***************************************************************** 12/23/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.304 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Yucca Mt: Nevada sues Energy Department 2 San Onofre Plant Is Exempted From Drill 3 Armenian party urges payment of nuclear power plant wage arrears 4 Bulgarian premier says country's nuclear reactor decommissioning 5 Wind vs nuclear power is not the only option 6 Nuclear power to solve energy crises of Russian Far East, says 7 Medical office has license pulled by NRC 8 Canada: PT. Lepreau shut down again 9 Belarusian company to participate in Iranian nuclear power 10 Canada: Uranium contaminated water source 11 'Close down Ireland,' says British Labour MEP 12 British Energy to challenge ruling on overpayment 13 Armenian nuclear plant's wage arrears "security risk" - trade 14 Deputy minister says nuclear energy needs R160bn in investment by 15 Nuclear security meltdown 16 Bulgaria: Nuclear plant unit reconnected to national power grid 17 Protests greet plutonium decision 18 Nuclear waste must be moved for ultimate disposition 19 Yucca: Hydrologist talks water to area residents - 20 Reid blocks vote on nominee to lead Yucca project 21 GAO's final report: Opting to proceed with Yucca Mountain might be premature 22 Power plant chief backs Yucca site 23 Glow away for a break to Chernobyl 24 O'Callaghan: People up north should remember there is only one Nevada 25 Good News on Nukes 26 Primorsky Governor Considers Nuclear Power Plant Construction 27 Britain, Russia may agree on radioactive waste disposal 28 Fianna Fail hysterical about Sellafield - Ingham 29 NRC calls Maine Yankee on procedure violations 30 Security workers renew plea for revised rules at USEC upgrade of security 31 Group petitions Governor for guard at power plant NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Idaho celebrates nuclear energy milestone 2 US-Pak Searching Nuke Material in Panjsher 3 US searching nuclear material in Panjsher 4 North Korean radio denounces US plan to use small nuclear weapons 5 Wind blowing in Pasko's direction? 6 editorial: Flats' cleanup quandry 7 New terror threat to Britain 8 Comment: The cold war is long over, but Star Wars goes on 9 Battelle gets highest rating ever 10 Nuclear material found in al-Qaida caves, officials say 11 'Dirty bomb' materials found 12 Russia: Cause of Kursk submarine accident will soon be 13 DOE official tours Livermore laboratory 14 Designer says Russian navy should get rid of torpedoes blamed for 15 Georgia Arrests Smuggler with Radioactive Materiel 16 Designer says Russian navy should get rid of torpedoes blamed for 17 Russian MP doubts cause of Kursk sub sinking will ever be known 18 Tensions mount between nuclear foes ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Yucca Mt: Nevada sues Energy Department Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 10:27:51 -0600 (CST) http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-18-Tue-2001/news/17692551.html Tuesday, December 18, 2001 Copyright ) Las Vegas Review-Journal Nevada sues Energy Department By STEVE TETREAULT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The state of Nevada filed a lawsuit Monday to halt the Yucca Mountain Project, challenging Energy Department ground rules for judging whether the site is suitable for nuclear waste storage. The lawsuit says the guidelines are contrary to what Congress intended, and that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham should be prevented from making recommendations on Yucca Mountain until they are reviewed by the courts. Filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the lawsuit is the second filed by Nevada since the summer challenging aspects of the project. State officials said more legal appeals are being prepared as they try to derail the proposed burial of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Energy Department has defended the site guidelines as within the law, based on sound science and on the recommendations of experts. The department might request an expedited ruling which could otherwise take months, according to one attorney watching the case. Abraham is expected to make a repository recommendation sometime this winter. The Nevada lawsuit says that the Energy Department revised Yucca Mountain site guidelines after scientists began to conclude the natural features of the mountain might not work as a primary barrier preventing radioactivity from escaping into the environment from decaying pellets of spent nuclear fuel. The DOE should have stopped the Yucca Mountain program at that point, the state contends, citing a section of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act that "geologic considerations shall be the primary criteria for selection of sites." Instead, the lawsuit says, DOE formed new guidelines allowing radioactivity containment by man-made "engineered barriers" to count in the repository's performance. Scientists envision storing waste in corrosion-resistant containers and shielding the containers from elements that might hasten their decay. The revamped site rules were proposed in December 1996 and finalized Friday. "The fundamental principle of geologic isolation is being undermined by DOE's siting guidelines in an attempt to make Yucca Mountain work, despite Yucca Mountain's blatant geologic deficiencies," Gov. Kenny Guinn said. "What the DOE is doing is akin to starting a football game with one set of rules only to change them at halftime when it realizes it's losing," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "This is absolutely the proper course of action," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said of the state's challenge. On Friday, DOE General Counsel Lee Liberman Otis told Guinn and Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa in a letter that the site guidelines were appropriate measures for Yucca Mountain, developed on recommendations by the National Academy of Sciences and directives from the Nuclear Regulatory Com- mission. "DOE changed its guidelines because both the science and the law relevant to this project have developed significantly," since the early 1980s, Otis wrote. "Our letter pretty much speaks for itself," DOE spokesman Joseph Davis said Monday. "It's a matter for the courts to figure out." The Energy Department and nuclear industry officials who support Yucca Mountain development say the combination of natural barriers and engineered features will couple to make a repository safe and effective. "The mountain itself performs very well," Marvin Fertel, a vice president at the Nuclear Energy Institute, said at a briefing last week. As for the engineered barriers, "The law requires the repository to be safe. It would seem awful stupid to take away things that make it safe," he said. Institute officials had not seen the lawsuit Monday and would not comment until they had, a spokeswoman said. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com ***************************************************************** 2 San Onofre Plant Is Exempted From Drill December 22, 2001 From Times Staff Writers The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has exempted the San Onofre nuclear power plant from this year's required multiagency emergency-response drill. The drill, usually required every two years, had been set for Sept. 12 but was canceled because of the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon the previous day. Federal and state officials--from the California Highway Patrol to the Marines at nearby Camp Pendleton--participate in the drills. The commission is urging the plant's operator, Southern California Edison, to reschedule the drill as soon as possible. Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times ***************************************************************** 3 Armenian party urges payment of nuclear power plant wage arrears BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 21, 2001 Text of report by Armenian news agency Arminfo Yerevan, 21 December: The Democratic Party of Armenia has demanded that the Armenian leadership urgently pay wage arrears owed to staff employed at the Armenian nuclear power plant. These arrears amount to 63bn drams (about 120m dollars). A statement circulated today, which was submitted to Arminfo news agency, notes, in particular, that non-payment of salaries to the nuclear power plant's staff, which has been going on for five months now, is impermissible, particularly given the importance of the work done by the staff working at the nuclear power plant, given that the human factor is of particular significance in this sphere. We demand that urgent measures be taken to settle the debts owed to staff working at the Armenian nuclear power plant and to satisfy the legitimate demands of staff working at the plant, it says in the Democratic Party of Armenia's statement. Source: Arminfo, Yerevan, in Russian 1613 gmt 21 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 4 Bulgarian premier says country's nuclear reactor decommissioning on schedule BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 21, 2001 Text of report in English by Bulgarian news agency BTA web site Sofia, 21 December: "Bulgaria observes the EU requirements concerning the timeframe for the decommissioning of reactors at the Kozlodoui nuclear power plant," Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha told parliament Friday [21 December], answering an MP's question. "The commitments to the union involve closure of Units 1 and 2 of the plant by the end of next year," said Roumen Ovcharov, MP of the Coalition for Bulgaria. "The date for the closure of Units 3 and 4 has not been set yet, but this, too, is to be done by the end of 2002," Ovcharov said. He proposed setting up a "public-state commission" to work towards a postponement for the decommissioning of Units 3 and 4. "President-Elect Georgi Purvanov will support such an initiative," Ovcharov said. "It is necessary to pool the efforts of all departments, parliament, and public organizations to salvage these two reactors," Ovcharov said, adding that the initiative does not imply withdrawal from the country's commitments to the EU as regards the N-plant. Source: BTA web site, Sofia, in English 21 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 5 Wind vs nuclear power is not the only option The Herald (United Kingdom); Dec 21, 2001 AS BUSINESS development manager with ABB Power Generation Ltd in the mid-1990s, one of my responsibilities was to calculate lifetime electricity generation costs for different types of power plant. This analysis repeatedly showed wind to be an expensive source of power - more so than nuclear. The data I have seen for the Eaglesham Moor and Lewis proposals do not lead me to alter this judgment. Although described as being of 240 MW and 450 MW respectively, these ratings are misleading because of the low utilisation achieved by wind farms - 28% typically. These developments are, in reality, equivalent to fossil plant of just 75 MW and 150 MW. The (pounds) 500m price for the Lewis project implies a true installed cost of (pounds) 3300 per kW. This is not remotely competitive with the (pounds) 600 per kW installed cost of gas-fired fossil plant. Lifetime fuel costs considered as an up-front cost would no more than double the latter figure. We should not expect to see major cost reductions as the market develops. Far from breakthrough technology, a wind turbine is an assembly of straightforward engineering long in production. Indeed, wind farms require substantial civil work on the site, because a large number of machines is required to develop a useful amount of power. No innovation can change that. Wind capacity requires fossil plant back-up in case the wind drops. No innovation can change that either. We have more choice than just wind vs nuclear. We could reject both. The objective is to reduce emissions of methane and carbon dioxide. We can use electricity more effectively. We can concentrate power generation on combined cycle gas turbines, cogeneration, and ''micropower'' plants in the home, with district heating schemes and better house insulation also yielding benefits. A tax on aviation fuel would curb the growth forecast in air travel. A return transatlantic flight burns as much fuel per passenger as a year of driving, so this would be no bad thing. We can buy lighter cars and drive less. Industry can use rail more. We can reduce the farming of ruminant animals, which emit methane, and aid the Russians in stopping leaks in their vast natural gas pipeline. We do not have to spend huge amounts of money covering our unique landscapes with industrial machinery of dubious taste. Malcolm Wardlaw, 92 Drymen Road, Bearsden, Glasgow. IT WOULD help informed debate along if we knew how much non-renewable energy is needed to build a windmill. Adam Hogg, 34 Dillarburn Road, Lesmahagow. THE wind farm proposed for the Braes of Doune may consist of 50 93-metre structures. Each structure may be around three times the height of the Wallace Monument and together they will cover an area several times the size of the Murrayfield stadium complex. They may have lights on each blade for aircraft awareness, that would be 150 lights on our horizons. It will provide enough power only for Stirling. It is to be sited on one of the last uninterrupted views in central Scotland to which you can easily drive and, from your car, you can admire red squirrels, red kites circling above, dippers in the trout burn, buzzards, heron, and much more. Hopefully, this would not change, unlike the dire consequences had a nuclear power station been proposed. My assumption is that, as a nation, we are all pro the good use of renewable resources that provide little damage to our environment. It is sad to think that such a development feeds so little power into the national grid to supply our consumption. To power Scotland, how much land would have to be covered in windfarms? Emma Scott, Auld Dalbrack, Kilbryde, Dunblane. While Mr Jenkins (December 15) may have honourable intent - to save the good folk of Lewis from the ''blades'' of progress - I imagine that they are wise enough to make their own decision. What is less honourable is the attempt to sabotage innovation and commerce in deriving power from natural sources. Steuart Campbell (December 16) writes of the calm conditions from the otherwise windswept and wave-ravished city of Edinburgh. Perhaps from there he had ''seen'' the swells of the North Atlantic ceasing. More disturbing a vision is the halting of the tides, as this would imply that we had lost the sun and the moon and are careering in to the darkness of space. An e-mail sent to staff by management at nuclear generator British Energy has urged them to lobby in support of the nuclear industry. Staff are urged to use their home addresses to lobby politicians and other opinion leaders. That tax-payers will pay for decommissioning and any liability incurred by the industry speaks for the economic viability of the nuclear option. Brendan Wishart, Setter, Burra Isle, Shetland. ***************************************************************** 6 Nuclear power to solve energy crises of Russian Far East, says local governor BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 21, 2001 Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS Vladivostok, 21 December, ITAR-TASS correspondent Leonid Vinogradov: Construction of a nuclear power station is to begin in 2015 in Maritime Territory. A serious shortage of energy capacity means the Far East is in urgent need of ways of producing electricity, Maritime Territory governor Sergey Darkin said today. He said there would be a parallel search for alternative sources of electricity. There are plans to build an oil refinery and a plant to produce liquified gas in Maritime Territory. These will use the hydrocarbons that are currently being extracted on the Sakhalin Shelf. According to the governor, there will be a referendum for residents of the Territory to express their attitude to the construction of a nuclear power plant. It will only be built after comprehensive studies into its ecological safety. Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 0829 gmt 21 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 7 Medical office has license pulled by NRC mcall.com - From The Morning Call It’s the second step taken against the firm. December 21, 2001 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has suspended the license of a Lower Nazareth Township medical office that offers cardiac diagnostic services. The action Friday is the second step the NRC has taken in recent weeks against Advanced Medical Imaging and Nuclear Services, 3729 Easton-Nazareth Highway. NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci said the license will remain suspended until outstanding issues are resolved. Early this month, the medical office agreed to halt NRC-licensed activities until it took action to comply with agency regulations, which included hiring an authorized materials user or safety officer. The agency said that was done, and a license amendment was issued Dec. 11 reflecting the new personnel. However, the NRC said after that, materials were ordered and used by an individual who had not received the required instructions from, and who was not under the supervision of, an authorized user physician, despite commitments made by the office. “They need to demonstrate to us that they can use the radioactive materials according to regulations,” Screnci said. In the NRC order suspending the license, Carl J. Paperiello, deputy executive director for materials research and state programs, noted, “These actions by the licensee have raised serious doubt as to whether the licensee can be relied upon in the future to comply with NRC requirements.” According to the NRC, the majority of the Advanced Medical Imaging’s work is in cardiology, where patients are injected with radioactive material and scanned for blockages and abnormalities. The firm did not return a call. Copyright © 2001, The Morning Call ***************************************************************** 8 Canada: PT. Lepreau shut down again Local News - Halifax - canada.com network By The Canadian Press Friday, December 21, 2001 FREDERICTON - New Brunswick's Point Lepreau nuclear power plant is shut down again. The station was shut down today after an oil leak was detected in a hydraulic unit that operates a fueling machine. The leak cannot be repaired while at power. Officials say the length of the shutdown will depend on the time needed to assess and repair the fueling system. The nuclear power plant only came back on line yesterday after a five-day shutdown due to the failure of a piece of equipment. The New Brunswick government is expected to decide next spring if it will invest in a complete refurbishment of the power plant. © Copyright2001 The Canadian Press ***************************************************************** 9 Belarusian company to participate in Iranian nuclear power project BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 22, 2001 Text of report by Belarusian radio on 22 December The Minsk-based Tsenrtenerhamantazh [central energy installation] open joint-stock company will participate in the construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran, the company's director, Ihar Dysman, has said. Tsenrtenerhamantazh has won an international tender for the construction of the plant's turbine shop. Tsenrtenerhamantazh also received the Belarusian government's award for high quality in November this year. Source: Belarusian Radio, Minsk, in Belarusian 1700 gmt 22 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material ***************************************************************** 10 Canada: Uranium contaminated water source Local News - Halifax - canada.com network Friday, December 21, 2001 ROTHESAY - Thirty-six families in Rothesay will have to wait until after Christmas before they can draw uranium-free municipal water from their taps. Clean water from a new $340,000 pipeline won't be flowing into their homes until next Thursday or Friday, said Mayor Bill Bishop. The new line, which runs some 1.4 kilometres to the town's main water system, is completely in place. However, the town needs to wait until water from the pipeline passes bacterial testing by the District Medical Health office before it can be delivered. The water samples, taken Wednesday, have to incubate for several days before the results can be read. By the time the incubation period is up, medical health staff will be gone from their offices to celebrate Christmas. ``So now we're not going to be able to put that in residences until after Christmas,'' Bishop said. ``But everything is a go, and we'll be doing it within a matter of days.'' In August, the town hand-delivered letters to 36 homes notifying families that the tap water they draw from a local community well system does not meet Health Canada's new tolerance standards for uranium. Ottawa had reduced the standard from 100 micrograms per litre to 20. The town's uranium traces wash from underground rock formations that stretch along the southeastern shore of Kennebecasis Bay and along Belleisle Bay, a provincial official has said. © Copyright2001 The Canadian Press Copyright © 2001 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global ***************************************************************** 11 'Close down Ireland,' says British Labour MEP Irish Newspapers - Date: Sun December 23rd 01 IF IRISH people are so concerned about radioactivity, they should "close down Ireland" rather than complain about Sellafield, insisted a British Labour MEP in atrenchant defence of the nuclear industry. Awarding his star prize for "political humbuggery to the Irish", Dr Gordon Adam dismissed, with total contempt, the criticisms from his Irish colleagues about the new MOX plant at the Sellafield complex in Cumbria. Criticising the "twisted logic" behind Ireland's campaign against the nuclear power and reprocessing complex, he pointed out that Sellafield generates no more than one per cent of total radioactivity in Ireland, according to figures he claimed were from the Radiation Protection Institute of Ireland. "If one per cent is such a problem, I simply do not understand why the Irish continue to live in Ireland with their own 99 per cent. It is racism applied to radioactivity," he told a conference in Amsterdam. In a paper titled Nuclear revival: the political challenge, the North-East of England MEP wrote: "If the Irish are so concerned, they should close Ireland down and let Sellafield get on with the job of helping to ensure that our electricity supplies are maintained. "I award the star prize for political humbuggery to the Irish, to the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle. Most of the Irish MEPs have seized with tactical adroitness on the recent terrorist attacks for further attempts to close down the mixed oxide reprocessing plant at Sellafield and Sellafield itself full-page adverts in the British press, no less. The invective pays no regard to scientific fact." In fact, the full page ads were taken out by Fianna Fáil and not by MEPs, although they failed to convince the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, not to start operations at the MOX plant, which finally opened for business this week. Dr Adam, an MEP for 20 years, told the conference that nuclear energy is safe, poses no danger to the environment or human health and is a cost-effective source of electricity. Apart from Ireland, its people and politicians, he saves further invective for the Green movement generally, dismissing their "renewable" energy sources as inadequate to meet power needs. "But what I really object to is the blatant self-interest. Sellafield is not the only reprocessing plant in the world, nor does it have the only MOX fuel fabrication plant. Yet there is no equivalent campaign by the Irish against these other plants on behalf of the people that, by their twisted logic, must also beaffected." His statement has deeply annoyed Irish MEPs, who have used the European Parliament to criticise Britain's pro-nuclear policy. Leinster Fianna Fáil MEP Jim Fitzsimons and Green MEP Nuala Ahern attacked Britain's policies and challenged the safety of moving radioactive material to and from Sellafield. They said that, following September 11, the transport of nuclear materials by rail threatened the safety of European citizens. © Copyright Unison ***************************************************************** 12 British Energy to challenge ruling on overpayment NATIONAL NEWS: Financial Times; Dec 22, 2001 By ANDREW TAYLOR British Energy, the nuclear generator, plans to appeal against a Scottish court ruling requiring it to pay at least Pounds 52.3m that Scottish Power claims it has overpaid under a 15-year power supply agreement. The Scottish Court of Session is to establish a neutral designated trust account until a court dispute over the contract can be resolved. Further sums paid into the account could run at about Pounds 6.5m a month, according to the Scottish Power claim. The contract brokered by the Tory government in 1990 requires Scottish Power to buy three-quarters of Scotland's nuclear output. British Energy said that it would seek leave to appeal in January against the establishment of a trust account. Andrew Taylor Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-1998 ***************************************************************** 13 Armenian nuclear plant's wage arrears "security risk" - trade union BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 22, 2001 Text of report by Armenian news agency Arminfo Yerevan, 22 December: Customers' debts to the Armenian nuclear power station for supplied energy has reached 3bn drams (5.3m dollars), which is why the station's employees have not received wages for four or five months, Arminfo news agency has learnt from the station's trade union. The trade union said that the station's wage arrears pose a danger to its normal work in view of the importance of the human factor. This could lead to extraordinary situations. We should note that the monthly wage fund for the station's employees is about 150m drams (260,000 dollars). Source: Arminfo, Yerevan, in Russian 0940 gmt 22 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to ***************************************************************** 14 Deputy minister says nuclear energy needs R160bn in investment by 2005 BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 23, 2001 Russian Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Bulat Nigmatulin has outlined plans for investment in the nuclear energy industry in an interview published in the Russian newspaper Kommersant on 19 December. The following is an excerpt from it. Bulat Nigmatulin, deputy minister of atomic energy and an author of the nuclear power investment programme, told Kommersant in an interview about this programme and the priority objectives of the Atomic Energy Ministry. [Kommersant] What is the estimation of the investment requirement of nuclear industry facilities? [Nigmatulin] Nuclear power today consists of 10 nuclear plants (AES) which generate 15.6 per cent of all electric power. We propose in 2002 to channel approximately R30bn into the implementation of investment programmes in nuclear power engineering . Consideration is being given to investing R2.4bn in operating safety; R16.2bn in the construction of nuclear plants; R7.5bn in fuel supplies and R1.4bn in extending the service life of power units. About R160bn will be required up to the year 2005. [Kommersant] What will the main source of funding be? [Nigmatulin] Primarily extra-budgetary sources, including targeted investment funds referred to the prime costs of the AES and their service organizations, depreciation allowances and targeted expenditure on nuclear, radiation, technical and fire safety. R300m will be appropriated next year from the federal budget. [Kommersant] What does the programme say about an increase in the rates for electric power? [Nigmatulin] I believe that the rate for consumers should not increase more than 35 per cent. Consumers currently pay R60 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours, no more than R90 should be paid per 1,000 kilowatt-hours by next year. [Kommersant] Is an increase in export supplies of electric power generated by Russia's power stations being contemplated? [Nigmatulin] There will be no significant exports of electric power from Russia, and this should be clearly understood. We export today 1.5 per cent of total generation, and it is hardly likely that this indicator will increase in the coming years - we have a great need within the country... Source: Kommersant, Moscow, in Russian 19 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to Copyright ***************************************************************** 15 Nuclear security meltdown news.com.au 22 December 2001 [The Australian] By Claire Harvey FIVE months before two jets flew into the World Trade Centre in New York, the designers of the new nuclear reactor planned for Sydney's Lucas Heights were pondering a strange scenario. What would happen if an aeroplane was flown at full speed into the reactor? It was just a wild theory – but the safety report written in May 2001 declared the new reactor was so safe it could even withstand the impact of a light aircraft. The designers, Argentine firm INVAP, included in their report a startling diagram showing a Cessna 500 jet flying into the fortified reactor. At the same time, Greenpeace nuclear activists James Courtney and Steve Campbell were dreaming up a brash protest to show the world how vulnerable Lucas Heights would be to an attack. They wanted to infiltrate the Lucas Heights facility and climb to the top of the reactor, just to prove how easy it would be for a terrorist to do the same. They spent months planning the protest: scouting the facility, enacting role-plays in which protesters took the role of guards and training workers in climbing large structures. The idea occurred to Courtney and Campbell on January 22 this year, as they stood in the dry suburban heat outside the reactor, trying to stop the exportation of a load of radioactive waste. Security at Australia's only nuclear plant was almost non-existent – a couple of Australian Protective Service officers standing inside the gate. Campbell and Courtney were intrigued: if security was this poor, what was to stop terrorists getting inside the facility itself? The idea was to show that Lucas Heights' managing authority, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, was lying when it claimed its facility was secure and presented no danger to the people of Sydney's south. "The people who are telling us that Lucas Heights is completely safe and secure are the same people who are telling us that Lucas Heights is essential for producing medical radioisotopes – when in fact there are much safer ways of producing them," Courtney says. Planning for the protest was so secret that not even the other anti-Lucas Heights community groups saw it coming. Staff and volunteers were flown in by Greenpeace from Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. The volunteers were simply told they were needed for an important protest. On Friday night last week, when they had all assembled in Sydney, they were informed of their mission and issued with cardboard barrel costumes marked "Uranium". "The point of dressing up as barrels was to make sure we didn't look like terrorists," Courtney says. "It's very important in this kind of direct action not to scare the security guards or the police into opening fire, so we wanted to look as innocuous as possible." The job of the human barrels was to run around being as comical as possible to distract the guards and clear the way for three climb teams, each composed of eight recruits trained in climbing large structures. The climbers would scale two of Lucas Heights' supposedly most secure buildings: the reactor itself and Building 27, where radioactive waste is stored. The third team was to climb another metal tower, used as a weather station, to unfurl banners and conduct telephone media interviews. "We're all trained as industrial access technicians," Courtney says. "Some of the guys have worked as riggers and we could all get rigging jobs with our qualifications." At 7pm on Sunday, Greenpeace media officer Carolin Wenzel rang trusted journalists at each of Sydney's three commercial TV stations, ABC radio, the wire service AAP, and one newspaper reporter, telling them to be ready at a shopping centre car park near Lucas Heights at 6.45am. Before dawn on Monday, the climb teams assembled at a Greenpeace warehouse, drove to the suburban fringe and walked through the bush to Lucas Heights, waiting at the fence for orders. "All teams proceed at your leisure," came the two-way radio message at 7.10am. The human barrels arrived at the Lucas Heights gate in two Thrifty rental trucks, jumped out and tried to run into the site. The two Australian Protective Service guards on the gate, scrambling to round up the barrels and TV camera crews, didn't notice the climb teams scaling the 4m fence at the back of the establishment and climbing up the buildings. The APS officers called 000 for help, but Greenpeace claims the extra police did not arrive until 45 minutes later – at 7.55am. Detective Inspector Laurie Pettiford of Sutherland police says the time lag was more like 15 minutes. "Police were on the scene very promptly. The call came out for cars which were on the road to go to the facility, and with the traffic at that time of the morning, that is simply how long it takes." All protesters were arrested for trespassing. Security was supposed to be beefed up at Lucas Heights after the air strikes on Afghanistan began in October, on instructions from the federal Government. In November, ANSTO was ordered to conduct a review of security – including the likely impact of a large jet being flown into the reactor – by John Loy, head of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, the watchdog that oversees Lucas Heights. The report is due out in mid-January. But public tours of the facility continue and Courtney says Greenpeace cannot find any evidence of extra security at the site. Nuclear scientist Jim Green, a researcher at Wollongong University, regularly enters Lucas Heights to use the library. "They issue you with a visitor's pass, but nobody ever checks the pass," Green says. "When you go in on the bus, the security guards get on and ask everyone to wave their pass in the air but I'd just not bother and I have never been stopped." Construction is due to begin on a new research reactor on the Lucas Heights site in April. The INVAP report said terrorism was nothing to worry about because anyone who entered the facility would have to show identification. "The facility has design provisions to deter attacks or sabotage," the report declared. "To access the facility, a person must go through several physical barriers and ID checks." INVAP consulted experts in terrorism and explosive devices, who found "none of these attacks would threaten the integrity of the reactor core or create radioactive releases greater than those analysed from other . . . accidents." But, with Bankstown Airport only 14km away and Sydney airport 22km to the northeast, the possibility of an aircraft crashing into the building had to be considered. The federal Government's Environment Australia department had warned in a report dated February 1999 that: "An aircraft crash at the proposed reactor could have catastrophic consequences." But the INVAP report said the reactor core was protected by "Aircraft Impact Steel Framed Grillage", a casing which could withstand the blow of a Cessna 500 aircraft. "The vertical component of an aircraft impact would be transferred to the foundations through the four corner columns," the report notes. "The loading will impart little if any additional stress to the reactor block." Green says thousands of Sutherland Shire residents could suffer radiation doses if there was an accident or attack on the facility and the 800 Lucas Heights workers would certainly be seriously affected, suffering cancer and organ failure. But ANSTO's website says that in any accident, the reactor would automatically close down and the reactor's steel casing would contain any radioactivity. "No member of the public would be exposed to significant doses of radiation." Australian IT [http://australianit.com.au] . ***************************************************************** 16 Bulgaria: Nuclear plant unit reconnected to national power grid BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 23, 2001 Text of report in English by Bulgarian news agency BTA web site Vratsa, 23 December: Generator unit four, 440 MW, of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant reached 55 per cent of its capacity on Sunday [23 December] after it was switched to the national power grid the day before, the N-plant's press centre said. The unit was closed down for planned annual repair and refuelling on 20 August 2001. On 21 December, the Inspectorate for Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy gave its permission to put the unit into operation. By the end of Monday, the unit will operate to its designed capacity. A programme for modernization was implemented during the repair, including the installation of a spray-tray jet condenser - a chief element of the damage localizing system, the press centre said. The project is an original one and applied for the second time in the world after its implementation at the N-plant of Novovoronezh. The same type of condenser will be installed on unit three during its planned repair in 2002. The condenser system improves the technological safety level of the generating units, bringing them in line with the international standards. This is important in view of the mission of the OSART mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the negotiations with the European Commission on the fate of the 440-MW units three and four. All the six units of the Kozloduy N-plant will operate during the Christmas and New Year holidays. Source: BTA web site, Sofia, in English 23 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 17 Protests greet plutonium decision [Guardian Unlimited] Paul Brown Guardian Friday December 21, 2001 Protests on both sides of the Irish Sea, including at Sellafield, greeted the news yesterday that British Nuclear Fuels has finally introduced plutonium into its £470m mixed oxide (mox) plant at Sellafield after a five-year wait. The plant uses plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear fuel reprocessed in the giant Thorp reprocessing plant next door to make new fuel for nuclear reactors around the world. The plant has been fiercely criticised by environmental groups and foreign governments, particularly Ireland and Norway, which object to what they see as more radioactive pollution. Irish students chained them selves to the gates of the Sellafield plant yesterday in protest. Staff at the plant were delighted with the start-up which safeguards 200 jobs directly and about 2,000 in the reprocessing works. Attempts in the high court and court of appeal by Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace failed to stop the plant. The Irish government has cases pending in three international courts disputing the decisions by the Department of Environment to give the go-ahead for the plant in October after four years of indecision. Jack Allen, head of operations at the site, said: "This is wonderful news and is the best Christmas present we could have had. I am very proud of the mox workforce who have worked so hard to get us to this stage." Martin Forwood, a spokesman for Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment, said: "It is just a white elephant for the Sellafield area. I find it frankly incomprehensible that this company can find any satisfaction in opening this plant that was losing money from day one." Outside the plant, about 70 demonstrators from Irish protest group Gluaiseacht - mostly made up of students - marched from Sellafield's north gate to the south gate at 7am. Green MEP Nuala Ahern said the action was "arrogant, irresponsible and irreversible and would make a nightmare Christmas present for people living around the Irish Sea." [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 18 Nuclear waste must be moved for ultimate disposition Tallahassee Democrat Online Sunday, December 23, 2001, updated at 8:07AM By Gregory R. Choppin SPECIAL TO THE DEMOCRAT At present approximately 43,000 metric tons of spent fuel is being stored temporarily in water pools and concrete casks at more than 100 nuclear plant sites around the country. Such sites include the Crystal River, Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear plants in Florida. This spent fuel is highly radioactive, but is stored safely and securely. It must eventually be removed from the temporary storage in the nuclear plants and buried in a deep waste repository far from population centers. Another 10,000 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste from the nation's weapons program and the Navy's fleet of nuclear submarines also require permanent disposal. Fourteen years have elapsed since Congress designated Yucca Mountain as the candidate site for the repository and directed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to determine whether steel canisters holding the waste could be stored there in underground chambers. Since then, DOE has assigned teams of scientists to evaluate the site's geology, hydrology and geochemistry in what is probably the most comprehensive and systematic assessment ever conducted of a piece of land anywhere on the planet. Recently, DOE concluded in a report to Congress that the site is suitable for the repository. Yucca Mountain is arid, geologically stable, and the chambers for the waste canisters are a safe distance from any underground water table. Yucca Mountain is a secured site, located on federal land near Nellis Air Force Range and the heavily guarded Nevada Test Site, where atomic bomb tests one took place. Within the next few months, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham should give President Bush a recommendation on official approval of Yucca Mountain as a repository site with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the agency to license its operation. Congressional approval of this decision is necessary. Any plan to transport nuclear waste from nuclear plants by highway and rail to the Nevada repository is certain to be controversial. However, highly radioactive materials are shipped routinely in this country. Over the past 40 years, there have been about 3,000 shipments of spent fuel by highway and rail without a single instance in which the public was harmed by radiation. And many more shipments of nuclear waste have occurred in other countries. Currently, spent fuel from research reactors in Europe, Asia, and South America is being shipped to the United States and transported long distances by truck and railroad to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, where the material is stored. Presently, steel drums containing plutonium-contaminated wastes from the defense program (known as transuranic waste) are being transported almost daily from military installations in different parts of the country to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant underground repository in southeastern New Mexico. The waste shipments began two years ago, and have been carried out with absolute safety, resulting in permanent disposal in WIPP of at least 2000 drums thus far. Unless the government proceeds with emplacement of nuclear wastes and spent fuel in the Yucca Mountain repository, almost 2,000 tons of spent fuel now stored at nuclear fuel plants in Florida will remain where they are indefinitely. Since this is designed as a temporary storage, with time the possibility of corrosion and release of some of the radioactivity to the environment will increase. Nuclear power is a key component of the energy mix in Florida. Its great advantage is its ability to wrest enormous energy from a small volume of fuel, without releasing pollutants into the air or emitting greenhouse gases. For the next few decades at least, nuclear power is essential for energy and environmental needs of Florida and the U.S. It is in our interest to keep the plants running and ensure that spent fuel is permanently stored at the Yucca Mountain facility. Our energy security depends on it. + Gregory R. Choppin is a professor in the Florida State University Department of Chemistry specializing in nuclear-inorganic chemistry. He can be reached at 850-644-8277. All content © 2001 Tallahassee Democrat. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 19 Yucca: Hydrologist talks water to area residents - Las Vegas View Neighborhood Newspapers Friday, December 21, 2001 - By MARK WAITE VIEW STAFF WRITER The crowd of real estate professionals watched intently as the tall man with the deep voice and the cowboy bolo tie explained the water situation in Pahrump Valley during a Dec. 11 breakfast meeting at the Desert Greens clubhouse. The verdict from Nye County Hydrologist Tom Buqo -- Pahrump doesn't have a water crisis, but pumps on water wells in some parts of the valley may start sucking air in the near future as the water table drops and residents may start thinking about forming utility districts. Buqo, the county hydrologist since 1996, is preparing a Nye County Water Resources Plan he said could give the county standing in any disputes with the state, or the federal government over projects like Yucca Mountain. The U.S. Geological Survey will also conduct a water study in Pahrump Valley, he said. Some of his data on areas with a concentration of wells or large amounts of water withdrawals could be used for further study by the USGS. "It sets forth a goal for a county from a water planning point of view," Buqo said of his plan, due to be released by the holidays. "Part of that process is determining how much water is available." A study released in 1980 by geologist Jim Harrell is the only study listing the perennial yield of recharge water for the Pahrump Valley from its source in the Spring Mountains. Buqo said Harrell put the figure of safe yield at 26,000 acre-feet per year, Buqo estimated about 30,000 acre-feet -- an acre-foot is 326,000 gallons of water, enough to supply a family of four for a year. "It looks like the last two, three years, we've pumped right at 26,000 acre-feet," Buqo said. "We're getting close to an overdraft situation. We pull in more water out of the aquifer than is coming in in recharge." Pahrump Valley wouldn't have enough water to support the optimistic predictions of 100,000 residents in the future without another water source other than the valley's ground water, Buqo said. "Right now, there's about 49,000 subdivided lots in Pahrump Valley, about 12,000 of those are built out," Buqo said. "We forecast the possibility of 35,000 more wells in this valley." Buqo said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Las Vegas Water District, recommended Pahrump residents form a general improvement district, to obtain grants for projects like a pipeline into the valley. Buqo said his feelings are, such a district should be under the control of Pahrump, not Nye County. Pahrump Valley developer Tim Hafen, who listened to Buqo's presentation a few days earlier before the Pahrump Nuclear Waste and Environmental Advisory Board, said he'd like to look at auxiliary water sources, like a pipeline. Developer Hollis Harris, said, "I'd like to see us go for the deep well experiment, see if there's something down there." However Buqo said, "The deeper you go, the worse the water chemistry is." The Virgin Valley Water District sank a well as deep as 2,000 feet, Buqo said. The USGS wants to dig deep exploration wells, he said, adding, "They think that there may be a deeper aquifer." It costs $750,000 to drill a test well that deep, Buqo said, sinking a production well to that depth would cost $1.5 million to $3 million Another factor, Buqo said, is Pahrump sits on a dry lake bed. As it dried up, it generated clay and salts, making the water chemistry poorer with deep wells. Harris said when he subdivided land, he had to donate 2.02 acre-feet of water rights per parcel, commenting, "There's no way that much water is being used. "The Division of Water Resources has a lot more water rights allocated than are being used," Harris said. Buqo said for the inventory data, the state assumes one acre-foot for each domestic well. "One of the objectives (of the plan) is going to be to instill conservation," Buqo said. But he asked, are residents saving water so more residents can move in? In Tucson, Ariz., when Buqo worked at the University of Arizona, he said a conservation program worked so well the local water district had to raise rates because it didn't sell enough water to pay for a capital projects program. While the cost of a pipeline to Lake Mead would be enormous -- $450 million -- it'd still be cheaper than the $3 billion cost of remedying underground contamination at the Nevada Test Site, Buqo said. During the 1950s, farmers in Pahrump Valley were more successful in obtaining water rights under the Desert Land Entry Act than elsewhere. The state engineer said they learned their lesson from Pahrump in not granting as many water permits. "In 1999, irrigation rights were still by far the largest in the basin," Buqo said, showing a graph with 48,739 acre-feet of water rights for irrigation, versus 19,814 acre-feet of municipal water rights. USGS wells mainly cover the perimeter of Pahrump Valley. Buqo took data from well drillers in center parts of the valley. Buqo displayed graphs which show the depth of the water table in wells in the east side of the valley -- where water flows off the alluvial fans through coarse rock -- falling during the heavy irrigation years until the late 1970s, then rebounding to higher depths in recent years. Buqo said the Manse Spring, which was pumping at 1,200 gallons per minute in 1950, dropped to 520 gallons per minute by 1965, 270 gpm by 1970 and went dry in 1975, but locals reported it began flowing again in 1998 after heavy irrigation use stopped. However Buqo said, "Everything in the west part of town is continuos water level decline in each area." As for an explanation, Buqo said the water recharge off the mountains gets bogged down by the clay in the central valley. The Pahrump area had a period of below normal rainfall from 1900-1955, Buqo said, the above average rainfall since then has helped replenish the water table. Scientists use dendochronology, the study of tree rings, to come up with data on the long-term climate of the region before weather service records, he said. "When water levels start dropping, people's automatic reaction is to start pointing figures at somebody else," Buqo said. "The most popular depth for a well in Pahrump today is 140 feet." While most of the discussion centered around water quantity, there was a brief mention about water quality. Buqo warned the audience about too heavy a concentration of septic tanks, incurring a situation like Spanish Springs in Washoe County, where residents were ordered to form a sewer system, after the USGS produced proof the water quality was bad and threatened to impose fines of $25,000 on property owners. "That is a precedent that was set very recently that's very dangerous," Buqo said. "Water supply is not the biggest issue in Pahrump, it's sewage disposal." Buqo said he doesn't have documentation about any problems with nitrates in the Pahrump groundwater. "I have never said Pahrump is running out of water. You're going to run out of cheap water and face the consequences of overdraft," Buqo said. "There are going to be sections of land where people are going to deepen their wells." Buqo also debunked popular community claims that Pahrump sits on a large aquifer. "This is not the third largest aquifer in the United States. This is not the third largest aquifer in the State of Nevada," Buqo said. "Thirty-thousand acre-feet per year is not going to support 100,000 people." "With 8,700 domestic wells and 49,000 lots unbuilt in Pahrump now, we have a potential for another 30,000-35,000 water wells in this valley. That's not a good idea," he said. The solution is getting more water into the basin, Buqo said. That's why Nye County filed for 34,250 acre-feet of water on and adjacent to the southern part of the Nevada Test Site, he said, the entire perennial yield of that basin. The filing has been protested by the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service, Buqo said. In a promising statement, the state engineer commented the DOE hasn't put their use of water for the public good, during a hearing in federal court, a statement the DOE didn't rebut. While Buqo advocated utility districts, he didn't think Pahrump residents were likely to sign up. "Who's going to tell those 8,700 domestic well owners they have to convert to a system?" he asked. "People that own domestic water wells love them and they're not going to give up their water rights." The peak time for drilling wells in Pahrump was during the heady development year of 1996, when 725 new wells were sunk, Buqo said. Only 172 wells were drilled this year, he said. Pahrump Valley had 68,739 acre-feet of paper water rights sitting on the books in 1999, Buqo said, some may be subject to forfeiture for not being put to beneficial use. There is a total demand for 75,024 acre-feet, he said, quoting from Nevada Division of Water Resources data. Buqo displayed maps that showed groundwater withdrawals of over 1,000 acre-feet per year in some sections on the southeast part of Pahrump Valley in the vicinity of the Mountain Falls subdivision. However, the biggest concentration of domestic water wells on Buqo's map, were the 426 wells on a section of land on the west side of town between Linda and Leslie Streets from Charleston Park to Basin Road. Those sections could be subject to USGS study, he said. Buqo said he was asked to study an area on the south end of Pahrump Valley between Manse Road and Kellogg Road west of Homestead Road, after receiving a complaint. A list of proposed developments in Pahrump Valley that will draw more water in coming years includes Mountain Falls, which originally was to include 8,300 homes, Desert Trails subdivision with 1,246 lots planned, Artesia at Hafen Ranch with 898 lots and Mayfield Ranch Estates with 181 lots. While Pahrump may not use as much water if it continues to be like a bedroom suburb of Las Vegas, the addition of large commercial developments like casinos could draw down more water, Buqo said. Nye County is fighting Vidler Water Co. "tooth and nail" over that company's attempts to withdraw water from Sandy Valley. "They're already in an overdraft situation in Sandy Valley," Buqo said. "We have to go in and establish they can't export water out of that valley for anything." Buqo said 19 million additional people will move to the American Southwest by 2020. "The population of Nevada will double. They keep coming, they're not bringing in any additional water," he said. ***************************************************************** 20 Reid blocks vote on nominee to lead Yucca project Saturday, December 22, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Nevadan unhappy with response to query about independent review By STEVE TETREAULT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Government science manager Margaret Chu was passed over by the Senate on Thursday for confirmation to head the Yucca Mountain Project, the result of a block by Sen. Harry Reid. Chu's nomination to become director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management in the Energy Department was set aside for at least a month when the Senate adjourned late Thursday until Jan. 23. DOE spokesman Joe Davis said Friday the delay will not affect work by project managers who are preparing to send Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham material to decide in the coming weeks whether Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, should be recommended for a nuclear waste repository. "This doesn't have any impact on our progress as we are currently moving forward on a site recommendation," Davis said. Reid spokesman Nathan Naylor said the Nevada Democrat placed a hold on Chu's confirmation, which needed consent from all senators in order to pass in the final hours of the Senate session. Naylor said Reid was dissatisfied after meeting with Chu on Dec. 4 and asking her whether she would support an independent review of all science conducted at Yucca Mountain to date. Nevada lawmakers say work may have been compromised by the involvement of attorneys from Winston &Strawn, a Chicago law firm that withdrew from the program Nov. 29 amid conflict of interest allegations. Chu's response, contained in a letter sent to Reid last week, was a "nonanswer," in Reid's view, Naylor said. A copy of the letter could not be obtained Friday and it could not be determined what exactly was said. Reid was flying to Nevada and could not be reached for comment. "He asked her for an answer, and she did not provide him with one," Naylor said. To move ahead to confirmation, "she will have to provide him with an answer." The Energy Department did not comment directly on Reid's action. "Just in general, with respect to Senate confirmation and Dr. Chu, the secretary has said he would like to have all nominees considered and voted on in an expeditious manner," Davis said. "He certainly wanted it done before the and of the session, and he thinks the Senate should bring them up first thing in the new session." Chu, 55, holds a doctorate in physical chemistry. She has headed the Nuclear Waste Management Program Center at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., a 170-person organization that researches global radioactive waste issues. webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 21 GAO's final report: Opting to proceed with Yucca Mountain might be premature Saturday, December 22, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By STEVE TETREAULT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The final version of a controversial analysis of the Yucca Mountain Project concludes "it may be premature" for Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to recommend that nuclear waste should be buried in Nevada. A report by the General Accounting Office released Friday says Abraham "has the discretion to make such a recommendation at this time; however, we question the prudence and practicality of making such a recommendation at this time." GAO investigators concluded that should Abraham recommend the site, the Energy Department would not be able to submit an acceptable license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission within time frames set by law. Abraham has not signaled his decision, which program managers say could come this winter. Years of investigation have led government scientists to say there are no "showstoppers" at the site, a conclusion being challenged by Nevada leaders in the courts and on Capitol Hill. By GAO's analysis, a repository application would need to be ready within about five to eight months after President Bush and Congress approve Abraham's recommendation to place a repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. But the project's managing contractor, Bechtel SAIC, has estimated it could take four years to resolve 293 outstanding technical "agreements" to further analyze Yucca Mountain's geology and the metal alloy casks that would hold spent nuclear fuel in underground caverns, the report concludes. "We continue to believe the secretary of energy should consider the timing of this statutory process as he decides when to make a site recommendation," said the GAO, the nonpartisan audit agency for Congress. The 35-page report is the final version of a widely discussed draft made public three weeks ago. The draft has been cited repeatedly by critics of the Yucca Mountain Project as documentation of deep problems in the nuclear waste program. Abraham dismissed that version as "fatally flawed," an assessment cited since then by the nuclear power industry and other supporters of the repository program. The GAO, after weighing a four-page Energy Department critique, tempered several areas in its final product. It slightly couched a recommendation that Abraham "consider deferring a site recommendation" on Yucca Mountain until DOE can meet time lines set by law. At another point, where the draft report declared flatly that "DOE is not ready to make a site recommendation," the reworked version states, "It may be premature for DOE to make a site recommendation." On other matters, the final version echoes earlier conclusions. The GAO remained critical of program managers. The report said they strayed from the project's baselines for calculating costs and schedules for the $57 billion program. It recommended managers refocus their efforts, taking into account technical work that needs to be done to submit a license application to the NRC. "On the basis of the information we reviewed, DOE is unlikely to achieve its goal of opening a repository at Yucca Mountain by 2010 and currently does not have a reliable estimate of when, and at what cost, such a repository can be opened," analysts said. It recommended the managers "follow the department's requirements for managing major programs." The GAO also pointed out the DOE is considering "alternative approaches" to storing waste at Yucca Mountain if delays mount to its 2010 goal, such as developing "surface facilities" for storing waste at the site until sufficient underground facilities can be built. The Energy Department took a more positive view of the final report after dismissing the draft. Abraham remains committed to making a recommendation on Yucca Mountain, a spokesman said. "We are glad the GAO has acknowledged in the final report that the secretary has the discretion to make a decision on Yucca Mountain suitability at this time," DOE spokesman Joe Davis said. "What this tells us is that contrary to the opinions expressed by some that the draft GAO report signalled the beginning of the end for this program, the final report may in fact be the end of the beginning, whatever the decision may be." Two Nevada lawmakers echoed their earlier assessments, issuing statements that the report represents a big blow to the Yucca Mountain program. "For more than a decade I've said science was taking a back seat to politics. This shows that DOE has thrown sciences off the back of the bus," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said, "The Yucca dump is not inevitable; rather it now seems it is inevitable that the dump will be dead." webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 22 Power plant chief backs Yucca site [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Sunday, December 23, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HADDAM, Conn. -- The head of the Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant has urged U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to recommend Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a dump site for the nation's nuclear waste. President Russ Mellor of Connecticut Yankee said removing radioactive waste from the plant, which was shut five years ago, will reduce security concerns raised since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. "In light of recent events, it now makes more sense than ever to remove the fuel on an expedited basis from decommissioning power plant sites to a secure federal protected facility," he said in a recent statement. Scientific and technical appraisals of Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, have been completed and "it is time for a favorable recommendation by the secretary to develop Yucca Mountain as a federal repository," he said. Connecticut Yankee reached agreement with the state last month over environmental issues related to the nuclear plant's shutdown and decommissioning. The agreement calls for identifying and cleaning up contaminated areas of the 525-acre site. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-23-Sun-2001/news/17733664.html [http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-23-Sun-2001/news/17733664.html] ***************************************************************** 23 Glow away for a break to Chernobyl Sunday Herald By Rob Edwards [rob.edwards@sundayherald.com] Fed up with the south of France? Tired of Tuscany? Mellowed out by Majorca? Never fear, there's a travel agency that's just waiting to give you the hottest holiday of your life. New Men Travel, in Kiev, Ukraine, is launching tours of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor that exploded and spewed radiation all over Europe in 1986. Radiation monitors and protective suits are provided. For $460 (£320) you can take a private car with an English-speaking guide around one of the most dangerous relics of the last century. Or for $340 (£235) you can join others in a minibus tour of contaminated trucks, derelict buildings and radioactive waste dumps. For those to whom such 'shock tourism' appeals, New Men Travel is advertising five itineraries, all of which begin within the 30-kilometre exclusion zone. In the basic tour, you get to visit a hall with a model of Chernobyl, see a 10-minute information video and stand on a balcony with a view of the leaky concrete sarcophagus that covers the wrecked reactor. You can also drive through the deserted streets of Pripyat, the nearby city where Chernobyl workers lived. Home to nearly 50,000 people it was evacuated after the accident because it was so heavily contaminated . In the more ambitious itineraries, visitors see the so-called 'vehicles graveyard' where the helicopters, cranes, lorries and cars used in the clean-up operations have had to be dumped. They are promised such delights as the 'liquid nuclear waste processing factory', the 'nuclear fuel waste vault' and the 'solid nuclear waste production complex'. They are warned, however, that they will be subject to radiation dose control, involving wearing monitors, passing through a 'sanitary control point' and wearing a smock, bonnet and plastic shoes. In the all-singing, all-dancing bumper tour, the treats are legion. As well as a trip to some 'very important buildings', there are visits to a 'modular control shield' and the central reactor hall, which requires extra radiation monitors. In case all that is not enough to whet your appetite, Dimitri Osyka, of New Men Travel, says 'lunch can be organised at the plant' though 'some parts of itineraries can be excluded in accordance with clients' wishes.' The explosion at Chernobyl reactor number four on April 26, 1986, was the world's worst nuclear accident and prompted a international shift away from nuclear power. It led to the evacuation of a quarter of a million people, killed 30 workers, caused an epidemic of thousands of thyroid cancers among children and still contaminates lamb and venison in Scotland. Shaun Burnie, an anti-nuclear campaigner from Greenpeace International, has visited the Chernobyl site but would not recommend it . 'You will get a radiation dose,' he said. 'Everyone who goes there is taking a risk .' It would be particularly unwise for those most vulnerable to the cell damage caused by radiation, such as pregnant women and children. But Burnie suggested that it might be a good thing for anyone who thinks that nuclear power is the future. 'Anyone who supports nuclear power should go to Pripyat. Seeing toys on the floor and chalk on the blackboard in a completely deserted community really gets to you. It is easy to imagine how the workers and their families must have suffered.' VisitScotland (formerly the Scottish Tourist Board) did not see much chance of replicating the idea in Scotland, with tours of Dounreay or the Grangemouth petrochemical complex for example. 'We market Scotland's fresh air, its mountains and its scenery, the idea that it is clean, green and friendly. I don't think this would fit,' said a spokeswoman. 'But it does show that the competition across the world is hotting up. ' Asked if she would like a tour of Chernobyl she replied: 'No thanks, I might get a tan, or start to glow in the dark.' Lorraine Mann, from Scotland Against Nuclear Dumping, thought it was a good idea for people to learn about the mistakes of the past. But that could only happen here if Dounreay's public relations arm was detached from the government agency that has always run the Caithness plant, the UK Atomic Energy Authority. She said: 'It would be really great if they could then arrange a 'warts and all' tour of Dounreay -- and there would certainly be plenty of warts . It would be more interesting than the bland nonsense that passes for a public exhibition at the moment.' ©2001 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088. all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 O'Callaghan: People up north should remember there is only one Nevada Las Vegas SUN December 21, 2001 Mike O'Callaghan is executive editor of the Sun and publisher of the Henderson Home News, where this column first appeared. --- We have all heard the claim that Nevada is one solid state. Yes, and every session of the Legislature we hear how important it is for lawmakers to act in the interest of the whole state. Since we have had to count every vote to determine the membership of the Legislature, and Clark County has rapidly increased in population, the voices from the North have become louder when calling for cooperation. Until recently, rural and Northern Nevada, despite a dwindling number of legislators, have been able to control legislation because of seniority and committee leadership positions. This strength is also disappearing and will continue to fade during the 2003 and 2005 sessions. Few people understand better the need for cooperation and for the entire state to be economically healthy than a governor. When I was governor in the 1970s, I learned the great value of people and their lives in every county. The hard-working rancher or miner is every bit as important as a casino worker who strives to provide for his or her family. The casino worker in Reno or Elko is just as important as one who works in Las Vegas or Henderson. The health and welfare of every Nevadan is important if we, as a state, are to progress in our fast-moving world. Somebody should tell the business people in Carson City, Sparks and Reno that the people of Clark County are also part of their world. When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, without consultation with the people directly affected, joined the wealthy nuclear energy corporations in support of shoving their deadly waste down the throats of Nevadans, the local chambers of Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City struck back. They withdrew their memberships from that reckless, money-grubbing national organization. The Carson City, Sparks and Reno chambers have continued their national memberships. Evidently, as far as they are concerned, nuke waste being dumped on Southern Nevada isn't of great importance. So much for the importance of the health of the entire state. According to some of the northern members, they want to work within the national organization. Yeah, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce consulted local chambers about its plunge into promoting nuke waste for us to live or die with. They didn't. Nevadans have always promoted themselves as independent thinkers. If you don't believe it, then recall the results of past local and state elections. Continuing to be part of an organization that has shown nothing but disrespect for every resident of the Silver State isn't the kind of response that we would expect from Nevadans. If there is an accident when transporting nuke waste through either Northern or Southern Nevada, the economic impact will affect all of us. Yucca Mountain will be the final destination for the waste, but it can't get there without being an open invitation to an act of terror or an accident. Murphy's Law will take over, because if an accident is possible, it will happen. No longer will Nevada be one solid state, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce couldn't care less. Then there is the great possibility that Murphy's Law will go into effect in some other populated area, long before the waste arrives in Nevada. Will the U.S. Chamber of Commerce take credit for promoting a disaster? We all know the answer to this question. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 25 Good News on Nukes (washingtonpost.com) By David S. Broder Sunday, December 23, 2001; Page B07 Put whiskers and a red suit on him, and Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham would make a passable Santa Claus. What Abraham brought home from his recent trip to Moscow and his negotiations with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), plus what others have accomplished on Capitol Hill, are some of the best Christmas presents anyone could have hoped to find under the tree. In sum, the path has been opened to greater progress in the new year on securing Russian nuclear materials and decreasing the chances that terrorists will be able to obtain the ingredients for suitcase nuclear bombs or other weapons of mass destruction. Here is the story, as gleaned from interviews with Abraham, members of Congress and others in the Bush administration. First, the final appropriations bill of 2001 contained virtually all the money that proponents had been seeking in vain all year to safeguard the atomic materials loosely stored and casually guarded at Russian sites. As readers of previous columns on this subject know, the green-eyeshade people in President Bush's OMB had inexplicably decided earlier this year that this was a place to save money, despite the fact that Bush had heartily endorsed the program during the campaign and since taking office. Bush's first budget cut the money for the Nunn-Lugar program, the 10-year-old bipartisan effort sponsored by former senator Sam Nunn of Georgia and Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana -- two of the nation's most farsighted national security experts -- to lock up those loose nukes and provide work for Russian nuclear scientists left unemployed by the breakup of the Soviet Union. But now Congress has boosted the appropriation by $120 million, just $11 million less than the sum that a strong backer of the program, Texas Democratic Rep. Chet Edwards, had been seeking. Wisconsin Rep. David Obey, the senior Democrat on Appropriations, led the fight to restore the money. Lugar told me the outcome was "very good news" and said he appreciated "the very strong bipartisan support" for the program. But more good news is in store. Abraham has become a real advocate of the Nunn-Lugar program and said in an interview he is committed to "expanding and accelerating" it in coming months and years. The former Michigan senator spent two days in Moscow last month with his counterpart, Minister of Atomic Energy Alexander Rumyantsev, and with officials of the Russian navy, another partner in the project. They agreed to "establish a formal process to monitor progress" in "improving measures on nuclear materials physical protection, control and accounting, as well as preventing illegal trafficking and handling of nuclear and radioactive materials." Beyond those formal words, Abraham said, there was a clear recognition on both sides of the central importance of such controls in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He and Rumyantsev agreed to set up their own direct communications link, so if any bureaucratic barriers appear, they can deal with them directly and quickly. "This has become one of my top priorities," Abraham said. At the same time Abraham was holding these meetings in Moscow, the National Security Council was removing its hold on plans for disposing of Russian and American plutonium -- a principal ingredient of nuclear weapons -- through a process that converts it into a form safe to use in generating electricity. Some Bush aides had questioned the cost and complexity of the process, but they have now agreed that the disposal process can proceed, with adequate funding next year. Finally, Bush has signaled that money for safeguarding nuclear materials and blocking proliferation of nuclear weapons will be increased in future years. In a Dec. 11 speech at The Citadel, Bush called this "a vital mission." And, congressional sources tell me, his budgeteers actually have increased fiscal 2003 money for this program beyond the Energy Department's request -- a real rarity these days. The effort to safeguard nuclear material likely will expand beyond Russia. Abraham visited the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna to promise joint U.S.-Russian initiatives to strengthen controls on cross-border movements of this lethal stuff. Lugar has talked with Vice President Dick Cheney and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice about his vision of developing similar programs for India and Pakistan, and eventually even for Iran and Iraq. Having previously criticized the Bush administration and some in Congress for shortsighted economies in this area, it is a pleasure now to commend them for this Christmas gift to the nation -- and to the world. © 2001 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 26 Primorsky Governor Considers Nuclear Power Plant Construction Only Option For Region Vladivostok, Russia, Dec 21, 2001 (RosBusinessConsulting via COMTEX) -- Source: RosBusiness Consulting -- The construction of a Nuclear Power Plant is the only way out for the regional economy, Primorsky Regional Governor Sergei Darkin stated at a meeting with reporters. According to him, the regional economy will be suffering from a severe power shortage before 2015. Nonetheless, in Darkin's view, the situation may change, if other sources of cheap electrical power are found. For example, the regional administration is holding negotiations with the largest Japanese (and not only Japanese) companies that have invested substantial funds in the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects on the building of a gas processing plant in Primorsky Region. As Darkin underlined, in any event, the question of the nuclear power plant will be resolved at a regional referendum. The nuclear power plant, whose construction has been debated in Primorsky Region for years, is mentioned in the federal program of the development of the energy industry. However, the construction of a nuclear power plant in Primorsky Region is hardly possible in the next 5-10 years, because the Nuclear Energy Ministry plans to construct nuclear power plants in the central part of Russia. At the same time, the ministry will allocate 30 million rubles (about $0.99 million) soon for preparation of the Terms of Reference for the construction. The power plant itself will cost the federal budget $800 million. Copyright (C) 2001, RosBusinessConsulting. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 27 Britain, Russia may agree on radioactive waste disposal [ITAR/TASS News Agency] Story Filed: Friday, December 21, 2001 2:51 PM EST LONDON, Dec 21, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Great Britain and Russia may sign an agreement on disposal of radioactive waste in 2002, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said at a joint press conference with President Vladimir Putin on Friday. The agreement, which is being coordinated, will raise the nuclear and radiation safety in Russia's north. It will supplement the bilateral accord on peaceful uses of atomic energy, sources have told Itar-Tass. (c) 1996-2001 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 Fianna Fail hysterical about Sellafield - Ingham ireland.com - The Irish Times - IRELAND Saturday, December 22, 2001 By Tim O'Brien, Regional Development Correspondent The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Fianna Fáil party have been accused of "hysteria" by Sir Bernard Ingham, the former press secretary to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Sir Bernard, who wrote to the Taoiseach as secretary of the campaign group Supporters of Nuclear Energy (SONE), says the group took exception to the full-page "Shut Sellafield" advertisement in the London Times on November 24th. Noting that the advertisement was paid for by the Taoiseach's political party Fianna Fáil, Sir Bernard said: "We are appalled that a governing party should behave so hysterically". Norway, which recently allied itself with the Republic in its desire to see Sellafield shut, was also criticised, being described as maintaining "a fierce resistance to evidence refuting their claims that it \ causes serious pollution". In the course of a staunch criticism of the Taoiseach's stance, Sir Bernard said: "there is no evidence that Sellafield has created or continues to create a health hazard by its vastly reduced discharges. If it did, the British Government would have been forced to act against it." Referring to "your party's hysteria", Sir Bernard said there is "no evidence whatsoever that a terrorist attack on Sellafield would 'render much of our islands uninhabitable'. I would remind you that that the world has survived the consequences of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons which put 100 times more radioactivity into the atmosphere then the Chernobyl nuclear disaster." Sir Bernard also pointed out that "a panel of 700 scientists monitoring the consequences of Chernobyl for the UN has so far identified only 45 deaths due to it". ***************************************************************** 29 NRC calls Maine Yankee on procedure violations Dec 20, 2001 "Serving Maine and Lincoln County for Over a Century" Vol. 126-No. 51 Greg Foster After an investigation last year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited Maine Yankee for three procedure violations which a former first line supervisor allegedly "knowingly" committed. The violations, which could result in a civil penalty and fine, involved a daily check of instruments used to monitor the decommissioning plant for radioactivity during its final safety survey in August of last year. According to the NRC report on the Office of Investigations findings, the supervisor on Aug. 24, 2000 directed a technician to make an instrument source check in a way that is not in compliance with specific procedures. On Aug. 21, the same supervisor allegedly violated Maine Yankee procedures two other times. Although there was investigation of whether the supervisor told a Final Status Survey (FSS) specialist on Aug. 24 to perform the same check and to document results as satisfactory in the log book, but the NRC investigators were unable to find sufficient evidence as proof. Chief Nuclear Officer Mike Meisner last week denied that the problem is systemic in response to a charge from Ray Shadis of the Friends of the Coast that it is an indication of a systemic problem at the plant. "It is an isolated event," he said in his statement to the Maine Yankee Community Advisory Panel which met Dec. 13. "There was no deliberate non-compliance. Now it is up the NRC to make a final determination." Meisner told the NRC in a letter dated Dec. 13, "As you know, the issues you raise were self-identified by Maine Yankee shortly after their occurrence." The letter is the company's response to the allegations in lieu of a pre-enforcement conference. The NRC had told Meisner in a letter earlier this month that if the company desires a conference it should be prepared to discuss the "willful nature" of the procedural noncompliance, corrective and preventive actions to address the issues and Maine Yankee's assessment of the overall environment with regard to compliance with decommissioning procedures. "The purpose of a conference is to give you an opportunity to provide the NRC information, prior to the NRC making an enforcement decision, regarding the facts, root causes, missed opportunities to identify the apparent violation sooner, corrective actions, significance of the issues and the need for lasting effective corrective action," said George Pangburn, director of the NRC's Division of Nuclear Materials Safety in the letter. Maine Yankee conducted an internal investigation and then followed it up with an external independent investigation, according to Meisner. "The board decided that evidence did not support a conclusion that the FSS supervisor's actions constituted a deliberate violation or careless disregard," he said. "The supervisor was unaware of non compliances occurring prior to his involvement and was trying to troubleshoot to find the cause for unsuccessful source checks." Meisner said he has no disagreement with the facts and that, in his estimation, the investigation uncovered no new information. "We believe that you would agree that there was no safety significance to the events and that the corrective actions implemented by Maine Yankee were appropriate to the situation," he said. However, Meisner does disagree with the NRC's interpretation that the supervisor's action was willful. "Because the Maine Yankee investigations were timely and comprehensive, we stand by our determination that no willful violation occurred," he said. The supervisor allegedly took the check source out of the source holder thus moving the source closer to the instrument. The action was not in compliance with Maine Yankee procedures, the NRC said. Another NRC investigative finding was the supervisor's alleged non-compliance related to survey work he directed another technician to do on Aug. 21, 2000. The report said that the supervisor directed him to do the work without a complete survey package, which Maine Yankee procedures require. The supervisor admitted to the investigators that having an incomplete survey package was not normal procedure but that he instructed him to make the survey anyway, according to the NRC. The third violation occurred the same day when the supervisor allegedly told the technician not to log the results from unsatisfactory source checks, but the technician, in this instance, did not follow the supervisor's direction. Instead, the technician followed the Maine Yankee procedure and recorded a second failed source check, the NRC report said. After two failed source checks, the results from that instrument for the entire day are considered invalid, according to Maine Yankee's procedures. That would mean that all of the day's surveys taken with that instrument should have been done again. In the NRC's view, that was a motivating factor for the supervisor's instructions to the technician. Lincoln County News PO Box 36, Damariscotta, ME 04543 Tel: 207.563.3171 ***************************************************************** 30 Security workers renew plea for revised rules at USEC upgrade of security The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Saturday, December 22, 2001 The request was made in light of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, although the Paducah plant involves low-level radiation. By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 Security officer union leaders at the Paducah uranium enrichment plant have again asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to upgrade security rules to better protect the plant, this time in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorism. John Driskill, governmental and public affairs officer for Local 111 of Security Police and Fire Professionals of America, wrote NRC Chairman Richard Meserve last week seeking the upgrade. The commission is doing a "top to bottom" review of all plants under NRC regulation, said spokesman Jan Strasma. The commission will look for potential vulnerability and determine changes needed, Strasma said. He said commission officials have Driskill's letter and have spoken with him twice by phone. "Certainly, we will be considering his view as part of our thorough review of security requirements of the (Paducah plant) as well as other nuclear facilities, but we have not yet formally responded to him." Driskill and Jay Stoll, the new union president, want the NRC to reconsider its rejection of a March 2000 union request to upgrade security requirements. "... what it would've meant would be to increase our capabilities to detect, respond to, prevent and mitigate circumstances of sabotage or terrorist attack or other violence," Driskill said. "... We think it was a mistake and we need the capability to do that." The plant enriches uranium for use in nuclear fuel. Because its low-level radiation poses a lesser risk than nuclear power plants, NRC and Department of Energy regulations require only unarmed personnel watching the Paducah facility. The union sought help from the Kentucky congressional delegation, which secured legislation in fall 1998 mandating arming and arrest authority at the plant. But it took until last spring for parts of the legislation to be clarified by DOE and ultimately by USEC Inc., the plant operator. "If it hadn't been for the political intervention of Sen. (Mitch) McConnell and Congressman (Ed) Whitfield through legislation, I feel very strongly that we'd have been sitting out there on Sept. 11 without any weapons whatsoever," Driskill said. Last month, Stoll replaced Driskill, who resigned as president to take a less demanding role with the 35-member union. Stoll said security issues and upcoming contract negotiations are chief concerns of the membership. The union's five-year contract expires March 1. ***************************************************************** 31 Group petitions Governor for guard at power plant Dec 20, 2001 "Serving Maine and Lincoln County for Over a Century" Vol. 126-No. 51 Greg Foster Friends of the Coast presented Gov. Angus King's office with petitions Tuesday bearing signatures of slightly over 400 area residents for a National Guard presence at Maine Yankee. Petitioners want the state to establish a "security perimeter limiting land and water access at the site to identified and authorized person" but expect no response. The activist group, which opposes nuclear pollution, has been making an ongoing push for deployment of Maine's National Guard at the site to enhance security to the extent members consider adequate. Before and especially ever since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the group has called for more presence at the plant because of 900 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel and other nuclear waste in the spent fuel pool that make it a potential target for terrorists. Ray Shadis, spokesman for the group, argued that 13 states have posted the National Guard at nuclear power plants, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Vermont Yankee has a laws enforcement force that patrols the perimeter. New York requested and received a security audit for its Indian Point nuclear facility from the FBI, which recommended security improvements the state is now implementing. Waterfront sites have exclusion zones, which the Coast Guard enforces, he said. "We have none of this in place," Shadis said. "The Governor is getting some very bad advice from Maine Yankee and from people on his staff who just plain don't know what they are talking about." Shadis said a report from the National Council on Radiation Protection warns that spent nuclear fuel could be targeted and that health hazards from the dispersal of spent nuclear fuel would be similar to the Chernobyl catastrophe only on a much smaller scale. A large explosive device could disperse radioactive material many miles from the source. "Our members reported that almost everyone that they asked wanted to sign the petitions, and the results represent a very broad cross section of the community," said Friends spokesman Ray Shadis. "Our position has been that a few security guards is an inadequate response to a military threat and it seems that most people agree." Shadis complained that despite the group's effort, he expects no response from the Governor. "That's what we've gotten in the past when we presented petitions for stricter site radiation clean up," he said. "We had response from Maine Yankee and the Legislature but not the Governor. Still, it's our job to keep on asking." Lincoln County News PO Box 36, Damariscotta, ME 04543 Tel: 207.563.3171 ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Idaho celebrates nuclear energy milestone | KTVB.COM | Idaho News DECEMBER 20, 2001, 05:45 PM Patrick Sawyer Idaho's NewsChannel 7 Before you came to work this morning, if you used an electric toothbrush, it's likely it was powered with nuclear energy. These days about 20 percent of the nation's electricity comes from a nuclear power plant. And it all started in Idaho fifty years ago today. On December 20th, 1951 Idaho played a lead role in developing electricity from nuclear energy, and it continues to lead the way today and for the future. In this grainy black and white video from Idaho's first nuclear power plant, 16 scientists are forever documented, giving birth to nuclear electricity fifty years ago. Lou Reipl, INEEL spokesman, "You can see the level of technology they used then and it's all about dials knobs and it look's so 19-50's." Once filled with ideas and energy, this small building sits empty in southeastern Idaho. But the early INEEL reactor lit the way for the nuclear industry worldwide. John Sackett, Argonne Nuclear Lab, "It set the stage for a great deal of research conducted is Idaho over the next fifty years. The history-making event back then gave rise to Idaho's lead role today in the research and development of nuclear electricity as a leading alternative energy source. Ralph Bennett, INEEL lab director, "It's been a wonderful 50 years of development of the industry, for nuclear energy. It's now making 20 percent of the energy in the us and we look forward to improving upon that." Lou, "We're running the nuclear energy power research program for the entire department of energy right here in Idaho, that's pretty significant." And it all started after Idaho's first reactor shot electric power to a string of 100-watt light bulbs. Lou, "They succeeded, and what you'll see is four light bulbs firing up powered by nuclear power for the first time. Pretty exciting stuff...” One other timely and significant contribution… the propulsion system for the navy's first nuclear submarine -- the u-s-s nautilus, was developed right here in Idaho. KTVB.COM | Weather | Zidaho | Directory | Twin Falls | ***************************************************************** 2 US-Pak Searching Nuke Material in Panjsher Updated on 2001-12-22 12:14:46 Islamabad Dec 22 (PNS) : US special agents within Afghanistan are now concentrating to find and cllect nuclear and chemical materials that may be lying around in Panjsher valley. US intelligence operators in Afghanistan are currently investigating the reports that besides al Qaeda many other Afghan factions were also involved in the trading of nuclear materials and chemicals. These reports claim that some of the top leaders of Northern Alliance had a major role in the trade of such materials. Some of the stocks off these materials are reported to be hoarded deep inside Panjsher valley. Us investigation is aimed at establishing the sources and routes used to trade in these materials’ a knowledgeable source said. US intelligence operators with the help of intelligence reports from Pakistan were successful in lay hand on some of the materials that were stocked by Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. Based on the physical evidence USA had concluded a few days back that Osama bin Laden and his associates may have a wish to access to nuclear technology but they had not been able to produce a device. Other sources however insist that al Qaeda may have procured ready made devices from Central Asian Republics. These sources also insist that the major role in trading of such materials has always been played by some of the commanders of the Northern Alliance. Someof these commanders maintained close links with Osama bin laden despite the fact that Osama was a guest with Taliban. Yes of course, he and his organisation had money and they could buy favours quipped another source. ***************************************************************** 3 US searching nuclear material in Panjsher The Frontier Post From Peshawar Pakistan Naveed Miraj Updated on 12/22/2001 10:38:03 AM Islamabad : US special agents within Afghanistan are now concentrating to find and cllect nuclear and chemical materials that may be lying around in Panjsher valley. US intelligence operators in Afghanistan are currently investigating the reports that besides al Qaeda many other Afghan factions were also involved in the trading of nuclear materials and chemicals. These reports claim that some of the top leaders of Northern Alliance had a major role in the trade of such materials. Some of the stocks off these materials are reported to be hoarded deep inside Panjsher valley. Us investigation is aimed at establishing the sources and routes used to trade in these materials’ a knowledgeable source said. US intelligence operators with the help of intelligence reports from Pakistan were successful in lay hand on some of the materials that were stocked by Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. Based on thephysical evidence USA had concluded a few days back that Osama bin Laden and his associates may have a wish to access to nuclear technology but they had not been able to produce a device. Other sources however insist that al Qaeda may have procured ready made devices from Central Asian Republics. These sources also insist that the major role in trading of such materials has always been played by some of the commanders of the Northern Alliance. Some of these commanders maintained close links with Osama bin laden despite the fact that Osama was a guest with Taliban. Yes of course, he and his organisation had money and they could buy favours quipped another source. © Copyright 2001 The Frontier Post ***************************************************************** 4 North Korean radio denounces US plan to use small nuclear weapons BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 23, 2001 Text of report by North Korean radio on 23 December According to a report from Washington, the United States is planning to massively use small nuclear weapons in its military intervention and aggression against other countries. According to a report released by the US Defence Department on 19 December, the US Defence Department officials and nuclear-related scientists are currently engaged in full-fledged research on the possible use of small nuclear weapons that can attack underground targets. This starkly shows the US identity as a nuclear fanatic. Source: Central Broadcasting Station, Pyongyang, in Korean 1300 gmt 23 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material ***************************************************************** 5 Wind blowing in Pasko's direction? Gregory Pasko, an investigative journalist who worked for the Pacific Fleet's newspaper, was arrested on 20 November 1997 by the FSB and charged with high treason for his writing about the nuclear safety issues in the Russian Pacific Fleet. Grigory Pasko has many supporters. Surprisingly, one of them seems to be Sergei Mironov, the new leader of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament. Jon Gauslaa, 2001-12-22 20:42 On December 20, Sergei Mironov, leader of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament, (the Federation Council), unexpectedly supported Grigory Pasko, who stands trial in Vladivostok facing nine years of hard labour if he gets convicted on treason charges. Narrow minded departments In an interview with Izvestya, Mironov said that the origin of the Pasko-case was the lacks of the Russian legislation regarding environmental protection. -- The system for taking care of the environmental safety is organised through various departments, which executes their duties in separate ways. These narrow-minded departmental forces often claim that their interests are similar with the interests of the nation, he said. The leader of the Federation council used the Pasko-case to exemplify what he was talking about. -- Pasko is accused for having published information that pertains to state secrets. But what kind of secrets? The charges are based on the infamous decree 055 of the Ministry of Defence, and not on federal laws, Mironov said. He added that the decree is illegal and has to be abolished according to the Supreme Court ruling of November 6. -- Yet our Courts now evaluate the Pasko-case for the second time, and the prosecutor has asked for nine years of imprisonment under severe conditions. And look at his arguments! He claims that Pasko's actions are particularly inadmissible because we are still in war with Japan! - said Mironov. -- I will urge Grigory Mikhailovich to request the President for pardon if he gets any kind of conviction and I will support such a request, said Mironov, who is said to have close connections with President Putin. -- To prove his innocence once more, through 'a Hell of appeals' is as far as I am concerned not necessary, Mironov added. -- The world has long ago understood who is right and who is guilty in this case. Prosecution brought to its knees Mironov's statements are a positive sign, although his mentioning of the possibility of pardoning Pasko, may give them a flavour of compromise: Pasko gets acquitted of treason, but gets a minor conviction, and is then invited to request the President for pardon. Still, the fact that he focuses so much on the illegal use of decree 055:96 indicates that the wind may blow in Pasko's direction. Also other signs might indicate this. A few days ago, the new head of the FSB in the Russian Far East gave a press conference where he said that Pasko's defence "had brought the prosecution to its knees, by capitalising on the mistakes of the investigation". Although his statements had the undertone that this was not fair play by the defence, they were still light-years away from the statements of various FSB-officials throughout the case against Aleksandr Nikitin. On December 17, 1996, the then FSB-chief Nikolai Kovaliov for instance said that Nikitin was "a Canadian spy". And on February 24, 1998 the then head of the St. Petersburg FSB, Viktor Cherkesov, said on TV that "Nikitin is a spy and we will have no problems proving it." Nikitin was acquitted of charges of treason through espionage by the St. Petersburg City Court on December 29, 1999. The decision was later confirmed by the Russian Supreme Court and by the Presidium of the Supreme Court. Less than 72 hours from now, we will know if the Pacific Fleet Court will dare to take the same step in the Pasko-case. * Grigory Pasko was arrested on November 20, 1997 and charged with espionage on behalf of the Japanese TV-channel NHK. He was acquitted in July 1999, but convicted of 'abuse of official authority' and freed under an amnesty. Seeking a full acquittal, Pasko appealed, but so did the prosecution, insisting he was a spy. On November 21, 2000 the Supreme Court sent the case back for a re-trial at the Pacific Fleet Court. The re-trial started on July 11, 2001, and the Court will pronounce its verdict on December 25. 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 ***************************************************************** 6 editorial: Flats' cleanup quandry Denver Post.com --> Saturday, December 22, 2001 - It's official: Federal land around the mothballed Rocky Flats nuclear bomb factory will become a national wildlife refuge. The just-passed measure ensures that a rare swath of undisturbed prairie won't be ruined by bulldozers but instead will continue to provide precious wildlife habitat. The broad public support for the refuge was underscored by the bipartisan cooperation of the bill's sponsors, U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, a Colorado Republican, and U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, a Boulder Democrat. Nonetheless, the wildlife refuge idea ignited a still-smoldering controversy. Some peace activists fear that designating the area as a refuge will give the U.S. Department of Energy an excuse to leave more radioactive material in the soil than it would have otherwise. Allard and Udall insist their bill prohibits the feds from using the refuge as an excuse for relaxing cleanup standards. The issue, known as the "soil action level," is a legitimate concern, but involves just a small part of the new refuge. There are about 6,000 acres at Rocky Flats, of which the inner 350 acres - the industrial area where bomb-making took place - will stay in the DOE's control. The refuge will entail the acreage around that industrial core. Of that outer area, about 5,400 acres are considered essentially uncontaminated. Thus the sticking point involves how much cleanup should be done on the roughly 250 acres adjacent to the industrial core. Some peace activists want the parcel dug up and decontaminated, likely at the cost of many millions of dollars, to ensure that DOE does a thorough cleanup. But the state also should be realistic. Digging up the dirt might release more radioactive particles than leaving the material in place. Moreover, making Rocky Flats' soil pristine again may require enormous sums that Congress may decide would be better spent, for example, to stop radioactive tritium at the DOE's Hanford site from leaking into the Columbia River. DOE should soon complete an environmental study and recommend the soil action level. That recommendation will enable Coloradans to then decide if the feds are living up to their promises. If Allard, Udall and other Colorado officials stay vigilant, the DOE won't be able to use the refuge as an excuse for weakening those standards. All contents Copyright 2001 The Denver Post ***************************************************************** 7 New terror threat to Britain Guardian Unlimited | Archive Search Security services deliver stark warning of risk, including from nuclear and chemical attack Jeevan Vasagar Guardian Saturday December 22, 2001 The scale of the risk to Britain posed by international terrorism emerged for the first time last night in an assessment from the security services. The detailed account of how the country is vulnerable to lightning attacks came during a court hearing in which a London-based Moroccan man was remanded in custody under the new anti-terrorism laws on the grounds of national security. The document used to support the government's case that Djamel Ajouaou should be kept in custody concludes with a stark warning: "The presence of extremists in the United Kingdom at this time and for the forseeable future creates a situation of public emergency threatening the life of the nation." It lists specific risks: · A nuclear attack "which would have a devastating effect on the UK"; · An attack on the London Underground using a small, unsophisticated, improvised explosive device; · A chemical or biological attack, for example, on the tube. "Biological or chemical attacks although potentially less devastating would lead to widespread public alarm and potentially many fatalities," the document says. A Home Office statement warns that because of its close alliance to America, Britain is vulnerable to a "nuclear attack, an attack on the London Underground of the type used in Paris in 1995... [or] a chemical or biological attack, for example on the underground". There is also the risk of a September 11-style attack involving hijacked airliners. Raised security standards have made such an attack more difficult, the document says, but "protection depends on their uniform application internationally". The 20-page document, placed before the court on behalf of the home secretary, David Blunkett, refers to intelligence warnings of further attacks and expresses the fear that if Osama bin Laden were killed, "the UK alongside the US will be a target for vengeance". It said the fact that Britain was a close ally of the US and that British troops were involved in the military action in Afghanistan and in seeking out Bin Laden made Britain potentially more vulnerable: "Whether he is killed or not Bin Laden's allies need urgently to re-establish their capability and intent in order to make up the ground they have lost since September 11: they will seek to do this through terrorist attacks. Al-Qaida supporters in Britain had played a role in four terrorist attacks foiled by police, the document disclosed. But it warns that efforts to deal with terrorists in Britain beyond these arrests had been "ineffective". "There remain in the UK a number of foreign nationals who are suspected of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of international terrorism." Security measures had been ineffective because the suspects arrested were released when the crown offered no evidence, or the suspects had chosen to leave Britain but continued to pose a threat, or because under human rights law they they could not be deported to countries where they might be ill-treated. The document says that the four terrorist attacks foiled by police and intelligence work were to have been carried out by "overlapping networks closely linked to al-Qaida". · In December 1999 a group of individuals in Jordan planned to attack a series of targets there frequented by American and Israeli tourists. · In the same month, Ahmed Ressam was stopped on the border between Canada and the US with a large quantity of explosive. He intended to attack Los Angeles airport. · In December 2000 a group in Frankfurt was arrested in possession of arms, chemicals and homemade explosive. · In September 2001 individuals in a number of European countries, including Britain, were arrested as they were preparing an attack against US interests in Paris. The document notes: "Activity in the UK formed essential building blocks for each of these frustrated attacks." [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 8 Comment: The cold war is long over, but Star Wars goes on America's obsession with missile defence will do it great harm Guardian Unlimited | Archive Search Martin Woollacott Guardian Friday December 21, 2001 After Ronald Reagan spoke on missile defence during the 1987 summit in Washington, Mikhail Gorbachev addressed him more in sorrow than anger. "Mr President," Gorbachev said, "You do what you think you have to do... And if in the end you think that you have a system that you want to deploy, go ahead and deploy it. Who am I to tell you what to do? I think you're wasting money. I don't think it will work. But, if it's what you want to do, go ahead." Fourteen years later, though Russia is no longer a remotely conceivable enemy, missile defence is still what an American president wants to do. Vladimir Putin described President Bush's decision to withdraw from the anti-ballistic missile treaty as a mistake, but one that need not affect "the spirit of partnership and indeed alliance" between America and Russia. And here we can catch an echo of Gorbachev's resigned acceptance of a development he saw as both irrational and unstoppable. Gorbachev understood that the American preoccupation with missile defence was deeply contradictory. Even if Star Wars weapons which could bring down incoming missiles could eventually be produced, they could never have offered protection to the whole American population. When politicians occasionally uttered this truth in the Reagan years, there was usually controversy. In the minds of ordinary Americans, the system was worth pursuing because it would directly protect all or most of the people, not because it could protect some American weapons, ensure the survival of a fractionally larger proportion of civilians in a nuclear attack or otherwise complicate the task of an aggressor. Nor were ordinary Americans much enthused by the only partially concealed ambitions of some on the Republican right to use this supposedly defensive programme ultimately to create an American offensive capacity in space. Reagan himself seemed to have often thought of the strategic defence initiative, and certainly he often spoke of it, as if a perfect defence for the whole population were the aim. But, with hardly any exceptions, the experts in America, Russia, and other countries agreed that missile defences could neither provide an umbrella for the whole population nor constitute an insurmountable obstacle to a major adversary. From the beginning the Star Wars concept, ambiguously embracing both defensive and offensive ambitions, based on weapons that did not exist and on possibilities that were almost certainly not fully realisable, has had this elusive, fictional quality. The way in which missile defence survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war can only be fully explained by its talismanic importance to American conservatives. In her fascinating book on Reagan and SDI, Frances Fitzgerald writes in her chapter on SDI after Reagan that "the persistence of the push for deployment was in many ways phenomenal". The USSR was gone, defence spending was falling, public interest had almost completely disappeared and the technological breakthroughs which had been promised had stubbornly failed to materialise. Yet missile defence lived on, sustained by the initially less than enthusiastic administration of George Bush Sr and then by a reluctant Clinton, finally to be reinstated as a key policy by the younger Bush and his people. Events wrote American missile defence a fresh script with new practical, popular and political plot lines. Missile defence made somewhat more sense, technically, if the problem was accidental launch, a single weapon in the hands of terrorists or if the adversary envisaged was not a big nuclear power like Russia or even China but a small state with only a handful of unsophisticated weapons. A system that could bring down one, two or a few missiles could just about be envisaged, even if complete success could hardly be guaranteed. The popular perception of the programme combined an understanding that this lesser task was more feasible with an exaggerated belief in American military science. The apparent success of Patriot missiles in bringing down Scuds aimed at Israel and Saudi Arabia during the Gulf war was followed by a spurt in public interest and faith in missile defence. The Patriots were in fact a failure, as studies after the war showed, and in any case represented old technology not relevant to Star Wars tasks. Even so, the impact of smart weapons of various kinds on American popular consciousness through the 1990s was probably to reinforce the argument that the missile defence programme's objectives could be reached, if enough money and scientific talent were invested. But the most important development was political. The record shows that American conservatives had in fact diverse opinions on missile defence, both during the Reagan years and afterward. There were those who thought it technically impossible, foolish or at least a diversion from more pressing defence needs. In Reagan's final period, when he combined his faith in Star Wars with an apparent readiness to bargain away American strategic weapons and an affectionate public attitude to Gorbachev, some on the right thought that combination damaging to the national interest. George Bush Sr's administration included a number of sceptics, and there are members of the present Bush administration, other than Colin Powell, who had their doubts. But somewhere along the way missile defence became a critical issue for Republicans. Newt Gingrich, the leading figure in the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 made it part of his contract with America. Senator Bob Dole later ran for the presidency with missile defence as one of his main planks. He had not previously been a great enthusiast, but as Frankie Fitzgerald explains, the belief was that this was an issue that would define him against Clinton while not involving the vote-losing potential of other conservative obsessions like banning abortion or repealing gun control laws. Laurence Korb, of the Council on Foreign Relations, recently called missile defence "an end in itself" for Republicans, and "a litmus test of loyalty to the Reagan legacy". The consequences of American Republicans lighting on this issue as a device for creating and compelling unity are now with us in the shape of the abandonment of the ABM treaty. That the prospects for controlling weapons of mass destruction have been damaged as a result is obvious, how seriously remains to be seen. Other kinds of damage may already have been done. Richard Rhodes, reviewing a recent volume of memoirs by Edward Teller, who went on from the hydrogen bomb to become a leading advocate of missile defence, puts a pertinent question. "It remains to be determined how much responsibility the missile defence mandarins bear for the nation's lack of protection against terrorist attacks, how much their glamorous and expensive hi-tech visions distracted our leaders from practical home defences." · Way Out There in the Blue by Frances Fitzgerald (Simon & Schuster) [m.woollacott@guardian.co.uk] [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 9 Battelle gets highest rating ever This story was published Fri, Dec 21, 2001 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer Battelle received its highest score ever in its annual assessment by the Department of Energy's Richland Office and set a new standard for DOE's other national science laboratories Thursday. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, operated by Battelle, became the first national science lab to receive a rating of "Outstanding" for four consecutive years. Battelle will be rewarded with $7 million, the maximum amount DOE can give the corporation for its performance. "The high quality of scientific and technological work performed at PNNL is gaining more national and international recognition," said Paul Kruger, DOE Richland's associate manager for science and technology. DOE gave the lab a rating of 4.87 on a scale of 0 to 5. A score of 4.5 to 5.0 merits an outstanding rating. Last year, Battelle received a 4.6. "It's been a great year," said PNNL Director Lura Powell after her first full year in Richland. About 60 percent of the score was based on the lab's scientific and technological achievements. "Over the years PNNL has proven its ability to tackle problems of national and global significance with vigor," said Keith Klein, Richland DOE manager. "Not only is Battelle an asset to Hanford, but they're contributing positively to our country's emerging national security needs." Each of the seven DOE Headquarters offices that ranked Battelle -- including the offices of science, environmental management and intelligence -- gave scores high enough to rate outstanding. The review praised Battelle's work in biomolecular networks, computational sciences and nanoscience and technology initiatives. Work at the lab in 2001 also addressed pressing national issues, including counter-terrorism, energy conservation and distribution, salmon and dams, and cleanup of nuclear waste, Powell said. DOE also was pleased with the lab's expanded partnerships. In 2001, it formed research partnerships with the University of Washington for nanoscience and cell signaling. Another new partnership links researchers throughout the Oregon University System with scientists in Richland. Not only the lab's core science program, but also its nontechnical programs that support that work ranked well this year, Powell pointed out. DOE praised the lab for cutting its overhead costs, leaving more money to be spent on research. The number of businesses the lab had a role in establishing or expanding grew from 42 to 50 in 2001, the goal set for its current five-year contract. That included helping a Kennewick company, Soil Search, obtain the rights to sell InStreem in the West. InStreem, developed by Battelle and PNNL, reduces waste and odors in dairy lagoons. Despite the competitive market for high-tech workers, including biology and computer specialists, Battelle was able to retain and recruit staff, DOE found. "We want to be the employer of choice," Powell said. DOE gave the lab more flexibility this year to offer recruitment incentives and pay the market rate for difficult-to-find technical workers, she said. She also credited a staff of self-starters and good relationships with DOE for the lab's ability to earn the top rating. "Although there were several areas for improvement identified, these were more than offset by the identified strengths throughout the organization," the performance evaluation said. It found little fault with the lab's science and technology programs other than suggesting more senior staff for the material's science program. Nonscience concerns included improving procurement procedures, which DOE rated as marginal, the lowest rating earned by Battelle in dozens of subcategories in the review. Diversity was rated as "good" -- standing out only because the rating came in the midst of excellent to outstanding rankings. Competition for top-notch technical employees is already fierce, but job candidates who can bring diversity to the lab are even more difficult to recruit, Powell said. However, "I personally believe building a diverse work force is a key part of the future," she said. Because of Battelle's consistently high rankings, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced last month that DOE wants to extend its contract for five more years. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 10 Nuclear material found in al-Qaida caves, officials say azcentral.com - Knight Ridder Newspapers Dec. 21, 2001 19:10:00 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Anti-Taliban fighters discovered low-grade uranium, cyanide and other poisonous chemicals in an underground al Qaida storage facility near the Kandahar airport after they captured it two weeks ago, a senior Afghan commander and senior U.S. officials told Knight Ridder. "I saw it with my own eyes," Haji Gulalai, Kandahar's security and intelligence chief, said on Friday. "There were large machines, and those things were inside sealed containers. We gave it to the Americans because it was very dangerous, and we do not know about such things." The U.S. officials, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said they have concluded that al-Qaida intended to use the Uranium-238 found in the complex to make "dirty bombs," which use conventional explosives to spread radioactive material over a wide area. In addition to killing people in the bomb blast and poisoning others with radiation, the officials said, such a bomb could render large areas unusable and require lengthy and expensive clean-up efforts. Uranium-238, the isotope, or variety of the element that U.S. officials said was discovered by the anti-Taliban forces, is used to fuel nuclear reactors and in some medical devices, but it cannot be used to make nuclear weapons. So far, the officials said, there is no evidence that Osama bin Laden's organization was able to procure either weapons-grade uranium or plutonium - which can be made from U-238 in specialized facilities - to make a nuclear device. Nevertheless, the officials said, Afghan, U.S. and other fighters have found extensive evidence that bin Laden was trying to make a nuclear weapon with help from at least one Pakistani nuclear scientist. But the officials said that experts in the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology and in the Department of Energy have determined that al-Qaida could not have constructed a "viable nuclear device" from the plans and specifications found so far in Afghanistan. "If they had gotten their hands on the stuff they needed, like plutonium, they probably would just have poisoned themselves," said one official. Al-Qaida, however, could readily have made both "dirty bombs" and chemical bombs using the materials found near the airport, said the officials, and there is evidence that the group was experimenting with both at a camp near Darunta, about eight miles east of Jalalabad. The U.S. officials said it isn't clear where al-Qaida got the materials, but they said the former Soviet Union and Pakistan are possible sources. Gulalai said the tunnels where the uranium, cyanide and other poisons were stored were located at Kandahar International Airport, a sprawling complex of several hundred acres about 12 miles south of the city. The al-Qaida terrorist camp known as Turnak Farms is located only a mile or two away. Gulalai said the tunnels were discovered the day anti-Taliban fighters captured the airport after a 10-day battle with al-Qaida forces. "They were big tunnels," he said, saying a large truck could drive into each. "It is a big tunnel with many rooms, and every one was filled with bombs and ammunition and these containers." During a swing through the region last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld alluded to significant finds at Turnak Farms pertaining to potential weapons of mass destruction. Marine Corps spokesmen Capt. David Romley and Maj. Chris Hughes said they did not know about the find or the tunnels. "If there are tunnels that we've found out about pertaining to weapons of mass destruction, I don't know anything about it," Romley said. A nuclear, biological and chemical weapons detection team swept the area around the airport last week, but it is not known if they removed any materials when they left. The area around the airport and Turnak Farms is laced with a number of tunnels in which virtually anything can be hidden, one soldier noted. Kandahar International Airport was seized three weeks ago by the U.S. Marine Corps and is now under the control of about 1,500 Marines and other military personnel, including Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs. Marines and other military personnel at Kandahar airport and elsewhere in the vicinity of the city are operating at the lowest state of alert for chemical, biological or nuclear exposure, indicating that threats are virtually non-existent. Troops at the airfield are not carrying gas masks or other protective gear. subscribe to The Arizona Republic | Republic photo store ***************************************************************** 11 'Dirty bomb' materials found | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer Knight Ridder Newspapers December 22, 2001 BY DREW BROWN Knight Ridder Newspapers KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Anti-Taliban fighters discovered low-grade uranium, cyanide and other poisonous chemicals in an underground al-Qaida storage facility near the Kandahar airport after they captured it two weeks ago, a senior Afghan commander and senior U.S. officials told Knight Ridder. "I saw it with my own eyes," Haji Gulalai, Kandahar's security and intelligence chief, said Friday. "There were large machines, and those things were inside sealed containers. We gave it to the Americans because it was very dangerous, and we do not know about such things." The U.S. officials, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said they have concluded that al-Qaida intended to use the Uranium-238 found in the complex to make "dirty bombs," which use conventional explosives to spread radioactive material over a wide area. In addition to killing people in the bomb blast and poisoning others with radiation, the officials said, such a bomb could render large areas unusable and require lengthy and expensive clean-up efforts. Uranium-238, the isotope, or variety of the element U.S. officials said was discovered by the anti-Taliban forces, is used to fuel nuclear reactors and is in some medical devices, but it cannot be used to make nuclear weapons. So far, the officials said, there is no evidence Osama bin Laden's organization was able to procure either weapons-grade uranium or plutonium - which can be made from U-238 in specialized facilities - to make a nuclear device. Nevertheless, the officials said, Afghan, U.S. and other fighters have found extensive evidence that bin Laden was trying to make a nuclear weapon with help from at least one Pakistani nuclear scientist. But the officials said experts in the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology and in the Department of Energy have determined that al-Qaida could not have constructed a "viable nuclear device" from the plans and specifications found so far in Afghanistan. "If they had gotten their hands on the stuff they needed, like plutonium, they probably would just have poisoned themselves," one official said. Al-Qaida, however, could readily have made both "dirty bombs" and chemical bombs using the materials found near the airport, the officials said, and there is evidence the group was experimenting with both at a camp near Darunta, about eight miles east of Jalalabad. The U.S. officials said it isn't clear where al-Qaida got the materials, but they said the former Soviet Union and Pakistan are possible sources. The tunnels| Gulalai said the tunnels where the uranium, cyanide and other poisons were stored were located at Kandahar International Airport, a sprawling complex of several hundred acres about 12 miles south of the city. The al-Qaida terrorist camp known as Turnak Farms is located only a mile or two away. Gulalai said the tunnels were discovered the day anti-Taliban fighters captured the airport after a 10-day battle with al-Qaida forces. "They were big tunnels," he said, saying a large truck could drive into each. "It is a big tunnel with many rooms, and every one was filled with bombs and ammunition and these containers." During a swing through the region last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld alluded to significant finds at Turnak Farms pertaining to potential weapons of mass destruction. Marine Corps spokesmen Capt. David Romley and Maj. Chris Hughes said they did not know about the find or the tunnels. "If there are tunnels that we've found out about pertaining to weapons of mass destruction, I don't know anything about it," Romley said. A nuclear, biological and chemical weapons detection team swept the area around the airport last week, but it is not known if they removed any materials when they left. The area around the airport and Turnak Farms is laced with a number of tunnels in which virtually anything can be hidden, one soldier noted. Kandahar International Airport was seized three weeks ago by the U.S. Marine Corps and is now under the control of about 1,500 Marines and other military personnel, including Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs. Marines and other military personnel at Kandahar airport and in the vicinity of the city are operating at the lowest state of alert for chemical, biological or nuclear exposure, indicating that threats are virtually nonexistent. Troops at the airfield are not carrying gas masks or other protective gear. All content © 2000 Ledger-Enquirer ***************************************************************** 12 Russia: Cause of Kursk submarine accident will soon be established - engineer BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 23, 2001 Text of report by Russian Ekho Moskvy radio on 23 December [Presenter] The reasons for the loss of the Kursk nuclear submarine will soon be established, said Igor Spasskiy, general director of the Rubin design bureau live on air on our radio station. Spasskiy said that the causes [of the accident] would be analysed and the necessary lessons would be learned. The main conclusion [of the current investigation], in Spasskiy's view, is that the type of torpedo used on the Kursk must be decommissioned because it requires very attentive servicing and control. In addition, Spasskiy believes that accident and rescue services [for submarines] all over the world must be standardized. Russia must use technology analogous to that used by the NATO countries. [Spasskiy] Now we are finally working closely with NATO specialists. And we believe that there should be a standardized [rescue] system, so that if a submarine gets into trouble anywhere, any country will have sufficient resources to be able be able to save its crew. [Presenter] Given the scale of the explosion, said Spasskiy, it was impossible to save the crew of the Kursk. Source: Ekho Moskvy radio, Moscow, in Russian 0700 gmt 23 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 13 DOE official tours Livermore laboratory Published Friday, December 21, 2001 + Newly appointed Linton Brooks is visiting U.S. facilities, including Livermore's, that study nuclear nonproliferation By Kiley Russell CONTRA COSTA TIMES LIVERMORE -- If there is a weakness with U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts, it's a tendency to focus on Cold War adversaries to the exclusion of other countries or terrorist groups, according to the leader of the Department of Energy's efforts in the war against terrorism. "We focus very, very heavily on Russia in my office, I think. I need to make sure we broaden to the rest of the world," said Linton Brooks, deputy administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the country's nuclear research labs. Brooks heads the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Office, which works to keep the world's nuclear weapons under lock and key and supports research into systems that can detect biological and chemical weapons. Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there is a new sense of urgency at NNSA for expanding nonproliferation efforts, Brooks said. These programs had been slashed earlier this year in President Bush's budget. "If there is a gap, it's probably in non-Russian programs, which we have not emphasized as much, in large part because we don't quite have the way to get at that except through diplomacy, which is somebody else's job," he said. Brooks made the comments during a tour of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory on Thursday. It was his first visit to the lab since he was appointed by Bush and confirmed by the Senate in October. Brooks said he intends to tour all national labs that do nonproliferation studies by the end of January because researchers there are the ones working on devices to detect weapons of mass destruction. The Livermore lab, for example, is the recipient of about $120 million a year that comes out of Brooks' budget in areas as wide-ranging as biological weapons detection and support of Russian weapons scientists. "I am crucially dependent on the technology and the knowledge of the national labs, so ... I wanted to come out and refresh my memory on what they did," he said. Brooks said he was impressed by what he has seen, including hand-held devices that can detect biological weapons and other technology potentially useful in anti-terrorism programs. He said one of the lab's main strengths is to sponsor applied research, "which can then be focused on a particular problem of proliferation, but which you can then discover has advantages in defense and war fighting and other areas," he said. Brooks said his office is also making headway in its traditional nonproliferation watchdog role. In a supplemental spending bill moving through Congress, $226 million was added for Brooks' programs, including the effort to make sure nuclear weapons in Russia and other countries are secure, traditional nonproliferation projects and efforts to wean Russian scientists away from weapons building and into other industries, Brooks said. The office's future funding looks secure as well, he said. "I think you're going to see that the 2003 budget will reflect the high priorities the (Bush) administration places on these programs," Brooks said. Reach Kiley Russell at 925-847-2119 or krussell@cctimes.com [krussell@cctimes.com] . ***************************************************************** 14 Designer says Russian navy should get rid of torpedoes blamed for Kursk sinking BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 23, 2001 Text of report by Russian news agency Ekho Moskvy [No dateline as received] Torpedoes that were aboard the Kursk nuclear submarine should be "excluded from further usage", Rubin design bureau general constructor Igor Spasskiy said, speaking live on Ekho Moskvy radio. [Rubin bureau designed the Kursk and led its salvage operation.] He said that the navy commander-in-chief [Adm Vladimir Kuroyedov] had issued a temporary order "not to load" such torpedoes on submarines similar to Kursk. Spasskiy said that such a decision was "absolutely correct". Spasskiy said that the torpedoes "require extremely careful servicing and control". "And as far as rescue operations are concerned, it is pretty clear for me now that everything could have been done a bit better and simpler", he added. He said that rescue systems installed on NATO's submarines were being actively studied at the moment. He said that rescue systems "have a broader representation" on Russian submarines. He said that a single international standard for rescue systems should be developed. "We want a single international system, so that if we are about to lose a submarine, or if there is an emergency on a submarine, any country could use its own equipment to save the sailors", Spasskiy said. Source: Ekho Moskvy news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1033 gmt 23 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material ***************************************************************** 15 Georgia Arrests Smuggler with Radioactive Materiel Saturday December 22 9:45 AM ET TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgian police have arrested an Armenian smuggler with 10.5 ounces of radioactive uranium that he planned to sell in Turkey, a senior security official said on Saturday. The official, who asked not to be identified, said Georgian police and security services had arrested Armenian national Eduard Kazaryan on Wednesday in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region in southern Georgia where many ethnic Armenians live. ``We have serious suspicions that the uranium had been stolen from the Armenian nuclear power station,'' he said. Kazaryan had with him one plate of low-grade uranium-235 which he had smuggled from Armenia and intended to sell in Turkey for $7,000, the official said. Safety worries had forced Armenia to shut down its only nuclear power plant in the aftermath of a disastrous earthquake in 1988, but it relaunched the station in 1995 because of acute power shortages. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there have been a number of cases of nuclear materials being stolen from poorly guarded facilities, sparking grave concern in the West. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited ***************************************************************** 16 Designer says Russian navy should get rid of torpedoes blamed for Kursk sinking BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 23, 2001 Text of report by Russian news agency Ekho Moskvy [No dateline as received] Torpedoes that were aboard the Kursk nuclear submarine should be "excluded from further usage", Rubin design bureau general constructor Igor Spasskiy said, speaking live on Ekho Moskvy radio. [Rubin bureau designed the Kursk and led its salvage operation.] He said that the navy commander-in-chief [Adm Vladimir Kuroyedov] had issued a temporary order "not to load" such torpedoes on submarines similar to Kursk. Spasskiy said that such a decision was "absolutely correct". Spasskiy said that the torpedoes "require extremely careful servicing and control". "And as far as rescue operations are concerned, it is pretty clear for me now that everything could have been done a bit better and simpler", he added. He said that rescue systems installed on NATO's submarines were being actively studied at the moment. He said that rescue systems "have a broader representation" on Russian submarines. He said that a single international standard for rescue systems should be developed. "We want a single international system, so that if we are about to lose a submarine, or if there is an emergency on a submarine, any country could use its own equipment to save the sailors", Spasskiy said. Source: Ekho Moskvy news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1033 gmt 23 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 17 Russian MP doubts cause of Kursk sub sinking will ever be known BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 22, 2001 Text of report in English by Russian news agency Interfax Moscow, 22 December: A member of a state commission investigating last year's sinking of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk voiced doubt on Saturday [22 December] that the cause of the tragedy would be known soon. "The three theories of its sinking that exist today will exist forever," Aleksey Arbatov, deputy head of the defence committee of the lower house of parliament and a member of the liberal Yabloko party, said to reporters. He said "the strife between agencies, the navy and industrialists", who were trying to put the blame on each other, was preventing the truth from coming out. The Kursk sank during an exercise in the Barents Sea in August 2000, killing all its 118 crew. In comments on the newly launched Russian nuclear submarine Gepard (Cheetah), Arbatov said: "There was no need for this submarine." He said the money put into the Gepard would have been enough to repair 30 submarines and "provide our troops in Chechnya with night vision devices, bullet-proof vests and tents". Lately "150 submarines have been removed" from Russia's active arsenal and the reason is "not that they are obsolete but the impossibility of major repairs", he said. Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English 1621 gmt 22 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 18 Tensions mount between nuclear foes Reuters 22 December, 2001 02:36 GMT By Y.P. Rajesh NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is recalling its envoy to Pakistan for what it termed Islamabad's failure to act against terrorism but Pakistan has said it will not retaliate even as tension between the nuclear foes mounted. Islamabad said it was deeply concerned about reports of Indian troop movements along its borders which it said would aggravate a tense situation and oblige Pakistan to take appropriate countermeasures. An Indian army spokesman said, however, New Delhi was only being cautious after what he said was "massive troop movement" across the border in disputed Kashmir by Pakistan. Earlier, announcing the toughest Indian response so far to last week's attack on the New Delhi parliament, foreign ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao told reporters India would also stop bus and train services between the two countries from January 1. New Delhi had demanded Islamabad shut two Pakistan-based guerrilla groups it blamed for last week's attack on the Indian parliament in which 14 people died, including the five assailants who India says were Pakistani. "Since the December 13 attack on parliament, we have seen no attempt on the part of Pakistan to take action against the organisations involved," Rao said. DIPLOMATIC PRESSURE She said India's top official in the Foreign Ministry Chokila Iyer had summoned Pakistan's envoy in New Delhi and listed India's demands a day after five armed intruders stormed the parliament complex before being killed in a gunbattle. "In view of the complete lack of concern on the part of Pakistan and its continued promotion of cross border terrorism, the government of India has decided to recall its High Commissioner (ambassador) in Islamabad," she said. Analysts said Friday's move did not come as a surprise as New Delhi had said it would use diplomacy to pressurise Pakistan before considering "other options". "They are looking for action from Pakistan...and if it does not come the next step could be shutting down the High Commission in Islamabad," C. Raja Mohan, strategic affairs editor at the Hindu newspaper, told Reuters. Pakistan has condemned the attack, denied any involvement and has called for a joint investigation. But New Delhi rejected a joint inquiry, saying its evidence against the two groups -- the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba -- was conclusive. Rao said the limited train and bus services between the two countries, used by thousands of Indians and Pakistanis who cannot afford to fly, would not be stopped immediately to give people time to return home. MOUNTING TENSION She said the Pakistani deputy High Commissioner in India was told on Friday New Delhi was ready to hand over the bodies of the five parliament attackers to their families. Tensions between the neighbours, who have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, have mounted since the December 13 attack on the seat of the world's largest democracy. India also accuses Pakistan of backing a militant plan to assassinate the country's entire political leadership. Both countries have deployed extra troops on their border and exchanged mortar and heavy machinegun fire across a ceasefire line dividing Kashmir. But the governments of both India and Pakistan have said they see no danger of war. Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba are among a dozen groups fighting for independence for Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, or for its merger into Pakistan. The groups have denied involvement in the attack and instead accused Indian intelligence agencies of masterminding the incident to discredit them. Earlier on Friday, Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said New Delhi was happy U.S. President George W. Bush had on Thursday blocked the assets of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Spokeswoman Rao said the U.S. action would be meaningful only if Islamabad also froze the assets of the two groups, arrested their leaders and stopped their activities in Pakistan. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************