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                    NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS
 
 1  NGOs offer "ecological doctrine"
 2  BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The international environmental watchdog 
 3  Life After Death: Chernobyl Today
 4  No end to the fallout
 5  California eyes nuclear energy 
 6  Officials plan to search for radioactive materials buried on TSTC 
 7  Millstone still can't find spent fuel rods
 8  Utah site prepares to landfill high-level radioactive waste
 9  Goshutes look past the threat
10  DOE chief tries to reassure
11  TVA directors OK nuclear plant upgrades
12  Yankee storage plans get support
13  NRC to meet Entergy on NY FitzPatrick nuke safety
14  Legislature passes bill to delay power plant sale 
15  Greens Secure International Opposition To Nuclear Shipments
16  Japan Pwr Chief: Indus To Continue Plutonium-Thermal Proj
17  WIPP Score: 200 Down, 19,100 to Go
18  Jonathan Riskind: Piketon's workers on wild ride
19  Radon warnings being ignored by county residents
20  Caboolture residents oppose proposed nuclear plant
21  Nuclear fuel arrives at Temelin - 
                    NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS
 
 1  French 'weapons grade' exports to Iraq blocked
 2  Russia overhauling its icebreaker fleet
 3  Report: Israel Arrests Scientist
 4  ENERGY DEPARTMENT BUDGET: Nevada spending may rise
 5  Committed - Chao reassures nuclear workers

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                     NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES
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 1 NGOs offer "ecological doctrine"

20th April, 2001]

MOSCOW - Several large Russian environmental groups teamed up 
Friday with the Worldwide Fund for Nature to present a so-called 
ecological doctrine for Russia, which it proposed for public 
discussion prior to forwarding it to the Kremlin for 
consideration.

The draft proposes that the government assume gre ater control 
over all projects that co uld have an impact on the environment 
and that it give priority to environmental issues when making 
economic, political and military decisions.

"The lack of a clear government policy directed at environmental 
safety creates an essential threat to the nation's economic and 
environmental safety," the WWF said in a statement.

The doctrine also says that state ecological experts should enjoy 
independence from other government institutions - tempering the 
effects of the government's dissoluti on of the state 
environmental watchdog committee last year.

Among other methods to improve environmental safety, it proposed 
improvements in the tax system, including new tariffs to 
encourage that natural resources exports be substituted by the 
export of processed products.

The doctrine calls for efficient energy-saving measures, the 
closure of nuclear power plants and an end to the construction of 
new atomic plants.

russiajournal.com
*****************************************************************
 2  BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The international environmental watchdog 
Greenpeace says a secret shipment of "highly radioactive 
irradiated nuclear fuel" is believed to have entered the 
Caribbean Sea after passing through the Panama Canal. "The 
extremely dangerous shipment is now believed to be in the 
Caribbean, sailing towards the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico 
and the Dominica Republic on its way to Britain," Greenpeace said 
in the statement circulated here. 

Greenpeace has condemned Japanese and British officials for 
"acting in complete secrecy and against the will of Caribbean and 
Latin American nations".

It said the ship, reported to have entered Caribbean waters on 
Wednesday, contains fuel from the Tokai nuclear reactor in Japan. 

The reactor is situated near a processing plant which was the 
site of a massive nuclear accident on September 30, 1999 that 
killed two and required 310 000 residents to be sealed in their 
homes, Greenpeace said. 




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c 01 St Vincent and Grenadines Herald
*****************************************************************
 3  Life After Death: Chernobyl Today
 
April 22, 2001 

By FELICITY BARRINGER 

ONE face of the Chernobyl disaster is mostly forgotten — the face 
of disbelief. Disbelief guided the actions of Aleksandr Akimov, a 
panicked nuclear engineer, from the time that his reactor, Unit 4 
of the Chernobyl power generating complex, exploded at 1:23 a.m. 
on April 26, 1986.
 
From inside the control room, he had seen the reaction going out 
of control. The control rods he sought to lower into the reactor 
jammed. He felt the concussions of two explosions and sent two 
colleagues to lower the rods by hand. 

They returned, faces turning brown from lethal doses of 
radiation. There were no control rods, they said. And no reactor.
 
Mr. Akimov did not believe them. For hours, he and his bosses 
told Moscow that the reactor was intact. From the moment of the 
world's worst nuclear accident, denial and misinformation were 
the rule.
 
It has been 15 years since Mr. Akimov and 28 others — firemen and 
plant workers — died of radiation poisoning. The concrete 
sarcophagus built to contain the radio- active hulk of Unit 4 
leaks. The last operating reactor at the plant shut down in 
December.
 
Scientists still argue over how many people died from Chernobyl's 
radiation: dozens, or thousands? Some survivors have cancer. 
Others have weakened immune systems, a syndrome the locals dubbed 
"Chernobyl AIDS." 

Land within an 18-mile radius of the plant was to remain 
uninhabited. But some people don't believe in the danger of 
radiation. Scavengers steal parts from helicopters that flew into 
the radioactive fire's plume. Fishermen cast their lines in the 
forbidden waters of the Pripyat River.
 
Perhaps 400 elderly villagers have returned to live in the zone. 
One, Natasha Chikalovets, asked a reporter from The Christian 
Science Monitor last year, "What is radiation? We didn't feel it 
then, we don't feel it now." Her neighbor once dug up her garden 
looking for radiation. She saw none. She stayed.
 
New York Times Newspaper. 
*****************************************************************
 4  No end to the fallout

  [Thestar.com]     **  

  Apr. 22, 2001. 01:01 AM  
    
   Fifteen years later, children in Belarus bear the brunt of the 
Chernobyl disaster
  
Menno Meijer
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
  
MINSK - IT IS A catastrophe of global proportions: A silent, 
unseen killer is slowly creeping its way out of Belarus and into 
surrounding countries.

 It is destroying the future of 10 million people in Belarus who 
struggle daily with the effects of radiation. It's the children 
who suffer the most.

 When reactor Number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine 
exploded 15 years ago Thursday, it burned for days while 
officials kept silent. May Day celebrations were nearing and the 
Soviet government said little.

 The wind sent the radioactive cloud into Belarus, whose border 
with Ukraine lies 10 kilometres north of the plant, and the rain 
washed it from the sky onto an unsuspecting people.

 Here in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, soccer players became 
sick as the rain fell. Spectators, too, became ill. No one knew 
what was happening to them.

 A 6-year-old girl walking home from school in the rain was met 
at the door by her frantic mother. The woman was a surgeon at a 
children's hospital and had heard the rumour about radioactive 
fallout. She washed her daughter and kept the doors and windows 
shut.

 The child lost most of her hair.

 The heaviest contamination fell in the Mogilev and Gomel 
regions, in the southeast corner of Belarus.

 In areas close to Chernobyl, many people were evacuated 
immediately, although most had nowhere to go. But it would be 
five years before people in areas a little farther away were 
evacuated. Some of the most heavily contaminated communities have 
since been bulldozed to keep people from returning to their 
homes.

 The countryside is poison now. Wherever houses remained, the old 
people returned. They grow crops and raise livestock. But the 
children are gone. There are no birds in the trees.

 In other areas, there was no evacuation. Children are fed at the 
schools with food the state considers safe, but they play in 
schoolyards with high radiation levels. They breath the dust, 
they ingest the poison. The children are sick.

 Suffering with what is often called Chernobyl AIDS, their immune 
systems are failing. This has led to a sharp rise in stomach and 
intestinal diseases, heart disease, anemia, endemic goitre, 
vision problems and cancer.

 Children exposed to the fallout in the first few days after the 
reactor explosion received high doses of radioactive iodine. They 
are now victims of thyroid cancer, which is growing at a rate of 
100 cases annually. Each day at the thyroid cancer clinic in 
Minsk, doctors operate on seven or eight patients.

 In the 11 years before the blast, there were 1,392 cases of 
thyroid cancer in the general population. In the 11-year period 
following, there were 5,449 cases, most of them children.

 The rate of absenteeism in the schools is about 10 per cent 
owing to illness. Many studies point to a large increase in birth 
defects and genetic mutation.

 On top of everything else, Belarus is in economic crisis with 
skyrocketing inflation. In the first year after Chernobyl, the 
tiny country spent 20 per cent of its annual budget on fighting 
the fallout. Now, it allots only 5 per cent.

 In orphanages, children live with small portions of food and, in 
most cases, without toilet paper or soap to wash. When they turn 
17, they are released, but they have nowhere to go. The incidence 
of suicide among those who leave the orphanages is 17 per cent, 
while 35 per cent end up in jail.

 Often, children arrive at the orphanages after their penniless 
parents - many of them alcoholics - desert them. But as long as 
they have family, the children can't be adopted.

 In a sanatorium in the Vitebsk region, 150 children live for up 
to three years tied to their beds so a disease affecting their 
hip joints can heal. For want of a leg brace worth $4,200, they 
could go home. Instead, they are lined in rows in rooms 
resembling classrooms where they eat, sleep and study.

 On collective farms, workers often go months without their pay, 
which usually is only about $20 a month.

 One woman gets up at 4:30 a.m. to go to work in a dairy farm 
until 8 p.m. She works seven days a week and in 12 years has had 
only one four-week vacation. She is 33 and looks a well-worn 50. 
Her children come to the farm after school to see her and play in 
the muck while she milks emaciated cows fed meagre portions of 
nutrient-poor, contaminated silage.

 The cows produce only about three litres each milking. Some milk 
is too contaminated to process at the local plant, but the woman 
is allowed to take it home to her hungry children. It is deducted 
from her wages.

 Some orphanages are sponsored by groups such as Canadian Aid for 
Chernobyl, which provides clothes, soap, toilet paper and money 
for renovations. But foreign aid can't keep up with the need.

 Used incubators at the Minsk children's hospital were donated 
several years ago by Switzerland but are falling apart. Just 
$7,000 a year would repair the equipment.

 The technology is available to clean up the contamination. 
Caesium 135, which was released into the atmosphere by the 
explosion, has a radioactive half-life of 2 million years. That 
can be reduced to just 2* days by shooting neutrons into it, and 
the nuclear research centre in Minsk has the largest neutron 
generator in the world. 

Plants with large root systems can be used to extract radioactive 
material from the soil and the top layer of soil can be scraped 
off and neutralized by the neutron generator.

 But the price tag for decontamination is about $500 billion. And 
until the world is ready to accept the reality of the situation 
in Belarus, the population will continue to slide toward 
extinction - and the fallout will spread.

*Menno Meijer is a freelance photographer and reporter based in 
London, Ont. He recently returned from a trip to Belarus.*  
    
Legal Notice:- Copyright 1996-2001. Toronto 
Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Distribution, 
*****************************************************************
 5  California eyes nuclear energy 

    Power crisis forces state to mull unpopular options  
    
[Reuters]   
  
  SAN FRANCISCO, April 20 —  The unthinkable is happening: 
California’s power crisis is helping spark renewed interest in 
the nearly taboo subject of nuclear power, even in this 
environmentally conscious state.  

               “INVESTORS ARE INCREASINGLY looking at nuclear as 
an attractive asset for utilities to own rather than a liability 
like before,” James Asselstine, a managing director with Lehman 
Brothers, told Reuters at a recent nuclear conference here.

        Utilities are lining up to extend the lives of their 
nuclear units, and some are assessing building new reactors.

        “I think you could see an application to build a new 
nuclear power plant in the United States within the next five 
years,” said Asseltine, who was invited to speak at a conference 
sponsored by the Washington D.C.-based industry group Nuclear 
Energy Institute (NEI).
        
 California regulators open investigation

        The watchdog Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has not 
received a new plant application since the 1979 Three Mile Island 
nuclear accident put a freeze on the industry.

        In the past two decades, construction was halted on more 
than 40 nuclear units that had received NRC permission to build, 
and others were shut down after starting operations due to cost 
overruns and safety concerns, a NRC spokeswoman said.

        The last construction permit issued by the NRC — in 1973 
— was for the government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority’s 
1,170-megawatt Watts Bar facility in Spring City, Tenn., which 
began operating in 1996.       
      
               But the nuclear frost is now starting to thaw.

        Nuclear experts expect most, if not all, of the nation’s 
103 nuclear units, which supply about 20 percent of U.S. energy 
needs, to extend their 40-year operating licenses by 20 years.

        So far, the NRC says it has approved 20-year extensions 
for five nuclear units, has received applications to extend five 
more, and expects applications from about 33 additional ones.
        
 CALIFORNIA — A HARD NUT

        Two top Silicon Valley leaders have even said quietly 
that California should take another look at nuclear power after a 
1996 flawed deregulation law and supply crunch sent wholesale 
power prices skyrocketing, triggered rolling blackouts, and 
prompted the state’s top utility to file for bankruptcy.

        Scott McNealy, co-founder and chairman of Palo Alto-based 
high-tech giant Sun Microsystems, Inc. , lamented over the 
country’s steep energy costs and California’s almost daily power 
alerts declaring precariously low supplies.

        “It’s like a Third World nation out there in the Bay 
area,” said McNealy, referring to the alerts in a speech to the 
National Press Club in Washington D.C. earlier this year.       
      
       “I’m going to do the politically incorrect thing and tell 
you the answer’s going to be nuclear power.”

        Santa Clara-based Intel Corp. chief executive, Craig 
Barret, head of the world’s No. 1 computer chip maker, has also 
said nuclear power is one of the answers to the states’s energy 
crisis, although it’s not politically correct.

        California has only two nuclear plants, which account for 
nearly 15 percent of its energy needs. Although residents may 
have developed a greater appreciation for them after the power 
crisis, the Golden State will be a hard nut to crack.

        “California is probably the worst place to build 
anything, not just a nuclear power plant,” said Marvin Fertel, 
NEI senior vice president of business operations. And memories 
remain.

        California’s two-unit, 2,200-megawatt Diablo Canyon 
nuclear plant was redesigned twice: once after an earthquake 
fault was discovered near the site, and later when engineers read 
the blueprints backwards. The final bill for the plant exceeded 
projections by several billion dollars.

        Then in 1989, residents of Sacramento County in 
California voted to close down a nuclear plant. The Rancho Seco 
plant was the first — and only — operating nuclear power station 
in the United States to be shut down as the result of a local 
referendum.
        
 OPPORTUNITIES AND OBSTACLES

        Experts say the first new nuclear plants will probably be 
built on existing sites in the Southeast or Midwest where nuclear 
opposition is less strong than places like California.       
    
      
        Source: Center for the Advancement of Energy Markets 

       Advocates have always touted nuclear power as a source of 
abundant and relatively cheap fuel that is also “clean” because 
it does not produce any greenhouse gas emissions.

        Now several recent changes are helping their cause.

        Prices of other fuels are rising, prompting calls for 
diversifying fuel sources, and the industry has also improved its 
safety record and performance and cut production costs.

        And a new, streamlined licensing process for future 
nuclear units ensures that all major design, safety, siting and 
other regulatory issues are resolved as early as possible — 
before construction begins and billions of dollars are spent.

        This is possible because the new NRC process uses 
standardized plant designs that are pre-approved, which means 
future nuclear plants will be almost fully designed when they are 
ordered, which should cut down the lead time between proposing 
and constructing a nuclear reactor.

        “There is an air of optimism in the industry,” Wes 
Taylor, president of generation at TXU Corp. , a leading energy 
services company based in Texas, told the NEI conference.

        But he added: “The question of when a new power plant may 
be ordered is less easy to predict. More reforms are need before 
the barriers are entirely removed.”      
  
California's power problems pose a serious economic and safety 
risk.      

            No new nuclear plants have been proposed since the 
reformed NRC licensing process was introduced in 1992, which 
means the new system still needs to be tested, nuclear experts 
say.

        A solution to the U.S. nuclear waste storage problem 
still needs to be found and capital costs remain high, they add.

        And of course, public confidence remains key.

        “When it comes to nuclear power, not much has really 
changed. The problems of nuclear waste disposal, reactor safety 
and siting remain,” said Carl Zichella, the California’s regional 
staff director of the Sierra Club, vowing to fight ”hammer and 
tongs” against any new nuclear plants.

        “Nuclear is a technology that has had its day.”
        
        *© 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 6  Officials plan to search for radioactive materials buried on TSTC 
campus
 
    [AccessWaco.com]     ****  
  
 *By RICHARD L. SMITH/Tribune-Herald staff writer*

 Federal officials say a search is planned for radioactive 
materials that are possibly buried on the Texas State Technical 
College campus. 

Investigators from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will likely 
begin looking next month in an area where radium-illuminated 
aircraft instrument dials were reportedly encased in cement. The 
equipment was believed to have been discarded when the campus was 
formerly James Connally Air Force Base. 

"Before we do anything we will go in and do an investigation with 
instruments to detect radioactivity in the soil and groundwater 
if there is any," said Walter Kneib, a Corps project engineer in 
their Tulsa, Okla., district office. "If any is in the soil, we 
will get an idea of how extensive the problem is and an idea on 
how to move it." 

Corps officials said it will likely cost something less than $1 
million to investigate and remove the radium, provided it is 
buried there. 

A TSTC official refused to reveal the location of the site where 
the material is supposed to be buried in concrete. 

"I don't want to release that information since I do not have it 
completely fenced off," said Rhett Redell, TSTC safety officer. 
"It's in a restricted runway area. I don't want people going over 
there and getting hurt and it being a liability." 

The investigation is part of a program authorized by Congress to 
provide environmental restoration at former military bases, Kneib 
said. He said the Corps knew about the possibility of buried 
radium at the college since late 1998. However, any action was 
delayed until funding was approved. 

"Once we have identified sites, we have to wait for funding to 
address them," Kneib said. "The funding is spread over projects 
across the country and we have to compete with other projects." 

Radium is a naturally-occurring radioactive metal. Information 
from the Centers for Disease Control indicates that radium can 
enter the body when breathed in or swallowed. It is not known if 
the substance can be absorbed through the skin. The U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency has determined that radium is a 
human carcinogen. 

Kneib said researchers from Texas A &M University had taken 
radiation readings at the TSTC site in the past and detected no 
measurable quantities. 

The property on which TSTC, its airport and surrounding entities, 
such as Raytheon, is located was once part of the Air Force base. 
At its peak in the mid-1950s, the base was home to more than 
7,000 military and civilian personnel. When it closed in 1966, 
the facility had about 2,400 military and 830 civilian employees. 
Former Gov. John Connally asked the Texas Legislature to buy the 
old base and start James Connally Technical Institute under Texas 
A &M. The institute had become an independent entity by 1969. 

Kneib said the investigation will include boring holes in the 
ground at the site to determine any radioactivity. 

"Hopefully, everything will come out benign, but we won't know 
until we punch holes and take samples," he said. 

Probing of the area will likely begin sometime during the latter 
part of May. Richard Smith can be reached at rsmith@wacotrib.com 
or at 757-5745.   
    
 	   © 2001 &Waco-Tribune Herald | 
*****************************************************************
 7  Millstone still looking for missing fuel rods 

    [Geoff Hausman]   
By Paul Choiniere               - More Articles                  
Published on 4/22/2001 

Waterford — Personnel at the Millstone 1 nuclear plant have been 
unable to locate two highly radioactive fuel rods first 
discovered missing six months ago during an inventory of the 
nuclear waste storage pool at the closed plant. On Monday, 
Millstone officials will provide the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission with an update on the investigation into and search 
for the two spent fuel rods. It is the first such meeting since 
Dominion Nuclear Connecticut assumed ownership of the Millstone 
Nuclear Power Station from Northeast Utilities earlier this 
month.

The meeting is set for 1 p.m. at NRC regional headquarters in 
King of Prussia, Pa. A Millstone spokesman, Pete Hyde, declined 
Friday to outline what company officials plan to tell the NRC 
Monday. Hyde did confirm, however, that the fuel rods have not 
been located and the search continues.

In November, NU reported that a record review revealed that the 
two spent fuel rods, previously documented as having been stored 
in the spent fuel storage pool, could not be located. NU launched 
a search for the fuel rods, including a visual inspection of 
storage racks in the pool using remote-control cameras. Thousands 
of records are being reviewed and former employees interviewed.

NU has agreed to continue funding the cost of the search and to 
cover the cost of any penalties. If the fuel rods were moved out 
of the plant it would be a violation of federal regulations. 
There is no approved site for the disposal of spent fuel rods, 
classified as high-level nuclear waste.

The slender metal fuel rods are filled with enriched uranium 
pellets, about a half-inch in diameter and 13 feet long. They 
were removed from the reactor in 1972.

Millstone officials have said the two fuel rods might have been 
moved to a different location in the spent fuel storage pool and 
the change not properly recorded. Or they could have been 
accidentally shipped off site to low-level radioactive waste 
dumps in either South Carolina or the state of Washington.

In either case, they say, the rods should be safely contained.

According to those officials, if the fuel rods had been moved 
without an insulated storage canister to block the radiation, 
alarms would have sounded.  

  
© 1998-2001 The Day Publishing Co. 

*****************************************************************
 8    Utah site prepares to landfill high-level radioactive waste

Waste News: Waste management, landfill, and recycling industry 
resources
 
 TOOELE, UTAH (April 19) -- The Utah Division of Radiation 
Control recently cited the Envirocare of Utah landfill for 
violations in monitoring low-level radioactive solid waste.

        But Envirocare remains on the brink of clearing the first 
of two government-review hurdles for its application to landfill 
high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants.

        William Sinclair, director of the state agency, said the 
citation involves only paperwork problems and does not have any 
adverse impact on the company´s application to landfill 
high-level radioactive waste. "The bottom line is, we don´t have 
any reason to suspect that there is a ground water issue at the 
site," Sinclair said. "There is no evidence of contamination."

        The company´s reporting on monitor wells needs to 
improve, but "we´re talking about 76 wells and some 40,000-plus 
measurements per year," Sinclair said.

        Eighty miles southwest of Salt Lake City off Interstate 
80, the 640-acre landfill in Tooele County accepts 10 million 
cubic yards per year of solid waste with low-level radioactivity 
from industrial, mining, drilling and government research 
operations, Envirocare President Charles Judd said.
 
  *Entire contents copyright 2001 by Crain Communications Inc. 
*****************************************************************
 9  Goshutes look past the threat
 
[deseretnews.com] 

April 22, 2001

By Lee Benson
Deseret News columnist
 
The Goshutes just won't let it go, will they?

       The 112-member Indian tribe that is determined to turn its 
west desert reservation into a nuclear landfill filed suit in 
federal court this past week against the governor, the state, the 
attorney general and the transportation commission, among others.

       At issue are recently passed state laws intended to act as 
an effective roadblock to spent nuclear rods and other high-level 
radioactive waste ever entering the borders of the great state of 
Utah. The Legislature has indeed been busy implementing a strong 
defensive plan. Imagine having Dick Butkus, Dikembe Mutombo and 
Mr. T guarding the border, with the U.S. Marines as backup.

       The Goshutes think these laws are in violation of not only 
the U.S. Constitution but also their rights as a sovereign nation 
— which is in itself kind of an interesting double-barrelled 
legal complaint when you stop and think about it. And they're 
willing and able to slug it out in court — thanks to the 
estimable financial backing of Private Fuel Storage, the company 
that wants to use the tribe's land as a nuclear dumping ground.

       From the start, the pitch to the Goshutes from Private 
Fuel Storage has basically been this: Our dump will be a lot more 
attractive than rusted-out cars, and did we mention the part 
about it making you fabulously wealthy?
 
      The problem, of course, is the subject matter.

       Of all the 50 states in the union, Utah is the last place 
words like "radioactivity" and "fallout" can be tossed around 
unless you're looking for a fistfight. Utahns hear the word 
"nuclear" and go nuclear and for good reason.

       We have, as a matter of fact, been a dumping ground 
already, and you know what, it didn't feel good.

       For decades of testing, first above-ground and then 
below-ground, nuclear fallout wafted across the southern desert, 
taking a terrible and verifiable toll in southern Utah and a 
lesser and not as verifiable toll in the rest of the state. Who 
knows how many cases of multiple sclerosis, leukemia, cancer, 
skin and respiratory conditions and outright death are the 
result? Who knows how many innocent yet-to-be-born children will 
have bad stuff in their DNA because of the dangers of being close 
to things nuclear?

       Problems from the Nevada Test Site aren't alone. In the 
west desert, not far from the Goshutes' land, the Army stores all 
kinds of hazardous materials. A few years ago, some nerve gas 
leaked out and killed 6,000 sheep. Who knows how many human lives 
it disrupted?

       In southwestern Utah, unchecked uranium mining in the 
'40s, '50s and '60s brought problems to thousands. The worst of 
the damage was incurred by legions of Navajo Indians who worked 
shift after shift in the mines with no protective clothing and, 
worse, nobody telling them about the danger. Now, there is an 
epidemic of medical problems in the Navajo Nation, all related to 
nuclear fallout.
 
      The Goshutes and their paleface partners with their deep 
pockets and their law firms on retainer wax righteously 
indignant. The government says their facility is safe, they rail 
in court.

       Yeah, well, the government said the Nevada Test Site and 
the Moab mines were safe, too.

       I like what the governor says, and I agree with him: The 
Goshutes will bring in nuclear waste over our dead bodies.

       One way or another.
 
*Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 
Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.comand faxes to 
801-237-2527.*
*****************************************************************
 10  DOE chief tries to reassure

Albuquerque Tribune Online: News
 
 N.M. lab employees

 Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham described the morale of the Los 
Alamos workers as "very positive."

 By Barry Massey The Associated Press

      LOS ALAMOS -- The head of the Energy Department has taken 
his first tour of Los Alamos National Laboratory, a nuclear 
weapons lab recovering from a national security scandal and 
confronting proposed budget cuts.

  Cerro Grande Fire victims being taken care of faster, FEMA boss 
says
 
     "What the trip today has so far done is reinforce my pride 
in and confidence in the people who work in our labs," Energy 
Secretary Spencer Abraham said at a news conference Thursday.

     "These are . . . the crown jewels in terms of American 
science," said Abraham, whose department oversees the nation's 
nuclear weapons complex.

     Abraham, a former U.S. senator from Michigan, made an aerial 
tour of lab property to view damage from last spring's wildfire. 
Abraham, who earlier in the day visited Sandia National 
Laboratories in Albuquerque, met with Los Alamos employees and 
visited its facilities, including Tech Area 55, which is used for 
processing and storage of plutonium.

     President Bush has recommended spending cuts in the Energy 
Department next year. The agency's proposed budget calls for a 16 
percent reduction at Los Alamos, which would lower spending to 
about $1.4 billion. Some of the largest proposed cutbacks were in 
construction and operations stemming from last year's Cerro 
Grande Fire.

     Abraham stressed that the budget proposes an increase in the 
agency's military-related work, including that at Los Alamos. The 
administration is reviewing department programs to determine 
long-term energy and military policy, and Abraham suggested that 
could lead to a greater focus on the work at Los Alamos.

     The lab is recovering from rough times because of a 
devastating wildlife in the Los Alamos area last year, a security 
scandal involving missing computer equipment and the Wen Ho Lee 
case.

     Abraham described the morale of lab employees as "very 
positive."

     "I think the people recognize that safety and security and 
scientific achievement can go hand in hand, and I conveyed to 
them my confidence in the people here and in their ability to 
both meet the security challenges as well as the professional 
challenges that we have as a nation," he said.

     The visits to Sandia and Los Alamos were Abraham's first 
since taking over the DOE. The department operates 17 major 
research laboratories, including Los Alamos and Sandia.

     Mary J. Byrne, who works in community affairs for the DOE's 
Los Alamos office, said Abraham's visit sent a message of support 
to lab workers.

     "It does help the morale of the employees, the fact that he 
choose Los Alamos to come and talk with them. He was very upbeat. 
He didn't do any scolding," Byrne said.

     Lee, a Taiwan-born U.S. citizen who worked at Los Alamos for 
more than two decades, was accused of 59 counts of downloading 
restricted data. After nine months in solitary confinement, Lee 
pleaded guilty to a single felony count of mishandling data in 
September, the government dropped all other counts, and he was 
freed.

     The Cerro Grande Fire, which roared through the community of 
Los Alamos in May, left 400 families homeless and burned more 
than 42,000 acres, including nearly 8,000 on lab property.

     The fire burned five of six old buildings that housed the 
Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb during World 
War II and destroyed a cluster of temporary lab buildings. At the 
peak of the fire, the entire Los Alamos area -- an estimated 
25,000 people -- was evacuated.

     As the fire moved onto lab property, two computer hard 
drives of secret information about nuclear weapons were found 
missing from a vault in the lab's top secret X Division. 
Eventually, the drives were discovered behind a copier in a 
secure area previously searched.

     The Los Alamos Lab was established by the government in 1943 
as part of the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb. 
Today, the lab covers about 43 square miles and has more than 
2,000 buildings.

     The lab's main mission remains nuclear weapons research and 
maintenance of the nation's nuclear stockpile, but it operates a 
wide range of nonweapons programs including climate modeling and 
human genome studies. 

© The Albuquerque Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 11  TVA directors OK nuclear plant upgrades
 
Work will cost nearly $157 million 
April 21, 2001
 
By Bruce Schreiner, Associated Press

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. -- Tennessee Valley Authority directors have 
approved a plan to boost production at two nuclear plants to help 
meet electricity demand that is outpacing the national average. 

The upgrades to the Sequoyah plant in Tennessee and Browns Ferry 
in Alabama will cost nearly $157 million and increase generating 
capacity at the two plants by nearly 6 percent. 

A portion of the additional power could begin reaching TVA 
customers by 2003, and all the improvements are expected to be 
completed by the middle of 2005. The TVA directors also approved 
Wednesday a nearly $23 million contract with Lafayette Coal Co. 
in Pike County, Ind., to supply more than 720,000 tons of coal to 
the Gallatin Fossil Plant near Nashville. 

Demand for electricity in the Tennessee Valley is growing at 
about 3 percent each year, compared to the national average of 2 
percent. 

The upgrades at the two nuclear plants will add a total of 266 
megawatts of generating capacity -- 240 megawatts at Browns Ferry 
and 26 at Sequoyah -- enough to power more than 50,000 homes. 

The Sequoyah plant is in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., about 20 miles north 
of Chattanooga. Browns Ferry is in Athens, Ala., near Huntsville. 

This week's meeting was the first since Craven Crowell's 
retirement after eight years as TVA chairman. The two remaining 
directors -- Glenn McCullough and Skila Harris -- said they will 
take turns presiding at board meetings until a new chairman is 
named by the Bush administration. 

McCullough and Harris said that making improvements to existing 
facilities is a cost-effective way to increase TVA's power 
capacity and keep it competitive with other power suppliers. 

TVA also is boosting electricity production by upgrading turbines 
at 88 hydroelectric stations. Those upgrades will raise 
production by at least 5 percent. 

TVA, the country's largest public utility, provides electricity 
to 8 million people in Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, 
Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Meanwhile, the 
Washington-based lobbying group TVA Watch announced Wednesday it 
was changing its name to TVA Exchange to reflect what it calls a 
new mission. The group is made up of a coalition of private 
sector energy companies around the Tennessee Valley that say they 
are "concerned about the role of TVA in a changing electric power 
market." 

Over the past few years, the group has focused on making sure TVA 
didn't try to sell power outside its federally mandated 
jurisdiction. 

But lately the group has shifted its emphasis toward urging 
Congress to pass legislation that would require the 
quasi-governmental agency to be structured more like an 
investor-owned utility. 

Copyright © 2000, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved   
*****************************************************************
 12  Yankee storage plans get support

 *April 20, 2001*
 By MEGGAN CLARK
Reformer Staff

 VERNON -- Perhaps the most uncontroversial project in Vermont 
Yankee's history, plans to build a hydrogen storage facility at 
the Vernon reactor, received only support at a public hearing 
Thursday night.

 The public comments, including Yankee liaison engineer David 
McElwee's presentation, lasted a full 10 minutes.

 The hearing is part of the Public Service Board's review of the 
project, which requires a certificate of public good.

 Yankee already uses hydrogen to cool its generator, the 
mechanism that converts the motion of steam-spun turbines into 
electricity. The gas is kept in steel cylinders in a small 
building near the turbine building, close to the physical plant.

 The proposed facility would be larger. A fenced-in cement slab 
several hundred feet south of the cooling towers, in what is now 
a tangle of brush and humped-up ground, would hold a tractor 
trailer carrying up to a dozen hydrogen tanks. An underground 
line would transport the hydrogen, in gaseous form, to the 
turbine building.

 There, the line would split. Some of the hydrogen would continue 
to flow into the generator, replacing that from the steel 
cylinders. The rest, however, would go into the reactor building, 
where it would be pumped into the cooling water itself. 

The hydrogen lines the water pipes and bonds with loose oxygen 
molecules to form water, preventing corrosion.

 According to McElwee, the use of hydrogen as an anti-corrosive 
is relatively new, having been in use only about a decade. The $3 
million facility would increase the amount of hydrogen Yankee 
uses roughly 20 times, from .2 cubic feet a minute to 4 cubic 
feet per minute. But it wouldn't increase the number of hydrogen 
deliveries to the Vernon reactor. 

Geoffrey Commons, speaking for the department of public service, 
said the department had not yet taken a position on the planned 
facility. The department advocates for Vermont citizens before 
the board.

 "Because we are a representative of the public, we are 
particularly interested in comment from the public," he said.

 But the only comment from the public was a letter from the 
Vernon selectboard, read by Selectman Jim Polhemus. The board 
thanked Yankee for being a good corporate citizen and said the 
project would have no adverse affect on the town.

 "We'd like to give our blessing to this project," Polhemus said.

 The meeting was attended by about 25 people, most of whom were 
state officials or nuclear executives. Before the 7 p.m. hearing, 
the group, wearing boots, had toured the proposed site and walked 
the path of the underground pipe. Board Chairman Michael Dworkin, 
with a project engineer, battled raspberry bushes and brush to 
see the actual site of the proposed concrete pad.

 The rest of the group walked around.

NewsChoice.com
*****************************************************************
 13  NRC to meet Entergy on NY FitzPatrick nuke safety
                                       
    [Reuters]   

Friday April 20, 1:23 pm Eastern Time
 
NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
(NRC) said Friday its staff will meet with Entergy Nuclear on 
April 27 to discuss safety concerns at the FitzPatrick nuclear 
reactor in New York.

Specifically, the NRC said it wanted to talk about Entergy's 
progress on and plans for addressing the number of unplanned 
power changes at the plant. The NRC issued a ``white'' 
performance indicator to FitzPatrick, indicating there are 
continued problems with equipment reliability that have impacted 
plant operations.

Under the NRC Reactor Oversight Process launched in April 2000, 
the agency uses several tools to assess plant performance.

Among those tools are performance indicators, which utilize 
different colors to depict increasing safety significance. The 
colors range from green, which means performance in an expected 
range, rising to white, which is considered performance outside 
the expected range, to yellow and finally red.

For instance, if a plant has six or more unplanned power changes 
during a specified period, it receives a ``white'' indicator. The 
specified period of operations is 7,000 hours. An unplanned power 
change is a change greater than 20 percent, but not including an 
automatic or manual shutdown.

These problems extend back several years, the NRC said in a 
statement, referring also to the time when the New York Power 
Authority owned the plant. Entergy Nuclear, a unit of Entergy 
Corp. (NYSE:ETR - news) of New Orleans, completed the purchase of 
the Power Authority's nuclear plants in November 2000.

--Scott DiSavino, New York Power Desk, +212-859-1622, fax 
+212-859-1758, e-mail scott.disavino@reuters.com

*****************************************************************
 14  Legislature passes bill to delay power plant sale 

April 20, 2001   
  
By LORI AYOTTE
 
Associated Press Writer
 
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — In a move to head off California-style 
electric problems, the New Hampshire Legislature pushed through a 
bill Thursday to modify a deregulation agreement with Public 
Service Company of New Hampshire.
 
The bill postpones the sale of some of Public Service’s plants 
for 33 months so their cheaper power can be used to keep rates 
from spiking upwards.
 
Under current law, Public Service is required to sell its power 
plants as part of the agreement to deregulate its service area. 
The law calls for it to sell the plants by July 1.
 
The bill only affects Public Service’s fossil fuel and 
hydroelectric plants. It does not stop the utility from selling 
the Seabrook nuclear plant.
 
Rep. Jeb Bradley said the bill is needed because there isn’t a 
competitive market for electricity. Unless the change is made to 
the agreement, Public Service customers face huge price increases 
from energy prices that began rising after California utilities 
had trouble keeping the lights on for their customers.
 
The law now requires Public Service to provide power from its 
existing plants to commercial and industrial customers during a 
nine-month transition after competition begins May 1. The 
customers then have to buy power at market prices. The change 
increases the transition from nine to 33 months.
 
Although lawmakers have argued customers need to be protected, 
some energy brokers say lengthening the transition further delays 
competition because other energy suppliers can’t match low 
transition service prices.
 
The transition service rate is set at $4.4 cents per kilowatt 
hour for the first 21 months — almost half the current market 
rate. Afterward, Public Service can set the rate with state 
regulators’ approval.
 
Bradley asked the House to pass the bill immediately, so the 
changes are made before Public Service sells $525 million in 
bonds to refinance part of its debt at lower cost — a benefit to 
the utility and ratepayers. The bond sale also was part of the 
deregulation agreement. Ratepayers are to pay them back over 
time.
 
Lawmakers feared if they waited, Public Service might not be able 
to sell the bonds at as low an interest rate. The refinancing 
triggers a rate reduction for customers and starts competition in 
Public Service’s service area.
 
Public Service can continue with plans to sell the Seabrook 
nuclear plant, whose value has increased since the California 
energy crisis. Public Service’s ratepayers will benefit from a 
higher selling price since it means less money they will have to 
pay in so-called "stranded costs" — past investments in power 
plants and contracts the utility probably could not recover in a 
competitive market.
 
The bill also gives residential customers an additional year of 
transition service. They could buy power at the transition rate 
for five years.
 
The bill also would allow all utilities to increase a charge to 
fund low-income assistance and energy conservation programs. The 
increase is a 1/10 of a cent, and would amount to an additional 
10 cents for every $100 on an electric bill.
 
Bradley cited the energy crisis in California and in other states 
as a reason to pursue conservation programs.   

© 2001 Geo. J. Foster Co.   
*****************************************************************
 15  Greens Secure International Opposition To Nuclear Shipments
 
  Press Release by Green Party at 2:42pm, 20th April 2001   

Green MP Ian Ewen-Street has secured international opposition to 
the shipment of nuclear cargoes through other countries exclusive 
economic zones at the international Inter-Parliamentary Union 
(IPU) meeting in Havana early this month. 

Mr Ewen-Street moved an amendment to a resolution calling for a 
ban on weapons of mass destruction to also include 'a complete 
ban... on the transportation of the components of weapons of mass 
destruction through the air space and / or the exclusive economic 
zones of other countries'. 

"I am absolutely thrilled that delegates from parliaments from 
140 countries agreed unanimously to this amendment," said Mr 
Ewen-Street. 

"At a time when the Prime Minister is refusing to support a Green 
Party Bill which seeks to keep increasing numbers of nuclear 
shipments out of our waters because it would violate 
international law, it is heartening to see representatives from 
parliaments all around the world agree with us in saying that the 
International Law of the Sea is being interpreted to work against 
countries' rights to protect their environments and people." 

Mr Ewen-Street said that the IPU decision was in line with the 
finding by the International Court of Justice that nuclear 
weapons are illegal. 

"It is time the Law of the Sea was clarified to ensure that the 
right of innocent passage cannot be interpreted to include 
nuclear ships," he said. 

"Now what we really need to see is Prime Ministers and 
parliaments all around the world putting this resolution into 
action," said Mr Ewen-Street. 

"Nuclear shipments are a real threat to the health of people and 
environments and should not be given automatic access to 
countries EEZ's. Countries like New Zealand who are going to be 
put at increasing risk from more and more nuclear shipments 
should have every right to say no." 

Mr Ewen-Street said he was puzzled as to how the Prime Minister 
was going to campaign for a nuclear free world if she was not 
prepared to tackle the international transport of nuclear 
materials which supported the nuclear industry and put nations 
like New Zealand at unacceptable risk. 

ENDS 
*****************************************************************
 16  Japan Pwr Chief: Indus To Continue Plutonium-Thermal Proj

Friday, April 20 6:42 PM SGT 
 
 TOKYO (Dow Jones)--The head of Japan's electric power industry 
body said Friday that Japanese power companies will try hard to 
realize the proposed plutonium-thermal project for the sake of 
the country's stable future power supply. 

"The president of each company reconfirmed today (Friday) that we 
will aim to conduct the plutonium-thermal (project) at 16 to 18 
reactors by the year 2010," Hiroji Ota, chairman of Japan's 
Federation of Electric Power Companies, told reporters. 

Ota said the most important issue to tackle is to earn support 
from local governments for the project. He said the power 
industry will begin loading the controversial plutonium-uranium 
mixed oxide, or MOX fuel, at nuclear reactors if it gains support 
from local authorities. 

"Although the front runner (for the project) is trapped in a 
tough situation, the only hurdle is local affairs," he said of 
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (J.TER or 9501). "Safety and technology 
issues have already been cleared." 

Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, Friday gave up what would have 
been Japan's first project to use plutonium-uranium mixed oxide, 
or MOX fuel, at its Fukushima Daiichi power station in Fukushima 
Prefecture, northern Japan, because of strong opposition from a 
local government. 

The decision cast gloom over Tepco's second plutonium-thermal 
project at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in 
Niigata Prefecture, northern Japan. Tepco has until mid-June to 
decide whether it can load MOX fuel at its No. 3 1,100-megawatt 
reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. 

Ota said the power industry will work with the government to 
press forward with the plutonium-thermal project, in which a 
composite fuel made of plutonium extracted from spent fuel and 
uranium would be used at nuclear reactors. Japan's power industry 
has advocated the need for the resource-scarce country to 
establish a nuclear fuel cycle. 

But public objection against nuclear power mounted in the last 
two years, brought about by a slew of alarming nuclear 
power-related accidents. 
                                       
Copyright 2000 Dow Jones &Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.*
*****************************************************************
 17  WIPP Score: 200 Down, 19,100 to Go
 
Saturday, April 21, 2001 

Albuquerque Journal--> *The Associated Press*

     CARLSBAD — The federal government's nuclear waste repository 
east of here has received its 200th shipment of radioactive 
waste.

     The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which accepted its first 
shipment in March 1999, was designed to permanently store 
plutonium-contaminated waste more than 2,100 feet underground in 
ancient salt beds.

     The waste — such things as contaminated clothing, tools, 
debris and residue — comes from the nation's defense complex.

     The 200th shipment arrived Wednesday from the Energy 
Department's Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site in 
Colorado. Coincidentally, the 100th shipment that arrived last 
October also came from Rocky Flats.

     "This marks another major milestone for WIPP as we work 
toward cleanup of transuranic waste at DOE sites across the 
country," said Ines Triay, manager of DOE's Carlsbad office, 
which runs the WIPP program.

     Since beginning disposal operations, WIPP has received 
shipments from Rocky Flats, the Idaho National Engineering and 
Environmental Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory in 
northern New Mexico and the Hanford site in Washington state.

     During the next 35 years, WIPP officials expect to transport 
about 19,300 loads of radioactive waste from more than 20 
locations nationwide.

     WIPP has two sets of rooms to bury nuclear waste in the 
underground salt beds. Each disposal room is 300 feet long, 33 
feet wide and 13 feet high and each will hold the equivalent of 
12,000 55-gallon drums of waste.
 
Copyright Albuquerque Journal 
*****************************************************************
 18  Jonathan Riskind: Piketon's workers on wild ride
 
*Sunday, April 22, 2001*
Jonathan Riskind
*Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief* 

The 1,700 workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in 
Piketon, and thousands of people throughout southern Ohio whose 
economic well-being is tied to the plant, must feel like they're 
a yo-yo. 

One minute they're up, such as when the federal government 
finally approves a compensation program for nuclear workers 
harmed by radioactive conditions. The next minute they're down, 
such as when the new secretary of labor tries to shift 
responsibility for running the program to the same Justice 
Department that helped make a hash of a similar program for 
uranium miners. 

And when Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao agreed last week to run 
the program, she called for pushing back the July 31 start date. 
Chao claims otherwise, but the delay might not have been needed 
if she hadn't spent weeks trying to shed responsibility for the 
program. 

Piketon workers also were up when the Clinton administration 
announced an election-year $630-million plan to keep the plant on 
"cold standby'' for an advanced-technology program after the 
plant is closed in June. 

Then they were down when the Bush administration decided to put 
the Clinton plan on hold, but they were yanked halfway up when 
some short- term standby money was released with a vague promise 
of more to come. 

The past two weeks saw another gut-twisting episode for plant 
workers, who produced weapons-grade uranium for the nation's 
atomic defense program, and then manufactured commercial-grade 
material to fuel nuclear power plants, which supply 20 percent of 
the country's electricity. 

Plans announced earlier this month called for 526 workers to be 
let go when the plant ceases operations. That's a lot of lost 
paychecks, but it beats losing 1,700 jobs. The 1,200 workers who 
would be kept on would run shipping operations, keep the plant on 
standby and so forth. 

But then USEC, the privatized federal corporation that is 
shutting down Piketon, told workers that Energy Department money 
to pay for post-closure cleanup work on the plant's enrichment 
equipment might not be forthcoming. That would mean letting go 
170 more people. 

Well, apparently that was a little war of wills between USEC and 
the Energy Department. Each thought the other was responsible for 
paying for the cleanup. In the end, the Energy Department agreed 
to pay, but only after workers spent a few days sweating out the 
possibility of more layoffs. 

It's not like the jobs left after the plant shuts down have any 
long-term guarantees attached to them. The cold standby money is 
promised only until Sept. 30, 2002, the end of the 2002 federal 
fiscal year. The Bush administration hasn't committed to a 
long-term standby plan, or promised to launch an 
advanced-technology program at the site. 

Hundreds more jobs would be lost without the standby money. And 
the cleanup money also could be cut off after the 2002 fiscal 
year. 

Piketon's long-term future appears to be tied to the 
recommendations of an energy-policy task force headed by Vice 
President Dick Cheney. 

Administration officials have made clear that the task force 
likely will recommend increasing the nation's nuclear-energy 
capability. 

Piketon proponents, such as Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, 
say that should make keeping southern Ohio's enrichment plant on 
standby a no- brainer. The country's other enrichment plant, also 
run by USEC in Paducah, Ky., hasn't proved capable of producing a 
reliable supply of commercial- grade enriched uranium, Strickland 
and others claim. 

USEC says an upgrade of the Paducah plant is going well, but 
Strickland says it would be folly in these energy- security 
conscious times to rely on Paducah for America's sole supply of 
domestic enriched uranium. 

Piketon also would be the perfect place to locate an 
advanced-technology program, argue Strickland, Ohio GOP Sens. 
Mike DeWine and George V. Voinovich, and others. 

The argument makes sense. But don't blame southern Ohioans with 
Piketon plant ties if they don't count on sense winning out. 
They're too used to being yanked around. 

jriskind@dispatch.com


Copyright © 2001, The Columbus Dispatch 
*****************************************************************
 19  Radon warnings being ignored by county residents

JS Online: 

Health officials push tests for cancer-causing gas
 By DON BEHM
 of the Journal Sentinel staff *Last Updated: April 21, 2001* 

An increasing number of county health departments say they are 
not reaching enough of the public with the message that they 
should be testing their homes for radon.
 
After more than 11 years of distributing information about the 
risk of lung cancer posed by exposure to radon where people live, 
only 15% to 20% of homes in Wisconsin have been tested for the 
odorless gas.
 
But nearly one-tenth of tested homes - about 100,000 - have 
main-floor radon levels that exceed federal exposure guidelines, 
according to researchers at the state Division of Public Health.
 
In recent years, excessive levels were found in more than 20% of 
homes tested in large areas of Waukesha, Washington, Racine, 
Walworth and Dodge counties.
 
A summary of tests also shows high levels in 10% to 20% of homes 
tested in portions of Milwaukee and Kenosha counties.
 
High levels also were found in 1% to 10% of tests in the southern 
two-thirds of Ozaukee County.
 
Radon is emitted in the natural decay of radioactive materials in 
rock and soil.
 
The gas can flow into homes through cracks or other openings in 
foundations.
 
Excessive radon levels are found in homes in each county of the 
state, but the prevalence varies widely, even in areas with 
similar bedrock and soil, said Conrad Weiffenbach, a nuclear 
engineer with the state Division of Public Health in Madison.
 
Consequently, state and local health officials recommend 
universal testing as the only way to check the presence of radon 
in a home.
 
Ozaukee County's Public Health Department has been encouraging 
people to test their homes, said Glenda Madlom, the department 
Director. The department is selling a testing device to county 
residents for $3.
 
In Ozaukee, the southern two-thirds of the county has soil 
conditions more likely to produce high radon levels compared with 
the northern part of the county.
 
But even if you're neighbor tested for radon and came back with a 
negative result, it's still a good idea to test.
 
"The level of radon can vary from house to house on the same 
street," said Margaret Anderson, an environmental health 
specialist with the Washington County Health Department.
 
"Everybody should test because there is no way to predict what 
the levels of radon would be in a home."
 
After making her pitch over the years at county fairs, public 
health fairs and other community events in Ozaukee and Washington 
counties, Anderson decided last month to spend a few hundred 
dollars of a federal radon education grant on advertisements in 
four small circulation newspapers in the two counties. It was a 
first for her.
 
"I have had a hard time reaching people with this radon message," 
Anderson said.
 
"So, I thought I'd put in this ad with a coupon because coupons 
catch people's eyes," she said.
 
It did just that. More than 50 families responded within 10 days 
of the first notice.
 
Even a casual reader could not miss the coupon-style ad's bold 
headline: "Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in 
the United States."
 
Then Anderson offered readers a deal - half-price off the regular 
$6 cost of a radon test kit if they brought in or mailed the 
coupon to her office.
 
"We need to get more of these kits out to people," she said.
 
The health risks The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the 
surgeon general have recommended taking steps to reduce radon 
accumulation in a home if there are 4 or more picocuries of the 
gas per liter of air in the lowest living area, usually the first 
floor of a home.
 
A picocurie is a measure of radioactivity - the pace at which 
radioactive elements, such as uranium and radium, disintegrate.
 
The odds of someone developing lung cancer after breathing 
household air containing that much radon for several decades is 
about 0.2%, or 2 in 1,000, for people who never smoke, according 
to the EPA.
 
The National Academy of Sciences reviewed medical studies and 
determined that the odds might be even greater, up to 0.7%, or 7 
in 1,000, for people who spend 75% of their time in the home.
 
An academy study released in 1999 estimated that 15,000 U.S. 
residents die each year from lung cancer due to radon exposure. 
About 2,000 to 3,000 of them never smoked.
 
Radon harms only the lungs and not other tissues. Radon atoms in 
the air spontaneously decay to other radioactive elements that 
attach to dust. If inhaled into the lung, those elements continue 
to decay by emitting a type of radiation capable of damaging 
cells in the lung.
 
Though tobacco smoke is the predominant cause of lung cancer, 
radon control is a way for former smokers and never-smokers to 
reduce their lung cancer risks, according to Conrad Weiffenbach, 
a nuclear engineer with the state Division of Public Health in 
Madison.
 
How to test Only a test reveals how much radon is present in 
living areas, Weiffenbach said.
 
Special test kits generally cost about $10 at local hardware 
stores, home improvement centers or county health departments.
 
"It is important to do the tests when the windows are closed," 
said Dan Ziegler, an environmental health specialist in Ozaukee 
County's Department of Public Health. "Also, people should do the 
test in the part of the house where they spend most of their 
time."
 
A homeowner simply places the detector in a recommended location, 
waits four to seven days, then seals the detector in a package 
provided with the kit and mails it to a laboratory for analysis.
 
This initial test should be done when windows are closed.
 
If this short-term test finds less than 4 picocuries of radon per 
liter of air, then no other steps are necessary.
 
If the test results are between 4 and 10 picocuries, then a 
longer test of between 90 days and a full year is recommended 
with a different type of detector, according to Tellier. Cost of 
this test kit is about $15.
 
"Most homes where a short-term test finds elevated levels, they 
are slightly elevated, so the homeowner would benefit from the 
long-term test," Tellier said.
 
"And the annual test likely would show that radon is not a 
problem."
 
"Then you get a definite answer, an average of all seasons and 
all kinds of weather," he said. "And if you're not involved in 
the sale of a home, then you have time to do a second, long-term 
test."
 
Short-term results of more than 10 picocuries should be checked 
with a second, short-term test.
 
If the results are similar, then corrective steps should be taken 
as soon as possible, Tellier said.
 
"Because the levels are so high, a homeowner shouldn't test for a 
full year," he said.
 
"If the second short-term test verifies the result, you should be 
fixing the home to reduce exposure."
 

*Journal Sentinel reporter Jeff Cole contributed to this report.*
 
         Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on April 22, 
2001.
 
*****************************************************************
 20  Caboolture residents oppose proposed nuclear plant

ABC News - 

 22 Apr 2001 14:10 AEST    


Caboolture residents, north of Brisbane, fear they may soon be 
living next to a highly radioactive nuclear plant.

Community Action Group secretary Frank Jell says an irradiation 
plant, proposed for the Narangba industrial estate, will be 
energized by Cobalt 60, which is normally stored as radioactive 
waste.

Mr Jell says more than 700 residents voiced their opposition to 
the development of the plant on Friday night after processing 
company Steritech advertised their intentions to use Cobalt 60.

He says if the plant succeeds in obtaining a licence the health 
of the general public is in jeopardy.

"One Cobalt pencil has the capacity to spread radioactive 
contamination over an area of 6,000 square kilometres," he said.

"That means that we have quite a dangerous facility sitting in 
the midst of an otherwise rural residential area."

The company behind the proposed irradiation plant has dismissed 
claims it is keeping residents in the dark about how the plant 
will be fuelled.

Local community activists say they have now been told Cobalt 60 
will be used as a power source not gamma radiation.

But George West from Steritech says Cobalt 60 was always going to 
be used and gamma rays are emitted by the product.

He says there should be no confusion.
 
© 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation 
*****************************************************************
 21  Nuclear fuel arrives at Temelin - 

April 22, 2001
 	 	
CNN.com - 

  The Temelin plant has caused friction between the Czech 
Republic and Austria
 		 
TEMELIN, Czech Republic -- A train carrying nuclear fuel has 
arrived under tight security at the controversial Temelin nuclear 
power plant in the southern Czech Republic. 
		 
The fuel arrived on Sunday making the long journey from the 
northern Polish seaport of Szczecin, plant director Frantisek 
Hezoucky said. 
		 
A train carrying nuclear waste from Germany to France sparked 
huge protests earlier in the month but there were no incidents 
reported at the Temelin plant. 
		 
But the controversial $2.6 billion plant, built just over 50 km 
(31 miles) from the borders of neighbouring Austria, has had a 
rocky start. 
		 
It suffered several shutdowns during testing because of 
vibrations and a crack in steam piping in Temelin's turbine in 
the non-nuclear, power-generating part of the station. 
		 
Austrian protesters have staged border blockades demanding its 
closure, and a series of minor failures have forced repeated 
shutdowns since it was first launched last October. 
		 
Austria says the station, which combines a Russian VVER-1,000 
reactor with a U.S.-made control system by Westinghouse, may be 
unsafe. 
		 
Its operator, the government-controlled power company CEZ, 
insists it is a state-of-the-art project. 
		 
A recent Czech-led independent commission, which included 
observers from the EU, Austria and Germany, gave Temelin high 
marks in an environmental impact study. 
		 
But Austria has in the past threatened to block Prague's bid to 
join the European Union unless its demands for full safety 
inspections are met. 
					
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                     NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES
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 1 French 'weapons grade' exports to Iraq blocked

THE SUNDAY TIMES: WORLD NEWS 

  April 22 2001    EUROPE  

 Stephen Grey, Brussels 

*Saddam: shopping list
   
 BRITAIN and America have accused France of mounting a 
billion-pound export drive to Iraq that they fear could help 
Saddam Hussein build weapons of mass destruction. 

A confidential list of 6,000 contracts signed by Baghdad, 
obtained by The Sunday Times, reveals that French companies have 
agreed to supply Iraq with chemicals, refrigerated trucks and 
sophisticated pumps that British security sources believe could 
be used to make chemical weapons. 

The planned exports - which under United Nations sanctions must 
be approved by the security council - also in-clude fast 
computers and high-speed communications equipment that could be 
employed in making missiles. 

British and American diplomats are blocking 117 French contracts 
worth £200m containing components thought to be of potential use 
in making missiles or chemical, nuclear or biological weapons. 
They are among 965 contracts being challenged from the 18-month 
period to February 2001. All but one challenge has been 
instigated by officials in London or Washington. 

The exports are permitted under the "oil for food" programme set 
up in 1996 to allow Iraq to buy humanitarian aid from the 
proceeds of oil sales. 

British security sources claim to have uncovered evidence that 
exports described as part of farming or school programmes were 
instead destined for the Iraqi military. 

In February Britain blocked one such £200,000 contract claiming 
it contained high-technology valves that were "an essential 
component of ballistic missiles". The name and nationality of the 
exporting company were not clear. 

Francis Maude, the shadow foreign secretary, accused Paris last 
week of ignoring the dangers of Iraqi rearmament. "The French are 
engaged in a massive export programme de-signed to enhance their 
economic power," he said. "But this should not be a signal for us 
to abandon these controls." 

Of the £10 billion of contracts under consideration, the largest 
shares are accounted for by Egyptian companies (worth £1 billion) 
and by Russian firms (£975m). French exports, worth £972m, are 
viewed with the greatest concern, because many involve high 
technology. 

The list shows £12m of contracts are with British companies as 
against £8m for American firms. According to the list, obtained 
in conjunction with Gulf States Newsletter, the contentious 
contracts include a £30,000 deal by Rohm &Haas France to supply 
Iraq with water treatment chemicals. It has been blocked as "dual 
use" - with military as well as civilian applications. The 
company says the chemicals are harmless. 

Contracts involving other French companies that have been frozen 
include a £900,000 deal to supply chemicals for insecticide and a 
£4.6m deal for a sprinkler irrigation system. 

Also affected are contracts worth £1m signed by Ensival, a 
Belgian pump manufacturer; they include one worth £20,000 that 
Britain claims could "provide Iraq with the ability to produce 
items of chemical weapons and of nuclear concern". 

Ensival refused to comment last week, saying that "sensitive 
negotiations" were under way to have the suspensions lifted. 

America is blocking a contract for "educational materials and 
equipment" from Elettronica Veneta in Italy on the grounds that 
it includes pressure controls and transducers that have "nuclear 
weapons applications". 

Another £1.4m contract for transport equipment involving 
Energomachexport, a Russian firm, has been frozen because it 
contains detonators with "nuclear and missile potential". The 
company said there was "nothing nuclear or illegal in any way 
among our machines". 

The dispute over exports coincides with a wider debate over 
whether sanctions on Iraq, imposed after its 1990 invasion of 
Kuwait, are still justified. "With infant mortality doubled in 
Iraq, these blockages have caused real suffering," said one 
French foreign ministry source. 

Proceeds from authorised oil sales are paid into a UN account at 
a bank in Paris; 72% of the money is used to pay for imports and 
25% goes towards compensating the victims of the invasion of 
Kuwait. 

  Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided 
on Times
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 2  Russia overhauling its icebreaker fleet

BBC News | EUROPE | 

22 April, 2001, 

Russia is to overhaul its fleet of arctic icebreakers, and is 
planning the construction of a new generation of the massive 
nuclear powered vessels. 

The Russian transport ministry has announced that the nuclear 
reactors on seven of the ships will be upgraded, and it hopes to 
commission the first of the new icebreakers by 2010 at a cost of 
half-a-billion dollars. 

The vessels are used to keep open the shipping lanes off the 
northern coast for the cargo ships that bring metal ore and other 
natural resources from Siberia to western Russia where it is 
processed and exported. 

Russia has also advocated the clearing of routes along the 
Northeast Passage for ships travelling between Europe and Asia to 
tap into the lucrative trade that now sails through the Suez 
Canal or around Africa. 

*From the newsroom of the BBC World Service*             
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 3  Report: Israel Arrests Scientist
 
April 22, 2001 
 
LONDON (AP) - A retired Israeli military scientist who was 
believed to be involved the country's nuclear program has been 
arrested in Israel after his relationship with a Russian woman 
raised suspicions, the Sunday Times newspaper of London reported. 

Yitzhak Yaakov, 75, was arrested by a security branch of Israel's 
Defense Ministry on March 28 and has been questioned about his 
relationship with the unidentified Russian woman, the British 
newspaper reported. 

Yaakov, who holds both Israeli and U.S. citizenship, retired 
almost 25 years ago from the Israeli army. He served in the 
military as a brigadier general and chief of research and 
development, the newspaper said. 

Israeli police and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel 
Sharon refused to comment Sunday on the report. 

The Times said Yaakov's friends in the United States, where he 
worked until last year as chairman of the New York-based company 
Constellation 3D Inc., expressed surprise at the news of his 
arrest. The computer hardware company develops advanced optical 
data storage products, and has branches in Israel and Russia. 

Yaakov was believed to have been involved in Israel's nuclear 
program during his time in the military, and when he worked as 
the chief scientist at the Ministry of Industry, The Times said. 

The U.S. State Department in Washington told the newspaper that 
Yaakov should be entitled to consular assistance. The U.S. 
Embassy in Tel Aviv told The Associated Press it could not 
comment on the case. 

Israel has a nuclear reactor in Dimona, in the Negev Desert in 
the south of the country, and is widely assumed to have nuclear 
weapons. But the country has always refused to comment on its 
nuclear capabilities. 

Mordechai Vanunu, a technician who worked at Israel's nuclear 
reactor at Dimona, is serving 18 years in prison for giving 
pictures taken inside the reactor to The Sunday Times in 1986. 

Based on the photographs, nuclear experts said Israel had the 
world's sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. The CIA has 
estimated more recently that Israel has between 200 and 400 
nuclear weapons. 

All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
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 4  ENERGY DEPARTMENT BUDGET: Nevada spending may rise

  [Las Vegas Review-Journal] 
    
Saturday, April 21, 2001
 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal 
 
Yucca Mountain could get half of $747.2 million 

By STEVE TETREAULT 
DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU 

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department is proposing a 13 percent 
spending increase for its Nevada operations next year, boosting 
its budget for nuclear weapons programs and waste disposal but 
cutting alternative energy research. 

Budget figures show at least $747.2 million would be spent, 
mostly through the Nevada Operations Office, which manages 
programs at the Nevada Test Site, and for continued studies of a 
nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. 

Energy officials said their numbers for Nevada are close but not 
exact, since some small additional amounts for the state may be 
tucked in other budget line items. 

Almost half the Energy Department budget for the state, $365 
million, involves work at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of 
Las Vegas. Coupled with segments of the nuclear waste program 
being managed elsewhere, the government is seeking a 14 percent 
increase for the Yucca Mountain program. 

Spending to manage and test the nation's nuclear weapons 
stockpile, the main work focus at the Nevada Test Site, would 
grow by 15 percent, to $271.2 million. 

"It allows Nevada to maintain its levels of employment and allows 
us to continue ongoing programs, but does not provide for new 
initiatives," said Darwin Morgan, a department spokesman. 

The additional funding would boost Test Site capabilities to 
conduct subcritical experiments, designed to test weapons short 
of causing a nuclear chain reaction. 

The government plans to construct a concrete building to house 
the Atlas pulsed power machine that is being moved from Los 
Alamos, N.M. The Atlas, a circular, 80-foot diameter machine, 
will fire bursts of electron materials to simulate temperatures 
reached by nuclear weapons explosions. 

The budget also assumes another device used in subcriticals, the 
JASPER gas gun, will be nuclear-material operational during the 
year, Morgan said. 

Morgan said engineers also will complete a new shaft reaching 960 
feet below the surface to the main laboratories where subcritical 
tests are conducted. The shaft will enable more scientists to be 
ferried to the underground facility. 

Five subcritical experiments were conducted at the Test Site in 
2000 by teams from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the 
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Morgan said it is unknown 
yet how many may be conducted in the coming year. 

Troy Wade, a retired Energy Department assistant secretary who 
now heads the Nevada Alliance trade group of Test Site 
contractors, said a 15 percent increase in weapons spending in 
Nevada "is a good-sized chunk." 

"What's intriguing is this reflects something that is terribly 
important, which is a move towards more basic science at the Test 
Site," he said. 

Morgan said the work force for Energy Department activities in 
Southern Nevada is about 5,975, with 377 being federal workers 
and the remainder employed by contractors. 

While weapons programs will increase, spending on nuclear 
nonproliferation programs would be cut by 40 percent in Nevada, 
dropping from $6.7 million to $4 million. These include projects 
that help detect the spread of weapons by monitoring nuclear 
explosions, and programs that provide technical assistance to 
nuclear plant operators in the former Soviet Union. 

The department said spending nationwide on nonproliferation 
initiatives is being slowed to accommodate a review of Russian 
programs. 

Nevada research into developing hydrogen as a fuel also would be 
cut, by two-thirds from $2.5 million to about $800,000. 
Nationally, hydrogen research spending would be cut 48 percent, 
and research on other forms of alternative energy would be cut 
more than a third. 

The department's contribution to the NTS Development Corp., a 
nonprofit which seeks to lure private business to the Test Site, 
would be increased from $500,000 to $2 million, a spokesman said. 

About $3 million is allocated to the Western Area Power 
Administration, which markets electricity generated at Hoover 
Dam.
 
This story is located at: 
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Apr-21-Sat-2001/news/15924906.html
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 5  Committed - Chao reassures nuclear workers
 
The Paducah Sun
Paducah, Kentucky
Sunday, April 22, 2001

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao told ailing nuclear workers what they 
needed to hear last week when she declared that she was 
personally committed to seeing that they are compensated for 
job-related illnesses. 

Chao sparked controversy when she proposed transferring the 
program from the Department of Labor to the Justice Department or 
another federal agency. Last year Congress and the Clinton 
administration agreed that the Labor Department should handle 
claims from the program, which covers workers, former workers and 
their surviving families at federal nuclear facilities, including 
the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. 

A fear was that the bureaucratic infighting in the Bush 
administration signaled indifference to the compensation program 
and perhaps even a desire by budget officials to weaken it. 

Chao now says the Labor Department will administer the program. 
But, more important, she expresses strong support for the 
principle of fairness underlying it. 

"From the beginning, my only concern was for the workers," Chao 
told reporters. "They have been wronged by their government in 
their service to the country, and they deserve to be taken care 
of." 

The workers have been wronged by the government. That is exactly 
the point. Two years ago former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson 
acknowledged the federal government's responsibility for exposing 
workers in nuclear weapons plants to radioactive materials and 
hazardous chemicals without their knowledge. 

Since then U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning and First 
District Congressman Ed Whitfield have worked diligently to 
ensure the federal government makes good its promise to 
compensate workers for any harm they may have suffered as a 
result of exposure to dangerous substances. 

These officials and the leaders of the atomic workers' union 
pushed for the Labor Department to handle workers' claims because 
of the experience the agency has in administering other large 
compensation programs. 

At bottom, it doesn't matter which agency oversees the program as 
long as workers receive the consideration they deserve. However, 
the appearance is that the Labor Department, with its large staff 
and regional offices, is in a better position to process claims 
promptly than other agencies, especially the Justice Department, 
which does not have a good record of dispensing benefits in a 
small program for uranium miners the agency administers. 

Secretary Chao says her biggest concern was that the Labor 
Department would not be ready by the July 31 congressional 
deadline to accept applications for benefits. 

But she does acknowledge that prolonged controversy over the 
program would certainly not be good for the workers. 

It also needs saying that the Bush administration could face 
political consequences in Kentucky, Ohio and other states with 
nuclear facilities if the perception developed that it was not 
enthusiastic about helping ailing workers. 

Chao's strong statement of support for the compensation program 
should reassure plant workers that the administration is prepared 
to carry out the commitments made by Congress. 

Chao also showed her interest in the workers' views by taking the 
time to call David Fuller, the president of the union local that 
represents employees at Paducah's uranium enrichment plant, to 
inform him that the Labor Department would oversee the program. 

The labor secretary made a favorable impression on the program's 
supporters, although she indicated her agency won't be able to 
accept claims by July 31. A small delay shouldn't cause 
significant problems, but skeptical people here in Paducah will 
be waiting to see if Chao backs up her statements of support with 
action that gets the program up and running by early next year. 

Our sense is that she will prove to be an energetic supporter of 
the workers' right to fair compensation. 

    
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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: 
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml> 
    
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