***************************************************************** 08/21/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.201 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Nordic protest at Sellafield emissions 2 LETTERS: Dump benefits 3 Nordic Environment Ministers Protest Radioactive Emissions 4 No nukes billboard in Livermore / Protest group aims message at scientists 5 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Tuesday, August 21, 2001 6 Opinion Leading roles: International science, community theatre 7 NRC DETERMINES FARLEY NUCLEAR PLANT SECURITY ISSUE 8 Moscow to Calculate Radiation Exposure 9 AEA's nuclear consulting division sold to Serco for £69.8m 10 Microbe Turns Dissolved Gold Solid NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY CITED FOR NUCLEAR SAFETY VIOLATIONS 2 U.S. begins compensating workers exposed to toxic substances 3 U.S. Balks on Plan to Take Plutonium Out of Warheads 4 Canada's unreadiness for biological attacks being fixed, says Eggleton 5 Editorial: It's the story of a reporter beaten for doing his job 6 Environmentalists Caution Against Chelyabinsk Plan - 7 DOE, UC-Davis to produce iodine-125 for treating prostate cancer 8 Dan Brouillette Sworn-In as Energy Department's Assistant 9 I-580 billboard targets Lab weapons researchers 10 DOE Cites Argonne National Laboratory for Nuclear Safety Violations 11 DOE and University of California - Davis Collaborate to Produce 12 Pak caught selling N-tech 13 U.S. DETERMINES RUSSIA STILL HELPING IRANIAN NUKES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Nordic protest at Sellafield emissions BBC News | UK | 21 August, 2001, 12:18 GMT 13:18 UK [Sellafield] Norway is worried about waste from the plant Scandinavian politicians are to complain to Prime Minister Tony Blair about radioactive discharges from Sellafield nuclear recycling plant. Norwegian Environment Minister Siri Bjerke has called for emissions from the British Nuclear Fuels' Ltd (BNFL) facility in Cumbria to be reduced. Ms Bjerke said they were a threat to the environment of the North Sea and the Barents Sea. The issue will be debated during the Barents Council meeting of Nordic ministers in Kirkenes, Norway, on 21 August. 'No significance' It is not the first time the Norwegians have expressed concern about the long-term effects of waste from Sellafield. There have been fears radioactive emissions carried north by sea currents could be causing damage to the country's fish farms and other parts of the environment. However BNFL spokesman Nigel Monckton said: "We are always aware of the need to make emissions as low as possible, but the discharges around Norway are of no significance. [Sellafield] BNFL has spent £2bn on clean-up equipment "Discharges from Sellafield are made under authorisations issued by the Environment Agency, based upon international limits. "These are designed to ensure that any radiation dose received as a result of discharges will be a tiny fraction of that which is incurred through natural sources every day." Mr Monckton said emissions reaching the Arctic region and Barents Sea contained minute radiation doses. But Martin Forwood, of Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment(CORE), said: "Everyone accepts we have to protect the environment. "The UK should listen to the Norwegians' request as we cannot keep using the wider oceans for BNFL's waste." Irish action Mr Monckton said BNFL has spent £2bn at Sellafield on equipment for waste management and effluent cleaning. He said discharges of plutonium, americium and caesium in liquid effluent from clean-up plants have been almost totally eliminated. Earlier this year the Irish Government said it would take legal action against Britain over the possible starting-up of a plant designed to process highly-toxic mixed-oxide fuel. Ireland wants Britain to release confidential information on the plant, which was completed four years ago but is not operatinal yet. ***************************************************************** 2 LETTERS: Dump benefits [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Tuesday, August 21, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal To the editor: I am excited to see that at last someone is actually out there fighting for Nevada's interests and not for his own political gain. I'm referring to former Nevada Gov. Bob List and his announcement that he will begin working to promote benefits for Nevada in exchange for nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain. Just months from now, the Department of Energy will recommend Yucca Mountain to Congress as the nation's solution to the high-level nuclear waste issue. Scientists at Yucca have been telling Congress for years that the site is a great fit and the new administration seems to look upon Yucca Mountain as an important environmental program. Despite all this, our Nevada elected officials continue to oppose any negotiation with the Department of Energy over Yucca Mountain. Now we are less than a year from a congressional mandate and the state is completely unprepared for what is inevitably coming. I, like former Gov. List, have no political agenda. I have the freedom to speak out for what I feel is right. I look forward to seeing what the former governor proposes because I know that he will help the people of Nevada get the benefits from this program that they deserve. BROOKE DORE HENDERSON ***************************************************************** 3 Nordic Environment Ministers Protest Radioactive Emissions Environment News Service: IVALO, Finland, August 20, 2001 (ENS) - Environment ministers from the five Nordic countries today wrote a joint formal protest to British Prime Minister Tony Blair over continuing radioactive emissions from the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield. The ministers expressed grave concern at prospective increases in permitted emissions levels from Sellafield. The protest, formulated and agreed during a meeting of the Nordic Council in Ivalo, Finland, follows reports in the Norwegian media yesterday that increases in levels of radioactive technetium-99 have now been detected off the far northern coast of Norway, in the Arctic reaches of the Barents Sea and off Svalbard (Spitsbergen). [Stoltenberg] Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (Photo courtesy government of Norway) Norway has raised the issue of Sellafield with the British government several times, most recently on August 12, when Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg wrote to Prime Minister Blair urging the UK to reduce radioactive emissions. In March, Norway's environment minister repeated calls for Britain to close its nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield after a report that levels of Sellafield derived radioactivity along the Norwegian coast have increased six-fold since 1996. The Nordic ministers last filed a joint protest in 1998, in a letter to UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher. The issue is expected to be taken up again tomorrow at a meeting of Barents Region ministers in northern Norway. At the ministerial meeting of the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic, held in Sintra, Portugal in July 1998, 15 governments and the European Commission signed an agreement to end the discharge of radioactive substances into the sea and air. Nuclear reprocessing involves the extraction of plutonium from spent nuclear fuel. Reprocessing is the major source of radioactive discharges to both sea and air in the OSPAR region. The Sintra agreement says that concentrations in the environment should reach "close to zero" by 2020. [Barents] Sunset over the Barents Sea north of Scandinavia (Photo courtesy University of Rhode Island Natural Resources and Environmental Management) Because many radioactive substances, such as plutonium or technetium-99, last far longer than 20 years, most reprocessing discharges must be stopped now if they are to result in lower environmental concentrations by 2020. At their meeting in Ivalo, the Nordic environment ministers also considered environmental co-operation with Russia, including the financing perspective and the promotion of environmental projects amongst the northern European countries. The ministers discussed climate policy and, linked to this, Nordic support for energy projects in the developing countries as part of the implementation of the Kyoto climate protocol. The participating environment ministers are Satu Hassi from Finland, Kjell Larsson from Sweden, Svend Auken from Denmark, Siri Bjerke from Norway, Siv Fridleifsdottir from Iceland, Rókur Tummasarson from the Faroes, Alfred Jakobsen from Greenland and Sune Eriksson from Aland. environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London. Email: envdaily@ends.co.uk} ***************************************************************** 4 No nukes billboard in Livermore / Protest group aims message at scientists Sam McManis Tuesday, August 21, 2001 Livermore -- Outsiders would presume that impassioned Berkeley-type bumper stickers wouldn't go over too well in Livermore, the Tri-Valley city that definitely hugs with its nuclear arms and probably wouldn't think that one nuclear bomb (OK, OK an undetonated one) would spoil its whole day. Yesterday morning, though, Livermore motorists crossing the intersection of Portola Road and Murrieta Boulevard near the Interstate 580 onramp could not help but notice the eye-popping 24-foot billboard that would have seemed more fitting on Telegraph Avenue. No, not Panda Express' giant shrimp speared by a chopstick. Check the other side. There, next to an ominous black-and-white photograph of the target chamber of the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, is a message in blood red letters: "Nuclear Weapons Science? NIF is intended to train a new generation of bomb designers." Then there's this all-caps kicker, aimed specificly at the 8,000 employees of the Lab: "Your mind is a terrible thing to waste." This is the work of a group called the Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, a hearty band of activists that has been tilting at billboards and laser projects in this nuclear company-town for years. What began humbly in 1983 with a "Food Not Bombs" bake sale outside the local Nob Hill Foods has mushroomed into a movement of 2,900 card-carrying pacifists who try their darndest to voice concerns about the Lab's work with nuclear arms. To most residents in the community, Tri-Valley CARES is something of a fifth column, saboteurs who want to derail the very engine of Livermore's economy. "Livermore is solidly behind the Lab and NIF," Mayor Cathie Brown said. "I've gone to Washington to lobby extensively for it, with the overwhelming support of the community. Tri-Valley CARES has a right to free speech, but I'm concerned with the whole community." So, too, is Marylia Kelley and her group. An unassuming woman with flowing red hair, Kelley could easily pass for just another Livermore homemaker. Which she is. But she also has a cause. "Our group exists to make visible that there's no consensus in Livermore about nuclear weapons," said Kelley, the founder. "I remember way back when we started. I woman walked up to me at the bake sale and began to cry. All she could say was, 'Thanks for being here. I thought I was the only one in town who thinks nuclear weapons are immoral.' " Tri-Valley CARES has come a long way since those bake-sale days. The $5,000 monthly bill for the billboard, Kelley says, mostly comes from donations from charitable foundations and members. The group has become one of the most influential and dogged anti-nuke organizations in the country, with a yearly budget of $150,000. Last year, it was honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its public participation in the agency's hazardous-waste cleanup activities. But Tri-Valley CARES doesn't limit itself to toxic cleanup. As its billboard states, it wants nothing less than Livermore scientists and engineers to shed their white coats and work on peaceful "civilian" projects either at the lab or elsewhere. Two such scientists -- Issac Trotts and Andreas Toupadakis -- were on hand yesterday for Tri-Valley CARES' press conference. Trotts, a computer scientist, quit the NIF in March after five months, saying he was misled about the program's focus. Toupadakis, a chemist who worked both at Livermore and Los Alamos, left a $91,000 NIF job a year ago because "they were building new bombs, not cleaning them up." NIF is best known for its big-budget 192-beam weapons-testing laser under construction, but its scientists also are stewards for existing weapons. Susan Houghton, spokeswoman for NIF, disputes the ex-employees' claims. She said that international test-ban treaties preclude the development of new weapons but that "as weapons deteriorate, we replace the parts with newer parts to ensure that the weapons will function." A lab scientist who worked with Trotts dismissed Trotts' accusation that new weapons are being built. "That's a classic CARES argument, but it's just not true," Sean Ahern said. "The actual nuclear warheads themselves have not changed. His definition's wrong." To Tri-Valley CARES, it's not mere semantics. Trotts and Toupadakis said that improving the accuracy and deadliness of existing weapons is tantamount to building new ones. Toupadakis, who worked for the Department of Energy for 10 years making sure plutonium for existing warheads remained potent decades after being constructed, pointed to the billboard and issued a challenge to his former lab workers. "My former colleagues need to ask themselves if they can still go back to their houses, look at their children in the eyes and continue to believe that they really do work for peace when they do the work for war," he said. Toupadakis has yet to land a job since his vocal departure from the lab, and Kelley says her group is trying to establish financial help via no- interest loans for scientists like Toupadakis who choose to leave the Department of Energy. It didn't take Trotts long to find a new job, though. He leaves today for Boulder, Colo., where he will design video games for Sony Play Station II. "And not to worry," he added, "they are not violent video games." Sam McManis' column appears in The Chronicle on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. He can be reached at (925) 974-8346 or by e-mail at smcmanis@sfchronicle.com. ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle   Page A - 11 ***************************************************************** 5 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Tuesday, August 21, 2001 State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects ADAMS - Items of Interest Recent Released Documents Added - Tuesday, August 21, 2001 These documents and others may be retrieved at the NRC PERR web site ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item ID: 012320014 Accession Number: ML012290057 Document Date: 8/16/01 Title: 08/15/2001 - ROP Summary Public Meeting. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DIPM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320197 Accession Number: ML012280186 Document Date: 8/16/01 Title: 08/20/2001- 09/24/2001 Commission Meetings - FRN. Author Affiliation: NRC/SECY Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320249 Accession Number: ML012320091 Document Date: 8/17/01 Title: 08/27/01 Meeting With Combustion Engineering Owners Group (CEOG) To Discuss Planned Responses Of CEOG's Bulletin 2001-01, "Circumferential Cracking Of Reactor Pressure Vessel Head Penetration Nozzles. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD4 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320246 Accession Number: ML012320065 Document Date: 8/17/01 Title: 09/06/01 Meeting Notice: Forthcoming Nuclear US NRC & US Dept of Energy Quality Assurance/Key Technical Issues Management Meeting. Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/DWM/HLWB Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320015 Accession Number: ML012290417 Document Date: 8/17/01 Title: 09/07/2001 - Mtg. with NEI - To Discuss ITAAC Related to Nuclear Power Plant Construction. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/ADIP/NRLPO Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320203 Accession Number: ML012320023 Document Date: 8/17/01 Title: 09/07/2001 Notice of Meeting with US Department of Energy Re Management Issues, Progress in Program and Management Concerns. Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/DWM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320026 Accession Number: ML012250312 Document Date: 7/30/01 Title: Affidavit of Betty Yuhas in support of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League's Request for Hearing on the proposed Savannah River Site Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. Author Affiliation: Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320269 Accession Number: ML012270228 Document Date: 8/13/01 Title: Comment (10) of Richard J. Myers, NEI on NRC's Proposed Rule PR-50 regarding Decommissioning Trust Provisions. Author Affiliation: Nuclear Energy Institiute (NEI) Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320227 Accession Number: ML012260454 Document Date: 8/13/01 Title: Comment (100) submitted by Eugenie Throckmorton opposing Proposed Rules PR-1, 2, 50, 51, 52, 54, 60, 70, 73, 76 & 110 regardingChanges to Adjudicatory Process. Author Affiliation: - No Known Affiliation Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320085 Accession Number: ML011660232 Document Date: 6/12/01 Title: G20010247/LTR-01-0302 - Gary L. Jones Ltr re GAO-01-314, "Nuclear Waste: Agreement Among Agencies Responsible for the West Valley Site is Critically Needed" Author Affiliation: US General Accounting Office (GAO) Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320086 Accession Number: ML012060555 Document Date: 8/10/01 Title: G20010247/LTR-01-0302 - Ltrs to Congress re: Nuclear Waste: Agreement Among Agencies Responsible for the West Valley Site is Critically Needed (GAO-01-314) Author Affiliation: NRC Chairman Document/Report Number: CORR-01-0115 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320102 Accession Number: ML012220258 Document Date: 8/24/00 Title: James A. FitzPatrick - Semi-Annual Radioactive Effluent Release Report for Period of January 1, 2000 through June 30, 2000. Author Affiliation: New York Power Authority Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320124 Accession Number: ML012220029 Document Date: 8/10/01 Title: NEI Survey Results On Okonite Okolon Single Conductor Cables. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DE Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320140 Accession Number: ML012260211 Document Date: 8/13/01 Title: Periodic Meeting Summary for Rhode Island Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-I/DNMS Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320157 Accession Number: ML012220501 Document Date: 7/26/01 Title: Request for meeting to discuss results of compliance testing on CBC leak tight UF6 cylinder, as well as incremental analysis & testing being undertaken by CBC. Author Affiliation: Columbiana Boiler Company & Hi Tech Manufacturing Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320198 Accession Number: ML012290452 Document Date: 8/17/01 Title: VR-SECY-01-0144 - "Proposed License to Export Components for Reprocessing Plant in Japan (XCOM1142)." Author Affiliation: NRC/Chairman, NRC/OCM, NRC/SECY Document/Report Number: VR-SECY-01-0144 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012320199 Accession Number: ML012290493 Document Date: 8/17/01 Title: VR-SECY-01-0145 - "Proposed License to Export Heavy Water to Japan for Non-Nuclear End Use (XMAT0401)." Author Affiliation: NRC/Chairman, NRC/OCM, NRC/SECY Document/Report Number: VR-SECY-01-0145 ***************************************************************** 6 Opinion Leading roles: International science, community theatre 08/21/01 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:01 p.m. on Tuesday, August 21, 2001 Editor's License Dick Smyser Sheldon Datz began his career in nuclear science while still in his teens -- as a dishwasher. The Substitute Alloy Material Lab at Columbia University, part of the beginnings of the World War II atomic bomb effort, needed extra help for its more menial tasks. Would it be OK, an administrator asked Ellison Taylor, chemist on loan to the Columbia lab from Cornell University, if they hired a bright student from Stuyvesant High? Aware that this was New York City's prime science school, Taylor agreed. And thus the beginning of a remarkable scientific collaboration -- Taylor the elder and mentor, Datz at first his apprentice but later, after Taylor induced Datz to join him at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1951, his partner in pioneering a revolutionary new method of studying chemical interactions: crossed molecular beam chemistry. Achieved in 1955 through dogged work using ORNL's pioneer Graphite Reactor, this Taylor-Datz technique laid the groundwork for further research by three other scientists (at Harvard, University of Toronto and University of California at Berkeley) which the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences cited for the 1986 Nobel Prize for Chemistry -- a prize that might well have gone, at least in part, to Taylor and Datz. Missing this prestigious recognition, however, did not deter Datz who went on to author numerous later experiments, all essentially involving chemical interactions suggested by what he called "curiosity-driven science," which he espoused enthusiastically in all of his roles as researcher and master collaborator. He was so good at interesting -- involving -- others with his ideas. While his was mostly basic science, there were significant implications in the decades-long quest for fusion energy, for improved radiation safety and for computer technology, specifically the development of ion implantation, a technique widely used in the fabrication of computer chips. And though always his work was rooted in his earliest research at ORNL, he became a world figure -- a "Johnny Appleseed for science" as Alex Zucker, physicist and former acting director of ORNL, described him. The Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, South Africa and Japan were among the many nations where he "scattered seeds" that led to significant new science. Alvin M. Weinberg, former director of ORNL, thinks of Datz first as "dedicated." He simply worked harder, Weinberg says. But Sheldon "played hard" too, and literally as one of Oak Ridge Playhouse's most accomplished actors of its first half-century: Roles, mostly major, in "Stalag 17," "Detective Story," "The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker," "Hotel Paradisio," "Darkness At Noon," "Caucasian Chalk Circle" and "Hadrian VII" all under Paul Ebert, Playhouse director from the 1950s through the 1980s. Datz is especially remembered for his performance in "Waiting For Godot," the Samuel Beckett play directed by Marshall Lockhart which sparked weeks of discussion and interpretation among local theater-goers about the so-called "theater of the absurd." And, in another of his more memorable roles, he was "Dylan" in a Studio Theatre production. Dedicated hard worker at ORNL indeed, but richly community-involved also -- a totally engaging personality -- conversational charmer -- ready humor -- bon vivant. Teen-ager Datz's first assignment under Prof. Taylor at Columbia was washing lab glassware. Scarcely before Sheldon had scrubbed his first test tube and beaker, however, he was asking questions reflecting knowledge well beyond even the more advanced high school science courses he was taking at Stuyvesant. But though impressed, Taylor, who recalls being concerned that he might be violating child labor laws, was sharply reminded of the youth of his new employee by a phone call he received one night at the lab well after normal hours. It was Sheldon's father, just checking to be sure that, as his son had told him, he was working late. (Sheldon brought his parents from New York City to live in Oak Ridge soon after his arrival. Taylor recalls how his father enjoyed retelling the story of that phone call.) Physical chemist Datz won many prestigious awards including a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship under which he went to the Netherlands in 1962 and more recently the American Physical Society's Davisson-Gerner Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics in 1998. Then, just last year, the Department of Energy's Enrico Fermi Award, presented personally by President Bill Clinton. And though not a Nobel laureate himself, Datz got to portray one. For a fall 1999 Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning course, Director Ebert arranged a special reading of "Copenhagen," hit London and Broadway play by Michael Frayn about a dramatic encounter likely crucial to the early development of the atomic bomb in that then Nazi-occupied Danish capital city. (Jonna Datz, Sheldon's wife, is a native of Denmark.) In that ORICL reading, in what now seems a poetic "cross beaming" of Datz the international scientist and Datz the locally acclaimed community theater actor, the formidable part of Neils Bohr, Nobel Prize winner for physics in 1922, was read by Sheldon. -- RDS Richard D. Smyser is founding editor of The Oak Ridger. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 7 NRC DETERMINES FARLEY NUCLEAR PLANT SECURITY ISSUE Press Release Region II - 2001 - 35 - UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION II 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, GA 30303 Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA No. II-01-035 August 20, 2001 CONTACT: Ken Clark (404)562-4416/e-mail: kmc2@nrc.gov Roger D. Hannah (404)562-4417/e-mail: rdh1@nrc.gov The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has completed its significance determination of an inspection finding at Southern Nuclear Operating Company's Farley nuclear plant near Columbia, Alabama, related to the failure of the company's protective strategies during simulated security events, and concluded that the finding was White (low to moderate safety significance). In July 2000, the NRC conducted an exercise at the Farley plant to evaluate the ability of the plant's security equipment and personnel to prevent mock adversaries from gaining access to certain areas within the plant. Weaknesses identified during that exercise led the NRC staff to characterize the finding as Yellow on a preliminary basis. A Yellow inspection finding is an issue with substantial importance to safety, and if it had remained at the Farley plant would have resulted in a more detailed review by the NRC staff of the company's corrective action and self-assessment programs. Southern Nuclear requested a regulatory conference with the NRC staff, which was held in late July of this year, to discuss the company's views on the issue. The conference was closed to the public due to the sensitive nature of the security information being discussed. Based on an evaluation of additional information provided at the conference by Southern Nuclear (specifically that tactics used during one of the exercises are not included in the current model for conducting such exercises), the NRC staff concluded the issue was White. As a result, the NRC staff plans to conduct additional inspection activities relating to security at the Farley plant. Another security exercise will also be conducted at the Farley plant this fall. The safety significance of each NRC inspection finding is characterized by a color -- green, white, yellow, or red. The agency response to the inspection findings is based on the significance of the items. A green finding receives normal NRC oversight, while white, yellow, or red assessments result in increasing NRC involvement, including additional inspections. ***************************************************************** 8 Moscow to Calculate Radiation Exposure Aug. 21, 2001. Page 3 By Nabi Abdullaev Staff Writer City Hall is seeking a clearer picture of radiation exposure levels in Moscow — but some independent experts doubt the initiative will reveal the whole truth. Mayor Yury Luzhkov signed a decree this month under which the city's nuclear safety watchdog Radon is to collect, unify and analyze data on radiation from various sources. Institutions that have been separately monitoring groups of the population, including their own personnel, are to start forwarding their data to Radon. Radon experts are to measure directly individuals' exposure using dosimeters and calculate cumulative exposure using their data about radiation levels in the sites where an individual lives and works. Radon's deputy head Oleg Polsky said until now such information has been sparse. "There are certain risk groups, like medical personnel in radiology wards or industrial workers at factories where radiation sources are used," said Polsky. "Their exposure is measured at work — but people are irradiated not only at their workplaces." Maxim Shingarkin of Greenpeace questioned the accuracy of Radon's system for calculating exposure. "There is an industrial dump-heap at Shcherbinka near Moscow where the radiation level is very dangerous," Shingarkin said. "How will it be possible to calculate the exposure of Muscovites who go there to their dachas, or drink water contaminated by this dump?" Food can also be a danger, because irradiated food products sometimes reach Moscow's markets. In late June, for example, Radon experts raided seven Moscow food markets and seized 155 kilograms of fresh blackberries. Tests revealed radiation emissions 50 times above the maximum permitted by the Health Ministry. "We had 68 such incidents in July," said Svetlana Osipova, a radiology expert of the city's veterinary service, which is responsible for testing produce sold in registered city markets. According to Radon spokeswoman Tatyana Samarina, radiation levels throughout the city are within norms accepted by the Health Ministry. "Radon has already compiled a map of the city that reflects potentially dangerous sites," she said. The map can be seen on City Hall's web site, www.mos.ru/atl/ecol-maps/roo8.jpg. According to Radon's research, an average of 70 percent of Muscovites' radiation exposure is from natural sources, mostly the radioactive gas radon emitted by soil and rocks and ultraviolet radiation from the sun, and 28 percent is from medical examinations, such as radiography or X-rays. The remainder is in food and water and from industrial and scientific sources, including active nuclear reactors at scientific research institutes. "More than 2,500 enterprises in Moscow keep such sources, 80 percent of which are beyond their usage date," Samarina said. "They are responsible for only about 0.1 percent of the total radiation contamination in the city." Shingarkin of Greenpeace said this figure seems small, because the calculation treats affected personnel as a tiny proportion of the city's total population — yet the actual radiation exposure of this small group may be high. Likewise, Shingarkin said Samarina's statement that city radiation levels are within accepted norms is based on averaged figures and there are sites in Moscow where radiation levels are higher than average. TheMoscowTimes.com" ***************************************************************** 9 AEA's nuclear consulting division sold to Serco for £69.8m © 2001 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd 22 August 2001 07:47 GMT+1 Independent By Susie Mesure 21 August 2001 Serco Group, the support services company, has added AEA Technology's nuclear consulting unit to its portfolio for £69.8m. Serco expects the deal, which was agreed for £5m less than the price initially mooted in June, to increase its earnings after integration and financing costs. A spokesman for Serco, which is the Ministry of Defence's biggest service contractor, said it wanted the consulting unit for strategic reasons. "We already have an existing science base and with this [deal] we will be able to provide new services such as safety and risk management services," he said. AEA's consulting division provides services such as safety management and plant design to clients including British Nuclear Fuels and British Energy. The deal is part of AEA's plan to focus on its rail and environment business. It has already sold its nuclear engineering arm and wants to sell Hyprotech, the main part of its engineering software business. Last year, AEA's consulting division reported a pre-tax profit, after the deduction of group management charges, of £7.6m on sales of £41.9m. The division has about £6m in outstanding contracts. Serco also runs prisons and operates London's Docklands Light Railway. Its shares fell 1.5p to 376p, while AEA's shares gained 13.5p to 348.5p. ***************************************************************** 10 Microbe Turns Dissolved Gold Solid Las Vegas SUN Today: August 21, 2001 at 5:50:30 PDT AMHERST, Mass.- Call them the microbes with the Midas touch. Thriving where most life forms cannot survive, simple microscopic organisms known as extremophiles are performing an astounding feat: turning dissolved gold into solid gold. University of Massachusetts professor Derek Lovley discovered the microbes' special power while experimenting on the use of a similar microbe to clean up toxic waste. Now he's using extremophiles to explain how some gold ore deposits may have formed. Extremophiles, so named because they live in extreme conditions such as hot springs and volcanic vents in the ocean, inhale dissolved gold and convert it into solid deposits. "They use dissolved metals like iron, uranium and gold the same way we use oxygen," Lovley said. The results of Lovley's experiment were published last month in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The conversion that takes place in the extremophile is a simple process: a dissolved metal is absorbed through an enzyme that coats the microbe, and then is excreted as a solid. The solid particles are tiny, but they can be seen if many of them cluster together. Lovley says the process isn't efficient enough to interest jewelry makers, since it would take about a million microbes to generate a gram of solid gold dust. But gold mine owners may want to use the technology to gather traces of the metal that otherwise would be lost in groundwater, Lovley said. Gold droppings from extremophiles are probably what miners found when they searched for gold in the southeastern United States in the early 1800s, said Frank Chapelle, a research hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Columbia, S.C. "They expected to find nuggets of gold," he said. "Instead, they found tiny traces of gold in sediment that was originally on the bottom of the ocean millions of years ago." Until Lovley experimented with extremophiles, there was no good explanation for the presence of sedimentary gold in some parts of the country, Chapelle said. The idea to study how extremophiles process gold came from an experiment on the use of microbes called geobacters to clean up toxic waste sites. At an Energy Department uranium cleanup site in Gunnison, Colo., Lovley has stimulated the geobacters' growth so they can essentially draw dissolved traces of uranium out of the groundwater. Once the microbes solidify the dissolved metal, the hardened particles can be scooped up and removed, Lovley said. On the Net: http://aem.asm.org All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY CITED FOR NUCLEAR SAFETY VIOLATIONS Environment News Service: Environment News Service: AmeriScan: August 20, 2001 AmeriScan: August 20, 2001 WASHINGTON, DC, August 20, 2001 (ENS) - The Department of Energy (DOE) has cited the University of Chicago, operator of the Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, for violations of rules and procedures designed to assure nuclear safety. The laboratory is exempted from fines required under federal nuclear safety laws. If it were not exempt, the civil penalty associated with the violations would have been $165,000. The violations took place in October 2000 when there was an uncontrolled release of radon as workers were doing decontamination and decommissioning work at a former nuclear facility. As a result, seven workers received unplanned exposures to radioactive material. While the radiation doses were well below regulatory limits and do not portend current or future health impacts, the DOE seeks to minimize any radiological exposure to workers. A Preliminary Notice of Violation issued by the DOE focuses on activities that could serve as precursors to more serious incidents. The laboratory was cited for: + Insufficient identification that on site, subcontractor radiation safety personnel needed an improved understanding of the hazards associated with processing radioactive waste; + Insufficient planning, review and conduct work activities involving neutralizing acids in a mixed waste (radioactive and hazardous) solution to minimize exposure potential; and + Inefficient employment of effective administrative controls to keep radiation exposures as low as possible. The DOE also cited the University of Chicago's failure to resolve repeated concerns affecting nuclear work and ensuring effective management assessments of its nuclear activities. In response, Argonne has developed a comprehensive plan which addresses the deficiencies and has implemented 63 corrective actions in areas ranging from hazards identification, training and workplace planning to enhancing the practice of maintaining radiation exposure to "as low as reasonably achievable." The laboratory is also implementing a program of management assessments expected to be complete by October 31. The Price-Anderson Amendments Act of 1988 requires DOE to undertake regulatory enforcement actions against contractors for violations of DOE's nuclear safety requirements. This enforcement program is designed to impose substantial penalties for minor events, in order to prevent more serious problems. More information is available at: http://www.eh.doe.gov/enforce * * * [E-Wire] Environmental Press Releases © Environment News Service (ENS) 2001. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 2 U.S. begins compensating workers exposed to toxic substances August 22, 2001 02:36:14 AM By BILL HUGHES THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: Aug. 20, 2001) YONKERS — U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao traveled to Paducah, Ky., this month to present a check for $150,000 to the widow of a man who died of stomach cancer after working 17 years in a uranium enrichment plant that produced material for nuclear weapons during the Cold War. The check marked the first payment by the government under a new compensation program established by Congress for private-sector employees who suffered from exposure to toxic substances while working on defense projects. In January, the Department of Energy published a list of 317 companies whose workers risked exposure, including 38 in New York state — two of them in Westchester County. While some hailed the program as an important acknowledgement of responsibility on the part of the government, others called it too little too late. Some critics say it is now impossible to locate all the victims or their survivors, while others call the policy a slap in the face to thousands of war veterans who have tried for decades to get compensation for exposure to radiation during military service. "On the one hand, the United States is the first nation that manufactured nuclear weapons to acknowledge that they put more than a half-million workers at risk," said Arjun Makhijani, president of the nonprofit Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. "But having said that, they've now put the burden of proof on the workers, and the whole process, the way it is set up, is nearly guaranteed to produce frustration. The workers and their families should be given the benefit of the doubt." Under the terms of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act, which former President Clinton signed into law in October 2000, the government is expected to pay $1.6 billion over the next 10 years to locate and compensate either the victims or their relatives. People with validated claims will receive a lump-sum payment of $150,000, an amount Makhijani said would not cover many people's medical bills or their lost wages. The two plants in Westchester were identified as General Astrometals of Yonkers and International Rare Metals Refinery Inc. of Mount Kisco. Peter Turcic, a Department of Energy spokesman, said the department has not yet established a database to pinpoint whether any claims have been submitted from either of the two sites. The department readily acknowledges that its list of work sites is far from complete and is encouraging anyone with additional information about private employees who handled toxic substances to contact its compensation bureau. But while the program exists to repay private-sector workers, veterans advocates feel that the country's service personnel are being overlooked. "We've been working for years trying to get guys compensated for radiation exposure, and let's just say Uncle Sam has not exactly been forthcoming with information," said David Autry, deputy national director for communications for the Disabled American Veterans. "I can tell you that thousands were exposed and only a handful were compensated. I'm glad they're finally doing something for the workers, but there's no comparable program for veterans, and I think that's disgraceful." Autry said 195,000 troops were sent into Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the immediate aftermath of the bombings of those two cities, and 210,000 troops participated in nuclear atmospheric testing. As of 1999, 18,000 veterans had filed claims exclusively involving radiation exposure, and only 500 had been approved, Autry said. Autry added that it was also very likely that after World War II, many veterans took jobs in manufacturing plants in the private sector working on Cold War-related defense projects. In Westchester, the Mount Kisco plant, formerly known as the Canadian Radium Corp., opened in 1943 and collected radium from airplane instruments and watch dials. The Yonkers company manufactured machined components made from beryllium, a metal which has been linked with potentially fatal lung diseases. Ruth Caracciolo, an 80-year-old Mount Kisco resident, said her husband, Joseph, once worked on a maintenance crew sweeping up at the Mount Kisco plant in the mid-1940s. She said her husband had to take a shower before he left the plant. Her husband died in 1959 following heart problems, and Caracciolo doesn't think the plant had anything to do with her husband's passing away. Caracciolo, a retired dietician, said that around 1945, she interviewed for a secretary's position at the plant, but the man who interviewed her didn't give her the job. "He just said he would not accept me because he said, 'You could become sterile or something by working here,' " Caracciolo said. Ferd Vetare, who moved to Mount Kisco in 1954, said he doesn't know anyone who worked at the plant. "They're all buried. It's too late," Vetare said. "You've got to remember that we are talking about close to 60 years ago." Stanley Roboff was the president of General Astrometals in Yonkers from the late 1950s until the company was bought by a larger competitor in the early 1970s. He said the plant employed 20 to 25 workers and safety was a high priority. He added that to his knowledge, no former employees have attributed any illness to his former company. "Beryllium is a nasty material, and we made sure everyone was aware of the dangers involved with handling it," Roboff said. "We had extensive ventilation systems with absolute filters and were randomly monitored by the state twice a month. Our employees got annual checkups. It was all very tightly controlled." But Roboff acknowledged that not every private contractor was diligent about the health and safety of the workers. "I agree wholeheartedly that anyone who feels they might have been exposed should take advantage of this compensation program," Roboff said. Staff writer Sean Gorman contributed to this report. Copyright 2001 The Journal News, . Inc. newspaper. ***************************************************************** 3 U.S. Balks on Plan to Take Plutonium Out of Warheads August 21, 2001 By MATTHEW L. WALD WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 — A program conceived by the Clinton administration to rid the world of 100 tons of American and Russian weapons-grade plutonium is likely to be abandoned by the Bush administration, according to people who have been briefed about the project. Under the plan, which was first proposed in the mid-90's, 50 tons of American plutonium and 50 tons of Russian plutonium would be taken out of nuclear weapons and either converted into fuel for nuclear reactors or rendered useless for weapons by mixing it with with highly radioactive nuclear waste, a process known as immobilization. When the plan was drafted, Clinton administration officials said the program would reduce the risk that the plutonium would fall into the wrong hands, where it could easily be turned into weapons. By reducing the availability of weapons-grade plutonium, the project had the added benefit of bolstering treaties between the United States and Russia to cut the number of nuclear warheads deployed by each side, by making it harder to turn plutonium from decommissioned weapons back into warheads. Bush administration officials deny that the program is dead, but acknowledge that it has difficulties, primarily financial ones. "The issue is under review," said an administration official who would speak only if not identified. "We've made no secret of that. But no decisions have been made." But the official continued, "It's no secret that there are a lot of equities to balance here." One major equity, he said, is money. Early this year the Energy Department predicted a cost of $6.6 billion, about triple the initial estimates, to convert the American stocks to fuel for civilian nuclear reactors. It put Russia's cost at $1.76 billion, which is money Russia does not have. The expectation under the Clinton administration was that the United States and other rich countries would help pay, but no concrete pledges were ever made. In 1999 the Clinton administration did agree to pay a consortium of power companies $130 million to use plutonium that the government would convert into fuel. But the conversion factories are not yet built, and the conversion itself was contingent on an agreement with the Russians to take similar steps to dispose of plutonium from their weapons. Despite the program's expected benefits, the Bush administration's proposed Energy Department budget this spring did not include the money needed to mix some of the plutonium with nuclear waste. The second path — converting it to fuel for American nuclear reactors, the strategy the Clinton administration hoped would induce the Russians to do the same — also appears likely to be dropped soon. "There is no enthusiasm for it whatsoever," said a Congressional aide who was briefed by officials of the National Security Council, referring both to the current strategy of immobilization and to conversion to reactor fuel. The issue of what to do with plutonium from decommissioned nuclear weapons has haunted policy makers for years. One particular fear is that the material from Russian weapons would be bought or stolen by terrorists or a "rogue" government who could construct a nuclear bomb. In recent years, the security of bomb materials in Russia has been improved markedly by joint Russian-American efforts, administration experts say. Bush administration officials insist that they share the goal of disposing of American and Russian plutonium. "There's no philosphical shift that says suddenly we're perfectly fine with surplus plutonium laying around — we're not," said an administration official familiar with the Clinton-era program. But, he added, conversion to fuel for existing reactors or mixing with waste are "not the only options for disposing of it safely." As an alternative, the Bush administration appears to be considering a variety of untested technical options, including a new generation of nuclear reactors that could burn plutonium more thoroughly. "They're trying to improve on it by giving up on getting started any time soon," said Matthew G. Bunn, a nuclear expert at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, who was an adviser to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Clinton administration. He and other experts are skeptical that a new generation of reactors, which was also mentioned in President Bush's energy plan as a way to dispose of nuclear waste, would ever be built. Construction on the last nuclear plants built in the United States country was begun more than 25 years ago. "We're back at Square 1 with the program, and they're looking at imaginary options, like advanced reactors," said Tom Clements, executive director the Nuclear Control Institute, a nonprofit group that opposes the use of plutonium for reactor fuel. "For financial reasons, it's not going to be viable." Though the administration is considering dropping the program to convert or immobilize weapons- grade plutonium, a separate Russian-American program to reduce the inventory of another Russian bomb fuel, highly enriched uranium, is continuing. In fact, uranium that was intended for Russian bombs now meets more than half the needs of American power reactors. But diluting uranium to the type used in power plants is technically far simpler and cheaper than the process required for plutonium, which must be converted from the metal form used in weapons to a plutonium-uranium ceramic used in American power plants. In fact, enriched uranium has economic value as reactor fuel, while converting plutonium appears to be a money-losing proposition. Even so, Russian officials have said repeatedly that they view plutonium as an asset and would like to build new breeder reactors, so named because they produce plutonium faster than they consume the other main reactor fuel, uranium. The end of the plutonium program would be mixed news for groups concerned with proliferation. For example, the Nuclear Control Institute has pushed vigorously for immobilization and against converting plutonium to reactor fuel, which is known as mixed oxide, or MOx. Officials of the institute say conversion to MOx is very expensive and would encourage international commerce in weapons material. "We think their assessment of MOx is correct," said Mr. Clements, referring to the administration. "The problem is, it appears they've also rejected the cheaper alternative, which is immobilization." Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information ***************************************************************** 4 Canada's unreadiness for biological attacks being fixed, says Eggleton August 20, 2001 Canada's unreadiness for biological attacks being fixed, says Eggleton CALGARY (CP) -- Canada has made great strides in its ability to handle a biological or chemical terrorist attack despite a secret report to the contrary, Defence Minister Art Eggleton said Monday.  "It was an assessment at a point in time but we are moving forward with investments to cover this area," Eggleton said at a Liberal party fundraiser in Calgary.  A National Defence evaluation completed in May found budget constraints have left the Canadian Forces undertrained, vulnerable and scrambling to fix the situation.  "Resource shortfalls in (nuclear biological and chemical defence) and medical research and development could have long-term capability consequences," warns the 140-page report, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.  Cited as a major problem was the lack of a long-term plan to equip and maintain the first response team for nuclear, biological or chemical threats.  That's despite expectations at all levels of government that the Forces would be able to respond to any such incident in Canada regardless of its size or scope.  "We have a responsibility in terms of our troops, in particular those abroad, and we have taken precautions on a number of occasions," said Eggleton.  "We educate them about the possibility of chemical or biological weaponry and we also have a unit located here in Canada that can assist in terms of any domestic problem that may arise," he said.  The heavily censored report, marked "SECRET: Canadian Eyes Only", said given the amounts of money being spent by allies to develop the capability to deal with bio-attacks, there's considerable hype about the issue.  Eggleton said the Chretien government had taken steps to deal with any areas in which Canada may be seen to be lacking.  "We're in the throes of putting some $250 million, over eight years, into this program and enhancing our capabilities. We do have quite a number of capabilities now in dealing with that type of threat and we're increasing it all the time."  Both the United Kingdom and the United States have recently taken steps to increase training for biological and chemical specialists.  In contrast, the report notes Canada has "some efforts underway to make increased use of land and air reserve personnel in certain restricted . . . roles which would be complementary to regular forces."  "The technology is changing all the time, so there will be continuous improvement but I think we're well on our way to catching up with our allies," said Eggleton.  An updated strategy is to be in place by March 2002 -- just months before world leaders are to converge on tiny Kananaskis Country, an hour west of Calgary, for the G-8 summit in late June.  "We're not anticipating major problems but that's always part of the military, being prepared for this kind of problem," said Eggleton.  "I think after the end of the Cold War, most countries, including Canada, didn't think that this would be as major a threat as it has turned out to be and we are taking steps to ensure protection from it," he said. 2001, Canoe Limited Partnership. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 Editorial: It's the story of a reporter beaten for doing his job Sentinel 8-21-01 [New Hampshire SentinelSource] For all the criticism they may receive and difficulties they may encounter in reporting and publishing the news, American journalists have it easy. The latest reminder of that comes from Malawi, a former British colony of about 12 million people in eastern Africa. A week ago, a 29-year-old reporter there was badly beaten by thugs who appear to have had the government's blessing. We were alerted to the incident by African Eye News Service, an independent South African-based organization with which The Sentinel has had a consulting relationship and whose free-lance writer in Malawi was the man who was beaten. The following edited dispatch from African Eye spells out what happened: African Eye News Service's senior correspondent in Malawi, Brian Ligomeka, was publicly assaulted at the weekend by seven masked youths who claim to be youth league members of the country's ruling party, the United Democratic Front. Brian had to be treated for injuries to his face and left leg, and is currently in hiding in the country's commercial capital, Blantyre. The assault occurred while Brian was covering the Southern African Development Community head of states summit in Malawi on Sunday, August 12. Brian had been accredited to cover the summit by the government and was at Blantyre's Chileka Airport with (other journalists) to cover the arrival of the Angolan delegation ... The journalists were about to leave the arrivals hall when seven masked men grabbed Brian from behind and dragged him out of the building via the VIP lounge. Once outside, the armed men identified themselves as members of the youth league and threatened to "kill you because you insult our president in your articles." "Our president is annoyed with what you write and you deserve to die. You will die a painful death. I will slice your testicles off, then amputate your ears, squeeze out your eyes and finally shoot you to death," the ringleader said. The men then accused Brian of being a spy for (the opposition). The men beat and kicked Brian in plain view of senior police officers and at least one Malawi cabinet minister. None of the policemen or politicians attempted to intervene or stop the beating, or prevent the men from dragging Brian roughly 20 meters towards a thicket of trees. Brian eventually managed to break free and locked himself into a police Land Rover vehicle. The driver, a Mr. Sharra, agreed to drive him to the local Chileka police station, where Brian was placed in protective custody for three hours "for his own safety." Brian sought medical treatment at his own expense immediately after he was released. He was prescribed a series of painkillers and anti-inflammatory pills for severe bruising to the face, a possible cracked jawbone, and swollen left knee. Brian is currently in hiding because his attackers threatened to track him down and kill him ... The incident has been reported in three Malawi newspapers, including the Daily Nation. Brian has himself sought redress from the Malawi government and telephoned Information Minister Clement Stambuli on Monday, August 13, to report the incident. He was, however, told the ministry was too busy to deal with his complaint. Brian then telephoned the Malawi government's chief information officer, Anthony Livuza, and reported the attack. Livuza's response was: "Oh, yes, sorry. I have read in the local papers that you have been attacked. I will inform the minister. Let's hope they will not attack you again." Brian is afraid that the attackers might harm his family if they do not track him down. He has also been unable to work this week for fear of harassment and has therefore been unable to earn any money. Local press reports indicate that two other Malawi journalists, MacDonald Chapalapata of the Daily Times and Chinyeke Tembo of People's Eye, have also since been assaulted by people claiming to be youth league members. Malawi does not figure significantly in most Americans' eyes. The country, an impoverished multi-party democracy, receives about $30 million annually in U.S. aid. Its principal export product is tobacco. Its government has come under international press criticism for the attack on Brian Ligomeka, but there is little likelihood its constitutional embrace of freedom of expression will be strengthened as a result. Still, those readers who are concerned about freedom of expression, particularly as spelled out in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, may want to extend their thoughts to the government of Malawi, whose spokesman Anthony Livuza can be reached at alivuza@malawi.net. THE KEENE SENTINEL Phone: 603-352-1234 Fax: 603-352-0437 60 West Street Keene NH 03431-0546 © 2001 Keene Publishing Corp - All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 6 Environmentalists Caution Against Chelyabinsk Plan - The St. Petersburg Times. General news from St.Petersburg and Russia #697, Tuesday, August 21, 2001 By Nabi Abdullaev STAFF WRITER MOSCOW - Chelyabinsk Governor Pyotr Sumin has warned the prime minister that radioactivity in some of his region's waterways is reaching dangerous levels and has proposed a solution: building a nuclear power station that would use the polluted water as a cooling agent. Environmentalists warned that such a project could spell disaster for the region in the southern Urals that is still fighting to contain the fallout of a nuclear blast in 1957. The letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, obtained by environment watchdog Ecodefense! and confirmed by Sumin's office, proposes building the nuclear power station near the Mayak plutonium plant, which spouts polluted water into the Techa River. For more than 40 years, Mayak has been dumping water polluted with radionuclides into the Techa River, which has been artificially turned into a cascade of pools divided by dams. The June 7 letter signed by Sumin, a copy of which was obtained by The St. Petersburg Times, said that in three to four years the pools will overflow and contaminate the Iset, Tobol and Ob rivers. The pools now contain 400 million cubic meters of waste, according to the letter. Using water from one of the pools for cooling at the proposed South Urals Nuclear Power Station would make use of the otherwise contaminated water, Su min wrote. Deputy Chelyabinsk Governor Gennady Podtyosov said that the situation will become even more critical once Russia begins importing spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing and storage, as outlined in recently passed legislation. "Russia is expecting to import nuclear waste, part of which will be processed at Mayak," Podtyosov said by telephone from the city of Chelyabinsk. "Now the plant dumps 10 million cubic meters of polluted water a year. This amount will increase when nuclear waste from abroad arrives." Podtyosov said building new storage pools, which would require the resettlement of villages and pollute dozens more square kilometers of land, would cost considerably more that the construction of the nuclear power station. Podtyosov said he discussed the issue with the Nuclear Power Ministry two months ago and was told that no funds could be earmarked for a power station until 2010. After the governor's appeal, Kasya nov ordered the ministry to start fresh talks with Chelyabinsk officials about the plant, which would cost about $1.5 billion to build, he said. Nuclear power experts said feeding contaminated water though the nuclear power plant is safe. "Technically, the idea of evaporating polluted water is a possible solution to the problem," said Alexander Pikayev, a nuclear power expert with the Moscow Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The technology of Russian nuclear power plants can handle it." But the idea of placing a new nuclear enterprise just 65 kilometers from Chelyabinsk is sparking protests from environmentalists. Natalya Mironova, an environmentalist from Chelyabinsk, said that according to documentation she has seen about the proposed station as a member of an Economy Ministry commission, the station does not have an alternative source of water. "Imagine what would happen if a pool is exhausted or the old dams burst and all the water floods out," Mironova said. "Without the inflow of cool water we'll have a new Chernobyl at the nuclear station." Moreover, Mironova said she believes it is dangerous to place two nuclear enterprises close to each other. The nuclear power station - the construction of which was started in 1983 and then suspended in late 1992 - is located only 3 kilometers from the Mayak plant. "If one facility goes off, it will cause a catastrophe at the other," Mironova said. "The negative outcome of any error will be drastically multiplied." "The motives of the regional administration are clear: The project means hefty transfers from the federal budget," said Vladimir Chuprov of Greenpeace. "But don't you see something dubious in averting one nuclear threat by creating another?" [Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2001 ***************************************************************** 7 DOE, UC-Davis to produce iodine-125 for treating prostate cancer Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:02 p.m. on Tuesday, August 21, 2001 from staff reports The Department of Energy announced Monday the signing of a contract with the University of California-Davis to provide DOE technology and source material for commercial medical production of iodine-125, for use in treatment of prostate cancer. Under terms of the contract, DOE is transferring the exclusive rights to a technology used to separate the iodine-125 from other isotopes that would result during the irradiation process. The department is providing source material from DOE's stable isotope inventory in Oak Ridge, under a lease arrangement for five years, with options to renew the lease in the future. The iodine-125 will be produced by the UC-Davis McClellan Nuclear Radiation Center located near Sacramento, Calif. The center owns and operates a robotically controlled, two-megawatt research reactor, the newest research reactor in the United States. The contract will lay the groundwork for UC-Davis's first major entry in commercial isotope production, positioning the university to become a major domestic supplier of iodine-125. Since the 1980s, the use of iodine-125 has grown in popularity as one of two isotopes used for brachytherapy treatment of prostate cancer -- a procedure in which tiny radioactive seeds are implanted in a cancerous tumor using ultrasound imaging and a thin hollow needle, according to a press release from DOE. This procedure allows the seeds to be precisely located in the tumor, minimizing radiation exposures to surrounding tissues and other side effects, while enabling a higher, localized dose to be delivered over a period of several months to the tumor. Ten-year results show that the vast majority of patients remain disease-free, making it an attractive option to radical surgery and external beam therapy. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 8 Dan Brouillette Sworn-In as Energy Department's Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: August 16, 2001 [Print Friendly Version] New, Independent Review Validates Energy Secretary's Approach ---> WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that Dan Brouillette has been sworn-in as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. "Dan is a valuable addition to the Department and I am excited about having him on board," Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said, "He will play a vital role when Congress returns and the Senate begins to debate the energy bill. I am confident he will reach out to our agency counterparts and legislators at the federal, state and local level conveying DOE's mission to secure an energy policy that benefits all Americans." Assistant Secretary Brouillette will oversee the promotion of the Department's policies, programs and initiatives through liaison, communications, coordination and interaction with Congress, state, Tribal, city, and county governments, other Federal agencies, stakeholders, and the general public. Brouillette is a veteran of Capitol Hill, working closely with numerous members and their staffs. Following is a short biography. Dan R. Brouillette, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs Brouillette is a former Partner with the Alpine Group Inc., and was formerly Senior Vice President of R. Duffy Wall &Associates from 1997 to 2000. He served as Legislative Director to Congressman Billy Tauzin from 1989 to 1997 and is a veteran of the U.S. Army. Originally from Paincourtville, Louisiana, he is a graduate of the University of Maryland. Media Contact: Jessica Morris, 202/586-4940 Release No. R-01-142 ***************************************************************** 9 I-580 billboard targets Lab weapons researchers Tuesday, August 21, 2001 4:03 AM MST Group wants work on 'civilian science' only By Glenn Roberts Jr. STAFF WRITER LIVERMORE -- An anti-nuclear billboard message, intended to probe the consciences of scientists working at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, questions those who choose careers in nuclear weapons research. Unveiled Friday at the Portola Avenue onramp to westbound Interstate 580, the 11-by-24 sign was paid for by Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, a nuclear watchdog group based in Livermore. Lab officials said they don't expect the billboard to impact the work force, and Tri-Valley CAREs members are "certainly entitled to have their opinion." Marylia Kelley, executive director for Tri-Valley CAREs, and other members of the organization celebrated the debut of the sign during an event Monday at the foot of the billboard. The billboard display, spelled out in red letters against a yellow background, states: "NUCLEAR WEAPONS SCIENCE? YOUR MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE." Kelley said the billboard is the group's latest effort "to convert Livermore Lab from nuclear weapons research to civilian science" and to facilitate an "exodus" away from weapons work at the lab. Researchers at Livermore Lab and its counterpart, Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico, are "actively and aggressively" involved in nuclear weapons development efforts, she said. Tri-Valley CAREs plans to follow up on the billboard message with a letter-writing campaign early next year to encourage every lab employee to seek jobs beyond Livermore Lab's fences, she added. The billboard message, which will stand for a month, also features an image of the metallic central chamber to the National Ignition Facility laser project under construction at Livermore Lab. And it bears another message in small black letters: "NIF is intended to train a new generation of bomb designers." The sign cost the group $5,000 to rent for one month, and the group also contracted to use the sign space for one month in each of the next two years. About 24,000 people per day are expected to see the sign, Kelley said. NIF, which officials have said will cost between $3.5 billion to $4 billion to complete, is a nuclear weapons research tool expected to generate thermonuclear explosions on a tiny scale by blasting radioactive fuel pellets with powerful ultra-violet laser beams. The project is an estimated $1 billion over budget and six years behind its original schedule. "(The billboard) invites scientists and engineers to ponder the NIF's role in advancing nuclear weapons science," Kelley said. Two former Livermore Lab employees, who left their jobs to seek work outside of the nuclear weapons complex, also joined Kelley at the billboard dedication event. Issac Trotts, a former lab computer scientist who left the lab earlier this year, said, "I think the time for nuclear weapons is over." Andreas Toupadakis, a former nuclear chemist at Livermore Lab, likened weapons scientists to Nazi scientists: "Today our colleagues are ... building up the 'nuclear gas chambers' of humanity," he said. Susan Houghton, a Livermore Lab spokeswoman, said the billboard is "a good example of the First Amendment ... (but) we don't think it will do anything to discourage people from working on NIF." --->Highways leading to and from Los Alamos Lab are blanketed with anti-nuclear billboard messages paid for by the Los Alamos Study Group, a nuclear watchdog group based in Santa Fe, N.M. Greg Mello, executive director for the study group, said the billboard campaign there has a similar message. "People need to lift up their heads from their desks and their lab benches and look at how their program fits in to the larger picture," Mello said. "We wish to make a direct assault on the morale of people working on nuclear weapons." The group is renting six signs now, carrying messages such as "New Mexico: World capital of of wepons of mass destruction," and "Welcome to New Mexico: America's Nuclear Weapons Colony." Tourists, local residents and visitors to Los Alamos are the target audience, he explained. The signs have drawn mixed reviews from lab employees since the group rented the first billboard space in 1998. "The negatives outweigh the positives from the lab 2-to-1," Mello said, "but that's a lot of positives." ©1999-2001 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers ***************************************************************** 10 DOE Cites Argonne National Laboratory for Nuclear Safety Violations energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: August 17, 2001 [Print Friendly Version] New, Independent Review Validates Energy Secretary's Approach ---> WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Energy (DOE) has cited the University of Chicago, operator of the Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, for violations of rules and procedures designed to assure nuclear safety under the Price-Anderson Amendments Act of 1988. Had the laboratory not been exempt from fines by the statute, the civil penalty associated with the violations would have been $165,000. The violations took place in October 2000 when there was an uncontrolled release of radon as workers were doing decontamination and decommissioning work at a former nuclear facility. As a result, seven workers received unplanned exposures to radioactive material. While the radiation doses were well below regulatory limits and do not portend current or future health impacts, DOE seeks to minimize any radiological exposure to workers. A Preliminary Notice of Violation was issued by DOE's Office of Price Anderson Enforcement, and, consistent with the enforcement program's mission, focused on activities that could serve as precursors to more serious incidents. The Preliminary Notice of Violation consists of three parts. Specifically, the laboratory was cited for: + Insufficient identification that on-site, subcontractor radiation safety personnel needed an improved understanding of the hazards associated with processing radioactive waste; + Insufficient planning, review, and conduct work activities involving neutralizing acids in a mixed waste (radioactive and hazardous) solution to minimize exposure potential; and + Inefficient employment of effective administrative controls to keep radiation exposures as low as reasonably achievable. DOE determined that the laboratory would not receive mitigation of the proposed civil penalty. Mitigation can be given in cases where a DOE contractor acts to report an event or takes effective corrective actions. In making this decision, DOE cited the University of Chicago's failure to resolve repeated concerns affecting nuclear work and ensuring effective management assessments of its nuclear activities. In response to the event, Argonne has developed a comprehensive plan which addresses the deficiencies and implemented 63 corrective actions in areas ranging from hazards identification, training and workplace planning to enhancing the practice of maintaining radiation exposure to "as low as reasonably achievable." In addition, the laboratory is implementing a structured program of management assessments expected to be complete by October 31, 2001. The Price-Anderson Amendments Act of 1988 requires DOE to undertake regulatory enforcement actions against contractors for violations of DOE's nuclear safety requirement. This enforcement program is designed to impose substantial penalties for what are generally considered minor events to forestall a more serious event from occurring. Additional details can be found on the Internet at http://www.eh.doe.gov/enforce. Media Contact: Dolline Hatchett, 202/586-5806 Release No. R-01-146 ***************************************************************** 11 DOE and University of California - Davis Collaborate to Produce Medical Isotopes for Treatment of Prostate Cancer energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: August 20, 2001 [Print Friendly Version] Government Will Provide Technology and Source Material WASHINGTON, D.C – U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham today announced the signing of a contract with the University of California-Davis (UC Davis) to provide Department of Energy (DOE) technology and source material for commercial medical production of iodine-125, for use in treatment of prostate cancer. "With the help of isotopes such as iodine-125, prostate cancer has become one of the most treatable forms of cancer today," said Secretary Abraham. "This initiative with UC Davis will make an important medical isotope commercially available here in the United States and help save lives." The contract will lay the groundwork for UC Davis's first major entry in the commercial isotope production, positioning the university to become a major domestic supplier of iodine-125. "We are proud to be recognized by the Department of Energy as the sole U.S. source of the iodine-125 isotope that is so effective in treating cancer, especially prostate cancer," said Barry M. Klein, Vice Chancellor for Research at UC Davis. "We look forward to continued collaboration with the Department of Energy, which provides key support for the UC Davis McClellan Nuclear Radiation Center, as we develop our research programs, providing new scientific knowledge, and utilizing the facility to directly benefit medical technology and other cutting-edge support for the private sector." Since the 1980s, the use of iodine-125 has grown in popularity, as one of two isotopes used for brachytherapy treatment of prostate cancer – a procedure in which tiny radioactive seeds are implanted in a cancerous tumor using ultrasound imaging and a thin hollow needle. This procedure allows the seeds to be precisely located in the tumor, minimizing radiation exposures to surrounding tissues and other side-effects, while enabling a higher, localized dose to be delivered over a period of several months to the tumor. Ten-year results show that the vast majority of patients remain disease-free, making it an attractive option to radical surgery and external beam therapy. Under terms of the contract, DOE is transferring the exclusive rights to a technology used to separate the iodine-125 from other isotopes that would result during the irradiation process. The department is providing source material from DOE's stable isotope inventory located at the Oak Ridge Reservation, Oak Ridge, Tenn., under a lease arrangement for five years, with options to renew the lease in the future. The iodine-125 will be produced by the UC Davis McClellan Nuclear Radiation Center located near Sacramento, Calif. The center owns and operates a robotically-controlled, two megawatt research reactor, the newest research reactor in the United States. The research reactor, originally built and operated by the Air Force in 1990 to inspect and detect hidden defects in aircraft, was transferred to UC Davis last year for research, education and business purposes. In addition to medical isotope production, the reactor supports the university's nuclear engineering program, geology, research, and industrial applications. The facility is operated by Science Applications International Corp., a San Diego based engineering company. The collaboration announced today serves the national need for isotopes to advance curative therapies for cancer and other serious illnesses. Further information on DOE's medical isotope program, including isotope production and distribution activities and DOE-sponsored research, may be found at www.nuclear.gov. Media Contact: Joe Davis 202/586-4940, Hope Williams 202/586-5806, Andy Fell 530/752-4533 (UC Davis) Release No. R-01-148 ***************************************************************** 12 Pak caught selling N-tech The Indian Express : Top Stories August 21, 2001 WASHINGTON, SIGUST 20: PAKISTAN, which has been allegedly obtaining missiles and their parts from China, has been ‘caught’ in nuclear proliferation providing sensitive technology to Iran, Libya and Iraq. ‘‘UN inspectors dismantling the Iraqi nuclear programme have found evidence that the plan for Iraq’s nuclear bomb was a Chinese design provided by Pakistan,’’ The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial. ‘‘Pakistan is also a proliferator, a conduit through which Chinese weapons technology has been fed to Iran, Libya and Iraq,’’ the newspaper said. Pakistan, which has been sold Dengernus missiles, is likely to succeed in modernising its nuclear arsenal with plutonium bombs and produce warheads for its missiles aimed at India and elsewhere, it said.US satellites had reportedly captured images of Beijing sending missile shipments to Pakistan, which China denied citing its November 2000 pledge to Washington against proliferation. Meanwhile, a congressional research service study said Pakistan ‘‘remained a major buyer’’ of weapons from China last year. (PTI) © 2001: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 13 U.S. DETERMINES RUSSIA STILL HELPING IRANIAN NUKES Middle East Newsline - Area News - Updated Daily WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The Bush administration maintains that Russia continues to help Iran in developing nuclear capability. U.S. officials said that despite pressure from the Bush administration Moscow continues to provide technology to help Iran's nuclear weapons programs. "I know they make an argument about whether or not it is proliferation of certain types of weapons, but there's no question they're working with Iran on their nuclear capability," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday. Earlier, U.S. officials said Russia has significantly reduced missile and nonconventional weapons aid to Iran. They said the vaccum appears to have been filled by China and North Korea. But Rumsfeld said Moscow continues to supply technology to Iran. The defense secretary said the Russian government has disputed U.S. allegations of proliferation and insists that Moscow has not violated any international treaties. State Department officials have been meeting with their Russian counterparts regarding nonproliferation issues. The officials said the administration has achieved progress in efforts to restrain Russian technology exports to Iran. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************