***************************************************************** 01/17/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.15 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Small crack is big concern Nuclear industry, activists concerned 2 HOT PROPERTIES: NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS 3 U.S. GAO Report: Government Oversight of HEU Deal Lacking 4 Number of Nuclear Reactors Worldwide Increases 5 Uranium Institute News Briefing 01.03 | 10 - 16 January 2001 6 Full-scale Shipment of Spent Fuel to Rokkasho Begins 7 Asian Nuclear Accidents Could Kill Thousands: Study 8 Seoul promoting exports of nuclear power technology 9 French court tells Greenpeace to let nuclear shipments through 10 BNFL AND COGEMA ABUSE FRENCH JUSTICE SYSTEM TO PREVENT PEACEFUL PROTEST 11 Russians in 20 Cities Protest Nuke Waste Import Plan 12 Russia Building 2nd Iran Reactor 13 Russia Expands Nuke Project in Iran 14 TVA weighs restarting Browns Ferry reactor NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 DOMENICI VOWS TO GET LABS A SHARE OF SURPLUS 2 STATE TO INSPECT SEVEN SITES FOR RADIATION 3 Veterans Group Releases Report On Gulf War Health Issues 4 Commerce Agrees to Probe 5 Blue-Ribbon Panel Recommends New Strategic Plan To Secure, 6 Blast exposed troops to radiation 7 The Department of Energy's War on Whistleblowers 8 Editorial: Knowing when the battle is over 9 Army prepares for possible nuclear conflict: AFP 10 UN: Uranium Traces Found in Weapons 11 UNEP Confirms Uranium-236 Found in DU Penetrators From United 12 NATO Denies 'Balkans Syndrome,' Fails to Calm Storm 13 Germany Probes Reported Plutonium in NATO Munition 14 Lawsuits Claim Radiation Effects 15 Kosovo DU contains recycled uranium 16 Radiation from DU 'could act rapidly' 17 Special reports | UN finds Kosovo nuclear danger 18 Anger at plan to dump bags of depleted uranium 19 Ammunition is good for you 20 Nato calls for DU medical inquiry in all 19 alliance countries 21 Are the governments of Nato guilty of committing a heinous war 22 IHT: No 'Causal Link' In Uranium Inquiry 23 SFOR Says Mines, not Uranium, Pose Hazard in Bosnia 24 Oak Ridge weapons work in the spotlight 25 Atom smasher revs up 26 GREENPEACE FRANCE PROTESTORS ARRESTED DURING NIGHT OF ARMED 27 Editorial: Ban the use of depleted uranium 28 Weapons draw fire in Concord 29 --DOE health-related issues to be addressed 30 Moncton leaving SNS 31 Suits claim radiation poisoning Oak Ridge study cited alleging 32 GULF WAR STILL BEDEVILING US **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Small crack is big concern Nuclear industry, activists concerned about possibility of leaks at Published Tuesday, January 16, 2001, in The State. other plants in wake of V.C. Summer incident Staff Writer JENKINSVILLE --- A cracked pipe at the V.C. Summer nuclear power plant was barely visible through the tangle of machinery inside. But as tiny as the 2.7-inch crack seemed when discovered three months ago, its presence became a big concern to a lot of people. From anti-nuclear activists to nuclear power industry executives, everyone wants to know why the unprecedented crack formed, allowing boric acid to leak. They're also concerned about whether similar cracks might appear at other atomic power plants. Answers about the cause of the pipe tear may come this week when federal regulators visit Jenkinsville to discuss an inspection report with S.C. Electric & Gas Co., the Columbia utility that operates the Summer plant. Thursday's 1 p.m. meeting at the Summer plant, which is open to the public, also will examine SCE&G repairs. The utility was wrapping those repairs up last week and hopes to restart the nuclear reactor by February. SCE&G's nuclear plant has been closed since workers found the crack in October. SCE&G needs the Summer plant operating so it can better supply customers with heat during the frosty winter months. The key now is answering all safety questions. A crack like the one found at the Summer plant has never been found at an American nuclear power plant, federal regulators say. It occurred in one of three major pipes that take scalding water out of the plant's highly radioactive nuclear core. If left unchecked, such cracks could grow wider and create bigger spills that activists have said will threaten the surrounding environment. Industry officials say there are adequate backup systems to keep that from happening, but they're still concerned. "This crack, in this location, was a surprise," said Dave Modeen, an engineer with the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington. "What the industry is trying to do right now is assess everything we can." SCE&G is blaming the crack on outdated welding methods used at the Summer station more than two decades ago. A key question is whether other atomic power plants used similar welding methods to link pipes with atomic reactors. Welding on the pipe that cracked was done using two methods, SCE&G says. Welders worked both inside and outside the 30-inch pipe to make repairs before the plant opened in the early 1980s, SCE&G's Steve Byrne said. The different techniques created more stress on the pipe, which contributed to the crack, according to SCE&G's analysis. Byrne said the company wouldn't use those welding methods today. The methods were used only on the pipe that cracked, he said. "It's really the repair technique that created these stresses," said Byrne, the company's vice president for nuclear operations. Other key issues the Nuclear Regulatory Commission wants to resolve are: Whether testing methods are adequate to detect cracks. Whether major tests for pipe cracks should be done more frequently than every 10 years. Why about a dozen smaller cracks may have formed on additional pipes at the Summer plant. SCE&G says those cracks are so small they wouldn't grow to any size of concern until 2003 at the earliest. The NRC has not yet made a determination on that issue. Industry officials say the main Summer crack never posed a threat to the public because of its size and because the plant has adequate leak detection systems. Still, activists say, if undetected, the crack could have led to a pipe break, which would increase chances that highly radioactive fuel would overheat and threaten the environment. Water carried through the cracked pipe helps keep nuclear fuel from getting too hot. SCE&G and its partner at Summer, the state-owned Santee Cooper power company, have fielded numerous questions from industry officials about the crack and its implications. Nuclear plant operators meet Jan. 25 with the NRC to talk about how the Summer plant leak might apply to them. Tom Shiel, a spokesman for Duke Energy in Charlotte, said his company didn't find similar pipe cracks during tests at plants in Oconee and York counties. But the company's in-house examination isn't over, Shiel said. "We will continue to look at our units," Shiel said. "This could turn out to be an anomaly at Summer and not something that's a generic problem to other stations. But we can't look at it in that regard right now. This (crack) now has to be considered as a possibility." CP&L, which operates the Robinson nuclear plant near Hartsville, also plans to check for similar problems at its atomic facilities in the Carolinas. That will be done in the spring in Hartsville, when the plant shuts down for refueling, spokesman Mike McCracken said. The company doesn't think it will find anything, he said. Shutdowns allow nuclear plants to remove used fuel and put in fresh supplies, making it easier to look for cracks. Meanwhile, repairs at the SCE&G plant have been done with a mechanical welder, which moves slowly along the space between the nuclear reactor and the cracked pipe. Workers in protective clothing, gloves and goggles have supervised the work, sanding down pieces of the gleaming steel pipe after each pass of the welding machine. SCE&G's Byrne said he expects the repairs to be done before Thursday's meeting. He hopes, pending Thursday's meeting with the NRC, to restart the Summer plant for power production by Feb. 1. While SCE&G can restart without federal permission, Byrne said the company doesn't intend to do so until the NRC is satisfied. If the federal agency had questions about repairs, it could order the plant to shut down temporarily after the restart. gogamecocks.com thestate.com | realcities.com | marketplace ***************************************************************** 2 HOT PROPERTIES: NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS BY GLOBE STAFF, 1/17/2001 [I]usiness is like the clothes in your closet: If you wait around long enough, eventually everything comes back into fashion. But nuclear power plants? If you'd asked us to bet on that one, we would have given you long odds. We spent more years than we would care to recall covering the fight over the $6 billion Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire. When the plant finally came on line in 1990, nuclear power was more unpopular than HMOs or tobacco companies are today. The conventional wisdom was that Seabrook represented the end of an era and that nuclear power would soon wither away and die. It hasn't quite worked out that way. In fact, over the past year nuclear power plants have become a lot more valuable, if not yet popular. Consider: In July 1999, Boston Edison sold its Pilgrim nuclear power plant for $80 million. Last year two nuclear plants, Nine Mile Point in New York and Millstone in Connecticut, sold for more than $1 billion. The two recent sales represent bigger plants but the increase in price is still dramatic. The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant on the banks of the Connecticut River is currently the object of a bidding war, with as many as four utilities interested in acquiring the facility. Seabrook's biggest owner, Northeast Utilities in Connecticut, wants to sell its share in the plant. Analysts say Seabrook could easily be worth $1 billion today. What's going on here? A number of things, say those who follow the industry. High on the list is the changing energy picture in the United States. The big surpluses of electricity that existed a few years ago are shrinking. In some places, notably California, there are actual shortages. Just yesterday California narrowly averted blackouts. Natural gas also is in short supply. The fuel has been loved to death by electric utilities who use it more and more because it is environmentally friendly. The upshot: The price of natural gas has soared this winter. ''People are reevaluating the notion that natural gas would stay cheap forever,'' said Paul Joscow, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So the electric world is looking for alternatives. In the meantime nuclear power has made itself more attractive. Thanks to a combination of better technology and years of experience, nuclear plants today are considerably more efficient than they were when Seabrook came online. John Rowe, co-chief executive of the nation's largest nuclear utility, Exelon in Chicago, says that his firm's fleet of nuclear plants last year was up and running more than 90 percent of the time. Ten years ago the typical utility was lucky to have its nuclear plants available 70 percent of the time. The less time a plant is down for refueling and maintenance, the more electricity it produces and the cheaper the power per kilowatt. The federal government gave the industry a big boost last year by approving the first license extension for a nuclear plant, Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. If a power plant can run for an extra 20 years, the additional time Calvert Cliffs was granted, it could be worth a lot more to a potential buyer. No one appreciates how much the world has changed more than John Rowe. When we first met him, in 1984, he had just been brought in to run Central Maine Power. The utility was in sad shape because of its ownership in a financial sinkhole called Seabrook. In his current job, Rowe may be a bidder for Seabrook when it goes up for sale. But Rowe is quick to point out that not everything has changed. The nation still has not figured out what to do with the nuclear waste the power plants generate. And while the domestic industry has not had a major accident since Three Mile Island in 1979, there is still plenty of anxiety about the safety risk nuclear plants pose. Rowe, like others in the utility business, says the country is still not ready to consider building a new nuclear plant. The required national consensus simply does not exist. ''In my personal view, what made the plants so expensive was trying to build them in the face of so much concerted opposition,'' he said. Yet he can imagine that someday, perhaps within five years, a new plant might be buildable. Said Rowe: ''If we had had this talk six months ago, I would have said that day was 10 years away.'' Steven Syre (617-929-2918) and Charles Stein (617-929-2922) can be reached by e-mail at boscap @ globe.com. This story ran on page D01 of the Boston Globe on 1/17/2001. ***************************************************************** 3 U.S. GAO Report: Government Oversight of HEU Deal Lacking The inter-agency Enrichment Oversight Committee that is charged with responsibility for monitoring USEC's performance as executive agent for the U.S.-Russian HEU agreement has been "largely passive," according to a Dec. 30 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office. GAO, the investigative branch of Congress, was asked by Rep. Tom Bliley (R-Va.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, to study the effects of the HEU deal on USEC and the domestic fuel cycle industry as well as on national security and nonproliferation. GAO said that while USEC recognizes it has important national security responsibilities, its "priority as a private company is to remain a profitable commercial enterprise and maintain maximum value to its shareholders." Under the presidential Executive Order that created the committee, EOC was supposed to have established procedures for "designating alternative executive agents to implement the agreement in the event that USEC needed to be replaced," GAO said. "However, the committee had no such procedures when USEC considered resigning as executive agent in 1999 and continues to lack a contingency plan…" RUSSIAN COMMERCIAL SWU DEAL Although USEC is counting on the U.S. government ultimately approving its plan to purchase commercial SWU from Russia at a discount off market price, GAO wrote, Russia's minister of Atomic Energy said in the fall of 1999 that "issues such as changing the pricing method are the prerogative of the U.S. and Russian governmental agencies and not of their executive agents." Warning that the United States is becoming dependent on Russian-origin material, which now "represents about 40 percent of annual U.S. sales, " GAO said the "EOC needs to make clear what the benefits would be of importing newly produced LEU rather than additional LEU derived from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons and what impact this would have on the domestic uranium production and conversion industries and on U.S. national security objectives." GAO acknowledged the challenges of having a private company like USEC carry out an agreement with important nonproliferation purposes and the problems of federal oversight of a private company. But it insisted that there must be a balance between the commercial and national security interests and that, "in the end, the national security interests of the United States must take priority." ***************************************************************** 4 Number of Nuclear Reactors Worldwide Increases Nuclear Energy Institute Jan. 10, 2001—The number of nuclear power reactors operating worldwide increased by five, to 438, by the end of 2000, according to the nuclear news agency NucNet. The reactors are operating in 31 countries and provide 17 percent of the world’s electricity supplies. Six reactors were connected to their respective national grids during the past year, while Chernobyl Unit 3 was closed in December, the Switzerland-based news agency reported. Thirty-six reactors were under construction worldwide at year’s end. The United States has the world’s largest nuclear power program with 103 reactors operating in 31 states. They provide 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs, are the nation’s largest source of emission-free electricity and have the lowest production costs among major, reliable sources of electricity. See the NEI News Release Electricity Production from Jan. 9. On a percentage basis, France receives more of its electricity from nuclear energy, 75 percent, than any other country. France has 59 reactors. Copyright c 2000 Nuclear Energy Institute. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 Uranium Institute News Briefing 01.03 | 10 - 16 January 2001 Aweekly summary of international news relevant to uranium and the nuclear energy industry. [NB01.03- 1] TAIWAN: THE DECISION TO HALT CONSTRUCTION of the country's fourth nuclear power plant was flawed because it was made without the approval of the legislature, Taiwan's supreme court has ruled. The cabinet will now present its plan to legislators, two-thirds of whom are controlled by the opposition. 01.01-11) [NB01.03-2] SOUTH KOREA'S 16 NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS OPERATED AT A RECORD HIGH of 90.4% of capacity in 2000, producing a combined 108.9 TWh of energy, or 40.9% of the country's total electricity generation. The Commerce, Industry and Energy Ministry reported that South Korea's nuclear plants were also responsible for maintaining the country's trade surplus by replacing petroleum imports at a time of rapidly-rising oil prices. (Asia Pulse 11 January; see OUT NUCLEAR POWER IN SWITZERLAND could be SFr62 billion (about US$39 billion), according to a new study published by Germany's Bremer energy institute. The study also found that for every additional kilowatt-hour of electricity generated by renewables in the event of a nuclear phase-out, a further 9 kWh would have to be produced by new fossil fuel-fired plants at times when there was not enough sunlight or wind. (NucNet News, [NB01.03-4] US: THE PROPOSED PLAN BY USEC TO IMPORT 3 million commercial Russian SWU in order to induce Russia to sign a long-term discounted-price extension to USEC's contract with Tenex for HEU SWU, has gained approval from the outgoing Clinton administration. The administration had apparently tried to persuade USEC to keep its Paducah plant in operation, as a condition for approving the deal. However, USEC was only prepared to commit to produce 1 million SWU annually for the next three years at Paducah. PACE - the union for US enrichment workers - has urged the incoming Bush administration to reject the deal, claiming it would result in a 'dangerous dependence' on foreign enrichment by 2003. (Ux Weekly, 15 January, p3; see also HAS OFFERED US$50 MILLION TO BUY VERMONT YANKEE, effectively doubling AmerGen's bid for the nuclear power plant. The offer also includes a US$1000 bonus payment for each eligible employee. Entergy has also offered to increase its bid if the owners of Vermont Yankee select Entergy as the preferred buyer and agree to an exclusive, 60-day negotiating period. (FreshFUEL, [NB01.03-6] JAPAN NUCLEAR CYCLE DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE (JNC) is reportedly in the final stages of negotiations with Cogema to share centrifuge uranium enrichment technology. Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd (JNFL) has been using the technology at its fuel enrichment facility in Rokkasho Mura since 1992. JNC has been developing a next-generation system using carbon fibre materials to reduce the weight of the cylindrical tanks and enable them to rotate faster. Cogema's enrichment plant in Tricastin, France, produces enriched uranium using gas diffusion technology. (Daily Yomiuri Online, 11 January; see LAWSUITS AGAINST THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) for failing to take title to utility spent fuel by 31 January 1998 should be consolidated and reassigned to a single judge, government attorneys argued in a motion filed with the US Court of Federal Claims. The judge could then set the acceptance schedules necessary to determine damages. (SpentFUEL, 15 January, p2; see also ARGENTINA IS SEEKING A FOREIGN PARTNER to help finance completion of Atucha-2, according to a report in Buenos Aires Economico. Funds of US$700 million are being sought to complete construction. Financial and technological cooperation from US companies is considered essential to the project, while contracts have already reportedly been signed with Iberdrola and Endesa of Spain. (Ux Weekly, 15 January, p5; see URANIUM CORPORATION (IUC) HAS SUBMITTED a request to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to amend its licence in order to receive and process alternate feed material at its White Mesa uranium mill from the Molycorp site in Mountain Pass. The 17 750 tonnes of alternate feed has an average uranium content of 0.15%, or greater, which totals about 24 tonnes U3O8 (20 tU). 6) [NB01.03-10] ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE (EDF) WILL TAKE A FASTER TRACK ON DECOMMISSIONING its first-generation nuclear power reactors. A FFr20 billion (US$2.87 billion) programme to dismantle EDF's eight oldest reactors - all permanently shut - by 2020-2025 has been drawn-up by senior management. This is about 25 years earlier than the company originally planned. The programme - which has yet to be confirmed by EDF's board of directors - covers the 70 MWe GCHWR at Brennilis; the Chooz-A prototype PWR; and six GCR units at Chinon, St Laurent-des-Eaux and Bugey. The Creys-Malville FBR, shut permanently in 1998, is also included in the programme. (Nucleonics [NB01.03-11] KOREA HEAVY INDUSTRIES AND CONSTRUCTION (HANJUNG) of South Korea has announced that Westinghouse will make a US$25 million investment in the company. Hanjung hopes to secure nuclear power plant equipment production technology from Westinghouse through the alliance and advance jointly into third countries, including nuclear power plant maintenance and repair markets in the US. (Asia Pulse, 15 January) [NB01.03-12] IRAN: ATOMMASH - THE RUSSIAN NUCLEAR POWER FIRM - has made its first shipment to the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran. The Atommash plant in Volgodonsk has shipped a platform that will support a reactor at the site. (Agence Briefing 00.22-8) [NB01.03-13] INDIA HAS OFFERED TO PROVIDE EQUIPMENT FOR A NUCLEAR SCIENCE laboratory in Dalat, Vietnam, on a part-grant, part-purchase basis. As many as 30 Vietnamese scientists have reportedly been trained at Indian facilities involved with peaceful uses of nuclear energy. (The Hindu Online, 9 January; HAS INCREASED ITS SHAREHOLDING IN SYDKRAFT to 29.4% of capital stock (42.8% voting rights). However, under Swedish trading rules, E.On may now be forced to make a full bid for Sydkraft. (Financial NB00.43-7) [NB01.03-15] US: A DECISION ON THE GO- AHEAD FOR THE A NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY to be built at Yucca Mountain could be delayed by six months or more if the Bush administration calls for a thorough total system performance assessment (TSPA) of a new cooler repository design, sources warn. A decision by the Department of Energy (DOE) is expected in July, but this could be delayed until at least late December. Meanwhile, the release of the DOE's site recommendation consideration report (SRCR) has been put on hold until the DOE Inspector General has investigated allegations that the scientific study of Yucca Mountain is biased toward building a facility there. The SRCR feeds into the DOE's site decision. (NuclearFuel, [NB01.03-16] SWITZERLAND: THE ZWILAG INTERIM RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE FACILITY in Wurenlingen is set to begin operations in 2001, enabling the first delivery of high-level Swiss waste from Cogema's La Hague facility to go ahead. A licence for the initial delivery is expected to be issued by the Swiss nuclear safety authority (HSK) during the first half of 2001. (NucNet 97.02-12) [NB01.03-17] UK: BRITISH NUCLEAR FUELS (BNFL) IS AWAITING a decision by the environment minister, Michael Meacher, over whether it can commission the Sellafield mixed oxide (MOX) fuel plant. Mr Meacher is studying a report from BNFL asking him to approve the opening of the 300 million UK pound (US$440 million) facility. The plant is currently operating with UO2 powder to allow the plant to be brought to full operational readiness. (SpentFUEL, 15 January, 18] THE GREEN MOVEMENT MUST DECIDE WHICH IT FEARS MOST - global warming or nuclear power - top economist, Lester C Thurow, has argued. He said that nuclear power is cleaner and safer than gas, coal and oil, and there is no workable third-way option of renewables filling the energy gap or cutting consumption in the US. (USA Today, 11 January, p15) [NB01.03- 19] PEOPLE NEWS: LORNE GREEN HAS BEEN APPOINTED as the new Secretary-General at the World Nuclear Transport Institute (WNTI). Mr Green was the director at WNTI's London headquarters since it was established in 1988. He replaces founding Secretary-General Sten Bjurstrom, who has joined the WNTI board of directors as a non-executive director. (NucNet Insider, 01/01, 11 January) Meanwhile, the British Nuclear Industry Forum (BNIF) has appointed Adrian Ham as its new Director-General. Mr Ham was previously Director of Consultancy Services at British Energy (BE) and has worked in the nuclear industry for ten years. (BNIF, 9 January) [NB01.03-20] ALTHOUGH SOME EXPERTS CAN SEE NO LINK between the use of depleted uranium (DU) in weapons and reports of leukaemia in peacekeeping forces in the former Yugoslavia, military health chiefs from the 19 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) were to meet to address fears of some member states and veterans groups. (International Herald Tribune, 15 January, p1/7) European Union (EU) foreign ministers will also take up the issue of alleged health effects of DU and discuss what steps the EU should take when they meet on 22 January. (Nucleonics Week, Prepared by the Uranium Institute Information Service. All news and views are those of the publications cited. ***************************************************************** 6 Full-scale Shipment of Spent Fuel to Rokkasho Begins CITIZENS' NUCLEAR INFORMATION CENTER Shipment Alert Japanese Spent Fuel to be Sent to England around Summer of 2001 17 January 2001 CNIC According to the owner of Tokai I, the Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPCO), the last portion of spent fuel to be shipped to Europe from the plant will leave Japan by June 2001. Tokai I is a gas-cooled reactor (GCR) and was shut down in 1998. It is the first and only nuclear plant that has been shut down in Japan. JAPCO has been removing the fuel that was left in the reactor as part of the decommissioning process. As of the end of December 2000, 15,400 of the 16,400 fuel rods were taken out from the reactor. The company expects to have all the remaining fuel rods taken out by the end of March 2001 and will ship the fuel to England for reprocessing by the end of June 2001. As of the end of September 2000, about 1450 tU was sent to Europe. The company estimates the total amount of spent fuel as 1500 tU and thus the next shipment will most likely consist of about 50 tU of spent fuel. ÿÿÿ For further information, contact Gaia Hoerner International Relations Citizens' Nuclear Information Center FOR A NUCLEAR FREE WORLD - HTTP://WWW.CNIC.OR.JP/ 3F Kotobuki Bldg., 1-58-15 Higashi-nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-0003 Japan Tel: 81-3-5330-9520; Fax: 81-3-5330-9530 ***************************************************************** 7 Asian Nuclear Accidents Could Kill Thousands: Study TUESDAY JANUARY 16 5:33 PM ET By Sanjay Kumar NEW DELHI (Reuters Health) - Accidents involving nuclear weapons in South Asian cities like Delhi or Karachi could cause thousands of cancer-related deaths, according to a report from scientists at the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Princeton University. Conducted by Pakistani researcher Zia Mian and two Indian researchers, M. V. Ramana and R. Rajaraman, the study focuses on release of radioactive plutonium into the atmosphere when an accident causes the nuclear weapon's plutonium core to explode but does not lead to an actual nuclear explosion. ``A typical weapon may have 5 kilograms (kg) of plutonium and in the accidental scenario we have considered in our study, probably a very conservative 20% of it, or 1 kg, will get dispersed into air as (inhalable) aerosols or small particles,'' Ramana told Reuters Health. ``When people breathe this, the chief health hazard is increased possibility of lung, bone or liver cancers,'' Ramana said. ``Employing a model used by the International Commission for Radiological Protection, we found that on a very conservative estimate...around 5,000 people would die of cancers if (a nuclear accident) happens near a typical city like Delhi or Karachi,'' Ramana noted. ``On the higher side, the deaths could be as high as 20,000,'' he said, emphasizing that there are several uncertainties involved in calculations. Nuclear weapon accidents ``typically involve delivery vehicles, either aircraft or missiles,'' the authors point out in their report. India's Comptroller and Auditor General's 1997 report listed 187 accidents and 2,729 incidents involving Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft between April 1991 and March 1997, in which the IAF lost 147 aircraft and 63 pilots. Many more have been lost subsequently. Pakistan Institute of Defence Studies says that 11 major Pak Air Force accidents occurred between January 1997 and August 1998. On January 4th, while showing a missile assembly to the Defence Secretary at Bharat Dynamics Ltd. (BDL), a defence establishment in the southern city of Hyderabad, the general manager of BDL pressed a wrong button, triggering off a live missile. The missile took off, pierced and killed technical officer Narsimha Chari on the spot and injured 10 others. The warhead on the missile escaped explosion as it had travelled only 30 feet rather than the requisite 70 feet needed for igniting it. Hyderabad police called it a case of group negligence. In contrast, a small Hiroshima-sized weapon exploding over Mumbai or Karachi would kill 150,000 to 800,000 people within a few weeks from blast, burns and radiation, Ramana told Reuters Health. ``What is likely is that there will be panic and flight creating an unprecedented disaster in its own right,'' the authors of the study note. Panic, confusion and miscalculation may even trigger a nuclear attack as a response to nuclear explosion. ``Thus, an accidental explosion may even initiate a nuclear war,'' the study indicates. ``If India and Pakistan deploy their nuclear weapons, they too shall face the risk of accidents involving nuclear weapons,'' the researchers point out. ``The risk is very real.'' The scientists add, ``Prudence, if nothing else, dictates that India and Pakistan not deploy nuclear weapons.'' Keeping any weapons that are produced disassembled may reduce the danger of accidental explosions or launch ``through error, panic or miscalculation,'' they report. ***************************************************************** 8 Seoul promoting exports of nuclear power technology  [*][I] welcome to Korea Herald!!_Business The government will extend full support for exporting the Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant technology by forming a consortium between local companies such as Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) and Westinghouse of the United States, officials said yesterday. The government also plans to help individual companies export skills, manpower and technology related to plant operation, equipment, fuel, plant designing, repair and maintenance, officials of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said. For this purpose, the ministry is considering dispatching export promotion delegations, composed of representatives from both private and government sectors, to prospective importing countries and organize regular cooperative meetings with them. 2001.01.17 ***************************************************************** 9 French court tells Greenpeace to let nuclear shipments through Radio Australia News - 17/01/01: The environmental group, Greenpeace, says a French court has threatened to fine it if the organisation doesn't stop blocking waste shipments from a nuclear reprocessing plant. Greenpeace says it faces a fine of 100-thousand dollars for each future infraction against the court order--three and a half times the amount requested by the plant's operator, COGEMA. On Sunday, police arrested three activists after they blocked a railway leading to the commercial port of Cherbourg, from where the MOX cargo -- a mixture of plutonium and spent uranium--is to be shipped to Japan. Greenpeace objects to the shipment of 230 kilograms of nuclear waste, saying it could go to build atomic bombs, but COGEMA insists the fuel is not weapons-grade. material from Pacnews, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reuters ***************************************************************** 10 BNFL AND COGEMA ABUSE FRENCH JUSTICE SYSTEM TO PREVENT PEACEFUL PROTEST 16 January 2001 Cherbourg - Greenpeace International today condemned British Nuclear Fuels' (BNFL) and Cogema's heavy-handed legal manoeuvres to ban peaceful protests against a planned Japanese plutonium/MOX shipment, scheduled for this week. Earlier today a court in Cherbourg, France accepted the nuclear companies' demand for an injunction against Greenpeace France and Greenpeace International. The environmental organisation argued in court that the plutonium industry should be constrained not peaceful protesters. The court considered claims by BNFL and Cogema that Greenpeace International and Greenpeace France are intent on stopping the plutonium transport. Under the terms of the injunctions Greenpeace is prevented from protesting within one hundred metres of any facilities, transporters or vessels involved in the shipments. For each breach of the court injunction, "It's the plutonium industry that should be banned, not Greenpeace. After all this is an industry which, when it last shipped plutonium/ MOX to Japan, in 1999, was forced to admit it had falsified vital quality control data. Greenpeace also revealed BNFL had deceived other clients in Germany and Switzerland. Given that history, it is no surprise Cogema and BNFL are prepared to abuse the justice system to silence legitimate protest," said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International. Not one kilogram of the plutonium/MOX fuel shipped to Japan from Cherbourg in 1999 has been loaded into a Japanese reactor. Due to the falsification scandal BNFL's MOX fuel is to be returned to the plutonium, also shipped in 1999, is currently under investigation by a Japanese court after evidence showed it too had suspicious quality control data. A ruling on this case is due in late February. "The production, transport and use of plutonium MOX fuel is inherently dangerous. When that is combined with poor quality control and falsification of vital safety data you have a recipe for disaster. Today's ruling increases the risks to all those threatened by the plutonium industry in Europe, the en-route countries and Japan," said Burnie. As of 1800 hours (CET) today, a Greenpeace France protest, which began Saturday 13th at Cogema's railyard in Valognes, is continuing. A second protest by Greenpeace France in Cherbourg port was stopped by Special Forces of the French Interior Ministry (GPIN) on Sunday. Three activists arrested at Cherbourg port were released this afternoon and ordered to leave the region. The plutonium/MOX fuel to be transported to Japan is still at Cogema's la Hague site. Currently a large convoy of military trucks and security personnel is gathering at Valognes in preparation for the transport FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: -Shaun Burnie, Greenpeace International +31 629 00 11 33 (mobile) Briefings and Maps on the plutonium MOX transport issue are available Footage (+31 20 52 49 543) and stills (+31 20 52 49 580) available from Greenpeace International. NOTES FOR EDITORS: (1) A fine of 350,000FF can be imposed against GP France and Greenpeace International for each breach of the BNFL and Cogema injunctions. (2) BNFL has agreed to pay approximately 1.1 billion French francs (110 million GBP) to its Japanese client and to cover the cost of the return shipment (3) Cogema is expected to transport the plutonium/MOX fuel from its la Hague facility to the Cherbourg port via a railway loading site at Valognes. ***************************************************************** 11 Russians in 20 Cities Protest Nuke Waste Import Plan Environment News Service: MOSCOW, RUSSIA, January 16, 2001 (ENS) - Russian environmental groups organized their first day of actions Monday against a proposal of the Ministry of Atomic Power (Minatom) import nuclear waste on a commercial basis. Actions took place in 20 cities across western and central Russia, the Ural district and Siberia. The environmentalists are protesting approval given by the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, for a first reading of three laws that would allow Minatom to store and reprocess foreign spent nuclear fuel in Russia. Current Russian law does not permit the import of nuclear waste. The laws must now be approved now in second and third readings. Then they will need approval from President Vladimir Putin and the Federation Council. The Duma has scheduled second reading of the waste import bills next Monday, January 22. Anti-nuclear protest action near the Minatom building in Moscow (Photo On Monday, Yabloko, the only political party which strongly opposed the nuclear waste import in the Duma, called for nationwide resistance to the Minatom plan. In most of Monday's actions, members of the local branches of different political parties from Democrats to Communists joined the protests. On January 22, environmental activists plan a fax blitz of all political factions in the Duma to demonstrate their opposition to the nuclear waste import bills. Anti-Nuclear campaign and Press-Service, which both belong to the environmental coalition known as the Socio-Ecological Union, intend to publish action updates on resistance to the waste imports in Moscow every day until January 22. A new report on the transportion of radioactive materials across Russia will be released next week at the National Press Institute in Moscow. The report, by analysts that the environmental groups refer to as "independent," says nuclear transport is extremely dangerous in Russia with dozens of serious accidents happening every year. The Socio-Ecological Union and EcoDefense! have been working since 1994 to stop the development and spread of nuclear technology, and replace it with renewable sources of energy and efficiency technologies. ***************************************************************** 12 Russia Building 2nd Iran Reactor Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2001. Page 4 Russia Building 2nd Iran Reactor By Alla Startseva Staff Writer Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Adamov on Tuesday dismissed as "all politics" staunch U.S. opposition to Russia building a nuclear reactor in Iran and announced that work on a second one was already under way. "There is not a single piece of evidence that we are helping or might help Iran strengthen nuclear weapons potential," Adamov said at a press conference. He said that construction of the first 1,000-megawatt reactor at the Persian Gulf port city of Bushehr, which began in 1995, is 90 percent completed. The reactor is expected to be fully operational by 2003, when Iran is due to pay Russia $800 million, according to the agreement. Iran already has two small research reactors of its own, but the Bushehr reactor would be Iran’s first powerful enough to produce weapons-grade plutonium — the reason the United States says it opposes the project. In the past, both Iran and Russia have insisted that the plant will be used only for civilian purposes. And Adamov reiterated that position again Tuesday. The Nuclear Power Ministry is building six reactors outside Russia — the two in Iran, plus two in India and two in China. "Not a single foreign corporation has that many orders for constructing nuclear power plants in a foreign country," said Adamov. Alexander Pikayev, editor of the Moscow Carnegie Center’s magazine Nuclear Non-Alignment, said that although Russia’s reactor deal in Iran is "absolutely legal, " the United States continues to oppose it — a position that may become more resolute under U.S. President-elect George Bush. Pikayev said that the United States has expressed little concern for Russia’s projects in India and China. But that, too, could change under Bush, he said. The United States is also building reactors in China and is competing with Russia to help meet China’s swelling energy demand. Back at home, Adamov said his ministry is planning to double domestic nuclear energy capacity over the next 20 years. Last year the ministry spent 4 billion rubles ($140 million) on nuclear industrial science development, and 1.5 billion rubles on upgrading production. As a result the nation’s nuclear power plants produced a total of 130 billion kilowatt hours of electricity — up about 8 percent from 1999 and 30 percent from 1998. The growth from 1998 is the equivalent of adding five new reactors and saved 10 billion square meters of gas, said Adamov. He also said nuclear fuel was removed from 17 nuclear submarines in 2000, compared with just two to four in previous years. "The year 2000 was very successful," he said. ***************************************************************** 13 Russia Expands Nuke Project in Iran January 16, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW (AP)--Russia on Tuesday angrily shrugged off U.S. objections to it building a nuclear reactor in Iran, and said that work was already under way to build a second one at the same site. "There is not a single piece of evidence that we are helping or might help Iran develop nuclear weapons potential," Nuclear Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov said at a news conference. "It's all pure politics." Russia signed a contract in 1995 to build the first reactor at Iran's Bushehr power plant by 2003 for an estimated $800 million. The United States has strongly objected to the project, fearing the technology could be used to develop nuclear weapons. Moscow and Tehran maintain the plant can be used only for civilian purposes. Iran had previously asked Moscow to conduct a feasibility study on building three more reactors on the site, and Adamov confirmed Tuesday that work had already begun on the second one. The first reactor will be completed as planned by 2003, ministry spokesman Vitaly Nasonov said Tuesday. Construction of the Bushehr plant was started by Germany's Siemens before the 1979 Islamic revolution and then abandoned. Moscow has repeatedly insisted that the Bushehr project allows the struggling Russian nuclear energy industry to earn much-needed hard currency and dismissed U.S. warnings that civilian nuclear projects could help Iran develop nuclear weapons know-how. "If we follow that logic we may as well ban any education in Iran on the grounds that the knowledge of integral equations could help someone make calculations for nuclear weapons," Adamov said. The United States has expressed concern about illegal technology exports to states it considers terrorism sponsors, such as Iran. Washington is also angry over Russia's plans to sell Iran conventional weapons. Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev visited Tehran last month and signed several agreements on military cooperation, the details of which haven't been released. Russian officials have pledged to abide by international agreements banning the proliferation of nuclear and missile technologies, but Moscow warned Washington last November that it was abandoning a 1995 pledge not to sell tanks and other battlefield weapons to Iran. Washington is trying to persuade Moscow to change its mind and has threatened economic sanctions. ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 14 TVA weighs restarting Browns Ferry reactor TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2001 TVA WEIGHS RESTARTING BROWNS FERRY REACTOR BY JEAN HINDMAN DAILY Staff Writer Restarting a closed nuclear reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant is one option being considered to meet the region's growing demand for power. Tennessee Valley Authority Chairman Craven Crowell says the federal utility soon will have to spend more to add generating capacity to avoid an energy shortfall like the one in California. Crowell, who plans to retire in April after heading TVA for eight years, said the TVA board will have to decide this year whether to restart its oldest nuclear reactor or build a new power plant. "We're looking at all of our options for additional power," Crowell told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. "But we are approaching the point where we need to make a decision to meet our growing load." TVA is investigating three options: ÿRestarting Unit 1 at Browns Ferry at Athens. ÿBuying power from private producers. ÿDeveloping new technologies. TVA is assessing the costs of reactivating Browns Ferry Unit 1. "There are no current plans to restart Unit 1, but we are evaluating our future need for power and the board will make that decision," said Phillip Harris, communications consultant for Browns Ferry. In the past, TVA considered restarting Unit 1 too expensive to be a viable option. The utility closed the plant in 1985. A scientists group recently said TVA could build a natural-gas-fired plant for less than the $2.5 billion it would cost to restart the reactor. Citing Browns Ferry as part of the reason, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions said in December he would ask President-elect Bush to nominate an Alabamian to the TVA board. Sessions has said he would welcome restarting Unit 1. "Alabama is second only to Tennessee in the number of consumers served and revenue generated by TVA, yet nearly every board nominee has been from one of the other six states served by the agency," said Sessions, R-Mobile. "I would like to see someone from Alabama in that position, particularly since TVA will be deciding whether to restart Unit 1 at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, near Athens, and complete Bellefonte Nuclear Plant." Distributors of TVA power are in 16 North Alabama counties and served more than 422,000 households in 1999. TVA officials don't expect any supply problems this winter unless temperatures fall to near or below zero. The agency has avoided energy shortages by building 680 megawatts of combustion turbines in the past three years to meet the rising load. Since 1993, the winter peak demand for electricity in the Tennessee Valley has grown nearly 25 percent and TVA expects to set another record peak before this winter is over. Crowell said TVA has avoided California's mistakes through its willingness to alter its debt-reduction plan to ensure the reliability of its power. California's energy shortage has triggered higher power bills and increased the likelihood of brownouts. Copyright 2001 THE DECATUR DAILY. All rights reserved. AP contributed to this report. --> Copyright 2001 Associated THE DECATUR DAILY 201 1st Ave. SE P.O. Box 2213 Decatur, Ala. 35609 (256) 353-4612 WWW.DECATURDAILY.COM ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 DOMENICI VOWS TO GET LABS A SHARE OF SURPLUS Albuquerque Tribune Online: News TRIBUNE REPORTER U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici says the federal surplus has grown another $1.2 trillion, and he says he intends to make certain the national laboratories get a piece of that pie. In a speech Monday at Sandia National Laboratories, Domenici reported the surplus is expected to soar to $3.4 trillion over this decade, according to Congressional Budget Office projections. Two days after being released from University of New Mexico Hospital after suffering a bad reaction to medication, the Albuquerque Republican announced his proposal to tap some of the extra money to fund an infrastructure modernization plan for the nation's nuclear weapons complex--to the tune of $5 billion to $10 billion over the next decade. "Now, not all of that will come to the labs in New Mexico," he said, "but I assure you we will get our share." Showing few effects from his hospitalization, Domenici, 68, toured old facilities at Sandia, including some military- style Quonset huts. He then said some of the extra revenue should be used to revitalize the national laboratories. He said he expects Gen. John Gordon, the director of the new Nuclear National Security Administration, to propose an orderly plan for replacing facilities that in some cases are 50 years old. Heralding a "new technology era," Domenici said the labs in particular need to update and modernize to usher in the technologies of tomorrow. He cited the planned $400 million Microsystems and Engineered Sciences Applications laboratory at Sandia, which this year received its first $20 million from Congress to complete architectural and engineering plans. Sandia officials praised Domenici's leadership in securing the funding for the largest project at the lab. Domenici, who smiled in promising to get back $5 million of this year's MESA budget stripped by the Department of Energy, predicted MESA not only would be a research windfall for Sandia but ultimately will generate spinoff technologies, companies and jobs in New Mexico. MESA will focus on research in microelectronics, micromachines, optoelectronics and photonic systems for national security and emerging technical opportunities in the environmental, health care and telecommunications fields. In one of his regular talks to Sandia employees, Domenici drew a standing-room crowd of hundreds. Domenici was "truly in rare form," said Sandia President Paul Robinson at a press conference afterwards. He thanked Domenici for sheperding MESA at a time when Congress is angry with the Department of Energy and some of the national labs. During the laughter-punctuated speech, Domenici, the powerful chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, took shots at: ÿThe "dysfunctional" DOE, which again drew the wrath this month ÿof the General Accounting Office for mismanagement the nation's ÿnuclear weapons maintenance program. ÿPresident Clinton, who Domenici said shouldn't get credit for the ÿgrowing budget surplus, which Domenici insists was essentially ÿcreated by unnecessary taxes. ÿThe Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department, ÿwhose officials, he said, are part of the emerging energy crisis ÿbecause their policy decisions are parochial and fail to consider ÿthe energy needs of all Americans. ÿHimself, joking that if the questions from the audience get too ÿtough, "I've got a deal with Paul; he's going to stop them." But mostly Domenici praised those in his audience for the work they do and promised the Bush administration would do better by them. He said President-elect Bush is committed to a stronger military, including putting billions more into "research into a new generation of weapons" which also should revitalize the labs in New Mexico. Domenici also said he is "not very proud of the Department of Energy with respect to the NIF," the $3.6 billion National Ignition Facility laser, a nuclear weapons blast simulator that is overbudget and behind schedule at the third nuclear weapons laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California. He said he will be prepared to consider alternatives--including Sandia's Z accelerator--if Gordon does not enthusiastically endorse NIF by March 31, the deadline set by Congress for DOE to show that the laser project can live up to the promises made by the agency and Livermore. He called certifying NIF to Congress this spring one of Gordon's "most important missions" and one that has important implications for New Mexico's labs. He declined to back a multimillion dollar successor to the Z Accelerator, dubbed X-1, saying he will wait to see how NIF fairs this spring. Domenici criticized the news organizations that carried speculative reports last year predicting that Sandia would have to go through layoffs because of severe budget shortfalls. "Not only will their be no layoffs," he said, but Sandia's budget, at $1.56 billion, is the healthiest it has been in years." But in some speculation of his own, Domenici said he and outgoing Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson will jointly announce Friday in Washington that Sandia is entering a major cooperative research and development agreement with "a major biotechnology company and a major computer company." ©The Albuquerque Tribune. Users of this site are subject ***************************************************************** 2 STATE TO INSPECT SEVEN SITES FOR RADIATION ctnow.com BY SUSAN E. KINSMAN AND BARBARA NAGY THE HARTFORD COURANT January 17, 2001 Within the next two weeks, state radiation inspectors will be examining seven Connecticut sites for any evidence of contamination remaining from Cold War activities related to nuclear-weapons production. The locations were among 11 identified by the federal Department of Energy last week as places where radioactive materials or the toxic metal beryllium were used in weapons-related work for the federal government. The federal government has created a compensation program for employees of the energy department and its contractors who contracted cancer or other life-shortening illnesses as a result of their exposure on weapons-related work. The state Department of Environmental Protection was aware of only four of those sites and is still trying to collect information about the rest - including the potential for any residual radiation hazard, said Edward Wilds, director of the agency's radiation division. Wilds said Tuesday it is too soon to say whether a potential health threat exists. "The problem is no one actually seems to know what was done at these sites," Wilds said. "You don't want to be overly anxious about the situation but you don't want to not worry about it either." Wilds said his agency is trying to find out anything it can about what the facilities did and what materials they worked with. "We're trying to get it from as many sources as we can," he said. The DEP is asking the energy department for its records. Wilds also wants to hear from workers or former workers who have any information about often-secret weapons work on the sites. They can reach the radiation division at 860-424-3029, Wilds said. Nearly a dozen people had called with information by Tuesday morning, but Wilds would not speculate about whether other Connecticut siteswould be added as a result. The DEP already participated in the cleanup of the former Bridgeport Brass Co.'s Havens Lab in Bridgeport, Seymour Specialty Wire in Seymour and the former Connecticut Aircraft Nuclear Engine Lab in Middletown, now part of Pratt & Whitney. It is also involved in the cleanup of the Combustion Engineering site in Windsor, Wilds said. The U.S. Energy Department has said it could expand its list of more than 300 sites around the country if more information becomes available. The sites included are weapons facilities run by the Energy Department, so-called atomic-weapons employers who did weapons-related contract work for the department and beryllium vendors. "Available information about many of these [atomic-weapons employers] is incomplete or unclear," the department said. The agency said it would welcome more information about companies and locations it has listed, or about other sites. The compensation program is aimed at facilities where radioactive materials were used in support of nuclear-weapons production. The benefits are further limited to employees or former employees - or their survivors - who became sick as a consequence of their work. It is not intended to cover all workers at each site named. Connecticut performed prominently in nuclear research during the 1940s through the early '60s because of the state's noted research universities, especially Yale, and because of its concentration of defense contractors. Those contractors, including Electric Boat in Groton and Pratt & Whitney in Middletown, were among the first to try to find peacetime uses for nuclear energy. After World War II, one of the most vocal advocates of peacetime use for nuclear power was U.S. Sen. Brien McMahon, D-Conn. He became the first chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. Scientists in the federal government proclaimed that nuclear power could be used for everything from improving food quality to making car tires stronger. By 1955, 30 Connecticut companies, 11 hospitals and five colleges had been licensed by the Atomic Energy Commission - the energy department's predecessor - to work with radioactive isotopes. In the early 1960s, Connecticut hoped to expand the industry even further. The state set up an advisory board in 1961 to plan the development of its nuclear industry, and appointed a coordinator of atomic development activities. The legislature appropriated $500,000 for construction of a research reactor, and the state marched forward with plans to build the Millstone plants in Waterford. "There was much more enthusiasm for nuclear energy than there is now," said George H. Rawitscher, a University of Connecticut physics professor. "A lot of research was done in Connecticut. Connecticut played an important role." He said warnings about the dangers of nuclear tests in the 1960s, followed by the accident at the Three Mile Island reactor, dimmed the public's enthusiasm. Those events also increased awareness about the hazards of dealing with radioactive materials, he said. President Clinton, in signing the executive order to help launch the compensation program, said workers on weapons-related work "were neither protected from nor informed of the hazards to which they were exposed." The Energy Department said it has received more than 2,000 calls since Thursday to its hot line, including one from Shelley Silverman of Avon. Silverman suspects her father, who died of lung cancer in 1992 at age 68, may have been exposed to radiation while working as a draftsman for General Electric Co. under contract at Combustion Engineering in Windsor. A Combustion Engineering spokesman said he had no knowledge of any General Electric contractors at the site, which was involved in designing nuclear reactors for submarines and operating a training simulator for submarines from 1955 to 1961. Silverman said: "They did wear badges because these guys knew radiation was an issue. But whether the badges ever changed colors or what they did about them, I don't know." Until 1999, the Energy Department routinely fought workers' compensation claims for radiation-induced cancer, said Sylvia Kieding of Denver, worker protection program director for the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union. "Government workers had it even worse than industrial workers," she said. The government, citing national security, could not be compelled to disclose the materials the workers used, she said. "It's really a tragedy. But finally, 50 years later we're getting some remedy," she said. c2001 MyWay Corp. Portions c2001 ctnow.com All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 Veterans Group Releases Report On Gulf War Health Issues High Incidents of Serious Illnesses Among Veterans Are Likely a Result of Toxic Exposures During Desert Storm EMBARGOED UNTIL JANUARY 17, 2001 CONTACT: PATRICK G. EDDINGTON (301) 585-4000, ext. 162 (Washington, D.C)--A national veteran’s organization today released a blistering report on the status of ailing Desert Storm veterans and the federal government’s failure to adequately address their medical problems. "The executive branch has repeatedly denigrated or ignored private sector and other non-federal research efforts that have consistently found evidence of real illnesses among these veterans," said Patrick G. Eddington, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center. "It’s past time for the federal government to shift its research dollars away from the hidebound Pentagon/VA medical community and into channels that have gotten results." Titled "Uncounted Casualties: America’s Ailing Gulf War Veterans, " the NGWRC report charges that: - The Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses (OSAGWI) has squandered nearly $200 million over a four-year period largely in an effort to disprove the existence of illnesses among Desert Storm veterans. OSAGWI’s "Case Narrative" reports on potential toxic exposure incidents have been replete with demonstrable analytical and factual flaws, resulting in a waste of taxpayer resources and providing a false impression to the veterans, Congress, and the media that potentially harmful exposures were fewer in number than the available evidence suggests. - Existing DoD/DVA medical research programs are by and large medically and scientifically useless, overly focused on ill-defined population- based studies that squander precious research dollars better spent on private sector medical research initiatives that have shown real progress in identifying disease or disability in ailing Gulf War veterans, such as the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s GWI neurological research program. - DoD and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) continue to withhold more than 1 million documents with a potential bearing on the health and welfare of ailing GW vets. Moreover, recent legislation has resulted in whole categories of intelligence community records being exempted from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, further inhibiting a search for potential toxic exposures among GW vets. - DoD officials charged with overseeing GWI-related research continue to harass or otherwise impede non-governmental researchers attempting to explore novel or previously inadequately researched medical theories of the causalities and possible treatment protocols for ailing GW vets. Key Recommendations To correct the medical, operational, and information access problems that have marked the Gulf War and its aftermath, NGWRC believes that: - Congress should reprogram funds allocated to GWS research away from methodologically flawed or scientifically dubious DoD/DVA medical research programs (including all examining stress) into private sector or state-run medical research initiatives (overseen by an independent body, including veterans’ service organizations) that have shown results or that are viewed as scientifically promising. - Congress should codify the IOM’s medical monitoring recommendations (contained in their October 2000 report). - Congress must also examine the DVA’s pattern of denying compensation to ill GW vets on the basis of incorrect or incomplete diagnoses that violate the spirit--if the not the letter--of the law governing "undiagnosed illness" claims. Finally, Congress must indefinitely extend the presumptive period for the development of Gulf War-related illness, as some forms of exposure (such as depleted uranium) may not produce illness until years after the exposure event. - Both Congressional Government Reform and Oversight Committees should rigorously examine existing legislation passed to restrict the release of intelligence community operational records with an eye towards reducing government secrecy as it pertains to operational and intelligence records that have even an indirect bearing on the health and welfare of existing and future generations of veterans. "We call upon the new administration to make a fresh, productive start with Gulf War veterans by addressing their core concerns: effective medical treatment for their ailments and genuine truth-telling about the likely causes of Gulf War illness," Eddington said. "Our veterans have earned no less." The National Gulf War Resource Center is a nonprofit advocacy agency serving the needs of the veteran and military communities. ### POSTED TO NGWRC WEB Wed Jan 17 00:53:24 2001 Copyright c 1999 National Gulf War Resource Center, National Gulf War Resource Center PO Box 11131 McLean, VA 22102-7131 Tel: 800-882-1316 x 162 ***************************************************************** 4 Commerce Agrees to Probe USEC's Dumping Allegations USEC Inc. has generated much government activity in the last few weeks, in the United States as well as Europe. In response to USEC's Dec. 7 petitions, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced Dec. 27 that it will undertake anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations of Urenco and Eurodif nations. In doing so, Commerce determined that USEC, joined by PACE, the union representing USEC workers, represents more than 25 percent of domestic LEU production. Thus, USEC has the requisite "industry support" to bring the trade action. Commerce ruled against the ad hoc group of U.S. utilities, which, along with the European industry, had argued USEC did not have standing because the utilities produced the majority of domestic LEU. The Europeans have responded by charging, among other things, that USEC still controls a majority of the U.S. uranium enrichment market and that the small percentage of European enrichment sales in the United States is insignificant but necessary because USEC can no longer supply the entire market. USEC is arguing that the governments of Eurodif (France) and Urenco (Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) have subsidized low enriched uranium exports to the United States and that the European enrichers are selling in the United States at prices significantly below sales prices in their home markets. Prior to its decision to undertake investigations, Commerce held consultations in Washington, D.C., Dec. 21 with European government representatives and the Delegation of the European Commission. Over the strong objections of the Europeans, the U.S. government agency decided to proceed with investigations and conducted a preliminary hearing or conference Dec. 28. The International Trade Commission must make a preliminary decision on the merits of USEC's allegations of injury by Jan. 22. Final resolution of the issues could take until the end of the year. Reprinted below are excerpts from the European industry's "post-conference brief," submitted to the ITC Jan. 3. POST-CONFERENCE BRIEF "As a starting matter, the petitioners, USEC Inc. and the U.S. Enrichment Corp., ask the commission to make an affirmative preliminary determination regarding the importation of what has been universally acknowledged within the industry to be a service (enrichment), even though the anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws apply only to the sale of a good within the United States. Beyond this, USEC takes positions that are diametrically opposed, not only to the record, but to what USEC has said about itself in other contexts. "In its petition and at the conference, USEC presented itself as a vulnerable company battered by subject imports. But the USEC portrayed in its reports to shareholders is an entirely different enterprise.... "The record data confirm that USEC is not materially injured by subject imports. With USEC's sales increasing over the period of investigation, it has not suffered a volume impact. There is no pattern of underselling, price depression, or price suppression. Indeed, the questionnaire responses show that the lost sales and lost revenue allegations that USEC has made the centerpiece of its petition are fanciful. "Driven by the objective of increasing market share at any cost, USEC itself has aggressively sold up to [proprietary] SWU per year from Russia and its own production at prices that made it the consistent low-price bidder. "The data also show that USEC has driven down prices through aggressive spot selling at low prices..... 'TINY FRACTION' OF MARKET "There is no controversy that the amount of such LEU produced and sold by respondents in the U.S. market is only a tiny fraction of both the U.S. market and LEU imports in general, and that such imports are dwarfed by the large volume of non-subject imports brought in by USEC itself from Russia...... "USEC is rapidly becoming predominately a trader in Russian SWU, rather than a domestic provider of enrichment services. With the imminent closure of the Portsmouth plant, this trend will continue. "Contrary to petitioner's contention, imports from Russia are not a condition of competition embedded in the structure of the U.S. market…[T]he trade law protects domestic producers, not importers. USEC in its capacity as an importer from Russia, is entitled to no special status under the trade laws..... "USEC decided, for its own commercial and business reasons, to enter into a pricing/supply agreement or Russian SWU and, subsequently, to continue to function as the gatekeeper for the imports from its principal potential competitor. Having done so, it should not be allowed to enlarge its considerable market dominance by using its trading relationship involving Russia to cordon off from International Trade Commission scrutiny that growing portion of the U.S. market that it controls through those imports. Plainly, treating these Russian imports as USEC proposes would afford them equivalent status to USEC's own domestic production, when in fact those non-subject imports can have no higher status than subject imports...... USEC 'LEADING PRICES DOWN" "[I]t is important to remember that USEC's sales actually grew during the POI….Sales of LEU from the subject countries were very minor….In all events, the evidence, no matter how evaluated, shows that USEC, rather than subject imports, was leading prices down throughout the POI...... "Sales into the spot market provide another demonstration of USEC's downward-leading pricing activities in the market. Moreover, since USEC concedes that spot price data often influences long-term contracts, USEC's role in setting spot prices is particularly consequential..... "USEC used aggressively low prices in the spot market to unload its Russian imports and its own production, in an attempt to increase market share and raise money for dividends and its stock buy-back program..... "Unlike subject producers, USEC had a significant incentive to be an aggressive low-price seller. As USEC acknowledged, it committed to sell 5.5 million SWU of Russian LEU solely in the U.S. market. As further stated in its petition, USEC also has high fixed costs relative to total costs for its own production. While high fixed costs are typical in the enrichment industry, USEC's unit costs have increased due to its declining capacity utilization directly attributable to its Russian non-subject imports…In these circumstances, the significant excess enrichment capacity at USEC's plants created by the HEU Agreement gave USEC a strong economic incentive to price aggressively for new contracts and spot sales in order to gain market share and production volume..... "USEC's repeated claims that it has lost large volumes of sales and revenues to allegedly low-priced competition from COGEMA and Urenco are contradicted by the record compiled by the Commission. COGEMA and Urenco flatly deny these allegations, and they are definitively refuted by lost sales/revenues questionnaire responses including some utilities that have not sought to participate in this proceeding. "As the Commission is aware, it is most unusual for the lost sales/ revenue responses to be so firmly arrayed against the petitioner, since the allegations to be pursued are not a representative sample: they were, after all, chosen by the petitioner.... "USEC's underselling, price depression, price suppression, lost revenues and lost sales claims are specious and have been flatly repudiated by its utility customers….Here, the Commission is examining a highly profitable petitioner, USEC, which has a dominant market position, is benefiting from increasing demand, and enjoying stable sales and profits..... MEETING DOMESTIC DEMAND "Domestic demand for enrichment services will exceed USEC's optimal production levels for the years 2001-2005, and for the foreseeablefuture…There is, thus, ample headroom for enrichment services provided by COGEMA and Urenco without adversely impacting USEC. Apparently, USEC would consider anything less than complete 100 percent market dominance in the United States to constitute a threat of material injury..... "The statute directs the Commission to consider whether a significant increases in subject import volume or market penetration indicates the likelihood of substantially increased imports. Here, it is plain that subject imports are required to make up for USEC's inability to supply the utilities' needs through domestic production..... "COGEMA has no incentive to attempt to gain sales in the U.S. market through low-ball pricing….Far from putting pressure on price in the U.S. market, Urenco has more frequently been the high bidder for the provision of enrichment services over the POI…. "Several favorable trends…indicate that is highly unlikely that USEC will be materially injured by reason of subject imports in the future. They include: increasing demand; the lack of domestic capacity to serve the U.S. market; USEC's improved arrangement for purchasing Russian SWU and successful reduction of their inherited burdens; USEC's manpower reductions and its decision to close Portsmouth; and USEC's shedding of its AVLIS albatross. "In short, USEC cannot meet its burden of showing that the subject imports pose a real and imminent threat to the U.S. industry. Far from facing a threatening future, USEC's prospects are brighter than at any time since privatization....… "Although USEC controls more than [percentage proprietary] of the U.S. market, it apparently still lusts for the days when it had a monopoly. The reasons why USEC filed this petition are clear: with USEC controlling access to the world's largest potential source of enrichment-Russia-success here could mean that USEC would bar all meaningful competitors from the market. USEC would then be able to treat the U.S. market as its own commercial fiefdom, and once again run it as it sees fit." ***************************************************************** 5 Blue-Ribbon Panel Recommends New Strategic Plan To Secure, Neutralize All Weapons Material in Russia One of the first national security initiatives of the new Bush Administration and 107th Congress should be the formulation of a comprehensive, integrated strategic plan, to secure and neutralize in the next eight to ten years all nuclear weapons-usable material located in Russia, recommended a blue-ribbon panel sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in a draft report issued last week. Chartered last February by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and co- chaired by former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker and former White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler, the Russia Task Force of DOE's Secretary of Energy Advisory Board concluded Jan. 10 that the existing scope and management of U.S. programs addressing the threat leave an unacceptable risk of failure and the potential for catastrophic consequences because there are underfunded. But for about $30 billion over the next eight to ten years-less than one percent of the U.S. defense budget-the United States could bring the quantities of excess material in Russia under effective control, reduce drastically the threat posed by such materials, and reach a position where Russia can take over any remaining work at the end of the eight to ten year period, the task force said. More than 1,000 metric tons of HEU and at least 150 metric tons of weapons- grade plutonium exist in the Russian weapons complex. According to A Report Card on the Department of Energy's Nonproliferation Programs with Russia, specific elements of the strategic plan could include: ÿaccelerating the purchase of the approximately 400 metric tons ÿof HEU remaining to be downblended under the current U.S.-Russian ÿHEU agreement, while ensuring that the material not flood and ÿdepress the world market; ÿaccelerating existing disposition commitments by burning up to ÿ100 metric tons of excess Russian plutonium as mixed oxide fuel ÿand burning it in civilian reactors, building on what the U.S. ÿand Russia have agreed to do for an initial 34 metric tons; ÿincreasing funding for specific programs in coordination with the ÿstrategic plan; ÿreaching agreement at the highest levels of the Russian government ÿon acceptable measures for transparency and access; and ÿimproving coordination within the U.S. government by establishing ÿa high-level leadership position in the White House. INVOLVEMENT OF RUSSIA, CONGRESS CRITICAL Critical to the success of the strategic plan is the involvement of the Russian Federation. While emphasizing that enhanced efforts are needed from the United States, the task force underscored that enhanced efforts are also required from Russia. "If this program is conceived in full cooperation with the Russian Federation, is adequately financed, and is implemented as part of a growing, open and transparent partnership, then the task force believes that Russia should be positioned to take over any work remaining at the end of the eight to ten year period. If Russia is not prepared for such a partnership, then full success will not be achieved," the panel warned. Domestically, the success of the plan hinges on "the sustained interest and concern of the Congress." The task force urged the Congress to consider the creation of a joint committee on weapons of mass destruction, nuclear safety and nonproliferation, modeled after the former Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. "Creation of such a committee would ensure that the issues receive adequate high-level attention and that Member and staff expertise is developed and preserved," the report observed. FUNDING FROM NON-U.S. SOURCES President-elect George W. Bush should "press other major powers such as the European Union, Japan and Canada to assume a fair share of the costs of these efforts designed also to enhance the security of these countries," the report said. The U.S. effort could get a much needed infusion of cash from the Nunn-turner Nuclear Threat Initiative. Announced last week by former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn and media mogul Ted Turner, the non-profit organization could serve as a venture capital fund in Russia, while contributing $50 million dollar a year over five years to accelerating U.S. programs for converting weapons- grade uranium and plutonium to commercial uses. ***************************************************************** 6 Blast exposed troops to radiation National - Ottawa Citizen Online [I] Wednesday 17 January 2001 Gulf War rescue mission put soldiers' health at risk DAVID PUGLIESE The Ottawa Citizen THE OTTAWA CITIZEN / SCOTT TAYLOR KNOWS OF AT LEAST ONE CANADIAN COMBAT ENGINEER WHO IS WORRIED ABOUT EXPOSURE TO DEPLETED URANIUM. Military says testing would only cause soldiers undue stress At least 50 Canadian soldiers may have been directly exposed to depleted uranium debris and ashes after a massive 1991 explosion at a Persian Gulf ammunition dump. But Canadian military officials say there is no need to specifically test those troops, as well as another 250 who were in the area, for exposure to depleted uranium, saying that would cause undue stress among the soldiers. That stress, in turn, could cause other illnesses, military medical specialists say. The little-publicized incident at the U.S. 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment's base at Doha, Kuwait, may have sent up in flames as many as 660 depleted uranium ammunition shells, the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses was told in 1996. Another 14 tanks, which some defence analysts believe were outfitted with depleted uranium armour, were also destroyed in the blast, which sent a cloud of thick black smoke over the U.S. base and an adjacent Canadian Forces compound. As the ammunition depot burned, Canadian troops from 1 Combat Engineer Regiment worked to save American soldiers and were later credited with outstanding bravery by U.S. officials for their actions following the July 11, 1991, explosion. But they also may have been exposed to depleted uranium or DU. Depleted uranium is mildly radioactive and is used in tank ammunition because of its density and ability to pierce heavy armour. The concern over the ammunition centres on the fact that when such a projectile hits an armoured vehicle, it explodes and burns, producing a fine dust. Some scientists believe this debris is dangerous if inhaled or ingested and could be linked to cancer. About 50 Canadian soldiers were in the camp when the ammunition dump exploded, sending debris raining down on their compound. Another 250 Canadians, who returned to the base shortly after the blast, were at work in the desert or on scheduled rest and relaxation trips. The Canadian soldiers were in Kuwait to defuse landmines and other explosives left over from the Persian Gulf War, which began 10 years ago today. Depleted uranium ammunition has created controversy in Europe because of its alleged link to the cancer deaths or illnesses of 20 NATO soldiers who served in the former Yugoslavia. DU ammunition was used by the American military in Bosnia and Kosovo over the past several years as well as in the Persian Gulf War. U.S. officials acknowledge depleted uranium ammunition can pose a health risk if it is inhaled or ingested. Canadian Forces spokesman Navy Lieut. Yves Vanier said there are no plans to specifically test the Canadian combat engineers who were at the Doha compound. Col. Ken Scott, the Defence Department's director of medical policy, has recommended against isolating a certain group for testing or instituting a Forces-wide test. "According to him, just telling people we're going to do a study on (them) because of this may cause some health problems (and) undue stress," said Lieut. Vanier. "Undue stress brings out other ailments." Canada's Department of National Defence has started a voluntary testing program for depleted uranium, but it has not found any indication the substance has been absorbed by those tested. The department has tested 104 veterans of the Persian Gulf War and missions in the former Yugoslavia. Lieut. Vanier said one of the veterans tested was at the Doha compound, while another travelled in the area. "It's up to the others, if they feel that there's something wrong with them and they think it might be related to DU, that they can come forward and asked to be tested for DU," he added. But Scott Taylor, publisher of Esprit de Corps military magazine, said he has already been contacted by at least one Canadian combat engineer involved in the explosion who is concerned about his exposure to depleted uranium. "These guys were exposed to a DU meltdown, and the Canadian Forces medical people are more worried that they'll be stressed out by a test?" said Mr. Taylor. "That is simply unbelievable." Mr. Taylor and journalist Brian Nolan uncovered details of the heroism of the Canadian engineers at the Doha compound for their book Tested Mettle. Canadian Forces medical officials do not believe DU is linked to health problems among soldiers. They believe stress is behind many of the unexplained illnesses suffered by Canadian soldiers who served in the Persian Gulf War and peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia and other areas. The U.S. military does not believe its personnel at Doha at the time of the explosion were at risk for DU and has not conducted any tests on those soldiers, noted Lieut. Vanier. The Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veteran's Illnesses was asked to recommend medical tests on the 1,700 American soldiers who were at the Doha base, but it did not do so. While it found that many soldiers who served in the Gulf were ill, the committee suggested stress may be the main culprit. It did, however, acknowledge in its final report that military personnel may have been exposed to depleted uranium. "U.S. service personnel also could have been exposed to DU if they inhaled DU dust particles during incidental contact with vehicles destroyed by DU munitions, or if they lived or worked in areas contaminated with DU dust from accidental munitions fires," it found. But the report said it is difficult to test for DU exposure. The time that has elapsed since the Gulf War is long compared to the body's retention rate of uranium, so it would be difficult to detect DU even with more specialized tests. Other researchers have called into question the validity of the Canadian Defence Department tests. Fifty American and six British soldiers were injured when an accidental fire ignited the ammunition dump. Canadian Forces officials never publicized the bravery of the engineers, even though the unit received praise from an American general and one of the Canadian officers received a rare Chief of the Defence Staff commendation. Even when the bravery of the Canadian engineers was revealed in a Citizen article in 1998, military public affairs officials downplayed the incident. "This was no big deal," said Lt.-Col. Rejean Duchesneau at the time. "This sounds dramatic, but stuff like this was happening over there all the time." Copyright 2001 Ottawa Citizen Group Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 The Department of Energy's War on Whistleblowers The government uses taxpayer dollars to help corporate contractors retaliate against workers who expose unsafe practices at US nuclear facilities. Jan. 17, 2000 Randall Walli is a certified pipefitter with more than 20 years experience, 14 as a foreman. A soft-spoken man of 42, he lives with his wife and three sons in Richland, a small city in eastern Washington. The town where Walli has lived all his life is dwarfed by the nearby Hanford Nuclear Facility, 560 square miles owned by the Department of Energy but operated by several private contractors. In 1997, Walli was employed by Fluor Daniel, one of the main contractors at Hanford. He and his crew worked amid more than 54 million gallons of nuclear and non-nuclear toxic waste stored in underground tanks that had a propensity to leak. The crew helped install miles of pipes meant to carry waste from the defective tanks to more secure storage in other parts of the facility, a crucial part of the multi-billion- dollar cleanup of the former weapons plant. According to court documents filed in his ongoing suit against Fluor Daniel, Walli and his crew were alarmed to discover that certain valves meant for their pipe system might not be strong enough to withstand the expected flow, an oversight that could have led to toxic leaks, worker deaths, and nuclear contamination of the area. When the crew raised these concerns, they weren't commended for their vigilance. They were fired. The incident is not unique among the DOE's "Government Owned, Contractor Operated" sites across the nation, aging facilities that steward more than 700,000 metric tons of nuclear materials. Scores of DOE and contractor employees are retaliated against for raising safety, security and environmental concerns every year. Retaliation against whistleblowers like Walli has been an issue at these sites for decades. In a 1993 speech, then-Secretary of Energy, Hazel O'Leary declared "zero tolerance" for retaliation against whistleblowers, admitting, "These facilities are dangerous ... I need whistleblowers." But O'Leary's former agency seems to think otherwise. In fact, the DOE actually facilitates the crackdown on whistleblowers by using taxpayer dollars to pay litigation costs and settlements for contractors who fight retaliation claims through years of hearings and appeals, a practice that costs the public tens of millions of dollars annually. Not every whistleblower case has merit, of course, and there are a variety of internal grievance procedures available to workers with safety and environmental concerns. However, there are clearly limits to the effectiveness of such self-policing when billions of dollars are at stake for the companies involved. Nor is there adequate outside oversight. For instance, a 1988 congressional mandate that required the DOE to set up a system of penalties for contractors who violate safety and environmental regulations has been implemented only partially. After 12 years, the department has promulgated only two of the 11 proposed rules, and the office established to enforce the program at dozens of DOE facilities nationwide is staffed by only nine people, who rely on contractors to self-report. As a senior DOE safety official wrote in a recent report on a Texas nuclear facility, "Those of us who help cover up deficiencies are rewarded, and those that bring them to the fore ... are at best ignored, resented, or dismissed as troublemakers." Firing is only one form of retaliation contractors use against whistleblowers. Other methods include poor performance evaluations, enforced isolation, claims of security breaches, and blacklisting. Some companies even use psychiatrists to misdiagnose whistleblowers as having mental disorders. In 1999 a Tennessee court found Kenneth Carpenter, a DOE- contracted psychiatrist, guilty of malpractice after he falsely diagnosed a nuclear whistleblower as having "paranoid delusional disorder." The diagnosis cost the whistleblower her security clearance and her job. The practice of DOE litigation-reimbursement goes back to the Cold War. In those years, an emphasis on weapons production and secrecy encouraged a fortress mentality that saw all grievances as threats to national security. Since the vast majority of the work performed under DOE auspices is done by private contractors, it followed that the government had to back them up against disgruntled workers. Robert Alvarez, a former senior advisor to the secretary of energy, explains that the DOE "has always been a doormat to its contractors. They're administrative types. They dole out money." And when it comes to crushing whistleblowers, the DOE doles out a lot of money. The federal General Accounting Office has found that the DOE spent approximately $40 million in 1992 alone to defend its contractors in court. One case included payments to 10 separate law firms with 62 attorneys billing up to $200 per hour, running up costs of half a million dollars in just one month. Jackie Kittrell, a lawyer who has taken on retaliatory contractors at a DOE facility in Tennessee, says the department operates on a "floodgate principle," hoping to "chill any further suits" against its contractors by consistently backing them in court. There is, however, more than Cold War tradition and shortsighted thinking keeping taxpayer money in the fight against whistleblowers. The main contractors at DOE facilities include some of the largest corporate lobbyists and campaign contributors around. Companies such as Westinghouse, ICF Kaiser, Bechtel and Wackenhut all have an interest in seeing the DOE and its contractors remain a self-regulated fiefdom -- and all pump hundreds of thousands of soft-money dollars into Democratic and Republican coffers each year. Moreover, a constantly revolving door shuttles executives between DOE policy positions and lucrative spots at top nuclear contractors. In 1999, for example, after nine years as DOE site manager at Hanford, John D. Wagoner retired to take a job with Informatics Corporation, a company that is subcontracted to "provide technical, administrative, and regulatory compliance support" for the Hanford facility. RECENT NEWS WIRES Another former DOE employee, John Wilcynski, who once managed the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory,went to work last October for British Nuclear Fuels, Ltd., which currently holds a $1.2 billion contract at INEEL. He began his new job just two weeks after emailing his DOE superiors to protest a proposed nuclear safety regulation. "We place a significant burden on our contractors. We deny them full flexibility to choose their workforce, challenge them with aged and underfunded facilities," Wilcynski wrote. "Yet we seek to impose a more onerous environment of more fines and penalties." Even Hazel "zero tolerance" O'Leary now sits on the board of directors for a DOE contractor, ICF Kaiser . When questioned about possible conflicts of interest after accepting the position, O'Leary told reporters, simply, "It ain't so, Joe." After years of criticism from Congress and the GAO, the DOE in recent years has begun including language in its contracts that relieves the department of the obligation to reimburse contractors that a jury finds guilty of reprisal. Yet, there is evidence that in some cases, the DOE continues to pay regardless. Furthermore, the agency never stopped funding contractors who fight whistleblowers in and out of court for years, only to offer a settlement at the last minute. One union representing thousands of workers at DOE facilities calls such delays "one of the most effective ways for an employer to retaliate against whistleblowers. The worker is left sitting on the outside with no means of support." Walli and his fellow plaintiffs have now spent three years in an out of work. Few contractors in the area will hire them, says Walli, because Fluor Daniel has branded them troublemakers. Most recently, Walli found work at a paper mill, but the job ended after a few months. "I don't really know of any of us that can afford this," Walli says. "Most either just scrape by or run up credit card debt." Project, which bills them only for expenses like filing fees and phone calls. "If it weren't for the way [our lawyers] operate, there's no way any of us could have kept fighting this," Walli says The DOE, on the other hand, has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars reimbursing Flour Daniel's multi-year fight against Walli and his crew, despite a finding in the pipefitters' favor by the Department of Labor and an initial settlement agreement. The settlement included reinstatement for the pipefitters. But most of them were fired again within six months, along with several other employees who'd supported them, prompting the fired workers to launch the current suit against Fluor Daniel. The company claims the lay- offs of these veteran and highly-skilled workers were due to "lack of work." "I can state categorically," Ron Hanson, president of Fluor Hanford, Inc., assured reporters last May, "that retaliation of any kind against any employee of Fluor is neither condoned nor tolerated. I take the responsibility for ensuring a safety conscious working environment very seriously." A new trial is now set for this May. Last spring, the congressional subcommittee on oversight and investigations held the latest of its several hearings on the issue of DOE whistleblowers. Committee chairman Tom Bliley, a Virginia Republican, wrote a letter admonishing Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson about whistleblower retaliation. "DOE is unwilling to actively enforce your zero tolerance policy," Bliley wrote. "Your lack of attention to these matters may have already created a chilling effect throughout the DOE complex, making employees afraid to raise legitimate safety concerns." Mary Ann Sullivan, the lawyer who heads DOE's legal department, defended the agency's contractor-litigation reimbursement to the Environmental News Service in May. "Zero tolerance does not mean that every whistleblower claim must be accepted as valid without an opportunity for response or appeal by the department's contractors," she said. The congressional committee has yet to issue any formal conclusions. Meanwhile, the DOE's legal office says no determination will be made on how fully taxpayers will reimburse Fluor Daniel until the Walli case has been concluded. But a recent agency declaration to the court is telling. The declaration is by a DOE lawyer arguing to withhold evidence by asserting attorney-client privilege between the department and Fluor Daniel. The DOE and its contractor "share a common interest in this litigation," the lawyer insisted. His statement goes on to explain that "DOE has an interest in the appropriate resolution of whistleblower actions, takes financial responsibility in the case of successful defense of such claims, and has discretion under the contract, to fund the defense even after an `adverse determination' has been made." With no outside oversight of the DOE and its contractors besides the occasional congressional hearing, America's nuclear facilities will most likely remain within what Robert Alvarez, the former senior DOE official dubbed, "a highly-scattered and fragmented system with few enforceable rules." Meanwhile, the Walli case and countless other acts of federally funded whistleblower retaliation continue to send a clear message to workers who spot safety and environmental dangers: keep your mouth shut. ***************************************************************** 8 Editorial: Knowing when the battle is over The Taipei Times Online: 2001-01-16 TUESDAY, JANUARY 16TH, 2001 The tug of war over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (®Ö¥|) has dragged on for years, expanding endlessly in the process and creating political instability, economic turmoil and social costs far beyond the disputed advantages and disadvantages of the plant itself. In an interpretation of the Constitution, the Council of Grand Justices ruled yesterday that the Executive Yuan's unilateral decision to halt construction of the plant was procedurally flawed. The Legislative Yuan clearly backs continued construction of the plant. The Executive Yuan should carefully think over the interpretation, as well as the political reality in the legislature. The Cabinet should give up this ineffective political struggle and let Taiwan emerge from the shadow of the plant. Interpretation No. 520 does not contain any clear-cut statement saying whether the Cabinet's action was constitutional or unconstitutional. But the text essentially pointed out that, while the Cabinet certainly has the right to readjust an important policy according to the policy platforms of the president after a transition of political power, it should nevertheless respect the legislature and report to it before changing an important policy. The legislature, for its part, also has the responsibility to listen to the Cabinet's report. The Grand Justices criticized the Executive Yuan for unilaterally halting construction, but they also disagreed with the legislature's boycott of the Cabinet's report. Perhaps worried that the two camps might misinterpret the ruling, the Grand Justices also suggested several ways out of the impasse. If the legislature agrees to support its decision, the Cabinet can go ahead and scrap the project. If the legislature decides to continue construction, the Cabinet will have to accept the decision, or negotiate a compromise. Otherwise, either the premier will have to resign or the legislature will have to file a no-confidence vote. Both the executive and legislative branches will then undergo a reshuffle. Or, the legislature can pass a law regulating the Executive Yuan's implementation of policies. The Grand Justices have clearly pointed out the Executive Yuan's flaw, but both sides can still find new points of leverage in the text and continue their battle. What is the sense in the opposition alliance filing a no-confidence vote against the Cabinet--which will lead to the president dissolving the legislature and stirring up more disputes over the plant? What is the sense in the ruling party, unable as it is to change the power structure in the legislature, sticking to its anti-nuclear platform and dragging out an unwinnable war, causing much suffering for the populace? Can Taiwan endure another year of economic tremors and political turmoil? That is exactly what it will get if neither sides knows where to stop. Another part of the cost-benefit chart is about the power balance across the Taiwan Strait. China continues to grow as Taiwan eats away at itself and reduces its own bargaining chips in the cross- strait competition. This is a seldom-discussed extra bill Taiwanese will have to foot collectively for the nuclear plant dispute. The US Supreme Court ruled against Al Gore despite his winning the popular vote in the US presidential election. Gore did not lack a good argument nor the necessary power to stage another fight. But he chose to concede, showing respect for the judiciary and safeguarding the stability of the political system. This decision has also protected his own political future and left him with boundless political space. Both the ruling and opposition parties in Taiwan should learn from Gore's wisdom. The nuclear plant issue is not an unlimited war. The Grand Justices have provided the means for both sides to exit gracefully from this fight. They should know where to stop. This story has been viewed 643 times. Copyright c 1999, 2000, 2001 The Taipei Times. All rights ***************************************************************** 9 Army prepares for possible nuclear conflict: AFP rediff.com: JANUARY 17, 2001 The Indian Army is modifying its training, tactics and equipment to prepare itself to fight a war against a nuclear backdrop, Army Chief General Sunderajan Padmanabhan said in an interview with JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY. "Since there will always be the threat of nuclear weapons being used against our field forces, countermeasures to deal with this eventuality through revised strategies, improved hardware and mobility will have to be firmed up," the general said in the latest edition of the specialist British magazine. To achieve this, the Indian Army would upgrade equipment such as battle tanks and armoured personnel carriers, which provide protection against nuclear, biological and chemical weapons (NBC), he said. Two of India's neighbours, China and Pakistan, have nuclear weapons. Citing fear of Chinese nuclear and missile capability, India carried out five nuclear tests in May 1998, JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY said. Pakistan followed by conducting six tests of its own. The Indian Army also plans to acquire special fabricated shelters for protection against a nuclear strike and to build a command, control, communications and intelligence system (C3I) by 2010. "We will not let the side down by being unprepared," the general said, adding that NBC training centres across India were stepping up training and that a great deal of planning was underway to finalise the army's riposte to a possible nuclear strike. If nuclear deterrence failed, India must have a second-strike capability, according to Padmanabhan. This had to be "so crushing that the other side would think 20 times before undertaking the initial strike". "The fact that we have a thermonuclear weapon also is not unknown to the other side. They have nothing matching it," he said, without specifically mentioning Pakistan in the interview. [*]Back to top c AFP 2001 All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 UN: Uranium Traces Found in Weapons January 17, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS GENEVA (AP)--Ammunition tips found at sites targeted by NATO during the 1999 Kosovo conflict contained traces of enriched uranium from nuclear reprocessing plants, the U.N. Environment Program says. That finding indicates that at least some of the "depleted uranium" ammunition used by the United States and other NATO countries may have come from reprocessed nuclear fuel and therefore may also contain more hazardous plutonium, scientists said. The news was likely to intensify the controversy raging within NATO over depleted uranium ammunition, which some European countries fear could cause cancer or other diseases. Depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal, is used in anti-armor munitions because of its high penetrating power. U.S. forces fired weapons containing depleted uranium in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and in 1999, NATO fired such weapons during its 78-day bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. "One part, a very small part, has been made out of recycled nuclear material coming from nuclear reactors and reprocessed," said Pekka Haavisto, chairman of the U.N. environment team that visited Kosovo last year. A UNEP statement on Tuesday said the team had found faint traces of uranium 236, which does not occur naturally but comes from nuclear power stations. "Everybody knows that U-236 is much more radioactive than depleted uranium," Haavisto told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, adding that the World Health Organization has been asked to assess the implications. But Haavisto stressed that given the minute trace of the U-236 - 0.0028 percent--in the samples analyzed, there did not appear to be any increased risk of cancer. "The amount in the material is so small that at least our laboratory is saying that this doesn't change the overall picture of radiological effects," he said. He added that the United Nations wants to await the results of further studies from other laboratories currently analyzing material before drawing further conclusions. The initial findings came from a respected Swiss atomic and chemical research laboratory in Spiez. Based on the findings from the same laboratory, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology said it was "highly probable" that the ammunition used in Kosovo also contained traces of plutonium. "It is no secret that, after the separation (of plutonium from uranium), there are always traces of plutonium," the institute said. It said that plutonium is about 200,000 times more radioactive than uranium and its radiotoxicity is about a million times higher. Even less than a thousandth of a gram of plutonium in the lungs could cause serious health problems, such as bone and lung tumors, it said. However, the head of the Swiss research laboratory, Bernhard Brunner, said there was no sign that plutonium had been found. "If there is plutonium, then we will find it," Haavisto said. Public concern about the munitions has swept Europe in recent weeks as various nations have reported cancer cases among soldiers sent to the Balkans as peacekeepers. NATO, though, says an initial study of health records showed no connection between depleted uranium munitions and cancer among soldiers who served in the Balkans. In Germany on Wednesday, Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping called the new depleted uranium reports "a very serious suspicion." He said the military is investigating. Scharping also called in the top U.S. diplomat in Berlin Wednesday to express concern that the United States isn't telling its NATO allies everything it knows about depleted uranium ammunition. He did not elaborate. U.S. charge d'affaires Terry Snell responded that Germany is "receiving all the information that we have," embassy spokesman Mark Smith said. ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 11 UNEP Confirms Uranium-236 Found in DU Penetrators From United Nations Environment Programme Tuesday, January 16, 2001 Environmental News Network - ENN Direct GENEVA - Early laboratory results confirm that pieces of DU penetrators found at sites targeted by NATO during the 1999 Kosovo conflict contain Uranium 236, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported here today. Scientists working for the UNEP Depleted Uranium (DU) Assessment Group are analysing the contents of the seven penetrators--ammunition tips made out of depleted uranium--found during aUNEP field mission to Kosovo in November 2000. Isotope analyses to determine the types of uranium present show that 0.0028 per cent of the uranium in the penetrators is in the form of isotope U-236. The presence of U-236 indicates that part of the DU came from reprocessed uranium. This information was provided by one of the five laboratories being used by UNEP for its DU assessment work. According to the laboratory, the content of U-236 in the depleted uranium is so small that the radiotoxicity is not changed compared to DU without U-236. However, the final assessment by UNEP will be made only once results from all laboratories are available. "This is the first laboratory result based on our field work", said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. "We have asked the World Health Organization (WHO) and all of our other partners for their assessments of this finding while we continue with the scientific analysis." UNEP's Kosovo field mission team, consisting of 14 experts from several countries, collected soil, water and vegetation samples, conducted smear tests on buildings and destroyed army vehicles, and found penetrators and sabots. Remnants of DU ammunition were found at eight of the 11 sites that were visited. The 340 samples collected are now being analysed for both toxicity and radioactivity in five European laboratories in an effort to determine whether the use of DU during the Balkans conflict may pose any risks to human health or the environment. The results of the tests will be ready in early March 2001, when UNEP will publish a full report of its findings. Note to journalists: For more information, please contact UNEP Spokesperson Mr. Tore Brevik, in Nairobi, at +254-2-623292, e-mail:tore.brevik@unep.org; the UNEP Depleted Uranium Assessment Team Chairman, Mr. Pekka Haavisto, in Finland, at +358- 40-588-4720, e-mail: pekka.haavisto@upi-fiia.fi; or UNEP Press Officer in Geneva, Mr. Michael Williams at +41-22- 9178242, +41-79-409-1528, e-mail: michael.williams@unep.ch. See also http://balkans.unep.ch/. UNEP News Release 2001/4 For more information, contact: Jim Sniffen Information Officer United Nations Environment Programme 1-212-963-8210 ***************************************************************** 12 NATO Denies 'Balkans Syndrome,' Fails to Calm Storm WEDNESDAY JANUARY 17 5:13 AM ET By Douglas Hamilton BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO said Tuesday data from its 19 member states showed no link between depleted uranium munitions and ``Balkans Syndrome'' cancers, but the alliance's assurances failed to calm an international uproar. accused NATO of having a ``depleted conscience'' for using the shells and bullets during the 1999 Kosovo conflict. After two weeks of mounting controversy, the alliance said its chief medical officers had compared evidence and seen nothing that pointed to a serious health risk from depleted uranium munitions used in the Gulf War and the Balkans. Their report was NATO's most coordinated response yet to a row which erupted early in January and provoked disarray in alliance ranks as some countries suggested a connection between leukemia and other diseases among young NATO soldiers who had served as peacekeepers in the former Yugoslavia. NO LINK TO CANCER ``We cannot identify any increase in disease or mortality in soldiers who have deployed to the Balkans as compared to those soldiers who have not deployed,'' NATO medical committee chairman Gen. Roger Van Hoof said after a day-long meeting with his 18 counterparts Monday. ``On the evidence available, a causal link cannot be identified between depleted uranium and the complaints or pathologies,'' he told a news conference at NATO headquarters. Studies from both governmental and independent sources showed ''any danger related to depleted uranium exposure is known to be quantity- dependent, and so far there is no evidence of possible exposure beyond the safe levels,'' he added. ``However, there are a number of military personnel reporting symptoms. While these symptoms are not linked to depleted uranium exposure, these should warrant further peer-reviewed scientific studies.'' U.S. Army medical expert Col. David Lam said depleted uranium's possible adverse health effects were ``an extremely complex physiological issue which is unfortunately impacted more by political and emotional aspects than by scientific ones.'' Smoking two cigarettes a day or having a series of bowel X-rays can cause more radiation exposure than an hour of deliberate handling of a depleted uranium penetrator round, Lam said. ``If there is in fact a health risk resulting from service in the Balkans, I think we need to look at all possible causes, such as other pollutants and hazards, and not focus only on DU.'' CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES At the European Parliament, however, Socialists said they would seek a moratorium on depleted uranium munitions pending independent study. European security chief Javier Solana, who was NATO secretary-general during the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, was due to address an EU debate on the issue in Strasbourg Wednesday. During a visit to Greece, Yugoslav leader Kostunica demanded international investigations. ``We could say those who used the infamous depleted uranium have a depleted conscience,'' he said. ``Our authorities have warned about the use of DU since 1995. We are ready to work on this with other countries but it seems there is less willingness from some NATO countries.'' Prime Minister Costas Simitis of NATO-member Greece said after meeting Kostunica that he agreed with Yugoslavia on the need for more information on depleted uranium munitions from NATO. NATO-led peacekeeping forces in Bosnia said Tuesday mines represented the main hazard for soldiers and civilians there, not the depleted uranium munitions. German troops said they found only very low levels of radiation at the military maintenance center in Sarajevo's Hadzici suburb, the target of NATO air attacks on Bosnian Serb military positions in 1995 and believed to be one of the areas most affected by munitions containing depleted uranium. ``They found a very mild, low level of radiation. It's less than we can find in normal dirt,'' said SFOR spokesman Maj. Bob Thompson said at the site. The NATO members agreed in Brussels to each analyze the crude mortality rates of its military personnel and calculate separately those deployed in the Balkans and those who were not. Depleted uranium, the by-product of manufacturing nuclear fuel and explosives, is used to add density and penetrative power to ammunition. NATO fired about 40,000 rounds of armor-piercing depleted uranium ammunition in the Balkans and Kosovo during military interventions in 1994-95 and 1999. It has recently identified a total of 112 sites in Kosovo and 19 sites in Bosnia where depleted uranium ammunition was fired by United States A-10 Thunderbolt tank-busting planes. Far more DU rounds--about a million--were fired by Western forces during the 1991 Gulf War, and Iraq has alleged for years that thousands of its people have been killed by contamination with the toxic and mildly radioactive dust to which the ammunition is often reduced on impact. ***************************************************************** 13 Germany Probes Reported Plutonium in NATO Munition WEDNESDAY JANUARY 17 5:42 AM ET BERLIN (Reuters) - Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said Wednesday he was checking a German television report that depleted uranium the Balkans could contain deadly traces of plutonium. ARD public television's current affairs show Monitor said it had obtained Defense Department documents noting the possibility of plutonium traces being found in its weapons. ``This is a serious claim and we must take it seriously,'' Scharping told SWR Radio. ``I have no information of my own on this claim and I launched measures yesterday evening to establish whether the Monitor story is correct, '' he said. NATO had said Tuesday that its chief medical officers had seen nothing that pointed to a serious health risk from depleted uranium munitions used in the Gulf War and the Balkans. In extracts of a program to be broadcast Thursday, Monitor said the which it concluded that the depleted uranium supplied for its munitions could contain plutonium. Monitor quoted nuclear experts as saying this would substantially increase the radiation risk from used weapons. Because plutonium is created during nuclear power production, it likely came from faulty reprocessing of the spent nuclear fuel from which the depleted uranium was recovered, Monitor said. Scharping has been accused of not taking seriously enough the health risk to German peacekeepers following two weeks of controversy over cancer risks from depleted uranium arms. He was due to answer those accusations before a parliamentary committee later Wednesday. The dispute over depleted uranium erupted in January as some countries suggested a connection between leukemia and other diseases among young NATO soldiers who had served as peacekeepers in the former Yugoslavia. Reuters ***************************************************************** 14 Lawsuits Claim Radiation Effects January 17, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP)--Two class-action lawsuits were filed Wednesday against more than a dozen contractors who have operated the Oak Ridge, Tenn., nuclear weapons complex since World War II. Lawyer George Barrett said one suit deals with the "health hazards that were created and have never been properly addressed." The other asks redress for "the deliberate creation of a racially segregated community which has been preserved up to this time in violation of the Constitution and the laws of Tennessee." The suits, filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, seek unspecified damages, medical monitoring, and a public apology. The plaintiffs include former employees, residents and their children. A health study released a year ago suggested that some Oak Ridge residents may have suffered thyroid cancer or brain damage because of toxic releases, particularly from the 1940s to early 1960s. The study, prepared by the state and underwritten by the Department of Energy, estimated that fewer than 100 people may have developed those ailments. The facilities include the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the former K-25 uranium enrichment plant, which is now an industrial park. The lawsuits claim hazardous, toxic and radioactive releases from the plants damaged or threatened the health of residents living in Oak Ridge or downwind or downstream of the plants. They seek "a public apology for deliberately irradiating the public and exposing them to deadly radioactive and hazardous materials without their consent." In addition, one of the lawsuits claims blacks who relocated to Oak Ridge for work in the 1950s were moved into the Scarboro community, where they were exposed to high levels of pollutants from the Y-12 plant about a mile away. The neighborhood remains predominantly black. In 1999, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said it could not substantiate claims of a higher incidence of respiratory problems among Scarboro children because of where they live. The CDC said that 13 percent of 119 Scarboro children surveyed had asthma, compared to a national rate of about 7 percent. The Scarboro rate, however, was about the same as that for children living in Detroit. Listed as defendants in the lawsuits are: Union Carbide Corp., Monsanto Co., Eastman Kodak Co., Eastman Chemical Co., the University of Chicago, Roane-Anderson Co., Turner Construction Co., Martin-Marietta Energy Systems Inc., Lockheed Martin, Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Babcock & Wilcox Co., McDermott International Inc. and Bechtel Inc. Also named are present laboratory manager Battelle Inc. and Y-12 manager BWX Technologies. Company spokesmen did not return calls seeking comment. ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 15 Kosovo DU contains recycled uranium BBC News | EUROPE | Tuesday, 16 January, 2001, 20:18 GMT [I] Bosnian official inspects factory bombed by Nato BY ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT ALEX KIRBY The United Nations says early laboratory results confirm that depleted uranium (DU) fragments found in Kosovo contain tiny amounts of recycled uranium. [I] American protest against DU weapons The radioactivity of recycled uranium is higher than that found in DU. The discovery raises questions about the purity of the DU weapons used by the US in Kosovo and Bosnia, and by American and British forces in the Gulf War. Many veterans of both conflicts believe that DU has damaged their health, a claim rejected by the US and UK Governments and by Nato. A team from the UN Environment Programme (Unep) reported earlier this month finding the remains of DU ammunition at eight of 11 sites it visited in Kosovo. TOXICITY TESTS It collected 340 samples, both of the weapons and of soil, water and vegetation. The samples are now being analysed for both toxicity and radioactivity in five European laboratories. ''It cast a rather different light on the process - it's something we'll be watching[I] Unep official Pekka Haavisto Unep says early results confirm that pieces of seven DU penetrators - the tips of the weapons, designed to enable the projectiles to punch through armoured vehicles - found at sites targeted by Nato in 1999 contain uranium 236. Unep officials said that the presence of U-236 indicated that part of the DU came from reprocessed uranium. This information was provided by one of the five laboratories being used by Unep for its DU assessment work. WAITING FOR RESULTS According to the laboratory, the content of U-236 in the DU is so small that the radiotoxicity is not changed compared with DU without U-236. However, the final assessment by Unep will be made only once results from all laboratories are available. [I] Tests on soil from Kosovo Unep director, Dr Klaus Toepfer, said he was asking the World Health Organisation and all the Environment Programme's other partners for their assessment of the finding of the recycled uranium. Isotopic analysis showed that 0.0028 per cent of the uranium in the penetrators was U-236. The head of Unep's DU assessment team is the former Finnish Environment Minister, Pekka Haavisto. He told BBC News Online: "The amount is very small. My understanding is that this is uranium that's been in a nuclear reactor, and after that it either becomes nuclear waste or else it's reprocessed.'' He said the penetrators contained very small amounts of recycled nuclear waste. DUST SAMPLES ''Our concern has been slightly increased,'' Mr Haavisto said. ''It casts a rather different light on the process. It is something we'll be watching, and we've asked the other four laboratories to analyse the remnants' isotopic make-up very carefully." Dust samples were also being collected from around weapon sites and would be analysed for U-236 as well, he said. Last year, the US Department of Energy said initial DU test rounds had almost certainly contained recycled uranium. It also acknowledged that "minute quantities of plutonium" might be contained in some DU stocks held at civil nuclear plants in the US. ***************************************************************** 16 Radiation from DU 'could act rapidly' BBC News | SCI/TECH | Tuesday, 16 January, 2001, 16:20 GMT [I] The Chernobyl accident has lessons for the Gulf and Balkan veterans BY ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT ALEX KIRBY Many of those who argue that depleted uranium (DU) cannot be a serious health risk say radiation takes a long time to produce cancers. They say the reports from veterans of the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, complaining of leukaemia and other cancers, are inconsistent with what we know of the time it takes for radiation to cause damage. And they believe that even the reports from Gulf veterans and Iraqi civilians of cancers which have developed since the 1991 war suggest an improbably rapid development of the disease. But two senior scientists have told BBC News Online they believe it may be a serious mistake to rule DU out of the equation. Both remain open-minded on whether DU actually does damage health, but both believe its effects are poorly understood. Neither was prepared to be named. CHERNOBYL'S SURPRISE One, a professor in a university physics department, said: "We're in uncharted territory, because we have no experience of human exposure to DU. [I] Baghdad burns as the Allies attack "What we do know, though, is that thyroid cancer appeared far sooner than expected after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. That was a real surprise. "It's true that DU is not very radioactive. But when you inhale it, it does go to the lymph nodes surrounding the lungs, and that means it could irradiate all the blood cells which pass through the nodes. "Many experts say DU is more of a chemical threat than a radioactive one, and I think the chemical toxicity is an issue. The uranium atoms are chemically toxic, and they will visit every cell in the body where they may have an effect. "And it would not be hard to absorb a serious dose of DU quite quickly. When it vaporises, it forms a very fine powder which can blow a long way. LIMIT REACHED QUICKLY "The permitted body burden of uranium is 80 milligrams. We have calculated that if you had 10,000 particles of DU per cubic centimetre, each up to 200 nanometres in size, then it would take about a month and a half to reach that limit. "It's not overly likely. But it's not too unlikely, either." [I] Monitoring DU in Kosovo The other scientist is a leading expert on the effects of ionising radiation. He told BBC News Online: "What Nato and the UK Ministry of Defence are missing is the fact that a single alpha emitter can be carcinogenic. "We don't know how low the risk of DU is. But the uranium has the potential to cause DNA damage because of its chemical properties, and that can trigger cancer. "That would be an unconvincing argument about Kosovo, though a possibility for the Gulf. A two-year development period for cancers caused this way is a valid hypothesis. "The warning from Chernobyl is to remind us that the Japanese atomic bomb survivors are not typical of all types of radiation. "We shouldn't say too lightly that two years is not long enough for radiation to cause cancer." ***************************************************************** 17 Special reports | UN finds Kosovo nuclear danger Guardian Unlimited | US ammunition may have been made with 'dirty' depleted uranium PETER CAPELLA IN GENEVA AND PAUL BROWN AND RICHARD NORTON-TAYLOR WEDNESDAY JANUARY 17, 2001 Fragments of depleted uranium ammunition found in Kosovo were made with reprocessed fuel from nuclear reactors, the United Nations confirmed yesterday, raising new fears about the risks of contamination. Officials of the UN environment programme said tests on material gathered by its team of experts in Kosovo had revealed traces of uranium 236 - an isotope found only in spent nuclear fuel - among weapons delivered by Nato aircraft in the 1999 conflict. The discovery came as the latest senior figure to enter the debate, the commander of British forces in the Gulf war, Sir Peter de la Billiere, called last night for a full public inquiry into claims that exposure to depleted uranium weapons had caused serious illnesses among British troops. He also suggested compensation for afflicted service personnel. The latest DU discovery, which follows the investigation of eight of the 112 sites in Kosovo by a team of UN scientists last November, is likely to prompt questions about what other dangerous radioactive materials may have been contained in the US shells. Futher analysis is being carried out in five European laboratories to determine radioactivity levels. The World Health Organisation and other international bodies have also been asked to give their as sessment of the implications of the finding. There are two types of depleted uranium, known as "clean and dirty". Until now it has been assumed that the material used in US shells was of the clean variety which is obtained as a side-product of the extraction of uranium 235 from ore to make nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons. By contrast "dirty" DU is what is left over when the fuel has been through a nuclear reaction. It is known as "dirty" because it may be contaminated with traces of far more dangerous isotopes such as plutonium and other highly radioactive particles. "This is the first time that the spent fuel origins of DU munitions have emerged," David Kyd, a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is taking part in the UN's investigation, said last night. The UN environment programme said in a statement last night that the amount of uranium 236 had been so small that it had minimal extra radioactive toxicity. However, it said a final assessment would only be made once testing on spent ammunition, soil, water and milk samples collected in Kosovo is completed next month. When British Nuclear Fuels supplied shells to the MoD for use in the Gulf war, it used clean DU. But in 1993, according to documents seen by the Guardian, 120,000kg of DU were imported from the US for use in munitions. None of this was used by British forces in Kosovo although tanks with this ammunition on board were ready for deployment. Last night it was not known whether the DU imported into Britain was clean or dirty. The likely explanation of how dirty DU came to be used in Kosovo is one of cost and ease of access by the US military. In the privatised world of US nuclear utilities the clean DU would belong to private companies. In the possession of the government would be stockpiles of dirty DU left over from the cold war when the US military reprocessed thousands of tonnes of spent nuclear fuel to extract the plutonium. For every tonne of plutonium gained, 100 tonnes of dirty DU would have to be stored. In the 1980s and 1990s all four big nuclear powers - Russia, US, UK and France - began converting stockpiles of otherwise useless DU into armour piercing weapons. It was not until last night that anyone outside military circles realised that some of it was dirty DU. Meanwhile, it emerged that General Sir Peter de la Billiere confirmed he was not warned that DU weapons could pose a radiation danger. Sir Peter's intervention will be welcomed by Gulf war vet erans convinced the shells have led to serious illnesses. Asked by the BBC News if he supported calls for a full public inquiry into DU weapons, Sir Peter replied: "Of course, for two reasons. If indeed there is a proven link to illnesses (veterans have) got to be looked after and receive proper compensation." Secondly, he said, it was critically important to establish whether there was a link because if there was not, the military would want to go on us ing the weapons. Asked if he was warned about DU weapons - fired by British tanks as well as American armour and aircraft during the Gulf war - Sir Peter said: "I was not aware there were any specific dangers to it." He added that British commanders wanted to make sure they had the "best equipment on the market". Guardian Unlimited c Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 18 Anger at plan to dump bags of depleted uranium Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Special report: depleted uranium MARY O'HARA WEDNESDAY JANUARY 17, 2001 People living near a rubbish tip used for low level nuclear waste claimed yesterday they had been duped by plans to dump depleted uranium on the site. As the local MP voiced concern about the British Nuclear Fuelsplan, the environment agency said last night it was investigating the issue. The Guardian revealed yesterday that the Springfields BNFL plant at Freckleton, Lancashire, is to dump 30,000 bags of nuclear waste containing depleted uranium at a site three miles from Preston in the river Ribble. A BNFL employee said in a letter that the bags would be the only form of containment used and would be closed "using just a couple of strips of adhesive tape". The postmaster and a local councillor, Kiran Mulholland, said: "It just beggars belief... it will destroy any confidence local people had left in BNFL. "I will be asking some very serious questions of the environment agency to make sure that licences are being complied with." Philip Woodward, director of environmental services at Flyde council, said: "We need to establish if waste which should be stored elsewhere is being dumped here. We need some answers." A shop owner, Linda Law, who has lived in Freckleton for 25 years and has three children, said she was scared by the prospect of radioactive materials being disposed of so close by. "People in this village have always been concerned about the dump but if this is what's happening, we need to be told. Our children are here and we have to think of our grandchildren too. "People have lost any trust they had. We've never really been told the whole truth about what is being dumped and this is worrying indeed". Anne Smith, who sits on Flyde's environmental liaison committee, said: "The people of Freckleton have been concerned for some time. "I'd like to think BNFL had no intention to be secretive but this destroys confidence. We want to protect this community." With residents expressing alarm, David Borrow, MP for South Ribble, said last night that many people in the area were worried by the prospect of radiation pollution of the nearby river. The site, managed by Lancashire Waste Services, is used primarily for household and industrial waste - although for a number of years BNFL's Springfields plant, near Preston, has been using it for low- level nuclear waste. This type of waste used to be taken to the BNFL dump at Drigg in Cumbria which is filling up earlier than expected. Lancashire Waste Services said in a statement yesterday: "To date the company has not been informed of any problems with this type of waste but we will continue to monitor the situation." The company said it had been accepting low level radioactive waste from BNFL for many years under a special licence from the environment agency. The company said disposal of the materials have complied with agency regulations and passed spot checks for radioactivity. The environment agency said: "We are looking into the allegations made in the letter received by the Guardian. But these are complex issues and will take time." So far no irregularities have been found. A spokesman for Lancashire Waste Services said deliveries from BNFL were labelled and disposed of immediately according to regulations but added: "We do not carry out inspections of the contents on site. That is an issue for the environment agency and companies involved." The land currently used for waste disposal at the site will be converted for agricultural use when the company's licence runs out in a year. Guardian Unlimited c Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 19 Ammunition is good for you Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | JEREMY HARDY WEDNESDAY JANUARY 17, 2001 Various scientists have told us in past days that they have found no evidence of depleted uranium causing disease. We should detain them no longer with our questions; they clearly have a lot of work to do. In the meantime, let us have a serious think about this. Perhaps we have been looking at this the wrong way. Perhaps we should begin by asking ourselves what are the chances that depleted uranium is good for us. Would we, for example, think it wise to sprinkle a little onto our breakfast cereal? Would we expect to see it next to depleted lavender in Boots aromatherapy range? Would we give it to our kids to play with? When I was a child, the Ministry of Defence owned the woods near our home. The Ash ranges were ideally situated between Aldershot and Sandhurst and the whole area was effectively under military occupation. Needless to say, violent crime was rife but officially sanctioned as horseplay. In any event, the first word I was able to read was "Danger". It was remiss of the MoD not to display it outside pubs frequented by paratroopers, but efforts were made to warn us about the military hardware littering what served as our common land. Regrettably, a red flag meant not that soldiers had shot their officers and proclaimed a soviet but that the firing ranges were in use. And we were expressly and gravely warned in safety lectures about what happened to boys who collected shells and bullets for fun. We all had fine collections of spent rounds but the real prize was a bullet in its cartridge, which could apparently be fired if you held it in your dad's vice and hit the back of it with a hammer. Unexploded mortar shells were more rare but no one tried to hide from us the fact that they could take someone's eye out. No one said that there was no proven risk that leaving unexploded bombs lying around meant kids would find them. No one said the risk from bullets was present but not significant. No one said mortar shells occur naturally in pencils or Salisbury Plain, or that we would have to hold one right next to the head to be exposed to more than a limited risk. I'm not even sure our teachers knew the exact scientific explanation as to why being blown up or shot is dangerous; they relied largely on anecdotal evidence. And arms manufacturers have the decency not to contest the fact that their products are basically harmful. They brag, indeed. Conversely, most things that are lethally dangerous seem to be introduced to us by our betters as a tremendously good idea. Then, after a bit, rare side-effects are acknowledged in weaklings, infants and women. Then scientists do some more work and are divided. Then ministers get jumpy and disparities appear in their public and private utterances. Then retired ministers are hired to shore up the product's image, and money is given to Children in Need as a gesture of goodwill. Then, finally, the game is up, and we all wait to see whether our offspring will live to furnish us with healthy grandchildren. Those of us fortunate enough to have been born with eyes can see what appear to be the results of depleted uranium in Iraq. It is for this reason that the government is leaving the Gulf war out of its investigations. So much depleted uranium was used then that it might confuse the issue by proving a link. But perhaps the dreadful birth defects and mutated plants are not evidence at all, but signs and wonders portending some great event. I'm not an expert and I can't say for sure, but I think the UN weapons inspectors took a partial view of biological warfare. Doubtless by raising the issue I risk being accused of championing Saddam, fancying Milosevic and imperilling jobs in the armour-piercing shell industry. Even to draw attention to the fact that nuclear power has more to do with armaments than providing energy and a fun day out for the whole family is to risk accusations of being ideologically opposed to employment. And I suppose I am scare-mongering. Rumours spread like toxic dust on a light breeze. And doubtless the Home Office will have a harder task in rescinding its welcome to Kosovan Albanians and returning them to their bombed out homes if they know it's not even safe to breathe there. But perhaps I'm worrying unnecessarily. Perhaps they'll find out vCJD is nothing to do with beef but a direct result of the Iraqis stockpiling healthy brains. Perhaps tobacco companies have been right all along and fags are as good for children as cocaine and thalidomide are. Perhaps Aids is god's curse, like menstruation. Perhaps soldiers aren't as tough as they were in my young day when the propensity to mystery illnesses was knocked out of them during basic training. Perhaps civilians have unusually thin skins. What do I know? Guardian Unlimited c Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 20 Nato calls for DU medical inquiry in all 19 alliance countries Independent By Stephen Castle in Brussels 17 January 2001 NATO medical experts recommended a thorough scientific investigation of illnesses among Balkan veterans yesterday but insisted there was no evidence of a link with depleted uranium (DU). The move, in response to a mounting health scare through Europe, is expected to lead to the widest comparative study of those who served in Bosnia and Kosovo. Nato's most senior medical officers said in a statement that a "timely investigation of all reports of increased incidence of symptoms or pathologies is necessary". Each member country will be asked for data on the health and mortality rates of servicemen and women who went to the Balkans, contrasted with those who did not and with those of the general population. Italy was the first country to raise the issue of DU with Nato after six of its former peace-keepers died from leukaemia, and yesterday Nato furnished its ministers with details Italy had requested of the 19 sites in Bosnia where the ammunition was used by Nato. Italian officials were pleased with the speed with which Nato's secretary general, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, responded. Most of the targets were in the 20km (12-mile) exclusion zone around Sarajevo and two were hit in August or September of 1994, the remainder being attacked the following year. Rome also welcomed news of the health monitoring of Balkan veterans who, some diplomats believe, could be suffering from a combination of different health problems. One Italian diplomat said: "The first issue is whether DU has had any kind of ill effect and the second issue is the health conditions and control and monitoring of soldiers, which is emerging as a central political issue. We have proposed the issue of the monitoring of health conditions and, to a high level, this is what is emerging. This is a new policy of control which did not exist before in Nato and we value it." Yesterday Nato's medical officers stuck to the alliance's dogged rejection of the idea that DU could have caused the so-called "Balkan syndrome". General Roger Van Hoof said: "We cannot identify any increase in disease or mortality in soldiers who have deployed to the Balkans as compared to those soldiers who have not deployed. On the evidence available, a causal link cannot be identified between depleted uranium and the complaints or pathologies." Nato fired about 40,000 rounds of armour-piercing DU ammunition in the Balkans and Kosovo during military interventions in 1994-95 and 1999. ***************************************************************** 21 Are the governments of Nato guilty of committing a heinous war crime? Independent 'Mr Blair, Mr Clinton, Lord Robertson and the rest don't want to know about the dying Serbs of Bosnia' By Robert Fisk 17 January 2001 Nato is on the run. It's not difficult to see why. The moral crusader against Serb barbarism wielded a sword made of depleted uranium (DU). And as more and more evidence proves a terrible connection between DU weapons and an explosion of cancers and leukaemias among thousands of civilians who were close to DU detonations, the sword now appears far more disturbing than the object of the crusade. After ignoring the hundreds of children - and thousands of adults - who died in a plague of cancers and leukaemias after the use of DU in the Gulf War, the Americans and the British are still vainly claiming that there is "no evidence" of any ill-effects after its use in Bosnia in 1995. Or in the war against Serbia in 1999. Needless to say, there is a highly racist element to our concerns about DU. It is only the fate of European or American soldiers that has caused Nato's flurry of denials. Yesterday's Nato press conference claimed - albeit unconvincingly - only that Nato personnel had not been affected. A handful of unexplained cancers in the Italian and German military had created more furore among European prime ministers than the cull of Muslim or Serb Orthodox lives in Iraq and Bosnia. When I first reported the appalling increase in child cancer in Iraq after the Gulf War, the British government simply said there was no scientific evidence. Now they say the same about the Serb victims. And, of course, no Nato official, no Nato scientist, no Nato doctor has been to examine and investigate the cases of the Serbs from the Nato bombing site at Hadjici, who have been dying over the past five years - a fate that was revealed in The Independent at the weekend. No Nato personnel have been to see 12-year old Sladjana Sarenac, who, at the age of six, played with shrapnel after the bombing in 1995, who developed a mysterious "yellow sand" under her fingernails within two months, whose nails then dropped out, who went into a 30-hour coma, who bleeds internally and, with blood spots under the skin on her face, appears to have leukaemia. If a single Nato doctor wants to contact me in Sarajevo today (international telephone: 00387- 33-288000, extension 215), I will personally drive him to Sladjana's unlit home at Bratunac (her parents spend so much in medical expenses that they can't pay the electricity bill) so that he can see her. However, I expect no calls. Nato says it has no evidence. The truth is that it doesn't want any evidence. And as long as it can rely on scientific surveys by American professors - often at institutes heavily funded by the US Department of Defence - and on a forthcoming Royal Society team that did not even bother to visit Bosnia, let alone Iraq, Nato thinks it can get away with it. The last thing Nato officials, in their supposed thirst for knowledge about DU, wish to be given is the very knowledge that awaits them in the hills and deserts where their tanks and aircraft used depleted uranium bombs and shells. So let's take a look at just one little bit of evidence that Lord George Robertson, the Secretary General of Nato, and his friends in Brussels have ignored in their denial of DU dangers. Almost 10 years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War, Lieutenant Colonel MV Ziehmn, of the Los Alamos National Laboratories, wrote a memorandum to a Major Larson of the US military. Dated 1 March, it begins - in typical Nato-speak - with the usual ignorance- is-bliss version of DU: "There is a relatively small amount of lethality data for uranium penetrators, either the tank fired long version or the GAU-8 round fired from theA-10 close air support aircraft. The recent war has likely multiplied the number of DU rounds at targets by order of magnitude. It is believed that DU penetrators were very effective against Iraqi armour..." So far, so good. But then comes this paragraph: "There has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment. Therefore, if no one makes a case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus be deleted from the arsenal." Note the bit about DU becoming "politically unacceptable". But wait. Here's paragraph three: "If DU penetrators proved their worth during recent Gulf combat activities, then we should assure their future existence (until something better is developed) through Service/DOD [Department of Defence] proponency. If proponency is not garnered, it is possible that we stand to lose a valuable combat capability." And there you have it. DU should be explained away as an effective, cancer-free weapon - "proponency" in Col Ziehmn's Strangelove language - until "something better" (and less cancerous) comes along. If not, the poor old military will "lose" the right to use this vile weapon. And here, for form's sake, is the final, killer paragraph: "I believe we should keep this sensitive issue at mind when after- action reports are written." Could there, I wonder, be a more effective encouragement to military officers to doctor their reports on the real effects of DU? And isn't this just the craven, mendacious reasoning that lies behind all those bland statements of Messrs Robertson/Shea/ Laity et al in Brussels? And just for good measure, here's a paragraph from a letter by Alan Casson, an official with the Ministry of Defence's Gulf Veteran Illnesses Unit to Rabbi Dr Michael Hilton on 16 March 1998. Dr Hilton had asked if "radioactive weapons" had been used in the Gulf. Most of the DU ammunition in the Gulf, Mr Casson explains, was "fired into sparsely populated desert regions" - hardly a description he would have dared use about Bosnia and Kosovo - although "the Government acknowledges that some Iraqi personnel (military and civilian) may have been exposed to DU and to the products of DU combustion during or immediately following the Gulf War, but we have no information regarding any Iraqi casualties which may have resulted from such exposure." But, of course, there is information aplenty about those Iraqi civilians. As the Ministry of Defence, the US Department of Defence and Nato know full well. Which is why they don't want to visit the dying Serbs of Bosnia. Mr Blair, Mr Clinton, Lord Robertson and the rest don't want to know; and of course, they will get away with it. Yes, I know Saddam is a wicked man. But the dying children of Iraq are not war criminals. Yes, I know the Serbs butchered their way across Bosnia. But 12-year old Sladjana Sarenac is not a war criminal. And that is the whole point; because if our governments are at last forced to acknowledge that DU is responsible for the slow death of thousands of civilians, and that they secretly knew this would happen all along, then they will have something in common with Iraq and Serbia: they, too, will have committed a war crime. ***************************************************************** 22 IHT: No 'Causal Link' In Uranium Inquiry AP AP Wednesday, January 17, 2001 BRUSSELS An initial study of health records showed no connection between depleted uranium munitions and cancer among soldiers who served in the Balkans, NATO said Tuesday. Based on data submitted by NATO members, experts did not find any increase in disease or mortality in Balkans veterans compared with other soldiers, said Major General Roger van Hoof of Belgium, head of NATO's Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Services. "On the evidence available, a causal link cannot be identified between depleted uranium and the complaints or pathologies" of the Balkans veterans, General Van Hoof said. Nonetheless, he said, a "timely investigation" was necessary to allay public fears. [*][I] Copyright © 2000 the International Herald Tribune All Rights ***************************************************************** 23 SFOR Says Mines, not Uranium, Pose Hazard in Bosnia Central Europe Online Daily News - SARAJEVO, Jan 17, 2001--([*]Reuters) The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia said on Tuesday mines represented the main hazard for soldiers and civilians there, not the depleted uranium munitions at the center of an international scare. German troops serving with the Stabilization Force (SFOR) said they found only very low levels of radiation at the military maintenance center in Sarajevo's Hadzici suburb, the target of NATO air attacks on Bosnian Serb military positions in 1995. "They found a very mild, low level of radiation, it's less than we can find in normal dirt," said SFOR spokesman Major Bob Thompson said at the site after soldiers had completed their monitoring. The German troops began to measure radiation levels in the Hadzici complex last week, after concerns were raised in some European capitals that their peacekeepers might be at risk. They returned this week with more precise instruments. The complex is believed to be one of the areas most affected by spent munitions containing depleted uranium (DU), suspected of some of posing a threat to health. An Italian journalist found three DU-containing bullets in the Hadzici complex last week. "The main hazard here is the minefield," Thompson said as German soldiers took down signs warning of a possible radiation hazard and replaced signs warning of mines. The military complex was heavily mined by departing Bosnian Serbs as they left the area following the signing of the 1995 Dayton peace treaty. It is estimated that over one million mines are still scattered across the Balkan country. Thompson dismissed any link between the use of munitions with depleted uranium and diseases. "Our research shows no link between depleted uranium and leukemia or cancer," he said. In Brussels, NATO chief medical officers said that data from the alliance's 19 member countries showed no sign that debris from depleted uranium munitions causes cancer and no identifiable "Balkans Syndrome". (C)2001 Copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 Oak Ridge weapons work in the spotlight RIDGE WEAPONS WORK IN THE SPOTLIGHT Public hearings will be held in Oak Ridge next week (Jan. 25) on future operations at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, and the events should be lively. The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance is expected to use the stage to underscore its opposition to weapons production in the post- Cold War era, and Y-12 backers are organizing a strong show of support for the plant--one of the area's largest employers. The U.S. Department of Energy recently released a draft environmental impact statement on Y-12 activities and the proposed modernization of the plant's production and storage facilities. The federal agency is accepting public comments on the two-volume report (three, if you count the report's summary) until Feb. 5, and a final impact statement is expected to be released in late summer. The modernization effort is expected to cost up to $4 billion over the next decade or so. The draft report focuses on plans for two new facilities--a storage center for weapons parts and highly enriched uranium and a complex for processing beryllium and other, unnamed special materials --although DOE and its Oak Ridge contractor acknowledge tentative plans for at least eight other facilities. The environmental impact report contains much information on existing operations at Y-12, as well as those being planned. Here are several items gleaned from a review of the documents: * Uranium storage is a high-security operation, and the reinforced concrete structure being planned would be covered with "an earthen berm of compacted clay and rock riprap." One of the sites being considered is an existing parking lot on the west end of Y-12, and construction there would involve the relocation of the plant's electronic security network called PIDAS (perimeter intrusion detection and assessment system). Bomb-grade uranium currently is housed in various facilities, some of which date to the Oak Ridge plant's World War II origins and do not meet modern standards for protection against earthquakes and tornadoes. * A major justification for building a Special Materials Complex is increased worker safety, and the new facility would incorporate systems to comply with stricter guidelines on airborne exposures to beryllium. Dozens of current or former Y-12 workers have been diagnosed with chronic beryllium disease or have developed a sensitivity that's often a precursor to the incurable respiratory illness. The draft EIS says the new beryllium operation would have state-of- the-art engineering controls "to eliminate the required use of respirators during normal operations." The report also says a new filtration system is expected to reduce emissions of beryllium by 90 percent. * A historic district has been proposed at Y-12 that would incorporate all of the original plant facilities constructed during the World War II Manhattan Project. The proposed district includes two buildings -- 9731 and 9204-3--that have been proposed as national historic landmarks on an individual basis for their role in the production of materials for the first atomic bombs and separation of isotopes for medical purposes. It's not clear how these proposed designations would affect future cleanups or reuse, but one can assume the historic tag would prevent demolition. * The average radiation dose for nuclear workers at Y-12 was 11.4 millirems in 1998, according to the latest data in the report. That dose is roughly the equivalent of the radiation a person gets from a chest X-ray. Construction of a new storage facility would involve the transfer of uranium stocks currently stored in other buildings at the Oak Ridge plant. "This one-time transfer would expose workers involved in the transfer to an estimated dose of 150 millirems," the report said. * The environmental assessment does not include the stockpile of fissile uranium-233 currently stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, but the report does acknowledge the possibility of that material being transferred to Y-12 for storage. ORNL Director Bill Madia recently said it's important that the U-233 be moved from the lab to reduce the high costs associated with security at Building 3019, and Madia said he would prefer it be stored at Y-12 until future options can be fully evaluated. The Jan. 25 hearings (1-4 p.m. and 6-9 p.m.) will be in the Cumberland Room of the Oak Ridge Conference Center at the Oak Ridge Mall. For more information, call DOE's Gary Hartman at (865) 576-0273. He also may be contacted electronically at Y12EIS@oro.doe.gov. Copies of the report may be obtained from DOE or viewed at the agency's public reading room in Oak Ridge at 230 Warehouse Road. Senior Writer Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for the News-Sentinel. He can be reached at 865-482-9213 or at twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. This column is also available on the Web at www.knoxnews.com/editorsview/ munger/ Copyright c 1999-2001, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights ***************************************************************** 25 Atom smasher revs up BBC News | SCI/TECH | Wednesday, 14 June, 2000, 11:51 GMT 12:51 UK [I] The Star detector tracks particles after a collision BY BBC NEWS ONLINE SCIENCE EDITOR DR DAVID WHITEHOUSE Deep in the sandy woods of New York's Long Island, physicists are travelling back to the dawn of the Universe. We have just detected the most spectacular subatomic collisions ever witnessed by humankind[I] Satoshi Ozaki They have begun smashing the nuclei of gold atoms together at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the world's newest and biggest particle accelerator built to study the building blocks of matter. The facility aims to recreate the conditions of the early Universe. Scientists will use data collected during the experiments to explore the particles known as quarks and gluons that make up protons and neutrons. The RHIC has gone online after a publicity campaign sought to reassure local people that its work was safe and would not result in the creation black holes that would destroy the Earth, as some had predicted. 'NEW ERA OF STUDY' The high temperatures and densities achieved in the collisions should, for a fleeting moment, reveal the quarks and gluons in a soup-like plasma, a state of matter that is believed to have last existed just millionths of a second after the Big Bang. Physicists at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, who run the RHIC, say early work has already revealed amazing images of particles streaming away from a collision point. [I] The lab reassured local people that the RHIC was safe "This moment represents the culmination of many years of hard work, and now all the pieces are in place," says Satoshi Ozaki, Associate Laboratory Director for the RHIC. "We have just detected the most spectacular subatomic collisions ever witnessed by humankind, and are launching a new era for the study of nuclear matter." Previous studies with lower-energy collisions at the Cern laboratory in Switzerland have hinted at the existence of a quark-gluon plasma. "But RHIC will produce far more definitive results and allow detailed studies of the quark-gluon plasma," says Laboratory Director John Marburger. CORE OF THE SUN Detailed studies of the properties of the quark-gluon plasma, such as its temperature, energy, particle densities, and entropy, will help explain the origins of protons, neutrons and other elementary particles. Only then will we truly understand why they form "the dazzling diversity of matter that we see today, including ourselves, " says Thomas Kirk, Associate Laboratory Director for High Energy and Nuclear Physics. The RHIC's capabilities stem from its size and dual-ring design. Inside the underground accelerator tunnel are two accelerator rings, each 3.9 km (2.4 miles) in circumference and composed of 1,740 superconducting magnets. [I] The ions travel close to the speed of light before colliding in the detectors These magnets guide ions of gold around each of the circular rings in opposite directions. The ions move at 99.995% of the speed of light and collide at points where the two rings cross. For a fraction of a second, the colliding ions reach temperatures one hundred thousand times hotter than the core of the Sun - hot enough to "melt" the ions into their component quarks and gluons. Sophisticated detectors have been constructed at the collision points around the ring to gather and decipher the enormous volumes of data from the experiments. Two large detectors, Phenix and Star, are several stories tall. ***************************************************************** 26 GREENPEACE FRANCE PROTESTORS ARRESTED DURING NIGHT OF ARMED PLUTONIUM TRANSPORTS 17 January 2001 Cherbourg/Valognes, France - Five Greenpeace France activists were arrested by French Interior Ministry police, CRS, this morning, while protesting at the gates and railway line of the Cogema nuclear transport depot at Valognes. The action, which began on Saturday, was in protest against the imminent transport of plutonium/MOX fuel from Europe to Japan. At around 1.00 am, the activists were bundled into a waiting police van after having their chains and neck locks cut from the gates of Cogema's depot. Less than two hours earlier, a large military and police convoy escorted a MOX fuel transport from Cogema's la Hague reprocessing plant to the port of Cherbourg. Since 1992 all nuclear transports to the Cherbourg civilian port have been via the Valognes rail depot, 40km from la Hague. On this occasion around forty vehicles, including three eighteen wheeled trucks carrying the nuclear casks, left the la Hague nuclear site by road at approximately 9.00pm, arriving at the Cogema Cherbourg dock two hours later. "The massive military and police operation we witnessed last night exposes the reality of Cogema's MOX business - a trade in nuclear bomb material. This is a company and an industry that has to operate under the cover of darkness because public exposure reveals their true sinister and illegitimate nature," said Yannick Rousselet of Greenpeace France. One and half hours after removing the Greenpeace France activists from the gates of Valognes, another plutonium/MOX fuel cask departed for Cherbourg. It arrived at 4.00am at the Cogema dock, flanked by an armed military escort. Grassroots protestors from throughout France are due to arrive in Cherbourg this afternoon for a planned demonstration against the Japanese plutonium transport and Cogema's reprocessing business. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: -Yannick Rousselet, Greenpeace Cherbourg +33 (0) 6 8580 6559 (mobile) -Jean-luc Thierry - Greenpeace France +33 (0) 6 1591 0237 (mobile) ***************************************************************** 27 Editorial: Ban the use of depleted uranium Jordan Times - SUSPECTED LINKS between the use of bombs and bullets containing depleted uranium in Kosovo and Bosnia, in 1999 and 1994-5, respectively, and the worrying increase in the occurrence of leukaemia, lymphomas and various types of cancer among troops serving there have rightly caused an uproar in Europe. We join all those who are calling for clear and effective international legal instruments to forbid the use of depleted uranium ammunition: The damage that uranium dust can inflict and has inflicted on people - soldiers and civilians alike - who breathe it, as well as to the environment, polluting the water and entering the food chain, is tantamount to the effects of other types of weapons of mass destruction that are currently banned. We find the use of depleted uranium weapons appalling, and as if war was not sufficiently undignified, it added to our outrage to learn that uranium can easily be replaced by other metals, like tungsten, with even "better" results as to the preciseness and performance of the ammunition, and "less risks" to the environment and human beings alike. But another consideration is perhaps even more disturbing: The international debate and scare on the use of depleted uranium weapons in the Balkans have proven yet again that the international community and public opinion deem that not all human lives are worth the same. The West is rightly outraged by the 20 young lives of soldiers prematurely ended by depleted uranium. But who has until now moved a finger for the additional 2,000 cases of cancer, 75 per cent of which among children, registered in Iraq annually, surpassing by 50 per cent the pre-Gulf War averages? Baghdad has long denounced the atrocious effects of depleted uranium bombs on its population, but especially children, and said the number of congenital deformities in infants had sharply increased since Desert Storm. When in 1998 Iraq first asked the United Nations to conduct an official investigation on the impact of depleted uranium weapons on water, the environment and local communities, the US and Great Britain dismissed its claims as baseless and unfounded. Everyone should know that, if NATO troops shot some 31,000 and 10,800 depleted uranium ammunition rounds in Kosovo and Bosnia, respectively, the destructive power unleashed on Iraq, and especially southern cities like Basra, has remained unmatched. By admission of the Pentagon, US-led air strikes dropped some 944,000 depleted uranium ammunition rounds over Iraq. More than a "syndrome," we would call the effects of such fury an outright catastrophe. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Gulf War, we believe that the public in the so-called "developed world" needs to be informed, beyond governments' and militaries' propaganda, about what really happened in Iraq over those two months and the 10 years that followed. ***************************************************************** 28 Weapons draw fire in Concord Local demonstrators protest use of depleted uranium ammunition January 16, 2001 By TOM McLAIN Sun Correspondent CONCORD--The hottest environmental health story in Europe came to Concord yesterday, as local residents came out to protest the use of depleted uranium ammunition by NATO troops. More than 50 demonstrators carrying signs saying "Ban depleted uranium, " and "Kosovo children play in radioactive dust" protested during a heavy snowfall at Monument Square for an hour before adjourning to a press conference at the Colonial Inn. Depleted uranium munitions have been associated with a variety of health problems in some recently released military documents and by environmental advocacy groups. Critics say the armor-piercing shells, used first against Iraqi tanks in the Gulf War and later as part of the peacekeeping operation in the Balkans, can be a cancer risk to troops as well as civilians. Shells tipped with depleted uranium burn through armor, with the uranium turning into a fine powder and becoming airborne. The particles can be inhaled, ingested or can enter the body through a wound. Judy Scotnicki, a member of Grassroots Action for Peace, which organized the protest, implored people to circulate petitions. "We need the overwhelming support of the people--that's who we are--to demand that our government stop using these weapons," she said at the protest, which included human rights and environmental groups and Gulf War veterans. She said the petitions would be sent to Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Lowell, who sits on the Armed Services Committee. The U.S. Department of Defense and the British Defense Ministry say depleted uranium weapons pose a minimal risk to people. Other NATO governments, including that of Italy, are asking for further study of the weapons, citing illnesses among their troops who served in the Balkans and may have come in contact with depleted uranium ammunition fired at Serb troops. Yesterday's protest marked the 10th anniversary of the start of the Gulf War and the use of depleted uranium shells. It was held in Concord because Starmet Corp. of Concord, formerly Nuclear Metals Inc., made shells using the substance until the end of 1999. Starmet dumped uranium waste in a holding basin on its property during the decades when it produced such munitions for the Army. State officials have worked to clean up the site, and last year Gov. Paul Cellucci signed a request to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, asking that Starmet be placed on the EPA's Superfund cleanup list. That request is awaiting final EPA approval. The cleanup could cost as much as $50 million, according to estimates. Last week, Starmet announced it was being removed from the Nasdaq stock exchange because of lack of assets and questions over who would pay for the cleanup. The Times of London yesterday cited a 10-year-old confidential document from Britain's Atomic Energy Authority, warning that the use of depleted uranium munitions in the Gulf War raised "the possibility of the spread of radioactive and toxic contamination." The Times quoted the document as saying the contamination could pose a risk to the "military and civilian population." Also yesterday, the French government said there is no proof that French soldiers who served in the Balkans and now have cancer were made ill as a result of their service in the Balkans. Speaker Dan Fahey, a Navy veteran of the Gulf War era, said he obtained military documents about depleted uranium weapons under the Freedom of Information Act. According to Fahey, the Army concluded as early as 1974--before the rounds were used in combat--that those who come in contact with the munitions could develop health problems, including cancer. And "a decade later, the Pentagon's trying to say there's no way that anyone can get sick from depleted uranium," he said. He held up a large news photo of Albanian children playing on a destroyed Serbian tank, which, he said, was probably destroyed with depleted uranium rounds. "I don't know with absolute certainty if this tank is contaminated with uranium," said Fahey, "but I don't think these kids know either. Is that what we want?" ***************************************************************** 29 --DOE health-related issues to be addressed Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:29 p.m. on Tuesday, January 16, 2001 BY PAUL PARSON Oak Ridger staff A two-day meeting of an Oak Ridge advisory board focusing on health concerns related to the Department of Energy is scheduled to begin Thursday morning. The Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee meetings, which are open to the public, are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday at the YWCA of Oak Ridge, 1660 Oak Ridge Turnpike. The subcommittee consists of citizens primarily from the Oak Ridge area, including Knoxville and Roane County residents, who will work with community members and advocacy groups to offer advice and recommendations to several federal agencies regarding health concerns in Oak Ridge. Those concerns include exposure to contaminants from Oak Ridge's DOE facilities. Subcommittee members are nominated by the public and then appointed by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry based on their backgrounds, technical expertise, ethnicity and diversity of opinion, officials said. ATSDR, located in Atlanta, Ga., is a federal public health agency within the Department of Health and Human Services and is involved in hazardous waste issues. The subcommittee held its initial meeting in November. Agenda items for this week's meetings include an introduction to the agencies participating in the subcommittee and discussion of community needs and public health assessments. In addition, public comment sessions are set up for 11:30 a.m. to noon and 5:45 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday and for 11 to 11:30 a.m. and 2:45 to 3:15 p.m. Friday. A complete agenda for this week's meetings can be obtained during the meeting or by calling toll-free 1-888-422-8737. [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 30 Moncton leaving SNS Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 4:25 p.m. on Wednesday, January 17, 2001 from staff reports After completing two years as executive director of the Spallation Neutron Source project, David Moncton is returning to Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. Moncton came to Oak Ridge in February 1999 with a mandate to prepare the $1.4 billion SNS project for construction. Oak Ridge National Laboratory officials said they will begin a search immediately for candidates to head the SNS project. The SNS will consist of a linear accelerator that will produce proton beams that scatter neutrons by bombarding a liquid mercury target. Neutron scattering research plays a vital role in everyday life. Such research has been responsible for improvements in jets, credit cards, pocket calculators, compact discs, computer disks, shatter- proof windshields, adjustable seats, satellite weather information, materials used in high-temperature superconductors, powerful lightweight magnets, aluminum bridge decks and stronger, lighter plastics. To design and construct the SNS, a partnership was organized among six national laboratories--Argonne in Illinois, Brookhaven in New York, Jefferson in Virginia, Lawrence Berkeley in California, Los Alamos in New Mexico and Oak Ridge. [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 31 Suits claim radiation poisoning Oak Ridge study cited alleging health, discrimination effects Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, January 17, 2001 BY DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press Writer KNOXVILLE--Untold damages, medical monitoring and "a public apology" are being sought in two class-action lawsuits filed against a dozen contractors that operated the government's nuclear weapons and research complex in Oak Ridge since World War II, lawyers said Tuesday. "One (lawsuit) deals with the health hazards that were created and have never been properly addressed," Nashville lawyer George Barrett said in a telephone interview. "The other deals with the deliberate creation of a racially segregated community which has been preserved up to this time in violation of the Constitution and the laws of Tennessee." Barrett said the lawsuits were filed Tuesday in federal court in Knoxville, although the court clerk closed for the day before copies could be obtained and Barrett's firm could not provide them to The Associated Press. The lawsuits apparently will rely heavily on the results of an eight- year, $14 million health study released last January suggesting that some Oak Ridge residents may have suffered thyroid cancer or brain damage because of toxic releases, particularly from the 1940s to early 1960s. The health study, prepared by the state and underwritten by the Department of Energy, estimated that perhaps less than 100 people developed these diseases. "The ultimate question that we tried to answer can perhaps be summarized by this: Was anybody hurt?" study chairman Paul Voilleque said at the time. "Our answer today is, probably." The eight plaintiffs include former employees, residents and their children. Now Barrett is suing virtually every corporation that managed the DOE-Oak Ridge facilities since their creation in 1944 as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb. The facilities are: the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the former K-25 uranium enrichment plant. Listed as defendants are: Union Carbide Corp., Monsanto Co., Eastman Kodak Co., Eastman Chemical Co., the University of Chicago, Roane- Anderson Co., Turner Construction Co., Martin-Marietta Energy Systems Inc., Lockheed Martin, Lockheed Martin Energy Systems and Babcock & Wilcox Co. Also named are present ORNL manager Battelle Inc. and Y-12 manager BWX Technologies. Company spokesmen could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. The lawsuits claim hazardous, toxic and radioactive releases from the Oak Ridge plants damaged or threatened the health of residents and their children living in Oak Ridge or downwind or downstream of the plants. The lawsuits seek "a public apology for deliberately irradiating the public and exposing them to deadly radioactive and hazardous materials without their consent," a press release said. In addition, one of the lawsuits claims blacks who relocated to Oak Ridge for work in the 1950s were moved into the Scarboro community, where they were exposed to high levels of pollutants from the Y-12 plant about a mile away. The neighborhood remains predominantly black. In 1999, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said it could not substantiate claims of a higher incidence of asthma among Scarboro children. The CDC said that 13 percent of 119 Scarboro children had respiratory problems--about double the national average but similar to children living in inner-city Detroit. Last year, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson acknowledged that the government exposed bomb factory workers to health hazards, and Congress approved a compensation program. But DOE is not a defendant in the Barrett lawsuits. In 1998, Barrett won a $10 million settlement against Vanderbilt University in Nashville and others for 1940s experiments in which pregnant women unknowingly ingested radioactive iron. [*][I] All Contents.cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 32 GULF WAR STILL BEDEVILING US Hussein at large; oil, illness debated BY JOHN DONNELLY, GLOBE STAFF, 1/17/2001 [I]ASHINGTON - Today, exactly 10 years after US warplanes hit an Iraqi radar station west of Baghdad in the opening shot of the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein remains in power. Gas prices across the United States are poised to rise again. The last UN weapons inspector left Iraq before Christmas 1998. And the mystery of the so-called Gulf War Syndrome endures for the hundreds of thousands of US and allied troops exposed to a stew of toxic agents in six weeks of combat. A report to be released today by a veterans group sharply criticizes the Pentagon for its handling of veterans' illnesses, adding fuel to the controversy. It comes as little surprise, then, that everyone from academics to soldiers still debates who won the Gulf War. ''The war is not over,'' said Laurie Mylorie, the author of ''Study of Revenge: Saddam's Unfinished War Against America.'' ''You don't go tangle with a guy like Saddam and say, `Oops, we're done,' and then take your marbles and go home and expect that it's over.'' In fact, a low-intensity battle against the Iraqi leader has continued, even if it has faded from public view. US and British pilots patrol daily over Iraq to enforce no-fly zones in the north and south for Iraqi jets. An estimated 1,700 US airmen and ground crew are based in Turkey for the flights, at a cost of $1 billion a year. Some 20,000 US troops are deployed in the region, costing taxpayers another $1.5 billion annually. Ever since the Gulf War officially ended April 6, 1990, when Iraq accepted UN cease-fire terms, more than 450,000 US troops have cycled through the region, according to the Pentagon. While Iraq has not been much of an issue for the past 18 months, many observers believe that the issue won't stay quiet for the incoming Bush administration. ''If we keep on going like this, we are going to be worse off than where we are,'' said Tim McCarthy, a former senior UN missile inspector in Iraq. ''I think it's clear that those motivations that drove Saddam to develop missiles before and during the war remain,'' McCarthy said. ''We should be under no illusions that he is hard at work trying to rebuild his missile systems, especially in the absence of inspectors.'' Iraqi leaders, for their part, were as defiant yesterday as ever. Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister, told reporters in Baghdad that Iraq had no regrets for its takeover of Kuwait, which prompted more than 30 Western and Arab nations to join forces against Iraq. ''Kuwait deserves what it had in 1990,'' he said, hours before a Baghdad rally early today in which Iraqis burned American flags and chanted, ''Down, down, USA!'' Aziz also said that Hussein, who has not left Iraq in more than 10 years, was stronger than ever. ''Saddam Hussein is a symbol of resistance, a symbol of sovereignty, a symbol of dignity to every Iraqi,'' he said. But Wesley K. Clark, the retired NATO supreme commander who now is an analyst at Georgetown University, said yesterday that in some ways the United States is in a better position today regarding Iraq than it was a decade ago. He said that US forces can now move more quickly against any Iraqi threat and that US and British overflights effectively contain Iraqi troop movement against the Kurds in the north and the Shiite Marsh Arabs in the south. ''He's still under heavy pressure; that's the bottom line,'' Clark said in an interview. In the coming months, pressure to change Iraqi policy could come from several directions. Analysts such as McCarthy are warning that Iraq poses greater risks today, such as a biological weapons attack against a US target. Anti- sanctions activists have continued to collect data on the embargo's harsh impact on ordinary Iraqi citizens. Allies in Europe, some with an eye for lucrative oil contracts in Iraq, are also likely to push for further easing of sanctions. And if OPEC countries, including Iraq, reduce oil production, as expected today, the ensuing higher prices in the United States would put new domestic focus on US policy in the Gulf. Iraq is home to the world's second-largest known oil reserves, behind Saudi Arabia. But a growing issue may also rest with Gulf War veterans who have experienced a host of undiagnosed maladies. A report by the National Gulf War Resource Center obtained yesterday by the Globe says that the Pentagon has ''squandered'' nearly $200 million in the last four years on research ''in an effort to disprove the existence of illnesses among Desert Storm veterans.'' Pentagon studies, the veterans' group report charged, ''were designed to reach predetermined conclusions that no serious toxic agent exposures occurred among American troops during or after Desert Storm, thus minimizing the Executive Branch's responsibility (and thus liability) for injuries incurred as a result of said exposures.'' It called for the National Institutes of Health to take over the studies of the illnesses. Among the possible toxic exposures were Iraqi chemical and biological agents, depleted uranium munitions, the anti-nerve-gas drug pyridostigmine bromide, vaccinations against anthrax and botulism, and fumes from oil-well fires. ''We want them to look at all the exposures in context, because all these things taken together amount to an all-out assault on the human immune system,'' said Patrick G. Eddington, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center. But Warren B. Rudman, a former US senator from New Hampshire who led a presidential oversight board on the Pentagon's investigations into Gulf War illnesses, disagreed strongly with the veterans' group report. ''The Pentagon spent the money very wisely,'' Rudman said. ''The research continues. The bottom line is: There just hasn't been a silver bullet on this. It frustrates people that there hasn't been a clear answer. ... I can understand the frustration. A lot of people were sick.'' Rudman's commission, the Special Oversight Board on Gulf War Illness, found that stress was a contributing factor in the illnesses. But it did rule out one cause, exposure to depleted uranium used in US munitions. But that conclusion, issued last month, also reveals the depth of disagreement on almost anything connected to the war. Across Europe, the use of depleted-uranium munitions has sparked growing discontent in the 19-nation NATO alliance. Several countries have said recently that they would investigate complaints from their soldiers that depleted uranium had caused cancer and other illnesses. Italy and Germany have said they would seek to ban the shells, even as the United States insists that depleted uranium poses no known health risk. This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 1/17/2001. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************