services spokeswoman Gwenda Bond said. “No radiation above naturally occurring radiation was detected” from the radiation badges tested this week, university spokesman Bob Skipper said. “The university will make sure that this and other research continues to be performed in the safest possible manner, posing no danger to the public or researchers,” said Gene Tice, vice president for student affairs and campus services and chair of the university’s radiation safety committee. Neutron generators are used in the Applied Physics Institute’s research involving explosives detection, chemical warfare detection and drug detection devices invented under the direction of institute director Vourvopoulos, who is an internationally recognized physicist. In response to the state’s cease and desist order, Western submitted a letter of corrective action to the Kentucky Radiation Health and Toxic Agents Branch of the cabinet for health. “The main action they took is they are going to remove Drs. Humphrey and Vourvopoulos from the radioactive materials license for six months,” Bond said. “That does not actually mean that they can’t do work. That just means that they have to be under the supervision of someone (else) on the license. “Basically what this means from our perspective is we’re done with this particular incident,” Bond said. Humphrey and Vourvopoulos agreed Wednesday afternoon that their temporary removal from Western’s license will not affect the institute’s research, which could be worth millions to the university because the devices invented there are sought after by the U.S. Department of Defense, the United Nations and a variety of national law enforcement agencies. “So the orchestra leader cannot play the drums,” Vourvopoulos said about his removal. “It really does not affect the work.” Vourvopoulos explained that someone else on the license will have to operate the neutron testing equipment while he will oversee the work. Both scientists said they have no hard feelings toward the university regarding the school’s action. “The university has been extremely supportive and they continue to be supportive so there are no ill feelings, definitely not,” Vourvopoulos said. University President Gary Ransdell said the temporary removal does not lessen the value of the institute’s work. “George took it upon himself to conduct a test outside the scope of the license. But the fact that we have to respond does not diminish the quality of the work he and his colleagues are performing,” Ransdell said. “Nor will it affect the relationships we have created and future partners,” he said. Ransdell was referring to the business relationship the university and Vourvopoulos entered into with a San Diego advanced technology firm that bought licensing rights for two of the institute’s devices. “Those relationships will still be built and nurtured,” Ransdell said. ***************************************************************** 11 YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Critical juncture for project - Las Vegas View Neighborhood Newspapers Friday, December 14, 2001 - By MARK WAITE VIEW STAFF WRITER The Nuclear Waste Policy Act signed into law by President Reagan on Jan. 7, 1983, established a national policy for storing nuclear waste in a repository, an idea first proposed by the National Academy of Sciences in 1957. The act initially suggested placing the nuclear waste in a repository no later than Jan. 31, 1998 and talked about having two repositories. Utility companies filed suit after the U.S. Department of Energy failed to meet that deadline. The DOE studied numerous locations for a repository site, mostly salt domes in southeastern Mississippi, the Texas Panhandle, Southern Utah and Eastern Washington as well as Yucca Mountain. The amended Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1987 designated Yucca Mountain as the only site to be studied with only one repository built that would house no more than 70,000 metric tons. Now the project has approached a critical junction. U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham was to make the recommendation on whether Yucca Mountain is a suitable location for a repository in 2001, now the DOE says the recommendation is due this winter. Secretary Abraham will use the final environmental impact statement, also due to be released soon, in making his recommendation. "The $7.1 billion process to design and evaluate two or more geologic repositories for permanent disposal of the nation's highly radioactive commercial and defense wastes, set in motion by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, is now approaching its denouement," Jim Williams, a contractor for the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Office, said in an April 2000 study on the project. All four members of Nevada's congressional delegation sent a letter to the White House Dec. 4 asking President Bush to delay the site recommendation. They refer to a report from the General Accounting Office that notes the DOE isn't ready to make a site recommendation because it lacks the technical information needed and is unlikely to achieve its goal of opening a repository at Yucca Mountain by 2010. Senators also pointed out a report from the Department of Energy's inspector general, which referred to a conflict of interest by a law firm representing the DOE and the Nuclear Energy Institute. "The systematic mismanagement, conflicts of interest and failed scientific processes necessitate an immediate postponement of the site recommendation of Yucca Mountain," U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons said in a press release. "We hope this letter sends a strong message to the administration," U.S. Sen. John Ensign said. "If sound science is the standard, then Energy Secretary Abraham must delay his recommendation for site suitability at Yucca Mountain." "The GAO report makes it crystal clear that Yucca Mountain is fast becoming the biggest and costliest boondoggle in the history of the country. Between the GAO report and the recent revelations about the Winston and Strawn law firm, it's hard to see how any administration would allow this kind of corrupt process to continue," U.S. Rep. Shelly Berkley said. The secretary of energy is required to consider public comments as well as scientific studies in making the recommendation whether Yucca Mountain is suitable. April Gil, a geologist in the DOE office of licensing and regulatory compliance, sought to assure the public their comments will be heard, noting DOE staff are working 10-hour days sorting though them. "We've got about 15,000 comments so far," Gil said. "What we've done is categorized the comments into groups." "This week senior DOE management is going through every single comment and every single response," she said. The secretary will review a summary comment document, compiled by DOE staff, since obviously he can't review each one, raising the question of how the secretary will know what people are commenting. "We didn't want to lose the flavor of each comment," Gil said. "One of the things the secretary wanted to know is: has anything new come up?" Assuming the secretary recommends Yucca Mountain as a repository site, Secretary Abraham will have to notify Gov. Kenny Guinn and the state of Nevada 30 days before submitting his recommendation to the president. If the president approves the energy secretary's recommendation, it will be submitted to Congress, setting in motion a 60-day period during which Nevada may submit a notice of disapproval. If the state disapproves of the site, as expected, the Yucca Mountain designation will be disapproved unless Congress, during the following 90 days, passes a joint resolution approving the repository site. If the site designation becomes effective, the energy secretary will submit an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for authorization to build a repository. The NRC will have three years to issue its final decision on the license, but can ask for a fourth year. Pahrump residents who toured Yucca Mountain last month, accessed by a road from Lathrop Wells without any signs referring to Yucca Mountain, were subject to heightened security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Four Nevada Test Site security guards, clad in army fatigues with M-16s, thoroughly searched any vehicles approaching the gate. En route to the mountain on the bus, they saw remnants of other projects on that part of the Nevada Test Site, an experiment to build a jet fueled by a nuclear reactor and a joint Japanese-American project studying the effect on farm animals from an unshielded nuclear reactor. A tunnel-boring machine 25 feet in diameter, with 48 cutter heads equipped with conveyer belts to transport the dirt, built at a cost of $13 million to bore the hole through the mountain, still sits at the south portal of Yucca Mountain. It's for sale. The tunnel was built clear through the mountain, for what the DOE calls the exploratory study facility. Visitors are taken by rail car to an alcove dug perpendicular to the main tunnel, 1,000 feet below the surface and 1,000 feet above the water table. The alcove contains thermal testing equipment, the heaters will be turned off next month after four years of testing. The cannisters were placed in the mountain and heated up to 390 degrees, to simulate the hot radioactive waste, expected to heat the surrounding earth to 290 degrees, Bechtel/SAIC Chief Science Officer Mike Voegele said. The cannisters of nuclear waste would be set in emplacement drifts a foot to a yard apart, Voegele said. "If you space them far apart you can maintain temperature below boiling," he said. A counter in the alcove noted the cost of the thermal testing at 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour. As of early November it read $380,740.78, using 585,754.25 kilowatt hours. Voegele said the heat will cause water in the mountain to turn into steam, move out from the heated zone and condense. Evidence suggests the water then flows through drifts in the mountain and doesn't coalesce in pools. Mark Peters, a testing engineer for Yucca Mountain contractor Bechtel/SAIC, explained Yucca Mountain is made of Topopah Spring volcanic tuft, in an arid climate with a thick, unsaturated zone. That's an issue by opponents of Yucca Mountain, who fear the cannisters will decay, allowing the radioactive material to seep into the water table. Yucca Mountain is 25,000 pounds per square inch, hard rock, like granite, with very low permeability for water to flow through, he said. Peters stopped the rail car to point out a crack in the wall to visiting news media. "Some fractures are cooling joints, others are from tectonic activity," he said. Seismographic equipment in the alcove inserted in cracks in the mountain was measuring earthquake activity, while lasers are used to line up a series of points on the main tunnel to look for any movement. "One of the keys with the unsaturated setting, the (emplacement) drifts provide a barrier," Peters said. "When we mined this tunnel we didn't see any areas that were dripping water. That's not to say there's not water in the rock." The emplacement drifts that would house the actual waste would be built on the other side of the tunnel from the testing alcove where visitors are taken. Voegele said those drifts haven't been built yet; contractors are waiting to get the authorization to proceed, and that is not expected until 2007 under the best scenario. The drifts wouldn't all be built at once. Instead the drifts will be built piecemeal as the waste arrives. "There would be a significant amount of building after construction authorization, which can't begin until three or four years," Voegele said. "You probably have three, four, five years of construction going before the waste would start coming." That assumes the project meets the schedule of planting waste by 2010, which doesn't take into account an expected legal challenge by the state of Nevada, he said. Visitors last month, had a chance to see one of the actual casks that will be used to ship the nuclear waste, which consists of fuel rods. The casks have a 5.75-inch thick lead gamma shield, 3/4-inch thick stainless steel mini-shell, five-inch thick neutron shield and 1.2-inch thick stainless steel outer shell. There was a question in published reports whether the casks would've survived the intense heat in the fire in the Baltimore tunnel this past summer. "The NRC is studying that," DOE consultant Bob Burgoyne said. He the cannisters were tested in a fully engulfing fire at 1,475 degrees. If the site is recommended for storing waste and the license issued, testing won't end, scientists say. "We'll be monitoring the flow of water through the mountain. We'll be monitoring seismicity all the time," said Steve Broccum, DOE assistant manager of licensing and regulatory compliance. The Pahrump Nuclear Waste and Environmental Advisory Board has asked the DOE to provide more money for studying recycling of nuclear waste, through methods like transmutation. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, received $4.5 million for the coming year to study advanced transmutation research. "Right now, we don't have that technology. It's very promising," Voegele said of transmutation. "There's no economic incentive to reprocess uranium because it's cheaper to buy it on the open market." "Most engineers will tell you it's a shame to walk away from that resource and bury it," he said. But reprocessing would produce a plutonium by-product, in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Gil said. "Seventy-five percent of France's electricity comes from nuclear power. They do have a reprocessing facility but they're also looking at a geologic repository," she said. Voegele said the contracts allow utility companies to ship whatever nuclear fuel they wish, speculating companies will ship their hottest waste first. That may lead to developing a thermal management strategy, mixing the hottest loads with cooler material before planting it in the mountain, he said. Mike Chormack, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist, stood on top of Yucca Mountain to point out to visitors the north-south ridges, the result of faulting after volcanic activity. Chormack pointed out the nearby Lathrop Wells cinder cone, a relatively young volcanic feature that erupted 75,000 years ago. "The rock we're standing on here is approximately 1.2 million years old," Chormack said. "The major faulting that formed Yucca Mountain took place 12 million years ago to 11 million years ago." Scientists drilled bore holes and took chips of rock to produce a geologic map of Yucca Mountain, Chormack said. "Some of the bore holes we drilled as deep as 6,000 feet. We remained in volcanic rock down to 6,000 feet." "We finally found out where the water is below Yucca Mountain," he said. "You'd have to go down about 2,300 feet to hit the water table." Chormack said the water table is flat and doesn't flow rapidly. "The water beneath our feet here at Yucca Mountain is 10,000 years old and possibly as old as 20,000 years old," he said. "The nearest production well is about 15 miles to the south." Chormack was asked about the Little Skull Mountain earthquake in June 1992, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale, with an epicenter only 15 miles to the southeast. Chromack said the exploratory study facility wasn't open at the time to judge if there was any damage in the tunnel. Voegele said scientists concern about earthquakes is they could cause new fractures in the rock that could result in creating new water pathways. The waste-hauling building on site could have incoming shipments of nuclear waste sitting out of their containers before they are placed in the mountain, Voegele said. "We're pretty confident that building will be built to withstand any earthquake," he said. "We were cautious and careful when we built the exploratory studies facility," Gil said. "When we did that underground laboratory, we were very careful any excavations we did would not damage the ability of the facility to isolate waste." While some Pahrump residents, like Ed Fox and Ray Langford, said they became supporters of Yucca Mountain after taking the tour, other residents didn't get the answers they wanted. "I'm for the permanent storage to be here. I worked out here 15 years," said former Nevada Test Site worker Jean Hollis. "There'd be no better place to put it." "I enjoyed the tour, but one of the problems we had in talking to the experts, our questions have not totally been answered," Laurel Duffy said. "They don't even know at what temperature they'll be storing these casks and they don't know what ventilation they'll be using," Janet Erett said. "I don't think they have enough data to base a scientific decision on." Nevada's congressional delegation, echoing the opposition of many Nevadans, wishes the entire project would be scrapped. A decision not to recommend the site would mean the termination of the nuclear waste repository project within six months. That wouldn't be unprecedented. in October 1993, Congress killed funding for a superconducting super collider, a 54-mile ring that would've run beneath Waxahachie, Texas, after spending $2 billion on the estimated $11 billion project. [http://www.lasvegas.com] ***************************************************************** 12 Consultant wants committee to review nuclear waste shipping - Las Vegas View Neighborhood Newspapers Friday, December 14, 2001 - By MARK WAITE VIEW STAFF WRITER A consultant for the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Office recommends the establishment of a blue ribbon committee to review the equity of shipping high-level nuclear waste from 80 communities in 35 states to a single community, should the U.S. Secretary of Energy recommend Yucca Mountain as a repository. Jim Williams, in one report issued last year, concluded the project could lead to jobs in Southern Nye County if the Department of Energy changed its management policy, but in another report he expressed concerns over long-term federal budgeting to properly oversee the project. In 1999, the Yucca Mountain Project created 1,364 jobs in Nevada, of which only 214 were located at work sites in Nye County -- at Yucca Mountain itself, or the field operations office at Area 25 on the Nevada Test Site, Williams stated. Gross pay was $83.3 million, of which $13.6 million, 16.3 percent, was paid for on-site jobs in Nye County. "The management of the YMP reflects a choice by the U.S. Department of Energy to pursue a model closely resembling the management of the Nevada Test Site. The management model discourages investment in Nye County infrastructure, residential and economic development by concentrating YMP administrative functions at off-site locations (Clark County). It also encourages the on-site (Nye County) work force to reside predominately in Clark County by providing subsidized daily transportation," Williams' study states. If the DOE changed its policy, to shift more of the project activity to Nye County, Williams estimates Nye County could capture one-third of the gross regional product generated by the Yucca Mountain Project in 1999, increasing it fourfold to $41.2 million, 5 percent of the total Nye County GRP. With one-third of the Yucca Mountain Project employment in Nye County, the workforce would have an impact of $70.1 million on output, or gross sales in the county, a 405 percent increase. Under his model, Williams estimates 652 Yucca Mountain workers could've resided in Nye County in 1999, earning a gross payroll of $47.3 million. The project could've created another 182 jobs in the county's secondary workforce, Williams estimates. The DOE would have to assist employees in moving to Nye County and assist the county in providing a residential and service community in which they would be willing to live, Williams said. He notes, "DOE would also have to persuade the families of its own workforce that it is safe to live near the site where the nation's highly radioactive waste could be stored." The DOE would have to change many management policies, like large-scale subsidized busing from Las Vegas and short-term assignments for professional employees at on-site work locations, Williams said. In a study entitled, "Cost and Consequence: The USDOE Recommendation of Yucca Mountain and the management of the Nation's Highly Radioactive Waste," Williams said over the past two decades since the passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, "carefully negotiated provisions for regional equity have been set aside." While the recent General Accounting Office report stated the project being built at Yucca Mountain isn't what Nevadans have been told, Williams' report published in April 2000 stated, "We can also anticipate that the recommended plan will not be implemented as proposed and that adjustments during the implementation processes are likely to increase the plans costs and/or its hazards and/or its inequities." The report notes high-level nuclear waste comprises more than 95 percent of the curies of radioactivity in the nation. A curie is a measure of radiation. It notes the entire inventory of highly radioactive waste in the country contained 28 billion curies, 60,000 times the radioactivity released in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb blasts. "The secretary will recommend Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada, as the site for geologic disposal," Williams predicted, adding, "The geologic repository would become one in a series of extraordinary radiological impositions in a single rural community." Williams refers to how Southern Nye County was already subjected to 928 nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site from 1951 to 1992 and two portions of the Nevada Test Site have been used for disposing 571,468 cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste through 1999. "The repository design recommended by the secretary will be arguably safe. Put another way, the performance of the proposed repository in isolating long-lived radionuclides will continue to be very arguable," Williams states. "Expected released of radionuclides from the Yucca Mountain repository will be few and far into the future and that the migration of radionuclides in groundwater will result in minor expected doses to future residents of presently sparsely populated areas -- mainly in the town of Amargosa Valley." Williams states the performance of the repository is arguable because it relies on man-made, engineered barriers -- the waste packages, emplacement tunnel liners, drip-shields and backfill -- not on the site's natural character, the original basis for choosing Yucca Mountain. The secretary of energy's recommendation won't commit the federal government to any specific modes, route, equipment and operations to ship the nuclear waste, which will be left to a set of regional service contractors to be selected later, the county's consultant states. The recommendation also won't include where the waste will be stored in the interim, Williams said. Williams said while the analysis claims the long-term costs could be met by a balance in the nuclear waste fund accumulated over two decades, it doesn't consider contingencies that could increase costs, obligations of the commercial nuclear industry to pay or the ability of the federal government to support implementation for 70 to 100 years. The cost of implementing the project was quoted at $36.5 billion in 1995 and $43.7 billion in 1998, Williams said. The enhanced design alternatives -- using steel rather than concrete repository tunnel liners and waste package supports, 10,000 titanium drip shields to cover waste packages and backfill of 100 miles of emplacement tunnels -- would increase costs another $4.5 billion. Contingencies like transportation incidents, complications in constructing the emplacement drifts, a need to retrieve the nuclear waste because of monitoring problems in the first 10 years or a decision to manage the repository beyond 100 years could increase costs, Williams said. Then there's the cost of legal delays, he said. "Implementation of a 70- to 100-year program to dispose of the nation's highly radioactive wastes is dependent on a short-term, unpredictable and highly politicized federal budget process which is unlikely to deliver to the program the annual appropriations needed to do the difficult job efficiently, effectively and equitably," Williams wrote. "In this process, DOE's program to dispose of the nation's highly radioactive wastes is a mere balsa chip in a roiling, shifting sea." As a sign of the uncertain political funding, in a speech before the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board in Pahrump on May 1, 2000, Ivan Itkin, director of the office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said his office would be forced to curtail science and engineering work because of $110 million in funding shortfalls over the past three years, potentially delaying the site recommendation. After receiving the recommendation, Williams said Congress will be asked to increase its contributions to the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste management to a level two and a half to three and a half times the level of the last four years and maintain the appropriations over a 35-year period beginning in 2005. While there won't be objections to the whole disposal plan, there will be objections to sub-elements of it, he said. Williams raised different scenarios that could impose a moratorium on emplacement of nuclear waste once the repository is built: a transportation accident that doesn't cause radiological material to escape, but generates publicity, leading to a call to remove high-level waste shipments from public highways; a coupling effect of heat and intense radioactivity on the metal, rock and water different than assumptions in the license application or higher costs to vitrify 177 tanks of nuclear waste at DOE Hanford site in Washington state intended for disposal in Yucca Mountain, which would receive priority. Williams states, the secretary of energy may submit a recommendation that may include "such other information as the secretary considers appropriate." Congress should suggest additional elements, he wrote, the first one, a review by the General Accounting Office, has been completed. He also suggests Congress form a blue-ribbon committee to report on key factors that should be considered in acting on the secretary's recommendation, focusing particularly on the issue of equity in transferring waste from 80 generating sites in 35 states to a single community. Ample public hearings should be scheduled to publicize the results of the blue-ribbon panel review and hear from affected parties, he said. [http://www.lasvegas.com] ***************************************************************** 13 Energy undersecretary meets with activists [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Friday, December 14, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal REVIEW-JOURNAL Department of Energy Undersecretary Robert Card held private meetings Thursday with environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists about the government's plans to haul nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain for disposal. Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force Director Judy Treichel, who attended the meetings in Las Vegas, said Card "tried to buffalo us" when the groups asked what it would take to find the site unsuitable for waste disposal. "What he's saying is they haven't figured out what a showstopper is," she said. Another person at the meetings, Kalynda Tilges, nuclear issues coordinator for Citizen Alert, a statewide environmental group, said the sessions were "pretty much as we expected, just for show." She said Card was "surprised we want a final (repository) design before site recommendation. He couldn't understand how we could possibly expect something like that." Despite a request by the Review-Journal to interview Card about the meetings, an Energy Department spokesman said he was not available after the meetings because he had to return to Washington, D.C. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-14-Fri-2001/news/17665421.html [http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-14-Fri-2001/news/17665421.html] ***************************************************************** 14 Energy secretary's visit injects more yuks into Yucca Mountain process [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Friday, December 14, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal COLUMN: John L. Smith Like vaudeville itself, the Yucca Mountain Project's public hearing process officially died Wednesday with what has been described as a surprise visit from Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Abraham took time to tell reporters that he's not yet made up his mind about the viability of the high-level nuclear waste repository despite the fact that the government long ago passed enabling legislation, has its focus fixed on Yucca Mountain as the only site being studied and has spent nearly $8 billion in the process. Clearly, Abraham missed his calling. He should have been a comedian. The last guy to sneak into town this quietly was Howard Hughes. Most surprised of all, it appears, were members of Nevada's congressional delegation. Representatives of Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Shelley Berkley said staffers attended the hearing. Rep. Jim Gibbons, whose district includes the Yucca site, was not represented. Sen. Harry Reid's office sent someone only after Abraham arrived. Was it too much to ask that the delegation, which cashes in daily on this issue, attend the hearings just in case? Of course, had they all known of Abraham's trip in advance, it would have spoiled the secretary's fun. There actually might have been a confrontation. Then again, maybe not. Instead, those opposed to the dump were represented by a group of well-meaning diehards that included a man who called himself Kriss Kringle. Wore the red suit to prove it. That made Santa Claus better represented than some members of the Nevada delegation. One neutral observer noted that Abraham's secrecy might have been because of security reasons. It's a compelling thought in the wake of Sept. 11. But such concerns didn't stop Interior Secretary Gale Norton from making several public appearances during the same time. A terribly brave woman, that Norton. Without top Nevada political leaders on hand, Mayor Oscar Goodman rushed down to hurl a few rhetorical spitballs at Abraham, but he was like the only guy at a party not in on the joke. "It's arrogant," Goodman said of the lack of any official notice. "And it makes you feel that it's a done deal." EXTREME HAMMARGREN: Former lieutenant governor and veteran neurosurgeon Lonnie Hammargren possesses many gifts, but understatement is not one of them. His house is being featured at 5:30 p.m. Sunday on the Home and Garden Television Network segment of "Extreme Homes." Fresh off the Hammargren oddity assembly line: A CD recording titled "Harry Potter Christmas." It's now playing on some local radio stations. What next, a music video? Hammargren would have fit right in during Wednesday's Yucca Mountain hearing. WASTEFUL POLITICS: The regulations are tightening for the handful of recycling operations still in business. Those changes might wind up driving some of the smaller companies into bankruptcy, 72-year-old Nova Recycling owner George Liguori says. Meanwhile, solid waste behemoths the size of Republic Silver State continue on the road to monopoly. DUNES REDUX: More than 200 locals returned to the days of their Dunes on Wednesday night at the Cellar with a reunion of the legendary casino's working stiffs. That's not bad for starters. But what about some of the other grand carpet joints of yesteryear? For example, how about a Sands reunion? ON THE BOULEVARD: Snubbed investors with defunct Interstate Mortgage continue to seethe over the light sentence owner David Farradino faces after pleading guilty to theft. ... Clark County teachers recently voted overwhelmingly to back the CCEA Welfare Benefit Trust over Sierra Health in the area of health care coverage. The stewardship of the $50 million medical account was the focus of a series of campaign mailers by the CCEA designed by advertising maven Tom Letizia. The vote turned into a veritable blitz: 4,798 to back the CCEA Trust to 373 for Sierra/HPN. It will be interesting to watch this go to arbitration in the coming year as a wide variety of employers begins to reassess the cost and quality of their health care. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-14-Fri-2001/news/17666779.html [http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-14-Fri-2001/news/17666779.html] ***************************************************************** 15 Proposal by Reid cut from bill [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Friday, December 14, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By TODD HARPER DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- For the second consecutive year, Congress has declined to go along with a proposal by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to enhance benefits for retired military. Negotiators putting together a 2002 defense authorization bill dropped a Reid amendment that would have allowed disabled veterans to collect both full retirement pay plus full disability. Defense leaders said they couldn't find the money to fund the initiative, estimated to cost $41 billion over 10 years. In the end, the defense bill endorsed the principle of full benefits for service-disabled military retirees, but didn't back that up with money. The defense bill passed the House and Senate on Thursday and will be sent to President Bush for enactment. Reid was not happy with the exclusion of his proposal. "I am furious that the House refused to provide our disabled veterans with the pay that they've earned, and that they deserve," he said in a statement. Reid had said that an estimated 560,000 veterans would have qualified for the benefit. Under current rules, veterans who retire and have a service disability are required to surrender a portion of their military pay if they want to receive disability compensation as well. For some veterans the difference is hundreds of dollars monthly. The failure of Congress to change the rules to enable full compensation for both "sends a message to troops injured on active duty today that they should get out of service to avoid being shortchanged in their retirement years," said Richard Santos, American Legion national commander. The defense bill contained other projects for Nevada. The legislation contains approval for the Air Force to spend $19 million to acquire 220 acres of land at the northern end of the Nellis Air Force Base runways to provide a buffer for aircraft carrying live ordnance. The bill also authorizes construction of a $12.6 million "dynamic battle control center," a command post for Red Flag exercises and other large-scale war games conducted on the Nellis Range. Also in the bill is $5.5 million to upgrade roadways and a power system at the Nevada Test Site and $3.3 million to move Atlas pulsed power equipment to the test site from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The $49 million Atlas stores electricity, then shoots it out in intense bursts to simulate nuclear warhead detonations. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-14-Fri-2001/news/17668773.html [http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-14-Fri-2001/news/17668773.html] ***************************************************************** 16 New York security chief says Indian Point nuclear power complex is safe The Nando Times: Updated: December 14, 2001 1:14 a.m. EST Copyright © 2001 AP Online By JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press BUCHANAN, N.Y. (December 14, 2001 12:37 a.m. EST) - New York's security chief said Thursday that the Indian Point nuclear power complex is so secure it could withstand a hijacked jetliner slamming into a reactor's containment dome. The remarks from James Kallstrom, director of the Office of Public Security, came during a news conference to announce the FBI has wrapped up an assessment of the plant in Buchanan, about 35 miles north of Manhattan. "Everybody should relax," he said. "There are a lot of other issues that are of more concern." Kallstrom would not release the FBI security report but said he was confident Indian Point was well-protected in a number of scenarios - including a weapons launched from across the Hudson River and a hijacked jet slamming into a containment dome. Kallstrom said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has studied whether nuclear plants could withstand an impact like the one inflicted Sept. 11 on the World Trade Center. While emphasizing that he was not a physicist or a structural engineer, he said, "I don't believe a direct hit from a major commercial airplane could penetrate the containment dome here. The good news is this is one of the strongest constructed, designed containment facilities in the United States, if not the world." But activists at an anti-Indian Point rally Thursday argued that a jetliner crashing into a reactor could contaminate much of the metropolitan area with radiation. They complained the evacuation plan is not sufficient. Assemblyman Richard Brodsky plans to hold state legislative hearings next week to evaluate the evacuation plan. Jim Steets, spokesman for the plant's owner Entergy Corp., called the FBI report "a ringing endorsement" of its security. The company has agreed to put $3 million toward implementing its recommendations to upgrade security. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media ***************************************************************** 17 DOE eyes study of building nuke dump in stages Las Vegas SUN December 14, 2001 By Mary Manning < [manning@lasvegassun.com] > The Department of Energy has asked a National Academy of Sciences panel to investigate building a nuclear waste repository in stages so that flaws in the project could be identified at an early point in construction. The DOE does not have final design plans for a proposed nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain, a layered volcanic ash ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The panel will review ways to build a repository that would allow the DOE to respond to unexpected conditions. The DOE is in the process of conducting scientific studies at the site, which could one day house 77,000 tons of the nation's nuclear waste. The National Research Council's 14-member panel, all volunteers with no ties to the DOE, will meet in Las Vegas Monday through Wednesday, Chairman Charles McCombie said. The scientists met for the first time Sept. 5 in Washington. The Las Vegas meeting will allow the panel to hear from experts and the public regarding how to make the proposed design and construction process more efficient, McCombie said from Switzerland on Thursday. While the DOE provides funding for meetings and research, it has no say in the panel's report, academy staff member Barbara Pastina said. "They have absolutely no control of what comes out of the report," Pastina said of the DOE's role. By breaking down the building process in stages, the repository manager could use the most recent scientific findings available, he said. By using a step-by-step approach to construction, scientists would have more control over unexpected problems sure to arise during such a complex project, he said. At the end of each step, the manager "can decide whether to proceed or even reverse the process," McCombie said. However, the panel's review cannot offer an alternative to burying the waste, McCombie said. "We are not passing judgment in any way on the technical work at Yucca Mountain," he said. "Our job is to get the safest system for a deep geological repository anywhere." The panel's work could be applied all over the world, McCombie said, and could be directed specifically at Yucca Mountain. "Our job is to review the work and to make a logical framework so the DOE may integrate the work," he said. The panel hopes to allay society's concerns on the issue of disposing of nuclear waste by reporting solid scientific and technological evidence that the mountain is suitable as a repository, he said. Panel members have varied professional backgrounds, ranging from physical and earth sciences to communications and institutional affairs fields. McCombie is an independent consultant and holds a doctorate in physics. He has consulted on nuclear waste projects in Switzerland, Japan, Germany and the United States. The panel could have an interim report ready by February 2002, Pastina said. A final report is expected in November 2002. "National Academy of Sciences reports are not the fastest for turnaround time," Pastina said. And, since the scientists volunteer their time, "they work on this in their spare time." No decision has been made regarding a time-frame for recommending Yucca Mountain to President Bush as the nation's nuclear waste repository. Nevada officials have criticized Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham for planning to recommend the site to Bush before scientific studies of Yucca's suitability as a repository are complete. That recommendation is widely expected to come in the next few weeks, both nuclear power and Nevada officials say. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 18 State readies federal suit over Yucca standards Las Vegas SUN December 14, 2001 By Cy Ryan SUN CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- The final touches are being put on a federal lawsuit to overturn new Department of Energy regulations that lower the safety standard for storing high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. The regulations, which go into effect today, allow the DOE to use containers to protect the environment from radioactivity rather than natural geologic barriers. The state will contend in the suit that the Energy Department is using the containers to make Yucca Mountain safe. The earliest a suit could be filed would be Monday in the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, state Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said. State Solicitor General Tony Clark said the suit charges that the regulations do not comply with the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act that sets the standards for burial of the highly radioactive material. The original act of Congress was fashioned to protect the public and the natural resources from contamination. Congress said the best method was to bury the material in a location where the rock formations would prevent leakage of the radioactivity into the air or into the underground water. The new regulation allows the Department of Energy to rely on a combination of metal storage containers and natural geological barriers to satisfy the environmental standards. Clark said the standard is to protect against leakage for 10,000 years, but nobody knows whether these new metal containers will be able to meet that standard. Del Papa said the suit is being prepared by her staff and special counsel Joe Egan in Washington. The Energy Department is looking at a plan to store the nuclear pellets in cylindrical casks in tunnels that it says meet the standards of the Environmental Protection Agency. The attorney general said an affidavit of Victor Gilinsky, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will be attached to the suit to back up the Nevada claim, the attorney general said. The new regulation by the Department of Energy is "a radical and imprudent departure" from the current rule, Gilinsky said, adding that the regulation becoming effective today "is inconsistent with Congress' mandate for safe and environmentally acceptable disposal of high level radioactive as was expressed in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The federal law wanted a site with "favorable geologic characteristics" and that means it would provide "effective natural barriers to isolate the waste from the livable environment for extremely long times," Gilinsky said. The Department of Energy is "not free to choose an inferior site because it has a waste container it thinks sufficiently durable to compensate for the site's deficiencies," Gilinsky said. Del Papa said the state also is gearing up for a second suit when a final environmental impact statement is issued in February. That impact statement does not deal with the issue of transportation of the waste across the country or with the possibility of a terrorist attack, Del Papa said. In light of the events of Sept. 11, Del Papa said failure to consider a terrorist attack is a major flaw in the upcoming environmental impact statement. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 19 Mobile Chernobyl information freeze [http://www.lasvegasweekly.com] [ border=] DOE move hints at Yucca Mtn. as terrorist target By Kate Silver ( [silver@vegas.com] ) The week of Thanksgiving, a mysterious message appeared on the Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain Web site (www.ymp.gov); a notice that some say is contrary to the policy of openness the DOE insists it is governed by: "SECURITY NOTICE: The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management promotes the open review of documents by the public during the Yucca Mountain site recommendation consideration process. However, following the attacks of September 11, 2001, we have removed certain content from our Internet site to minimize the risk of providing potentially sensitive information that could result in adverse impacts to National security." The message was so alarming that employees in the office of Gov. Kenny Guinn sent out a press release decrying the move. State officials fear the potential for contamination, spills and other problems as tons of radioactive waste are trucked across the country and through downtown Las Vegas on the way to the burial site. "On the one hand they don't acknowledge terrorism as an issue on Yucca Mountain, but they're using it as an excuse to shut the Web site down so the public doesn't have the easily accessed information they had before," says Bob Loux, executive director for the Agency for Nuclear Projects. He points out that the DOE had previously campaigned on behalf of the Yucca Mountain project being one of the most open in the world. Not anymore. Rather than responding to terrorism, Loux says that DOE officials are responding to recent negative press that Yucca Mountain has received nationally. He thinks DOE officials are taking the information down so they can strategize on how to move ahead. "Clearly they know there's an issue (when it comes to terrorists), they just don't want to talk about it in the Yucca Mountain context," he says. DOE officials say that's simply not the case. In taking down content from the Web site, they're merely doing what they were told to do. "Based on the events of Sept. 11 we were asked to review all documents on the Web site and we've pulled them down to review them for content," says Karen Therlkeld, public relations specialist for the DOE. "This was a pure directive from Washington, D.C. We're not the only one who's done this." Therlkeld adds that they have to re-examine the information per government orders, and go from there. "If once reviewed they have no potential values to terrorists, they will be put back up on the Web site." Guess we'll just have to wait and see. [ border=] All contents © 1998 - 2001 Radiant City Publications, LLC Questions or problems? [http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/2001_2/about.html] . Privacy ***************************************************************** 20 OPPD will seek approval to keep Fort Calhoun going through 2033 Omaha.com December 14, 2001 BY NANCY GAARDER WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER After hearing concerns from a handful of citizens about the safety and efficiency of nuclear power, the Omaha Public Power District board voted unanimously Thursday to seek relicensing of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant. If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agrees to the relicensing, the plant would be allowed to operate until 2033. Its current license expires in 2013. The plant, northwest of Omaha, is one of the smallest nuclear power plants in the country and provides about a third of OPPD's power. Tom Foster of Omaha asked the board whether "embrittlement" had been fully considered. Embrittlement refers to the possible fragility of metal that has been exposed to radioactivity. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said that it believes Fort Calhoun's vessel has a life expectancy until at least 2033, Gary Gates, vice president in charge of the Fort Calhoun plant, told the board. John Pollack of Omaha said Thursday's vote, and the expenditures that lie ahead, would make it tougher for the board to decide against relicensing in its final vote down the road. OPPD has budgeted $13.5 million for the relicensing process, Gates said. So far, $6.8 million has been spent. The rest will be needed during the next two years as OPPD works with federal regulators on relicensing. The board has spent more than two years studying relicensing has concluded that keeping the plant on line is the best decision for OPPD customers, said Jeff Hall, board member. An alternative power source would have to be found if the plant were to be shut down, Hall said. Frances Mendenhall, one of those who spoke Thursday, said that alternative should be wind power. But Hall said that technology hasn't advanced to the point that it is viable on a large scale. A coal-powered plant, the most likely alternative, could cost up to $1 billion, Hall said. That's well above the expected $250 million that is likely to be needed over the next 30 years upgrading the nuclear power plant. Furthermore, coal-fired plants present their own environmental problems and future regulatory hurdles could make them even more costly. Mick Mines, mayor of Blair, told the board the plant has been a boon to his community. About 110 of the plant's 645 employees live in Blair. The plant's annual payroll is $43 million, and $23 million more was spent last year on goods and services. That, he said, is a substantial economic benefit to the area and state. Mendenhall, a representative of the Green Party, has said that the Sept. 11 attacks point to the vulnerability of the nation's nuclear plants. Plants are built to withstand natural disasters such as tornadoes and earthquakes, and the impact of a small plane. Fort Calhoun, like most nuclear plants, was designed with the thought that a large plane could crash on the grounds, but not that someone might steer a fully-loaded passenger jet into the reactor, Gates said. Pollack said that should terrorists strike at a U.S. plant, the entire nuclear industry could be thrown into turmoil, shutting plants down. The resulting scramble for electricity could expose OPPD customers to steep rate hikes, he said. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission likely will schedule a hearing on the issue within the next six months. The utility expects a decision by early 2004. ©2001 Omaha World-Herald. ***************************************************************** 21 Austria makes requests on transit and nuclear power (Sonderwunsche bei AKW und Transit) Der Standard - Austria; Dec 13, 2001 Austria will make a number of special requests at an EU summit in Laeken, near Brussels, on Friday and Saturday, from environmental issues to nuclear power safety. Austria wants the transit agreement between Austria and the EU, which regulates traffic in the Alpine region in order to prevent damage to the environment, to be extended when it expires in 2003. However, obstacles have started to arise on this matter, as the Czech Republic has now demanded a corresponding regulation. In addition, Austria is pushing for long-term uniform security standards for nuclear power in the EU, but France and the UK in particular do not want to take orders from the EU on this issue. Most other EU countries have a neutral stance on the subject, while Ireland supports Austria. Abstracted from Der Standard [http://askft.ft.com/askFT] ***************************************************************** 22 GEORGIA ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP WINS HEARING ON PLUTONIUM FUEL (MOX) PLANT PROPOSED FOR DOE’S SAVANNAH RIVER SITE NCI document PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release: December 13, 2001 Contact: Glenn Carroll, GANE, 404-378-4263 or 404-378-9542 Dr. Edwin S. Lyman, Nuclear Control Institute, 202-822-6594 Diane Curran, Esq., Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, 202-328-3500 ATLANTA, GA An Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has awarded Georgians Against Nuclear Energy (GANE) the right to a public evidentiary hearing to investigate unresolved issues concerning a controversial proposal to manufacture reactor fuel from weapons-grade plutonium. The order, issued on December 6, 2001, granted a petition filed last summer by the Georgia citizens group. At issue is a proposal to build a factory to manufacture a new type of reactor fuel from weapons-grade plutonium at a U.S. Department of Energy nuclear weapons facility on the banks of the Savannah River in South Carolina near Augusta, Georgia. If built, this would be the first full-scale, commercial MOX facility in the U.S. In February, a “Construction Authorization Request” was submitted to the NRC by Duke Cogema Stone & Webster (DCS), an international nuclear consortium. DCS plans to apply later for a license to operate the factory. The plutonium-based “Mixed Oxide” or “MOX” fuel to be manufactured at the plant would be burned at four commercial reactors owned by Duke Power in North and South Carolina. DCS must obtain a license from the NRC before it can build or operate the proposed MOX factory. Under federal law, third parties may intervene in the permitting process and request a public hearing by submitting “contentions” that describe their concerns about whether public health and safety and the environment will be protected under the proposed permit. The NRC Board found that 8 of GANE’s 13 contentions meet the agency’s rigorous pleading standards. In a hearing currently scheduled to begin in October 2002, GANE will be allowed to litigate a range of criticisms of the application, including its failure to protect the public from excessive radiation doses, inadequate provision for high-level nuclear waste storage, poorly prepared seismic analysis, lack of a cost/benefit analysis in the environmental review, and security. Chief among the issues to be litigated is GANE’s concern that the design of the MOX factory is inadequate to protect against acts of terrorism and insider sabotage, or to keep the plutonium secure from theft. “The proposed design fails to meet international standards which require physical protection of nuclear material to be taken into consideration in the early stages of facility design,” said GANE’s technical advisor, Dr. Edwin Lyman. Dr. Lyman is Scientific Director of Nuclear Control Institute (NCI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which specializes in problems of nuclear proliferation. The NRC Board rebuked DCS and the NRC technical staff for attempting to downplay the importance of the issue, calling it “axiomatic” that weapons-grade material control and accounting and physical protection systems are “most important systems and systems of first rank.” GANE will also be allowed to press its contention that seeks preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement that addresses the potential impacts of a successful terrorist attack. “DCS has made no attempt to address the potential consequences of malevolent acts such as terrorism and insider sabotage,” says Glenn Carroll, coordinator of GANE’s intervention. “Incredibly, even after the events of September 11, DCS and the NRC’s technical staff continued to insist that terrorist attacks are not foreseeable and there is no need to examine the issue.” The NRC Board sided with GANE, stating that “it can no longer be argued that terrorist attacks of heretofore unimagined scope and sophistication against previously unimaginable targets are not reasonably foreseeable.” Ms. Carroll applauded the Board’s ruling, stating, “We will use the hearing to show that DCS and the NRC should be looking at alternatives that would minimize the chance for a successful terrorist attack on the MOX factory, such as a hardening of plant structures to withstand an aircraft assault. They should also address the problem that there are no emergency plans to cope with the aftermath of a terrorist attack.” While pleased with the ruling from the NRC Board, GANE expressed concern that the hearing should not go forward until DCS has filed a complete application that includes details about the operation of the proposed facility. The NRC Board has not yet ruled on GANE’s motion to dismiss or postpone the MOX proceeding, which the group filed simultaneously with its contentions. GANE asserts that the NRC should not consider DCS’s application until it has been completed, including all details necessary for safe operation. “We hope that the Board will not let DCS and the NRC Staff get away with the illegal process they have set up to push through construction authorization before a completed application has been filed. Holding a hearing on this incomplete application would not only violate GANE’s hearing rights, it would compromise public safety,” said Diane Curran, GANE’s legal adviser. GANE and NCI also have jointly filed a Petition to Suspend the MOX proceeding pending before the Commission. The petition calls for the MOX review process to be stopped while the NRC reviews its regulations concerning nuclear security. The controversial proposal to construct a MOX factory was spawned in a Russia-U.S. non-proliferation agreement to dispose of surplus weapons-grade plutonium. GANE opposes MOX manufacture and advocates immobilizing plutonium in a glass matrix made from 35,000,000 gallons of high-level liquid waste which threaten a significant aquifer recharge area underneath the Savannah River Site (SRS). “It’s time to face up to the inherent destructive nature of plutonium and call it what it is -- nuclear waste,” says Ms. Carroll. “Dealing with our radioactive waste problem is the heroic mission that protects security, for our nation and all nations.” Despite the U.S. government’s official commitment to dispose of a significant portion of its plutonium inventory, there has been no forward progress on disposition since the program’s inception in 1995. In response, South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges threatens to block plutonium waste shipments from Colorado’s Rocky Flats Plant at the South Carolina border if immobilization plans are not reinstated. Revelations of conflicts of interest between DOE upper management and the company that stands to benefit if Rocky Flats is closed by a certain date have exacerbated Hodges’ concern that the actual DOE agenda is to permanently store plutonium waste at SRS without any processing. Internationally, necessary financial support for the Russian part of the program has not materialized resulting in waning interest in Russia and scandal has plagued the European-Japanese MOX market. In the U.S. the National Security Council has undertaken complete reassessment of the DOE plutonium disposition program. To request complete text of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Memorandum and Order ruling on Standing and Admissibility of Contentions, please contact Glenn Carroll, GANE, 404-378-4263 or 404-378-9542, or e-mail GANE at atom.girl@mindspring.com [atom.girl@mindspring.com] . ***************************************************************** 23 Geraldton again considers nuclear ban ABC News - Posted: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 8:29 AWST The city of Geraldton is again considering a town planning scheme amendment to ban nuclear activity. The issue was first raised in October 1999, but was rejected by then Minister Graham Kierath on the grounds it was unauthorised and invalid. The amendment has resurfaced after a letter by the current Planning and Infrastructure Minister, Alannah McTiernan, to a nearby shire which is progressing with a similar scheme change, saying it may be possible. The manager of development services at the city of Geraldton, Phil Melling, says the town planning and development committee has recommended the city progress with the amendment and seek legal advice. He said Ms McTiernan's letter stated the amendment would have to exclude some activities from the ban. The previous scheme amendment also had those kind of exemptions in them so it did allow for hospital-type uses and also acknowledged the low level activities that can occur through the current mining product that is exported through Geraldton. © 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 24 Protesters question Lucas Heights reactor safety This is a transcript of The World Today broadcast at 12:10 AEST on local radio. The World Today - Friday, December 14, 2001 12:51 JOHN HIGHFIELD: There are renewed concerns today about the safety of Australia's nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, on the edge of Sydney. Campaigners and local residents say its presence near millions of people now poses serious health and security risks. But rather than shifting the plant, the government remains committed to building a second facility at Lucas Heights next year. The protesters are now gearing up to stop the development going ahead, as Peter Lloyd reports. PETER LLOYD: Margaret Bradford is one of thousands of Sydneysiders who lives on the doorstep of Australia's only nuclear reactor. MARGARET BRADFORD: As the crow flies I'd be about 3 kilometres. We've been told not to eat any of the food we grow in our garden, this is official. PETER LLOYD: Since September 11 she's become more worried than ever about her proximity to what is now regarded as one of the country's main terror targets. It's a fear given weight by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which now deems all nuclear facilities vulnerable and has declared at security at some substandard. Australia's nuclear regulator ARPANSA, is now grappling with a review of security at Lucas Heights at the same time as its deciding whether to grant the operator of the plant a license to build a second nuclear reactor. Doctor John Loy is the CEO. JOHN LOY: I think certainly the security landscape has changed for everything in Australia and elsewhere, and certainly it's important for us in looking at the application to construct a new reactor that we take the security issues even more seriously than we did before. And we're doing that and certainly reviewing them very closely. PETER LLOYD: What was the outcome of the security review conducted at Lucas Heights? JOHN LOY: Well, that's still in progress. We asked ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) to look very closely at the design of the replacement reactor and to test the places where they see it as being potentially vulnerable and to assess the consequences of attacks upon those vulnerabilities. We'll get that report and we ourselves at ARPANSA will examine it and assess it and review it and then work with other government agencies to ensure that there's a strong and adequate security plan in place. PETER LLOYD: What's the timetable now for the construction of the new reactor? JOHN LOY: I'm planning to seek to make a decision in February. Whether I'll be able to do so at that time I don't know until I sit down and look at all the information. So, at some time in the next few months I hope to be able to make my decision about whether it goes ahead. Should it go ahead after that, then I guess construction would proceed later during 2002. PETER LLOYD: Doctor John Loy. But campaigners aren't giving up the fight to stop the new reactor. Today, Greenpeace and the Sutherland Shire Council are presenting arguments against the development at a public forum being held by the regulatory. Greenpeace campaigner Stephen Campbell. STEPHEN CAMPBELL: The arguments against it are extremely convincing, it's an unnecessary project, there are alternatives available. It will create waste for 40 years, which remains a threat to the environment for very long periods of time. It's a waste of taxpayers money on that point and of course it's unsafe, it's a risk now post-September 11. We thought all of those issues would be compelling for either the regulator or the project proponents or indeed the politicians who were involved to think again about this project. PETER LLOYD; But the scheduled commencement date is early 2002, that's only a matter of weeks away. Realistically is there any prospect that you'd stop it going ahead? STEPEHN CAMPBELL: Peter, there's a few examples of projects around the world, nuclear reactors being built and never switched on, for instance, because of public outcry and because of the problems that are inherent in it. We have the potential here for this reactor to become a huge white elephant. It's going to cost far more than the $300 million odd that is the figure being touted around at the moment and I think that this project is going to drag on for years and years and years, and it's going to be a real thorn in the side of Sydney and also the Federal Government. PETER LLOYD: Why do you say it's unsafe? STEPHEN CAMPBELL: Well, it's unsafe for a number of reasons. First of all I think we've got to acknowledge that since September 11 the reactor has become a potential problem in this city. Nobody would have foreseen that the events that happened on September 11 and I think that we have to be rigorous in our assessment of these sorts of risks in Australia. JOHN HIGHFIELD: Greenpeace campaigner Stephen Campbell with Peter Lloyd in Sydney. [ABC Online] [ border=] [ border=] Transcripts on this website are created by an independent transcription service. The ABC does not warrant the accuracy of the transcripts. ABC Online users are advised to listen to the audio provided on this page to verify the accuracy of the transcripts. © 2001 ABC [http://www.abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm] | Privacy Policy [http://www.abc.net.au/privacy.htm] ***************************************************************** 25 Nuclear agency defends Lucas Heights reactor forum. Friday, December 14, 2001 . Posted: 17:12:53 (AEDT) The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) has defended the way it conducted a public forum two months before making a decision on whether to let the new Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor go ahead. ARPANSA has been criticised by local residents, the Sutherland Shire Council and the Australian Conservation Foundation. The groups say the forum should have been more open to public submissions, and ARPANSA has been keeping essential information about the proposed reactor under wraps. However, ARPANSA public relations officer Brendan Elliot, says there was not enough time in two days of sittings to open the floor to the public. Mr Elliot says their views are represented by environmental groups and the council. He says the process is open and accountable, and ARPANSA chief executive officer Dr John Loy will take all submissions into account before making his final decision by the end of February. "At the end of the day if he's not convinced, if he's not satisfied that a replacement reactor can be operated safely over its lifetime which is you know, a large number of years, then it won't proceed any further," he said. © 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 26 Village ordered to return nuclear plant grants - Japan Today Japan News - News - Friday, December 14, 2001 at 09:30 JST TOKYO — The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said Thursday it has ordered the village of Kariwa, Niigata Prefecture, to return 260.47 million yen in nuclear plant-related subsidies because of unauthorized use. The ministry has found Kariwa officials responsible for making several unauthorized changes in a 6.2 billion yen project for building an adult education center, completed in 1999 using 5.7 billion yen in state subsidies. (Kyodo News) ***************************************************************** 27 SYDNEY REACTOR WOULD BE PRIME TERRORIST TARGET:OPPONENTS Asia Pulse; Dec 14, 2001 SYDNEY, Dec 14 Asia Pulse - The controversial new nuclear reactor planned for Sydney's south would be a prime target for terrorists, a forum was told today. Environmental scientist Garry Smith said it was of great concern that sabotage had been excluded from reviews of the siting of the new reactor. The Australian government has no resources to handle a major nuclear accident. Internal threats had been considered but external threats, including proximity of major roads and aircraft, had been ignored, Mr Smith who works with Sutherland Shire Council said. "Given what's happened in the last three months ... we want to go back and consider the site and site licensing because clearly not to do so would not be world's best practice," he told the public forum organised by ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency). ARPANSA is the body responsible for the use of nuclear facilities by the Commonwealth government. It had invited comment on the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation's (ANSTO) application to build a new research reactor. ARPANSA CEO John Loy, chairing the forum, acknowledged the council's concern. "It is a vital issue and will be thoroughly examined," he said. Australian Conservation Foundation anti-nuclear campaigner Dave Sweeney said nuclear facilities were now more likely than ever to be the target of terrorist activity according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. "What we want to know is does the government now accept that this is a credible threat," Mr Sweeney told AAP before addressing the forum. "Governments and agencies all around the world have said that reactor security is now a credible threat since September 11. "The Australian government continues to marginalise this, act as if it's a joke, try and ignore it." He called for the the federal government to now make a responsible examination of the issue. Earlier, anti-nuclear protesters outside the forum branded it a farce. About 50 Greenpeace protesters, some wearing bright orange T-shirts saying Nuclear Never Safe listened to two rappers on stilts singing nuclear protest songs outside the forum in Sydney's CBD. Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Stephen Campbell said ARPANSA should widen the public forum process. "They should be listening to the concerns of the people, which are many," he said. His concerns were supported by a senior academic at the Australian National University. International relations lecturer Michael McKinley said an independent review was needed to quell public fears over the safety of the proposed reactor. A terrorist attack on the reactor could release nuclear material over much of Sydney, Dr McKinley said. "What really is required is an independent, and probably overseas review authority, to come in and look at safety procedures," he told ABC radio. "It should not be done by the very close knit Australian nuclear science community," Dr McKinley said. ANSTO will address the forumon Monday. ASIA PULSE World Reporter All Material Subject to Copyright ***************************************************************** 28 UK: Nuclear nuked The Guardian - United Kingdom; Dec 14, 2001 A wind of change is blowing through the Whitehall corridors of power and blasting renewable energy up the agenda into the mainstream. Yesterday the energy minister, Brian Wilson, unveiled plans for Europe's biggest wind farm, on the Isle of Lewis, courtesy of British Energy and Amec who will spend pounds 600m on the Scottish scheme. Earlier this week, Mr Wilson - previously considered a nuclear enthusiast - had given the go-ahead to a wind farm near Aberystwyth then billed as the biggest in the UK. The draft report of the cabinet's performance and innovation unit (PIU) on future energy needs and provision gives plenty of space to the importance of renewables. It says it wants green energy to provide 20% of all Britain's electricity within 20 years - up from less than 3% now. The nuclear sector, which has been campaigning to be allowed to build a new generation of plants, is now struggling to keep up. There is little mention of it in the PIU report on its way to Tony Blair for approval. But it would be wrong to believe that the politicians have been driving the new green agenda. In many ways they have just been running to keep up. Yes, they have nudged the planning rules which have delayed many wind projects and yes, small grants have been made available but the real reason renewables - or particularly wind - have come of age in Britain is that it makes commercial sense. This is partly because of advances in technology - bigger and more efficient turbines - and partly because the private sector realises that in today's political and economic climate they can now make money and win public approval for saving the planet from greenhouse gases. Wind energy is cheap - and fast. While a nuclear power station takes five years to commission, a wind turbine can be up and running in a week. So it is no surprise that the largest energy players are piling in - and particularly significant that one of the companies backing the ambitious Isle of Lewis scheme is British Energy, the UK's biggest nuclear power provider. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Kazakh president signs law ratifying ban on nuclear tests BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 14, 2001 Almaty, 14 December: Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has signed the law ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the presidential press service told Interfax-Kazakhstan today. The law was previously approved by the country's parliament. The press service said that the Treaty was designed to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in all forms, to further the process of nuclear disarmament and to strengthen peace and security round the world. The Treaty was opened for signatures on 24 September 1996 during the 51st UN General Assembly session. As at today, about 160 states in the world, including three nuclear powers - Russia, France and Great Britain, are signatories to the Treaty. [Passage to end omitted: as part of the treaty, a number of nuclear facilities monitoring stations were set up round the country; there used to be a major nuclear testing site in the world in Kazakhstan's Semipalatinsk] Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian 1037 gmt 14 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material ***************************************************************** 2 DOE must have plan by Feb. 1 for storage of Rocky Flats stocks Deadline set in plutonium standoff Rocky Mountain News: Local By Berny Morson, News Staff Writer The Energy Department must come up with a plan by Feb. 1 to end the impasse with the South Carolina governor over storage of plutonium from Rocky Flats, under legislation nearing passage in Congress. If not, the federal department can look at other places to store the highly radioactive material, taking well-paying jobs away from South Carolina in the process. Those steps to work through the disagreement with South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges -- and to move ahead with closing Rocky Flats -- were added to the main Defense Department spending bill by lawmakers from the House and Senate. Hodges said Wednesday he's not worried. He doesn't believe any other state will accept the plutonium. "They're not going to find anybody that wants to take that plutonium, I can tell you that," Hodges said. "I think that's a silly argument on their part to threaten jobs." But U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said several states are interested. He declined to name the states, but called them "serious alternatives." "We want to make sure the governor understands he doesn't have a corner on the market," Allard said. At issue are stocks of the highly radioactive material used in nuclear weapons. Plans call for the material to go to the Energy Department's Savannah River Site in South Carolina by the end of 2002 in order to proceed with demolition of the Rocky Flats buildings. Hodges has said he's willing to allow the material into the state temporarily, but not for permanent storage. Previous plans called for the plutonium to be turned into reactor fuel or sealed in glass for storage elsewhere. But Congress did not fund those programs. Hodges said Wednesday the probability of reaching an agreement with the Energy Department before Feb. 1 is "less than 50 percent." "I'd rather have no plutonium than plutonium with no assurances about how it's going to be treated and when it's going to be sent out," he said. "It would be foolish for us to take it under the terms that are being offered." Language in the Defense Department bill was worked out among numerous lawmakers, including Allard. A spokesman for South Carolina Sen. Ernest Hollings could not be reached for comment. December 13, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. Privacy Policy and User Agreement ***************************************************************** 3 Money poor reward for loss of health, cancer sufferer says KnoxNews: Business KINGSTON - Leon Meade received a $150,000 check from the federal government the other day, but nobody in the Meade household was jumping for joy. Meade, 74, figured it's a poor reward for working at the Oak Ridge nuclear facilities and developing lung cancer and asbestosis and other ailments. "What's your life worth? They're saying your life is worth $150,000. If they'll give me my health back, they can have their $150,000.'' Meade went to work in the Atomic City in 1949 and eventually worked at three of the major installations - the K-25 uranium-enrichment plant, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. "I'll put it this way,'' he said. "If I'd known when I went to work what I know now, I'd have never worked a day out there. Because they never told us that any of that stuff was dangerous.'' During his 35-year career, Meade did a little bit of everything. He drove waste trucks to the nuclear burial grounds. He worked on nuclear weapons. He built equipment used to process uranium. Meade retired in 1985, hoping to spend time working on the rural Roane County farm where he grew up and later raised his family. But health problems soon made farming difficult, if not impossible, and today it's a struggle for him to talk or even breathe. In one way, he's lucky to have worked at multiple plants in Oak Ridge. That made it easier to qualify for compensation under the federal program established for sick nuclear workers. The legislation created a "special cohort'' for people who worked at gaseous diffusion plants - such as K-25 - and they're not required to prove that radiation caused their cancers. It's assumed the workplace is the cause. Even though he worked several years at K-25, Meade said his worst exposures occurred at Y-12 while assembling nuclear warheads in the Beta-2 shop. "We handled all kinds of material. We handled probably a couple of hundred different epoxies. They didn't tell us that the epoxies were harmful to us,'' he said. If Meade had only worked at Y-12, his compensation case would probably still be pending while experts evaluated his work record to decide if the cumulative radiation dose was sufficient to have caused lung cancer. "The government is still not being honest with people out there,'' he said. "There's people I guess out there still machining uranium. ... Well, they never told us uranium was damaging to you. But anybody, after you back up and learn about it, anybody with common sense knows that. And they ain't told you how many people have died out there with cancer that worked in that uranium.'' Copyright 2001 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 4 Compensation checks arrive for only 20 so far KnoxNews: Business By Frank Munger, News-Sentinel senior writer OAK RIDGE - Nearly 1,500 Oak Ridge nuclear workers or their survivors have applied for benefits under a fourmonth-old program to help those with radiation-induced cancers or chronic beryllium disease, but so far only 20 have received payments. Complaints about the program have flowed more freely than the compensation checks. Many of the complaints come from workers waiting - and hoping - for a $150,000 payment that may never come. Even some of those sure to qualify for benefits are complaining about paperwork mix-ups and long delays. "We had a big challenge getting started, but it's coming along pretty well,'' said Shelby Hallmark, who heads the worker compensation programs at the U.S. Department of Labor. "It's never as fast as we would like and never as fast as the people hoping for benefits would like. But it is moving along.'' Nationwide, there have been 15,683 claims filed under the Energy Workers Occupational Illness Compensation Act and 567 payments made. "It's a bunch of foolishness,'' said Bill Clark, a former worker at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, who was involved in the worst nuclear accident in Oak Ridge history. Of the eight Y-12 workers who received serious radiation exposures in the 1958 accident, only three are still living, and they were honored last week as "Cold War Heroes'' at a labor-management prayer breakfast. All have applied for compensation for their cancer cases. None has received any money. Clark said he appreciated being called a hero but would rather have something to help pay his bills. Vikki Hatfield of Kingston got involved as a worker advocate because of her father's debilitating illnesses. Even though her father, Leon Meade, recently got his $150,000 payment, Hatfield said she's "really, really disheartened'' with the system. "I don't think it's working,'' said Hatfield, who serves on a national advisory panel. "I'm thrilled that we got (the payment), but I don't think we would have if I hadn't called every single day and pushed every button possible. There are people who filed applications at the same time and haven't heard anything.'' Some disappointment stems from unrealistic expectations, Hallmark said. The Labor Department still doesn't have a fully operable computer system for processing claims from the large population of nuclear workers. Hallmark said he's pleased a makeshift infrastructure allowed work to begin on July 31, the start-up date mandated by Congress. "I think that we've done everything in our power to meet those deadlines and get up and running,'' he said. The average time for processing a claim - from application to receipt of check - is about four months, and Hallmark said he believes that is reasonable. The process may become more streamlined in the months and years ahead, but that doesn't necessarily mean the checks will be issued any faster. In fact, it may take longer because claims evaluations will become more complex, he said. Glenn Bell, a Y-12 machinist who was diagnosed with chronic beryllium disease several years ago, said the compensation program was a mass of confusion at first. But he said he's seen big improvements. "It's a lot better than it was a month ago,'' he said. In many instances, people processing the claims simply didn't understand the paperwork themselves, Bell said. Workers contend that many sick people aren't being compensated. The program focuses mostly on those hurt by radiation or beryllium - a lightweight metal used in nuclear weapons - but doesn't help those repeatedly exposed to toxic chemicals at the federal facilities. Copyright 2001 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 5 Russia puts a brave face on the inevitable Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Both sides still hope to agree arms cuts next year Ian Traynor in Moscow Friday December 14, 2001 [http://www.guardian.co.uk] A humiliated Kremlin reacted more in sorrow than in anger last night to President George Bush's decision, for the first time in the nuclear era, to scrap an international treaty unilaterally. Told last Friday of the impending US action, President Vladimir Putin bowed to the inevitable and put a brave face on the snub, which strips the degraded superpower of the last semblance of parity with the US. "This step was not a surprise for us. However, we consider it a mistake," Mr Putin said on national television last night. "It is not a threat to the security of the Russian federation." Seeming to regret the the White House decision, which capped six months of tricky negotiations with the Russians during which the Republicans made it clear that they wanted to scrap the anti-ballistic-missile treaty, Mr Putin acknowledged that the US was free to abrogate the pact, but stressed the value of upholding international law and treaties at a time of crises. "We must not allow a legal vacuum in strategic stability," he warned. The US ambassador to Moscow, Alexander Vershbow, went to the foreign ministry to notify Alexander Avdeyev, the deputy foreign minister, that Washington was serving six months' notice of withdrawal from the 1972 treaty. The Kremlin knew the decision was coming and last night Mr Putin was an embodiment of KGB-trained inscrutability. But beneath the unflustered exterior, the Russians are fuming, less about any military threat than at the loss of prestige afforded by major treaties with the US. "It's all about mentality," a defence analyst, Alexander Golts, said. "Russia cannot respond in military terms ... What it means for Russia's military-political elite is that we have lost the last opportunity to pretend we are equal with the US." At a time when Mr Putin is going out of his way to align Russia with the west against the common enemy of international terrorism, the US move makes his manoeuvring at home more difficult. "This will significantly damage relations between Russia and the US, making it difficult to exploit the opportunities that have arisen in the past few months," Sergei Rogov, director of the USA-Canada Institute, said. Mr Putin's low-key reaction, inconceivable six months ago, shows how his relations with the US have been transformed by September 11. As recently as last summer he was warning that Moscow might respond to Washington's withdrawal from the pact by shredding the many nuclear arms accords which flowed from the treaty and by putting multiple warheads on Rits inter-continental missiles to counter the perceived threat of the US missile defence. But such threats were muted yesterday. Russia and the US are now feeling their way towards ambitious new arms cuts, hoping to agree by next summer on a reduction of up to 75% in their nuclear arsenals. Mr Putin spoke last night of cutting American and Russian arsenals to between 1,500 and 2,200 warheads. He used September 11 to signal a radical turn towards the west in Russian foreign policy, furnishing Washington with copious intelligence on Afghanistan, al-Qaida, and the Taliban, opening up post-Soviet central Asia to US special forces, and lessening criticism of Nato policy in the Balkans and its east European expansion plans. His pay-off is western "understanding" of Russia's brutal campaign in Chechnya, silence about new moves to put an opposition television station out of business, support in negotiations for admission to the World Trade Organisation, a new pact to cut nuclear arms Moscow cannot afford to maintain, and plans to integrate Russia more fully into Nato policy-making and decision-taking. But there is intense resistance to Mr Putin's abrupt policy shift from the political, military, and security elites at home, and the critics are fortified by the US action. The Bush decision was "worse than a crime. It's a mistake in substance and timing", Vladimir Lukin, the pro-western deputy speaker of parliament and a former ambassador to the US, quipped. It would undermine US-Russian cooperation against terrorism. The Speaker, Gennady Seleznev, called for "more energetic" cooperation between Russia and China "so we can respond to all challenges together". The army's general staff and the successor to the KGB, the FSB, are wary of Mr Bush's policy in central Asia and worried about American bases in the region once the war in Afghanistan ends. The security establishment is also worried that the Bush administration's unilateralism will next be exemplified by a refusal to embody their reductions in nuclear weapons in binding treaties. Mr Bush has left Russia the injured party, benefiting from the opprobrium heaped on the White House and making common cause with European Nato allies against America. Russia could cope with it, but global strategic stability was being imperilled, General Anatoly Kvashnin, chief of the general staff, said. "It will untie the hands of a number of countries, and may trigger a new phase of the arms race." And despite Mr Putin's four-square support - for national security reasons - of the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, US determination to expand the war to targets beyond Afghanistan will test the Kremlin's solidarity. A senior foreign ministry official said yesterday that there would be no Russian support for "unilateral" American strikes on targets beyond Afghanistan, and insisted that a UN mandate was required. "Unilateral action is not a method," the source told the Interfax news agency. "If action is to be taken against a sovereign state, that can only occur based on a UN security council decision." Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 6 Powell Doubts New Nuclear Arms Race Las Vegas SUN December 14, 2001 WASHINGTON- President Bush's decision to abandon a major weapons control agreement with Moscow will not spur a new nuclear arms race, Secretary of State Colin Powell says. But Russian President Vladimir Putin said Bush's announcement Thursday that he will scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is a mistake. Several senior members of Congress agreed. "It's a mistake to withdraw from a treaty before you have something to replace it with," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Thursday after Bush made public his long-anticipated decision. "I would be very concerned that withdrawal from the treaty does fuel an arms race." Bush said he concluded the treaty "hinders our government's ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue state missile attacks." Along with Russia, China and some European allies also had sought to dissuade Bush from abandoning the treaty. Bush notified Chinese President Jiang Zemin before announcing the decision and Powell talked to Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and Ambassador Yang Jiechi. A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bush offered Jiang strategic talks among their advisers. Jiang agreed, but U.S. officials said they did not know how substantial the talks would be. In Beijing, the state media said Jiang urged Bush to preserve the international arms-control system. The Chinese leader spoke with both Bush and Putin and "stressed that under current circumstances, preserving the international arms control and disarmament system is extremely important," the Xinhua News Agency said. The United States will quit the treaty in six months, and during that period do nothing to violate it with missile defense tests outlawed by the Cold War-era pact, a senior U.S. official said. By the spring, the Bush administration will be ready to begin construction of silos and a testing command center for a futuristic and expensive U.S. anti-missile defense shield near Fairbanks, Alaska. "I don't see the basis for an arms race in anything that we have done," Powell said. "I see a basis for strategic stability." Powell said Russia had offered to make even sharper cutbacks in its arsenal of long-range nuclear weapons than Putin pledged during his talks in Washington with Bush in November. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will take up with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov the proposal of a cap of some 1,500 to 2,200 warheads apiece, a reduction of about 60 percent from current levels, Powell said. Rumsfeld and Ivanov are due to meet in Brussels, Belgium, next week. Putin, in a nationwide television address, repeated Russia's view that the 1972 treaty was a cornerstone of world security. "This step was not a surprise for us. However, we consider it a mistake," Putin said. "Now, when the world has confronted new threats, we must not allow a legal vacuum in the sphere of strategic stability." The administration has ruled out negotiations with Russia on a new arrangement during the six months before the treaty is jettisoned. Powell said the strong relationship with Russia that the administration has built over the last 11 months "could take this kind of disagreement." The Russians have come to the conclusion "this action is not intended against them," Powell said. "It will be a system that goes after those irresponsible rogue states that might come up with a couple of missiles and threaten us." China worries that a U.S. missile defense would undercut the deterrent value of its small nuclear arsenal. Chinese officials have warned that Beijing might respond by building more nuclear missiles or trying to make its existing missiles more accurate. China is believed to have about two-dozen nuclear missiles capable of reaching U.S. territory. In a carefully worded statement, Lord Robertson, the secretary-general of the NATO alliance, said NATO "welcomes the pledge of the United States of America to develop a new framework of cooperation with Russia" that includes dramatic reductions in nuclear weapons arsenals. In Washington, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., said he doubted the treaty ever served American security interests. "President Bush's leadership on missile defense and arms control is precisely the same leadership that's winning the war on terrorism," Helms said in a statement. On the other hand, 21 Democratic members of the House, led by Ellen Tauscher of California and Joseph Hoeffel of Pennsylvania, wrote Bush that there was no compelling reason to withdraw from the treaty now. Doing so, they said, injects "an unnecessary level of uncertainty in our relations with the rest of the world." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 Hanford project looks to recover This story was published Fri, Dec 14, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer Think of a line of dominoes stretching from central Hanford's T Plant to the K Basins near the Columbia River. T Plant failed a test in late October. That failure could ripple dominolike over to the K Basins, maybe stalling the removal of radioactive sludge there. The question is: Can the T Plant project get back on track fast enough so no ripple effect occurs? "It's too early to tell," said Pete Knollmeyer, the Department of Energy's assistant manager for Hanford's central plateau. October's test run was to see if T Plant was ready to remove commercial spent nuclear fuel from a water-filled pool so the chamber can then receive sludge from the K Basins. Fluor Hanford agrees with DOE's criticism of the October test run and plans to submit a remedial plan by Christmas, said Fluor spokesman Jerry Holloway. After that it is unknown when DOE will schedule another Fluor test run, which it must pass to begin the nine-month fuel removal at T Plant. Hanford is supposed to start removing the 17.4 tons of fuel from T Plant this month or in January, completing the project by Sept. 30. That operation's success or failure will influence Hanford's chances of cleaning out the K Basins by the August 2004 legal deadline. Last year the state and DOE moved the K Basins completion deadline from 2005 to 2004. A major factor in that acceleration is cutting one year from the sludge removal -- the last step in the K Basins project. T Plant is one of Hanford's five World War II and Cold War "canyons," which are monster-size chemical plants that extracted plutonium-laced liquids from irradiated uranium reactor fuel rods. Four of these canyons face probable futures as permanent, low-tech waste dumps. However, T Plant is earmarked as a processing and storage facility for several cleanup projects. T Plant is Hanford's oldest and most historic canyon. It helped create Hanford's first plutonium in World War II. It is also the source of 1949's "Green Run" -- Hanford's most notorious secret Cold War airborne emission of radioactive gases that floated off the site. T Plant is set up similar to the other four canyons. Its mostly empty main chamber is several hundred feet long and at least five stories tall. Much of its floor consists of thick concrete lids that cover a series of square underground chambers that held the complicated chemical equipment that extracted plutonium from the reactor rods. Hanford removed the equipment from one of those basement chambers and filled it with water. Then in the late 1970s, DOE put that commercial spent nuclear fuel from Pennsylvania's Shippingport reactor into that pool for storage. Shippingport is the nation's oldest commercial nuclear reactor. As a result, T Plant's pool holds 72 nuclear fuel assemblies that are 14 feet long and 6 inches square. Meanwhile, one of Hanford's top priorities is to remove 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel from the leak-prone K West and K East Basins that are 400 yards from the Columbia River. Until mid-2000, the Tri-Party Agreement, the legal pact governing Hanford's cleanup had a mid-2005 deadline for DOE to remove all fuel and radioactive sludges from the K Basins. Most of the 72 cubic yards of sludge is in the K East Basin. Then DOE and Washington's Department of Ecology renegotiated the Tri-Party Agreement, so now all K Basins fuel must be removed by July 2004 and all sludge by August 2004. Originally the sludge work was a major factor in the initial mid-2005 deadline. The K Basins' fuel is going to a huge underground vault in central Hanford. The sludge will be put in containers and stored underwater in the T Plant pool that currently holds the Shippingport nuclear fuel. Eventually the packed sludge will go to a permanent underground storage site in New Mexico. T Plant is supposed to be ready to receive its first K Basins sludge in December 2002. That's why DOE wants the Shippingport fuel out of that pool by Sept. 30. The Shippingport fuel is to go to the same vault as the K Basins' nuclear fuel, but Fluor needs to pass a formal DOE test to prove it is ready to start removing the Shippingport fuel. That's the test Fluor failed in late October. Knollmeyer said Fluor's operators appeared to know their jobs, but the individual segments of Fluor's operation were not effectively meshed together to guarantee the project could be tackled safely and efficiently, Knollmeyer said. Another glitch is that DOE's New Mexico underground storage facility has strict criteria governing the wastes it accepts. During the test, Fluor's T Plant operation could not provide documents and other proof that its future sludge-filled canisters will meet the New Mexico site's requirements, Knollmeyer said. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 8 Postponed nuclear weapons test detonated at Nevada site Las Vegas SUN December 14, 2001 LAS VEGAS (AP) - The refusal of some Nevada Test Site workers to cross a picket line of striking Area 51 security guards delayed a nuclear experiment for one day, a government official said. The subcritical nuclear weapons experiment, Oboe 7, was successfully detonated Thursday after a one-day postponement for "operational support issues," said Darwin Morgan, spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The agency is a branch of the Energy Department. Subcritical means no self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurred. Morgan said final preparations for the test were delayed after Teamsters Union members balked Tuesday at crossing a guards' picket line at the Nevada Test Site gate in Mercury, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Wayne R. King Sr., business agent for Teamsters Local 631 in Las Vegas, said teamsters chose individually not to cross the picket line. He said the guards went back to work late Tuesday. About 70 members of the independent Security Police Association of Nevada struck Monday and Tuesday, citing what they said was a stalemate after three months of negotiations with their employer, EG Technical Services Inc. in Las Vegas. Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 9 Oboe 7 nuclear experiment successful [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Friday, December 14, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal REVIEW-JOURNAL Government scientists successfully conducted the Oboe 7 subcritical nuclear experiment Thursday at the Nevada Test Site, officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration said. Scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California set off the experiment involving small amounts of nuclear materials at 1 p.m., according to a statement from the administration's Nevada Operations Office in North Las Vegas. The administration is a branch of the Department of Energy. "Data from monitoring instruments confirmed that the experiment was subcritical. That is, no self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurred," the statement said. Oboe 7 was the last in a series by the Lawrence Livermore lab and the nation's 15th such experiment since the program was launched July 2, 1997. More experiments are planned, officials said. Like the others, they are designed to stop short of erupting into nuclear chain reactions to give scientists information about the nation's aging weapons stockpile in the absence of full-scale nuclear tests. Full-scale tests were put on hold indefinitely by the United States in 1992. The experiments in a below-ground complex, 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas, allow scientists to study how materials, such as plutonium, blow apart when detonated. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-14-Fri-2001/news/17666096.html [http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-14-Fri-2001/news/17666096.html] ***************************************************************** 10 NTS: Strike causes test delay [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Friday, December 14, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Workers refuse to cross guards' picket line By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL A two-day strike by security guards for a Defense Department contractor at the secret Groom Lake installation caused officials to delay a nuclear experiment when some Nevada Test Site workers refused to cross the guards' picket line, union and government officials said Thursday. The subcritical nuclear weapons experiment, dubbed Oboe 7, scheduled to be conducted on Wednesday was successfully detonated on Thursday after being delayed for "operational support issues," according to a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, a branch of the Department of Energy. The spokesman, Darwin Morgan, said pickets from some of the 70 striking security officers of an independent union showed up Tuesday at the test site's boundary near the Mercury entrance, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Then when buses carrying test site workers arrived, enough workers from a Teamsters local refused to cross the line, affecting final preparations for the Oboe 7 experiment. Representatives for the independent union, the Security Police Association of Nevada, did not return calls to the Review-Journal on Wednesday or Thursday, nor did the guards' employer, EG Technical Services Inc., a Defense Department contractor. But the guards had abandoned their picket lines late Tuesday at the test site, at EG Technical Services offices in Las Vegas, and at Haven Street near McCarran International Airport, where a fleet of nondescript passenger jets routinely takes the guards and other workers to a facility along the Groom dry lake bed, northeast of the test site and 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The secret installation that the guards refer to only as "nowhere" and "out of town," is widely known as Area 51 and listed in government documents as "Det 3," a detached Air Force unit. The 38,400-acre restricted area is where high-tech U.S. aircraft are tested, according to sources who have worked there and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Wayne R. King Sr., business agent for Teamsters Local 631, said the guards on Tuesday "threw a picket line across the gate at the Nevada Test Site and many teamsters chose individually not to cross the picket line." He said the guards went back to work Tuesday night and were scheduled to resume negotiations today. He noted that the Teamsters union cannot sanction the strike by the independent guards' union. About 75 warehousemen and drivers honored the picket line, representing more than 80 percent of the Teamsters workforce at the test site, King said. On Monday, Vernell Hall, the guards' union president, said the 70 guards walked off their jobs after three months of negotiations with EG Technical Services ended in a stalemate. He cited such reasons for the strike as lack of adequate wages and benefits, and having to work too much overtime since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Attempts to reach Hall for comment Thursday were unsuccessful. A statement distributed Monday by the Security Police Association of Nevada said the guards fear that EG Technical Services "will cease to exist in the near future" through a merger that will form a new company, Integrated Range Support Services. This new company, the statement said, "will be in a position to disregard all previous non-guaranteed contracts." The guards claim they were faced with a similar situation in 1996, when EG Special Projects was restructured into EG Technical Services, resulting in a 25 percent reduction in wages and benefits. "The security officers are not asking for the world or an outlandish pay increase," their statement says. "All we are asking for is the alignment of our pay with the multitude of increased taskings, and to maintain parity with the cost of living." This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-14-Fri-2001/news/17666330.html [http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-14-Fri-2001/news/17666330.html] ***************************************************************** 11 Expansion of IAAP benefits sent to Bush The Hawk Eye Newspaper December 14, 2001 Iowa Time: 10:46 PM By Dennis J. Carroll The Hawk Eye Congress passed and sent to President Bush on Thursday legislation that could dramatically expand compensation benefits to survivors of former nuclear weapons workers at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant. The measure, part of the $343 billion defense authorization bill, would allow adult children of nuclear workers who died from exposure to hazardous materials to receive a $150,000 compensation package authored by the Department of Energy. Under previous Department of Labor regulations, surviving children could receive compensation for family members that worked at the IAAP only if they were under 18 years when that family member died. "I'm pleased that more Iowans can now be justly compensated for their loss of family members resulting from the ammunition plant in Middletown," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. "This measure corrects a critical flaw in the Department of Labor rule." Harkin co-sponsored the original legislation to compensate workers at nuclear weapons plants who are shown to have cancer, beryllium disease or silicosis from exposure at their work. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 Toll Free ***************************************************************** 12 Last tainted soil removed at Fernald Wednesday, November 14, 2001 The Associated Press The government said Tuesday the last of 400,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris has been removed from the Fernald plant, the former uranium processing plant in Crosby Township. The government is spending at least $3.7 billion to clean up and decontaminate the 1,050-acre site. The U.S. Department of Energy hopes to complete the cleanup by Dec. 31, 2006, barring major problems or action by Congress to reduce funding for the project. Energy Department officials said its cleanup contractor, Fluor Fernald Inc., had finished removing the contaminated dirt from a 26-acre plot of land. The tainted dirt had been contaminating underground water. The location is just south of where the government processed uranium for almost 40 years to be used at other federal sites in the production of nuclear weapons. Tons of contaminated construction debris, dirt and ash from boilers were dumped on the land between the early 1950s and the late 1980s. Uranium processing at the Fernald site was halted in 1989. Lisa Crawford, president of Fernald Residents for Environmental Safety and Health, which is monitoring the government's cleanup,said it eliminates the leaking of contaminated materials that had been located above the Great Miami River aquifer, a regional source of drinking water. Ms. Crawford was renting a house near the Fernald site when she learned in 1984 of radioactive contamination in a well that her family had been using. Before 1995, testing of the underground water revealed it had uranium concentrations as high as 2,000 parts per billion, compared to 1 to 3 parts per billion which are considered normal background levels. Energy Department officials said monitoring of the ground water now shows uranium contamination levels — before treating the water — at about 50 parts per billion. 1995-2001. The Cincinnati Enquirer ***************************************************************** 13 Recycling ban may be lifted for scrap metal The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Friday, December 14, 2001 The Paducah plant has many tons of metal with low radioactive contamination. Critics fear it would be used for household goods. By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 The U.S. Department of Energy appears to be moving quickly to lift a Clinton administration ban on recycling some scrap metal from government nuclear facilities, including the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning supports the idea, saying it could generate millions of dollars for the federal government. "If recycling can be successful without causing contamination ... and harming the public, then I'm 100 percent for it," Bunning said. "We should try it on a trial basis and see how it works. There's a lot of money sitting in Paducah." The Paducah plant has more than 60,000 tons of scrap metal, including iron, nickel, aluminum, copper and stainless steel. The scrap is the remains of an upgrading of the plant done in the 1970s. Much of it has radioactive contamination that officials say is below federal health standards. Thousands of tons of additional scrap material are expected when obsolete buildings and equipment are decommissioned over the next 10 years. DOE has been holding hearings around the country on the recycling ban. In October, officials said it would be a year or more before an environmental impact statement would be completed and a formal decision made. However, the Associated Press obtained a copy of a recent DOE draft memo that outlines new procedures for recycling. The procedures involve testing the metals for contamination and documenting their release. It was written for Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and prepared by James Decker, acting director of the Office of Science; Gen. Ronald Haeckel, acting deputy administrator for defense programs; and Jessie Roberson, assistant secretary for environmental management. "The purpose of this action is to reduce site inventories in radiological areas of scrap metals that have not been radioactively contaminated by DOE activities or operations,’’ the memo says. Critics say it is a dangerous practice and fear that much of the recycled material will be used commercially in dental braces, jewelry, toys, kitchen utensils and other consumer products. Supporters say recycling can be done safely with proper monitoring and documentation, and potentially represents millions of dollars for the government. They also say that much of the material would be used in construction and not for household items. DOE officials in Washington did not return telephone messages for a comment. Prior to 1999 DOE was pursuing plans to recycle the nickel, copper and other metals at the Paducah plant. The idea was put on hold when the Clinton administration banned the practice after heavy lobbying from environmentalists and others who worried it would be used in commercial products. In July, the Bush administration began its environmental assessment of the ban with a series of hearings. In October, a hearing was held in Paducah using a video link to officials in Washington and Oak Ridge, Tenn. A live hearing has been promised in Paducah early next year. The potential lifting of the ban won't affect a plan to send contaminated aluminum from Paducah to a hazardous waste landfill in Nevada, according to Greg Cook, spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs. He said contamination levels are too high for it to be recycled. Other aluminum with low levels of contamination could be recycled, he said. The earlier plan was to recycle about 9,700 tons of nickel, 28 tons of copper, 2,000 tons of iron and 25 tons of stainless steel. Some watchdog groups are concerned that the ban could be lifted before the Bush administration completes a new study on what material is safe for recycling and before the National Academy of Sciences completes a study for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the Paducah plant. (The Associated Press contributed to this report.) ***************************************************************** 14 Prosecutor demands nine years Gregory Pasko, an investigative journalist who worked for the Pacific Fleet's newspaper, was arrested on 20 November 1997 by the FSB and charged with high treason for his writing about the nuclear safety issues in the Russian Pacific Fleet. After a sensational recovery from what seemed to be a serious disease, the prosecutor returned to the Pacific Fleet Court today in order to deliver his closing speech. -- Nine years for Pasko, he demanded. Jon Gauslaa, 2001-12-13 12:05 It turned out that prosecutor Aleksandr Kondakov has dismissed five of the ten episodes Pasko was charged with. Still he asked the Court to declare Pasko guilty in state treason under article 275 of the Russian Penal code, and to sentence him to nine years of hard labour. This is actually three years below the minimum sentence for state treason. The defence will give its closing speech on December 17, when it will ask for a full acquittal. On December 18, Pasko will be given the floor to state his last words to the Court. The three judges of the Court will then withdraw for deliberations. They are expected to announce the verdict on Christmas Eve. An analytic article on the prosecutor's closing speech will be published on Bellona web tomorrow. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 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. 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