note: this a mix of 11/23 and 11/26 stories ***************************************************************** N/26/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.278 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Beefed-up nuclear plant security eyed 2 Austria: Government parties adopt resolution on Czech nuclear 3 UK could be cited on MOX for breaching UN treaties 4 European Commission rejects proposal to hold conference on Czech 5 Nuclear waste facility completed in Russia Far East 6 Luminescence seen above Ukrainian nuclear plant 7 Call for competition in UK nuclear decommissioning 8 NATIONAL NEWS: Increase in energy competition prompts end to 9 Greens trusted the most on Temelin 10 Three quarters of Austrians fear nuclear power 11 Nuclear plant near Russian-Finnish border? 12 Malfunction halts Russian nuclear power generator 13 Far East Gets $40M Plant To Handle Nuclear Waste 14 Site affirms low-level N-waste fell as rain 15 Time for cities and counties to back up anti-Yucca talk 16 Bush Statement on newly signed Energy and Water Development Act 17 Tribe's Proposal Gets New Scrutiny 18 Protesters target Sellafield 19 EUROPEAN COMMISSION EXPOSES PRO-NUCLEAR STANCE AS IT SEEKS TO 20 Environmentalists Jeopardize Safety Of Radioactive Material 21 Andrei Lubenski: Ukraine’s Greens demand to disclose information 22 Utah battles proposed nuclear dump 23 IAEA Daily Press Review Date 2001-11-26 Number 225 24 Initial Industrialization in Nuclear Technology Application Realized 25 New uranium plant data show less contamination 26 New data may hinder lawsuit by neighbors 27 Spare the Rods 28 UPDATE - German Greens to debate whether to end government 29 WNA NEWS BRIEFING 01.47 | 14 - 20 November 2001 30 Leaders OK nuclear information campaign - 31 NPRI: No need to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain 32 Ottawa Sun: Fired engineer considers offer 33 Square the Goshutes 34 Claims public denied information on uranium mine. 35 NATIONAL NEWS: Need for more nuclear power 'unlikely' 36 State needs more funding for emergency preparedness at Vermont Yankee 37 IAEA Daily Press Review Date 2001-11-23 Number 224 38 Results of safety checks at Czech nuclear plant encouraging - 39 Armenian agency denies Azeri report on discharging nuclear NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 New Russian nuclear submarine to enter service in December 2 DOE: Honesty, openness, education key to safety 3 Nuclear Arctic without secrets 4 Potomac Institute Presents: 'New War Challenges' 5 Nuclear weapons workers, survivors can file claims 6 Pakistan Frees Nuclear Scientists 7 Moscow Seeks NATO's Cooperation 8 News: Energy Northwest fighting nuclear panel's criticism of its 9 Uphill battle for whistle-blowers 10 'Mr. Safety' goes to the mat 11 Myanmar gives sanctuary to Pak nuke scientists 12 Nuclear fallout: Is the threat real? 13 Fired Muslim nuke worker considers offer of job back; AECL denies 14 Infighting hurt Pantex board, members say 15 Hodges against oversight by Energy Dept. official 16 Infighting among factors for Pantex advisory board 17 Scientists overwhelmed with Cold War-era baby teeth 18 Former atomic minister plays down possibility of passing **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Beefed-up nuclear plant security eyed Thestar.com/ Mon Nov 26, 2001 - Updated at 09:32 PM Beefed-up nuclear plant security eyed No-fly zones one possibility, regulator says Stan Josey Durham Region Bureau Chief Increased security measures at Canada's nuclear facilities, including no-fly zones and more armed might, are being considered by the federal nuclear regulator. Linda Keen, president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, said she could not go into details of new security plans being developed in co-operation with the Department of National Defence and Transport Canada. "Details of what kind of personnel and what kind of weaponry they will have (are) still being developed," she said after a speech to the Pickering Board of Trade last week. However, she did not rule out the use of surface-to-air missiles and the deployment of military personnel. She said her organization is looking at "air exclusion zones and marine exclusion zones and how we can put those in place." While the defence department now has CF-18 fighters stationed at CFB Trenton patrolling airspace over Toronto and nuclear plants in Pickering and Clarington, she said there would have to be some provision to enforce no-fly zones on a continuing basis. No-fly zones around nuclear plants 'have to be enforceable' "I am not in favour of having air exclusion zones just for the purpose of having them.... They have to be enforceable." Keen said Canada is not in the same position as France, which recently installed surface-to-air missiles and radar near its nuclear facilities. "You have to understand that France is a nuclear power and plutonium is stored at its nuclear stations. Canada has neither of those conditions." But she said the necessary defences to protect Canada's nuclear facilities will be implemented. Since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, nuclear power generation stations in Durham Region have had an around-the-clock armed police presence. She said further security measures will be discussed at the nuclear safety commission. Nuclear critics, however, continue to call for major increases in security and safety measures in the aftermath of Sept. 11. David Martin of the Sierra Club said after Keen's address that nuclear plants are still vulnerable to attacks by passenger jets like those used in the U.S. terrorist attacks. He said the facilities must be "hardened" by the strengthening of buildings around key parts of the plants, such as containment areas designed to hold atmospheric contamination should an accident or attack occur. He also said nuclear plants should have anti-aircraft and marine defences using surface-to-air missiles and radar. While these measures would be costly, Martin said "the terrorist threat is another cost of nuclear power that the industry must pay for as a part of doing business." Copyright 1996-2001. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All ***************************************************************** 2 Austria: Government parties adopt resolution on Czech nuclear plant BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Nov 22, 2001 Vienna: The Nationalrat debate on Wednesday [21 November] developed into a match between the government parties and the SPOe [Social Democratic Party of Austria]. The nuclear power plant of Temelin provided the dynamite for the verbal chain reaction. In the course of the debate on the Nice Treaty, the OeVP [Austrian People's Party] and the FPOe [Freedom Party of Austria] adopted the Temelin motion filed by them. It calls on the Austrian government not to agree to the provisional conclusion of the energy chapter with the Czech Republic as long as safety issues are not solved... Source: Die Presse, Vienna, in German 22 Nov 01 p 8 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to ***************************************************************** 3 UK could be cited on MOX for breaching UN treaties Irish Newspapers - Date: Mon November 26th 01 IRELAND will cite Britain for breaching United Nations treaties if the Law of the Sea Tribunal appeal against the Sellafield MOX nuclear plant fails, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has confirmed. A key arbitrator will now submit a report on Ireland's case against Sellafield on December 8 next although other challenges via the United Nations and EU will still proceed. Mr Ahern also bluntly rejected British criticisms of Fianna Fail's decision to fund a full-page advertisement in Britain's The Times newspaper calling for Sellafield to be shut. Britain's Department of Trade and Industry expressed concern at the reference in the advert to security concerns over the ongoing operation of the Sellafield site. However, Mr Ahern stressed that he was bewildered by such criticisms. "Did I not see British parliamentarians bringing forward legislation this week because they are concerned about the security threat to Britain," the Taoiseach stressed. Speaking at the weekend Ogra Fianna Fail conference in Cork, Mr Ahern warned that Ireland will use every avenue legal and diplomatic to get Sellafield shut down. Further, the Taoiseach flatly rejected claims that Ireland's strong stance over Sellafield's MOX unit is damaging relations with premier Tony Blair. "We have put up with a lot in Ireland with Sellafield and the old Windscale nuclear plant," declared Mr Ahern. "In actual fact, Tony Blair has been very helpful, although he has pointed out to us that Britain's nuclear industry is fully autonomous." The Taoiseach went on to say that he believes Ireland's best chance for halting the controversial MOX development at Sellafield is through the 21-judge tribunal in Hamburg which handles Law of the Sea appeals. However, the Republic is also considering other avenues of protest, including via European Union environmental law and under the 1982 United Nations treaty which was endorsed by Britain. Furthermore, Mr Ahern said he has personally worked to ensure the broadest possible support base for Ireland's campaign against Sellafield. "I have already spoken to the prime minister of Norway and with political groups in Iceland," the Taoiseach explained. "There is genuine concern about this development at Sellafield, not only in Ireland but throughout Britain and the rest of Europe. We will be working to harness that support," Mr Ahern declared. He also rejected suggestions that The Times advertisement was a political stunt but a response to backing from British environmental groups. In a letter sent by the European Commission to the Irish Government, the Commission warns they should seek redress inside the EU legal framework rather than fighting it in the international courts despite previous claims by the Commission that it had limited jurisdiction over nuclear safety. A spokeswoman for Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrem said: "We do consider that this is a Community matter and believe Ireland should seek a Community resolution." Ralph Riegel © Copyright Unison ***************************************************************** 4 European Commission rejects proposal to hold conference on Czech nuclear plant BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Nov 22, 2001 Brussels, 22 November: The European Commission (EC) irrevocably rejected the European Parliament (EP) demand to hold an international conference on the decommissioning of the nuclear power plant Temelin [southern Bohemia] and its financing, EC spokesman Jean- Christophe Filori told CTK today. He added that EC Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen and Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio announced it in a letter to EP Chairwoman Nicole Fontaine on 16 November. Filori quoted the letter as saying that the EC did not see any possibility of supporting this initiative. The letter, which has not been published, justifies the decision by saying that the Czech Republic rejected the conference and that the European legislation does not acknowledge the term "stranded costs" which the EP uses in its demand. Furthermore, it is unrealistic to think that the finance for the decommissioning of Temelin which meets security standards could be found when it was not found for such nuclear power plants as Jaslovske Bohunice (Slovakia), Ignalina (Lithuania) and Kozloduy (Bulgaria) which are considered risky. The EC has thus confirmed what Verheugen had already said at the beginning of September that the conference could not be held if the sovereign country on the territory of which Temelin is situated disagreed with it. Austrian Environment Minister Wilhelm Molterer, Austria's negotiator in the Temelin issue, said the same thing using different words in Brussels in September. However, some Austrian politicians including Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel and some EP deputies continue to promote the idea. The Czech-Austrian dispute over Temelin is getting into the key phase from the point of view of the Czech Republic's EU entry. The EC has to submit a draft EU joint stand on the energy chapter within the negotiations with the Czech Republic to the EU member states in the days to come... If the Czech Republic and Austria do not find a feasible solution by the end of November, the EC will submit the draft stand to the EU Council. Austria will then either have to agree with closing the energy chapter or officially block it, which will put it into an unpleasant position. No EU member wishes to hamper the enlargement with such marginal issues as Temelin. The EC is now considering ways to help Austria change its attitude without losing face. One possibility which is being negotiated at the moment involves the intention to prepare basic European standards for nuclear safety by 2004... Source: CTK news agency, Prague, in English 1821 gmt 22 Nov 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to ***************************************************************** 5 Nuclear waste facility completed in Russia Far East Japan Today Japan News - Friday, November 23, 2001 at 09:30 JST VLADIVOSTOK — A Russian nuclear waste disposal plant built to process and store waste from dismantled nuclear-powered submarines was opened Thursday in Bolshoy Kamen outside Vladivostok, headquarters of the Russian Navy's Pacific fleet. An inauguration ceremony was held at the facility, which was built by the Japanese government fund, with Japanese Foreign Ministry officials, including Akira Takamatsu, Japanese consul general to Vladivostok, and Russian atomic energy ministry officials attending. (Kyodo News) ***************************************************************** 6 Luminescence seen above Ukrainian nuclear plant BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Nov 22, 2001 Text of report by Ukrainian news agency UNIAN Kiev, 22 November: The presidium of Khmelnytskyy Regional council of Ukrainian Society for Natural Protection and the Civic National Security Committee voiced protest against what they described as superficious and withheld consideration of emergency situation that occurred in the area of the Khmelnytskyy nuclear power station on 7 November 2001. The statement issued by the two public organizations and received by UNIAN says that at about 0600 [0400 gmt] 7 November a strong luminescence could be observed above the station. It was seen at a 100-km distance and caused panic among local population and spreading rumours about some breakage at the station. "The rumours about a breakage were not true as the station continued to work in a usual mode," the statement says. The case was discussed at an urgent meeting held by the Khmelnytskyy state administration and attended by representatives of all agencies to whom it might concern. The meeting was followed by an official statement that the luminescence above the Khmelnytskyy nuclear power plant had been caused by "an unusual natural phenomenon, namely refraction of sun rays during the movements of air strata" and, therefore, had nothing to do with the station and its work. The environmentalists have described the above conclusion as "an attempt to confuse the population and withhold from society the information about the environmental impact of nuclear industry". They say that the luminescence was directly linked to the station's work. The environmentalists believe that the luminescence resulted from "a lasting electric discharge in the atmosphere caused by ionizing radiation". The Regional administration resorted to a refraction theory in order to hide the information about continuous ionizing of the air above the station, they say. The environmental organizations say that this was done purposefully to distract public attention from air pollution caused by nuclear power plants and from problems of further development of nuclear industry in general. Source: UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1321 gmt 22 Nov 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 7 Call for competition in UK nuclear decommissioning By Matthew Jones Published: November 26 2001 09:06 | Last Updated: November 26 2001 09:57 The UK Atomic Energy Authority has urged the government to improve competition in decommissioning disused nuclear power plants as part of plans to create a national atomic liabilities management authority (LMA). The move could save taxpayers millions of pounds a year but could also threaten to undermine a key part of British Nuclear Fuels' business at a time when the company is trying to recover from last year's heavy losses. Whitehall officials are expected to confirm plans for the new LMA soon to help push through the partial privatisation of British Nuclear Fuels. Under the proposals some £34bn ($47.9bn) of liabilities on BNFL's balance sheet and £8.5bn of liabilities currently the responsibility of UKAEA would be transferred to the LMA. UKAEA, which spends about £190m a year on cleaning up nuclear sites such as Dounreay in northern Scotland, said it had cut its costs by a third in the last six years by putting all its work out to competitive tender. The move has meant that some of its activities are outsourced to companies such as Framatome of France and Nukem, a German-owned atomic specialist, as well as UK companies such as WS Atkins and Babtie Group. In contrast, BNFL's own nuclear decommissioning unit carries out about half of its UK clean-up activities and the other half is done using non-competitively tendered partnerships. A UKAEA official said: "We have had a lot of success with this competitive approach and we hope and expect to see it extended under any new liabilities management arrangements." BNFL last year made an underlying loss before tax and exceptionals of £210m. Its decommissioning business accounts for about 8 per cent of turnover and is one of the areas the company is most keen to grow. A BNFL official declined to comment on any future decommissioning arrangements but added: "We have moved to strategic alliances and partnering for some of our work because it tends to be better value in the long run rather than just the cheapest price." ***************************************************************** 8 NATIONAL NEWS: Increase in energy competition prompts end to all price controls: Move to lift remaining restrictions is a decisive step in the liberalisation of the UK markets, writes Andrew Taylor Financial Times; Nov 26, 2001 By ANDREW TAYLOR All price controls on household electricity and gas sales are expected to be lifted today by Callum McCarthy, energy industry regulator. The move represents a decisive step in the liberalisation of Britain's energy markets, which began 15 years ago when the gas industry was privatised. Few people then expected that consumers would be able to move freely between suppliers, which would compete against other on price and service. Gas prices since then have fallen by 37 per cent in real terms, while average electricity prices, on the same basis, have fallen by 28 per cent since 1990, a year after the industry was privatised. Almost 33 per cent of household gas customers and about 30 per cent of electricity consumers have switched from their former public sector suppliers since the markets became fully competitive in 1998 and 1999. The increase in competition - some 100,000 electricity and 67,000 gas customers switch each week from their existing supplier - has persuaded the regulator that it is time to remove remaining price controls on energy retailers. From today all energy retailers, including former public monopolies, will be free to raise or lower prices. The removal of most price controls from household gas charges earlier this year prompted British Gas to raise its prices by an average 4.7 per cent in line with rivals. From today, only charges paid by suppliers to monopoly owners of wires and pipes used to transmit electricity and gas to homes and industry will stay under regulatory price controls. Ofgem, the regulator, says it retains sufficient powers under competition and utilities legislation to take action against suppliers that behave uncompetitively or mis-sell products. Companies that misbehave or breach licence conditions can still be fined, it says. It is concerned that generators, although outside price controls, can still manipulate power station prices despite the introduction last March of new electricity trading arrangements. It wants government backing for the reintroduction of market abuse clauses in the operating licences of power stations. A "catch-all" licence clause giving Ofgem wider powers to investigate and halt suspected market manipulation was thrown out last year by the Competition Commission following complaints from British Energy, the nuclear generator, and AES, a US energy group. The Association of Electricity Producers says the reintroduction of the clauses is unnecessary, would increase costs, deter new investment and undermine earlier commission rulings. The regulator also faces criticism over plans to develop new markets for balancing gas supply and demand and requiring electricity generators and suppliers to pay for access to the national grid. Mr McCarthy says the new markets will identify where investment is most needed and make competition fairer and more effective. The British market, he says, is one of the most competitive in Europe, providing a model for utility privatisation. "A liberalised and increasingly deregulated market for gas and electricity in Britain is working well. It has delivered large benefits to consumers in terms of quality, supply and price," he says. "Since May 1999 every single household in Britain, and every industrial and commercial customer, has had complete choice as to which supplier provides its gas and electricity. All this has been achieved without any deterioration in customer standards. Interruptions to supply are even rarer today than they were a decade ago; our generating margin over peak demand stands at just under 30 per cent." Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-1998 ***************************************************************** 9 Greens trusted the most on Temelin (Grune Glaubwurdigkeit bei Temelin, SPO als Schlusslicht) Der Standard - Austria; Nov 26, 2001 According to new research, the Austrian Green party is the political party that Austrians trust the most when it comes to the question of opposing the nuclear power station in Temelin, which is located in the Czech Republic, close to the Austrian border. Although the Freedom Party has clearly stated it wants to veto the Czech Republic's entrance to the EU, a smaller proportion of Austrians have faith in it on this subject. On the Temelin question, 46 per cent of those questioned said the Greens showed the most unity, even if they were not in agreement on other issues. Only 39 per cent said the Freedom Party was unified on this subject. Research has shown that 49 per cent of Austrians want a veto in connection with Temelin. All Material Subject to Copyright ***************************************************************** 10 Three quarters of Austrians fear nuclear power (Drei Viertel haben Atomangst) Der Standard - Austria; Nov 24, 2001 According to new research, 36 per cent of Austrians feel very threatened by nuclear power stations, while a further 38 per cent feel somewhat in danger because of the power stations. Only 49 per cent believe that the Temelin nuclear power station in the Czech Republic, close to the Austrian border, will be shut down in five years' time. Meanwhile, 65 per cent believe that the Czech Republic will join the EU within the next five years, no matter what happens to the Temelin plant. About half of Austrians are in favour of a veto against the Czech Republic joining the EU if the Temelin power station is not shut down, but only 28 per cent believe that this position would serve Austrian interests. Politicians fear that Austria is losing image over the matter and that south-eastern European countries will not want to do business with Austria anymore. All Material Subject to Copyright ***************************************************************** 11 Nuclear plant near Russian-Finnish border? (St Petersburg:) Finland is concerned over Russian Ministry’s for Nuclear Energy (Minatom) plans for building a nuclear power plant near the Finnish border. Minatom dreams to build a NPP in Finland. Rashid Alimov, 2001-11-26 14:36 Some days ago, Finnish Kainuun Sanomat daily reported, that Russian Ministry for Nuclear Energy (Minatom) is carrying out negotiations with the Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (STUK) on building a new nuclear power plant near Tiiksa (in Russian spelled Tiksha), a village in the Muezersk district in Karelia, 60km from the Russian-Finnish border. Kainun Sanomat quoted Hannu Koponen, the STUK director, as saying that if built, the new power plant would have the capacity of 640 to 1000 MW. For the first time, the idea of building a NPP near Tiiksa was considered in 1980s, but then its capacity was to be up to 6000 MW. “Yes, there were some ideas to build a NPP in Tiiksa in the early 1990s, some research was carried out, but the plans were rejected at the same time,” the press service of the Karelian government said to Bellona Web, deeply surprised with the news. Mr Koponen told Bellona Web that he might have been misquoted (an article from the Kainuun Sanomat was sent to wires in Russian by Rosbalt news agency). No negotiations for building a NPP in Karelia are carried out at present, and Mr Koponen does not think a NPP may be constructed there in the near future. But STUK keeps on watching the plans, connected with building of nuclear objects near the boarder. Mr Koponen said that, according to his information, the Russian Nuclear Regulatory had already issued a licence, to expand two nuclear plants in immediate vicinity to Finland. Minatom plans to build two additional reactor units at Kola NPP, and one reactor unit at Leningrad NPP in Sosnovy Bor. At present, there are about 640 inhabitants in Tiiksa, a half of them are pensioners. The whole Muezersk district has no harmful industries: the majority of its population is engaged in logging. The pulp and paper industry is the most developed industry in Karelia. Natural conditions of Karelia resemble the ones of the neighbouring Finland, where producing of energy from the wood, the by-product of the mentioned industry, has been promoted heavily during the last decade and has increased its volume for more than 70%. In 1999 wood fuels supplied 19,5 % of the Finnish energy consumption. In Karelia there are a lot of the same wood fuels. The alternative sources of energy seem to be much more preferable, than building a new nuclear giant. Finnish Greenpeace campaigner, Harri Lammi, speaking on the plans to build new reactor units near the Finnish border told Bellona Web: “That concerns interest of the Finnish public a lot. We don’t understand, why Russia doesn’t use alternative sources of energy, which are safer? Why Russia should invest in the expensive and potentially dangerous nuclear plants and doesn’t think of energy efficiency, which would be the best?” Will Minatom build NPP in Finland? Though, it seems that such a reaction of the neighbours does not confuse Minatom. Quite the contrary, last week the director of Atomstroiexport, one of Minatom’s subdivisions, Victor Kozlov, said, Russia was going to participate in the tender for building a NPP in Finland, planned for the next year. In his opinion, Russia has quite good chance to win the contest. The Atomstoiexport director bases his opinion on the fact that Russia proposed to Finland to build a plant with the same models of VVER reactors, as Minatom is building now in China. According to the Atomstroiexport information, in addition to Russia, Germany, France, the UK, and Sweden will take the bid as well. But Atomstroiexport is obviously too much in a hurry. Sami Wilkman, a MP of the Green Group in the Finnish parliament, says to Bellona Web that the application for building the fifth Finnish reactor has not been considered in the parliament yet, and will be evaluated not earlier than in Spring or Summer 2002. No building can start before that. The Finnish Greenpeace campaigner Harri Lammi thinks, it is unlikely that the parliament will give green light for the nuclear power plant. “The application was considered in 1993, and it hadn’t passed. I don’t see any reason, why should it pass now,” he said, mentioning that the majority of the Finns object to the building. Mr Lammi said, even if the parliamentary approval is granted, it will not mean the construction start of the new NPP. The potential investors - Fortum and TVO - have not evaluated yet the cost efficiency of the project. They are going to consider the question of investment only after a positive decision is in place from the government and the parliament. Energy production in Finland The share of the nuclear plants in the energy market in Finland has recently somewhat increased and now amounts to about 25%. The most part of the energy is produced by the hydroelectric power plants. Also, production of energy from the wood, the by-product of the pulp and paper industry has increased its volume over the last decade by more than 70%. In 1999, wood fuels supplied 19,5 % of the Finnish energy consumption. At the same time, Finland keeps on importing Russian natural gas. The capacity of Olkiluoto nuclear plant has been recently boosted by 23%. The plant operates on two 660 MW Swedish boiling water reactors, commissioned in 1978 and 1980. It is now licensed to operate until 2018. Loviisa nuclear plant, built by the Soviet engineers, operates two VVER-440 reactors, has increased output by almost 100 MWe (11%). Near the Finnish border two Russian plants - Kola NPP (four VVER-440) and Leningrad NPP are situated (four RBMK-1000). Reactors of Leningrad NPP are considered especially dangerous on account of their Chernobyl-like design characteristics. Different variants of building new reactor units are being considered now, among the projects are a new type MKER-1000 reactor, or two VVER-1500 reactors. According to the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the last decade, Finland has allocated more than FM 800m for the transboundary cooperation programmes, pertaining to environmental protection, nuclear safety, forestry and agriculture. 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 ***************************************************************** 12 Malfunction halts Russian nuclear power generator BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Nov 24, 2001 Text of report in English by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS Moscow, 23 November: The fourth turbogenerator of the second unit of the Kursk nuclear power plant was stopped at 0705 Moscow Time [0405 gmt] on Friday because of a malfunction in the lubrication system. The malfunction raised the oil temperature a lot, sources in the Russian Ministry for Civil Defence and Emergencies have told ITAR-TASS. The output of the second unit is down to 472 megawatt. The third and fourth units of the Kursk nuclear power station are running at their full capacity. The first unit will remain under planned repairs till 11 December. The turbogenerator is being repaired. The radiation on the power plant premises is normal. Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English 1713 gmt 23 Nov 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 13 Far East Gets $40M Plant To Handle Nuclear Waste Friday, Nov. 23, 2001. Page 3 By Yevgenia Borisova [yevgenia@imedia.ru] Staff Writer Grigory Pasko's dream has come true. Four years after the former military journalist was jailed for blowing the whistle on the Pacific Fleet for dumping liquid radioactive waste in the Sea of Japan, a facility to process such waste officially opened Thursday in the Far East. But Pasko is not happy. "How could we be glad?" he said in a telephone interview. "I have seen its feasibility studies, and it is absolutely outdated because the project was launched eight years ago. The infrastructure is not ready. The constructors didn't even manage to build proper roads and railways." The $40 million floating facility, called Landysh, is the fruit of Japanese efforts and funding, with the participation of the United States, Britain, France and Norway. It is part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction program under the Nunn-Lugar Act passed by the U.S. Congress in the fall of 1991 and has a central role in Russia's implementation of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The Japanese Embassy said in a statement that the decision to build the facility was made by Russia and Japan in 1993 "to prevent Russia dumping radioactive waste in the Sea of Japan." A Japanese-Russian committee for cooperation in the destruction of nuclear weapons was created, and Japan provided $200 million. The embassy information department was unable to explain what most of it was spent on. The facility is to process up to 7,000 cubic meters of liquid low-grade radioactive waste a year, extracted from decommissioned submarines. The mobile facility is on the territory of the Zvezda plant in the Primorye region town of Bolshoi Kamen -- a base for the Pacific Fleet's nuclear submarines. For a number of years Zvezda has been involved in the disposal of decommissioned submarines, and for years the waste was simply dumped in the sea or stored without processing. Zvezda head Valery Maslakov said at the opening that the facility will process waste from up to eight nuclear submarines a year and the local workload will keep it busy for six to seven years. Deputy Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Lebedev said at a briefing in Murmansk in September that 188 nuclear submarines have been decommissioned. About 80 are expected to be processed in the Far East. Navy and Nuclear Power Ministry officials were unable to say how much liquid radioactive waste is stored in the Far East and how much may accumulate per year from now on. But Pasko said the Far East had 3,500 tons of waste, well below Zvezda's capacity. Although the facility can be towed to other locations, Pasko fears waste from Japan, Taiwan and Northern Korea will be brought to it. "I am absolutely positive that after the law was passed that allows transportation of spent nuclear fuel and the first fuel arrived from Bulgaria, we will soon start getting it from these three countries," Pasko said. "And as the gates are open, the liquid waste will follow it." [http://www.moscowtimes.ru ***************************************************************** 14 Site affirms low-level N-waste fell as rain Buffalo News - News Staff Reporter 11/22/2001 WEST VALLEY - Officials at the West Valley Demonstration Project acknowledged that an undetermined amount of low-level radioactive waste, which is allowed to be released into the air via a smokestack, fell to the ground in raindrops sometime in September. Project spokesman Terry Dunford said Wednesday that the material, detected Nov. 13 during a routine radiation sweep of the site, was subsequently gathered from two areas near the former process plant at the facility. "There is no evidence that it's gone any further than the plant, and certainly no evidence that it's left the project grounds," Dunford said, adding that mobile radiation detectors have swept area roads and been unable to find radiation above background levels. No West Valley employees were contaminated, Dunford said. Dunford said West Valley is allowed to periodically release minimal amounts of low-level radiation from the plant's smokestack as part of normal operations. In this case, "some condensation formed as permitted emissions left the stack on the main plant," Dunford said. "Due to an atmospheric inversion, these normal emissions turned into water droplets and were deposited around the main plant in two specific areas." The water-soluble droplets, which contained cesium, solidified as they fell to earth. Dunford said that workers using Geiger counters collected the material, and that it was of such a low level that they didn't need special suits. Most of the material was found in two small areas near the process plant, Dunford said, though there were a "few raindrops in other locations." Copyright © 1999 - 2001 The Buffalo NewsTM ***************************************************************** 15 Time for cities and counties to back up anti-Yucca talk Reno Gazette-Journal Friday November 23rd, 2001 It’s surprising that cities and counties in Nevada have been slow to pony up money for a fund to fight a proposed nuclear waste dump in southern Nevada. Since this battle began more than a decade ago, people from across the state have been opposed to a dump at Yucca Mountain. But now it’s money, not just words that is needed to keep 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste out of our state. Gov. Kenny Guinn has called for help from Nevada’s cities and counties to add to a $4 million fund created by the Nevada Legislature earlier this year. Clark County has contributed $1 million, Mesquite donated $50,000, and Mineral County, Lovelock and Sparks have each pitched in $1,000. Even the small city of Wells came up with $1,867, a dollar for each resident. Nevada has 17 counties and 18 incorporated cities, but only six have put money in the state fund. Southern Nevada communities like Henderson and Boulder City have, for whatever reason, decided not to contribute yet. It’s expected the Department of Energy will recommend Yucca Mountain as the permanent home to 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in the coming months, and the state needs to boost its fund to mount what will likely be a lengthy, and expensive, legal challenge. From all corners of Nevada, state politicians, local elected officials and citizens groups have repeatedly stated their opposition to the dump. Now it’s time to back up the talk with action. © Reno Gazette-Journal ***************************************************************** 16 Bush Statement on newly signed Energy and Water Development Act U.S. Newswire 13 Nov 17:52 Bush Statement on Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act To: National Desk Contact: White House Press Office, 202-456-2580 WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by the White House: STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT I have signed into law H.R. 2311, the "Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2002." I appreciate the bipartisan effort that has gone into producing this Act. The bill abides by the agreed upon aggregate funding level for Fiscal Year 2002 of $686 billion. It provides funding for several important programs with significant national benefits including: -- key research projects designed to develop new energy technologies and improve the efficiency of existing energy technologies, such as for solar and renewable energy production, as called for in the National Energy Policy report; -- nonproliferation programs that seek to prevent nuclear materials and other weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists and rogue states; -- stockpile stewardship, which is critical to maintaining the safety, reliability, and performance of our nuclear weapons stockpile; and -- water resources development and management projects, and programs for commercial navigation, flood damage reduction, and environmental restoration and enhancement. Section 303 of the bill purports to require congressional approval before executive branch execution of aspects of the bill. I will interpret such provisions to require notification only, since any other interpretation would contradict the Supreme Court ruling in INS v. Chadha. Provisions of H.R. 2311 that purport to remove my authority to oversee the activities of the Army Corps of Engineers will be construed consistent with my constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch. My Administration appreciates that the Congress has worked expeditiously during this difficult and trying time in our Nation's history to consider the FY 2002 appropriations bills. Now, through a renewed sense of bipartisanship, the Congress and the Administration must work together to ensure the timely enactment of the remaining bills. GEORGE W. BUSH THE WHITE HOUSE, November 12, 2001. Copyright 2001, U.S. Newswire ***************************************************************** 17 Tribe's Proposal Gets New Scrutiny The Salt Lake Tribune -- Friday, November 23, 2001 BY JUDY FAHYS A Massachusetts congressman has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a big "what if" about the nuclear waste holding facility proposed for the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation: What if a jetliner loaded with 20,000 gallons of fuel took off from the Salt Lake City airport and crashed into the above-ground storage casks? The question, posed by Democratic Rep. Ed Markey on Monday, represents the third time since spring the agency has been second-guessed for giving short shrift to the potential for terrorism at U.S. nuclear facilities. "The NRC is still operating in a pre-September 11 world," said Markey, a member and past chairman of the panel that oversees commercial nuclear power and a longtime critic of atomic energy regulation. "While the NRC and the nuclear power industry have been saying nothing short of 'It can't happen here,' " he said, "we know all too well that the terrorists of al-Qaida have contemplated and would carry out an attack on a nuclear facility." In a similar letter last month, Utah state government attorneys asked the NRC to reconsider security risks posed by the Goshute facility. The same issues also were raised in June by two retired military officers, who felt theirs were "voices in the wilderness" about the possible terrorism threat. The NRC only requires commercial nuclear facilities to prepare their sites for an attack by a few people armed with hand-held weapons or explosives -- nothing like a suicide hijacking. Similar standards have been applied to the proposal by a consortium of out-of-state utility companies that plans to build and operate the storage facility on 125 acres of Goshute land about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The consortium, called Private Fuel Storage LLC (PFS), needs a permit from the NRC to park power-plant waste for up to 20 years, while a permanent underground repository is made ready, perhaps in Yucca Valley, Nev. NRC spokeswoman Sue Gagner said the NRC staff has begun a thorough study of pertinent regulations, including training and communications standards. "We are doing a complete review of our security requirements to see if any changes are needed," she said. "It's a top-to-bottom review." Gagner also said her office would respond "in writing and in detail" to Markey's 10 pages of questions. Meanwhile, PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin pointed out that the NRC last week issued two decisions about the storage site's safety. In one, the NRC staff agreed with PFS that the risk of an accidental aircraft crash at the facility would be less than 1 in 1 million. In the second, the commission itself said a 1 in 1 million crash risk is reasonable. The state wanted the standard to be 1 in 10,000, given that the facility would be 15 miles from the Salt Lake City International Airport and on the flight path between Hill Air Force Base and the Utah Test and Training Range. Martin added that a broader security-policy issue is dealing with the waste PFS wants to put on the Goshute Reservation, waste currently being stored at more than 70 sites around the nation, in many cases near big cities. Markey aide Jeff Duncan called the NRC "dismissive" about the possibility of terrorism at nuclear facilities. "They have a duty to protect the public health and safety, and we view this as a critical health and safety issue." fahys@sltrib.com © Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 18 Protesters target Sellafield BBC News | ENGLAND | Friday, 23 November, 2001, The Mox fuel plant at Sellafield has provoked outrage More than 50 anti-nuclear protesters, including MPs from the Irish parliament, have staged a protest at Sellafield. The protesters, who were joined by Irish MPs, were outraged by the government's recent decision to allow the start of operations at the new mixed oxide (Mox) plant at the Cumbrian site. The leader of the Irish Green party Trevor Sargent said the protest was "designed to promote dialogue, not confrontation". British Nuclear Fuels Limited said it had no objection to the anti-nuclear activitists marching to the main gates of its site. Sellafield has been the target of protesters before A spokesperson for BNFL said the protesters' main complaint had "been dealt with in the courts". Environmental groups have already failed in a legal challenge to the decision, which they say will increase pollution and provide a new target for terrorists. The Irish Government has launched its own legal challenge to the mox decision, going to the UN's International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg for arbitration. Campaigners have argued that sea pollution from Sellafield is the cause of above average cancer rates in some parts of the east of Ireland. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has attacked the decision, while environmentalists have pointed out Sellafield is closer to Dublin than it is to London. Plutonium stocks A decision is expected from the Hamburg tribunal on 9 December. The Norwegian Government is also understood to be considering legal action over the issue. The UK Government says the Mox plant will help recycle the growing stocks of plutonium which are a by-product of nuclear reprocessing. The plutonium can be combined with uranium and turned into a new fuel source. British nuclear officials argue that far from increasing the terrorist threat, the Mox plant will reduce the security dangers by reducing plutonium stockpiles. ***************************************************************** 19 EUROPEAN COMMISSION EXPOSES PRO-NUCLEAR STANCE AS IT SEEKS TO BLOCK IRELAND GOVERNMENT OVER SELLAFIELD [Press Release Finder] 26 November 2001 Dublin - Greenpeace today condemned the intervention of the European Commission against recent Irish government legal initiatives against the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria, England. According to today’s Irish Independent newspaper, the European Commission has called on the Irish government to withdraw from two legal cases it has launched against the UK government. Specifically, the Environment Commissioner (DGX1) has challenged Ireland’s right to take action against Sellafield outside the jurisdiction of the European Community. "The European Commission is acting on behalf of the plutonium industry and the UK government, not in the interests of protecting the environment or public health," said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International. "Within the EU during the last ten years, a stockpile of over 150,000kg of plutonium has been created and as little as 5kg of this would destroy central London or Brussels in a nuclear explosion," said Burnie. "Instead of actively opposing the production of plutonium and the contamination of the environment, the Commission has sought to block a democratically elected government from seeking redress on this fundamental issue." In June 2001, Ireland filed for international arbitration under the OSPAR Commission. (1) Last week, the Irish government presented evidence to the United Nations International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which accused the UK government of violating the Law of the Sea over its licensing of the Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP). The SMP owned by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), was finally authorized to operate by the UK government on October 3rd. The European Commission has called on the Irish government to drop both the OSPAR case and the Law of the Sea case. Instead the Commission has stated that these issues should be dealt with at the European Court of Justice. Senior lawyers acting on behalf of the UK government last week told the Law of the Sea Tribunal that they did not have jurisdiction over Sellafield, and that it was a matter for the European Community. They also disclosed for the first time that the Commission had intervened over Ireland’s OSPAR complaint.(2) The Irish government has called for an end to the radioactive pollution of the Irish Sea by Sellafield. Around 2 million litres of nuclear waste is discharged every day from Sellafield into the ocean. It has also opposed to the Sellafield MOX Plant due to the increase in nuclear transports that are both unsafe and vulnerable to terrorist attack. It is expected early next year that international arbitration of Ireland’s OSPAR case will begin at the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The Law of the Sea case is expected to also begin during 2002. In the meantime, Ireland has asked the 21 judges of the Law of the Sea Tribunal to award interim measures against the UK government, including the suspension of the authorization of the Sellafield MOX Plant, and no transports of nuclear material into and out of Sellafield associated with the MOX plant. All 21 judges are deliberating on this matter currently, and are due to issue their judgement on December 3rd in Hamburg. The Court of Appeals in London will hear the Friends of the Earth/Greenpeace case against the Sellafield MOX Plant on the 27th and 28th of November. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: - Shaun Burnie +31 629 00 11 33, - Jon Walter +31 626 12 96 20 please visit the Greenpeace site www.britishnuclearfuels.com [http://www.britishnuclearfuels.com] Notes to Editors: (1) The OSPAR, or Oslo Paris Commission, regulates pollution of the marine environment in the North-east Atlantic, covering areas both inside and outside EC jurisdiction. It is made up of most member states of the EU, plus non-EU members, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. (2) See evidence of Richard Plenner QC on behalf of the UK government, November 20th, for transcript of the Law of the Sea Tribunal see: www.itlos.org [http://www.itlos.org] or www.un.org/depts/los/index [http://www.un.org/depts/los/index] ***************************************************************** 20 Environmentalists Jeopardize Safety Of Radioactive Material Transits: Russian Nuclear Power Ministry Pravda.RU Nov, 22 2001 Environmentalists' actions threaten safety of radioactive material transits, Valentin Ivanov, Russia's Deputy Nuclear Power Minister, has opined. He addressed a cabinet session Thursday reporting on measures being taken to ensure radioactive carriages security. By blocking the railroads, "the greens" provoke emergensy situations and accidents, claimed Ivanov. He then spoke out in favour of clearing up a related legislation. Not a single transportation accident has occurred in the USSR and Russia over the past 50 years, reported the deputy minister. The Nuclear Power Ministry insists that federal and regional laws should be harmonized, since some of the regions are known to ban the transit of radioactive substances via their territories, which runs counter to federal law. Apart from that, Ivanov deemed it necessary to specify a number of aspects relating to safe transportation. RIA 'Novosti' ***************************************************************** 21 Andrei Lubenski: Ukraine’s Greens demand to disclose information of nuclear waste transit through the country Pravda.RU Nov, 23 2001 Ukraine’s Green Party conducted demonstrations in the city of Izmail. The Ukrainian Greens demand to made public the Ukrainian government’s decision of a transit of nuclear waste from Bulgaria to Russia via the Ukrainian territory. Reportedly, at least one waste-laden train has already passed through Ukraine. The ordinary Ukrainians have learned of the dangerous cargo’s passage from the Russian television programmes. The Greens argue that any information of cargoes believed to be potentially harmful for people’s health and lives must not be concealed from the public. In the course of the demonstrations, the Greens manages to gather 5,000 signatures in support o their demands. A source in the Ukrainian Green Party has told PRAVDA.Ru that demonstrations will be held throughout the train’s route. The controversial cargo is supplied to Ukraine by sea. So, the Greens in the Odessa Black Sea port will be keeping an eye on a special unloading crane to warn the public of the cargo’s arrival. Then, the Greens are planning to picket station via which the train is supposed to go. “We are not go to lay down on the rails, but we are determined to demand from the government the maximum possible openness in the matters that concern all,” the source says. Nobody knows by now to what extent the transit in question is safe, who and how should act in the case of emergency (which may well arise, considering the Ukrainian railroads’ wear). Those issues are sure to be raised by the Greens in the parliament. Andrei Lubenski PRAVDA.Ru Ukraine : Anti-nuclear demos persist as waste convoy crosses into Germany AP : Germans Protest Nuclear Waste NY Times (registration reqd) : Federal Control Will Be Sought for Protection of Nuclear Plants AP : Official: Nuclear Plants Are Safe Reuters : Russia Ships Nuclear Reactor Shell to Iran ***************************************************************** 22 Utah battles proposed nuclear dump Minneapolis-based utility wants to build storage on Indian land [Image: Utah tribal land] Leon Bear and other Goshutes tribal leaders in Utah have agreed to lease their land to a utility that would build one of the country's largest nuclear waste dumps. [Reuters] Nov. 21 — The State of Utah is battling a group of energy companies that plans to build a dumping ground for radioactive nuclear waste on an American Indian reservation about an hour’s drive from Salt Lake City. The fight is but the latest skirmish in the continuing dilemma of where to stash the thousands of tons of waste fuel piling up at the nation’s 103 atomic reactors. ‘The utilities go to tribes because they know the states are going to fight them. They only have to deal with the tribe.’ — LARRY JENSEN Utah deputy attorney general DESPITE 20 YEARS of scientific and environmental studies, a final decision has yet to be made on whether to build a permanent federal underground storage site at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert, about 90 miles from Las Vegas. The Utah project — called Private Fuel Storage LLC and led by Xcel Energy of Minneapolis — aims to store up to 40,000 metric tons of waste fuel for up to 20 years on 820 leased acres of reservation land belonging to the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians. Waste fuel, packed in 175-ton steel and concrete canisters called dry casks, would be shipped by rail from nuclear power plants to Utah, to sit on thick concrete above-ground pads until Congress approved Yucca Mountain for permanent storage. KEEP OUT, UTAH SAYS Utah officials, led by Governor Mike Leavitt, insist Xcel and other utilities should keep their waste fuel at home. Utah has no nuclear power stations of its own and has even passed legislation banning in-state nuclear waste storage. Nuclear plants, which supply a fifth of the nation’s electricity, are running out of waste storage room in fuel pools and many are shifting to dry casks, McCullum said. About 44,000 tons of spent fuel rods now are stored in U.S. fuel pools and casks — enough to cover a football field 15 feet deep — and reactors produce another 2,000 tons each year. Xcel is pushing the Utah project because waste storage at its twin-reactor Prairie Island nuclear plant in Minnesota is filling up. The Minnesota legislature capped storage at the plant at 17 casks while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved 48, said Scott Northard, Xcel’s director of nuclear asset management. The utility has not challenged the state’s storage cap but said this week it was working on a back-up plan to buy electricity from other generators if a lack of waste storage space forced it to shut Prairie Island before the plant’s operating licenses expire in 2013 and 2014. The way things are going, Prairie Island would reach its waste storage limit in 2007, Northard said. © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 23 IAEA Daily Press Review Date 2001-11-26 Number 225 1. Non-proliferation Kuwait approves bill stipulating approval of CTBT. Media Resources: (BBC) CTBT; Kuwait 2. Terrorism News article: "Terror's Dirty Secret: Radioactive Material, Loosely Guarded, Makes a Cheap Weapon." Media Resources: (USN - 3/12) United States of America; WORLDWIDE 3. Nuclear power Controversy over Temelin NPP continues: while plant director claims that IAEA's safety mission has given go-ahead for restart, IAEA explains that final report is not yet completed. European Commission grants Armenia extra two to three years to close its Medzamor NPP. China sets goal of expanding its installed generating capacity in NPPs to 20 million kilowatts by 2010. Media Resources: (CHD; R - 26/11) Armenia; Austria; China; Czech Republic; European Commission; IAEA 4. Radwaste, fuel More on controversy over Sellafield: Irish Prime Minister, takes unprecedented step of placing full-page advertisement in British newspaper urging Government to close plant. Media Resources: (BBC; G - 25/11) United Kingdom 5. Energy, environment UK Hebridean island to become global capital of renewable energy with advanced plans for world's largest onshore wind farm. Media Resources: (G - 26/11) United Kingdom 6. R Privately financed biotechnology company steps into ethical controversy by announcing creation of first human embryos by cloning. Media Resources: (NYT - 26/11) United States of America 7. Miscellaneous Op-Ed: "Don't Forget North Korea" about US future approach toward DPRK. Report on Ted Turner's Foundation helping UN reduce threat of biological weapons. Media Resources: (NYT - 25/11) Dem. P.R. of Korea; UN; United States of America ***************************************************************** 24 Initial Industrialization in Nuclear Technology Application Realized Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 23, 2001 The nuclear technology application has been initially industrialized in China, with the annual gross production value reaching RMB 15bn yuan, and China's industrialization of nuclear application still leaves much potential to be developed, according to sources from an ongoing Symposium held by China Nuclear Institute November 21 in Wuhan. Annual gross production value reaching RMB 15bn yuan The nuclear technology application has been initially industrialized in China, with the annual gross production value reaching RMB 15bn yuan, according to sources from an ongoing Symposium held by China Nuclear Institute November 21 in Wuhan. 300 units engaging in nuclear technology application Statistics show that China now has some 300 units engaging in nuclear technology application. Of the annual gross production value of RMB15bn yuan, some 4 billion yuan comes from nuclear agriculture, 2.5 billion yuan from radiant chemical production, 2 billion yuan from isotope instrument, 3.5 billion yuan from isotope production, and over 5 billion yuan from ¦Ã irradiate production. Mainly used on three aspects Experts say the industrialization of nuclear technology application centers mainly on three aspects, nuclear application in medical treatment, including radioactive medicine, therapeutic and diagnostic equipment; co-axial radiant technology applied in industry and in the treatment of environment, such as desulphurization and denitrification to prevent coal-burning smog and in the treatment of sewage and sludge as well. 40 years history The nuclear technology application has been developed in China for over 40 years. And China has made a big step forward in such fields as radioactive source production, nuclear diagnosis, and container examination since the industrialization began in the late 1990s. Level and future At present, China's nuclear technology in general is close by the world level with some technologies elbowed its way into the world advanced level. But compared with developed countries, China's industrialization of nuclear application still leaves much potential to be developed, especially in nuclear medical industry, radiant processing, radiant disinfection and the like, experts said. Department concerned predicted that the annual production values of isotope production, fire alarm production, radiant processing, nuclear agriculture and what not will add up to RMB 140bn yuan by 2010. World Nuclear Association (WNA)The World Nuclear Association is the global non-governmental trade organisation concerned with nuclear power generation and all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, including mining, conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication, plant manufacture, transport, and the safe disposition of spent fuel. Economics Nuclear reactors are expensive to build but relatively cheap to operate. Their economic competitiveness thus depends on keeping construction to schedule so that capital costs do not blow out, and then operating them at reasonably high capacity over many years. By way of contrast, gas-fired power plants are very cheap and quick to build, but relatively very expensive to operate due to the cost of their fuel. With rising gas prices, and due to the high cost of moving coal long distances, nuclear plants are generally competitive with both gas and coal in most parts of the world, and becoming more so.more By PD Online staff member Huang Ying ***************************************************************** 25 New uranium plant data show less contamination Daily news from Louisville, Kentucky and Southern Indiana from courier-journal.com Sunday, November 25, 2001 Federal officials say many older samples that showed more contamination were unreliable, but some critics say they have little faith in the new figures. By James R. Carroll The Courier-Journal WASHINGTON -- The federal government has concluded that much of the $14 million in environmental sampling conducted around the Paducah uranium plant is unreliable, a move that critics say undermines an ongoing cleanup. The Department of Energy has taken new measurements showing contamination in fewer places -- and at lower levels -- than the original readings taken as long as a decade ago. Don Seaborg, the Energy Department site manager at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, said the revised findings still show ''we are on the right priorities'' for the cleanup, which already has cost $500 million, and the new numbers ''didn't change any of our strategies'' for it. But Mark Donham, an environmentalist and longtime critic of the plant's record on contamination, said the new numbers, listed on recently revised maps of suspect areas around the plant, raise more questions than they answer. ''It calls their whole program into question,'' he said. ''It's extremely hard for us to have any faith in their figures. They almost need to start over.'' The problems with the measurements collected by CH2M Hill, the contractor for the original work, included margins of error that were greater than 50 percent and contamination readings at levels outside the range of what the instruments were calibrated to detect, said John Volpe, manager of the Kentucky Radiation Health and Toxic Agents Branch. The cleanup of radioactive and chemical hazards around the Paducah plant, which for years processed uranium for nuclear weapons, will cost more than $2 billion to finish, according to some estimates. But the new readings suggest there may be less to clean up. For example, plutonium levels in surface water and groundwater around the plant's perimeter dropped by about a third compared with the older readings, and six of 15 sites that had plutonium in surface water no longer show contamination. [Map] The new readings were taken as part of environmental monitoring at the plant, although Volpe said he had warned the government for years that readings on the samples being collected at Paducah were unreliable. Volpe is reviewing about 65,000 records of old data for the Energy Department. He said he has not kept a count of how many he has set aside, but a government subcontractor recently told Donham and other members of a citizens liaison group at Paducah that Volpe had rejected about 40 percent of 29,000 measurements checked so far. Bechtel Jacobs Co., the environmental cleanup firm working for the Energy Department at Paducah, confirmed that estimate. Karen Steeper, a spokeswoman for CH2M Hill based in Greenwood Village, Colo., said she was unaware of any questions about the company's past work, and that no one who worked on the original surveys is still with the firm. THE COMPANY, founded in 1946, has done considerable work for the Energy Department and other government agencies, Steeper said. The Energy Department and Martin Marietta Corp., the operator of the Paducah plant when the original contamination surveys were done, contracted with CH2M Hill for the work. Gail Rymer, spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md., the successor to Martin Marietta, defended the original work, which she said was done under oversight of the Energy Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Kentucky. ''All sampling was conducted under the appropriate protocols, with analysis performed at certified labs,'' she said. ''We are unaware of any dispute as to the quality of the data.'' The revised maps, meanwhile, show contamination findings from the past two years, along with some of the older data that is still considered reliable. In some cases, the changes are striking, and many of the contamination readings around the plant disappear from the new maps after being filtered through the Energy Department's standards for what it considers hazardous to human health. Critics said the revisions are disturbing. ''I would say it's a step towards covering up,'' said Donham, a Brookport, Ill., resident. ''It's like they are trying to reduce the environmental impact of the plant simply by papershuffling.'' ''They are going to have to go a long way to convince me these maps are the real McCoy,'' said Craig Rhodes, a Metropolis, Ill., high school teacher who, like Donham, is a member of the Site Specific Advisory Board, the citizens group that regularly meets with plant officials on matters involving the cleanup. Critics say the new maps conveniently put the government and the plant's operators in a better light. If the measurements are more accurate, they say, that raises questions about whether the cleanup effort was focused on the right places and why the government spent $14 million on poor work. If the higher contamination levels indicated by the old numbers are right, critics say, the government is junking good data for public-relations purposes. SEABORG, the Energy Department site manager, understands the skepticism. ''We realize our credibility in this area is not the best and it's natural to have that kind of question,'' he said. But he said it wasn't obvious that some of the older samples were invalid. If the government decides to investigate what happened, Seaborg said, the cost would come out of the cleanup budget. ''I could see where I could spend a lot of money on this . . . and maybe not be successful'' in recovering any money from the contractor who did the sampling, he said. According to Volpe, it's standard procedure to express potential ranges of error in measuring radiation. But much of the old data had no such ranges, he said, while other samples had error margins greater than 50 percent. Still others were below the limit of what the instruments were calibrated to detect. ''If this data had come out of my laboratory, I'd have sent it back,'' Volpe said. He said the new maps contain only numbers he could verify. Gregory Cook, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs, said standards for measuring radiation contamination have evolved over the past decade, resulting in a ''general improvement in data quality.'' The government didn't embrace Volpe's objections to the older data for some time because Volpe ''was out ahead of most of the country on this,'' said Cook, whose firm became the Paducah cleanup contractor in April 1998. A SET OF MAPS made in 1999 showing the original data ''were nothing but a rough draft,'' Cook said. Those maps were not made public until last year under a Freedom of Information Act request by The Courier-Journal. Before those maps were made public, Energy Department officials had insisted that levels of plutonium, one of many radioactive contaminants released by the plant, were insignificant. But the maps showed plutonium levels hundreds of times higher than previously revealed. The changes from the old maps to the new ones are, in some cases, startling. In addition to fewer surface-water locations with plutonium, the new maps show plutonium readings dropped in a couple of locations to a level only one-fiftieth of the previous readings. One set of revised maps filtered out measurements that are not considered hazardous to human health. Instead of 52 plutonium samples detected in soil and sediment at 31 locations on the 1999 maps, the plottings using the health standards show four samples at two sites. The new maps also show no neptunium in groundwater, and only two sites for neptunium in soil and sediment. Revised maps for uranium contamination have not been completed. Seaborg said the revised data reflect a truer picture of the contamination. He said the older maps were produced to help a special Energy Department investigative team understand where contamination samples had been taken. But officials realized the maps had flaws, including wrong coordinates for some contaminated sites. The department made a commitment at a meeting last year to go through all the data to clean up problems. Seaborg described as ''very encouraging'' the new maps using the health hazards standards as a cutoff, since they show the fewest contaminated sites. But Donham said the revised data was issued ''just to confuse everybody.'' ''If there were all these problems (with the original data), why didn't they catch it at the beginning?'' he asked. Copyright 2001 The Courier-Journal. ***************************************************************** 26 New data may hinder lawsuit by neighbors Daily news from Louisville, Kentucky and Southern Indiana from courier-journal.com By James R. Carroll The Courier-Journal WASHINGTON -- An effort by landowners near the Paducah uranium plant to get paid for damage to their property could be hampered by new maps showing less contamination around the facility, say the plaintiffs and environmental critics. The maps show fewer spots of radioactive hazards around the plant and generally lower readings. Critics say the readings could make it more difficult for 153 of the plant's neighbors to recover damages in their lawsuit against former plant operators. ''That wasn't the intent'' of the new readings, said Don Seaborg, the Department of Energy's site manager at Paducah. ''We did the maps to make them more effective in communicating. . . . The results of that -- the impact, the ramifications -- frankly are too far out for me to think about.'' Ronald Lamb believes otherwise. ''If you're guilty of something and you know you're guilty of something, you're not going to want to quantify it,'' said the Kevil, Ky., resident. Lamb, the owner of an alignment shop and a member of the citizens board that serves as a liaison with the plant's cleanup contractor, is among the property owners suing past operators of the plant, through Lockheed Martin Corp., for damages. Lamb said one site behind his house showed plutonium contamination 45 times what is considered a normal background level, but that was on the original contamination maps that the Energy Department now says had flawed data. The new maps show no contamination at that site. ''I wasn't really surprised,'' Lamb said. Mark Donham, an environmentalist who lives in Brookport, Ill., across the Ohio River from Paducah, said the new maps were intended to reduce landowners' claims. But Seaborg said the original maps ''caused a lot of good people a lot of concern and fear'' and that the information they showed needed correcting. Paducah attorney James Owens, who is representing the landowners, declined to comment because he had not yet seen the revised maps. The landowners' suit seeks unspecified damages for lost property values, plus ongoing medical monitoring of residents. The trial is set for Nov. 4, 2002, in U.S. District Court in Owensboro. Copyright 2001 The Courier-Journal. ***************************************************************** 27 Spare the Rods NPRI Monograph: s there any genuine need for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Southern Nevada? No, says NPRI Policy Analyst D. Dowd Muska. Be sure to read the only analysis ever undertaken from a free-market perspective of America's quandary over spent nuclear fuel. From Muska's report: "[U]sed nuclear fuel ... needs to be understood for what it truly is: not waste to be buried and forgotten, but a commodity to be bought and sold in the marketplace." "As thoughtful analysts of America's nuclear industry recognize, it was the federal government -- not greedy, environmentally insensitive capitalists -- that drove the development of a commercial nuclear industry in the United States. " "Nuclear-policy watchers and many Nevadans are well aware of what happened after passage of the [Nuclear Waste Policy Act]. The DOE's record of politically inspired policy shifts, massive mismanagement and missed deadlines is enough to make one dizzy." "The Yucca Mountain fiasco is easy to understand when one examines the nature of the bureaucracy in charge of the project. It would be difficult to count the number of studies, investigations and audits that have exposed the DOE's incompetence." "By now it must be clear to nuclear executives that the federal government's program to dispose of their industry's spent fuel is a dismal failure. Billions have been wasted on studies and designs for a repository that might never be built, and utilities have been forced to spend millions to safely maintain spent fuel that is no longer their legal responsibility. Clearly, it's time to look at a new approach." [http://www.cair-net.org/mosquereport/rp500enu.exe] . ***************************************************************** 28 UPDATE - German Greens to debate whether to end government GERMANY: November 23, 2001 BERLIN - Germany's Greens, junior partners in the governing coalition, will consider once again this weekend whether to bring down the government over German involvement in the Afghan conflict. Last Friday, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government narrowly avoided collapse as a number of Greens who had threatened to vote against mobilisation of German armed forces for Afghanistan changed their minds at the last minute. This weekend, the Greens hold their annual conference in the northern port city of Rostock. Some of the rank and file are expected to condemn both German military support of the U.S.-led Afghan campaign and their own leadership. The grass roots could force the party's 47 members of parliament to withdraw from the coalition, prompting Schroeder to seek another partner or to call an early election. But analysts believe the party leadership will once again squeeze through sufficient support to stay in government. "They're going to have some heated discussions. It all depends on conference dynamics, but I can't quite imagine they'll decide to drop out of government," said Bernhard Wessels, political scientist of Berlin's Free University. Germany begins its troop mobilisation, with an initial deployment of air transport and medical crew, on Monday. On the same day, Afghan ethnic and political leaders meet in the former German capital Bonn for talks to forge an interim government. Greens leaders are hoping the promise of peace offered by the latter will win over potential waverers. "The leadership are stressing the meeting in Bonn as well as the scope for humanitarian contributions," Wessels said. Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister and the most well-known Green, said he expected "trouble, trouble, trouble" at the weekend, but believed the coalition would survive. HEATED DEBATE The Greens are no strangers to fiery debate, but have patched together consensus in the past. Indeed, the last two party congresses have been overshadowed by deep splits. In 1999, the issue was Germany's decision to send peacekeeping troops to Kosovo. Last year, the phasing out of nuclear power raised temperatures and voices. Annelie Buntenbach, one of four Greens deputies who held firm in voting against the government on Friday, said she hoped the congress would take a clear anti-war stance. "The issue is so important. Of course that could have an effect on the coalition, but it is a question of priorities... It's hard to guess what the overall outcome will be," she told Reuters in a telephone interview. Yesterday, Greens party manager Reinhard Buetikofer said the party had drafted a proposal expressing conditional support for the military campaign and a wish to maintain the coalition. "We say also to Schroeder that we are a fair partner, but we want fair partnership," Buetikofer told a news conference. Leaders have urged members not to put at risk a three-year alliance that has forced through major Green policies - phasing out nuclear power, energy tax hikes and same-sex marriages. Nevertheless, according to a poll by agency Forsa published yesterday, support for the Greens is hovering around five percent, the minimum required for representation in parliament. At the weekend, Forsa said 52 percent of Germans believed the Red-Green coalition would not last its full four-year term until next autumn, when the next election is scheduled. The Greens entered government for the first time in 1998 after winning 6.7 percent of the vote, but the long-term slide in support has left some wondering whether their troubled debut will end after next year's general election. Schroeder will be keeping a watchful eye on proceedings in Rostock from the comfort of his home after receiving resounding backing from his SPD party this week. "I'm not concerned...It's not only my policy, but that of the foreign minister which is under discussion. They have to realise they need to support their own minister," he said. Story by Philip Blenkinsop REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 29 WNA NEWS BRIEFING 01.47 | 14 - 20 November 2001 A weekly summary of international news relevant to the nuclear energy industry. [NB01.47-1] The European Parliament has approved a resolution underlining the need to keep nuclear power at the heart of Europe's energy mix. In its long-awaited response to the European Commission's Green Paper on the security of energy supply, the parliament approved a resolution that called on all EU institutions to encourage a shift towards zero-carbon emission fuels - 'notably electricity generation from nuclear energy' - by removing legislative and fiscal barriers. Another statement expressed the view that growth in renewables, maintaining the current level of nuclear electricity generation and building new clean coal power plants would all be essential for security of energy supply and for reaching the targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions set by the Kyoto Protocol. (NucNet News, 347/01, 16 November; Ux Weekly, 19 November, p2; see also News Briefing 01.40-1) [NB01.47-2] Canada: Ontario Power Generation (OPG) expects to return to full operation the first of four mothballed Candu reactors at its Pickering A plant in early spring 2002. Unit 4 will be the first reactor to be returned to service, followed by unit 1, then unit 2 and finally unit 3. The company expects all four units to be back in operation within two years. OPG is proceeding with the upgrades and environmental improvements demanded by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). The total cost of the work required to upgrade the four units is expected to total about C$1.3 billion (US$820 million). (Nucleonics Week, 8 November, p1; see also News Briefings 01.45-8 and 01.34-12) [NB01.47-3] Russia plans to build 10 new nuclear power reactors over the next 10 years, Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Lev Ryabev told the lower house of parliament. He said that nuclear energy would generate 37% of Russia's electricity by 2020, up from the current level of 15-20%. Meanwhile, Rosenergoatom announced that it would build a third and fourth reactor at the Rostov nuclear power plant. (Ux Weekly, 19 November, p3; Reuters, 15 November; see also News Briefing 01.39-4) [NB01.47-4] The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) still forecasts a decline in the amount of US electricity generated by nuclear power by 2020, although it now envisages more than the amount forecast a year ago. In its reference scenario for its 'Annual Energy Outlook 2002', the EIA continues to predict no new nuclear plants will be built in the US by 2020. The EIA forecasts that of 98 GWe of nuclear capacity available in 2000, 88 GWe will still be available in 2020. The year 2001 reference case had predicted a drop to just 71 GWe by 2020. The new EIA forecast also has US energy imports and carbon dioxide emissions increasing notably over the period. (An overview of the results can be found at http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/index.html). (NucNet News, 345/01, 15 November; Ux Weekly, 19 November, p2; see also News Briefing 00.48-3) [NB01.47-5] The European Parliament has approved a four-year nuclear research and training programme in Europe, together with renewed support for ongoing studies into thermonuclear fusion. The parliament approved the Euratom Framework Programme for 2002-2006, the sixth such programme, after more than 300 amendments were made to the original European Commission proposals. The framework and the parliament's decisions will now be submitted to the EU's Council of Research ministers. (NucNet News, 344/01, 14 November) [NB01.47-6] Canada: Uranium exploration on the Moore Lake properties will be started in 2002 by a joint venture between JNR Resources Inc and Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc. Kennecott is currently in the process of increasing its stake in the Moore Lake project to 65%. (Nuclear Market Review, 16 November, p3; see also News Briefing 00.37-2) [NB01.47-7] Australia: Paladin Resources has farmed out 1500 square kilometres of uranium exploration leases to Heathgate Resources in the Frome Basin, bordering the Beverley uranium mine lease, in South Australia. (Paladin Resources, 15 November) [NB01.47-8] Niger: The government has renewed an agreement with the country's two main uranium mining companies - Cominak and Somair - that authorises the companies to continue uranium mining. The new agreement, which is valid from 1 January 2004 for ten years, replaces an agreement set to expire at the end of 2003. (Ux Weekly, 19 November, p4; see also News Briefing 99.13-16) [NB01.47-9] China: The third line of the Lanzhou centrifuge enrichment plant has entered operation, two years ahead of schedule. It was supplied by Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) under a contract signed with China in 1992. (FreshFUEL, 19 November, p4; Ux Weekly, 19 November, p4; see also News Briefing 97.40-11) [NB01.47-10] US: President Bush has signed into law the 2002 energy budget with funding for programmes 'with significant national benefits' including nuclear energy, science and technology. The signing of the US$19 billion energy and water development appropriations act 2002 broadly approves the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) budget request. The total includes US$223.1 million for nuclear energy, research and technology. (NucNet News, 340/01, 14 November; see also News Briefing 01.30-14) [NB01.47-11] Japan: In a referendum on whether the town of Miyama might to be a potential site for a new nuclear power plant, the town's citizens voted 67.5% against the proposal. The result came following a steam leak at a plant operated by Chubu Electric Power Co and despite earlier indications that they favoured the idea. Although the result is not legally binding, it is likely to end moves to site a plant in the town. (NucNet News, 348/01, 19 November; Ux Weekly, 19 November, p3; see also News Briefing 01.41-8) [NB01.47-12] Japan: Chubu Electric Power Co shut down Hamaoka-1 - a 25-year-old boiling water reactor (BWR) - on 7 November due to a steam leak from a ruptured pipe, which released a small amount of radiation. After a second leak was detected on 9 November, plant management decided to remove all fuel from the reactor and conduct a thorough investigation. Neither leak resulted in human exposure to radiation. Hamaoka-2 - which has a similar design to unit 1 - has also been shut down for inspections. (Ux Weekly, 19 November, p3) [NB01.47-13] Conama - the Brazilian environmental council - has approved a motion restricting the government's proposal to complete work on the Angra-3 nuclear power plant. The government can only resume talks regarding the construction of Angra-3 after it has resolved the operational problems of Angra-1 and -2, according to Conama. (Ux Weekly, 19 November, p4; see also News Briefing 01.35-4) [NB01.47-14] UK: The threat of strike action at British Energy's (BE's) nuclear power plants was averted after union leaders reached agreement with BE on a new pay deal. (Financial Times, 17 November, p2; Guardian, 17 November, p25; see also News Briefing 01.46-20) [NB01.47-15] The UK government's decision to allow the start-up of British Nuclear Fuel plc's (BNFL's) mixed oxide (MOX) fuel plant at Sellafield was not unlawful under European law, a UK High Court judge has ruled. The case was brought by environmental groups, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. BNFL welcomed the ruling that operation of its Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) was 'justified and lawful'. (NucNet News, 346/01, 15 November; SpentFUEL, 19 November, p4; BBC News Online, 15 November) Meanwhile, the Irish government has launched a legal move to stop the MOX plant's operation. The Irish Attorney General called on the United Nations tribunal for the law of the sea to suspend the UK government's decision to allow the MOX plant to start-up. The tribunal is expected to deliver its decision by 9 December. (Daily Telegraph Online, 20 November; see also News Briefing 01.44-12) [NB01.47-16] US: The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued its final Yucca Mountain Site Suitability Guidelines, completing the regulatory infrastructure needed to support a decision on whether to recommend the site to the President for a permanent spent fuel repository. Despite the DOE announcement, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has not yet given its approval and says that it will 'carefully review any licensing decision on the basis of all the information available at that time'. Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, is expected to decide either later in 2001 or in early 2002 whether or not to recommend the Yucca Mountain site to President Bush. (Ux Weekly, 19 November, p5; Nuclear Energy Overview, 19 November, p1; SpentFUEL, 19 November, p1; see also News Briefing 01.46-19) [NB01.47-17] UK: British Energy (BE) and British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) are in dispute over reprocessing costs. BE has urged the government to suspend BNFL reprocessing spent fuel from BE reactors and is threatening to take BNFL to the office of fair trading if it refuses to renegotiate contracts which it says cost it some 300 million UK pounds (US$424 million) per year instead of one-sixth of that, which would be payable in the USA for direct disposal of spent fuel. Meanwhile, BNFL issued a counter-charge against BE, claiming that BE was blaming BNFL for its self-induced financial troubles. (Guardian, 16 November, p27; Ux Weekly, 19 November, p5; see also News Briefing 00.21-2) [NB01.47-18] Australia: The possible acquisition of Western Mining Corp (WMC) by Alcoa has reportedly been postponed because of WMC has not yet agreed to Alcoa's offer of A$11.5 billion (US$6 billion). Alcoa plans to sell WMC's non-aluminium assets - including its copper-uranium assets - if it purchases the company. (Ux Weekly, 19 November, p4; see also News Briefing 01.43-4) [NB01.47-19] The US will reduce its arsenal of nuclear warheads from about 6000 to between 1700 and 2200 during the next 10 years, President Bush announced during meetings with Russia's President Putin. The Russian President reportedly advised Bush that he wanted to study that proposal before making a formal response. The US reduction would be equivalent more than 100 tonnes of highly enriched uranium (HEU), or 18 million SWU. (FreshFUEL, 19 November, p1; Ux Weekly, 19 November, p2; Financial Times, 14 November, p1; see also News Briefing 01.40-2) Previous News Briefing NB01.46 ***************************************************************** 30 Leaders OK nuclear information campaign - By Geoff Dornan November 21, 2001 Appeal Capitol Bureau Nevada leaders on Tuesday approved a $1 million contract with Brown & Partners Advertising to spread the word nationwide about the risks of transporting nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. The campaign was ordered in Senate Bill 494, the $4 million Nevada Protection Fund designed to oppose federal efforts to locate a high-level nuclear waste dump in southern Nevada. "Our mission during the course of this national outreach effort is to educate Americans on the harsh realities of transporting nuclear waste and give them the opportunity to challenge transportation of this dangerous material in order to protect future generations," said Gov. Kenny Guinn, who proposed the original funding for Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency. Agency Director Bob Loux said the campaign will try to reach families who "live unknown in the shadow of nuclear waste everyday." He said the idea is to mobilize opposition to the dump and the massive waste transportation needed to move nuclear waste across the nation to Yucca Mountain. The ad campaign was approved by the state's Board of Examiners, consisting of Guinn, Secretary of State Dean Heller and Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa.' The U.S. Department of Energy plans to transport 77,000 tons of nuclear waste from around the country to southern Nevada. Loux said it will take up to 140,000 shipments to do the job. Mark Brown of Brown & Partners said Nevada is not alone in the battle against the Yucca Mountain project. "This campaign will serve to educate and engage the hundreds of communities that are affected by nuclear waste and communicate that the transportation of highly radioactive materials carries with it serious risks from accidents or sabotage," he said. In addition, the board agreed to accept a contribution to the Nevada Protection Fund of $1 million from Clark County. Several other communities from Pahrump to White Pine County have also voted to contribute to the fund. ***************************************************************** 31 NPRI: No need to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain November 25, 2001 By Nevada Policy Research Institute The Nevada Policy Research Institute, the Silver State's free-market think tank, this week released a study that describes a number of alternatives to burying the nuclear-power industry's spent-fuel rods inside Yucca Mountain. In "Spare the Rods," NPRI argues that it is time for policymakers, the nuclearpower industry and the public to stop seeing used nuclear fuel as "waste." Commercial reactors' leftovers, the study argues, is "not waste to be buried and forgotten, but a commodity to be bought and sold in the marketplace." "Two decades ago the federal government decided that the best way to deal with used nuclear fuel is to shove it beneath a mountain in Southern Nevada," said NPRI Chairman Ranson Webster. "We believe that was a fundamentally flawed decision, one that fails to recognize the value such material has in the growing - and global - nuclear industry, "Spare the Rods" recommends the complete dissolution of the U.S. Department of Energy. It proposes that the Nuclear Waste Fund, which was established to study, build and operate a repository at Yucca Mountain, be disbursed to the entities now in possession of spent nuclear fuel. The billions of dollars diverted from the failed Yucca Mountain program would then be available to find private sector solutions. "There are many things that can be done with used nuclear fuel besides burying it forever," said NPRI Editorial Director Steven Miller. "The United States can remove the ban its has placed on recycling the fuel, and thus give birth to an entirely new sector of the American nuclear-power industry. Our spent fuel could also be shipped abroad, where recycling is common." NPRI's report also suggests that nuclear utilities use their portion of the Nuclear Waste Fund to set up laboratories to study transmutation, a process by which the radioactivity of nuclear material is reduced. "Spare the Rods" lists the many failures of the federal government's command-and-control "solution" to the "problem" of spent nuclear fuel. From political shenanigans to changes in repository design, the study documents how the DOE's Yucca Mountain program has failed Nevada, the nuclear-power industry and American taxpayers. "The Yucca Mountain repository is an attempt to fix, through the political process, what is essentially an economic problem," said D. Dowd Muska, one of the study's authors. "That kind of approach almost never works, and it's failing spectacularly in the Southern Nevada desert." NPRI's study notes that while a revolution in privatization and deregulation is sweeping the globe, Washington's "monolithic, bureaucrat-run and failure-ridden" Yucca Mountain project plods along as it has for decades, still insisting that putting used nuclear fuel "in a mountain in Southern Nevada ... is better than allowing the private sector to develop new and dynamic solutions." "Spare the Rods" is perhaps the first attempt to analyze the Yucca Mountain controversy from the free-market perspective. The study breaks new ground on the fight against the project, because until now fewYucca Mountain opponents have examined how the power of markets can make the need for a nuclear repository unnecessary. "The Nuclear Waste Policy Act," said Muska, "which gave us the Yucca Mountain repository program, is almost 20 years old. It's time to admit that the legislation has been a disaster. It's time to enact the Nuclear Waste Privatization Act." NPRI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that finds private solutions for public problems facing Nevada, the West and the nation. READ THE REPORT To obtain a copy of "Spare the Rods" visit NPRI's Web site, www.npri.org [http://www.npri.org] , or call the Institute at (702) 222-0642. ***************************************************************** 32 Ottawa Sun: Fired engineer considers offer Friday, November 23, 2001 Egyptian immigrant relieved name is cleared By [caroline.murray@ott.sunpub.com] , Ottawa Sun  MOHAMED Attiah is "seriously considering" the job offer made yesterday by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., which canned him two months ago because authorities feared he had terrorist ties. The 54-year-old mechanical engineer said his ex-boss telephoned him yesterday and arranged a friendly meeting, which saw Attiah offered a permanent position at the Chalk River nuclear facility. He previously worked as a subcontractor. "It's just a great day,"a much-relieved Attiah said yesterday from his Deep River home, where he lives with his wife and four kids northwest of Ottawa. "I'm seriously considering the offer. "I'm eager to resume as soon as I can. I promised my boss I would like to be there as soon as possible." The Canadian citizen and Muslim, who immigrated from Egypt 27 years ago, has said federal intelligence agents approached him on his lunch break Sept. 21 and questioned him for 90 minutes about his religion, people he'd met and places he'd been. When he returned to work, he was told he was a security threat and ordered to leave. Unemployed and embarrassed, he dipped into his savings to support his family and maintained a low-profile until the rumours began to fade. Attiah has since been declared harmless by the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, his legal representative Harry Kopyto said yesterday. "They did indicate that the reason that they fired him was that they had received a note or an indication from the RCMP that he 'might' be of security interest," Kopyto said. "The reason they rehired him is because they've now been told by CSIS and by the RCMP that he is not of security interest." If he accepts the job offer, Attiah cannot talk about the circumstances surrounding his dismissal. Yet yesterday's offer carried no condition that Attiah drop his lawsuit against AECL, CSIS and the RCMP, Kopyto said. "He's entitled to compensation for the way they treated him -- official abuse based on racial stereotyping," said Kopyto. "In no way could Mohamed Attiah be considered a security risk at all. The only thing that makes him different from you or me is that he is Islamic and he is Arabic. NO HARD FEELINGS "As far as we're concerned, the fact that they're offering him his job back is an admission that they did something wrong." Attiah expressed no hard feelings yesterday toward the nuclear facility. "In my opinion, I regard the job offer as enough to clear my name," he said. "This is good enough, in my opinion." Nor did he seem bitter toward RCMP and CSIS, which he believes acted with insufficient information. "I try to place myself in their shoes and say maybe I would have done the same thing or close to it,"said Attiah. Previous story: Terror bill 'wimpy': Alliance Next story: Earl McRae [http://www.canoe.ca/copyright.html] © 2001, Canoe Limited Partnership. All ***************************************************************** 33 Square the Goshutes The Salt Lake Tribune -- Utah's Statewide Newspaper Friday, November 23, 2001 Let's face it. The land we gave the Goshutes is definitely not top notch. It is barely even habitable. That dump of a reservation is located in Skull Valley just 70 miles southwest of the population borders of Salt Lake City. Now, do you want a high-level nuclear waste repository moving in next door? That's what will happen if they approve a 20-year lease, which may later be extended to a 40-year lease, to store nuclear waste in Skull Valley. There are several possible disasters that may occur with the nuclear waste. The biggest fear, currently, would be a terrorist attack. With a radioactive waste dump that would be 820 square acres, that is a reasonable threat. Also, during the transportation of the nuclear waste, there could be an accident almost anywhere in Utah, due to the fact that the waste will be coming from all over the country. There are a few reasonable alternatives to the nuclear storage. For one, we could pay the Goshutes to not store nuclear waste on their land. Another idea would be to give them useful land, land that they can live on according to tradition and religion of their ancestors. So let's give them land that they can be proud of. Land that they won't want to turn into a nuclear reservation. ANTHONY KOLTENUK Salt Lake City © Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 34 Claims public denied information on uranium mine. 23/11/01. ABC News Online Friday, November 23, 2001 . Posted: 13:15:43 (AEDT) It is claimed the public is being denied access to critical environmental information on the Honeymoon uranium mine in the state's north because of commercial secrecy. Having gained environmental approval, the mine now needs the approval of the Federal Resources Minister and South Australia's Minerals and Energy Minister before it can operate. But State Shadow Environment Minister, John Hill, says he has been informed crucial information is being withheld which should be released publicly before any decision is made. "There's information relating to the in-situ leaching process and I gather that that information hasn't been put on the public record," he said. "I understand the Government and the company has said that's commercial in confidence, but since that's critical to the whole issue about whether or not it's damaging to the environment I think it's reasonable that that information should be made available to the public." A spokesman for the State Minerals Minister, Wayne Matthew, says all information relating to the environmental impact of the mine is on the public record. © 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 35 NATIONAL NEWS: Need for more nuclear power 'unlikely' Financial Times; Nov 23, 2001 By ROBERT SHRIMSLEY and ANDREW TAYLOR An increase in the use of nuclear power is not expected to be necessary, the government's energy review has found. It concluded that there was no desperate need to find alternative fuel sources. Although the review sees a continued strong role for nuclear power and a big expansion of renewable energy such as wind power, it takes a far less gloomy view about the future of gas supplies than many experts had predicted. A draft copy of the report, which is due to be published by the government's performance and innovation unit next month, is said by one who has seen it to be "surprisingly upbeat" about gas supplies. Britain is a net importer of gas, and by 2006-07 is also due to buy more petrol than it exports. However, the review has found that what one official called "geo-political diversity" means there is no need to fear importing gas. Because there are so many gas exporters in various regions of the world, the review believes Britain need not fear a sudden squeeze in supply or a big price rise of the type experienced with oil during the 1970s. Ministers had feared that the UK would be forced to import expensive gas from politically unstable regions such as the former Soviet Union and North Africa. Industry experts, however, say concerns have underestimated the amount of gas that is likely to be imported from Norway. Norwegian imports peaked in 1980 when they accounted for 22 per cent of gas consumed in Britain. A further cushion could come from liquified natural gas from other regions. LNG shipments, according to BP, the oil giant, accounted for 22 per cent of all transported gas last year. Some environmentalists' fears that the review might lead to an upsurge in nuclear power appear not to have materialised. The review will make no firm recommendations about how many new nuclear reactors should be built to replace the existing and aged generation of plants. Most of the plants are due to close within the next 20 years and a large percentage look certain to be replaced. Renewable energy sources are set to play an increasingly important role in future supply. The review proposes that wind power and other renewables should account for a higher percentage of energy supplies. Present government targets will require electricity suppliers to buy at least 10 per cent of their power needs from renewable producers by 2010. The review is set to recommend this target be raised significantly in later years, perhaps rising to 20 per cent. To overcome planning delays, which have been identified as an obstacle to construction, the energy review has considered recommending that regional planning authorities be set statutory development targets for renewable generation. The proposals are also expected to look at ways of overcoming financial penalties incurred by renewable generators as a result of the electricity trading arrangements introduced in March. Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-1998 ***************************************************************** 36 State needs more funding for emergency preparedness at Vermont Yankee By Associated Press, 11/22/2001 11:05 MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) The state needs more funding for emergency planning at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, according to a state official. The Dean administration warned two years ago that state emergency planning for a disaster at the Vermont Yankee was ''understaffed and underfunded,'' and that planning for a radiological emergency at the plant was incomplete. Since then improvements have been made, but funding remains inadequate, especially in light of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, according to Ed von Turkovich, the state's director of emergency management. ''I think we do need some additional funding,'' he said Wednesday. ''I'm convinced we'll obtain it. We're going to be doing a very thoughtful assessment by recognized experts.'' He said the state was about to review emergency planning at Vermont Yankee to determine whether the state was doing all it should to prepare for an emergency, and to help the towns near the plant prepare for such a disaster. His comments came in response to a 1999 report released Wednesday by State Auditor of Accounts Elizabeth Ready. Ready said she had received the emergency management office report from a whistleblower as part of her office's review of the financing of emergency planning at the Vernon nuclear power plant. ''Vermonters want to know whether the fund is adequate and administered properly,'' Ready said. ''I am going to continue to follow the numbers.'' The report said emergency planning at Vermont Yankee in 1999 was ''understaffed and underfunded.'' ''State agencies must contribute resources without reimbursement. Local communities must contribute resources with only partial reimbursement. Most of the emphasis is placed upon passing the FEMA exercise,'' stated the report. ''Even though Vermont Yankee has been operating since 1972, the response plans and supporting organizations are not complete. Many pieces of the program still need to be implemented or expanded.'' The report was presented at a meeting of the Vermont Emergency Management budget team in July 1999. Von Turkovich said Wednesday that after his office presented the report in 1999, Vermont Yankee started doing some of the emergency planning that should have been done by the state. He also said he would support removing the cap included in Vermont law that limits Yankee's contribution to emergency planning to $400,000. Ready's review revealed that Vermont Yankee paid more for emergency planning to New Hampshire and Massachusetts than it did to Vermont, but the review said that was because the Legislature had capped Yankee's contribution. ***************************************************************** 37 IAEA Daily Press Review Date 2001-11-23 Number 224 1. IAEA Experts comprising IAEA's 17-day OSART mission to Dukovany NPP submit approximately thirty proposals and recommendations for improvement but also found eleven examples of good practice. Media Resources: (R - 23/11) Czech Republic 2. Terrorism Two retired Pakistani nuclear scientists detained on suspicion of links with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network have reportedly been released. It is reported that Czech National Security Council decided to lower level of some safety precautions connected with threat of terrorism. Media Resources: (R; WP - 23/11) Czech Republic; Pakistan 3. Nuclear power Nuclear industry welcomes European Parliament's resolution on Green Paper earlier this week, which it called 'victory for common sense' in defining nuclear's role in Europe's energy mix. Report on Japan's need to review nuclear power policy. More on Temelin NPP: following IAEA's mission to Temelin NPP, Head of Czech National Authority for Nuclear Safety says that results do not speak against further plant tests. India and US to soon have official level talks on procedural matters pertaining to transfer of sophisticated technology which will include those that can be used for military and civilian purposes in nuclear field. Increase in UK nuclear power 'unlikely', according to Government Review. Thermal testing at Ling' ao NPP in Shenzhen, in China's Guangdong Province, successfully carried out. Media Resources: (BBC; DAW; FT; NUC; ORF; R - 22, 23/11) Austria; China; Czech Republic; European Union; IAEA; India; Japan; United Kingdom; United States of America 4. Nuclear safety Ukrainian security bodies voice protest against lack of information about emergency situation that occurred in area of Khmelnitski NPP on 7 November 2001. Media Resources: (BBC - 22/11) Ukraine> 5. Radiation, health Small amount of radioactive substance discovered in Japanese Air Self-Defence Force warehouse. Media Resources: (R - 23/11) Japan 6. Radwaste, fuel Japan provides Russia with liquid radioactive recycling facility. South Australia's Honeymoon uranium mine faces continued community opposition despite federal push to allow the operation to begin. Media Resources: (BBC; FT - 23/11) Australia; Japan; Russian Federation ***************************************************************** 38 Results of safety checks at Czech nuclear plant encouraging - watchdog BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Nov 23, 2001 Text of report by Czech Radio on 23 November [Announcer] Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency were testing the safety of the [south Bohemian] Temelin nuclear power plant this week. The results of the same tests carried out a few years ago recommended the implementation of a number of measures aimed at improving the plant's safety. The chairwoman of the State Nuclear Safety Authority, Dana Drabova, has said that the results of this week's checks are encouraging: [Drabova] From what I have learnt about the mission so far within the course of this week, I know that somewhere in their report there will be written that the vast majority of all the so-called shortcomings detected [during the first checks] have been rectified to such an extent that the reactor, or the power plant, now meets generally recognized international safety criteria. Source: Czech Radio1 - Radiozurnal, Prague, in Czech 0900 gmt 23 Nov 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material ***************************************************************** 39 Armenian agency denies Azeri report on discharging nuclear waste in river BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Nov 23, 2001 Text of report by Armenian news agency Arminfo Yerevan, 23 November: The Baku newspaper Zerkalo today informed its readers, quoting Arminfo news agency, that the Armenian authorities had allegedly banned the use of water from the Razdan River because the Armenian Nuclear Power Station had discharged its waste products in the river. Moreover, the authors of the article, in writing their fiction, went even further, claiming that Azerbaijan was threatened with an ecological catastrophe since the Razdan River flows into the Kura River. Arminfo news agency often touches on the subject of the safe exploitation of the Armenian Nuclear Power Station in its reports, but it has never disseminated such an absurd report. Arminfo news agency regards the article published in Zerkalo newspaper as a blatant provocation, directed at misinforming the public both in Azerbaijan itself and outside it. The situation at the Armenian Nuclear Power Station is under the constant supervision of the IAEA, the European Union and other international organizations, which point to the increasing level of safety at the station. Arminfo news agency must emphasize that the Baku newspaper Zerkalo launched a blatant "canard" in its report, with the aim of fanning the flame of tensions and create an atmosphere of intolerance. Source: Arminfo, Yerevan, in Russian 0824 gmt 23 Nov 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 New Russian nuclear submarine to enter service in December BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Nov 22, 2001 Text of report in English by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS Severodvinsk, Archangel Region, 22 November: The new nuclear-powered Gepard submarine, built here at the shipyards of the Northern Engineering Enterprise production amalgamation (Sevmash), is to enter service with Russia's Northern Fleet early in December, a Sevmash official told ITAR-TASS on Thursday [22 November]. The Gepard is a versatile third-generation nuclear-powered submarine, which was laid down way back in 1991 and which completes a 14-submarine series. Such submarines are reckoned to be the quietest among those nationally manufactured. According to data from open sources, the nuclear-powered Gepard class submarines have a dead weight of up to 12,770 tonnes, a maximum speed of 33 knots, a submergence depth of 600 m., and a 63-member crew. Such submarines are armed with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. Prior to the Gepard, Sevmash had not been building new nuclear-powered submarines since 1996. The most recent submarine to be built was the Tomsk, which belongs to the same class as the Kursk. According to official data the shipyard previously used to launch up to six nuclear-powered submarines a year. In all, during the 62 years of its existence, the shipyard has built 170 submarines, including 135 nuclear-powered ones. In the autumn of 1999, Vladimir Putin, who was then Russian prime minister, attended the Gepard launch ceremony in Severodvinsk. Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English 1258 gmt 22 Nov 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 2 DOE: Honesty, openness, education key to safety The Oak Ridger Online - Opinion - Your Views: 11/26/01 OPINIONS To The Oak Ridger: Safety and security awareness has been greatly enhanced since the events of Sept. 11, and those which have followed. The world as we know it has changed. Or has it? Those of us who have made our careers in Oak Ridge Operations have lived this heightened sense of safety and security from the beginning. Sept. 11 has only magnified what we have lived, in some cases, for years. Training in both safety and security were, and continue to be, an important part of our jobs. This has no doubt saved lives and prevented injuries countless times. However, the process was, and is, far from perfect. There have been a number of undisputed and suspected illnesses resulting from employment at Oak Ridge Operations. These are a matter of record, and even more are suspect due to poor record keeping, production above worker safety and fear of litigation. The records in the Oak Ridge DOE Public Reading Room, and transcripts from the DOE public meeting testimonies document a vast gap in what was, and what should have been. Many of us are only now learning some of the dangerous materials to which we were exposed. Some we will never know. Industrial production, especially that involving hazardous and radioactive materials, carries risk. But many of the injuries, deaths, and illnesses that Oak Ridge and other "nuclear cities" endured were provably preventable. Emphasis has been placed on "individual responsibility," and rightly so. But it must be a teamwork of management and workers, where both sides understand and communicate the dangers, and correct shortcomings. I still do not see this happening, as fines, reprimands and shutdowns occur on a regular basis. All the public relations and best intentions in the world are not good enough, if not followed through. More effort must be made to make the employees aware of the unique dangers faced both in production and decommissioning of these facilities. A member of one of the new contractor's management recently said of a cluttered storeroom, awaiting disposition, "Why don't you just throw it in the Dumpster?" Perhaps K-Mart can do this, but not Y-12. This is but one example that we have a long way to go. On a positive note, I wish to commend the security personnel, who have been working long hours and doing a professional job since the terrorist incidents and ensuing "War on Terrorism." You're right up there with the firefighters and policemen who have been lauded as heroes. Thanks, my friends. Glenn Bell Beryllium Victims Alliance Oak Ridge Response to the city Den Committee chairman Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association Concerned about plant emissions To The Oak Ridger: Oak Ridge has an eyesore in the form of a treeless bald ridge above the Manufacturing Sciences plant, which is owned by BNFL and connected to the K-25 plant dismantlement. It is noticeable all over town and causing concerns. Why would a site high on a hill be so desirable, when there is much other leveler land around Oak Ridge for development? Why cut down all the trees at such a visible site? Has anyone speculated that there may be a more subtle reason for this, considering that lots of dead trees tend to follow these local weapons plants due to high releases of fluoride. Oak Ridge weapons plant managers have tried to hide this problem for decades and it continues today, in various forms. They really want that toxic effect kept quiet on gas diffusion workers and close in affected communities. I believe it was Manufacturing Sciences that intended to smelt the nickel barrier materials from the gas diffusion plant, which are highly laden with calcium fluoride. Calcium fluoride will turn into hydrogen fluoride, HF, in the high temperature smelting process and can damage trees from environmental releases. This would call public attention to what Oak Ridge weapons plant managers want hidden most, high HF releases from the plants. This same kind of effect was seen around the TSCA K-25 incinerator, which was burning uranium fluorides and it killed the trees right up to the fence and pointed to the stack like an arrow. It would not do for this same effect to be noticed almost right in the middle of the city of Oak Ridge, if the fluoride laden nickel is to be processed again ... Could it be that the end of DOE's nickel processing was only just a delay and a diversion process to allow time to remove some trees? What do others think? Jim Phelps KnoxvilleAdvertising Information All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 3 Nuclear Arctic without secrets The decommissioning process of around 100 nuclear powered submarines pulled out of operation in the Northern Fleet. (St Petersburg:) Bellona presented its report The Arctic Nuclear Challenge in St Petersburg. Rashid Alimov, 2001-11-26 18:17 In the early 1990s I intentionally reveal a lot of classified data, because in my opinion, there should be no secrets concerning radiation safety,” said the head of the Murmansk office of Bellona, Andrey Zolotkov, at a press conference held in St Petersburg. The Arctic Nuclear Challenge Bellona has published its third report on potential sources of radioactive contamination of the Arctic. The report does not only contain the updated information on nuclear safety issues, it also presents solutions to secure spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste in the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk counties. Order it today » The press conference was devoted to presentation Bellona's new report: The Arctic Nuclear Challenge. Andrey Zolotkov, one of the authors of the report, stressed, that today there is only a potential danger of radioactive contamination of the Arctic region. But at the same time, management of radioactive waste remains one of the most major environmental challenges for the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk counties. This report is already the third in series. The head of the Murmansk office said, he was satisfied with the co-operation, Bellona managed to establish with the Russian officials while preparing the report. For example, the part, containing information about dangerous condition of the Kola NPP reactors, was granted by the nuclear plant itself. At the same time, Murmansk office representatives claimed, that despite Aleksandr Nikitin’s acquittal, the decision, banning distribution of previous Bellona's report The Russian Northern Fleet has not been lifted yet. Presenting the report, Mr Zolotkov especially touched upon the project, carried out by Bellona in co-operation with Murmansk Shipping Company: Bellona funded a set of living containers for the crew and workers of the Lepse service ship filled with damaged spent nuclear fuel to reduce radiation doses they receive. He also said about the projects for remediation of Andreyeva Bay. Andreyeva Bay, situated 45km from the Russian-Norwegian boarder in the north-western part of the Kola Peninsula, is the largest storage site for naval spent nuclear fuel. 93 reactor cores, containing 35 tonnes of nuclear materials, are stored there. Answering to a question about the realization cost for the remediation projects, Mr Zolotkov said it would take more than $10m to clean up the site. He also mentioned that the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs representatives were for the first time allowed to visit Andreyeva Bay in May 2001. After this visit Norway allocated 10m NOK for radiation safety assistance. Speaking about Bellona’s evaluation of the Kursk dismantling safety, the head of Murmansk office wished Bellona could be allowed onboard the Kursk. “We don’t doubt that everything is normal there, but if the Russian government agrees to invite us onboard, we’ll be able to confirm that on the spot.” 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 ***************************************************************** 4 Potomac Institute Presents: 'New War Challenges' U.S. Newswire 16 Nov 13:30 The Potomac Institute Presents: 'The New War Challenges: From Aviation to Nuclear Terrorism?' To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor Contact: Craig Bannister of the Potomac Institute, 703-525-0770 News Advisory: What: From suicide pilots using planes as manned guided missiles to potential nuclear bomb and radiological attacks from terrorist organizations, the world faces threats of previously unimaginable proportion and dimensions. On Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2001, Professor Yonah Alexander, co-editor of Super Terrorism: Biological, Chemical, and Nuclear, will join a team of experts to discuss "The New War Challenges: From Aviation to Nuclear Terrorism?" A question and answer session will follow. When: Tuesday, Nov. 20 from 4-6 p.m. Where: International Law Institute 1615 New Hampshire Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. (2 Blocks East of Dupont Circle Metro Station on the Red Line) Program: -- Co-Chairmen: Prof. Yonah Alexander, director, International Center for Terrorism Studies, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and co-director, Inter-University Center for Legal Studies Prof. Edgar H. Brenner, co-director, Inter-University Center for Legal Studies Opening Remarks: -- Stuart Kerr, Esq., executive director, International Law Institute -- Michael S. Swetnam, CEO and chairman of the Board, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Panelists: -- Joseph Cirincione, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace -- Dr. Milton Hoenig, nuclear physicist -- Dr. Feisal Keblawi, Federal Aviation Administration -- Fred Roder, Federal Aviation Administration (invited) Media Inquiries: Craig Bannister, 703-525-0770 RSVP Required: Kerrie Martin, 703-525-0770 Established in 1998, the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies' International Center for Terrorism Studies (ICTS) is a non-profit research organization dedicated to educating the public and the nation's policymakers about the nature and intensity of, and most effective responses to, the terrorist threat in the 21st century. ICTS serves as the coordinating body for three worldwide consortia of universities and think tanks: the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies, the Inter-University Center for Information Warfare and Cyber-terrorism Studies, and the Inter-University Center for Science and Technology Studies. ICTS is also affiliated with the Inter-University Center for Legal Studies at the International Law Institute. Copyright 2001, U.S. Newswire ***************************************************************** 5 Nuclear weapons workers, survivors can file claims Journalstar.com: Nebraska U.S. Department of Labor representatives will be in Lincoln Monday to speak to nuclear weapons workers or their survivors who may be eligible for benefits. Workers can get help filling out claim forms at the open-door session, which will begin with a 9 a.m. presentation at the Federal Building, Suite 287, 100 Centennial Mall North. The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act went into effect July 31. It provides $150,000 in lump-sum compensation, as well as related medical expenses, to workers who are seriously ill because they were exposed to beryllium, silica or radiation while working for the Department of Energy, its contractors or subcontractors in the nuclear weapons industry. It also provides benefits to some survivors and $50,000 in lump-sum payments and medical expenses to some uranium workers. Copyright © 2001, Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved. 926 P Street Lincoln NE 68508 402 475-4200 feedback@journalstar.com ***************************************************************** 6 Pakistan Frees Nuclear Scientists Las Vegas SUN November 22, 2001 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Two retired Pakistani nuclear scientists detained on suspicion of links with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network have been released, the government said Thursday. Chief government spokesman Gen. Rashid Quereshi confirmed that Sultan Bashir-ud-Din Mehmood and Abdul Majid had been freed but would not say when. Both worked for Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission until 1999 and were detained last month for questioning. Both had made frequent trips to Afghanistan, government officials said. The two scientists denied passing any nuclear secrets to the Taliban or bin Laden. They said their visits to Afghanistan were in connection with a charity organization, which worked with farmers and students. Neither man has been charged with any offense, and Pakistani officials said there was nothing to suggest that they passed on nuclear information or materials to anyone in Afghanistan. However, Pakistani officials said the two met bin Laden at least twice during visits to Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar in connection with the construction of a flour mill. Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and until the Sept. 11 terror attacks, supported Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement. The Taliban have harbored bin Laden and his al-Qaida network, suspected in the attacks on New York and Washington. But Pakistan insists it has not leaked nuclear information, and says its nuclear weapons remain well protected. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 Moscow Seeks NATO's Cooperation Las Vegas SUN November 22, 2001 MOSCOW- NATO and Russia will live together or perish apart, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said Thursday after talks aimed to upgrade Moscow's ties to the military alliance and strengthen the former enemies' resolve to join forces for the fight against terrorism. Robertson said it was in the interests of both Russia and NATO to increase cooperation in combatting terrorism and dealing with the dangers posed by biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. "International terrorism has gone global," Robertson said. "International security must go global as well. Either we live and work together or we will perish apart." He suggested NATO must take advantage of the efforts Russian President Vladimir Putin has made to bring his nation closer to the West in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. "We are at a moment of unprecedented cooperation, the closest cooperation between Russia and the West since the battle against Fascism 60 years ago and we need to build on that," Robertson added after meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. Putin said Russia "does not intend to stand in line for NATO membership." But he said - as he has repeatedly since the Sept. 11 attacks - that the threat of terrorism demands closer cooperation between Russia its former Cold War foes. "We are ready to bring our positions closer to NATO's in many directions, to the extent that the alliance itself is ready for that," Putin told a group of senior Russian lawmakers. "We are looking toward positive, constructive relations with all countries and international organizations, especially in the sphere of security." Robertson and Putin meet Friday to discuss a proposal by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to enhance Russia's role in NATO decision-making. Currently, contacts are limited to dialogue in a body called the Permanent Joint Council, and Russian officials have complained of being informed of key decisions only after the fact. Before arriving in Moscow on Thursday afternoon, Robertson paid homage to Russia's World War II heroes. He laid a wreath by the eternal flame at the war memorial in the southern city of Volgograd - formerly Stalingrad - the site of a decisive and brutal battle of World War II and an enduring symbol of Russia's sacrifice in the war against the Nazis. Robertson's visit reflects the swiftly improving relations between Russia and NATO after years of suspicion. Russia has sharply opposed NATO's eastward expansion and bristled at plans to include the former Soviet republics of the Baltic region in an alliance that was formed as a guard against Moscow as relations between the wartime allies deteriorated. Relations were also strained by NATO's 1999 air strikes against Yugoslavia. Russia, a traditional ally of the Serbs, opposed the campaign. Since the attacks in the United States, however, the two sides have begun to view each other as partners - or at least potential partners. Putin has voiced strong support for the U.S.-led anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan, and Russia has given assistance in the form of intelligence. Russia also gave a green light to U.S. troops to be stationed in former Soviet republics in Central Asia. By backing the U.S.-led campaign, Putin has won some breathing room on his war against separatists in mostly Muslim Chechnya. After Putin pledged Russia's support, Washington endorsed the Kremlin's allegations of ties between the rebels and terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden. Robertson said NATO members sympathize with the problems Russia faces in the conflict in Chechnya, but that concerns about the excessive use of force and human rights violations remain. "We sympathize with Russia. We work alongside Russia in dealing with the terrorist network," Robertson said. "But we still retain some concerns about the means Russia has used ... and that hasn't changed." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 8 News: Energy Northwest fighting nuclear panel's criticism of its emergency plan The Seattle Times: Local Friday, November 23, 2001 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific By Linda Ashton The Associated Press YAKIMA — A Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection indicates Energy Northwest's emergency plan for notifying nearby contractors and businesses of a radioactive release from its nuclear-power plant may have been inadequate. The NRC has scheduled a conference Monday with Energy Northwest, a public power-utility group that owns the 1,200-megawatt Columbia Generating Station, north of Richland on the Hanford nuclear reservation. "We knew it was coming. We asked for this regulatory conference because we believe that the preliminary finding was in error," said Don McManman, an Energy Northwest spokesman. "As I understand it, the NRC is saying our plan did not meet a planning standard." Energy Northwest contends the plan met the standard but acknowledges it could probably use improvement, he said. The finding during a July 23-Sept. 24 inspection involves "the apparent failure to include several private businesses operating on the property at Columbia Generating Station in site emergency plans," the NRC said in a news release. "This oversight could have prevented people working at these businesses from being notified promptly, included in protective actions or provided with radiological monitoring in the event of a plant accident releasing radioactive material." Breck Henderson, an NRC spokesman in Arlington, Texas, said he believes Energy Northwest has moved to correct the situation. "We're just arguing about what the safety significance of it is," he said. There would be no penalty regardless of the determination, he said. McManman said Energy Northwest included the dozens of businesses that operate at various times southeast of the nuclear plant in its emergency plan. There are emergency sirens that can be heard for miles. seattletimes.com home ***************************************************************** 9 Uphill battle for whistle-blowers Hanford making efforts to address worker concerns Monday, November 26, 2001 By LISA STIFFLER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Whistle-blowers face an uphill battle when they take on Department of Energy contractors. Just ask Randy Walli. For years, the whistle-blower and former Hanford Nuclear Reservation pipe fitter has fought for his job back from a DOE contractor whose legal expenses are covered by the government. His struggle is not unique. At DOE sites around the country, the agency often pays legal costs for contractors fighting allegations of whistle-blower retaliation -- even if the contractors lose. "It sends a very troubling message that when you lose, you don't have to worry about it because your losses are socialized," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. For contractors, "losses are socialized and profits are privatized," he said. DOE officials say that improvements in whistle-blower protection are being made. The most visible changes are in addressing concerns before they become long and expensive legal battles. The purpose of whistle-blower laws is to encourage government employees -- including the 100,000 employees of DOE contractors -- to report unsafe, illegal or fraudulent practices by promising to protect the employees from reprisal. Whistle-blower concerns are addressed by the DOE or its contractors, the U.S. Department of Labor or the courts. In recent years, scrutiny has focused on the DOE policy of reimbursing its contractors for legal costs. The U.S. House Committee on Commerce held a hearing in May 2000 to examine the policy. Since the late '90s, DOE contracts are supposed to include clauses preventing the agency from paying legal costs when contractors lose whistle-blower cases. "The department will not reimburse them," said Bill Lewis, director of the DOE Office of Employee Concerns in Washington, D.C., a resource for whistle-blowers. But it isn't that easy. There are ways for contractors to still get reimbursed, such as settling a case before the contractor is found guilty. "The lawyers always figure out a way to find a loophole," Lewis admitted. DOE officials have said that contractors need protection from employees calling themselves whistle-blowers without substantiation. Tom Carpenter, of the watchdog Government Accountability Project, wants DOE to stop paying the legal costs. "Whether the government intends to or not, it's taking sides" by paying them, he said. Other agencies, like the Department of Defense, don't cover these costs. Addressing cases before they get to court seems to offer the best hope for whistle-blower protection. In 1995, the Hanford Joint Council was created to help settle whistle-blower complaints. It resolves cases while maintaining confidentiality and avoiding long and expensive courtroom battles. The only organization of its kind in the nation, it brings together government agencies, contractors and interest groups. Former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, a champion of whistle-blower protection, said in a recent telephone interview that she would like to see the creation of more councils, which resolve disputes "early on" and go "right to the source." Jonathon Brock, chairman of the Hanford Joint Council, said that while the response to employee concerns has gotten better, problems still surface, particularly when there are new contractors or in places where the old way of dealing with whistle-blowers remains. He said the council is as busy as ever, handling eight to10 cases a year. "Some traditions die hard," he said. "It's a big place, and it's certainly not yet perfect." In 1996, DOE created the Office of Employee Concerns. It, too, works with employees to resolve their safety concerns quickly and outside the courts. This month, the office released mixed results from an employee survey on the program's effectiveness. Among people using the office, two-thirds feared reprisal for their actions, and only 15 percent said that management responded appropriately to concerns. In the past two years, the Richland office has been overhauling its own program, said Julie Goeckner, program manager for Hanford's Office of Special Concerns. The office, which has dealt with more than 200 concerns this year, is trying to improve its investigations of employee complaints. It's making contract language clearer so contractors know how concerns should be handled. And it has even reduced payments to a contractor as a penalty for failing to address reprisal allegations. The improvements are "not a fast thing. You're talking major culture change," she said. "We've got a long way to go, and we know that." At the crux of the situation is a history of intolerance. "To a great extent the resistance to whistle-blowers is almost institutionally embedded in the culture (at DOE)," Wyden said. Walli hopes his case against a Hanford contractor will help force a cultural change. "We're trying to make the situation better," he said. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to [newmedia@seattle-pi.com] ©1999-2001 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 10 'Mr. Safety' goes to the mat Hanford whistle-blower fights the company -- and the government as well -- over being fired Monday, November 26, 2001 By LISA STIFFLER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER RICHLAND -- Randy Walli did what he thought was right. An experienced pipe fitter, he refused to use valves he believed were too weak for testing pipes at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. He worried the valves would burst, flooding leak-prone tanks containing millions of gallons of radioactive waste and injuring himself and the environment. The Department of Energy, which manages Hanford, is supposed to protect whistle-blowers such as Walli who try to make the nation's nuclear installations safer. But when Walli was laid off, twice, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration twice found that he had been illegally fired in retaliation for raising safety concerns. [Randy Walli] Randy Walli steadies a ladder during work at the Boise Cascade mill in Wallula. Walli is involved in a lawsuit over his dismissal from a pipe-fitter job at Hanford. Jackie Johnston / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo And DOE, instead of admonishing the contractor that fired Walli and four other pipe fitters, is paying its legal costs. The agency has spent nearly $1 million in tax money, in fact, on the firm's battle with the pipe fitters. DOE even lauded the contractor, Fluor Federal Services, for its safety program, awarding it coveted "star status" earlier this year. The star designation, "aimed at truly outstanding protectors of employee safety and health," was granted after a review of safety practices and interviews with hundreds of employees, DOE said. DOE and the contractor "preach safety real hard, but they don't back it up," said Walli, who has fought to get his job back for more than three years. He has struggled not only with costly legal opposition but hostility on the job, including Hanford co-workers leaving the room when he entered. Before his layoff, Walli said he had not worked directly with radioactive materials. But after Fluor rehired him after a settlement, he was given more dangerous jobs, including removing old radioactive waste tanks from a shut-down reactor. DOE and Fluor spokesmen insist they support whistle-blowers. "We still have a policy of zero tolerance for whistle-blower retaliation," DOE spokesman Manny Van Pelt said. Fluor said the pipe fitters were laid off not because of whistle-blowing, but because their jobs were winding down, according to OSHA documents. Fluor appealed both OSHA findings that it illegally laid off the pipe fitters, pressing its case first with the agency and now in the courts. And why not? Financially it has nothing to lose. But the taxpayers do -- they continue to cover Fluor's lawyer fees and settlement costs. And it isn't over yet. The bailout continues despite language in Fluor's contract saying the company must repay Hanford if there is an "adverse determination" in a case. Nothing 'final' Despite the OSHA findings that Fluor violated the whistle-blower act, the firm and DOE contend that unless there's some final determination that the pipe-fitter firing was illegal, the company is not obligated to repay the government. "There has been no ruling of guilt in this case," said Jerry Holloway, spokesman for a company affiliated with Fluor Federal Services. "Even though this has gone on for a long time, ... there has been no final determination in terms of the merit of the original allegations." DOE pays legal costs in such situations because whistle-blower claims are not always legitimate and contractors need protection, its general counsel told Congress. That way, "contractors small and large can afford to remain focused on doing the nation's work, and attorneys aren't paid to ride the bench," Van Pelt said. Tom Carpenter, West Coast director of the Government Accountability Project, a watchdog organization providing legal aid for the pipe fitters, said the policy is biased in favor of the contractors. DOE's message to contractors is: "we'll support your wrongdoing," he said. The state Court of Appeals in Walla Walla will decide soon whether to send the Walli case to trial or arbitration. Even if ultimately Fluor loses, it's not clear that DOE would recover its costs. Van Pelt would not comment on a hypothetical ruling, but said, "there would have to be certain deliberations ..." to determine whether Fluor has to pay back legal costs. "There may or may not be latitude ," he said. "It all hinges on the legal decision." Fluor's "safety record has been outstanding at the site and shown continuous improvement," Holloway said, adding that it's below national averages for work days missed because of injury and recently set a record at Hanford for going nearly one year without an employee injury. 'Mr. Safety' Though he was taking a job at the nation's largest hazardous cleanup project, Walli didn't worry about safety when he went to Hanford. A native of Richland, he wanted a job near his home, wife and children, now ages 3, 15 and 16. For 10 years, he'd worked all over the nation waiting for business to pick up in his hometown. In 1993, it finally did. "I took a job out there because ... it's close to home, it's steady and they (Hanford workers) make more money on average than the normal construction worker because they work year-round," said Walli, who has been a pipe fitter for 24 years. Even before the valve incident, he had raised safety concerns with Fluor, causing a company employee to refer to him sarcastically as "Mr. Safety," according to OSHA documents. On May 30, 1997, Fluor employees told Walli's crew to install valves to be used under higher pressure than he believed they were designed to withstand, said Walli, who was a foreman. Suppliers of the valves -- which were labeled for use at 1,975 pounds per square inch -- wrote a letter to Fluor saying the valves could withstand the 2,235 psi at which they were to be used. Walli refused to install them. "This is what we do for a living. This is what we've been trained to do," he said. "We never exceed the working pressure of the valve." The project involved building a 6.5-mile pipeline for transferring hazardous waste stored in the Hanford tank farms, home to 177 giant leak-prone tanks containing millions of gallons of radioactive waste. Though the valves were going to be used temporarily in a test without radioactive material, Walli was concerned they could explode or break, flooding the notoriously unstable Tank SY-101, which for years burped hydrogen gas. Walli eventually agreed to use the valves, provided his team would not be in the area during the test. Fluor agreed, but at the last minute said Walli's team would need to be present after all, Walli said. Again he refused to use the valves. Soon after, a Fluor manager procured stronger valves, and -- using them -- Walli and his crew successfully performed the test. But within a week, he and four other pipe fitters were told their job was done, and they were laid off. "We knew the job wasn't done," Walli said. "They were still working on that after we got back." Fluor denies that the layoffs were retaliatory. Holloway would not address this project specifically, but said it's the nature of jobs at Hanford that they are finite and subject to fluctuations in budgeting and scheduling priorities. Hostile climate Two more pipe fitters opted for layoffs because of the incident. About two months later, the seven men filed complaints with OSHA, claiming they were fired because of their whistle-blowing. An OSHA investigation concluded that the five pipe fitters were fired in violation of a federal act protecting DOE whistle-blowers. The two who left voluntarily were ruled against. Fluor was ordered in October 1997 to rehire the five pipe fitters and pay lost wages, damages and attorneys' fees. Fluor appealed the OSHA decision and settled the case days before an administrative hearing. All seven pipe fitters were paid $42,000 each, plus $40,000 to their attorneys. The $334,000 settlement -- in which the company admitted no guilt -- was reimbursed by the DOE. After almost a year of battling Fluor, the pipe fitters thought victory was theirs. They were eager to go back to their good-paying jobs at Hanford, a workplace that would be safer, thanks to their actions. "We felt we were changing the culture and changing the practices," and that "you can stand up, and it will be a better place," Walli said. Instead, the men said they returned to a hostile climate in which co-workers would get up and leave when they entered a room, and they were given riskier assignments. "I'll never be able to work out there again and be treated fairly," said Shane O'Leary, one of the laid-off pipe fitters. Fluor's Holloway would not speak specifically about how the men were treated, saying only, "Fluor doesn't tolerate retaliation." In order to rehire the men, Fluor laid off seven other pipe fitters, prompting more than a dozen foremen to sign a letter opposing the rehire. Those seven newly laid-off pipe fitters also filed a complaint with OSHA, charging Fluor with retaliating because several of the seven supported Walli and his crew and alleging that Fluor was trying to create a hostile environment. Fluor said the seven were laid off to make room for the returning workers. OSHA ruled in Fluor's favor, and those pipe fitters appealed. And less than a year after they were rehired, five of the pipe fitters from the original layoffs -- Walli included -- were fired again. The process started all over. In May 1999, again OSHA found that Walli and the others were wrongly terminated. The workers were told there was no more work, but discovered records of pipe fitters being hired to replace them. Again, Fluor appealed. The pipe fitters from the second and third rounds of layoffs withdrew their complaints with OSHA in March 2000 and took the case to state court. They're trying to win back pay, compensation for emotional distress and the chance to return to their old jobs. Carpenter said they moved the case to the courts seeking a more expeditious resolution. If Walli wins his case, would he go back to Hanford? "I would say yes," he said. If not, "you're not proving your point and making it better for anybody else." P-I reporter Lisa Stiffler can be reached at 206-448-8042 or lisastiffler@seattlepi.com [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to [newmedia@seattle-pi.com] ©1999-2001 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 11 Myanmar gives sanctuary to Pak nuke scientists Expressindia.com Press Trust of India New Delhi, November 23: Close on the heels of US intelligence officials questioning two Pakistani scientists on their alleged links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, Myanmar authorities have reportedly granted sanctuary to two other Pakistani nuclear scientists following a request from Islamabad, according to highly-placed intelligence sources. The two scientists, Dr Suleiman Asad and Dr Mohammad Ali Mukhtar, have been flown to Sagaing division of Myanmar, after the authorities in Yangon acceded to Pakistan regime's request, the sources said in New Delhi. The request made by Pakistan's Foreign Office was promptly accepted after Islamabad gave an assurance that the duo were not involved in any terrorist activity, the sources added. They said Asad and Mukhtar were involved in the development of Islamabad's nuclear programme and the US authorities had been looking for them too. CIA and FBI officials had on Tuesday interrogated the other two scientists, Dr Bashiruddin Mehmood, who retired as the chief of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, and Chaudhury Abdul Majid, a former chief engineer, at the American Embassy in Islamabad. The two are now reportedly under house arrest. Pakistan had earlier denied reports that the US had sought their extradition. © 2001: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 12 Nuclear fallout: Is the threat real? A mother and her children make a practice run for their $5,000 steel backyard fallout shelter in Sacramento, Calif., on Oct. 5, 1961. How exposure to radiation can effect your health The release of nuclear radiation either through an attack on a nuclear plant or waste site or by the dropping of a bomb is yet another real concern that seemed unthinkable before Sept. 11. What can you do to prepare for this possibility and what should you do if such an attack occurs? Edwin Lyman, Ph.D, scientific director for the Nuclear Control Institute, answers your questions. If a nuclear weapon were detonated there is a tell-tale flash followed by a shock wave blast; the bomb, if detonated near the ground, would cause a crater, and material and earth within the crater would be sucked up as fallout and then distributed over a wide area. Question: The last time the nation seriously considered the threat of a nuclear explosion, the advice was to “duck and cover.” Today we realize how silly that advice was, but is there anything the average person can do to prepare for the aftermath of a nuclear explosion or accident, if lucky enough to survive? Edwin Lyman: When we look at “duck and cover” it seems silly today in the context of an all-out nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. There was no protection in the case of such a war. But if we are talking about the possibility of a terrorist with a small number of nuclear weapons, it does make sense to ask the question, “Are there ways in which individuals can reduce their risk of injury in the event of a terrorist nuclear attack?” The first question that is often asked is about potassium iodide — is it something that individuals should stockpile? Potassium iodide can block the uptake of radioactive iodine, an isotope that would be released in great quantity if a nuclear power plant were to have an accident or if a nuclear bomb were to be detonated. It is my judgment that it would be useful for individuals in the vicinity of nuclear power plants to have ready access to potassium iodide in the event of an attack on a nuclear plant, however, the limitations of potassium iodide need to be explained. The evidence now is that it would be most effective only for people under the age of twenty or for pregnant women. For adults it is less clear whether potassium iodide would be a significant factor in preventing thyroid cancer, but obviously for children it could be an important measure. This said, one has to realize that radioactive iodine is only one element of an enormous soup of different radioactive elements that would be released in a nuclear terrorism incident. And potassium iodide can provide only limited protection. Since Sept. 11, people who live near nuclear plants have been stocking up on potassium iodide pills, which can help protect against cancer from a radiation release. [Image: Potassium Iodide] Question: Where do we obtain potassium iodide, and in what form does it come? In a pill, a shot, a liquid? Edwin Lyman: After opposing the requirement to stockpile potassium iodide near nuclear plants, the nuclear regulatory commission has recently changed its position and has delegated the authority to state governments to make that decision. I am unaware that any state government has made that decision, but if that were the case, then people within the emergency planning zones around nuclear plants would be able to obtain it from emergency responders. It is also being sold over the Internet and I have seen a lot of false and misleading claims about what it can do, so people should be aware that there are cons out there with potassium iodide sales. • MSNBC Terms and Conditions © 2001 ***************************************************************** 13 Fired Muslim nuke worker considers offer of job back; AECL denies gag order Terrorist-Nuke-Worker, 4th Writethru STEPHEN THORNE OTTAWA (CP) - A nuclear engineer fired in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks has been declared harmless and offered his job back. Mohamed Attiah's former employer, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., confirmed he has been offered a full-time contract at its Chalk River, Ont., facility. If Attiah, 54, accepts the offer, said his representative, he cannot talk about the circumstances surrounding his dismissal from the nuclear facility minutes after being questioned by intelligence agents. "He has been offered his job back on condition he not talk about the circumstances that resulted in the termination of his employment any further," said Harry Kopyto. AECL confirmed the job offer but flatly refuted there was any gag order. "We offered him permanent employment," on Thursday morning, said spokeswoman Louise Duhamel. "There were no conditions attached to the job offer he was given - no conditions." Duhamel said she could not elaborate because of privacy issues. Attiah, a Canadian citizen and Muslim who immigrated from Egypt 27 years ago, was told he was a security threat when he was terminated. Attiah, who had been working as a subcontractor, was considering the offer of reinstatement Thursday. "I feel AECL has taken a very positive step to resolve that problem for us and I feel very positive about that," he said from his home in Deep River, Ont., northwest of Ottawa. "I commend their management for their courage in taking this decision and I am looking very positively toward that offer that they gave to me," he said. "I am looking forward to working back with my boss and to be back with the team there. But I'm not going to make anything final right now." The offer carried no condition that Attiah drop a lawsuit and human rights complaint he has filed against Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP, Kopyto said. Attiah said AECL has addressed the main issue and he has "strong confidence" that the remaining issues can be worked out between lawyers. But Attiah has no intention of dropping his case, his spokesman said. "They did indicate that the reason that they fired him was that they had received a note or an indication from the RCMP that he 'might' be of security interest," Kopyto said. "The reason they rehired him is because they've now been told by CSIS and by the RCMP that he is not of security interest." CSIS declined comment while the matter remains before the Federal Court of Canada. Kopyto said Attiah was a victim of discrimination. "He's entitled to compensation for the way they treated him - official abuse based on racial stereotyping," said Kopyto. "In no way could Mohamed Attiah be considered a security risk at all. The only thing that makes him different from you or me is that he is Islamic and he is Arabic. "As far as we're concerned, the fact that they're offering him his job back is an admission that they did something wrong." Attiah, a father of four children aged seven to 15, has a master's degree in engineering and previously worked for Ontario Hydro. He has no criminal record. Attiah has said that on Sept. 21, agents approached him on his lunch break and questioned him for 90 minutes about his religion, people he'd met, places he'd been. When he returned to work, a security officer at AECL told him he was a security threat. He was ordered to leave the research facility forever. Kopyto says the case couldn't come at a worse time for Ottawa, which is trying to sell anti-terrorist legislation that contains sweeping powers of arrest and seizure. "They want to get rid of a hot potato," he said. Attiah, who describes himself as apolitical and uninvolved in any organizations, was interrogated at an OPP detachment in nearby Pembroke, Ont. An RCMP officer and a CSIS agent asked him if he was a practising Muslim, and if so, why was he never seen praying at work. Attiah said his colleagues and the community in general have been good to him and his family, notwithstanding rumours that circulated soon after his dismissal that he was related to terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden. Co-workers insisted on visiting him at risk to themselves and their careers, he said. Other parents "went out of their way" to open their homes to his children and to look out for their welfare. "Many of those people I never met in my life but I can never forget this kind of support," he said. "It definitely was a hard time for us, that's for sure. "I just feel the price we paid in terms of hardship during this period may be worth it if we have through this brought an issue of national importance into light and into focus. If this is our contribution to Canada, we are happy to pay that small price." © The Canadian Press, 2001 ***************************************************************** 14 Infighting hurt Pantex board, members say 11/25/01 Amarillo Globe-News: Local News: By Jim McBride jmcbride@amarillonet.com [jmcbride@amarillonet.com] In the end, the Pantex Plant Citizens Advisory Board couldn't even agree to meet one more time. Frequent infighting, difficulty in achieving unanimous votes and Energy Department frustrations with the board wrote its epitaph, some board members say. Dan Glenn, DOE's Amarillo Area Office Manager, notified board members 1 weeks ago that he was disbanding the board because it couldn't provide effective advice to the department. ÛThe board planned a final gathering Tuesday, but that was called off after the board's co-chairs said the meeting would not have a quorum, he said. Glenn said he did not take the move lightly but said the board's bylaws hampered its work. The DOE spent tax dollars to fund the board, but it had little to show for it, he said. The board's annual budget runs about $250,000. "The primary message I want to get across is that I want public input, and unfortunately, I am as disappointed as everyone else is that this mechanism failed to do that for us," Glenn said. "I do sincerely appreciate the individual efforts that people put into it, but the group as an organization was dysfunctional." The DOE has not ruled out creating a new environmental management advisory board. Glenn said he will review public input from meetings and other gatherings over the next year or so before deciding whether they are effective or whether a new advisory board should be created. Meanwhile, Pantex will continue to have regular groundwater meetings, topical briefings and sessions with elected officials, he said. In May, DOE officials told board members that they no longer could provide advice and recommendations on Pantex's nuclear operations. Since the board was established in 1994, board members had issued recommendations on plutonium storage, ground-water cleanup and other topics. Co-Chair Walt Kelley said he was disappointed in DOE's decision and thought that the board could have been beneficial even with a revised environmental-based mission. "We weren't given the opportunity to see if we could make changes to our bylaws, but at the same time I was not ever optimistic that the board would make those changes," Kelley said. Carson County Judge Lewis Powers said he found the board's rules requiring unanimous consensus votes often got in the way of doing business - a sentiment echoed by several board members. "I really felt frustrated that we never could move forward on anything," Powers said. Board member Frank White said he often found himself in the middle of Pantex boosters and critics. "I think that the requirement for consensus was the downfall of it," White said. "People on the one side or the other got mad at each other and wouldn't cut the other bunch any slack." Board member Janette Kelley said a caucus structure that pitted different board factions against each other proved problematic and that some board members were shocked when the DOE eliminated the board's ability to discuss nuclear issues that had been on the table for years. "Water is real important, but I don't think we should have been shut out from some of the concerns about plutonium storage," she said. "People can't blame DOE exclusively. I see both directions." Board member Jeri Osborne said consensus voting, a caucus structure and DOE board official Jerry Scott Johnson's refusal to give the board information it requested brought about the board's end. Johnson declined comment. "I feel like we really need it now more than we ever did because again you're going right back down to where we were before, where everything was hush-hush and the public was excluded on everything," she said. "The department made a commitment to the public and it seems like they're backtracking on it." Former Co-Chair Sidney Blankenship said he thought that the board should have had more direction from DOE headquarters instead of relying on the Amarillo office. "I think all of us feel like we could have done better, and we strove to meet the objectives as we knew them. We weren't properly informed, I think," Blankenship said. 2001 Amarillo Globe-News [http://www.amarillonet.com/copyright.html] ***************************************************************** 15 Hodges against oversight by Energy Dept. official [charlotte.com] Published Friday, November 23, 2001 PLUTONIUM SHIPMENTS TO S.C. Hodges against oversight by Energy Dept. official Undersecretary's formerfirm may profit from hisdecisions, governor says Associated Press COLUMBIA -- Gov. Jim Hodges doesn't want U.S. Undersecretary of Energy Robert Card to supervise shipments of plutonium to South Carolina because of his ties to the company cleaning up a Colorado nuclear weapons plant. Card's involvement in the shipments as the former president of a company that stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars from the Energy Department "does not pass the smell test," Hodges said. "I'm outraged that there would be a clear financial connection between a decision-maker at DOE and a company that stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars if nuclear material is shipped to South Carolina," Hodges said. Card served as president and chief executive officer of Kaiser-Hill Co. until he took the No. 3 post at the Energy Department earlier this year. He received millions of dollars in compensation when he left the company, according to an agreement he signed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics pledging to refrain from making decisions affecting his former employer. Card retains vested interests in pension plans at Kaiser-Hill and an associated company, CH2M Companies Ltd., said Joe Davis, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy. Kaiser-Hill stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses if it achieves contractual cost and time targets to close and clean up the nuclear weapons facility in Rocky Flats, Colo., according to the U.S. General Accounting Office and the Energy Department. The company is preparing tons of surplus and waste plutonium for shipment to South Carolina's Savannah River Site. However, Davis said the company's bonuses are not tied to the Energy Department's decisions on shipment dates. Those shipments had been scheduled for mid-October. But Hodges threatened to block the shipments if the Bush administration did not live up to a 1998 agreement for new missions and jobs at SRS to immobilize the plutonium or convert it to commercial nuclear fuel. Card, who met in August with S.C. House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, and Republican Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler, pledged that the Energy Department would not ship the plutonium without the state's agreement, and he repeated that pledge this week in a letter to Hodges. "With our recent history with DOE, I'm not satisfied that they are simply turning to their own internal staff to review the propriety of these actions," said Hodges, a Democrat. Davis said that if Hodges thinks the government is "splitting hairs," he should "read the contract." Once the plutonium is packaged, custody passes to the DOE and is no longer Kaiser-Hill's responsibility, Davis said. "Any reasonable person can assume that once it is packaged, Kaiser-Hill does not benefit negatively or positively from any of Card's decisions regarding transportation," Davis said. Card has said in letters to Hodges that the new missions and jobs might go elsewhere if South Carolina continues to resist shipments of the plutonium to SRS. ***************************************************************** 16 Infighting among factors for Pantex advisory board Associated Press AMARILLO, Texas (AP) - Infighting, trouble getting unanimous votes and Department of Energy frustrations led to the demise of the Pantex Plant Citizens Advisory Board, officials and board members said. The board was created in 1994 by the DOE to provide community input on the environment and other issues at the Pantex Plant, a nuclear weapons facility. But last week, DOE Amarillo Area Office Manager Dan Glenn disbanded the board, saying the group was unable to provide effective advice to the agency. "The primary message I want to get across is that I want public input, and unfortunately, I am as disappointed as everyone else that this mechanism failed to do that for us," Glenn said in Sunday's editions of the Amarillo Globe-News. Glenn said board bylaws hampered its work and the board had little to show for their annual $250,000 budget, paid for by the DOE with tax dollars. "I do sincerely appreciate the individual efforts that people put into it, but the group as an organization was dysfunctional," he said. For example, Glenn said a recent board meeting was canceled after the board's co-chairs said it would not have a quorum. Board members said they were disappointed, but not surprised, with the decision to disband. "We weren't given the opportunity to see if we could make changes to our bylaws, but at the same time I was not ever optimistic that the board would make those changes," said board co-chair Walt Kelley. Board member and Carson County Judge Lewis Powers said rules requiring unanimous consensus votes often got in the way of doing business. "I really felt frustrated that we never could move forward on anything," Powers said. Former co-chair Sidney Blankenship said the board should have had more direction from DOE headquarters instead of relying on the Amarillo office. "I think all of us feel like we could have done better, and we strove to meet the objectives as we knew them," he said. "We weren't properly informed, I think." The power of the group already had been diminished once before. In July, members of the board learned that the DOE would not allow them to continue making recommendations on Pantex operational matters. Glenn said he would review public input at meetings and other gatherings during the next year and then decide if they are effective enough, or whether a new advisory board is warranted. Meanwhile, the plant will continue holding groundwater meetings, briefings and sessions with elected officials, Glenn said. ***************************************************************** 17 Scientists overwhelmed with Cold War-era baby teeth Augusta Georgia: Web posted Friday, November 23, 2001 Associated Press [http://wire.ap.org/] ST. LOUIS -- Scientists in New York said they are overwhelmed by the response from adults who once donated their baby teeth for a survey about radioactive fallout from nuclear bomb tests and now wish to participate in a follow-up survey. Close to 1,000 people have called or e-mailed the scientists since the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a story Nov. 9 about a new study trying to determine whether teeth donors developed cancer and other health problems years later as a result of the fallout. "We're all very stunned by this," said Joseph Mangano, national coordinator with the Radiation and Public Health Project. The study began after 85,000 teeth were found in an old bunker at Washington University where they'd been stored since the 1970s. The teeth were part of the St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey, in which thousands of children from the region sent their teeth to science instead of the tooth fairy. The study called for anyone born and living in St. Louis from the late 1940s through the 1960s - especially if they believe they submitted teeth - to contact his group. If matched with any of the baby teeth, the person would be mailed a health questionnaire. The original project helped scientists determine that children were absorbing radioactive fallout from nuclear bomb tests. It received international attention and helped to persuade the United States to adopt a 1963 treaty banning atmospheric bomb tests. 2001 The Augusta Chronicle. ***************************************************************** 18 Former atomic minister plays down possibility of passing nuclear secrets abroad BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Nov 23, 2001 Text of report in English by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS Moscow, 23 November: Viktor Mikhaylov, former atomic energy minister who heads Russian closed nuclear research centre in Sarov (former Arzamas-16) has fully ruled out the possibility of nuclear secrets being passed abroad by Russian physicists. "It is not only Arzamas-16, but all the other 10 closed nuclear centres which are at issue," Mikhaylov told ITAR-TASS on Friday [23 November]. "Professional secrets of nuclear research workers are thoroughly protected, and the bearers of these secrets are not likely to confide them to anyone," Mikhaylov said. None of Russian nuclear experts, or the so-called bearers of top secret information about "the bomb", has gone abroad in order to stay there permanently, Mikhaylov said. He admitted that approximately 15-20 per cent of nuclear experts, "who are not elite in nuclear science", changed their jobs and moved to commercial structures. In the past two-three years, the situation around the state financing of closed nuclear centres has stabilized, Mikhaylov said. "Although we are not given much, the money comes regularly and we can plan this or that research," Mikhaylov said. The average salary paid to workers of the Sarov nuclear centre, where the first Soviet nuclear bomb was created at the end of the 1940s, is R4,500 (150 dollars) a month with a pay rise expected in the near future up to R6,000 roubles (200 dollars), Mikhaylov said. Nuclear experts, including experts from closed nuclear centres, cooperate with foreign colleagues from the United States, France, China, but this cooperation deals with the peaceful use of atomic energy and security in the nuclear industry only, Mikhaylov said. Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English 1306 gmt 23 Nov 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************