***************************************************************** 02/23/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.50 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Radioactive waste bill will be put on hold, says Stephens 2 Groups Release Report on Nuclear Industry, Ecosystems 3 Nuclear Plants Turn Up the Heat on Endangered Creatures 4 Environmental groups gear up to oppose energy bills 5 Green Scissors 2001 Exposes Government Waste 6 Leak Is Plugged at Power Plant in Buchanan 7 N.Y. officials seek power hold at Indian Point nuke 8 Waste Not, Want Not: Lawmakers Target Company, Goshutes 9 Murkowski bill proposes series of electricity industry reforms 10 Eurotech's EKOR Makes U.S. Debut at Waste Management 2001 Symposium 11 DPP tries to calm demonstrators 12 DPP divided over plans for `consultative' referendum 13 Sea 'likely' Dounreay radiation source 14 BNFL's Sellafield woes linger 15 Sellafield safety improving says report 16 Nuclear safety watchdog okays Sellafield progress 17 Temelin truce is tested again 18 Nuclear waste import postponed 19 Ukrainian premier to discuss nuclear reactor project with European Bank 20 Russia Opens Nuclear Power Plant 21 Head of Slovak Nuclear Research Body Murdered 22 Knowles fights nuke waste plan NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Metro:SRS force celebrates heritage 2 Submarine Inquiry Delayed; U.S. Pledges Truth 3 U.S. questions hospital on nuclear mishap 4 US, Russia building bomb 100 times more powerful than hydrogen 5 CIA Suggests China Failing to Keep Iran Nuke Pledge 6 Moratorium sought on DU shell testing 7 Cover-up claim over uranium lost at sea 8 NATO's Medical Miracle: Depleted Uranium *Cures* Cancer 9 Labs have new guide on beryllium dangers 10 A MAN who claims his life was destroyed by depleted uranium 11 DU: NEW NATO MEMBERS 12 DEPLETED URANIUM : INDEPENDENT MEDICAL EXAMS LINK DEATH OF 13 Relative: Kursk Had Known Faults 14 Sneh: No uranium bombs used against civilians 15 Lab may give up nuclear license 16 Cancer Tied to Workplace Radiation 17 City officials, congressman concerned about possible cleanup delay 18 Sandia Labs craft radioactive traps ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Radioactive waste bill will be put on hold, says Stephens w w w . s t a n d a r d . n e t *Thursday, February 22, 2001* By RALPH WAKLEY Standard-Examiner Capitol Bureau SALT LAKE CITY -- Because people wishing to testify Wednesday on a controversial radioactive waste bill never got the chance, House Speaker Marty Stephens said he intends to keep the measure from coming up for a vote during the final week of the session. "That's a substantial issue," said Stephens, R-Farr West. Ensuring an opportunity for public comments on bills before the Legislature "is something we've consciously worked on." The bill sponsored by Rep. James Gowans, D-Tooele, would require that the state take title to 50 acres of the Envirocare landfill site in Tooele County. That site has been identified as the possible burial site for new classifications of radioactive waste Envirocare hopes to receive. Gowans' bill went before the House Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee on Wednesday, but time ran out before public witnesses were given an opportunity to comment. The committee, in its final meeting of the session, voted to advance the bill to the full House. "It's outrageous that they make decisions like this," said citizens advocate Claire Geddes of Utah Legislative Watch, because Envirocare representatives were allowed to discuss the proposal before the committee voted. "It's outrageous that the public doesn't even get to speak when the committee is only hearing from people who will benefit from this," Geddes said. Because the permit application has yet to be resolved, Stephens said, "No one sees any urgency in passing that bill" on the land ownership issue. "We're going to put that on hold." Envirocare now accepts so-called Class A waste, or low-level radioactive waste such as tailings from uranium mills. It wants to also receive more profitable Class B and Class C radioactive wastes, which are much more dangerous but do not include spent nuclear fuels. If the state takes title to the 50-acre site, within Envirocare's 640 acres in the western Utah desert, it would make it easier for the company to resolve permitting issues, Gowans said. Envirocare has asked the state Radiation Control Division for a permit for Class B and Class C wastes. A public hearing on that application is set for March 2. ***************************************************************** 2 Groups Release Report on Nuclear Industry, Ecosystems U.S. Newswire 22 Feb 10:00 New Report Shows Once-Through Nuclear Reactor Cooling Systems Devastate Marine Life, Ecosystems To: National Desk, Environment Reporter Contact: Linda Gunter of the Safe Energy Communication Council, 202-483-8491; Howard White of the Humane Society of the United States, 301-258-3072 WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A landmark report issued today by three nuclear watchdog groups and the nation's largest animal protection organization charges that the nuclear power industry, contrary to its environmentally friendly public relations image, has knowingly destroyed animals and delicate marine ecosystems, and has routinely killed endangered species over the past three decades due to the widespread use of an ecologically harmful cooling technology. The report, "Licensed to Kill: How the Nuclear Power Industry Destroys Endangered Marine Wildlife and Ocean Habitat to Save Money," further documents a lack of oversight by governmental regulatory agencies, particularly the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that may border on collusion. "Tragically, under the present regulatory system, the nuclear power industry's needs almost always prevail over the interests of marine life," said Scott Denman, executive director of the Safe Energy Communication Council (SECC). "Instead of applying sanctions when a nuclear plant kills more than its allotted quota of endangered species, NRC almost always supports industry attempts to raise the limits on the number of animals that can be killed or captured during reactor operation," Denman added. The Safe Energy Communication Council, Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), Standing for Truth about Radiation (STAR), and The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), are the four groups issuing "Licensed to Kill." "The nuclear power industry is essentially licensed to kill by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to accommodate company profit margins. Regulators are constantly pressured by the nuclear industry to stretch the rules and not enforce such laws as the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act," said Michael Mariotte, NIRS executive director. The report documents the nuclear power industry's use of the ecologically harmful, but relatively inexpensive once-through cooling technology responsible for devastating marine ecosystems from New England to California. Once-through cooling technology is used exclusively in 48 nuclear reactors with 11 additional reactors employing the technology in conjunction with cooling towers and canals. These reactors, situated on coastal waters, major rivers, and lakes can draw in as much as a billion gallons of water per reactor unit a day, nearly a million gallons a minute, in order to dissipate the extraordinary amounts of waste heat generated in the fission process. The initial devastation of marine life and ecosystems stems from the powerful intake of water into the nuclear reactor. Marine life, ranging from endangered sea turtles and manatees down to delicate fish larvae and microscopic planktonic organisms vital to the ocean ecosystem, is sucked irresistibly into the reactor cooling system, a process known as entrainment. Some of these animals are killed, either through impingement (animals are caught and trapped against filters, grates, and other reactor structures), or, in the case of air-breathing animals like turtles, seals, and manatees, drown or suffocate. "Nuclear power stations are routinely allowed to destroy alarming percentages of fish stocks and larvae entrained through cooling water intakes," said Bob Alvarez, executive director of the STAR Foundation, based on Long Island Sound. "In contrast, the commercial fishing industry must submit to strict regulatory standards including fines and license suspension for illegal takes." The report notes that an equally huge volume of wastewater is then discharged at temperatures up to 25 degrees F hotter than the water into which it flows. Indigenous marine life suited to colder temperatures is consequently eliminated or, in the case of endemic fish, forced to move, disrupting delicately balanced ecosystems. Moreover, the new, warmer ambient water temperatures often encourage warm-water species to colonize the artificially maintained warm-water zone. When the warm water flow is diminished or halted because of maintenance, cleaning, or repair work on the reactor, these species are often "cold-stunned;" many subsequently die of hypothermia. Species affected include endangered sea turtles, marine mammals, fish, and sea birds. In addition, the heated water is discharged with such force that surrounding seabeds are often scoured to bare rock, leaving a virtual marine desert bereft of life on the ocean floor. "Although responsible for enforcing compliance with intake and discharge permits at reactors under the terms of the Clean Water Act, the EPA has largely failed to establish national performance standards," said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watchdog Project at NIRS and a report author. "When faced with the opportunity to enforce "best available technology" standards, the EPA has buckled to industry pressure and left the marine environment to pay the price." Similarly, state water and wildlife authorities fall prey to nuclear industry pressure tactics and falsifications. In numerous incidents, nuclear utilities have falsified data and concealed and withheld information from environmental regulators that would have revealed the true extent of the environmental damages wrought by their reactor operations. In perhaps the most egregious example, the California utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), for many years, provided state water authorities with skewed data that omitted known marine damage by its Diablo Canyon reactors. PG&E claimed that the plant's intake and discharge of billions of gallons of seawater a day did little harm to the surrounding marine community. In reality, the plant's operation had devastated marine ecosystems for miles up and down the coast and was responsible for the near obliteration of already threatened black and red abalone populations in the area. Finally threatened with legal action by regulators, PG&E nevertheless managed to undermine the state's cease-and-desist order by promising to outspend the authorities on legal appeals, effectively tying up any lawsuit in litigation for years. State authorities backed down from stopping the damaging thermal discharge and agreed to a settlement that includes a cash amount of just $4.5 million and other half-measures that will allow the PG&E and Diablo Canyon to continue its business-as-usual practices to the detriment of the marine environment. "The nuclear industry plans to roll back environmental protections to create a new bottom line," said Linda Gunter, SECC Communications director, one of the report's authors. "The industry cries poverty when asked to install less destructive systems and again when told to mitigate the environmental damage," continued Gunter. "While nuclear utilities advertise themselves as environmentally friendly, in reality they are sacrificing the marine environment and its inhabitants on the altar of company profits." The list of once-through nuclear reactors in the United States includes the Diablo Canyon and San Onofre complexes in California, which supply 20 percent of the total electricity to the strained California power grid; Millstone in Waterford, CT; Crystal River and the St. Lucie in Florida; Calvert Cliffs in Maryland; and Seabrook in New Hampshire. ------ For more information or to download the full Licensed to Kill report, contact the Safe Energy Communication Council (STAR) at http://www.safeenergy.org; Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) at http://www.nirs.org; or Standing for Truth About Radiation (STAR) at http://www.noradiation.org. Copyright 2001, U.S. Newswire ***************************************************************** 3 Nuclear Plants Turn Up the Heat on Endangered Creatures Environment News Service: WASHINGTON, DC, February 22, 2001 (ENS) - A endangered brown pelican was found dead this morning by workers at the San Onofre nuclear plant on the California coast. The bird's death points up claims made today by a coalition of environmental groups in Washington, DC that the nuclear industry and the federal agencies that regulate it are allowing endangered aquatic animals and birds to perish rather than safeguarding them. "Licensed to Kill" was issued today by Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Safe Energy Communication Council and Standing for Truth About Radiation in partnership with the Humane Society of the United States. [San Onofre] The San Onofre nuclear plant, five miles east of San Clemente, California, is located on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base. It is operated by Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas &Electric. (Photo courtesy Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)) It is based on 18 months of research on the effect of a particular system of cooling the steam used to produce power at nuclear reactors. Speaking at a news briefing to introduce the report at the National Press Club in Washington, Scott Denman of the Safe Energy Communication Council said, "it exposes the collusion of state and federal regulators that allow this preventable damage to continue." All nuclear power plants use steam to spin turbines that produce electricity. For every unit of electrical energy produced, three units of thermal energy are also produced, so vast amounts of excess heat have to be dealt with by the reactor operators. Nuclear plants are built near large bodies of water because this is the cheapest way to discharge excess heat. The environmental groups' case turns on the difference in impact between two methods of cooling the steam. One method, used by 59 of the 103 nuclear power plants in the United States, is known as "once through cooling," according to David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. By this method, the cooling water is heated up about 30 degrees by the steam and then returned to the ocean or lake adjacent to the nuclear reactor. The St. Lucie nuclear plant in Florida, for instance, uses one million gallons a minute for once through cooling. Many endangered marine creatures such as sea turtles and manatees are killed due to overheated water or crushed in the water intake mechanism. But if cooling towers are employed instead, air is added to the water used to cool the steam. Lochbaum says cooling towers take only one-tenth the amount of water used by the once through cooling method. [St. Lucie] St. Lucie nuclear power plant, operated by Florida Power &Light Co., is 12 miles southeast of Fort Pierce, Florida on the Atlantic Ocean. It uses the once through cooling system. (Photo courtesy NRC) Linda Gunter, one of the report's lead authors, said in a video shown to reporters today that in one year Florida's St. Lucie nuclear power plant captured 933 sea turtles which drowned in the plant's water intake system. "Thousands of marine animals, sea turtles and manatees are sucked through the intake pipe into a channel where they are supposed to be netted and saved, but they are not," she said. Instead of saving wildlife, bars and screens on the intake systems of nuclear plants cause aquatic wildlife to die when they get impaled on the metal parts and killed, the investigators found. In support of its case, the groups presented a statement by Dr. Rimmon Fay, who served for 13 years on the California Coastal Commission both at the state and regional levels. A scuba diver since 1946, Dr. Fay looked at the impacts of the three units at the San Onofre nuclear facility and the two units of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant on the California coast. "In each case," he said, "adverse impacts on the environment have been greater than predicted and are expanding in magnitude." [Diablo] Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant (Photo courtesy NRC) "Areas of marine desert now line the shore adjacent to the nuclear generating stations," Dr. Fay stated. For cooling, the nuclear plants take in a volume of sea water one square mile in area to depth of 14 feet each day, "a daily flow greater than most rivers," he said. Many fish, marine mammals and birds that were sucked in through the intake mechanism of the nuclear plants are scalded and pulverized and their bodies are spewed out when the cooling water is released back into the ocean or lake from which it came. This increases the sediment on the sea floor, decreases of penetration of light through the water column, and decreases the number of animals in the area. Up to 90 percent of this destruction could be prevented by requiring that nuclear plants use cooling towers and prohibiting pass through cooling, Dr. Fay said. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defends its record of wildlife protection. Last October, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Richard Meserve toured the Salem nuclear power plant in New Jersey. Many environmentalists in southern New Jersey have called for the Salem units to be shut down because they draw water from the Delaware River harming fish and wildlife. "We wouldn't allow them to continue to operate if we had any doubt as to whether they were ones that were providing adequate protection of the public health and safety," Meserve told the "Bergen Record" newspaper at the time. Some operators of nuclear plants are paying attention to the safety of marine mammals. Starting in 1993, Seabrook Station on the Atlantic shore in southeastern New Hampshire observed and reported to the National Marine Fisheries Service the entrapment of seal remains in the plant's cooling water system. Seabrook's cooling system extends three miles from the plant out into the Atlantic Ocean. [bars] Seal exclusion bars installed by the Seabrook nuclear power plant (Photo courtesy Seabrook Station) Working with marine experts from across the country and the New England Aquarium in Boston, 72 metal panels were attached to the plant's existing intake structures reducing the bar spacing to about four inches. "Completed in 1999, the seal barriers have been successful at keeping even the most curious of seals out of our tunnels," the management says in a statement on its website. "It's not like we want to go out and capture animals intentionally," Kevin Herbinson, senior research scientist at Southern California Edison, told the "Sacramento Bee" newspaper in 1997. Southern California Edison runs the San Onofre nuclear power plant and other plants that have drawn in marine mammals. "If we could not ever see another one, we'd be more than happy," he said. But Eric Glitzenstein, a lawyer with 20 years experience in litigating environmental issues told reporters in Washington today of his concern that fundamental violations of the law are "likely" going on. "This report documents a disturbing and clear breakdown in the legal process designed to protect endangered species, especially sea turtles. The National Marine Fisheries Service, which is supposed to enforce the law, has capitulated to nuclear utilities demands when they exceed previously allowed take level of these animals," he said. The environmental groups say the new report serves notice to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and National Marine Fisheries Service that they must enforce the laws. "Harm done to endangered species at reactors must be measured as a cumulative effect," said Gunther. "We urge that existing environmental protection laws be enforced, not worked around, rolled back and ignored," she said. © Environment News Service ***************************************************************** 4 Environmental groups gear up to oppose energy bills KnoxNews.com - News - Latest Washington News *By RYAN ALESSI* *Scripps Howard News Service* *February 22, 2001* WASHINGTON - Skyrocketing heating bills and high prices at the gas pumps have made energy issues a hot topic for American consumers. But even as members of Congress begin drafting a policy to stabilize the nation's power sources, some environmental and taxpayer watchdog groups warn that proposed solutions could be a waste of tax dollars. Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, is expected to introduce an omnibus energy package next week that includes tax exemptions, incentives and government funded programs for nearly every segment of the energy industry. Those provisions, which will come under the Senate Finance Committee's scrutiny over the next several months, total more than $26 billion. The Green Scissors Campaign, a coalition of environmental and taxpayer groups, says Murkowski's plan would dump billions of dollars into superfluous programs. "They're just writing another blank check to the industry, and that will not bring us energy security," said Erich Pica, director of the Green Scissors Campaign. The campaign targeted more than $55 billion of proposed government programs as wasteful and harmful to the environment. About half that total is energy related. Most energy tax credits and incentives are aimed at technology research and production incentives for the nuclear, coal and petroleum industries, which combine to serve 70 percent of U.S. energy demands. The Green Scissors report questioned why established industries need financial help. The group argues that many programs duplicate ongoing efforts, and the tax credits and incentives encourage industries that harm the environment. Among the key battle points: - Two bills - Murkowski's and a clean coal bill from Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V. - would funnel an estimated $325 million to coal-fired power plants for the Clean Coal Technology Program. Jack Gerard, president of the National Mining Association, said the money allows power plants to install efficient technology that the industry has spent years developing. "We've spent money in the past to develop these clean coal technologies," he said. "What we need to do now is provide an incentive to take this technology that's been proven and apply it." Anna Aurilio, legislative director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said "efficient" technology does not mean cleaner burning coal. The Murkowski bill does not say the technology must cut down on air pollution, but describes the technology as more efficient systems that use less coal. "Basically, it helps their bottom line but doesn't make a bit of difference in air quality," she said. - The Green Scissors Campaign proposed cutting petroleum tax provisions, noting that big companies like Exxon-Mobil, Texaco and Chevron had record profits last year and contending they don't need government incentives and tax credits. The petroleum industry argues that the money mostly would help smaller, start-up companies compete with "big oil." "It would basically encourage some of these small, mom-and-pop operators to keep those wells going," said Red Caveney, president of the American Petroleum Institute. "Because once they shut down, the likelihood of keeping those wells in business is very low." - Finally, the Green Scissors groups targeted the nuclear industry, which it claims continues to be unsafe and remains the biggest recipient of government dollars for energy. Environmentalists are fighting a proposed storage system for radioactive waste in Yucca Mountain, Nev. They oppose the Price-Anderson Act, which caps nuclear power plants' liability for an accident at $9.4 million - making taxpayers foot the rest of the bill. And they argue that the billions proposed for nuclear research should be paid for by established companies in the 50-year-old industry. On the other hand, Angela Howard, of the Nuclear Energy Institute, says the Yucca Mountain site has been studied for 12 years and appears poised for approval. She says nuclear plants generate 20 percent of the country's electricity, do not emit harmful gases like coal and oil plants, and therefore deserve "economic recognition." (Contact Ryan Alessi at AlessiR(at)shns.com or http:\\www.shns.com. [E.W. Scripps] Copyright © 2000 Scripps Howard News Service Copyright © 1999-2000, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 Green Scissors 2001 Exposes Government Waste U.S. Newswire 22 Feb 15:28 Green Scissors 2001 Exposes $55 Billion In Wasteful Federal Spending That Harms The Environment To: National Desk Contacts: Mark Helm of Friends of the Earth, 202-783-7400, ext. 102 Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, 202-546-8500, ext. 110 Liz Hitchcock of U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 202-546-9707 WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- As the Bush Administration prepares to make tough choices on spending and tax cuts with the release of its budget, a coalition of environmental, taxpayer and consumer groups today released a new report detailing 74 federal programs whose elimination could protect the environment and save taxpayers $55 billion. "President Bush wants to give taxpayers a break -- well, here's a $55 billion start that also protects the environment," said Erich Pica, Director of the Green Scissors Campaign at Friends of the Earth. "This is the President's opportunity to take green scissors to the federal budget." The Green Scissors 2001 report, endorsed by more than 24 organizations, highlights programs that taxpayer, environmental and consumer organizations agree should be cut. Green Scissors 2001 highlights ten "Choice Cuts" which are particularly vulnerable to congressional actions as well as nine new programs that hurt the environment and waste taxpayer dollars. The full list of recommended cuts ranges from money losing timber sales to coal industry subsidies. "These subsidies only fatten the wallets of corporate interests," said Cena Swisher Program Director at Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Why are policymakers asking taxpayers to give more of their hard-earned dollars to industries that are seeing record profits?" Senate Republicans are planning to introduce the National Energy Security Act of 2001 in the next two weeks. Supported by the Bush Administration, this bill is a wish list for the nation's largest polluting industries. If enacted, the bill would give new handouts to the oil, coal, gas and nuclear power industries to destroy our natural resources. The bill would deepen our dependence on fossil fuels, worsen air quality, exacerbate global warming and degrade national treasures like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and western lands -- all at taxpayer expense. Democrats are backing similar legislation. Senator Byrd (D-W.Va.) has already introduced a bill that would expand taxpayer subsidies and exemptions from environmental protections for coal facilities. "We've already poured billions of dollars into the pockets of mature energy industries at the expense of clean air and a healthy environment," said Lexi Shultz, a staff attorney for U.S. PIRG. "It's time we stopped wasting taxpayer money on dirty, ineffective coal, oil and nuclear programs." Over the past seven years, the Green Scissors campaign has cut $24 billion in wasteful, environmentally harmful spending programs. In 2000, the coalition successfully fought to force the film industry to pay market-based fees on public lands and oil royalty reforms saving taxpayer $330 million over five years. The Green Scissors 2001 report targets ten "Choice Cuts" and highlights nine issues that are new to the report. The report's "Choice Cuts" are programs that Congress will probably act upon in the coming year or that are most in need of reform. Green Scissors 2001's "Choice Cuts" include: -- 1872 Mining Law Reform Requiring hard-rock mining companies to pay an eight percent royalty and to post adequate bonds for mining reclamation would raise $481 million over five years. -- "Clean Coal" Technology Program Expediting the termination of the CCTP by stopping projects for which construction has not started or will not start for several years would save at least $325 million over five years. -- Crop Insurance Lowering the reimbursement rate to private insurance companies and charging different rates based on varying risks. -- Low Frequency Active Sonar Terminating this U.S. Navy program, which threatens to harm marine mammals in 80 percent of the world's oceans. -- National Ignition Facility Canceling this over-budget nuclear weapons project would save taxpayers $10 billion over the lifetime of the project. -- Partnership for a New Generation Vehicle Cutting this program would end a research subsidy to the "Big 3" automakers that is encouraging the production of polluting diesel powered vehicles. Eliminating this program would save taxpayers $1.1 billion over five years. -- Petroleum Research and Development Eliminating the petroleum and diesel research programs, which benefits large, profitable fossil fuel and auto companies, would save $1.6 billion and reduce subsidies that encourage global warming. -- Sugar Program Eliminating the sugar import limitations, non-recourse loan program and the taxpayer funded buy-back program would save both taxpayers and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars and help to protect fragile ecosystems like the Everglades. -- Timber Sales Requiring the Forest Service to stop subsidizing timber industry clearcuts in our national forests would save $1.65 billion over five years and stop promoting the destruction of our nation's forests. -- Upper Mississippi Lock Expansion Denying funding for expansion of the locks on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers would save taxpayers more than $1.2 billion. Additions to the Green Scissors report this year include: -- Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Navigation Decommission an $100 million underused waterway running through Alabama, Florida and Georgia. -- Beach Renourishment Decrease federal subsidies to beach front communities for beach pumping. -- Clahoun/Claredon Causeway Cancel the $75 million causeway being built in South Carolina. -- Delaware River Deepening Deny funding for a $224 million dredging project which benefits oil refineries in Philadelphia. -- Export-Import Bank of the US: Fossil Fuel and Mining Investments Cut $242 million subsidies used to make and guarantees loans for fossil fuel and mining investments. -- Land Exchanges Prohibits Federal land swaps which cost used to consolidate federal inholdings. -- Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency Eliminate this World Bank agency which provided risk insurance to private corporations and banks, saving $16 million. -- New Orleans Industrial Canal Deny funding for this Army Corps of Engineers deepening project saving $532 million. -- Price-Anderson Act Repeal the act which caps the amount of liability nuclear power plants have if a nuclear accident takes place. ------ The report is being released in 26 states locations nationwide by local Green Scissors coalitions that provide grassroots support for the recommendations throughout the year. For a copy of the report, contact Erich Pica at 202-783-7400, ext. 229, or visit http://www.greenscissors.org. Copyright 2001, U.S. Newswire ***************************************************************** 6 Leak Is Plugged at Power Plant in Buchanan February 23, 2001 By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD [W] HITE PLAINS, Feb. 22 — A minor, nonradioactive leak at the Indian Point 2 nuclear plant has been repaired, but the plant will not resume full power for at least another day while technicians complete what officials describe as unrelated preventive maintenance. Con Edison officials said workers finished installing a metal plug today to patch a pinhole-size leak noticed Monday in a water pipe that had forced the utility to reduce the plant's output to 50 percent of its nearly 1,000-megawatt capacity. The leak sprang from a pipe on a discharge line that, while not involving radioactive water, did carry superheated water that could have badly burned workers if the seepage had grown worse, officials said. Workers plugged the hole, tested the pipe and "now it is working the way it is supposed to," said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But the plant, in Buchanan, 35 miles north of Manhattan, will remain at half power while workers upgrade the electronics that help control one of two pumps that feed water into the steam generators. Officials at Con Edison and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission both described the work as routine maintenance that did not raise any concerns for safety. Michael Clendenin, a spokesman for Con Edison, said the work was expected to be completed tonight or Friday. The plant will return to full power shortly thereafter, he said. The plant has sustained a series of minor leaks and other problems since early January, when workers began restoring it to operation nearly a year after it was shut down because of a radioactive leak last February. The plant resumed full power Jan. 28. The accident last February did not result in any injuries, and no radioactivity escaped into the air. But it brought renewed, sometimes harsh, focus on the plant — from residents, public officials, regulators and environmentalists — that continued even today. Two environmental groups, the Citizens Awareness Network and Environmental Advocates, filed a request with the state's Public Service Commission to suspend its review of the transfer of the plant's license to the Entergy Corporation, which is buying the plant from Con Edison. Con Ed expects to complete the sale in May or June. The groups said the Public Service Commission should not proceed until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission completed its review of the groups' petition to revoke the plant's license because of what they consider chronic mismanagement and poor maintenance. David Flanagan, a spokesman for the Public Service Commission, said the petition would be referred to an administrative law judge. Mr. Clendenin said, "We think the filing has no basis, and there is no reason to delay the transfer of the license." Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 7 N.Y. officials seek power hold at Indian Point nuke [Reuters] Tuesday February 20, 4:59 pm Eastern Time NEW YORK, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Following another leak at Consolidated Edison Inc.'s (NYSE:ED - news) Indian Point 2 nuclear unit in New York, local politicians again urged the company to stop powering the reactor back up. On Monday, Con Ed cut power at Indian Point 2 to 50 percent due to a pinhole size leak in one of its feedwater pumps on the non-nuclear side of the plant. A spokesman at Con Edison said on Tuesday the company was evaluating the problem to figure out how best to fix it. He stressed the leak was on the non-nuclear side of the plant. Indian Point 2 has been the subject of intense public scrutiny since last February when a small amount of radioactive water escaped from a cracked tube into the atmosphere. Even though the incident, the worst in the plant's 28-year history, caused no safety or environmental damage, it raised deep-seated fears about the safety of nuclear generation. The 965-megawatt (MW) Indian Point 2, which provides enough electricity for nearly one million average homes, is located in Buchanan, N.Y. on the shores of the Hudson River about 35 miles north of New York City. U.S. Representative Sue Kelly (D-NY) said she asked Con Ed and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to keep the plant at 50 percent power until the data from the NRC's recent January inspection was reviewed and presented to the public. ``The entire restart process has been plagued by problem after problem,'' said Kelly in a statement, referring to two small leaks that occurred in January 2001 when Con Ed restarted the plant following the February 2000 outage. ``There is no need to rush to get the plant back to 100 percent power,'' Kelly said. Since the February outage, the NRC, which monitors the nation's nuclear rea?DuDu?inspectors to closely monitor Con Ed's activities at the plant. The NRC team, which completed its comprehensive review in January 2001, will issue its preliminary findings at a public meeting on Friday, March 2 in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. The formal report will be issued several weeks later. ``We don't see any reason to force the plant to hold at reduced power for a number of weeks until that hearing,'' NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan told Reuters. ``We did a great deal of inspection before the plant was allowed to go back on line,'' Sheehan said. ``We found it to be in safe operating order. There was no reason to prevent them (Con Ed) from going back to full power.'' In response to questions about the most recent leak on Monday, Sheehan said, ``It appears they (Con Ed) are taking the proper steps. They have reduced power and will try to fix this. And then, they will go back to full power.'' ``We're following this very closely. We have inspectors who are keeping close tabs on the situation, but, so far, we've seen nothing to warrant us to issue an order or take some other step to stop the plant from returning to full power once they've addressed this problem,'' Sheehan said. In November 2001, Entergy Nuclear, a unit of Entergy Corp. (NYSE:ETR - news) of New Orleans, agreed to buy Indian Point 2 in a deal expected to close by the middle of 2001. Entergy Nuclear already owns the adjacent 970-MW Indian Point 3 unit. Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Waste Not, Want Not: Lawmakers Target Company, Goshutes The Salt Lake Tribune -- Thursday, February 22, 2001* BY DAN HARRIE Don't dump on us. That was the battle cry in the Senate on Tuesday as members overwhelmingly approved a trio of bills intended to block a proposed nuclear-waste repository about 45 miles west of Salt Lake City. The three pieces of legislation were the brainchild of Gov. Mike Leavitt, who has vowed to use every means available to keep highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods out of the state. That's no easy matter given the proposed facility's location on land of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes, a sovereign nation. Senate Bills 81, 198 and 199 are the state government's latest salvo at the project pushed by the Goshutes and Private Fuel Storage (PFS), a consortium of eight utilities in the East and California. SB81 is the centerpiece of the anti-nukes strategy. It bans high-level radioactive waste from the state. As a backup should the federal government override the state prohibition, the bill would require an estimated $150 billion in upfront cash from PFS. It would also impose a 75 percent tax on any individual or company providing goods or services to the project. And it would bar Tooele County from providing police and fire protection or other municipal services to the facility. SB198 appropriates $1.6 million in public monies to fund a legal fight against the project, and SB199 would allocate $2 million for economic development initiatives for the Goshutes, many of whom live in poverty. "We have tried to find everything that we could possibly find to stop this from coming in, and we have put it in nice handy bill form," said sponsoring Republican Sen. Terry Spencer, of Layton. The bills all are a way of telling out-of-state utilities: "We don't want your garbage here," said Spencer. "I don't want to see garbage coming from Massachusetts or Minnesota or other places." Now headed to the House, the trio of bills appear greased and they will certainly be signed by Leavitt. Opponents complain that little attention is being given to what they say are clearly unconstitutional provisions, or to the steps required to ensure the safety of the project. "We knew that it was going to be a political monster," said Leon Bear, chairman of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes. A handful of senators sided with the tribe and PFS. ***************************************************************** 9 Murkowski bill proposes series of electricity industry reforms Oil Journal Online - petroleum, energy news; J.E. Williams Services Electric Power By the OGJ Online Staff HOUSTON, Feb. 23—Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alas.), the Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman, plans to introduce legislation Monday to reduce imported US oil dependency from the current 56% to less than 50% by 2011. Much of the legislation deals with electric power issues. The legislation is expected to influence the energy policy program that President George W. Bush's administration is preparing. Vice-Pres. Dick Cheney is heading a cabinet task force drafting that plan. Most of Murkowski's bill will be referred to his committee, but key portions of it will go to the finance and environment committees. The Senate failed to act on a similar Murkowski bill last session. A draft of Murkowski's bill was circulated on Capitol Hill last week, and includes numerous provisions dealing with electricity: • The bill creates an industry-run organization overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that sets enforceable rules for the interstate transmission grid. The measure is very similar to the bill passed unanimously by the Senate last year. Changes were made to the Senate-passed bill to incorporate subsequent consensus agreements. • The bill prospectively repeals the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act requirement that utilities purchase power at full avoided cost. It does not affect existing power purchase arrangements. • The measure allows electric utilities to diversify without running afoul of Public Utility Holding Act restrictions. The language is the same as that reported by the Senate Banking Committee in the 106th Congress. • It clarifies that action to continue or expand operation of emission-free electricity sources should be recognized under the state implementation plan as control measures, providing access to existing and future economic incentive programs that prevent and control air emissions. • It amends the Federal Power Act to change the process used by the FERC to issue licenses and license renewals for hydroelectric facilities. It creates a new Sec. 32 of the Federal Power Act which would require federal agency participants to consider and document economic impact when setting conditions for licensing or license renewal. It ensures any such conditions are limited to those that directly address environmental considerations at the lowest possible cost. It requires scientific review of proposed conditions and the opportunity for expedited administrative review of conditions if desired by the applicant. And it sets a 1-year deadline by which a consulting agency must file proposed licensing conditions with the FERC. • The bill creates a new Sec. 33 of the Federal Power Act, which confirms the FERC's lead agency role in environmental reviews of hydroelectric projects, and sets limits on environmental reviews conducted by consulting agencies. It requires FERC to set deadlines on opportunities for input on environmental reviews by federal, state, and local agencies. It requires FERC to investigate the feasibility of a separate licensing procedure for small hydroelectric projects, and report to Congress. FERC must define the term "small hydroelectric project" to include all projects with generating capacity of 5 Mw or less. • The bill allows a 10% tax credit for expenses incurred from installation on coal-fired power plants of emission control systems for one or more air pollutants. Creditable expenses are limited to the first $100 million spent at each existing power plant. • It provides a tax credit of $0.0034¢/kw-hr for production of electricity from a coal-fired power plant converted from conventional to clean coal technology. It allows a 10% tax credit for qualified expenses towards the construction of a new power plant using advanced clean coal technology, or the retrofitting and repowering of an existing conventional power plant with new advanced clean coal technology. Those facilities would be exempted from New Source Review under the Clean Air Act and from emissions control requirements for 10 years after the date when first placed in service. It provides a variable tax credit of $0.0005-$0.0120¢/kw-hr for production of electricity from a coal-fired power plant using advanced clean coal technology. • It reclassifies electric power generation facilities and transmission infrastructure as eligible for 7-year depreciation to foster investment in new electric power supply. • It establishes a 10% investment tax credit for purchase of distributed power (fuel cells, micro-turbines, wind, solar). It allows a15% tax credit, to a maximum of $2,000, for installation of residential solar and wind energy equipment. Tax credits would be reduced by amounts funded by federal, state, or local grant programs • The bill modifies existing tax credits for electric vehicles to vary between $4,250 and $42,500, depending on gross vehicle weight and performance characteristics. • It extends the existing tax credit for production of electricity from renewable resources to include almost all biomass and agricultural waste, wood waste, municipal solid waste, landfill gas, geothermal, incremental hydropower, and steel cogeneration. It extends the credit for all qualified resources (including wind) to 2011. • The bill would expand the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to $3 billion/year from $2 billion. It increases authorized emergency funds to $1 billion/year from $600 million/year. It also enlarges the Weatherization Assistance program which provides grants to low-income households to improve energy efficiency. State conservation programs would be given the goal of reducing energy use by 25% by 2010 compared to 1990 usage. Nuclear programs The bill directs funding of the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) program at $60 million to continue funding for existing projects as well as new awards to address barriers to expanded use of nuclear energy. It would implement follow-on R on advanced reactor concepts and fuel technology for earlier NERI projects that have completed the initial phase of research and judged to have high potential for success. It would fund the Nuclear Energy Plant Optimization program at $10 million to continue public/private cost-shared R to manage the long-term effects of plant aging and improve reliability and productivity of the nation's 103 operating nuclear power plants. The bill said at $10 million/year, most critical R can be completed in 7 years, enabling the program to end. It would fund the Nuclear Energy Technology Development program at $25 million to complete Generation IV activities and to develop an R roadmap that will guide development of advanced reactor designs. It authorizes $50 million/year for FY 2001-2015 to increase emissions-free generation at existing nuclear reactors by making incentive payments of one mill/kw-hr produced in excess of the previous year. Payments would be capped at $2 million/plant/year, for up to 15 years. It authorizes $20 million/year to encourage existing nuclear reactors to make capital improvements directly related to improving efficiency of such facilities by at least 1%. Payments would be capped at 10% of the cost of improvement and no single facility could receive more than $1 million for improvements. Electric power studies The Interior Department and Army Corps of Engineers would study all dams and impoundments for additional hydroelectric production and report to Congress within 6 months. The study would look at efficiencies, cost reductions, and other improvements, including lease of power privilege. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission must report within 6 months on the state of the nuclear industry, the potential for increased generation and production, and any improvements in licensing process. And the Energy Department (DOE) must report annually on the availability and capacity of domestic generation to maintain the electricity grid, with evaluation of each region of the country on grid stability during peak periods. The study will propose actions to improve baseload generation and options to increase use of nonemitting sources and conservation. DOE must report to Congress within 9 months on innovative financing techniques to encourage new electricity generation technologies. The Energy Department must establish R cost and performance goals that can be achieved by 2007, 2015, and 2020 by existing and new coal-based generating facilities. DOE would conduct a program of research and development, demonstration, and commercial applications of coal based technologies. It also would conduct a power plant improvement initiative that will demonstrate commercial applications to new and existing plants of coal-based technologies that will advance the efficiency, environmental performance, and cost competitiveness beyond that of facilities in service or demonstrated to date. Other reports Federal agencies would have to inform the Energy Secretary prior to taking any action that could have a significant adverse effect on the supply or distribution of energy. DOE would prepare an annual report on all such actions, what mitigation was undertaken, and the short-, mid-, and long-term effects. DOE would issue an annual report on US progress toward less than 50% dependence by 2011, with recommendations on use of renewable energy, conservation, and increased production to meet goals Each federal agency issuing rights-of-way for transmission lines or pipelines would report to FERC and DOE within 1 year on the ability of existing corridors to support new or additional capacity. FERC would report to Congress in 6 months on additional legislation it needs to certify gas pipelines. DOE and FERC would establish a task force to expedite and facilitate environmental review and permitting of interstate gas pipelines. The Transportation Department would develop an R program to ensure integrity of natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines. DOE would launch a 5-year program of R to improve reliability, efficiency, and integrity of gas transportation and distribution pipelines. ***************************************************************** 10 Eurotech's EKOR Makes U.S. Debut at Waste Management 2001 Symposium Thursday February 22, 2:14 pm Eastern Time Press Release *SOURCE: EUROTECH Ltd.* FAIRFAX, Va., Feb. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- EUROTECH Ltd. (Amex: EUO- news) announces that representatives from Eurotech will be participating at the Waste Management 2001 Symposium (WM'01), February 25 - March 1 in Tucson, Arizona to introduce the radiation-resistant EKOR to the nuclear waste managers attending from around the world. Paul Childress, General Manager of Eurotech's Nuclear and Environmental Division will discuss the use of EKOR to stabilize fuel-containing materials at Chernobyl. He will outline the EKOR project at Chernobyl; the extensive testing performed in Russia, and the successful application of EKOR for both encapsulation and contaminated surface stabilization. Also at WM'01, Mr. Stan Reid, Business Analyst for Eurotech's Nuclear and Environmental Business Unit, will conduct a poster session detailing the superior features of EKOR, including EKOR's high radiation resistance, performance in corrosive environments, and excellent adherence and barrier properties. The poster session will also highlight EKOR's flexibility in application and formulation, and its waste volume reduction benefits. Mr. Reid will emphasize how these properties may be useful to nuclear waste managers across the broad spectrum of applications in the multi-billion dollar U.S. nuclear waste containment market. There will be over 2,000 decision makers from corporations and government procurement agencies attending in Tucson to focus on the global safe management of nuclear waste. The 27th annual technical conference is organized in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy and the International Atomic Energy Agency. In a statement related to EKOR's progress, Eurotech's Chairman, Chad A. Verdi, reiterated that the company remains confident that contracts will come in the first quarter of 2001. He also stated the company will soon release a 5-year revenue forecast for EKOR and will use the company's website to keep its shareholder informed as business activity levels increase. EUROTECH, Ltd. works with scientists and research institutes in Russia, Israel and other countries to develop and commercialize innovative technologies that have widespread or critical application. For more information, visit www.eurotechltd.comon the Internet. Certain information and statements included in this release constitute ``forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of the Federal Privates Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. CONTACT: investors, Dawn Van Zant of ECON Investors Relations Inc., 800-665-0411, or dvanzant@investorideas.com, for EUROTECH Ltd. *SOURCE: EUROTECH Ltd.* Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy ***************************************************************** 11 DPP tries to calm demonstrators The Taipei Times Online: 2001-02-23 Friday, February 23rd, 2001 By Chiu Yu-Tzu STAFF REPORTER DPP officials are working hard to mollify anti-nuclear activists ahead of a demonstration against nuclear power to be held tomorrow in central Taipei. Yesterday Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (±i«T¶¯) paid a visit to an exhibition of photographs, organized by anti-nuclear activists, of the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Meanwhile, DPP headquarters is considering how to deal with the growing voices of opposition to the party's involvement in the 224 Anti-nuclear Demonstration (¤G¤G¥|¤Ï®Ö¤j¹C¦æ) to be held tomorrow. Since Chang agreed with the Legislative Yuan's demand that it resume construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (®Ö¥|), activists have condemned President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó) and the DPP for their inconsistency on the issue. During Chang's visit to the exhibition, he tried to explain the government's decision to resume construction of the plant. "We still have to make more effort to build a nuclear-free country," Chang said. "The reality of the political situation might have prevented us from approaching the short-term goal," Chang said, "but we will still stick to our goal of ultimately building a nuclear-free country." At the protest tomorrow activists plan to encourage DPP supporters to exchange A-bian (ªü«ó) campaign caps for T-shirts with slogans saying "Referendum on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant" (®Ö¥|¤½§ë) and "The People Decide" (¤H¥Á§@¥D). The exchange is aimed at encouraging anti-nuclear DPP supporters to abandon their hero-worship of the president. Afraid that the demonstration may turn into a mass movement against Chen, DPP chapters have mobilized party members nationwide to join the demonstration, under the guise of supporting the referendum law. Party members may also help to counterbalance those demonstrators who wish to protest the performance of the government. According to activists, the DPP has been involved with preparations for the demonstration, taking part in strategy meetings held by the event's organizers. The DPP's involvement, however, has irritated anti-nuclear students. A group of about 50 students from several different universities is scheduled to burn the DPP party flag in front of the party's national headquarters today to express their disappointment. "We don't think that the DPP, a party that has betrayed its own party platform against nuclear energy, is qualified to join the 224 Anti-nuclear Demonstration," Chu Wei-li (¦¶ºû¥ß), spokesperson for the students, said yesterday. Lee said that most students had once looked forward to the prospect of the DPP governing the country, but they had been disappointed by the party's failure to halt the fourth nuclear plant. Lee Wen-ying (§õ¤å­^) of the DPP's department of social development said yesterday that the students seemed to have lost their bearings. "They should be targeting the opposition parties rather than the DPP. We are still sticking to our anti-nuclear platform and we are calling for a referendum on the nuclear issue," Lee said. This story has been viewed 295 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/02/23/story/0000074837] Copyright © 1999-2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 DPP divided over plans for `consultative' referendum The Taipei Times Online: 2001-02-23 Friday, February 23rd, 2001 DEAL BREAKER: The ruling party is split between some who say the proposed plebescite is unwise or illegal, and those who charge an about-face would breach an earlier agreement made with the Executive Yuan By Stephanie Low STAFF REPORTER A proposal to hold a non-legally binding "consultative" referendum at the end of this year on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (®Ö¥|¤½§ë) issue led to discord among DPP members yesterday. Chou Po-lun (©P§B­Û), convener of the DPP caucus in the legislature, accused colleagues -- who have over the past few days openly expressed their disapproval of the idea -- of "breaching an agreement" reached during a meeting between major DPP faction leaders and the Executive Yuan on Feb. 12. "Originally, the details of the discussion were supposed to be kept to ourselves. But because some people have breached our agreement in a bid to sink the plan, I'm forced to speak the truth," Chou said. According to Chou, the Executive Yuan had promised during the meeting that in case the DPP failed to reach an agreement with opposition parties on the enactment of a referendum law, it would make a public announcement by Feb. 24 concerning the holding of a consultative referendum. On Wednesday, Chou even said that the idea had been endorsed by President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó). "It was exactly because of this promise that we [the faction leaders] consented to letting the Executive Yuan sign an agreement [with opposition parties on Feb. 13] to resume work on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant," Chou said. Anti-nuclear groups are sched-uled to hold a large-scale demonstration in Taipei tomorrow to protest against the continuation of the project and to demand a referendum to solve the dispute. Many DPP legislators elected from Taipei County, where the plant is located, are under great pressure from their constituents -- especially as a party primary for the year-end legislative elections is currently underway. Chou is also from Taipei County. Accepting lawmakers' interpellation in the legislature on Tuesday, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (±i«T¶¯) said the Executive Yuan has not made a final decision upon whether to order a consultative referendum, but that a five-member panel that it had set up should be able to finish a feasibility study for such a referendum in three months. Some DPP legislators from the New Tide faction and Shen Fu-hsiung (¨H´I¶¯), director of the DPP's Policy Committee, also disapprove of the idea of holding such a referendum. They instead demand a legally binding referendum on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant project and firmly reject demands by opposition parties that the issue should be excluded from a referendum even if a referendum law is enacted in the future. "If we are to hold a referendum, we should make it a magnificent event. We must not disappoint the anti-nuclear activists again," Shen said. The premier has said that in the case of a non-legally binding referendum, the result of the ballot would be insufficient to change existing policy and would be "for reference only." Meanwhile, officials from the Presidential Office refuted Chou's claim that the president had endorsed the idea of a consultative referendum on the power plant issue. Kuo Yao-chi (³¢º½µX), director of the Presidential Office's Department of Public Affairs, said the Executive Yuan is still evaluating the feasibility of the referendum, and that correct procedure is being followed. Kuo said that Chen wanted to avoid controversial issues to stabilize politics and boost the nation's economic development. This story has been viewed 191 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/02/23/story/0000074838] Copyright © 1999-2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 Sea 'likely' Dounreay radiation source BBC News | SCOTLAND | Thursday, 22 February, 2001, 06:49 GMT The plant is sited close to the sea The UK Atomic Energy Authority says a highly radioactive particle found near the ruins of Dounreay Castle in Caithness is likely to have come from the sea. UKAEA said an internal inquiry into the discovery had confirmed that it originated from the sea, despite allegations that the particle came from the Dounreay nuclear plant. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency ordered an investigation into the particle's discovery last year. [Warning sign] Campaigners say the plant is the source Dounreay management said the findings contradict what they call ill-informed and misleading allegations made by the anti-nuclear campaigner Lorraine Mann. However, Ms Mann said she had no confidence in the in-house investigation and has called for an independent probe to take place. The particle, no larger than a grain of sand, is one of 12 found close to Dounreay since 1983. Campaigners wanted the nearby Sandside Beach to be closed amid fears the general public could come into contact with the particles. The UKAEA has combed the beach area using powerful wheel-mounted Geiger counters. BBC News Online ***************************************************************** 14 BNFL's Sellafield woes linger FT.com | News and Analysis | Companies Article By Matthew Jones in London Published: February 22 2001 16:55GMT | Last Updated: February 23 2001 07:42GMT Work to improve the safety of British Nuclear Fuels' Sellafield site in northern England is likely to take around six months longer than expected, Britain's atomic safety regulator said on Thursday. The comments came a year after the regulator published three highly critical reports on the site which found that BNFL was guilty of systematic management failures. Laurence Williams, UK chief inspector of nuclear installations, said BNFL had made "encouraging" progress by fully addressing two of the reports, but 25 recommendations to improve control and supervision of operations were yet to be approved. "Experience has shown formal closeout will take longer than previously envisaged, due to the time required for changes to be implemented and for evidence of this to be provided," he said. The regulator had originally been aiming to clear all of the recommendations by autumn 2002, BNFL's final submission date for evidence. Mike Weightman, the deputy chief inspector in charge of BNFL activities, said it could now take an additional six months to approve all of the measures. He added that over-stretched resources in the regulatory inspection team were exacerbating the matter by slowing down the inspection process. The delay will be a further blow to government plans to privatise up to 49 per cent of the company. Ministers have already put the proposal on hold for two years and BNFL's commercial position is likely to continue to suffer until safety concerns are laid to rest. BNFL has undergone a radical restructuring since last year, changing most of its senior management team and emphasising a culture of "zero tolerance" towards employees who break safety rules. However, last month it suffered a setback when workers continued to operate a high-level liquid nuclear waste tank for two and a half hours after alarms signalled the failure of a vital ventilation system. The group is also facing prosecution by the Environment Agency for alleged breaches of regulations relating to the misuse of low level radioactive sources normally used to calibrate equipment. Brian Watson, BNFL's head of Sellafield, said the group welcomed the NII's continuing vigilance and was reviewing its plans for the remaining recommendations. "We have moved forward but we are only part of the way there. I am determined to keep up the pace of change that we began last year," he said. But Greenpeace, the environmental campaign group, described the regulator's comments as a "shocking indictment of Sellafield's continuing safety crisis." ***************************************************************** 15 Sellafield safety improving says report [Ireland.com] THE IRISH TIMES > February 26, 2001 Management at the Sellafield nuclear facility has improved one year after the revelation that fuel data had been falsified, inspectors said today. British Nuclear Fuels has raised safety standards since a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation last February found "systematic management failure". But the HSE today said more work still needs to be done for the plant to meet its requirements, which could take until at least 2002. Environmentalists Greenpeace insisted the announcement was a "shocking indictment of Sellafield's continuing safety crisis." The HSE's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) made three separate reports last year, on control and supervision, fuel data falsification and liquid waste control criticising the entire management structure at Sellafield, saying it had allowed workers to falsify quality assurance records. Today's report showed that BNFL have fulfilled 40 of the original 65 safety recommendations made by the inspectors. Major improvements have included appointing a single person to be responsible for safety at the plant and reorganising the BNFL board, it added. The HSE said it had agreed a timetable for the rest with bosses at Sellafield, the country's largest nuclear facility, which it would continue to monitor. Mr Laurence Williams, HM chief inspector of nuclear installations, said: "Overall, we are encouraged by the vigour and commitment that BNFL has given to addressing the issues raised by all three reports. "This has been a highly challenging year for BNFL and our inspectors. A considerable amount of work has been undertaken but more remains to be done." Greenpeace pointed out that Sellafield met only three of the 28 recommendations in the main control and supervision report, which dealt with safety issues across the plant. Spokeswoman Dr Helen Wallace said: "When it comes to safety and the environment, Sellafield is a disaster zone." She added: "Official assurances are bland and meaningless, in the light of the appalling safety record on the site." Five workers were sacked over the falsification of data at the plant last year, when two loads of plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) were already on their way to Japan. The Japanese Government demanded that the shipments should be returned to Britain, leading to a personal apology from BNFL chief executive John Taylor. Poor design of the Cumbria plant, the tedium of the job and the ease with which the computer dating logging system was manipulated were all blamed for the falsification problem, which dated back to 1996. PA © 2001 The Irish Times/ireland.com ***************************************************************** 16 Nuclear safety watchdog okays Sellafield progress Thursday February 22, 07:12 PM LONDON (Reuters) - The nuclear safety watchdog on Thursday said it was content with the measures taken by British Nuclear Fuels following a safety scandal in late 1999 at Sellafield. In February 2000 the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) reported that "systematic management failure" at BNFL's key Sellafield facility had allowed a lax safety culture to develop leading to data on some nuclear fuel shipments being falsified. In a heavily critical report the NII detailed a raft of measures that BNFL needed to undertake to improve work procedures. One year on, NII chief Laurence Williams said in a statement that BNFL, which had been slated for a partial privatisation before the scandal hit, had made progress, although more work was needed. "Overall, we are encouraged by the vigour and commitment that BNFL has given to addressing the issues raised," he said. The NII report said it expected the changes to take longer than late 2002, a date previously envisaged, and BNFL is being asked to review its plans for the outstanding recommendations. Although the nuclear watchdog said the falsifying of data did not in itself create a safety issue in terms of the fuel being used in nuclear reactors, it did little to calm irate customers. The false data revelations caused an international scandal among BNFL's overseas customers and some countries -- including Japan and Germany -- banned imports from BNFL of the tainted nuclear fuel MOX, a mixture of uranium and plutonium oxide. The then BNFL chief executive and half the board was replaced and top level energy officials have visited customers to apologise and to try and restore confidence. The NII said that after one year all 15 recommendations in the MOX data falsification report had been satisfactorily addressed and had been fully dealt with. In addition it said there had been good progress against most of the 28 team inspection report recommendations, three having been fully addressed. Environmental group Greenpeace said the NII report was a "shocking indictment of Sellafield's continuing safety crisis", citing BNFL's failure to fully implement 25 out of 28 recommendations. "When it comes to safety and the environment, Sellafield is a disaster zone," said Greenpeace spokeswoman Helen Wallace. BNFL said that although 25 of the team inspection recommendations had not been fully dealt with, progress was being made. "Just because they have not been closed out does not mean that nothing has been done," BNFL spokesman Bill Anderton told Reuters. "We are on course with the improvement programme which we said last April would take at least 30 months", he said. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 17 Temelin truce is tested again News: The Prague Post Online Wednesday, February 21, 2001 *Protesters agitate again as safety checks, repairs carried out* Not long ago, a small group of protesters gathered outside the gates of the controversial Temelin nuclear power plant in south Bohemia to express concern over a spate of technical problems at the station. From the other side of the fence, plant director Frantisek Hezoucky was dismissive. "This is children's behavior," Hezoucky said, discarding the demonstrators' ongoing concerns about safety at the Soviet-designed complex. "These people are really just children." At times the back-and-forth between Austria and the Czech Republic has resembled a playground tug-of-war, with the two sides tussling again this month over the issue of safety at Temelin, located about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Austrian territory. The Soviet-era plant with its Western upgrades, which is still gearing up for commercial production, has been troubled by technical snafus and was shut down in January after experiencing turbine problems in a non-nuclear area of the complex. In mid-February, Austrian activists threatened to resurrect road blockades at the border out of unhappiness with the progress of an environmental impact study agreed to by Prague at a December summit with Vienna. The specter of renewed blockades had Czech officials crying foul, pointing out that such disruptions would violate a tenuous political truce brokered in December by Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel and Prime Minister Milos Zeman. But several days later, Prague and Vienna had returned from the brink. They issued a joint statement reiterating that a draft of a European Commission-monitored study would be completed by April and ready for public response. The final version of the EC assessment -- the commission is the executive body of the European Union -- is slated for completion by the end of June. So Austrian anti-nuclear activists decided to put blockades on the back burner, for now. "There will be some meetings and other actions, but no blockades," said Radko Pavlovec, one of the coordinators of the anti-Temelin movement. That did not stop environmentalist Green organizers in Austria and Bavaria from asking the EU to boycott Czech electricity imports. In the meantime, Hezoucky has other things on his mind. While protesters marched outside his workplace, repairs to faulty piping in the turbine were wrapping up, to be completed in late February. On Feb. 12, a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived at Temelin to conduct a safety survey at the plant, a voluntary check that will monitor factors like management, protection of workers and employee training. After the IAEA survey is completed in March and the environmental study wraps up in June, testing operations are slated to begin. That process, which will see the plant gradually reach 100 percent of its capacity over 18 months, would be the last hurdle before Temelin begins commercial operations, Hezoucky said. Unless more politics get in the way. Swoger's e-mail address is kswoger@praguepost.cz ***************************************************************** 18 Nuclear waste import postponed Russian Ministry of Nuclear Energy (Minatom) is actively promoting the project to import spent nuclear fuel to Russia from foreign countries for storage/reprocessing. The project may turn Russia into an international nuclear dumpsite. The Russian State Duma has postponed the second reading of the nuclear fuel import bills earlier scheduled for February 22nd. The new date is set for March 22nd. Vlad Nikiforov, 2001-02-22 17:44 The second reading of the nuclear fuel import bills did not take place in the Russian State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, on February 22nd. It is postponed until March 22nd after the increased activity of the greens protesting against the amendments. Several actions organised by greens preceded this decision in Russia. On February 19th, Russian environmental activists from Socio-Ecological Union, Ecodefense and liberal Yabloko party held a rally outside the State Duma. About 300 activists from various environmental organisations took part in the action. 20,000 signatures against the nuclear bills were handed over to Grigory Yavlinsky, head of Yabloko party, who will later pass them over to the Russian President. The Russian Nuclear Ministry needs these bills put in force to allow spent nuclear fuel import to Russia. The greens and some politicians believe this plan will damage environment and expenses for the waste management will be much higher than the predicted profit. On February 19th, the Environmental Committee of the Russian State Duma examined the amendments to the nuclear import bills initiated by the deputies from different factions. The amendments mainly concerned effective financial control for each nuclear delivery to Russia, guarantees for returning the nuclear waste to the country of origin. Only one amendment was approved, however, regarding the necessary approval of each contract for nuclear delivery by the State Duma. On the same day, Ecodefense group released documents saying that the US Department of Energy has plans to deliver spent nuclear fuel from Taiwan to Krasnoyarsk in Siberia for final disposal. Shipment of 8,000 tons is scheduled to begin in 2007. On December 21st 2000, the Russian State Duma approved in the first reading bills calling for import of spent nuclear fuel. After that more than 40 protests took place in the various Russian cities. The activists were supported by local parliaments in the Russian regions, which sent their protests to the Duma against the bills. In autumn 2000, the polls showed that 93.5% of the Russians are against nuclear import. “In such situation the legislators should not postpone the reading but rather cancel it,” Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of Ecodefense group, said. “Some regions consider to call back their deputies [from the State Duma] who voted in favour of the nuclear import,” he added. Before the bills enter force, they must be approved in the second and third readings in the Duma, then by the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, and finally by the President. The bills can allow the nuclear industry of Russia to import spent nuclear fuel from other countries for reprocessing or up to 50 years of storage. Russian environmental groups assessed this initiative as an attempt to turn the country into an international nuclear dumpsite and started a nation-wide campaign to stop the project. Yabloko party, an opposition minority in the Duma dominated by the Kremlin supporters, is strongly opposing the project and has joined the campaign. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway Reuse and reprint recommended provided source is stated ***************************************************************** 19 Ukrainian premier to discuss nuclear reactor project with European Bank KPnews.com -- News about Ukraine Category: NATION 23 Feb 2001 The Associated Press KYIV, Feb. 23 (AP) - Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko will confer in London next week with executives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development about speeding up loans to complete two new nuclear reactors in Ukraine, an EBRD official said Friday. Ukraine blames the EBRD for dragging its feet in providing the loans, which were promised in return for closing the Chernobyl atomic plant. The plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, was closed down in mid-December but no loans have arrived. The EBRD has delayed a decision on the loans until March, pointing out that the International Monetary Fund had yet to decide on new aid to Ukraine. President Leonid Kuchma said recently that he considered EBRD conditions “unwillingness to fund construction of the reactors.” But EBRD's Ukrainian director, Yuriy Poluneev, said the conditions were «not new or additional, they have been discussed and agreed upon on all levels both in Ukraine and within EBRD.» Other conditions include the stated readiness of other foreign donors to take part in the project and the creation of an effective nuclear monitoring body, he said, according to the Interfax news agency. Yushchenko will also discuss reforms in Ukraine's ailing energy sector during his March 1 visit, Poluneev said. Construction of the reactors at the Rivne and Khmelnytsky nuclear plants was begun in Soviet times and later frozen. Western experts estimate completion costs at $1.5 billion but Ukrainian specialists say only $500 million to $600 million may be needed. Although cash-strapped Ukraine badly needs EBRD loans, it must continue work to complete the reactors on its own in order to compensate for the energy loss caused by the Chernobyl closure, Kuchma has said. © 2000 SputnikMedia.net · www.bigmir.net · www.korrespondent.net ***************************************************************** 20 Russia Opens Nuclear Power Plant February 23, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) -- Russia on Friday officially opened its first new nuclear power plant since the Soviet era, with officials calling it a breakthrough for the industry after years of financial troubles and public opposition. More than 20 years after construction began, the first reactor at the Rostov Atomic Energy Station in southern Russia has been turned on to minimal output. It will gradually be cranked up to full power over the next several months, said plant spokesman Yegor Obukhov. It will provide electricity to the Rostov province and elsewhere in the North Caucasus region. The reactor had been almost complete when construction was frozen in 1990 on government orders because of public protests prompted by the 1986 explosion at the Soviet Union's Chernobyl plant. But as deterioration at coal-powered electricity plants and chronic funding shortages led to increasing blackouts across Russia, the government announced a drive to revive the nuclear energy industry. The Atomic Energy Ministry allocated funds in 1999 to complete the Rostov reactor and several other stalled projects. The Soviet-designed VVER-1000 reactor at Rostov is considered structurally more sound than the RBMK reactor that blew up at Chernobyl. The main difference is the VVER-1000's concrete containment structure designed to hold in damage from an explosion. It can also withstand a magnitude-7 earthquake and the crash of a 20-ton aircraft, plant officials say. Environmentalists and many residents of the forested region continue to oppose the plant, saying it was built too close to a major reservoir and in an area prone to earth tremors. They also say the reactor was not properly maintained while construction was stalled for nine years. "This is the last thing the Rostov province needs. We've seen what those monsters can do and should never forget it," said Alexander Filipenko, chairman of the Rostov Chernobyl Union. The director of the new plant, Vladimir Pogorely, promised that it would create thousands of new jobs for the depressed town of Volgodonsk, adjacent to the station, and claimed its reactor would be the safest in Russia. The country has nine nuclear plants and 29 operating reactors that produce about 12 percent of its electricity. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 21 Head of Slovak Nuclear Research Body Murdered Friday February 23 9:28 AM ET BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - The head of the Slovak Nuclear Energy Research Institute was shot dead with a machine gun in the early hours of Friday at his house in the western Slovak town of Piestany, a police spokeswoman told Reuters. ``We are investigating this as a murder...We found the gun,'' a police spokeswoman said. She gave no further details. Since the fall of communism in 1989, violent crime, including contract killings of high-profile officials, has exploded in Slovakia in the face of weak legislation, corrupt authorities and cash-strapped police and courts. In one of the most notorious cases, the one-time head of the state gas monopoly SPP and former economy minister Jan Ducky was shot dead in January 1999 in the block of flats where he lived. The assassins were never found despite a widely publicized investigation. Copyright © 2001 ., and Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 22 Knowles fights nuke waste plan Anchorage Daily News - By Don Hunter Anchorage Daily News *(Published February 23, 2001)* Gov. Tony Knowles has written to his counterpart in the Russian province of Chukotka as well as to U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens and the State Department, asking for information and assistance in blocking a proposal to transport nuclear waste through the Arctic Ocean. Barrow Mayor Ahmoagak: Fears for the food chain. A Russian shipping company has offered to use icebreakers to escort freighters laden with nuclear waste bound from Europe to Japan across its northern coastline, according to national and international news accounts, concerned northern nations and environmental organizations. In letters dated Feb. 16, Knowles asked Stevens and Secretary of State Colin Powell for help in clarifying the talks between Russian and Japanese companies. Knowles additionally asked Stevens to help "stop the marine transport of these dangerous materials." In his letter to Powell, Knowles said: "Any accidental release of this material could have a devastating effect on the fragile Arctic environment and the health and welfare of the people who live there. In Alaska, where most of our indigenous people live a subsistence way of life, any threat to their resources would have a devastating effect on their way of life, not to mention their health." North Slope Borough Mayor George Ahmoagak voiced similar concerns in a recent interview. "If there is dumping or accidents, that (radiation) could get into the food chain," Ahmaogak said. "If that is the case, we'd be concerned about that. We've got enough problems with (persistent organic pollutants) and heavy metals in tissues and organs of marine mammals now." Stevens is out of the country and could not be contacted this week. A spokesman for the State Department said Knowles' letter could not immediately be located Thursday. The third person on the governor's mailing list is Roman Abramovich, who was inaugurated as governor of Chukotka a few weeks ago. "I know that you are as concerned as I am about the potential risks this activity could pose," Knowles wrote to Abramovich. "I hope you will join me in registering our mutual concerns with our respective federal administrations over this matter of Arctic marine transport of nuclear material." Hard facts about the nuclear shipping proposal are difficult to come by. The environmental organization Greenpeace issued a press release in January saying it had learned of the negotiations, and news organizations in the United States, Europe and Russia have reported on the talks. In Washington, D.C., Knowles aide Anna Kerttula investigated. Thursday, Kerttula said contacts in Moscow have confirmed there is a proposal to ship nuclear waste through the Arctic Ocean. A pilot shipment of nonnuclear freight is said to be scheduled this summer, she and others said. "We're not sure how close they are to cutting a deal," Kerttula said. "We're trying to find out how real this is and when is the possibility (that shipments might begin). In talking with my contacts in Moscow, the impression was it's better to be ahead of the game than behind it." Japan uses nuclear fuel to power some utilities and sends spent fuel to reactors in Britain and France, where it is reprocessed. The reprocessed fuel and nuclear waste created in that process are shipped to Japan. The exchange has been going on for about a decade, with freighters transiting traditional sea routes around South Africa and South America and through the Panama Canal. Resistance to shipping the nuclear material has been growing in countries adjacent to those routes. Damon Moglen, a Washington, D.C.-based spokesman for Greenpeace International who works on nuclear issues, said more than 50 countries have protested the two-way shipments between Japan and Europe. "One reason the Arctic is being looked at is that political opposition along other routes has gotten quite fierce," Moglen said. "Unless people fight shipments along the Arctic route, it runs the very real risk of being the route of least resistance." The northern sea route hugs the Russian coastline for the most part. What grass-roots opposition might exist there is submerged beneath the enthusiasm of government and business leaders for new commercial enterprises, said Thomas Jandl of Bellona USA, an American affiliate of a Norwegian environmental organization. Bellona opposes the nuclear shipping proposal. "Obviously, there's a concern," Jandl said. "If you look at a map, the Arctic looks big. But it's not a huge area. If you had an accident, it would give a nice distribution all over of these dangerous materials." At this time, the Russian proposal is to transport nuclear waste left over from the British and French reprocessing effort back to Japan. The material would be encased in thick glass blocks or cylinders. Greenpeace calls it "high-level waste" with the potential to threaten the environment for thousands of years if accidentally released. Russia and other northern nations have been investigating commercial shipping possibilities through the Arctic Ocean in recent years. John Doyle, executive director of the Anchorage-based Northern Forum, said his group, which represents leaders in many of those nations, has promoted the development of marine freight routes through the Arctic. However, the forum does not promote nuclear shipments, Doyle said. Post-Soviet-era Russia has an expensive, and expensive to maintain, fleet of icebreakers capable of transiting the thickest ice, Doyle said. The possibility of shipping across the pole or via the shoreline-hugging northern sea route is attractive for a simple reason. "It's a lot shorter," Doyle said. Reporter Don Hunter can be reached at dhunter@adn.comand 257-4349. The Anchorage Daily News ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Metro:SRS force celebrates heritage *Web posted Friday, February 23, 2001 *Staff Writer* Byron Hunt thanks those who were involved with the Black History Month program ``Creating and Defining the African-American Community'' at the Wackenhut Services Inc. headquarters at Savannah River Site. *JENNIFER FULLER/STAFF* Some members of Savannah River Site's security force paused Thursday to honor their heritage. Wackenhut Services Inc. held its annual Black History Month celebration at the company's SRS headquarters. More than 50 people gathered to hear spirituals, view black art and peruse books about black history. The event marked the fourth time the company, which provides the federal nuclear-weapons site's law enforcement and security force, has held an observation of Black History Month, executives said. ``We've got to do something like this to bring it home, not just to our African-American employees, but to all of them, so they have an appreciation for the black culture and the black experience,'' said Lawrence Brede Jr., senior vice president and general manager for Wackenhut at SRS. Employees had planned this year's event since October, said Byron Hunt, quality manager for Wackenhut at SRS. Holding such celebrations of diversity is good business practice, he said. Chaney Childs (right) checks out the selection of ceramics hand painted by BJ Orr (left) on display and for sale Thursday at the Wackenhut Services Inc., black history month celebration. *JENNIFER FULLER/STAFF* ``Getting together to learn more about each other, and bringing that to the table, gives you better input to get your business accomplished,'' he said. The event also gave some employees a chance to perform in front of their colleagues. A group of four employees called Brothers In Unity headlined the celebration, singing spirituals such as *I Want to hide Behind the Mountain* and *I'm Just Waiting on Jesus.* The group often performs at local churches, but Thursday's event was its first engagement before co-workers, said Larry Abney, one member of the group. ``It was an interesting but exciting challenge,'' Mr. Abney said. Reach at (706) 823-3409. All contents © 1996 - 2001 *The Augusta Chronicle*. All rights ***************************************************************** 2 Submarine Inquiry Delayed; U.S. Pledges Truth Friday February 23 5:33 AM ET By Dan Whitcomb HONOLULU (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy on Thursday bowed to a request from the captain of the Greeneville and set a March 5 hearing date for an official inquiry into the disaster in which the nuclear sub slammed into a Japanese fishing trawler, leaving nine people missing, presumed dead. Lawyers for Cmdr. Scott Waddle had asked the Navy to delay the court of inquiry, originally due to begin on Thursday, into the fatal collision because of scheduling conflicts and to give them more time to prepare. A Navy spokesman told reporters on Thursday that the Navy had agreed to the delay after initially moving the date back to Monday, Feb. 26. Waddle told Navy investigators that he was aware from sonar soundings that a ship was in the vicinity before the submarine surfaced and crashed into a Japanese fishing vessel, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing a source familiar with the investigation. But the captain has maintained that when he looked for the ship through a periscope, he saw nothing -- and was not given any warning by a sailor whose job it was to plot the positions of nearby vessels, the Post said. Waddle has not publicly discussed the accident. But a person close to the investigation outlined for the Post the statements the captain has made to investigators. No Cover-Up In Tokyo, U.S. ambassador Thomas Foley pledged on Friday that there would be no cover-up in the U.S. investigation of the sinking of the Ehime Maru. ``We are determined to arrive at the truth, wherever it leads,'' he said. ``I can assure you there will be no tolerance for any efforts to disguise or not to disclose the full truth,'' Foley told a news conference at the Japan National Press Club. ``We are determined to do to everything possible to discover the cause of this tragic and so far inexplicable accident, and to take whatever steps are necessary,'' Foley said. ``Not only compensation, but corrective action to ensure that this never again occurs.'' The court of inquiry will determine whether disciplinary action should be recommended against Waddle and two other officers in the Feb. 9 accident, in which the nuclear submarine abruptly surfaced and sank the Japanese trawler. Though Navy officials have described the quasi-judicial court of inquiry as an impartial search for the truth and not a prosecution, its findings could lead to a court martial for the three officers or others. Waddle, 41, will be represented at the hearing, which could last several weeks, by Charles Gittins, a Virginia-based attorney who specializes in military cases and who previously defended U.S. Navy Cmdr. Robert Stumf at a court of inquiry into the Tailhook scandal. Stumf was ultimately cleared in that case, which stemmed from a 1991 convention of the Tailhook Association in Las Vegas where more than a dozen women claimed to have been sexually harassed or assaulted. Nine Presumed Dead Nine people are missing and presumed dead from the Ehime Maru, which was carrying students from a Japanese high school on a fisheries training project. Twenty-six people were rescued in the tragedy that has strained U.S.-Japan ties. The Navy said it could not comment on reports that civilians on board the sub were ``distracting'' at least one crew member shortly before the Greeneville surfaced and rammed the Ehime Maru. The NBC ``Nightly News'' said the investigation revealed the submarine's sonar detected the fishing boat at an estimated 4,000 yards (meters) away, but closing fast. The report said the next sonar contact came when the boat was only 2000 yards (meters) away, much closer than previously thought. But the investigation also shows the technician who is supposed to track contacts and shout them out to the captain remained silent, NBC reported. Navy spokesman Lt.-Cmdr. Flex Plexico said that statements by the Greeneville's sonar plotter that he was unable to finish plotting blips because civilians were in his way could be raised at the court of inquiry, which will be held at Pearl Harbor. ``That's one of the things that may be looked at during the court of inquiry,'' Plexico said, adding that further comment on the statement would be ``inappropriate'' prior to the hearing. John Hammerschmidt, an NTSB (news - web sites) spokesman, said the Greeneville made sonar contact with a surface vessel at 12:32 p.m. local time, and that Navy analysis showed that the contact was the Ehime Maru. Hammerschmidt said investigators do not know what happened between the 12:32 p.m. sonar contact and the collision, which occurred at 1:43 p.m., adding that the issue ``goes to the heart of our investigation.'' In-depth coverage about USS Greeneville Accident Related News Stories · U.S. Admiral Taking Apology to Japan - AP (Feb 24, 2001) · U.S. to Send Special Navy Envoy to Japan - Reuters (Feb 24, 2001) · Sub skipper says he regrets collision - CNN (Feb 25, 2001) · 'Command Climate' on Submarine a Concern, Experts Say - Washington Post (Feb 25, 2001) · US appoints envoy over sub tragedy - BBC (Feb 24, 2001) More... Opinion &Editorials · What if they sank an American ship? - Antiwar.com (Feb 23, 2001) · The Sailors Who Fell From Grace With The Sea - Antiwar.com (Feb 23, 2001) · New Clues From the Greeneville - NY Times (registration req'd) (Feb 23, 2001) More... Related Web Sites · USS Greeneville (SSN 772) incident - press releases and information from the US Navy. · USS Greeneville SSN-772 - official Navy site that includes a bulletin on the reassignmentof the Greeneville's commanding officer. · Los Angeles Class Submarine - clickable graphic with details on the sub's layout and functions such as the radar, tomahawk missiles, and torpedoes. From the U.S. Naval Institute. · The Voice of Uwajima - site about the tragedy from the city of Uwajima, the home of the fisheries students aboard the Ehime-Maru. · DefenseLINK - official DOD site that features news, links, and the defense almanac, with sections on forces and weapons, and the number of people on active duty. More... Magazine Articles · Minding social graces on a nuclear submarine - Salon (Feb 23, 2001) · 'Civilians at Sub's Controls Had No Significance in Killer Crash' - Time Magazine (Feb 14, 2001) · 'Submarine Tragedy Is Unlikely to Affect U.S.-Japan Ties' - Time Magazine (Feb 12, 2001) More... Audio · Three experts discuss the Navy's plans for an inquiry - Online NewsHour (Feb 20, 2001) · Navy, Coast Guard Stop Rescue Efforts Off Japan - NPR (Feb 16, 2001) · Navy Considers Criminal Probe in Sub Collision - NPR (Feb 14, 2001) More... Video · "The Greeneville reportedly gained passive sonar contact" - MSNBC (Feb 21, 2001) · Greeneville commander declines to answer questions - MSNBC (Feb 20, 2001) · U.S. Navy to launch sub accident inquiry - CNN (Feb 18, 2001) News Sources · Yahoo! News Search · American Forces Press Service · Asahi Shimbun · Daily Yomiuri · InsideDefense Copyright © 2001 ., and Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 U.S. questions hospital on nuclear mishap *Friday, February 23, 2001* *The Associated Press *TOMS RIVER -- Representatives of a Toms River hospital were called to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission offices Thursday to explain *an incident involving a radioactive isotope used in cancer treatment. The Aug. 19, 1999, incident at Community Medical Center involved phosphor*us-32 contamination in the hospital's nuclear medicine department. No further details were given. "At no time did this incident present a health hazard to any patient, employee, or resident in the area," said Caryl Russo, director of marketing for Community Medical Center. The NRC cited "apparent violations" of federal requirements concerning radioactive materials: failure to notify the agency about the incident within 24 hours, failure to provide specific radiological safety training to employees performing a therapeutic procedure involving phosphor*us-32, and failure to prepare a written directive for a therapeutic administration of the isotope. *"We offered the hospital a chance to tell their side of the story, what happened, how it happened, and what they have done to ensure it doesn't happen again," said Diane Screnci, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A decision is expected within 30 days, she said. Copyright © 2001 North Jersey Media Group Inc. ***************************************************************** 4 US, Russia building bomb 100 times more powerful than hydrogen The Early Word on Karnataka www.southnexus.com WASHINGTON, Feb 22: The US and Russia are jointly working on building a pure fusion bomb hundred times more powerful than the hydrogen bombs. Experiments are being jointly conducted at American Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico and Russian Los Alamos National Laboratory, Hisham Zerriffi, project scientist at Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and Arjun Makhijani, president of IEER, said. "Hydrogen bomb is set off by a fission trigger whereas for a pure fusion bomb, there is no such trigger and no minimum critical mass is needed. Pure fusion weapons could be made with very low yields and would not produce fallout, blurring distinction between conventional and nuclear explosives. Yet lethality of such weapons would still be great," the two scientists said. "Though the scientific feasibility of pure fusion weapons has yet to be proven, research on pure fusion explosions sends a dangerous signal about the intent of nuclear weapon powers," they said. Referring to India, they said, "India's refusal to sign CTBT was, in part, a reaction to this type of research by nuclear weapon states. In turn, its decision to conduct underground nuclear tests was partly related to its conclusion that CTBT had changed from a non-discriminatory instrument designed to promote both non-proliferation and disarmament into a tool for non-proliferation alone. Furthermore, some fusion research appears to violate CTBT." Copyright (c) 2000 www.southnexus.com ***************************************************************** 5 CIA Suggests China Failing to Keep Iran Nuke Pledge Thursday February 22 10:36 PM ET By Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China apparently failed to keep its pledge to avoid engaging in any new nuclear cooperation with Iran in the first half of 2000, a CIA (news - web sites) report suggested on Thursday. The omission of key phrases in the CIA's latest unclassified, semi-annual report to Congress on proliferation, which had been included in its previous report, indicated the agency had changed its position and no longer believed China had apparently kept its nuclear pledge on Iran. The CIA report covering July to December of 1999 had included lines that said ``the pledge appears to be holding'' and ``China's 1997 pledge not to engage in any new nuclear cooperation with Iran has apparently held.'' But those phrases were noticeably omitted in the most recent report for Jan. 1 through June 30, 2000, which was distributed to lawmakers this week and obtained by Reuters. The report, which will likely heighten concern over China's aid in military matters in the Middle East, comes in the week President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said he was worried Beijing had helped Iraq enhance its air defense systems. The CIA report said Iran sought nuclear-related equipment, material and technical expertise from a variety of sources, especially Russia. ``We suspect that Tehran most likely is interested in acquiring foreign fissile material and technology for weapons development as part of its overall nuclear weapons program,'' it said. Iran has manufactured and stockpiled ``several thousand tons'' of chemical weapons, including blister, blood and choking agents and bombs for delivering them, the CIA report said. Iran is one of the most active countries seeking materials and technology from abroad to develop biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, it said. Tehran sought assistance and materials for its chemical warfare program from entities in Russia and China and ``expanded its efforts'' to seek dual-use materials and expertise, mainly from Russia and Western Europe, that ``could be applied to Iran's biological warfare program,'' the report said. Russian entities in the first half of 2000 provided ''substantial'' missile-related technology and expertise to Iran that would ``almost certainly'' accelerate Tehran's efforts to develop new ballistic missile systems, the report said. Libya And Ballistic Missiles Also new in the latest report was an assessment that Libya, with continued foreign assistance, may successfully develop a medium-range ballistic missile, which has long been its goal. ``Outside assistance is critical to its ballistic missile development programs, and the suspension of U.N. sanctions last year has allowed Tripoli to expand its procurement effort,'' the CIA report said. Another new assessment in the report was evidence that Libya was trying to acquire the capability to develop biological warfare agents. ``Evidence suggests Libya also is seeking to acquire the capability to develop and produce BW (biological warfare) agents,'' the report said. Libya still has a goal of establishing chemical warfare capability, the report said. It continues to develop its nuclear research and development program, but requires ``significant foreign assistance'' to advance to a nuclear weapons option, it said. Iraq And Others The CIA again said it did not have any direct evidence Iraq had reconstituted its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs, ``although given its past behavior, this type of activity must be regarded as likely.'' Since U.N. weapons inspections ended in December 1998, Baghdad has had the capability to restart both its chemical and biological weapons programs, the report said. Baghdad has reconstructed facilities destroyed by U.S. bombing, including several ``critical'' missile production complexes and former dual-use chemical weapons production facilities, the report said. ``In addition, Iraq appears to be installing or repairing dual-use equipment at CW-(chemical warfare)-related facilities. Some of these facilities could be converted fairly quickly for production of CW agents,'' the report said, referring to chemical weapons. ``We believe that Iraq has probably continued low-level theoretical (research and development) associated with its nuclear program,'' the report said. ``A sufficient source of fissile material remains Iraq's most significant obstacle to being able to produce a nuclear weapon,'' it said. The CIA said North Korea (news - web sites) was capable of producing and delivering weapons with a wide variety of chemical and biological agents. North Korea continued procuring materials for its ballistic missile programs from foreign sources, especially through firms in China, the CIA report said. Syria, which has a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin, appeared to be trying to develop more toxic nerve agents, the report said. ``It is highly probable that Syria also is developing an offensive biological warfare capability,'' the report said. That statement was not in the previous assessment. Copyright © 2001 ., and Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 Moratorium sought on DU shell testing Special report: depleted uranium Kirsty Scott Wednesday February 21, 2001 The Guardian Campaigners have demanded a moratorium on the testing of depleted uranium shells after the Ministry of Defence resumed test-firing at a military base in Scotland yesterday. It is the first time the weapons have been tested since fears over the shells were heightened by a UN report in January. Locals are opposed to the firing amid growing concerns about health risks which have also been highlighted by veterans of the Gulf war. Since 1982 more than 7000 DU shells have been fired from the range at the south-western tip of Scotland into the Solway Firth. Most of the shells, some 20 tonnes worth, are still lying on the seabed. Only one has ever been retrieved. Yesterday, 12 DU shells were fired, according to the MoD. The testing is carried out by the defence evaluation and research agency (Dera) and is due to stop this October. The MoD says it is done under strictly controlled conditions and monitoring has shown only very low levels of DU contamination at the base, well below anything that could be considered a health hazard. The defence minister, Lewis Mooney, said people in the south-west of Scotland had been subjected to scare stories about the dangers posed by the shells. He said every batch of shells had to be tested to ensure that they met the necessary standards. "There is no known threat to health from the shells that have been fired into the Solway," said Dr Mooney. "We monitor continuously to ensure there is no effect on background radiation. You have to remember that there is uranium present in the sea naturally and that these shells have never been shown to alter that level." However, campaigners say the renewed test firing is unacceptable in light of growing concern. Local MP and MSP Alasdair Morgan said the test programme must be stopped. "I think local feeling is growing," he said. "This is a quiet area where people don't go on protest marches, but concern has hardened over the last few years with the realisation of the nature of the DU weapons. "The MoD's attitude is that they are right and everyone else is wrong, and how dare anyone question what they are doing if they want to test these shells? I don't think littering the area in that fashion is any way to be carrying on in this day and age." Locals say there have been misfirings on the 4,500-acre range, and there are reports of traces of beryllium, which is a component of depleted uranium, being found up to 30 miles away from Dundrennan. Kathleen Glass, a local community councillor, said it was negligent for testing to continue until more was known about the effects. "We are looking for health screening to be offered to civilians employed on the range so they can have that extra reassurance." Tony Duff, a Gulf veteran who ran a support group for ex-service personnel, said the community around Dundrennan was right to be concerned. He said the average 120mm DU shell produces between 1kg and 3kg of DU dust when it strikes a target. "Imagine that much being mixed in the water or ending up on the beaches or flying around in the air," he said. "To say the tests are not as dangerous as in a combat zone is at best sheer folly, at worst complete disinformation." A spokeswoman for Dera said that a total of 60 DU shells would be fired between now and October at the range. "This is a routine testing programme which was planned before any of the recent scares," she said. "We are test ing the accuracy of the shells by firing them against soft targets, and the alleged health risks occur when the shells are fired at hard targets, like tanks." A total of 12 DU shells were fired during yesterday's test session. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 7 Cover-up claim over uranium lost at sea The Scotsman Online - Scotland's best selling quality national newspaper Tracey Lawson THE Ministry of Defence has been accused of covering up the results of research into depleted uranium shells after it said it had lost a test batch of the radioactive metal off the Scottish coast. Government officials said yesterday that almost 15kg of depleted uranium (DU) discs placed in the Solway Firth to test salt-water corrosion on the substance were lost when the lid of the the steel container they were in came off. News that the research project has collapsed comes just days before Dumfries and Galloway councillors hoped to receive the first results of the research project from the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), the science and technology arm of the MoD. It also comes in the week that the MoD resumed test firing of DU shells into the Solway Firth from its range at Dundrennan in Dumfries and Galloway – the first tests in the UK since claims that dust from exploded DU shells may be linked to cancer and other illnesses suffered by military personnel in Kosovo. The MoD and DERA yesterday insisted the discs were washed away by stormy seas. But anti-nuclear protester Dan Kenny, who has led a 17-year campaign against DU testing in the Solway, accused DERA of "losing" the discs. Mr Kenny, a retired oil engineer, said: "This sounds like a cover-up. I find it impossible that discs, with twice the density of lead, could simply float away. "This sounds like the MoD trying to win extra time to carry on testing at Dundrennan while delaying the results of research." Jane Maitland, the Dumfries and Galloway Councillor whose ward includes Dundrennan had hoped to hear the first results of the rig tests at a meeting of the council's Police, Fire and Public Protection Committee next Tuesday. She said: "This smells very fishy. DERA has left itself open to accusation to let research which the local population hoped would provide reassurances just go wrong like this." There seems to have been an unfortunate mixture of bad luck and incompetence." "I find it hard to believe that an agency with DERA's resources can not secure a simple rig on the seabed without it all going wrong. It sounds very amateurish. "It's hard to believe that if DERA was really concerned about listening to local concerns and finding the answers we want, it could let something as shoddy as this happen." A rig holding the container with 66 cylindrical DU discs was submerged at a high tide depth of 20 metres a quarter of a mile off the Solway Coast last July, near Mullock Bay. DERA planned to retrieve a few of the discs every three months. over a three to five year period, to monitor the effects of salt water. A spokeswoman said yesterday that during a routine attempt to retrieve samples on 7 February divers discovered that the lid of the container had come loose. She added: "A brief underwater search failed to locate any DU. It is now evident that the chains which secured the buoys were the cause of damage, having impacted with the main body of the rig during unexpectedly high seas." She added: "The total amount of DU is no more than that found in four standard rounds (of DU shells) and so results in a negligible addition to the material on the sea-bed." A "DU garden" – a further 6kg of DU buried in the Solway silt for research purposes – is believed to remain intact. The DERA spokeswoman rejected any suggestions of a cover-up or incompetence and said that results had not been expected for some time, however she could not say when the first results had been due. She said of the rig project: "It demonstrates extra competence to try to find extra answers to what is happening to DU on the sea-bed." However David Grant, the chief environmental health officer for Dumfries and Galloway Council, said that the failure must be seen as a major embarrassment. Mr Grant, who will present the development to the Police, Fire and Public Protection Committee said: "This leaves DERA with a major credibility gap. I was extremely disappointed to hear the rig had been broken." "This puts further pressure on DERA to make greater efforts to retrieve some of the DU shells fired from Dundrennan from the seabed, to find out exactly what is going on down there. Mrs Maitland said a delay in research findings risked damaging the Dumfries and Galloway tourist economy. She said: "We need as much information as possible to show that our environment is a safe place to be so that we can have a publicity campaign to allay any misconceptions which people outside the area may have once they hear that DU is tested in the area . "I am not accusing DERA of lying about this. I am not against DU testing per se. "It is vital DERA does all it can to ensure that the research we need is being carried out effectively, so that tourists do not stop coming here because they have got t he wrong idea about DU and safety." More than 7,000 DU shells have been fired into the Solway at Dundrennan since testing began in 1982. It is assumed that most of the shells are lying unexploded in the silt of the Solway Firth. Only one has ever been retrieved, and the recommencement of testing last week fuelled public concerns about the potential effects of sea-water corrosion on the DU casing. Monitoring by DERA and Dumfries and Galloway environmental health officials in the Dundrennan area have so far found no evidence of DU in areas outside the MoD firing range. The DERA spokeswoman added that DERA divers will return to the site during the first week of March to search for the missing discs, and that the project will be recommenced using an improved rig design at some point in the future. ***************************************************************** 8 NATO's Medical Miracle: Depleted Uranium *Cures* Cancer 22nd February 2001 *Depleted Uranium Watch* NATO's Medical Miracle: Depleted Uranium *Cures* Cancer Richard W. Rozoff, rrozoff@webtv.net, Chicago, United States The Prelude It may be difficult in a world in which the defense establishments of major Western powers, and the compliant media that reflexively serve them, have depleted the attention span of their populations far more effectively than they've depleted their weapons of radioactive content, to recall the controversy surrounding uranium weaponry of a few weeks ago. Hysteria, panic, crisis were terms not atypically used to describe the debate about the effects of depleted uranium (DU) weapons in NATO's Balkans campaigns over the past half decade. The implication was that those drawing attention to the problem were guilty of sowing fear and ungrounded worry, when in fact they'd been laudably patient and even indulgent with the apologists of the use of these weapons. Now that these uncomfortable alarms have temporarily receded into the background of news reporting - not because they're not urgent but because they're inexpedient to those who would deny their importance - it might be easy to forget what led to this increase in interest in what is, after all, the crucial issue of the day. A short chronology is in order, if for no other reason than to keep the current information contest even-handed. It's also required in order to guarantee a recognition that no news is not necessarily good news - and in fact is just the opposite. When much-belated and long-ignored evidence of the health crisis provoked by NATO's use of weapons containing depleted uranium and other, even more dangerous, fission process by-products and waste from uranium ore enrichment, in the Balkans began to surface late last year, the mass media in Europe was swept up by the furore that erupted among the population of those nations who had stationed troops in Kosovo and Bosnia. Daily reports detailed leukemia and other cancer cases among hitherto healthy young soldiers from Portugal, Italy, Belgium and, soon, a dozen other countries. The English language Portuguese The News, in reference to the total Portuguese NATO contingent in Kosovo, even ran a news story with the title "Balkan Radiation: 10,000 Portuguese Could Be Affected." Major daily newspapers in Southern Europe in particular, as troops from Portugal and Italy as well as from several Eastern European nations had been stationed in areas with the highest concentration of DU contamination, ran regular features on and interviews with the family members of deceased soldiers, whose testimonies were as fraught with anger toward their governments as they were with devastation over their losses. As the death toll mounted in the south of Europe, cases of DU-linked malignant diseases and deaths began appearing in the northwest also, with Belgium and Holland losing servicemen to leukemia and other DU-associated ailments. In direct connection with the multi-party democratic tradition in respective countries, opposition parliamentarians in Europe raised the uranium munitions issue in public debates, pressed for medical tests for former SFOR (Bosnia) and KFOR (Kosovo) troops, and demanded a thorough investigation of and ban on the use of uranium weaponry. Several prominent medical doctors and scientists who had warned governments and the public alike beforehand of the health consequences of DU and related arms, including the U.S. Pentagon's former advisor on the issue, Dr. Doug Rokke, were finally allowed a brief forum for discussing the question, after being ignored for years. Other specialists who had studied the disastrous oncogenic, neurological and genetic effects of DU weapons used in the 1991 Gulf War were also granted interviews during what turned out to be an all too brief Brussels Spring. Alerted and encouraged by this sudden openness in the west of Europe, similar incidents of suspicious cancer, renal and other diseases began surfacing throughout Eastern Europe, with Hungarian, Romanian and other troopsformerly stationed in the Balkans being diagnosed with often fatal illnesses. Continuation Of War By Other Means The public uproar over the crisis, especially as it was directed towards governments that knew (or should have known) the probable effects of deploying their citizens to what were indisputably danger zones, immediately led to rancor within and between NATO member states. Parliamentary debates raged, in Portugal right on the eve of a national election yet, and the Permanent War Council in Brussels was in a panic. The mounting public outrage over the DU crisis at home reinforced an already growing sense of distrust and betrayal about the entire Balkans war of 1999; one in which NATO launched a massive attack against a defenseless nation - and populace - on the basis of a succession of threadbare pretences, each one of which was subsequently exposed as the attempt to create war hysteria that it was. The nadir of internecine NATO squabbling, potentially lethal to an alliance that has no valid reason for existence to begin with and depends on a shared delusion for its continuation, occurred in January when German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping felt the heat from various domestic constituencies on the DU crisis. Not being in a position to condemn outright the use of so-called depleted uranium munitions, having raised no objection during the seventy eight days of their use in 1999, Scharping seized on the then current revelation that U.S.-produced DU shells and bullets also contained enriched uranium and plutonium and, to employ the obligatory but hardly credible language of formal diplomacy, demanded an explanation from his American ally. This posturing was a mere gesture of political self-preservation and was no doubt understood as such by the Pentagon and NATO Headquarters in Brussels. But the very fact that it was engaged in at all was an indication of how grave the crisis had become. Time To Deplete The Fire The concerted counterattack was ordered immediately after Scharping's contretemps with his American counterparts. Having abandoned its earlier policy of plausible, if not total, denial, NATO now fell back to the redoubt of acknowledging that, yes, its otherwise pure DU weapons may have somehow become adulterated with non-depleted radioactive elements; and that the concerns - not the health problems, but the concerns - of its citizens might have some validity and, to demonstrate the paternal interest it entertained toward the public welfare, would conduct examinations of any soldiers who requested them. Understand, the tone and substance of the Western governments' pronouncements left no doubt that they considered such tests unnecessary and even frivolous. Reverting to an earlier tactic, one best exemplified by a Canadian official who said that Balkans Syndrome was really --and only-- the *fear* of Balkans Syndrome, NATO and its individual members implied that whining about DU-incurred ailments was in some way unmanly. Definitely *unsoldierly*. The counteroffensive intensified and even assumed a retroactive force with the dismissal of leukemia and other claims by former KFOR troops, instead explaining them away as essentially pre-existing conditions or produced by various co-morbidities. This campaign reached its most absurd, and offensive, length when, as was observed by Polish-Canadian environmental researcher Dr. Piotr Bein, a Romanian soldier returning from the Balkans - and to a diagnosis of leukemia - had his case dismissed by government authorities who affirmed that the soldier in question had already been diagnosed with the disease prior to being sent on active duty abroad. Not a common practice in the Romanian, or any other army, to be sure. Quite The Contrary Quite the contary, quipped a Western defense official several weeks ago when asked if DU weapons presented health hazards for soldiers and civilians exposed to their effects. Half surreal, half monstrous, this comment is emblematic of the stonewalling strategy of NATO itself as well as the governments of its constituent members and the media that faithfully echoes its press releases. And on the level of public information, generally, it's been successful. The above-mentioned Romanian leukemia case, along with an attenuated report of a French soldier three days ago which was summarily dismissed as "unrelated to the use of depleted uranium," no further stories of DU-related cancer or other illnesses have appeared in the Western mainstream media in several weeks. Which is curious as, being forced to acknowledge the anomaly of so many previously healthy troops returning home to die of malignant diseases, the NATO line then was an epidemiological smokescreen. That is, if the normal rate of cancer among population group A over time period B is C, then we can expect a corresponding amount of cancer cases among A whether or not any individual member of the group was stationed in the Balkans. Yet now, knowing how alert the world is to reports of such ailments among former Balkans troops, it's been weeks since any have been mentioned. Are we to believe that the normal rate of leukemia among - primarily - males of military age who served in the Balkans has now dropped to zero? That the 'in fact the contary' has been proven accurate? That counter to all common sense and evidence alike Balkans veterans, and Yugoslavians, exposed to uranium and plutonium particles directly and through the food chain and water supplies are actually healthier than those not exposed, that they're more resistant to cancer? As a veritable epidemic of leukemia explodes among ethnic Serbian civilians exposed to DU weapons near the Sarajevo suburb of Hadjici some five years ago; as prominent scientists like England's Malcom Hooper warn of uranium poisoning spreading into food and water sources in Scotland as a result of DU weapons used on firing ranges there; as the British journalist Andrew Northdetails the DU ravages among the Iraqi population in and around the city of Basra, especially among the most innocent and vulnerable, the infants born with grotesque and horrid birth defects in numbers well-defying the epidemiological norm. And as yesterday's local press reports, that the Bush administration is planning to severely cut back on an already inadequate budget for inspecting the Paducah, Kentucky plant that manufactures U.S. DU weapons found contaminated with plutonium,; as all this is known - and this is only the beginning - NATO's false assurance concerning the miraculous disappearance of leukemia and other fatal illnesses seems premature. In fact, to the extent that politically (and economically) motivated cover ups on this issue are relayed by major media outlets and are believed by those most affected by DU contamination, the assurances aren't so much premature as catastrophic. And as criminal as catastrophic. DU at workin Iraq ten years later (WARNING: Extremely Disturbing) *(copyleft: reproduce and acknowledge the source)* This page: http://www.stopnato.org.uk/du-watch/rozoff/milagrosa.htm WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ***************************************************************** 9 Labs have new guide on beryllium dangers *February 22, 2001* FROM STAFF REPORTS LIVERMORE -- The Energy Department has released a guide for its labs to clarify regulations designed to reduce employees' exposure to beryllium dust, which can cause a fatal respiratory disease. This implementation guide outlines tasks that each lab must perform to assess possibly hazardous beryllium exposure. For example, labs that worked with beryllium must review records, conduct interviews with workers, identify a list of building areas where workers may have been exposed, and identify those workers who were exposed or potentially exposed. Labs must provide respirators to those employees who request them for use during beryllium work, and labs must make counselors available to beryllium-associated workers diagnosed with chronic beryllium disease or beryllium sensitization, the guide also states. A silver-white metal that is strong and lightweight, beryllium has been used for decades in nuclear weapons research and development. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has begun a beryllium disease screening program to help identify workers who have berylliosis or are more susceptible than others to contracting the disease. Thousands of former lab employees have been notified about the screening program, and the lab has identified a handful of former workers who have been sensitized to beryllium or already have berylliosis. A technique for detecting beryllium in air samples, in use at Livermore Lab, is cited in the guide as an example for other labs to follow. The guide is available online at www.explorer.doe.gov obal. One of those professors with ambitions of holding up NATO loudspeaker's to the world, Professor Zbigniew Jaworowski of the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw, went to great lengths to discredit himself more than helping NATO in the coverup of DU. Having teamed up with one Dr. Roger Bate from Cambridge (veterinary clinic?), the duo falsified data on DU exposure and doses in Kosovo. They distributed the amount of DU uniformly over Kosovo's 10,000 km2, then applied this miniscule amount to the mass of all viscera inside our bodies, and - "no danger, just hysteria from ignorants, alarmists and enemies of the good old NATO." The NATO "scientist" duo drew on a decades long cover-up from the International Commission on Radiological Protection and like bodies serving humanity with ...increasingly higher incidence of leaukemia and cancers from nuclear production, accidents, weapon tests and, recently, low-level nuclear DU wars. Jaworowski is known for his message that most incremental "industrial" risks of radioactivity exposure are trivial compared to the natural background." To prove it, he imprisoned laboratory mice in the depths of medieval salt mines near Cracow, to prove that the lack of cosmic radiation was not good for their well being. The poor creatures died... of "lack of cosmic radiation" according to the prof. "This experiment does not convince me, since I would not like to be imprisoned several hundred meters below the sea level in the dark," I was written by another Polish professor - of economics. But what would he know about radiation? Disarmed Uranium Amazed, I read the same propaganda tricks in the Polish press that I knew from the Western media. A linguistic genius likely commissioned by PsyOp Poland, tried to introduce a new name for DU, "disarmed uranium", to hint that the name is faulty rather than the metal. Polish nuclear "experts" convey NATO scripts like, "DU has nothing to do with the Gulf War illness" instead of their own scientific opinions. They, or editors and reporters in NATO's service, broke the code of ethics. The "experts" had strong opinions about DU effects on health, but neither participated in any studies of this kind, nor are they professionals in this field of science. It is plain that they must be hired mouthpieces of NATO and nuclear lobbies. The chairman of the Polish Nuclear Agency, Professor Jerzy Niewodniczanski, insulted the public with irresponsible statements about DU. The few Poles who can read English and have access to the Internet know that DU is not about gamma and beta rays, but mainly about alfa radiation, heavy metal toxocity, and minute particles taken in with food or breathing. Shortly, "the prof made an ass of himself," as kids on my block would say. He probably got away with his crime, for an average Pole gets information from the TV, billboards and tabloids. A "NATO expert," Professor Zbigniew Zagorski from the Institute of Chemistry and Nuclear Technology in Warsaw, compared the radioactivity from 300 tonnes of DU in the Gulf War to 1953-1977 emissions of "natural uranium" over the entire area of the USA, implying that since it did not harm Americans for so many years, why would it be dangerous in the Persian Gulf region! The same "professor" insisted that one can safely sit on intact DU rounds for 2000 hours! DU is known to give out on contact - in one hour - a radioactive dose comparable to the annual allowable limit! Predictably, tests conducted at the Army Institute for Chemistry and Radiometry in Warsaw (Zagorski's institute?) concluded that there was no elevated level of radiation in Polish peacekeepers from Kosovo. Hair and urine samples from 54 soldiers revealed nothing suspicious. Also tested were soil and water samples brought back from "former Yugoslavia," reported Witold Zygulski for Warsaw Voice on January 23rd, 2001. If for Zygulski Kosovo is "former Yugoslavia," then "nothing suspicious" in his report may very well mean "severe DU contamination." A Voice of Truth In contrast with the above propaganda from the region, here is the anonymous voice of a medical doctor from one of the countries concerned: "Even a low dose of radioactivity at the right place (for example next to a quickly dividing cell) has a much greater effect than a higher ammount of radioctivity that is, for example, applied to a less-sensitive tissue. [...] A man living in an area contaminated with the radioactive aerosol cannot avoid it (unless he wears a protective mask), because he does not detect the hazard with his senses." "DU ammunition is made of radioactive waste [...] Caesium, Strontium, Iodine, Barium [...] are an integral part of the biological metabolism and get nested in an organism (for example, natural iodine selectively accumulates in the thyroid gland). DU ammunition [includes] a long line of isotopes that are highly directly toxic (Plutonium, Strontium, etc.) and/or get nested into the organism [...] exerting a permanent effect." "To properly assess the health hazards of DU ammunition, we must therefore take into account all the components of the ammunition that are released anew at the impact on the target. The radioactivity of uranium U238 or U235 is only a fraction of the hazard. NATO experts are arguing that the cumulative radioactivity of the DU ammunition is relatively low (also because it is spread across a wide geographical area) and that the radioactivity does not surpass the amount of radioactivity we are exposed to annually from the cosmic emissions." "DU includes a myriad of other toxic substances, in comparison with which Uranium is a pure joke, for example, plutonium. In addition, an explosion of DU ammunition produces [...] toxic gasses and new isotopes that did not even exist before the impact with the target. Moreover, the isotopes get built into the food chain [...] The effect on an organism is cumulative and [practically unchanged] over time." Some real professionals from the CEE region seem to be more up to date on the subject than so-called NATO experts. This despite the difficulties presented by the fact that most of the scientific references are in Western languages. *(copyleft: reproduce and acknowledge the source)* This page: http://www.stopnato.org.uk/du-watch/bein/neo-nato.htm WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ***************************************************************** 12 DEPLETED URANIUM : INDEPENDENT MEDICAL EXAMS LINK DEATH OF PORTUGUESE SOLDIER TO NATO’S WEAPONS IN BALKANS Pravda.RU:Main ¹ Feb, 22 2001 The father of Corporal Hugo Paulino, the Portuguese Corporal who died after serving in Kosovo, said he was dissatisfied with the answer the Portuguese Military Hospital gave for the death of his son : viral encephalitis, contracted in Kosovo. He started to become suspicious at the way the case was being handled by the military, and incensed when the Head of the Portuguese Army, General Barrento, accused him of aiding the Serbs by requesting more tests and exams, he decided to contract two independent teams to give their opinions. One of the reports mentions that his symptoms “are inside that which is commonly called Balkans Syndrome”. It states that the type of meningitis which killed the soldier was one which is found in people with their immune system destroyed by HIV I or HIV II. Corporal Paulino did not suffer from HIV infection. The report sontinues : “Is this case the consequence of exposure to aggressive factors which provoked a loss of defence (in the immune system).?” “There is no doubt that Hugo Paulino was contaminated in the field of operations of Kosovo and that he was unaware of the dangers posed by this type of weapons in that area of the Balkans. It is common sense and scientific method based on systematic doubt, that makes us advance with the hypothesis that (this) case is related with exposure to eventual toxins existing in the areas where he served". The reports from the Military Hospital, where he died, never made any mention of depleted uranium and the results of the autopsy were only made available to the family of the corporal months after it was performed, due to the insistence of Lino Paulino, the soldier’s father, who is implacable in his attacks on the military. He declared he has nothing to lose, because what he had to lose, he already lost –his son. The other report confirmed the findings of the first : “We can affirm that there was something eventually created in the theatre of operations whose toxicity caused his death”. It would seem that we are speaking of several diverse issues when mentioning Balkan Syndrome. One is the cumulative and delayed effects of exposure to radiation , which generally causes the appearance of cancers five to ten years after exposure. This would account for the high incidence of leukaemia among troops who served in Bosnia in the early/mid 1990s. Such an explanation would not cover Kosovo, because exposure was too recent. However, we could pose another, different, pathology caused by exposure to radioactive dust, released by Depleted Uranium missiles, which destroys the immune system. TIMOTHY BANCROFT-HINCHEY, PRAVDA.RU, LISBON 19:59 MAJORITY OF RUSSIANS THINK U.S. HOSTILE, ONLY 5% CONSIDER IT SUPERPOWER Over half of Russians consider the U.S. a country hostile towards Russia (52%), although every third Russian believes that the U.S. is a friendly country (32%). These figures were released by the Public Opinion Foundation on Thursday as the results of a nation-wide poll of 1,500 respondents conducted February 17 More in detail... RUSSIAN POPULATION DECREASES Russia's population shrank by 751,100 people (0.5%) last year. The estimated size of the Russian population on January 1st this year was 144.8 million. Over 2000, 1.2594 people were born against 1.2147 for 1999, that is by 3.7% more. The mortality rate increased less that the birth rate More in detail... PORTUGUESE PRESS HIGHLIGHTS PRESIDENT PUTIN’S IDEAS FOR EUROPEAN NUCLEAR SHIELD The meeting with President Vladimir Putin with NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson was highlighted in the Portuguese press, a meeting at which President Putin was straight : if NATO does not consider Russia as an enemy, there is no reason to encroach on Russia’s frontiers. The President’s words were quoted as : More in detail... DEPLETED URANIUM : INDEPENDENT MEDICAL EXAMS LINK DEATH OF PORTUGUESE SOLDIER TO NATO’S WEAPONS IN BALKANS The father of Corporal Hugo Paulino, the Portuguese Corporal who died after serving in Kosovo, said he was dissatisfied with the answer the Portuguese Military Hospital gave for the death of his son : viral encephalitis, contracted in Kosovo More in detail... Pravda.RU:Best articles on this week:Main ***************************************************************** 13 Relative: Kursk Had Known Faults February 22, 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW (AP) -- The mother of a sailor who died aboard the nuclear submarine Kursk said Thursday her son told her the vessel had serious problems shortly before he set sail, and that Northern Fleet commanders were warned. '"We have death aboard,"' Nadezhda Tylik recalled her son, Lt. Sergei Tylik, as saying. "He just smiled at me when I told him that everything will be fine." Her statement at a news conference could bolster speculation that the Aug. 12 disaster that killed all 118 aboard was caused by an internal malfunction in one of the Kursk's torpedoes. Russian officials have said a collision with a Western submarine appeared to be the most likely cause. Tylik said that submariners at Vidyayevo, where the Kursk was based, have said that one of the submarine's torpedoes had developed a hydrogen leak, and that Kursk skipper Gennady Lyachin warned his superiors about the problem. "But the Northern Fleet commanders let the submarine out to sea anyway," Tylik said. Fleet officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Two explosions rocked the Kursk. Many Russian and foreign experts have said that a misfiring torpedo most likely caused the first blast that sent the vessel crashing to the seabed where its ammunition apparently detonated, cracking the submarine's hull. Officials have acknowledged that a civilian engineer and a military expert from a torpedo-manufacturing plant were among the Kursk crew, but denied that the ship was testing a new torpedo with unstable fuel. Nadezhda Tylik, who was shown this summer getting an injection while shouting at officials after the catastrophe, reversed her story Thursday that the medicine was for a heart condition and that her husband requested the shot. "I don't know what medicine they injected me with, but it instantly made me unable to speak," Tylik said. Tylik's outburst this summer ended when a woman with a large hypodermic came up behind her, television footage showed. The incident raised allegations that Russia was reverting to Soviet-era techniques in which dissent sometimes was stifled by medical means. Following the criticisms, Tylik denied that she was forcibly injected -- a version she denied Thursday. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 14 Sneh: No uranium bombs used against civilians The Jerusalem Post Newspaper : Online News From Israel - News Article Thursday, February 22 2001 21:36 30 Shevat 5761 By Nina Gilbert (February 22) - No bombs with any kind of uranium have been used "against civilians" or homes in the Palestinian areas, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said yesterday. He called the reports spread about the use of gases and depleted uranium "false and contemptible." He was responding to a motion to the agenda in the Knesset submitted by MK Issam Mahoul (Hadash). Mahoul asked Sneh to clarify if a new kind of gas is being used against Palestinians, and whether Israel has used "uranium bombs" against Palestinian Authority buildings. Sneh said no gas of any kind is being used against Palestinians, except for those in standard smoke grenades thrown to create a smokescreen between the rioters and the troops. "This gas is [emitted] closer to soldiers than to Palestinians," he said, adding that it does not cause any of the symptoms described by the PA. Mahoul said human-rights doctors here have found that CS tear gas is being used, which he said is more concentrated and more dangerous and can be fatal in high concentrations. According to Mahoul, the International Action Center also took samples of the contents of the bombs used against buildings in Ramallah, Gaza, and Nablus, and it is suspected that the bombs were coated in depleted uranium. However, he said, the samples were confiscated by authorities at Ben-Gurion Airport. Sneh said he offered to treat in Israeli hospitals all Palestinians who, according to the PA, were hurt by new types of gas used against them by the IDF. However, he said, the Palestinians rejected the offer, claiming everyone was "okay and had recovered." 1995-2001, The Jerusalem Post - All rights reserved, Click ***************************************************************** 15 Lab may give up nuclear license Inland Empire Online - News Sunday, February 25, 2001 Officials at Wyle Laboratories in Beaumont, which cleans and tests radioactive equipment, say there is too little business from the few nuclear power plants operating in the western United States. *Steve Moore / The Press-Enterprise* An official from Wyle Laboratories in Beaumont says the decision would be purely economic. By Steve Moore *The Press-Enterprise* BEAUMONT Wyle Laboratories in Beaumont may give up its license to repair, test and clean radioactive equipment from nuclear power plants. There's too little business from the few nuclear power plants operating in the western United States, said Drexel Smith, senior vice president for Wyle Laboratories Inc. in El Segundo. "It's an economic decision, pure and simple," he said. "We have been incident-free. There have been no spills, leaks or injuries." Regulators also say the laboratory is well-run. "There have been no incidents reported to the state that caused any harm to the environment or workers," said Rob Greger, chief of the inspection, compliance and enforcement section of the Radiologic Health Branch of the state Department of Health Services. "It's a well-designed facility." A final decision about whether to give up the company's radioactive-materials license will be made by June, Smith said. The license is issued by California and is valid until 2004. "We are evaluating our options," he said. The three-story, concrete-block laboratory, with deep underground pits, is across from the California Highway Patrol station on Highland Springs Avenue at Second Street in Beaumont. The 36,000-square-foot plant employs fewer than a dozen people. It sits on 18 acres. Wyle Laboratories acquired the facility from Westinghouse Western Service Center in 1996. The laboratory has not accepted any radioactive items since January, Smith said. Inside, workers wear gowns and radioactive "readers" to measure exposure levels, said Dan Reeder, manager of corporate communications. There is a health office inside the building. The laboratory also has cranes and hoists to handle heavy equipment sent to the facility, along with hosing equipment and a special room for "hot" items requiring workers to put on protective gear, Reeder said. Despite all that, the laboratory blends right in with Beaumont. On Valentine's Day, local Rotary and Soroptimist clubs held a catered dinner meeting at Wyle Laboratories. A speech contest for students also took place in a conference room there. Steve Zastrow, manager of the local lab, is president of the Beaumont Rotary Club. California imposes certain requirements on a company giving up a radioactive-materials license, Greger said. It's part of the decommissioning process. A company must submit a written plan detailing how a site will be cleaned up to meet state standards, Greger said. Samples are taken from the cleaned-up area before a company can surrender its license, he added. It could take Wyle Laboratories six months to a year to complete the decommissioning process, Greger added. Even without the special license, the company could still repair, test and clean nonradioactive valves, pumps, motors and other equipment from a variety of industries, including aerospace and telecommuncations, Smith added. A majority of the laboratory's business comes from nuclear power plants, according to officials. There are few nuclear power plants operating in the western United States, including two in California, San Onofre in northern San Diego County and Diablo Canyon near San Luis Obispo, Smith said. The company provides testing, research and engineering services to commercial, industrial and government customers. Standards for the laboratory are set by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Maryland. Wyle Laboratories Inc., which has with annual revenues of $150 million, employs more than 1,500 workers at 13 major locations around the country, including a 450-acre test facility in Norco. No radioactive materials are handled at the Norco facility, officials said. Radioactive items are handled at Wyle's facility in Huntsville, Ala., Reeder said. *Steve Moore can be reached by e-mail at smoore@pe.comor by phone at (909) 849-4533.* *Published 2/23/2001* Send comments to feedback@inlandempireonline.com ***************************************************************** 16 Cancer Tied to Workplace Radiation Thursday February 22 12:36 PM EST *By Fran Berger *HealthScout Reporter** WEDNESDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthScout) -- Medical workers exposed to low doses of radiation on the job might face an increased risk of thyroid cancer. So, too, might dental, various industrial and nuclear power workers, claims a new Canadian study that examined data on a half-million people. Linking radiation exposure to cancer is nothing new. It's well documented that atomic bomb survivors and those who've received high doses of radiation to treat non-cancerous diseases have a higher incidence of cancer later in life. Now, however, the new study links higher incidence of cancer -- and specifically thyroid cancer -- to low-dose radiation. The researchers used data collected by the Canadian National Dose Registry, which has monitored radiation exposure of workers since 1951, and compared it to the Canadian Cancer Data Base. They connected 3,737 workers with cancer (2,098 men and 1,639 women) to radiation exposure between 1969 and l988. Most victims were between the ages of 21 and 85. "The thyroid cancer incidence … is greater than would be expected, and the incidence in women is very significant," says lead researcher Willem N. Sont, of Canada's Radiation Protection Bureau. Sont says this study is the first to focus on medical workers who are exposed to low-dose radiation over a period of time. But he quickly adds that, despite all the linkages found, "we don't know the cause, [and] we cannot say for sure it's from radiation." "We can only speculate," Sont says. Findings appear in the current issue of the *American Journal of Epidemiology*. Radiation exposure is measured in doses, taking into account both internal and external exposure to ionizing radiation, which includes gamma, beta and X-rays. The amount of radiation absorbed by a gram of tissue is expressed in millisieverts, or mSv. The average dose received by the study participants was 6.64 mSv, with men receiving a much higher average dose than women: 11.50 mSv vs. 1.75 mSv, the study says. Not everyone agrees with the researchers' conclusions, however. John Boice, scientific director of the International Epidemiology Institute and a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University, points out that people normally get between 1 mSv and 3 mSv a year from natural sources, like cosmic rays and the air we breathe. "Thyroid cancer is a major effect of radiation, [but] it comes from exposure in childhood, before the age of 20," Boice maintains. The fact that the Canadian study finds excesses of thyroid cancers in adults may be attributable to "much better medical care and screening and advancements in detection" rather than radiation exposure, he says. Sont says the researchers also found a higher-than-expected link between low-dose radiation exposure and melanoma, a virulent form of skin cancer. But again, he says, "There are other factors which cause melanoma. A very obvious one is exposure to ultraviolet [light]." With that, Boice concurs. "Melanoma is not associated with ionizing radiation," Boice says. "Basal cell and squamous cell cancers have been linked to high dosages, but when melanoma pops up, we think of other potential causes." Sun exposure generally comes to mind, he says. Incidence of other cancers -- including testicular, pancreatic and colon cancer -- also was found by the Canadian researchers, but they say it's not possible from this study alone to declare cause and effect. The next step, Sont says, is to look at dose information for workers after l988. "With smaller doses, the cancer is harder to find, and that's why this study will make contributions," he says. "But linking cancer to radiation exposure is more difficult, and more work needs to be done." What To Do To learn more about the effects of ionizing radiation, visit the Environmental Protection Agencyonline. For more on nuclear radiation, the benefits and risks, check out How Stuff Works. Or, you might want to read previous HealthScout articles on radiation and cancer. Copyright © 2001 All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 17 City officials, congressman concerned about possible cleanup delay Posted at 2:30 p.m. EST Thursday, February 22, 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MIAMISBURG, Ohio (AP) -- City officials are concerned that a possible delay in cleanup of the former Mound nuclear weapons plant will hamper redevelopment at the site and cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Energy Department officials said this week that because of budget constraints, the cleanup might not be completed until 2010, four years later than expected. Jean Greenwalt, department spokeswoman for the project, said President Bush has indicated that his budget will try to limit spending in many areas. The Mound plant made parts for the country's nuclear weapons arsenal from 1948 until 1994. Once the site is rid of radioactive contaminated soil and groundwater, city officials want to redevelop the 306-acre area into the Mound Advanced Technology Center business park. Miamisburg is about 10 miles southwest of Dayton. Each additional year needed for the cleanup also will cost taxpayers at least $95 million to maintain the property, local officials said. ``We cannot create jobs until they get buildings cleaned up for us,'' Mayor Dick Church Jr. said. ``If they came in, cleaned it up and got out, the taxpayers across the country would save that money.'' U.S. Rep. Tony Hall, whose district includes the site, said the government has the money to do the job. There are currently discussions in Congress about what to do with billions of surplus dollars, Michael Gessel, press secretary for the Ohio Democrat, said Thursday. ``The money is there for the cleanup, and Congressman Hall feels that spending money to clean up environmental sites such as Mound should be a high priority of the federal government,'' Gessel said. Top energy officials already have frozen spending on the Miamisburg project at $95 million for at least the next year. The federal government has spent more than $662 million since 1995 to clean up the site. ``We intend to finish, but with funding restrictions, it's going to make it more difficult for us to do it in a timely manner,'' Greenwalt said. The Miamisburg Mound Community Improvement Corp., created by the city to redevelop the land, had hoped to use rental revenue from the site to become self-sufficient. A $500,000 supplement will be needed now to replace an energy department grant and meet the corporation's $2 million annual budget, officials said. ``I worry that this is a warning sign,'' said Mike Grauwelman, corporation president. ``Is it ever going to get completed?'' Greenwalt said the Energy Department is looking for ways to speed up the project and meet the 2006 deadline. ``But at this time, it looks like it will be 2010,'' she said. AP-CS-02-22-01 1414EST --> ***************************************************************** 18 Sandia Labs craft radioactive traps Albuquerque Tribune Online: News The Associated Press Molecular cages that can capture radioactive chemicals swimming in hazardous waste have been developed at Sandia National Laboratories. The Sandia Octahedral Molecular Sieves -- SOMS -- could be useful in microelectronics fabrication and other industries where extracting chemicals is a costly problem. Sandia officials say the traps could also help capture valuable materials, such as chromium and nickel, to be reused. "Not only are SOMS fascinating as a new material," says Sandia principal investigator Tina M. Nenoff, "they possess many unique properties that are useful in waste cleanup and industrial processing." The SOMS are described as tiny sponges that suck atoms into microscopic pores. The positively charged atoms are snared at negatively charged bonding sites in a process called ion exchange. In lab tests the SOMS trapped more than 99 percent of strontium-90 ions, Sandia officials said. Strontium-90 is one of the two most prevalent radioactive constituents of liquid hazardous waste inside storage tanks at the Department of Energy's Hanford, Wash., environmental remediation site. "We tune the pore size and the chemistry of the framework on the nano scale so the SOMS materials capture cations on the bulk scale very selectively and efficiently, and in all types of environments," Nenoff said. Sandia collaborated with researchers at the University of California-Davis, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of Michigan, the State University of New York and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop the molecular cages. © The Albuquerque Tribune. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************