***************************************************************** 07/18/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.175 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 UK to announce the end of reprocessing at Dounreay 2 Raid on cleanup fund was bad idea that got worse 3 Nuke site cleanup uncovers more contaminated soil 4 Editorial: You can't dress up this mess 5 Yucca training to cost county $1 bil. 6 Letter: Expensive nuclear power 7 Uranium, Radon A Double Concern 8 N-Refuel Site May Face Fund Cuts & Layoffs 9 Energy Education, R Subject of Senate Hearing 10 Government warned off Mox 11 EcoWatch: The battle over Turkey Point 12 Govt support for nuclear power raises green groups' hackles 13 Australia accused over nuclear power 14 CH2M Hill needs tougher job, report says NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Former DOE Employees Attend Compensation Meeting 2 SRS tries new method to strip metal from radioactive liquid waste 3 Nuclear workers can get claims help at new center 4 Theft exposes nuclear security lapse 5 Russia to Raise Sub, but Not Mystery 6 Officials explain compensation plan 7 The Hawk Eye Special: IAAP 8 Motive in German Plutonium Smuggling Case Unclear 9 Norwegian aid shunned in 'Kursk' salvage 10 Poor coordination may delay Kursk operation: expert 11 Kursk recovery operation carries risk of atomic disaster 12 Kursk Salvage Team Makes Progress 13 Leukemia researchers skeptical of finding Fallon cluster cause 14 Questioning of Alleged Plutonium Smuggler Begins 15 U.S.-Led Group Secures Kazakh Plutonium Stock 16 Russia: U.S. Seeks to Make Russian Weapons Safe **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 UK to announce the end of reprocessing at Dounreay BRIAN Wilson, the UK's industry and energy minister, will announce the end of nuclear reprocessing at Dounreay in Caithness today, ending years of controversy over the site. Mr Wilson is expected to make the announcement in answer to a question from Calum MacDonald, Western Isles MP, a robust opponent of reprocessing. Last night Mr MacDonald said: "This has been a matter of great concern to communities throughout the Highlands and Islands for many years now. It has sparked fierce opposition, and I hope that the government can take a decisive step forward and put the minds of many at rest." Mr Wilson is understood to have blocked a contract to reprocess 25 tonnes of waste against the recommendations of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), the government agency responsible for the plant, and senior officials at the Department of Trade and Industry. Last night, Mr Wilson's office would not be drawn on the details, but earlier reports suggested that the minister instructed officials to ditch reprocessing in favour of storage, only two weeks after moving to the DTI. It seems likely that reprocessing, along with storage, may still be considered at Sellafield. More than 16 months ago, the DTI began a consultation on whether plutonium fuel should be reprocessed at Dounreay or Sellafield, in Cumbria. In a consultation paper published last year by the DTI, the UKAEA set out three options for dealing with all the fuel. It could be reprocessed at Dounreay, transported and reprocessed at Sellafield, or be subject to "minimum treatment" and stored at Dounreay for decades. The UKAEA concluded that although the practical, economic and environmental differences between the options were small, reprocessing at Dounreay should be ranked first, reprocessing at Sellafield second, and storage third. Reports suggested that the UKAEA was embarrassed when a confidential draft of its report on the three options surfaced, suggesting it had tampered with its conclusions. The draft said that, under some assumptions, storage "has a large advantage" because it would be cheaper, so when the final report concluded that its costs were "comparable" with those of reprocessing suspicions arose among the environmental lobby. Both the Danish and Norwegian governments have lobbied UK ministers to end any commitment to reprocessing for fear of its contaminating their shores with radioactive waste, but environmentalists feared the DTI would press ahead against their advice. DTI officials, known to prefer reprocessing at Dounreay, insisted that storage was the least preferred option. Opponents of reprocessing, which involves dissolving and chemically separating the different materials contained in nuclear waste, maintain it leads to the pollution of the sea and air with radioactivity. Dounreay's reactors and reprocessing mechanisms have been shut down for years, but the UKAEA authority has never eliminated the possibility of restarting the reprocessing plants. - July 18th ***************************************************************** 2 Raid on cleanup fund was bad idea that got worse IT WAS A BAD IDEA from the start when the governor proposed raiding a cleanup trust fund established for the low-level radioactive waste landfill near Barnwell. That money should be left untouched until the state knows for sure (--) more than a century from now, by the way (--) how much long-term monitoring and cleanup of the site will cost in full. State lawmakers went along with the governor's plan to take some $28 million from the fund, though, because the governor proposed to devote that money to help pay for state colleges and universities. The action was sold to lawmakers and the public as a necessary swap to benefit our schools in tough budgetary times. Trouble is, that's not what happened. Gov. Jim Hodges figured out another way to get colleges the money they need. And while releasing that plan with much fanfare, the governor more quietly asked colleges to return the nuclear cleanup funds. The colleges complied with that request. And now the money that was taken from one important priority (--) nuclear cleanup (--) to help save another (--) higher education (--) has been dumped back into the state's general fund. This is just the kind of thing that causes taxpayers to distrust government. Money legitimately allocated to a good cause turns out not to be needed and, instead of returning it to its source, elected officials dump it into the kitty to be spent on... what? No one knows. Some state lawmakers are questioning whether the return of this money is legal. Unfortunately, the critics of the Democratic governor in this instance all come from his opposition, the Republican Party. That makes it all too easy for the governor to dismiss their concerns as partisan sniping. There is more to this issue than that. The governor wasn't alone in perpetrating this offense against state budget laws. The colleges and universities complied with the governor's request to return the money to the general fund. The effort was assisted by South Carolina's two top financial officers, the state treasurer and comptroller general. None of these public officials had the courage to blow the whistle publicly on the governor's questionable request. The public alarm was raised by a Republican who would like to occupy Mr. Hodges' office, Attorney General Charlie Condon. Mr. Condon may have his political motives in attacking Mr. Hodges. However, Mr. Condon also is correct to challenge the shifts, which were made without regard for provisions in state law designed to ensure accountability over state spending. Mr. Condon is not alone in trying to make political hay of this situation. Mr. Hodges misrepresents what would happen if the attorney general prevails, saying the outcome would be a new tuition increase. However, were Mr. Condon to win a case against Mr. Hodges' backdoor transfer request, that would actually increase higher education revenue at the expense of other state agencies. The Barnwell cleanup money shouldn't have been touched in the first place. We have no way to know how much the long-term care of that facility will cost the state of South Carolina. The raid on this protection fund wasn't needed to restore budget cuts to our colleges and universities. It may turn out that no one can be held responsible, legally, for the shift. We hope, however, that the legal questions surrounding this move will serve as a caution to prevent any similarly questionable transfers in the future. ? Copyright 2001 The State-Record Company ***************************************************************** 3 Nuke site cleanup uncovers more contaminated soil Wednesday, July 18, 2001 By Byron Spice, Science Editor, Post-Gazette Workers who are finishing up the radiological cleanup of the former Babcock & Wilcox nuclear fuel processing facility in Parks, Armstrong County, have discovered an additional pocket of radioactively contaminated soil near the 110-acre property's northern boundary. The small amounts of radioactive plutonium and americium discovered thus far do not pose a public health threat, Richard Bartosik, project manager for BWXT Services Inc., said yesterday. But the company will do further testing, including checking the soil on the adjacent property, owned by Cook Vascular Inc. "If it's out there, we'll find it and we'll clean it up," Bartosik said. Most of the radioactively contaminated soils and equipment already have been removed from the site, which is 35 miles northeast of Pittsburgh in Armstrong County. Nuclear processing at the site ended in the mid-1980s. Workers were doing a final check of the property when this latest contamination was discovered, Bartosik said. No one is sure how this section of the property was contaminated and, until further tests are complete, no one can be sure of the extent of the contamination, though it appears to be at a low level. The state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have been notified, he added. Victor Shaeffer, vice president of Cook Vascular, said the company had never had reason for concern and is eager for BWXT to complete its tests. "We want them to prove to us we have no concern," he added. Any contaminated soil will be removed and, like materials previously removed from the site, sent to a federally approved repository in Hanford, Wash. Bartosik said he expects that the radiological cleanup, which began in 1995, will be finished by year's end. Cleanup of chemical contaminants will continue, with completion set for the end of 2003. ***************************************************************** 4 Editorial: You can't dress up this mess Today: July 18, 2001 at 9:04:07 PDT Vice President Dick Cheney and Cabinet members fanned out across the nation on Monday, selling President Bush's energy plan during carefully staged town hall meetings. The Bush team touted conservation and technological advances that have resulted in more efficient uses of energy. Shunted aside were Bush's controversial measures, such as drilling for oil and natural gas in environmentally sensitive areas or developing more nuclear power, which produces deadly waste. The administration's spin doctors went to great lengths to ensure that their message was conveyed, which is that Bush isn't beholden to big energy producers. For instance, at Cheney's town hall meeting in Monroe, Pa., a huge banner not only was green (the environmental movement's color of choice), but it also displayed prominently the words "conservation" and "efficiency" to make a none-too-subtle point. But if the White House really wanted to level with the public, it would have set up events that are the core of Bush's energy strategy. A trip to Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the place that the federal government is studying to bury 77,000 tons of deadly nuclear waste, would have been a fitting tribute to the joys of nuclear power. It also was a shame that someone from the administration didn't make a stop in Alaska at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an environmentally sensitive area where Bush needlessly wants to drill for oil. If the White House was looking for beautiful pictures for television newscasts, it could have made a stop along Florida's beaches off the Gulf Coast, where the administration has proposed oil drilling. Bush has said a nation's energy policy should be a long-term strategy. He's right. The problem is that the components of his plan too often actually are quick fixes and endanger the environment. For example, the administration has said that a site must be selected for nuclear waste storage if nuclear power is to be given a chance of succeeding. Even though the only place under consideration -- Yucca Mountain -- is a dangerous place to store nuclear waste, the White House agrees with the nuclear power industry that a site should be chosen quickly. But this is a false choice. The waste can be stored safely where the nuclear reactors are located for decades until a truly safe way can be found to dispose of the deadly garbage. Bush will be poorly served if he listens to political advisers who believe his energy plan is being rejected by the public because of bad packaging. If the president doesn't change the substance of his energy policy, his plan will be doomed in Congress. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Yucca training to cost county $1 bil. Today: July 18, 2001 at 10:57:19 PDT By Mary Manning LAS VEGAS SUN If a high-level nuclear waste dump is built at Yucca Mountain, Clark County would have to spend more than $1 billion to train emergency crews to respond to a possible accident, a new report says. An accident, if it happened, would cost the county $1.4 billion per square mile to clean up. Residents near transportation routes could suffer $2.5 billion in property losses. Resorts could lose 10 percent to 20 percent of their visitors. The Clark County Commission heard those figures Tuesday in the first in a series of reports on how the proposed nuke dump, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, would affect the county's 1.4 million residents. The reports were prepared for the county by Urban Environmental Research, a Scottsdale, Ariz., consulting company. What the consultants could not answer is where the county would find that money. The state has refused to negotiate with the federal government for benefits, because to do so would negate its right to challenge the project. But without federal aid, the pricetag for preparing emergency responders could fall on county taxpayers. The county's entire budget for the current fiscal year is about $3 billion. "Who gets cut?" Urban Environmental Research principal planner Sheila Conway asked. "Is it social services, such as welfare? Or schools?" Yucca Mountain is the only site under study by the Department of Energy for burying 77,000 tons of highly radioactive wastes from commercial reactors and defense activities. The Department of Energy has spent $7 billion over 20 years studying the site and would build the repository if it is approved. The cost of preparing police, firefighters and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers does not include upgrading hospitals and clinics to receive and treat victims contaminated with radiation. If an accident occurred that leaked radiation from a shipping cask, the Department of Energy has estimated that it would cost $1.4 billion a square mile to clean up the damage from such an accident. Even if the federal government promised to help pay those costs, the county's study noted that the DOE has a "consistent track record of not living up to its agreements with states and local governments, even court-ordered written agreements," Conway said. The research group visited New Mexico, where the DOE operates the $1.8 billion Waste Isolation Pilot Project, a site accepting plutonium-laced wastes from the Defense Department. About 850,000 containers are to be buried in the salt caverns near Carlsbad over the next 35 years. Since 1998, when the dump opened, New Mexico has received $20 million a year in federal funding, but it would not have received that if Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., had not had the political clout to secure the funding in Congress, Conway said. The money primarily covers repair to roads damaged by shipments, but no bypass routes have been built. The Urban Environmental Research group used the New Mexico project to estimate costs for Clark County and Southern Nevada cities. In the coming year the company will analyze the effects of radioactive accidents on property values of major Strip hotels, shopping centers and cities from Las Vegas to Mesquite. However, the report addressed how resort business could be affected. Resort owners told researchers they expected visitor losses of 10 percent to 20 percent because of bad publicity if an accident occurred. That large a drop could "devastate" their properties because of high fixed costs, the report said. One casino noted that it lost 25 percent to 33 percent of its business after part of its roof collapsed during a July 1999 flash flood. Hotel owners also told researchers that while they have evacuation plans, those contingencies would not work in a radioactive accident. Within a 3-mile radius, 28,000 people would need to be removed from the path of a radioactive plume during a daytime accident and 24,000 at night, the study said. During a fire, earthquake or other emergency, those people would need to be moved just outside the hotel. In a radioactive emergency, they must be moved to a nonradioactive shelter, which could be miles away. The Las Vegas Strip and downtown resorts lie along the DOE's proposed transportation routes. The county study also estimated value losses to residences, small commercial properties and industrial warehouses along the transportation routes. Between 50,000 to 100,000 truckloads are expected over 24 years at Yucca Mountain, according to the DOE, which has not chosen a repository design. That averages to between five and 10 nuclear waste trips a day through Clark County. The western and northern sections of the Beltway cannot be used to transport nuclear waste, because they do not meet federal interstate safety standards. Nuclear waste truck shipments would have to use Interstate 15 and U.S. 95 until 2025. There are no practical alternate routes for trucks coming from Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Phoenix or Reno. The appraised properties with the most to lose are within one mile of I-15, according to 14 of 17 local banks and certified appraisers interviewed for the study. In the worst likely accident that spilled radioactive wastes, residential property losses would reach $1.5 billion. Along the Las Vegas Beltway, $961 million in residential property would be lost in the worst-case accident. The consultants used DOE accident scenarios, but upgraded population figures using the 2000 Census. DOE estimates used 1990 Census figures. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 Letter: Expensive nuclear power [newsobserver.com, Raleigh, NC] THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2001 Good job by your paper reporting on the ElectriCities financial disaster (July 15). It is interesting to note that -- in these days of a stepped-up campaign by the nuclear industry to sell us again on their "too cheap to meter" power -- when a real-life situation involving the economics of nuclear power is looked at in detail, the financial effect is devastating. That's why France is losing untold millions on its nuclear program and why Germany is getting out of the nuclear business. The U.S. nuclear industry has been subsidized to the tune of a trillion dollars over the last 50 years and yet has barely provided more energy than wood. It has flunked in the free market. Without taxpayer-funded insurance and the still-rising payments on an unknown socialized radioactive waste storage program, the industry would be gone. When the real costs are tabulated, it's the worst buy in the energy bazaar. And no one knows that better than ElectriCities. MARK MARCOPLOS Chapel Hill © Copyright 2001, The News & Observer. ***************************************************************** 7 Uranium, Radon A Double Concern WYFF TheCarolinaChannel.com Tuesday July 17 11:22 PM EDT Residents of a Simpsonville-area neighborhood are dealing with another radioactive and potentially dangerous ingredient in their well water – radon gas. Uncertainty over the long term effects of drinking from uranium-tainted wells is causing health concerns. But unlike the naturally occurring radioactive metal, radon is a proven cancer-causer. And water samples taken from wells in the Jenkins Bridge Road area show high levels of the odorless, colorless gas, a byproduct of the radioactive decay of Uranium. "Radon is the gas, but they are related." Clemson University Geologist Tim Woody told WYFF News 4's Todd Gladfelter. "If you have uranium, it radioactively decays and will eventually give you radium. Radium will radioactively decay to give you Radon." Dr. Charles Woody, a resident of the neighborhood, says that state tests of the well at his Wasson Way home showed high uranium levels and radon levels that were 85 times the acceptable amount. Woody has managed to bring the radon level in his home down closer to normal by using good ventilation – especially during the winter months. But three members of his family are still showing higher-than-normal uranium levels in their urine. Radon is most likely to enter a home, and people's bodies when the dissolved gas escapes from water. Residents are advised to ventilate their homes by opening windows and turning on ceiling fans when running a large amount of water. Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! and . ***************************************************************** 8 N-Refuel Site May Face Fund Cuts & Layoffs New York Daily News Online THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The West Valley Demonstration Project in Cattaraugus County could face budget cuts — and layoffs — depending on the outcome of a debate entering the final stages in Congress. The former site of the only commercial facility to recharge fuel cells from nuclear power plants requested $105 million in federal funding for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. It currently gets $107 million toward efforts to rid the site of nuclear waste. President Bush's budget proposal cut the budget line for the West Valley project to $95 million. The Republican-led House then cut it to $85 million, and the Democratic-controlled Senate is in the process of bringing it back to $95 million. The Senate's new leadership rebuffed the requests of the state's two Democratic U.S. senators, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, for $105 million for the project. Unless there's a sudden change of heart on Capitol Hill, the best that West Valley employees can hope for is a reduction of 18 to 23% from current staffing levels. The government was left with a $4.5 billion cleanup tab after the shutdown of nuclear reprocessing at the site nearly two decades ago, when the operation was deemed inefficient and potentially dangerous. Erie County Executive Joel Giambra predicted that the cuts would trigger layoffs of 330 people working in companies supplying the project, although West Valley officials declined to comment on how many workers would be furloughed. Glenn Cooley, president of the Springville Chamber of Commerce, said 200 West Valley workers would be laid off at the site itself. The facility now employs 725 high-tech workers, who earn an an average annual salary of $65,000. Original Publication Date: 7/18/01 ***************************************************************** 9 Energy Education, R Subject of Senate Hearing Welcome to The PMA OnLine Power Report E Publishing ( July 16, 2001 ) Legislation affecting energy and scientific research and development, including nuclear power, as well as education programs will be addressed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in a hearing Wednesday as part of its series on the national energy policy. The energy package proposed by Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M), S. 597, and S. 388, ranking member Frank Murkowski's (R-Alaska) version, both contain several provisions addressing research issues, including strengthening nuclear power programs. Committee member Pete Domenici's (R-N.M.) stand-alone nuclear package, S. 472, will also be addressed. Because of a decreasing number of students entering nuclear engineering programs and universities struggling to keep the curriculum going, the legislation aims to increase funds to help education-based reactors running and entice college students to consider the profession. Similar legislation exists in the House. Regarding nuclear waste, provisions among the bills aim to create an office of spent nuclear fuel research within the Energy Department to look at ways to handle nuclear waste other than storing it in a federal repository, now being studied at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Bingaman has several other bills involving energy research including: S. 90, the Department of Energy Nanoscale Science and Engineering Research Act; S. 193, the Department of Energy Advanced Scientific Computing Act; S. 242, the Department of Energy University Nuclear Science and Engineering Act; and S. 259, the National Laboratories Partnership Improvement Act of 2001. Other bills to be discussed at the hearing are Sen. Blanche Lincoln's (D-Ark.) S. 636, to direct the secretary of Energy to establish a decommissioning pilot program to decommission and decontaminate the sodium-cooled fast breeder experimental test-site reactor located in northwest Arkansas, and Sen. Larry Craig's (R-Idaho) S. 1130, the Fusion Energy Sciences Act of 2001. Schedule: The hearing is slated for 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, July 18, in 366 Dirksen. Witnesses: TBA. -- Suzanne Struglinski To see more of Environment and Energy Daily, or to subscribe online, please visit http://www.eenews.net © 2001 E Publishing. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 Government warned off Mox Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Special report: Britain's nuclear industry Terry Macalister Wednesday July 18, 2001 The Guardian The government yesterday was warned that allowing BNFL to push ahead with plans for a mixed oxide, or Mox, nuclear plant at Sellafield made no economic sense and posed a serious terrorist threat. Industry experts called for Mox to be abandoned on the eve of the publication of a report for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from consultant Arthur D Little. Michael Sadnicki - also a consultant and a member of the government's own spent fuel and waste management working group - said it could cost more than £300m to pursue the Mox project, and insisted "that does not make economic sense". He admitted that his figures could only be indicative, but said this was because BNFL and the Department of Trade and Industry, which oversees its operations, would not cooperate on the grounds of commercial confidentiality. This, said Mr Sadnicki, was disingenuous, because there was no real competitive market for Mox. Future investment should be concentrated on storing existing waste, and Mox would only produce an even greater waste problem. The Sellafield plant is designed to produce fuel for nuclear reactors by mixing plutonium oxide, produced at Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing plant, and uranium oxide. If the Mox plant is licensed, BNFL hopes to sell Mox fuel to customers in Japan and Germany. But to do so would produce a range of unacceptable risks, said Frank Barnaby of the Oxford Research Group. Mr Barnaby said terrorists could steal Mox plutonium and produce nuclear devices as easily as they had made explosives to destroy the PanAm jet over Lockerbie in 1988 and the Sarin nerve gas used in the Tokyo undergound attack by the Aum sect in 1995. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 11 EcoWatch: The battle over Turkey Point Reported by Julia Yarbough TURKEY POINT, July 17- Florida Power and Light wants to extend it’s license for the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant located in south Miami-Dade. But, people concerned with safety are fighting FPL all the way. FPL is now asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to renew it’s 20 year license for two units of the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant. The licenses expire in 2012 and 2013. When renewing permits, the NRC bases it’s decision on the potential impact to the environment, public health, economy and wildlife. FPL’s vice president of Turkey Point says the plant is safe on all levels and he urges the NRC to move forward. But, at least one group of researchers says that isn’t so. Dr. Jerry Brown leads the Radiation and Public Health Project. His team has spent the last 3 years collecting baby teeth, more than 500 from South Florida. Brown says a study shows a link between childhood cancers and a radioactive material that is a by-product of nuclear bomb testing or nuclear reactors. ”We believe that if you are within 100 miles of a nuclear reactor you will be affected by the radiation emissions,” Brown says. Brown and fellow researchers claim cancer rates are higher in regions in and around nuclear reactors. But others disagree. ”We’ve looked at the same data and it doesn’t appear to be any increases there,” says Harlan Keaton of the Florida Department of Health. So, will the two units get their licenses renewed? That remains up in the air. The license was applied for last September. In January a preliminary environmental impact study was done on the issue. Now, public hearings are being held. A final study should be released in January. That’s when the NRC will decide if the licenses will be renewed. ***************************************************************** 12 Govt support for nuclear power raises green groups' hackles ABC News - 18 Jul 2001 11:47 AEST Green groups have criticised Australia's support for the development of nuclear power in non-industrialised countries. The Federal Environment Minister, Robert Hill, is at an international climate change meeting in Germany where the Kyoto protocol and the "clean development mechanism" is being debated. Australia is one of a few countries arguing for developed countries to be given credit under the protocol if they invest in nuclear power in poorer nations. The Climate Action Network, a worldwide umbrella group for environmental groups, says credit should only be given for investment in renewable energy. "What is the purpose of these mechanisms? It is to get these countries to have clean and green alternative energy," network spokeswoman Tristy Fairfield said. "That's not nuclear power. Nuclear power has got a legacy of waste and destruction, and safety and health impacts, that just don't occur with real renewable alternative energy." Senator Hill has defended Australia's position. "What this convention is all about is looking for alternatives to fossil fuel to reduce the rate of greenhouse gas emissions," he said. "Nuclear [energy] clearly achieves that objective. There are not many developing countries that want to go down the nuclear power road, but if there are some who do we don't believe that the rules should prohibit it." © 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 13 Australia accused over nuclear power Radio Australia News - 18/07/01: Environment groups are accusing Australia of pushing for the development of nuclear power in the world's poorer countries. As Peta Donald reports, Australia's Federal Environment Minister Robert Hill is taking part in international climate change talks in the German city of Bonn. Australia is one of a few countries to be arguing for developed nations to be given credit for investing in nuclear power in non-industrialised countries. Senator Hill says rich countries shouldn't rule nuclear power out for poor ones, arguing it's cleaner than coal. "THESE DECISIONS SHOULD BE LEFT TO THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES TO MAKE."But Tristy Fairfield from the Climate Action Network has accused Australia of trying to boost uranium exports "WHY WOULD WE SUDDENLY WANT THE DEVELOPING WORLD TO EMBRACE NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY." She says the developed countries should only be given greenhouse credits for investing in renewable energy. (18/07/01, 16:57:21 AEST) This service includes material from Pacnews, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reuters which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. 2001 ABC| Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 14 CH2M Hill needs tougher job, report says This story was published Tue, Jul 17, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer The Department of Energy needs to tighten up CH2M Hill Hanford Group's incentives to improve its work at Hanford's tank farms, a recent federal report concluded. DOE's Inspector General's Office believes some contract goals -- which CH2M Hill must achieve to be paid -- are not well defined or are too easy. For example, CH2M Hill filled part of its fiscal 2000 contractual requirements and got paid just for turning in paperwork -- without any consideration to the quality of that paperwork, said the report released last week. DOE's Office of River Protection agrees with the findings and recommendations to address the situation. "We're adopting all ... recommendations," said Michael Barrett, lead contracting officer for the Office of River Protection. The DOE Inspector General's Office report concluded that CH2M Hill's contract in 2000: -- Had some goals that were too easy to reach, which downplayed incentives for CH2M Hill to improve its performance. Some goals merely required reports and plans to be turned in without any incentives targeting quality of those reports. Also, some contract deadlines were set a few weeks to a few months later than deadlines that CH2M Hill was already working toward. -- Did not record justification in some cases on why achieving certain goals was worth certain fees. -- Paid performance fees for low-priority work when CH2M Hill could have focused on higher priorities. DOE has been switching to incentive-based contracts with its prime contractors at Hanford -- meaning their profits are directly tied to meeting specific goals. The current incentive-based contract between DOE and CH2M Hill runs through Sept. 30, 2006. It contains incentives for CH2M Hill to do $2.5 billion worth of work by 2006 with $2.2 billion in expenditures. DOE's Inspector General looked at CH2M Hill's since-replaced incentive-based contract for fiscal 2000, in which the company earned $15.1 million out of a possible $19.4 million. The report noted that the Office of River Protection was already putting the report's recommendations into action. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Former DOE Employees Attend Compensation Meeting Local News 8 Tuesday, July 17, 2001 Idaho Falls - THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR MET WITH HUNDREDS OF FORMER INEEL WORKERS TODAY WHO SUFFER FROM VARIOUS ILLNESSES THEY SAY WERE CAUSED BY EXPOSURE TO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS AT WORK. LESLIE CHARBONEAU WORKED WITH TOXINS AT THE INEEL FOR 10 YEARS. NOW SHE'S GOT A LOT IN COMMON WITH HUNDREDS OF OTHER PEOPLE WHO TURNED OUT AT THE SHILO TODAY. CHARBONEAU NEVER KNEW THE HAZARDS SHE WAS DEALING WITH.NOW SHE SUFFERS AS A RESULT. LESLIE CHARBONEAU\FORMER INEEL EMPLOYEE: "I'm on a lot of medication, I'm on oxygen every night, I have a muscle disease.all kinds of problems I never had before." TODAY'S GATHERING WAS THE FIRST OF 2 IN IDAHO FALLS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO PEOPLE WHO MIGHT QUALIFY FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR'S "ENERGY EMPLOYEES OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS COMPENSATION PROGRAM ". D-O-L OFFICIALS KNOW THEY CAN'T HEAL SICKNESS.BUT SAY 150-THOUSAND DOLLARS AND MEDICAL EXPENSES IS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION "Obviously people would rather be in a situation without cancer, silicosis and beryllium disease and be wondering whether they would qualify for benefits, but this is a concrete effort by the government to remedy whats been a substantial problem." THEY'VE HELD MEETINGS LIKE THIS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.AND WHILE NOT EVERYONE IS SATISFIED WITH THE LAW.REACTION HASN'T BEEN ALL BAD. "There have been expressions of unhappiness. there have been expressions of skepticism and there have also been expressions of people who come up to us and thanked us for coming out and doing the program and explaining the law." LESLIE IS JUST HAPPY SHE'S GETTING THE CHANCE TO BE HELPED. "Its a start. its nice to see they can acknowledge it now or take some responsibility for our health. I'm glad to see something's being done." ANOTHER MEETING IS BEING HELD TONIGHT AT 7:30 AT THE SHILO. THE LAW GOES INTO EFFECT JULY 31ST. ANYONE WHO DOESN'T QUALIFY FOR THIS PROGRAM CAN STILL GET COMPENSATION FROM THE STATE'S WORKER HEALTH PROTECTION PROGRAM. INEEL May be Planning on More Layoffs INEEL - ABOUT 400 LAYOFFS ARE BEING PLANNED AT THE IDAHO NATIONAL ENGINEERING AND ENVIRONMENTAL LABORATORY. BECHTEL B-W-X-T IDAHO OUTLINED ITS RESTRUCTURING PLAN FOR THE LAB IN RESPONSE TO A CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY ON BEHALF OF WORKERS. THE RESTRUCTURING PLAN ALSO INCLUDES PROVISIONS TO TRY TO ENTICE A MAXIMUM OF ANOTHER 400 WORKERS TO LEAVE VOLUNTARILY. THE PROPOSAL AWAITS DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY APPROVAL. THE LAB WAS A SOURCE OF CONTENTION INVOLVING RESIDENTS OF NORTHWEST WYOMING'S JACKSON HOLE AREA LAST YEAR OVER EMISSIONS FROM THE FACILITY'S INCINERATOR. Copyright 2001 by the Post Company ***************************************************************** 2 SRS tries new method to strip metal from radioactive liquid waste AIKEN (AP) — The Savannah River Site may utilize a new method to strip cesium from its 34 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste. In a report released last week, the U.S. Department of Energy said it favored using a liquid solvent to treat the waste. A final decision could come in about a month, said Bill Spader, a deputy assistant manager for the Energy Department at SRS. Cesium must be removed from the site's waste because it hinders a process to turn the waste into a glass suitable for long-term burial. The new method for the element's removal, called "solvent extraction," was chosen from several alternatives. The next step is the construction of a small solvent-extraction plant to test the process on a larger scale, Spader said. That estimated $50 million project is expected to become operational in early 2003. © Copyright 2001 The State-Record Company ***************************************************************** 3 Nuclear workers can get claims help at new center The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday, July 17, 2001 Dispatch Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- The federal government says it is ready to help nuclear workers and family members who believe they are owed benefits under a soon-to-begin compensation law. The departments of Labor and Energy yesterday opened a resource center in southern Ohio, one of 10 such centers nationwide, as an initial step in enacting the Energy Workers Employees Occupational Illnesses Compensation Act. The office is located at 4320 Old Scioto Trail in Portsmouth. The phone number is 740-353-6993. Cold War-era nuclear workers made seriously ill by radiation and other hazardous materials may be eligible for $150,000 in lump-sum payments and lifetime health-care benefits. Surviving family members may also be eligible for benefits. The law, approved by Congress last year, takes effect on July 31. People who think they may qualify for the program's benefits can call the office to set up an appointment with a caseworker who can help workers and/or survivors fill out applications and get other information, or they can go to the office simply to pick up applications. Resource center staff members also can help workers made ill by materials not covered by the federal compensation law apply for state workers' compensation benefits. Copyright © 2001, The Columbus Dispatch ***************************************************************** 4 Theft exposes nuclear security lapse The Times WEDNESDAY JULY 18 2001 FROM ROGER BOYES IN BERLIN THE arrest of a 49-year-old worker who successfully smuggled plutonium out of a recycling plant has highlighted the lax security of German nuclear reactors and the risks of closing down atomic plants. The man, named only as Johannes M., was helping to dismantle a recycling plant in Karlsruhe in southwest Germany. He told police that he was merely trying to expose the weak security of the plant but detectives are investigating whether he was trying to sell the plutonium to terrorists or aspiring nuclear states. The smuggled quantity appears to have been small — a tiny phial that could be hidden in a rubber glove — and well below the mass needed to produce a bomb. Even so, security at the plant was so poor that the man could have made several smuggling trips. A spokesman for the Stuttgart Environment Ministry said last night that every worker in the plant had to take off his safety suit at the end of the shift. He or she then takes a shower using an especially strong soap and can put on private clothing only if a geiger counter registers zero radiation. Some workers have to pass through five separate controls. Plainly, however, the system does not work. Herr M. carried the tube out in his trousers and kept it at home. When a routine urine check showed that he had high levels of radiation in his body, he told his wife to wrap the tube in a glove and bury it under a hedge. A spokesman for the Greens, the junior partner in the German Government, said that security at the plant seemed to be about as thorough as in a chip shop. Nowadays German nuclear waste is recycled only in Sellafield and at La Hague in France; the Government is committed to abandoning atomic power within the next 30 years and is starting to wind down reactors. The Karlsruhe plant was an attempt to solve Germany’s nuclear waste problems on its own soil. Between 1971 and 1990 it recycled spent rods and since then has maintained two huge reinforced ponds containing a kind of atomic soup — 70,000 litres of dangerous chemicals. The mixture includes 16.5kg of pure plutonium and half a tonne of uranium. The containers are steel, surrounded by concrete five metres thick. An automatic paddle stirs the soup to ensure that it does not settle on the floor of the pond, gain a critical mass and set off a chain reaction. The original plan was to send the brew to Belgium, but it was deemed too dangerous to transport. Instead, a vitrification plant is to be built in the area so that the radioactive material can be encased in glass. In the meantime the plant — like several reactors in Germany — is being slowly dismantled and security standards have slipped. Helmut Hübner, a spokesman for the plant, said yesterday that there were 40 registered technical failures there last year alone. In 1999 several workers were irradiated when a ventilation shaft malfunctioned and a few years earlier some radioactive material disappeared. “I could not believe that there could be such extremely lax security here in the middle of Germany,” Susanne Ochse, a nuclear expert for the Greenpeace protest group, said. Until now most plutonium theft has been from Russian plants. Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided ***************************************************************** 5 Russia to Raise Sub, but Not Mystery (washingtonpost.com) Salvage Team to Lop Off Bow of Sunken Kursk Before Lifting It From Sea Floor [Kursk] Norway's Institute for Radiation Protection urged Russia to postpone plans to raise the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine from the bottom of the Barents Sea pending a study of the risks of radioactive leak. (AFP) By Peter Baker Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, July 18, 2001; Page A25 ABOARD THE KLAVDIA YELANSKAYA, Off Murmansk, Russia, July 17 -- This stretch of ocean north of the Arctic Circle makes for a miserable grave. The water is frigid, gray and unforgiving, the weather fickle and quick to turn ugly. Nothing marks the sacrifice of the men below. So nearly a year after the Russian submarine Kursk sank with the loss of all 118 crew members, a fleet of civilian and military vessels has converged here to attempt to raise the dead. Over the next two months, divers plan to drill holes in the hull, attach hooks and yank the doomed submarine out of the seabed 350 feet beneath the surface. But while bringing up the boat and the bodies, Russia intends to leave the mystery of the Kursk on the bottom of the ocean. From the start, the Kremlin has preferred to blame the tragedy on a supposed collision with a foreign submarine despite a consensus among outside specialists that it was caused by a malfunctioning torpedo. The recovery task is audacious, a mission that defies difficulty and danger as Russian authorities and the Western companies they hired try to salvage a 14,000-ton boat equipped with two nuclear reactors while avoiding any undetonated torpedoes or cruise missiles. Rarely has an operation of this delicacy been attempted in such forbidding conditions. One way to establish the cause of the sinking would be to examine the front compartment where the explosions that crippled the Kursk went off; however, the Russians plan to saw off the bow and leave it behind. Russian navy commanders said lifting the submarine with the damaged front section would be hazardous and promised to return next year to retrieve it. But such a follow-up operation would be carried out solely by Russians, with no assistance from foreigners who might get a look at the key part of the vessel. "The navy believes that it is their sacred duty to determine the reason for the demise of the boat," Vice Adm. Mikhail Motsak, chief of staff of the Northern Fleet, said today from the bridge of the destroyer Severomorsk. "We're going to continue to work on this whether we raise the submarine without the first compartment or not." Others see a darker reason for deserting the first compartment. "This is a way of hiding the causes of the tragedy," retired Rear Adm. Yuri Senatsky, once the Soviet Union's chief specialist for vessel lifting operations, said in May when the government unveiled the $80 million plan. The skepticism runs even deeper among some active service sailors and their families in the northern port of Murmansk. "They said they were going to tell only the truth now and everyone gets ready for lies," said Igor Archipchenko, a communications officer. "No one believes the official version." Commissioned in 1995, the Kursk was among the most modern attack submarines in the shrinking Russian fleet when a pair of explosions during training exercises last Aug. 12 sent it to the ocean floor. The ensuing drama captured world attention as Russian authorities fumbled their response. President Vladimir Putin remained on vacation and refused foreign rescue assistance, then reversed himself and accepted British and Norwegian help only after too much time had passed. The government released misinformation on issues from the date of the incident to the chances of survival to its contacts with the trapped crew. Once rescue attempts failed, divers tried to recover the bodies, but came back with just 12 before abandoning the effort because of safety concerns. Two notes found with the bodies indicated 23 sailors survived the blasts before later succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning; one note explicitly attributed the accident to a torpedo explosion. Putin this week expressed no regrets about his handling of the disaster. "The quality of my perception of this problem did not depend on my geographic whereabouts," he told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. As for the delay in seeking aid, he said, "even if they had turned for help to foreign partners on the same day, all the same they would not have been able to rescue the remaining living crew members." Still, as it moves now to recover the remaining bodies, the Kremlin wants to repair some of the lingering political damage. It organized a trip for journalists out to the Barents Sea to demonstrate a new policy of openness -- even as it keeps the Norwegian government and environmentalists away. At the scene of the sinking, about 100 miles from Murmansk, a half-dozen vessels were anchored today, including two warships, two ships bearing submersibles, a floating hospital and a Norwegian diving support ship, the Mayo. Early this morning, a remote-controlled submersible finished exploring the front compartment and nearby seabed in preparation for excising the bow. No unexploded torpedoes were spotted and radiation levels were "within the norm," officials said. Navy officials said they believe the Kursk's nuclear reactors shut down after the accident, but want to reclaim them from the ocean to prevent further trouble. "The first and main reason to lift the Kursk is that in the seabed of the Barents Sea is a fully loaded nuclear reactor, although it is in safe condition," Motsak told journalists by radio from his warship. The reactors are not the only potential hazard. Although the sun never sets here at this time of year, even summer weather in the Arctic Circle can shift to deep fog, high winds and heavy waves seemingly in an instant. Moreover, the Kursk embarked with 23 cruise missiles and a similar number of torpedoes. It fired only one of the cruise missiles during exercises. In selecting an agent to handle the operation, Russia abruptly broke off months of negotiations with an international consortium in May when the group balked at a September deadline that it feared would "compromise the safety of its crews and equipment." Instead, the Kremlin hired Mammoet, a Dutch company with more experience in heavy lifting on land, such as installing roofs on the Olympic stadium in Moscow and Miller Park in Milwaukee. Mammoet promises it can handle the task and brought in one of the firms from the original consortium, Smit International, as well as DSND Subsea to handle the diving. After the bow is sliced off by Aug. 7, divers working in near-freezing water will cut 26 holes in the remaining hull and then hook in string jacks. The firms plan to raise the boatto fit under a specially fitted 420-foot pontoon starting around Sept. 15 and then take it to a dry dock near Murmansk, where the bodies and reactors will be removed. "There is a list of 10 things that could go wrong," said Thomas Nilsen of the Norwegian environmentalist group Bellona. "They will make the entire submarine even more unstable than it is already and it will make the lifting operation more dangerous. We think we should hurry but not rush. My feeling is they're rushing." Government officials deny that. Given the narrow window before the weather turns too nasty to work, they said they must work expeditiously but will not compromise to do so. "The Russian side," Motsak said, "is prepared to fulfill its obligations given to Mammoet to ensure the safety of the work." © 2001 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 6 Officials explain compensation plan The Hawk Eye Special: IAAP [The Hawk Eye Special Edition] Wednesday, July 18, 2001 [Unknown dangers at IAAP] By Dennis J. Carroll The Hawk Eye Some former munitions plant workers question government's eligibility criteria. The Labor Department's nuclear-compensation road show played Burlington Tuesday, but some former Middletown atomic-weapons' workers remained skeptical. "This is a joke," said the widow of a former weapons worker who recently died. "Nothing's going to come from it," said the woman who asked not to be identified. She said her husband, even on his death bed, had been afraid to talk even to his doctors about his work at the plant and how he may have acquired his cancers. Thus, his widow said, there are few if any medical records available that would qualify the family for the compensation benefits plans. The plans were laid out in detail by Labor and Energy Department officials who met Tuesday afternoon and evening with about 370 former IAAP Line 1 workers and their families at Memorial Auditorium. Nuclear weapons workers at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant were sworn to secrecy, some for decades, under the operations of the Atomic Energy Commission, which built, tested and in later years disassembled atomic weapons and their components The compensation officials, who are traveling to 36 cities to explain the compensation program, detailed how the former workers who meet certain qualifications can apply for a $150,000 lump sum payment and medical costs incurred after July 31, when the program becomes effective. The program, approved by Congress last fall, was proposed by former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to compensate former nuclear weapons workers around the country many of whom became ill or died because of their exposure to hazardous materials. Although workers were exposed to many types of hazardous chemicals, the benefits package applies only to those who where made ill by exposure to beryllium, silica or radiological hazards. Spouses also are eligible for compensation, as are workers' children -- if they were under the age of 18 when their parent died. Kate Kimpan of the Energy Department's office of Worker Advocacy, said the department would help nuclear workers who were exposed to other hazards such as heavy metals or chemicals apply for compensation through state worker compensation programs. Kimpan acknowledged that for decades the Energy Department had fought health claims by workers. The Labor officials tried to assure workers that they will do everything they can to help qualified workers receive compensation. "This is not an adversarial process," said Labor lawyer Goeffrey Colver. "We want everyone who thinks they have a chance, to file a claim." Spokesman Hal Glassman also noted that the regulations under which the program is administered is still open to change, and invited those with suggestions to offer them by Aug. 23. However, he said there was nothing to be gained by airing complaints Tuesday. "There is no point in arguing about the regulations as they are now," Glassman said. Glassman cracked jokes, praised workers for helping win the Cold War, invited applause for other speakers and introduced local VIPs in the crowd during the 2 1/2 hour session. One of those, Alisan Hart from Sen. Tom Harkin's office, read part of a letter that Harkin wrote Monday, calling on Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to revise the regulations to allow more survivors to qualify for benefits. "Applying this (under age 18) restriction at the time of the worker's death means that even children who were raised by a parent unable to work due to compensable illness would receive nothing if the parent survived until the children were independent," Harkin said in the letter. Former IAAP security supervisor Bob Anderson, whose letter to Harkin two years ago set off a dramatic set of revelations about the plant, said many former IAAP workers might be disqualified because out of the estimated 4,000 people who may have worked on Line 1, only about 400 have been identified as having worn radiation detection badges. Without that information, Anderson said, compensation officials would have a tough time determining what doses of radiation the workers may have been exposed to. That could threaten many workers' claims to compensation, Anderson said. At some DOE facilities, workers' exposure to certain materials automatically qualifies them for the benefits, and dosage is not a criteria. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk ' ' '| ' ' '319-754-6824 FAX ' ' '| ' ' ' 1-800-397-1708 Outside Burlington [this is a line and that's all that it is] ©' 2000 The Hawk Eye, all rights reserved. ' ' Updated daily ' 'Questions? - WebMaster ***************************************************************** 7 The Hawk Eye Special: IAAP [The Hawk Eye Special Edition] Wednesday, July 18, 2001 [Unknown dangers at IAAP] IAAP18/glance Where to go for help The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act is being administrated by the U.S. Department of Labor. For information about the program, check the Internet at www.dol.gov or call the labor department toll-free at (866) 888-3322. People wishing to comment on the regulations before they become final Aug. 23 may do so by writing to: Shelby Hallmark, acting director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, Room S3524, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20010. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk ' ' '| ' ' '319-754-6824 FAX ' ' '| ' ' ' 1-800-397-1708 Outside Burlington [this is a line and that's all that it is] ©' 2000 The Hawk Eye, all rights reserved. ' ' Updated daily ' 'Questions? - WebMaster ***************************************************************** 8 Motive in German Plutonium Smuggling Case Unclear Tuesday July 17 3:05 PM ET BERLIN (Reuters) - A worker's motive in smuggling plutonium that contaminated him and his girlfriend out of a German nuclear reprocessing facility remains unclear, the state environment minister said on Tuesday. ``The worker's explanation that he wanted to show how slack security checks at the plant were is a cover up,'' Ulrich Mueller, environment minister in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said. The 47-year-old plant worker and his girlfriend have been detained for smuggling the radioactive material out of the plant. The man has admitted taking a number of contaminated wash towels and a bottle of liquid from the reprocessing plant in Karlsruhe, in southwestern Germany, earlier this year. He told police he was unaware the bottle contained plutonium and said he had smuggled the items out to show how slack security checks at the plant were. For over six months, he stored the wash towels and the bottle in his flat. Authorities at the Karlsruhe plant, which is in the process of being shut down, only realized something was amiss in June when a routine urine test showed the worker, whose name was not released, had above-average levels of radioactive contamination. After an investigation was launched, the man told his girlfriend to get dispose of the towels and bottles, authorities said. According to the prosecutor, she threw clothing belonging to the man into a charity clothes bank in the town of Landau and the bottle into a hedge on the edge of the town, north of Karlsruhe. Last Friday she showed police where she had stashed the contaminated articles. Tests found that both she and the couple's daughter were also contaminated. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 Norwegian aid shunned in 'Kursk' salvage Russians leading the salvage of their sunken nuclear submarine 'Kursk' aren't showing much interest in Norwegian offers of assistance. Fears of radiation in the area, meanwhile, have been downplayed. Experts from the Norwegian Radiation Protection Board (Statens strålevern) say they see virtually no risk to marine life in the Barents Sea even if the reactors aboard the stricken sub were to be disengaged during the salvage operation that began this week. "We are reasonably sure the salvage can be carried out in a responsible way," said Ole Harbitz, a director on the board. The depth of the water at the site of the sunken sub, along with the sheer size of the Barents, isn't likely to contaminate fish even in the event of a major radiation leak. Norway's fishing industry has faced a potential threat from the sinking of the "Kursk," but officials now say the risks of any contamination are "relatively low." The board nonetheless will boost monitoring of radiation in the area during the course of the salvage. The salvage is being carried out by two Dutch firms hired by the Russian government. Norwegian military and offshore industry workers were closely involved when the sub originally sank last August, but now the Norwegians are pretty much being snubbed in their efforts to stay involved. Harbitz said his agency wants to work with the Russians, but attempts at active cooperation have been turned down. "We're amazed that we haven't been able to cooperate with the Russian experts who are monitoring and evaluating the consequences of the salvage work," Harbitz said. He was quick to add, however, that the Norwegians have ongoing contact with the Russian authorities, and will continue efforts at closer cooperation. Aftenposten Interactive English Desk Utgiver: Aftenposten A/S, Oslo, Norge. Telefon +47 22 86 30 00. Alt innhold er opphavsrettslig beskyttet. © Aftenposten. ***************************************************************** 10 Poor coordination may delay Kursk operation: expert [ninemsn home] AFP - Poor co-ordination among the multiple firms involved in salvaging the Kursk from the Barents Seas could delay the operation to raise the Russian nuclear submarine, a Dutch company involved has warned. A Norwegian diving support vessel, the Mayo, arrived on Sunday at the scene of the disaster in the Barents Sea and has already deployed an unmanned mini-submarine to record and clear up the site of the wreck. It left the site today and headed for the Norwegian port of Kirkenes to drop off its clean-up equipment and pick up specialist cutting equipment, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. The doomed nuclear-powered submarine sank last August killing all 118 men on board in one of Russia's worst modern military disasters. The Russian authorities say the likely reason was a torpedo malfunction but it remains unclear what caused it to misfire - an internal fault, or possibly a crash with a NATO submarine. The front end of the Kursk was packed with 18 torpedoes and 24 cruise missiles when the sub went down. Russia plans to slice the front end off before pulling up the rest of the 20,000-tonne submarine. Moscow Echo radio reported that the Norwegian ship would take 12 hours to load up before returning to the Barents Sea site to rejoin the salvage operation. The Mayo is carrying 12 divers, six Russians and six Norwegians. Work to cut away the first compartment should begin around August 8, the radio reported Vyacheslav Zakharov, representative in Russia of the Dutch salvage experts Mammoet, as saying. The Dutch company has established a joint venture with another Dutch firm, Smit Internationale, to prepare a giant pontoon to raise the submarine. However, the date to begin the initial cutting work could be delayed due to problems of coordination between the various companies involved in the Kursk operation, Zakharov said. "Many companies and their people are taking part in the operation and the people carrying out the concrete task are not always aware of the general schedule," he said, while adding that "for the time being there are no other problems". ©AAP 2001 ***************************************************************** 11 Kursk recovery operation carries risk of atomic disaster - smh.com.au July 18, 2001 By Francis Wheen in Murmansk Along the bay from the main naval shipyard at Murmansk is a huge, specially constructed pontoon known as The Giant. If all goes according to plan, by mid-September this monster will have hauled the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk up from the depths of the Barents Sea, where it sank last August with 118 crewmen. Radiation checks of the area were under way on Monday night, and a team of British, Norwegian and Russian divers were expected to begin work this weekend, 90 metres below the Arctic waves. Their first task is to saw off the submarine's badly damaged bow, which is to remain on the ocean floor, and cut 26 holes in the main hull. Lifting cables, each capable of carrying 900 tonnes, will then be lowered from the pontoon and secured in the holes with steel plugs. The Kursk will then be towed into the port of Murmansk and hoisted into a dry dock to yield up its corpses. But we are unlikely to learn why disaster struck this supposedly unsinkable submarine. "The secrecy regime will be observed in full," a spokesman for the Northern Fleet said. '); document.write(''); document.write('[advertisement]'); document.write(' advertisement '); } } // --> "This is a military operation, not a civilian one, and security will be a prime concern." It is also an operation fraught with danger. There are 18 torpedoes and 24 cruise missiles packed into the bow end: what if they are disturbed by vibrations from the massive robotic chain saw? The sub carries two unstable nuclear reactors: what if it falls on its side while being winched to the surface? The president of Russia's Centre for Environmental Policy, Mr Alexei Yablokov, has warned that "the reactors' emergency systems could stop functioning. An uncontrolled atomic reaction cannot be ruled out." His misgivings are shared by Norway, whose trawlers fish in the area where the Kursk lies, and by the three international salvage firms that were originally hired to retrieve the wreck. In May they asked Russia to postpone the work until next year, to allow more time for safety preparations. Moscow promptly sacked the consortium and hired two Dutch companies, Smit International and Mammoet, which were willing to start at once. Why the haste? It is hard to avoid the conclusion that President Vladimir Putin hopes to redeem his reputation from the battering it suffered when the sub sank. While his grief-stricken citizens gazed at their television screens, desperate for any sign that the sailors might be alive, Mr Putin continued to improve his suntan at a Black Sea resort for almost a week before flying to Murmansk and offering belated condolences. To make up for his earlier nonchalance, he pledged to raise the Kursk and its crew as soon as weather permitted, regardless of cost. However, one leading journalist declared on television this month that the money invested in recovering the Kursk - estimated at $A165 million - would be better spent on compensating the victims' families. Unless there is a nuclear accident the Kremlin may yet turn the event into a PR triumph. Regional officials hope that at least a few visiting journalists will ask a question that has hardly been mentioned in the past year: if the Russian Navy's most advanced atomic-powered attack submarine was not immune from disaster, how safe are its more primitive predecessors? In this Arctic peninsula, which includes the gigantic Kola power station, there are no fewer than 200 nuclear reactors - some of them still aboard the 100 decommissioned submarines that are laid up awaiting the removal of their spent nuclear fuel. Only eight will be dismantled this year, and the figure is unlikely to rise by much until extra money can be found. Some locals call the submarines "floating Chernobyls". The director of the Nerpa shipyard, Mr Pavel Steblin, prefers a different analogy. "With each of these subs we're talking about 200 Hiroshimas," he said. "And then there's the danger of radioactive waste leakage, which could turn into an ecological disaster. If a tragedy occurs here, God forbid, the whole world will be affected." The Guardian [go to top] [ WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1 ] In this section Hardliners win as talks collapse over Kashmir Japan the stumbling block in effort to ratify Kyoto With Russia alongside, Jiang makes call for a new world order Warning to serial father - one more child and it's jail Pardon me, but your nose-stud is ringing An empire built on Meccano Kursk recovery operation carries risk of atomic disaster High-rollers spend $121,000 on drinkies ***************************************************************** 12 Kursk Salvage Team Makes Progress Today: July 18, 2001 at 6:15:24 PDT MURMANSK, Russia- The international team working to salvage the sunken Kursk submarine used a remote-controlled vessel to clear sand and silt from the sub's damaged front compartment Wednesday to prepare for the main phase of the two-month operation, Russian officials said. Navy spokesman Dmitry Burmistrov said the compartment needed to be cleared of silt before robots could cut it off from the rest of the submarine. The front compartment, which may contain unexploded torpedoes, is to be left at the bottom of the Barents Sea when the Kursk is raised. The Kursk sank on Aug. 12, 2000, during a training exercise in the Arctic waters off northern Russia, killing all 118 crewmen. Russian officials said the disaster was triggered by a practice torpedo, but they remain uncertain whether it was caused by an internal malfunction - the theory favored by most outside experts - or a collision. The operation to raise the submarine, which has two nuclear reactors aboard, is scheduled to last through mid-September. Russia has maintained that no radiation has leaked from the wreck but says it is raising it to ensure it poses no future danger. An unmanned vessel from the Norwegian dive support ship Mayo has been used for preliminary radiation tests and for clearing away the silt from the first compartment. After the silt was cleared Wednesday, the Mayo left the site of the disaster for the Norwegian port of Kirkenes, where it will pick up equipment for the next phase of work, Northern Fleet commander Vyacheslav Popov said, according to the Interfax news agency. The Mayo is to return in two days, the agency said. After the first compartment is cut off, Russian and foreign divers will drill holes in the hull and attach steel cables for lifting the vessel, an operation tentatively set for mid September. The cables will be attached to 26 hydraulic lifting units anchored to a giant pontoon, which will be towed to Murmansk. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 13 Leukemia researchers skeptical of finding Fallon cluster cause Today: July 18, 2001 at 11:30:49 PDT FALLON, Nev. (AP) - Experts monitoring the Fallon leukemia cluster admit the chances of finding the cause of the cluster are slim. "The more I hear about the investigation, the more I believe there will not be a definitive conclusion," scientist Les Robison said. "We don't go into this thinking that. Robison, director of the University of Minnesota's division of pediatric epidemiology and clinical research, is often asked to investigate clusters and generally declines. "Clusters occur continually across the country," he said. "There's never been a cluster that identified a single source." But Fallon's cluster is "not typical," and includes 14 children, all but one suffering from the same form of leukemia - acute lymphocytic leukemia. The cluster erupted in one year and is larger than most clusters, he said. One child died of the disease in June. While a solution might not be evident, he said the cluster could offer researchers insight into why children get leukemia. "After 30 years of research, we know very little," Robison said. "Cancer epidemiologists spend their careers trying to find causes." "If this is trying to tell us something, we can't miss the opportunity to listen," he said. Robison joined state officials and other experts in Fallon on Monday and Tuesday in a series of meetings on the mysterious cluster. The group fielded questions from about 60 Churchill County residents. Thomas Sinks, associate director for science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Environmental Health, said the CDC should begin its investigation in mid-August. Officials will test Churchill County residents and will be looking "for evidence to support or refute what could have contributed to this cluster," Sinks said. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 14 Questioning of Alleged Plutonium Smuggler Begins F.A.Z. - English Version19. Jul. 2001 Authorities Wonder What Motive Could Have Been in Bizarre, Perhaps One-of-a-Kind Crime By Alfred Behr STUTTGART. A 47-year-old worker who six months ago allegedly smuggled plutonium out of an unused nuclear reprocessing plant in Karlsruhe was brought before a judge on Tuesday. How the man, a locksmith working at the plant, was able to bring a bottle of radioactive "nuclear soup" and radioactive cloths out of the plant despite security controls has since become public knowledge: According to officials, he passed several exit locks and control monitors carrying his dangerous booty from the "pipe tunnel," a highly contaminated area of the plant; he then placed the stolen objects next to the monitors and took them back into his possession, again unnoticed, once he had passed through the locks. On Tuesday, officials said he demonstrated how he left the plant with the bottle and cloths in his pants pocket. His motive remains unclear, but there is speculation that he wanted to use the hazardous material to blackmail the plant. The environment minister for the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, Ulrich Müller of the Christian Democratic Union, said on Tuesday it was possible to cause harm with the stolen material, but that doing so would serve absolutely no useful purpose. The alleged offender, who was charged on Tuesday for illegal possession of a radioactive substance, had showed neither skill nor intelligence, he said, which prompted members of Alliance 90_The Greens in the state parliament to ask what would be possible if a presumably more skilled and intelligent employee wanted to smuggle something out. Mr. Müller said the man had not acted "logically," which was why the deed could not have been predicted, adding that there had never been a known case of this kind either in Germany or abroad before. Mr. Müller also said he did not believe the man's claim that he only wanted to draw attention to the lack of safety precautions. The former reprocessing plant does not contain weapons-grade plutonium, but only radioactive plutonium dust and highly radioactive liquids. Between 1971 and 1990, 208 tons of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants and test reactors were reprocessed there, resulting in 80,000 liters (21,000 U.S. gallons) of fission product solution, or "nuclear soup," containing 504 kilograms (1,110 pounds) of uranium and 16.5 kilograms of plutonium dissolved in nitric acid. In September 1996, the Baden-Württemberg government decided not to send the highly radioactive liquid waste in 30 Castor containers to be disposed of in Belgium, but to vitrify it on site in Karlsruhe. The yet-to-be-completed vitrification plant to melt the nuclear waste to glass ingots will cost more than DM400 million ($175 million). The rehabilitation and demolition of the reprocessing plant should be completed by 2009 at a total estimated cost of just under DM3 billion. Merely monitoring the "zero operation" costs some DM130 million each year. The locksmith reportedly contaminated himself, his girlfriend and her daughter. He was born in Portugal and prospered in Germany when he married a baker's daughter and opened several bakery stores, but he later divorced, lost his money and started working at his brother's company, which is carrying out demolition work at the plant. Last March, a routine annual test established excessive levels of radioactivity in his urine. The plant was only informed of this on June 20 and the test was repeated for control purposes. Mr. Müller said the long period between the first and second test was "not right." © Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2000 All rights ***************************************************************** 15 U.S.-Led Group Secures Kazakh Plutonium Stock - The St. Petersburg Times. #687, Tuesday, July 17, 2001 By Christopher Pala SPECIAL TO THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES ALMATY, Kazakhstan - U.S. officials are expressing quiet satisfaction after an enormous stockpile of weapons-grade plutonium, located in a sensitive zone in Kazakhstan, was made theft-proof in what the U.S. Energy Department is calling "one of the world's largest and most successful nonproliferation projects." More than 3 tons of plutonium, enough to make 400 bombs, had been stored in a fast-breeder reactor on the Caspian Sea shore under security that one early visitor likened to that of an office building. Today, the plutonium has been fully secured, Trisha Dedik, director of the Energy Department's office of nonproliferation policy, said in an interview. "It's been a great success." On Thursday, Dedik and others took part in a ceremony in the city of Aktau with Kazakh officials celebrating the end of the project. The plutonium was produced by a BN-350 fast-breeder nuclear reactor located on the northwestern shore of the Caspian Sea, a few kilometers from Aktau. The city and 350-megawatt power plant, the first-ever commercial breeder reactor, owed their location to uranium deposits that were mined nearby. The plutonium was designed to be shipped to other parts of the Soviet Union for use as fuel in other reactors like it, but only one, the BN-600, was ever built. Located near the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, it ultimately took little or no plutonium from the BN-350, so the material just piled up. The plant closed in 1999, at the end of its useful life. After 26 years of providing electricity and water to the Aktau region by powering a desalinization plant, there was an accumulation of 3,000 5-meter cylinders called fuel assemblies containing spent nuclear fuel, from which a total of 3,250 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium could be extracted with relative ease, according to the Energy Department. Nearly half the assemblies emitted little radiation and could be safely handled by men wearing light protection. The other half was too "hot" to be handled by anything but robots. All spent years in a cooling pond in the plant. "When I walked in there the first time back in 1995, it had all the security of a modern office building," recalled Fredrick Crane, an American physicist familiar with the plant. "It was a clean and well-run reactor, [and] there were some guards, but otherwise all you needed was one code, like in an airport terminal, and you were in." With each fuel assembly weighing 135 kilograms, a couple of strong men with accomplices inside could spirit out the half-dozen cylinders required to make a bomb. "It was attractive material and it was accessible," said Dedik of the Energy Department. Just 800 kilometers to the south along the Caspian coastline lies Iran and what U.S. officials say is a covert nuclear-weapons program. About 1,300 kilometers to the southeast is Afghanistan, home to accused terrorist Osama bin Laden, and due west, straight across the Caspian, Chechnya smolders. "There are fast-breeder reactors in Western Europe and Japan, but the plutonium produced there doesn't accumulate like it did in Aktau. It's reprocessed pretty quickly," Dedik said. "There just aren't any big stockpiles. Remember, most weapons-grade plutonium is produced by dedicated reactors, controlled by the military, and they're usually much better guarded than this one was." In 1996, the government of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United States set up a program to increase security and, starting in 1998, to package the fuel assemblies to make them impossible to steal. Dedik and Crane were among dozens of Americans who worked on the project, which was funded by the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program under the Nunn-Lugar Act. A torpedo factory in Almaty that had converted to civilian work was assigned to manufacture big steel canisters in which four or six of the plutonium-rich assemblies - some "hot," some "cooled" - were packed together and sealed before being returned to the cooling pond. Weighing well over a ton, the filled canisters are far too heavy to be handled by anything but a large robot, and all of them now emit lethal doses of radiation. Last month, after nearly three years and $43 million in U.S. aid money, the 478th and last canister was welded shut and lowered into the cooling pond. At the plant, Crane said, there are now manned gates, closed-circuit televisions, X-ray machines and turnstiles with magnetic cards, along with sensors that monitor the materials around the clock. The packing is designed to last 50 years, but the plutonium isn't destined to stay at the closed Aktau plant that long. Eventually, under a decree signed six months ago by Nazarbayev, the canisters will be taken 4,400 kilometers by train to the former nuclear testing grounds at Semipalatinsk, on the other side of the country. There, silos will be dug into the vast steppe and the fat cylinders will be buried, using a technique perfected in the United States. The Moscow Times copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2001 ***************************************************************** 16 Russia: U.S. Seeks to Make Russian Weapons Safe By Frank T. Csongos The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has concluded a review of American military assistance to Russia. The study says most of the U.S.-paid programs aimed at helping Russia to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction are vital to American security. Our correspondent Frank T. Csongos reports from Washington. Washington, 17 July 2001 (RFE/RL) -- The United States says it is in America's national security interest to continue to help Russia in preventing the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. The assessment is contained in a review by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush of a decade-old non-proliferation program. It is designed to prevent cash-strapped Russian research facilities, or individual scientists, from selling weapons technologies abroad. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher summed up the U.S. position at the department's daily briefing on 16 July. He said: "We continue to believe that it's in the U.S. national interest to assist Russia in preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the material and the know-how for weapons of mass destruction as well as ballistic technology. So that point remains pretty firm. " One of the programs involved is a U.S. taxpayer-funded effort to help Russia dispose of hundreds of tons of military plutonium. The review calls for a shift in philosophy from assistance to partnership with Moscow. To do that, U.S. officials say the Kremlin would have to demonstrate a greater willingness to make a financial and political commitment to stop the spread of sophisticated conventional weapons and to end Russian sale of nuclear and other military-related technologies to Iran and other nations unfriendly to the United States. The U.S. review covered 30 programs with an annual outlay of some $800 million. These programs represent a cornerstone of U.S. scientific and military relationship with Russia. Bush is expected to discuss some of these programs when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin this coming weekend in Genoa, Italy. The meeting, U.S. officials say, is expected to focus on American plans to build a nuclear missile shield. The United States reiterated on 16 July that it intends to proceed with developing the missile defense system despite new objections from Russia and China. A joint statement signed 15 July by the presidents of Russia and China in Moscow called the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) the "cornerstone of international security." At the State Department, Boucher said: "Ultimately, the United States intends to go forward, and we've made clear that we have the right to withdraw from the treaty, if necessary. But we'd like to work this out, and the goal is try to work with the Russians, and then the exact form of that could be a variety of things." U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview with a U.S. newspaper that the administration was trying to reach some sort of written understanding with Moscow that would allow development of the system, prohibited by the ABM Treaty. Powell told "The Washington Post" that such an arrangement could take a variety of forms and could be something as informal as a joint communiqué rather than a new treaty to replace the ABM. © 1995-2001 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc., All Rights Reserved. http://www.rferl.org ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************