***************************************************************** 07/21/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.178 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Atomic waste 20m from public road 2 Water `fouled by nuclear waste' 3 Reid uses train fire to make point 4 India to set up lasting nuclear reactor 5 GOP bill would give oil companies billions 6 Scotland launches first summary of environmental trends 7 Nuclear Power Is Not on A Comeback 8 Bush plan is balanced, says energy head 9 In battle over Skull Valley, state makes counterstrike - 10 Congressional Hypocrisy 11 Pay Goshutes To Abandon Waste Plans NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Award for INEEL generates skepticism 2 Congress OKs $84M for uranium workers 3 Livermore lab names two to top-level posts 4 Officials react quickly to uranium 5 DOL: Resource Center For Energy Workers To Open 6 Divers Begin Work on Raising Sub 7 Compensation outlined for wary Flats employees 8 Checks coming, officials assure former miners 9 Editorial: Amarillo labors for new center ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Atomic waste 20m from public road The Advertiser: 19 July 2001 By COLIN JAMES RADIOACTIVE waste from the British atomic tests at Maralinga remains buried at the RAAF base at Edinburgh, it has emerged. The material includes equipment used by aircrew when they flew through mushroom clouds as they tracked their movement across southern Australia, including Adelaide. Former RAAF airmen and civilians have provided eyewitness accounts to The Advertiser of how contaminated aircraft parts were dumped in pits at the air base, the largest of which is less than 20m from Heaslip Rd. Documents obtained by The Advertiser also reveal radioactivity continued to be measured at a former decontamination facility at Edinburgh, known as Hangar 594, as recently as the early 1990s. The facility was established to wash and strip aircraft used during the Operation Buffalo and Operation Antler series of atomic tests at Maralinga in 1956 and 1957. RAAF airmen who cleaned the aircraft have told The Advertiser that parts which could not be decontaminated were removed from the planes and dumped in the pit near Heaslip Rd, which is less than 5km from the Angle Vale housing development. They also have provided statements detailing how sludge containing radioactive dust was washed into a sump near the facility and into the public sewerage system. Two Angle Vale residents who saw the pit in the late 1950s before it was sealed with concrete said it had been progressively filled with aircraft parts and equipment. "There were gas masks, fibreglass cones and aluminium fittings," said one man, who asked not to be named because of his links to the defence industry. Another former Angle Vale resident said that, as a 12-year-old, she had regularly seen the pit while riding her horse about the time the first Maralinga bomb exploded on September 27, 1956. "It was this big rectangular pit and they put all sorts of things in there – gas masks, coils, furniture," said the woman, who also asked not to be identified. The pit was one of six toxic waste dumps at the airfield identified by consultant engineers Rust PPK during a 1994 investigation into 172 contaminated sites at Edinburgh and the adjacent 1100ha Defence Science Technology Organisation facility. However, unlike a similar dump at DSTO's Salisbury facility which contained radioactive material from the Woomera missile tests, the RAAF sites have not been remediated as they are located on land which has not been identified for potential residential development. The DSTO radioactive waste was removed from a pit several years ago and is stored in drums at Salisbury inside a secure facility, Building 6, until it can be transported to a nuclear dump proposed for the state's Far North. The RAAF sites are unlikely to be cleaned up because of the cost, with Rust PPK recommending to the Defence Department only those sites in areas earmarked for development be remedied. While preliminary surveys confirmed the waste dumps were contaminated and contained various material, detailed investigations were not undertaken after Rust PPK said "detailed risk assessment is not appropriate". A separate investigation – by engineering consultancy ANSTO – into the DSTO dump found it contained "unusually high" levels of a carcinogenic radioactive material, caesium 137. ***************************************************************** 2 Water `fouled by nuclear waste' The Advertiser: 20 July 2001 By COLIN JAMES RADIOACTIVE waste from British nuclear tests at Maralinga contaminated ground water at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation facility at Salisbury, it has emerged. Tests by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation found "unusually high" levels of a radioactive material, caesium 137, in an unfenced pit in a paddock in the 1950s. A confidential report prepared by ANTSO has revealed the caesium 137 was detected in ground water samples taken from the 20m by 30m pit as part of an investigation into 172 contaminated sites at the DSTO and the adjacent RAAF Edinburgh air base. The DSTO later told employees the contamination was restricted to an area near the pit, with senior management saying there was no risk to public safety as it had not contaminated ground water used for irrigation by nearby market gardeners and orchardists. The ANTSO report in 1993, never publicly released, said the caesium 137 was a "fall-out product from nuclear bomb testing" which had got into water beneath the pit from nearby radioactive waste dumped in the 1950s. "Since soil samples taken from this bore hole did not contain caesium 137, it is believed the caesium activity in the sample arose by migration of caesium 137 containing water into the bore hole during sampling," it said. "As such, there is a strong suggestion that a source of caesium 137 is in the vicinity of the bore hole and, therefore, that an amount of bomb waste material may have been buried at Site Number Two (the official name for the pit)." The buried material included contaminated aircraft and rocket components. Caesium 137 is a highly carcinogenic compound which causes birth defects. It is found only in the radioactive fallout from nuclear explosions and even low levels of exposure are regarded as extremely dangerous. The material heavily contaminated RAAF aircraft which flew into mushroom clouds during the Maralinga tests in 1956 and 1957 to track the clouds' movements across southern Australia. The material was washed off the aircraft by airmen working in purpose-built decontamination facilities. They either hosed it into drains at Edinburgh or collected it as sludge for disposal in sealed drums. Many of the airmen have since died prematurely from cancers, heart failures and brain tumours. The ANTSO report found the DSTO did not identify the origin of the caesium 137. It said only that the "presence of this radionuclide, which is not natural, suggests a radioactive material has been buried in the vicinity of the bore hole from which the water sample was collected". The water sample was analysed by the ANTSO as part of a confidential investigation by environmental consultants Kinhill Metcalf Eddy. The study began after plans were announced to reduce the size of the DSTO facility and Edinburgh from 1800ha to 700ha, with the remaining 1100ha to be sold for residential and industrial development. Investigations identified 172 contaminated sites. ***************************************************************** 3 Reid uses train fire to make point [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Saturday, July 21, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Senator: Derailment underscores nuclear transport dangers By SCOTT SONNER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RENO -- Wednesday's hazardous train derailment in Baltimore underscores the danger of transporting nuclear waste across the country, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid said. But backers of a proposed nuclear waste facility at Nevada's Yucca Mountain said Friday that the Nevada Democrat is using scare tactics to try to thwart the project. They say a nuclear waste train wouldn't leak materials in a crash. "Senator Reid is looking to drum up fear about what is a safe, responsible nuclear waste transportation record," said Sarah Berk, press secretary to Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a dump proponent. "It is really unfair for Senator Reid to use this as an opportunity to make a case against Yucca Mountain by scaring the public," added Mitch Singer, a spokesman for the Nuclear Industry Institute, a Washington-based industry group. Reid, majority whip in the Senate, acknowledged using scare tactics, but said that wasn't a negative thing. "People should be frightened and afraid and have anxiety because we do not have the ability to safely transport nuclear waste," he said. "I'm afraid, and I want other people to recognize they should also be afraid, because the nuclear power industry has no concern about the safety of human beings. Their only concern is the safety of their profit and loss statements." Reid started the exchange in a Senate floor speech Thursday, saying the crash in a Baltimore tunnel near Camden Yards baseball park should slow the "mad clamor by the nuclear power industry to send nuclear waste somewhere." "They don't care where it goes, but they have focused on Nevada for the present time. And I think everyone needs to recognize that transporting dangerous materials is very difficult," he said. The leaking hydrochloric acid in Baltimore is nothing compared to the high-level radioactive waste proposed for the Yucca Mountain site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, he said. "A speck the size of a pinpoint would kill a person. And we're talking about transporting some 70,000 tons of it across America," Reid said. Reid, the second-ranking senator behind Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, said an estimated 60 million people would be within 1 mile of the truck and rail routes proposed to ship waste to Yucca Mountain. "What we should do with nuclear waste is leave it where it is," he said. Craig, a leading advocate of the Yucca site as a place to ship nuclear waste from Idaho, was not immediately available for comment. His spokeswoman said that Craig thinks Reid is engaged in "a misguided and misinformed effort to connect something that should not be connected." "The fact of the matter is, if that train had been carrying nuclear components, it would have been protected in containers that would have prevented this sort of a spill," Berk said from Washington. "The nuclear power industry has a phenomenal safety record and is continuing to develop safe and responsible methods to handle nuclear waste," she said. The industry institute says eight shipping accidents have occurred since the transportation of spent fuel began in 1964, and none of the accidents resulted in radioactive releases because the shipping containers were not breached. "Senator Reid is being somewhat disingenuous," Singer said. "The vaults are made of concrete and steel. They can sustain the most severe accident. Even if it is breached, there is no chain reaction." "The nuclear fuel is a solid material. You are not going to have something like what happened in Baltimore because the used fuel cannot burn or explode," Singer said. Reid disagreed. "Everyone in America should recognize that a train with nuclear waste, no matter what container it has, puts the entire area in jeopardy if they have a fire or something like this." The Energy Department is studying Yucca Mountain as the site to bury 77,000 tons of the nation's highly radioactive waste. A recommendation is expected to be made to President Bush by the end of the year. The earliest the nuclear waste repository could open would be 2010. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Jul-21-Sat-2001/news/16586518.html ***************************************************************** 4 India to set up lasting nuclear reactor : Technology News : IndiaExpress.Com 17.35 IST 21st July 2001 By IndiaExpress Bureau India is planning to install a 220-MW advanced heavy water reactor with a life of 100 years, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman Anil Kakkodkar said in Bangalore on July 21. Talking to reporters, he said the site for the new reactor was yet to be decided, but efforts were already on to complete its design within two years. The new reactor would have advanced safety features such as a new natural circulation cooling system. ''Even in the United States, efforts are on to extend the life of nuclear power reactors by another 20 years, after the original 40 year life-cycle,'' Dr Kakkodkar said. ***************************************************************** 5 GOP bill would give oil companies billions Orange County Register - Top News The package also favors power industries and has conservation incentives. Opponents vow to kill it on House floor. July 21, 2001 By H. JOSEF HEBERT The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- House Republican leaders hope to pass a broad energy package in the coming weeks that offers billions of dollars in tax breaks and favors for the coal, oil and nuclear industries as well as conservation incentives. Much of the legislation, which emerged in bits and pieces this week from four House committees, mirrors - and in some cases goes beyond - the energy blueprint outlined by President George W. Bush two months ago. House GOP leaders have promised to enact energy legislation before Congress leaves in August for its summer recess. The energy package includes drilling in an Arctic wildlife refuge, a top priority of the White House; incentives for technology to allow continued use of coal for power production; and tax breaks for high-mileage hybrid gas-electric automobiles. But in some cases, the House committees have cleared measures not even sought by the administration. Within one of the energy bills is a provision giving some of the largest, most profitable oil companies a waiver on having to pay the government royalties on oil and gas taken from new lease areas in the Gulf of Mexico. During the presidential campaign, Bush opposed such a royalty waiver, which critics say amounts to a $7.3 billion windfall to the oil companies. The House tax-writing committee, meanwhile, produced $33.5 billion worth of energy-related tax breaks - a much broader sweep of tax incentives than Bush has sought - even though some Democrats wondered whether there will be money available. About half the tax breaks would go to oil, gas and coal industries and an additional $9 billion was earmarked to promote conservation and energy efficiency Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the aim was to produce "a balanced package of tax measures" that helps conservation and development of energy supplies. But the breath of the tax incentives went far beyond those proposed by the White House energy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. In addition to tax breaks for clean-coal initiatives, refineries, pipelines and nuclear power plants, the committee also approved tax credits on a wide range of conservation programs, from helping to sell hybrid-fueled cars to making it cheaper to insulate homes, buy residential solar panels, reduce energy use in commercial buildings and develop and sell more efficient appliances. Still, "overall the (legislative) package is disappointing," said David Nemtzow, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, a private energy conservation advocacy group. While Nemtzow praised the tax writers for some of their provisions, he said big-ticket energy-saving items, such as a major increase in automobile fuel economy and tougher appliance standards, were largely rejected in other energy legislation advanced to the House floor this week. The disagreements over energy efficiency, a fight Democrats pledged to continue when the legislation is considered by the full House, was apparent during the Energy and Commerce Committee's crafting of its energy bill. A proposal to boost the federal corporate average fuel economy standard, or CAFE, from the current 27.5 mpg to 37.5 mpg was soundly defeated, 43-11. Another fuel economy increase and an attempt to force the Bush administration to accept a more stringent federal air conditioner standard also fell by similar margins. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., the committee chairman, dismissed the criticism. He called the legislation that emerged from committee by a 50-5 vote a "landmark conservation bill" that for the first time in years has Congress taking steps to increase motor vehicle fuel economy. The bill requires that CAFE standards for light trucks be adjusted to reduce gasoline consumption by new sport utility vehicles and minivans by 5 billion gallons over six years. Critics called that far too little, noting that the gasoline savings over six years would amount to about what all cars and trucks consume in two weeks. The Bush administration's biggest victory came in the Resources Committee, where Democrats failed 19-29 to strip the legislation of a provision that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska. Opponents vowed to kill the provision on the House floor, where Democrats would be joined by many moderate Republicans in opposing it. Senate Democrats also have said no Arctic refuge drilling measure would pass. Nevertheless, Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, sponsor of the legislation, said he was optimistic. "It's a selling job," he said. The Orange County Register ***************************************************************** 6 Scotland launches first summary of environmental trends The Scottish Executive has launched its first annual statistics on the quality of the environment together with an identification of trends in the data. Scotland's waters are improving Key Scottish Environment Statistics has been published in the form of a booklet and on its own website with the general public as its target audience. The data covers energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, water and air quality, as well as radioactive discharges, waste, land use, conservation and biodiversity. Each page includes an easily interpretable chart and table. The report replaces Scottish Environment Statistics, which was last published in 1998, and contains mixed blessings. On air quality, there have been vast improvements in levels of lead, carbon monoxide, ground level ozone and sulphur dioxide over recent years, but nitrogen dioxide and particulate levels have remained largely static. On water quality, there has been a vast improvement in drinking water quality, with the percentage of drinking water containing coliforms dropping from 7% in 1991 to 1.5% in 1996/7, and the percentage of samples complying with effluent standards increasing from 73% in 19996/7 to 82% in 1999/2000. However, the length of rivers classified as having an excellent water quality has declined slightly in recent years. Nitrate loads have also increase in parts of Scotland over the last 20 years, especially in the east where concentrations have risen from 11.4 mg/l to 13.3 mg/l now. The report also shows that in 1998/9, only 3.8% of Scotland’s refuse was recycled. “Making this information available in an easy-to-read format will not only allow the public to understand the information but it will also enable them to make informed choices about the impact their actions will have on the environment,” commented Scottish Deputy Environment Minister Rhona Brankin launching the publication on 17 July. “Encouraging individuals to consider how their actions affect the environment is central to the Scottish Executive’s ‘Do a Little, Change a Lot’ campaign. Relatively small changes in people’s daily routines can build up to produce large benefits for the environment and it is our intention to make everyone aware of the importance of these small steps. So reducing the energy we consume, by walking short distances rather than using the car or not over filling the kettle are the kind of positive and easy steps we can take.” “Public access to information on the environment is central to getting over this message,” Brankin added. “Access to such information enables the public to take decisions in the full knowledge of the likely environmental implications and to participate more effectively in the decision making process that affects the environment.” + Scottish Environment Statistics Online © Faversham House Group Ltd 2001. This article may be copied or forwarded for ***************************************************************** 7 Nuclear Power Is Not on A Comeback Welcome to The PMA OnLine Power Report The Cincinnati Post ( July 20, 2001 ) To the editor of The Post: Despite the claims of the return of nuclear power trumpeted in the article headlined "Once doomed, nuclear power on comeback" (The Post, July 16), nuclear power in the U.S. is as dead as a doornail. All the problems that have plagued this technology since its inception remain. Nuclear plants are too expensive, take too long to build, produce wastes we don't know how to dispose of, are plagued with safety problems,and have huge back-end costs for decommissioning. Future generations who received no benefit will have to pay to isolate dangerous nuclear waste from the environment for thousands of years. The nuke revival is largely a figment of a few overheated imaginations in Washington. No new plants have been ordered since the early 1970s because investors recognize that nuclear power is both a failed energy technology and a poor fiscal investment. Nukes are black holes of cost overruns that threatened to drive utilities bankrupt long before the word "deregulation" ever issued from former California Gov. Pete Wilson's lips. It was the bailout of nuclear utility subsidies for almost $9 billion in so-called "stranded" expenses they could never otherwise recover that led to the California deregulation fiasco in the first place. There are more good reasons why new nukes will never be built. First of all, siting nuclear plants is a nightmare. You won't see communities lining up to take a chance on being the next Three Mile Island or Chernobyl. Years ago, Cincinnati residents wisely stopped the Zimmer power plant from going nuclear. Nationwide, urban settings are largely out because of evacuation problems. Nuclear power's record of mishaps is long and disturbing. It is a telling fact that Vice President Dick Cheney is demanding that Congress revive an archaic law limiting the liability of nuclear power plant operators in the event of a major accident. If this technology is so safe, why do they need that? The biggest reason nukes will never be built, however, is that they are irrelevant. By the time we build even one new plant, California and the rest of the nation will have a surplus of electricity from technologies that are safer, cleaner, cheaper and faster to implement, some of which - like fuel cells and solar electricity - have nearly unlimited promise. While President Bush wastes time promoting nukes, clean and cost- efficient new technologies are going begging. As the administration talks about efficiency and renewable forms of energy, it is slashing the funding to make them happen. A federal investment far smaller than that provided to nuclear power could make direct solar electricity an affordable option for most Americans. Carl Zichella West Coast Regional Director Sierra Club (C) 2001 The Cincinnati Post. via ProQuest Information and ***************************************************************** 8 Bush plan is balanced, says energy head Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer Saturday, July 21, 2001 Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, on a national tour to push the White House energy plan, argued yesterday that -- particularly in California -- the Bush administration has been unfairly portrayed as a foe to conservation and a close friend of big energy firms. "Ours is the one being characterized as the oil or gas industry plan," Abraham said in a meeting with The Chronicle editorial board yesterday. "If you look at our plan, all 105 recommendations, what you'll see is a very balanced approach to get these things done." Abraham -- criticized last month for mixing official government business with GOP fund-raisers -- was in California on a two-day trip paid for by taxpayers. But he again drew fire for the overlap of government and politics on the trip. To promote President Bush's energy plan, the secretary appeared before the Chronicle and Los Angeles Times editorial boards and spoke Thursday night to the Bay Area Council. But yesterday, the Associated Press reported that he headlined a $500-per- person National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee lunch in Los Angeles, which drew 30 to 50 people and was closed to reporters. Abraham spokesman Joe Davis defended the secretary's presence at the fund- raiser, telling AP, "You try to maximize his time. . . . But the vast majority of the traveling we're doing, 99 percent of it, deals with promotion of the national energy plan." At The Chronicle, the secretary found himself defending the administration on two other energy-related controversies. He backed Vice President Dick Cheney in Cheney's refusal to provide the General Accounting Office with records detailing who participated in meetings to develop the Bush energy policy. And Abraham said the flap over Cheney's request that the Navy pick up the energy bill for the vice president's official residence, the Naval Observatory, was much ado about nothing. Abraham said his department has responded to all questions from the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, regarding who participated in meetings related to the department's recommendations and policies on energy. In all cases, he said, "the people who participated in decisionmaking" were government employees. "There does have to be some consideration about whether we wish to have a precedent set that any time anybody talks to the president or vice president, that has to be discoverable information. It's an executive issue, a privilege issue, that needs to be maintained." Abraham brushed aside criticism that Republicans -- who assailed the closed meetings of Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care task force when she was first lady -- may be guilty of a double standard. The Clinton task force, he said, "was a multi-month (effort), and people who were not government employees were directly involved in deliberations and policy development. "The product of that was a piece of legislation. . . . We did not produce a piece of legislation. We did not have nongovernment employees engaged in the process of deliberations." Abraham also rejected the notion that Cheney was sending the wrong message by asking the Navy to pay his home energy bills. The amount of funding involved, he joked, is "a couple of months of the Mark Fabiani contract," referring to the salary of a political consultant hired -- then let go -- by Gov. Gray Davis recently. Saying the Cheneys have "engaged in appropriate steps" to reduce their energy consumption, Abraham said, "the taxpayers are going to pay this one way or the other." He insisted that the administration has been unfairly characterized as indifferent to conservation and praised efforts here. "California, to me, is the best example of a . . . great performance on conservation," he said. "But that alone is not able to sustain the kind of growth in economy that you've enjoyed." Abraham said too much has been made of the administration's call for greater energy production and supply. "To some . . . the examination of our plan has never gone beyond ANWAR," he said, referring to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which the president wants to open to oil drilling. "We've got the people who don't like nuclear energy, who don't like coal, . . . we've got a strong contingent now opposed to hydro power," he said. "I've heard from -- and we've been amused by -- the anti wind-power community, who feel that it's both unsightly but it also endangers animals. We have the anti- supply, the anti-drilling and (anti-) digging (forces)." Abraham said such protesters "have built up so strongly that anybody advocating more supply almost immediately . . . finds themselves characterized in an extremely unfair fashion." The Associated Press contributed to this report. / E-mail Carla Marinucci at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com. ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle   Page A - 6 ***************************************************************** 9 In battle over Skull Valley, state makes counterstrike - Tooele Transcript Bulletin - by Jeff Schmerker state makes counterstrike But Leavitt's response to nuke suit take peculiar path, PFS says by Jeff Schmerker Staff Writer Gov. Mike Leavitt struck back at the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes and "foreign" nuclear waste consortium Private Fuel Storage on Wednesday, both of whom want to bring highly radioactive waste to Tooele County. Leavitt personally led the state's charge against the Indians and the limited liability consortium who claimed in an April lawsuit that a volley of state legislation meant to keep nuclear waste out of the state violated interstate commerce rules. But the state, in a response filed in U.S. District Court Wednesday morning, largely ignored the groups' claims of violated commerce and instead counterclaimed that the proposed Skull Valley nuclear waste site will be invalid since the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has neither the authority nor the jurisdiction to license a private, for-profit nuclear waste dump. The state also contends that any NRC study of the Skull Valley site is insufficient and in violation of national environmental laws since it fails to look at the dump's effects beyond a relatively-narrow 40-year official licensing period. The counterclaim further charges that the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes, who would profit handsomely if the waste ever comes, has not properly approved its lease with Private Fuel Storage and that the Bureau of Indian Affairs' conditional approval of the lease violates the agency's own laws and amounts to a federal-level breach of trust against the tribe. The suit also asks that the case be tried before a jury. The long-anticipated rebuttal stems from a suit filed in April by the waste consortium which claimed that laws passed by the 2000 Utah Legislature amounted to an interference with interstate commerce since the waste storage was a deal between a private company and a sovereign Indian nation. The state's laws banned nuclear waste, placed huge taxes on nuclear waste shipments to the state, and barred Tooele County from offering municipal services to the proposed waste site. But like any court battle, Leavitt and his special anti-nuke counsel Monte Stewart also threw in a volley of words on Wednesday. Leavitt said only a "small number" of Goshutes backed the deal and Stewart called Private Fuel Storage a consortium of "foreign" utility companies - meaning they are not from Utah. "Private Fuel Storage and a small number of Goshutes believe Utah should be the resting place for the nation's nuclear waste. We disagree," said Gov. Mike Leavitt at a press conference at the state capitol. "Private Fuel Storage and a small number of Goshutes believe Utah should not have the capability to interfere with their bringing (the waste) here. We disagree." Monte Stewart, Utah's lead attorney on high-level nuclear waste storage, added that Private Fuel Storage's action amounts to an attack on Indians everywhere. The proposal, said Stewart, "is a money-making scheme that has abused and distorted the concept of Indian sovereignty ... They are selling Indian sovereignty." Of the five legal legs the state plans to stand on against Private Fuel Storage - state claims about Nuclear Regulatory Commission jurisdiction or Bureau of Indian Affairs breach of trust - Stewart said any one alone was strong enough to win in court. But the state's response was curiously bereft of answers to Private Fuel Storage's anti-trade claims. Private Fuel Storage spokeswoman Sue Martin said that was a purposeful attempt to divert the court's attention. "It seems to us that the way they are trying to do this is an attempt to divert the court's attention away from the issues of the law that we requested clarification on," Martin said after the press conference. "They are going off on their own tangent but obviously at some point in the process our claims will have to be addressed." Martin also denied any notions that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was unable to approve the temporary site, "or we would not have gotten this far in the process," and that the deal was compromising tribal sovereignty. "I don't know where he gets that," said Martin. "It is the state that has challenged Indian sovereignty." Tooele County officials said the federal court matters take the issue of nuclear waste storage even further out of local hands. "I think they've pretty well tied our hands up," said Tooele County Commission Chairman Dennis Rockwell. At the press conference, Leavitt also hinted at what the 2002 legislative session might hold - action on environmental statutes and pressure on nuclear utility shareholders. "We intend not to leave a stone unturned to make sure this waste does not come to Utah," Leavitt said. "The state's authority and responsibility to protect its citizens and the environment are clear. We can and will act to keep our state free of high-level nuclear waste." E-mail: jeffs@tooeletranscript.com Entire contents copyright ©2001 Tooele Transcript-Bulletin Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the managing editor or publisher. (435) 882-0050 FAX (435) 882-6123 e-mail:tbp@tooeletranscript.com or webmaster@trilobyte.net ***************************************************************** 10 Congressional Hypocrisy The Salt Lake Tribune -- July 21, 2001 On June 28, Congress killed an effort to fund a study of transportation of nuclear waste to the proposed burial site at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The House of Representatives rejected 321-102 an amendment offered by Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., to the $27 billion energy and water spending bill that would have set aside $500,000 to examine potential road and rail shipment routes. Incredibly, all three Utah House members voted against the study. Opponents argued that it was premature to study nuclear waste transportation because Yucca Mountain has not been approved yet as the permanent repository for the waste, and that there would be ample time to assess transportation issues before the Nevada site opens, if it ever does. Berkley called that logic "bass-ackwards." She's right. The government has spent billions of dollars over the last two decades studying the suitability of Yucca Mountain, but still hasn't selected, much less examined in detail, the suitability of railway and/or highway routes that many thousands of shipments would follow. Some might suggest that Nevada's congressional delegation is just trying to stir up opposition to the Yucca Mountain project by trying to play the transportation card in corridor communities across the country where some 50 million people live. But don't those citizens have a right to know how nuclear waste shipments might affect them? And why don't Utah's congressmen want to know? After all, they unanimously oppose shipping nuclear waste to Utah for storage on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, at least in part due to concerns about transportation safety and diminished property values along the routes. Could it be they still think that if the Yucca Mountain project is approved, that the waste won't stop in Utah? If so, they haven't been paying attention because Private Fuel Storage fully intends to park their waste here regardless of the outcome with the Nevada site. Maybe their constituents need to remind them that it won't matter whether the waste is headed to Yucca or Skull Valley if there's a nuclear waste accident on I-15 or the railroads in Ogden, Salt Lake, Provo, St. George or other Utah "corridor communities." WILLIAM R. JENSEN Citizens Education Project Salt Lake City © Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 11 Pay Goshutes To Abandon Waste Plans The Salt Lake Tribune -- Saturday, July 21, 2001 BY JAMES P. STERBA THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Editor's note: James P. Sterba, a University of Notre Dame professor, crafts a moral argument that the state should provide a financial incentive to persuade the Goshute tribe to not take nuclear waste. This essay, excerpted here, appeared in Teaching Ethics, a journal published at Utah Valley State College. The Skull Valley Band of the Goshute, like most American Indians, have suffered severe injustices since the European conquest while very little has been done to rectify those injustices. Currently, the Goshute are using the limited sovereignty they retain to negotiate a lucrative agreement with a private consortium to build a nuclear waste repository on their reservation. It would be a mistake to try to morally evaluate this decision independently of the past history of the Goshute people. All acknowledge that the Goshute were once as numerous as 20,000 and lived for centuries in the Great Basin of Utah and Nevada. Decimated by disease and conquest, their leaders signed a treaty in 1863 granting them limited sovereignty over a reservation at Skull Valley. This was certainly not a just agreement. It took away from the Goshute the best part of the land they had lived on for centuries and left them with a small stretch of land which at the time was deemed worthless. It was even hoped that the Goshute would not be able to survive on this land and that they would eventually just die out, as had happened to so many other Indian peoples. Today those who remain of the Goshute people are trying to use what limited legal rights they still have to turn part of their reservation into a nuclear waste repository from which each tribal member would receive from between $100,000 and $2 million and the county where Skull Valley is located would receive some additional financial benefits. Are the Goshute people morally justified in taking this action? I would maintain that they are so long as those who oppose this use of their reservation fail to make the Goshute a more attractive offer, an offer that would go some way toward rectifying the past injustices from which they have suffered. Only 30 of 120 Goshutes alive today live on the reservation in Skull Valley -- and those who live there are very poor. The land left them by the 1863 treaty, as was expected, did not permit the Goshute to prosper. To use part of their land as a nuclear repository is an attempt by the Goshute to improve their situation. Of course, turning part of the Goshute reservation into a nuclear repository is certain to impose serious risks on the surrounding population. Yet the appropriate remedy here is to make the Goshute an attractive counteroffer. For example, suppose the state of Utah and other interested parties offered the Goshute a multi-million dollar economic development and relocation package for not having this particular nuclear waste repository on their reservation. Surely, this would be a morally attractive option for the Goshute to take. But in the absence of such a counteroffer I believe that the Goshute are morally justified in turning part of their reservation into a nuclear waste repository in order to improve their condition.... ...I believe that if the state of Utah and other interested parties were to agree to provide significant financial assistance to the Goshute, they should at least be willing to scale back their agreement with the private consortium so as only to permit a much smaller depository on their reservation, which would then be one of several temporary nuclear waste depositories that would be maintained throughout the country while ongoing research continues concerning detoxification and/or permanent storage. At least, this is what I would judge to be the most morally preferable alternative. © Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Award for INEEL generates skepticism IdahoStatesman.com July 20, 2001 The Associated Press POCATELLO -- Watchdog groups question the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory's new award for being one of the safest workplaces in the country. And they charge the Bush administration is beginning to restrict public access to accident reports at such federal installations. Department of Energy officials last week announced the nuclear site had achieved Gold Star status: the highest possible safety rating in private or government workplaces under the national Voluntary Protection Program. "I kind of scratched my head when I read about it," said Mary Mitchell, program director for Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free in Jackson, Wyo. "We on our own have uncovered lots of safety violations, specifically to public health and workers' safety." The group and others waged last year's successful battle to block a proposed nuclear waste incinerator at the Idaho site. The Environmental Defense Institute, based in Troy, tracks health and safety issues at the INEEL. It cites 27 pages of minor and major accidents in the past decade. "The INEEL site simply does not have any kind of stellar record if you go into it with a serious review of their accident history," said Chuck Broscious, institute director. Some observers do believe safety conditions have improved. Gary Richardson, Snake River Alliance executive director, said, "I think Bechtel is definitely doing a better job than their predecessors, at least with worker safety." The groups worry they will not be able to track safety. "Under the Clinton administration, they posted on the Internet all the major accidents that happened at various sites within the DOE complex," Broscious said. "That access has now been restricted to contractors and DOE officials." ***************************************************************** 2 Congress OKs $84M for uranium workers July 21, 2001 By Margo MacFarland Herald Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON – The U.S. House and Senate Friday passed a finalized version of legislation containing $84 million to pay elderly, sick uranium industry workers who are holding government IOUs. The law will pay the workers $100,000 apiece, money that the government owes them as compensation for their exposure to radiation during the Cold War era. Now that Congress has approved the legislation – and President Bush is likely to sign it when he returns from his trip to Europe – the federal government will begin next week sending out paperwork to IOU holders. There are 71 IOU holders in Colorado who are owed a total of $6.5 million, said Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said. Nationwide, there are 486 IOU holders who are owed a total of $31.8 million. There are hundreds more applicants who are still waiting for the government to approve their claims. The IOU holders could receive their money as soon as two weeks after they have signed and returned the necessary paperwork to the government, Miller said. "We want to try and get ahead of this now that we know we can do it," he said, referring to the money that Congress just appropriated for this program. The Justice Department administers the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) program, which is designed to compensate former uranium industry workers and residents exposed to radiation during Cold War-era weapons production. But the program went bankrupt last year after Congress failed to adequately fund it, and instead of sending checks to those whose claims were approved, the government sent IOUs instead. Miller said that IOU holders will have the choice of receiving their money in the form of a check or direct deposit into their bank accounts. If they opt for direct deposit, they could receive the money within two weeks of the time that the government receives back the signed forms. If claimants opt for a check, it will take longer – perhaps six to eight weeks. Contents copyright © 2001, the Durango Herald. All rights ***************************************************************** 3 Livermore lab names two to top-level posts Published Saturday, July 21, 2001 By Andrea Widener TIMES STAFF WRITER A long-time lab weapons scientist and a newcomer to California -- but not lab issues -- will take over high-level positions at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Former Department of Energy senior adviser Merna Hurd will take over the newly created position of associate deputy director, where she will help oversee the administrative side of the lab. Physicist and long-time lab employee Bruce Goodwin will run the lab's nuclear weapons programs as associate director for defense and nuclear technologies. This includes all nuclear weapons modeling, materials experiments and the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative, which operates the world's largest computer to model nuclear explosions. With these appointments, the lab has almost completed a 10-month hiring marathon to fill seven top-level management positions, a nearly unprecedented number of openings. Only one top-level job, associate director of biology and biotechnology, remains open. The hires include the lab's first Asian-American associate director and three women, including Hurd. At least two of the new managers have come from outside the lab. "I think we have really entered a new era," said Kimberly Budil, a physicist who, with her colleagues, has been calling for more diversity among managers. "There was something very important about the usual suspects not taking (these) jobs." Hurd is a civil engineer by training who has been in many business and government management positions, including vice president at Science Applications International Corp. and manager of water programs at the Environmental Protection Agency. Most recently, she was a senior adviser at the DOE overseeing management issues for defense, science, environment and energy programs. At DOE, Hurd saw many challenges facing the laboratories, including construction project management, aging infrastructure and workforce issues, such as retaining valuable weapons knowledge from older employees and recruiting young people. "I come from a different background, and I want to add to what is already at the lab," said Hurd, 59, who has her master's degree from the University of Nebraska. Since 1995, Goodwin has led the lab division responsible for designing, modeling and studying the way a nuclear weapon explodes. He came to Livermore in 1985, after four years at both Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Illinois, where he was getting his doctoral degree in astrophysics. Goodwin said he expects to lobby the DOE to put another of the world's largest computers in Livermore and continuing to recruit and retain diverse employees into the weapons program. "The demands of what it is that we have to do in a world without nuclear testing are extremely challenging," said Goodwin, 50. "It is a very big job, and I expect it will be a very exciting job." Andrea Widener covers science and the area's national laboratories. Reach her at 925-847-2158 or . ContraCostaTimes.com ***************************************************************** 4 Officials react quickly to uranium [charlotte.com] Published Saturday, July 21, 2001 high levels found in s.c. residents Officials react quickly to uranium Money pledged to extend public water lines; effect of tainted wells unknown By HENRY EICHEL Columbia Bureau SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. -- High levels of uranium in wells at about 60 homes have public officials scrambling to find money to extend public water lines to the area. People in a rapidly growing unincorporated area south of Greenville have known since January about the uranium in their drinking water. They got another jolt this week from their lab tests: Of 105 people tested, 94 had abnormally high levels of uranium in their bodies. Within days, U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint of Greenville had secured a promise from House leaders to include $2 million in next year's budget bill to get public water for the area. Gov. Jim Hodges then recommended the state kick in an additional $500,000. Other elected officials called for immediate federal action and asked for a visit from the nation's top environment officer. The type of uranium found poses no radiation danger. It occurred naturally, over millions of years, in the ancient granite and metamorphic rocks that underlie the Appalachian foothills. But, like other heavy metals such as lead and mercury, it can cause kidney damage if ingested in large enough doses over a long enough period. "It's so scary; you don't know what to do, where to turn," said Doris Boyke, 60. "You've got all these so-called experts coming out of the woodwork that are scaring you to death." Boyke's 41-year-old son Randy Greer, and grandson, T.J., 17, lived for 10 years in a mobile home on a lot she owned in rural southern Greenville County. Earlier this year, a test of the lot's well water yielded what University of South Carolina geology professor Tom Temples says is "the highest concentration of dissolved uranium of anything we can find anywhere in the world." Greer and his son moved out of the mobile home in February and into Boyke's home several miles away on a county water line. Still, lab tests performed in April showed nearly seven times as much uranium in his body as federal health standards say is acceptable. His son's level was 41/2 times the acceptable level. Does that mean that Greer, his son, and 92 other people are in danger? "We really don't know that," said Ken Orloff, the senior toxicologist with the federal government's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta. Scientists don't know what level of uranium in a person's body is likely to make them sick, he said. Dr. Robert Marino, state epidemiologist with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, said animal testing has shown uranium to be less harmful than mercury or lead. "It's not very toxic to the kidneys, but it can be at very high doses," he said. No one knows what constitutes a high enough dose to be dangerous. Greer's physician, Dr. Earl Hutchins, said he hasn't found any evidence of kidney damage. "But even if everything is negative now, he'll have to be tested again in six months, just to be sure. So there's an amount of uncertainty in his future." The uncertainty hasn't discouraged some S.C. elected officials from calling for immediate action. Attorney General Charlie Condon this week released a letter he'd sent to President Bush asking that the Environment Protection Agency launch a study to find "the danger posed to the health and safety of South Carolina citizens by uranium contamination." Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler asked that EPA Director Christie Whitman come personally to South Carolina. And state Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, called for DHEC to investigate where else in South Carolina uranium might be found in drinking water. In fact, says USC geologist Temples, there is a good chance high concentrations of uranium might be present in wells along the Appalachian front from Alabama to Virginia. Just last month, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that wells in northwestern North Carolina have some of the nation's highest levels of radon, the gas that uranium releases as it decays. Radon gas that has been released into the air is the nation's second leading cause of lung cancer, behind smoking, the EPA says. The same Greenville County wells with high amounts of uranium also had potentially dangerous levels of radon. Temples said he and consulting geologist Jim Furr of Simpsonville, who first discovered the high uranium levels, are working with DHEC on a grant proposal to show to "whoever we can find who has the money available." He said, "We want to go in and try to understand how widespread it is in the Greenville area, and how did it form, so we can use that information to identify other areas just like this one." Meanwhile, congressman DeMint said Friday he is pushing for a $1.5 million appropriation for an EPA study, in addition to the $2million for water lines. "We don't know the health risk at this point," he said, "but I know enough that I am concerned for the health of the people who live there. I think it's essential that we get public water to these people immediately, if not sooner." Henry Eichel: (803) 779-5037; heichel@charlotteobserver.com ***************************************************************** 5 DOL: Resource Center For Energy Workers To Open U.S. Newswire 20 Jul 15:42 DOL: Resource Center for Energy Workers To Open in Rocky Flats, Colo. To: National Desk Contact: Michael Shields of the U.S. Department of Labor, 202-693-4650; Web site: www.dol.gov ROCKY FLATS, Colo., July 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A resource center designed to help sick nuclear weapons industry workers and their families receive compensation from the federal government will open in Rocky Flats, Colo. on July 23, 2001. "Our goal is to take care of the men and women who were harmed as quickly as possible," said Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao. "These workers gave their labor -- and many of them gave their health - in the service and protection of our country during the Cold War." The Rocky Flats resource center is one of 10 or more such centers opening around the country that will offer personal assistance in filing claim forms for the Energy Employees Occupational Injury Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), passed by Congress in October 2000. "I join Secretary Chao in supporting these centers that will help the workers who played a very important role in this country's defense mission," said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. "The resource centers are a visible sign of our commitment to put words into action, and will help our workers get benefits as quickly as possible." EEOICPA pays $150,000 lump-sum compensation and related medical expenses to workers who became seriously ill from exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica while working in the nuclear weapons industry for the Department of Energy, including its contractors and subcontractors. Compensation will also be available to some survivors and to uranium workers who are eligible for benefits under Section Five of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. DOE workers who have occupational illnesses due to toxic exposures will also receive assistance in applying for benefits that may be available through the state workers' compensation program. The Departments of Labor and Energy, which jointly operate the centers, have opened or will open centers in Paducah, Ky.; Portsmouth, Ohio; Las Vegas, Nev.; Richland, Wash.; Espanola, N.M.; Idaho Falls, Idaho; North Augusta, S.C.; Anchorage, Alaska; and Oak Ridge, Tenn. Claimants can also receive assistance at the Department of Labor District Offices in Seattle, Wash.; Denver, Colo.; Cleveland, Ohio; and Jacksonville, Fla. Claimants can call 720-540-4977 to set up an appointment with a caseworker. Claimants or their families can also pick up claim forms at the Resource Center, 8758 Wolf Court, Suite No. 201, Westminster, Colo. 80030. More information about the EEOICPA is available online at www.dol.govor by calling the Department of Labor's toll-free call center at 866-888-3322. /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ ***************************************************************** 6 Divers Begin Work on Raising Sub Today: July 21, 2001 at 3:35:32 PDT MOSCOW- A team of divers began working on the sunken nuclear submarine Kursk on Saturday, marking sections of the hull where holes will be drilled to attach cables to lift the vessel, a Russian navy spokesman said. The divers, two Russians and a Briton, descended into the water in a special bell from the Norwegian diving support ship Mayo, which is serving as a base for the salvage operation, navy spokesman Igor Dygalo told the Interfax news agency. The Kursk sank on Aug. 12, 2000, during a training exercise in the Barents Sea off northern Russia, killing all 118 crew members. The international operation for salvaging the submarine began this week, as engineers used an unmanned, remote-controlled vessel to measure radiation levels. The divers, working in shifts, were marking places on sections of the hull where holes will be cut for steel cables to be attached, Dygalo said. The cables will be attached to 26 hydraulic lifting units anchored to a giant pontoon, which will be towed to the northern port city of Murmansk. The submarine's first compartment, which was mangled in the explosion that sank the Kursk and could contain unexploded torpedoes, is to be cut off and left at the bottom of the Barents Sea when the submarine is raised in September. Dygalo said Thursday that cameras examining the first compartment this week did not discover any unexploded ammunition. Russia has maintained that no radiation has leaked from the wreck but says it is raising it to ensure the Kursk's two reactors pose no future danger. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 Compensation outlined for wary Flats employees Denver Post.com By Stacie Oulton Denver Post Staff Writer --> Friday, July 20, 2001 - WESTMINSTER - Rocky Flats workers came with their canes, their wheelchairs and their oxygen tanks Thursday to learn about compensation from the federal government for the ills they suffer because of their jobs at the former nuclear weapons plant. They also came with their tape recorders. A crowd of more than 200 current and former employees was filled with deep skepticism that the U.S. government will actually pay each worker the pledged money and provide lifetime medical coverage for cancer and other diseases caused by exposures to toxic substances at the plant. Jack Frazee, a 17-year veteran of Rocky Flats, made sure he had his tape recorder running when he asked his questions of federal officials assembled at an afternoon meeting at a Westminster hotel. "Typically the situation is the government says one thing and won't perform what they were saying" they were going to do, Frazee said, explaining his use of the recorder. Frazee retired from the plant outside Arvada nine years ago and has been told he is sensitized to beryllium, a metal whose dust causes a debilitating lung disease called chronic beryllium disease. He could eventually develop the disease, which can be fatal. "I think they were more worried about getting weapons out than safety," said Richard Mizak, an 18-year veteran at the plant, who was laid off in May. In October, Congress passed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act. Sick workers and their relatives can make claims for up to $150,000. How much will be paid out isn't known. But the government expects to spend $358 million between July and October and another $597 million in 2002, said Peter Turcic, director of the compensation program. About 80,000 claims are expected in the first two years, but how many workers will seek compensation is unknown. Turcic said 654,000 people worked at Rocky Flats and other Energy Department facilities across the country, but that number does not include employees of contractors, subcontractors and vendors who also are eligible for the program. Rocky Flats has the most employees diagnosed with chronic beryllium disease of any federal plant in the country, and an estimated 2,000 Coloradans could be affected by the program, officials have said. Workers were told that they can begin applying for their compensation on July 31. All contents Copyright 2001 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 8 Checks coming, officials assure former miners Rocky Mountain News: Local By Ellen Miller, Special to the News GRAND JUNCTION -- About 150 people, some former uranium miners on oxygen or in wheelchairs, listened skeptically Friday as federal officials tried to assure them that their compensation checks will be in the mail. The long-awaited payments are for former uranium miners, nuclear test participants and others with illnesses linked to the Cold War nuclear arms buildup. They are eligible for payments, but the funding has been delayed, leaving severely ill workers with government IOUs but no money. On Friday, however, the House and Senate passed a $6.5 billion supplemental spending bill that authorizes payment of $31.8 million for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act trust fund. Federal officials meeting Friday at Mesa State College in Grand Junction tried to convince some of those affected that, this time, they will get their money. Many were skeptical. "They say they're going to do it. But we have to wait and see," said Cruz Madrid of LaSalle, Utah, who worked underground for 25 years for Atlas Minerals and has a lung ailment. In the Navajo Nation, more than 2,000 former workers are in line for payments, said Karen Brown, a caseworker for the Navajo Uranium Workers. "Only a few have been paid." Federal officials Friday tried to appear confident. "(The Department of Justice) is dedicated to make this work and I'm putting everything I've got into it," said Claudia Gangi, who runs the RECA program in Washington. As for the Labor Department, "we'll get checks rolling out in August and September," said Shelby Hallmark, director of the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs. July 21, 2001 ***************************************************************** 9 Editorial: Amarillo labors for new center Amarillo Globe-News: Opinion: 07/19/01 Addition would benefit workers During last week's informational meeting concerning workers' compensation for Pantex Plant employees, a man stood during the question-and-answer portion.

He was worried about whether he would receive the $150,000 lump-sum compensation promised by the government to those who qualified. His concern centered on a clerical error. When some of the materials he needed to submit to the Department of Labor were returned, his first and middle initials were wrong.

His question was whether that would be a problem.

Jeff Eagan of the Department of Energy spoke up. Eagan was one of four spokesmen from Washington who came to town July 12 to tout the benefits of a new law passed in October to help DOE workers receive employee compensation. He reassured the former Pantex worker that he would personally follow up on his concern. Basically, Eagan said, leave it up to me to solve the problem.

Eagan's one-on-one contact with a worried Pantex worker who, as it has turned out, put his life on the line to help the United States win the Cold War, is the very reason Amarillo needs to have one of the Labor Department's resource centers located within the city.

There are nine resource centers in the country. Some of the most influential places this country used to support its nuclear arsenal have centers nearby including Savannah River, S.C.; Hanford, Wash.; Rocky Flats, Colo.; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and Los Alamos, N.M. The other centers are located near Portsmouth, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; Idaho Falls, Idaho; and Las Vegas.

A resource center is exactly that. It's a place where former and current DOE workers can obtain the forms needed to claim benefits, ask questions and meet with people face to face.

If the Pantex Plant was such a vital installation during the Cold War and is now so important in disassembling and storing nuclear weapons in post-Cold War times, Washington shouldn't turn its back on us now.

Another man in the audience last week got up and said, "We really need a resource center here in Amarillo." His statement was met with applause.

The U.S. government is trying to do a better job of listening to its workers, as evidenced by the hearings concerning Pantex workers held in June 2000 and the subsequent legislation that emerged a few months later. We hope Uncle Sam will do the same concerning establishing a resource center in Amarillo.

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