***************************************************************** 07/17/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.174 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Nuclear accident 'covered up' 2 NRC Announces Availability of License Renewal Applications 3 NRC APPROVES GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS FOR LICENSE RENEWAL 4 Miami Herald: Nuclear power linked to cancer 5 Tooth-fairy myths and nuclear power 6 Report: No Ill-Effects From Exposure 7 Little known about contamination of Navajo homes 8 Czechs Won't Close Nuclear Plant 9 Waste Will Bring Woe, Not Wealth 10 Irradiated plutonium thief may fluoresce at nights 11 Radioactive hogans among questions without answers on the reservation 12 Germany investigates plutonium theft 13 SNP claims cover-up on nuclear station 14 Editorial: Battle will brew over the money 15 Germany studies possible nuclear theft 16 PPL to boost Susquehanna nuclear plant output 17 Decision expected on money for miners 18 House to Debate Energy Proposals 19 Make EPA report to parliament: Ingram 20 French Prosecutor Orders Chernobyl Sickness Probe 21 KNFC develops fuel for Korea standard nuclear power plants 22 Nuclear employee 'borrows' tube of plutonium 23 Radiation incident halts portion of Baldwin plant 07/17/01 24 Details Revealed About Nuclear Plant Problems 25 Once doomed, nuclear power on comeback 26 Back From the Brink 27 Alleged Plutonium Smugglers Caught 28 Bush-Cheney Energy Plan Fails to Protect Pennsylvania Consumers 29 Radioactive Hazard Hits Home for Navajos 30 NRC Monitors Ammonia Leak Near Waterford 3 Nuclear Plant 31 NRC to Meet with FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company to Discuss 32 NRC Approves Power Uprate for Susquehanna Facility in NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Hanford to determine speed of radioactive plume transmission 2 Russian Sub Salvage Operation Begins 3 Countdown to raising the Kursk 4 Lab to give update on landfill plan 5 Salvage team 'well prepared' 6 Downwinder archives closed to new additions 7 Banning outdoor grills at nuclear weapons plant 8 Jet fuel dismissed as leukemia cause 9 NZ Observers At Nuclear Weapon Tests 10 Nuclear Witness Report Challenged 11 IAAP/UofI health numbers (copy) 12 Senate committee OK's DOE funding 13 Radiation tests before divers plunge to Kursk site 14 Twelve bodies were recovered from the submarine last year 15 India, Pakistan in Troubled Ties After Failed Talks 16 Bush can sustain political damage - 17 Labor will brief workers on compensation 18 Harkin complains about Army plant survivor benefits 19 Operation To Retrieve Kursk Gets Underway - 20 Company fined for nuclear safety violations in Ohio 21 INEEL closes Jackson information office 22 PACE seeks pact for big group, too 23 Our View: Where are the champions for Oak Ridge now? 24 French Polynesia, France agree on new funding 25 Technology:Site confronts storage crunch 26 Technology:Cleanup method selected **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Nuclear accident 'covered up' © 2001 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd 18 July 2001 07:39 GMT+1 By Leigh Arnold 16 July 2001 Management at a nuclear power station was accused of a "cover-up" yesterday after it announced that reactors at Chapelcross would have to shut down because of an accident. British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) said the three reactors at the nuclear plant near Annan in Dumfries and Galloway would be shut down over the next week. The announcement came after the disclosure that 12 fuel rods weighing 12kg (27lb) each dropped 50ft inside a discharge chute at the plant on 5 July. BNFL initially claimed the rods had fallen only a few feet on to the floor from a remote-controlled arm. The SNP shadow deputy environment minister, Fiona McLeod, said she was "appalled by the behaviour of the management at the Chapelcross nuclear power station". She added: "They have attempted to conceal and cover up the seriousness of yet another accident at a nuclear power plant in Scotland." A spokeswoman for Greenpeace said: "The Chapelcross fiasco is a timely reminder of the dangers of nuclear power." BNFL said the shutdown had been agreed as part of an inquiry into the accident, adding that the move would pose no threat to public safety. ***************************************************************** 2 NRC Announces Availability of License Renewal Applications Press Release 2001 - 087 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA No. 01-087 July 16, 2001 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is announcing the availability for public inspection of applications for 20-year renewals of the operating licenses for the Catawba Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2, and the McGuire Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2. Duke Energy Corporation, operator of the four units, submitted the applications on June 13. The Catawba nuclear facility is located 18 miles southwest of Charlotte, N.C., in York County, S.C. The current operating licenses expire on December 6, 2024, for Unit 1 and February 24, 2026, for Unit 2. The McGuire nuclear facility is located 17 miles north-northwest of Charlotte, in Mecklenburg County. The operating license for Unit 1 expires on June 12, 2021, and the license for Unit 2 on March 3, 2023. Copies of the applications are being made available electronically to allow time for the public to become familiar with them. They are located on the NRC web site at http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/REACTOR/LR/index.html, and are also available through the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). Help in using ADAMS is available by contacting the NRC Public Document Room staff at 301/415-4737 or 1/800/397-4209, or by sending a message to pdr@nrc.govvia e-mail. In addition, copies of the license renewal applications for the Catawba and McGuire plants are available at the Rock Hill Public Library, Rock Hill, S.C., and at the J. Murrey Atkins Library in Charlotte, N.C. The NRC staff is currently conducting an initial review of the applications to determine whether they contain enough information for the required formal review. If the applications have sufficient information, the NRC will formally "docket," or file, the applications and will announce an opportunity to request a hearing. ***************************************************************** 3 NRC APPROVES GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS FOR LICENSE RENEWAL Press Release 2001 - 088 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA No. 01-088 July 16, 2001 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved three new guidance documents that describe methods acceptable for implementing the license renewal rule, as well as the process to be used by NRC in evaluating applications to renew the operating license of a nuclear power plant. The guidance documents are: 1) Regulatory Guide 1.188 - Provides a uniform format and content for submitting information in an application for renewal of a nuclear power plant operating license. This document endorses a Nuclear Energy Institute guidance document (NEI 95-10, Revision 3) for complying with the NRC requirements in the license renewal rule. This document supersedes the draft Regulatory Guides DG-1104 and DG-1047 which were issued for public comment in August 2000 and August 1996, respectively, proposing to endorse earlier versions of NEI 95-10. 2) Standard Review Plan for Review of License Renewal Applications for Nuclear Power Plants (NUREG-1800) - Provides guidance to the NRC staff for performing safety reviews of license renewal applications. A working draft of this document, dated September 1997, has been available in the NRC's Public Document Room. The improved guidance incorporates lessons learned from the review of the initial license renewal applications, as well as clarifications resulting from the resolution of generic renewal issues. 3) Generic Aging Lessons Learned (GALL) report (NUREG-1801) - Provides a compilation of generic evaluations of existing programs to manage aging effects on plant structures and components, documents the basis for determining the adequacy of those programs and identifies where staff review should focus on whether existing programs may need to be augmented for license renewal. Where GALL determines that a program is adequate to manage certain aging effects for a particular structure or component, the report indicates that no further NRC review is recommended. Otherwise, the report recommends areas where the NRC should focus its review. The report reflects comments received from the industry and members of the public, and it is intended to be used in conjunction with the Standard Review Plan to focus the NRC safety evaluation. Even where the report recommends no further staff evaluation, the NRC would sample those program features as part of the inspection activities that verify the safety evaluation conclusions. Draft versions of the documents were issued for public comment in August 2000, and a license renewal public workshop was held in September 2000 to facilitate comments. Written comments were received from 101 individuals, 15 public interest groups and 12 industry groups. The staff also held public meetings with stakeholders to discuss their comments. A fourth document, "Analysis of Public Comments on the Improved License Renewal Guidance Documents" (NUREG-1739), contains the NRC response to the stakeholder comments. The Commission approved the guidance documents on July 2, 2001. The pre-publication versions of the guidance documents are available for public inspection and duplication at NRC's Public Document Room by calling (301) 415-4737 or 1/800/397-4209, through the NRC's Agency-wide Documents Access and Management Service (ADAMS), and on the agency's web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/REACTOR/LR/IRG/index.html. The final published versions of these documents are expected to be available about August 1, 2001, at NRC's Public Document Room, ADAMS and the agency's web site. Additional information is available by calling Dr. Sampson Lee of the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation at 301-415-1183. These documents will be described in greater detail in a notice to be published in the Federal Register by mid-August. ***************************************************************** 4 Miami Herald: Nuclear power linked to cancer Published Monday, July 16, 2001 JERRY BROWN With political pressure building to find new sources of energy, the Bush administration is seeking to resurrect America's aging nuclear-power industry. However, a growing body of scientific evidence, including data on radiation levels in baby teeth collected in the United States, suggests that a strong link exists between radioactive emissions from nuclear-power plants and increased rates of childhood cancer. Although its current license does not expire until 2012, Florida Power &Light already has applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend the Turkey Point nuclear-plant license for 20 years, through 2032. The commission has declared that the extension poses ``virtually no threat to public health or the environment.'' However, a March 2001 report issued by the Radiation and Public Health Project, a nonprofit research organization, found ``strong evidence that exposure to radioactivity is one cause of childhood cancer in southeastern Florida.'' These cancer concerns focus on FPL's emission of radioactive materials into the environment, currently allowed by the federal government as a by-product of ``normal'' nuclear-power operations. The stakes are too high prematurely to embrace the second coming of nuclear power. Foremost among these radioactive emissions is Strontium-90, a known carcinogen, produced only by nuclear bombs or reactors. The health-project scientists have been tracking levels of Sr-90 in the baby teeth of children throughout the United States, as part of a national study called ``The Tooth Fairy Project.'' Baby teeth in Miami-Dade County have the highest concentrations of Sr-90 found anywhere in the nation. Radiation levels measured in 1,500 teeth from U.S. babies are equal to those found in the late 1950s, during U.S. and Soviet bomb testing in the atmosphere. Children are extremely sensitive to the carcinogenic effects of radioactivity. From the early 1980s to the early 1990s, in children under 10, childhood cancer rates in five southeastern Florida counties (Broward, Martin, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie) rose 35 percent -- compared to 11 percent nationwide. Do increases in Sr-90 found in baby teeth pose a serious health danger to fetuses and young children? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says No. President John F. Kennedy and the National Research Council emphatically said Yes. Increasing Sr-90 levels in baby teeth collected in St. Louis, which correlated with increasing cancer and leukemia rates, were significant factors in Kennedy's decision to sign the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In 1990 the council's Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation found that ``there is concern about radioactivity around nuclear facilities,'' and there is no safe level of human exposure to radiation. How should we translate these findings into sound public policy? + Because Turkey Point has more than 10 years before its current license expires, FPL should postpone its early application for license renewal until independent studies of the health effects of radioactive emissions have been thoroughly evaluated. + Local health data on the radiation-cancer link should be considered in the commission's environmental review of utility applications to extend the licenses of aging nuclear-power plants. The commission should explain exactly how it determines what levels of Sr-90 are ``safe'' in the bodies of our children. About two-thirds of the U.S population live within 100 miles of at least one nuclear-power plant. Cancer is a modern plague that will affect 40 percent of all Americans during their lifetimes. The stakes are too high prematurely to embrace the second coming of nuclear power. Indeed, Germany recently decided to phase out all of its commercial nuclear-power plants. As Kennedy said on signing the 1963 treaty: ``The loss of even one human life, or the malformation of even one baby -- who may be born long after we are gone -- should be of concern to us all. Our children and grandchildren are not merely statistics toward which we can be indifferent.'' Jerry Brown, Ph.D., teaches anthropology at Florida International University and is a research associate with the Radiation and Public Health Project (www.radiation.org). + The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold public hearings tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Homestead YMCA, 1034 NE Eighth St., Homestead. Copyright 2001 Miami Herald ***************************************************************** 5 Tooth-fairy myths and nuclear power Miami Herald: Published Tuesday, July 17, 2001 Re yesterday's column Nuclear Power linked to cancer by Jerry Brown: I am deeply interested in protecting the health and safety of my children as well as all who work at or live near our Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant. Safety is always our top priority. A few avowed anti-nuclear activists, in a so-called ``Tooth Fairy Project,'' claim to have found increased levels of a radioactive isotope called Strontium 90 in 86 baby teeth collected in South Florida. They suggest this is responsible for increased cancer rates in the area. These claims make for good sound bites but are completely untrue. What's more, the rest of the story is seldom heard. Strontium 90 has been in the environment for years as a result of above-ground nuclear weapons tests conducted from 1945 to 1980. After extensive studies, the U.S. government determined that the trace amounts found do not pose a health risk. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently reaffirmed this finding. These trace amounts are detectable in teeth because Strontium 90 is taken into the body through food or milk. The Florida Department of Health conducts regular sampling of milk, air, plants, soil and water around FPL's nuclear power plants and have found no radiation above normal background levels throughout the state. According to the independent National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, Floridians receive an average exposure of radiation from the sun, soil, and other natural elements that measures about 300 millirems per year. A person who lives within a mile of a nuclear power plant would receive less than one additional millirem of exposure each year. By comparison, a round-trip coast to coast airplane flight results in an exposure of five millirems. The National Institutes of Health performed a comprehensive study of people in 107 counties across the United States near 62 nuclear facilities. They found no increased cancer risk associated with these facilities. It is unfortunate that a group of non-medical professionals is making misleading and alarming claims. It is a disservice to real scientists doing real research and unfair to those impacted by cancer and seeking legitimate answers. When it comes to nuclear power, the public deserves fact not science fiction. FPL's operation of Turkey Point is monitored and consistently found to be safe by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Florida Department of Health. With more than 800 employees at our site, we take all safety concerns very seriously. ROBERT J. HOVEY Site Vice President, FPL Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant [Editor's note: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is holding public hearings on the Turkey Point plant's license renewal today at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the YMCA, 1034 NE Eighth St., Homestead.] Copyright 2001 Miami Herald ***************************************************************** 6 Report: No Ill-Effects From Exposure July 16, 2001 WELLINGTON, New Zealand- Troops taking part in British nuclear tests in Australia in 1956 weren't guinea pigs and suffered no ill health from exposure to radiation, a government report said Monday. While five of the 11 New Zealand officers involved in the experiments have died, nothing linked their deaths to their activities in the nuclear test areas, Defense Minister Mark Burton said. "The Ministry of Health advises that it is extremely unlikely that any of the recorded causes of death could be linked to the observation of nuclear tests," Burton said. "Similarly, there is no suggestion of links with any specific existing medical conditions," he added. Survivors have said they walked, crawled and ran through the blast zone at the Maralinga bomb site in South Australia within minutes of the nuclear bombs' detonation during tests in remote desert areas. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 Little known about contamination of Navajo homes July 16, 2001 MONUMENT VALLEY, Utah (AP) - The appearance of men in white "space suits" one day last April made the red rock landscape here look like a scene from a sci-fi thriller. The men, contractors for the Environmental Protection Agency, used a backhoe to demolish an old hogan in southeastern Utah's Monument Valley where Mary Holiday had raised her family. The white gear was to protect them against radiation from the uranium ore used to build the traditional Navajo home 40 years ago. Environmental officials have suspected for years that there are many more dangerously radioactive hogans on the Navajo Reservation. But lacking the mandate and the money to study how radiation has affected the people and their homes, they still do not know for sure. "If this were a house in the suburbs of Boston, this would have been a scandal," said Doug Brugge, a professor of community health at Tufts University Medical School. "People would have been outraged." For the Navajo people, unanswered questions remain a fact of life. Holiday's hogan was built in the late 1950s or early 1960s and she and members of her family inhabited it for more than a decade. Elsie Mae Begay, Holiday's niece, lived in it for three years with some of her eight children. Her youngest son has chest pains. Her youngest daughter has arthritis and anemia. And nearly everyone has headaches, Begay says. One son, Lewis, died at age 24. And her son, Lorenzo learned two months ago he might have lung cancer. "I don't really know what caused it," says Lorenzo, 39, a father of two who never smoked or worked in the mines. "I'm too young to get something like that." Many Navajos wonder why the U.S. government has not done more to help find answers. After all, it was Navajo land that supplied most of the nation's uranium for atomic weapons and nuclear power plants. And it was thousands of Navajo miners who shoveled the ore from the ground and processed it. For atomic industry workers, the federal government offers aid through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. But there is no comprehensive health and safety program for those who simply live on the reservation. The Navajo Nation has been cobbling together information about uranium hazards on the reservation for more than 20 years. It has found about 1,150 abandoned uranium mines. The tribe has capped many. Contaminated animal shelters have been razed and the sites reclaimed. Less is known about traditional sweat lodges, hogans and newer homes that may have been constructed with radioactive materials. Like thousands of other Navajos, the lives of Begay and her family are inexorably tied to uranium. Not only did they mine and mill, or live with miners and millers, they also drank water that contained mine runoff, breathed powdery tailings in desert winds and lived amid its contaminated byproducts. Recently, the family was featured in a documentary, "Return of Navaho Boy" concerning uranium. Begay insists her family and neighbors never knew of the danger. Brugge says it is too soon to say exactly how dangerous the family's radiation exposure has been. It would be wrong to assume everyone will someday get lung cancer, genetic damage or other ailments associated with radiation, said Brugge, who grew up on the reservation as the son of an anthropologist. "The complete risk is not assessed at this point." At the same time, the hogans do warrant immediate and thorough attention, he says. The EPA began scrutinizing the radiation risk on the reservation in 1997. It pinpointed spots on the reservation that were likely to be contaminated, tested water, and, whenever invited, tested hogans. By January 2000, it had tested 27 hogans and found two with levels high enough to concern the EPA's emergency response office, better known as Superfund. One hogan in New Mexico set off alarms, as did Holiday's home. The hogan floor had gamma radiation up to 25 times higher than the level that triggers emergency action by the EPA. Radon levels also were high - as much as 44 times higher than the EPA standard for homes. Sean Hogan, who oversees the EPA's Region 9 Superfund program, said it was a relief the hogan had been used only for storage in recent years. Still, the agency made arrangements to raze it. How many homes are dangerous and how many water sources are threatened by mine leaching remain unknown. Hogan says the answers will take time. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 8 Czechs Won't Close Nuclear Plant Today: July 17, 2001 at 11:55:27 PDT PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - A Czech government official rejected a call from Germany on Tuesday to close the Temelin nuclear power plant near the border with Austria and Germany. Czech Vice Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla told Czech radio that the Czech Republic, as "a civilized country," is capable of guaranteeing all safety standards. "Safety is a key issue for us," he said. The German government joined Austrian calls for the closure of the plant, citing safety concerns. Activated last October, the 2,000 megawatt Russian-designed plant is currently on standby due to technical problems with the main turbine generator and is expected to go back on line in August. Karel Kriz, spokesman for the Czech state energy concern CEZ that owns the plant, estimated losses of $2.75 billion should Temelin be shut down. "It would either mean the company would face liquidation, or its value would drop significantly before privatization," he said. The privatization is slated for the fall. Meanwhile, opponents of the Temelin plant in Austria renewed their criticism of the facility, and government officials also repeated their concerns. Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, currently on a visit in Warsaw, Poland, said she expected "concrete steps" for the safety of the Temelin reactor. The plant, located some 30 miles from the border with Austria, has sparked angry protests from Austrian anti-nuclear activists, who demand that it be shut down. The Czechs, however, maintain the plant meets all the international safety standards. "As far as nuclear safety is concerned, there's no single reason to shut Temelin down," said Pavel Pittermann, spokesman for the State Office for Nuclear safety. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 9 Waste Will Bring Woe, Not Wealth Opinion / Editorial Tuesday, Jul. 17, 2001. Page 12 Although we've known for months now that things were coming to this, the final approval of the obscene plan to import nuclear waste for storage and reprocessing still comes as a heavy blow. President Vladimir Putin signed the measure last week, clearing the way for the Nuclear Power Ministry to begin the virtually unsupervised sale of the Russian environment. The facts of the case are simple. The Soviet and Russian nuclear programs have an appalling record of absolute disregard for safety and the environment. Hundreds of thousands of people — perhaps millions — are suffering today from this callous indifference. Many more have already died. Now, the ministry has the temerity to use this history as an excuse for new atrocities, claiming that it will use part of the revenues generated to clean up the messes with which it has littered the country over the last half-century. What is more, 90 percent of the Russian people — both those who live in irradiated zones and those who, thankfully, so far do not — oppose this plan. Nonetheless, the country's democratically elected leaders have contemptuously ignored their views. A petition to force a national referendum on the subject was quashed by the Central Elections Commission last November in what was patently a successful effort to steamroller public opinion. This incident will go down as one of the low points of Russian democracy. Now, as a sort of cynical gesture that is being pitched as a sign of concern for the people's well-being, Putin has created an oversight committee and nominated Communist State Duma Deputy and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Zhores Alfyorov to head it. Few doubt the sincerity of Alfyorov's commitment to excellence in Russian science. However, he must realize that such excellence depends at least as much on the wholehearted support of the public and the pride that the people take in the nation's achievements, as it does on state support or budgetary funding. Alfyorov, who has backed the imports, and his committee will not be able to ensure that the spent nuclear fuel rods are properly transported and stored. He should take a lesson from the United States — a country with its own history of irradiating its citizens — which spent $6 billion just studying a proposed site for a nuclear-waste storage facility. Alfyorov and his committee also will not be able to ensure that any money earned is spent on cleanups. Environmentalists held a nationwide candlelight vigil last week. It would seem that, at this point, there is nothing else to do. ***************************************************************** 10 Irradiated plutonium thief may fluoresce at nights Pravda.RU Jul, 17 2001 The German police have arrested a 49-year-old worker who allegedly stole plutonium from a nuclear reprocessing plant near the city of Karlsruhe. The detainee has been tested showing radiation levels several hundred times above the accepted limits. His partner and child, who also tested with high levels of radioactivity, have been admitted to hospital and his flat has been sealed off. The worker reportedly led the police to the site at Landau. Police found a package containing liquid plutonium buried on a disused military airbase at Landau, near the French border. The plutonium was packaged in a 5cm tube and wrapped in latex gloves. Some of the liquid had apparently seeped into one of the gloves. According to BBC, Germany's Environment Minister, Juergen Trittin, has demanded clear answers to how the worker managed to steal plutonium from the plant. Environmentalists are taking legal action against the plant for negligence and a lapse in nuclear security. The plant, which was shut down in 1990 and began to be decommissioned in 1996, will also be checked by Euratom inspectors. The worker denies stealing the plutonium and claims he took the material by mistake. Also, the regional environment ministry has dismissed suggestions that the worker may have been trying to smuggle the plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. A spokeswoman said that the plutonium was not weapons-grade and could not be turned into weapons-grade material. RIA 'Novosti' Copyright ©1999 by "Pravda.RU". When reproducing our materials ***************************************************************** 11 Radioactive hogans among questions without answers on the reservation Tucson, Arizona Tuesday, 17 July 2001 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Elsie Mae Begay on the ground where the hogan stood that her family lived in. MONUMENT VALLEY, Utah - The appearance of men in white "spacesuits" one day last April made the red rock landscape here look like a scene from a sci-fi thriller. The men, contractors for the Environmental Protection Agency, used a backhoe to demolish an old hogan in southeastern Utah's Monument Valley where Mary Holiday had raised her family. The white gear was to protect them against radiation from the uranium ore used to build the traditional Navajo home 40 years ago. Environmental officials have suspected for years that there are many more dangerously radioactive hogans on the reservation. For the Navajo people, unanswered questions remain a fact of life. Holiday's hogan was built in the late 1950s or early 1960s and she and members of her family inhabited it for more than a decade. Elsie Mae Begay, Holiday's niece, lived in it for three years with some of her eight children. Her youngest son has chest pains. Her youngest daughter has arthritis and anemia. Nearly all have headaches, Begay says. One son, Lewis, died at age 24. Another, Lorenzo, might have lung cancer. "I don't really know what caused it," says Lorenzo, 39, a father of two who never smoked or worked in the mines. "I'm too young to get something like that." Many Navajos wonder why the U.S. government has not done more to help find answers. After all, it was Navajo land that supplied most of the nation's uranium for atomic weapons and nuclear power plants. And it was thousands of Navajo miners who shoveled and processed the ore. For atomic industry workers, the federal government offers aid through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. But there is no comprehensive health and safety program for those who simply live on the reservation. 1999, 2000, 2001 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star ***************************************************************** 12 Germany investigates plutonium theft BBC News | EUROPE | Monday, 16 July, 2001, 10:04 GMT 11:04 UK Nuclear energy has been a source of protests this year Germany's Environment Minister, Juergen Trittin, has demanded clear answers to how a worker apparently managed to steal plutonium from a nuclear reprocessing plant. He said he wanted a "watertight explanation" from regional authorities over what he described as "scandalous security failures". Police found a package containing liquid plutonium buried on a disused military airbase at Landau, near the French border. A 49-year-old worker from the reprocessing plant near Karlsruhe, who was reportedly taken into custody on Thursday, has been tested showing radiation levels several hundred times above the accepted limits. Family hospitalised He reportedly led the police to the site at Landau. The plutonium was packaged in a 5cm tube and wrapped in latex gloves. Some of the liquid had apparently seeped into one of the gloves. Juergen Trittin: wants watertight explanation The worker denies stealing the plutonium and claims he took the material by mistake. His partner and child, who also tested with high levels of radioactivity, have been admitted to hospital and his flat has been sealed off. Environmentalists are taking legal action against the plant for negligence and a lapse in nuclear security. The plant, which was shut down in 1990 and began to be decommissioned in 1996, will also be checked by Euratom inspectors. Smuggling The regional environment ministry has dismissed suggestions that the worker may have been trying to smuggle the plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. A spokeswoman said that the plutonium was not weapons-grade and could not be turned into weapons-grade material. Nuclear energy has been a hot issue in Germany this year, with the signing of an agreement to phase out the use of nuclear energy over the next 20 years. There have also been wide-scale protests by environmentalists over the transportation of nuclear waste to France and Britain. Transportation of the waste was resumed this year after a three-year ban due to safety fears. ***************************************************************** 13 SNP claims cover-up on nuclear station MURRAY RITCHIE THE opposition SNP yesterday accused British Nuclear Fuels of "utterly unacceptable" attempts to mislead the public by covering up news of an accident 10 days ago at its Chapelcross power station near Annan, Dumfriesshire. Fiona McLeod, shadow deputy environment minister, said BNFL had "attempted to conceal and cover up the seriousness of yet another accident at a nuclear power plan in Scotland". However, BNFL denied any cover-up and said it had made information available "as the situation has developed". Ms McLeod's comments came as Brian Wilson, UK energy minister, summoned Hugh Collum, BNFL chairman, and senior officials for a meeting and made clear he expected an explanation for their failure to make an announcement about the accident, which has led to the shutting down of the Chapelcross reactors. There was no mention from BNFL of the accident until the Sunday Herald last week reported radioactive that fuel rods had been dropped down a shaft at Chapelcross. BNFL said then that 24 rods in a shielded basket had fallen from a remote-controlled arm for only a "few feet". Later, it was reported that the rods had fallen 50ft into a disposal chute and that 12 were still missing, and last night BNFL said they had fallen 80ft. Ms McLeod, who is appalled by the behaviour of the Chapelcross management, said: "Once details of the incident were leaked, British Nuclear Fuels insisted that 24 highly radio-active fuel rods had only fallen a few feet, but the truth of the matter is that they fell down a 50ft shaft and 12 of them are yet to be located. "It is utterly unacceptable for BNFL to mislead the public over accidents at their nuclear power plants. There have been a series of accidents and scares at Scotland's nuclear power stations in recent years. Only two months ago there was another incident at Chapelcross when a grab release mechanism failed, and only two weeks ago a large irradiated nuclear fuel particle was found 300 metres offshore at Dounreay. This is simply another example of the inherent dangers of nuclear power." Referring to a review of energy policy being considered by the UK government amid speculation that it could lead to the construction of another nuclear power station, she said: "New Labour must not be allowed to dump yet another nuclear plant on the people of Scotland. "Nuclear energy is a failure from the past that has no place in twenty-first century Scotland. All existing nuclear facilities must be decommissioned as safely and as quickly as possible. Scotland must look to sustainable and renewable energy sources and reject the hazards of nuclear power." Chapelcross is Scotland's oldest nuclear power station. The accident took place during a routine refuelling operation when the rods were being changed with the use of a machine which removes and replaces irradiated uranium fuel elements. BNFL said later there had been no release of radiation and no danger to anyone inside or outside the plant. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate is investigating. A BNFL spokesman said last night: "There has been no cover-up - just the opposite in fact. We have kept the regulators, our workforce and the media informed as our knowledge of the incident has increased." A spokesman for Henry McLeish, the first minister, said nuclear policy was a reserved matter although executive ministers would have some input into the policy review. - July 16th ***************************************************************** 14 Editorial: Battle will brew over the money July 16, 2001 It was encouraging to learn last week that a key Senate panel recommended a hefty cut in the funding for the Yucca Mountain Project. The Bush administration had sought $445 million to complete studies at Yucca Mountain, which is the only place in the nation being considered for a high-level nuclear waste repository. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development instead suggested that just $275 million be allocated, which would be the smallest budget in six years for the Yucca Mountain Project. The influence of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is the principal reason for the significant decrease. Now that Democrats control the Senate, Reid is chairman of the subcommittee that has spending oversight of the Yucca Mountain Project. While Reid is also the No. 2 man in the Democratic Senate leadership, maintaining the reduced funding for the Yucca Mountain Project will not be easy, considering that so many states have nuclear power and want the waste shipped to Nevada. Indeed, there is a concerted push to loosen congressional oversight of the spending on the Yucca Mountain Project. Rep. Joe Barton, one of the best friends the nuclear power industry has in Washington, is fighting hard to get legislation passed that would take away from Congress the power to determine every year how much money should be spent on the Yucca Mountain Project. Of course, the nuclear power industry would love it if the Texas Republican's legislation became law, allowing the Department of Energy to dip into the $10 billion national nuclear waste fund and use the money however it saw fit. This year is shaping up as a pivotal one involving the fate of the Yucca Mountain Project, especially since it is expected that the Department of Energy will recommend the site later in 2001. Nevadans correctly have believed that they just haven't received a fair shake from the DOE, which hasn't treated seriously considerable evidence that Yucca Mountain is a dangerous place to bury man's deadliest waste. If Congress were to loosen its oversight of the Yucca Mountain Project, it could make the current situation -- as bad as it is -- even worse. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 15 Germany studies possible nuclear theft - 7/16/2001 - ENN.com Monday, July 16, 2001 By Associated Press BERLIN — Germany's environment minister ordered an inquiry Sunday into reports that radioactive material was stolen by an employee of a nuclear reprocessing facility near the western city of Karlsruhe. Police declined to comment on media reports that the man, under investigation since last Monday, has been arrested and questioned about the alleged theft, and that a stash of radioactive material was found at a disused airfield nearby. Prosecutors are to make a statement Monday. If true, the allegations of theft indicate "scandalous security failures" at the plant, Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said. He ordered officials in the Baden-Wuerttemberg plant to report to him by Monday on what went wrong. Routine tests in recent weeks on the 49-year-old man and in his apartment had found unusually high levels of radiation. The man's partner and her daughter reportedly were also found to have been exposed. Their names and the quantity of material allegedly stolen have not been released. German radio reported Sunday that investigators are examining suspicious material found in a small tube near Landau, close to the French border. SWR radio said the man had told investigators where the tube was hidden at the former airfield, which was once used by French military forces. About 200 tons of spent fuel from German nuclear power plants was reprocessed at the research plant in Karlsruhe between 1971 and 1990. Work to dismantle the plant has been going on since 1996. Copyright 2001, Associated Press ***************************************************************** 16 PPL to boost Susquehanna nuclear plant output Lehigh Valley News Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves company's request. 07/17/01 By CHRISTIAN BERG Of The Morning Call The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved PPL Corp.'s request to increase the generating capacity of its Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Luzerne County by 1.4 percent, or about 28 megawatts. The NRC said in a statement on Friday that PPL can safely increase the power output of the plant's two reactors by 14 megawatts each with only minor modifications to plant equipment. PPL spokesman Herb D. Woodeshick said workers installed new instrumentation to monitor water levels in Reactor 2 during a scheduled outage in March. Although the new metering equipment allows operators to more efficiently control output from the reactor, Woodeshick said PPL couldn't start increasing power output until it received NRC approval. New water meters will be installed on Reactor 1 during a scheduled outage in spring 2002, adding 14 megawatts of generating capacity to that unit. One megawatt provides enough electricity to light about 1,000 average homes, which means the upgrade will enable PPL to light about 28,000 more homes. The 2,216-megawatt Susquehanna plant is one of PPL's most productive plants. Last year, it generated more than 17.5 billion kilowatt-hours, producing more electricity than it has in any year in its history. Woodeshick said the NRC approval announced last week is unrelated to PPL's plan to spend $120 million to increase Susquehanna's generating capacity by 100 megawatts. The company plans to install more efficient steam turbines on each of the two units. The new turbines, which will replace units that have been in operation since the early 1980s, will be installed in the spring of 2003 and 2004 during refueling outages at the plant. + Reporter Christian Berg 610-820-6517 christian.berg@mcall.com ***************************************************************** 17 Decision expected on money for miners Denver Post.com By Mike Soraghan Denver Post Washington Bureau Tuesday, July 17, 2001 - WASHINGTON - Congress is expected to decide this week whether the federal government will make good on the IOUs it has been sending for more than a year to sick and dying uranium miners in the West. The $84 million needed to pay victims is a big sticking point in negotiations between the House and the Senate. The issue could be decided in a conference committee meeting tentatively scheduled for Wednesday. The money is needed to pay settlements to people sickened by exposure to uranium as they helped produce uranium for U.S. weapons during the Cold War. That includes uranium miners, veterans, federal contractors who participated in above-ground nuclear tests and "downwinders" who lived near the test site. The settlements were authorized by the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. "These people are elderly people. They're dying. They're on life support, and the federal government is giving them IOUs," said Lori Goodman of Durango, a leader in the Western States RECA Reform Coalition. Goodman contrasted the cost with last weekend's successful $100 million missile-defense test over the Pacific Ocean. "What did it cost to have "a bullet hit a bullet?'" she said. The victims are concentrated in the Rocky Mountain West, with many from Colorado. A Justice Department list showed that as of May 4, Colorado victims were owed more than those from any other state, with 56 people holding nearly $5 million in IOUs. Utah had more IOU victims, 64 people owed $3.5 million. Four people in Wyoming are owed $100,000 and 31 people in New Mexico are owed nearly $3 million. The RECA Trust Fund was set up in 1990 after years of lawsuits, to provide "compassionate compensation" to victims, but it ran out of money after Congress expanded eligibility without expanding funding. Since then, claims have piled up as Western lawmakers battled to get more money, agreeing that the federal government has betrayed hundreds of people who helped win the Cold War. Last week, the House rejected a motion that would have required its negotiators to agree to the $84 million. U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Grand Junction, was one of two Republicans to vote for the measure. A McInnis spokesman said he learned that RECA was included in the measure only moments before the vote, and questioned whether it was a "sneaky" move by Democrats to paint Republicans as unconcerned about radiation victims. "We're confident that this language is going to carry through," said McInnis spokesman Blain Rethmeier. "We've just got to get these people their money." On Monday, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., urged conference committee members not to compromise on money for the victims. "There must be a lot of give and take between the Senate and House to finalize any appropriations bill," Domenici said. "In this instance, however, any compromise on the funding level for RECA would be unacceptable." ***************************************************************** 18 House to Debate Energy Proposals July 17 8:55 AM ET By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - House members prepare to tangle over the fuel efficiency of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and a proposal to drill for oil in an Arctic wildlife refuge as the White House tries to regain momentum for congressional approval of its energy blueprint. Separate House committees were to begin crafting key parts of a Republican energy package Tuesday amid criticism from Democrats that the proposals still contain too little to promote energy conservation. More than two months after the high-profile unveiling of his energy strategy, President Bush ( - ) acknowledged Monday that declining gasoline prices and easing of California's electricity crunch may have blunted the drive for energy legislation. ``Anytime there's not an immediate problem that's apparent to people it's tough to convince people to think long-term,'' said Bush as his vice president, Dick Cheney ( - ), and five Cabinet members traveled around the country to spur interest in energy policy. The administration frequently has spoken in terms of a crisis when promoting trying to rally support for developing more oil, natural gas and coal as well as building more power plants and nuclear reactors. But gasoline prices have declined by 30 cents a gallon since their high in mid-May to a national average of $1.41 a gallon, 13 cents lower than last summer at this time, says the Energy Department. Natural gas prices, after hitting $10 a thousand cubic feet last December have dropped to the $3 range. Even in California, the crisis environment over energy has eased. Dire warnings of countless days of blackouts this summer have not materialized and electricity prices have declined dramatically. There have been no blackouts since early May in California with more power expected to come on line from several new plants in the coming weeks. In response, the president and his surrogates shifted gear slightly and warned that short-term improvements do not mean long-term energy problems are solved. ``It's clear there are warning signs,'' the president told reporters. Near Chicago, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham ( - ) reiterated the call for more domestic energy production ``so that we don't find ourselves in an energy supply challenge in the future.'' More domestic energy production was the focus of the House Resources Committee, which planned to take up its slice of expected energy legislation later Tuesday. Its bill calls for lifting a congressional ban on oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska. The bill also requires an inventory of all federal lands, except for national parks and designated wilderness areas, for expanded coal and other energy development. Democrats have vowed to block drilling in the Arctic refuge, but are not expected to have enough support in the committee to keep it from getting to the House floor. Rep. Martin Frost ( - - ), D-Texas, said he doubts Republican leaders can muster enough support for the refuge drilling proposal from GOP moderates in the full House to keep it in the bill, especially since Democrats in the Senate oppose such drilling. ``They're going to ask the (GOP) moderates to walk the plank and they will fail,'' said Frost in an interview Monday. Separate energy legislation before the House Energy and Commerce Committee is focusing on conservation. A compromise forged by Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., the committee's chairman, and Michigan Rep. John Dingell ( - - ), the ranking Democrat, calls for cutting gasoline use by popular sport utility vehicles. The proposal would require automakers to meet federal fleet fuel economy standards that assure that new SUVs use 5 billion fewer gallons of gas over the next six years. Dingell, whose interests often have coincided with those of the automakers, said he agreed to the SUV fuel economy increase ``because the alternatives are vastly worse.'' But many other Democrats argue the compromise amounts to little more than window dressing, boosting SUV fuel economy by only about 1 mile per gallon. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Edward Markey, D-Mass., said they will push for broader increases in the automobile fuel economy standard, or CAFE, that would bring auto and SUV mileage requirements to a 40 mpg fleet average by 2017. On a third front, the House Ways and Means Committee may late this week approve tax breaks for purchase of photovoltaic solar systems in homes and for buying ultra-fuel efficient hybrid cars - both urged by the administration. Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc., and The Associated Press. All ***************************************************************** 19 Make EPA report to parliament: Ingram The Age: By RICHARD BAKER Monday 16 July 2001 Key Victorian independent MP Craig Ingram has called for a revamp of the Environment Protection Authority, claiming it is too secretive and too much under State Government control to be effective. Mr Ingram said the public had lost confidence in the EPA and proposed that it be changed to operate in the style of the Auditor-General's office so it reported to parliament rather than just to Environment Minister Sherryl Garbutt. "So long as the EPA is a creature of government there are going to be questions of `who's watching the watchdog' and a potential for conflicts of interest," Mr Ingram said. The member for East Gippsland also said the government should bring environment laws into line with those in New South Wales, where individuals, not just the EPA, were able to launch legal proceedings against corporations or government bodies. "The public have lost confidence in the EPA to act on their behalf because there is a perception the authority can be politically compromised. That's why there needs to be another avenue, other than the EPA, for individuals to pursue their concerns," he said. Mr Ingram raised the role of the EPA after being contacted by several south Gippsland residents who reported difficulties in getting information from the EPA about the goings-on at a toxic waste dump near Sale. Association of Wellington Residents Against Toxic Hazards spokeswoman Jo McCubbin said getting information about the status of the Dutson Downs dump from the EPA and Gippsland Water had been frustrating. "We've found the EPA to be sometimes surprisingly guarded about releasing documentation on what was able to be dumped at Dutson Downs," Dr McCubbin said. Both Mr Ingram and Dr McCubbin said locals were concerned that upgrades were being carried out on Dutson Downs while the government was reviewing the role of the state's waste facilities. Dutson Downs, which is close to the Gippsland Lakes and 90 Mile Beach, already accepts and treats 70 per cent of all hazardous wastes generated in the Gippsland region, including low-level radioactive waste from Esso. The local community, Mr Ingram and National Party leader Peter Ryan have warned the government that Dutson Downs should not be allowed to accept more waste from other areas in the state because of adverse impacts on the environment, tourism and land values. A spokesman for Ms Garbutt said the Bracks Government had boosted the EPA's funding by $4million to strengthen its independence and prosecution power. EPA chairman Brian Robinson said questions about the authority's role were a matter for the government. But he believed the Victorian EPA to be Australia's most independent. Copyright © The Age Company Ltd 2001. Any unauthorised use, ***************************************************************** 20 French Prosecutor Orders Chernobyl Sickness Probe Monday July 16 5:19 PM ET PARIS (Reuters) - The Paris public prosecutor's office ordered an investigation on Monday into whether French citizens fell sick because of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, judicial sources said. The decision follows legal moves begun by a group of 51 plaintiffs with thyroid ailments who allege French authorities failed to warn the public of the dangers of radioactive fallout from the world's worst nuclear disaster. The sources said the prosecutor's office had determined there were sufficient grounds to launch an inquiry into the complaint, which the group filed against persons unknown for unintentional injury and associated counts. An investigating magistrate will conduct the probe. Such a move under French law does not necessarily lead to charges. The plaintiffs, backed by two pressure groups, allege the French authorities did nothing to alert people to the potential dangers from a radioactive cloud that drifted west from Chernobyl when a reactor exploded in April 1986. The plant in Ukraine shut down for good last December. Last year, a 31-year-old Frenchman suffering from thyroid cancer, Yohann van Waeyenberghe, failed in an attempt to have criminal proceedings launched against French officials for alleged bodily harm in the Chernobyl affair. A court ruled Waeyenberghe could not demonstrate a scientific link between his illness and the accident. Radioactivity from the Chernobyl explosion drifted across France between April 27 and May 5, 1986. West Germany, Austria and Italy took various precautions, including restrictions on the consumption of milk and dairy products, but French authorities said there was no need for special measures to protect against any health risks. An official French scientific study published last December estimated the incidence of thyroid cancer in France had risen fivefold among men and more than doubled among women between 1975 and 1995. The study, however, said the rise had been noted before the Chernobyl disaster and that the causes had not been established. It criticised the authorities for failing to monitor the population for evidence of cancer risks after the accident. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 21 KNFC develops fuel for Korea standard nuclear power plants Government & politics 02 NUCLEAR POWER Improved nuclear fuel for Korea standard nuclear power plants has been developed for the first time in Korea to save 8 billion won in annual nuclear fuel consumption. Furthermore, indirect profits amounting to 160 billion won could be expected when the new fuel is loaded to Korea standard nuclear power plants. Kim Duk-ji, president of KEPCO Nuclear Fuel Co. (KNFC), said recently that the improved fuel has been developed after three years of research and development activities conducted as a part of the Ministry of Science and Technology's long-term nuclear fuel R&D project. The company, located in the science city of Daejeon, was established in November 1982 to produce nuclear fuel for Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). The improved nuclear fuel is scheduled to undergo durability and other tests at Westinghouse in the United States. A reactor test is scheduled for November next year in Korea. "After that, we plan to export key parts of this fuel system to foreign countries which have power stations identical with those in Korea," he said. The company also agreed to export top nozzle spring, a precision nuclear fuel component developed locally, to Westinghouse at US$260,000. "We now have an opportunity to demonstrate the excellence of the nuclear fuel we produced throughout the world, eventually opening the way for nuclear fuel export," Kim said. Concerning the nation's overall nuclear fuel research and development, he said KNFC, the sole nuclear fuel company in Korea, has been conducting R&D activities for the improvement and development of design technology, fuel design improvement and development, improvement and development of nuclear fuel manufacturing technology and development of fuel service technology. "We do those activities to enhance safety, reliability and economical efficiency of the nuclear fuel as well as to become a first-class global nuclear fuel company in the near future," he said. "The natural uranium, which is used as the raw material for nuclear fuel is composed of 99.29 weight percent of U-238 and 0.71 weight percent of U-235. Natural uranium can be used as fuel for heavy water reactors while low enriched uranium of 2-4 weight percent U-235 is for the light water reactors," according to the company president. He went on to explain that since one gram of U-235 can produce energy in the equivalent of 15 barrels of oil or 3 tons of coal, a relatively small amount of nuclear fuel loaded in a nuclear power plant can produce a lot of energy for 3-4 years. "We have manufactured and supplied nuclear fuel for all domestic PWRs and PHWRs. Since the first delivery to PWR fuel in 1989, KNFC is now supplying nuclear fuel for all PWRs and PHWRs in operation in Korea. About 40% of total electricity generation in the country is produced using nuclear fuel supplied by us," he said. As to the production capacity of nuclear fuel, the KNFC president said, "To meet the increasing demand of nuclear fuel, KNFC completed the construction of new fuel manufacturing facilities at the end of 1997 in addition to the previous PWR fuel manufacturing facility. The annual production capacity is 400 tonU for PWR fuel and 400 tonU for PHWR fuel." With this expansion of the fuel production capacity, he went on the explain, KNFC established a firm basis capable of supplying fuel to North Korea in support of the KEDO program and exporting fuel to overseas. "In addition, by undertaking the PHWR fuel manufacturing for PHWRs in Korea, KNFC came to have the fuel manufacturing technology for both PWRs and PHWRs." Nuclear fuel is also a clean energy compared to fossil fuels in view of environmental conservation and cheap price. Emphasizing the importance of nuclear fuel business, he said, "Electricity is a main artery of the national economy and thus its sufficient supply is essential to nation's economic growth." KNFC is making significant contributions to the stable supply of electricity and economic growth by designing, manufacturing and supplying nuclear fuel timely to the nuclear power plants in Korea which had relied on imported nuclear fuel. Kim emphasized that KNFC products are quality assured. "It is the policy of KNFC to be a reliable supplier of high quality nuclear fuel to our customers and our most important criterion of quality is the customer satisfaction." KNFC's quality assurance program is based on the requirements of the Korea Atomic Energy Laws and other regulations and standards, U.S. NRC 10 CFR 50 Appendix B, ASME NQA-1, and ISO 9001 in order to fully comply with customer satisfaction and regulatory quality requirements, he noted. "We have the self-reliant manufacturing technology for PWR and PHWR fuels and do our best only to produce defect-free nuclear fuel assemblies by applying the thorough inspection and quality assurance system," he concluded. ***************************************************************** 22 Nuclear employee 'borrows' tube of plutonium © 2001 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd 18 July 2001 07:28 GMT+1 By Imre Karacs in Berlin 17 July 2001 The German government ordered a review of security at nuclear plants yesterday after the discovery in a blackberry bush of a glass tube containing plutonium, apparently borrowed by an employee at a reprocessing plant. As ecologists threatened to sue, Jürgen Trittin, the Environment Minister, accused the authorities of the southern Land of Baden-Würtemberg of "flagrant security failures" at the Karlsruhe facility. Abnormally high radiation levels were measured in the employee, a 49-year-old man, as well as in his girlfriend and her daughter. The worker and the girlfriend were detained yesterday for smuggling the material out of the plant. The incident came to light when a routine urine test on the employee detected radiation levels several hundred times above normal. Further checks revealed radioactive hot-spots in the man's home and his car. The suspect led investigators to an abandoned French military airfield in southern Germany. There in the thicket lay a tube 5cm (2 inches) long, wrapped in a rubber glove and work gloves. The contents, a brown solution thought to contain plutonium, were seeping out. The suspect works at the reprocessing plant in Karlsruhe, which had treated 200 tons of spent nuclear fuel before it was decommissioned in 1990. He admitted taking a number of contaminated towels and a bottle of liquid from the plant, but said he was unaware that it contained plutonium. This is the second plutonium scare in Germany. In 1994, the German intelligence service BND planted nearly 400g (14oz) of weapons-grade material on a scheduled Lufthansa flight bound for Munich, allegedly in an effort to test security. Whether the worker at the Karlsruhe facility was driven by the same motive is not yet clear. What is certain is that the system supposed to prevent nuclear materials going missing has failed. It could have been just a silly mistake, of course, life imitating farce. For this has already happened, to Homer Simpson, the head of the American cartoon family. Homer works at a nuclear plant, and every episode shows him taking home a glowing tube of radioactive fuel. Perhaps the man from Karlsruhe was one of the millions of German Simpsons fans. ***************************************************************** 23 Radiation incident halts portion of Baldwin plant 07/17/01 A portion of AmeriSteel plant in Baldwin was shut down Friday night after an alarm signaled that radioactive material was inadvertently melted with other scrap metal, a company official said yesterday. --> Tuesday, July 17, 2001 Story last updated at 9:51 p.m. on Monday, July 16, 2001 By Christopher Calnan Times-Union staff writer A portion of AmeriSteel plant in Baldwin was shut down Friday night after an alarm signaled that radioactive material was inadvertently melted with other scrap metal, a company official said yesterday. The incident at the AmeriSteel plant caused no harm to employees or the environment, company president Phil Casey said. The company is now doing a 10- to 14-day cleanup that will affect 80 to 90 employees, he said. Casey said the cause of the radiation was probably a 1-ounce piece of radioactive isotope material the size of a matchstick that was in a piece of dental or medical equipment. The equipment was in a scrap heap being melted. Three scanners check for radiation before the metal is melted, but the isotope wasn't detected until the melting section of the process. Casey said the isotope was probably in a lead shield or surrounded by other heavy metals and not detected until the shield melted away. It was the first such case in the plant's 25-year history, he said. The plant has about 280 workers. AmeriSteel, which is based in Tampa, produces about 550,000 tons of concrete reinforcement steel, commonly known as rebar, at the Baldwin plant. It also has plants in Charlotte, N.C., Nashville, Tenn., and Jackson, Tenn. The Jackson plant had a similar incident seven years ago, Casey said. That cleanup cost $13 million. Charles Adams, environmental specialist for the state Bureau of Radiation control, said the material was called cesium 137. "Radiation levels, basically, are very, very low," he said. Adams said the material is used in many products, including moisture density gauges. © The Florida Times-Union ***************************************************************** 24 Details Revealed About Nuclear Plant Problems Channel 4000 - Feds To Meet With Managers Of Monticello Plant Tonight MONTICELLO, Minn., Posted 8:34 a.m. CDT July 16, 2000 -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet tonight with the managers of the Monticello Nuclear Power Plant about safety issues. Federal regulators are looking into problems at the plant, although they say those problems don't pose an immediate risk to workers or people living nearby. Last week, there was a report that packing material was left in a key piece of safety equipment at the plant for 30 years. It's raising questions about whether a safety system would work in an emergency and contain radioactive steam. Jan Strasma is a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He says the commission will look into the problem, but says the plant is operating safely. The regulators and the managers are scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. at the Monticello Community Center. Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 25 Once doomed, nuclear power on comeback The Cincinnati Post Scripps Howard News Service LUSBY, Md. -- From the bucolic crest of Calvert Cliffs overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, the future of nuclear power looks bright indeed. Supplying more than a quarter of Maryland's electricity, the Calvert Cliffs reactor last year became the first in the country to get a 20-year extension of its original operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Four other plants have since followed suit. The license extensions, along with dozens more in the works, signal the potential rebirth of an industry that appeared to be doomed after the near-meltdown of the Three Mile Island reactor near Harrisburg, Pa., in 1979 and the Chernobyl plant disaster in the Soviet Union seven years later. Escalating energy demand, spiraling natural gas prices, California blackouts and heightened concerns over global warming have given nuclear power new life. The industry, which provides one-fifth of the country's electricity, has helped itself by slicing production costs and compiling a solid safety record. The election of President Bush, who is pushing nuclear power expansion as part of his comprehensive energy program, hasn't hurt. ''We need to stop living in the past,'' Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in May as he toured the Calvert Cliffs reactor high above the water on the southern tip of Maryland. ''We need to stop thinking of this industry in terms exclusively dictated by Three Mile Island.'' That mishap, when the Pennsylvania plant came within an hour of a catastrophic meltdown because of an inadvertent release of coolant water, reversed the rush to build nuclear reactors in response to the 1970s energy crisis. It sent the industry spiraling into two decades of government regulations and long construction delays that forced dozens of half-built reactors to be shuttered and greatly increased the cost of those that were completed. The long-term future of nuclear power is still hampered by the problem of how to dispose of 40,000 tons of highly radioactive waste now in temporary storage at the country's 103 commercial reactors. The federal government promised in a 1982 law to move the waste, which will remain toxic for thousands of years, to a central repository. But lingering environmental and health questions have delayed the planned 1998 opening of a desert dump site 100 miles north of Las Vegas, and Nevada politicians vow to derail the project for good. A relatively new dry-cask storage method has extended by at least 50 years the length of time such waste can be kept at the plants. Yet even the industry's strongest allies acknowledge that utility investors are unlikely to fund an entire generation of new reactors as long as the fate of a permanent repository is uncertain. For now, the industry's fortunes are looking up. With the prospect of getting their licenses extended, nuclear power plants that could scarcely be given away a few years ago are selling for hundreds of millions of dollars. ''The nuclear power industry is no longer considered a pariah on Wall Street,'' said Christopher Pflaum, a former Illinois utilities regulator who is now an economic consultant in Overland Park, Kan. Publication date: 07-16-01 ***************************************************************** 26 Back From the Brink JULY 17, 2001 EDITORIAL Just over two years ago, India and Pakistan almost went to war in their "hot" territorial dispute over Kashmir. Then, in a tit-for-tat confrontation, they both tested nuclear weapons. In that context, the world can breathe a bit easier now that the leaders of these nations have at least met to air their differences. Shedding their historic baggage of conflict or putting peace above other priorities cannot be expected to emerge quickly, given each nation's young nationalism and hot-house domestic politics. Just managing the tension would be enough. The three-day summit near the Taj Mahal came with some hope that Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf could strike a deal that, since they represent the hawkish side in each nation, they could easily defend at home. At some point, both nations will realize they can't attract the foreign investment they need to lift their countries out of poverty unless they settle their differences somehow. Talking is the first step. Then, building trust by solving smaller problems, such as prisoner exchanges and trade disputes. While outside mediation might help, India demurs, and, in the long run, the two nations can benefit by finding their own way around the antagonisms of the past in order to create a better future for their people. . Copyright 2001 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights ***************************************************************** 27 Alleged Plutonium Smugglers Caught F.A.Z. - English Version18. Jul. 2001 BERLIN. The Karlsruhe public prosecutor on Monday arrested a 47-year-old employee of the city's shut down nuclear reprocessing facility and his girlfriend on the suspicion of plutonium smuggling. The man confessed to having taken several "contaminated cleaning cloths" and a small bottle filled with a substance he could not identify from the plant. He said his motive in taking the objects was to demonstrate how easy it was to get around the facility's security controls. A high level of plutonium, which is extremely toxic, was found in a urine sample taken from the man in March. The facility was informed of the test result June 20. An investigation of the suspects' apartment then revealed levels of alpha contamination -- caused by plutonium and americium exposure -- that were 600 times higher than acceptable. The couple's daughter also was highly contaminated. When the man learned of the results of his urine test, he told his girlfriend to get rid of the bottle and the cloths, reportedly fearing he would be sent "to the clink." The girlfriend then threw the bottle into bushes and dropped her boyfriend's contaminated clothing into a clothing donation box near Landau on July 6. The prosecutor said there were inconsistencies regarding the investigation of the girlfriend, in whose body cesium 137 gamma rays were discovered. The source of those rays could not be explained. Authorities also said there was no danger to the population of Landau. Over the weekend, German Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin, a member of Alliance 90/The Greens, said he expected a complete resolution of the matter: "If the suspicion proves true that radioactive material was stolen from a German nuclear plant, it may be assumed that there are serious defects in the facility's security system," he said. (ddp, AFP ) Jul. 16, 2001 © Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2000 ***************************************************************** 28 Bush-Cheney Energy Plan Fails to Protect Pennsylvania Consumers July 16, 2001 National and State Groups Fault Special Interest Policies PITTSBURGH -- Contrary to what Vice President Dick Cheney and Pennsylvania Republican politicians will tell people at an invitation-only "town hall" meeting in Pittsburgh today, the administration’s energy plan will harm the environment and consumers, two consumer advocacy organizations said today. The Bush-Cheney energy agenda benefits energy producers at the expense of consumers, according to Pittsburgh-based Citizen Powerand Washington, D.C.-based Public Citizen. The administration’s energy plan relies on old ideas and failed policies of the past. It has no price or blackout protections for electricity consumers. It suspends public health laws so power plants can increase emissions, subsidizes nuclear power and dirty coal, gives money for more oil drilling on public land, and reduces federal spending for renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. "Dick Cheney and Gov. Tom Ridge are abandoning consumers by promoting Bush’s energy plan," said David Hughes, executive director of Citizen Power. "Bush’s idea to suspend public health laws and replace local controls by expanding the federal government’s authority to build new coal and nuclear power plants will do nothing to alleviate the energy crisis. Real solutions require energy producers to sell electricity and other commodities to consumers at affordable rates, and investing in proven renewable energy and energy efficiency programs." Some elements of Bush’s energy plan already have proven to be faulty. In a May 29 speech to business executives, President Bush said, "We will not take any action that makes California's problems worse. And that's why I oppose price caps." But prices have plummeted and no rolling blackouts have occurred in California since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) enacted price controls. "President Bush was wrong to oppose price controls in California’s electricity market," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "Consumers have benefited from lower prices brought on by the increased government protection. The only negative impact of FERC’s price controls is that the three major California power producers, which contributed $1.5 million to the Bush-Cheney campaign and inauguration and the Republican National Committee in the last election cycle, can no longer pad their profits by price-gouging utilities and consumers." Dismissing price controls, Bush and Ridge insist that markets alone will solve states’ deregulation problems and point to Pennsylvania’s alleged deregulation success. But between April 1 and July 1, the number of Pennsylvania consumers using an alternative supplier dropped from 787,845 to 591,596. It was the sharpest quarterly drop since Pennsylvania deregulated its market in 1996 and indicates that rising prices on the uncompetitive wholesale market are resulting in little to no competition in the retail market. "There is not much to boast about in Pennsylvania’s electricity deregulation," Hughes said. "Customers have few choices, and the only rate reductions were instituted through regulation. The market has done nothing to produce electricity more affordably for Pennsylvanians." Citizen Power and Public Citizen also fault the Bush administration for its lack of commitment to renewable energy and energy efficiency. Bush claims that, in order to satisfy demand, we need to build 1,300 power plants over the next 20 years. But this claim is disputed by the president’s own Department of Energy, which states that if existing energy efficiency technologies were implemented, 690 new power plants would be needed over the next 20 years. Unfortunately, Bush has proposed to slash federal spending on energy efficiency measures and has proposed scaling back Clinton-era efficiency standards for certain appliances. "While administration officials use events like today’s in Pittsburgh to talk about energy efficiency, they are slashing federal budgets for these same programs," Hughes said. "We should be increasing investments in energy efficient technologies, not sinking billions more in taxpayer subsidies for dirty coal and dangerous nuclear power." While Bush speaks about the value of "state’s rights," his energy plan runs roughshod over state and local rights. Bush would limit the traditional purview of states and local governments to lay transmission lines by transferring this authority to the FERC. "Expanding the power of this obscure agency, FERC, to seize property for massive transmission lines goes against the last century of electricity planning in America," Hauter said. "Consumers and property owners are better served by having more, not less, control over energy planning decisions." Public Citizen Home Page ***************************************************************** 29 Radioactive Hazard Hits Home for Navajos The Salt Lake Tribune -- July 16, 2001 Members of an emergency environmental cleanup team in Monument Valley are checked for radiation after demolishing the radioactive contaminated hogan in the background. (Andrew Sowder) BY JUDY FAHYS MONUMENT VALLEY -- The appearance of men in white "spacesuits" one day last April made the surreal red rock landscape here look like a scene from a sci-fi thriller. The men, contractors for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, used a backhoe to demolish an old hogan in southeastern Utah's Monument Valley where Mary Holiday had raised her family. They wore the strange suits to protect against radiation from the uranium ore that was used to build the traditional Navajo home 40 years ago. Environmental officials have suspected for years that there are many more of these dangerously "hot" hogans on the vast Navajo Reservation. But lacking the mandate and the money to study how radiation has affected the people and their homes, they still do not know for sure. "If this were a house in the suburbs of Boston, this would have been a scandal," said Doug Brugge, a professor of community health at Tufts University Medical School. "People would have been outraged." For the Navajo people, unanswered questions remain a fact of life. Even with the debris gone from the desert hamlet where Holiday's hogan once stood, Elsie Mae Begay, worries about the radiation. Holiday's hogan was built in the late 1950s or early '60s and she and members of her family inhabited it for more than a decade. Begay, who is Holiday's niece and has assumed the squeaky-wheel role for the extended family, lived in it for three years with some of her eight children. Her youngest son has chest pains. Her youngest daughter has arthritis and anemia. And nearly everyone has head- aches, even the grandchildren, Begay says. She uses inhalers for lung problems. One son, Lewis, died at age 24. And her son, Lorenzo, who also lives in the hamlet, learned two months ago he might have lung cancer. "I don't really know what caused it," says Lorenzo, 39, a father of two who never smoked or worked in the mines. "I'm too young to get something like that." His mother shakes her head. "A lot of people don't know what's going on," she says. Many Navajos wonder why the U.S. government has not done more to help find answers. After all, it was Navajo land that supplied most of the nation's vanadium and uranium, essential raw materials for atomic weapons, and later produced uranium to fuel nuclear power plants. And it was thousands of Navajo miners who shoveled the ore from the ground and processed it into usable form. For atomic industry workers, the federal government offers aid through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. But there is no comprehensive health and safety program for those who simply live on the reservation. The Navajo Nation has been cobbling together information about uranium hazards on the reservation for more than 20 years. It has found about 1,150 abandoned uranium mines and given them priority according to how dangerous they are and how many people live nearby. The tribe has capped many. Contaminated animal shelters have been razed and the sites reclaimed. Less is known about traditional sweat lodges, hogans and newer homes that may have been constructed with radiation-rich materials. It used to be that no one thought twice about putting tailings dust in stucco or cutting blocks from easily shaped uranium ore. Why would they, when miners and millers worked all day in the stuff, usually without protective gear and often without ventilation, and the work was for the government? The mines peppered the reservation, which sprawls across an area roughly the size of West Virginia in Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. "It's a huge, complex problem," says one Navajo environmental official. Lives Tied to Uranium: Like thousands of other Navajos, the lives of Begay and her family are inexorably tied to uranium. Not only did they mine and mill, or live with miners and millers, they also drank water that contained mine runoff, breathed powdery tailings in desert winds and lived amid its contaminated byproducts. The cluster of buildings where Holiday, her family and the Begays live sits on the northwestern edge of Monument Valley, below the Oljato Mesa. About a football field away from their hamlet, a pale gray streak from runoff has bleached the red rock just below the Skyline Mine. The beguiling red buttes of Monument Valley, backdrops for the movies of Western legend John Wayne and director John Ford, were home, ranch and playground for Holiday and Begay when they were growing up. Like the late Happy and Willie Cly, who were Holiday's parents and Begay's grandparents, their faces became "Every Indian" depicted in the films, postcards and guidebooks featuring the world-famous tourist spot. Recently, the family was featured in a documentary, "Return of Navaho Boy," which weaves stories about uranium, cowboy-and-Indian Westerns and the Cly clan's reunion with an orphaned brother. Begay insists her family and neighbors never knew of the danger layered in the sandstone. "I didn't know this would harm us," said Begay, whose ex-husband would return home from a day in the uranium mines covered in white and yellow dust. Damage Unknown: Brugge, the Tufts professor, says it is too soon to say exactly how dangerous the family's radiation exposure has been. It would depend on what kind of radioactive material individuals were exposed to; how much time they spent in the high-radiation areas; whether they breathed it, ate it, drank it or absorbed penetrating gamma radiation; whether they had a child's fast-growing cells or a senior's long accumulation of radiation. Without that knowledge, it would be wrong to assume everyone will someday get lung cancer, genetic damage or other ailments associated with radiation, says Brugge, who grew up on the reservation as the son of an anthropologist. "The complete risk is not assessed at this point." At the same time, the uranium hogans do warrant immediate and thorough attention, he says. "What people are concerned about is highly plausible." The EPA began scrutinizing the radiation risk on the reservation in 1997, after Congress expanded an old coal mine reclamation law to include abandoned uranium mines. By examining maps of the uranium mines, the federal environmental officials pinpointed spots on the reservation that were likely to be contaminated. Specially equipped helicopters enabled them to take surface readings of radiation and plot high-radiation areas in red. Then they went back to the hot spots to test water and, whenever invited, to test hogans. By January 2000, they learned that 29 of the 227 water sources tested had levels of uranium higher than expected. Of the 27 hogans tested, two had levels high enough to concern the EPA's emergency response office, better known as Superfund. One "hot" hogan in New Mexico set off alarms. Holiday's home did, too. The hogan floor had penetrating gamma radiation up to 25 times higher than the level that triggers emergency action by the EPA. Radon levels also were high -- as much as 44 times higher than the EPA standard for homes. Sean Hogan, who oversees the EPA's Region 9 Superfund program, calls the radiation levels in the Holiday hogan "alarming." He says it was a relief the hogan had been used only for storage in recent years. Still, the agency made arrangements to raze it. "That family is by no means unique," says Theresa Coons, an epidemiologist who is working with the EPA, the Navajo EPA and others to develop a holistic approach to the reservation's radiation problem. The health and safety teams are providing medical screening and have put together workshops for tribal members to educate them about radiation and the risks they face, such as screening their homes for radon. Still, there are unanswered questions. How many homes are dangerous? How many water sources are threatened by mine leaching? What mine-waste piles pose a risk? Which problems must be tackled first? Hogan, the EPA administrator, says answers will take time. "With that little data, it's too hard to say how bad it is," he says. Meanwhile, Lorenzo Begay tries to figure out whether he has the health insurance to cover medical bills for lung cancer. He plans trips to the doctor, 100 miles away, and wonders whether he can scrape together a few hundred dollars to hire a medicine man to perform a healing ceremony for his hacking cough and fatigue. And his mother prays for her family every day at dawn, when the gods are said to be most attentive. fahys@sltrib.com © Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 30 NRC Monitors Ammonia Leak Near Waterford 3 Nuclear Plant Region IV -- 2001- 39 - UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 No. IV-01-039 July 16, 2001 CONTACT: Breck Henderson Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227 e-mail: bwh@nrc.gov The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staffed its incident response center in Arlington, Texas, last night to monitor response of Entergy Operations, Inc. to an ammonia leak from the Koch Nitrogen plant docks about one mile southeast of the utility's Waterford 3 nuclear power plant near Taft, La. Waterford 3 operators responded to the toxic gas leak at 9:58 p.m. Sunday by declaring an "alert," the second lowest in the NRC's four-level emergency response plan. They did so because of the potential hazard to plant operators and security personnel. In that heightened state of readiness, operators sealed the plant's control room and security personnel took up sheltered positions. The nuclear plant continued to operate at full power with no difficulties. There were no injuries to Waterford 3 personnel. The NRC decided to begin its monitoring activities at 11:12 p.m. The ammonia leak was under control by Koch personnel by about midnight, and the "alert" was terminated at 2 a.m. Monday. The NRC ended its monitoring activities at 2:15 a.m. ***************************************************************** 31 NRC to Meet with FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company to Discuss Performance at Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant Press Release - Region I - 2001-047 - UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 No. I-01-048 July 13, 2001 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610)337-5330/ e-mail: dps@nrc.gov Neil A. Sheehan (610)337-5331/e-mail: nas@nrc.gov Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold two meetings on Tuesday, July 17, to discuss the results of the agency's annual assessment of safety performance at the Millstone Units 2 and 3 nuclear power plants. Dominion Nuclear Connecticut Inc. operates the plants, which are located in Waterford, Conn. The first meeting, between NRC staff and representatives of Dominion Nuclear, is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in the Leland F. Sillin Jr. Training Center at the plant. Region I Administrator Hubert J. Miller will attend this meeting, which is open to the public for observation. The NRC will be available after the meeting to informally answer questions from the public. The assessment results will also be discussed at a meeting of the NRC and Connecticut's Nuclear Energy Advisory Council at 7 p.m. at Waterford Town Hall, on Rope Ferry Road in Waterford. Public comments will be accepted during the session. The performance period to be discussed is April 1, 2000, to March 31, 2001. Overall, the NRC found that Millstone Unit 2 operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety during the period. However, Millstone Unit 2 is currently designated by the NRC as a facility with a "degraded cornerstone." This designation is based on a performance indicator regarding the unavailability of the plant's high-pressure safety injection system and an inspection finding stemming from ineffective corrective actions for a turbine-driven auxiliary feedwater pump. Meanwhile, the NRC found that Millstone Unit 3 overall operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all cornerstone objectives. A letter sent from the NRC Region I office to Dominion Nuclear addresses the performance of both units during the period and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: www.nrc.gov/OPA/prr/millstone_eoc2001.pdf. Current performance information for Millstone Unit 2 is available on the NRC web site at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/MILL2/mill2_chart.html. The performance information for Millstone Unit 3 is available at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/MILL3/mill3_chart.html. ***************************************************************** 32 NRC Approves Power Uprate for Susquehanna Facility in Pennsylvania Press Release 2001 - 086 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA No. 01-086 July 13, 2001 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a request by Pennsylvania Power & Light Company to increase the generating capacity of the two Susquehanna nuclear power plants by 1.4 percent, or about 14 megawatts of electricity per unit. The power uprate at the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, located near Berwick, Pennsylvania, will increase the generating capacity of each unit to about 1,100 megawatts of electricity. The facility intends to implement the power increase for Unit 2 this month, and Unit 1 following the Spring 2002 refueling outage. The application for the increase in power was submitted to the NRC on October 30, 2000. The NRC's safety evaluation of the requested power uprate for the units focused on several areas, including nuclear steam supply systems, instrumentation and control systems, electrical systems, accident evaluations, radiological consequences, operations and technical specification changes. The NRC staff determined that the licensee could safely increase the power output of the two reactors with minor modifications to plant equipment and because of technical refinements that permit more precise measurements of reactor operating conditions. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Hanford to determine speed of radioactive plume transmission This story was published Sat, Jul 14, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer Hanford officials are trying to determine how fast a small highly radioactive underground plume from Hanford's northernmost waste tanks might reach a nearby faster-moving plume that's headed toward the Columbia River. CH2M Hill Hanford Group recently drilled a 260-foot borehole into the aquifer beneath Tank B-110 and plans to soon drill a similar hole at the BX-BY Tank Farms area, said Rick Raymond, CH2M Hill Hanford Group's vice president for projects. The holes will be used to sample ground water to determine how fast and far the one highly radioactive waste plume has spread. The B, BX, and BY Tanks Farms are bunched on the north side of the 200 East Area and include 40 single-shell tanks. Twenty of those tanks, including B-110, are suspected of leaking radioactive wastes. In 1998, Hanford confirmed that liquid wastes from those three tank farms had reached the underground aquifer. There also is a large fast-moving underground plume near that 40-tank cluster from "cribs" where huge volumes of mildly contaminated water were dumped into septic-tank-like fields. The small highly radioactive plume beneath the tank farms is believed to be only a few hundred yards from the huge, faster-moving plume that is headed toward the river. Once the plumes meet, Hanford officials believe, the slow-moving highly radioactive substances likely will speed up with the faster plume. Central Hanford has 53 million gallons of radioactive wastes in 149 single-shell and 28 safer double-shell tanks. Sixty-seven single-shell tanks are suspected of leaking. Subterranean Hanford is a patchwork of several dozen plumes from various sources that include more than 100 radioactive and hazardous substances. The plumes are moving at different speeds toward the aquifer, then to the Columbia River. Studies indicate the plumes contain at least 1 million gallons of highly radioactive wastes and 440 billiongallons of mildly contaminated fluids. Tank B-110 leaked at least 10,000 gallons of radioactive liquids into the ground before it was pumped out in 1984. Two leaking tanks, BY-105 and BY-106, remain in those three tank farms, and they are supposed to be pumped out by the end of this year, Raymond said. The liquids leaked from Tank B-110 include technetium 99, a highly radioactive substance with a half life of 212,000 years. That means it will take 2.12 million years to decay to a negligible level. Also, technetium 99 moves through ground water faster than most radioactive substances, which highlights concerns about it linking with a speedier plume. Drilling boreholes to sample and track underground waste is a slow, expensive undertaking. When the proposed hole is completed at the BY-BX Tank Farms area, Hanford will have drilled five boreholes in fiscal 2001. Five more -- at $500,000 to $1 million each -- are scheduled to be drilled in the 200 East and 200 West Areas in fiscal 2002. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights ***************************************************************** 2 Russian Sub Salvage Operation Begins Today: July 17, 2001 at 3:35:35 PDT ABOARD THE S.S. KLAVDIYA YELANSKAYA- Naval engineers using a remote-control, deep-sea vessel conducted exploratory work Tuesday at the site where the Kursk nuclear submarine sank, laying the groundwork for a two-month operation to raise the shattered ship. Seven ships including the Mayo, a Norwegian dive support ship, were at the site in the Barents Sea, about 93 miles away from the Russian Arctic port of Murmansk. They were joined Tuesday by an eighth ship, the Klavdiya Yelanskaya, carrying scores of journalists. The exploration vessel from the Mayo began radiation checks Sunday, taking samples from the water and sea bed, to make sure the area is safe for divers to begin the operation to raise the Kursk. The submarine exploded and sank on Aug. 12, 2000, during a training exercise in the Arctic waters off northern Russia, killing all 118 crewmen aboard. The operation to raise the submarine, which has two nuclear reactors and is believed to have unexploded torpedoes aboard, is scheduled to last through mid-September. Russia has maintained that no radiation has leaked from the wreck and says it is raising it to ensure it poses no future danger. But nuclear safety officials in nearby Norway have said the operation's tight schedule increases the risk of a nuclear accident in the Arctic. In Moscow, Russian Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said that regular monitoring over the past year had shown no increased levels of radioactivity. "We have seriously addressed the ecological aspect in the technical project of the operation," he said in an interview on NTV television. Dygalo said that the unmanned vessel had mapped out the site where the Kursk lies. "The maps show in detail the situation 50 meters (100 feet) around the submarine," he said. "Naturally, water and soil samples have been taken to check for radioactivity." Meanwhile, Russian naval aviation chief Ivan Fedin said Tuesday that his pilots had spotted several foreign "underwater objects" trying to approach the Kursk and pointed them out to Russian Navy ships, which drove them out, the Interfax news agency reported. Fedin wouldn't identify the objects or their countries of origin. Russian officials hope raising the Kursk will enable them to learn more about the cause of the explosions and recover the remains of more of the crewmen. Only 12 were recovered during a salvage operation last fall. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 3 Countdown to raising the Kursk Pravda.RU Jul, 16 2001 It is within a few yours that divers are to start their work on the recovery of the Kursk nuclear submarine crashed last year as a result of an apparent powerful explosion (the causes of which are still unknown), resting on the bed of the Barents Sea. Earlier, the Norwegian research vessel arrived at the site. Immediately on arrival, specialists checked the environment at the site, then remote-controlled video cameras were sent down to the Kursk. By now, a new footage is available of the sub lying at the depth of just over 100m. The checks have shown the background radiation being normal in the area making up 6-11 microrentgen per hour, that is, not more than the natural background. Chemical contamination also was not detected. So, it looks like the divers will not be endangered so far, at least, as concerns those hazards. First of all, the divers are to examine the Kursk and remove silt deposits on its hull. To start with, the specialists will use remote-controlled robots which are to cut off the sub’s mutilated head stuffed with torpedoes. Then major compartments are to be lifted, the entire operation to take some 10h. Rear Admiral Gennadi Verich from aboard the Mayo vessel. The weather has been favourable so far for the operation, the air temperature being 10 degrees Celsius, the water temperature, +4 degrees. RIA 'Novosti' ***************************************************************** 4 Lab to give update on landfill plan IdahoStatesman.com July 15, 2001 INEEL would put waste from cleanup at site into facility The Associated Press IDAHO FALLS -- The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory is updating the public on a new landfill that would accept about 26,000 truckloads of contaminated soil and debris from cleanup jobs at the site. When plans were announced three years ago, farmers and nuclear watchdogs voiced concerns about burying chemicals and radioactivity above the aquifer that is the source of drinking water for about a quarter of a million people. With 30 percent of the facility now designed, the U.S. Department of Energy is conducting a public meeting next week to explain how it will work. The landfill, which would operate for 30 years, will accept soil and debris contaminated with low-level radioactivity or toxic substances from cleanup jobs around the INEEL. To protect groundwater supplies, the Energy Department will limit how much pollution goes into the landfill, officials said. They are calculating what quantities of chemicals might pose a threat to the Snake River Plain Aquifer. The 8-acre landfill also will have a clay liner and a system for collecting any contaminated liquid that seeps through the waste. It is scheduled to open in 2003. But nuclear opponents remain critical. And the Government Accounting Office recently recommended that the Energy Department reevaluate the costs of disposing of its waste at existing private sites before building new landfills. The May report also said a number of assumptions have changed -- from the amounts of waste needing disposal to declining costs at private facilities -- since decisions were made to build cleanup landfills at the INEEL and two other Energy Department sites. The INEEL already is revising cost estimates from three years ago, said Talley Jenkins, a waste area manager for the Energy Department's Idaho Operations Office. Since then, the amount of radioactive waste slated for the new landfill has increased about 3 percent. But because the INEEL has reduced the landfill's overall size, the costs of burying the waste on the desert also have declined to about $140 million, Jenkins said. That would be more than $460 million cheaper than sending it to a private dump off the site, according to the General Accounting Office's numbers. The state will agree to the landfill if it meets environmental laws and does not threaten the aquifer, said Kathleen Trever, director of the state's INEEL oversight program. The state has agreed to the concept because the pollution already is sitting above the aquifer. Trever said putting it in a lined landfill is better, and federal Superfund law calls for keeping waste from cleanup jobs on already-contaminated sites whenever possible. ***************************************************************** 5 Salvage team 'well prepared' BBC News | EUROPE | Tuesday, 17 July, 2001, 11:57 GMT 12:57 UK The Kursk's two nuclear reactors are still on board By Caroline Wyatt in the Barents Sea The crew held a minute's silence on board the ship as we approached the site of the Kursk. The Mayo is now above the wrecked submarine On top of the rough grey waters of the Barents Sea, two orange buoys float to mark where the wreckage lies, 100m below. Above it is the British-based ship, the Mayo, with 25 British and Russian divers on board. Tests of the waters have shown normal radiation levels. There are still two nuclear reactors on board the Kursk. At a press conference from one of the Russian destroyers in the area, the vice-admiral in charge of the operation, Mikhail Motsak, said the salvage team was well prepared. So far, he said, no unexploded torpedoes had been found, so he believes it will soon be safe to begin cutting off the badly damaged front section of the Kursk. The vice-admiral said Russia owed it to the submariners who lost their lives on the Kursk to bring their bodies back to land for a decent burial. He said the Kursk itself, or at least the back section containing the nuclear reactors, posed a serious environmental hazard that must be removed. But the reasons behind the dramatic sinking of the Kursk could remain a mystery until at least next year. The front section, where the unexplained explosions ripped through the submarine, will remain on the sea-bed until then, to be brought up by Russian naval divers alone. ***************************************************************** 6 Downwinder archives closed to new additions Monday, July 16, 2001 By JOHN K. WILEY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SPOKANE -- Jay Mullan, Trishia Pritikin and Steve Corker all spent their childhoods in the path of radiation emissions from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Now they and hundreds of others are linked through contributions of health histories and other personal information to a one-of-a-kind archive created specifically for them. And all three are dismayed that the government no longer funds the Hanford Health Information Archives. When it opened in July 1996, the archives became the nation's first public collection of information created to document the personal experiences and health records of people exposed to radiation releases from an Energy Department weapons-making site. On June 29, the collection housed in the basement of Gonzaga University's Foley Library closed to new acquisitions because funding ran out. The archives will remain open to researchers and the public through the library's William H. Cowles III Rare Books Library. That displeases many of the more than 650 people -- called Hanford Downwinders -- who contributed to the archives and would like to add more data. Many blame Rep. Richard "Doc" Hastings, R-Wash., whose district includes the Hanford reservation. "If Doc Hastings and his colleagues were willing to be honest, they would provide us the funding we deserve," said Pritikin, a leader of the Hanford Downwinders. Reopening the archives would "at least allow downwinders to reflect how big the health exposures were." Hastings' spokesman Todd Young said the congressman had "never been contacted by anybody with this request. Frankly, we're mystified. We've never heard anything of this subject." As many as 2 million people may have been exposed to radiation released from Manhattan Project and Cold War plutonium-making operations at Hanford, a 560-square-mile government reservation. The biggest releases occurred during start-up in 1944-45, but continued until 1972. During that time, Northwest residents also were exposed to fallout from nuclear weapons tests in Russia, China and the Nevada Test Site. The archives were a project of the Hanford Health Information Network, a public-health information agency funded by the Energy Department through health departments and nine Indian tribes in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Federal funds for the network ran out in July 2000, but the archives were able to use some leftover cash to operate for another year. The archives contain medical health surveys, photographs, poetry, oral-history tapes, high school yearbooks and class photographs submitted by 651 people and organizations. Mullan was an infant living at the Farragut Naval Training Base, where his father was stationed in northern Idaho in 1944-45, when operations at Hanford reactors and plutonium plants released hundreds of thousands of curies of radiation into the atmosphere. Prevailing winds moved the Hanford contaminants as far away as Idaho, where Mullan believes he was exposed to radiation that damaged his thyroid. While attending college in Oregon, Mullan suffered a paralyzing condition that forced the removal of his thyroid gland. The cause of his thyroid problem was unknown until 1986, when thousands of pages of historical documents about early operations at Hanford were released, Mullan said. They showed massive releases from Hanford as the nation raced to make nuclear materials for the atomic bombs used on Japan at the end of World War II. "I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time," Mullan said. The Southern Oregon University history professor said the archives were supposed to become, "ultimately, the repository of our story. Many said, 'I suffered. But if by telling my story, I can save others from suffering. ...'" Mullan, who wears a "Hanford necklace" -- a thyroidectomy scar that distinguishes many of the downwinders whose diseased thyroid glands were removed -- said there is cynicism about the government's motives. "The fact that there is even an archives at all, closed as it is, is the best thing we could have hoped for," he said. "They kept us preoccupied -- like a pack of hungry dogs with a greasy, knotted rag to gnaw on -- while they went ahead and did their own thing." Pritikin was born in 1950 in Richland, the closest city to Hanford, where her father was an engineer and her mother also was employed. Believing that Hanford releases damaged her health and left her with thyroid disease, Pritikin submitted her medical records, as well as her father's. The archive, through its oral-history section, has the only remaining recording of her late mother's voice, Pritikin said. Pritikin contends the government wanted the archives closed to keep the public in the dark. "This is very much reminiscent of what happened to us at Hanford," Pritikin said. "We were never informed we were being exposed. We haven't received any help. I think they are just waiting for us to all die and shut up." The archives could serve as a place of healing for families who lost loved ones to cancer, as well as to preserve records, said Pritikin, a Berkeley, Calif., attorney. "We've lost relatives and haven't had any healing process, and that was supposed to be our place," she said. The decision to close the archives to additional contributions cheats the downwinders and others who may want to use it in the future, Pritikin said. "When you look at an archive, you want it to reflect reality as best it can," Pritikin said. "What's happened will freeze this collection so it will never fully reflect what happened at Hanford and elsewhere." Corker was a child on a farm near Walla Walla, about 50 miles southwest of Hanford, from 1941-1953. As one of about 32,000 to 34,000 children under 5 living in the critical area of high exposure, Corker believes the 14 operations he has had for bone cysts, spurs, melanoma and skin cancers could have been caused by Hanford releases. "I'm just one of those people," said Corker, a Spokane City councilman, radio talk-show host and Gonzaga University business professor. "I don't know if that was one of those factors, but it is one reason I contributed to the archive." A picture of his third-grade class at a Walla Walla elementary school and copies of insurance claims for his illnesses were among the items that Corker contributed. "I just wanted to contribute so we would have some understanding of the impact on that age group. We drank goats' and cows' milk that was not processed," he said. "It was the highest-risk group. To give researchers, or even historians, some idea why rates of cancer are so high. "I don't know if you can glean a cause and effect, but it raises the question of why it happened to me." Corker, 60, the archives' former public information officer and advisory board member, is disappointed that the archives are now closed. "I think it's ridiculous to think the archive would have a life of five years," he said. "I'm greatly disappointed by the lack of interest by the federal government and the Department of Energy." The former archives advisory board members in 1998 formed the Radiochemical Health Effects Archives, a non-profit organization, to try to raise funds to continue adding to the archives. Gonzaga agreed to house the archives, in acid-free paper boxes along one wall of movable shelving, using existing library staff. "It is unique in that it is not a purely scientific collection; it's more a personal recollection," Eileen Bell-Garrison, Gonzaga's dean of library services, said recently at Foley Library. "These are rare materials. They can't be replaced." [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to newmedia@seattle-pi.com ©1999-2001 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 7 Banning outdoor grills at nuclear weapons plant Redding.com - Tuesday, July 17, 2001 | Clear, 76°F Frank Munger Scripps Howard News Service OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - Building bombs and burning burgers apparently don't mix, and officials plan to crack down on "unauthorized kitchens" at the Department of Energy's Y-12 nuclear weapons plant here. About 100 cooking facilities - featuring stoves or outdoor grills - were found at sites throughout the sprawling Y-12 complex, posing a "potentially serious" health and safety hazard. That's according to a memo this week from John Mitchell, general manager of BWXT, the federal contractor. "The use of this type of cooking equipment presents a risk that we as a company are unwilling to accept," Mitchell said. BWXT replaced Lockheed Martin as manager of the warhead factory last November and pledged it would make safety the No. 1 priority at a plant beset by accidents, including a major chemical explosion in late 1999. Mitchell said BWXT cannot regulate activities at all these cooking areas and ensure that equipment is in working order or that combustible materials are being kept at a safe distance. Also, without inspections, the "appropriate cleanliness" cannot be enforced, he said. The Oak Ridge plant was constructed during the World War II Manhattan Project and produces parts for every atomic weapon in the U.S. arsenal. The complex in Bear Creek Valley near Knoxville, in east Tennessee, includes more than 500 buildings, many of them in deteriorated condition, and the government has proposed a multibillion-dollar modernization of facilities. Y-12 currently employs about 4,200 workers. "In order to adequately protect the health and safety of our employees, the operation of these unauthorized kitchens must be eliminated," Mitchell wrote in the staff memo. BWXT has announced that all kitchens and "food-preparation equipment" not operated by the plant's Food Services Department will be prohibited, effective Aug. 31. (Contact Frank Munger of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at http://www.knoxnews.com.) © 2001 Record Searchlight - The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Jet fuel dismissed as leukemia cause July 16, 2001 Nevada, federal officials investigate Fallon cluster By Mary Manning LAS VEGAS SUN Nevada health officials and the Navy said last week they have not discovered any environmental link between 14 cases of childhood leukemias in Fallon, 60 miles east of Reno, and jet fuel used at the neighboring naval air station. The state has joined federal health investigators in an intense effort to track down the cause of leukemia that has occurred in children between 2 and 19 years of age who live or once lived in Fallon. "We have no evidence that jet fuel or jet fuel byproducts have gotten into the environment and caused this," state Health Officer Dr. Mary Guinan said on Friday. "All of the evidence so far is negative." Nevada environmental officials and the owner of the fuel pipeline that runs through Fallon to the naval station have flown over it, walked along it and photographed it. Researchers are crawling along 15 miles of the pipeline with air samplers and monitors in an effort to detect leaks the size of pinholes. "We're getting a pretty comprehensive picture of this pipeline," state epidemiologist Randall Todd said. Last month Nevada Division of Environmental Protection researchers walked 3 1/2 miles of the pipe, looking for any signs of disturbed plants, erosion or leaks leaving spots in nearby soils, Verne Rosse of the division said. Then the state videotaped and scanned the pipe with infrared cameras, Rosse said, still finding nothing. Kinder Morgan, owner of the pipeline, has hired a Tucson, Ariz., consultant to inspect the line inch by inch for 15 miles, said Eugene Braithwaite, operations director for Kinder Morgan. An inert tracer has been injected into the line and a crew with a small sled holding air monitors had started walking the 15 miles on Thursday, he said. A final report is due at the end of the month. "This will detect only current leaks, only an active leak," Braithwaite said. No jet fuel has been found in ground water samples or city water samples taken in Fallon, Todd said. The Navy has also tested the water and reviewed 12 million medical records of current and former personnel working at the Fallon Naval Air Station, spokeswoman Anne McMillan said. There was no evidence of fuel in the water and no childhood leukemia cases, she said. Federal investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta are arriving in Fallon this week to ensure local laboratories are ready, that there is enough dry ice to cool biological and environmental samples and that the samples can be shipped to Atlanta in time for researchers to investigate them properly. "It is a process of elimination in these investigations," Todd said. "Some people would like to see this investigation moving faster. So would we. At the end of the investigation with the best science, we may not know what caused this cluster." The 14th leukemia case was added to the cluster in May. "We are hoping every case case will be the last one," Guinan said. "We can't finish the investigation until the cluster is over. We don't know when it will be over." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 9 NZ Observers At Nuclear Weapon Tests Press Release by New Zealand Government at 10:48am, 15th July 2001 NEW ZEALAND OBSERVERS AND INDOCTRINEES AT NUCLEAR WEAPON TESTS: 1956-1958 Introduction In the first years of the nuclear age New Zealand supported the development of atomic and later thermonuclear weapons by its allies the United States of America and Great Britain. Consistent with this policy the New Zealand Armed Forces became involved in nuclear weapon testing. In 1952 Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft based at Whenuapai assisted with the monitoring of radioactive fallout from the first British atomic bomb test, which was conducted off the northwest coast of Australia in October. As part of the fallout monitoring programme for the British tests in Australia, Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel in Fiji collected rain-water samples. A small RAF detachment carried out the same task at RNZAF Base Ohakea. Maralinga 1956: Operation Buffalo and the Indoctrinee Force Early in 1956 the New Zealand Chiefs of Staff learned that the British and Australian Governments planned to send a large group of observers to the atomic weapon tests to be held at Maralinga in Australia, which had the codename Operation Buffalo. Although the term 'observer' was used in the initial correspondence, the New Zealand authorities knew that any personnel sent to take part in this programme would do more than simply observe the detonation of atomic bombs. The New Zealand Chiefs of Staff considered that it would be useful for New Zealand to send a group of observers who would "see and hear the atomic explosion and go back to their units able to pass on first-hand information of their experience." The Chiefs of Staff asked the British military authorities if New Zealand could send up to 20 personnel from all three services to the test programme. The number of observers who could attend the tests was limited, but the British authorities agreed to reduce the number of their observers so that five New Zealanders could take part. Because land-based atomic tests were of most importance to the Army, it was decided to send three observers from the Army, and one each from the Royal New Zealand Navy and Royal New Zealand Air Force. The New Zealand military authorities received additional information in August 1956 about the objectives of the operation and the tasks to be undertaken by the five officers sent to the Buffalo tests. The officers were to join the Indoctrinee Force (IF) and gain experience of the effects of nuclear explosions, especially on weapons and equipment. This experience would then be passed on to their colleagues. Before the test took place, they were to receive instruction on the purpose of the programme and how it was to be conducted. The New Zealand authorities were also informed that all the officers would be "subject to radiation hazard." The Indoctrinee Force was a British Army initiative. The initial War Office paper on the subject noted that: "there are at present practically no British Army officers who have any conception of what an atomic explosion is like, whereas the Americans have already made use of atomic tests to indoctrinate whole formations of troops. We must at least make a start in battle indoctrination with some of our future regimental and formation commanders". zFive suitable officers were selected for the operation: Commander Logan Boyce Carey, RNZN, Lieutenant Colonel William Richard Kimmit (Kim) Morrison, DSO, Lieutenant Colonel John (Blackie) Burns, DSO, MBE, Major Peter Hulbert Glenn Hamilton and Flight Lieutenant Roger Hetherington Peart. Three of the officers (Carey, Hamilton and Peart) had science degrees, while Morrison, who was Director of Infantry and Training, and Burns, who was Director of Artillery, held positions at Army Headquarters that were central to the introduction of any new training programmes designed to take account of the use of atomic weapons. The involvement of the New Zealand officers in the tests was approved by Thomas Macdonald, the Minister of Defence, in June 1956. The One Tree test, 27 September 1956 The five New Zealand officers arrived at Maralinga in South Australia on 28 August 1956. The Indoctrinee Force received lectures from British experts on a wide range of topics related to the testing programme including blast, genetics, nuclear physics, heat effects and decontamination. An important part of the test was the positioning at different distances from ground zero (the point on the ground surface at, or directly below, the initiating point of a nuclear explosion) of 'target response items': various structures, military equipment and weapons (including tanks and aircraft), dummies dressed in military uniforms and live animals. The purpose of this part of the operation was to obtain good data on the effects of atomic explosions. All five observed the first test in the series, which was codenamed One Tree, at 1700 hours on 27 September 1956. The members of the Indoctrinee Force stood about 8.2 kilometres from ground zero. This test involved the detonation of a 15-kiloton atomic bomb mounted on top of a 100-foot [30 metre] tower. Five minutes before the detonation the indoctrinees were instructed to face away from the tower. At the moment of detonation there was "a brilliant flash", and "everything went quite white and dazzling." The flash was accompanied by a heatwave which Lieutenant Colonel Burns likened to the effect "you get when you open the oven door on the Sunday Roast". The officers were instructed to turn around two seconds after the detonation. They witnessed the "final stages of the fireball and subsequent development of the typical mushroom cloud". On 28 and 29 September the Indoctrinee Force was divided up into parties of 14 each led by a well briefed officer to examine the area around ground zero and in particular the blast's effect on the military equipment, weapons and other target response items. For this part of the operation the indoctrinees and the other personnel who accompanied them were dressed in full protective clothing and respirators (cotton underclothes combination, white closely-woven cotton protective suit, complete with hood, white rubber boots, respirator, white cotton gloves). The first group of indoctrinees entered the target response area around ground zero 17 hours after the detonation. Each group of indoctrinees was accompanied by a 'Health Escort' drawn from the testing organisation's radiation safety team who was equipped with a 1324 radiation dose rate survey meter and two pocket quartz-fibre dosimeters and checked radiation levels during the tour. All members of the Indoctrinee Force carried film badges. They examined the circular area around ground zero which had become a mass of fused sand and silica and various target response items. The tours lasted about two and a half hours. The personnel were then decontaminated at a decontamination centre. "Each indoctrinee was first monitored with contamination meters for clothing contamination levels. After the check all clothing was removed and a second check made for skin contamination. This was followed by a shower and then a final check by a sensitive Geiger counter to ensure complete decontamination." After the first test Commander Carey and Lieutenant Colonel Morrison returned to New Zealand. The Contaminated Clothing Trial The Atomic Weapons Establishment report on the Indoctrinee Force states that 18 of the force's officers volunteered on 30 September to join six members of the War Office Radiac User Trials Team who were "to carry out tests on the protective value of various types of clothing for military activities in the fall-out zone". The report of the Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in Australia also describes the men from Indoctrinee Force who took part in this trial as volunteers. The New Zealand officers involved certainly did not sign any document stating that they had volunteered to take part in this trial. Given the circumstances and the general way in which such matters were handled at this time, it would have been unusual for them to have been asked to signify their agreement in writing. Lieutenant Colonel Burns remarked not long after the tests that "I was invited along with others to don respirator and protective clothing and join in the clothing trials." More recently Burns has made the point that he and the other officers were representing New Zealand, and he believed that they should be represented in as full as possible range of activities during the testing operation. Peart has similar views remarking that he was one of "a number of officers all of whom were representing a regiment, either British, Australian, and just we five New Zealanders and I don't remember ever being asked if we would like to go into a fallout area or anything like that. It was just part of the duty we had to carry out." The contaminated clothing trial, which took place on 30 September, investigated how much protection three types of protective clothing gave compared with standard military clothing. The details of the clothing to be worn by the men engaged in the trial and the activities they were to undertake our set out in the following extract from a memorandum to the Indoctrinee Force Commander: Three groups of 8 men each, wearing respectively: a. Battle dress serge (2) b. Gabardine Combat suit (2) c. Cotton Khaki drill (2) d. AWRE Combination suits (2) [In each group two men wore each sort of outfit, types A, B, C, D.] All operate in a fall-out area on D1+3 in the following way: a. Group I will drive through the area seated in a one-ton vehicle. b. Group II will drive to a certain point, debus and march through the area, embus and drive home. c. Group III will drive to the same point, debus and proceed through the area marching, crawling and forcing a way through the undergrowth, embus and drive home. Dress Type A Battledress, battle order, boots, anklets web, cotton gloves, towels used as kerchiefs and head covering, Service respirators. Type B Combat suit including hood, battle order, rubber boots and calf-length overshoes, cotton gloves and Service respirators. Type C Khaki drill with bush jacket worn tucked into trousers, battle order, rubber boots and calf-length overshoes, towels used as kerchiefs and head covering, Service respirators. Type D AWRE [Atomic Weapons Research Establishment] Combination suits with rubber boots and overshoes, cotton gloves and Service respirators. All types will wear AWRE combination underwear. Personnel Six members of the War Office Radiac User Trials Team will wear Type A clothing and act as Health escorts. Eighteen members of the Indoctrinee Force will be required to wear Types, B, C and D clothing. The two New Zealanders involved in the trial, Burns and Peart, were dressed in 'Type D' clothing. Peart's comments about his involvement in this experiment strongly indicate that he was a member of Group II. It seems clear that Burns was a member of Group III as shortly after returning to New Zealand he remarked that the group he was a member of "marched and crawled along a dirt track for about an hour occasionally being showered with dust from a vehicle which was driven past for that very purpose. I don't think we went closer than 1/2 [a] mile from GZ across the wind". At the completion of the trial, the officers were decontaminated and the doses of radiation they had received were checked by monitoring staff. Apparently it proved impossible "to contaminate the clothing sufficiently for the purpose of the trial". The Marcoo Test, 4 October 1956 The remaining New Zealand officers (Burns, Hamilton and Peart) were amongst the 98 Indoctrinee Force officers selected to participate in the second test of the Buffalo series. The role of this group is set out in the following extract from the Atomic Weapons Establishment report on the Indoctrinee Force: a. Work out for themselves the likely effects of a surface burst of an assumed 4 kton yield, using known scaling laws. b. Carry out a TEWT (Tactical Exercise Without Troops) in the area around Marcoo, the aim being to assess the results of such a weapon bursting in a battalion position . . . c. Discuss, by syndicates, six tactical problems relating to the use of the 4 kton weapon . . . d. Experience some of the actual effects of the Round 2 explosion in three different environments: (i) Twenty-four officers, in four groups of 6, to be installed in field shelters with overhead cover, at a distance not nearer than one mile. (ii) Four officers to be installed in a "closed-down" armoured fighting vehicle placed on the surface at the same distance, and head-on to ground zero. (iii) The remainder, 70 officers, to stand in the open under conditions similar to those experienced at North Base on Round 1. The second test, which was code-named Marcoo, took place at 1700 hours on 4 October. It involved the detonation of a 1.5-kiloton atomic bomb at ground level to get information "about cratering and ground-shock effects". According to the Royal Commission the indoctrinees witnessed the explosion from a viewing stand about 3200 yards [2926 metres] from ground zero, from a Centurion tank and a series of covered shelters located 2000 yards [1829 metres] from ground zero. In his report, however, Peart states that the Centurion tank and covered shelters were about 1600 yards [1463 metres] from ground zero and that the rest of the indoctrinees observed the test from the open about 2300 yards [2103 metres] from ground zero. Major Hamilton was in one of the covered shelters, while the other New Zealanders observed the test from the open. The explosion was marked by a "brilliant flash", but no fireball was visible because of "the dust cloud surrounding the explosion. Little heat was felt. A distorted mushroom cloud formed… The shockwave, as felt by the indoctrinees, was much more pronounced than in Round one and was uncomfortably intense". Peart noted in his report that the indoctrinees "in the underground shelters estimated that an earth movement of approximately 1½ inches longitudinally and in the vertical plane at 1600 yards from ground zero". It appears that Major Hamilton may have been near the entrance to his shelter when the detonation took place. After the explosion the indoctrinees were able to observe the area around the explosion from a tower located about 1600 yards [1463 metres] from ground zero. Radiation Dosages In December 1956, the New Zealand defence liaison staff in Melbourne passed on data that they had received about the radiation dosages received by the five New Zealand members of the Indoctrinee Force after the first Hurricane test. They noted that the "dosage was recorded by film badges. The response of the film first used was such that an accurate reading below .4r [roentgen] was not practicable. In consequence first readings are shown as 'less than .4r'. Readings for subsequent exposures are shown with greater accuracy." The principal potential hazard to personnel involved in nuclear weapon tests comes "from the external irradiation of the body by gamma rays". The main way of recording exposure to gamma radiation at the Maralinga test site was for personnel to wear film badges "at all relevant times and places". The film badges used were "based on the normal package for dental x-rays but with different photographic emulsions". The film sat in a brass holder and was also able to measure exposure to beta radiation. The radiation dosage information given to the New Zealand authorities is set out below: Dosages : New Zealand Personnel Attending Buffalo Test, Maralinga 1956 No. Name Unit Date - Cdr L.B. Carey RNZN/LO Melbourne less than .4r 30041 Lt Col W.R.K. Morrison AHQ Wellington New Zealand less than .4r 30055 Lt Col J. Burns AHQ Wellington New Zealand less than .4r +.04r on D1+3* 30535 Maj P.H.G. Hamilton HQ Cmd Buckle St Wellington New Zealand Less than .4r 73501 Flt Lt R.H. Peart RNZAF Station, Wigram, New Zealand Less than .4r +.07r on D1+3* * D1+3 means 30 September clothing trial — D-day means day of detonation (for more than one detonation in the same series they were designated D1-day, D2-day, etc.) See Royal Commission, vol. 2, Appendix A, I-2. This data is identical to the information contained in the Atomic Weapons Establishment report AWE T1/95, 'Operation Buffalo: Personal Details for Indoctrinee Force and Support Staff''. The men involved in the contaminated clothing trial received very low doses of radiation with Burns receiving .04r and Peart .07r on top of the doses they had received during their earlier tour around the site of the explosion. The New Zealand authorities were not, it seems, sent any information about the radiation doses received by our officers at the second Buffalo test. The Atomic Weapons Establishment report AWE T1/95, however, contains the following information about dosages received by the New Zealand members of the Indoctrinee Force during their service at Maralinga: RADIOLOGICAL DETAILS FOR THE NEW ZEALAND INDOCTRINEES IF No., Rank &Name Round 1 Activities Round 2 Activities Total Dose Reported (r) Remarks on Individual Doses Film Badge No. Recorded Dose (r) Film Badge No. Recorded Dose (r) D1+1/ D1+2 D1+3 ? Lt Col Burns 90126 123 Cdr Carey, LB 90123 127 Maj Hamilton 90127 122 Lt Col Morrison 90122 134 Flt Lt Peart 90134 All three New Zealanders were recorded as having received a radiation dose of .03r. In a report on the test, the head of the Maralinga health physics organisation at the second test (Round 2) noted that "the dose for Round 2 [Marcoo] was negligible, but to be safe .03 (point zero three) roentgens should be added where appropriate". The table below is also taken from the AWE report T1/95 and shows that only a few members of the Indoctrinee Force received close to the 3 roentgens which had been set as the maximum safe dose for the operation: INDOCTRINEE FORCE: TOTAL DOSE STATISTICS Doses (r) UKIF AIF NZIF TOTALS 0 to 0.1 to 0.2 to 0.3 to 0.4 to 0.5 to 0.6 to 0.7 to 0.8 to Doses (r) UKIF AIF NZIF TOTALS Higher Doses 1.0 to 1.1 to 1.3 to 1.4 to 2.1 to 2.2 to 2.3 to 2.6 to GRAND TOTALS 177 86 5 268 The Scientific Director of the National Radiation Laboratory, Dr Andrew McEwan, has noted that "the T1/95 report indicates that the accumulated doses received by the five New Zealanders were all ' An Unofficial Observer at the Breakaway Test, 21 October 1956 In October 1956 arrangements were made with the Royal Air Force by the New Zealand Joint Services Liaison Staff in Melbourne for an RNZAF representative to observe the fourth and final test in the Buffalo series, which was codenamed Breakaway. The officer selected for this task, Wing Commander Ivan Reid Mitchell, DFC, was an unofficial observer at the test, and this is probably the reason why his attendance at the test has not been generally known. The test took place just after midnight very early on 22 October. The weapon being tested was detonated at the top of a 100 [30 metre] foot tower and had an estimated yield of less than 16 kilotons. Mitchell and the other observers were at an observation point on a slight rise about six miles (9.65 km) from the test weapon. They stood with their backs to the blast with their eyes closed. Three seconds after the explosion they were allowed to turn around. Mitchell reported that: On facing of the firing area, the glowing fireball could be observed extending up to and apparently through the cloud base. Sufficient light was still either being directly emitted from the fireball or refracted from the cloud to illuminate the country side [sic]. Trees and buildings stood out in sharp relief. The fireball appeared to surge and heave and after an indeterminate time, which may have lasted 10/20 seconds, it died away. The incipient stem of the mushroom cloud could be clearly seen but the low cloud precluded observation of the mushroom phenomenon. About 30 minutes after the explosion, Mitchell was allowed to enter the forward area around the ground zero in the company of a British scientist, E.R. Drake Seager. Before entering this area, they stopped at a health control post and were issued with a dosemeter. They traveled round the forward area in a Land Rover for almost an hour in a zone 1500 yards [1372 metres] to 700 yards [640 metres] from ground zero. When they left the forward area, the total dose of radiation recorded on the dosemeter was 1.1 roentgen. New Zealand Observers at Maralinga, 1957 In August 1957 New Zealand was invited by the British Government, with the agreement of the Australian Government, to send two observers to one of the explosions in the atomic weapon test series codenamed Antler. The tests were scheduled to begin the following month at Maralinga. The Chiefs of Staff decided to send only one officer from New Zealand, Captain Graeme Stewart McNaughton, a member of the New Zealand Defence Scientific Corps. McNaughton had a doctorate in radiation chemistry from Leeds University and was attached to the Nuclear Sciences Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). As part of his work with the DSIR, McNaughton had been involved in establishing a network of radioactive fallout stations in New Zealand and the Pacific islands. The DSIR believed that McNaughton would be able to pick up much useful information through discussions with officials at Maralinga. This information they considered would be "of extreme value in our own evaluation of the radiation hazards to our Island Dependencies from the Pacific A Bomb Testing Programme". The other New Zealand observer was a member of the New Zealand liaison staff in Melbourne, Lieutenant Colonel Dennis Alfred Caughley. The approval of the Minister of Defence was, it seems, obtained shortly after the decision to send the observers was made. The two New Zealand officers were part of a very large group of observers, which included military personnel and scientists from a wide range of countries with which Britain had defence ties including Norway, France, Italy, Iraq, Turkey and Pakistan. The observer group were flown from Adelaide to Maralinga to witness the second test (codenamed Biak) in the series, which was at 1000 hours on 25 September 1957. They witnessed the detonation of an approximately six kiloton device, which had been placed at the top of a 100 foot [30 metre] tower. The observer group were stationed about nine miles [14.5 kilometres] from ground zero. They stood with their backs to the blast and had their eyes closed. McNaughton reported that "the light flash was distinctly visible through closed eyelids. At the same time the heat wave was felt like a hot wind on the back of the neck for about a second…. The noise of the explosion arrived after 37 seconds but the blast was not felt". About three or four seconds after the explosion, the observers were allowed to turn around and face the blast. "The rapidly cooling fireball could be distinguished though largely shrouded by the cloud of radioactive bomb debris which was beginning to condense. The subsequent cloud development was typical of a low air burst." After the test, McNaughton briefly visited the "forward test area" which was closer to ground zero and the sites of earlier tests. The information gathered by the New Zealand personnel who took part in the British nuclear weapon tests in Australia was passed on to their colleagues in the New Zealand Armed Forces through reports, presentations and participation in seminars. Other New Zealanders at Maralinga A number of other New Zealand military personnel visited Maralinga at some time between 1955 and 1966 as they are listed as receiving one of the identity cards required for all personnel visiting or employed at the Maralinga test site. The identity cards material is in the form of a card index now held by the National Archives of Australia in Canberra. Some people who were security cleared, but who did not actually visit the test site are included in the card index. A total of 17 New Zealand military personnel are listed in this card series. They include the five New Zealand members of the Indoctrinee Force and Captain McNaughton, but the cards do not list Lieutenant Colonel Caughley or Wing Commander Mitchell. This might be because Caughley and Mitchell were members of the New Zealand liaison staff in Melbourne and may therefore have had the correct kind of identity card before visiting Maralinga. Of the remaining cards eight are for men who passed through Maralinga on 2 September 1957, 12 days before the first test in the Antler series on 14 September. The names of the men in this group are set out below: Leading Aircraftsman (LAC) Francis Wilfred De Malmanche, No. 76041, RNZAF Sergeant William James Raymond Gray, No. 75945, RNZAF Flying Officer (pilot) John L'Eef, No. 709786, RNZAF LAC Noel Francis Lynch, RNZAF, No. 922390, RNZAF LAC Bruce Dalton Macken, No. 77226, RNZAF LAC John Robert Redman, No. 77568, RNZAF Flying Officer (Navigator) Frederick Edgar Arthur Rowe, No. 77533, RNZAF LAC Stuart Adrian Walters, No. 897584, RNZAF. In September 1957 all this group were serving with No. 41 Squadron RNZAF, a transport unit operating Bristol Freighters, which was based in Singapore. No. 41 Squadron operated over a very wide area. On 2 September a Bristol Freighter, NZ 5909, captained by Flying Officer L'Eef had a stopover at Maralinga. During the day it flew supplies from Maralinga to Mount Clarence and return. The flight time was 3 hours 37 minutes. Mount Clarence was a monitoring station for the Maralinga testing area. The personnel on board consisted of a flight crew of three (L'Eef, Rowe and Gray) and a five-strong maintenance team (De Malmanche, Lynch, Macken, Redman and Walters). z Three other New Zealand officers are listed in the card series. They are: Squadron Leader Peter Brotherhood Andrews, RNZAF Squadron Leader R (Roger Patrick) Drayton, RNZAF Group Captain William Hector Stratton, RNZAF Squadron Leader Andrews, an RNZAF education officer, was at a Royal Australian Air Force Staff College course between January and December 1958. On the card dealing with Andrews there is a reference to an RAAF memorandum dated 17 August 1958 and it therefore appears most probable that Andrews's visit to Maralinga was part of his staff college course. There were no nuclear weapon tests at Maralinga after 1957, but between April and November 1958 a series of 'minor trials' were conducted at Maralinga. The minor trials consisted of experiments connected with the British nuclear weapons programme, which did not involve nuclear detonations, but did on occasion result in the release of radiation. The minor trials programme at Maralinga continued until 1963. Andrews, who was born on 30 March 1926, retired from the RNZAF in March 1966 and as far as we are aware is still alive. Squadron Leader Roger Patrick Drayton was in March 1965 sent on an exchange posting with the RAAF for two years. He held the position of S14 with Support Command RAAF. It was the intention that he would "gain experience in the assessment and provisioning of radio equipment" during this appointment. On the Maralinga identity card for Drayton there is a reference to an RAAF list dated 16 March 1966. It would seem probable from this that he may have visited Maralinga in 1966 as part of his duties with the RAAF. Drayton, who was born on 4 January 1925, retired from the RNZAF in 1969 and died at Paraparumu on 21 June 1986. Group Captain (later Air-Vice Marshal) William Hector Stratton, DFC and Bar, mid, took up the position of Head of New Zealand Joint Services Liaison Staff in Melbourne on 1 September 1956 and held that position until February 1960. On Stratton's Maralinga identity card there is reference to an RAAF paper dated 25 June 1958. This strongly suggests that Stratton may have visited Maralinga in the course of his duties as Head of the New Zealand Defence Joint Services Liaison Staff. After completing his service as Chief of Air Staff in 1971, Air-Vice Marshal Stratton, who was born on 22 July 1916, retired to Australia and as far as we are aware is still alive. Included in the Report of the Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in Australia, witness and statement list is the name C.P. Weaver, Royal New Zealand Navy. This person would appear to be Able Seaman Colin Peter Weaver, NZ15133 who was serving in the RNZN at the time of both the British nuclear weapon tests in Australia and in the central Pacific. He was posted to HMNZS Rotoiti from 12 August 1957 to 2 August 1959 and so was presumably on board when the Rotoiti participated in the nuclear weapon test Grapple X at Christmas Island on 8 November 1957. At the time of the earlier tests in Australia he was serving on the frigate HMNZS Pukaki or HMNZS Philomel in Auckland. It appears likely, therefore, that his evidence to the Australian Royal Commission related to the Grapple tests rather than indicating that he was involved in the earlier tests in Australia. New Zealand Observers at Operation Grapple, May 1957 In addition to the observers sent to the atomic tests in Australia, New Zealand sent observers to other tests in the United States and the Pacific. Early in 1957 the British Government invited New Zealand to send one observer to the first test by United Kingdom of a thermonuclear device. The New Zealand Chiefs of Staff considered that, given substantial assistance the New Zealand Armed Forces were giving the British thermonuclear weapon testing programme, that should be allowed to send three observers to the test. The Minister of Defence endorsed this position and when approached the British agreed to three observers attending the test. The three observers selected to attend the test were Commander Logan Boyce Carey, RNZN, Major David John Aitken and Mr H.J. Yeabsley, the Deputy Director of the Health Department's Dominion X-Ray and Radium Laboratory (now the National Radiation Laboratory). Along with observers from other countries, the three New Zealanders observed the first British thermonuclear test on 15 May 1957 from HMS Alert. The Royal Navy ship was positioned about 30 miles [48 kilometres] from Malden Island, in the central Pacific, when the bomb, which was dropped from a British aircraft, exploded high above the Island. Available information about the size of the detonation is limited, but it appears that it was less than one megaton, perhaps about half a megaton. The observers had been issued with "white anti-flash suits, hoods, and gloves and with dark goggles." They sat on the deck of the ship facing away from the blast. Ten seconds after the explosion they were allowed to turn around. Yeabsley noted that "at that time the fire-ball was less bright than the sun and could be viewed with the unshielded eye. I estimated its diameter to be about 1½ miles [2.4 kilometres] and the distance from its lowest point to the sea to be at least three miles (15,000 feet) [4572 metres]". After the test Yeabsley held discussions with members of the British scientific team who told him that the radioactive cloud produced by the detonation had travelled up into the stratosphere and that they expected little, if any, pollution on nearly islands. The New Zealand scientist was impressed by the way the tests were being conducted, and concluded in his report that the tests "were being made in such a fashion that the possibility of highly active local fall-out was reduced to a minimum and that no person under the care of the New Zealand Government was liable to suffer radiation damage from the operation". Yeabsley's views about the safety of the test was supported by British scientific reports sent to the New Zealand Government. The Smoky Test, Nevada, 1 September 1957 In May 1957 the United States Army invited Air Commodore T.F. (Frank) Gill, the New Zealand defence attaché in Washington and another New Zealand officer to attend a nuclear weapon test to be held at the Nevada test site. The Chiefs of Staff Committee decided that the cost of sending an officer from New Zealand to attend this test was too great and that Air Commodore Gill and perhaps his deputy should attend. In the event only Gill's deputy, Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander Pountney, attended the 15th test in the American test series codenamed Operation Plumb Bob. The test he observed on 1 September 1957 was codenamed 'Smoky'. Pountney was one of 80 observers from a range of NATO countries and other nations with defence links with the United States. They observed the detonation of an approximately 44 kiloton nuclear bomb mounted on a 700 foot steel tower at 0530 hours (a few minutes before dawn) from a hill about 16 miles [26 kilometres] away from the tower (ground zero). The observers "were issued with dark glasses, through which an electric light globe at 20 yards was just visible". Pountney reported that the "detonation followed the familiar pattern of fireball-smoke-mushroom, and the countryside for a radius of many miles was as bright as in clear daylight. Simultaneously with the detonation, a scrub-covered hillside some 2 miles [3.2 kilometres] from the tower burst into flame. As the mushroom cloud formed, it was surrounded by an aura of vivid blue lasting about one minute, and this was seen clearly from a distance of over 400 miles." The test was an "Army participation shot" and about 700 American and Canadian troops were dug into positions about 8500 yards [7772 metres] from ground zero. "Immediately after the blast, and as soon as the fallout path had been determined and the radiation monitors had given clearance, the force was lifted by helicopters and taken to pre-designated assault positions, for an attack against deep objectives". The Pisonia Test, Eniwetok Atoll, 18 July 1958 In June 1958 the United States Army Attaché in Wellington, on behalf of the American Secretary of Defence, invited the Minister of Defence, Phillip Connolly, to send a member of the New Zealand Armed Forces to witness a nuclear test at the Eniwetok proving ground, in the Marshall Islands the following month. The invitation was accepted by Connolly, after consultation, it appears, with the Prime Minister Walter Nash and the Chiefs of Staff who noted that: The study of warfare under nuclear conditions is undertaken by all three Services. The study, however, is of necessity theoretical, as the opportunity for New Zealand officers to witness nuclear explosions and to study their effects at first-hand occurs very infrequently. Such an opportunity would therefore be of considerable benefit not only to the individual concerned, but also to all three Services to whom he could pass on his first-hand experience. The officer selected to observe the American test was Wing Commander Ivan Reid Mitchell who had been present at one of the British tests at Maralinga in 1956. Mitchell and a group of the observers from Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Spain, Philippines and Iran arrived at Eniwetok at 0800 hours on 18 July 1958. Three hours later they witnessed the detonation of an estimated 250 kiloton nuclear weapon. The weapon had been placed on a barge in the atoll's lagoon about eight and a half miles [13.5 kilometres] from the observers' position on Jap Tan Island. The observers, who were accompanied by a United States Air Force General, were issued with very dark goggles, which "enabled the wearer to observe every detail of the test." In his report on his visit Mitchell included a very detailed account of the test: At zero hour the device was detonated. The fireball was immediately apparent and it rapidly grew until it reached a semi-diameter of about 900ft [274 metres]. Even with the high density goggles the brilliance of the light emitted from the fireball was apparent. A "Wilson" cloud effect was seen to form and envelop the fireball as it rose. This cloud did not, however, appear to persist for more than 10/15 seconds. Without the aid of a movie camera and synchronised timing devices it is impossible to give an accurate chronological statement of the sequences of the phenomena observed. The following is, however, an approximate statement of the sequences: M - Fireball visible on horizon, growing rapidly — intense bright light. M + 1 sec. - Fireball reached maximum semi-diameter of about 900 ft and commenced to rise.   -  Intense blast of heat felt on exposed parts of the body. Stated by Dr Ogle to be about 1 cal./sq.cm. The heat or thermal effect was much more pronounced than that experienced at Maralinga for the low airburst shot of a 20 kt bomb. M + 2 sec. - Heavy earth tremors experienced which appeared to follow a sine wave pattern, giving the impression of seven distinct shocks which lasted for 8-10 seconds. Light emission still intense. "Wilson" cloud effect visible around fireball. M + 3 sec. - (High Density goggles raised). Fireball rising rapidly and glowing intensely. Hugh column of water noted at ground zero extending upwards. Shock front, distinguished as a dark circle, moving outwards at a great speed. M + 5 sec. - Fireball continues to rise, light still bright but more diffused. Column of water and stem of "mushroom" difficult to separate. Dark ring on surface extending outwards from ground zero. Thought to be wave. M + 15 sec. - Fireball dead. Cloud rising rapidly, boiling and swelling. Stem of mushroom now well defined. M + 30 sec. - Experienced blast from shock wave. Very heavy, sufficient to knock a man down if standing upright. Coconut palms bent before impact. Negative pressure wave not detected, but probably due to psychological effect arising from unexpected severity of shock front. Slightly later the sound accompanying the explosion was heard. The intensity of the sound was high but of comparatively short duration. M + 8 mins. - Negative water wave surge reached short of Jap Tan Island. For some minutes it had been possible to watch the water surge on adjacent atolls closer to GZ. The negative surge was followed by a positive surge and this sequence was prolonged for 15/30 minutes. At its greatest intensity it is estimated the water rose and fell 10 feet. M + 10 mins. - Heavy rain fell from clouds in the area. A well defined water spout developed in the GZ zone and persisted for about 30 minutes. The atomic cloud which had been obscured by cloud build-up was now clearly seen through cloud breaks. Initially it appeared to be moving westwards and at one stage seemed to be almost overhead. Subsequently it drifted to the East. The purplish hue of the cloud caused by iodine impregnation was a notable characteristic. M + 20 mins. - Group embarked for return journey to Parry Island. Mitchell noted that the test was in effect an underwater explosion and that this type of test produced a significant amount of radioactive fallout. He also noted that the very limited amount of information provided by the American authorities meant that the participation of a New Zealand observer was of very little value to the New Zealand Armed Forces. This point was taken up by the Chiefs of Staff Committee who agreed that in the event of New Zealand receiving a similar invitation in the future that they would propose to ask the United States authorities for "more detailed background information." Mitchell was it seems the last of the group official New Zealand military observers to attend atmospheric nuclear weapon tests. The only information held by the New Zealand Defence Force on the radiation doses received by this group of personnel relates to the members of the Indoctrinee Force and Wing Commander Mitchell's presence at the Breakaway test in 1956. JOHN CRAWFORD Deputy Director History Headquarters New Zealand Defence Force wapnews.co.nz* ***************************************************************** 10 Nuclear Witness Report Challenged NZ Observers At Nuclear Weapon Tests By Staff Reporter Glen Crofskey at 9:42am, 16th July 2001 A group representing war veterans who witnessed nuclear tests is sceptical of a report released yesterday on New Zealand's involvement in radiation testing programmes in Australia in the 1950s. The report, undertaken by John Crawford, the deputy-director of history at the New Zealand Defence Force, found that it was extremely unlikely the 11 New Zealand servicemen who observed the British nuclear explosions at Maralinga in South Australia in 1956 and 1957 suffered ill-effects from the experience. Five of them have since died, but health officials believe it extremely unlikely that the tests can be linked with their deaths. But the chairman of the Nuclear Test Veterans Association, Roy Sefton, said British records on the levels of radiation exposure had been found to be inaccurate, and he did not trust the report. However, the Minister of Veterans Affairs, Mark Burton, said he was satisfied with the report's findings that the nuclear test witnesses were not treated as guinea pigs. He said he would continue to monitor the situation in Australia where more personnel were involved in the tests. © NewsRoom 2001 wapnews.co.nz ***************************************************************** 11 IAAP/UofI health numbers (copy) The Hawk Eye Special: IAAP [The Hawk Eye Special Edition] Sunday, July 15, 2001 [Unknown dangers at IAAP] -- The Hawk Eye Health hotline Former nuclear workers at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant may use a toll-free phone number to speak with University of Iowa health researchers who are seeking people who worked or had relatives who worked on Line 1 at the plant. The toll-free number is (866) 282-5818. People should have the following information ready: name, including middle initial; address; telephone number; years the caller or relative worked on Line 1 and job title (if known); health concerns and history. People also may send information to: BAECP-FWP, Department of Occupational &Environmental Health, College of Public Health, 100 Oakdale Campus No. 222 IREH, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-5000. 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk ' ' '| ' ' '319-754-6824 FAX ' ' '| ' ' ' 1-800-397-1708 Outside Burlington [this is a line and that's all that it is] ©' 2000 The Hawk Eye, all rights reserved. ' ' Updated daily ' 'Questions? - ***************************************************************** 12 Senate committee OK's DOE funding Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:15 p.m. on Monday, July 16, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved its version of the fiscal year 2002 appropriations bill that includes funding for several Department of Energy projects. U.S. Sens. Fred Thompson and Bill Frist, both R-Tenn., announced the passage in a joint press release. "This bill provides strong support for Oak Ridge's priorities," Thompson stated in the release. The bill includes: + $291 million for the Spallation Neutron Source. This is the full amount requested by the president for the research facility. + $10 million for construction of a new Mouse House, or Laboratory for Comparative and Functional Genomics. This new facility will replace the current building, which is more than 50 years old and located at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The $10 million is also the full amount requested for this project. + $1 million for project engineering design work on a nanoscience research facility in Oak Ridge. + Additional funding above the president's request for Y-12. The bill establishes a new $300 million "Facilities and Infrastructure" account which will be used to modernize Y-12. + A $14.3 million increase in cleanup funding for the Oak Ridge K-25 site. The Energy and Water Appropriations bill will now be considered by the full Senate, possibly as early as next week. A meeting between House and Senate members will follow to hammer out the specifics of the budget. "While I applaud the funding made available for environmental management work, it's clear that more is needed to adequately address the environmental problems surrounding Y-12 and other areas around Oak Ridge," Frist states in the press release. As it stands, funding for local cleanup efforts could be reduced by $90 million in FY 2002 when compared to the current fiscal year. That's a drop from $423.7 million to $332.457 million. This means that out of 16 ongoing projects and 23 projects with new phases planned to begin, 30 will be eliminated and two will have seriously reduced efforts. Concern about the cleanup cuts has been voiced by several local entities, including Oak Ridge City Council, the Oak Ridge Environmental Quality Advisory Board, the Oak Ridge Site-Specific Advisory Board and the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 13 Radiation tests before divers plunge to Kursk site Monday July 16, 12:22 PM MOSCOW (Reuters) - An underwater robot has tested radiation levels around the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk as divers prepare to descend to the seabed to prepare to raise the vessel. All 118 crew on board the Kursk died after it sank in the Barents Sea last year. The operation to recover the submarine, which begins this week, is expected to take two months. The Norwegian ship Mayo, with Russian and Norwegian divers, international experts and high-tech equipment on board, arrived at the site off Russia's Arctic Kola peninsula on Sunday. Initial data from the robot indicated radiation around the Kursk did not exceed natural levels of background radiation in the Barents Sea, a statement from the office of Igor Dygalo, aide to the commander of the Russian navy, said. "Today they will continue the examination of the site with the underwater robot... Only on completion of this investigation will the divers begin their work," the statement said. The Kursk sank on August 12 after a series of powerful blasts on board. Russian officials say the disaster was probably triggered by an unexplained torpedo explosion which set off most of the rest of the arsenal. Officials say the Kursk did not carry nuclear weapons and its nuclear reactors were shut down to avoid radiation leaks. Environmentalists have called on Russian authorities to bury the submarine under concrete or at least to take more time to prepare for the risky salvage operation. But Russian President Vladimir Putin, strongly criticised at home for not cutting short his vacation at the time of the tragedy, has told bereaved relatives the Kursk will be raised this year at any cost. The bodies of 12 crew members were recovered last autumn. After the radiation checks divers will descend to the submarine to cut off its heavily damaged bow where the torpedoes were stored. Then a special pontoon, 140 metres long and 36 metres wide (460 by 120 feet), will hoist the submarine on 26 cables to just below the sea's surface, and tow it to the Russian port of Murmansk. Russia has contracts with Dutch salvage company Mammoet and Rotterdam-based marine services firm Smit International to recover the Kursk, which is lying at a depth of 100 metres (330 feet). The operation is expected to be completed by September 20. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or ***************************************************************** 14 Twelve bodies were recovered from the submarine last year CNN.com - ' Giant' mission to raise the Kursk - July 16, 2001 By CNN's Tammy Oaks MOSCOW, Russia -- The operation to attempt to lift the sunken Kursk submarine will be a highly-complex mission. A special pontoon, dubbed "the Giant," capable of lifting massive weights will be used after an earlier attempt to lift the vessel failed. The Russian nuclear submarine sank on August 12 last year with 118 crew on board after a series of powerful explosions, which Russian officials said were caused by the vessel's torpedoes. Now a team of international experts have been contracted to raise the submarine, and the Norwegian ship Mayo carrying Russian and Norwegian divers, international experts and equipment arrived in the Barents Sea on July 15. The Russian government has contracted the Dutch salvage company Mammoet and the Rotterdam-based marine services firm Smit International to attempt to recover the Kursk. The companies' joint web site says the special pontoon is 140 metres long and 36 metres wide (460 by 120 feet) -- bigger than five tennis courts. The pontoon, which has been fitted with 26 strand jacks -- special lifting cables -- and is capable of lifting up to 23,000 tonnes, will be used to hoist the submarine from the sea bed. According to the web site, divers working in temperatures between 0 and 6 degrees Celsius will cut holes in the Kursk's hull using water jets by means of high-pressure water and abrasives. The Kursk's bow -- where the torpedoes were stored -- will be cut free and left on the seabed so that the rest of the vessel can later be lifted as a compact load. The lifting cables will be lowered from the pontoon and anchored in the holes in the Kursk using large steel plugs. When the weather permits, the submarine will be raised to just below the pontoon. Once it has been raised, the Kursk will be towed to Murmansk. On arrival, the Giant/Kursk combination will be lifted by auxiliary pontoons in order to sail it into a dry dock. Russian and Norwegian divers retrieved 12 bodies from the Kursk in November but their mission was called off because of rough weather and the danger from broken equipment inside the submarine. Officials found a note in the pocket of one of the recovered submariners saying that 23 sailors had remained trapped alive in the ninth compartment for several hours after the Kursk sank. Eighteen divers -- half from the Russian military and half from a Norwegian company -- worked around the clock in teams of three on the operation. The team cut a hole, 1.5 metres by 75cm (5ft by 2ft), through the 40cm (16-inch) hull after five days of work and pumped water into the submarine under high pressure to eliminate silt and debris that might have made the recovery process more difficult. Remote-controlled cameras were also lowered inside the submarine to measure radiation levels in case of any nuclear leaks. Officials say the Kursk did not carry nuclear weapons and its nuclear reactors were shut down to avoid radiation leaks. The Kursk is lying at a depth of more than 100 metres (330 feet). The salvage is expected to be completed in September. The Mayo, a high-tech diving support ship which has seen regular service in the North Sea oil industry, is owned by the Norwegian-Scottish company DSND Subsea, based in Aberdeen. ***************************************************************** 15 India, Pakistan in Troubled Ties After Failed Talks Tuesday July 17 12:12 AM ET By Sanjeev Miglani AGRA, India (Reuters) - India and Pakistan faced the prospect of bleaker ties after their first summit in over two years ended in failure with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf returning home in the middle of the night without any agreement. Newspapers said ties between the nuclear-capable neighbors could nosedive after Musharraf's talks with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (news - web sites) got bogged down over the dispute in the Himalayan territory of Kashmir (news - web sites). ``They broke the ice, then froze,'' read a headline in the Indian Express after the summit went into extra time in Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, the 17th Century monument to love. India which expressed disappointment was expected to explain the drama and the circumstances in which the summit ended in failure for which it was held responsible by Pakistani officials. ``Indo-Pak relations may now get worse before they get better,'' wrote the Hindu newspaper's Strategic Affairs Editor C. Raja Mohan. After a day of rollercoaster expectations, proof that the summit had failed to yield any breakthrough on the key subject of Kashmir came as the Pakistani leader's motorcade sped off in the darkness toward the airport in the northern Indian city of Agra. Soon after Musharraf and his delegation left their final meeting with Vajpayee inside a heavily guarded hotel, an Indian official confirmed there had been no agreement. ``I am disappointed to inform all of you that although the commencement of the process and the beginning of the journey has taken place, the destination of an agreed joint statement has not been reached,'' Ministry of External Affairs spokeswoman Nirupama Rao told a news briefing just after midnight. Pakistan accused Vajpayee's government of going back on changes to the document that the leaders had agreed during their own negotiations. ``It appears there is an invisible hand which is creating obstructions repeatedly,'' Pakistan's chief spokesman, Major-General Rashid Qureshi, told TV network Zee News as he described the final frantic hours of haggling. ``The joint declaration had been approved by the president and the prime minister. The two foreign ministers had also approved it. But when they came back from Indian officials, there were changes in it,'' he said. KASHMIR -- ISSUE OF OPEN DISAGREEMENT Although neither side spelt out the specific differences that scuttled agreement, Kashmir was the issue that had produced open disagreement even before the final breakdown in the search for common ground. Mainly-Muslim Kashmir was left divided between Pakistan and India after the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. A rebellion against Indian rule there has raged. Pakistan wanted the summit to produce agreement from India that settling their 54-year-long struggle for Kashmir was the key to solving all other issues between their countries -- issues that India preferred to focus on. India, however, considers Kashmir an integral part of the nation -- and therefore not negotiable -- while accusing Pakistan of aiding the guerrillas fighting Indian control. Pakistan says it gives only moral support to the rebellion. ``What will this do to conditions in the valley?'' Kanti Bajpai, a strategic affairs analyst at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said after the failure of the summit. ``We could see a harder push from across the border and security forces will have to be more on alert now.'' The summit -- which diplomats had seen as possibly the best ever chance to end Indian-Pakistani rivalry -- had been held against a backdrop of continued violence in Kashmir, where more than 30,000 people have been killed since the revolt began. Thirty-seven people died in fresh violence on Monday, bringing the death toll since the eve of Musharraf's three-day visit to India to nearly 90, authorities said. ARMED STRUGGLE Sayed Salahuddin, supreme commander of the frontline Hizbul Mujahideen guerrilla group, said Kashmiris were now convinced that the path to a settlement lay only in armed struggle. ``Our armed struggle will continue as long as Indian forces are in Kashmir,'' Salahuddin told Reuters, blaming India for the failure of the Agra summit. Assurances of a joint declaration that would signify a successful summit were given by both sides as Musharraf and Vajpayee met repeatedly to patch up the differences over Kashmir. However, as the hours dragged on without the promised signing ceremony and joint news conference, it became clear that serious difficulties remained. Finally, Pakistani officials said Musharraf would be visiting Vajpayee in a final courtesy stop and then heading to the airport. As the stop at Vajpayee's hotel continued, speculation of a last-minute deal surfaced, only to be finally put to rest by his motorcade pulling out of the gate and disappearing down the road. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 Bush can sustain political damage - DAWN - By Abraham McLaughlin WASHINGTON: While voters do not always expect politicians to keep their campaign promises, it turns out that many people put a fair amount of faith in one of President Bush's: his vow to "restore honour and dignity" to the White House. Now, six months into his administration, that pledge is the reason three bubbling mini scandals pose a potential problem. Two of these controversies involve conflict-of-interest questions about Vice President Dick Cheney and top strategist Karl Rove. Another involves a possible quid pro quo arranged by Rove with the Salvation Army. In the annals of US, these scandals are minor. But observers say if a pattern develops, Bush could sustain significant political damage. Already his counsel's office is redoubling efforts to warn staffers about avoiding even the appearance of wrongdoing. "To the extent that Bush has a mandate at all, it's to change the tone and cleanse the White House," says Marshall Wittmann of the Hudson Institute here. People may not expect him to be a sterling orator, but, on ethics, "There's a high expectation." Polls help illustrate the potential problem. In a Gallup survey released last week, 66 per cent of respondents said that Bush is "honest and trustworthy." That is higher than his overall job approval - 57 per cent - and significantly above the marks respondents gave him for handling certain issues. His approval rating on the economy is 54 per cent. On taxes, i is 60 per cent. On energy, it is 45 per cent. Certainly Bill Clinton consistently showed that the public can disapprove of someone personally yet approve of the job they are doing, especially during golden economic times. (When he left office, his personal-approval rating was 41 per cent, and his job-approval rating 65 per cent, according to Gallup.) But observers see a difference with Bush, who generally gets lower ratings for his policies. As a result, he has to rely on other things, such as integrity, to bolster his public standing. "Among the top reasons that swing voters - suburbanites, centrists, and parents - left Bill Clinton and Al Gore to go for Bush were questions of ethics," says independent pollster John Zogby. If Bush loses his ethical lustre, these key voters might not stick with him. Of course, that is hardly the only issue the American public is watching. If Bush cannot keep the economy on track, for example, he could suffer a much-greater loss of support. Cheney's meetings with industry executives for his energy task force. Democrats say Cheney - who has not disclosed names of people or groups he met with - may have violated sunshine laws that require advisory-group meetings to be "open to the general public and on the record." At Democrats' behest, Congress's investigative arm is probing the matter. While denying wrongdoing by anyone on its team, the White House clearly sees the danger of a pattern developing - and of public perceptions changing.-Dawn/LATS Service (c) Christian Science Monitor. © The DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2001 ***************************************************************** 17 Labor will brief workers on compensation The Hawk Eye Newspaper July 15, 2001 By Dennis J. Carroll The Hawk Eye • Two meetings will bring former IAAP workers up to speed. Labor Department officials will hold two meetings in Burlington Tuesday to brief former Middletown nuclear weapons workers on the program designed to compensate them for ill-health suffered as a result of their work with radioactive and other hazardous materials. The meetings are set for 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Memorial Auditorium. Under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act passed by Congress last year, former Line 1 workers at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant or their survivors may be entitled to a lump sum payment of $150.000, and medical treatment that occurred after they applied for the program. The now-shuttered Atomic Energy Commission assembled, test-fired and in later years, disassembled nuclear weapons and their components at IAAP from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s. Over the past two years, scores of former workers and their families have told how they have suffered life-long illnesses and even death from their exposure to hazardous materials at the plant. The compensation program applies only to those who worked for the Atomic Energy Commission. Some survivors of former workers have complained that the program, proposed by former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, does not apply to survivors of workers unless the worker died before the survivor turned 18 years old. In a related matter Friday, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, announced that the Senate Appropriations Committee has adopted provisions in a water and energy appropriations bill that would require the U.S.. Army Corps of Engineers, working with the state of Iowa, to conduct a comprehensive radiological survey of the entire IAAP facility. The bill would also provide $1 million for employee health studies. State officials, including Gov. Tom Vilsack, and Sens. Harkin and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, have called on the Army to conduct a flyover of the 19,000 acre compound to seek out possible radiological hot spots. The Army, however, has resisted, contending such a flyover is unnecessary and premature. "With the recent unexpected discoveries of depleted uranium and barium on the site," Harkin said, "it has become clear that we do not know the full extent of contamination of the site." The corps is to report back to the committee by December 1 on its recommendations for the radiological survey. Harkin said the additional money for health studies is to be used to determine how nuclear materials may have affected workers' health. Harkin praised the University of Iowa health-survey team that has been contacting former workers to screen them for health problems. "The University of Iowa has really reached out to the workers this year to find health problems," Harkin said, "but much remains to be done." The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 Toll Free ***************************************************************** 18 Harkin complains about Army plant survivor benefits The Hawk Eye Newspaper July 17, 2001 Iowa Time: 1:25 AM By Dennis J. Carroll The Hawk Eye Even as Labor Department officials prepared to brief former Middletown nuclear weapons workers on a compensation package today, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, charged Monday that the benefit regulations are flawed. In a letter to U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Harkin charged that the rules exclude many survivors who deserve compensation and that the appeals process for denied claims are inadequate. Three Labor Department officials arrived in Burlington Monday for two meetings to be held at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Memorial Auditorium. The officials will outline the compensation benefits available to former nuclear weapons workers and how to apply for them. Under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program enacted by Congress last fall, as many as 750,000 former nuclear weapons workers around the country may be eligible for a $150,000 lump sum payment and medical costs incurred after July 31, the effective date of the legislation. The program was designed to compensate workers or their survivors for illnesses suffered because of exposure to hazardous materials used in the construction of atomic weapons. Labor Department spokesman Hal Glassman said those illnesses include chronic beryllium disease, silicosis and cancers caused by exposure to radiation. "You don't need a lawyer, you don't need an accountant, all you need is a pen" to apply for the benefits, Glassman said. However, only those IAAP employees who worked for the Atomic Energy Commission are eligible for the benefits, he said. Army contract workers who produced conventional weapons, even though they may have been sickened by their exposure to hazardous materials, are not covered by the legislation. In his letter to Chao, Harkin complained that interim regulations drafted to carry out the program unfairly exclude survivors who where 18 or older when the worker died. "Applying this restriction at the time of the worker's death means that even children who were raised by a parent unable to work due to compensable illness would receive nothing if the parent survived until the children were independent," Harkin said. He noted that the rule was taken from the Federal Employees Compensation Act, but said the act is not relevant to the nuclear workers issue. He said the regulation is particularly restrictive at AEC operations such as those at IAAP that closed decades ago and thus have fewer surviving former workers. "I do not believe this was the intent of Congress," Harkin said. Harkin also said the administrative appeals process appears flawed. He noted that claims that are denied must be appealed to the same office that made the initial ruling. He also noted that workers may not challenge decisions on whether they were exposed to enough of a particular hazardous material to qualify for compensation. Geoffrey Colver, a Labor Department lawyer in town for today's meetings, said the regulations are not as restrictive as other government compensation programs. He said it must only be shown that the illnesses are "as likely as not" to have been caused by the exposure to the hazardous materials. In addition, Colver said workers who smoked and suffered lung problems are not automatically excluded from the program. He also said that dependent children who were between 18 and 23 and attended school full time when the worker died might still be eligible for benefits. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 Toll Free ***************************************************************** 19 Operation To Retrieve Kursk Gets Underway - The St. Petersburg Times. #687, Tuesday, July 17, 2001 By Oksana Yablokova STAFF WRITER MOSCOW - Salvagers kicked off an $80 million, two-month operation to raise the Kursk nuclear submarine on Monday by sending an underwater robot to the bottom of the Barents Sea to measure radiation levels around the sunken vessel. The Norwegian ship Mayo, carrying a team of Russian and Norwegian divers and salvaging equipment, arrived at the Kursk site off the Arctic Kola Peninsula on Sunday. Initial tests in the water and sea bed around the wreckage, which were carried out to make sure the area is safe for divers, showed radiation levels did not exceed normal levels, navy spokesperson Igor Dygalo said in a statement. The Kursk sank during exercises on Aug. 12 after a series of powerful blasts went off inside the vessel. All 118 sailors aboard died. The 12,700-ton submarine, which lies 108 meters below the surface, has two nuclear reactors and about 22 missiles on board. The salvage operation is designed to lift all but the first torpedo compartment of the submarine, which was most heavily damaged in the blasts, on 26 cables to just below the sea's surface and then be dragged to the Roslyakovo shipyard near the port of Murmansk. It will be brought to the surface there and defueled. Just days before the start of the operation, the Norwegian Bellona environmental group cautioned the Rubin design bureau, which is responsible for the technical part of the operation on the Russian side, that more time should be taken to prepare for the lift. Bellona researchers said raising the Kursk would risk a possible breakup of the vessel or rupture of the protective castings around the reactors. While acknowledging that no major accident could possibly take place during the lift, Bellona said that if the operation fails, the chances of recovering the Kursk would be slim to none. Bellona also said that if something goes wrong during the lift, the likelihood of the seabed being contaminated with radiation was high. In the first step of the operation, the Kursk's mangled first torpedo compartment will be cut away from the vessel and left on the sea floor. The authorities say that the move will minimize the possibility of further explosions. But Igor Kudrik, a researcher with Bellona's Russian division, said by telephone from Oslo that the radio-controlled slicing device could hit a torpedo warhead and spark a new explosion. Rubin officials said they share Bellona's concerns but ruled out the possibility of any malfunctions during the salvaging operation that could lead to radiation leaks, according to remarks posted on kursk.strana.ru, the official server of the lifting operation set up by the Kremlin's official Web site Strana.ru, Interfax and ORT television. "The fact that Rubin has responded to our concerns is good already, but they offered minimal explanations," Kudrik said. He added that Bellona is also concerned with the risks of taking the submarine to the surface and defueling it. The Moscow Times [ ] [Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2001 ***************************************************************** 20 Company fined for nuclear safety violations in Ohio Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:59 a.m. on Tuesday, July 17, 2001 from staff reports One of the companies involved in the partnership that runs the Y-12 National Security Complex has been fined $137,500 for nuclear safety violations at another Department of Energy facility. DOE issued the civil penalty to BWX Technologies of Ohio Inc. for violations at the Mound Site in Miamisburg, Ohio. The violations, according to DOE information, are associated with the following: + A January 2001 incident where a worker "accidentally" inhaled plutonium, and plutonium contamination spread into a room. + Radiological work permits did not require that workers be tested for exposure to a full range of potential exposure hazards. + Multiple failures to comply with safety-review procedures used to evaluate the potential effect of proposed changes in nuclear facilities. + The company's failure to properly review and test changes in computer software meant to ensure timely turn-around for analyzing samples. The recent fines follow an October 1997 civil penalty of $112,500 issued to the previous Mound Site manger and a November 1998 civil penalty of $165,000 issued to BWX Technologies for similar problems. BWX Technologies Inc. aligned with Bechtel National Inc. to form the partnership BWXT Y-12, which officially began operating Y-12 in late 2000. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 21 INEEL closes Jackson information office Casper Star-Tribune Casper, Wyoming Tuesday, July 17, 2001 JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) - The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory plans to close its information office here on July 31. The facility based west of Idaho Falls, Idaho, is making budget cuts and also plans to cut 1,200 jobs, according to Ron King, Idaho Department of Energy spokesman. All areas of the nuclear research complex will be affected. The Jackson office was opened nearly two years ago at the height of debate over a proposed nuclear waste incinerator at INEEL. The plans were shelved not long after conservationists and other Jackson Hole residents filed a $1 billion lawsuit. Lorie Cahn, the INEEL liaison in Jackson, said her office remains busy but not as busy as when it first opened in October 1999. "The office was in response to the public saying they had some trouble getting some information," she aid. King said much of the need for the office has gone away now that there are no plans for an incinerator. But Erik Ringelberg, executive director of Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free, said the U.S. Department of Energy continues to keep incineration an option for reducing volumes of nuclear waste. Cahn will remain a full-time environmental restoration employee for INEEL. King on Tuesday gave her a plaque recognizing her work in Jackson. ***************************************************************** 22 PACE seeks pact for big group, too The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Tuesday, July 17, 2001 Good increases were just gained for about 105 USEC workers, but it's also renewal time for 1,500 others. By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 Having just secured better agreements for more than 100 environmental workers, union negotiators at the U.S. Enrichment Corp. plant have set their sights on improvements to a larger contract expiring July 31. On Saturday, three groups of workers from Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy (PACE) Workers Union Local 5-550 approved new, four-year contracts with cleanup firms Bechtel Jacobs, Swift and Staley, and Weskem. The agreements cover about 105 employees and provide pay increases of 4 percent in the first and second years, 3.8 percent in the third year and 3.5 percent in the fourth, said David Fuller, president of the local. There were "substantial" pension and benefit increases, he said. The union also represents about half the USEC plant's 1,500 workers in a contract up for renewal in two weeks. Fuller said bargainers have met six or seven times with company officials in recent weeks. "It's still in the preliminary stages, but we're hopeful it will go well," he said. "It's just a little too early to tell yet." Fuller said the union expects its members to be duly compensated for a long string of demanding tasks. Since the old contract was signed five years ago, employees "have gone above and beyond the call of duty" to make the plant a competitive, stand-alone facility, he said. Following large layoffs during the last two years at its Paducah and Portsmouth, Ohio, plants, USEC closed the Ohio plant in June, leaving Paducah as the only uranium enrichment facility in the nation. Fuller said union workers were heavily involved in an upgrade allowing the Paducah plant to produce reactor-grade uranium, rather than having to ship it to Ohio for more enrichment. "They've done everything that's been asked of them and have provided success for the plant," he said. "At this point, the employees have needs and they're looking at the company they've performed for to show its appreciation." Fuller said "concessions" on behalf of labor are unacceptable. He declined to elaborate or discuss specific contract issues. "It would be too early to assume there's a problem," Fuller said, but "when concessions are placed on the table for the union, especially in view of the things I've just mentioned, then that's obviously going to be a pill that can't be swallowed." USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said she did not know what Fuller meant by concessions. "The only thing I can say is the contract is scheduled to be renewed this summer, and we're working closely with the union to that end." Also set to expire July 31, the three environmental cleanup contracts were ratified at the PACE union hall on Cairo Road. Fuller said the individual work groups were pleased with the standard offer from the three firms. "I think it marks a really good relationship we've had with Bechtel Jacobs (lead contractor) out there on the cleanup side of the house," he said. "We've worked hard to have a good relationship with them." ***************************************************************** 23 Our View: Where are the champions for Oak Ridge now? Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:09 p.m. on Tuesday, July 17, 2001 Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Local Oversight Committee in Oak Ridge which monitors cleanup of federally designated sites, raises a good point in a letter to The Tennessean in Nashville. Readers will recall that it was The Tennessean a couple years back that rushed to judgment regarding Oak Ridge's environmental woes in its apparent quest for a Pulitzer it deservedly did not receive. In her letter, Ms. Gawarecki states, in part: "Where is Nashville when we need it? "The Tennessean descends upon Oak Ridge whenever allegations surface about health concerns related to U.S. Department of Energy facilities. But the newspaper is strangely silent when the Environmental Management programs -- that's the arm of DOE that actually accomplishes cleanup -- is being dismantled by the Bush administration. "Not just The Tennessean," she continues, "but also the governor's office appears to be ignoring the looming crisis. "Here are the facts -- the DOE's budget submittal to Congress cut more than $90 million from Oak Ridge Reservation's Environmental Management funding for fiscal year 2002. Virtually all of the cuts are for environmental restoration projects ... ." We make no apologies for The Tennessean, of course, but most of us in the business understand that bad news is good news, and that there are degrees of bad news. Environmental contamination makes for a more sexy read than the nuances of environmental budget cutting, but the latter most certainly can have a bearing on the former. The irony here, of course, is that under current funding plans, the Local Oversight Committee could itself be silenced -- a victim of the same budget ax that has claimed cleanup dollars. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 24 French Polynesia, France agree on new funding Radio Australia News - 16/07/01: The French Polynesian government and France have agreed on an economic restructuring plan that will focus on housing and employment. The two governments have announced that some 60 million U-S dollars will be devoted to the program. This will include 16.3 million U-S dollars for infrastructure development, 29 million for public housing, and 14 million for job creation. About 7.2 million dollars has been allocated to upgrading roads in the Pape'ete area. Representatives from France and French Polynesia have also agreed in principle to finance an Internet link and a waste disposal centre. The restructuring plan is financed by a fund created in 1996 to compensate for the end of nuclear tests on Moruroa atoll and in the Tuamotu archipelago. material from Pacnews, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and ***************************************************************** 25 Technology:Site confronts storage crunch Augusta Georgia: Observers worry plant isn't prepared to handle future shortages in space for radioactive waste Web posted Monday, July 16, 2001 By Brandon Haddock Staff Writer Within a few months, a space crunch in Savannah River Site's 49 underground waste tanks should be resolved, site officials say. It's the potential for future shortages - and a dispute over how to prevent them - that has some observers alarmed. The U.S. Department of Energy, which owns the nuclear-weapons site, and the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board are at odds over how to stop the site from running low on space for millions of gallons of highly radioactive liquid waste. ''It just seems to me that they don't have a real contingency plan if things really start to go wrong,'' said Don Moniak, an Aiken resident and community organizer for Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. The current problem began in January 2000, when officials closed 2H, one of the site's three evaporators. Silica, or fine bits of a glass-like mineral, was building up inside the unit and threatening to clog its pipes. The evaporators are used to reduce the volume of the liquid waste by evaporating water from it. A new, larger evaporator, 3H, began operating later that spring, only to be curtailed because of a faulty cooling system. At one point, the evaporator - capable of eliminating as much as 20,000 gallons of waste per day - could run for only 10 days every two months. All the while, the 2 million gallons of waste then generated annually by the site's Defense Waste Processing Facility was filling the waste tanks, threatening the operation of that plant and others that produce radioactive waste as a byproduct. The space crunch led to a public flogging by the defense board, which in March criticized the Energy Department for not acting ''with due diligence to address the worsening condition of the SRS Tank Farms.'' The shortage also was a factor in recent leaks of radioactive waste from the site's tank farm. The search for a new place to store the processing facility's waste led to the oldest waste tanks at the site, long unused because they had only a single carbon-steel hull. When the tanks were reused, they began leaking waste into secondary containment vessels placed beneath them, and SRS officials were forced to abandon their plan. ''I was looking for a way to gain space until I recovered evaporator performance,'' said Steve Piccolo, the vice president in charge of the high-level waste division for SRS contractor Westinghouse Savannah River Co. ''It turned out not to be the best decision I ever made.'' Now, Mr. Piccolo said, site officials have solutions to the tank-space dilemma. Workers installed a new, stopgap cooling system at the 3H evaporator, and the plant operated for 30 days last month, he said. A permanent fix should be ready within a year, he said. Site scientists discovered that silica buildup inside the 2H evaporator could be controlled by monitoring concentrations of silica, sodium and alumina in waste fed to the unit, Mr. Piccolo said. The evaporator could reopen as soon as September, he said. But as site engineers work to solve short-term problems, long-term issues remain. The defense board rejected the Energy Department's plan to address its concerns, saying the measure relied on aging systems and assumptions. Defense board members, Energy Department Undersecretary Bob Card and SRS staffers met Thursday at the site to attempt to resolve the dispute. ''They spent all day specifically looking into this matter,'' defense board Chairman John T. Conway said Friday in a telephone interview from his Washington office. ''This is one of our top priorities.'' Although an agreement hasn't been reached, the two sides are talking, an Energy Department official said. ''The meeting was informative, and there was a lot of information exchanged,'' said Charles Anderson, the department's assistant manager for high-level waste at SRS. ''There was an agreement to continue discussion between the defense board staff and the Energy Department. ''There are a number of other efforts to support our system plan, and that's part of the dialogue that needed to take place.'' But the dispute worries Mr. Moniak, who said the Energy Department should heed the defense board's concerns. ''If two more tanks were to leak, then they would be using emergency space,'' he said. ''It's unfair to put people at SRS in the position of having to work with degraded equipment and a degraded infrastructure in order to prevent something serious from happening,'' he said. ''They should be given the tools they need.'' Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or bhaddock@augustachronicle.com. All contents ©1996 - 2001 The Augusta Chronicle. All rights ***************************************************************** 26 Technology:Cleanup method selected Augusta Georgia: SRS takes DOE advice on using liquid solvent to strip cesium from tanks after initial facility's failure Web posted Tuesday, July 17, 2001 By Brandon Haddock Staff Writer Years after a $489 million failure, Savannah River Site has selected a new method to strip cesium from its 34 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste. In a report released last week, the U.S. Department of Energy said it preferred using a liquid solvent to do the job. A formal, final decision could come in about a month, said Bill Spader, a deputy assistant manager for the Energy Department at SRS. Cesium must be removed from the site's waste because it hinders a process to turn the waste into a glass suitable for long-term burial. The new method for the element's removal, called ''solvent extraction,'' was chosen from several alternatives, including a smaller, reconfigured version of the failed $489 million In-Tank Precipitation Facility. The in-tank facility was declared inoperable in January 1998 because SRS engineers could not prevent flammable, carcinogenic benzene from building up inside its tanks. The new plant is scheduled to open in 2010. Cost estimates have reached as high as $1 billion. The plant will use technology similar to that used in the site's massive ''canyons,'' which reprocess nuclear materials, Mr. Spader said. ''There's a good bit of experience with solvent extraction in general in nuclear applications,'' Mr. Spader said. Partly because of such experience, solvent extraction was the least risky of the methods evaluated, according to a report issued by the Energy Department. The National Research Council reached similar conclusions in a report issued last month. The next step is construction of a small solvent-extraction plant to test the process on a larger scale, Mr. Spader said. That project, estimated to cost about $50 million, is expected to become operational in early 2003, Mr. Spader said. The site's main contractor, Westinghouse Savannah River Co., will design and build the test facility, company spokesman Dean Campbell said. The Energy Department will seek bids in the fall on design and construction of the actual replacement plant, Mr. Spader said. The Energy Department had stated publicly that Westinghouse would be barred from working on the in-tank facility's replacement, because of the first plant's failure. But Mr. Spader said Monday the agency hasn't decided whether to seek outside bidders to operate the new plant. ''That's a subject to be revisited at a later date,'' he said. Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or bhaddock@augustachronicle.com. All contents ©1996 - 2001 The Augusta Chronicle. 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