***************************************************************** 06/18/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.152 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Not Utah's Waste 2 Germans in a Haze 3 YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT: Nuclear expert: Politics tallest hurdle 4 Norway's Premiers To Talk Shelf Delimitation, Nuclear Safety 5 Feds relax rules on truck drivers visiting downtown 6 China, EU may launch talks on nuclear energy cooperation: 7 Reactor restart eyed for fall; what is 'spallation'? 8 Iodine readiness 9 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Monday, June 18, 2001 10 U.S., Japanese companies team up to develop new nuclear reactors 11 Faster planning laws derided as gagging protest_ 12 Nuclear-storage plan targeted_ NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Navy Drops Dummy Bombs on Vieques 2 Radiation tests on baby bones 3 A bomb victim is a victim anywhere he lives 4 Report: Bush Stunned by U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Size 5 Author sues over China nuclear weapons book 6 DOE halts release of report on K-25's fate 7 'They use us as a model,' mayor says on returning from Russia 8 OPINIONS: Disappointed by column on CROET_ 9 Robot Could Protect Nuke Workers 10 Contaminated solution poses DOE dilemma _ 11 Dead babies' bones removed 12 Grass Could Endanger Nuke Reservation 13 N. Korea Demands U.S. Compensation 14 Russia: No Nuclear Help to Iran 15 Protesters Invade Vieques Range **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Not Utah's Waste The Salt Lake Tribune -- The Salt Lake Tribune's editorial, "Hazardous Radio Activity" (June 7) incorrectly states that the problem with the recent pro-radioactive waste ads paid for by Envirocare "was their packaging, not their information." Actually, the information in those ads was highly misleading and clouded the true intent of Envirocare's current license application before the state. The ads left the impression that Envirocare's radioactive waste dump is primarily critical to Utahns whose medical treatments have resulted in the production of radioactive medical waste. Nothing could be further from the truth. Envirocare does not currently dump Utah-generated radioactive medical waste. All of the waste Envirocare is seeking permission to dump would come from outside the state. Moreover, by Envirocare's own admission, at a recent debate held at the Salt Lake Public Library, about 80 percent of this out-of-state waste will come from decommissioned nuclear reactors. This is key because, according to Dr. Marvin Resnikoff in his book Living Without Landfills, nuclear power plants create almost 99 percent of the radioactivity found in "low-level" radioactive waste, while all research and medical institutions, taken together, produce only 0.008 percent. The waste Envirocare is seeking permission to dump would overwhelmingly be waste generated from nuclear reactors. Utahns who have had medical treatments that resulted in radioactive waste can oppose Envirocare's nuclear reactor waste proposal without any guilt. Opponents to Envirocare's proposal refuse to sell out to corporate avarice at the expense of public health, safety and fiscal responsibility. Pointing out these basic facts in their rebuttals will go beyond simply expressing yet another partisan view, and will help enlighten the public, legislators, and the governor about the true dangers of Envirocare's proposal. JOE LENGE Salt Lake City ***************************************************************** 2 Germans in a Haze The Salt Lake Tribune -- June 18, 2001* Germany's agreement last Monday to shut down the country's 19 nuclear plants is further evidence that President Bush was wise to ignore Europe's hypocritical hand-wringers and dump the 1997 Kyoto treaty. The accord would have required some nations to drastically cut their emissions of greenhouse gases while excepting other countries, and Germany's decision to renounce its largest source of no-smog power shows which category it has put itself in. Germany's 19 nuclear plants produce 35 percent of the country's electricity with nary a hothouse fume. If they were shut down, the engine of Europe's largest economy would stall -- unless the facilities were replaced with plants that produce the gases that Germany had agreed to reduce. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has led Europe's browbeating of Bush, is vague about what Germany will do to replace its lost power, though he offers baseless assurances that the solution will be "environmentally friendly." It sounds wonderful, since no one likes smog, and so-called "soft path" energy sources -- such as wind power and solar cells -- don't produce any. But as California finally has realized after decades of trying, the soft path can only take you so far. The Golden State has dumped billions into developing renewable energy in the past 30 years while using stiff regulations to discourage the construction of traditional facilities. The residents of Sacramento even voted in 1992 to decommission a perfectly good nuclear plant. But the result of all that money, effort and wishful thinking is a state that produces less than 80 percent of its daily electricity needs, including just 12 percent from all renewable sources combined. Even if Germany can match California's commitment to renewable energy, a number of big coal-, oil-, and gas-burners will have to be built to make up for the lost nuclear power. The natural growth of the nation and its economy will require even more gas-emitting plants, which is why Germany (and every other country that signed the Kyoto accord) has failed to ratify it. The U.S. Senate voted 95-0 last year against ratifying the treaty and Bush decided this year to end the charade and dump it altogether. Germans have produced a lot of hot air recently with their Pecksniffian posturing over this great environmental snub, but their actions prove Bush was right all along. ***************************************************************** 3 YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT: Nuclear expert: Politics tallest hurdle LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: NEWS: At his Las Vegas office, Ken Hess, general manager of Bechtel SAIC, discusses his company's goal to usher the Yucca Mountain Project from a scientific study to a nuclear waste disposal site. Photo by Gary Thompson. Monday, June 18, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Government contractor confident best science would be used in building repository _By KEITH ROGERS _ REVIEW-JOURNAL _ In his low-key style, Ken Hess speaks softly when he talks about the hard issues that swirl around the government's plans to put the nation's most lethal nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain. "I live in Las Vegas. I don't want any problems with a repository either," he said in an interview last week. His comments came five months after the company he manages, Bechtel SAIC, began its $3.1 billion contract with the Department of Energy to turn the Yucca Mountain Project from a scientific study into a disposal site. The transformation would take place in the next 10 years if the location is found to be suitable and regulators deem it fit for a license. While Hess said the biggest challenge he faces is "political" -- trying to persuade the public the waste can be safely transported and sealed in the volcanic ridge, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas -- he agrees that some aspects of the task to keep it there for at least 10,000 years appear insurmountable. "I can't tell you what's going to happen with the weather over 10,000 years," he said. Those uncertainties, with the ever-changing nature of science and technology, are why Yucca Mountain has become arguably the world's most studied tract of land. The repository would handle one of the most pressing environmental problems: entombing 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste, most of it metal-encased spent fuel pellets from commercial power reactors. With 30 years of nuclear management experience, Hess, 58, said he is confident the job can be done safely. "Bechtel has built over 50 percent of the operating reactors in the United States," he said. "Our license is going to require that we can prove there won't be any radioactive releases that would endanger the public," he said. In his view, with spent fuel piling up at 110 locations across the nation and many of the 40-year licenses to operate reactors on the verge of expiring, no choice exists but to find a safe disposal site. Without a repository, the nation's nuclear power reactors would have to shut down under the terms of their licenses. "I don't believe we can afford to shut down 20 percent of the power in the United States," he said. Hess said no imminent danger of leaks or spills exists with temporary, above-ground storage of the waste at the reactor sites. But he said there are substantial security risks. "That's my concern, that it could be a target for some terrorist with a shoulder-held rocket that could spread the nuclear material," he said. "The concept for Yucca Mountain, whether it's Yucca Mountain or some other place, I think a geological repository is the way to go from both a security standpoint and a radiation protection standpoint," he said. If the project survives all the political opposition, meets environmental standards and is ultimately approved by President Bush, it would have to endure "a very exacting" safety process to receive a license, Hess said. "During the construction process, the (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) will monitor everything we are doing. We will go through every circuit breaker," he said. If a repository is built, decisions will have to be made about how long it will be kept open. Scientists are concerned that heat from decaying waste that raises the temperature of the surrounding rock to boiling-point temperatures would need to be ventilated for an undetermined period. "The repository can be kept open as long as mankind wants to keep it open," Hess said. "Some of the things to take into account are new processes, new materials, new science over the life of this project. "We want to make sure the repository can take advantage of anything new in the scientific or engineering world," he said. webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 4 Norway's Premiers To Talk Shelf Delimitation, Nuclear Safety Pravda.RU Russia's, Jun, 17 2001 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and his Norwegian counterpart, Jens Stoltenberg, who will arrive in Russia Sunday on an official visit, will negotiate the delimitation of the shelf and economic zones of the Barentz sea, Norwegian ambassador in Russia, Ogvind Nordsletten, told RIA Novosti in an interview. According to him, "the issue is one of the few unresolved one in our relations." The two countries will negotiate, too, the development of cooperation in the enhancement of nuclear safety in Russia. "We have implemented many projects in this sphere, a lot of specific work has been done," the ambassador said. According to him, these projects include storage sites for nuclear waste and exhausted fuel built in Severodvinsk and Murmansk. "The most work is still ahead," Nordsletten argued. Norway has presided over international talks to hammer out a "Multilateral Agreement on the Nuclear Environmental Program of the Russian Federation." The ambassador said Oslo hoped to get the agreement signed this June. "Norway is willing to continue contributing to the solution of the problem in future," the ambassador stated. He pointed out that Russia is unable to cope with the problem on its own, thus warranting assistance from other nations. RIA 'Novosti' Copyright ©1999 by "Pravda.RU". When reproducing our materials ***************************************************************** 5 Feds relax rules on truck drivers visiting downtown 06/17/01 _By MEGAN SCULLY_ WASHINGTON - Cleveland's attempts to prevent an explosion or chemical spill during peak downtown business hours has irked the trucking industry and prompted a federal order: Let the trucks in. The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a rule June 1 reversing Cleveland's daytime ban on the delivery of radiopharmaceuticals, or time-sensitive drugs that contain a radioactive substance such as cobalt or iodine. The restrictions applied to downtown between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. "Because hospitals most often need radiopharmaceuticals delivered in the morning for patient treatment during the day, it is not possible to stockpile these materials by having them delivered on weekends or during the overnight," the DOT said in the rule, published in the Federal Register. Most daytime restrictions remain in place for other hazardous materials. But the Federal Motor Safety Carrier Administration of DOT wiped out another Cleveland provision opposed by truckers: a requirement that before they pick up or deliver large quantities of explosive materials, they give 24 hours' notice, get city approval of the truck's route and obtain a police escort. Advance notification requirements "have an inherent potential to delay the transportation of hazardous material" because a truck driver may not know 24 hours in advance of a pickup or delivery in the city, the DOT rule said. Cleveland has until June 20 to file a petition for reconsideration. A spokesman for Mayor Michael R. White would not say whether the city will file. But representatives of the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals said they had been unaware of any delays in receiving radioactive substances caused by the city. "There's never been a significant problem of any kind," said Eric Sandstrom, spokesman for University Hospitals. The American Trucking Association, however, said truck drivers had complained. The delays "can lead to increased exposure and a delay in transit time for sensitive material," said Paul Bomgardner, director of hazardous materials transportation for the association, which represents drivers and companies. The association lobbied the government for the new rules, saying Cleveland's decade-old hazardous material ordinance was unnecessary because of existing state and federal rules. The trucking industry also argued that the city was merely pushing truck drivers onto alternate routes in other communities. "Basically what happens is you export risk to surrounding jurisdictions," Bomgardner said. "It's got to go somewhere." Communities surrounding Cleveland, however, have never filed a complaint about the city's hazardous waste restrictions, said Greg Price, staff counsel at the Ohio Public Utilities Commission. The federal Hazardous Materials Uniform Safety Transportation Act of 1990 sought to ease truck travel between jurisdictions by making laws uniform, and the trucking association cited the act in its petition to DOT. Cleveland officials in turn argued that local safety concerns justified the pre-emption of the federal law. The federal law allows states and cities to maintain certain restrictions that do not "unreasonably burden commerce." The city also argued that trucking delays were negligible and that the notification process for explosive materials was simple and efficient, generally handled by a fax to the city's Fire Division. A member of the division would meet the truck outside the city and briefly inspect its tires, load and fire extinguishers. Other communities including Columbus and Lorain County have routing restrictions, but none that truck drivers have found as burdensome as Cleveland's, Bomgardner said. Advertise With Us © 2001 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 China, EU may launch talks on nuclear energy cooperation: EU's de Palacio [AFX News - Asia] Story Filed: Monday, June 18, 2001 7:41 AM EST BEIJING, Jun 18, 2001 (AFX-Asia via COMTEX) -- China and the EU are exploring the possibility of launching formal talks for a cooperation agreement between China and European atomic energy organisation Euratom for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, EU transport commissioner Loyola de Palacio said. Speaking to reporters after a day of meetings with senior Chinese ministers, including Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, De Palacio said that while it was too early to say when official negotiations might begin, any agreement would be based on research and development on issues such as nuclear waste management, security and combustion systems. She said discussions were still at an early stage and would give no more details. De Palacio, who was in Beijing to open the fourth EU-China Energy Cooperation Conference, said China was also interested in the Galileo satellite navigation system, which is being developed by the European Space Agency and the EU as a rival to the U.S.'s existing GPS system, but she gave no further details. The commissioner held talks with Science and Technology Minister Xu Guanghua on cooperation in areas such as clean coal technology, renewable energy and hydrogen and electric-powered cars. De Palacio said it was clear that China was very concerned about the level of carbon dioxide emissions, climate change and the impact of desertification on the country's economy. The government was also concerned about how to tackle the negative environmental impact of the expected rapid growth in car usage in China. During talks with Minister of Communications, Huang Zhendong, de Palacio said the two sides agreed to speed up the process to start official negotiations on a maritime transport agreement between the EU and China. She said she hoped talks could start in the autumn. In a speech earler in the day to the EU-China Energy Cooperation Conference, de Palacio called for closer cooperation between the EU and China to tackle common energy problems such as security of supply, climate change and the opening of energy markets, saying the two sides had a clear shared interest in finding common solutions. She said the EU and China needed to open and integrate their energy markets. The EU had long experience of opening up its energy markets and was making progress towards full liberalisation of the electricity and gas sectors. With China in the process of rationalising and reforming its own energy sector, including electricity, she said she believed both could learn from each other's experiences. However, speaking to reporters after the conference, de Palacio said she had not touched on the issue of reform of China's electricity sector during her talks with Chinese officials. State media have recently reported a split at senior government levels on the best way of restructuring the industry which analysts believe is slowing down the reform process. nma/jv *Copyright © 2001, AFX News - Asia, all rights reserved.* ***************************************************************** 7 Reactor restart eyed for fall; what is 'spallation'? From deadlines to definitions June 18, 2001 By Frank Munger News-Sentinel senior writer _From deadlines to definitions_ The High Flux Isotope Reactor is likely to be restarted in early fall, according to James Roberto, an associate director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The research reactor, one of the world's most powerful, has been out of operation since October for maintenance, repairs and a series of upgrades. Earlier this year, workers installed a new $2 million beryllium reflector, a metal structure that surrounds the reactor core and helps concentrate the neutrons used for experiments and production of isotopes. A tritium leak discovered in an underground waste line disrupted activities late last year, added to the rehab expenses and delayed the restart schedule. Roberto said the maintenance work should be completed by mid-July, which will followed by an Operational Readiness Review. The Department of Energy review could take two months or longer. ORNL officials hope to restart the reactor by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, or soon thereafter. * * * The Spallation Neutron Source, as its name implies, will be a source of neutrons for research experiments, but it's that first word -- "spallation" -- that drives many folks crazy and turns off some of the otherwise curious. "What does that mean, anyway?" is a frequent question. SNS chief Thom Mason recently talked about spallation as he described the moment of key action, when the proton beam is directed upon a target of mercury. "Most of the neutrons come from evaporation. So you take these protons, which are very energetic; they bang into the mercury nuclei and heat them up. And the way they cool down is by evaporating neutrons, just like a cup of coffee cooling by evaporating water. And if you write down the thermodynamics, that's exactly what it is. The term 'spallation' is a prospecting term from German, and it refers to what happens if you hit a rock with a ball peen hammer. Fragments fly off in all directions." Does that make sense, folks? * * * Attorneys general from 10 states recently penned a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, warning that funding shortfalls for environmental cleanup could have devastating consequences. "Each delay that we delay cleaning up contamination and decommissioning obsolete and dangerous contaminated facilities costs millions of dollars ... ," said the letter signed by attorneys general from Washington, Colorado, California, Idaho, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio and Oregon. The state of Tennessee, which hosts one of DOE's largest operations, did not participate in the message to Abraham -- raising questions and concerns among some cleanup supporters. "Where is Tennessee? Why isn't Nashville pushing for cleaning up Oak Ridge? With a $90 million shortfall in the 2002 (environmental management) budget ... you'd think there would be some interest," Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Local Oversight Committee, wrote to members of the committee's citizens advisory board and other interested parties. Sharon Curtis-Flair, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office, said Attorney General Paul Summers deferred on the matter because it involved a policy issue. In Tennessee, unlike some other states, the attorney general is not an elected official. Justin Wilson, the policy deputy to Gov. Don Sundquist, acknowledged that he reviewed a draft of the letter. He said he reminded the attorney general's office that it was a policy issue, but Wilson said he did not tell Summers not to participate. Wilson has been the state's point man on most high-level matters regarding the Energy Department. He said he generally agreed with the contents of the letter sent to Abraham but added: "I didn't analyze it word for word." * * * Morale has definitely been a problem among workers at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. Top officials at BWXT, the contractor that took over management of the nuclear installation last November, have talked about restoring the workers' confidence and pride. In its recently released strategic plan at Y-12, the company said: "In addition to the need to match the work force to the workload, the morale of the employees must be improved. Morale has suffered over the past few years because of the highly publicized incidents and subsequent investigations, the uncertainties associated with the contractual changeover, the inability to restart enriched uranium operations, and the concern over declining workloads." Some workers, however, have suggested BWXT's impersonal, do-it-our-way-or-else approach has been the biggest setback to morale. There have been complaints about newly imposed restrictions. For instance, workers -- including those with occupational illnesses -- traditionally have been able to pick up their plant medical records on an annual (or regular) basis for use in outside consultations. More recently, however, some workers were told that was no longer possible and were told they'd have to request them through the Department of Energy's Freedom of Information Office. Apparently there was a security concern about possible leaks of classified information. At least one worker thought it was just another attempt to harass workers -- especially those with workplace-related illnesses. BWXT chief John Mitchell indicated the restriction on medical records should be a temporary inconvenience. "There was an incident where someone found classified material in a medical record," Mitchell said. "Their reaction was, 'Well, gee whiz, we have to go make sure that never happens again.' The real solution is to go screen the medical records themselves and get (classified) material out of there and don't worry about it anymore. So that's what people ought to do. But, in the meantime, they've put in what I would call temporary measures. ... Nobody wants to do this the way they're doing it, but you just have to do things in the short term until you fix the long-term problem." Senior writer Frank Munger can be reached at 482-9213 or by e-mail at twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. This weekly column on science and technology also is available on our Web site at http://www.knoxnews.com/science/munger/. [E.W. Scripps] Copyright © 1999-2001, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 8 Iodine readiness _A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL_ _6/18/2001_ [F] OR YEARS, health officials, doctors, and policy makers in Massachusetts have conducted a quiet debate about the advisability of stockpiling pills that, in the event of an accident at a nuclear power plant, would help protect plant workers and the public against one harmful effect of radiation: thyroid cancer. The state Department of Public Health has decided it makes sense to keep enough around for emergency workers and institutionalized people who would be difficult to evacuate in a hurry, but not for the able-bodied public. Now Democratic state Representatives Vincent Pedone of Worcester and Carol Donovan of Woburn have sponsored a bill to require the DPH to make potassium iodide pills available for everyone within 10 miles of the nuclear power plants in Plymouth, Seabrook, N.H., and Vernon, Vt. While it is extremely unlikely the pills would ever be needed, getting them out in the affected communities is prudent public policy, especially now that the Bush administration wants to make nuclear power a bigger part of the nation's energy future. One argument against widespread stockpiling of potassium iodide is that it only protects the thyroid and still leaves the body vulnerable to other radiation dangers. Critics of stockpiling worry that people might see the pills as a ''silver bullet'' against radioactivity and refuse to evacuate in an emergency. But, says Pedone, ''I don't think people are that naive. People aren't going to hang around.'' In fact, the pills could prove very beneficial if a reactor accident coincides with a fierce winter storm that slows evacuation or, in the case of the Seabrook or Plymouth plants, with Sunday afternoon beach traffic jamming roads. After the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine in 1986 (which emitted far more radioactive iodine than a US reactor is likely to), the Polish government kept the incidence of thyroid cancer down by distributing potassium iodide to Poles. The protection would come cheaply. Not only does each pill cost just about 20 cents, Donovan said, but the federal government has agreed to pay states to buy them. The Donovan-Pedone bill calls on the DPH to provide each household in the 10-mile radius with pills. An alternative is to stockpile them at schools, hospitals, police stations, and evacuation checkpoints. While having them at schools, as Duxbury is doing, would help in case an accident occurs during school hours, storing them in central locations could create traffic jams, slowing evacuation. It is possible that a program of distributing iodine pills *_*_to families' medicine cabinets might raise some people's anxieties about the safety of nuclear power. But continued safe operation of the nation's nuclear plants is the best way to minimize those anxieties. And, if anything does go wrong, a supply of potassium iodide pills is one way, along with evacuation, to reduce the toll. This story ran on page A10 of the Boston Globe on 6/18/2001. © Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company. ***************************************************************** 9 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Monday, June 18, 2001 State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADAMS - Items of Interest Recent Released Documents Added - Monday, June 18, 2001 These documents and others may be retrieved at the NRC PERR web site ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item ID: 011660055 Accession Number: ML011580155 Date Added: 6/15/01 8:39:20 AM Title: "Westinghouse Nuclear Automation Strategy for the Closeout of the Common Qualified Platform Category 1 Open Items" (Proprietary) June 2001, "Westinghouse Nuclear Automation Strategy for the Closeout of the Common Qualified Platform Category I Open... Author Affiliation: Westinghouse Electric Co LLC Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660418 Accession Number: ML011650748 Date Added: 6/15/01 4:12:17 PM Title: 05/08/2001 Slides - Palisades Predecisional Enforcement Conference Apparent 10 CFR 50.9 Violation Author Affiliation: NRC Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660414 Accession Number: ML011650442 Date Added: 6/15/01 4:12:03 PM Title: 05/22/2001 - Summary of Public Meeting with Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI), and Westinghouse Owners Group (WOG), On Risk-Informed in-Service Inspection (RI-ISI) Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DRIP/RGEB Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660415 Accession Number: ML011650597 Date Added: 6/15/01 4:12:06 PM Title: 05/22/2001 - Summary of Public Meeting with Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI), and Westinghouse Owners Group (WOG), on Risk-Informed In-Service Inspection (RI-ISI) Author Affiliation: Nuclear Energy Institiute Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660056 Accession Number: ML011590027 Date Added: 6/15/01 8:39:25 AM Title: 06/07/01 Final EPA High-Level Waste Standards Author Affiliation: NRC/OCA Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660058 Accession Number: ML011590181 Date Added: 6/15/01 8:39:35 AM Title: 06/26/2001 Meeting with Virginia Electric and Power Company - Annual Assessment- North Anna Power Station. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-II/DRP/RPB5 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660158 Accession Number: ML011660018 Date Added: 6/15/01 10:13:06 AM Title: 06/28/2001 Meeting between Vermont Yankee and the NRC to discuss the end-of-cycle plant performance cycle. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-I Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660214 Accession Number: ML011660134 Date Added: 6/15/01 11:11:22 AM Title: 06/28/2001 mtg. notification of end-of-cycle assessment for Palo Verde. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-IV/RSLO Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660421 Accession Number: ML011660160 Date Added: 6/15/01 4:12:28 PM Title: 07/10/2001 Meeting with Nuclear Management Company, LLC to discuss the results of the NRC's annual assessment of the performance of the Kewaunee Nuclear Plant. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-III/DRP/RPB5 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660162 Accession Number: ML003727449 Date Added: 6/15/01 10:13:29 AM Title: 07/12/00 with NRR, NMSS, NEI, industry NCI - Reactor Safeguards Open Public Meeting (REVISED) Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DIPM/IOLB/IRSS Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660400 Accession Number: ML011660252 Date Added: 6/15/01 3:50:28 PM Title: 07/12/2001 - Notice of Public Meeting with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Regarding Risk-Informed Containment Leakage Rate Testing Issues Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DRIP/REXB Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660454 Accession Number: ML011630121 Date Added: 6/15/01 4:16:04 PM Title: Letter to LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae in response to letters dated February 12, 2001 & April 27, 2001 regarding NRC staff licensing guidance applicable to the Beta-Cath System. Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/IMNS/MSIB Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660402 Accession Number: ML011660311 Date Added: 6/15/01 3:50:41 PM Title: M010614B-Meeting with Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB). Author Affiliation: Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660132 Accession Number: ML011580373 Date Added: 6/15/01 10:02:06 AM Title: Partial Response to Request for Additional Information-GE Nuclear Energy Licensing Topical Report NEDC-32938P Author Affiliation: GE Nuclear Energy Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660410 Accession Number: ML010730038 Date Added: 6/15/01 4:11:50 PM Title: Request from Nuclear Development Corporation of America to amend source material license C-3395 to receive, store and utilize 500 lbs. F-3 fuel mixture. Author Affiliation: Nuclear Development Corp of America Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660574 Accession Number: ML011560891 Date Added: 6/15/01 5:43:02 PM Title: Summary of 04/06/2001 Meeting with General Atomics and the California Department of Health Services re coordination for remaining decommissioning activities at GA site in San Diego. Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/FCSS Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660426 Accession Number: ML011640428 Date Added: 6/15/01 4:12:48 PM Title: Summary of May 10, 2001 Telephone Conference Between NRC and NEI Regarding Steam Generator Issues Related to NEI 97-06. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DE/EMCB Document/Report Number: NEI 97-06 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 011660146 Accession Number: ML011580103 Date Added: 6/15/01 10:11:56 AM Title: Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station - Request for Relief from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Code for Repair of a Reactor Building Recirculation Unit. Author Affiliation: Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ ***************************************************************** 10 U.S., Japanese companies team up to develop new nuclear reactors thestar.com.my: Business News TOKYO (AP) - Japanese and U.S. companies plan to develop cheaper and safer next-generation nuclear reactors in two separate cross-border collaborations, company officials said Monday. Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and General Electric Co. will develop a 1.7-million-kilowatt advanced boiling-water reactor by 2 , said Hitachi spokesman Keiisaku Shibatani. Further details were not yet available, he said, adding that the companies previously cooperated in designing and building a reactor in Niigata prefecture (state) in northern Japan in 1996. Toshiba spokesman Keniichi Sugiyama also confirmed the alliance. Separately, Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Westinghouse Electric Co. of the United States are working on a 1-million-kilowatt pressurized light-water reactor they hope to develop by 2030, said a Mitsubishi spokeswoman on condition of anonymity. The new reactors will be able to produce more electricity than current power plants, enabling power companies to recover plant-construction expenses faster, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said Monday, without citing a source. They will also be monitored and operated by state-of-the-art computers to make them safer, the paper said. Companies involved in the two projects said additional details on how they plan to make the plants cheaper and safer haven't yet been worked out. Mitsubishi hopes to expand its business in the United States after U.S. President George W. Bush announced plans last month to resume building nuclear power plants after a 20-year moratorium, the Mitsubishi spokeswoman said. Most of the power plants in the United States employ pressurized light-water reactors, the spokeswoman said. Mitsubishi licensed technology from Westinghouse in 1961 and is the only Japanese company to build pressurized light-water reactors, she added. Pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors use a similar mechanism to make electricity. A controlled nuclear reaction heats water into steam, which then drives a turbine. A generator connected to the turbine converts the energy into electricity. © 1995-2001 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd(Co No 10894-D) ***************************************************************** 11 Faster planning laws derided as gagging protest_ The Times JUNE 18 2001 BY VALERIE ELLIOTT, COUNTRYSIDE EDITOR MINISTERS are planning to take away from public inquiries the power to reject controversial new projects such as motorways, airports and nuclear power stations. The proposal has set the leading environmental groups at loggerheads with Tony Blair’s new administration. Campaigners are convinced that it is an attempt to gag objectors from speaking out on controversial schemes. Ministers think the present system is too cumbersome and lengthy and that it delays public investment in key areas. The plan under discussion is for ministers to take a decision in principle and then to seek parliamentary approval. Any subsequent public inquiry would focus wholly on local details of a project. It would not be bogged down in protracted legal arguments about the merits of the scheme. The new proposal is part of a sweeping reform of planning laws to speed up decisions. Local authorities are likely to be set targets to deal with planning applications. In Worthing, for example, 98 per cent of business planning applications are dealt with in eight weeks, whereas in Christchurch, Dorset, the turnover for the same time is 19 per cent. Ministers are concerned that important national projects are taking too long to resolve. The future of a fifth terminal at Heathrow, for example, has still not been decided, even though the matter has been under scrutiny for seven years at a cost of more than £100 million. Green campaigners fear the Government has been swayed by supermarket chains and developers of housing estates who have been lobbying hard for a less rigid approach to planning controls. Leading environmental groups wish to see a speedier planning process but will seek reassurances that the public’s voice will not be diminished. Labour’s manifesto pledged to introduce new fast-track procedures for major projects of national significance. It is understood that Mr Blair and Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, were attracted to arguments put forward by Digby Jones, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, who believes Britain’s competitiveness is at risk from delays and hurdles inherent in the planning system. Mr Jones said last night: “Business people don’t expect their request to be granted every time but they need more certainty. If an application due to take six months ends up taking 18, investment is driven away and jobs are lost.” The CBI is conducting research into the effectiveness of the planning system in three areas — national projects, local authority disparities and the impact on housing. A report with proposed solutions is expected to be with Stephen Byers, the new Transport, Local Government and Regions Secretary, within six weeks. Lord Falconer of Thoroton, Housing and Planning Minister, has day-to-day control of the policy. Kate Parminter, director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England, said last night that she would be seeking urgent clarification of the Government’s plans. “We will be very concerned indeed to see any form of diminution of public engagement in the planning process,” she said. Friends of the Earth described the new move as “control freakery of the worst kind” and believed it would backfire. Charles Secrett, its executive director, said: “We will strongly oppose any such move. Politically it does not make sense and would be extremely stupid. In the past ministers have been able to distance themselves from controversial decisions and hide behind an inquiries process. If ministers now become directly responsible they will be putting their own heads in a noose.” A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport, Planning and Local Government confirmed that a review of planning laws was in place but she insisted that public consultation would remain a key factor of any new process. The new policy would apply to all developments of national importance such as a new railway line, an airport extension, a mineral excavation site and waste incinerator sites. Plans for a new airport at Finningley, near Doncaster, would be the type of decision ministers might prefer to remove from a public inquiry system in future. In this case, however, it is too late because an inquiry is due to start in six weeks. Backers want the airport to be as big as Manchester Airport but there are significant local concerns about traffic and the threat to wildlife. Copyright 2001 _Times Newspapers Ltd_. This service is provided ***************************************************************** 12 Nuclear-storage plan targeted_ Denver Post.com EPA cites Indians' inability to keep water supply clean By Kit Miniclier _ Denver Post Staff Writer_ --> _Sunday, June 17, 2001_ - SKULL VALLEY, Utah - A small band of Goshute Indians wants to host one of the country's largest nuclear-waste dumps, but federal officials are concerned that the group cannot even keep its own drinking water clean. The group's leader, Leon Bear, has ignored three deadlines set by the Denver regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the reservation's dangerously polluted drinking water, according to documents obtained by The Denver Post. Bear's admitted unwillingness to work with federal officials to make the water safe has sparked concern about his ability to work with federal regulators who would want to keep tabs on a nuclear storage facility within the sovereign boundaries of the reservation. Bear dismisses that concern, saying: "Little minds have little thoughts. ... I'm always fighting with the EPA" about water. Only 25 people live on the 7-by-8-mile reservation in the desert 60 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, and only 15 of them are tribal members. They live in a cluster of trailers and homes among a few trees on the western slope of the Stansbury Mountains. Pioneers named the place Skull Valley after finding some skulls near a rare spring. Over the years the area has become the center of one of the most volatile areas on Earth. Nearby are the Utah Test and Training Range, where the Air Force tests F-16 fighters and cruise missiles; the Dugway Proving Grounds, a test center for chemical and biological weapons; the Deseret Chemical Depot, with its stockpile of nerve and blistering agents; and the Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility, where military chemicals are destroyed. Now Bear wants to lease about 1 square mile of the reservation for a fenced-off nuclear waste dump. Ultimately, the plan must be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "I'm more afraid of the nerve gas at Tooele Army Depot or the chemical/biological experiments at Dugway Proving Ground than I am of the storage facility," said Bear, who envisions the waste dump as economic salvation for his dying tribe. Given the valley's isolation, and the enormity of the pollutants and chemical hazards surrounding the reservation, Bear convinced the tribal leadership that nuclear storage would provide a lucrative, safe, nonpolluting source of income. Bear signed a lease four years ago with Private Fuel Storage, a limited liability company representing a consortium of commercial nuclear power producers. The 840-acre site is designed to receive up to 40,000 metric tons of spent uranium for "temporary" storage, for 20 or 40 years, despite strident objections by the Utah Legislature, Gov. Mike Leavitt and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Proponents say the "temporary site" will close after all the radioactive waste is moved to a planned permanent federal storage facility in Yucca Mountain, Nev. Meanwhile, EPA documents show that the Goshutes' water system, which uses untreated surface water, contains both coliform and E. coli bacteria "whose presence indicate the water may be contaminated with human or animal waste" and "is a threat to human health." The EPA has been providing free bottled water for several months. Concerns about Bear's unwillingness to cooperate bothers Dianne Nielson, director of Utah's Department of Environmental Quality. "If the tribe can't provide safe drinking water, how is it going to handle high-level nuclear waste?" Nielson asked. "We have not received the cooperation from the chairman (Bear) that is needed to provide equal protection to people living on the reservation," said Elyana Sutin, a Denver-based EPA attorney. "The EPA is not out to make his life more difficult; we would like to make it easier." The EPA has notified the nuclear commission of the importance of making sure the Goshutes will provide immediate regular access to the proposed nuclear waste facility, said environmental engineer Weston Wilson of the Denver EPA office. Bear noted that tribal members have been drinking the surface water for years. And he is quick to point out that the group will have no management responsibilities for the nuclear storage facility, but will merely lease the site. State officials wonder who is liable, noting that Private Fuel Storage is a limited liability company. Representatives of the nuclear commission met last month with the utility consortium's representatives to discuss the company's earlier underestimates of both earthquake activity and overflights by fighter bombers. Mark Delligatti, the NRC project manager for the proposed site, requested additional information after learning that about 4,000 F-16 fighter planes a year roar through, or over, the valley en route to nearby bombing ranges. Either way, an NRC decision is not expected before winter, and then both sides are expected to continue their court battles to either block or enable the project. The company wants courts to declare six new Utah laws aimed at thwarting the facility to be unconstitutional. Utah's governor has vowed to build a jurisdictional moat around the reservation to prevent shipments of nuclear waste from getting to the site. Bear says Utah has repeatedly failed to present scientific evidence against the facility and notes that Utah has permitted shipments of radioactive waste to go through the state. The Goshutes' third and final deadline to clean up its water, or face fines of $15,000 to $27,500 daily, was May 31, according to EPA documents. However, the deadline was extended a fourth time to permit the Indian Health Service to shut down, clean out, disinfect and modernize the tribal water system and install a new pump, electrical system, purification system and other improvements to assure drinkable water from wells. All contents Copyright 2001 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Navy Drops Dummy Bombs on Vieques Today: June 18, 2001 at 13:00:25 PDT VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (AP) - U.S. fighter jets dropped inert bombs on the Navy's prized firing range on Vieques island Monday, the Navy said, resuming exercises despite protests seeking a halt to training on the island. The bombing runs began about 2 p.m., said Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Katherine Goode. Activists opposed to the exercises had invaded the range and reportedly were hiding there even as the bombing began. Protest leader Ismael Guadalupe said the bombing posed "a threat to human life." Navy officials, however, said there were no protesters on the bombing range on the eastern tip of the Puerto Rican island. Eight demonstrators were arrested Monday morning for trespassing on Navy property as they walked toward the bombing range, Navy spokesman Bob Nelson said. The Navy had said fighter jets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier could begin dropping the dummy bombs as early as 8 a.m. Monday. Protesters claimed they had forced a delay in the bombing. Protesters said as many as 30 demonstrators reportedly were on the range. "The people of Vieques and Puerto Rico have been able to fool all the security forces, the police officers and the radars guarding the range," protest leader Nilda Medina said. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 Radiation tests on baby bones BBC News | SCOTLAND | Sunday, 17 June, 2001, 18:02 GMT 19:02 UK The research was carried out at Yorkhill hospital Government agencies have admitted bones were secretly removed from the bodies of hundreds of dead babies in Scotland in the 1960s for testing. The bones were tested for radioactivity as part of a study to establish the dangers of nuclear weapons trials. One leading scientist involved has defended their work. The research was carried out at Yorkhill Children's Hospital in Glasgow between 1959 and 1970. This work was absolutely vital, we did it to establish whether these nuclear tests were poisoning or potentially damaging children. Professor Gavin Arneil The thigh bones of more than 2,000 children were reduced to ashes and subjected to tests for radioactive contamination. Every year, between 100 and 200 thigh bones of children who died in west central Scotland were removed or sampled in post mortem examinations at Yorkhill. A handful came from Perthshire, Orkney, and Ross and Cromarty and Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands. The scientists were trying to establish what effect the fallout from nuclear tests being carried out around the world was having on health. Doctors feared that because it was contaminating milk, it could be building up to dangerous levels in children's bones. _Atmospheric nuclear tests_ Operators of the Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, which initiated the research, and the Medical Research Council, which oversaw it, have admitted parents were not asked for their consent. More than half the children who had femur samples removed were still-born and most others died before they reached the age of five. After being incinerated, the femurs were analysed for the radioactive isotope strontium-90. The only permission ever requested from the bereaved parents in the 12 years of analysing bones was for routine post-mortem examinations. _Damaging children_ Professor Gavin Arneil, paediatrician at the Yorkhill children's hospital, said he was not involved in removing the bones but he did carry out tests. "This work was absolutely vital, we did it to establish whether these nuclear tests were poisoning or potentially damaging children. "I regret that this news has come out now. There will be many parents who clearly will be upset at this development, and I regret that. "But I would stress that the work was justified. "The ethics of the time were different and parents were asked to give permission for post-mortem examinations. "Whether other questions were asked or not I do not know." Further investigation_ Health minister Susan Deacon said later that the findings were very disturbing and merited further investigation. She will ask the independent review group set up after the Alder Hey scandal in Liverpool to look at the findings. "While these events took place some time ago, they will still be very disturbing to the families concerned," she said. "I have made it clear that the paternalism of the past has no place in a 21st-century health service and parents must be kept involved in any decision affecting their children." She believed the findings would strengthen the review group's determination to make sure such things never happened again. ***************************************************************** 3 A bomb victim is a victim anywhere he lives asahi.com news June 18, 2001 Kwak Kwi Hun, a certified atomic bomb victim (hibakusha), lives in the Republic of Korea (South Korea). His complaint about Japan's Atomic Bomb Victims Relief Law was that it applied only to those who lived in Japan. He puts it this way: ``When I am in my country in the morning, I am not a hibakusha. When I take a flight and arrive in Japan at noon, I am a hibakusha. But when I go back to my country in the evening, I am not a hibakusha again.'' Acknowledging that the law was flawed, the Osaka District Court ruled that Kwak was an atomic bomb victim and should be treated as such when he was in South Korea or anywhere else. Kwak was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. He was seriously injured, but returned soon to South Korea. On a 1998 visit, he had himself certified as an atomic bomb victim and received a health care allowance based on the certification. But his certification papers became invalid when he returned to his country. He filed a suit for a court injunction that would restore the validity of his papers and keep them valid wherever he lived. According to Kwak's deposition, he grew up in a remote mountain hamlet in Korea. He has clear memories about how Koreans were taught the Japanese language in his childhood. On Mondays, each student at his elementary school was given 20 cards, with the phrase kokusho-short for kokugo shorei (encouraging the use of the Japanese language)-written on them. Every time a student spoke Korean, a card was taken away, no matter what the circumstances. Students with few cards remaining were punished at the end of the week. When he enrolled at a teacher's school, he came across a program to educate Koreans as subjects of the Japanese emperor. It was an intensified effort to assimilate Koreans into Japan. At the same time, Koreans were being subjected to worse forms of discrimination. Kwak began to notice that many things just did not make sense. But he had no choice but to play a docile and obedient Korean. He was later drafted into the military when the Japanese government's plan to conscript Koreans went into force. He was then sent to Hiroshima where he was exposed to the bomb's radiation. Why were he and others in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped Aug. 6, 1945? The answers must vary from one atomic bomb victim to another. Many victims must have repeatedly asked themselves the same question over the years. Were they there by accident or necessity? In the case of Kwak and his fellow Korean conscripts, their presence in Hiroshima had been dictated in line with Japan's policy to run the Korean Peninsula as its colonial masters. The court ruling that a hibakusha atomic bomb victim is a hibakusha, regardless where he lives, is easy for anyone to understand. About 5,000 victims will benefit from the court's verdict. (The Asahi Shimbun, June 3) Copyright 2001 Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No ***************************************************************** 4 Report: Bush Stunned by U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Size June 17 1:28 PM ET_ WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush was stunned last month when told of the extent of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, Newsweek magazine reported in its June 25 edition, released on Sunday. ``I had no idea we had so many weapons,'' Bush was quoted as saying by an unidentified ``White House insider.'' ``What do we need them for?'' the president was said to have asked at a briefing, according to the Newsweek report. But that was not a dumb question, the magazine noted in detailing the vast U.S. nuclear arsenal, which includes 5,400 warheads on intercontinental ballistic missiles, 1,750 nuclear bombs and cruise missiles ready to be launched from B-2 and B-52 bombers, 1,670 ``tactical'' nuclear weapons and another 10,000 warheads in bunkers around the United States. That potential for nuclear overkill may be reined in, however, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld prepares at the Pentagon to implement Bush's stated goal of streamlining and downsizing the arsenal. Rumsfeld has brought back retired Gen. George (Lee) Butler and former Reagan administration national security guru Richard Perle to spearhead an effort to reduce the arsenal to safer, more manageable and more cost efficient levels, Newsweek said. ``I see no reason why we can't go well below 1,000'' warheads, Perle told the magazine. ``I want the lowest number possible under the tightest control possible.'' ``The truth is we are never going to use them,'' Perle added. ''The Russians aren't going to use theirs either.'' Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights ***************************************************************** 5 Author sues over China nuclear weapons book CNN.com - - June 18, 2001 [Los Alamos] The author, Danny Stillman, was an employee of the U.S. nuclear weapons lab at Los Alamos for 28 years _WASHINGTON (CNN) -- __The author of a book about Chinese nuclear secrets is suing several U.S. government agencies in a bid to get his book published._ The move comes after the Department of Energy, acting on a recommendation from the Defense Department, denied Danny Stillman permission to publish his memoir, "Inside China's Nuclear Weapons Program". The Department of Energy, in a memo dated October 2000, denied Stillman the right to publish, warning that if certain information was revealed it could damage national security and U.S. relations with China. The memo said the manuscript contained "extensive information about intelligence sources and methods, and could, therefore, reasonably be expected to damage national security of the United States." "Additionally, open publication could also damage American relations with China and have a deleterious effect on future scientific exchanges between the two countries." Until 1993 Stillman was employed by the University of California as a private-contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Secrecy agreement In nine trips to China before and after his retirement Stillman visited nuclear weapons facilities and met Chinese scientists working there as a guest of the Chinese government. His attorney, Mark Zaid, said he briefed U.S. intelligence officials upon his return. Under the terms of his employment he had to submit any writings for pre-publication review in accordance with a secrecy agreement that was a condition of his 28-year career at Los Alamos. However, Zaid says the information in the book is unclassified and contains "important and invaluable information" that will "favorably impact our relations with China." He said the lawsuit, to be filed Monday, will ask the Departments of Defense and Energy, the Defense Intelligence Agency and Central Intelligence Agency not to block the publication. 2001 Cable News Network LP, LLLP._ An AOL Time Warner Company. ***************************************************************** 6 DOE halts release of report on K-25's fate Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:24 p.m. on Monday, June 18, 2001 _by Paul Parson _ Oak Ridger staff The Department of Energy has halted the release of a document that addresses the fate of two uranium enrichment process buildings at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site. The reason, according to DOE officials, is that discussions were not concluded on schedule with regulators relating to the four alternatives for handling buildings K-25 and K-27. However, copies of a "finished" version of the report were originally issued to the Information Resource Center and The Oak Ridger earlier this month. According to that document, the four choices for dealing with the facility are as follows: + Taking "no action" on the buildings. + Leaving the facilities in place and continuing surveillance and maintenance on the structures. + Decontaminating the equipment, demolishing the building and disposing of the waste at the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility. + Or removing equipment from the buildings, demolishing the facilities and disposing of the waste at the Nevada Test Site or the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, which is under construction in Oak Ridge. The U-shaped K-25 building covers more than 40 acres at the site, while K-27 takes up around 374,000 square feet. Operations in K-25 ceased in the early 1960s, and K-27 was completely shut down in the mid-1980s. DOE officials said a new version of the report will be released later this summer. Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 7 'They use us as a model,' mayor says on returning from Russia Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:24 p.m. on Monday, June 18, 2001 'They use us as a model,' mayor says on returning from Russia _by Amy L. Lee _ Oak Ridger staff Oak Ridge Mayor Jerry Kuhaida recently returned from a nine-day stay in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, as a consultant with the Department of Energy's Nuclear Cities Initiative program to help reindustrialize the country's 10 closed, nuclear cities. The Nuclear Cities Initiative program provides the link between U.S. government, non-government, industry and other programs leading to job creation, economic diversification and community development in the nuclear cities. The Nuclear Cities Initiative is designed to assist Russia's closed cities, which are scattered from Moscow to Siberia, in efforts to prevent or slow the spread of nuclear weapons and the materials and technologies used to produce them and to redirect the work of nuclear weapons scientists, engineers and technicians to alternative non-military scientific and commercial activities. "The trip was very interesting to me. It allowed me to take the lessons I've learned through our Sister City program with Obninsk (Russia), the Energy Cities Alliance and DOE's NCI program and put them to work," Kuhaida said. Krasnoyarsk, Russia, is the closest open city to the closed nuclear city of Zheleznogorsk. Shown here is a utility pipe that provides either water or steam heat for these Soviet-style apartment buildings in Krasnoyarsk. Officials face the task of figuring out how to charge for the utilities now that the cities are no longer closed. Kuhaida became involved with the Nuclear Cities Initiative as one of five mayors who previously traveled to Krasnoyarsk, located about an hour away from the closed city of Zheleznogorsk, to meet with the mayors of Russia's nuclear cities. Access to the closed cities is strictly controlled and monitored. They are overseen by the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy and contain weapons design and production sites comparable to DOE facilities in Los Alamos, Hanford and Oak Ridge. The difference is that the Russian cities have been closed since they were built in the 1940s. The entire municipal areas are surrounded by fences, gates and guards. Special permission is required for Russians to enter and leave; visits by foreigners are strictly limited. Zheleznogorsk, with a population of 100,000, is located about 2,000 miles east of Moscow. It is a reprocessing and waste management site with plutonium production reactors, and its main facility is a mining and chemical combine with a workforce of 8,300. The city, built to resemble St. Petersburg, is situated on the east bank of the Yenisei River and was constructed in the 1950s to house the plutonium facility. On this trip as the American consultants were meeting together trying to figure out how to approach the Russian mayors, Kuhaida said they knocked on the door. "They just wanted to talk," Kuhaida said. "We spent the next two to three hours, up into the early morning hours, just listening to what their problems were, which was confirmation that we needed to do something." The process of downsizing nuclear facilities has been challenging even in the United States with its stronger economy, stable government and the legal, social and technological infrastructure necessary to support economic development. Russia faces even more severe challenges and needs the expertise, advice and assistance of others. Kuhaida said the group developed a model for Russian cities, specifically Zheleznogorsk, to implement in their "conversion" program, known in the states as "reindustrialization." That model includes getting U.S. environmental and construction companies to meet with the Russian mayors "just to talk to see if there was a project they could work together on," Kuhaida said. Kuhaida said he was able to sit down with the Russian project manager and their interpreters to work in mutual agreement on the scope of the project. "That means there are actual tasks they're doing and working on providing for our review." In helping these cities cut back on the manufacture of nuclear weapons, workers need to be out of the weapons complex and into civilian employment, which can be done only in thriving and economically diverse communities that can provide the necessary services to sustain civilian economic growth. One such option is the Russian "techno parks," which are similar to Oak Ridge's East Tennessee Technology Park. "They look at sites already up and running, such as the one in Huntsville, (Ala.), and go through the whys and hows of how it becomes integrated with education, science, industry, research and the federal government," Kuhaida said. "They use us as a model. They've looked at examples here in the states -- just as Oak Ridge has. We're almost twins given that the Cold War shut them down and turned both our economies upside down," he said. "Really this involved the spreading of ideas from Oak Ridge out into their culture, which is what I think is an important effort in maintaining peace," Kuhaida said. "What better way is there?" The people are described in Nuclear Cities Initiative literature as a "highly educated, well-trained and disciplined workforce with a strong background in science and engineering." Kuhaida said the program's goal is to capitalize on the Russians' education, "so they don't take that intelligence to North Korea, Iraq or Libya. Just like I'm sure there are people here who would be attractive to those other countries. The people there are just like Oak Ridgers in terms of education." Next steps include evaluating the commercial viability of the proposals outlined in the plans and identifying seed funding for those that merit implementation. Kuhaida said he is "building a case for the importance of continued funding" and wants to see "what we're able to do with so little ... for an overall impact." All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 8 OPINIONS: Disappointed by column on CROET_ Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:22 p.m. on Monday, June 18, 2001 To The Oak Ridger: Lawrence Young's guest column on May 23 failed with me in its purpose of creating enthusiasm about CROET's (the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee's) successes and future plans. Instead, it left me disappointed about missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential. The original assignment for the community reuse organization (initially the East Tennessee Economic Council, from which CROET later spun off), as the Department of Energy's designated community transition agent in Oak Ridge, was to "reindustrialize" the K-25 Site -- to bring private businesses into space once occupied by uranium enrichment activities and other federal uses. Reindustrialization of K-25 looked like both a wonderful opportunity and a significant challenge. An opportunity because this was a 5,000-acre industrial site with infrastructure in place, a variety of available buildings, and an owner (DOE) in a position to provide valuable incentives to new tenants. A challenge because of contamination, security concerns, and myriad other issues associated with DOE ownership. Many questioned whether K-25 reindustrialization could be successful under these constraints. DOE and the community reuse organization assured us that they could succeed at leasing vacant buildings and land to businesses that would bring new jobs to Oak Ridge, and we had high hopes. K-25 would be Oak Ridge's showcase for brownfield redevelopment. "Brownfields" is a name for abandoned or underutilized properties where redevelopment is complicated by environmental contamination. Redevelopment of these areas has become a high priority with community and business leaders around North America and Europe. Reuse of brownfields recaptures a huge public and private investment in site infrastructure, while avoiding the adverse environmental and social impacts of the "sprawl" that results when development spreads into farmland and forest. Successful brownfield development is not easy -- innovative approaches are needed to overcome the real and perceived disadvantages to new tenants. Economic and community development groups around the country say the main disadvantages for brownfield sites are financial and legal. Last year a U.S. Conference of Mayors study found the most important obstacles to redevelopment of brownfield sites to be lack of financing, liability problems due to the Superfund law, and requirements for costly environmental assessments. These financial and legal disincentives should be largely nonexistent at K-25. DOE leases the property to CROET for free and has turned over valuable equipment for tenants to resell, so CROET is able to offer substantial subsidies to tenants. The federal government takes care of environmental assessments and retains full legal responsibility for potential liabilities from residual hazardous materials. Despite these apparent advantages, results from the effort to recycle K-25 have been disappointing. CROET says it has brought over 1,280 employees to K-25 (now called the Heritage Center), but this number is misleading. It includes well over 800 people working on DOE cleanup contracts for BNFL or other companies, plus the people who run the site utility services, and others who would be working there anyway. CROET explains these results by telling us (in Lawrence Young's guest column on May 23) that "only a small percentage of companies look for brownfield sites" such as K-25. Young said that the "Heritage Center appeals to those who are looking for a low-end, basic site." This is not the experience elsewhere. New tenants on brownfield sites in Chattanooga and other cities include shopping centers, sports complexes, corporate headquarters, and computer and telecommunications companies. These successes did not come from waiting for prospects who were already "looking" for exactly what the site had to offer -- the tenants had to be convinced that the properties were right for them. Perhaps the economic development people in Chattanooga, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, and other cities succeeded because they are cleverer than their counterparts in Oak Ridge. However, the evidence suggests that CROET's priority is not brownfield reuse. While K-25 reindustrialization is stalled, CROET is enthusiastically promoting greenfield developments on public lands leased from DOE under favorable terms. Young proudly touts the Horizon Center, just down the road from K-25, as an industrial park for a clientele with "high aesthetic standards for their location." And now he says that CROET needs to be given control of yet more undeveloped DOE land in order to attract industrial companies needing "mid-range" facilities. I can't help thinking that Oak Ridge is missing out on the opportunity to create an impressive new future for K-25. Ellen Smith Oak Ridge All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 9 Robot Could Protect Nuke Workers June 17, 2001 RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - Some waste pits at the Hanford nuclear reservation are so hot they emit in only one hour a dose of radiation 100 times higher than the amount workers are allowed to receive in a year. But the pits must be cleaned and many of them upgraded for transferring radioactive waste from Hanford's underground tank farms to a vitrification plant now being designed to turn some of the deadly material into glass logs for long-term storage. In response to the dangers, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has designed the "Pit Viper," a versatile, robotic arm and remote video monitoring station that will allow workers to rehabilitate contaminated pits without getting near them. Pit work exposes handlers to more radiation than any other cleanup task at the tank farms, where nearly 54 million gallons of highly radioactive waste are stored in 177 aging and leak-prone tanks. Even workers standing near some pits can be exposed to their annual limits of radiation in a few hours or a few days, said Don Niebuhr, a field work supervisor for the CH2M Hill Hanford Group, which manages the tank farms. "Doing this work is extremely hazardous. It is the most dose-intensive task," said Sharon Bailey, Pit Viper project manager for the laboratory. "We expect this (Pit Viper) may reduce personnel dose rates by up to 75 percent." The lab recently showed off a prototype Pit Viper, a $1 million system that will be used at the reservation this summer. The three-joystick control board and four monitors in the control trailer look deceptively simple. "That's the idea," said Carl Baker, a senior development engineer for the lab. "We want this to be actually used." An operator, working as far away as 200 feet, has views from four cameras showing what the robotic arm is doing. It can lift as much as 200 pounds. "We have 600 equipment pits that need to be cleaned up before we can proceed with vitrification," said Paul Kruger, the U.S. Department of Energy's associate manager for science and technology in Richland. The swimming pool-like pits average about 8 feet-by-10-feet in area and 8 feet deep. Some pits record radiation dose rates so high that prep work with shields and other protective devices is required before workers can enter, Niebuhr said. There are no plans to use the Pit Viper at other Energy Department sites - no other site has this particular problem - but if other sites saw potential use, the lab would work on modifications. CH2M Hill would like to have about six Pit Vipers for its work, said Rick Raymond, the company's vice president for projects. Whether the money would be available is unknown. If funding can be found for the Pit Vipers, the pits can be cleaned out more safely and more efficiently, eventually saving money, Raymond said. The Bush administration has budgeted for the Energy Department's Office of River Protection $814 million for fiscal year 2002. The office, which oversees the tank farms and the glassification project, needs $1.1 billion to meet its contract obligations. The vitrification plant is expected to be up and running in 2007. End advance for Monday, June 18, and thereafter All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 10 _Contaminated solution poses DOE dilemma _ *Site officials continue to question what to do with 3,500 gallons of radioactive liquid * *Web posted Monday, June 18, 2001 _By Brandon Haddock_ *Staff Writer* Inside Savannah River Site's massive F-Canyon plant sit about 3,500 gallons of a liquid that is giving the U.S. Department of Energy heartburn. The liquid contains americium and curium, highly radioactive elements that can cause cancer. The federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has deemed the solution ''a high radiation and contamination hazard.'' But after seven years and $67 million, the DOE still doesn't know what to do with it. Site officials decided last month to suspend work on a proposed plant to treat the liquid. Instead, scientists and engineers will spend the summer determining whether the waste can be transferred from F-Canyon to existing SRS waste tanks, then treated at the site's Defense Waste Processing Facility. But some observers are concerned about that plan, too. ''It's a really tough call,'' said Don Moniak, an Aiken resident and community organizer for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. ''It seems like they have no viable solutions at this time.'' The Energy Department once considered the solution to be treasure, not trash. Oak Ridge National Laboratory wanted to use it to manufacture californium for cancer research, and SRS officials began designing a plant, called the ''multipurpose processing facility,'' that would convert the liquid into a solid glass suitable to send to Tennessee. ''We couldn't disposition it in any other method except in a way that it could be recovered for future use,'' said Sachiko McAlhany, an assistant manager for the Energy Department at SRS. But that plan hasn't come together. The facility's sticker price has jumped from $40 million to $129 million, and SRS contractor Westinghouse Savannah River Co. has asked to add $68 million more to that, Ms. McAlhany said. Design changes caused the project's completion date to slip from 2002 to 2005, and the Energy Department's own auditor, the Inspector General, questioned whether the site could meet even the later date. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board also raised concerns about the proposed plant, stating that its safety analysis was inadequate. Finally, Oak Ridge said it didn't want the americium/curium solution anymore - and no other Energy Department site wanted it either, Ms. McAlhany said. Without a customer, there was no longer a need to build a special plant to treat the solution, she said. Now, site engineers are studying whether they can dilute the americium/curium solution, then treat it with the other SRS wastes in the site's Defense Waste Processing Facility, Ms. McAlhany said. But the solution's high radioactivity means that more research must be completed before the new method can be attempted, Ms. McAlhany said. In particular, engineers must determine whether the solution can be transferred safely through existing pipelines at the site. ''It is similar to what is already in the waste tanks,'' Ms. McAlhany said. ''The issue is that it is so concentrated, and from a radiological standpoint, it's a much larger material. ''The issue is how you get something so concentrated from here to there.'' Site engineers haven't completed a cost estimate for the new plan, but it would require the installation of additional equipment, Ms. McAlhany said. If the new option is found feasible, the transfer likely would take place late next year, she said. The defense board hasn't taken a stand on the new alternative, but is watching it closely, a board member said. ''We've been watching it for a long time,'' said A.J. Eggenberger, the board's vice chairman, during a telephone interview last week. ''We're looking at the safety implications of this. ''Do we think this is the way to go? We're still looking at it. We don't have all the technical details yet, and I don't believe the department does, either. ''We're not fighting it one way or the other at this point, until we have all the data.'' _Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or bhaddock@augustachronicle.com._ All contents ©1996 - 2001 *The Augusta Chronicle*. All ***************************************************************** 11 Dead babies' bones removed "http://etad.telegraph.co.uk/ ISSUE _2215_ Monday _18 June_ 2001 THE thigh bones of thousands of dead babies were secretly removed as part of a study in Scotland of the dangers of radiation from nuclear weapons tests. Researchers at Yorkhill Sick Children's Hospital in Glasgow burnt femur samples from 2,100 children between 1959 and 1970 to ashes to analyse them for radioactive contamination. The UK Atomic Energy Authority, operators of the Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness, which initiated the research, and the Medical Research Council, which oversaw it, said parents were not asked for their consent. A report in the Sunday Herald newspaper said more than half the children involved were stillborn and most others had died before the age of five. After being incinerated, the femurs were analysed for the isotope strontium-90, which was being spread around the world by atmospheric nuclear tests. Doctors feared that because it was contaminating milk, it could exist at dangerous levels in children's bones. The only permission requested from parents was for routine post mortem examinations. Susan Deacon, the health minister, said last night that the findings were very disturbing and merited further investigation. She will ask the independent review group set up after the Alder Hey scandal in Liverpool to look at the findings. She said: "While these events took place some time ago, they will still be very disturbing to the families concerned. I have made it clear that the paternalism of the past has no place in a 21st century health service and parents must be kept involved in any decision affecting their children." She believed that the findings would strengthen the review group's determination that such things would not happen again. ***************************************************************** 12 Grass Could Endanger Nuke Reservation June 17, 2001 RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - Blackened Rattlesnake Mountain is green again, a year after the largest fire in Washington state threatened radioactive waste storage areas at Hanford nuclear reservation and burned 11 homes in nearby Benton City. Unfortunately, a lot of that green, green grass of spring is an invader species called cheat grass, with the potential to boost fire danger at Hanford again this summer. "The cheat grass is bad news. It is the scourge of the West," said Greg Hughes, a project leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Hanford Reach National Monument, including the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve. The fast-moving, 163,000-acre Hanford fire was sparked by a fatal traffic collision last June 27 on the northwestern edge of the reservation, where plutonium was once made for the nation's nuclear arsenal. It was a scorching summer day, with plenty of grass and sagebrush to burn in the arid desert country of south-central Washington. Steep slopes made firefighting difficult. "The fire blew up. It came roaring out of the canyon. The wind and fuel and heat forced it down the face of the mountain," Hanford Fire Chief Don Good said. At one point, the flames traveled an almost unheard of 20 miles in 90 minutes, Good said. "This fire had all the elements that you don't want to happen all at one time," he said. Some 850 firefighters and support staff from around the Northwest were called to help the 106-member Hanford Fire Department. The flames moved perilously close to Hanford's 200 West Area, where some of the most deadly radioactive waste here at the most-contaminated nuclear site in the country is stored in underground tanks and pits. Firefighting activities are believed to have released minute amounts of radioactive elements into the air, elevating readings at monitoring sites around the 560-square-mile reservation, which is owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. Within reservation boundaries, the biggest environmental casualty was the 77,000-acre Arid Lands Ecology Reserve - an uncontaminated portion of Hanford that is home to hundreds of elk and the rare and fragile shrub-steppe ecosystem. The reserve burned, some elk suffered burn injuries or fled and a few died in the fire. But time and nature have transformed the Rattlesnake Hills on the reserve, and though charred sticks that once were sagebrush still poke out of the dirt, the area is now briefly verdant with grasses, pink phlox and purple lupine. Native plants are relatively resistant to fire in the Columbia Basin, which gets only about 7 inches of rain and snow each year. Summer temperatures that top 100 degrees are not uncommon. But when the land is disturbed, the native habitat is degraded, inviting such invader species as cheat grass and Russian thistle, also known as tumbleweed, said Larry Cadwell, a staff scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "Each time we have a fire, we lose some element of native grasses," he said. "Sixty percent of the 15 million acres of shrub-steppe in the entire Columbia Basin is gone." Hanford's native grasses are bunch grasses, which grow just as their name indicates, in clumps separated by bare patches of dirt. Cheat grass grows in a more continuous mat that aids the spread of fire. "Cheat grass is a ladder fuel that brings fire up into the sage like a candle, ... and cheat grass is like gasoline next to the highway," Hughes said. Through the Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation plan, the Fish and Wildlife Service is working to control invader species such as cheat grass by chemical and mechanical means. It is a high-tech form of weeding, using global positioning satellite data and aerial photography to identify sites for monitoring and control. While the goal is total eradication, cheat grass, much like tumbleweeds, was already well-established before the fire. "On the ALE (reserve), the plan would be to wipe out as much cheat grass as we can, and plant native grass as needed if it doesn't come up naturally," Hughes said. "Because of this fire, the invasion of nonnatives has been accelerated. We can't continue to go out and put Band-Aids on little pieces and watch it get reinvaded by cheat grass and invasive weed species." The price tag for revegetation is high - $6.5 million - and it is still undetermined how much money would be available for restoration, Hughes said. The Fish and Wildlife Service has planted on the reserve about 150,000 sagebrush seedlings that were scheduled for planting before the fire. Because the reserve is a research site, the invasion of alien plant life also is seen as a learning opportunity, and the Fish and Wildlife Service has hired a specialist to monitor the effects of the fire on the Hanford vegetation. Off the reserve and on Hanford's central plateau, some replanting also is under way, but high winds and the dunelike nature of parts of the burned area have made that a challenge, said Ray Johnson, a biological control manager at Fluor Hanford, the contractor managing the site for the Energy Department. Crews have been planting and in some areas, replanting, bunch grasses on 1,000 acres around the 200 West Area, where dust from the burned-over area has been so bad that workers sometimes are sent home by midday. "The winds have been absolutely brutal on those," Johnson said. "We had excellent growth as early as last fall, then we had 50 to 70 mile an hour winds. The young grass didn't survive that well. The moving sand either shears the young grass off or else will cover it up." Fluor is looking for innovative ways to help young grasses survive and is considering, among other things, sprinkle irrigation to get the plants established. On the Net: Hanford nuclear reservation: http://www.Hanford.gov U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.r1.fws.gov End advance for Monday, June 18, and thereafter All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 13 N. Korea Demands U.S. Compensation Today: June 18, 2001 at 1:40:27 PDT SEOUL, South Korea- North Korea, in its first response to a U.S. proposal to resume contact, said Monday that talks should begin with discussion of economic losses Pyongyang blames on Washington. President Bush ordered his foreign policy team to resume talks with the communist state, saying discussions should focus on North Korea's missile program and its massive deployment of troops near the border that bisects the Korean peninsula. Nudging aside that proposed agenda, North Korea said Monday that talks should focus on the United States' alleged failure to keep its end of a 1994 agreement under which the North froze its suspected nuclear weapons program. The agreement requires a U.S.-led international consortium to provide North Korea with two power-generating light-water nuclear reactors by 2003. However, the $4.6 billion project has been delayed by funding problems and military and political tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Claiming that the delay is causing it a huge electricity loss, North Korea demanded compensation. "The electricity loss from the delay in building light-water reactors should be taken up as a priority agenda in the talks," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a radio broadcast monitored in Seoul. The spokesman, who was not identified by name, also complained that Washington unilaterally set the agenda, despite saying the proposed talks have no conditions attached. "We cannot but evaluate the U.S. proposal as unilateral and conditional in its nature and hostile in its intentions," the spokesman said. "The U.S.-proposed agenda concerns our nuclear, missile and conventional armaments and this all is nothing but an attempt to disarm us," he said. The spokesman said any reduction or re-redeployment of North Korea's 1.1-million-member military cannot be discussed before the United States withdraws its military presence in South Korea. There was no immediate U.S. or South Korean reaction to North Korea's latest assertion. North Korea and rival South Korea were divided into communist and pro-Western camps, respectively, at the end of World War II. The 1950-53 Korean War ended in a fragile armistice, and the United States keeps about 37,000 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against a possible North Korean invasion. Bush had suspended talks with North Korea upon taking office in January so top aides could review the U.S. policy toward the communist state. That decision led an angry North Korea to cut off all government exchanges with South Korea and freeze the reconciliation process. On Wednesday, U.S. and North Korean officials met in New York to make arrangements for the possible resumption of talks. The United States described the talks as "a good beginning to the dialogue process" and said they were expected to continue. Work on the two nuclear reactors in North Korea, each with a rated generating capacity of 1 million kilowatts, began in 1996. Ground-leveling and other basic work has been completed but actual construction has not started. The 1994 agreement also requires the U.S.-led international consortium, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, to provide North Korea with 500,000 tons of fuel oil annually until the first reactor is built. The United States has rejected previous North Korean demands for compensation, arguing that the 2003 date stipulated in the 1994 agreement was a target date, not a contractual date. The United States also says that the provision of fuel oil should be considered compensation for the delay in building the reactors. North Korea suffers from an acute electricity shortage. Visitors say many of the communist country's factories are operating at less than 30 percent of capacity. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 14 Russia: No Nuclear Help to Iran Today: June 18, 2001 at 8:45:25 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) - A top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that Russia was helping Iran's nuclear weapons program. He called on the United States Monday to respond to Russia's proposal for negotiations to reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. Igor Sergeyev, who advises Putin on strategic issues, said the technology Russia provides to Iran is for use in a light water reactor, much like technology the United States is giving to North Korea under an agreement to freeze that country's nuclear weapons program. "To obtain weapons from the light water reactor in Iran is impossible," he said at a conference on proliferation problems held by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Sergeyev acknowledged that controls on technology exports beyond the range of the Russian government had been a "headache" in the early 1990s. But he said the list of prohibited materials for export has grown through the years. At the same time, Sergeyev said the United States had failed to respond to proposals by Putin to place a ceiling of 1,500 on U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear warheads. "It's paramount to start negotiations immediately," he said. The Russian official said he found hope in a general willingness of the Bush administration to reduce stockpiles. At the same time, he defended the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which Bush wants to abandon to make way for a U.S. shield against missiles. The spread of sophisticated technology has become more dangerous, he said. "The world may be entering a phase in which the use of nuclear weapons is more likely than before," the former Russian defense minister said. In fact, he said, Russia is more vulnerable than the United States to theft of nuclear technology and accidental launches of missiles by other nations. "We are hoping to improve our export control," he said. "It is one of the best control systems." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 15 Protesters Invade Vieques Range Today: June 18, 2001 at 11:55:27 PDT VIEQUES, Puerto Rico- Protesters broke onto the U.S. Navy's bombing range in an attempt to block new training exercises on Vieques island, saying two years is too long to wait for an end to the bombing. Eight demonstrators were arrested Monday morning while walking on a road toward the bombing range, said Navy spokesman Bob Nelson. Protesters said others remained, putting themselves in the line of fire. Protesters claimed to have forced a delay in the start of the exercise, when bombing did not begin in the morning as the Navy had earlier said. The Navy had said fighter jets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier could begin dropping inert bombs as early as 8 a.m. EDT. "They don't know how many people are in there, and they have to take them out before they begin bombing," said anti-Navy activist Nilda Medina. "They can't afford to have an accident happen when we've been demanding no more bombs." Protest leader Ismael Guadalupe, meanwhile, said at least 30 protesters had invaded the firing range. Navy spokesman Bob Nelson denied that demonstrators had delayed the exercises, saying the bombing had not yet started due to planning and coordination of the training. He said the bombing exercises could begin as early as noon EDT. Sunday night, demonstrators threw rocks at Navy security officers along the fence surrounding the Navy's Camp Garcia, Nelson said. One sailor was hit in the leg with a rock but was not seriously injured, he said. President Bush announced last week that the Navy would leave Vieques in two years. But protesters said they would only be satisfied with the Navy's immediate withdrawal. Jacqueline Jackson, wife of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and co-president of his Rainbow/Push Coalition civil rights group, joined the protests Sunday night. "I place myself in your hands," she told more than 200 demonstrators. She said she would participate "however you can use me for your purpose." A seven-member delegation of Quakers from the Philadelphia-based American Friends Service Committee also joined the protests but said they would not trespass. More than 180 people were arrested for trespassing during the last exercises in late April and early May. They included environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr., actor Edward James Olmos and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been on a hunger strike in a New York prison since May 29. The Navy says Vieques' terrain and location make it ideal for lifesaving combat training. Opposition to the exercises swelled in 1999 after off-target bombs killed a civilian guard on the bombing range. Bush's announcement of a withdrawal within two years appeared to pre-empt a planned referendum Nov. 6, when most of the island's 9,100 residents were expected to vote for the Navy to leave in 2003. But Puerto Rican officials are planning to hold their own nonbinding referendum on Vieques on July 29 asking residents whether the Navy should stay, leave in 2003 or leave immediately. Puerto Rican Gov. Sila Calderon has demanded an immediate end to the exercises, saying the bombing harms the environment and islanders' health. The Navy denies the charges. On the Net: U.S. Navy site: www.navyvieques.navy.mil Anti-Navy site: www.viequeslibre.org All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. 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