***************************************************************** 06/19/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.153 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Ombudsman might have jurisdiction 2 Handicapping Reactors by the Numbers 3 Duratek, Inc. Awarded Subcontract for Waste Management Services 4 Chemical site fears trigger health study 5 Watchdog holds history of Maine Yankee 6 Four More Nuclear Plants to Generate Electricity 7 UN: IAEA Board reviews record of safeguards implementation 8 Greenpeace urges EU not to provide China with funds for nuclear 9 Poll reveals more positive attitude towards nuclear reactor in Finland 10 USEC security deal fortifies ties - 11 National Research Council Committee on Health Risks from 12 EU to increase KEDO contribution to $87.5 million 13 Report: Nuclear cleanup delayed by state, federal squabble 14 'NL site to be cleared of waste' 15 Radioactive waste site opposed 16 Turkey Point power plant doesn't harm environment, U.S. report says 17 Guards at Millstone narrowly ratify a new three-year contract 18 Duke Files License Renewal Applications for Four More Reactors 19 Far away from the fallout 20 Wicklow hosts Chernobyl Children 21 Review may bring nuclear revival NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Military spending bill may provide funds for miners 2 A pain in the Pyongyang 3 Physicist Sues Over Book Delay 4 Department of Energy's NEPA Announcements 5 British-French-Chinese nuclear freeze proposed 6 Contaminated solution poses DOE dilemma 7 DOE chief says cleanup review is appropriate 8 Navy removes radioactive unit 9 DOE respect? It's not only about the money - 10 US Rejects NKorea Compensation 11 Sick nuclear workers seek redress 12 Report highlights 'bodysnatching' shame 13 U.S. inspects radiation devices 14 DISARMING A NUCLEAR MENACE 15 Beryllium testimony thrown out 16 Antinuclear runners begin relay 17 Bush stunned by U.S. nuclear arsenal size 18 Zheleznogorsk Combine admits radioactive discharge 19 Ex-Nuclear Official Sues Over Book 20 Clinton appointee to help with sick nuclear workers program 21 Corpses used in N-testing: research 22 Mobile labs may help eliminate radiation **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Ombudsman might have jurisdiction [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Tuesday, June 19, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal EPA official seeks to probe complaints By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL Environmental Protection Agency National Ombudsman Bob Martin launched a preliminary inquiry Monday to see if he has jurisdiction to probe complaints by Nevada officials and citizens regarding the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. At a meeting in Las Vegas arranged by Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., Martin met with state Nuclear Projects Agency chief Bob Loux, representatives from Clark County, several environmental groups and a physicist from UNLV's Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies. Berkley said she asked Martin to review whether radiation safety standards were set properly for the proposed repository. The volcanic rock ridge, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is where the Department of Energy wants to entomb 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste, most of it metal-encased spent fuel pellets from commercial power reactors. This month, the EPA set a final standard of 15 millirems per year of allowable radiation exposure from "all pathways," which includes air, soil, water and the food chain. A separate 4 millirem per year limit for radiation has been established for groundwater. A millirem is one-thousandth of a rem, the measurement of a radiation dose. The standards are more stringent than a 25 millirem guideline suggested by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the point where the standards apply, 11 miles from Yucca Mountain, is closer than the 12-mile buffer zone that project scientists were analyzing. Nevertheless, the standards drew criticism from both proponents and opponents of the project, including Berkley. "What I'm considering is opening a national ombudsman investigation," Martin said. "I think the case is broader than the standards." He said he has about two dozen pending investigations into hazardous waste matters, most of which were brought to his attention by members of Congress. Some who attended Monday's meeting, including Clark County representative Dennis Bechtel, asked Martin to investigate why the EPA's standard covers only the 10,000-year regulatory period for the site and does not extend for hundreds of thousands of years when peak doses would be expected. Harry Reid Center physicist Dennis Weber said Yucca Mountain and the Nevada Test Site share the same regional aquifer, one that is threatened by massive amounts of radioactive contamination stemming from hundreds of underground nuclear weapons tests. The test site's problem and potential releases from a Yucca Mountain repository should be studied in tandem, yet, he said, "All they care about is something that might happen in 10,000 years at Yucca Mountain." Loux said he wanted to know why, in his opinion, the Department of Energy has been allowed to stray from the intent of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in basing potential releases from a repository on the ability of the mountain and engineered barriers to contain radioactive materials. "It's clear to us that in the late 1980s and early 1990s the site should have been disqualified," Loux said. Martin noted that if he has jurisdiction over an issue, such as the Yucca Mountain Project, he can seek documents, reopen decision records, and make nonbinding recommendations to the EPA, of which about 80 percent of the time the agency agrees to follow. Martin said he might be able to probe Yucca Mountain complaints because the mountain has been assigned a hazardous waste identification number. Yucca Mountain Project spokesman Allen Benson said the identification number stems from petroleum products used at the site. "It's not anything nuclear. It's normal industrial material." ***************************************************************** 2 Handicapping Reactors by the Numbers June 19, 2001 By MATTHEW L. WALD Keith Meyers/The New York Times Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania was the site of the worst nuclear accident in the United States. WASHINGTON, June 18 — To provide more electricity and less carbon emission, the Bush administration has revived talk of nuclear power, with top officials discussing the possibility of hundreds of new reactors. But it has been nearly 30 years since the last plant was ordered in the United States, and whatever policy makers say, ending that drought will largely depend on three numbers, industry experts argue: $5 natural gas; $1,000 capital expenses; and storing 77,000 tons of radioactive waste. And there is substantial doubt that those numbers are realistic. The last item, waste storage, is getting new attention as the Energy Department tries to determine whether Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles from Las Vegas, is suitable for a long-term repository. And the change of power in the Senate brings a fierce Yucca opponent, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, to the position of deputy majority leader. But whether Yucca can be built and accept 77,000 tons of waste — the amount it is supposed to accept in coming years — is not the only prerequisite for the industry to start again. "Yucca is a necessary, but insufficient, condition," said David Morris, a Minneapolis electricity expert who does not favor nuclear power. He and others, including people who want new reactors, say the industry needs a licensing system that will not subject reactors to the last-minute problems that increased costs on the current batch. But most of all, they say, the industry needs plants that are far cheaper to build than even the current optimistic estimates suggest. A permanent increase in the price of natural gas would also be nice, along with a consensus that the other competing fuel, coal, is too dangerous for the global climate. For the nuclear industry, the problem most under its control is the reactor's price. The people who want to sell reactors do not yet have an acceptable new design on the market but say they can develop one to compete with natural gas. The Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade association, says that reactors would have to sell for no more than $1,000 for each kilowatt of generating capacity — an industry measure. (A kilowatt is the amount required to keep 10 bulbs of 100 watts each lighted; a kilowatt-hour, the typical unit on a homeowner's bill, would keep those bulbs lighted an hour.) That $1,000 is substantially more expensive than natural gas plants, which make up about 90 percent of the power plants built the last five years and sell for $500 or $600 for a kilowatt of capacity. But reactors are less costly to run because uranium is cheap, while a million B.T.U.'s of gas — enough to generate about 170 kilowatt-hours in the most efficient plant — will sell for $4 to $5 over the next few years, the nuclear industry says. In briefings for Wall Street analysts, the Nuclear Energy Institute has said that reactors at $1,000 a kilowatt produce electricity more cheaply than do gas plants when gas hits $5 for a million B.T.U.'s; Westinghouse Electric, which hopes to sell new reactors, says the figure is $4. Not counting some recent sharp spikes in California, gas has been in the $4 range lately, double what it was two years ago, and has sometimes surpassed $5. But some people doubt whether gas will stay that high for long. Among them is William T. McCormick Jr., chairman and chief executive of CMS Energy, which operates the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan and runs a system of natural gas pipeline and distribution companies. It owns the largest terminal in North America for unloading ships carrying liquefied natural gas from abroad, in Lake Charles, La., which it is doubling in size, and is also trying to build terminals in Mexico. If the price stays at $5, "on a long- term basis, you can find an awful lot of gas," Mr. McCormick said in an interview. And if drillers find a lot of gas in North America, he added, the price will come back down. And he said imported liquefied natural gas could be found for little over $3 for a million B.T.U.'s. Indonesia, Australia and countries in the Persian Gulf region and on the west coast of Africa will all drill, liquefy and export for that price, he said, and their supplies are vast. And is it possible to build a reactor for $1,000 a kilowatt? Some of the 103 now in service cost more than triple that amount — even more in today's dollars. But proponents are counting on more efficient building techniques and lower interest costs. Westinghouse Electric spent much of the 1990's designing a reactor that would be easier to build and operate. It wanted fewer moving parts and more parts that could be assembled at a factory instead of in the field, cutting construction costs and reducing quality questions. The plant, called the AP-600 — for advanced passive, 600 megawatts — would have cost $1,400 to $1,500 a kilowatt, the company said, but the real number is uncertain because none were ordered. Similarly, General Electric designed the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor, which it said would sell for $1,400 to $1,600, "depending on the host country," but nobody in the United States ordered one either. Now Westinghouse is redesigning the AP-600 as a 1,000-megawatt plant. That increase in capacity, it says, will raise capital costs only 10 percent, bringing the capital cost per kilowatt down to $1,000. But that cost, Westinghouse says, can be brought that low only after builders get practice putting up plants efficiently. "We're quite comfortable in competing with both gas and coal," said Charles W. Pryor, chief executive of Westinghouse Electric — now a subsidiary of BNFL, the former British Nuclear Fuels. The plants would largely be built in factories to cut costs and quality problems, Mr. Pryor said, and legal questions would be settled before construction started. In fact, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has already revised its licensing process, although no one has tested it. There is some belief that not all the energy eggs should go in the natural gas basket. The Georgia Public Service Commission, for example, regularly requires utility companies to ask for bids from outside companies to provide new plants. This year the commission demanded that Georgia Power, the biggest utility in the state, mention nuclear and coal in its requests for proposals. One idea, said Daniel R. Cearfoss, a staff engineer for the commission, is fuel diversity. The commission would like to know how much extra it would cost to hedge the state's energy bets by building plants that would use uranium or coal. But Mr. Cearfoss said that he doubted anyone would propose a nuclear plant, and that even if someone did, the bid would be hard to evaluate because there was no modern track record for construction costs. Georgia, however, is often cited as a possible ice-breaker for nuclear power; its twin-unit Vogle plant has space for four reactors, and the betting among experts is that if another reactor is ordered, it will go next to an existing one. The Southern Company owns Georgia Power, along with Alabama Power, Mississippi Power and Gulf Power, and operates six reactors. Laura Gillig, a spokeswoman for Southern, said that even though nuclear power "is going through some sort of renaissance, it still needs that public support." "And," she added, "it does need to be competitive." The New York Times Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 3 Duratek, Inc. Awarded Subcontract for Waste Management Services At Rocky Flats Tuesday June 19, 9:14 am Eastern Time COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 19, 2001--Duratek, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRTK - news), today announced that it and its joint venture partner, Los Alamos Technical Associates (LATA), were recently awarded one of three significant waste management subcontracts by Kaiser Hill Company LLC, prime contractor for cleanup and closure of the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS). RFETS was a former major U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) weapons manufacturing complex located near Denver, Colorado. Duratek is the majority partner of the joint venture. This subcontract provides for Duratek and LATA to be competitively awarded task orders for waste management projects at RFETS over the next 4 years. Potential value of work under the three subcontracts is over $67 million. Robert Prince, President and CEO said, ``Rocky Flats is a major closure site for the U.S. Department of Energy with large quantities of radioactive and hazardous waste that must be dispositioned over the next five years. Duratek has been providing support to Rocky Flats since 1995, and we are extremely proud to be selected by Kaiser Hill to continue to increase our responsibilities in supporting the site closure.'' Work to be performed by Duratek and LATA under this subcontract will include treatment and disposition of radioactive solids and liquid waste and characterization, tracking, packaging, transportation, and disposal of legacy and newly generated radioactive wastes. Duratek currently has approximately 40 employees at RFETS providing waste management services. Duratek implements technologies and provides services which protect people from radiation and the environment from radioactive waste. LATA is a multidisciplinary engineering firm focused on providing nuclear and environmental technical expertise to the DOE. Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute ``forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of Section 21E(i)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by these statements. Such factors include the following: the Company's ability to manage its commercial waste processing operations, including obtaining commercial waste processing contracts and processing waste under such contracts in a timely and cost-effective manner; the Company's ability to implement new waste processing strategies in a timely and cost-effective manner; the Company's ability to control its commercial waste processing operating costs; the timing and award of contracts by the U.S. Department of Energy for the cleanup of waste sites administered by it; the Company's ability to integrate acquired companies; and the acceptance and implementation of the Company's waste treatment technologies in the government and commercial sectors. All forward-looking statements are also expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements included in the Company's SEC filings, including its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and its annual report on Form 10-K. www.duratekinc.com ntact: Duratek Investor Relations Diane R. Brown, 410/312-5100 or Exec. V.P. Robert F. Shawver, 410/312-5100 Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 4 Chemical site fears trigger health study [St. Petersburg Times Online: News of the Tampa Bay area] A federal agency will assess effects of the Stauffer Chemical plant. It may include students who attended a nearby school. Community activists and some officials think this is potentially radioactive slag spilling from the banks of the Stauffer Chemical Superfund site in Tarpon Springs. By KATHERINE GAZELLA © St. Petersburg Times, published June 19, 2001 TARPON SPRINGS -- Prodded by concerns from residents and a government watchdog, a federal agency is planning a wide-reaching study of the effects the former Stauffer Chemical plant had on the environment and, perhaps, on the health of students, workers and neighbors. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry announced Monday it will produce a new public health assessment by next summer that discusses the impact of the phosphorus-processing plant, which is now a Superfund site. The report could include health studies of the former students who attended Gulfside Elementary School from 1978 to 1981, the year the plant closed, and former Stauffer workers. The agency will decide whether to do the health study after determining how many of the workers and students can be identified and found, said Dr. Henry Falk, assistant administrator of the agency. "There is concern here in the community," Falk said. "What I do hope is that the effort over the next year will address some of those concerns." The announcement that the agency will study air and water, and possibly the people who may have been exposed to contaminants, validates concerns expressed by residents and the agency's watchdog. "I'm disappointed that it's going to take a year, but I'm very pleased that they're going to do a thorough look," said Mary Mosley, a longtime activist from Tarpon Springs. The agency's decision to do a new health assessment came after a scathing report released in January by a watchdog for the agency. Ombudsman Ronnie Wilson said in a 196-page report that public health officials previously did not consider all the information available and downplayed the risks posed by Stauffer. "I'm very pleased," Wilson said Monday. "It's far-reaching, it's progressive, it's systematic." Rep. Mike Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs, who had requested the ombudsman's participation, said Monday he is pleased about the agency's plan but wishes it would not take a year to complete. A health study on students and former workers is one step closer to happening, but it is not a sure thing. First, agency officials will have to determine whether such studies would be feasible, Falk said. Officials think there are 2,567 former Stauffer employees, perhaps 2,000 of whom might still be alive, and 3,000 people who attended Gulfside Elementary from 1978 to 1981. There is no set number of people needed for the studies, Falk said, but the agency needs to find a large percentage for the results to be statistically valid. Former students and workers can contact PerStephanie Thompson toll free at the agency, 1-888-422-8737. Marilyn Satinoff's two sons attended the school during that time, and she has taught at Gulfside since 1981. The Palm Harbor resident hopes the agency decides to test former students and staff members. "They're both married, and they both want to have kids. I'm concerned," Satinoff, 54, said of her sons. "I'm worried about my health, too." Stauffer Management Co. president Brian Spiller said that health studies are unnecessary and that he doubts the agency will find enough people to make one worthwhile. He said he doesn't think there are any long-term health effects on students or workers, and he pointed out that 80 percent of Stauffer workers were employed there for a year or less. "You now have another year that these people are concerned," he said. Spiller said he was "disappointed but not surprised" that the agency plans to study the issues related to Stauffer. The agency also plans to examine whether asbestos used at the plant affected the surrounding community. The agency will work with the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate what kind of waste was buried in drums on the Stauffer site. In a bow to residents' requests, the agency will review radiation exposure and will determine whether additional radiation monitoring is needed to address concerns about slag, a rock-like byproduct of the production of elemental phosphorus. Along with being dumped on Stauffer's property, slag was used in construction of nearby roads, driveways and some home foundations. The agency also will look at: Air monitoring data to find out if students and residents were affected by air emissions from the plant. Whether residential wells could be affected by contaminants. Surface water, sediment and fish sampling data to determine the impact of contaminants dumped into Meyer's Cove on the Anclote River. Whether military maneuvers and munitions manufacturing ever took place at the site. Stauffer management has said this did not occur. Whether sinkholes could result in the contamination of drinking water. Concern over sinkholes was a major reason that the EPA last year withdrew its cleanup plan and announced further studies. Whether uranium extraction or recovery was ever conducted at the site. EPA, Stauffer management and the Department of Energy have said there is no evidence that this happened. Copyright 2001St. Petersburg Times.All rights reserved. [ ] ***************************************************************** 5 Watchdog holds history of Maine Yankee The record of Maine's experience in the nuclear age now rests in a barn --> Sunday, June 17, 2001 COLUMN: Bill Nemitz Copyright © 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. EDGECOMB — The reading glasses sit in a small pile in Ray Shadis' cluttered home office, some usable, some too beat up to see through anymore. Shadis buys them cheap at a liquidation store because he's always misplacing them and because, after more than three decades of anti-nuclear activism, his day isn't complete if he doesn't pore over an obscure document or two. Or two million. "I have a strong feeling for history," Shadis said Friday when asked why he'd lay claim to a roomful of documents chronicling, beyond minutia, the rise and fall of the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant. Then, with his trademark wry grin, he added, "And I know how quickly history changes." Few people noticed in 1999 when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that it was going completely electronic in its record-keeping and would no longer send materials to the public document rooms maintained near nuclear plants throughout the country. Nor did most Mainers seem to care when the NRC told the Wiscasset Public Library, home of the public records for the now defunct Maine Yankee, that it could dispose of the piles of printed paper and mountains of microfiche as it saw fit. But Shadis noticed. Earlier this month, under pressure from the library to get this stuff out of here, he and a handful of other veterans from Maine's nuclear wars pulled up in a caravan of three pickups and a van. Forty-five backbreaking minutes later, they drove off with a rapidly fading chapter in Maine history. "This, taken as a whole, is Maine's experience in the nuclear age," Shadis said. "It keeps speaking to us about the conditions of the plant, the mind-set of the operators, the corporate culture, the relations with the community. All of that is part and parcel of this thing." And therein lies the problem. Now that Friends of the Coast Opposing Nuclear Pollution, led by Shadis, is the proud owner of the Maine Yankee archives, it has no place to put them. At the moment, the 20 boxes of papers, some carbon copies on onionskin, and three large cabinets of microfiche with headings like "General Electric Type SBM Control Switches Defective Cam Followers, March 28, 1980" sit in a barn owned by Roger Sherman, 88. A friend of Friends of the Coast and a onetime Central Maine Power Co. worker, Sherman is concerned at this point only about mice. "They'll get into anything," he warned Shadis during a visit to the barn on Friday. Ideally, Shadis envisions a room at a Maine college or university where the records will be permanently accessible to the public. In addition to their historic value, he said, they could still prove useful, should any problems arise with the Maine Yankee site – or if nuclear power someday returns to Maine and folks want to know what happened the first time around. But first, someone has to go through it all: five statewide referenda – three to close the plant and two on nuclear waste. Countless inspections – some notorious, some obscure. Endless problems – the cracked pipes, the mysteriously cut wires, the faulty valves . . . Shadis will start with the thousands of microfiches inside what's been marked "Ray's Drawer." It's the one he dropped during the move, spilling the clear plastic cards all over the place. But hey, he's got plenty of eyeglasses. And while he's still on the road many days a month attending this hearing or that meeting (these days, he's a member of the NRC's Initial Implementation Evaluation Panel), Shadis somehow will find the time to catalog how Maine Yankee came . . . and went. High atop the file cabinets sits a microfiche reading machine. It prints only on silver paper – which these days is hard to come by. But when was this ever easy? "It's not the best," Shadis said, patting the old contraption. "But it's a start." Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at: bnemitz@pressherald.com Copyright© Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 Four More Nuclear Plants to Generate Electricity [Xinhua News Agency] Story Filed: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 3:50 AM EST BEIJING, Jun 19, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- General Manager of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) Li Dingfan said Tuesday that the four nuclear power plants which are under construction will start their commercial operation in four years. At the Fourth China-EU Energy Cooperation Conference which started Monday in Beijing, Li said the second and third phases of The Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), China's first self-designed and constructed NPP, are scheduled to be put into commercial use between 2002 and 2003. The Ling'ao NPP project in Guangdong Province will start to be commercially operated from 2002 to 2003 and the Tianwan NPP project in Jiangsu from 2004 to 2005, Li said. The second phase of the Qinshan NPP has given Chinese experts treasured experience in designing and constructing nuclear power plants, he said. Meanwhile, the CNNC has cultivated a group of experts and engineers specializing in nuclear power research. China hopes to greatly develop nuclear energy for meeting an increasing power demand in the east and south coastal provinces which are economically developed but lack natural resources. However, the installed generating capacity of nuclear power in 2000 only accounts for 0.7 percent of the country's total installed generating capacity of electricity. Copyright 2001 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY ***************************************************************** 7 UN: IAEA Board reviews record of safeguards implementation [M2 Communications Ltd.] Story Filed: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 4:24 AM EST Jun 19, 2001 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- Energy Agency (IAEA), meeting in Vienna on 11-14 June, reviewed the implementation of IAEA safeguards last year. In 2000, the IAEA concluded that in the 140 States (plus in Taiwan, China) which have safeguards agreements in force, nuclear material and other items placed under safeguards remained in peaceful nuclear activities or were otherwise adequately accounted for. This conclusion is based on the evaluation of all information acquired in implementing safeguards agreements and of other information available to the Agency, in particular, for the 70 States with significant nuclear activities (plus Taiwan, China). In the course of that evaluation, the Agency found no indication of diversion of nuclear material placed under safeguards or of misuse of facilities, equipment or non-nuclear material placed under safeguards. In 2000, for seven States, each of which has a comprehensive safeguards agreement and an additional protocol in force or being provisionally applied, the Agency concluded that all nuclear material in those States had been placed under safeguards and remained in peaceful nuclear activities or was otherwise adequately accounted for. This conclusion is based on the evaluation of all information acquired in implementing safeguards agreements and additional protocols and of all other information available to the Agency for each of the above States. In the course of that evaluation, the Agency found no indication of diversion of nuclear material placed under safeguards or of the presence of undeclared nuclear material or activities in these States. For the 12 other States that have a comprehensive safeguards agreement and an additional protocol in force, the Agency's evaluations had not yet reached the stage where such a conclusion could be drawn. Democratic People's Republic of Korea The Agency is still unable to verify the accuracy and completeness of the initial report of nuclear material made by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and is, therefore, unable to conclude that there has been no diversion of nuclear material in that State. In November 2000, the Agency explained in more detail its generic requirements for the verification of the accuracy and completeness of the DPRK's initial report. During the year, the Agency was permitted by the DPRK to identify some of the documents that needed to be preserved by the DPRK for this verification. The DPRK remains in non-compliance with its safeguards agreement. Although the safeguards agreement between the DPRK and the Agency remains binding and in force, the Agency is able to implement only some of the required safeguards measures in the State. The Agency has, however, been able to monitor the "freeze" on the DPRK's graphite moderated reactors and related facilities, as requested by the United Nations Security Council and as foreseen in the "Agreed Framework" of October 1994 between the United States and the DPRK. Iraq From 1991 to 1998, the Agency's safeguards obligations in Iraq were implemented under United Nations Security Council resolution 687 and related resolutions. However, since December 1998, the Agency has not been in a position to implement its mandate under those resolutions and, therefore, still cannot provide any assurance that Iraq is in compliance with its obligations under those resolutions. Given the requirements of its safeguards system, and pursuant to its safeguards agreement with Iraq, the Agency was, however, able to conduct a physical inventory verification of the nuclear material under safeguards and located at the Tuwaitha storage facility in January 2000. Agency inspectors were able to verify the presence of the nuclear material in question. Strengthening Safeguards In 2000, the Agency continued to strengthen the effectiveness and improve the efficiency of the safeguards system. Work has focused on six major areas: (a) Agency access to, and evaluation of, substantially more information than previously available to the Agency about a State's nuclear and nuclear-related activities; (b) increased Agency inspector access to locations in a State; (c) advances in safeguards technology and verification procedures; (d) increased cooperation with State and regional systems of accounting for and control of nuclear material; (e) safeguards training; and (f) integrated safeguards. To effectively process and utilize the information being submitted by States and collected by the Agency, the computerized Protocol Data Information System was enhanced, new software was introduced to organize open source information, and a commercial satellite imagery database of nuclear sites was established. The State evaluation process was further strengthened by formalizing State evaluation groups, and by expanding the physical model and developing guidelines for its use. To ensure that complementary access is implemented consistently and objectively, internal guidelines for conducting it were developed and are now being implemented on a provisional basis. Unattended monitoring systems for spent fuel transfers were tested with positive results at storage facilities in three Member States. By the end of 2000, 18 surveillance systems were installed and operating in the remote monitoring mode in seven Member States. Short-notice random inspections were being implemented at five fuel fabrication facilities in two Member States. The safeguards training curriculum was further enhanced with the addition of new courses on complementary access, application of satellite imagery, proliferation indicators, and safeguards information and security requirements. In 2000, the continued development of integrated safeguards was a high priority within the Agency. Guidelines were prepared that define the conditions to be met by a State and activities to be performed by the Agency that are considered adequate for drawing a conclusion on the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in a State -- a prerequisite to implementing integrated safeguards in the State. These guidelines are in provisional use. During the year, integrated safeguards approaches were prepared for three generic facility types: light water reactors without mixed oxide fuel, research reactors, and spent fuel storage facilities. Implementation-related aspects of integrated safeguards further elaborated were safeguards criteria for facility-type approaches, the conditions for conducting effective unannounced inspections, and the procedures for random selection of facilities for inspection. In addition, the first State-level integrated safeguards approach for a Member State with an additional protocol in force was prepared for Australia for provisional implementation in 2001. Safeguards Statistics As of 31 December 2000, safeguards agreements with 140 States (and with Taiwan, China) were in force. However, 54 non-nuclear-weapon States party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) had not yet either concluded or brought into force a safeguards agreement with the Agency pursuant to the Treaty. During the year, the Agency carried out safeguards inspections in the 70 States with significant nuclear activities (and in Taiwan, China), the majority of which were inspected pursuant to comprehensive safeguards agreements. Four of the States inspected have INFCIRC/66-type safeguards agreements covering specified nuclear or non-nuclear material, facilities and equipment. Some inspections took place in the five nuclear-weapon States pursuant to their voluntary offer of safeguards agreements with the Agency. By the end of 2000, additional protocols with 57 States had been approved by the Board. They cover 51 non-nuclear-weapon States that have comprehensive safeguards agreements in force or awaiting ratification, one State with an INFCIRC/66-type safeguards agreement, and five nuclear-weapon States, each of which has a voluntary-offer safeguards agreement with the Agency. Of the protocols approved, 18 were in force. In Ghana, the additional protocol was being applied provisionally, pending its entry into force. Overall progress on the conclusion and entry into force of safeguards agreements and additional protocols remains disappointingly slow. In the course of the year, only three new safeguards agreements were concluded, no new safeguards agreement entered into force, and only 11 States had additional protocols approved by the Board. As of 31 December 2000, there were 902 facilities and other locations under Agency safeguards. A total of 2,467 inspections were performed at 584 facilities, representing 10,264 person-days of inspection effort in the field. In 2000, safeguards expenditure from the regular budget was $70.6 million. In addition, Member States contributed extrabudgetary funds of $10.3 million. These extrabudgetary funds were largely used for equipment development and procurement. The continuing shortage in regular budget funds and reliance on voluntary contributions have been, and continue to be, of great concern in spite of a series of measures instituted to increase management efficiency. However, any benefits derived from these measures are small compared to the unfunded resources required to maintain credible safeguards, which is thus becoming increasingly difficult, and to continue the progress made in strengthening the Agency's safeguards system. M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com. Copyright 1994-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD Copyright © 2001, M2 Communications Ltd., all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Greenpeace urges EU not to provide China with funds for nuclear power devt [AFX News - Asia] Story Filed: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 6:11 AM EST BEIJING, Jun 19, 2001 (AFX-Asia via COMTEX) -- Environmental protection body Greenpeace said it is urging the European Union not to lend China money to develop its nuclear power industry. Greenpeace said it had obtained confidential EU documents which prepare the ground for large-scale nuclear cooperation between China and the EU, including the construction of nuclear power plants and fuel reprocessing. It said the agreement could lead the EU to lend hundreds of millions of dollars to China for the construction of nuclear reactors under changes which could be made to the 1977 Euratom Treaty. Greenpeace said the treaty currently allows loans for the promotion of nuclear projects inside the EU and Eastern Europe, but that the treaty could be expanded to include China with the backing of all EU members. EU Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said in Beijing yesterday that China and the EU were exploring the possibility of launching formal talks for a cooperation agreement between China and European atomic energy organisation Euratom for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. De Palacio said it was too early to say when official negotiations might begin, but that any agreement would be based on research and development on issues such as nuclear waste management, security and combustion systems. Speaking after talks with senior Chinese officials including Premier Zhu Rongji, she said discussions were still at an early stage and that talk of loans to China was premature. Greenpeace International spokesman Tobias Muenchmeyer said any agreement with China would be inappropriate. "While nuclear power is dying out in Europe because it is too dangerous, uneconomic and leaves a massive radioactive waste legacy, de Palacio is trying to promote the European nuclear industry with EU funds," he said. The Greenpeace statement said no new nuclear reactor had been ordered in an EU country since 1991. China, which is faced with a rapidly rising demand for energy, aims to increase the percentage of power produced by nuclear reactors to 3 pct by 2006 from just 1 pct currently. It has two active nuclear power plants and four others under construction with help from French, Russian and Canadian companies. bur/nma/jv Copyright 2001. AFX News Ltd. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 Poll reveals more positive attitude towards nuclear reactor in Finland [M2 Communications Ltd.] Story Filed: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 10:31 AM EST Jun 19, 2001 (NORDIC BUSINESS REPORT via COMTEX) -- A poll commissioned by the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat concerning the construction of a fifth nuclear power plant reveals a slightly more positive response to the reactor. Just under half of those questioned, 49%, were against building any more power stations, while 47% said that they were in favour to some degree. A year ago the balance was 52%-43% against further nuclear plants. The survey asked respondents to state whether they supported the venture, supported it to some extent, opposed it to some extent or opposed the idea outright. The research was carried out by Suomen Gallup in the first week of June, and 2,000 individuals were questioned in telephone interviews. Copyright 1998-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD Copyright © 2001, M2 Communications Ltd., all rights res ***************************************************************** 10 USEC security deal fortifies ties - The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Tuesday, June 19, 2001 The new agreement between USEC and the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant clarifies when security officers can use firearms. By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 A new agreement with USEC Inc. clarifying when security officers can use firearms has eased strained union-management relations at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, said union President John Driskill. "We see all this as a positive change in our relationship with USEC, and we hope it bodes well in the last few months preceding discussions about a new contract," he said. Driskill said he expressed those feelings to USEC President and Chief Executive Officer William "Nick" Timbers during Timbers' visit to Paducah last month celebrating the plant's upgrade to stand-alone status. The five-year contract with Security Police and Fire Professionals of America Local 111 is up for renewal March 1, 2002. The local has 36 members. Driskill credited the U.S. Enrichment Corp. with meeting the union "in the middle" to reach the revised agreement, which went into effect Monday. It defines when officers are allowed to be armed, such as when patrolling the plant perimeter fence. Individual patrol officers may be armed, as may one of two officers manning a post. In recent years, Driskill criticized the company for what he saw as the erosion of officers' firearms use and arrest powers, leaving them and the uranium-enrichment plant vulnerable, in his view. "The agreement is designed to limit the possibility of that happening," he said. "We think it's a good agreement. It will not only safeguard us, but safeguard the plant." USEC also agreed to allow the security force to upgrade firearms this summer, which has further improved union-management rapport, Driskill said. The union also will resume joint training with outside law enforcement. A year ago, Driskill criticized USEC for plans to eliminate some jobs in the security force amid cost-cutting layoffs plantwide. Since then, two officers have left the company and two others have been promoted to management, but four officers have been hired to fill those spots, he said. "This is concrete proof that USEC is wanting to keep us around and that makes us feel a lot better about our jobs," Driskill said. "I think things are looking better now than probably they have in the last 12 years." USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said the company is "always pleased" at being able to work with employees to find mutually beneficial solutions. "These changes in our security approach are an excellent example of that kind of teamwork," she said. "Security is one of our most important responsibilities and we continue to look for ways to improve the way we protect our people, materials and property." ***************************************************************** 11 National Research Council Committee on Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR VII, Phase 2) Meeting Agenda, July 18, 2001 ITS Paul Maser 2 1 2001-06-19T20:54:00Z 2001-06-19T20:54:00Z 1 98 564 National Academy of Sciences 4 1 692 9.4402 6 pt 6 pt 0 NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON HEALTH RISKS FROM EXPOSURE TO LOW LEVELS OF IONIZING RADIATION (BEIR VII, Phase 2) AGENDA National Academy of Sciences 2101 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC Information-gathering session Times are approximate National Academy of Sciences building boardroom Wednesday, July 18 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM Sharon Dunwoody  Ph.D.  Challenges in the Communication of Scientific Uncertainties Presentation, questions, and discussion 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM Break 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM Suresh Moolgavkar  Ph.D. Biology-based models Presentation, questions, and discussion ***************************************************************** 12 EU to increase KEDO contribution to $87.5 million welcome to Korea Herald!!_National http://www.koreaherald.com The European Union (EU) plans to provide about $87.5 million by 2005 for an international project planning to build nuclear reactors in North Korea, a member of the European Parliament said yesterday. The EU has contributed a total of $75 million to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) since it joined the consortium, led by the United States, South Korea and Japan, in 1997. Glyn Ford, a North Korea expert in the parliament, said the EU would play a bigger role in the provision of reactors to the North, which he said is crucial to regional peace and security in Northeast Asia. Ford unveiled the EU plan at a seminar in Seoul on "Change on the Korean Peninsula: the Relevance of Europe." Ford said the EU would continue to support the KEDO project, though the consortium suffers from financial problems and construction delays. "But with past, current and future delays, it will be a surprise if the first light-rater reactors are completed before 2010 and if the total cost is not at least double the initial esitmate of $4.5 billion," he said. The reactor project, however, warrants such international efforts, he said, as it will prevent North Korea from facing the crisis of collapse and trying to restart its suspended nuclear programs. "$9 billion is a small price to pay to avoid the global economic environmental and humanitarian tragedy that could otherwise result," he said. Ford visited Pyongyang in April 1999 to discuss exchanges between the European Parliament and the North's Supreme People's Assembly. (jjhwang@koreaherald.co.kr By Hwang Jang-jin Staff reporter 2001.06.20 (C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights ***************************************************************** 13 Report: Nuclear cleanup delayed by state, federal squabble By Shannon Mccaffrey, Associated Press, 6/18/2001 17:55 WASHINGTON (AP) A feud between New York State and the federal government over who will take long-term responsibility for the West Valley nuclear facility has delayed cleanup of the site, according to a new government report. That delay could end up boosting the cleanup costs by hundreds of millions of dollars, said the report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Because the Energy Department and the state ''appear unable to reach an agreement on their future responsibilities,'' Congress should amend the West Valley Act to clarify what their roles are, the report said. The crux of the disagreement is whether the Energy Department should be required to monitor and maintain the 220-acre site, some 30 miles southeast of Buffalo, once the high-level nuclear waste is removed. The state believes the federal government has an obligation to take care of long-term monitoring at the contaminated site. The Energy Department maintains that the state should take control of the land once the nuclear facility is decommissioned and says the West Valley Demonstration Project Act ''does not require a continuous long-term presence by DOE.'' DOE Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Carolyn Huntoon wrote on April 13 that the department would bear at least partial responsibility for any waste left behind at West Valley. But critics say the department has been reluctant to outline more specifically what that pledge means. ''We need some type of written agreement as to what they will do in the long term for these facilities,'' said Paul Piciulo, program director for the West Valley Demonstration Project. The GAO report also faulted the nonexistent cleanup standards for the site and uncertainty about where its nuclear waste will go. Both questions could drive up the cost of the project and push back its completion date, the report said. After 20 months of talks, federal energy officials in January declared an impasse in negotiations with the state over how to continue with the billion-dollar West Valley cleanup. The DOE has absorbed 90 percent of the cost of the first phase of the cleanup and the state 10 percent. That involved turning 600,000 gallons of highly radioactive liquid nuclear waste into a more stable glass-like solid. That substance is currently being stored at West Valley in 285 drums. Between 1966 and 1972, the private Nuclear Fuel Services reprocessed nuclear fuel rods at West Valley, the country's first commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Left behind were the liquid waste, as well as several buildings and stored low-level radioactive material. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed the West Valley Demonstration Project Act, making the state and federal governments partners in the cleanup. A train bearing used nuclear fuel assemblies is expected to depart West Valle for Idaho this summer, a milestone in the slow-moving cleanup. While the GAO report called for possible congressional intervention, local political leaders are hopeful it will not come to that. Republican Rep. Amo Houghton, whose district in the Southern Tier is home to West Valley, has been encouraging state and federal officials to resume negotiations and is hopeful Congress will not need to get involved, the congressman's chief of staff, Mac McKenney, said Monday. DOE spokeswoman Dolline Hatchett said the department was looking at reviving talks with the state this summer after reviewing cleanup proposals. But the cleanup plan suffered a setback earlier this year as President Bush's budget proposal slashed $10 million from the project's annual budget of about $100 million. DOE originally estimated that West Valley cleanup would be finished in 1990 at a cost of roughly $1.1 billion. Now, DOE pegs total cleanup costs at $4.5 billion and estimates the project will last another 40 years. But the GAO report concluded that those estimates are based on questions that have yet to be resolved, such as what will be done with onsite waste and when the other waste can be shipped offsite. ''Any estimates of the total costs and schedule for the cleanup could change significantly,'' the report concluded. The GAO study was begun in June 2000 at the request of Republican Reps. James Sensenbrenner, of Wisconsin, and Thomas Bliley, of Virginia. Sensebrenner was chairman of the House Science Committee at the time and Blilely was chairman of Commerce Committee. On the Net: http://www.gao.gov http://usdoe.gov http://nyserda.state.org ***************************************************************** 14 'NL site to be cleared of waste' - timesunion.com By MIKE FRICANO, Staff writer First published: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 Colonie -- 42,000 tons of tainted soil to be shipped out of state rather than stored at the old plant, Army Corps says Bowing to public pressure, the Army Corps of Engineers has scrapped a plan to stockpile tons of lead-tainted and radioactive soil at the National Lead Industries site it has been cleaning up on Central Avenue. Instead, all contaminated materials will be removed from the former uranium processing site and shipped out of state, said Joseph Forcina, project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers. Environmentalists and residents have railed against the old plan, which would have converted the former munitions plant into a two-acre dump for 42,000 tons of dirt contaminated with mid to low levels of depleted uranium-238, lead and thorium. The materials were used to produce armor-piercing artillery shells and aircraft parts for the federal government. Critics complained the Department of Energy's 1995 plan would have stored materials above a culvert that feeds the Patroon Creek. They also objected because they claimed the storage facility would not have met state standards for municipal landfills. Since the plant closed in 1984, the cleanup has cost taxpayers $120 million and could rise another $20 million, Forcina said, making it one of the most expensive cleanups in the Capital Region. "This is a major step forward,'' Forcina said. "You are getting rid of your contaminated soils that may impact groundwater. Material was going to be placed on top of drainage culvert; we didn't think that was a workable option.'' He added that "there were engineering concerns about not having enough room available for everything.'' The news that the Army Corps had backed off its plan was welcomed by environmentalists and Assemblyman Robert Prentiss, R-Colonie, who helped collect more than 1,000 signatures from residents asking that all waste be removed from the 11-acre site. "We certainly didn't want a two-story-high monument dedicated to nuclear waste right there in our own back yard,'' he said. Prentiss, who lives just across Central Avenue from NL Industries, and others have fought to get everything removed from the site, which was shut down in 1983 after officials found that its 16 smokestacks were spraying the Central Avenue neighborhood, near the intersection with Osborne Road, with uranium dust. In 1979, the company's emissions were 10 times the amount allowed by their permits, said Anne Rabe, director of Citizens' Environmental Coalition, which has been monitoring the progress at the site for years. Officials originally expected to complete all work by this September, but with additional work being added to the project, Forcina estimated a finishing date in spring 2003. Forcina estimated that after the project is completed 75,000 cubic yards -- or a football field 47 feet deep -- of material will have been excavated. "This sounds to me like a very positive action on their part and responsive to the people that raised the concerns -- elected officials but especially residents,'' said Town Supervisor Mary Brizzell. Throughout the project, scientists will test the groundwater for signs of contamination, none of which had been found thus far, he said. "It's something that leaves the site available for a broad range of future uses,'' Forcina said. "At a future date ... there will be very little impediments to developing this site.'' The state Department of Environmental Conservation is reviewing the proposal and will submit comments, said spokeswoman Jennifer Meicht. The Army Corps must still hold a public hearing on its plan. The public has until July 17 to comment in writing on the proposal. A public meeting is scheduled for July 11 at a time and place to be announced. Copies of the plan are available to read at the William K. Sanford Town Library at 629 Albany Shaker Road. Copyright 2001, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, ***************************************************************** 15 Radioactive waste site opposed Oklahoman Online June 19, 2001 The Associated Press LINCOLN, Neb. -- A corporate web of influence is controlling a five-state compact that wants to put a low-level radioactive waste site in Boyd County, the Nebraska representative to the commission contends. The five- state compact includes Oklahoma. Nebraska "is now suffering the prospect of facing costs that could range up to $1 billion under the worst scenario," said F. Gregory Hayden, an economics professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Entergy Corp. of New Orleans, is the driving force in the compact, Hayden told the Lincoln Journal Star. Entergy spokesman John Etheridge said Hayden's comments were ridiculous. "No way do we have any control over the commission," Etheridge said. "None of the generators do." The compact is suing Nebraska, alleging that it acted in bad faith in denying a license to build the facility. The five-state compact, which includes Nebraska, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma, grew out of federal legislation passed in 1980 that encouraged states to band together to store low- level radioactive waste. In 1987, the compact chose Nebraska to host the first storage facility, and two years later Boyd County was named as the site. Nebraska health and environmental officials denied the compact a license to build the facility in Boyd County in 1998. All content copyrighted 2001 The Oklahoma Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 16 Turkey Point power plant doesn't harm environment, U.S. report says Sun-Sentinel: By Antonio Fins Business Writer Posted June 19 2001 A draft report issued by federal nuclear regulators said continued operation of Florida Power & Light Co.'s Turkey Point nuclear power plant will not harm its surrounding environment. The study is now open for public comment. The two reactors in southern Miami-Dade County lie close to Homestead, as well as to a series of other neighborhoods. The plant is also nestled close to Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission study is part of FPL's bid for extended licenses at Turkey Point. Built in the early 1970s, Turkey Point's reactors were granted 40-year operating licenses. Those licenses expire in just more than a decade. FPL asked the NRC for extensions last September. The relicensing process requires the filing of an environmental impact statement. The 334-page statement, posted June 12 on the NRC Web site, concluded that there "are no environmental impacts that would preclude renewal of the operating licenses for the two units." The study can be reviewed by logging into the NRC Web site at www.nrc.gov. However, the draft is not the last word on the matter. The report is open for public comment through Aug. 6. Online comments may be filed through a form on the NRC site. In addition, the NRC will hold public hearings July 17 on the study in Homestead. If approved, the Turkey Point reactors could operate through 2030. Copyright © 2001, South Florida Sun-Sentinel ***************************************************************** 17 Guards at Millstone narrowly ratify a new three-year contract TheDay.com: Local and National News Tuesday | June 19 What's New | Advertise | Feedback | By Paul Choiniere - More Articles Published on 6/19/2001 Waterford — Security guards at Millstone Nuclear Power Station have approved a new three-year contract that calls for a 13 percent wage increase over the three years, according to the union. Under the deal security guards will work 12-hour shifts. The contract was approved by a 40-35 vote on Friday, several days after the initial proposal was rejected 69-8, said Jim Hodgdon Jr., a guard and president of Local 537 of the Security Police and Fire Professionals of America. The deal was negotiated between the union and Burns International Security Services, which contracts with Dominion Nuclear Connecticut to provide security services for Millstone station. A secretary at Burns' Salem office said that only Bill Bessette, contract proposal manager, was authorized to comment on the contract and that he will be unavailable until Thursday. Hodgdon said the 12-hour shift is the biggest change under the new contract and the primary reason why the proposal was initially rejected and then passed by only a narrow margin. Burns offered a slightly higher pay increase between the time the first contract offer was rejected and the second approved, said the union leaders. Prior to the new deal, guards at Millstone had worked five days of eight-hour shifts with two days off. Guards will now work four 12-hour shifts and then have four days off. They will be eligible for overtime pay — time and a half — after working 40 hours within one week, Hodgdon said. Hourly wages will now run from $14.60 to $16.10, he said. A strike was possible if the contract had been rejected a second time, said the union president. Whether the new deal improves or exacerbates the on-going problem of high worker turnover remains to be seen, Hodgdon said. The new schedule should give newer employees a greater chance at getting weekend days off. Under the old contract a seniority provision meant the newer guards worked all the weekends, a condition that caused many to find new jobs, Hodgdon said. While the reduced weekend work may persuade some to stay, the longer hours could result in others leaving, he said. n © 1998-2001 The Day Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 18 Duke Files License Renewal Applications for Four More Reactors Nuclear Energy Institute June 18, 2001—The pace of the industry’s efforts to extend nuclear power plant operating licenses quickened last week with Duke Energy’s license renewal applications for its McGuire and Catawba power stations in North Carolina and South Carolina respectively. With the applications for these four reactors—two at each site—Duke now has sought 20-year license extensions from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for all of its nuclear power plants. Duke’s three-unit Oconee station, also located in South Carolina, in May 2000 became the second nuclear facility in the United States to obtain a license extension from the NRC. Duke’s latest filing comes just two weeks after Dominion filed license renewal applications for its North Anna and Surry stations in Virginia. The NRC now has license renewal applications for 13 of the nation’s 103 reactors pending before it, and the owners of another 27 reactors have notified the NRC that they expect to file similar applications over the next six years. Including Oconee, five reactors already have received license extensions. “This is a proud moment for Duke Power and its employees, who have worked diligently to keep the lights on in the Piedmont section of North Carolina and South Carolina,” said Duke Power Executive Vice President of Nuclear Generation Michael Tuckman. “We have a tradition of meeting our customers’ energy needs safely and efficiently. McGuire, Catawba and Oconee play an integral role in meeting those needs.” See the Newsroom at Duke Power's Website for more information on the Duke filing. Copyright © 2001 Nuclear Energy Institute. ***************************************************************** 19 Far away from the fallout The Scotsman Online - Alexei loves few things more than to work on the vegetable patch where his grandfather grows almost all his family’s food. As autumn gusts across the flat green landscape of Belarus, he digs his hands into the dark brown earth to sow the wheat which will provide bread for his family in months to come. As the summer sun floats down the River Sozh towards Alexei’s home town of Gomel, he gathers the strawberries from the beds that he helped to sow. "I know what people say about our food," says Alexei, recalling his family’s dacha, the traditional Russian smallholding, as he sits thousands of miles from home on the sands of Elie beach in the East Neuk of Fife. "That the soil is radioactive and the river water too. I hear the adults say that our food is contaminated and it can make the children ill. But if we do not eat the food we grow we will starve. So what else can we do? It is something we cannot worry about." Despite his words, Alexei knows that for an 11-year-old boy he has much to worry about. A thoughtful and intelligent child, he knows that when, on 26 April 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine exploded, 70 per cent of its fallout rained down on neighbouring Belarus. He knows that 53 per cent of that radioactive outpouring fell on to the soil of Gomel, where it lives on in the local food chain to this day. It can be found in vegetables, meat, mothers’ breast milk. Before Chernobyl, Gomel region experienced just one child thyroid cancer a year. Now that figure is closer to 100 annually. Alexei suspects, as scientists do around the globe, that his own, nonspecific thyroid problem and unrelenting coughs and colds are the part of the Chernobyl legacy that he must bear. That is why on a summer’s Sunday Alexei is not working on his beloved vegetable plot in Belarus but building sandcastles on a Scottish beach. As he speaks, 43 other Belarusian children with health problems similar to his own slither about in the sand and sea. They have been brought to Scotland by Chernobyl Children Life Line, a charity which takes sick children out of the shadow of Chernobyl to spend a month in the homes of families across the UK. Alexei understands his four-week stay in Scotland is more than just a vacation on the other side of the world. "Coming to Scotland will be good for my health," he says, his words reflecting the mission of the charity which was set up by retired British businessman Victor Mizzi in 1990. "This is the important thing. I think I will lose my cold." In the experience of Marjorie McFarlane, the chair of Chernobyl Children Life Line in Scotland, Alexei can look forward to much more than going home to Gomel minus his cold. "These children will all go home with an extra two to three years of life expectancy," she predicts, her the confidence gained from five years’ involvement with the charity. "That is what the Belarusian doctors told me when the first group came over and, you know, I don’t think I really thought it was true. I thought we would simply be giving these poor children a nice time. But I never cease to marvel at their transformation over four weeks. Look at them now." McFarlane, a retired home economics teacher, pauses to take in the scene unfolding on Elie beach. More than 40 Belarusian children are playing It’s a Knockout with the children of Scottish host families. At first glance it is hard to distinguish between the two nationalities. Since flying into Edinburgh airport last Friday night the Belarusians have swapped their often thread-bare wardrobes for nearly new clothes collected by their hosts in recent months. But as their silhouettes darken against the sun that slides into the sea at Elie’s shores, it is easy to tell the visitors apart. They are the shorter ones, the skinnier ones, the ones whose faces stay pale against the sky. They are the ones with the lank hair and lustreless eyes. One little boy with blonde hair bends double, his chest heaving, to catch his breath after running a few yards. Another boy, aged ten but looking just seven, raises his hand to his mouth every few seconds to clear his throat after running through the surf. "In a month’s time you will not recognise these girls and boys," says McFarlane. "Their faces will fill out, their hair will shine, they will be heavier, stronger, livelier. They will be different children when they go home. Then we will receive letters from their mothers telling us that when their children stepped off the plane they did not believe their eyes." If the Belarusian mothers are unable to trust their eyes in assessing the benefits for their children spending a month in Scotland, they can trust to statistics instead. On returning to Belarus, levels of the radioactive element Caesium 137, absorbed into the children’s blood through the contaminated food chain, will be measured. As with the 18,000 children who have visited the UK in the past 11 years with Life Line, the presence of Cesium 137 in this latest group to come to Scotland is likely to have fallen by half or more, thanks to clean air and uncontaminated food. All are among the 800,000 Belarusian youngsters considered by scientists to be at increased risk of thyroid cancer as a result of Chernobyl contamination. Medical professionals believe that the cleansing conditions of Scotland will boost their immune systems to such a degree that they will not simply live longer but develop the strength to fight off the cancer from which every mother fears her child is at risk. Life Line has given such a chance of life to 18,000 Belarussian children in the past 11 years. But Marjorie McFarlane wants to help more. Life Line currently has 13 receiving groups across Scotland, but attempts to expand the initiative into Edinburgh, the Lothians and Aberdeen have so far failed. "You give a month of your time and a child gets an extra two or three years of life," says Mike Christie. He, with his wife Margaret, is one of 24 families in the Perth, Fife, Dundee and Angus areas to play host to 48 Belrussian children in the coming month. "Did you ever get a better return on an investment than that?" Christie, 53, admits he was sceptical at first. Margaret persuaded him that having retired from his job as a British Telecom engineer he might wish to devote some of his newfound freedom to playing host to children. "I’d heard all these horror stories about French kids coming on an exchange, going out and going wild. I can understand why anyone would be reluctant to open their door to this, but I have to admit I was completely wrong," he says now. The Christies decided to host two young girls in 1997 after hearing McFarlane talk about the charity at the local parish church. "I put myself in the shoes of a mother who knew that every day she was feeding her child radioactive food and radioactive water and that it was a choice between that or starving to death," says Mrs Christie, who has two adult sons . "I imagined being their mother and thinking that in Scotland there was a woman with a home and time who could help give them an extra couple of years of life. I just cried." Mrs Christie said: "The night before the first two girls arrived was like the night before having my first baby," she recalls. "Excitement. Fear. Then when this little troup of waifs walked off the plane, I just wanted to cry. One of our first girls was Natasha - I hugged her hello. It was like hugging skin and bone. I knew we had done the right thing." Last year the Christies played host to Natasha’a ten-year-old sister, Aliena, and this year to her younger sister, Ina, 7. Along with Ina, the Christies are also playing host to another eight-year-old, Nina. All but eight days of the 28-day stay will be filled with organised group activities, and when the Christies need time for other commitments, the girls will be cared for by either of two support families assigned to host families. Three interpreters have joined the trip, and are always available by telephone to deal with the occasional language problem. A fleet of drivers ferry children to and fro if their host families’ working commitments necessitate extra help." Much of their time is taken up raising funds towards the cost of the £375 air fare to bring each child to Scotland. The only other cost is for food and maintenance while the children are here. As the girls hug the Christies and drag them laughing along the shoreline on Elie beach, splashing the surf in their new pink wellington boots, it is impossible to believe the girls met their hosts for the first time 48 hours earlier. What do they like most about Scotland, I ask. "My family," they cry in unison, pressing their boney cheeks against Mrs Christie’s grinning face. "We are old hands, but it has always been the same," she responds. "All these children are so trusting, so well mannered, so loving - maybe that is the background from which they come. "Never a day goes by but we talk of the girls who have been to stay. We write to their families. We even went to Belarus for a week and stayed at Natasha’s home. The gratitude of their mothers moves you to tears. "They feel we have done so much. But we have gained so much. We have a different perspective on the world, a sense of our own good fortune. I don’t throw food out the way I used to - it has affected my whole outlook on life." Sergei, 12, whose father fought the Chernobyl fire in 1986, stares out at the sea he has seen for just the second time in his life. He believes Scotland is the place he will find a more natural cure for his ongoing health problems. "All the kids back home are envious of me," he says. "They come back and talk about Scotland like a fairyland. You have shops, so big, so much choice, I never knew the world could be like this. "But I am here for my health. When I go home to Belarus, I think I will leave my cold behind in Scotland." For further information on the Chernobyl Children Life Line contact Marjorie McFarlane on 01738 828637. ***************************************************************** 20 Wicklow hosts Chernobyl Children Bray people Local News Thirty two Russian children from the Chernobyl region are staying in Wicklow over the next month. The group of children aged between eight and twelve years will be hosted in towns and villages throughout the county, though most will be in Bray, Greystones and Wicklow town, living with local families. They are here, thanks to the Chernobyl Children's Project, who are bringing over 1,200 children to Ireland this summer from Western Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine. The town in Western Russia, the children are from, Klintsey, was not evacuated after the Nuclear power station meltdown in Chernobyl in nearby Ukraine in 1986, so the environment there is particularly radioactive and unhealthy to live in. According to Maggie Dore, the Deputy Leader of the Greystones Outreach Group, the children will gain an extra two years life expectancy, just by spending one month in Ireland, living in an environment, that has clean air and where they will be eating clean healthy food. She said that none of the children were sick, though some were maybe a little undernourished, 'nothing a little bit of feeding wouldn't help', according to Dore. Dore and her group intend to take the fifteen boys and seventeen girls on many fun packed trips during their stay, including Dublin Zoo, Clara Lara Fun Park in Laragh, the Glenroe Open Farm in Kilcoole and the Leisureplex in Stillorgan. They are also going to take them on their first visit to McDonalds, after a trip to the cinema in Dun Laoighaire. The Greystones Outreach Group are holding one more fundraiser on Sunday 24th June, in St. Killians House Family Centre in Greystones, to raise more money to help with the pay for the flights and other expenses, the children incur while here. The fundraiser will centre around a model exhibition, with trains, automobiles and many more items on show. The children arrived in Shannon last Monday, the 11th and will stay in Ireland until July 5th next. The Outreach Group are funding the flights and tours, together with any clothes that the children might need, while they are here and also the cost of two interpreters. Daireen Caffrey, the Leader of the Group, and Maggie Dore travelled to Belarus in April to deliver much needed supplies and an ambulance, which the Chernobyl Children's Project paid for, to the people of the children's region. It is now fifteen years since the meltdown, but the number of people developing cancer and other associated illnesses is constantly rising. Both the Group and the Project would greatly appreciate any assistance that is offered. Maggie Dore can be contacted on 087-2350134 if you would like to make a donation or find out more about the Model Exhibition. Alternatively the Chernobyl Children's Project can be contacted in Cork at 021-4506411. © Copyright Unison ***************************************************************** 21 Review may bring nuclear revival Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Renewable energy cannot fill gap in future UK demand, first government study for 20 years suggests. Special report: Britain's nuclear industry Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent Tuesday June 19, 2001 The Guardian A revival of nuclear energy in Britain came a step closer yesterday with the revelation that Tony Blair has set up the first government-wide review in 20 years of Britain's energy needs. The research is to be conducted by the Performance and Innovation Unit, the thinktank directly answerable to the prime minister. Its initial work suggests that the government is also considering new energy taxes in a bid to meet green targets and ensure secure energy supplies. On the research already completed, the PIU warns the government: "At current rates, we are likely to reach the limits of the earth's carrying capacity as a sink of waste and emissions before 2050." The energy review comes amid fears that over the next 30 years Britain will become a net importer of oil and gas. The UK is due to become a net importer of oil by 2006, and is increasingly reliant on gas from from the Middle East, north Africa and Russia. A number of senior government ministers privately believe that a revival of nuclear power is inevitable if Britain is to maintain security of energy supply. President George Bush's administration believes the same is true for the US. Ministers believe renewable energy, such as wind power, cannot fill the void. However, this stance is so unfashionable inside the Labour party that very few ministers have voiced their views in public. Nuclear power is gradually being phased out, but Labour has shelved a manifesto commitment not to build nuclear power stations. In a recent interview, Peter Hain, the then energy minister, did not rule out new nuclear stations, saying that "nuclear is going to be part of our energy supply for the foreseable future". He added that he would examine objectively any private generator's request to set up a new plant. British Nuclear Fuels and British Energy, which runs the nuclear power stations, have been lobbying the government for new nuclear stations. The recent foresight energy futures taskforce report, commissioned by the Department of Industry, predicted "a partial revival of nuclear [power] from 2015". The PIU is already conducting a separate, but related, review into "energy resource productivity and renewable energy" - how more energy can be extracted from existing resources, partly by reducing demand and making generated energy more productive. The government, as part of its pledge to cut greenhouse gases, aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2010 from 1990 levels. It is likely to meet this target. The royal commission on environmental pollution has called for total cuts of 60% by 2050. Ministers do not yet have a strategy to meet this target. So far, the government is committed to meeting 10% of Britain's energy demands from renewable energy by 2010. It has set aside £100m for investment in renewable energy sources for the three years from 2001-2. However, early work by the PIU suggests that the longer term 60% cut "would require very substantial changes to the energy system". It also points out that continued economic growth and the fall in the number of people per household will make the target even more difficult. Even with increased investment and technological breakthroughs, the contribution of renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power, is finite. The PIU points out that economists believe that higher energy prices are the best means of encouraging a switch to cleaner alternative fuels and reducing consumption. However, energy prices in Britain have been tumbling. Initial PIU papers point out: "Energy prices do affect the culture in which decisions are made, and the common expectation - based on recent experience - that energy prices will fall is unhelpful in encouraging the productive use of energy. Energy taxes therefore have an important role in setting a long term framwork". The PIU study will be overseen by the energy consultant and former civil servant Nick Hartley. Its report is due in six months' time. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Military spending bill may provide funds for miners May 20, 2001 By Margo MacFarland Herald Washington Correspondent If Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., get their way, an emergency military spending bill will include $84 million to pay former uranium miners who are now ill. Lawmakers are anticipating that the White House will send them a request for a $6.5 billion emergency military appropriations package. Proposed dates for the formal request to be transmitted to Capitol Hill range from May 25 to early June, according to congressional and Bush administration officials. "The White House wants it in law by the end of June," House Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. (Bill) Young, R-Fla., said Wednesday. For that to happen, Young told White House Budget Director Mitchell Daniels, congressional appropriators would need the request this week. McInnis and Domenici hope to amend the proposal to include funds for former uranium industry workers. The Radiation Compensation Exposure Act, enacted in 1990, authorized payments of up to $150,000 to sick miners and other uranium industry workers who meet certain eligibility requirements, but the Justice Department program that funds the largest portion of those payments is bankrupt. Individuals whose claims have been approved have been receiving IOUs instead of checks. Earlier this year, Domenici and McInnis introduced legislation to allocate $84 million for payments through fiscal 2001, including paying off the IOUs. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., is a co-sponsor of the Senate legislation. "This is a personal commitment" of Mr. McInnis’, a spokesperson said Thursday. Congressional hurdles make passage of the stand-alone measure unlikely, so Domenici and McInnis have been working behind the scenes to get the funding bill attached to the first large spending package that Congress considers this year. That’s likely to be the supplemental military spending bill the White House is now considering. Domenici’s influence as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee improves the chances of attaching the "rider." The legislation is top priority for him, a Senate Republican staff member said. Young said he expects Congress to waste no time in considering the supplemental military appropriations measure. "Once we get (the request) and start to work on it, we’ll move it really quickly," he said. A Senate Republican staff member expressed similar sentiments, saying, "there will be a real sense of urgency to get (the military supplemental) passed." This would be good news for IOU holders and other potential recipients. Time is critical: Former miners are literally dying while waiting for their payments. Contents copyright © 2001, the Durango Herald. All rights ***************************************************************** 2 A pain in the Pyongyang The Washington Times EDITORIAL • June 19, 2001 Talk about gall. This week, the government of North Korea demanded that the United States pony up compensation for economic losses suffered by the impoverished communist country. North Korea, which shocked the world by withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty in 1994, says it hasn´t received all the bribes it was promised for not going nuclear on its own, specifically two harmless power-generating nuclear light water reactors. The demands are par for the course with Pyongyang, and come after the Bush administration agreed on June 8 to resume talks. "Our approach will offer North Korea the opportunity to demonstrate the seriousness of its desire for improved relations," Mr. Bush said. "If North Korea responds affirmatively and takes appropriate action, we will expand our efforts to help the North Korean people, ease sanctions, and take other political steps." The present response from North Korea is very much in character. While the Clinton White House made the dictatorial regime the top recipient of U.S. aid in Asia, North Korea responded with often belligerent rhetoric and very limited steps toward tension reduction. Mr. Bush, on the other hand, has made clear that U.S. dialogue with North Korea depends on the regime´s demonstrations of goodwill. Any concessions must be connected to verification that North Korea is living up to any nonproliferation commitments. Mr. Bush has also been astute in highlighting the importance of North-South Korean negotiations. Although Bill Clinton was fond of having U.S. officials take the lead in talks, and photo-ops, with North Korea, Mr. Bush is aware that the future of long-term tension reduction lies with the North-South nexus. Our interest in containing the North Korean threat is difficult to exaggerate. The border between North and South is the most militarized area in the world. The United States keeps about 37,000 troops in the region. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency found in 1993 that North Korea was hiding weapons grade plutonium, despite having signed onto the NPT in 1985. And although the Clinton administration delivered about $600 million in aid to North Korea since 1994, we have not been able as promised to inspect the two sites believed to store the plutonium. Since the Clinton administration failed to strike any substantive agreements with the North to reduce the number of troops at the border, or to discontinue its nuclear and missile programs and arms exports, the Bush administration was correct in forging a new policy, which it articulated only after completing a three-month policy review. Engaging North Korea appropriately will surely be a considerable challenge for the United States in years to come as the most recent set of demands so clearly demonstrates. All site contents copyright © 2001 News World Communications, Inc. ***************************************************************** 3 Physicist Sues Over Book Delay (washingtonpost.com) Material on Nuclear Weapons Raises Security Concerns By Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, June 19, 2001; Page A19 The former intelligence chief at Los Alamos National Laboratory yesterday filed suit against the Department of Energy, the Pentagon and the CIA for allegedly blocking publication of a 500-page manuscript about his meetings with Chinese nuclear weapons scientists. Danny B. Stillman, a physicist and nuclear intelligence analyst who retired from Los Alamos in 1993, filed the federal complaint after the agencies failed to release his manuscript for publication or detail their objections after 17 months of review. In correspondence with Stillman, the Pentagon has contended that his book, "Inside China's Nuclear Weapons Program," contains secret information and would damage national security if published. Stillman traveled to China nine times between 1990 and 1999 and gathered a wealth of information about China's nuclear weapons program in a variety of open settings with Chinese scientists. Six of the trips came after his retirement. He argues in the suit that none of his information was gathered at the government's behest. Nonetheless, Stillman submitted the manuscript to both the Pentagon and the Department of Energy for pre-publication review because of secrecy agreements he signed with them. "The defendants are not permitted to violate or abridge Stillman's constitutional right to publish unclassified information or any information obtained as a private citizen," according to the lawsuit filed on Stillman's behalf by Mark S. Zaid, an attorney at Lobel, Nevins &Lamont. Spokesmen at the Pentagon and Energy Department declined to comment, saying Stillman's manuscript is still under review. One U.S. intelligence official declined comment on the lawsuit but said that "there are very legitimate national security concerns about some of the material in the book." © 2001 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 4 Department of Energy's NEPA Announcements [Special Notice] The Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance is recruiting NEPA staff. For further information, please click here. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) encourages productive and enjoyable harmony between man and the environment; promotes efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; and enriches the understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation. The purpose of DOE NEPA Announcements is to provide a reference to current "NEPA" events of the Department of Energy (DOE), particularly those which include an opportunity for public involvement. We have included references to Federal Register citations, where applicable, so that you may go to the Register to find additional information or details. We have attempted to repeat pertinent information verbatim from the information given in the Register. If there are errors or discrepancies, the Register is the "controlling document." If you have suggestions concerning the information provided (format or content), please contact Denise Freeman, Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance, tele. 202.586.7879, fax 202.586.7031. You may also leave a voice mail message on 800.472.2756. For detailed information on DOE NEPA documents under preparation, see U.S. DOE Environmental Impact Statements and Environmental Assessments Status Chart, Schedules of Key EISs, and the digital library of DOE NEPA documents at DOE NEPA Analyses. See also the EPA's Office of Federal Activities' Weekly Filingsand the Government Printing Office for more information. Please visit the Environment, Safety and Health Information Portal for other public involvement opportunities. Last updated: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 13:45:28 EXTENSION OF PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD: Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada (DOE/EIS-0250D-S). On May 4, 2001, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published a Notice of Availability (66 FR 22540), of its Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada (Draft EIS) (DOE/EIS-0250D-S) and announced a 45-day public comment period ending June 25, 2001. In response to requests from the public, DOE is extending the comment period to July 6, 2001. The proposed action addressed in the Draft EIS is to construct, operate and monitor, and eventually close a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste currently stored or projected to be generated at 72 commercial and 5 DOE sites across the United States. Since issuing the Draft EIS, dated July 1999, DOE has continued to investigate design options and operating modes that would reduce uncertainties about repository performance and improve operational safety and efficiency. This Supplement to the Draft EIS addresses the latest repository design information and the corresponding environmental impact analyses. DOE will integrate the information in this Supplement, as well as public comments on the Supplement and the Draft EIS and DOE responses to those comments, in the Final EIS. Public Hearings and Invitation to Comment: Comments on the Supplement to the Draft EIS are now due by July 6, 2001. DOE will consider all comments received during the comment period in preparation of the Final EIS. Comments received after July 6, 2001, will be considered to the extent practicable. Written comments, requests for information, and requests for copies of the Supplement to the Draft EIS can be submitted via Internet at: http://www.ymp.govunder the listing "Environmental Impact Statement," or can be directed to: Dr. Jane R. Summerson, EIS Document Manager, Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, U.S. Department of Energy, P.O. Box 30307, M/S 010, North Las Vegas, NV 89036-0307, tele. 1.800.967.3477, fax. 1.800.967.0739. Written comments submitted via facsimiles should include the following identifier: "Yucca Mountain Supplement to the Draft EIS." [For additional details, see the DOE Notice of Availability, 66 FR 22540, May 4, 2001 and the Amended EPA Notice of Availability, 66 FR 27646, May 18, 2001 (Note: Corrects a typographical error in original FR notice published on May 11, 2001.] NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY: Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada (DOE/EIS-0250D-S). The Department of Energy (DOE) announces the availability of the Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain. The proposed action addressed in the Draft EIS is to construct, operate and monitor, and eventually close a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste currently stored or projected to be generated at 72 commercial and 5 DOE sites across the United States. Since issuing the Draft EIS, dated July 1999, DOE has continued to investigate design options and operating modes that would reduce uncertainties about repository performance and improve operational safety and efficiency. This Supplement to the Draft EIS addresses the latest repository design information and the corresponding environmental impact analyses. DOE will integrate the information in this Supplement, as well as public comments on the Supplement and the Draft EIS and DOE responses to those comments, in the Final EIS. Public Hearings and Invitation to Comment: Comments on the Supplement to the Draft EIS will be accepted during a 45-day public comment period, which ends on June 25, 2001. DOE will consider comments submitted after June 25, 2001, to the extent practicable. DOE will hold public hearings to receive oral and written comments on this Supplement at the following locations: + Thursday, May 31, 2001, Longstreet Inn &Casino, Highway 373, Amargosa Valley, Nevada 89020, 5:00–9:00 pm - Poster Session and 6:00–9:00 pm - Hearing. + Tuesday, June 5, 2001, Suncoast Hotel &Casino, 9090 Alta Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada 89144 5:00-9:00 pm - Poster Session 6:00–9:00 pm - Hearing. + Thursday, June 7, 2001, Bob Ruud Community Center, 150 North Highway #160, Pahrump, Nevada 89048, 5:00–9:00 pm - Poster Session 6:00–9:00 pm - Hearing. Written comments, requests for information, and requests for copies of the Supplement to the Draft EIS can be submitted via Internet at: http://www.ymp.govunder the listing "Environmental Impact Statement," or can be directed to: Dr. Jane R. Summerson, EIS Document Manager, Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, U.S. Department of Energy, P.O. Box 30307, M/S 010, North Las Vegas, NV 89036-0307, tele. 1.800.967.3477, fax. 1.800.967.0739. Written comments submitted via facsimiles should include the following identifier: "Yucca Mountain Supplement to the Draft EIS." [For additional details, see the DOE Notice of Availability, 66 FR 22540, May 4, 2001 and the Amended EPA Notice of Availability, 66 FR 27646, May 18, 2001 (NOTE: Revision of FR notice published on May 11, 2001.] ---> NOTICE OF REOPENING SCOPING PERIOD: Public Service Company of New Mexico Draft Environmental Impact Statement, (DOE/EIS-0307). The Department of Energy announces that it is reopening the scoping period and will have additional meetings for the environmental impact statement (EIS) that is being prepared in connection with an application for a Presidential permit field by Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM). PNM has applied for a Presidential permit to construct electric transmission lines across the U.S.-Mexico border. DOE is preparing an EIS, with the U.S. Forest Service as a cooperating agency. The purpose of this notice is to open a new scoping period to obtain comments on the five alternative corridors proposed to be analyzed in the EIS. These alternative corridors have been derived from the eight study corridors that were the subject of previous scoping periods. Public Scoping Meetings and Invitation to Comment: DOE invites interested agencies, organizations, and members of the public to submit comments or suggestions to assist in identifying significant environmental issues not previously identified and in determining the appropriate scope of the EIS. This new scoping period starts with the publication of this notice in the Federal Register and will continue until June 22, 2001. EIS scoping meetings will be held on: + Tuesday, June 12, 2001, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., at Rio Rico Resort, 1069 Camino Caralampi, Rio Rico, Arizona; and + Wednesday, June 13, 2001, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., at Marana High School, Marana, Arizona. Written comments or suggestions on the scope of the EIS, requests for further information on the proposed project or to receive a copy of the Draft EIS; and requests to speak at the scoping meeting(s) should be addressed to: Mrs. Ellen Russell, NEPA Document Manager, Office of Fossil Energy (FE-27), U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20585-0350; phone. 202.586.9624; fax. 202.287.5736; or via e-mail: Ellen.Russell@hq.doe.gov. Requests to speak at the scoping meeting(s) should be received no later than June 7, 2001. Requests to speak may also be made at the time of the scoping meeting(s). However, persons who submitted advance requests to speak will be given priority if time should be limited during the meeting. [For additional details, see the Notice in the Federal Register, 66 FR 27638, May 18, 2001.] NOTICE OF INTENT: McNary-John Day Transmission Line Project Environmental Impact Statement (DOE/EIS-0322). The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Bonneville Power Administration intends to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposed construction, operation, and maintenance of a 75-mile-long 500-kilovolt transmission line in Benton and Klickitat Counties, Washington, and Umatilla and Sherman Counties, Oregon. The new line would start at Bonneville's McNary Substation in Oregon and would cross the Columbia River just north of the substation into Washington. The line would then proceed west for about 70 miles along the Columbia River. At the John Day Dam, the line would again cross the Columbia River into Oregon and terminate at Bonneville's John Day Substation. The new line would parallel existing transmission lines for the entire length. Bonneville has available right-of-way next to those lines; the new line would be within the available right-of-way wherever feasible. The proposed McNary-John Day line is needed to help move power from east to west. In addition to prepartion of an EIS, Bonneville will prepare a floodplain and wetlands assessment as necessary to avoid or minimize potential harm to or within any affected floodplains and wetlands. The assessment will be included in the EIS being prepared for the proposed project in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. EIS scoping meetings will be held on: + Wednesday, May 23, 2001, from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Paterson School, 51409 West Prior Road, Paterson, Washington; and + Thursday, May 24, 2001, from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Roosevelt School, 615 Chinook Avenue, Roosevelt, Washington. At these informal meetings, DOE will provide information about the project, including maps, and have several members of the project team available to answer questions and accept oral and written comments. Written comments on the proposed scope of the EIS are due no later than June 18, 2001. Please direct comments or suggestions on the scope of the EIS, and requests to be placed on the project mailing list to: Bonneville Power Administration, Communications - KC-7, P.O. Box 12999, Portland, Oregon 97212. You may also call Bonneville's toll-free comment line: 1.800.622.4519, and leave a message, (please include the name of this project); or send an e-mail to: comment@bpa.gov. For additional information contact: Lou Driessen, Project Manager, Bonneville Power Administration- TNP-3, P.O. Box 3621, Portland, Oregon, 97208-3621; toll-free: 1.800.282.3713; direct: 503.230.5525; or e-mail: lcdriessen@bpa.gov. [For additional details, see the Notice of Intent, 66 FR 27083, May 16, 2001.] NOTICE OF FLOODPLAIN AND WETLANDS INVOLVEMENT: Santiam-Bethel Transmission Line Project, Marion and Linn Counties, Oregon. The Department of Energy's (DOE) Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) announces its proposal to rebuild a 17-mile portion of the Santiam-Chemawa single-circuit 230-kilovolt (kV) line as a double-circuit 230-kV line in the existing right-of-way in floodplains and wetlands located in Marion and Linn Counties, Oregon. The purpose of the project is to prevent overloads on the Santiam-Chemawa 230-kV line. In accordance with DOE regulations for compliance with floodplain and wetlands environmental review requirements, BPA will prepare a floodplain and wetlands assessment and will perform this proposed action in a manner so as to avoid or minimize potential harm to or within the affected floodplain and wetlands. The assessment will be included in the environmental assessment being prepared for the proposed project in accordance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. A floodplain statement of findings will be included in any finding of no significant impact that may be issued following the completion of the environmental assessment. Comments are due to the address below no later than May 29, 2001. Submit written comments to: Communications, Bonneville Power Administration--KC-7, P.O. Box 12999, Portland, Oregon, 97212 or via electronic mail to the internet address: comment@bpa.gov. For further information contact: Leslie Kelleher, Bonneville Power Administration--KEC-4, P.O. Box 3621, Portland, Oregon, 97208-3621; tele. 503.230.7692; fax. 503.230.5699. [For additional details, see Federal Register, 66 FR 24126, May 11, 2001]. ADVANCE NOTICE OF INTENT: Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride Conversion Facilities Environmental Impact Statement. The Department of Energy (DOE) is providing advance notice of its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposed construction, operation, and decontamination/decommissioning of two depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities, at Portsmouth, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky. DOE intends to use the proposed facilities to convert its inventory of DUF6 to a more stable chemical form suitable for storage, beneficial use or disposal. Approximately 700,000 metric tons of DUF6 in about 57,700 cylinders are stored at DOE's Paducah, Portsmouth, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, sites. DOE plans to issue a formal Notice of Intent (NOI) later this year. After the NOI is issued, DOE will conduct public scoping meetings to assist in defining the scope of the EIS and to identify significant issues to be addressed. The dates and locations of all scoping meetings and will be announced in the NOI or subsequent Federal Register notices and in local media before the meetings. Please direct comments or suggestions on the scope of the EIS and questions concerning the proposed project to: Kevin Shaw, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management, Office of Site Closure-Oak Ridge Office (EM-32), 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, Maryland 20874, fax. 301.903.2978, e-mail: DUF6.Comments@em.doe.gov, please use 'A-NOI Comments' for the subject. [For additional details, see the Advance Notice of Intent, 66 FR 23010, May 7, 2001.] NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY: Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada (DOE/EIS-0250D-S). The Department of Energy (DOE) announces the availability of the Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain. The proposed action addressed in the Draft EIS is to construct, operate and monitor, and eventually close a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste currently stored or projected to be generated at 72 commercial and 5 DOE sites across the United States. Since issuing the Draft EIS, dated July 1999, DOE has continued to investigate design options and operating modes that would reduce uncertainties about repository performance and improve operational safety and efficiency. This Supplement to the Draft EIS addresses the latest repository design information and the corresponding environmental impact analyses. DOE will integrate the information in this Supplement, as well as public comments on the Supplement and the Draft EIS and DOE responses to those comments, in the Final EIS. Public Hearings and Invitation to Comment: Comments on the Supplement to the Draft EIS will be accepted during a 45-day public comment period, which ends on June 25, 2001. DOE will consider comments submitted after June 25, 2001, to the extent practicable. DOE will hold public hearings to receive oral and written comments on this Supplement at the following locations: + Thursday, May 31, 2001, Longstreet Inn &Casino, Highway 373, Amargosa Valley, Nevada 89020, 5:00–9:00 pm - Poster Session and 6:00–9:00 pm - Hearing. + Tuesday, June 5, 2001, Suncoast Hotel &Casino, 9090 Alta Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada 89144 5:00-9:00 pm - Poster Session 6:00–9:00 pm - Hearing. + Thursday, June 7, 2001, Bob Ruud Community Center, 150 North Highway #160, Pahrump, Nevada 89048, 5:00–9:00 pm - Poster Session 6:00–9:00 pm - Hearing. Written comments, requests for information, and requests for copies of the Supplement to the Draft EIS can be submitted via Internet at: http://www.ymp.govunder the listing "Environmental Impact Statement," or can be directed to: Dr. Jane R. Summerson, EIS Document Manager, Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, U.S. Department of Energy, P.O. Box 30307, M/S 010, North Las Vegas, NV 89036-0307, tele. 1.800.967.3477, fax. 1.800.967.0739. Written comments submitted via facsimiles should include the following identifier: "Yucca Mountain Supplement to the Draft EIS." [For additional details, see the DOE Notice of Availability, 66 FR 22540, May 4, 2001.] NOTICE OF INTENT: Blackfeet Wind Project, Glacier County, Montana, Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The Department of Energy's (DOE) Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) announces their intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Blackfeet Wind Project (Project). Blackfeet I, LLC (Blackfeet I) proposes to construct and operate the 36- to 66-megawatt (MW) wind generation facility. BPA proposes to purchase the electrical output from the Project. The EIS will address potential environmental impacts of the construction and operation of the wind project itself, as well as all related transmission facilities in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. The Department of Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be cooperating agencies because of their need to approve the contract and associated permits between Blackfeet I and the Blackfeet Indian Nation. As a part of the EIS scoping process, BPA welcomes comments on the proposed Project. Please send written comments and requests to be placed on the Project mailing list to: Communications, Bonneville Power Administration-KC-7, P.O. Box 12999, Portland, Oregon, 97212; tele. 503.230.3478 in Portland; toll-free. 1.800.622.4519 outside of Portland. Comments may also be sent to the BPA Internet address: comment@bpa.gov. Comments are due no later than May 25, 2001. Two public EIS scoping meetings will be held on Thursday, May 10, 2001 at: + Bureau of Indian Affairs, Main Conference Room, 531 S.E. Boundary Street, Browning, Montana, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.; and + Cattle Baron Restaurant on U.S. 89 near milepost 40.5 in Babb, Montana, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. At these informal meetings, Blackfeet I will provide information, including maps, about the Project. Written information will be available, and BPA staff will answer questions and acccept oral and written comments on the proposed scope of the Draft EIS. For further information contact: Sarah T. Branum,KEC-4, Bonneville Power Administration,P.O. Box 3621, Portland, Oregon 97208-3621; tele. 503.230.5115; fax. 503.230.5699; or e-mail: stbranum@bpa.gov. [See the Federal Register Notice 66 FR 19473, April 16, 2001]. NOTICE OF INTENT: Wallula Power Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), Walla Walla County, Washington, (DOE/EIS-0330). The Department of Energy's (DOE) Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) announces their intent to prepare a joint National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)/State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) EIS in cooperation with the State of Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) for an electrical interconnection including a new 29-mile 500-kilovolt (kV) transmission line associated with a proposed power plant. BPA is the lead Federal agency under NEPA and EFSEC is the lead Washington State agency under SEPA. The Wallula Power Project is a 1,300-megawatt (MW) generating station proposed by Newport Northwest, LLC (Newport Northwest) that would be located near Wallula in Walla Walla County, Washington. Newport Northwest has requested an interconnection and upgrade to BPA's transmission system that would allow firm power delivery to customers in the Pacific Northwest. BPA proposes to execute an agreement with Newport Northwest to provide the interconnection and firm power transmission. For information or to be placed on the project mailing list, including notification of proposed meetings, call toll-free: 1.800.622.4520, name this project, and leave your complete name and address. To comment, call toll-free: 1.800.622.4519; send an e-mail to the BPA internet address: comment@bpa.gov; or send a letter to: Communications, Bonneville Power Administration--KC-7, P.O. Box 12999, Portland, Oregon 97212. For further information contact: Thomas C. McKinney, Bonneville Power Administration--KEC-4, P.O. Box 3621, Portland, Oregon 97208-3621; toll-free: tele. 1.800.282.3713; tele. 503.230.4749; or e-mail: tcmckinney@bpa.gov. Additional information can be found at BPA's web site: www.bpa.gov. [See the Notice of Intent, 66 FR 18236, April 6, 2001]. RECORD OF DECISION: Business Plan Final Environmental Impact Statement (DOE/EIS-0183) - Goldendale Energy Project, Klickitat County, Washington. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) announces the availability of the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Electrical Interconnection of Goldendale Energy Project (GEP). BPA has decided to integrate power from the Goldendale Energy Project into the Federal Columbia River Transmission System, based on input from the public process and information in the BPA Business Plan Final Environmental Impact Statement (DOE/EIS-0183) and a Supplement Analysis (DOE/EIS-0183/SA-03). BPA has decided to offer a contract to the project developer, Goldendale Energy, Inc., providing for integration of GEP's power at BPA's Harvalum Substation and delivery to the wholesale power market. For additional information contact, Thomas C. McKinney,KEC-4, Bonneville Power Administration,P.O. Box 3621, Portland, Oregon, 97208-3621, tele. 503.230.4749; fax. 503.230.5699; or e-mail: tcmckinney@bpa.gov. Copies of the ROD, EIS, and SA may be obtained by calling BPA's toll-free document request line: 1-800-622-4520. [See the Record of Decision and the Notice of Availability of the Record of Decision 66 FR 17542, April 2, 2001.] RECORD OF DECISION: National Ignition Facility Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Oakland, California (DOE/EIS-0236-S1F). The National Nuclear Security Administration, a separate agency within the Department of Energy (DOE) is issuing a Record of Decision (ROD) for the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a key component of DOE's science-based stewardship of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. This ROD is based, in part, on the information and analysis contained in the National Ignitional Facility Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (SSM PEIS) (DOE/EIS-0236-S1F). Other factors that influenced the decision include mission responsibilities of the Department. DOE's decision is to continue to construct and operate the NIF as analyzed in the SSM PEIS and the SEIS. This decision constitutes the no action alternative of continuing ongoing activities (DOE's Preferred Alternative) as described in the SEIS. As a result of this decision, DOE will make no changes in the design of NIF, will undertake no deviations in construction techniques, and will impose no operational changes in the NIF. For additional information on the SEIS or this ROD, write or call: Scott L. Samuelson, NIF Field Manager, U.S. Department of Energy, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550-9234, tele. 925.423.0593. [See the Record of Decision, 66 FR 18078, April 5, 2001.] NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY: Savannah River Site Salt Processing Alternatives Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, (DOE/EIS-0082-S2D). The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Savannah River Site Operations Office (SRS) announces the availability of the Salt Processing Alternatives Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS). The Draft SEIS addresses alternatives for separating the high-activity and low-activity fractions of high-level radioactive waste salt solutions now stored in underground tanks at SRS near Aiken, South Carolina. The high-activity fraction of the high-level (HLW) salt solution would then be vitrified in the Defense Waste Processing Facility and stored until it could be disposed of as HLW in a geologic repository. The low-activity fraction would be disposed of as low-level waste (saltstone) in vaults at SRS. A new approach to separate the high-activity and low-activity waste fractions of the HLW salt solutions is needed to replace the In-Tank Precipitation process, which cannot achieve production goals and safety requirements. This Draft SEIS analyzes the impacts of four alternative processing technologies - Small Tank Precipitation, Ion Exchange, Solvent Extraction, and Direct Disposal in Grout - and the No Action Alternative. DOE has not identified a preferred alternative. SRS has established a 45-day public comment period during which Federal, Tribal, State, and local agencies, and members of the public are invited to comment on the Draft SEIS. The public comment period began with the publication of this Notice of Availability and will continue until May 14, 2001. Two public meetings - each with two sessions - to discuss and receive comments on the Draft SEIS will be held on: + Tuesday, May 1, 2001, 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. at the North Augusta Community Center in North Augusta, South Carolina. + Thursday, May 3, 2001, 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Coliseum in Columbia, South Carolina. Comments on the Draft SEIS may be submitted at the public meetings and by mail to: Andrew R. Grainger, NEPA Compliance Officer, Savannah River Operations Office, Building 742A, Room 183, Aiken, South Carolina 29802, Attention: Salt Processing SEIS, voice mail or fax. 1.800.881.7292; or electronic mail: nepa@SRS.gov. Comments transmitted or postmarked by the end of the comment period will be considered in the preparation of the Final SEIS. Comments transmitted or postmarked after the close of the comment period will be considered to the extent practicable. [See the EPA Notice of Availability, 66 FR 17422, March 30, 2001.] NOTICE OF INTENT: Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Completion of the West Valley Demonstration Project and Closure or Long-Term Management of Facilities at the Western New York Nuclear Service Center (DOE/EIS-0226-D). The Department of Energy (DOE) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announce their intent to revise their strategy for completing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Completion of the West Valley Demonstration Project and Closure or Long-Term Management Facilities at the Western New York Nuclear Service Center (also referred to as the 1996 Completion and Closure Draft EIS) issued for public comment in March 1996. Under the revised strategy, DOE will prepare and issue a revised draft EIS for public comment focusing on DOE's actions to decontaminate West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) facilities and manage WVDP wastes controlled by DOE under the West Valley Demonstration Project Act (WVDP Act; Public Law 96-368). NYSERDA will not be a joint lead agency but will participate as envisioned under Section 6.03 of the Cooperative Agreement between United States Department of Energy and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority on the Western New York Nuclear Service Center at West Valley, New York (October 1, 1980, amended September 18, 1981) and as appropriate under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act. Further, DOE intends to issue soon a Notice of Intent for a second EIS, with NYSERDA as a joint lead agency, on decommissioning and/or long-term stewardship of the WVDP and the Western New York Nuclear Service Center. As a part of the scoping process, DOE welcomes comments on the plan for revising the strategy for completion of the 1996 Completion and Closure Draft EIS. Please provide comments on the plan and on the scope of the revised Draft EIS on WVDP Decontamination and Waste Management to DOE by April 25, 2001. A public scoping meeting will be held on: + Tuesday, April 10, 2001, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., at Ashford Office Complex, 9030 Route 219 Ashford, NewYork. Address comments on this plan for revising the strategy for completion of the 1996 Completion and Closure EIS; on the scope of the revised Draft EIS; or request for further information to the Document Manager: Mr. Daniel Sullivan,West Valley Area Office, U.S. Department of Energy,10282 Rock Springs Road, West Valley, New York 14171; tele. 716.942.4016; fax. 716.942.4703, or send an e-mail to: daniel.w.sullivan @wv.doe.gov. [See the Federal Register Notice 66 FR 16447, March 26, 2001]. NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY: Sundance Energy Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Western Area Power Administration, Pinal County, Arizona (DOE/EIS-0322). The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Western Area Power Administration (Western) announces the availability of the Sundance Energy Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Sundance Energy LLC (Sundance) has applied to Western to interconnect a 600-megawatt Natural Gas-Fired, Simple Cycle Peaking Power Plant to Western's transmission system in the vicinity of Coolidge, Arizona in Pinal County, southwest of Phoenix. Western's proposed action is to enter into an interconnection and construction agreement with Sundance for the requested interconnection. The proposed interconnection would integrate the power generated by the project into the regional transmission grid and would allow Sundance to supply its power to the competitive electric wholesale market. The DEIS evaluates resource areas for potential impacts, these resource areas include: land use, air quality, noise, infrastructure, water resources, geology and soils, biological resources, cultural resources, visual resources, transportation, socioeconomics, and environmental justice. Western will use the information provided in this DEIS to support Federal decisions for the proposed project. Western will decide whether to enter into an interconnection and construction agreement with Sundance and, if approved, the best way to interconnect the proposed project into the Western transmission system to provide the needed transmission services. Western has established a 45-day scoping period during which Federal, Tribal, State, and local agencies, and members of the public are invited to comment on the Draft EIS. The public comment period began with the publication of this Notice of Availability and will continue until May 7, 2001. A public hearing to discuss and receive oral and comments on the DEIS will be held on: + Thursday, April 12, 2001, at 7:00 p.m., at Coolidge High School Library, 800 West Northern Avenue, Coolidge, Arizona. An open house will be held prior to the public hearing from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00p.m. For copies of the DEIS, for additional information on the DEIS, or the Sundance Energy Project, write or call: John Holt, Environmental Manager, Western Area Power Administration, Desert Southwest Region,P.O. Box 6457, Phoenix, AZ, 85005-6457, tele. 1.602.352.2592; fax. 1.602.352.2630, or electronically: holt@wapa.gov. [See the EPA Notice of Availability, 66 FR 16226, March 23, 2001.] NOTICE OF INTENT: Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Long Term Management of the National Defense Stockpile Inventory of Excess Mercury. The Defense National Stockpile Center (DNSC), part of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) within the Department of Defense (DOD) intends to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the Long Term Management of the National Defense Stockpile Inventory of Excess Mercury. The Department of Energy (DOE) is a cooperating agency with DNSC because some of DOD's excess mercury is currently stored at DOE's Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The PEIS will evaluate alternatives for managing the DNSC inventory of excess mercury. The mercury in the Stockpile has been declared excess to national defense needs and DNSC must decide on long term management of the excess mercury. The mercury inventory is currently stored in enclosed warehouses at four different locations: New Haven, IN; Oak Ridge, TN; Somerville, NJ; and Warren, OH. DNSC will use the EIS process to inform the public of how the inventory of excess mercury is currently managed and how it became part of the DNSC. DNSC will also ensure that the public has an opportunity to comment on what could be done regarding its long term management. Public comments are invited and encouraged concerning both the scope of environmental and socioeconomic issues and the long term management alternatives that should be addressed in the PEIS. Comments on the scope of the issues and alternatives must be postmarked or e-mailed no later than June 30, 2001. In addition, on March 5, 2001, DNSC published a Notice of request for expression of interest at 66 FR 13309. As part of the EIS assessment, DNSC is requesting Expressions of Interests from interested federal agencies for potential locations for the long term (greater than 40 years) consolidated storage of the excess mercury. Suggested sites that are submitted for DNSC consideration will be evaluated to determine their reasonableness for inclusion as an alternative in the EIS. Agencies wishing to make an Expression of Interest should do so in writing by April 30, 2001, to ensure their consideration. Please send comments on the scope of the issues and alternatives to be addressed in the EIS, as well as Expressions of Interest to: Project Manager, Mercury Management EIS; DNSC-E; Defense Logistics Agency; Defense National Stockpile Center, 8725 John J. Kingman Road, Suite 4616, Fort Belvoir, VA, 22060-6223. Comments may also be posted to the Mercury Management EIS website at www.mercuryeis.comor faxed to 1.888.306.8818. [For more details, see the Notice of Intent 66 FR 8947, February 5, 2001, and the Notice of Request for Expressions of Interest at 66 FR 13309, March 5, 2001.] DOE NEPA Web ES&H Information Portal ***************************************************************** 5 British-French-Chinese nuclear freeze proposed Tuesday June 19, 04:41 AM By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Marshal Igor Sergeyev, a former Russian defence minister, has proposed that Britain, France and China take action to freeze their nuclear arsenals at current levels. Sergeyev also told a disarmament conference that Russia had not promised to eliminate its short-range, or tactical, nuclear weapons by the end of 2000, as some experts believed it had. France and Britain should "decide on freezing the levels of their nuclear warheads," he said in a keynote speech to a conference sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment on International Peace. "A positive sign would be if those countries and China would take legal obligation not to increase those weapons in the future," he said. Sergeyev said details would have to be worked out but suggested that the three countries "could announce a moratorium to stabilise" their nuclear arsenals. Disarmament advocates have generally focused on trying to persuade the United States and Russia -- which have by far the largest nuclear arsenals -- to reduce their strategic weapons. The United States has about 7,000 deployed strategic nuclear warheads, while Russia has roughly 6,000. The Russian arsenal jumps to 20,000 when stored and tactical warheads are added in, while with such arms the U.S. arsenal numbers 10,000, according to experts. MUCH SMALLER NUMBERS The French, British and Chinese arsenals are far smaller, and experts have generally felt these weapons only become a factor in overall nuclear strategy after the U.S. and Russian arsenals are greatly reduced. Under the START 2 Treaty, which has not yet come into force, the United States and Russia promised to slash their strategic arsenals to 3,500 warheads each, but Russia has expressed interest in going down to 1,500 warheads, and President George W. Bush is considering making such a reduction unilaterally. Bush's father, former President George Bush, made a unilateral reduction in 1991, announcing that the United States would withdraw thousands of ground-launched and sea-based tactical nuclear weapons. A week later, then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev took similar action. At the time of the twin initiatives, the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse, and the Americans were eager to ensure that nuclear weapons located in the about-to-be-independent states of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus would be concentrated on Russian territory and ultimately destroyed. At Monday's conference, a disarmament expert asked Sergeyev why Russia had not eliminated all its tactical nuclear weapons by the end of last year. "THERE WAS NO ... PROMISE" "Tactical nuclear warheads are being liquidated in Russia in a planned manner (but) there was no such promise that all tactical nuclear weapons would be eliminated by the end of the year 2000," Sergeyev said. He gave no details, saying only that significant types of tactical nuclear weapons had been destroyed. A State Department official said Sergeyev's description of the 1991 Russian pledge was correct. It was "more of a plan than a commitment, and 2000 was more of a target date than a deadline," he said. The tactical weapons initiative is often cited by Bush aides as the precedent for the unilateral strategic reduction initiative the president is considering. It underscores the value of such a strategy. Unilateral actions can be taken immediately and with great flexibility, compared with the lengthy, rigid negotiations that produce signed treaties. But it also highlighted the negative elements, since such unilateral initiatives are not legally binding, there are no mutually agreed definitions or dates, and there is no mechanism for monitoring reductions. The State Department official, who spoke anonymously, said the United States and Russia had both eliminated thousands of tactical weapons as a result of the 1991 initiative. At the conference, Sergeyev also gave a spirited defense of Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran. He accused an American critic of having his facts wrong and said Moscow had helped an Iranian nuclear power program allowed under international standards. Comments to: news-admin@uk.yahoo-inc.com Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 Contaminated solution poses DOE dilemma Savannah NOW: Local News - Savannah River Site's massive F-Canyon plant sit about 3,500 gallons of a liquid that is giving the U. S. Department of Energy heartburn.-->Web posted Tuesday, June 19, 2001 Site officials continue to question what to do with 3,500 gallons of radioactive liquid. By Brandon Haddock Morris News Service Inside Savannah River Site's massive F-Canyon plant sit about 3,500 gallons of a liquid that is giving the U. S. Department of Energy heartburn. The liquid contains americium and curium, highly radioactive elements that can cause cancer. The federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has deemed the solution a high radiation and contamination hazard." But after seven years and $67 million, the DOE still doesn't know what to do with it. Site officials decided last month to suspend work on a proposed plant to treat the liquid. Instead, scientists and engineers will spend the summer determining whether the waste can be transferred from F-Canyon to existing SRS waste tanks, then treated at the site's Defense Waste Processing Facility. But some observers are concerned about that plan, too. "It's a really tough call," said Don Moniak, an Aiken resident and community organizer for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. "It seems like they have no viable solutions at this time." The Energy Department once considered the solution to be treasure, not trash. Oak Ridge National Laboratory wanted to use it to manufacture californium for cancer research, and SRS officials began designing a plant, called the "multipurpose processing facility," that would convert the liquid into a solid glass suitable to send to Tennessee. "We couldn't disposition it in any other method except in a way that it could be recovered for future use," said Sachiko McAlhany, an assistant manager for the Energy Department at SRS. But that plan hasn't come together. The facility's sticker price has jumped from $40 million to $129 million, and SRS contractor Westinghouse Savannah River Co. has asked to add $68 million more to that, McAlhany said. Design changes caused the project's completion date to slip from 2002 to 2005, and the Energy Department's own auditor, the Inspector General, questioned whether the site could meet even the later date. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board also raised concerns about the proposed plant, stating that its safety analysis was inadequate. Finally, Oak Ridge said it didn't want the americium/curium solution anymore -- and no other Energy Department site wanted it either, McAlhany said. Without a customer, there was no longer a need to build a special plant to treat the solution, she said. Now, site engineers are studying whether they can dilute the americium/curium solution, then treat it with the other SRS wastes in the site's Defense Waste Processing Facility. But the solution's high radioactivity means more research must be completed before the new method can be attempted, McAlhany said. In particular, engineers must determine whether the solution can be transferred safely through existing pipelines at the site. "It is similar to what is already in the waste tanks," she said. "The issue is that it is so concentrated, and from a radiological standpoint, it's a much larger material. "The issue is how you get something so concentrated from here to there." Site engineers haven't completed a cost estimate for the new plan, but it would require the installation of additional equipment, McAlhany said. If the new option is found feasible, the transfer likely would take place late next year. The defense board hasn't taken a stand on the new alternative, but is watching it closely. "We've been watching it for a long time," said A. J. Eggenberger, the board's vice chairman, during a telephone interview last week. "We're looking at the safety implications of this. "Do we think this is the way to go? We're still looking at it. We don't have all the technical details yet, and I don't believe the department does, either. "We're not fighting it one way or the other at this point, until we have all the data." © 2001 Savannah Morning News. All rights reserved. PRIVACY ***************************************************************** 7 DOE chief says cleanup review is appropriate Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:19 p.m. on Tuesday, June 19, 2001 Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham held a brief press conference Monday at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Also pictured is U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn. Marie Moffitt/Staff by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff The federal government's 10th energy secretary made his first visit to Oak Ridge on Monday since taking office earlier this year. During the trip, Spencer Abraham said his recently implemented comprehensive review of the Department of Energy's Environmental Management program was the appropriate thing to do, and indicated there's no end in sight to two suspensions related to metal recycling. Those comments were made during a brief press conference at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where only three reporters got an opportunity to ask a question. "I don't think it will be magical, but I do think it will be sensible," said Abraham, when asked how his review will differ from other environmental-related studies. He said the review should determine more "creative" and "effective" cleanup methods that can be accomplished in shorter time frames. The reason for the new study, according to Abraham, is because he was hit with some "startling and for the most part discouraging" figures about cleanup activities when he took office. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's stop at the Y-12 National Security Complex on Monday included a visit to the femtosecond laser, a new weapon component disassembly cutting tool. Pictured are U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District; Jason Van Buren of the secretary's staff; and Abraham. Marie Moffitt/Staff "What I was told was the goal the department had established for the cleanup of the various significant sites Š called for us to complete that work in 70 years at a cost to the taxpayers of somewhere between $200 billion and $300 billion," he said. "That's a very discouraging and undesirable approach. It strikes me as being unfair to a lot of communities to announce to people that if things work out perfectly, their great-grandchildren would perhaps live in a community that was free from some of the environmental contamination which has been brought about over the last 50 years as we strived to win World War II and the Cold War." However, when it was pointed out on Monday that the cleanup figures he was using may be dated, Abraham responded: "Those are the current figures. They may be higher." The energy secretary did point out that DOE's Rocky Flats site in Colorado should be used as a model for all cleanup programs. The cleanup work at the facility was supposed to take 70 years at a cost of $37 billion. But Abraham said the work is being done at an accelerated pace and should be completed by 2006 at a cost of $7 billion. At the press conference, Abraham was asked if he would continue to support the two suspensions on the recycling of radioactive metals enacted last year by former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. The question seem to catch Abraham off guard. "At this point we have no plans to make any changes, but I can't comment any further," he responded. During his Oak Ridge trip, Abraham, a former senator from Michigan, also received a tour of several local facilities and projects, including the Buildings Technology Center at ORNL. He was also scheduled to attend a campaign fund-raiser for U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, on Monday night. He also signed over control of 10 acres of federal property at ORNL that will be used as part of UT-Battelle's plan to modernize the federal facility. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 8 Navy removes radioactive unit Vladivostok News :: June 15, 2001 The Vladivostok The Pacific Fleet has hauled away the radioactive power unit that it had abandoned near a house and a popular beach near the village of Plastun in northern Primorye. Radioactivity in the area measured much beyond allowable levels and contaminated a nearby house, according to its residents. Vladimir Svyatets and his wife, residents of the house, have complained of worsening health. An official commission investigated the nuclear power unit in March and ordered the Pacific Fleet to bury it immediately. But the Navy trucked it away for storage in the village of Olga in April, about a month after the order. No tests have yet been made of the soil and groundwater around the potentially contaminated area as was prescribed by the commission. Web-administrator John Ryzhov Editor Anatoly Medetsky Translation and layout Roman Dyablov Copyright c 2001 "Vladivostok Novosti" ***************************************************************** 9 DOE respect? It's not only about the money - Ronald Morrison Story last updated at 1:34 p.m. on Tuesday, June 19, 2001 Your Views To The Oak Ridger: In response to your editorial "Respect for DOE" I couldn't help but notice it was all economics, and for those thousands of us who are permanently injured or with fatal diseases due to DOE's and their contractors mismanagement of the plants, that means absolutely nothing. What price do you put on your own life to better the community economically. Your paper did a series of articles concerning my seven-year ordeal with DOE and Lockheed Martin for which Mr. Parson won a Tennessee Associated Press Managing Editors Association's award. He did an excellent job, as evidenced by his award. I understand you need to report both sides of a story but it must be done with balance, economics vs. health and safety. Economics looks big as long as it's someone else's health. Factor in the economics of my medical expenses due to their management and the local pharmacy gets $60,000 a year and MMC gets approximately $150,000 a year and that's just one of many of their mistakes you're overlooking and that's economics I personally could do without. "Respect for DOE" I've personally experienced their style of management and disregard for the truth, not a chance. Ronald Morrison Harriman All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 10 US Rejects NKorea Compensation June 18, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States on Monday rejected a North Korean demand for compensation for delays in the completion of two light water reactors planned under a 1994 agreement. "We don't see any particular basis for compensation," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. North Korea made the demand in its first response to President Bush's proposal two weeks ago that bilateral talks resume for the first time since last fall. The response was offered by an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman in a radio broadcast. His comments made clear that two sides are far apart on both procedural and substantive issues. Bush wants discussions on the large North Korean troop presence near the South Korean border, but the North Korean said talks should focus on the alleged U.S. failure to keep its end of a 1994 agreement under which the North froze its suspected nuclear weapons program. The agreement requires a U.S.-led international consortium to provide North Korea with two power-generating light-water nuclear reactors by 2003. However, the $4.6 billion project has been delayed by financing and political tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Claiming that the delay is causing it a huge electricity loss, North Korea demanded compensation. "The electricity loss from the delay in building light-water reactors should be taken up as a priority agenda in the talks," the spokesman said. The administration insists 2003 was a target date, not a contractual date. In addition, officials say there is no contractual provision for the extra compensation demanded by Pyongyang. "We have met and will continue to meet our obligations," Boucher said. The North Korean spokesman also complained that Washington unilaterally set the agenda despite saying the proposed talks have no conditions attached. "We cannot but evaluate the U.S. proposal as unilateral and conditional in its nature and hostile in its intentions," the spokesman said. "The U.S.-proposed agenda concerns our nuclear, missile and conventional armaments and this all is nothing but an attempt to disarm us." The spokesman said any reduction or re-redeployment of North Korea's 1.1-million-member military cannot be discussed before the United States withdraws its 37,000-member military presence in South Korea. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 11 Sick nuclear workers seek redress Published Tuesday, June 19, 2001 + Federal program could help thousands of people made ill while working at nuclear facilities By Jennifer Coleman ASSOCIATED PRESS SACRAMENTO -- Every Friday for nine years, Bonnie Hale drove to each building and laboratory at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory's nuclear facility, delivering paychecks to workers garbed in white protective clothing. "I had no safety training, no protective clothing," she said. "The work was all secret, so I didn't know a thing." Hale thinks her job caused her bladder cancer, which was diagnosed in 1994. She is one of thousands of former nuclear workers who may have been sickened by exposure to beryllium, radiation or silica while working in the nuclear weapons industry. During the Cold War, perhaps no other industry symbolized the period's intense secrecy than the nuclear weapons complex. That secrecy spilled to the government, which denied that its workers and employees of Energy Department contractors were exposed to unhealthy radiation levels. But last year, Congress passed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, which means a lump sum -- up to $150,000 -- will go to workers whose work made them ill. Those approved also will get lifetime medical care. In Oakland today, the federal departments of Energy and Labor will conduct an informational meeting for California workers. Since the beginning of the Cold War, about 600,000 people nationwide worked in the nuclear weapons industry. The Energy Department first estimated 3,000 to 4,000 might be eligible for the new program, but poor record keeping over the decades makes that unreliable. The Labor Department, which will actually handle the paperwork for the benefits, estimates claims will be much higher -- about 43,000 applications a year from sick workers and 28,000 applications a year from survivors. Complicating matters is the nature of the industry, which for years forced its workers to work in secrecy. Many employees with health problems hesitate to speak out, said Marylia Kelley, executive director of the Tri-Valley Community Against a Radioactive Environment. To many longtime workers, talking about their illnesses "gives them a sense that they're betraying the government," said Kelley, whose organization is made up of former and current workers at the Lawrence Livermore Lab and neighbors of the East Bay facility. Hale said many employees still remain loyal to their employer, although that's not always easy to determine. Atomics International, Hale's company, was later bought by Rocketdyne International Corp., which was bought by Boeing Co. The lab ran 10 nuclear reactors at the laboratory about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles from the 1950s to the 1980s. "With me, it was anger. I was very upset," she said. "I wasn't given a choice to work with nuclear experiments. I was just a secretary." Hale, whose cancer is in remission now, is worried that she won't be eligible for compensation because she wasn't issued a radiation-measuring badge. "I worked in an office with the nuclear reactor under me in the basements," she said. "I didn't work in the hot lab, but I did deliver paychecks. Every Friday, I had to go to every single building." The way the program rules are written, most employees will have to prove they were exposed to a harmful dose of radiation or toxic chemical. Many can do that with only their job title -- if they were working in extremely "hot" areas, there's a presumption they were exposed. If the employee later contracted an illness linked to that exposure, they could be eligible for coverage, Kelley said. The rules may be too inflexible, Kelley said, which means Labor Department officials won't recognize that exposure can lead to other types of illness than those on the government's list. "Two employees standing side-by-side could be equally exposed to beryllium," Kelley said. "If one comes down with lung cancer, he is eligible. If the other comes down with cancer, even though beryllium is linked to cancer, he is not eligible." The next step, Kelley said, would be to include neighbors of nuclear sites who were exposed to the same level of toxic chemicals and radiation as workers, but until then the program is a good start. Congress approved the program after workers testified about breathing dense clouds of silica dust with no breathing protection, empty radiation-measuring badges pinned to those working with uranium and a chronic inattention to safety measures during the Cold War. As an entitlement program, the government pays the bills automatically, so sick workers will never get IOUs like beneficiaries of another program that pays uranium miners and people downwind of nuclear test blasts. To help sick workers and the heirs of deceased workers file claims, the Labor Department will open field offices next month. The program starts July 31. headlines from ContraCostaTimes.com ***************************************************************** 12 Report highlights 'bodysnatching' shame 19 Jun 2001 Nuclear experiments may have been carried out on the bodies of as many as 15,000 Australian men, women and children over a 20-year period, a newly discovered document suggests. The single sheet of paper from the National Archives of Australia in Canberra shows almost 800 skeletons were used in experiments in one year alone - 230 of them from the corpses of children younger than five years old. "That is a rather high rate of 'bodysnatching' for one year alone, in a program that went on for more than 20 years," Scottish researcher Sue Rabbitt Roff, who found the document on Monday, told AAP. "If they were doing 792 samples a year, that would be about 15,000 humans." Roff, who is involved in ongoing research on British nuclear tests in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s and their health effects on servicemen involved and their children, turned up the document while going through a bundle of papers brought back for her from Australia by a student. "It was tucked in there with some other material that wasn't all that interesting. I was going through 700 pages of this for a totally other purpose and this thing popped out," she said. The document, with the file number A6456/3 R029/148, lists the levels of radioactive isotope Strontium 90 in the calcium of Australian bone samples and the number of individuals the samples were taken from. It shows that between January and December 1965, a total of 792 bodies were used, of which 174 were babies under 12 months old. A further 56 were aged under five years, 102 were between five and 19 years old, and 460 were adults. The paper also contradicts Australia's radiation safety authority's claim that the testing program only covered people aged up to 40, with 326 of the specimens taken from skeletons of people aged 40 or older, including 46 who were aged 80 or over. The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency admitted a fortnight ago that Australia ran a testing program from 1957 to 1978 after the US government released details of a similar program, codenamed Project Sunshine. It said the experiments were designed to measure the impact of fallout from atmospheric nuclear tests all over the world on the Australian population by measuring the level of Strontium 90 in bones. The bones were collected from pathology laboratories in capital cities and were reduced to ash, with the ashes sent overseas for analysis, without informing or seeking consent from the next of kin. ©AAP 2001 © 1997-2001 ninemsn Pty Ltd - All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 13 U.S. inspects radiation devices June 15, 2001 :: Vladivostok Daily' A delegation from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Los Alamos National Laboratory completed its inspection of U.S.-funded devices controlling radiation levels in Primorye ports and border checkpoints on Thursday and said that they operated properly, Russian officials said. The Russian-produced devices called Yantar are operated by customs offices and are able to detect radioactivity in cargoes going out of, or coming into, Russia, a statement from the Far East Customs Department said. There are similar devices in other Russian regions. The U.S.-funded devices have been installed under a joint Russian-U.S. program called "The Second Line of Defense." According to the statement by the customs department, the head of the six-member delegation to Primorye, David Martin, said that "the installation of the Yantar radiation control systems and of the supporting equipment in customs agencies has been carried out well." The devices have been placed at Vladivostok's Fishing Port and Commercial Sea Port, its sea terminal, the Vostochny Port and a checkpoint at the border between Russia and North Korea. Polina Stetsurenko, a spokeswoman for the Far East Customs Department, said that Russia's State Customs Committee has also financed the construction and installation of Yantar systems at some customs locations. Copyright © 2001 "Vladivostok Novosti" ***************************************************************** 14 DISARMING A NUCLEAR MENACE By JEANNE BONNER Access Control & Security Systems, Jun 1, 2001 Larry Satkowiak can sympathize with most security directors — he, too, is concerned about access control, asset management and audit trails. Satkowiak's job is to protect highly enriched uranium and plutonium, materials needed to make nuclear weapons, located a world away in Russia. Satkowiak is the director of the U.S. Center for International Threat Reduction, which was established at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, Tenn., in 1999. Satkowiak is involved in a U.S. Department of Energy program aimed at reducing the threat of nuclear proliferation through the use of material accounting procedures and physical security upgrades at Russian nuclear facilities. As project team leader for the Dmitrovgrad Institute, one of the project sites, he has traveled extensively to Russia to assess the program's efforts and assist in training. The Center for International Threat Reduction is also involved in numerous projects that address non-physical security aspects of non-proliferation efforts. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, one of the U.S. government's biggest international concerns is nuclear proliferation. Proliferation of nuclear weaponry and the unregulated handling of nuclear materials — including highly enriched uranium — threaten to jeopardize U.S. national security. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. government agencies have invested large amounts of time and money to ensure that plutonium does not fall into the wrong hands. The DOE program sends scientists from U.S. national laboratories to Russian nuclear facilities to train employees there on proper techniques for handling and accounting for nuclear materials. The program is a joint effort of the DOE and the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy. The funds required for the program are allocated on an annual basis by the United States Congress and distributed to national laboratories. A critical part of the DOE initiative is the material protection, control and accounting (MPC&A) program, which seeks to regulate and improve the procedures that govern nuclear material handling to create a more secure environment. Implementing MPC&A measures, Russian facility managers and their American counterparts hope to limit access to materials and detect theft when it occurs. The creation of a security-conscious culture within the Russian facilities has been an essential part of the program, and training provided by Satkowiak and his colleagues is critical for maintaining the upgrades. On the equipment side, the systems vary from site to site, but the teams have supervised the purchase and installation of access control, alarms, multiple barriers, fences, badging equipment, sallyports and motion detectors. The DOE teams have worked at more than 40 sites in Russia, Siberia and the Baltic states. Sites receiving upgrades include fuel storage facilities, research and development institutes, power plants and weapons factories. Members involved in the materials protection program cover a variety of disciplines including physical security, facilities management, and material control and accounting experts. Participating American scientists work on a consultant basis and are employed at various national laboratories, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore, Brookhaven and Sandia laboratories. AMERICAN SCIENTISTS FAN OUT ACROSS RUSSIA TO IMPROVE SECURITY When the American scientists began the program in 1994, the Russian government had no funding for security upgrades. Employees at the facilities were paid sporadically or not at all, and security was deteriorating. “Nuclear materials had been intercepted while in transit, and numerous incidents of theft and attempted theft of materials had been reported. These conditions were brought to the attention of the CIA and the DOE,” says Satkowiak. The transport of weapons-usable materials presented a significant concern — very little security was used to ensure that the materials got safely to their destination. Rail access at central storage facilities increased risk of interception and theft. The staffs of various Russian facilities relied on perimeter security controls, specifically barbed wire, to deter trespassers. The DOE teams found windows without alarms and often saw no access control at all. There were magnetic contacts on personnel doors but the perimeter technology was crude at best — generally consisting of triple concrete barriers with barbed wire. The facilities had doors with no audit trail feature. Keys would be checked out but there was no system to monitor how often an employee accessed a location. “At the main warehouse, shipping containers containing enriched uranium sat on loading docks — there were no cameras watching. We calculated how long it would take to penetrate the facilities and steal containers of nuclear materials: between 30 and 35 seconds,” says Satkowiak. According to Satkowiak, some materials they found sitting on loading docks or in unattended rooms could have been easily converted to a bomb, even by an unskilled terrorist. Some of the sites the American team visits are located in a series of “closed cities” in Russia which did not appear on official maps until recently. “These cities were part of a secret program to develop and manufacture nuclear weapons. The cities are still closed to the Russian public, but their mission has changed significantly since the close of the Cold War,” Satkowiak explains. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, exterior attacks on nuclear facilities were non-existent. At the facilities located in the closed, unknown cities, facility managers had little fear of infiltration and hence little concern of material theft. “The Soviet government controlled every move a citizen made. There were tight internal controls as well. The controls disappeared with the collapse of the Soviet Union. When we arrived, they were using tracks in the snow and dirt at the perimeter to determine if someone had trespassed,” relates Satkowiak. The facilities had relied heavily on state police for surveillance. COOPERATION YIELDS INCREASED SAFETY AND SECURITY One of the first tasks completed by Satkowiak's team was to install metal gratings and alarms on windows. Materials were then secured in triple-layered cages made of rebar/stretch steel. “Our focus is where the materials are,” says Satkowiak. “They had a form of badging in which guards inspected badges and compared the photos with the people in front of them. We rebadged with proximity cards. Sensitive areas require a PIN as well,” says Satkowiak. Some 15 facilities of the 40 sites in the program have access control equipment manufactured by Hirsch Electronics, Santa Ana, Calif. Lars Suneborn, government program manager at Hirsch Electronics, has been involved with the program since 1995 and has visited many of the sites. “An interesting aspect of this project was the focus not on access control per se but rather on exit control. Our equipment needed to make sure materials did not leave,” he says. Suneborn recalls a natural reluctance on the part of the Russian employees and a dichotomy in the approach to security. “Culture was the biggest problem we faced. Security for them meant absolute control of people,” says Suneborn. It also meant less of a concern over controlling materials than controlling people. Suneborn's first system was installed at a facility producing highly enriched uranium near Moscow. The basic access control system at these facilities is Hirsch's S.A.M. system, which includes badging, CCTV and intrusion detection. The CCTV element does not permit monitoring but rather is used now for assessment purposes. The employees receive photo IDs, produced on the badging system. The Hirsch installations follow a concentric circle configuration of security. Security levels increase as one moves from the perimeter to the core of the building. At the building's core, there might be a storage area or a production unit, and security to enter these areas consists now of swiping a card and entering a code in a Scramblebox. Suneborn also worked with Recognition Systems, Campbell, Calif., to secure important parts of the facilities, including the inner storage vaults. The areas are protected by access control featuring a Recognition Systems hand geometry reader. Most of the facilities use two guard forces. The interior ministry provides guards, and there is an internal security group that monitors alarms at the central station. Guards check employees' cards which contain holographic images. Some of the facilities now have mantraps at the main entrance, through which personnel and guests enter. There are checkpoints and a few facilities use sallyports to inspect incoming cars. The first round of equipment installed at the facilities came from U.S. manufacturers. Now Russian or other regional manufacturers are used, including the German CCTV manufacturer, Grundig. Eleron Manufacturing, a spin-off of the Russian Department of Energy, has several contracts with the facilities for readers, sensors and controllers. Training — of all levels of employees — comprises a considerable segment of the program. Technical experts from the U.S. laboratories, including Satkowiak and his team, share their knowledge of repair and maintenance, computer security, and protection of non-destructive assets, among other areas. A significant aspect of the training is conveying the importance of the two-man control, which consists of dispatching a two-person team to sensitive areas. Each person must swipe a card, enter a code and scan his hand to enter the sensitive area. The two people are authorized to enter these areas, but they must enter and stay together. “We push the two-man rule. We try to impress upon them the security inherent in teams of two people,” says Satkowiak. Hirsch has participated in training efforts as well. In remote areas, Suneborn and his team have provided training to educate Russian workers how to maintain the equipment. In more densely populated areas, Hirsch has recruited and trained a network of authorized dealers. Securing a legacy Sustainability has become a watchword for everyone involved in the program. The DOE teams need to ensure that the Russian facility managers and their employees are able to use the installed equipment and implement the new security procedures correctly. The long-term goal of everyone involved in the physical security upgrade is to maintain and support the new systems with native resources. An essential part of the process is a sense of ownership on the part of the facilities managers for the security program. “The Novosibirsk facility in Siberia, for example, is making a profit, so it doesn't want to upgrade its security equipment. There is no incentive,” explains Satkowiak. “There has been some resistance on part of the old guard, the hardliners. A facility director might have come up through the ranks under the old system and may still have that mentality.” The program's objective, however, is to reeducate the staff on how to perceive material controls and security, and the American team has seen results. The conditions at the Russian facilities now may not be up to U.S. standards for storing nuclear materials, but they have come a long way. “The goal of our program was not necessarily to bring the facilities to an American standard. The goal was to share our expertise with our Russian counterparts to foster cooperation in global security,” concludes Satkowiak. “The Russians we have met have good ideas, and they appreciate the security they now have,” says Satkowiak. AC&SSI Larry Satkowiak of the Center for International Threat Reduction and his group made it a priority to protect the materials with triple-layered cages. “Our focus is where the materials are,” says Satkowiak. FOR THE RECORD ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeanne Bonner is associate editor of Access Control & Security Systems Integration. infoLINK at www.securitysolutions.com. Hirsch90 Grundig91 © 2001, IndustryClick Corp., a PRIMEDIA company. All rights ***************************************************************** 15 Beryllium testimony thrown out Rocky Mountain News: Local Expert witness violated gag order, judge says By Ann Imse, News Staff Writer A Jefferson County judge threw out the testimony of an expert witness for the Rocky Flats beryllium victims Monday, after being told the witness violated his gag order with an inflammatory Web site and threatened to deliberately cause a mistrial. District Judge Frank Plaut also threatened to punish the plaintiffs for hiring David Egilman by removing their lead lawyers. But Plaut denied the defense motion for a mistrial in the case, in which 55 people are suing beryllium producer Brush Wellman Inc. of Cleveland. They claim Brush Wellman conspired with the federal government to conceal the dangers of beryllium for 50 years, because it was needed to make nuclear weapons at Rocky Flats. It is the first of 76 lawsuits filed by 200 beryllium victims against Brush Wellman around the country, and the jury's verdict was expected to influence both sides in deciding whether to settle the other cases. The judge read some of the offensive lines in court -- accusations of criminal activity against Jones Day, the defense law firm, and references to a longtime Brush Wellman medical director being educated in Nazi Germany. Egilman, a Brown University occupational health historian who said he testifies about "who knew what when," said after the judge's ruling that he never threatened a mistrial. He also denied violating the gag order, saying he took the Web site down by making it password-protected. Egilman also said that defense attorneys from Jones Day hacked into the Web site illegally, and that he was trying to catch them. That left plaintiffs' attorney Alicia Butler hard-pressed to explain to the court why, just after Jones Day complained about the Web site last week, she sent Egilman an e-mail saying, "They bit. A copy of your new page showed up in court just now." Plaut ignored the question of how defense attorneys accessed the site. The jury heard nothing of this, and was told only to disregard Egilman's testimony. But the judge read into the record his opinion that Egilman's comments about the case on his Web site were "scurrilous and inflammatory," casting "great doubt on his legitimacy and integrity as a witness." Beryllium is now used in a variety of products, despite growing evidence that breathing the tiniest amount can bring on an incurable, wasting lung ailment in a small percentage of workers. June 19, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 16 Antinuclear runners begin relay Wednesday, June 20, 2001 HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) An antinuclear torch relay scheduled to pass through all 86 cities, towns and villages in Hiroshima Prefecture began Tuesday, with participants voicing hope that the world will not experience war or a nuclear attack in the 21st century. The 12-member lead group of runners, including Kazuo Harada, secretary general of a Hiroshima prefectural group to promote peace, began the 20th relay as it set out from Hiroshima Peace Park at 8:15 a.m., the time the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city Aug. 6, 1945, during World War II. About 40 people, including survivors of the bombing, observed a moment of silence near the Cenotaph for Atomic Bomb Victims during a ceremony to commemorate the start of the relay. According to organizers, the relay will cover about 1,816 km and end July 26, when the last batch of runners arrives back at the park. Some 10,000 people are expected to participate in the event. The Japan Times: June 20, 2001 (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 17 Bush stunned by U.S. nuclear arsenal size Japan Today Japan News - News - Monday, June 18, 2001 at 09:30 JST WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush was stunned last month when told of the extent of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, Newsweek magazine reported in its June 25 edition, released on Sunday. "I had no idea we had so many weapons," Bush was quoted as saying by an unidentified "White House insider." "What do we need them for?" the president was said to have asked at a briefing, according to the Newsweek report. But that was not a dumb question, the magazine noted in detailing the vast U.S. nuclear arsenal, which includes 5,400 warheads on intercontinental ballistic missiles, 1,750 nuclear bombs and cruise missiles ready to be launched from B-2 and B-52 bombers, 1,670 "tactical" nuclear weapons and another 10,000 warheads in bunkers around the United States. That potential for nuclear overkill may be reined in, however, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld prepares at the Pentagon to implement Bush's stated goal of streamlining and downsizing the arsenal. Rumsfeld has brought back retired Gen. George (Lee) Butler and former Reagan administration national security guru Richard Perle to spearhead an effort to reduce the arsenal to safer, more manageable and more cost efficient levels, Newsweek said. "I see no reason why we can't go well below 1,000" warheads, Perle told the magazine. "I want the lowest number possible under the tightest control possible." "The truth is we are never going to use them," Perle added. "The Russians aren't going to use theirs either." (Reuters News) Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e31' [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Timeout expired C:\INETPUB\JT2001\JTWWWROOT\E\CONTENT\../../../jtincludes/db.inc, ***************************************************************** 18 Zheleznogorsk Combine admits radioactive discharge Combine’s representatives admitted the fact of radioactive accidents. Earlier they claimed they had never happened. Fragments of nuclear fuel were found on the banks of the Yenisey River north of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. Photo: Thomas Nilsen/Bellona Vladislav Nikiforov, 2001-06-18 19:16 Fragments of nuclear fuel with very high radioactivity level were found on the banks of the Yenisey River in Siberia. Based on these findings, experts from Krasnoyarsk Biophysics Institute proved that Zheleznogorsk Mining and Chemical Combine suffered at least two serious accidents 30 and 20 years ago. Nuclear industry officials have claimed until today that the combine is absolutely safe. According to the Combine spokesman, Pavel Morozov, it happened during the first years of the combine's operation when radioactive materials were dumped into the Yenisey River. “Yes, the operation of our combine can be traced down to Igarka [town in the Russian Arctic], but those [traces] are just spots with high level of cesium-137 content,” Morozov said. According to scientists, Yenisey River is polluted with radionuclides for the length of 1,500 km, down to the Arctic Ocean. Currently the specialists of the Combine are working on eliminating the pools with liquid radioactive waste, generated during production of weapons-grade plutonium. The first out of seven pools has been already emptied, ITAR-TASS reported. According to the chief engineer, Yury Revenko, preparation for the liquid radwaste elimination began 10 years ago when two plutonium production reactors were shut down. Equipment was manufactured specially for cleaning up steel tanks filled with liquid radwaste. Now Combine officials say they will turn their attention to the remediation of the Yenisey River. 30 years of the Combine’s operation led to high radionuclides content in river's sediments. Besides, several emergency discharges of radioactive water used as reactor coolant took place. Now the maps with polluted radioactive spots are being made at the Combine. The remediation, however, can begin only after the state allocates the proper funds, what seems unlikely now, Yury Revenko said. Zheleznogorsk, also known as "the Iron City", is situated approximately 50km north of Krasnoyarsk on the eastern side of the River Yenisey in Krasnoyarsk county, Siberia. The city has a population of 90,000 and was known by its code name Krasnoyarsk-26 until 1994. The Mining and Chemical Combine with its three plutonium producing reactors and a radiochemical plant are well shielded 250m to 300m underground. The first reactor was shut down on June 30th 1992, and the second followed on September 29th the same year and the third (AD-2) has been in operation since 1964. In 1985, a facility to store spent nuclear fuel from the VVER-1000 reactors (third generation of Russian light water reactors) was taken into use. This storage facility is right next to the half-completed RT-2 reprocessing plant. At present the facility stores a total of 3,000 tonnes of spent fuel while it has a capacity of 6,000 tonnes. www.bellona.no : Russia : Nuclear Industry : Reprocessing in Siberia : Zheleznogorsk : News story | til toppen Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway Menu system java script courtesy of Peter Belesis at the Dynamic HTML lab. ***************************************************************** 19 Ex-Nuclear Official Sues Over Book June 18, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - A retired Los Alamos nuclear security official filed a lawsuit Monday to try to force the government to allow the release of his book on the Chinese nuclear weapons program. For the last 18 months the government has blocked the publication of Danny Stillman's book while various agencies scrutinize each line to decide if it divulges national security secrets, according to his attorney, Mark Zaid. "We're not threatening to release classified information," Zaid said. "We're challenging the government to prove their case and we don't think they're going to be able to do it." The suit against the Defense Department, Energy Department, Defense Intelligence Agency and CIA was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. It alleges the agencies have violated their own rules for classifying material and Stillman's constitutional right to publish the book. Defense Department spokesman Glenn Flood said the review of the manuscript is continuing. "We plan to do a thorough job. We're not going to rush it," he said. Stillman worked for 28 years at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, 14 as the head of the intelligence division. He retired in 1993. Between 1990 and 1999, Stillman made nine trips to China, visiting a nuclear test site and a nuclear lab, meeting with scientists and attending lectures. None of the trips was taken at the request of the U.S. government, although he was voluntarily debriefed by government officials when he returned. Stillman took notes of his trips and compiled them into a 500-page manuscript entitled "Inside China's Nuclear Weapons Program." In January 2000, Stillman turned over the manuscript to the government for a security review - a prepublication condition imposed on any government worker granted security clearance. Since then, Stillman and his attorneys have pressed the Energy Department and Defense Department to finish the review. A Defense Department memo from last September said the Pentagon objects to publication of any portion of the manuscript because of security concerns. The memo also said publication could "damage American foreign relations with China," according to the lawsuit. Zaid said that argument is absurd, since the Chinese scientists and other officials in the program gave Stillman all of the information for the book. "This can't embarrass China, because the Chinese expected this information to get (out)," Zaid said. In his book, Stillman argues that the Chinese weapons advances were made without the benefit of espionage. About the time Stillman finished his manuscript, Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwanese-born Los Alamos scientist, was arrested amid fears of Chinese espionage. Lee was charged with 59 counts of illegally downloading nuclear secrets, not espionage, and eventually pleaded guilty to one count of mishandling information. A judge apologized for the nine months Lee spent in solitary confinement, saying he had been misled by prosecutors. Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy specialist with the Federation of American Scientists, said national security is not a blanket excuse to limit free speech rights. "It would be one thing that if they said there is this or that detail that needs to be modified in the interest of national security, but it is completely implausible to claim the entire manuscript needs to be suppressed," he said. On the Net: Federation of American Scientists: http://www.fas.org Defense Intelligence Agency: http://www.dia.mil All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 20 Clinton appointee to help with sick nuclear workers program June 18, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration has tapped a Clinton appointee to help administer a program to compensate sick Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced Monday that she had hired former Assistant Secretary of Energy David Michaels as a consultant. "I am honored that Secretary Chao has asked me to help the Department of Labor implement this very important program," Michaels said. "These workers were harmed in the service of their country." 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. Lawmakers who represent districts with Cold War-era weapons plants urged the administration to bring Michaels on board. "I have worked closely with Dr. Michaels over the last two years in creating this historic compensation program and have a great deal of respect for his dedication and attention to detail," said Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky. Chao also filled several other positions that are expected to help get the compensation program up and running by the end of July. 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. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 21 Corpses used in N-testing: research news.com.au - 19 June 2001 From AAP NUCLEAR experiments may have been carried out on the bodies of as many as 15,000 Australian men, women and children over a 20-year period, a newly discovered document suggests. The single sheet of paper from the National Archives of Australia in Canberra shows almost 800 skeletons were used in experiments in one year alone - 230 of them from the corpses of children younger than five years old. "That is a rather high rate of 'bodysnatching' for one year alone, in a program that went on for more than 20 years," Scottish researcher Sue Rabbitt Roff, who found the document today, said. "If they were doing 792 samples a year, that would be about 15,000 humans." Roff, who is involved in ongoing research on British nuclear tests in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s and their health effects on servicemen involved and their children, turned up the document while going through a bundle of papers brought back for her from Australia by a student. "It was tucked in there with some other material that wasn't all that interesting. I was going through 700 pages of this for a totally other purpose and this thing popped out," she said. The document, with the file number A6456/3 R029/148, lists the levels of radioactive isotope Strontium 90 in the calcium of Australian bone samples and the number of individuals the samples were taken from. It shows that between January and December 1965, a total of 792 bodies were used, of which 174 were babies under 12 months old. A further 56 were aged under five years, 102 were between five and 19 years old, and 460 were adults. The paper also contradicts Australia's radiation safety authority's claim that the testing program only covered people aged up to 40, with 326 of the specimens taken from skeletons of people aged 40 or older, including 46 who were aged 80 or over. The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency admitted a fortnight ago that Australia ran a testing program from 1957 to 1978 after the US government released details of a similar program, codenamed Project Sunshine. It said the experiments were designed to measure the impact of fallout from atmospheric nuclear tests all over the world on the Australian population by measuring the level of Strontium 90 in bones. The bones were collected from pathology laboratories in capital cities and were reduced to ash, with the ashes sent overseas for analysis, without informing or seeking consent from the next of kin. >Australian IT* ***************************************************************** 22 Mobile labs may help eliminate radiation IdahoStatesman.com June 19, 2001 The Associated Press IDAHO FALLS -- Microbiologists are focusing on bacteria to keep a radioactive metal in eastern Idaho's Snake River Plain Aquifer from moving toward farms and drinking-water wells. They want to lock up in underground minerals strontium-90, a byproduct of nuclear fission that has polluted groundwater underneath the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Field tests at an old homesteading well on the INEEL site will help identify which microbes in the groundwater are capable of the job. A new mobile geosciences laboratory is getting the scientists immediate test results even when they are out in the middle of the desert. It is the first step toward designing a fleet of mobile laboratories that would let field scientists communicate with their counterparts at a $100 million geosciences laboratory that Bechtel wants the government to build in eastern Idaho. Scientists want the facility to research how contaminants -- plutonium, dry cleaning chemicals or mining pollution -- move underground. "Ultimately, six years from now, our goal is to have a series of these mobile labs like little subs going out from the mother ship," microbiologist Rick Colwell said. "We'll go out to field sites where there's a waste problem, ... and they'll be intelligent enough to communicate almost in real time." The strontium-90 project includes Idaho State University, the University of Toronto and Portland State University scientists. With millions of microbes floating around in a liter of groundwater, bacterial communities change quickly after a sample is drawn, said Tina Tyler, an Idaho State microbiology graduate student working on the project. The mobile laboratory lets researchers analyze the bacteria on the spot, before they change too much. "From the time when you collect the water to the time you get back to the lab, it can really change the community you're looking at," Tyler said. "You lose some or cause others to grow." If the researchers can immobilize the strontium-90 for about 300 years, essentially all of the harmful radioactivity will decay away, they said. They have identified microbes that will can do the job in the laboratory, but do not know how well they will perform in a real aquifer. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************