***************************************************************** 01/22/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.20 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Many switch to green power 2 ELECTRON CAFé BY JOHN GLENN: BIG AND LITTLE 3 NEW POLAR ROUTE PLANS FOR JAPANESE NUCLEAR SHIPMENTS ARE 4 Greenpeace protesters removed from Lucas Heights 5 Nuclear rods to move through Sydney tonight 6 EDITORIAL: FALLING AGAIN FOR NUCLEAR HYSTERIA 7 Lin Yi-hsiung urges public debate on nuclear plant issue 8 BNFL defies krypton ruling 9 GERMANS PROTEST AGAINST NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENTS 10 Nuclear fuel being loaded in Rostov power plant reactor 11 SA WILL NOT OBJECT TO PASSAGE OF NUCLEAR FUEL — MOOSA 12 ROWE PLANT READY TO STORE FUEL RODS 13 NUCLEAR PLANT PREPARING FOR TRANSFER 14 GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES $161 MILLION IN AID FOR PIKETON 15 Power shortage may electrify coal, nuclear industries NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Anti-nuclear activist unrepentant 2 NUCLEAR SHIPS: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 3 Rocky Flats Amends Record of Decision to Hasten Material 4 Energy Department Issues Report to Congress on Long-Term 5 PLUTONIUM-BURNING GOES THROUGH SPIN CYCLE NEW REPORT FUELS DEBATE 6 PROTESTS AS NUCLEAR SHIPS SAIL 7 Moncton put SNS on a path to succeed 8 Nuclear Submarine Protested in Spain 9 Nuclear sub to leave Gibraltar 10 Nuking the Northern Dimension 11 EU NATIONS UPSET ABOUT PLUTONIUM REVELATION ALLIES KEPT IN DARK ON 12 Tests have shown plutonium was also present in depleted uranium weapons 13 Agency sheds light on impending OR health assessment 14 Radiation from DU 'could act rapidly' 15 URANIUM FACTORY HAD FOUR FIRES 16 Plutonium scare adds to uranium drama 17 Widow Seeks Cash After Soldier Death 18 Baltic defence minister probes "Balkan syndrome." 19 Plutonium row may contaminate Bush's European debut 20 Plutonium replaces uranium as NATO scare - 21 'Secret plan' to move UK sub 22 State seeks new agreements with TDEC, DOE to protect **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Many switch to green power MONDAY JANUARY 22 09:00 AM EST By Amy Worden,INQUIRER HARRISBURG BUREAU GARRETT, Pa. - In the coal region southeast of Pittsburgh, atop a mountain stripped bare by decades of mining, eight giant wind turbines hum softly around the clock. Erected last spring, the $10 million project is Pennsylvania's first large-scale venture in using the power of the wind to produce electricity. These sculptural steel towers, high in the Allegheny Mountains, not only stand in stark contrast to the rusting coal-dredging equipment abandoned nearby. They represent a new and surprising reality: People are willing pay extra for energy that doesn't pollute. Green is the term for energy produced in part from naturally renewable resources, such as wind, water and the sun. The electricity created this way flows into your house through the same wall sockets - no new wiring (green or otherwise) required. But it is considered cleaner than electricity produced by traditional fossil or nuclear fuels because it does not produce air pollution or create nuclear waste. ***************************************************************** 2 ELECTRON CAFé BY JOHN GLENN: BIG AND LITTLE Power Online News for power industry professionals -->1/10/2001  This column is a follow up to my pre-election musings about whether Yucca Mountain might decide the presidential election. I did not imagine just how close the election would actually be. Had Gore got Nevada’s four electoral votes, he would be choosing the next Energy Secretary [Spencer Abraham?], not Bush. However, the Nevada spread was relatively big in percent but not in total votes. Closer to giving the election to Gore was LITTLE New Hampshire with its four electoral votes. The Green Party (Nader) had many more votes (22,000) than the vote difference between Bush and Gore (7000). Thus the environmentalists probably sealed the case for Nevada as the nation’s repository for high level radioactive waste. With the Republican’s in charge of Congress and the White House, most East Coast Democrats will gladly let any decision by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in favor of Yucca Mountain stand. This proves that LITTLE differences can have BIG consequences. While small difference can be absolutely decisive in politics, should small differences in the environment have the same big impact? The opponents of siting the repository at Yucca Mountain are counting on LITTLE differences between the standards proposed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory (NRC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to have a BIG impact on DOE’s findings. Following an earlier column, Bob Loux, Director of Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects, provided two comments regarding the standards for Yucca Mountain. I would like to quote his two points separately with commentary on each point: “The first is that because the Department of Energy’s performance assessment for Yucca Mountain includes the need to use the Amargosa aquifer as a waste management tool in order to meet the regulatory goal, the inclusion of a separate ground water protection standard as a part of the overall standard, is very important to Nevadans. DOE’s PA anticipates that significant releases into this aquifer will occur within the regulatory period. At 5 km from the actual repository releases into the aquifer will be on the order of 400 to 600 millirem, but hoping that the aquifer is so large that these materials will ‘dilute and disperse,’ so that current users of water from that aquifer (dairies, farmers, and the town of Amargosa Valley) will only receive doses around 25 millirem at 20 km from the repository. Many, both within DOE and in Congress, believe that the inclusion of a separate ground water standard of 4 millirem will disqualify Yucca Mountain from further consideration.” I disagree with this point. My columns have stressed that although the differences between EPA and NRC seem large, in truth, the safety differences are trivial. Every Nevadan, from the day they are born, is exposed to relatively high levels of natural, background radiation. This is due to the geologic formations in much of the State. Thus Nevadans are likely to receive today between 400 and 600 millirem every year of their lives. My point is that the LITTLE difference to their descendants of receiving 425 to 625 millirem per year versus 404 t0 604 millirem per year means nothing. A separate groundwater standard of 4 millirem per year is a powerful political tool but a ridiculous technical basis. “The other point worth mentioning is that DOE requires a waste package that would last on the order of 30,000 to 100,000 years, to meet a 25 millirem standard measured at 20 km from the site. This is because DOE has found the actual site conditions so poor at Yucca Mountain that the site only provides less than 5% of the overall performance, with the waste package needing to provide the remaining 95%. Our studies to date indicate that the metal package DOE is proposing to use will likely last only 500 to 1,000 years. And finally, all of the DOE performance assessment calculations, including meeting the regulatory target, have very large uncertainties that range from 5 to 7 orders of magnitude, making any predictions of performance highly suspect.” This point has technical merit. Orders of magnitude differences are truly BIG. This should be the area of scrutiny for DOE’s performance assessment. Alas for Nevada, the other 49 states are quite willing for DOE to conclude that the LITTLE likelihood of any of the high- risk scenarios makes the siting acceptable. In the best of all possible worlds, I believe recoverable storage is superior to geological disposal. Recoverable storage combined with plutonium burn-up in a breeder reactor offers the best approach to meeting even the most restrictive standards. But neither Nevada nor I are likely to get wishes fulfilled. The odds are that Congress and the Bush administration will let the Yucca approval ride (my second preference) and that recycle (breeding) will only come about if DOE continues to move at glacial speed. Wait long enough, and we will realize the foolishness of burying valuable resources. Statement [*]WWW.POWERONLINE.COM ***************************************************************** 3 NEW POLAR ROUTE PLANS FOR JAPANESE NUCLEAR SHIPMENTS ARE DESPERATE MADNESS 22 January 2001 Moscow - A press report has revealed that the Japanese nuclear industry and Russian government are negotiating an agreement to ship highly radioactive nuclear waste from Europe to Japan via the Arctic. Greenpeace warned such a plan by a criminally dangerous and unnecessary industry is "desperate madness" and could cause a catastrophic accident. The news of the Russo/Japanese negotiations was revealed today by the Japanese Kyodo news service. According to their report, the Federation of Electric Power Companies (FEPCO), the Japanese electrical utilities, is proposing to make a test shipment as early as this year. The first full nuclear transport would then take place in 2002. The plans are under consideration because of growing public and political opposition to established routes between Europe and Japan. One nuclear industry official admitted the degree to which the shipments had been condemned by en-route countries was much high higher than expected and that "this has become a situation that cannot be ignored diplomatically." The report claims the industry believes the alternative Northern route would generate less criticism from fewer countries. "The nuclear industry is being forced to consider extreme, and frankly desperately dangerous measures to avoid the widespread international opposition to their deadly trade. But taking the notorious Northern Arctic route is no solution. It will still put many countries at unacceptable risk of environmental contamination. Instead of these reckless plans they should halt their nuclear transports and stop reprocessing in Europe," said Shaun Burnie, of Greenpeace International. The nuclear High Level Waste (HLW) to be transported is a by-product of plutonium separation from Japanese irradiated nuclear fuel at the French state-controlled COGEMA La Hague reprocessing plant and the British state-controlled British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) Sellafield reprocessing plant. The glassified HLW is one of the most radioactive materials ever produced. A person standing within one meter of an unshielded block would receive a lethal dose of radiation in less than one minute. The new transport routes would probably be through the English Channel and the North Sea, along the Norwegian Coast to Russia putting en-route countries like Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, the USA (Alaska) and most of all, Russia, in serious danger of a nuclear catastrophe. Alternatively, material could also be shipped via the Irish Sea between Ireland and Scotland, or west of Ireland into the Atlantic. The Northern Arctic route would require the use of vessels from Russia's nuclear powered ice breaking fleet. The three most powerful of the fleet are the: "Rossiya", "Sovetskiy Soyuz" and "Jamal"--all based near Murmansk. "The world would be facing an unbelievably dangerous and bizarre convoy. An old Soviet designed nuclear ice-breaker smashing through Polar ice ahead of another ship carrying a deadly cargo of Japanese nuclear waste coming from UK or France. It is difficult to say who is crazier: those who propose such a scheme or those who would agree to it--both must be mad. The last thing the fragile Arctic needs is more nuclear contamination, " said Tobias Muenchmeyer, Russian nuclear expert of Greenpeace International. Six HLW transports have been made between France and Japan since 1995--the most recent has just passed around South America/Cape Horn having left France in December 2000 and is expected to arrive in Japan in February 2001. Other routes have been the Caribbean Sea / Panama Canal and South Africa / Cape of Good Hope/ Indian Ocean/ Tasman Sea and South Pacific. These transports have generated a massive opposition with dozens of en route nations condemning them, and in numerous cases attempting to close their waters to them. "Taking to the ice will not chill the protests," said Muenchmeyer. "We believe that this shamelessly irresponsible scheme will melt away as soon as the spotlight of public opinion and political pressure is brought to bear." On Friday, January 19th, the armed British freighter the Pacific Pintail left the French port of Cherbourg, laden with its deadly cargo of plutonium/MOX fuel bound for Japan. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Tobias Muenchmeyer, Greenpeace International +49 30 440 58 960, Ivan Blokov, Greenpeace Russia +7 095 257 41 22, Damon Moglen, Greenpeace International +1 202 319 24 09 Shaun Burnie, Greenpeace International +31 6 29 00 11 33 ***************************************************************** 4 Greenpeace protesters removed from Lucas Heights Source: SMH|Published: Monday January 22, 6:01 PM A police spokesman says Greenpeace activists have been removed from the Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor site in Sydney after blocking truck access to the site. A police spokesman says the protesters were removed from the site about 4pm (AEDT). Greenpeace campaigner Stephen Campbell says around 40 police officers had descended on the site and had re-established truck access to the plant. However, he says activists will remain at the reactor to join the community protest scheduled for 7pm (AEDT). Earlier three activists had locked themselves to the front gate, while four others had been chained to a trailer at the reactor's front entrance. Green groups, local residents and anti-nuclear protesters plan to picket the site from 7pm (AEDT) in protest against the shipment headed for France. Protesters believe the spent nuclear fuel rods are due to be moved through Kogarah, Rockdale, Botany and Sutherland by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation from 9pm (AEDT). Greenpeace says the rods, thought to number around 360, are highly radioactive and pose a grave health risk. AAP Copyright © 2000 The Age Company Ltd. Any unauthorised use, ***************************************************************** 5 Nuclear rods to move through Sydney tonight Source: AAP|Published: Monday January 22, 12:14 PM A shipment of spent nuclear fuel rods will be trucked from the Lucas Heights Reactor to Botany Bay tonight before leaving for France, anti-nuclear campaigners said today. Green groups and local councils plan to protest against the shipment, believed to be moved through the southern Sydney suburbs of Kogarah, Rockdale, Botany and Sutherland by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation from 9pm (AEDT). The rods, thought to number around 360, were highly radioactive and posed a grave risk, Greenpeace said. "If you take a lid off one of these canisters it would kill you - it's as simple as that," Greenpeace campaigner Stephen Campbell said. "The nuclear industry and the Australian government have a paternalistic attitude about this, they want to keep things in a cold war-era mentality where they believe the population has no right to know what's going on in their own suburban streets," he said. A spokesman for New South Wales Premier Bob Carr said the state government had received notification that the second of four shipments would be transported from Lucas Heights to France in early 2001 but were given no exact dates. The nuclear rods will be reprocessed in France before returning to Australia before 2015. "Once it's undergone this process, which is illegal in Australia, the waste comes right back to Australia," Mr Campbell said. "It's as dangerous once it's been reprocessed as spent nuclear fuel, there is no significant reduction in the quantity of radioactivity in the material. "All of these transports are part of the nuclear fuel cycle which from cradle to grave is a highly dangerous, highly contaminating industry which robs the legacy of a clean environment from hundreds of future generations," he said. Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon has urged NSW Environment Minister Bob Debus to release his emergency plans to the public in the event of an accident during the transportation of the fuel. "Sydney people will have this dangerous material trucked past their homes without being told where or when it's going, how dangerous it is, or what to do in case of any mishap," Ms Rhiannon said. Copyright © 2000 The Age Company Ltd. Any unauthorised use, ***************************************************************** 6 EDITORIAL: FALLING AGAIN FOR NUCLEAR HYSTERIA New Zealand Herald Online - Newspaper 23.01.2001 The very word nuclear continues to induce a certain hysteria in this country. The word need not refer to weapons to have that effect; nuclear power, nuclear reactors, even irradiation of food, have encountered fevered opposition here. Now two British ships carrying nuclear fuel from Europe to Japan threaten to pass through the Tasman Sea and the Government is doing everything it can to see they do not come into our 200-mile zone. Isn't this just a little precious? Foreign Governments, long acquainted with New Zealand's commitment to a non-nuclear defence posture, must nevertheless be mildly surprised to receive diplomatic approaches asking that this shipment steers clear of our economic zone. The fuel, mixed uranium and plutonium oxide, is destined for the Tokyo Electric Power Company. In a world well accustomed to nuclear power generation, our sensitivity must seem extreme. There are widespread concerns about the safe disposal of nuclear waste, and the costs of doing so are deterring further nuclear development in many places. But reprocessed fuel is not waste and these ships are not disposing of anything. They are carrying fuel, carefully contained, to a country that is not as blessed as we are with hydro and mineral alternatives. The Government can do no more than ask that the ships stay outside our exclusive economic zone. The Law of the Sea does not permit countries to forbid transit in their zones, although the Green Party has a bill before Parliament which apparently presumes to extend the previous Labour Government's nuclear prohibition out to the 200-mile limit. The present Government is probably not going to entertain a bill that would contravene the Law of the Sea but it would rather not have the issue brought to a head in this way. The last thing it will want is a well-publicised shipment of radioactive fuel passing through its exclusive economic zone, hindered only by the stunts of Greenpeace. It is likely that protesting small craft will be out in the Tasman to harass the ship regardless of whether it enters anybody's economic zone. That provides the Government with an excuse to have the Navy shadow the fuel carrier through the Tasman. Air Force surveillance, which the Government says it will consider in the event that the two ships come into the Tasman, might not be enough if protesters are determined to put themselves in danger. It could claim to be acting out of concern for the safety of protesters, the ships and the country, although it is hard to believe that Foreign Minister Phil Goff or anybody else seriously fears the ship will suffer a mishap capable of contaminating the region. The shippers say the material is enclosed in 80 to 100-tonne steel casks, the ships have been designed for this purpose and have travelled 4.5 million miles without an accidental release of radioactivity. Against that, Mr Goff finds it telling that the companies will not indemnify New Zealand against the risk that an accident could harm its clean, green image. The companies, of course, acknowledge that accidents can happen - nothing in life is ever without risk - but they say these ships are as safe as they can be. An official inquiry into nuclear-powered warships visiting this country once said exactly the same. That assurance cut no ice in this country's politics at that time, and probably nothing has changed. The N-word is still the last word here. ***************************************************************** 7 Lin Yi-hsiung urges public debate on nuclear plant issue The Taipei Times Online: 2001-01-21 SUNDAY, JANUARY 21ST, 2001 BY STEPHANIE LOW STAFF REPORTER Former DPP Chairman Lin Yi-hsiung (ŞL¸q¶Ż) yesterday suggested holding a public debate among political party leaders to decide whether the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should continue. The proposal, however, was flatly rejected by opposition party members. "People should discuss the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant issue rationally. This should not involve any social confrontation and political struggle, " Lin said. Opposition leaders said such a suggestion was unnecessary, urging the DPP to follow what the Council of Grand Justices had dictated in its recent constitutional interpretation. "What the DPP should do is to let Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (±i«T¶Ż) deliver a report on the project to the legislature and then accept the subsequent resolution made by the legislature. There is no need to create any more trouble," KMT Secretary-general Lin Feng-cheng (ŞLÂץż) said. While different political forces have been contending over the issue over the last 20 years, the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should not be mixed up with the pro-nuclear and anti-nuclear dispute, Lin said. Lin said the KMT insists that the construction of the new plant should continue, because it is safer than the other three existing plants and will be the last to be built on the island. Chang Hsien-yao (±iĹăÄŁ), director of the People First Party's policy center, said Lin's proposal blurred the issue. Chang said a main point of the grand justices' ruling is that the Executive Yuan should respect the legislature when making major policy decisions. "Do we still need to debate this question?" Chang said. Hau Lung-bin (°qŔsŮy), convener of the New Party's national election and development committee, said there was no excuse to delay a decision any longer. "Nobody will change their views after the debate," Hau said. The legislature is expected to hold a provisional meeting on Jan. 30 so that the premier can deliver a report on the Cabinet's plan to scrap the power plant. During the meeting, the legislature will make a resolution on the question, which very likely will support the continuation of the project. Chou Po-lun (©P§B­Ű), convener of the DPP legislative caucus, yesterday still insisted that the Executive Yuan is not required to comply with the legislature's resolution. "There are several other options we will try to negotiate with the opposition coalition," Chou said. This story has been viewed 267 times. [*][ Copyright c 1999, 2000, 2001 The Taipei Times. All rights ***************************************************************** 8 BNFL defies krypton ruling The Guardian | Radioactive gas still being released into atmosphere PAUL BROWN, ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT MONDAY JANUARY 22, 2001 British Nuclear Fuels is continuing to release a cancer-causing gas, krypton 85, more than 20 years after being instructed to stop. It also appears to have persuaded a Japanese company to do the same. Kr85, a byproduct of nuclear fission, is being vented through chimneys when spent fuel is reprocessed at the Thorp plant in Cumbria. BNFL releases 250,000 terra becquerels of radioactivity a year, enough to cause two fatal skin cancers and 100 other cancers a year, according to the national radiological protection board. BNFL was first instructed to capture krypton by Mr Justice Parker at the original inquiry into Thorp in 1977. By 1994, the company had convinced the government that to capture the radioactive gas could not be justified because it would cost ś50m. The company was not let off the hook entirely and was instructed to keep looking for a viable method of capturing krypton and to record progress each year. Each October since, the company has reported failure, and it has now asked the environment agency for leave merely to review other people's research. The company also appears to have succeeded in preventing a competitor from fitting equipment to capture Kr85 to a plant being built in Japan. A 1996 memorandum from Rupert Wilcox-Baker, senior public relations adviser to BNFL, has been passed to the Guardian because BNFL has this year applied officially to the environment agency to be allowed to continue its policy of "dilute and disperse", which means allowing the gas to escape through tall chimneys over the north of England. Dated March 22 1996, Mr Wilcox-Baker's memorandum to Matthew Simmonds, senior manager at Thorp, says: "What we sell or give Japanese Nuclear Fuels Ltd on Kr85 is a commercial decision. But what we must do is persuade them not to fit Kr85 removal equipment as this is damaging to our own position." He also says that the Japanese must include the "safety and environmental information that to capture krypton is less acceptable than releasing it to the environment". The Japanese plant, which is not yet complete, will discharge a similar amount into the atmosphere as Thorp as a result of BNFL's advice. The Japanese company gave the Guardian the same reason BNFL originally gave the government - "there exists no appropriate commercial technology". BNFL said it would not comment on leaked memos but the company's position remained that it was better to release krypton rather than capture it. "It is an inert gas that does not enter the food chain. "Doses to each individual are very small," a spokesman said. Capturing the gas presented problems because it was volatile and had to be kept under pressure, posing a risk to workers and the installation. It was better to dilute and disperse it into the atmosphere. Martin Forwood, of Cumbrians Opposed to Radioactive Environment, said: "BNFL has had more than 20 years to come up with a solution to this problem. I cannot believe that if they put the proper resources into it they could not have found a solution by now. From the memo it looks as though there is krypton removal equipment available but they are intent on persuading the Japanese not to fit it. They seem to have no wish to protect the global community from the effects of krypton." A spokeswomen for the environment agency said BNFL discharges, including Kr85, were monitored under the agency's review of the company's discharge licence. Guardian Unlimited c Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 9 GERMANS PROTEST AGAINST NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENTS GERMANY: January 22, 2001 AHAUS, GERMANY - HUNDREDS OF DEMONSTRATORS ON SUNDAY PROTESTED AGAINST PLANS TO RESUME THE TRANSPORT OF NUCLEAR WASTE IN GERMANY AFTER A THREE-YEAR LULL. The waste is due to go to an interim storage site in the western German town of Ahaus. The group organising the protest said more than 750 anti-nuclear activists had turned out. "We are pleading for a speedy end to the use of nuclear power," protest organiser Burkhard Helling said in a statement. The interior ministry of the North-Rhine Westphalia state, where Ahaus is located, has said it was preparing for the first transportation in the first half of March, but would not give precise dates for security reasons. Storage facilities at nuclear plants across Germany have filled up as a result of a 1998 stoppage of waste transportation. The ban - imposed after a safety scare over radiation leaks from containers during transport - was lifted after commitments by the German nuclear industry last summer to gradually phase out atomic energy by the mid-2020s. Uncompromising anti-nuclear protesters, who cite safety risks, plan to disrupt waste transports in order to force operators to pull out of nuclear power production sooner. Such protests have frequently led to clashes with police in the past. The resumption of the waste transports is bound to be politically sensitive for Germany's Green party who have been junior coalition partners to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats since the autumn 1998 election. Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, himself a leading Green, defended the waste transports on Sunday, saying nuclear power company EnBW had met all safety demands. Nuclear waste has also been building up in Germany because the French reprocessing plant at La Hague has for some time refused to take any more German fuel until it can send reprocessed waste back to Germany for permanent storage. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 10 Nuclear fuel being loaded in Rostov power plant reactor Nuclear fuel is being loaded into the reactor of the Rostov nuclear power plant, which has been conserved for ten years. ITAR/TASS NEWS AGENCY Story Filed: Sunday, January 21, 2001 12:34 PM EST VOLGODONSK, Rostov region, January 21 (Itar-Tass) - Nuclear fuel is being loaded into the reactor of the Rostov nuclear power plant, which has been conserved for ten years. The reactor has undergone a hydraulic test, a test of the containment shell, a test-run and the second revision of reactor and turbine equipment. The tests displayed a high quality of the construction and assembly works. Highly-skilled experts from almost all functioning nuclear power plants of Russia and Ukraine did the tests. This is not accidental, as not a single nuclear power plant unit has been put into commission on territory of the former Soviet Union since 1992, Rostov nuclear power plant director Vladimir Pogorelov has told Itar-Tass. The Rostov power plant has a VVER-1000 reactor manufactured by the Atommash plant in Volgodonsk. All of the equipment and pipes are under a containment shell to protect them from an external impact, for instance, the fall of an airplane weighting up to 20 tonnes and the water impact in case of rupture of hydro- systems. The beginning start of the power plant is another test of all equipment at the minimum capacity. The unit will be connected to the energy network later and supply electricity to the unified energy system of Russia. The first unit will reach its full capacity, 1 million kilowatt per hour, only after a comprehensive examination. yer/dro (c) 1996-2001 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 SA WILL NOT OBJECT TO PASSAGE OF NUCLEAR FUEL — MOOSA PRETORIA — While SA would be obliged to allow Britain's shipment of its nuclear fuel to Japan through the local shores, a nuclear licence in terms of the law would be required, Environmental and Tourism Minister Vallli Moosa said on Monday. In a statement following the announcement that Britain intends shipping its mixed oxide of plutonium and uranium fuel to Japan via the Cape route, Moosa said because this might cause understandable public concern, the development would be closely monitored by government and the public would be kept informed. According to department spokesman Onkgopotse Tabane, the envisaged shipment would be carried out by an international company commissioned by Japanese and French governments. Tabane said the issue was first discussed on January 16 when representatives of the British High Commission, French and Japanese embassies met the department's director-general to formally notify government of the envisaged shipment. "During this meeting, the director-general pointed out that SA would prefer the ship to stay out of its territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone (300km off the coast)," he said. This was followed by an inter-departmental meeting involving the SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa), National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) as well as the Foreign Affairs, Water Affairs and Trade and Industry departments. "The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a joint stance on the intended shipment of nuclear fuel and make recommendations on further actions that need to be taken in terms of contingency measures. Furthermore, the committee had to recommit itself to the cabinet decision of 1997 on these shipments," he said. Tabane said Samsa, which manages the maritime transport law, made it clear that while it was unlikely that such nuclear carrying vessels would require any assistance from SA in case of accidents, contingency plans for such a rescue would be put in place as a standard practice. The NNR, which is responsible for the issuing of nuclear licences in terms of the Nuclear Energy Act, gave the assurance that the period required for the issuing of a docking licence would make it impossible for the ship to dock in an event of mishap. Although the cabinet decided in 1997 to abide by the international law and fully recognised the right of innocent passage of ships carrying irradiated nuclear fuel cargoes, a licence would be required should such a ship wish to enter a port or require assistance in the event of a mishap. While the country remained committed to carrying out its international search and rescue obligations for vessels in distress, it preferred ships carrying such cargoes around the SA coast to avoid entering its territorial waters, the statement said. — I-Net Bridge BDFM Publishers (Pty) Ltd disclaims all liability for any loss, ***************************************************************** 12 ROWE PLANT READY TO STORE FUEL RODS c2000 MASSLIVE Monday, January 22, 2001 By DAVID A. VALLETTE Yankee Atomic has so far spent nine years dismantling its nuclear power plant here, although there is no external evidence that anything is missing. "The plant still looks much the way it did when it was shut down, " Brian C. Wood, site manager, said in a recent report on the status of the facility. And now, the decommissioning activities have come to a halt so that Yankee can concentrate on the potentially dangerous transfer of nuclear fuel rods out of the plant's cooling water pool and into giant steel and concrete casks that won't require the high maintenance the pool does. The preparation has brought construction rather than demolition to the plant. Nearing completion is a new, three-story building in which the casks will be welded after the radioactive fuel is placed inside them. In a corner of the property, a large concrete pad has been poured on which the casks will sit, likely for years, until the federal Department of Energy creates a better place for them to be stored. The work that has gone on since the permanent cessation of electricity production in 1991 has been internal. The guts of the plant have been ripped out and shipped away either to a contamination burial ground in South Carolina, or elsewhere for recycling of contaminated parts. The tricky fuel-rod transfer process will start later this year, with a dry run set for May 24, and another in June when the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be on hand to judge the system. If all is in order, the transfers would then begin and are expected to take at least until the end of the year to complete. The uranium rods in the pool, accumulated since the 1970s when the practice of sending them out for safekeeping was outlawed, are not considered as dangerous as they would be if freshly removed from the reactor. But if not properly cooled, they still have the potential to erupt in fire and create a major "radiological release," staff of the commission said in a report issued Wednesday. The rods are to be placed in a transfer cask while still under the cooling water. Then they will go to the new building to be welded into a permanent cask and set out on the concrete pad. Helium circulating within the casks will keep them cool. The dry cask system is estimated to save Yankee about $2 million per year in pool maintenance costs. Once the transfer is complete, Yankee will return in earnest to the dismantling of the plant, expected to take several more years. c 2001 UNION-NEWS. Used with permission. ***************************************************************** 13 NUCLEAR PLANT PREPARING FOR TRANSFER c2000 MASSLIVE Monday, January 22, 2001 By DAVID A. VALLETTE Yankee Atomic has so far spent nine years dismantling its nuclear power plant here, although there is no external evidence that anything is missing. "The plant still looks much the way it did when it was shut down, " Brian C. Wood, site manager, said in a recent report on the status of the facility. And now, the decommissioning activities have come to a halt so that Yankee can concentrate on the potentially dangerous transfer of nuclear fuel rods out of the plant's cooling water pool and into giant steel and concrete casks that won't require the high maintenance the pool does. The preparation has brought construction rather than demolition to the plant. Nearing completion is a new, three-story building in which the casks will be welded after the radioactive fuel is placed inside them. In a corner of the property, a large concrete pad has been poured on which the casks will sit, likely for years, until the federal Department of Energy creates a better place for them to be stored. The work that has gone on since the permanent cessation of electricity production in 1991 has been internal. The guts of the plant have been ripped out and shipped away either to a contamination burial ground in South Carolina, or elsewhere for recycling of contaminated parts. The tricky fuel-rod transfer process will start later this year, with a dry run set for May 24, and another in June when the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be on hand to judge the system. If all is in order, the transfers would then begin and are expected to take at least until the end of the year to complete. The uranium rods in the pool, accumulated since the 1970s when the practice of sending them out for safekeeping was outlawed, are not considered as dangerous as they would be if freshly removed from the reactor. But if not properly cooled, they still have the potential to erupt in fire and create a major "radiological release," staff of the commission said in a report issued Wednesday. The rods are to be placed in a transfer cask while still under the cooling water. Then they will go to the new building to be welded into a permanent cask and set out on the concrete pad. Helium circulating within the casks will keep them cool. The dry cask system is estimated to save Yankee about $2 million per year in pool maintenance costs. Once the transfer is complete, Yankee will return in earnest to the dismantling of the plant, expected to take several more years. c 2001 UNION-NEWS. Used with permission. ***************************************************************** 14 GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES $161 MILLION IN AID FOR PIKETON OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR BOB TAFT OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2001 GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES $161 MILLION IN AID FOR PIKETON FUNDS WILL SUPPORT NEW TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION AND COLD STORAGE PROJECTS SOUGHT BY TAFT Governor Bob Taft today announced the release of $161 million in federal funds for the Piketon Uranium Enrichment Plant in southern Ohio. “This money is critical for the workers and families affected by the decision to close the Piketon plant,” Taft said. “ This issue has been a high priority for me and our representatives in Congress. We are all pleased the outgoing administration has released the funds, and we look forward to continued progress with the incoming administration.” Taft said that more than $22 million would be released within the next three months, and the entire $161 million aid package will be made available this year. The money will be used to establish a new technology demonstration project at Piketon, as well as for the weatherization and winterization of the plant, in accordance with the Department of Energy’s October announcement to keep the Piketon plant in cold storage for five years. Since USEC announced the decision to close Piketon, Taft and other state officials have worked to find some means of keeping the plant open and securing jobs for the 2,000 workers affected by the decision. Taft has asked the Department of Energy to join the state’s efforts to bring in new research & development, or other operations to Piketon. In a March letter to President Clinton, Taft and the governors of Tennessee and Kentucky also urged the President to release funds that would allow for the establishment in Piketon of a facility to convert depleted uranium. ***************************************************************** 15 Power shortage may electrify coal, nuclear industries MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2001 Science Monitor In the electricity business, opportunity is emerging from crisis. California's power shortages, the jump in natural-gas prices, and tight electricity supplies elsewhere in the United States have roused hopes in both the nuclear-power and coal industry for a business revival. "It is making new nuclear plants look better and better all the time, " says Marvin Fertel, an executive at the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) in Washington. The industry has "a real shot" at an order for a new plant "during this decade." If so, it would be something close to a Lazarus-like event. The last order for a nuclear plant that was actually completed was in 1973. Many experts, noting the high capital costs of a "nuke" and the extreme opposition to them, write off nuclear power for the indefinite future. The coal industry has even higher hopes of new business. "Over the last year, we have seen a definite renewed interest in using coal for producing electricity," says Connie Holmes, a senior vice president at the National Mining Association (NMA) in Washington. Coal today provides 51 percent of the nation's electricity. But the last major coal plant to come on line was in 1996. For some years, electricity providers have usually preferred to meet the expanding demand for power with new, relatively cheap, quickly built, natural- gas plants. They add little to air pollution. And gas was cheap. That's changed. Natural gas is now expensive. The reliability of its supply is also questioned. Right now, the cost of coal is about one-third that of natural gas or oil on a heat-equivalent basis. Wisconsin Electric Power recently applied for regulatory approval of two large 600-megawatt coal plants. And that order, says Mrs. Holmes, may be "just the tip of the iceberg." Behind the new enthusiasm for nuclear and coal power is a rising demand for electricity - about 2 to 2.5 percent a year, compounded year after year. In California, demand has been rising 3 to 4 percent. But supply, caught up in a deregulation mess and the difficulty of finding new sites for plants within the state, has stagnated. No significant large power plant of any kind has been built in California for 16 years. Jack Gerard, president of the NMA, says the nation will need all kinds of power - coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydro-electric, and renewable resources (wind, solar, etc.). Coal's hopes for the future lie considerably in an "advanced clean coal technology" that will produce power with less pollution and in the reliability of the domestic supply of coal. The NMA is lobbying Congress for a special investment tax credit for the first two or three plants using new technology to reduce the "commercial and technological risk" for the companies that order them. It wants this to be included in a comprehensive energy bill that is to be introduced soon. It also hopes the Bush administration will review a Clinton plan to put a third of federal forest land "off limits" to road building and economic development - including coal mining. The nuclear-power industry, now providing 20 percent of the nation's power, hopes President George W. Bush will make a decision by the end of this year to go forward with the nuclear-waste facility in the heart of Yucca Mountain in Arizona. Then the existing 103 nuclear plants and any future plants would have a permanent home for highly radioactive waste. "We want politics to be moved aside and let science, the data, and the regulatory process go forward," says Mr. Fertel. Many in the industry suspect that the Clinton administration blocked action on this crucial site for political reasons - to win electoral support in Arizona. Last September, the NEI established a 15-member task force from the three nuclear-plant manufacturers (General Electric, Westinghouse, and ABB), construction firms, and major utilities to explore the possibility of building new nukes. "An awful lot is going on," says Fertel. The consortium is exploring the possibility of constructing multiple, same-technology plants to minimize financial risks and maximize economies of scale. It will talk to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the end of this month to explore what would be needed to license a new technology: the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor. In exploratory use in South Africa, this reactor design has an advantage in safety and small size. Lester Brown, president of Worldwatch Institute in Washington, says new nuclear power plants would not be competitive. "It may cost as much to decommission a plant as build one," he says. "No one wants the risk." But old nuclear plants are hot properties, with rising prices. [I] For further information: Please Note: The Monitor does not endorse the sites behind these links. We offer them for your additional research. . Copyright 2001 The Christian Science Publishing Society. All ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Anti-nuclear activist unrepentant Monday, January 22, 2001 Copyright c Las Vegas Review-Journal Anti-nuclear activist unrepentant after 10-day stint behind bars Las Vegas anti-nuclear activist Suzanne Snyder completed a 10-day jail stint Friday, her sentence for trespassing at the Nevada Test Site with other protesters in February. The time served at the Nye County jail in Tonopah left her unrepentant. She still refuses to recognize the Department of Energy's legal authority over the test site, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, believing instead that the land there belongs to the Western Shoshone. "As far as I'm concerned, Nye County has no jurisdiction there," she said. "When the Department of Energy or Nye County can show me title that they own that land, then I'll honor their trespass. I personally think the Shoshone would be a better steward. "We respect that land, and hopefully there will be a day when the people who work for the Department of Energy will join us," she added. "We want that land protected." Because of her beliefs, Snyder, 24, said the jail time was "absolutely" worth it, adding she is likely to trespass at the test site again. "I don't know when," she said. "But I'm sure I will, and I won't be the only one." Her latest unlawful jaunt onto federal property--which was part of a nuclear testing protest with eight other members of the international anti-nuclear organization Shundahai Network--wasn't her first. She was first arrested for trespassing at the test site in March 1998, for which she faced a fine and a public nuisance charge. Then in February 1999, Snyder and fellow activist Reinard Knutsen were found guilty of disobeying orders by a U.S. magistrate. Six months earlier, the two had scrambled to the top of an overhang at the Foley Federal Building, then refused to move from their perch until the United States stopped all subcritical nuclear weapons experiments. Firefighters were summoned to get them down. Snyder said her actions are motivated by her belief that the United States must stop nuclear testing. "The U.S. refuses to honor its treaties. ... They're continuing this weapons development, " she said. "To continue testing nuclear weapons after we know the horror of it--it's an atrocity. "It forces the Russians to do subcritical weapons testing. There are a lot better ways to be spending this money. Think of all the food they could buy," she said.--MICHAEL SQUIRES Wondering how a local story turned out or what happened to someone in the news? Call the City Desk at 383-0264, and we will try to answer your question in this column. Copyright c Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2001 ***************************************************************** 2 NUCLEAR SHIPS: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS New Zealand Herald Online - Newspaper 23.01.2001 A shipment of nuclear fuel bound for Japan from France is due in the Tasman Sea in the next month. It could sail through New Zealand's exclusive economic zone. VERNON SMALL looks at key questions. WHO IS MOVING THIS FUEL? The consortium undertaking the shipment, Pacific Nuclear Transport, is owned by state-owned British Nuclear Fuels plc (62.5 per cent), France's state-owned COGEMA (12.5 per cent) and a consortium of Japanese electricity companies, the Overseas Reprocessing Committee (ORC), which holds 25 per cent. BNFL operates 51 sites in 15 countries and employs 23,000 people. It specialises in making fuel, reactor services, electricity generation, spent fuel management and decommissioning and cleaning up sites. COGEMA, with nearly 20,000 staff, specialises in mining uranium and converting, reprocessing and recycling spent fuel. It also runs engineering and industrial services and nuclear fuel transport. Overseas Reprocessing is a consortium of 10 Japanese power generators employing 149,000 staff. WHAT IS MOX FUEL AND WHAT IS IT USED FOR? MOX (Mixed Uranium and Plutonium Oxide) is a nuclear fuel made of a mixture of uranium and plutonium. The plutonium content varies from 3 per cent to 10 per cent, depending on the design of the fuel. It is the second-most-common commercial nuclear fuel after uranium. Seventy reactors worldwide are due to be using it by 2010. There are 436 nuclear power plants in operation in the world supplying about 16 per cent of the electricity. A further 36 plants are under construction. But Greenpeace notes that European nations, in particular, have stopped building new plants. MOX was first made in 1963 and 400 tonnes have been used in commercial reactors since then, mostly in Europe. The consortium argues that the advantage of MOX over uranium fuel is that it reuses plutonium created as a byproduct in the plants. Recycling lowers the amount of new uranium that must be mined and reduces waste by about 25 per cent, the consortium claims. A uranium fuel reactor produces 250kg of plutonium a year, while a 100 per cent MOX reactor uses up more plutonium than it produces, burning about 60kg of plutonium a year. Greenpeace says the reprocessing produces huge amounts of waste and the plutonium is changed so it could be used for weapons. The consortium says no country has the ability to do that. Greenpeace is also critical of the amount of high-level waste that must be shipped back to Japan as a result of the reprocessing. It would prefer it if the spent fuel was stored, not reprocessed. The MOX in the shipment coming near New Zealand is in the form of ceramic-like pellets inside zirconium alloy rods, which are assembled to form MOX fuel assemblies. One pellet, a few centimetres long, has the same energy output as a tonne of coal. The consortium says it tests its safety measures strenuously, but Greenpeace says the tests are not stringent enough. CAN NUCLEAR FUEL BE ENDLESSLY RECYCLED? Fuel is unloaded and replaced every three to four years when it starts to become less efficient. Spent fuel is typically made up of 94 per cent to 96 per cent unburned uranium, which is recyclable, 1 per cent plutonium created in the core (also recyclable), and 3 per cent to 5 per cent "ashes," which are not reusable. Fuel is reprocessed through a series of mechanical and chemical steps which sort out the components of the spent fuel and separate it from the waste. WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE TRANSPORTED AROUND THE WORLD? Japan will not have its own facility for reprocessing the spent fuel until at least 2005, although the international furore over nuclear shipments is encouraging the Japanese to move. They use British Nuclear Fuels' Sellafield plant and COGEMA's site at La Hague for storing and reprocessing it. Japan decided to start using MOX in 1997, and electricity companies there have said they plan to have 16 to 18 of the country's 51 reactors loaded with MOX by 2010. The rest use uranium fuel (UOinf2). Nuclear fuels produce 35 per cent of Japan's electricity generation. WHAT SAFETY MEASURES ARE TAKEN TO PROTECT THE FUEL ON THE SHIP? The fuel assemblies are sealed in casks of steel weighing between 80 and 100 tonnes. Each is about 6m long and 2m in diameter. Safety measures are set by the International Atomic Energy Agency. WHAT ABOUT THE SHIPS IT TRAVELS IN? The fuel is shipped using two 104m-long, 16m-wide British ships, the Pacific Teal and the Pacific Pintail. One carries the shipment, the other acts as an escort. Both are armed with naval guns to protect them against pirate attacks and terrorists. On board is an armed force from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary, who specialise in protecting nuclear sites. The ships carry enough diesel to sail from France to Japan without calling into port, and they make no scheduled calls. They have reinforced double hulls, and backup navigation, communication, electrical and cooling systems. Sonar location systems on board can operate in up to 6000m of water. WHAT IF THERE IS AN ACCIDENT? The consortium says that if the pellets were to end up in the sea they would take thousands of years to dissolve. It says Japanese research has indicated that in coastal waters the radiation exposure of those living nearby would be one-millionth of background radiation. If the pellets were exposed in deep water, the impact would be equal to one ten-millionth of background radiation. International company Smit Salvage has the contract to salvage the ships, but in light of difficulties lifting the Russian submarine Kursk, Greenpeace wonders about the practicality of salvage if the ship were to sink in deep water. WHAT IF THERE WAS AN EMERGENCY? The consortium claims that a fully trained team is on 24-hour standby. Commercial arrangements are made with teams in countries close to the route. Specialist help from those countries would not be required and the ship would "not automatically" head for the nearest port for help, the consortium said. DOES THE CONSORTIUM HAVE TO PAY COMPENSATION IF ANYONE IS INJURED BY THE SHIPMENT? Foreign Minister Phil Goff says the consortium does not accept full liability and would not compensate New Zealand for the loss of its clean, green reputation. The consortium says the Paris and Brussels conventions enable anyone suffering injury or damage from the nuclear cargo to recover compensation without having to prove anyone was at fault. It says the conventions are backed by insurance. Countries not covered by those conventions would be dealt with under "relevant civil law." CAN WE BAN THE SHIPMENT FROM OUR 200-MILE ECONOMIC ZONE? No, not under international law, says the Government. Greenpeace points to a recent Argentinian court ruling that the safeguarding of the maritime environment from hazardous cargoes such as nuclear waste overrides the law of the sea and may allow the ships to be banned. The consortium has said it does not intend to sail into New Zealand's economic zone, although it reserves the right at the discretion of the captain - if there is bad weather for instance. Mr Goff says he has received Japanese Government assurances that the ships will not enter the 200-mile zone unless there is a risk to the ship or for humanitarian reasons. The two stances amount to the same thing. Mr Goff plans to lodge formal protests with Britain, France and Japan over the route. The Australians seem more relaxed and have shown no sign of lodging a protest. Greenpeace says this is because the Australians are planning their own shipment of spent fuel to La Hague. WHEN WILL THE SHIP BE NEAR NZ? Anyone's guess. Probably in a month or so. The consortium will not say for security reasons where it is at any time, and Greenpeace does not have a ship fast enough to follow it. If the New Zealand Government uses its maritime surveillance aircraft, it may know, but it has not yet decided whether to pass that information to the public and protesters. ***************************************************************** 3 Rocky Flats Amends Record of Decision to Hasten Material Disposition energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release The Energy Department has issued an Amended Record of Decision (ROD) that addresses the management of certain plutonium residues and scrub alloy stored at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site. The amended ROD finalizes a preferred alternative identified in a related programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. The Amended ROD provides that approximately 315 kilograms of plutonium fluoride residues will be packaged at Rocky Flats in preparation for disposal at the department's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. The 315 kilograms of bulk material contains approximately 142 kilograms of plutonium. Under the original ROD it was proposed that the material be transported to the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for processing. The residue material will now be prepared and packaged at Rocky Flats for final disposal at WIPP. These materials, called residues, were left over from plutonium purification and manufacturing operations carried out during the Cold War, as part of the United States' nuclear weapons production activities. Several major benefits will result from permanent disposal of the material. Those include completing the disposal of the material five years sooner than what was envisioned under earlier proposals, and removing the residues from Rocky Flats in a timeframe that supports closing the site by 2006. Rocky Flats is a DOE-owned Superfund cleanup site and former nuclear weapons production facility operated by Kaiser-Hill Company, LLC. The site's mission includes special nuclear material stabilization; decontamination; deactivation and decommissioning; waste management; environmental cleanup; and site closure. MEDIA CONTACT: Dolline Hatchett, 202/586-5806 Release No. R-01-024 ***************************************************************** 4 Energy Department Issues Report to Congress on Long-Term Stewardship of Nuclear Weapons Complex energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release The Department of Energy (DOE) issues today a Report to Congress containing the most comprehensive analysis to date of its existing and anticipated long-term stewardship obligations at DOE sites. The report, which fulfills a Congressional requirement, identifies the long-term stewardship activities anticipated by the department at as many as 128 sites by the year 2006. DOE already performs long-term stewardship activities at 34 sites that have been cleaned up and closed. "The report provides a plan for ensuring the safety of DOE sites long after the cleanup has been completed." said Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson. "It also serves as a foundation for determining the science and technology requirements for meeting our long-term stewardship obligations at DOE sites." While the primary focus of the report covers the period from now through the year 2006, the report provides a preliminary glimpse of what DOE's long-term stewardship obligations may be up to the year 2070. Long-term stewardship includes monitoring, maintenance, record keeping and other activities necessary to ensure protection of human health and the environment from hazards that may remain after cleanup, stabilization, or disposal of waste. The estimated scope, cost and schedule of those activities is summarized in the two volume report. To date most of the department's efforts have been focused on the cleanup and closure of sites. This report not only clarifies post-cleanup long-term stewardship responsibilities but also informs the public of the department's near term planning and decision making. The Report to Congress: Long-Term Stewardship is available on the Internet at http://www.em.doe.gov/, and through DOE's Center for Environmental Management Information, 470 L'Enfant Plaza East, SW, Suite 7112, Washington, DC 20024, or by calling 1-800-7-EM-DATA (1-800-736-3282). MEDIA CONTACT: Dolline Hatchett, 202/586-5806 Release No. R-01-025 ***************************************************************** 5 PLUTONIUM-BURNING GOES THROUGH SPIN CYCLE NEW REPORT FUELS DEBATE OVER FATE OF WEAPONS-GRADE PLUTONIUM Straight Goods - Canada's independent on-line source of news you can use OTTAWA (CUP) - Environmental activists are shaking their heads at a new scientific report that concludes its safer to import Russian plutonium and burn it as fuel in Canadian reactors than leave it in nuclear warheads. Nuclear activists say they wonder why Canada needs to get involved at all and calls the distribution of plutonium for mixed oxide fuel purposes an "unnecessary risk." "Our number one concern is that using plutonium in reactors increases its circulation in the civilian economy," said Kristen Ostling, national director of the Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout. "Our biggest concern is with proliferation." The 23-page report was released by the Canadian Association of Physicists, a group made up of physicists from all academic and industry backgrounds. Dr. Gordon Drake, the organization's president, said the report was not meant to advocate a solution to the plutonium problem. "The report restricts itself to not include the broader economic and political issues," he said. "But just to discuss the technical feasibility of using the fuel and coming to the conclusions that there are no technical reasons not to do so." Drake said the study was commissioned by his organization after controversy erupted this past year over the testing of fuel at Ontario's Chalk River facility. The group's members decided to gauge the risk based on technical matters that might arise from the transportation, testing and use of fuel in Canada. He said it was meant to ensure that the public and government officials were informed on the potential risks of the project. "The risk is minimal," said Drake. "We routinely ship around radioactive isotopes for a wide variety of medical and scientific applications." Ostling pointed out that plutonium can be separated relatively easily from spent fuel and used for nuclear weapons. And she said Canadians shouldn't overlook the report's conclusion that immobilization is just as feasible, cost-efficient and safe a means of disposal as burning. Immobilization involves sealing the plutonium in glass containers and storing it at a secure location. Russian authorities oppose this plan because they hope to turn a profit from selling the plutonium to countries like Canada. The debate has been raging for several years after international groups expressed concern that leftover nuclear weapons in Russia could potentially be obtained by rogue states and recycled into active weapons. "When you make plutonium an article of commerce, of course it's going to be subject to diversion," said Ostling, who advocates a full immobilization of the fuel and phasing out of all facets of the nuclear industry. She said she thinks the beleaguered nuclear industry in Canada is very interested in tapping into the Russian plutonium market as a means of keeping itself afloat. Test burns of fuel are already underway at Chalk River despite protests from environmentalists, aboriginal groups and local municipalities. Full-scale importation of fuel would likely not begin before the end of the decade, after construction of a Russian plant to prepare special bundles to export the fuel. Darren Stewart is Environment Bureau Chief, Ottawa Bureau, Canadian University Press. A good source of information on plutonium is the Campaign for a Nuclear Phaseout c STRAIGHT GOODS, 2000-2001. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ***************************************************************** 6 PROTESTS AS NUCLEAR SHIPS SAIL news.com.au - By VANESSA WILLIAMS 22jan01 SHIPS loaded with nuclear fuel will pass just hundreds of kilometres off Victoria next month. The two vessels, which are armed, left France amid protests they were a threat to the environment. Their cargoes of mixed oxide nuclear fuel are bound for civilian nuclear reactors in Japan. The journey prompted the New Zealand Government yesterday to lodge a formal protest with France, Japan and Britain, who partly own and operate the ships. The fuel will travel via the Cape of Good Hope to the Southern Ocean. The ships will turn north at Tasmania and sail to Japan through the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia in mid or late February. NZ Foreign Minister Phil Goff said the chance of an accident at sea, while small, could not be discounted. The ships' operators have promised to stay between NZ and Australian territorial waters, but have not revealed their exact route. Greenpeace Australia's nuclear campaign spokesman, Mr Stephen Campbell, said the dangerous cargo would cause an environmental disaster if it spilled. Mr Campbell said it was inevitable there would eventually be an accident, if not with these ships then with others. The two British ships, Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, carry 30mm cannons and a squad of specially trained police from the UK Atomic Energy Agency Police. They completed the same journey in 1999. A spokesperson for Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton said Labor had called on the government to let scientists review how safe the journey was. A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said the government had been told the ships would pass Australia. But Australia would not follow NZ and lodge a protest with France, Japan and Britain because it was happy with international safety standards, the spokesman said. The fuel will be used to power energy reactors and is difficult to use to make nuclear weapons. ***************************************************************** 7 Moncton put SNS on a path to succeed During a tour of Oak Ridge National Laboratory last year, Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., told his story of full funding for the Spallation Neutron Source, a happy turnaround from troubled times, and he giddily predicted a successful completion of the $1.4 billion project. Wamp left no doubt who deserved the credit as he loudly gushed, "Thank God for David Moncton!" Wamp's tone--and that of others closely attached to the SNS-- was more subdued last week as word circulated that Moncton would be leaving the project and returning to his executive post at Argonne National Laboratory. "While we will miss Dr. Moncton's dedication and talent, he's done the hard part by making sure that this project moved from the drawing board to actual construction," Wamp said, adding, "I have been assured by ORNL Director Bill Madia that the nation's top science project will not miss a beat É ." Other quotes from near and far carried a similar message: Thanks, David Moncton, for the good job, and now let's move forward. "I am confident that whoever replaces him will share his commitment to completing this project on time and on budget," Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., said in a prepared statement. "It is too important to Oak Ridge and the country to delay." Meanwhile, other folks with less of a public posture speculated about what sort of dark events might have spurred Moncton to say goodbye (effective March 1) and what impact his departure would have on the SNS. They even pondered the question that seemed too preposterous or silly to ask out loud: Can the SNS survive without David Moncton? But that question isn't so silly when you consider how Moncton was tied individually to the Spallation Neutron Source and its progress over the past two years. Sure, from one perspective he was just the leader of an expert team he helped assemble for the massive project. But, more importantly, he was the chosen one, the accepted one, the guy who met the approval of critics in Washington and scientists in Europe, and Moncton won this confidence during face-to-face meetings, cross-country flights and occasional butt-chewings of those who didn't get the picture. The SNS turnaround was more than just an improved blueprint and a balanced checkbook. Remember this: A couple of years ago the SNS was in a hard place because critical reviewers thought the complex project has reached an unhealthy lag, with an incomplete management team and big gaps in the technical baseline. Those influential critics--including U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., then-chairman of the House Science Committee--convinced the Department of Energy it needed to find someone with a "track record" on big science projects to save the day. Thus, ORNL's Bill Appleton was ousted as SNS chief, and David Moncton -- who'd "been there and done that" by building the Advanced Photon Source on budget and on time at Argonne--was lured to Oak Ridge, although he didn't come cheaply. He demanded more authority than might ordinarily be expected, and he got it in spades, enabling him to effectively utilize the resources at five, later six, national laboratories in the SNS partnership without having to bow to the political protocols and suck-upmanship at each site. Anyway, despite continuous rumors to the contrary, Moncton, Madia and just about everybody else publicly insists the Spallation Neutron Source is in great shape at the moment. So, whoever succeeds Moncton will have the unenviable position of never getting full credit for the project, even if it is completed without too many complications, and probably of receiving full blame if it fails or gets stalled to the point of juicing up the price tag. Madia admits he's the one currently on the hot seat. He and Hermann Grunder, the director of Argonne, reportedly approached Moncton in mid-December, just before Moncton and his family left on a skiing holiday, and told him they wanted him to make a choice about his future--either full time with the SNS or full time at Argonne, where he'd kept his job as assistant lab director in charge of the Advanced Photon Source. Madia and Grunder told Moncton they'd like a decision in January, and Moncton reportedly gave them his answer early last week. "In fact, I was surprised," Madia said of Moncton's decision to return full time to Argonne, although he realized there were some personal considerations--including the ill health of Moncton's father-in- law and his son's music career in development at Northwestern University. The ORNL director said he had hoped and thought Moncton would agree to become full-time director of the Spallation Neutron Source, although it was always clear that Moncton wouldn't hang around and direct the SNS after it became operational (scheduled for 2006) because his research background involves X-rays, not neutrons. Now, however, Madia must replace Moncton, and he must replace him with someone of equal stature. In other words, he must find somebody with significant experience in developing a big science project and bringing it to completion and somebody who'll be viewed credibly by scientists gearing up to use this world-class experimental facility. "David has been an icon representing the SNS for some time and has garnered, appropriately, enormous respect out of Congress," Madia said. "I feel an obligation to the community and the project and scientists to find an equivalent." The search is already on, and Madia, in a statement issued by the Oak Ridge lab, said he hopes to name the new SNS executive director by the first of March. Senior writer Frank Munger can be reached at 482-9213 or by e-mail at twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. This weekly column on science and technology also is available on our Web site at http://www.knoxnews.com/science/ munger/. Copyright c 1999-2001, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights ***************************************************************** 8 Nuclear Submarine Protested in Spain January 21, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS ALGECIRAS, Spain (AP)--Tens of thousands of people marched through this southern Spanish town, calling for a British nuclear-powered submarine awaiting repairs in Gibraltar to leave at once. Demonstrators on Saturday said they fear a radiation leak from the docked submarine HMS Tireless, and warned that the Gibraltar port is unequipped to handle such an emergency. The submarine docked in Gibraltar--a British colony on Spain's southern tip--nine months ago, after a crack was found in its cooling system. Britain later acknowledged the problem was more serious, saying a design flaw might be responsible for the damage, and 12 similar submarines were recalled. During the two-hour demonstration, just across the bay from Gibraltar, politicians, union leaders and environmentalists rallied behind a banner held aloft by children that read, "For our future." The crowd shouted "Tireless Out" and sang the Beatles song, "Yellow Submarine." Police said 20,000 people attended the rally, but organizers put the number at 70,000. Repairs on the submarine are scheduled to start Monday. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has said he hopes the submarine will be removed by April. The presence of the submarine in Gibraltar has provoked concern and anger among Spaniards living nearby and strained already-sour relations between London and Madrid over the British colony. Assurances from both countries have done little to convince many of the 250,000 people who live near Gibraltar that there is no danger of a radiation leak. Located at the western entrance to the Mediterranean, Gibraltar has been a source of tension for Spain since the land was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2001 LAS VEGAS SUN, INC. ***************************************************************** 9 Nuclear sub to leave Gibraltar Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | AP IN MADRID MONDAY JANUARY 22, 2001 Britain expects repairs on a nuclear-powered submarine docked in Gibraltar to be completed by the end of March and that the vessel will leave "soon thereafter", a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman, Sarah Haywood, said yesterday. The Spanish daily El Pais reported yesterday that Britain had secretly agreed with Spain that it will remove the HMS Tireless from Gibraltar by May 19. The submarine docked there nine months ago after a crack was found in its cooling system, prompting widespread protests in the colony. The Royal Navy plans to tow the submarine to Britain if it cannot be repaired by the May 19 deadline. However, Ms Haywood told El Pais that the navy is sure the submarine will be repaired by the end of March. Guardian Unlimited c Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 10 Nuking the Northern Dimension Russia's nukes threaten EU and NATO expansion plans CER | Vol 3, No 3 22 January 2001 Review of Central and East European issues in the UK press from 15 to 19 January 2001 Oliver Craske While much publicity has been given recently to the alleged new deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad—hotly denied by Moscow—the problems of Russia's Baltic enclave have been exercising the minds issue] This week, the EU commissioner for external relations, Englishman Chris Patten, reinforced Sweden's "Northern Dimension" initiative by engaging Russia in a discussion of Kaliningrad, as well as addressing problems around the Barents Sea. Island of pollution Kaliningrad worries its neighbours because of its manifold environmental, economic and social problems: nuclear waste and raw sewage pumped into the Baltic, a broken economy, soaring rates of HIV and tuberculosis infection and high levels of crime and emigration. When neighbouring Poland and Lithuania join the EU, Kaliningrad will become a Russian enclave within the EU. This poses problems relating to visas, border controls, transport links and possibly also energy supply. Kaliningrad was described by Giles Whittell in The Times (18 January) as a "crime-polluted enclave where time stood still." It benefits little from its proximity to thriving Gdansk. Citizens "live in a 'special economic zone' that has attracted little official business, so they survive unofficially, chiefly by smuggling vodka into Poland, " wrote Whittell. President Putin seems to have two options for the future of Kaliningrad: building it up as a military bastion, or seeking to exploit its Baltic and European location by making it a special zone of economic co- operation. No prizes for guessing which route the Financial Times would prefer. On 17 January a leading article in the FT called on Putin to choose the latter path and allow Kaliningrad to act as an economic avant-garde for the rest of Russia: "Moscow should be daring... It should become a test-bed for economic development and a showcase for other regions. That would be one way of turning a problem into a solution." A military bastion? But maybe Putin has already chosen the military bastion route. Of more concern to Russia than EU enlargement will be Lithuania's entry into NATO, following Poland's example, which could happen as soon as next year (Poland joined in 1999). If Russia has, indeed, moved its nuclear arsenal into Kaliningrad, this may cause an early flashpoint between Russian President Vladimir Putin and America's incoming Bush administration. And if Putin took such action in order to dissuade NATO from welcoming the Baltic states as new members, initial reaction from Washington last week suggested the plan may backfire, only encouraging a more hawk-like new administration to push ahead sooner. This may lead to major tension. As Anatol Lieven wrote in "Republican abroad," his forecast of the Bush presidency in the December 2000 issue of the British political affairs monthly Prospect: ˙˙˙One of the greatest dangers for the next four years is that, in ˙˙˙a scrabble to attract every scrap of ethnic support, Bush may ˙˙˙commit himself not only to NMD [National Missile Defence] but ˙˙˙to NATO enlargement to the Baltic states too. At this point, relations ˙˙˙with Russia would probably collapse... The EU's northern dimension Sweden is keen to promote the EU's "Northern Dimension," a Baltic initiative which seeks to address regional issues, including Kaliningrad. Before assuming the presidency of the EU on 1 January 2001, and indeed before American sources broke news of Russia's supposed nuclear deployment, Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson had already called for an EU programme to help Kaliningrad alleviate some of its problems (Financial Times, 14 December 2000). Sweden's foreign minister, Anna Lindh, wrote a joint article with Chris Patten calling for a renewed emphasis on the Northern Dimension. It was the Finnish EU presidency which had first introduced the programme but to little effect at the time. Lindh and Patten described it as "just the sort of area where the EU should be cutting its foreign policy teeth" (Financial Times, 20 December 2000). Ian Black noted in The Guardian on 15 January that in the expanding EU the Union's centre of gravity will not only move eastwards but also northwards. Whether this particular Baltic initiative will outlast Sweden's six-month presidency is uncertain, but, surely, once enlargement eventually begins, the EU's fulcrum must shift. With Bush about to assume the White House and both the EU and NATO planning enlargement, Patten clearly sees this as an important time to work on relations with Russia. This week, he was addressing problematic areas in EU countries' relations with Russia. On 18 January, The Times reported that Patten had persuaded the European Commission to tackle the troubles facing Kaliningrad: "He called on the EU, Poland and Lithuania to engage Russia in a debate on the opportunities and challenges that the enlargement process brings to Kaliningrad and neighbouring countries." He proposed that the EU should fund improvements at the enclave's 23 border crossings and also devise a workable visa regime, with the aim of facilitating local cross-border trade. Patten in Moscow Patten arrived in Moscow on 18 January for talks with Igor Ivanov, Russia's foreign minister, and also turned his attention to the environmental nightmare that has developed in the Barents Sea and the other waters surrounding the Kola peninsula in Russia's far northwest. Here, there are more than 300 nuclear reactors, including those in numerous abandoned nuclear submarines and thousands of spent nuclear fuel rods. Russia is seeking EU aid to help raise the Kursk submarine, which lies in the Barents Sea; but with Baltic countries concerned about pollution of their land and sea, they will surely insist on a Russian cleanup as a quid pro quo. "Mr Patten said the problem of nuclear safety in the far north was the most 'dramatic' of all the issues on which Brussels and Moscow should seek enhanced co-operation during Sweden's term in the EU presidency" (The Guardian, 19 January). Is NATO worried about war crimes charges? The issue of depleted uranium (DU) continued to command press attention, but, fortunately, this week the focus had at last shifted to include the effects on local populations. Robert Fisk, who has campaigned on the issue for a decade, followed up his exclusive of 13 January from Bratunac, Bosnia with another major piece in The Independent on 17 January in which he all but accused NATO of "committing a heinous war crime." He claimed that the reason NATO had no evidence of the harm caused by the after-effects of DU weapons was that it has deliberately avoided seeking any evidence. To demonstrate the point, he even printed his own telephone number in Sarajevo and invited any NATO doctor to call him and arrange a visit to a 12-year-old girl in Bratunac, who had played with shrapnel after NATO bombing six years ago and now appears to have leukaemia. "However," he added, "I expect no calls." It is not only NATO that wishes to prevent research into the effects of DU, according to Daniel McCrory, writing in The Times on 17 January. The Bosnian Serb government has allegedly ordered their own doctors to stop their investigations, afraid of panicking Serb soldiers and "being blamed for visiting this plague on its own people by the ruinous wars with its Balkan neighbours." In an accompanying article, John Phillips and James Robson remarked that only now has the UN decided to put up "Keep Out" signs next to the bombed-out tanks on which Kosovar children have been playing for the past 18 months since bombing stopped. Phillips and Robson reported how a Mr Beqir Rraci, who lives just next to a destroyed tank in Klina, Kosovo, was unimpressed by the reassuring words of Bernard Kouchner, outgoing UN chief administrator in Kosovo: "'There is no real risk,' he declared—but his visit and the face masks worn by the Italian troops around him were enough to sow fear in 74-year-old Mr Rraci's mind." ***************************************************************** 11 EU NATIONS UPSET ABOUT PLUTONIUM REVELATION ALLIES KEPT IN DARK ON MUNITIONS, SOME SAY Chicago Tribune Traditional Version - Nation/World REUTERS JANUARY 22, 2001 BRUSSELS Europe's relationship with the new Bush administration could begin with an angry meeting Monday over charges that the United States failed to warn allies of plutonium contamination in munitions. European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels to discuss public concern about the reported health risks of depleted uranium shells can expect complaints from Germany that Washington kept its European allies in the dark on the more lethal plutonium. Portugal and Spain also were unprepared when the United States finally confirmed media reports and a Swiss laboratory finding that the "low- risk" material held minute traces of highly toxic plutonium and highly radioactive uranium 236. If other EU states that also belong to the 19-member NATO alliance feel they too were inadequately informed about the depleted uranium, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's dealings with the allies may have a frosty start. "It should be the damned duty of a friendly nation to inform their partner," German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping told journalists on a weekend visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. NATO members had felt they were getting public "hysteria" over munitions under control until the presence of plutonium was disclosed. Top medical officers from all 19 armies met in Brussels last week to compare data and announced a day later that there was no "Balkans syndrome" and no unseen health risk from depleted uranium. The Pentagon had twice sent U.S. Army medical experts to NATO headquarters to reassure the European media. But while they said the uranium was even less radioactive than ubiquitous natural uranium, they never mentioned plutonium. On Thursday, Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon said plutonium was detected a year ago and a nuclear plant was shut for 90 days. "As you know, we discovered some stray elements ... in depleted uranium. ..." Bacon said. "They consisted of plutonium, neptunium and americium. Now these are very, very small amounts and as soon as they were discovered as indicating possibly a flaw in the production process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission suspended the operation at this plant, which is in ... Kentucky." Despite a lack of evidence that depleted uranium has caused cancer among NATO peacekeepers serving in the Balkans, public concern had already prompted calls by some allies and by the European Parliament for a moratorium on the munitions. Depleted uranium is prized as the best penetrator of armor in anti- tank shells. About 40,000 rounds were fired in Bosnia and Kosovo, all by U.S. ground-attack aircraft. The U.S., Britain and France have dismissed demands that they give up a military advantage based on unfounded fears, and the Bush Administration is unlikely to waver. Scientists say that inhaling one millionth of an ounce of plutonium can cause a fatal cancer. Scharping took scientists with him to the Balkans to test for plutonium. Spain ordered its medical experts to investigate, and Switzerland said it would call for a total ban on depleted uranium ammunition at the United Nations this year. A World Health Organization team was set to scour blast sites in Kosovo for traces of plutonium, and NATO member Portugal said the alliance must quickly back up assertions that the plutonium levels posed no health threat. ***************************************************************** 12 Tests have shown plutonium was also present in depleted uranium weapons CNN.com - EU discusses weapons fears - January 22, BRUSSELS, Belgium--European Union foreign ministers are meeting to discuss the increasing fears over the radioactive content of ammunition used by NATO during the Gulf and Balkan conflicts. Germany's Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping said the U.S. had apparently known for some time about the possible contamination. "It should be the damned duty of a friendly nation to inform their partner," Scharping said after visiting German soldiers near Sarajevo, Bosnia. Fears about a possible--though unproven--link between uranium tipped weapons and cancers among soldiers have been exacerbated by admissions that plutonium traces may also have been in the weapons. NATO and many member states have launched their own investigations into the potential health risks caused by weapons tipped with uranium to improve their armour piercing capabilities. The weapons, containing depleted uranium (DU), were used in the Gulf War and against Yugoslav forces during the Kosovo campaign and the 1994-95 Bosnian war. Fears were first raised earlier this month by Italy which questioned whether the illnesses suffered by about 30 soldiers, who had served in the Balkans, were connected to the uranium weapons fired in the area. Last week the U.S. confirmed some uranium arms fired in the Balkans may also have been contaminated with plutonium at the manufacturing plant. Scharping attacked "our American friends" for offering the pages of the Internet as a response when asked for information about the DU munitions. "The Internet is not the way to share information between governments, " the minister said. Scharping has been heavily criticised in Germany for not reacting quickly enough to the health concerns and was accompanied to the Balkans by a senior researcher from the Munich Research Centre for Environment and Health who planned to take earth and water samples during the trip to test for traces of plutonium. The centre has already tested more than 100 German soldiers who served in Kosovo and found no evidence of increased levels of uranium or any sickness that could be linked to it. Last week Scharping took the highly unusual step of calling in the U.S. charge d'affaires in Berlin to seek more information about plutonium traces in the weapons. Although the defence minister believes the uranium threat to health is negligible he summed the U.S. diplomat to "express the concerns that are triggered by the word plutonium." Australia became the latest country on Sunday to announce testing of its troops who served in the Balkans. The government said soldiers will have blood and urine tests to measure their possible exposure to depleted uranium. The [*]Associated Press & ***************************************************************** 13 Agency sheds light on impending OR health assessment 01/22/01 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:10 p.m. on Monday, January 22, 2001 BY PAUL PARSON Oak Ridger staff An upcoming health assessment of Anderson County and six other counties is expected to focus on past chemical and radioactive exposures in more ways than one. Jack Hanley, an environmental health scientist with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a federal public health agency involved in hazardous waste issues, outlined some details of the health assessment during Friday's meeting of the Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee at the Oak Ridge YWCA. The assessment will be an analysis of the public health implications -- in and around Oak Ridge--posed by the historical releases of hazardous substances from federal facilities on the Oak Ridge Reservation. "ATSDR, with the assistance of the subcommittee, will analyze and evaluate the information, data and findings of previous studies and investigations on the radiological and chemical contaminants released from the Oak Ridge Reservation," Hanley said regarding the plan of action for the assessment. The examination will also consist of new interviews, focus groups and telephone surveys of residents in Anderson, Knox, Loudon, Meigs, Morgan, Rhea and Roane counties that may have been affected by the releases. Officials anticipate having at least eight focus groups. The subcommittee's Communications and Outreach work group has been charged with determining possible focus group topics. Hanley said no schedule for the impending health assessment has been established. But subcommittee members said they expect that the assessment will be completed during the first part of the year. James Lewis, a subcommittee member and Oak Ridge resident, urged the group to employ better communication when they arrive at the point of reporting their findings to the public. He said that hasn't always been the case with studies in the Oak Ridge area. The Health Effects Subcommittee consists of citizens primarily from the Oak Ridge area, including Knoxville and Roane County residents, who will work with community members and advocacy groups to offer advice and recommendations to several federal agencies regarding health concerns in Oak Ridge. Those concerns include exposure to contaminants from Oak Ridge's DOE facilities. Subcommittee members are nominated by the public and then appointed by ATSDR based on their backgrounds, technical expertise, ethnicity and diversity of opinion. [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 14 Radiation from DU 'could act rapidly' MONDAY JANUARY 22, 08:20 AM BY ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT ALEX KIRBY Many of those who argue that depleted uranium (DU) cannot be a serious health risk say radiation takes a long time to produce cancers. They say the reports from veterans of the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, complaining of leukaemia and other cancers, are inconsistent with what we know of the time it takes for radiation to cause damage. And they believe that even the reports from Gulf veterans and Iraqi civilians of cancers which have developed since the 1991 war suggest an improbably rapid development of the disease. But two senior scientists have told BBC News Online they believe it may be a serious mistake to rule DU out of the equation. Both remain open-minded on whether DU actually does damage health, but both believe its effects are poorly understood. Neither was prepared to be named. CHERNOBYL'S SURPRISE One, a professor in a university physics department, said: "We're in uncharted territory, because we have no experience of human exposure to DU. "What we do know, though, is that thyroid cancer appeared far sooner than expected after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. That was a real surprise. "It's true that DU is not very radioactive. But when you inhale it, it does go to the lymph nodes surrounding the lungs, and that means it could irradiate all the blood cells which pass through the nodes. "Many experts say DU is more of a chemical threat than a radioactive one, and I think the chemical toxicity is an issue. The uranium atoms are chemically toxic, and they will visit every cell in the body where they may have an effect. "And it would not be hard to absorb a serious dose of DU quite quickly. When it vaporises, it forms a very fine powder which can blow a long way. LIMIT REACHED QUICKLY "The permitted body burden of uranium is 80 milligrams. We have calculated that if you had 10,000 particles of DU per cubic centimetre, each up to 200 nanometres in size, then it would take about a month and a half to reach that limit. "It's not overly likely. But it's not too unlikely, either." The other scientist is a leading expert on the effects of ionising radiation. He told BBC News Online: "What Nato and the UK Ministry of Defence are missing is the fact that a single alpha emitter can be carcinogenic. "We don't know how low the risk of DU is. But the uranium has the potential to cause DNA damage because of its chemical properties, and that can trigger cancer. "That would be an unconvincing argument about Kosovo, though a possibility for the Gulf. A two-year development period for cancers caused this way is a valid hypothesis. "The warning from Chernobyl is to remind us that the Japanese atomic bomb survivors are not typical of all types of radiation. "We shouldn't say too lightly that two years is not long enough for radiation to cause cancer." Copyright © 2001 BBC News Online. All rights reserved. Republication ***************************************************************** 15 URANIUM FACTORY HAD FOUR FIRES The Times MONDAY JANUARY 22 2001 BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR BRITAIN’S only depleted uranium shell factory suffered four fires in 18 months, it emerged yesterday as Gulf War and Balkan veterans continued to raise the alarm over health risks from the radioactive weapons. The specialist metals factory at Featherstone in Staffordshire, which is run by Royal Ordnance and owned by BAE Systems, produces depleted uranium rounds for British Army Challenger tanks. The last fire at the Featherstone site was in February 1999, after which a report by the National Radiological Protection Board — an independent government safety watchdog — concluded that there was no radioactive contamination in the area. The fire brigade which fought the blaze, however, and prison officers at Featherstone jail have raised fears of health problems arising from the incident. A spokesman for Royal Ordnance, which has an exclusive contract with the MoD to make depleted uranium shells, acknowledged yesterday that there were three other fires in the previous 18 months, but denied there was a radiation escape. Shane Rixom, representative of the Prison Officers’ Association at Featherstone prison, told the governor there had been four cancer cases among the 160 staff over the past four years. An official US report in 1998 also warned of risks from fire at a depleted uranium facility. Copyright 2001 TIMES NEWSPAPERS LTD. This service is ***************************************************************** 16 Plutonium scare adds to uranium drama 21/01/2001 11:16 - (SA) Douglas Hamilton Brussels - Just when it thought it had the depleted uranium (DU) scare under control, NATO may face a fresh onslaught of concern as the United States belatedly confirms that some DU munitions contain minute traces of plutonium. Uranium is one thing. Plutonium is quite another, especially if it arises from flaws at a problem-plagued US nuclear plant. Plutonium is a heavyweight in the lexicon of scare words - according to media reports, a particle as small as a millionth of an ounce, if inhaled, can cause a fatal cancer. German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping last Wednesday took the highly unusual step of calling in the US charge d'affaires in Berlin to seek more information - after a German television network reported on the plutonium factor. Washington can rightly claim that the plutonium issue was not a secret - but its spokesperson have omitted to mention it. US experts brought in by NATO in the past 10 days to calm fears of a cancer risk from DU ammunition used in Kosovo, Bosnia and the Gulf stressed that DU is 40 percent less radioactive than the natural uranium people eat, drink and breathe. What they did not say was that some DU comes from recycled nuclear fuel, not ore, and contains traces not only of highly radioactive uranium-236 but of plutonium as well. A review of transcripts and audio files shows that US army medical experts flown from Washington failed to mention the word plutonium once. One, asked if DU might contain uranium-236, said: "I can' t answer. I just don't know." A NATO spokesperson said pointedly that reporters were "getting exactly the same briefings as the NATO ambassadors just got" Two days later, NATO had to issue a statement saying the presence in DU of U-236 and plutonium in minute quantities had "long been established" but was "irrelevant" as it did not increase the extremely limited DU risks openly acknowledged. LINK TO TROUBLED NUCLEAR PLANT The furore erupted over DU munitions in early January, but there has been no mention in NATO public records of serious safety failures at the Kentucky plant which made the material. Last Thursday, as the Clinton administration bowed out, the outgoing Pentagon spokesperson was asked about U-236 traces. "As you know, we discovered some stray elements, transuranics they're called, in depleted uranium, the Department of Energy did, a year or so ago," Kenneth Bacon said. "They consisted of plutonium, neptunium and americium. Now these are very, very small amounts and as soon as they were discovered as indicating possibly a flaw in production in the production process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission suspended the operation at this plant, which is in Paduhac, Kentucky." Bacon said operations resumed after a 90-day examination. "Now, the labs in Europe have found tiny elements of U-236, which is not normally in depleted uranium," he added. These were so small that United Nations scientists said they did not change the very low radiotoxicity of the depleted uranium... "We're looking into how this could have happened." NO DEFENCE AGAINST DOUBT World Health Organisation team is going to Kosovo this week to take more samples in places where DU anti-tank rounds were fired by US planes in the 1999 NATO campaign. If plutonium shows up with any regularity, it may not matter that levels are too small to pose a serious health risk, as the United States and NATO insist: public doubt is likely to grow and opposition to the munitions will rise with it. Even minute levels could fuel speculation that a "bad batch" of DU from Paduhac contained more plutonium than expected, and may have been inhaled in dust kicked up later. The Paduhac plant, which has made nuclear weapons material for 50 years under government contractors, is being sued for $10 billion for concealing health risks from workers and locals. A February 2000 US Department of Energy report said the plant " operated in a climate of secrecy, with a strong sense of national need, and a lack of understanding of a number of environment, safety and health risks". Workers had "become ill because of workplace exposures" The Paduhac plant was cited for scattering plutonium at 1 200 times the normal background level beyond its grounds and attempting to cover up this and other safety violations. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission said 1 600 tons of nuclear weapons parts were littered around the grounds below ground and in ground- level storage areas. STILL NO EVIDENCE OF SYNDROME There is no proof of any mystery illness among NATO peacekeepers and no "Balkans syndrome" to be explained, the medical chiefs of NATO's 19 armies all agreed last week after a day of comparing records. But the issue remains one of credibility as much as health. Finger- pointing could proliferate if governments faced renewed charges of not informing the public in good time of what some will suspect they knew all along. The information is all available on the Internet from US newspapers and groups using the US Freedom of Information Act. In a January 2000 letter to the activist Military Toxics Project, the US Department of Energy said it believed minute quantities of plutonium might be contained in US stocks of depleted uranium, but in amounts too low to pose risk. It noted health and safety concerns at Paduhac and said DU test rounds "almost certainly" contained recycled uranium but did not directly answer: did they contain plutonium? The Department's letter was recently passed on to NATO. Neverthless, European governments appeared unprepared for media " revelations" about plutonium traces in DU rounds and at NATO there are differences about whether Scharping and others facing a media grilling should have known what to expect. US Defence Secretary William Cohen had said earlier this month that DU was no more dangerous than "leaded paint", and a US Army briefer assured reporters it was safe enough to eat. Now that the word plutonium has been mentioned, that may have been a public relations miscalculation. ***************************************************************** 17 Widow Seeks Cash After Soldier Death Budapest Sun on Central Europe Online - By Fraser Allan army sergeant who died from leukemia after serving in Bosnia has announced her intention to claim compensation from the Ministry of Defense. Zsuzsanna Kormendi, 41, believes the death of her husband, Sergeant Istvan Kormendi, a 39-year-old father of three, may have resulted from exposure to depleted uranium or other toxic materials during tours of duty in Bosnia in 1996 and 1999. The news comes amid a growing wave of concern after Italy became one of the first countries to start screening its Balkan peacekeepers for cancer. Other countries in Europe, including Britain, have now decided to follow this lead and the Russian Government has called for an independent inquiry. Kormendi told The Budapest Sun, "My husband was in Bosnia from June 22 to August 25, 1999, as an ambulance driver and drove all over the country. He first became ill in Sarajevo, lost 30 kilograms, returned and died on September 28." Kormendi added her husband told her he had never been given any indication by his superiors that there was any risk of exposure to dangerous substances. But Defense Minister Janos Szabo maintained the soldier’s illness could not have been a result of his 1999 tour of duty, as he had been in the region only one month and in areas where no such weapons had been used. He added, however, "If any causal relationship between his illness and any negligence by his senior officer during his service was proved, compensation could be granted." Former Defense Minister Gyorgy Keleti said that during Kormendi’s first tour of duty in 1996, depleted uranium weapons had not yet been used in the areas in which the soldier served The army’s Chief Medical Officer, Laszlo Sved, told the press that Kormendi did not die of leukemia, but in fact internal bleeding resulting from an infection caught from rodents and insects. But his widow said she has a copy of her husband’s death certificate which clearly states that although causes similar to those cited by Sved contributed to her husband’s death, leukemia was the primary cause. Kormendi claimed she had been demanding further explanation for the cause of her husband’s death for more than a year, but beyond the official cause in the death certificate, the Ministry of Defense had declined to comment further. Depleted uranium weapons have been cited as a possible link to illness amongst military personnel since the 1991 Gulf War, when approximately 300 tons were used against Iraqi forces. Ten tons were used during the 1994-95 UN military intervention in Bosnia and an as yet unknown quantity was expended during the NATO campaign against Serbia in 1999. The United States, which is the main user of the weapons, has repeatedly refuted allegations of any health risks, as has Great Britain. Medical research into "Gulf War syndrome" and "Balkan syndrome," where veterans have fallen ill after service, has thus far been unable to prove a link. So far, 16 former military personnel who served in the Balkans have died from cancer and other diseases which some claim are the result of over-exposure to radioactive materials. In addition to Kormendi, three other Hungarian Balkans veterans have died since returning home; one of colon cancer and one of a pulmonary embolism, according to Gabor Borokai, spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office. The cause of the other death has not yet been made public. Some medical experts have pointed out that soldiers on active duty are potentially exposed to other sources of toxicity besides uranium, which could cause such illnesses. The World Health Organization stated that cancers such as leukemia invariably take years to develop, therefore further decreasing the likelihood of any link between recent uranium ammunition use in the Balkans and the disease in soldiers. While denying any link between the deaths of the Hungarian servicemen and radioactive materials, Sved announced that this week every Hungarian serviceman in the Balkans would be medically screened. The tests were expected to cost the Ministry of Defense up to Ft5 million ($18, 000). [*][I] [*][I]   c 1995-2001 European Internet Network Inc. ***************************************************************** 18 Baltic defence minister probes "Balkan syndrome." ITAR/TASS NEWS AGENCY 01/22/2001 04:22 Story Filed: Monday, January 22, 2001 4:22 AM EST VILNIUS, January 22 (Itar-Tass) - Lithuanian Defence Minister Linas Linkevicius left for Kosovo on Monday to study developments connected with "Balkan syndrome" ailments linked to NATO's bombing in Yugoslavia. From January 22-24, the minister will visit Lithuanian peacekeepers serving with international missions in Kosovo and Bosnia. Linkevicius is due to meet senior military officials of international forces in Kosovo, and commanders of Danish, Polish and Ukrainian battalions which include Lithuanian servicemen, the Lithuanian Defence Ministry press service told Tass. The minister will enquire into NATO use of charges with depleted uranium during its campaign and subsequent effects on health. pan/mjs/ast (c) 1996-2001 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 19 Plutonium row may contaminate Bush's European debut - 1/21/2001 - ENN.com Sunday, January 21, 2001 By Douglas Hamilton [I] Party's over: U.S. President George W. Bush, inaugurated Saturday as the 43rd president of the United States, is expected to feel some heat in Europe over plutonium contamination. Europe's relationship with the George W. Bush administration could kick off with an angry row Monday over charges that the United States failed to warn allies of plutonium contamination in munitions. EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels to discuss a wave of public concern about the alleged health risks of depleted uranium shells can expect to hear complaints by Germany that Washington kept its European allies in the dark. Portugal and Spain were also unprepared when the United States finally confirmed media reports and a Swiss laboratory finding that the "low- risk" material held minute traces of highly toxic plutonium and highly radioactive uranium 236. If other EU states which also belong to the 19-member NATO alliance feel they too were inadequately informed to deal with the furore over DU, incoming U.S. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's dealings with the allies may have a frosty start. "It should be the damned duty of a friendly nation to inform their partner," German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping told journalists on a weekend visit to Bosnia and Kosovo. NATO felt it was getting public "hysteria" over DU munitions under control until the presence of plutonium was disclosed. Top medical officers from all 19 armies met in Brussels last week to compare data and announced a day later there was no "Balkans syndrome" and no unseen health risk from DU. The Pentagon had twice sent U.S. Army medical experts to NATO headquarters to help reassure the European media. But while they said DU was even less radioactive than ubiquitous natural uranium, they never mentioned plutonium. On Thursday, Defence Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon said plutonium was detected a year ago and a nuclear plant was shut for 90 days. "As you know, we discovered some stray elements ... in depleted uranium ...." Bacon said. "They consisted of plutonium, neptunium and americium. Now these are very, very small amounts and as soon as they were discovered as indicating possibly a flaw in the production process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission suspended the operation at this plant, which is in Paduhac, Kentucky." Despite a lack of evidence that DU has caused cancer among NATO peacekeepers serving in the Balkans, public concern had already prompted calls by some allies and by the European Parliament for a moratorium on the munitions. Depleted uranium is prized as the best armor penetrator in anti-tank shells. About 40,000 rounds were fired in Bosnia and Kosovo, all by U.S. ground attack aircraft. The U.S., Britain and France have dismissed demands that they give up a military advantage on account of unfounded fears, and the Bush administration is unlikely to waver, although American anti-DU campaigners say it caused Gulf war cancers. Scientists say that inhaling one millionth of an ounce of plutonium can cause a fatal cancer. That scares many people and frightens governments, as reaction to the latest developments indicates. Scharping took scientists with him to the Balkans to make on-the- spot tests for plutonium. Spain ordered its medical experts to investigate. Switzerland said it would call for a total ban on DU ammunition at the United Nations this year. A World Health Organization team was set to scour DU blast sites in Kosovo for traces of plutonium, and NATO member Portugal said the alliance must quickly back up assertions that the plutonium levels posed no health threat. In a letter to NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, Prime Minister Antonio Guterres called for a full explanation of where and why such ammunition was used. Washington can rightly claim that the presence of plutonium was not a secret, if allied military attaches cared to read the newspapers or look at relevant Internet sites. "The Internet is not the way to share information between governments, " said Scharping as criticism mounted at home over his alleged failure to inform German voters of the facts. In a bitter comment, he said that after summoning the U.S. charge d'affaires last week, he had been told of nine incidents possibly involving DU munitions at U.S. bases in Germany. "That's not in order. We can't accept that," he said. "I'm quite certain that I would not have been informed of this had I not created such pressure." Copyright 2001, Reuters All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 20 Plutonium replaces uranium as NATO scare - ENN.com Sunday, January 21, 2001 By Douglas Hamilton [I] Just when it thought it had the depleted uranium scare under control, NATO may face a fresh onslaught of concern as the United States belatedly confirms that some DU munitions contain minute traces of plutonium. Uranium is one thing. Plutonium is quite another, especially if it arises from flaws at a problem-plagued U.S. nuclear plant. Plutonium is a heavyweight in the lexicon of scare words, according to media reports, a particle as small as a millionth of an ounce, if inhaled, can cause a fatal cancer. German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping last Wednesday took the highly unusual step of calling in the U.S. charge d'affaires in Berlin to seek more information - after a German television network reported on the plutonium factor. Washington can rightly claim that the plutonium issue was not a secret - but its spokesmen have omitted to mention it. U.S. experts brought in by NATO in the past 10 days to calm fears of a cancer risk from DU ammunition used in Kosovo, Bosnia and the Gulf stressed that DU is 40 percent less radioactive than the natural uranium people eat, drink and breathe. What they did not say was that some DU comes from recycled nuclear fuel, not ore, and contains traces not only of highly radioactive uranium-236 but of plutonium as well. A review of transcripts and audio files shows that U.S. Army medical experts flown from Washington failed to mention the word plutonium once. One, asked if DU might contain uranium-236, said: "I can't answer. I just don't know." A NATO spokesman said pointedly that reporters were "getting exactly the same briefings as the NATO ambassadors just got." Two days later, NATO had to issue a statement saying the presence in DU of U-236 and plutonium in minute quantities had "long been established" but was "irrelevant" as it did not increase the extremely limited DU risks openly acknowledged. The furor erupted over DU munitions in early January, but there has been no mention in NATO public records of serious safety failures at the Kentucky plant which made the material. Last Thursday, as the Clinton administration bowed out, the outgoing Pentagon spokesman was asked about U-236 traces. "As you know, we discovered some stray elements, transuranics they're called, in depleted uranium, the Department of Energy did, a year or so ago," Kenneth Bacon said. "They consisted of plutonium, neptunium and americium. Now these are very, very small amounts and as soon as they were discovered as indicating possibly a flaw in production in the production process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission suspended the operation at this plant, which is in Paduhac, Kentucky." Bacon said operations resumed after a 90-day examination. "Now, the labs in Europe have found tiny elements of U-236, which is not normally in depleted uranium," he added. These were so small that United Nations scientists said they did not change the very low radiotoxicity of the depleted uranium... "We're looking into how this could have happened." A World Health Organization team is going to Kosovo this week to take more samples in places where DU anti-tank rounds were fired by U.S. planes in the 1999 NATO campaign. If plutonium shows up with any regularity, it may not matter that levels are too small to pose a serious health risk, as the United States and NATO insist: public doubt is likely to grow and opposition to the munitions will rise with it. Even minute levels could fuel speculation that a "bad batch" of DU from Paduhac contained more plutonium than expected, and may have been inhaled in dust kicked up later. The Paduhac plant, which has made nuclear weapons material for 50 years under government contractors, is being sued for $10 billion for concealing health risks from workers and locals. A February 2000 U.S. Department of Energy report said the plant "operated in a climate of secrecy, with a strong sense of national need, and a lack of understanding of a number of environment, safety and health risks." Workers had "become ill because of workplace exposures." The Paduhac plant was cited for scattering plutonium at 1,200 times the normal background level beyond its grounds and attempting to cover up this and other safety violations. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said 1,760 tons of nuclear weapons parts were littered around the grounds below ground and in ground-level storage areas. There is no proof of any mystery illness among NATO peacekeepers and no "Balkans syndrome" to be explained, the medical chiefs of NATO's 19 armies all agreed last week after a day of comparing records. But the issue remains one of credibility as much as health. Finger- pointing could proliferate if governments faced renewed charges of not informing the public in good time of what some will suspect they knew all along. The information is all available on the Internet from U.S. newspapers and groups using the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. In a January 2000 letter to the activist Military Toxics Project, the U.S. Department of Energy said it believed minute quantities of plutonium might be contained in U.S. stocks of depleted uranium, but in amounts too low to pose risk. It noted health and safety concerns at Paduhac and said DU test rounds "almost certainly" contained recycled uranium but did not directly answer: did they contain plutonium?. The Department's letter was recently passed on to NATO. Neverthless, European governments appeared unprepared for media "revelations" about plutonium traces in DU rounds and at NATO there are differences about whether Scharping and others facing a media grilling should have known what to expect. U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen had said earlier this month that DU was no more dangerous than "leaded paint," and a U.S. Army briefer assured reporters it was safe enough to eat. Now that the word plutonium has been mentioned, that may have been a public relations miscalculation. Copyright 2001, Reuters All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 21 'Secret plan' to move UK sub BBC News | EUROPE | Sunday, 21 January, 2001, 16:49 GMT [I] The sub could be towed away if it is not repaired As protests grow against the presence of a stricken British nuclear submarine in Gibraltar, the UK Government has reportedly agreed to remove the vessel by 19 May. The Spanish newspaper El Pais said on Sunday that London had secretly agreed with Madrid to remove HMS Tireless, whether it had been repaired or not. It is believed the sub could be towed back to the UK. [I] Thousands of people are demanding its removal The newspaper said the British Defence Ministry had declined to confirm or deny the reports, but was told by a spokesperson that the Royal Navy was confident that repairs would be complete by the end of March. Work on the submarine's damaged cooling system is set to begin on Monday, and the Spanish government is said to be satisfied with the schedule Britain has proposed. But the regional authorities oppose it and demand the vessel be returned to the UK for repairs. On Saturday, more than 20,000 demonstrators marched through the Spanish port of Algeciras, across the bay from the British territory, singing The Beatles' song Yellow Submarine. 'POLITICAL WEAPON' The march was led by the head of Andalucia's regional government, and supported by all parties and unions except Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party, which has condemned the demonstrations. [I] Greenpeace protesters boarded the HMS Tireless Mr Aznar has accused the socialists of using the submarine as a political weapon against the ruling right-wing party. The UK has dismissed allegations that the damage is more serious than so far revealed. The British authorities say the vessel suffered a crack in its cooling system, but is entirely safe and poses no threat to the surrounding population. But last week, a group of activists from the environmental group Greenpeace boarded the sub in a protest against its presence. ***************************************************************** 22 State seeks new agreements with TDEC, DOE to protect reservation's natural areas Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:25 p.m. on Monday, January 22, 2001 Ruellia purshiana is one of the rare plants to be found on the Oak Ridge Reservation. Submitted BY R. CATHEY DANIELS for The Oak Ridger To protect a rare plant, protect its surroundings. So goes the more expansive preservation philosophy the state is working under while trying to protect the Oak Ridge Reservation's seven natural areas. The state's proposal, in the form of new registry agreements between the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Department of Energy, should be ready for DOE review by mid-February. The original registry agreement for the reservation's natural areas ended abruptly in May with a DOE missive followed by a new licensing agreement that was unacceptable to the state. The registry program is a non-binding agreement that can be terminated by either the landowner or the state with a 30-day notification. After the DOE termination, discussions ensued and DOE granted the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation more time to come up with a new proposal for protecting the sites. Meanwhile the natural areas are protected under temporary "hold-over" agreements. "Right now we are proceeding with writing the descriptions of the sites and revising the original agreement to be a little more encompassing in terms of preservation," said Brian Bowen, natural area administrator for TDEC's Division of Natural Heritage. While the total acreage of the seven sites has never been tabulated, Bowen said the areas are clearly mapped and probably total "under 1,000 acres" of the 34,000-acre reservation. MEETING SITE CHANGED The Department of Energy's public meeting on land-use planning, scheduled for Jan. 30, has been moved from the YWCA to the Cumberland Room at Oak Ridge Mall. The natural areas--habitats that support unique plants and animals often listed on state and federal registers of protection--were registered with the state in 1985. "We have a different concept today in terms of conservation targets than we did in the 1980s," said Bowen. "Fifteen years ago ... we would find a rare plant, draw a circle around it and call it a natural area. "Today we look at that very differently--today we look at things more holistically ... we look at the ecosystem that supports that plant and the entire plant community." While declining to give specifics on the scope of the expanded proposal, Bowen said the new registry agreements would reflect that more encompassing philosophy. "We're going to look at things on the broader scale of landscape conservation--there are a lot of negative impacts if you have a lot of edging around something you are trying to protect," said Bowen. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have worked closely with Bowen providing information about the reservation's biological diversity. "We've learned a lot about the Oak Ridge Reservation's biological richness," said Pat Parr, area manager. "Just the fact that the area has met TDEC criteria to qualify (as a registered natural area) calls attention to its special qualities ... (and) offers the Oak Ridge community another asset to brag about." Parr cites a biodiversity study performed by The Nature Conservancy for DOE in 1995 as identifying rare species in more than 270 locations on the reservation, and ranking 81 sites as having very high or high significance nationally for conservation. Bowen said he has no reason to believe the temporary agreements will expire before he can finish the state's new proposal. [*][I] All Contents cCopyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************