***************************************************************** 01/27/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.25 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Nuclear 'event' in Zion 2 Waste Control Specialists and Envirocare Announce Settlement of 3 UPDATE - GERMANY'S TRITTIN HALTS PLANNED NUKE WASTE SHIPMENTS 4 Investigation Being Held Into Site Accident 5 German Shipments Back On 6 Japanese Mission for Jack-In-The-MOX MP 7 Berkley requests expanded Yucca Mountain investig... 8 BNFL 'Must Come Clean Over Killer Gas' 9 Governor, union lobby to preserve Piketon jobs 10 Nuclear waste strategy shifts into high gear NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Souvenirs a risk for Gulf force 2 Nuclear sub keeps Gibraltar in a rage 3 Nuclear Sub Will Leave Gibraltar Soon 4 [15] GREECE NEVER HAD AND WILL NEVER HAVE ATOMIC OR NUCLEAR BOMBS 5 Study Finds No Long-Term Effects of Uranium Arms 6 Veterans 'must give pledge' 7 The story Nato's newspaper does not want to tell 8 Iraq DU probe to go ahead 9 Frenchman Flat still a blast 50 years later 10 Nevada Nuclear Test Site Anniversary Remembered With Pride and Pain 11 Lab cleanup costs: $542 million by 2070 12 Hanford set to start removing water from radioactive wastes 13 DOE chief firm on decision to close FFTF 14 Federal agencies juggle DU cleanup ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Nuclear 'event' in Zion STAFF WRITER Equipment failure: Power cut to cooling reservoirs ZION - Meter equipment failure is being blamed for an "unusual event" early Friday at the Zion Nuclear Plant cooling reservoir. While the Zion plant is no longer operational, spent fuel rods are still stored there. Ironically, freshman U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Wilmette, spoke with President Bush on Friday about finding a permanent home for the nuclear waste at Zion. "Today's event was not a safety significant event, " Pam Alloway-Mueller, public affairs spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Friday. The event is the lowest of four federal emergency classifications established by the NRC. Power to the cooling reservoirs that hold the used fuel rods from the decommissioned nuclear plant arrives on two electrical lines. Power was lost to both lines at 8:15 a.m., she said. Power was restored at 9:01 a.m. The cooling reservoir was back in operation by 9:23 a.m. and the event was declared over at 9:29 a.m., she said. "There was only a slight increase in the temperature of the pool (where the fuel rods are kept)," said Alloway-Mueller. "It went from 91 degrees to 92 degrees. On a summer day, the cooling pool temperatures run around 98 degrees." An alarm is triggered when the pool reaches 120 degrees. At that temperature, even if the cooling and venting systems were lost to the pool, the water would not reach a boiling point for 81 hours. A sustained loss of power would have required a contingency plan to kick in that calls for diesel generators to be started to restore electricity to the cooling pumps, she said. Pumps stopped According to ComEd's parent company, Exelon, power was lost when the metering equipment failed, causing the pumps that circulate the 500,000 gallons of water used to cool the fuel to stop. There was no danger to plant workers or the public, said Craig Nesbit, company spokesman. The NRC will continue to monitor the situation. The situation was not significant enough that the Zion Fire Department needed to be notified. The nuclear plant was closed in 1998, but there is nowhere to send the spent fuel rods, so they are stored on site. Kirk said Illinois has more nuclear waste than any state in the nation, and his 10th Congressional District is home to 1,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel stored at Zion, on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Legislation concerning the issue was passed by the last Congress, but vetoed by President Clinton. While the House overrode that veto, the Senate fell one vote short. Letter to Bush In a letter he gave to Bush, Kirk said the stored fuel rods are just 120 yards from the lake and the cooling pond is approaching the end of its designed life. "The continued storage of radioactive nuclear waste so close to Lake Michigan poses a clear and present danger to the long-term future of the Great Lakes," he said. The Department of Energy is expected to finish a suitability study for the Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada by mid-year. The congressman said the completion of the study will provide a unique opportunity to pass new nuclear waste legislation, given the substantial bipartisan coalition that exists. The legislation would provide for the safe transportation and storage and permanent disposal of the material from more than 100 places nationwide where nuclear waste is being stored. "Moving this hazardous waste to a safe and secure facility supported by a highly trained and paid security force is in the country's best interest," Kirk said. He told President Bush that passing the legislation could be one of the cornerstones of the administration's environmental achievements. ***************************************************************** 2 Waste Control Specialists and Envirocare Announce Settlement of Litigation FRIDAY JANUARY 26, 6:42 PM EASTERN TIME Press Release SOURCE: Waste Control Specialists LLC ANDREWS, Texas, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/--Waste Control Specialists LLC, Envirocare of Utah, Inc. and Envirocare of Texas, Inc. jointly announced today that they had reached a confidential agreement to settle litigation pending between Waste Control Specialists and Envirocare in courts in Texas (Waste Control Specialists LLC v. Envirocare of Texas, Inc., et al.) and Utah (Envirocare of Utah, Inc., et al. v. Waste Control Specialists LLC, et al.). Waste Control Specialists and Envirocare resolved the litigation amicably. Waste Control Specialists and Envirocare each wish the other the best in future endeavors in connection with the disposal, storage or treatment of low-level radioactive, mixed, hazardous or 11e2 waste. Envirocare treats and disposes of low-level radioactive and mixed wastes at its facility in Clive, Utah. Waste Control Specialists operates a facility in West Texas for the processing, treatment and storage of hazardous, toxic and low-level and mixed radioactive wastes, and for the disposal of hazardous and toxic and certain types of low-level and mixed radioactive wastes. Waste Control Specialists is seeking additional regulatory authorizations to expand its treatment and disposal capabilities for low-level and mixed radioactive wastes. Waste Control Specialists is a subsidiary SOURCE: Waste Control Specialists LLC ***************************************************************** 3 UPDATE - GERMANY'S TRITTIN HALTS PLANNED NUKE WASTE SHIPMENTS GERMANY: January 25, 2001 BERLIN - GERMAN ENVIRONMENT MINISTER JUERGEN TRITTIN ORDERED A HALT ON TUESDAY TO THE PLANNED RESUMPTION OF THE TRANSPORT OF NUCLEAR WASTE FROM A POWER PLANT TO AN INTERIM STORAGE SITE IN THE WESTERN GERMAN TOWN OF AHAUS. Trittin told the state government in Baden-Wuerttemberg, where the plant is located in Neckarwestheim, not to allow the shipments to resume as there was no urgent need for the waste to be moved. The plant is owned by utility EnBW. Trittin - a leading member of the ecologist Green party, which has fought nuclear waste transport for years - said there was still enough storage room for the waste at the plant. He accused the state authorities of trying to undermine a deal on phasing out nuclear power by allowing transportation at facilities which did not urgently require it. "I will not allow the use of the law for phasing out nuclear energy to be used for political ends, " Trittin said in a statement. EnBW confirmed it had received ministry approval for delaying the controversial Castor container transport from the plant until after routine work in April. "Mr Trittin's order was not to stop the transport, but rather to stop it while there is still storage space at the plant," EnBW spokesman Klaus Wertel told Reuters. "Whether transport resumes after our revision work at the plant in April depends on getting official approval in February to build an on-site facility for future storage (of Castor containers)," he added. A ban on the transport of nuclear waste was imposed in 1998 after a safety scare over radiation leaks from containers used during transport. The transportation ban was lifted in May last year after the German nuclear industry agreed to gradually phase out atomic energy by the mid-2020s in a deal Trittin helped broker. Under the terms of the deal, waste can only transported if on-site storage facilities are full. The transport to Ahaus, due to take place in the first half of March, would have been one of the first since the ban was lifted. Anti-nuclear protestors, who cite safety risks, demonstrated on Sunday about the planned resumption of waste transports. They plan to disrupt waste transports in order to force operators to pull out of nuclear power production sooner. Such protests have frequently led to clashes with police in the past. The resumption of the waste transports is bound to be politically sensitive for the Greens who have been junior coalition partners to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats since the autumn 1998 election. Nuclear waste has also been building up in Germany because the French reprocessing plant at La Hague has for some time refused to take any more German fuel until it can send reprocessed waste back to Germany for permanent storage. Shipments of reprocessed waste from La Hague to Gorleben in Germany are planned to be resumed in March or April. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 4 Investigation Being Held Into Site Accident Friday, January 26, 2001 An investigation is under way at Sellafield into how a worker lost part of two fingers in an accident on the construction site. But BNFL yesterday categorically denied that the accident was not reported or that the worker was not treated on the site just to make safety figures look healthier. Another construction site employee has claimed that the seriously injured man was not allowed to go to the Sellafield site surgery. The man employed by steel erectors William Hare Ltd lost the tips of two of his fingers after having them squashed. Sellafield spokeswoman Ali Dunlop said: "He was treated in his own company's first-aid facility on the site before being taken to the West Cumberland Hospital, the place most suited to deal with his injuries. "The most important thing was to get him there as soon as possible. The investigation is looking into how the accident happened and how it was dealt with. "By law, we have to report injuries to the Health and Safety Executive and that's what happened in this case. Any suggestion we would not report it in order to reduce the accident statistics is just not true." The allegations were made to The Whitehaven News by a contract site employee giving his name and address. His letter alleges: "In BNFL's quest for reductions in on-site accidents, in order to increase the chances of being able to tender for overseas reprocessing contracts, contracting firms are being pressured into not reporting on-site accidents. This pressure can come in the form of financial penalties, cash deducted from budgets, and firms being not allowed to work on site any longer. "There may come a time when someone's life may be lost in the rush to bundle them off site the 10 miles or so to hospital and then the whole sorry story of how contractors are being blackmailed into not reporting accidents will be exposed." "It is all untrue," said Ali Dunlop. "We have to report accidents in three categories - fatalities, major injuries and what we call reportable injuries." ***************************************************************** 5 German Shipments Back On Friday, January 26, 2001 BRITISH Nuclear Fuels has received a boost by this week's decision by Germany to lift the ban on shipments of spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing at Sellafield. Germany's nuclear utilities imposed the ban two years ago due to the levels of radioactive contamination on the outside of the flasks. However, BNFL at Sellafield was not the source - the flasks were French and the contamination was picked up in France. But because of the "unacceptably high" levels Germany decided to halt its transportation of spent fuel to Sellafield and the equivalent Cap la Hague reprocessing plant in France. Sellafield spokeswoman Ali Dunlop said: "It was a French issue but we have had a look at our own systems and worked with the Germans to make improvements and ensure that our own flasks are as free from contamination as possible, although there may be slight contamination on some flasks within the approved limits." Twelve months ago BNFL forced the German Government to do a U-turn on its decision to cancel £1.2 billion worth of Sellafield reprocessing contracts for Thorp. It put 100 Sellafield jobs at risk but BNFL's threat of legal action forced Germany to think again and the resumption of fuel consignments has increased security and confidence. A BNFL spokesman said: "The fact that Germany has now agreed to transport to Sellafield again means we are now working on securing the workload for the future." Site GMB convenor John Kane said: " It's great news for Sellafield. The workforce thought Germany was looking for an excuse to sever links with BNFL." ***************************************************************** 6 Japanese Mission for Jack-In-The-MOX MP Friday, January 26, 2001 COPELAND's MP Jack Cunningham will head for Japan soon to try and help BNFL win new business for its controversial Mox fuel operations. But the former Cabinet Enforcer will be acting not for BNFL but the Sort Out Sellafield campaign, which is concerned about the potentially devastating effects on West Cumbria, if Sellafield fails to restore its fortunes. International confidence in BNFL - and Sellafield - reached its lowest ever ebb last year following the falsification of MOX fuel data. The affair also cast more doubts on whether the government would licence a new £300million Mox production plant and a long-delayed decision is still awaited from deputy prime minister, John Prescott. Now Dr Cunningham plans to go to Japan "in the near future" on behalf of the Sort Out Sellafield campaign which has asked him to illustrate to the Japanese the sound progress made at Sellafield since the MOX fiasco. The Sort Out Sellafield group - Dr Cunningham is its chairman - is also calling for a high-level meeting with senior nuclear inspectors. Dr Cunningham said: "We have every faith in the Sellafield management and work force but we must remain vigilant - this is in the near and long-term interests of the Sellafield site and BNFL as a whole. There is still much to do." n Dr Cunningham has been told that 188 nuclear jobs at Sellafield are safe following AEA Technology's decision to sell off its nuclear business. The MP said he now had assurances in writing about the future of the 188 Sellafield-based AEA Technology employees but he would monitor the position closely. ***************************************************************** 7 Berkley requests expanded Yucca Mountain investig... Saturday, January 27, 2001 Copyright c Las Vegas Review-Journal DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON-- Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., asked the Energy Department on Friday to widen its investigation of possible bias among managers in the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste program. Officials from the department's Office of Inspector General have been conducting interviews in Nevada following allegations that government and contract managers have collaborated in pre-supposing Yucca Mountain is a suitable location for a radioactive waste repository even though scientific studies haven't been completed and safety standards haven't been set. Berkley said investigators should look into other allegations while they're in Nevada. In a letter to Inspector General Gregory Friedman, Berkley requested an examination of a $16 million contract the Energy Department awarded in September 1999 to the Winston and Strawn law firm. The contract is to review the department's Yucca Mountain license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A competing bidder has filed a lawsuit charging that Winston and Strawn has a conflict of interest because of ties to the major Yucca Mountain contractor, TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc. Berkley also cited a report written in August by TRW employees that suggests repository designs to minimize health risks. "It is unconscionable, if not illegal, for DOE to employ contractors who make irresponsible recommendations before the scientific research of Yucca Mountain is completed," she wrote. "I ask that you expand the investigation to encompass all of DOE's and its contractors' prior actions concerning the Yucca Mountain project," Berkley said. Copyright c Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2001 ***************************************************************** 8 BNFL 'Must Come Clean Over Killer Gas' Friday, January 26, 2001 BNFL has tried to play down fears that radioactive gas regularly put into the air from Sellafield is a cancer-causing danger to the general public. The discharge of Krypton 85, a by-product of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, has been an emotive health issue for several years. BNFL has had to defended itself against claims that Sellafield releases a "killer gas" and has done nothing to stop it. The allegations have re-surfaced in The Guardian. BNFL said Krypton 85 is discharged under authorisation and gives an annual radiation dose, to those most exposed, which is equivalent to spending about an hour in Cornwall. "Independent scientific research has concluded that the release of Krypton 85 does not have a detrimental effect upon the atmosphere. BNFL has actively researched Krypton 85 removal technologies for the last five years. To date, there is no system available or which could be developed capable of safely removing and storing Kr 85 on an industrial process sale." The company stuck by the statement despite the leak of an internal BNFL document sent from one of its Risley-based public affairs officers (Rupert Wilcox-Baker) to Matthew Simon, who was Thorp manager at the time. Against a background of Japan proposing to build its own reprocessing plant, the document allegedly read: "What we sell or give Japanese Fuels on Kr85 is a commercial decision. What we must do is persuade them not to fit Kr85 removal equipment as this is damaging to our own position." Although BNFL refused to comment on a leaked document, the purported content is believed to be accurate. The letter also allegedly said that Japan's bid for consent to operate its own reprocessing plant must include "safety and environmental information that to capture krypton is less acceptable than releasing it to the environment." There was an angry reaction from Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE). Its spokesman, Martin Forwood, claimed: "The leaked document shows BNFL conniving to prevent a competitor installing gas retention equipment that it claims does not exist. BNFL should be made to come clean about whether the technology exists because this document throws doubts on its claims. "This disregard for the health of innocent people all over the world will not go down well in Japan, where the company is trying to regain contracts it lost during the MOX data falsification." The National Radiological Protection Board says Sellafield's Kr releases could cause two fatal skin cancers a year and 100 other cancers. BNFL maintains that this is theoretical and calculated on a collective radiation dose to huge numbers. ***************************************************************** 9 Governor, union lobby to preserve Piketon jobs Posted at 5:31 p.m. EST Friday, January 26, 2001 BY KATHERINE RIZZO Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP)--Time is running short to save jobs at a soon-to- be-closed uranium plant in southern Ohio, Gov. Bob Taft and the president of a local union said Friday. ``We need some funds by March,'' Taft said in an interview on the White House lawn after he and other governors meet with President Bush to talk about education. Individual lobbying time wasn't on the agenda, but Taft said he took advantage of a brief opportunity to pass along a copy of a letter he had written to the Energy Department and convey how urgently he wants the federal government to release funds approved under the Clinton administration and held up by Bush's team. ``He knows that it's an important issue for Ohio,'' Bush said. While Taft was buttonholing Bush and Bush's senior adviser, Carl Rove, a few miles away union president Dan Minter was making rounds on Capitol Hill. ``I think we're getting folks' attention,'' Minter said in a brief interview between appointments. ``I think we're back on track.'' Minter said he laid out for congressional aides the national interest in preserving more than 1,000 jobs at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant by putting it on standby instead of shutting down as scheduled in June. Minter, who heads local 5689 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union, said he explained to the staffs of congressional decision-makers the role the Piketon, Ohio facility plays in guaranteeing that the United States does not have to depend on foreign sources for nuclear power plant fuel. About 20 percent of the nation's electricity is generated by nuclear reactors, so Minter pointed to California's power supply problems as an example of the national interest in following through with the Clinton administration plan to put the plant on cold standby. An otherwise routine release of funds to start that process was made the day before Bush's inauguration and is among the last-minute actions under review by the new administration. Questions have been raised by the General Accounting Office and by congressional appropriators about the way the Energy Department found the money to make a $630 million promise to winterize the plant, keep it in standby condition and test a new technology there. The GAO said the Energy Department illegally went around Congress to make the money available. Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., the House Appropriations subcommittee chairman in charge of the department's budget, has urged energy officials to find some other account to get the needed funds. Taft wants the new administration to execute the plan laid out by then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson last October. He said he doesn't accept the GAO opinion that Richardson's funding scheme was improper. The government got out of the uranium enrichment business and spun off its two processing plants in 1998 in a $1.9 billion stock sale. The investor-owned company that now operates the plants, U.S. Enrichment Corp., decided last year it needs only one facility to handle all its business. It is keeping open the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. Both plants were built after World War II to enrich uranium to bomb grade, but in recent years have only processed uranium for nuclear power plant fuel. AP-CS-01-26-01 1722EST --> ***************************************************************** 10 Nuclear waste strategy shifts into high gear While nuclear waste transportation routes being studied by the Department of Energy would avoid the Las Vegas core area, Clark County planners are concerned that the Las Vegas Beltway routes could affect residential areas built near them. Saturday, January 27, 2001 Copyright c Las Vegas Review-Journal County hopes to prepare strong case against shipments to Yucca Mountain REVIEW-JOURNAL With the Energy Department set to decide this year on whether to recommend Yucca Mountain as the place to dispose of the nation's highly radioactive waste, Clark County has found itself literally near the end of the nuclear road. This week, planners in the county's Nuclear Waste Division took the first steps toward developing a strategy designed to show the county will be heavily affected by nuclear waste shipments despite opposite claims by the Energy Department. If the waste, which is primarily spent fuel pellets from commercial power reactors, is designated for Nevada, then the county intends to heighten awareness about the risks involved and ensure that shipments avoid heavily populated areas. That means, in light of the fast pace of urban growth, the shipments would have to go around the valley and not through it. Although the federal agency's routes for carrying 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste across 45 states won't be designated until 2006, county planners fear the Las Vegas Valley will become a hub for trucks carrying nuclear waste casks. That means, if a repository is built in the ridge and ready to accept the waste by 2010, some 50,000 trucks hauling potentially deadly nuclear waste could pass through the valley over 24 years to reach the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The so-called heavy haul routes being studied by Energy Department scientists would result in daily convoys on the western and northern segments of the Las Vegas Beltway that will be constructed in the next few years, according to the county's preliminary analysis. "We're concerned that DOE hasn't adequately addressed impacts to the economy, quality of life and, most importantly, the health and safety of residents," said Dennis Bechtel, Clark County Nuclear Waste Division planning manager. "The fact that there would be no effects is incorrect," he said Friday. "We are putting them on notice that their work has been inadequate." Bechtel's division is preparing for the worst scenarios and at a meeting Wednesday discussed developing tools in the form of computer analyses that could be used to take the Energy Department to court to demonstrate that the county will be heavily impacted if nuclear waste is trucked on the beltway. But local Department of Energy officials aren't swayed by the county's concerns. They contend they are following the letter and the spirit of the nation's nuclear waste laws, and that the guidelines set by regulatory agencies are appropriate for hauling waste to the mountain safely by trucks and railcars. "I would say DOE is very committed to the health and safety of the public," said Robin Sweeney, a senior technical specialist for the Energy Department. She said Nevada can choose which routes it prefers for nuclear waste shipments, but so far it is not among the 10 of the 45 affected states that have done so. Steve Maheras, a transportation analyst for an Energy Department contractor, noted that the analytical tools used to calculate the risks of shipping nuclear waste across the nation to Yucca Mountain are state-of-the-art. "If Clark County thinks it can do better, that's their deal," he said. Maheras said the conservative approach that the Energy Department has taken in calculating risks shows that an estimated 18 could die of cancer as a result of the shipments over a 24-year period. That translates to a 1-in-500,000 chance of a person along a nationwide transportation route of contracting fatal cancer during a 24-year haul period. In the same time period, existing background radiation from natural sources and worldwide fallout, is expected to cause 1.6 million deaths, Maheras said. Another Yucca Mountain Project contractor, Ralph Best, who led the effort in assessing transportation impacts, said the scenario used assumes that an affected person lives in the same place over the entire 24 years and is exposed to every shipment. "We looked at people who live a half mile on either side of the route, " he said, noting that the analysis used census data from 1990. But county planners aren't convinced. They estimate the consequences of a severe accident would mean cleanup costs from the worst waste- truck accident in an urban area could reach $27 billion. And, cancer deaths resulting from a maximum radioactive release from the cargo would range from 11 to 88, based on Energy Department software used to compute the figures. Bechtel said the Energy Department's risk analysis is "poor" and the costs associated with heavy-haul transports has been "dramatically understated." "I think there is a lot of misinformation that DOE has put out there," he said. "What we're doing is essentially filling a vacuum." Copyright c Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2001 ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Souvenirs a risk for Gulf force By BRENDAN NICHOLSON Sunday 28 January 2001 Australians who served in the Gulf War may have unwittingly exposed themselves to depleted uranium residues while taking souvenirs from Iraqi tanks blown up by allied forces. Veterans taking part in a national health study have confirmed that they collected souvenirs from burnt-out vehicles. Malcolm Sim, the Monash University professor in charge of the study, said some Australians who served in the Gulf could have been exposed to depleted uranium, but the number was not likely to be high. Most Australians served in the Gulf War on ships and did not spend much time on land. "But we know there were some possible exposures to depleted uranium, " Professor Sim said. "We know the ships docked near where the shells had been used to attack enemy tanks and there were souvenirs taken of bits of Iraqi tanks which may have been contaminated." Fire may have also spread contamination. A small number of Australians who served with United States and British forces took part in the ground war and could have had contact with depleted uranium. The Federal Government announced last week that all Australians who served in the Balkans would be given medical examinations to assess whether they had been exposed to depleted uranium. The Monash team hopes to examine all the 1865 Australians who served in the Gulf War and an equal number of service personnel who did not go to the Gulf for comparison. Professor Sim said about 700 Gulf veterans had registered and many of them had already had their medical examinations. The study was going faster than he had expected. Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process and is only slightly radioactive. It is used in armor and anti-tank shells because it is extremely dense - nearly twice as heavy as lead - giving it greater hitting power. The main health threat comes from its chemical properties and not from radioactivity. But some reports say the depleted uranium can be contaminated with tiny amounts of plutonium, which can cause cancer if lodged in the body. As a toxic heavy metal, depleted uranium may cause kidney problems and can be swallowed or inhaled as tiny particles dispersed by fires or when shells hit armor plating. Professor Sim said that for some veterans, filling in the questionnaires brought back painful memories. That fitted with the results of overseas studies, which showed significant levels of post-traumatic stress disorder were emerging. "We've had feedback from a couple of people that thinking about it (the Gulf War) again and filling it out in a questionnaire was a bit traumatic," Professor Sim said. "We can understand that. Some of the people had a difficult time and they relived bad experiences they'd had. "They were not just out on ships swanning around. They were certainly under attack." Giant clouds of vapor from burning oil wells hovered above the ships in the Gulf and were inhaled by servicemen and women. The Monash team is also trying to work out which Australians were given the anti-chemical warfare agent pyridostigmine bromide, a potent drug designed to reduce the effects of any chemical warfare agents that attacked the nervous system. Copyright © The Age Company Ltd 2001. ***************************************************************** 2 Nuclear sub keeps Gibraltar in a rage Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | OWEN BOWCOTT IN GIBRALTAR AND IAN BLACK IN BRUSSELS SATURDAY JANUARY 27, 2001 International concern about HMS Tireless, the British nuclear submarine stranded in Gibraltar, has deepened with a request for the European commission to investigate its radiation hazards. Officials in Brussels said last night that they were studying the request from the European ombudsman, acting on a complaint by several Andalusian groups about the warship, whose broken reactor has kept it in the colony's dock for the past seven months. As welders began repairing a fractured pipe in the reactor cooling system, diplomatic arm-twisting, cross-border protests and legal threats brought the row to a critical phase. Permission for the repairs to proceed came not from the Royal Navy in London but, in effect, from Gibraltar's chief minister, Peter Caruana, symbolising the Ministry of Defence's humbled status in dealing with the design problems of its SSN hunter-killer submarines. Ever since Tireless limped into the harbour on auxiliary diesel power on May 19 last year, after developing the leak which forced the crew to shut down the reactor, public unease in the region has grown. In Spain 60,000 people took part in a protest rally last weekend in the city of Algeciras, less than 10 miles away. Ten days ago Spanish Greenpeace activists who boarded the submarine were arrested. The issue has not only united environmental protesters on the Rock with those on the other side of the colony's border, it has also undermined the MoD's assumption that the citizens of Gibraltar will always rally round the crown to repel criticism from Spain. The British ambassador to Spain tried to calm some of the growing unrest last night by saying that the Tireless would return to Britain in about three months' time. "The repairs will be finished at the end of March and [the submarine] will go at the end of April," Peter Torry told Spanish state television. But he did not say whether work would be done on the reactor before that. Caught in the middle, the Gibraltar government has established its own panel of nuclear experts in Britain to review the MoD's schedule of work on the submarine. Mr Caruana spoke to the defence secretary, Geoffrey Hoon, three times last week before being assured that welding would not begin on the nuclear reactor's cooling system until the panel had assessed the programme. The Gibraltar government said in a statement that it would "oppose, and take such steps as it can, to prevent the carrying out of works prior to the advice of the government's panel". It finally confirmed on Tuesday that it would allow welding on Tireless, but was withholding its approval for testing and starting the nuclear reactor. The Environmental Safety Group is worried about radiation leaks contaminating Gibraltar's main water desalination plant, and is considering legal action against the MoD. "There should be an evacuation plan which ensures cooperation with the Spanish," said Janet Howitt, one of its leaders. "We feel there is danger and it's being imposed on us." Local anxiety has been reinforced by the MoD's belated admission that similar cracks have appeared in the cooling system in at least four of the 12 other SSN nuclear submarines. The authorities now concede that there is a general problem. Identical repairs are being carried out on HMS Torbay in Devonport shipyard. The Gibraltar government insists that the repairs must be pioneered successfully there before they are attempted on Tireless. Vaughan Starkey, the senior MoD civil servant in Gibraltar, agreed that up to 90 litres of coolant water - at a very low radioactive level - was pumped overboard by the submarine before it docked last May. None, he says, has leaked since. And he dismissed reports that the reactor was nearing meltdown as untrue. "The [nuclear] rods were never exposed," he said. "It was never near meltdown." Private opinion polls in Gibraltar put the number opposed to Tireless's presence at between 50% and 70%. In the past 16 years the percentage of Gibraltar's working population employed by the MoD has fallen to 6% from 60%. But the MoD still holds considerable sway in the colony, and some believe it has little concern for its residents. "[Tireless] shouldn't be there," said Jenny Martinez, who is expecting a baby shortly and was sitting on a bench looking over the harbour. "Everybody's worried about it. I think the MoD will have the last word and do whatever they want." Guardian Unlimited c Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 3 Nuclear Sub Will Leave Gibraltar Soon SATURDAY JANUARY 27, 06:42 AM THE BRITISH NUCLEAR SUBMARINE WHICH HAS BEEN STRANDED IN GIBRALTAR SINCE SPRINGING A LEAK IN ITS REACTOR'S COOLING SYSTEM WILL RETURN TO BRITAIN AT THE END OF APRIL. HMS Tireless has been moored in a British naval dockyard on the rock since last May. Its presence has angered Spaniards living near Gibraltar and has been a source of tension between Britain and Spain because of fears that it posed an environmental hazard. Repairs to the cooling system of the nuclear reactor on board the submarine only started earlier this week and are expected to take about two months. TIME TO GO "The repairs will be finished at the end of March and (the submarine) will go at the end of April," announced the British ambassador to Spain, Peter Torry. Gibraltar has been a British colony for almost 300 years despite Spanish claims that the rock belongs to them. Spain does not recognise the locally-elected government there. Copyright © 2001 BSkyB. All rights reserved. Republication or Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 [15] GREECE NEVER HAD AND WILL NEVER HAVE ATOMIC OR NUCLEAR BOMBS Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 2001-01-26 //www.hri.org/MPA. Greece never had and will never have atomic or nuclear bombs, stated Greek defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos speaking in parliament in response to a question by Communist Party deputies concerning the so-called "Balkan Syndrome", while he reiterated the efforts made by Greece both in NATO and in other international organizations that were aimed at averting the war in Yugoslavia. He said that Greece was the first to call for an investigation concerning the materials used by NATO and the effects on the environment, while it took all necessary precautionary measures for the protection of the Greek soldiers participating in the international peacekeeping force. He also gave the assurance that no Greek soldier will stay in Kosovo unless they want to. He finally stressed that Greece's participation in the peacekeeping force during the war was requested by the Serbs and that its presence in the region of Yugoslavia is necessary because it safeguards its role in the Balkans for peace and cooperation. HTML by the HR-Net Group / Hellenic Resources Institute, Inc. mpegr2html v1.01a run on Friday, 26 January 2001 - 23:31:45 UTC ***************************************************************** 5 Study Finds No Long-Term Effects of Uranium Arms Updated 1:29 PM ET January 26, 2001 By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - A study of 50 Gulf War veterans who were hit by depleted uranium weapons during "friendly fire" incidents showed they suffered no long-term health effects, a civilian doctor said on Friday. A few subtle effects seen in earlier studies had even worn off -- something that veterans of the Gulf War and the operations in the Balkans should find reassuring, said Dr. Melissa McDiarmid, an expert on toxicology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "They were very subtle before and they have dampened out this time, " McDiarmid said in an interview. "This is very good news." Since 1993 McDiarmid has been studying 60 veterans who were scouts in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq and were hit by "friendly fire." "The way they got hit is they were way out ahead of everybody else and they got misidentified," McDiarmid said. She said they were helping doctors check the effects of being exposed to depleted uranium weapons. She reported on 50 who got exhaustive two-day physicals in 1999. They looked healthy, she told a conference on Gulf War Syndrome sponsored by the departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense and Health and Human Services. Depleted uranium is used to strengthen weapons because of its extreme density and can pierce even steel-armored tanks. It also ignites when it hits. The issue has arisen again because of allegations some European soldiers may have developed leukemia after being exposed to depleted uranium- tipped shells during the Kosovo conflict in 1999. And Iraq has long insisted there is a link between depleted uranium used in armor-piercing weapons during the Gulf War and the increase in the number of Iraqis suffering from leukemia and other kinds of cancer. McDiarmid found no evidence to support this. NO EVIDENCE OF LEUKEMIA FOUND "Nobody has leukemia in this cohort," she said. Dr. Kelley Brix of the Department of Veterans Affairs, who helped organize the conference, said if anyone would have cancer, this group should. "The people she studied were the most exposed. These people still have little tiny pieces of metal in their bodies that are still dissolving, " she said. McDiarmid said past studies show that uranium miners and millers also do not have a higher incidence of leukemia or other cancers. NATO peacekeepers in the Balkans all had far less exposure than the Gulf War scouts, Brix said. In the past McDiarmid has found some subtle differences on neuropsychological tests--mostly involving memory--and hormones in the 60 scouts. But even these differences were within the range of what is considered normal, she said. But McDiarmid said her team would keep looking, as the subjects still have elevated levels of uranium in their urine, which is not to be ignored. "My job is to make sure we don't miss the needle in the haystack," she said. She also said genetic tests showed mixed results--that there may have been some damage to chromosomes, which carry the genes. But McDiarmid said more work must be done before she can reach a conclusion because smoking and X-rays can cause similar damage. The veterans may also be at risk of long-term exposure to a heavy metal, she said. Besides being slightly radioactive, depleted uranium is one of the heavy metals, such as lead and mercury, which are known to affect the brain, nerves and reproduction. c2001 At Home Corporation. All rights reserved. Excite, @Home, ***************************************************************** 6 Veterans 'must give pledge' Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | RICHARD NORTON-TAYLOR FRIDAY JANUARY 26, 2001 Gulf war veterans have to give an assurance that they will not sue the Ministry of Defence before they are given their medical records, it emerged yesterday. They have also been told that medical advice given by army doctors are classified and are exempt from disclosure under the code of access to government information. Demands for assurances that they will not sue are revealed in letters released yesterday by the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association. The ministry told former sergeant Nick Vasques from York that he could have his records on condition he gave an "assurance that you do not currently plan to sue the MoD". The ministry yesterday released internal reports on depleted uranium. It said: "We believe that there were no significant health risks posed to personnel who served either in the Gulf or the Balkans from exposure to DU." However, it added that it was consulting experts to establish an additional appropriate voluntary screening programme. Guardian Unlimited c Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 7 The story Nato's newspaper does not want to tell Independent In Foreign Parts: Sarajevo By Robert Fisk 27 January 2001 Wars are won or lost but the follies go on for ever. In Bosnia, the Serbs lost, which - given their militias' propensity to massacre tens of thousands of Muslims - seems only fair. And Bosnia at peace under Nato is better than Bosnia at the mercy of its own home- grown murderers. I far prefer driving past a British, German or Swedish tank on the road from Sarajevo to Banja Luka than the drunken rapists of Arkan's White Eagles whom I used to come across six years ago. Plastic cups were a must in my car - to avoid drinking directly from the bottle of plum brandy that these odious men would thrust angrily towards my lips. But that was then. So why, I ask myself, do the follies go on? In Vietnam, they had the five o'clock follies (the daily news briefings). During the Kosovo war, Nato's follies started in Brussels at midafternoon. In Bosnia, the S-For follies - and those of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the UN - continue still. They start twice a week at 11.30am. And The Independent can today print the entire transcript of what S-For had to tell the press in Sarajevo at their first meeting this week. "S-For has no statement today," Captain Susan Gray told us. And that was that. No mention of depleted uranium, no reference to the surge in cancers among Serbian civilians close to Nato's 1995 bombings, no suggestion that S-For might have some interest in researching the cancer and leukaemia outbreak - if only for the safety of its own soldiers. No, S-For has no statement. It's a bit like reading the Nato-led army's house newspaper, the unhappily named S-For Informer. You'd think that any military-oriented journal would carry an article or two about the subject preoccupying Nato governments and Western armies: DU. Yet those letters do not sully the pages of the S-For Informer. There are stories aplenty about S-For's Christmas goodwill towards the children of Bosnia, about Lord Robertson of Port Ellen's visit to Bosnia and Franco-Canadian military co-operation; there's even a brief reference to the discovery of a cache of arms belong-ing to "anti-Dayton elements". Three-quarters of the back page is devoted to S-For soldiers' opinions on the Bosnian winter. "It's a bit like autumn, only colder," says Flight Lieutenant Jo Goodwin of the RAF. So you can forget DU. True, there were statements at the S-For follies from the OSCE and UN and the High (sic) Representative about compensation payments, local election results, the first collective Bosnian UN observer team to start duties abroad and the implementation of property laws. Only when I asked why the assembled officials didn't seek a World Health Organisation (WHO) investigation of DU and the health of the civilian population here - as Bernard Kouchner has done in Kosovo - did the UN's man tell us that S-For had been asked for a list of "contaminated [sic] sites" and that a UN team may soon start research on this very subject in Bosnia. How soon "soon" was, no one knew. It's a very odd situation. Question any Nato officer at S-For headquarters why they aren't themselves looking at the cancer data available in local hospitals and you'd think you'd just asked a question about their sex lives. "Your articles are emotional and are stirring up civilian fears," I was gravely informed - as if suffering and dying of unexplained cancers wouldn't worry a soul. Last week, too, S-For announced that after examination by its German contingent at Hadjici, DU rounds found there "pose no significant health hazard to the local population or S-For troops". The "local population" at Hadjici is now Muslim. But S-For did not investigate the health of the population who were at Hadjici at the time of the bombings - who were Serbs."S-For is not Nato," I was also admonished - and I can see why some non-Nato S-For troops would like the dissociation. But Nato's star logo adorns S-For statements, it appears above the heads of its briefers at their follies and S-For statements often direct readers to Nato websites. When there are statements, that is. Yes, Bosnia at peace under Nato is certainly better than the atrocity- filled war I experienced here more than five years ago. And that was one argument privately used on me after the S-For follies to deflect questions about DU. But here the logic goes grey. Ending mass murder does not, surely, entitle us to contaminate the land of the survivors. To be fair, there are Nato men who understand all too well the implications of the DU debate. "It would be the job of the BiH (Bosnia-Herzegovina) government to initiate the research you are talking about," another officer remarked to me. Then he added, quietly: "How can we get the BiH government to start an inquiry?" But of course, there is no way. The Bosnian authorities are beholden to Nato. They think it's Nato's job to investigate DU. They won't rock the boat. So there you have it. Officially and on the record, it can safely be said that S-For has no statement today. ***************************************************************** 8 Iraq DU probe to go ahead BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Friday, 26 January, 2001, 19:39 GMT [I] Iraq says thousands of children have contracted cancer since 1991 The World Health Organisation has decided to send a team to Iraq to study the effects of depleted uranium (DU) munitions fired on the country during the 1991 Gulf War. Iraq requested the study because it believes DU shells used by US and British forces have caused an increase in the incidence of leukaemia and other cancers among its people. The Gulf War allies have repeatedly denied that the ammunition is responsible. But there has been growing controversy over its use by Nato forces in the Balkans, because of allegations that some European peacekeepers contracted cancer after exposure to DU. A UN spokesman said WHO specialists would be joined by representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Atomic Energy Agency. A date for the study to start has still to be confirmed. PROTESTS Iraq has repeatedly complained to the international community about the use of DU munitions. [I] Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf wants a full inquiry The Iraqi health ministry says that between 1989 and 1997 there was almost a doubling in the number of cancer cases in the country. In a recent letter to the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, Iraq's Foreign Minister, Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf, demanded a full scientific inquiry into the issue. But some analysts in the United States say it suits the Iraqi Government to play up the issue of DU munitions and its alleged link with cancer. CANCER IN IRAQ 1989 6,555 cases 1997 10,931 cases Source: Iraqi Health Ministry The US and other Nato armies use DU-tipped shells because they are extremely effective at penetrating heavy armour on tanks. They were used extensively in the Gulf War and in Bosnia and Kosovo in 1995 and 1999 respectively. The Pentagon admits that DU emits some radioactivity, but denies that it is harmful. ***************************************************************** 9 Frenchman Flat still a blast 50 years later CARSON Saturday, January 27, 2001 11:27 PM BY SAM BAUMAN, APPEAL STAFF WRITER There was little drama surrounding the first atomic bomb test at Frenchman Flat on the Nevada Proving Grounds in 1951, 50 years ago today. Still, scientists weren't sure the test wouldn't trigger the destruction of the Earth. After the initial nuclear explosion at Alamogordo, N.M., on July 16, 1945, J. Robert Oppenheimer had said dramatically as the fireball mushroomed, "Now I am Death, the destroyer of worlds." Obviously, the world survived. Outside of the military, few in Nevada knew that a bomb would be tested Jan. 27, 1951, in Nevada. And if anyone was quoting the Hindu text from the Bhagavad-Gita, no one made a note of it. The big news was the advance of United Nations troops repelling North Korean invaders from the south. On Jan. 25, the front page of the Nevada Appeal instead headlined a "detonation" near Las Vegas with a subhead "First Atomic Explosion?" It wasn't, of course; it was merely a conventional bomb testing. But it was the beginning of the saga of the series of nuclear tests in Nevada, 100 in all from 1951 to 1962. The "nuclear devices" were all dropped from B-50s flying out of Kirtland Air Force Base, or shot from a 280mm cannon, or hung from balloons or suspended from towers. And the initial series, dubbed Ranger, was hailed as a success since the only damage to Las Vegas, 60-some miles to the south, were broken windows Feb. 2 from "Baker-2." The Nevada site was selected from five choices: Alamagordo/White Sands; Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; Pamlico Sound/Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and a 50-mile strip between Fallon and Eureka. Nevada got the nod because of "existing favorable conditions, the site was already under government control, it was a large area, had little rainfall, a low population density and would be easy to protect against penetrators," the government reported. Winds were not taken into consideration, and this oversight resulted in the 48 contiguous states all receiving fallout from the tests. Later, as a safety measure, the Atomic Energy Commission decided to move the testing area from Frenchman Flat to Yucca Flat, where 12 areas were developed for tests. Tests were halted on Oct. 31, 1953, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Soviet Union quickly followed but resumed testing in September 1961 with 50 blasts. The U.S. responded by resuming testing at Yucca Flat on Sept. 15, 1961, with a series of low-yield underground experiments. In 1962, 62 tests were made at Yucca Flat. In 1963, a limited ban was signed in Moscow prohibiting testing in outer space, the atmosphere and underwater, and experiments halted at the Nevada Test Site, as it was later called. As of Dec. 7, 1993, the United States had announced 1,051 nuclear tests. Of these, 925 were conducted at the Nevada sites. The Jan. 30, 1951, edition of the Appeal reported that a congressional committee was en route to inspect the Nevada test site. On Jan. 31 the Appeal noted that advance notice of tests would not be made because "we don't want the Russians to know," said AEC Chairman Gordon E. Dean. Field officers found no indication of radiological hazards "to man, beast or property," according to Dean. Meanwhile, many Carson area and Reno residents reported seeing flashes in the sky from the nuclear detonations. On Feb. 2, the AEC found no "sign of dangerous radiation in southern Nevada because of the three atomic blasts" set off at Frenchman Flat. And Feb. 5, the Appeal published a photo of Los Angeles lighted by the flash of a Nevada bomb test. On the same page was a warning from the AEC that Las Vegans should stay away from windows when a blast was planned. Since the timing of the tests were not announced, it was difficult for people to know when to stay away from windows. It was impossible, of course, for government officials to know the persistent danger of radiation stemming from the Nevada tests. For years, the "downwinders," those exposed to fallout from the Nevada tests, have sought compensation for health problems resulting from the tests. Later tests have confirmed that fallout swept over a large section of the western U.S. Now it is doubtful if such tests would ever be approved for Nevada. And the legacy of the earlier nuclear tests on the Bikini and Enewetak Atolls in the Pacific from 1946 though 1948 still haunt. Radioactivity has created dwarf plants and mutated fish. No such results have been noted from the Nevada Test Site, so far. Copyright, tahoe.com. Materials contained within this site may ***************************************************************** 10 Nevada Nuclear Test Site Anniversary Remembered With Pride and Pain CNN Transcript - Early Edition: Ground Zero: January 26, 2001 CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Fifty years ago, the Nevada desert became the nation's atomic arsenal laboratory. Nuclear weapons proponents say this was where the Cold War was won. LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, critics also say it is where the U.S. lost something in return. CNN's Martin Savidge reports on an anniversary remembered with both pride and pain. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a huge area in the middle of nowhere. Measured in square miles, it's bigger than the state of Rhode Island, and it would become the hottest place in a cold war. The weapons unleashed here were tens of thousands times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Private Steve Lynch was among the thousands of U.S. soldiers placed within miles of the detonations in the 1950s. He wrote home about one of them on March 9, 1955: "Was glad to go out and see the big bomb," he said. "Wouldn't you know that would be the time it would go off." NANCY LYNCH, WIDOW: He was sent there as part of the experiment with troops to see how they would behave and conduct themselves in an atomic weapons battle. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Remain in your holes until the command "raise" has been given. (END VIDEO CLIP) SAVIDGE: "That big cloud kept coming towards us," he wrote, "still glowing from the blast. It got way over us before we could pull out. We haven't been given any time off so I guess we're alright." It was just one of 12 nuclear blasts he would be a part of. Nancy Lynch says what her husband went through never entered her mind during his first bout with cancer. But it did when he was struck a second time in 1986, a rare and aggressive cancer discovered by doctors during surgery. LYNCH: And then they said that it was inoperable. I mean, they just closed him up and he died two weeks later. SAVIDGE: To Nancy Lynch, her husband was a victim of a nuclear war the super powers never waged, but whose battleground was the Nevada test site. She's among the thousands of Americans who link a legacy of illness and death to this place. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There obviously was some radiation exposure to people. SAVIDGE: Nick Acquelina (ph) is a former director of the nuclear test program. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think they were of the level that people really believe they were at. AL O'DONNELL, FORMER TEST SITE WORKER: I've had two cancer tumors removed from my head. SAVIDGE: Despite that, Al O'Donnell, a former worker at the test site, believes the work was necessary in the face of a growing Soviet nuclear threat. But he, too, can count the cost. O'DONNELL: I can say that all my fellow workers that I worked with, 99 percent of them who all passed away, died from cancer. SAVIDGE: It was concern over the fallout from the above ground nuclear testing and what it was doing to the environment that led to the 1963 test ban treaty. But by then, some scientists speculate almost every person in the continental U.S. had been exposed to increased levels of radiation. HAL ROTHMAN, HISTORIAN: If you look at the Department of Energy's own tables and own calculations, you'll see that there is no part of the continental United States that wasn't touched by fallout. SAVIDGE: At the test site, nuclear detonations moved underground, and critics charged the American government's knowledge of how the dangers it had unleashed in the Nevada desert were likewise buried under the blanket of national security. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary spearheaded the drive to declassify documents surrounding experiments at the nuclear test site during the first term of the Clinton administration. HAZEL O'LEARY, FORMER ENERGY SECRETARY: Information was not infrequently marked classified so as to prevent potentially "embarrassing facts" reflecting upon the government from becoming known to the public. SAVIDGE: As O'Leary battled in Washington, Nancy Lynch was waging a war of letter on her husband's behalf looking for answers, even requesting a reconstruction of his radiation dosage while in the Army. She eventually got a letter back saying records showed his dose was too small to cause problems. LYNCH: I wrote them and I said, I've received your reconstruction but it came after my husband died. SAVIDGE (on camera): By most accounts, the U.S. won the arms race, thanks in large part, supporters say, to what was learned at the Nevada test site, and that casualties are a drawback of any war, even a cold one. O'CONNELL: They did what they had to do for the--for their country, and we tried our best to make sure that everybody was protected properly. SAVIDGE (voice-over): Nancy Lynch says that's no solace for her. And 50 years after the Nevada test site was created, she counts something else among its casualties: the truth. LYNCH: They will never say that somebody died because of radiation. They try to never say that. They don't want to own up to what they have done. SAVIDGE: Martin Savidge, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE) TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com c 2001 CABLE NEWS NETWORK. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Lab cleanup costs: $542 million by 2070 January 26, 2001 By Glenn Roberts Jr. STAFF WRITER LIVERMORE--Environmental cleanup and monitoring at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and its explosives test area in the Altamont Hills will cost an estimated $542 million by 2070, according to lab and Energy Department estimates. A two-volume Energy Department report to Congress on the long-term stewardship of contaminated sites details cleanup activities and maintenance costs for most of this century. Cleanup activities at Livermore Lab have so far cost about $156 million, and $103 million at Site 300, the lab's non-NUCLEAR explosives test site, said Bert Heffner, a lab spokesman. And the Energy Department spends, on average, about $20 million per year, combined, on cleanup activities at the two sites, he said. "In the past it was shared more to the main site--now there is a greater proportion toward Site 300," Heffner said. Between 2008 and 2070, about $91 million will be spent on cleanup at the lab, and about $42 million will be spent at Site 300, according to estimates in the report, released this month. Most of that money is expected to be spent within the next 25 years. Heffner said this period of long-term stewardship will begin by 2007, after all buildings, structures and equipment for the cleanup and monitoring activities have been purchased. "Long-term stewardship deals with the monitoring and maintenance period," Heffner said. The stewardship report, titled, "Report to Congress: Long-Term Stewardship, " lists 12 contaminated areas at Livermore Lab and eight at Site 300 that are subject to long-term cleanup and monitoring. Within these areas are release sites, which are locations where the pollution may have originated. Livermore Lab has 122 release sites and Site 300 has 51 release sites that require long-term stewardship, according to the report, which has been released to Congress but hasn't yet been posted on the Internet. Most of the contamination at the lab site is from World War II-era fuel and chemicals used at a military air training facility, Heffner said. At Site 300, an 11-square-mile area that lab scientists have used to test explosives, there is a wide range of contamination, including uranium, plutonium and tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen. Though the report includes cleanup plans for some contaminants, it does not propose to clean up all pollutants. In fact, the cost estimate for long-term stewardship at Livermore Lab is based on one chemical pollutant: trichloroethylene, a solvent. A chemical spill in the soil and groundwater in the area of Livermore Lab spans 98 acres, including 56 acres that are beyond lab boundaries, the report states. At Site 300, two groundwater plumes of contaminants "have migrated to offsite locations and threaten two water supply wells," the report states. The wells are frequently monitored, and the Energy Department plans to provide a new clean water source if the current wells become contaminated, the report states. ***************************************************************** 12 Hanford set to start removing water from radioactive wastes This story was published Fri, Jan 26, 2001 BY JOHN STANG HERALD STAFF WRITER Hanford officials plan to soon start removing about 600,000 gallons of water from the site's radioactive tank wastes. CH2M Hill Hanford Group expects to start evaporating water from the highly radioactive wastes in March. The idea is to reduce the volume of wastes to be melted into glass several years from now. Central Hanford has 149 single-shell and 28 double-shell underground tanks that hold between 53 million and 54 million gallons of radioactive wastes that are a mixture of liquids and sludge. CH2M Hill is pumping liquid wastes from the leak-prone single-shell tanks into the newer and safer double-shell tanks, aiming at a 2004 deadline to finish the job. The 28 double-shell tanks can hold a total of 31.4 million gallons of liquid wastes, and they currently contain 20.5 million gallons, a major component of which is water. About once a year, Hanford crews fill one of the double-shell tanks -- Tank AW-102 in the 200 East Area--with wastes that are sent through a neighboring "evaporator" that boils off water. The remaining wastes are then returned to the tanks. This creates more space in the double-shell tanks, and reduces the amount that eventually will be glassified. However, water is often added to the wastes in the tanks to churn and move the wastes as needed, so tank waste volumes fluctuate. On Thursday, CH2M Hill finished pumping 801,818 gallons of liquid wastes from Tank AW-104 to Tank AW-102, which will feed wastes into the evaporator, said Dale Allen, CH2M Hill's double-shell tank and waste feed delivery project manager. The work was accomplished two months ahead of schedule. The evaporator is supposed to remove 600,000 gallons of water from those 801,818 gallons of wastes. COPYRIGHT 2001 TRI-CITY HERALD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS ***************************************************************** 13 DOE chief firm on decision to close FFTF This story was published 1/27/2001 BY LES BLUMENTHAL WASHINGTON, D.C., BUREAU WASHINGTON--Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham has decided not to reverse a decision by his predecessor to close down the Fast Flux Test Facility at Hanford, a spokesman for the Department of Energy said this week. "We reviewed it, we took a look at," Joe Davis, Abraham's lead spokesman, said of former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's decision to close the experimental reactor for good. "Richardson's order stands," Davis said. Hanford supporters had hoped to convince Abraham to overturn the Richardson order and keep the reactor open to produce medical isotopes. But some west-side congressmen drafted a letter telling Abraham that would be a mistake. The letter was never sent as they too received assurances that Richardson's decision stood. Abraham had indicated at his confirmation hearing he saw no reason to reconsider. Under questioning from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Abraham said in the "absence of any demonstration of inappropriateness" in reaching the record of decision, there would be no reason to overturn Richardson. Richardson announced in late November his decision to close the plant, but had to wait until a 30-day public comment period expired before signing the final order. He finally signed it Jan. 19, the day before he left office. The reactor was built in 1978 as part of the nation's breeder reactor program and operated for 10 years before being shut down in 1993. The reactor had been on standby since then while the department struggled to decide what to do with it. FFTF is a sodium-cooled reactor and once the sodium is drained, it cannot be restarted. Shutting the reactor permanently will cost $281 million, money that will have to be approved by Congress. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., had asked Abraham to reverse the Richardson decision, saying it was aimed at satisfying anti-nuclear radicals. But DOE officials said it made more sense to use existing reactors in Tennessee and Idaho to produce medical isotopes and to start developing plans for an accelerator to be used in the long run. ***************************************************************** 14 Federal agencies juggle DU cleanup The Examiner News: 01/26/01 BY DARLA MCFARLAND The Examiner The majority of depleted uranium contamination at the Lake City Army Ammu nition Plant should be removed or re mediated by August, officials said Thursday. Plans are in place for this summer to remove radioactive material from the 600-yard bullet catcher on the Lake City firing range and from Building 3A, where DU ammunition was produced in the 1960s. Those two areas are "the most serious in terms of the amount of (radioactive) material and the potential risk," said Larry Camper, lead representative with the Nuclear Reg ula tory Commission. Camper and two of his colleagues from the NRC met Thursday with officials from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Environmental Protection Agency and Lake City to discuss plans for the Area 10 sandpile, the final remaining DU site at Lake City. The NRC is negotiating a plan with the other agencies to hand over management of the Area 10 site to the EPA. "What we are attempting to do is to give the Army (Lake City) some relief from the overlapping claims of the regulatory agencies," Camper said. Besides DU, the Area 10 sandpile also contains a quantity of leachable lead that brings state and EPA regulations into play. In order to address the regulatory demands of all the agencies within the prescribed time frame, Lake City would have to spend about $25 million to dig up and remove the entire sandpile this year. Lake City appealed for relief last year, saying it did not have the funds available for this project without pulling resources away from areas of greater concern to the public health, such as treatment of groundwater contamination. The NRC has tentatively agreed to turn over management of Area 10 to the EPA, pending an acceptable plan of action among Lake City, the state and EPA. Camper said EPA standards for radioactive cleanup is more stringent, in some cases, than the NRC requirement. "Either standard, though, is more than sufficient to protect the public health and safety," Camper said. Under EPA management, Area 10 would be part of the larger scheme of cleanup activities at the plant and would likely "move down considerably on the list of priorities," said Garth Anderson, environmental projects manager at Lake City. "This plan gives us the opportunity to examine different and possibly less expensive alternatives to address Area 10," Anderson said. If the plan is in place by August, Camper said he will move to have Lake City taken off the NRC's Site Decommissioning Manage ment Plan, a national priority list of nuclear work sites. The next step for Lake City is to produce an EE/CA, or Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis, of available technologies and approaches to clean up Area 10. "As long as we are satisfied with the plan of approach here, I do not think there will be a problem with us taking this on," said EPA representative Gene Gunn. Both the EPA and state DNR officials seemed optimistic about the chances of producing an agreement this summer. But, DNR project manager Mitchell Scherzinger cautioned, "I do not want to streamline this process to the point where we do not have the opportunity to scientifically defend all the decisions that have to be made." Contrary to the usual process of review, this time Lake City is working with DNR and EPA to produce the plan, instead of submitting a full plan and waiting for comments, and resubmitting, and so on. Camper said so far he is "very impressed with the close working relationship" among the various agencies and confident that all parties are working to "ensure the health and safety of the public." "I think this is an excellent example of the kind of cooperation that can take place," Camper said. To reach Darla McFarland send e-mail to darlam@examiner.net or call her at 350-6321. Copyright 2000 The Examiner ***************************************************************** 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. 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