***************************************************************** 04/19/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.96 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Bill would make West Texas a leading waste disposal site; 2 Radioactive Waste Dump 3 Harvey waste radiation lawsuit begins 4 Waste shipment opposed 5 Nuclear waste traverses Port Royal 6 Other's Views: TVA has important decisions to be made 7 Nuke fuel meeting draws ire, concern 8 TVA to spend $157 million on nuclear plants 9 Sessions wants nuclear tax break 10 Proposed tax on Seabrook Station unfair, unreasonable 11 Senate approves bill extending jurisdiction over Vermont Yankee 12 Nuclear Power Plant Missing Two Fuel Rods 13 Nuclear energy poised for a comeback 14 Nuclear power industry sensing political shift 15 Berkley urges two-front fight 16 CIA says N Korea 'probably' has nuclear bombs 17 *Temelin receives satisfactory grades, but critics remain wary* 18 Intermediary Storage for Spent Romanian Nuclear Fuel to be Built 19 Nuclear Waste Imports Approved 20 Scientists Meet in Kiev Ahead of Chernobyl Anniversary 21 GREENPEACE SEES SECOND DUMA READING AS BREAKTHROUGH FOR STOPPING 22 Duma votes to end ban on nuclear waste imports 23 Berkley urges two-front fight 24 Fifteen Years Later, Chornobyl's Victims Still Looking For Help NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 BUSH ADMINISTRATION HONORS REID PROVISION TO COMPENSATE NEVADA'S 2 Who's eligible for program to compensate job-sickened nuclear workers 3 Weapons Plants-List 4 INEEL finishes removing vestiges of airplane project 5 No evidence Kelly AFB workers exposed to toxin 6 Amendment would add DOE waste to that allowed in proposed West Texas dump 7 Lawmakers focus on Hanford funds 8 Nuke workers will have to wait 9 Y-12 Earth Day event scheduled 10 Thompson: Labor to run program for sick workers 11 Officials celebrate three DOE projects 12 List follows trail of political cash 13 Chao: Compensation Program Delayed 14 Livermore NIF gets $69 million 15 Scientists take aim at low-yield nukes 16 Text of Memo to the DOL Team from Secretary of Energy Elaine 17 It Was Almost Nuclear War 18 Israel, end silence on weapons, expert says 19 Test site workers to benefit 20 Uranium levels in some Fallon wells unhealthy 21 Rocky Flats and clandistine Lowry Dumping 22 Workers share stories about health woes ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Bill would make West Texas a leading waste disposal site; Legislation would allow Energy to dump radioactive material there Star-Telegram.Com | What Do You Want to Know? Apr. 18, 2001 at 23:34 CDT By Neil Strassman Star-Telegram Staff Writer West Texas could become a leading radioactive waste disposal site and North Texas a major transportation route for shipping the waste under a bill moving through the Senate. The bill would allow a state- licensed private company to store and permanently dispose of low-level radioactive waste in Texas. It was amended Tuesday in the Senate Natural Resources Committee to allow the Energy Department to also ship low-level radioactive waste to West Texas. The committee passed the bill, which now moves to the full Senate. "If this bill becomes law, people in North Texas can expect our highways to become a corridor for the nation's Cold War nuclear waste," said Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth. "West Texas will be a sacrifice zone for nuclear waste." Sen. Teel Bivins, R- Amarillo, who pushed to amend the bill by Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, said the amendment is necessary because the waste disposal site proposed in Duncan's bill is too small to be successful. Duncan's bill would provide a disposal site for waste from Texas, Vermont and Maine, which are partners in a radioactive-waste compact that makes Texas the host state for a low- level radioactive waste dump. The waste is generated by medical, research and industrial activities and nuclear power plants. It can vary in radioactivity and the hazard it poses and can remain dangerous for hundreds or even thousands of years. "It's a matter of economics," Bivens said. "The reality of this issue is that a compact waste site is not economically viable on its own." It is estimated that there is 2.7 million cubic feet of waste from the three states, and that there is 93 million cubic feet of Energy Department waste from 70 different sites nationwide, said Erin Rogers, outreach coordinator for the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club. "That's 50 years of waste from research and weapons production that will likely travel from the East on Interstate 30 and Interstate 20 and from the Midwest south along Interstate 35," Rogers said. "This is a complete meltdown in Texas' radioactive waste policy." Bivins' amendment calls for a separate site for the federal waste, at least a quarter-mile from the site where the three states' waste would be stored. It specifies that the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission would decide on limits for the federal waste, taking into consideration such factors as risk to humans and the environment. The risk from the federal waste could be no greater than that from the waste from the three states, he said. The front-runner for the site is in Andrews County, northwest of Midland, home of Waste Control Specialists, the only Texas company now licensed to process and store radioactive waste. This report contains material from The Associated Press. Neil Strassman, (817) 390-7657 strass@star-telegram.com © 2000 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas -- Terms and ***************************************************************** 2 Radioactive Waste Dump Main Frame Area (Austin-AP) -- State lawmakers have approved an amendment that allows the federal energy department to transport low-level radioactive waste to a proposed dump in West Texas. The amendment's author is Republican Senator Teel Bivins, who says the compact waste site needs more waste to be economically worthwhile. Bivins' amendment was attached yesterday to a proposal by Republican Senator Robert Duncan to set up a dump in agreement with a compact involving Texas, Maine and Vermont. The amendment calls for the federal site to be separate --at least a quarter-mile -- from the compact site. Duncan says the responsible thing to do is have a compact site, but he doesn't believe federal waste is needed to make it work. The Senate Natural Resources Committee passed Duncan's bill 4-to-0 and Bivins' amendment 3-to-1, with Duncan casting the only no vote. The bill now goes to the full Senate. (Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) ***************************************************************** 3 Harvey waste radiation lawsuit begins NOLA Live; Times-Picayune New OrleansNet LLC. West Bank News Plaintiffs allege firms covered up problem 04/19/01 By Sandra Barbier The amount of radioactive waste left on 33 acres in Harvey and how much it will cost to clean it up are at the center of a civil trial involving a former Jefferson Parish judge who is seeking at least $83 million from Exxon-Mobil Corp. and another company. Three years after their lawsuit was filed, retired Judge Joseph Grefer and his siblings started presenting their case Wednesday in Orleans Parish Civil District Court against the oil companies and Intracoastal Tubular Services, a defunct pipe-cleaning company. The Grefers contend that Exxon, before its merger with Mobil, knew that the pipes it was having cleaned on the property off Peters Road contained radioactive waste, known as naturally occurring radioactive material, that is often produced during oil and gas drilling. In his opening statement, attorney Jack Harang said Exxon kept the knowledge of the radioactivity even from its own employees for years, adding that it knew in 1987 that it would cost millions of dollars to clean up. "There was a deep, dark, evil thing going on," Harang said. But Exxon-Mobil attorney Gregory Weiss said the Grefers are exaggerating the amount contamination on their land. A testing service hired by the company found only six spots that need cleaning out of more than 1,000 tested at more than three feet deep. "Ninety-two percent of that tract is within (Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality) guidelines for unrestricted use of the property," he said. Harang showed the 12-member jury an aerial photo of stacks of pipes stretching for blocks on the land during the pipe company's heyday. Intracoastal cleaned as much as a million feet of pipe per year, using equipment that broke up hardened minerals inside and outside the pipes into a fine, talcum-like powder that easily blew away, he said. Harang said Exxon later spread the material around the Grefer property with a bulldozer, burying some as much as two or three feet deep. Intracoastal Tubular's attorney, Tom Balhoff, agreed, but said the company's owners didn't know about the radium until 1987, when Exxon officials told them about it. Intracoastal leased the land and operated a pipe-cleaning, storage and transport business there from the 1960s to the early 1990s. Balhoff said he plans to present statements from Exxon officials that indicate the company knew of the radioactivity at its facilities plants and wells going back decades, and that they wrote memos back and fourth about it and about the need to be "low key" on the issue. Weiss said cleaning the land will cost about $45,000. The rest of the $83 million would be a windfall to the Grefers and their attorneys, he said. "This case is about greed versus need," Weiss said. DEQ official Richard Brackin was the first to testify. He worked for almost 10 years in the state's radiation program, which began regulating naturally occurring radioactive materials around 1980. He said that failing to measure the radiation, to inform handlers of its presence or to protect people by preventing it being released into an unrestricted area were all illegal. In addition to the $83 million, the Grefer family is seeking an unspecified amount in damages in the lawsuit filed in New Orleans because Exxon was based there. The trial before Judge Carolyn Gill Jefferson is scheduled to take 10 days. Sandra Barbier can be reached at sbarbier@timespicayune.comor (504) 826-3784. ***************************************************************** 4 Waste shipment opposed Denver Post.com The Denver Post April 17, 2001 - WESTERN SLOPE MONTROSE - U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis are opposed to the shipment of 150,000 tons of radioactive waste from the Shattuck site in south Denver to a Dow Chemical subsidiary's dump in Montrose County. "I don't always agree with the (Western Colorado) Congress, but on this issue, we're in agreement," Campbell said of the environmental group at a town meeting last week in Montrose. McInnis, also at a similar meeting last week, said he didn't want the Shattuck waste to go to Montrose County or Can~on City, both listed as potential sites for the waste by the Environmental Protection Agency. "This is dangerous stuff," he said. "When you're going up against the world's second-largest chemical company and their millions of dollars, it's reassuring to have the support of our elected officials," said Art Stephens of Grand Junction, president of the Western Colorado Congress. "I hope we can work together to get the EPA's ear on this matter." The EPA will decide this summer where to send the radioactive waste currently sealed in a concrete monolith on 5.8 acres in the south Denver neighborhood. All contents Copyright 2001 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 5 Nuclear waste traverses Port Royal The Beaufort Gazette: Nuclear waste traverses Port Royal By JAMES TATUM *Gazette* staff writer *(Published April 19, 2001)* Two large steam generators bound for the nuclear disposal facility in Barnwell arrived in the Port of Port Royal on Tuesday. The generators, which came from a decommissioned nuclear power plant in Connecticut, will be transferred from barge to rail cars, then secured. They will go to Barnwell by rail on Monday. The low-level generators require no special federal or state permits, nor do workers handling the shipment need to wear special protective clothing, according to S.C. Ports Authority spokesman Byron Mille. . Miller said the generators will set a new cargo-handling record for the port, which has traditionally handled breakbulk and bulk cargoes such as forest products, refrigerated goods, cement and clay. These are two of the largest single pieces of cargo moved through the 439-year-old port, he said. The town of Port Royal has an ordinance which regulates the transportation of radioactive materials into, through and out of the town. Town Manager John Perry said that as soon as the town was notified that the shipment was coming, town officials referred to the ordinance to ensure the shipment is in compliance. "We notified our police chief and emergency management and town engineer for their professional assistance in reviewing the information provided by the Port of Port Royal," Perry said. The Ports Authority met with the letter of the law." Perry said the mayor and town council also were notified. The generators are being shipped in enclosures that are 40 feet long, 15 feet wide and 15 feet high. The generators themselves weigh 160 tons each and have steel shells 3 inches to 4 inches thick. Such shipments generally go by barge up the Savannah River, but South Carolina's long drought has lowered the river to such a point that the barges would be unable to reach their destination near Snelling. "Anytime there is a radioactive material shipment, it has potential for creating a perceived threat, so it's our position that handling and transportation of these materials are done in accordance with laws to prevent incidents," Perry said. "I would just as soon not set records with hazardous materials, and if I were king for a day, I would rather it be handled somewhere else." Citizens concerned about the possibility of contaminated materials being trucked out of the port need not worry, said Port Manager Tony Pesavento. Miller said the shipment fully complies with U.S. Department of Transportation and S.C. DHEC transportation and disposal regulations. The state approved disposing of the units in the Barnwell facility. "They're too heavy for the roads; they could not cross bridges," Pesavento said. "They have to go by rail." James Tatum can be reached at 986-5532 or jtatum@beaufortgazette.com. Copyright © 2001 The Beaufort Gazette ***************************************************************** 6 Other's Views: TVA has important decisions to be made Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:20 p.m. on Thursday, April 19, 2001 *An editorial from the Chattanooga Free Press * ... For a time, (the Tennessee Valley Authority) had only a chairman, with Craven Crowell operating alone while the board had two vacancies. Then Democrat Skila Harris and Republican Glenn McCullough were appointed. Chairman Crowell chose to retire last Monday. President George W. Bush has not indicated his choice to fill the vacancy. TVA and its leadership are important to us all, providing the electricity for a seven-state area, and performing other important functions as well. It has major challenges in providing enough power when we need it at reasonable costs, facing environmental concerns. TVA has a $26 billion debt that is a problem as it must contemplate building additional generation capacity. It needs to build simpler, smaller, cheaper, non-polluting nuclear plants. It needs to address disposal of spent radioactive fuel. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., proposes an enlarged and more representative board. Some in Congress are unfriendly to TVA in several respects. These and other issues mean big TVA decisions lie ahead. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 7 Nuke fuel meeting draws ire, concern Savannah NOW: Local News - 04/19/01 Frustration with an almost unfathomable process dominated a Wednesday meeting about transforming the stuff of the Cold War into a peace-time fuel.-->Web posted Thursday, April 19, 2001 By Gail Krueger Savannah Morning News Frustration with an almost unfathomable process dominated a Wednesday meeting about transforming the stuff of the Cold War into a peace-time fuel. The federal Department of Energy already has decided that its Savannah River Nuclear Site - about 70 miles upstream from Savannah - is the place where weapons-grade plutonium from old bombs will be turned into fuel for nuclear reactors that supply electricity to keep the lights on in Charlotte. It's now up to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to decide whether to authorize a facility proposed by an international consortium at SRS. Pounding the nuclear sword into a plowshare is part of a U.S. and Russian effort to make the world safer by getting rid of Cold War weapons. But the abstract concept gets pretty personal when the facility is just up the river. "The proposed plutonium fuel factory will add to the fact that the Southeast, especially SRS, is exploited as the nation's radioactive pay toilet," said Sara Barczak, safe energy director for Georgians for Clean Energy's Savannah office. Barczak was one of about 35 people who turned out to hear what the NRC had to say Wednesday. The NRC meeting was held to collect public input before an Environmental Impact Statement is done on the production and use of experimental mixed oxide-MOX-plutonium fuel. The fuel would be made from weapons-grade plutonium that would be purified at SRS and transported regionally for use in four nuclear power reactors operated by Duke Power in the Charlotte area. Weapons-grade plutonium never has been used a commercial reactor fuel. State Sen. Regina Thomas, D-Savannah, has come out in opposition to starting the plutonium fuel process at SRS. She said to do so would, "plunge us into a new era of nuclear dangers." A number of environmental groups have written former Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson asking him to stop design, construction and licensing work on the proposed MOX fuel fabrication facility at SRS. They cite the creation of liquid radioactive wastes-a byproduct of the plutonium purification process-as a matter of extreme concern. The proposed plant could add more than 4 million gallons of liquid waste over its 20-year life span to the SRS site, according to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, two anti-nuclear groups. Some 35 million gallons of highly radioactive liquid waste is still on hand at SRS despite years of clean up activities. Having that waste find its way into the Savannah River would be disastrous, activists say. Harry Jue, director of the city's water department, has a particular interest in what goes into the Savannah River. The city draws millions of gallons of water for industrial and home use from Abercorn Creek, a tributary of the Savannah. In December, 1991, the city was forced to warn its industrial customers away from using treated Savannah River water due to a radioactive tritium release from the Savannah River Site. For almost a week, plants like Savannah Sugar, which used the water for processing food, had to find another source; plants like the then Union Camp paper mill continued to used it for processing but brought in bottled water for employees to drink. Now, more of the water from the city's water plant goes for domestic drinking water than ever before. SRS now pays for daily samples to be taken at the bridge where U.S. 301 crosses the Savannah. Finding tritium there would give the city three to four days lead time before it would get into drinking water, Jue said. Jue said he understands that clean up weapons-grade plutonium is good for the world at large but is concerned about the local implication of processing it upstream from his city's water plant. "Whose back yard are you putting it in? We just need to know a lot more," he said. Environmental issues reporter Gail Krueger can be reached at 652-0331 or at . ***************************************************************** 8 TVA to spend $157 million on nuclear plants By Dennis Sherer April 19, 2001 The Tennessee Valley Authority is releasing few details of how it will spend $157 million to boost the output of its Browns Ferry and Sequoyah nuclear power plants. During a meeting Wednesday in Hopkinsville, Ky., the utility's board of directors approved making improvements at the nuclear plants to increase their production capacity. After the meeting, Browns Ferry spokesman Phil Harris said he was waiting on TVA officials to approve what details of the upgrades could be released to the public. "I'm waiting for approval from the people in corporate," Harris said. "They have some questions they need to run by engineering." Harris is unsure when details of the projects will be released. According to the agenda for Wednesday's meeting, the upgrades at Sequoyah, near Chattanooga, Tenn., will involve work on the turbine rotors for the electrical power generators. The $57.8 million contract for the work with Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. will increase the capacity of the plant's Units 1 and 2 reactors by 26 megawatts. Wednesday's meeting agenda did not specify the work to be performed at Browns Ferry near Athens. The $99 million contract for Browns Ferry is with General Electric Co. Harris said the work would be different from that planned for the Sequoyah plant, but he declined to discuss details of the project. It will increase the output of Units 2 and 3 by 240 megawatts. Harris did say the work at Browns Ferry does not involve the restart of Unit 1 that has been idle since it was shut down in 1985 because of safety concerns. U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Ala., have called on TVA in recent months to begin work to reactivate Unit 1 to ensure it meets future electrical power needs in the valley. TVA officials have said they will not make a decision on restarting Unit 1 until later this year at the earliest. The increased output of the two nuclear plants through the project approved Wednesday will provide enough electrical power to supply 50,000 homes. The work at both nuclear plants is scheduled to be completed in June 2005. TimesDaily ***************************************************************** 9 Sessions wants nuclear tax break The Anniston Star Online 04-19-2001, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions introduced legislation earlier this month that would give energy producers a tax break for building or upgrading nuclear power plants. The proposal has earned him the wrath of environmentalists. By Ivan H. Golden Star Washington Correspondent 04-19-2001 WASHINGTON Environmentalists, already upset over President Bush's policies, are ready to take aim at another Republican: Alabama U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions. Sessions introduced legislation earlier this month that would give energy producers a tax break for building or upgrading nuclear power plants. His proposal is similar to tax credits and other breaks given to oil, gas, solar and other energy producers, according to a press release from Sessions' office. "Please tell me it isn't true," said David Wells, political chairman of the Alabama chapter of the Sierra Club. Wells said his group plans to dispute Sessions' claim that nuclear energy is a safe and inexpensive power source that could help offset the country's rising energy costs. The senator planned to discuss his bill with Bush administration officials this week. The White House had no word Wednesday on whether it would support Sessions' bill, and Sessions' spokesman confirmed that he did not know what the administration would do. But after seeing power shortages force blackouts in California, the Bush administration is eager to explore alternative energy sources, including nuclear power. Environmental groups agree there is an energy shortage, but they say nuclear energy is not the solution. As Chris Hayday of the Sierra Club's National Global Warming and Energy Program puts it, "It would be like solving your smoking problem by taking up crack." Hayday said there are many alternative sources of energy, including solar power, wind power and fuel cells, that are less expensive and more environmentally friendly than nuclear power. But, he added, the United States cannot address its energy shortage without addressing the demand aspect. "We don't have to go back to the days of living in caves, shivering in the dark," he said. "But we do have to take steps to use energy more efficiently." That approach is not realistic, Sessions said. Emissions in the United States have increased 8 percent since 1990, and will continue their upward trend, he said. "It's ludicrous to think we have any hope of increasing power and decreasing efficiency, except by nuclear power," Sessions said. "Nuclear power represents the greatest potential to meet our energy needs and environmental goals." Nuclear power is neither as expensive nor as environmentally risky as critics charge, Sessions said. Oil and gas production is dangerous too, he said. "People die in gas explosions. They die in coal mines," Sessions said. "I'm confident nuclear power is more economically friendly." Sessions cited a study of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident by the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Student Health. That study, published last year in the Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives, gathered information on more than 32,000 people between 1979 and 1992, and found no increase in cancer deaths among people who were near the Three Mile Island plant March 28, 1979, the date of the accident. However, the study's lead investigator, Evelyn Talbott, contradicted Sessions. Talbott, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, said the results do not prove nuclear energy is safe, and more investigation is needed. Sessions' legislation would provide an incentive for the Tennessee Valley Authority to start its Unit 1 reactor at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant near Athens, and complete the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant near Scottsboro, according to a press release from Sessions' office. According to Southern Nuclear, a sister company to Alabama Power, about 20 percent of Alabama's power comes from nuclear energy. Rick Kimble, Southern Nuclear's Manager of Communications, said the company has little interest in expanding its nuclear plant or building a new one, despite any tax benefits it might receive. "We've made it pretty clear we're not interested in any new nuclear plants," he said. Copyright 2001 Consolidated Publishing. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 Proposed tax on Seabrook Station unfair, unreasonable The Telegraph Online [Telegraph Online] April 18, 2001 Letters: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 To the Editor: To the Editor: Nobody enjoys paying taxes, but most people and most businesses will not complain if a tax is fair and reasonable. In fact, the owners of Seabrook Station have gone on record in support of the current utility property tax enacted in 1999 as a component of legislation enacted in response to the state’s education funding crisis. This tax is broad-based and taxes all utilities, including energy producers equally. Unfortunately, House Bill 50, which is part of a tax package put together to again deal with a budget shortfall and education funding, is neither fair nor reasonable. It would single out not one industry but a single facility – Seabrook Station – and impose an additional $23 million dollar nuclear station property tax. It is bad for the consumer and the state’s economy. Such a huge tax targeted at one generating station is unprecedented. The owners of Seabrook Station already pay more than $20 million in state and local property taxes each year. This bill would bring the total property tax bill alone for the plant to about $43 million dollars. Property taxes would constitute 20 percent of the cost of producing energy at the station. Property taxes, in fact, would far exceed the cost of the fuel that we use to produce the electricity so essential to the quality of life that we enjoy in New Hampshire. Seabrook Station will be sold later this year as part of the state’s restructuring of the electric utility industry. The hope has been that the station – being one of the nation’s newest and largest nuclear units with an excellent safety and operating record – would fetch a high price. The proceeds from this sale would then be used to pay off most of PSNH’s stranded costs and reduce the amount left for the ratepayer. This tax, however, could reduce the sale price by hundreds of millions of dollars. Worse, it could cause a potential bidder on the plant to think twice about buying a generating station that is looked upon as a cash cow whenever the state has a budget crisis. HB 50 tries to justify this tax by claiming that generation of electricity by nuclear power creates special burdens and responsibilities. What it does not say is that Seabrook Station (and other nuclear stations) is unlike any other facility that I know of in that we pre-fund our own cradle to grave costs. This year, we will pay over $19 million to a trust administered by the state that will provide the money necessary for the complete and prompt dismantlement of the plant at the end of its energy-producing life. We also pay the state’s costs to oversee the adequacy of this fund. We provide about $1.6 million per year to the state’s Office of Emergency Management that not only helps with emergency planning for the station but for responses to a whole array of other state emergencies. We also self-fund for the safe disposal of radioactive waste. On the other side of the coin, Seabrook Station generates enough power to supply 1 million homes without emitting any global warming gases, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide or mercury. Without this clean source of power, New Hampshire’s air would be dirtier and the state’s ability to meet its Clean Air Act requirements would be extremely difficult. The California experience – rolling blackouts and bankrupt power companies – has demonstrated the critical need for electric generation capacity in a growing economy, especially in a state getting ready to deregulate its electric utility industry. In contrast to California, New Hampshire has not discouraged new generation, and the Legislature and the governor have worked with the industry to fashion an intelligent plan to promote competition while avoiding the problems we are seeing on the West Coast. The punishing anti-competitive tax that HB 50 would impose on the state’s largest generator of electricity represents a dramatic departure from this plan. I urge our legislators to vote against HB 50 when it reaches the floor this week. Ted Feigenbaum Executive Vice President Chief Nuclear Officer Seabrook Station Say no to income tax To the Editor: Just say no to an income tax. 1. An income tax is unfair to New Hampshire residents who work here; the state would receive no income tax revenue from its residents who work out of state (income tax is paid first to the state in which a worker is employed). Those who live and work in New Hampshire would be forced to subsidize the shortfall. What’s fair about shifting the burden in this way? 2. An income tax is a violation of Part 2, Article 6 of the N.H. Constitution. 3. The first thing to be purchased with new tax money is the administration of the new tax departments; millions of dollars to run the bureaucracy created hereby. 4. Allowing new taxes (of any kind) will give politicians the opportunity to disperse thousands of cushy jobs to people who will then be indebted at election time. 5. The recent Becker Institute poll shows New Hampshire residents opposed to an income tax 63-33 percent, but the liberals in the House aren’t listening. 6. With an income tax, there is no accountability; it gives government complete control over your income; it has absolutely no relationship to the needs of government. 7. An income tax will hurt New Hampshire’s economy; it is not needed. Education can be funded from existing revenue sources. 8. Call your state representatives; tell them to just say no. Nancy W. Wall Hollis Portions © 2001, Telegraph Publishing Company, Nashua, New Hampshire ***************************************************************** 11 Senate approves bill extending jurisdiction over Vermont Yankee By Associated Press, 4/18/2001 19:57 MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) The Senate gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would extend the state's jurisdiction over the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in the event it's sold. The bill would require that before the nuclear power plant could win an extension of its operating license it would need to obtain what's known as a certificate of public good from the Public Service Board. The state does not have direct regulatory control over the plant. That's reserved to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. But the issuance or denial of a certificate of public good makes clear to FERC state government's position on an electric generator. ''The general belief is in the event there is a sale of the plant, the state is risking losing any authority over the plant,'' said Sen. Cheryl Rivers, D-Windsor. ''When this plant comes up for relicensing, we want our Public Service Board to have a say.'' Vermont Yankee, which sits along the Connecticut River in Vernon, is licensed to continue operating through 2012. It could apply to extend its license. But the plant currently is for sale and is going through an auction. If an out-of-state company ends up buying the plant, the state Public Service Board could lose any jurisdiction over relicensing without the proposed bill, supporters said. ''All this says is let's affirm the process that in my judgment has been working to benefit Vermonters for a long time,'' said Sen. Nancy Chard, D-Windham, whose district includes Vernon. The bill passed a preliminary reading unanimously on a voice vote and is likely to be taken up for final approval Thursday. It still needs to be considered in the House. Boston Globe Online: ***************************************************************** 12 Nuclear Power Plant Missing Two Fuel Rods Environment News Service: AmeriScan: April 18, 2001 - AmeriScan: April 18, 2001 WATERFORD, Connecticut, April 18, 2001 (ENS) - Two spent fuel rods are missing from storage pools at the Millstone 1 nuclear power plant in Waterford. The rods were reported missing late last year, after Dominion Nuclear Connecticut took over ownership of the Millstone facility from Northeast Utilities. A review of records revealed that two spent fuel rods believed to have been stored in the spent fuel pool at the permanently shutdown Millstone 1 plant could not be located. Nuclear power plants use slender metal rods filled with enriched uranium pellets to generate heat in the reactor, which creates steam used to produce power. There are thousands of these rods in use in the reactor when it is in operation. After its use in the reactor, the fuel is considered "highly radioactive." Once removed from the reactor, the rods are placed in a spent fuel pool for storage, where they are kept cool to prevent an uncontrolled nuclear reaction. The missing rods at Millstone 1 are about a half-inch in diameter and 158 inches long. Northeast Utilities launched a search for the fuel rods, including visual inspections of storage racks in the circulating water spent fuel pool using remote controlled cameras, personnel interviews and a further review of records. The company also formed an Independent Review Team to augment its investigation. So far, all of these efforts have been unsuccessful in locating the rods. Staff from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet with Dominion Nuclear Connecticut representatives on Monday to discuss the status of an investigation into, and search for, two spent nuclear fuel rods reported missing from the spent fuel pool at the Millstone 1 plant late last year. The meeting, which will be open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 1 pm in the Public Meeting Room at the NRC Region I office, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Free ENS Daily News Feed by Email ***************************************************************** 13 Nuclear energy poised for a comeback - 4/18/2001 - ENN.com Wednesday, April 18, 2001 By John Roach [Vice President Dick Cheney believes that nuclear energy must be a part of the country’s long-term energy strategy. Pictured here, the Salem Unit 2 plant near Wilmington, Delaware.] Vice President Dick Cheney believes that nuclear energy must be a part of the country’s long-term energy strategy. Pictured here, the Salem Unit 2 plant near Wilmington, Delaware. Blackouts roll across California. Icebergs calve in the Antarctic Peninsula. Salmon migrate via barges. Water creeps up on island nations. The United States wants energy. The Earth needs to cool down. Are nuclear reactors the answer? Vice President Dick Cheney thinks so. Cheney has jumped on the nuclear energy bandwagon as an answer to both the U.S.s energy crisis and the worlds high fever. If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear power plants. They dont emit any carbon dioxide. They dont emit greenhouse gases, Cheney said recently on MSNBCs Hardball program. Cheney believes that greater use of nuclear energy must be a part of the countrys long-term energy strategy. Currently 20 percent of U.S. power is nuclear. If the Bush administration get its way, the figure will rise. Vice President Dick Cheney The administration touts nuclear energy as emission-free. As such, it is one way President George W. Bush's group can deal with global warming, a major thorn for the administation since it reneged on the Kyoto Protocol in March. Emission-free, perhaps, but nuclear energy is as hazardous and controversial today as it was 20 years ago, said Paul Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington, D.C. When you get outside of the Beltway and outside of the moneyed interests, there certainly remain concerns about nuclear waste, catastrophic accidents and proliferation of nuclear weapons material from this technology, he said. Resurrection of the nuclear industry, the aim of a bill introduced in March by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, constitutes a resurgence in proliferation of nuclear weapons material, said Gunter. Given that a domestic market wont [support the industry], they are going to have to sell around the world, he said. What this poses is the threat of proliferation in terms of the number of holders of the basic building blocks of nuclear weapons. Storage of nuclear waste is another issue of major concern. The Department of Energy has long studied the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada but hasn't decided if the location is suitable. Environmentalists point to the areas volcanic and seismic activity as evidence against the site. Copyright 2001, Environmental News Network ***************************************************************** 14 Nuclear power industry sensing political shift April 18, 2001 From CNN Kate Snow CNN Washington Bureau WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Inside the North Anna Nuclear Site, an hour north of Richmond, Virginia, the generators roar 24 hours a day. Two reactors produce enough electricity for 250,000 Virginia homes. Nationwide, nuclear plants provide roughly one-fifth of the country's power, and supporters say that number could grow. "It's amazing what a little shortage of electricity will do for your view of what's needed for the future," said Joe Colvin, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute. The nuclear industry is sensing a shift. For the first time in decades, politicians talk openly about using nuclear power to diversify America's energy supply. "This is an industry today that is not the industry that it was 20 years ago," Colvin said. "This is an industry today that is operating these plants safely, reliably, competitively, and at performance levels that exceed any other source of generation that we have in the United States." On Capitol Hill, support for nuclear power is in part a response to constituents. Nuclear plants operate in 31 states. "One of the reasons that I have been a supporter of nuclear [power] is because we've had such a good experience in Florida, where we have three nuclear farms and they contribute about 20 percent of our total energy supply," said Sen. Bob Graham, D-Florida. And with the Bush administration backing nuclear power, it is no longer as politically dangerous for members of Congress to be pro-nuclear. Vice President Dick Cheney first endorsed the idea on a talk show. "If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear power plants," Cheney said. It's been nearly 25 years since the last commercial reactor was ordered -- 1978, one year before the accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island. That accident prompted fears about public safety, and the industry was accused of financial mismanagement. Then, in the mid-1980s, came the Chernobyl disaster. In the 1990s, nuclear power companies worked to soften their image, but critics say that is only part of the reason for nuclear energy's rebirth. "If it's fought in the public domain, nuclear power will lose. So they have to fight it behind closed doors where there's a better chance of winning," said David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists. The top six operators run about half of the nation's 103 nuclear reactors. Those six contributed more than $1 million to federal candidates in the 2000 elections -- about two-thirds of that to Republicans. Opponents of nuclear power contend the politics have changed but the danger has not. "We believe we are in more danger with nuclear power industry than we were when public concern focused on construction projects, because now is the time that the industry is seeking new bottom lines that pit profit margins versus safety margins," said Paul Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. Plants store their high-level radioactive waste in pools or in dry containers. The federal government was supposed to take control of the waste in 1998 -- but that did not happen. One thing both pro- and anti-nuclear forces agree on: If the political will now exists to build more nuclear reactors, an effort is needed to clean up the waste. ***************************************************************** 15 Berkley urges two-front fight Las Vegas SUN April 19, 2001 By Erin Neff SUN CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- Rep. Shelley Berkley told a joint session of the Legislature on Wednesday that it must continue efforts to fight two federal attempts to harm the state. She lashed out against the NCAA's attempts to ban legalized betting on collegiate sports and condemned the increasing federal budget for plans to store high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Her brief remarks to the Senate and Assembly drew the most applause when she discussed "preposterous" attempts to ban college sports betting and nuclear dump plans that could turn Las Vegas into a "ghost town" with one accident. "This is a fight," Berkley, D-Nev., said about Yucca Mountain. "This is a hill to die for." Berkley said Nevada has the facts on its side because Yucca Mountain has seismic issues and ground water concerns that make it unsuitable for such a storage facility. "The Nevada Legislature and local governments need to continue to send a strong message to the federal government -- no nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain," she urged. But she reserved her toughest criticism for the NCAA and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who support the college sports betting ban. With $2 billion in legal sports wagering conducted in Nevada versus the estimated $380 billion illegal handle nationwide, Berkley said the NCAA is attacking the wrong side. "It's almost like outlawing aspirin and saying it's going to alleviate the illegal drug problem in this country," Berkley said. With McCain's hearings on the bill bound to create national media attention when Congress reconvenes April 26, Berkley said it is important for the Nevada delegation to drum up support for their alternative plan. The alternative measure, for which Berkley and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., have obtained 90 original sponsors in the House, calls for a study of illegal gambling and doubling the penalties for such a crime. She referred to the NCAA's "hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness" in attacking Nevada without addressing the gambling problems of students at its member colleges and universities. Berkley also suggested some of the $6 billion in revenue the NCAA received from CBS for television rights for the Final Four men's basketball championship should be spent on preventing such gambling. After her speech Berkley said it's important for Nevada's delegation to block any vote on McCain's bill on the Senate floor. "I think Sen. McCain is in danger of overreaching," Berkley said. "There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for him to be promoting that legislation other than as a publicity stunt for him." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 16 CIA says N Korea 'probably' has nuclear bombs CNN.com - - April 19, 2001 North Korea's Kim Jong-il has made "bad behavior the keystone of his foreign policy" By staff and wire reports WASHINGTON -- North Korea "probably has one or two nuclear bombs" and may also have biological weapons and chemical weapons, a senior U.S. intelligence official says. Deputy Central Intelligence Agency Director John McLaughlin says that while activity at North Korea's nuclear plant Yongbyon had been frozen since 1994, "we still cannot account for all of North Korea's plutonium." "And, with an opaque regime in which the practice of denial and deception is embedded in national strategy, we still cannot say for sure that nuclear weapons-related work is not going on somewhere else," he says in a speech given at a conference at Texas A University late Tuesday and released in Washington on Wednesday. "Indeed, the North probably has one or two nuclear bombs -- and it may also have biological weapons alongside its chemical ones," McLaughlin says. North Korea has held to its missile launch moratorium and has signaled interest in negotiating a missile deal with the United States, but at the same time its proliferation activities "remain robust" partly for political leverage, he says. North Korea's No Dong missile and its variants have shown up in Iran and Pakistan, McLaughlin says. 'Busy at work' "And it is busy at work on new models that could reach the United States itself with nuclear-sized payloads," he says. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il so far has held to his father's legacy including the goal of "northern pre-eminence in a reunified Korea," McLaughlin says. He took over leadership of the country after his father Kim Il-sung died in 1994. "Like his father, he has been shrewd enough to make bad behavior the keystone of his foreign policy," McLaughlin says. "He knows that proliferation is something we want to stop. Thus, Kim Jong-il has tried to drum up outside assistance by trading off international concerns about his missile programs and sales," he says. His father played the Soviets off the Chinese, and now the son is "trying the same game, but with different players," McLaughlin says. "He will seek to exploit any daylight he can find between the United States, South Korea, Japan, the European Union, or anyone else who might be inclined to offer him economic help," McLaughlin says Reuters contributed to this report. ***************************************************************** 17 *Temelin receives satisfactory grades, but critics remain wary* News: The Prague Post Online April 18, 2001 No surprises in plant report A new report on the environmental impact of the nuclear power plant at Temelin has given the controversial station a passing grade. But the rating has done little to quell the ongoing debate over safety at the south Bohemian facility. Both anti-nuclear activists and plant supporters labeled the April 10 "environmental impact assessment" -- a key part of a deal hammered out between the Austrian and Czech governments in December -- as old material in a new package. "There is nothing new as far as this report is concerned. It repeats what we did and said many years ago," said Milan Nebesar, a Temelin spokesman. "The public maybe needed this repeated to confirm things." The safety of the Soviet-designed plant with Western upgrades at Temelin, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Austrian border, has been repeatedly assailed by anti-nuclear activists who insist it poses a regional safety hazard. Rating Temelin + The environmental impact assessment of Temelin uses a rating system from 1 (nearly zero risk) to 5 (unacceptable risk). + Overall, Temelin was ranked 2.5 + For water-purity treatment: 1.7 + For impact on the atmosphere: 2 + For impact on the population: 2.95 + For impact on the local ecosystem: 3.75 Mechanical problems, though largely benign, have shut down the plant repeatedly since it began operation in October. The Czech-Austrian pact, reached in the Austrian town of Melk, put a halt to divisive border blockades by activists in Austria by promising the environmental study. Czech scientists and engineers led the study, with independent observers from Austria, Germany and the European Commission. The Czech press said the full commission included 78 experts. Still, many in the anti-nuclear lobby were not satisfied with the repeated assurances that the report contained. Austrian and German activists have called on Prague to shut down the plant, expected to provide 40 percent of the nation's electrical power by the end of the year. "I see great problems with this report," said Radko Pavlovec, Upper Austrian commissioner for energy issues. "It's missing other alternatives to the Temelin project ... I think it's impossible to begin without this." He called on the Czech government to reopen the study to consider alternatives to Temelin. "Otherwise, [the report] is only an instrument of the nuclear lobby of the Czech Republic to look better in the international community," Pavlovec said. According to Nebesar, the idea of abandoning the Temelin project is not an option. "There is no question of not starting up," he said. "That is a question for the beginning of a project, not the end." For Nebesar, the criticisms being lobbed at the report by the anti-nuclear side are just distractions. "They're not able to accept objective reality, facts," he said. "They want to shut down Temelin and will do anything to do so." The report will be discussed at two public forums in the coming weeks -- in Ceske Budejovice on April 25 and in Linz, Austria, on May 9 -- before a final version is submitted to Prague and Vienna on June 1. After that, the Temelin dispute will have to be settled on two levels -- among politicians and at the grass-roots level, Nebesar said. He doesn't know how the anti-nuclear lobby will be placated. That, he said, will be up to the governments to determine. ***************************************************************** 18 Intermediary Storage for Spent Romanian Nuclear Fuel to be Built Romania Today on Central Europe Online - BUCHAREST, Apr 18, 2001 -- (BBC Monitoring) Text of report in English by Romanian news agency Rompres web site. The Cernavoda nuclear plant [southeastern Romania] and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited [AECL] have recently signed a contract for the building of an intermediary warehouse for the storage of the plant's used fuel, the daily Curentul reports on Tuesday [17 April]. The building of the warehouse was entrusted to the National Corporation for Nuclear Activities in Drobeta Turnu Severin [southwestern Romania], more precisely to the Technological Engineering Branch for Nuclear Units. The warehouse, with a capacity of 300,000 fuel elements, will be built in the Cernavoda nuclear plant area. The warehouse will store the whole quantity of fuel used by units I and II during their entire activity. The intermediary warehouse is a preliminary stage of the fuel's final storage in various types of geological rocks. The environment norms of the National Board for the Nuclear Activity Control will be observed. The warehouse will also meet the U.S. environment safety norms. Source: Rompres web site, Bucharest, in English 17 Apr 01 (C) 2001 BBC Monitoring SUN CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- Rep. Shelley Berkley told a joint session of the Legislature on Wednesday that it must continue efforts to fight two federal attempts to harm the state. She lashed out against the NCAA's attempts to ban legalized betting on collegiate sports and condemned the increasing federal budget for plans to store high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Her brief remarks to the Senate and Assembly drew the most applause when she discussed "preposterous" attempts to ban college sports betting and nuclear dump plans that could turn Las Vegas into a "ghost town" with one accident. "This is a fight," Berkley, D-Nev., said about Yucca Mountain. "This is a hill to die for." Berkley said Nevada has the facts on its side because Yucca Mountain has seismic issues and ground water concerns that make it unsuitable for such a storage facility. "The Nevada Legislature and local governments need to continue to send a strong message to the federal government -- no nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain," she urged. But she reserved her toughest criticism for the NCAA and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who support the college sports betting ban. With $2 billion in legal sports wagering conducted in Nevada versus the estimated $380 billion illegal handle nationwide, Berkley said the NCAA is attacking the wrong side. "It's almost like outlawing aspirin and saying it's going to alleviate the illegal drug problem in this country," Berkley said. With McCain's hearings on the bill bound to create national media attention when Congress reconvenes April 26, Berkley said it is important for the Nevada delegation to drum up support for their alternative plan. The alternative measure, for which Berkley and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., have obtained 90 original sponsors in the House, calls for a study of illegal gambling and doubling the penalties for such a crime. She referred to the NCAA's "hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness" in attacking Nevada without addressing the gambling problems of students at its member colleges and universities. Berkley also suggested some of the $6 billion in revenue the NCAA received from CBS for television rights for the Final Four men's basketball championship should be spent on preventing such gambling. After her speech Berkley said it's important for Nevada's delegation to block any vote on McCain's bill on the Senate floor. "I think Sen. McCain is in danger of overreaching," Berkley said. "There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for him to be promoting that legislation other than as a publicity stunt for him." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 24 Fifteen Years Later, Chornobyl's Victims Still Looking For Help By Askold Krushelnycky At the end of this month, Ukraine will mark the 15th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident, when a reactor exploded at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. This week the Ukrainian government is hosting a conference about the accident and its lingering impact. As RFE/RL correspondent Askold Krushelnycky reports, many people whose lives were affected by the accident say they have received very little help from the Ukrainian government. Kyiv, 18 April 2001 (RFE/RL) -- Fifteen years ago on April 26, a reactor at Ukraine's Chornobyl atomic power plant exploded. Today, it is generally considered the worst civil nuclear accident in history. This week, in preparation for the anniversary, the Ukrainian government is hosting a three-day conference (April 18-20) in the capital Kyiv to discuss the effects of the accident, aid for its victims, and steps taken to ensure the safety of the Chornobyl facility and others like it. In addition to Ukrainian government officials, conference participants include the UN coordinator for International Cooperation on Chornobyl, Kenzo Oshima, and Zygmund Domaratzki, the deputy director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). There are also representatives from Belarus, whose population in areas across the border just north of Chornobyl also suffered. The Russian government is also represented. The UN, together with the European Union, has helped in funding last year's closure of the Chornobyl plant, and continues to aid efforts to encase the makeshift shelter erected 15 years ago around the reactor with a new, more secure one. Experts say the temporary shelter is in danger of collapsing and causing another disaster by releasing tons of nuclear waste into the atmosphere. Oshima said that as a Japanese national from the city of Hiroshima -- which was destroyed during World War II by an American atomic bomb -- he sympathized with those who had suffered as a result of the Chornobyl catastrophe. He said: "Over the past 15 years [Chornobyl victims] have endured the hardships of living in a contaminated land. In the face of an invisible danger they persevered in their efforts to return their families and communities to a state of normalcy." Oshima said many of the victims were not yet born at the time of the accident, but still face physical, psychological, environmental, and socio-economic consequences. He added that many lessons had been learned from Chornobyl -- one of the most important being the need for preparedness in case of a future similar emergency. Oshima said that much financial aid was needed to tackle the human consequences of Chornobyl and that during this 15th anniversary year, the UN would try to spotlight the accident's victims in a bid to increase international support for them. IAEA's Domaratzki praised Ukraine for shutting down Chornobyl and pledged continuing support for Ukraine in maintaining nuclear safety. "There's no question that decommissioning [of reactors] has to be done properly and there's also no question that within Ukraine there is the expertise to do it. And there's also no question that we from the international community are prepared to support Ukraine in its work." Outside Kyiv's "Ukrainian Home" conference hall, where the conference is being held, around 100 demonstrators gathered to protest the plight of people affected by the Chornobyl accident. Most of the mainly female protesters were from the town of Pripyat, which is located near the power station and was home to many of the plant's employees. Its inhabitants were evacuated following the accident and Pripyat is now a ghost town. Its former residents say they receive help from international charities in the West but little or no help from the Ukrainian government. One of the protesters, Valentyna Rebrina, belongs to the All-Ukrainian Chornobyl Group. She says that between the group's calculations and government figures, thousands of people -- including 10,000 children -- are now suffering from radiation-linked illnesses. She said that everyone living in or around Pripyat at the time of the accident is now ill. Rebrina began crying as she described the plight of her own daughter, Olena: "My daughter is 23 years old and she has hypergrowth of her thyroid gland. Can you imagine that, 23 years old and to have such illness -- and nobody pays any attention to us?" Another protester, Oleksandra Lelyk, said she has a 16-year-old son who was born healthy and only began to be ill five years after the accident. Lelyk says he now has to have two complete blood transfusions each year, and that her family receives no support for medical expenses. Lelyk said victims of the accident continue to die nearly every week: "Each day people we know are taken out for burial. We're not even shocked any more. We just ask the name of the dead person and collect money for their family." She says that although most of those dying are adults, everyone is worried about the health of their children. Protesters had presented a petition to the Ukrainian government pleading for legislation to make financial and medical help available for those affected by Chornobyl-related illnesses. The person who received the petition was Ukrainian Emergencies Minister Vasyl Durdynets, whose ministry deals with Chornobyl issues. He said he understood the feelings of the protesters: "That they (the protesters) write letters and turn to us for help, I have to say they have this right because the funds available today really are inadequate for treatment, for recuperation, and for other needs, particularly for the proper buildings needed." He said that one of the main aims of the three-day meeting was to discuss how to put into practice aid programs already sanctioned by the UN, the European Commission, and other donors. Durdynets also said the Ukrainian parliament must act to ensure funds for victims of Chornobyl. © 1995-2001 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc., All Rights Reserved. http://www.rferl.org ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 BUSH ADMINISTRATION HONORS REID PROVISION TO COMPENSATE NEVADA'S SICK NUCLEAR WORKERS [Sen. Reid Press Release] *Distribution of compensation for silicosis victims will stay with Department of Labor* April 19, 2001 WASHINGTON - NevadaSenator Harry Reidtoday praised Labor Secretary Elaine Chaoand President Bushfor honoring a commitment Congressmade to compensate workers who developed silicosis while working at the Nevada Test Site. Chao also announced today the Department of Laborwill continue to oversee the compensation program despite attempts to move it to the Department of Justice. "Congress granted compensation payments to these workers last year, and I am pleased that the president will not rollback provisions to include silicosis victims in the compensation program," Senator Reid said. "I spoke last Friday with Office of Management and BudgetDirector Mitch Danielswho assured me that silicosis victims would remain part of the program and now the Administration has lived up to that promise." Last year, Congress authorized more than $60 million for the Department of Labor to establish the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program to compensate nuclear weapons laborers for their work-related cancers. This program is critical to the thousands of men and women who worked at nuclear facilities around the country during the Cold War, including the Nevada Test Site. The compensation package would provide a $150,000 lump sum payment plus medical expenses to former nuclear industry workers affected by radiation sickness, silicosis, and berylliosis. ***************************************************************** 2 Who's eligible for program to compensate job-sickened nuclear workers April 18, 2001 With BC-OH--Sick Workers --> BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A look at who is covered under the compensation program for job-sickened nuclear workers, according to the law. Successful applicants eventually will receive $150,000 and payment of future medical bills. Amchitka Island, Alaska Workers who spent at least 250 work days digging tunnels for Amchitka's nuclear weapons tests can be among the first to qualify for benefits if they either died from or were disabled by chronic silicosis. However, the law allows President Bush to delete the tunnel miners from the eligibility list if the administration can certify by April 28 an ``insufficient basis'' to include them. Workers employed on Amchitka prior to Jan. 1, 1974, who were exposed to radiation during the Long Shot, Milrow or Cannikin underground nuclear tests can qualify if they died from or are now disabled by one of the following: bone cancer, leukemia (other than chronic lymphocytic), multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, esophagus cancer, stomach cancer, pharynx cancer, small intestine cancer, pancreas cancer, bile duct cancer, gall bladder cancer, salivary gland cancer, urinary bladder cancer, brain cancer, colon cancer, or ovary cancer. Lung and liver cancer are covered with certain exceptions. This group of radiation-injured workers will not have to wait for the Labor Department to write additional eligibility standards; those from most other radiation exposure sites will have to wait while dosages and other factors are considered. Gaseous Diffusion Plants Workers who spent at least 250 work days at the government's gaseous diffusion plants in Paducah, Ky., Piketon, Ohio, and Oak Ridge, Tenn., can qualify if, after their employment, they developed one of the following: bone cancer, leukemia (other than chronic lymphocytic), multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, esophagus cancer, stomach cancer, pharynx cancer, small intestine cancer, pancreas cancer, bile duct cancer, gall bladder cancer, salivary gland cancer, urinary bladder cancer, brain cancer, colon cancer or ovary cancer. Lung and liver cancer are covered with certain exceptions. This group of radiation-injured workers will not have to wait for the Labor Department to write additional eligibility standards; those from most other radiation exposure sites will have to wait while dosages and other factors are considered. Nevada Test Site Workers who spent at least 250 work days digging tunnels for the nuclear weapons tests can qualify if they either died from or are disabled by chronic silicosis. However, the law allows President Bush to delete the tunnel miners from the eligibility list if the administration can certify by April 28 an ``insufficient basis'' to include them. Beryllium Workers at factories that handled beryllium for Energy Department projects can qualify if they died from or were disabled by chronic beryllium disease. The government will pay to regularly screen workers for chronic beryllium disease if they have been found to have beryllium sensitivity, but will not provide the full compensation package to that group. All Energy Department Sites No matter how long they worked at an atomic weapons plant or for an Energy Department contractor, employees who died from or were disabled by a radiation-related cancer can qualify if they were not sick before beginning their work for the nuclear weapons complex; if the government rules that their cancer was sustained ``in the performance of duty''; and if the government rules that the cancer ``was at least as likely as not'' related to their work, based on radiation dose levels and other factors. The Labor Department is still working on the guidelines to be used to make those eligibility determinations. Qualifying radiation-related cancers are bone cancer, leukemia (other than chronic lymphocytic), multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, esophagus cancer, stomach cancer, pharynx cancer, small intestine cancer, pancreas cancer, bile duct cancer, gall bladder cancer, salivary gland cancer, urinary bladder cancer, brain cancer, colon cancer or ovary cancer. Lung and liver cancer are covered with certain exceptions. Cancer-stricken researchers also can qualify if they were in residence at a DOE facility for at least two years. Uranium Miners Uranium miners who have qualified for $100,000 payments under a 10-year-old Justice Department program can get an extra $50,000 plus coverage of future treatment of their radiation-connected cancer. Not Covered The compensation law does not offer federal payments to nuclear workers whose illnesses came from exposure to dangerous chemicals such as PCBs. AP-CS-04-18-01 1756EDT --> Other stories currently appearing on Ohio.com ***************************************************************** 3 Weapons Plants-List April 18, 2001 BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Energy Department's preliminary list of facilities that handled beryllium or radioactive materials for the government during the Cold War. This list includes some facilities that were managed by the Energy Department but not involved in nuclear weapons production. Exposed workers who subsequently contracted beryllium disease, silicosis or certain kinds of cancer may qualify for government compensation under a program that the Labor Department will initiate later this year. ALABAMA Southern Research Institute, Sylacauga Speed Ring Experimental &Tool Company, Culman Tennessee Valley Authority, Muscle Shoals ALASKA Amchitka Island Nuclear Explosion Site, Amchitka Island Project Chariot Site, Cape Thompson CALIFORNIA Arthur D. Little Co., San Francisco Atomics International, Canoga Park Burris Park Field Station, Kingsburg Ceradyne Inc., Santa Ana Dow Chemical Co., Walnut Creek Electro Circuits Inc., Pasadena Energy Technology Engineering Center, Santa Susana General Atomics, La Jolla General Electric Vallecitos, Pleasanton Hunter Douglas Aluminum Corp., Riverside Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research, Davis Laboratory of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, Los Angeles Laboratory of Radiobiology and Environmental Health, San Francisco Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore Sandia Laboratory, Salton Sea Base, Imperial County Sandia National Laboratories -- Livermore, Livermore Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Palo Alto Stauffer Metals Inc., Richmond University of California, Berkeley COLORADO Coors Porcelain, Golden Project Rio Blanco Nuclear Explosion Site, Rifle Project Rulison Nuclear Explosion Site, Grand Valley Rocky Flats Plant, Golden Shattuck Chemical, Denver University of Denver Research Institute, Denver CONNECTICUT American Chain and Cable Co., Bridgeport Anaconda Co., Waterbury Bridgeport Brass Co., Havens Lab., Bridgeport Combustion Engineering, Windsor Connecticut Aircraft Nuclear Engine Lab. (CANEL), Middletown Dorr Corp., Stamford Fenn Machinery Co., Hartford New England Lime Co., Canaan Seymour Specialty Wire, Seymour Sperry Products, Inc., Danbury Torrington Co., Torrington DELAWARE Allied Chemical and Dye Corp., North Claymont DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA National Bureau of Standards, Van Ness Street Naval Research Laboratory FLORIDA American Beryllium Co., Sarasota Armour Fertilizer Works, Bartow C.F. Industries, Inc., Bartow Gardinier Inc., Tampa International Minerals and Chemical Corp., Mulberry Pinellas Plant, Clearwater University of Florida, Gainesville Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corp., Nichols W.R. Grace Co., Agricultural Chemical Div., Ridgewood IDAHO Argonne National Laboratory-West, Scoville Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Scoville ILLINOIS Allied Chemical Corp., Metropolis American Machine and Metals Inc., E. Moline Argonne National Laboratory-East, Argonne Armour Research Foundation, Chicago Blockson Chemical Co., Joliet C-B Tool Products Co., Chicago Crane Co., Chicago ERA Tool and Engineering Co., Chicago Fansteel Metallurgical Corp., North Chicago Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia Granite City Steel, Granite City Great Lakes Carbon Corp., Chicago GSA 39th Street Warehouse, Chicago International Register, Chicago Kaiser Aluminum Corp., Dalton Lindsay Light and Chemical Co., W. Chicago Madison Site (Speculite), Madison Midwest Manufacturing Co., Galesbury Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago National Guard Armory, Chicago Podbeliniac Corp., Chicago Precision Extrusion Co., Bensenville Quality Hardware and Machine Co., Chicago R. Krasburg and Sons Manufacturing Co., Chicago Sciaky Brothers Inc., Chicago Swenson Evaporator Co., Harvey University of Chicago, Chicago W.E. Pratt Manufacturing Co., Joliet Wycoff Drawn Steel Co., Chicago INDIANA American Bearing Corp., Indianapolis Dana Heavy Water Plant, Dana General Electric Plant, Shelbyville Joslyn Manufacturing and Supply Co., Ft. Wayne Purdue University Van der Graaf Lab., Lafayette Washrite, Indianapolis IOWA Ames Laboratory, Ames Iowa Ordnance Plant, Burlington Titus Metals, Waterloo KANSAS Spencer Chemical Co., Jayhawks Works, Pittsburg KENTUCKY Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Paducah MARSHALL ISLANDS Eniwetok Test Site, Marshall Islands MARYLAND Armco-Rustless Iron &Steel, Baltimore W.R. Grace and Company, Curtis Bay MASSACHUSETTS American Potash &Chemical, West Hanover C.G. Sargent &Sons, Graniteville Chapman Valve, Indian Orchard Edgerton Germeshausen &Grier, Inc., Boston Fenwal Inc., Ashland Franklin Institute, Boston Heald Machine Co., Worcester La Pointe Machine and Tool Co., Hudson Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge Metals and Controls Corp., Attleboro National Research Corp., Cambridge Norton Co., Worcester Nuclear Metals Inc., Concord Reed Rolled Thread Co., Worcester Shpack Landfill, Norton Ventron Corporation, Beverly Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center, Winchester Woburn Landfill, Woburn Wyman Gordon Inc., Grayton, North Grafton MICHIGAN AC Spark Plug, Flint Baker-Perkins Co., Saginaw Carboloy Co., Detroit Extruded Metals Co., Grand Rapids General Motors, Adrian Gerity-Michigan Corp., Adrian Mitts &Merrel Co., Saginaw Oliver Corp., Battle Creek Revere Copper and Brass, Detroit Speed Ring Experimental &Tool Company, Detroit Star Cutter Corp., Farmington University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Wolverine Tube Division, Detroit MINNESOTA Elk River Reactor, Elk River MISSISSIPPI Salmon Nuclear Explosion Site, Hattiesburg MISSOURI Kansas City Plant, Kansas City Latty Avenue Properties, Hazelwood Mallinckrodt Chemical Co., Destrehan St. Plant, St. Louis Medart Co., St. Louis Roger Iron Co., Joplin Spencer Chemical Co., Kansas City St. Louis Airport Site, St. Louis Tyson Valley Powder Farm, St. Louis United Nuclear Corp., Hematite Weldon Spring Plant, Weldon Spring NEBRASKA Hallam Sodium Graphite Reactor, Hallam NEVADA Nevada Test Site, Mercury Project Faultless Nuclear Explosion Site, Central Nevada Test Site Project Shoal Nuclear Explosion Site, Fallon Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project, Yucca Mountain NEW JERSEY Aluminum Co. of America (Alcoa), Garwood American Peddinghaus Corp., Moonachle Baker and Williams Co., Newark Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill Bloomfield Tool Co., Bloomfield Bowen Lab., North Branch Callite Tungsten Co., Union City Chemical Construction Co., Linden Du Pont Deepwater Works, Deepwater International Nickel Co., Bayonne Laboratories, Bayonne J.T. Baker Chemical Co., Phillipsburg Kellex/Pierpont, Jersey City Maywood Chemical Works, Maywood Middlesex Municipal Landfill, Middlesex Middlesex Sampling Plant, Middlesex National Beryllia, Haskell New Brunswick Laboratory, New Brunswick Picatinny Arsenal, Dover Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton Rare Earths/W.R. Grace, Wayne Standard Oil Development Co. of NJ, Linden Tube Reducing Co., Wallington U.S. Pipe and Foundry, Burlington United Lead Co., Middlesex Vitro Corp. of America, West Orange Westinghouse Electric Corp., Bloomfield Wykoff Steel Co., Newark NEW MEXICO Chupadera Mesa, Chupadera Mesa Los Alamos Medical Center, Los Alamos Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Albuquerque Project Gasbuggy Nuclear Explosion Site, Farmington Project Gnome Nuclear Explosion Site, Carlsbad Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque South Albuquerque Works, Albuquerque Trinity Nuclear Explosion Site, White Sands Missile Range Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Carlsbad NEW YORK Allegheny-Ludlum Steel, Watervliet American Machine and Foundry, Brooklyn Ashland Oil, Tonawanda Baker and Williams Warehouses, New York Bethlehem Steel, Lackawanna Bliss &Laughlin Steel, Buffalo Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton Burns &Roe Inc., Maspeth Colonie Site (National Lead), Colonie Columbia University, New York City Electro Metallurgical, Niagara Falls General Astrometals, Yonkers Hooker Electrochemical, Niagara Falls International Rare Metals Refinery, Inc., Mt. Kisko Ithaca Gun Co., Ithaca Lake Ontario Ordnance Works, Niagara Falls Ledoux and Co., New York Linde Air Products, Buffalo Linde Ceramics Plant, Tonawanda New York University, New York Peek Street Facility, Schenectady Radium Chemical Co., New York Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy Sacandaga Facility, Glenville Seaway Industrial Park, Tonawanda Seneca Army Depot, Romulus Separations Process Research Unit (at Knolls Lab.), Schenectady Simonds Saw and Steel Co., Lockport Staten Island Warehouse, New York Sylvania Corning Nuclear Corp., Hicksville Sylvania Products Corp., Bayside Titanium Alloys Manufacturing, Niagara Falls Trudeau Foundation, Saranac Lake University of Rochester Medical Laboratory, Rochester Utica St. Warehouse, Buffalo West Valley Demonstration Project, West Valley NORTH CAROLINA Beryllium Metals and Chemical Corp., Bessemer City University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill OHIO Air Force Plant 36, Evandale Ajax Magnathermic Corp., Youngstown Alba Craft, Oxford Associated Aircraft Tool and Manufacturing Co., Fairfield B &T Metals, Columbus Baker Brothers, Toledo Battelle Columbus Laboratories, Columbus Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Beryllium Production Plant (Brush), Luckey Brush Beryllium Co., Elmore Brush Beryllium Co., Cleveland Brush Beryllium Co., Lorain Cincinnati Milling Machine Co., Cincinnati Clifton Products Co., Clifton Clifton Products Co., Painesville Copperweld Steel, Warren Du Pont-Grasselli Research Laboratory, Cleveland Extrusion Plant, Ashtabula Feed Materials Production Center, Fernald General Electric Company, Cincinnati/Evendale Gruen Watch, Norwood Harshaw Chemical Co., Cleveland Herring-Hall Marvin Safe Co., Hamilton Horizons Inc., Cleveland Kettering Laboratory, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Magnus Brass Co., Cincinnati McKinney Tool and Manufacturing Co., Cleveland Mitchell Steel Co., Cincinnati Monsanto Chemical Co., Dayton Mound Plant, Miamisburg Painesville Site (Diamond Magnesium Co.), Painesville Piqua Organic Moderated Reactor, Piqua Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Piketon R.W. Leblond Machine Tool Co., Cincinnati Tech-Art Inc., Milford Tocco Induction Heating Div., Cleveland Vulcan Tool Co., Dayton OKLAHOMA Kerr-McGee, Guthrie OREGON Albany Research Center, Albany Wah Chang, Albany PENNSYLVANIA Aeroprojects Inc., West Chester Aliquippa Forge, Aliquippa Aluminum Co. of America (Alcoa), New Kensington Babcock &Wilcox, Parks Township Beryllium Corp. of America, Hazleton Beryllium Corp. of America, Reading Birdsboro Steel &Foundry, Birdsboro C.H. Schnoor, Springdale Carnegie Mellon Cyclotron Facility, Saxonburg Carpenter Steel Co., Reading Chambersburg Engineering Co., Chambersburg Foote Mineral Co., East Whiteland Township Frankford Arsenal, Philadelphia Heppenstall Co., Pittsburgh Jessop Steel Co., Washington Koppers Co. Inc., Pittsburgh Landis Machine Tool Co., Waynesboro McDaniel Refractory Co., Beaver Falls Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp., Apollo Penn Salt Co., Philadelphia Philadelphia Naval Yard, Philadelphia Shippingport Atomic Power Plant, Shippingport Superior Steel Co., Carnegie U.S. Steel Co., National Tube Division, McKeesport Vitro Manufacturing, Cannonsburg Westinghouse Atomic Power Development Plant, East Pittsburgh PUERTO RICO BONUS Reactor Plant, Punta Higuera Puerto Rico Nuclear Center, Mayaguez RHODE ISLAND C.I. Hayes Inc., Cranston SOUTH CAROLINA Savannah River Site, Aiken TENNESSEE Clarksville Facility, Clarksville Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (K-25), Oak Ridge Oak Ridge Hospital, Oak Ridge Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education, Oak Ridge Oak Ridge National Laboratory (X-10), Oak Ridge Vitro Corp. of America, Chattanooga W.R. Grace, Erwin Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge TEXAS AMCOT, Forth Worth Mathieson Chemical Co., Pasadena Medina Facility, San Antonio Pantex Plant, Amarillo Sutton, Steele and Steele Co., Dallas Texas City Chemicals Inc., Texas City VIRGINIA Babcock &Wilcox Co., Lynchburg Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News University of Virginia, Charlottesville WASHINGTON Hanford, Richland Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WEST VIRGINIA Huntington Pilot Plant, Huntington WISCONSIN Allis-Chalmers Co., West Allis, Milwaukee Besley-Wells, South Beloit LaCrosse Boiling Water Reactor, LaCrosse Ladish Co., Cudahy AP-CS-04-18-01 1805EDT --> ***************************************************************** 4 INEEL finishes removing vestiges of airplane project | KTVB.COM | Idaho News, Weather &Sports APRIL 18, 2001, 11:15 AM Associated Press The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory has finished tearing out the last remaining buildings used to design a nuclear-powered airplane which never flew. Underground buildings which sheltered workers while tests on the nuclear engines took place during the late 1950s were removed. Those tests accounted for some of the biggest releases of radioactivity from the site. At the height of the Cold War, the military wanted a nuclear-powered plane that could stay aloft almost indefinitely without refueling. It was thought the plane would be used as a military command center in the event of a nuclear war. The plane never flew because the massive shielding needed to protect crews from the reactor wasn't exactly conducive to flight. President John Kennedy scrapped the project in 1961, after more than one billion dollars were spent. Mercury, lead, asbestos and radioactive contamination had to be removed from the buildings. ** ©2000, 2001, The Associated Press. ***************************************************************** 5 No evidence Kelly AFB workers exposed to toxin Amarillo Globe-News: Texas News: 04/19/01 The Associated Press SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Air Force officials say there is no evidence workers at Kelly Air Force Base were exposed to harmful levels of beryllium, a metal which can cause a potentially deadly lung disease. "At this point, there hasn't been anyone with berylliosis come forward from either Kelly or Medina Annex," Lt. Col. Kenneth Cox, an Air Force human health scientist at Brooks AFB, told a pollution cleanup board Tuesday. Berylliosis is a potentially fatal lung disease caused by breathing particles of beryllium. Concerns about the possible exposure of base workers to the metal were raised after the San Antonio Express-News obtained documents from Kelly officials that revealed the existence of a "Beryllium Room" at the base. The documents showed workers in the room made beryllium hatch covers for nuclear missiles in the late 1960s. The report prompted Rep. Charlie Gonzalez of San Antonio to submit a bill that would compensate Defense Department workers who become ill from exposure to nuclear materials. The plan is similar to the Energy Department's occupational illness program at 317 weapons sites, including the former Medina Base in San Antonio, that will compensate workers or contractors who were exposed to radioactive materials. Chuck Meshako, acting chief of environmental compliance at Kelly AFB, told the Kelly AFB Restoration Advisory Board that they've found 120 pages of records documenting use of beryllium at the base. Meshako said workplace records indicate that levels of airborne beryllium particles from that time period were well below today's standards, noting that strict safety measures were used to reduce potential exposure. But, Meshako said, "it was just kind of a preliminary search, and we don't know whether worker health surveys were done and just weren't put into the file we found." The 85-year-old facility, the oldest continuously operating installation in the Air Force, will close July 13 under a 1995 order by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. Amarillo Globe-News ***************************************************************** 6 Amendment would add DOE waste to that allowed in proposed West Texas dump Star-Telegram.Com | What Do You Want to Know? Apr. 17, 2001 at 22:51 CDT By The Associated Press AUSTIN -- An amendment approved Tuesday in the Senate Natural Resources Committee would allow the U.S. Department of Energy to ship low-level radioactive waste to a proposed dump in West Texas. Sen. Teel Bivins, R-Amarillo, pushed through the amendment to a proposal by Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, that would set up a dump in agreement with a compact involving Texas, Maine and Vermont. "The reality of this issue is that a compact waste site is not economically viable on its own," Bivins said, explaining why his amendment added the federal agency. "You've got to have a greater waste stream." Bivins' amendment calls for the federal site to be separate, at least a quarter-mile, from the compact site. "The responsible thing to do is have a compact site," Duncan said. "Members will have to make a decision whether we actually need this federal waste to make the compact work. I believe we don't. There are those who believe we do." "We entered the compact many years ago for the purpose of limiting" the amount of waste, Duncan said. He said the amendment "opens the door to not limiting it." Bivins said his proposal allows the importation of low-level radioactive waste. Duncan said the amendment would allow hazardous waste and low-level radioactive waste. Bivins' amendment specifies that the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission would decide on limits for the federal waste, taking into consideration such factors as risk to humans and the environment. Bivins said the risk from the federal waste could be no greater than the risk from the compact waste. "The problem is that compact waste in many cases is very compact and pretty highly radioactive," Bivins said. He said "a great majority of the DOE waste is dirt that is very low in radioactivity." "My goal has been simply to provide a compact waste site because that takes care of all of our problems in Texas and it honors our commitment to Maine and Vermont," Duncan said. Duncan said he had made it clear to Bivins' office that he was concerned the amendment could interfere with getting the compact approved this year. Bivins said the issue isn't new. "This has been around for two sessions." The comittee passed Duncan's bill 4-0 and Bivins' amendment 3-1, with Duncan casting the only no vote. The bill's next move would be to the full Senate. Distributed by The Associated Press (AP) DEL-IVER. © 2000 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas -- Terms and ***************************************************************** 7 Lawmakers focus on Hanford funds This story was published Wed, Apr 18, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings provided clues Tuesday on the political forces that might remold Hanford's 2002 cleanup budget figures during the next four to six months. "We're now going through (Congress') budget process where we're going to have to fight for those dollars," said Cantwell, who in addition to fellow Democrat Murray and Republican Hastings visited the Tri-Cities on Tuesday. Department of Energy and Tri-City Industrial Development Council representatives briefed Murray and Cantwell on Tuesday in Pasco on Hanford's budget woes. Hastings discussed the matter at a Pasco news conference. Cantwell and Murray argued budget cuts will lead to stalled projects and layoffs, which will make restarting and finishing those projects more expensive years later. The Bush administration has slashed DOE's nationwide and Hanford cleanup funds in its budget request to Congress for fiscal 2002. Congress traditionally takes until early fall to hammer out its appropriations for DOE. The administration wants to trim DOE's overall budget from $19.7 billion in 2001 to $19.2 billion in 2002. For Hanford, this translates to the site's budget dropping from $1.456 billion in 2001 to $1.4 billion in 2002. But the site needs $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion in 2002 to meet its legal cleanup obligations -- a $400 million to $500 million shortfall. The state is threatening to sue the federal government if those obligations are not met. Bipartisan caucuses in both chambers got the Senate and House to pass nonbinding resolutions that say DOE's nationwide cleanup budget should be $6.65 billion for 2002. But Murray noted that Vice President Dick Cheney has said President Bush will veto appropriations bills he views as too large. Three weeks ago, Hastings and seven other Republican congressional members met with Bush and Cheney, and Hastings pitched a $6.65 billion nationwide cleanup budget. Hastings came out of that meeting generally optimistic. On Tuesday, Hastings blamed the federal Office of Management and Budget for slicing DOE's cleanup budget to $5.91 billion. While DOE is legally required to request enough money to meet its cleanup obligations, the OMB -- which works for the president -- can trim those requests. Hastings blamed former President Clinton's OMB for initially underfunding Hanford tank farms program and Bush's OMB for the current budget proposal. Hastings said presidents usually don't get involved in details in individual programs in the nation's overall budget, which is $1.7 trillion for 2002. Murray is angry that OMB Director Mitch Daniels told her in mid-February that Hanford's budget would not be cut. Bush has been widely criticized while Texas' governor and as the new president for opposing increased environmental cleanup regulations and efforts in general. Recently, Bush pulled the nation out of an international effort to tackle global warming, and he supported looser standards for arsenic in drinking water. Hastings contended Bush based those stances on scientific studies, arguing DOE's slashed cleanup funds are not part of a general Bush pattern on environmental issues. A major question -- which Murray, Cantwell and Hastings could not answer Tuesday -- is if Congress' sought-after extra $700 million in cleanup money will be enough for 2002. Hanford's potential increased share alone is $400 million to $500 million. And DOE's sites in other states also seek hundreds of millions of extra dollars. Another question is where the extra $700 million would come from; what other federal programs would cough up money for DOE's cleanup efforts? Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 8 Nuke workers will have to wait April 19, 2001 By Benjamin Grove LAS VEGAS SUN WASHINGTON -- As expected, Nevada Test Site workers who became ill after testing nuclear weapons for the federal government will be compensated later than originally promised, Labor Department Secretary Elaine Chao confirmed Wednesday. The Labor Department will manage the compensation program, which aims to give up to $150,000, plus coverage for future medical costs, to ailing nuclear bomb workers and surviving family members around the nation. Congress approved the plan last year, budgeting $60 million for start-up. But the Labor Department balked at the timeline. Congress intended to launch the program by July 31. "The one thing people have realized is how unlikely the July 31 deadline was from the very beginning, and I hope we can reach agreement on a more reasonable time, while making benefits fully retroactive (to July 31)," Chao said. "The first down payment we need to make with affected workers and their families is to tell them the truth." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 9 Y-12 Earth Day event scheduled Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:09 p.m. on Thursday, April 19, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff A clean environment helps make a safe environment, according to BWXT Y-12 officials. To spread this message, the company, which manages the Y-12 National Security Complex, will conduct an Earth Day awareness activity for employees of the weapons production facility on Friday. Earth Day, which actually falls on Sunday, is a movement that started in 1970 to raise awareness about the environment. The Y-12 event, to be held from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., will include pollution-prevention bingo and miniature golf games along with programs on environmental sampling and aluminum can recycling. Employees will sign a card as they enter the Earth Day display area that commits them to "making Y-12 a cleaner, safer environment," officials said. The commitment cards, which will be embedded with wildflower seeds, will be planted in a visible area at the facility as a reminder of the employees' commitment. Participants in the Y-12 program include the Tennessee Department of Forestry, the Tennessee Department of Transportation, the Anderson County Solid Waste Management office, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Knoxville Recycling Coalition and Earthsafe &Wellness Technologies Inc. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 10 Thompson: Labor to run program for sick workers Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:09 p.m. on Thursday, April 19, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., says he has received official word that the Department of Labor will administer a compensation plan for sick nuclear workers. "I am pleased with this decision," Thompson said in a press statement. "Those of us who worked so hard to create this program believe that the Department of Labor is the best agency to run it. They have experience in running worker compensation programs, and they have a network of local offices across the country where workers will be able to apply for benefits." The official word on the compensation program comes about a week after Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced she had changed her mind and was willing to administer the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. Before that, Chao was trying to get the Department of Justice to be put in charge of the program because it handles a small program giving one-time payments to uranium miners, millers and people who lived downwind of nuclear test sites. However, several elected officials, including Thompson and U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, opposed having the Department of Justice run the program. Congress gave the Department of Labor a $60.4 million appropriation to set up a compensation program for job-sickened nuclear workers because it was viewed as the government's expert on occupational illness and compensation programs. Though this latest problem with the compensation plan appears to be resolved, several sick workers are still dissatisfied with whom the deal covers. The compensation plan will offer free medical care and $150,000 to sick workers who suffer from cancers or lung diseases caused by exposure to radiation, silica or beryllium. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 11 Officials celebrate three DOE projects Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:09 p.m. on Thursday, April 19, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff It was a busy morning on the Oak Ridge Reservation. A groundbreaking ceremony for a new waste disposal facility and dedication ceremonies for two other Department of Energy-related projects were held this morning. U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, was in town to attend the events. The Environmental Management Waste Management Facility will be a permitted disposal facility that DOE officials say will be beneficial to cleanup of the Oak Ridge Reservation. The groundbreaking ceremony for the facility was held at its construction site in Bear Creek Valley. When the first phase of work is completed, officials said, the facility will be around 10 stories high and the size of 58 football fields. The facility will dispose of low-level radioactive waste and mixed waste generated during cleanup of the reservation. Dedication ceremonies were held at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for a new refueling station and a new high-temperature superconductor research laboratory. The refueling station, the first of its kind in Tennessee, will provide ethanol-85 fuel to vehicles in the ORNL fleet. ORNL currently has 32 "fuel flexible" vehicles that can be powered by gasoline, E-85 or any mixture of the two. They are used for business purposes. E-85 is a mixture composed of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. E-85 is made from plant-based materials such as corn, grasses and wood chips. The E-85 used at ORNL is manufactured and supplied by A.E. Staley Manufacturing Co. of Loudon. The new E-85 tank at the ORNL station holds 8,000 gallons and will replace a 500-gallon tank that has been in use since 1999. The superconductor research laboratory is part of the Accelerated Coated Conductor Initiative, a collaborative effort between ORNL and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The initiative will help accelerate the development of power cables, motors, generators and transformers using new "second-generation" wire technology. Superconductors have virtually no resistance to electric current, offering the possibility of developing new electric power equipment with more energy efficiency and higher capacity than today's systems, ORNL officials said. Superconducting technology may help reduce the future need for new electric power generation during the next three decades. The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 12 List follows trail of political cash The Oak Ridger Online - Opinion - Your Views: 04/19/01 To The Oak Ridger: Your readers may be interested in the following public information about political contributions, which I obtained from the Web site of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) at http://www.opensecrets.org. CRP in turn gets its data from Federal Election Commission (FEC) databases. Note that the maximum political contribution an individual can donate to a candidate per election (primaries and general elections are considered separate elections) is $1,000; however, the rules are different for "soft money" from Political Action Committees (PACs). According to the CRP, during the 2000 election cycle four out of the 10 largest political contributions from the 37830 ZIP code (Oak Ridge) were from Bechtel: + On March 7, 2000, Bechtel in Oak Ridge gave $15,000 to the "soft money" account of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). + On March 29, 2000, Bechtel National Inc. (BNI) in Oak Ridge gave $4,000 of soft money to the 2000 Republican House/Senate Dinner Trust. + On the same date, BNI gave $2,000 in soft money to the NRSC and $2,000 of soft money to the National Republican Congressional Committee. During the 1999-2000 election cycle: + Battelle Memorial Institute gave $3,000 to Sen. Bill Frist and $1,500 to Rep. Bart Gordon. + Gordon also got a $1,000 contribution from John Brock, listed as a Bechtel Jacobs employee. + The Battelle Good Government Committee (a PAC based in Ohio) gave $5,000 in soft money to the RNC/Republican National State Elections Committee. + Rep. Jim Duncan's contributions from PACs include $1,000 from Bechtel, $1,000 from CH2M Hill, $1,000 from Parsons, and $1,750 from Lockheed Martin. + Rep. Zach Wamp, who does not accept PAC contributions, received the maximum $1,000 individual contribution from Bill Madia, head of Oak Ridge National Lab (run by UT-Battelle) and another $1,000 from Audrey Madia, who I believe is Bill Madia's wife. + Wamp also got $1,000 on March 4, 1999, and another $1,000 on Dec. 30, 1999 from Darrell Akins of Akins Public Strategies, which is being proposed as the subcontractor to the law firm Oak Ridge is planning to pay to study how to get more remuneration (i.e., money) from DOE. + Three employees of the Ridenour, Ridenour &Fox law firm, Bruce Fox, Roger Ridenour, and Ronald Ridenour, are listed as having each contributed the strange amount of $666 to Wamp on June 24, 1999. + Steve Buckley, who I believe is or was head of Bechtel Jacobs reindustrialization, is listed as making four contributions to Wamp during the 1999-2000 cycle: $250 on June 25, 1999, $200 on June 7, 2000, $250 on June 27, 2000, and $500 on Oct. 10, 2000. + Other Bechtel Jacobs large contributors (defined by the FEC as >$200) to Wamp's 1999-2000 campaign included Joe Nemec (company president), Andy Phelps (manager), John Schlatter (head PR guy), and Paul Clay (manager). + Frank Valenti (listed as retired), Jean Valenti (listed as homemaker), Mark Valenti (with Engineering Inc.), and Susana Valenti (with Navarro Research &Engineering) together gave Wamp a total of $5,250 during the 1999-2000 election cycle. For more info, visit the CRP Web site yourself! Pamela Gillis Watson Roswell, Ga. (former Oak Ridge resident) All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 13 Chao: Compensation Program Delayed Las Vegas SUN April 18, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - Labor Secretary Elaine Chao confirmed that her agency will oversee a new compensation program for sick Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers but said Wednesday it will not meet a congressional deadline to accept applications. Chao had wanted to shift control of the program to the Justice Department, which she said was better suited to oversee it. She changed her mind amid criticism from lawmakers upset by the job Justice has done running a compensation program for former uranium miners and people who lived downwind of nuclear test blasts. "I think this is a win for workers," Chao said in an interview. "This is a priority. We want to take care of the workers, we want to make sure justice is done." Chao also said her staff cannot meet a July 31 deadline to begin accepting applications and she wants Congress to grant an extension. She said she did not yet know how much more time her agency would need to get ready, but that medical benefits would be made retroactive to July 31. The program approved last year by Congress offers lifetime medical care and $150,000 to ailing workers who were employed in the nuclear weapons complex, at factories that worked for the Energy Department, or at nuclear test sites in Alaska and Nevada. The program is limited to those with cancer associated with radiation, silicosis or chronic beryllium disease. Eligibility rules for some workers have been set by law, and the Labor Department must work out qualification guidelines for the rest. Other workers may have contracted cancer because of exposure to PCBs or other dangerous chemicals, but they will not be eligible to apply for the federal benefits. State worker compensation programs are the only recourse for those workers. About 600,000 people worked in the weapons complex during the Cold War. The Energy Department initially estimated 3,000 to 4,000 might be eligible for the new compensation program, but the accuracy of that estimate is unclear because of poor recordkeeping over the decades. Congress has appropriated $60.4 million to initiate the program. The Energy Department preliminarily identified 317 sites in 37 states where exposed workers might qualify for benefits. A toll-free number set up by that department to field requests has logged more than 19,000 calls. The information line is 1-877-447-9756. On the Net: Energy Department site: http://tis.eh.doe.gov/advocacy/index.html All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 14 Livermore NIF gets $69 million Valley Times *Published Thursday, April 19, 2001, in the Contra Costa Newspapers * WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Energy has released $69 million previously withheld from the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Last year, Congress required a report certifying the laser project had overcome serious managerial problems before granting the project its full allotment from this year's budget. That report was delivered last week by John Gordon, the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration director. The report addressed cost and time schedule considerations but did not include a required five-year budget for the nation's stockpile stewardship program. According to the report, those figures will be available after President Bush completes a strategic review of national security-related activities.* -- Times staff ***************************************************************** 15 Scientists take aim at low-yield nukes - 4/18/2001 - ENN.com Wednesday, April 18, 2001 By United Press International A Washington-based scientific organization said on Monday that a new type of Earth-burrowing nuclear weapon under study by the United States government would inflict massive civilian causalities and undercut global efforts to quell the proliferation of nuclear arms. Less deadly than Cold War-era bombs, the so-called "mini-nukes" would, in theory, penetrate hundreds of feet below the Earth's surface, destroying bunkers packed, for example, with chemical or biological weapons while leaving civilian populations above it unscathed. Scientists at the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy's nuclear laboratories are spearheading the research. Proponents, including a small number of politicians, planners and government scientists, argue that, because of their limited collateral damage and precise guidance systems, mini-nukes would be ideal for countering rogue states that deploy chemical weapons against American troops. But a study released by the Federation of American Scientists, an organization overseen by more than half of the current American Nobel Laureates, took issue with those claims, arguing that low-yield nuclear bombs are a technological impossibility. "No Earth-burrowing missile can penetrate deep enough into the Earth to contain an explosion with a nuclear yield even as small as 1 percent of the Hiroshima weapon," wrote Princeton University physicist Robert Nelson, the author of the FAS study. "The explosion simply blows out a massive crater of radioactive dirt, which rains down on the local region with especially intense and deadly fallout." The study stated that a 1-kiloton explosion, less than one tenth of the Hiroshima bomb, would have to burrow 450 feet to avoid civilian impacts. It noted that when conducting nuclear explosions at the U.S. government's Nevada Test Site, scientists must bury a 5-kiloton explosive 650 feet below ground. Even then, the study reported, there are many documented cases where the local environment is exposed to radioactivity. The report said that burrowing to a depth that is safe for civilians would destroy a warhead's ability to function. Apart from technological considerations, some experts said the weapon would obfuscate distinctions between conventional and nuclear weapons and make their eventual use more likely. "This type of weapon is much more problematic than proponents would have us believe," said Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "If you start saying that the most powerful country in world needs nuclear weapons to deter chemical and biological attacks, then you have to ask why everyone doesn't need them? You swing open the door to global proliferation of nuclear weapons." While some conventional weapons can destroy bunkers, the Washington Post quoted an unnamed former Pentagon official last year saying that the military needs a weapon capable of destroying a bunker buried beneath 300 meters of granite without hurting the surrounding population. Sen. Wayne Allard, (R-Colo.) and Sen. John Warner, (R-Va.), inserted a provision into the 2001 defense authorization bill that required the DOD and DOE to study the burrowing bombs but did not allocate any funds for their development. The results of those studies are due before July 1, 2001. "Sen. Allard wants to look at ways to address the growing problem of so-called harden targets such as bunkers," Sean Conway, spokesman for Sen. Allard, told United Press International. "He will review the FAS study but he is waiting on the DOE and DOD report to make his final decision. He didn't want to take any options off the table until it was studied." Some of the government's leading nuclear scientists have called for scaled-down nuclear weapons. "Some targets require the energy of a nuclear weapon for their destruction," wrote Stephen M. Younger, associate laboratory director for nuclear weapons at the DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory in June 2000. "Precision targeting can greatly reduce the nuclear yield required to destroy such targets. Only a relatively few targets require high nuclear yields. Advantages of lower yields include reduced collateral damage, arms control advantages to the United States and the possibility that such weapons could be maintained with higher confidence and at lower cost than our current nuclear arsenal." "The United States will undoubtedly require a new nuclear weapon because it is realized that the yields of the weapons left over from the Cold War are too high for addressing the deterrence requirements of a multi-polar, widely proliferated world," Paul Robinson, director of Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M., said in a speech on March 28, 2000. "Without rectifying that situation, we would end up being self-deterred." A spokesperson in his office told UPI that Robinson could not comment by press time because he had not read the FAS study. The Department of Energy also did not comment by press time. Speaking of the report, Bob Sherman, director of nuclear security projects at FAS, told UPI "we hope the information will give a useful perspective to claims of nuclear labs that they need to resume nuclear testing in order to get small, very strong warheads which they claim would do useful things we can't do now." "I think the low-yield systems are a solution in search of a problem," said John Pike, a military expert and the director of GlobalSecurity.org in Alexandria, Va. "There is no real evidence that potential adversaries are constructing these deep underground bunkers and if there were, there is no particular reason to believe we could locate them with sufficient precision to destroy them." Copyright 2001, United Press International All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2001 Environmental News Network Inc. ***************************************************************** 16 Text of Memo to the DOL Team from Secretary of Energy Elaine Chao - Decision on Nuclear Workers Program From: Secretary Elaine Chao To: Subject: DECISION ON NUCLEAR WORKERS PROGRAM Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 18:44:36 -0400 To the DOL Team: One of the more important issues I have dealt with since coming here as Secretary has been the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, which I first had described to me by the unwieldly acronym "EEOICPA." After a long process of trying to find the best way -- and the best place --to administer this program, I have told the White House today that I would like to keep the program here at the Department of Labor. My first and only concern from the beginning has been to take care of the workers who were harmed as a result of their loyal service to the country. I am very grateful to Shelby Hallmark and the excellent staff at the Office of Workers Compensation Programs for alerting me to the difficulties of meeting the statutory deadlines for this program, and the longer-term problems of claims adjudication. We explored a number of options for relocating and restructuring the program, while the OWCP staff has continued to prepare for the possibility of implementing the program here. I have since decided that it is in the workers' best interest to end these speculations and affirmatively keep the program at the Labor Department. We've got a fair amount of relevant expertise, and if I have learned anything about this agency since I came here, it is that we've also got the heart to do the work. This issue has had personal and emotional resonance for me, because I live in a state where a large number of affected workers and their families are located. These are people I see when I go home to Kentucky, and I have always wanted to make sure that whatever final decision we made, it would be the right one for the workers -- not on the basis of politics or outside interests or turf battles. Finally, I want to stress that I have the utmost respect for the career professionals at OWCP -- and I hope no one would construe my efforts or my comments as suggesting anything to the contrary. This is one hard-working, experienced staff -- and I am confident they are up to the challenge. Thanks for everything! ***************************************************************** 17 It Was Almost Nuclear War , Apr. 19, 2001. Page 9 By Pavel Felgenhauer The Cuban Missile Crisis — the moment the world came closest to all-out nuclear war — happened in 1962, but it still seems to be a story worth telling. Last week, a group of veterans from both sides of the crisis gathered in Moscow for a special screening of Kevin Costner's film about the incident, "Thirteen Days." The group included former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, John F. Kennedy's former political adviser Theodore Sorensen and several former Soviet political and military chiefs. The Russian veterans genuinely liked the film despite inevitable Hollywood blunders such as a Russian nuclear-missile base in Cuba that has the atmosphere and appearance of a modern-day Moscow vegetable market during a weekend shopping rush hour with hundreds of men and vehicles moving erratically in all directions while liquid rocket fuel is pumped into the missiles, and a Russian SAM missile knocking a U.S. U-2 spy plane out of the sky by hitting it directly in the wing, when in fact the SAM's warhead should explode tens of meters off target. The film also showed the U-2 performing missile-avoiding maneuvers that this high-altitude, extremely low-speed plane cannot do. And so on, and so on. To the Soviet veterans, though, the film remakes a world in which they were young and Russia was a superpower truly feared by everyone. Also, the main drama it depicts is not between East and West. The battle is between the White House and the hawks in the Pentagon who believe that Kennedy is too weak and are pushing him to bomb Cuba, invade the island, destroy Fidel Castro's regime and the Russian bases. The way they figure it, if the invasion of Cuba provokes a world war, that's not so bad since it will exterminate the Soviet menace once and for all. McNamara stated after the film last week: "At the time, we did not know there were tactical nukes on Cuba. The CIA did not know there were any operational Soviet nukes or missiles on the island." Sorensen asked the audience: "What if Kennedy took the wrong advice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Secretary of State Dean Acheson and attacked Cuba? The Soviets could have used the missiles before they were destroyed and we would be not be here today." The Russian veterans paint a somewhat different picture. General Mikhail Titov (chief of the operational department of the command staff of the Russian armed forces in Cuba in 1962) told me: "Kennedy saved our lives. Our command on Cuba did not have the authority to use nukes even if the Americans attacked. As the missile crisis developed, the Kremlin even took away the right to use tactical nuclear weapons. If attacked, we would have begun to phone Moscow. When and if concrete instructions would have been issued, the air offensive would have wiped out all our missiles. I'm sure we would not have managed to hit the United States with a single nuke. The 40,000-strong Russian force on the island and the 200,000 badly trained, badly armed Cuban militia would have been decimated by air attacks. When the U.S. Army and Marine divisions landed, they would have met only token opposition. We would have been wiped out and we knew it. Our supreme command was in fact planning to hide in the Cuban mountains and maybe launch some guerrilla attacks." It seems the Joint Chiefs and Acheson were right to some extent. The United States could have successfully invaded Cuba in 1962. America might have even won a nuclear world war: The enemy would have been devastated by thousands of nukes, while the Soviets would have hardly managed more than 10 to 20 nuclear hits of U.S. territory. In the 1970s and 1980s this option was gone: Russia had too many warheads and delivery systems. But of course, today the world is in fact dominated by the United States. Kennedy and McNamara are vindicated, their "soft" approach was right. In the end, the Soviet Union collapsed without a battle. In 1962 I was scared, since I was listening to the BBC's World Service coverage. But most Russians were not because the Soviet propaganda machine downplayed the crisis. It was a miracle that the Kremlin leadership did not destroy itself and Russia in 1962, but they did it later. The Kremlin that rules its subjects with the help of vicious state propaganda is Russia's worst enemy: It has misled the nation into failure before and today seems to be gearing up to do so again. *Pavel Felgenhauer is an independent, Moscow-base defense analyst.* ***************************************************************** 18 Israel, end silence on weapons, expert says Researcher and author Avner Cohen tells Lehigh University audience country needs to talk about nuclear capabilities. *04/19/01* By BILL TATTERSALL Of The Morning Call Israeli officials need to admit that the country has nuclear weapon capabilities and eliminate the censorship they have imposed on the country for half a century, an expert on the subject said Wednesday. Avner Cohen, senior research fellow at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., and at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, spoke on "Nuclear Weapons and Democracy: The Israeli Case" to a packed room at Lehigh University. His talk focused on Israel rising to become a nuclear power, and he did not mention the fighting going on between Israelis and Palestinians over a corner of the Gaza Strip. The fighting, which started in September, has included mortar attacks and bombings. In his 1998 book "Israel and the Bomb," Cohen broke the code of silence surrounding Israel's nuclear weapons capacity. Since the establishment of the state in 1948, Israeli officials have refused to acknowledge that the country had nuclear weapons. Cohen's book provided the first detailed historical account of Israel's development of nuclear power. "When Israel first developed nuclear weapons, it was in their best interest to keep it quiet," Cohen said. "But now, it is time they take responsibility and open this black box." Cohen has written on issues related to nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and nuclear deterrence and morality for more than 10 years. In 1987-88, he was a research fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where he developed the notion of "opaque" nuclear proliferation, which is when everyone knows a country has the weapons, but the country never admits it. Cohen feels that by never publicly admitting the country has nuclear weapons and censoring anyone from talking about it, Israeli officials are hurting the country's democracy. "When they first started the program to create these weapons, they were a young nation and secrecy was the wise decision," he said. "But now that Israel is over 50 years old, they can handle coming forward and admitting it. "In all nations that developed nuclear weapons, secrecy was a part of the project that ended with the successful completion of the project -- everywhere except Israel." And because officials have never admitted to having these weapons, there is no way for the government, and people, to keep a check on the powers that control them. "Not only do they have to admit they have them, they have to create an agency that will regulate them," Cohen said. His talk was sponsored by the Philip and Muriel Berman Center for Jewish Studies, Lehigh's international relations department and the Science, Technology and Society Program. © 2001 THE MORNING CALL Inc. ***************************************************************** 19 Test site workers to benefit [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Thursday, April 19, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Labor chief: Those who contracted lung disease will get money, care By TONY BATT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced Wednesday her department will distribute health benefits to nuclear weapons workers including those who contracted lung disease while working during the Cold War at the Nevada Test Site. But she said her staff cannot meet a July 31 deadline to begin accepting applications, so she is requesting an extension from Congress. She said she does not know how much more time the department will need but benefits would be made retroactive to July 31. The announcement ends uncertainty over the operation of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. The program calls for $150,000 and lifetime medical care to workers at weapons factories who became ill after being exposed to toxics and radiation in the years the government was rushing to make and test nuclear weapons. Last month, Chao expressed doubt the Labor Department could handle the job. She recommended to the White House the program be run by the Justice Department, which administers a smaller compensation program for uranium miners and downwind victims of radiation. As recently as last week, Chao was seeking support for several changes in the program, including delaying payments for six months and excluding victims of the lung disease silicosis. Possibly hundreds of engineers and laborers contracted silicosis after working in tunnels at the test site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he called Mitch Daniels, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, on Friday after he learned that silicosis victims might not be eligible. "He assured me he would call me back within an hour if they were not included. He proved to be a man of his word," Reid said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Apr-19-Thu-2001/news/15908084.html ***************************************************************** 20 Uranium levels in some Fallon wells unhealthy [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Thursday, April 19, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN REVIEW-JOURNAL As state and federal investigators probed the possible causes of the Fallon leukemia cluster, speculation turned Wednesday to a previously unpublicized report that found potentially harmful levels of uranium in some local wells. Federal geologists tested 73 wells for radioactivity and in 31 they detected naturally occurring uranium at levels higher than considered healthy, according to a 1994 study described Wednesday by the Reno Gazette-Journal. Investigators do not know whether uranium-tainted water was consumed by the 12 children who were diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia after living in Fallon, about 60 miles east of Reno, in recent years, state health officials said Wednesday. Six of the children's families lived in homes served by wells rather than the municipal water system, which meets the federal standard for uranium in drinking water. Like all federal drinking water limits, the Environmental Protection Agency's 30 parts per billion uranium standard does not apply to private household wells. The U.S. Geological Survey detected a median uranium level of 40 parts per billion in the 73 wells, with the level in one reaching 320 parts per billion. The leukemia patients' families' wells generally were drilled no deeper than 100 feet below the ground, meaning they probably tapped into the same shallow and intermediate aquifers serving the wells analyzed by the geological survey in 1994, state and federal officials said Wednesday. The state health division has sampled the families' wells as part of the ongoing investigation into the disease cluster. Officials are awaiting the results of tests for contaminants including uranium and other radioactive elements, state epidemiologist Dr. Randall Todd said Wednesday. Geological survey officials this week shared their 1994 findings with officials from the state health division and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who were meeting in Fallon and Carson City. Todd was guarded about the possibility that uranium might have played a role in the illnesses in Fallon, where children have been diagnosed with leukemia at nearly 42 times the expected rate. The uranium detected by the geological survey has been present as long as people have lived in the Fallon area, Todd and federal geologists said. Health officials have only in recent years detected elevated cancer levels there, leading them to look most closely at recently introduced environmental contaminants. "If it's natural and it's always been there, then why a cluster now and not 10 years ago?" Todd said. Geological survey officials were not invited to testify at recent state and U.S. Senate hearings into the clusters that have been conducted in Carson City and Fallon. They were invited about a month ago to share information at this week's state and federal meetings. To not exacerbate the already rampant and often baseless speculation about the cluster's possible causes, the geological survey did not try to publicize its report, which had been public for seven years, Nevada district chief Terry Rees said Wednesday. "We were dealing with the folks in the agencies that we thought were the appropriate people to be dealing with it," Rees said. Radiation has been linked to leukemia, although Todd said he does not yet know whether the blood cancer has been tied to uranium at the levels found in Fallon. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Apr-19-Thu-2001/news/15908054.html ***************************************************************** 21 Rocky Flats and clandistine Lowry Dumping [Westword Online -- westword.com | news] When former state patrolman Bill Wilson arrived for his interview with the Environmental Protection Agency in 1988, nearly thirty years had elapsed since he'd cruised the lonesome roads that traversed the Lowry Bombing Range. A weird Cold War paranoia lay across that land in the early 1960s. Scarred dirt roads angled into the brush, leading to military hangars, landing strips, munition storage depots and underground missile silos that housed enough nuclear weapons to blow the world to smithereens. Time and time again, as he patrolled the dusty roads, Wilson had spotted tanker trucks stopping alongside the ditches, creek beds, even the silos themselves. And there, among the broken glass and brittle grasses, the truckers had dumped their loads. According to state and federal records, Wilson tipped off the Colorado Department of Health to the clandestine dumping in 1977, but the department did little to either confirm or deny his allegations. Now, eleven years later, the EPA was in the midst of a multimillion-dollar investigation of the Lowry Landfill, a Superfund site located at the edge of the old bombing range, and the agency wanted to hear what Wilson had to say. Wilson told the EPA that he was most concerned about the milk-truck-style vehicles that had been used to dump liquid wastes. "During a conversation with one truck driver who was dumping a milky-colored waste material adjacent to Highway 30, he made inquiry as to the type of waste being dumped. The truck driver told him the material was harmless wastewater and that they steamcleaned the trucks after unloading," one EPA official wrote of Wilson's interview. "The truck driver also said they had been hired by Dow to haul the liquids from Rocky Flats. It seemed strange to him that harmless wastewater would be hauled all the way to Aurora from Rocky Flats, however, he had no real authority in this area so all he was able to do was to issue a PUC warning." A prolific letter writer, Wilson relayed his concerns to presidents and congressmen alike. Sometimes he would talk to the media, sometimes he wouldn't. In a recent note to *Westword*, he instructed the newspaper not to use his name at all. But Wilson's letters are strewn through numerous court documents and administrative files, and what he had to say is a matter of public record. Alternately describing himself as a "federal-military retired American citizen," a "notary public agent" or simply an "agent," Wilson seemed eccentric and often alluded to larger conspiracies. But he never altered the basic facts of his story. And truth was, scientists working for both the EPA and the private companies that had dumped at Lowry *were* encountering high levels of radiation at the site. Wilson's recollection suggested one way the radiation might have gotten there. "Since we have found elevated radiation levels at Lowry, I am concerned that he may be right," the EPA's John Haggard confided in a memo to his supervisor, Vera Moritz. "The connection to Dow is also disturbing, since they operated the Flats from the fifties and sixties." Haggard, who now works for General Electric in upstate New York, thought the EPA should conduct a "general investigation" of the area and appended this cryptic note to his memo: "Some Lowry citizens believe we already have info. in our possession that would implicate a federal facility and believe we are covering up something. While this is certainly not true, if we find a problem much later in the area it certainly will not look good." Pages: 1 ©2001 All rights reserved. | ***************************************************************** 22 Workers share stories about health woes [SCNmedia (www.SuburbanChicagoNews.com)] Uranium, beryllium: Hundreds turn out for informational meeting at Herald News HERALD NEWS STAFF JOLIET — Larry Kelman of Naperville knew for the 45 years he worked at the University of Chicago and later Argonne National Laboratory that the dust swirling around him and other employees probably was not a good thing. But he didn't know it would cost him the use of his lungs. Barbara Bush of Joliet used to tell her husband, Earl, to shake out the gray granules that gathered in his pants cuffs while working with uranium as a laboratory technician at Blockson Chemical's Building 55 during the Cold War. She now wonders if laundering the rest of that dust from his work clothes contributed to the brain and bladder cancers she developed a few years ago. Earl's doctors already have told him his Parkinson's disease can be traced back to his work at Blockson some 45 years ago. Those were just a few of the stories told by some of the more than 200 people who attended a program on a special federal compensation package Wednesday at The Herald News. The program, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Morris, focused on compensation for the people who worked with, or came in contact with, uranium and beryllium, during Cold War nuclear testing and processing. Compensation program Congress last year approved the compensation package, which would provide $150,000 to each affected worker or their surviving family members, as well as free medical services for the workers' government work-related illness. Former President Bill Clinton expedited the program with an executive order in December, which means the program must be up and running by July 31. That's not a lot of time, said Kate Kimpan, senior policy adviser for the Department of Energy's Worker Advocacy Department. And there is much to do. Clinton's executive order gives the primary responsibility of the program to the U.S. Department of Labor, Kimpan said. But the new secretary is asking for that duty to be reassigned, she added, and no one is sure how that will affect the July 31 deadline. What they do know, Kimpan told the group, is that the compensation will cover some of the former employees of the former Blockson/Olin company near Joliet; the William E. Pratt Co., formerly at Cass and Henderson in Joliet; and some 2,300 former workers at the University of Chicago and later Argonne. World War II work Some workers at Blockson/Olin and Pratt could have been exposed to uranium. The Pratt company ground uranium rods for nuclear fuel for the government from 1943 to 1946. The 2,300 former workers at the University of Chicago/Argonne could have been exposed to beryllium dust while producing casings for atomic weapons in the 1940s. Beryllium is safe when the strong, lightweight non-radioactive material is part of a golf club or otherwise whole, Kimpan said. But when it's ground to produce the desired thickness, dangerous dust can scatter. Site B was the area where Kelman worked at Argonne, the area where there was beryllium dust all over. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic took out part of a lung years ago, he said, and his own doctors misdiagnosed his malady at first, saying it was not work-related. Eight years of legal battles followed. Now, Kelman receives workers compensation from the state for his beryllium-related lung problems. Kimpan said he also would be in line to receive the $150,000 in the compensation package, as well as the medical benefits under that plan, or keep his current medical plan. Kelman said he also was concerned about the people who didn't work in Site B every day, but those like postal carriers who were exposed to the dust regularly as they made deliveries there. Kimpan said the compensation package also covers contractors who may have come in contact with the dangerous materials under the government program, whether they were uranium or beryllium. Bush's story While working at Blockson's Building 55 for years, Earl Bush came in contact with uranium every day. The government noted the company made cleaners and fertilizers out of phosphorus. Another byproduct of phosphorus is uranium, and from 1952 to 1962, Blockson, later bought by the Olin Corp., extracted some 2 million pounds of uranium for government nuclear weapons testing. The focus was on speed, not safety, energy experts say now. So while Bush wore a thin white mask to help keep from breathing the dust, he wore no gloves or any other protective gear. And though workers had to have strict government clearance to enter Building 55, Bush may have brought some of his work home. "I remember he used to come home with this stuff in his pants cuffs," said his daughter, Cheryl Leone of Joliet. "My mother used to say, 'Shake off your pants before you come in.'" Though a doctor has said Bush's Parkinson's disease can be traced to the uranium exposure, so far that malady isn't on the list of ailments the government usually associates with radiation exposure. While Bush may or may not be covered under the compensation package, Kimpan said his wife is out of luck. The package covers only the affected workers, not family members or people who lived near the plants. That would be up to Congress to add on someday, she added. Thousands affected But for now, Kimpan suggested all people who believe they qualify call the DOE worker advocacy hot line at (877) 447-9756. It's too early to file a claim, since the forms and regulations aren't even ready yet, she said. But calling the number and leaving information will get workers or their families into a national database so they can be contacted when compensation processing is ready. Kimpan also recommended the callers be patient. In the few months since the compensation package was announced, more than 19,000 people nationwide already have called the hot line to get in the database. A study commissioned by Clinton several years ago found that there were some 10,000 workers nationwide at more than 200 companies who could have been exposed to uranium, beryllium or silica for private government contracts during the Cold War. The issue came to light last fall when USA Today did a three-part series after nearly a year of investigation. Since that time, The Herald News has followed the issue from the revelation of the exposed workers to the passage and processing of the workers compensation package. Those stories, as well as pictures and other information can be found on The Herald News Web site: [WEB SITE]heraldnews/focus/. Kimpan, along with Weller and U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Hinsdale, whose 13th District includes Argonne, told the people at The Herald News that they or their loved ones won the Cold War for the United States. By doing so, Weller and Biggert said, the health of the workers was put in jeopardy. "I know that no level of benefits can compensate for what you have sacrificed in the service of our country," Biggert said. "But we must try. ... We owe you." The DOE continues to update information on the compensation package on its Web site: www.eh.doe.gov/benefits. 04/19/01 ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************