***************************************************************** 07/27/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.183 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Activists criticize plan for Utah nuclear repository 2 U.S. threatens to stop reactor work if N.K. resists inspection 3 Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D. Elected to Albany Molecular Research, 4 Letter: Nuke transport protests likely 5 Law firm for DOE lobbied for Yucca 6 Energy giant plans nuclear comeback 7 A dollar short: Ailing Piketon workers left in lurch 8 CHENEY'S SCHEDULE (7/27/2001) 9 NRC Plans Additional Inspection at Callaway Nuclear Power Plant 10 Business:Progress crawls on proposed MOX plant 11 Caring knows no bounds 12 FORATOM: New data endorses nuclear energy option 13 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH: Govt launches second energy review -- PM's 14 UK Government: Sellafield MOX plant -- government publishes 15 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH: British nuclear folly -- Plutonium plant to 16 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Friday, July 27, 2001 17 Congo Nurses an Old Nuclear Reactor 18 Compensation offered nuclear workers 19 Press Release: Private Fuel Storage Report 20 MoD limits details of nuclear accidents 21 Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Bruce Babbitt 22 Envirocare Sham 23 Utilities Spent Millions to Lobby For Nuclear Waste Site in Utah NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Rival law firm sues over DOE selection 2 OC Weekly: News: Anti-Nuclear War 3 U.S. Offers Russia a Blueprint for Talks on Nuclear Weapons 4 Nuke workers come to listen 5 Ill nuclear workers get help filing for funds 6 Hanford construction must start or Energy Department will pay ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Activists criticize plan for Utah nuclear repository [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Friday, July 27, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Project to store spent fuel targets tribal land DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Activists on Thursday called on Congress to take a more aggressive role in examining plans by a nuclear power consortium and the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians to open a repository for spent fuel on tribal land in Utah. While the public pays growing attention to the government's proposal to bury nuclear waste in Nevada, a plan financed by eight utilities to develop above-ground temporary storage in the adjacent state is being largely overlooked, they said. Ralph Nader predicted flatly that "this project will never be built" after attention is drawn to potential transportation hazards and political opposition in the state. "These utilities should stop wasting their shareholders' money," he said. Nader spoke as the public interest organization he founded, Public Citizen, released a report attacking the Goshute plan. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering a license application for the project, which envisions up to 4,000 above-ground storage casks sitting on concrete pads, each cask containing 10 metric tons of radioactive spent fuel. The pads would be built within an 820-acre area on the reservation in Skull Valley, 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Wenonah Hauter, head of the Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program within Public Citizen, said the NRC is weighing the Utah application under a "routine" procedure used to evaluate conventional on-site above-ground storage when she said it clearly is more ambitious in size. Hauter also raised questions about the transportation of highly radioactive waste from utilities in 24 states to the Utah site. A similar argument is being used by Nevada opponents of the government's ongoing studies of a possible repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Utah's governor, Legislature and congressional delegation oppose the project, but there are questions whether the Goshutes, as a sovereign Indian nation, can be blocked from pursuing it. Margene Bullcreek, a Goshute member opposing the project, said the nuclear waste plan never has been put to a vote within the 124-member tribe. She said fellow Goshutes who support the project are selling out their heritage. "Everything has to do with money, but money won't give us back our identity once we lose it," she said. The NRC "should not approve a license for this dump," Hauter said. "The proposal should be sent to Congress for consideration, and given its failings, it should ultimately be rejected." J. Scott Peterson, an executive with the Nuclear Energy Institute, defended the project, saying it will be safe and fully examined by the NRC. Peterson said there is no need for the federal agency to alter its procedures because the technology proposed to store waste at Utah is the same as that used to store waste at utility sites. He also contended nuclear waste can be transported safely. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Jul-27-Fri-2001/news/16635002.html ***************************************************************** 2 U.S. threatens to stop reactor work if N.K. resists inspection http://www.koreaherald.com The United States has threatened to suspend the construction of light-water reactors in North Korea unless the communist country accepts an international inspection of its past nuclear-related activities. "North Koreans must come into full compliance with their NPT (Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty) obligations before any significant nuclear components and any additional construction take place," Jack Pritchard, special envoy for Korea peace talks, said Thursday. In a testimony before the hearing of the Asia-Pacific Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee, Pritchard said, "If that does not happen, there will be no additional construction. The light-water reactor project will stop until the North Koreans are in full compliance with their obligations." NPT members are required to implement safeguard measures related to nuclear activities, including inspections by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). The Agreed Framework made between North Korea and the United States in 1994 calls for the North to comply with the IAEA safeguard agreement before the delivery of key nuclear components of light-waters reactor plants. The $4.6 billion reactor project under construction has been financed by the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), a U.S.-led international consortium. Pritchard, also representative of the United States to KEDO, said that the North Korean cooperation with the IAEA will be a priority in future dialogue between the North and the United States. Last month, U.S. President George W. Bush proposed to resume talks with the North to discuss the threat of Pyongyang's missile, nuclear and conventional weapons. But North Korea has yet to respond to the offer. Washington's call for Pyongyang to accept IAEA inspections is in line with Bush's emphasis on the need to verify the North's past nuclear activities and constrain its missile develop and export program. "The North Korean effort to develop international ballistic missiles poses a direct threat to the United States," Pritchard told the subcommittee. Terming the North's conventional forces as "the most visible threat" on the Korean Peninsula, the envoy said, "We are determined to work with our South Korean allies to address our shared concerns over this threat." (shinyb@koreaherald.co.kr) By Shin Yong-bae Staff reporter (C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D. Elected to Albany Molecular Research, Inc. Board of Directors Friday July 27, 9:16 am Eastern Time Press Release ALBANY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 2001--Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: - news) today announced the election of Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D. to its Board of Directors. This election fills a newly created position. A prominent physicist and university president, Dr. Jackson has served since 1999 as president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, one of the nation's leading technological and research universities, located in Troy, New York. Before assuming the presidency at Rensselaer, she was chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from 1995-1999 under former President Clinton, and a professor of physics at Rutgers University from 1991 to 1995. Dr. Jackson worked as a theoretical physicist at the former AT&T Bell Laboratories during the period 1976 to 1991. ``We are delighted to have Dr. Jackson on our Board,'' said Albany Molecular Research, Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas E. D'Ambra, Ph.D. ``Dr. Jackson brings a strong scientific background as a physicist and university administrator, along with extensive experience in industry, academia and government. She is a visionary leader and driven individual who has instituted significant change and improvement at Rensselaer. Her wisdom and experience will be valuable to AMRI.'' Soon after assuming leadership at Rensselaer, Dr. Jackson launched a comprehensive and ambitious strategic plan to enhance research and upgrade Rensselaer's status as a leading university, particularly in the areas of biotechnology and information technology. D'Ambra continued, ``We think that Rensselaer's strategic focus in biotechnology research, along with related biotechnology research collaborations between Rensselaer and other university and government organizations in the Albany area, will provide excellent vehicles to strengthen academic and industrial ties locally.'' Dr. Jackson becomes the seventh member of the AMRI Board of Directors. She received her undergraduate degree from MIT in physics and a doctorate in theoretical physics from MIT in 1973. For 15 years, Dr. Jackson conducted research in theoretical physics, solid state and quantum physics, and optical physics at AT&T Bell Laboratories. While Dr. Jackson was a professor of physics at Rutgers from 1991 to 1995, she also served as a consultant to Bell Labs. In 1995, Dr. Jackson was appointed by former President Clinton as chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where she served until her appointment at Rensselaer. While at the NRC, Dr. Jackson was elected chair of the International Nuclear Regulators Association, which is composed of senior nuclear regulatory officials from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. For four years, she represented the U.S. at the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. Dr. Jackson is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a Life Member of the MIT Corporation (MIT's Board of Trustees). In addition to her position at AMRI, Dr. Jackson also serves as a director of FedEx Corporation, AT&T, Public Service Enterprise Group, Sealed Air Corporation, Newport News Shipbuilding, USX Corporation, and SCI Systems Inc. Albany Molecular Research, Inc. is a chemistry based drug discovery and development company, focusing on applications for new small molecule prescription drugs. The company conducts R&D projects and collaborates with many leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology and genomics companies, and is developing new chemistry technology for potential prescription drug applications. Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties. The company's actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the company's ability to attract and retain experienced scientists, trends in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies outsourcing chemical research and development, sales of Allegra® and the company's receipt of royalties from the Allegra license agreement, the possibility that Allegra will be approved by the FDA for over-the-counter sales and the potential adverse effects to the company's licensing revenues as a result of such determination, the company's ability to enforce its intellectual property and technology, the company's ability to take advantage of proprietary technology and expand the scientific tools available to it, the ability of the company's strategic investments and acquisitions to perform as expected, the company's ability to successfully complete its ongoing expansion projects on schedule and integrate acquired companies, and the company's ability to effectively manage its growth, as well as those discussed in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 2, 2001 and the company's other SEC filings. Contact: Albany Molecular Research David K. Albert, 518/464-0279 (ext. 2229) ***************************************************************** 4 Letter: Nuke transport protests likely July 27, 2001 Why was it necessary for the Italian carbinieri to kill a protester in Genoa? Was he armed? It is never necessary to kill protesters in a supposedly democratic country! Internationalism, free trade and environmentalism (nuclear waste and other pollution in our water, air and soil) have triggered protests in Seattle, Washington, D.C., Quebec City, other worldwide cities and now Genoa. American politicians had better factor in protests if the Department of Energy and the Congress ever decide to unnecessarily transport nuclear waste through 41 states to Yucca Mountain. Nuclear waste should stay in dry cask storage, on site, where it was produced and has been safely stored for 44 years. It can be made even safer and more secure using technology advances since the 1987 legislation. Scientists have said it can remain there safely for 100 years. FRANK PERNA All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Law firm for DOE lobbied for Yucca July 27, 2001 Nevada lawmakers see conflict of interest By Benjamin Grove and Mary Manning (c) 2001, LAS VEGAS SUN WASHINGTON -- The law firm being paid $16.5 million by the Energy Department to complete legal work for its Yucca Mountain repository has been lobbying to get the project built. Nevada officials are crying foul. Chicago-based Winston &Strawn, the same firm that actively advocated the Yucca project, cannot independently review Yucca documents and impartially advise the DOE about possible flaws, they say. The DOE manages the proposed Yucca Mountain project, a federal plan to bury 77,000 tons of the nation's nuclear waste at the site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. DOE scientists have been studying the desert ridge for years; now they are preparing to get a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In 1999 the DOE needed a law firm to help it prepare a license application, estimated as a 38,900-man-hour legal job. Two firms applied. The department awarded the $16.5 million contract -- big even by international firm standards -- to Winston &Strawn, one of the nation's oldest and largest law firms. Recent Sun research revealed that Winston &Strawn was also -- until just days ago -- a registered lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's top trade group and the most vocal Yucca proponent in Washington. The law firm, on NEI's behalf, lobbied Congress, the NRC, DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency, congressional records show. Winston &Strawn worked for NEI for six years until July 11 when it suddenly severed the relationship, congressional records show. The firm filed its termination notice the week after the Sun began seeking comment from its lawyers for this story. "It just shows that someone may have gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said. Winston &Strawn this month declined numerous requests to comment for this story. "Probably the reason they severed the relationship is that they are obviously doing all this work for the DOE on Yucca, and they are very conservative in terms of appearances -- they don't want the appearance of a conflict," NEI spokesman Mitch Singer said. Winston &Strawn's close relationship with the nuclear power industry is further evidence the DOE is a biased project manager, Nevada leaders said. "On its surface, it doesn't pass the smell test," Ensign said. "I think it's a clear conflict of interest, even if technically it doesn't violate the law." Ensign said he is considering options that include requesting an official investigation. The DOE by law is supposed to remain an independent, neutral manager of the controversial project, not align itself with pro-Yucca lobbyists, other Nevada officials said. "How less neutral can you get?" Rep. Shelley Berkley, a lawyer, said. "What is the Department of Energy doing hiring a law firm that also represents the nuclear industry, whose only purpose is to put nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain?" Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said he was stunned to find out Winston &Strawn also lobbied for NEI. "The questions of perception, of trust-worthiness, of confidence in the process are at stake," Gibbons said. "I find this to be typical of the DOE and the nuclear industry in their effort to manipulate the process. This puts into direct question the issue of fairness. How can you be unbiased when you are paid by their (nuclear) side?" Industry ties Winston &Strawn has deep ties to the industry. The firm represents more than 20 electric utilities that own approximately 50 percent of all U.S. nuclear power plants, according to its website. The firm has developed a "nuclear energy practice" within its 850-lawyer firm. Winston &Strawn, working for NEI in 1996 and 1997, lobbied Congress to pass nuclear waste bills that speeded up the Yucca plan, according to congressional lobby records. DOE officials said they had little choice but to hire Winston &Strawn. Only one other firm, Washington-based LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene, MacRae, L.L.P., was qualified, and Winston &Strawn's bid was $3.7 million lower. Winston &Strawn also has a lot of experience with nuclear issues, DOE spokeswoman Jill Schroeder said. "The bottom line is that the DOE needed legal services and Winston &Strawn was interested, (it) applied, and (it) competed for it," Schroeder said. "We have found them to be eminently qualified." Schroeder said DOE officials knew when they hired Winston &Strawn that the firm represented "organizations related to the nuclear industry," but she denied the firm's relationship with NEI created a conflict of interest. It's not clear what the DOE gets for the $16.5 million in taxpayer money it pays the firm. DOE officials said that information was not readily available. They would not release the firm's bills, expense reports or the firm's job bid proposal. Top attorneys The firm manages "a team of approximately 7 to 10 attorneys and legal assistants," on Yucca legal work, according to a U.S. District Court document submitted by managing partner J. Michael McGarry in a case involving a separate conflict-of-interest charge against it. The names of people on the legal team were not available, Schroeder said. In the court document, McGarry argued that taking the Yucca work away from the firm based on a conflict-of-interest charge would cause it to "suffer significant injury." The DOE's initial job posting, formally called a request for proposal, suggested that the firm that won the bid would have to station lawyers in both Las Vegas and Washington. The scope of the job was laid out in detail by the DOE in the request. It listed nine areas of concentration. A primary job would be to review DOE "analyses, studies, plans, specifications and drawings" to make sure the material met NRC requirements. The firm also would have to recommend to DOE a strategy "to enhance the likelihood of obtaining a timely authorization to construct the repository." The firm would have to represent the DOE in court and at NRC meetings and assist in the "presentation of DOE's case." Legal experts are divided on whether Winston &Strawn broke any rules. Merely representing both NEI and DOE doesn't present a conflict, said Thomas Morgan, a legal ethics professor at George Washington University in Washington, who has testified on behalf of Winston &Strawn in a separate conflict-of-interest case. Morgan and other legal ethics authorities said Winston &Strawn was bound by professional codes of conduct not to share confidential DOE information with NEI. "It comes up amazingly often that you come across information from one client that another client would like to have, but you simply can't pass it on to them," Morgan said. Lawyer-client relations Large international firms such as Winston &Strawn have huge client lists and representing one client doesn't automatically translate to bias toward another, said George Kuhlman, an ethics lawyer for the American Bar Association. The nuances of each complex lawyer-client relationship must be considered, Kuhlman said, adding that a firm must assess whether there would ever be a real-world situation in which it would be conflicted, such as in a courtroom. "You have to get into all these details before you can say, 'This is an unpermissable conflict,' " Kuhlman said. UNLV law professor Jeff Stemple said Winston &Strawn faced a simple question: Can our firm in good conscience represent both clients? "It's a tough question," Stemple said. "In my mind, probably not." Stemple said Winston &Strawn walked a fine line. "If I were the DOE, I would have gotten a law firm that was as distant from these players as possible," Stemple said. UNLV ethics professor Craig Walton seized on a larger issue -- the DOE is in a difficult position trying to remain independent about its historic project. The DOE has studied the Yucca site for 20 years and spent nearly $8 billion on the $58 billion project. "It is not workable to have the same organization, DOE, both trying to get the thing built, and also trying objectively to weigh all factors, investigate scientifically and conduct true public participation hearings," Walton said. Among other inquiries, Winston &Strawn declined to answer whether its DOE lawyers ever mixed with its lobbyists. Nevada issues Assuming "firewalls" exist in the firm, Nevada officials still said the DOE should have gone out of its way to find a completely independent law firm in the first place. They have long argued that the department has gotten too close to the nuclear industry. "I think there (was) an issue there, without a doubt," said Bob Loux, Nevada's chief DOE watchdog and head of the state's Nuclear Project Agency. "It demonstrates one argument of the hand-in-glove relationship that exists between the DOE and NEI." Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "There is no question there is the appearance of impropriety. It doesn't look good to me." Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, an attorney, said Winston &Strawn faced a "classic case" of conflict of interest. "In certain cases, you can't be the servant of two masters," he said. Nevada Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams, who is assisting in a separate conflict-of-interest case against Winston &Strawn, said the firm had a conflict with NEI -- or at least the appearance of one. "This whole thing is so tainted, I think the public at least needs to know about it," Adams said. "We want to know that the license application will be looked at with the public's interest at heart. We don't feel we are getting the protection we are entitled to because this firm is not in a position to be independent." Yucca Mountain is the only site being considered as a permanent nuclear waste burial ground, but it has not yet received approval from the president, Congress or the NRC. NEI acts as the top cheerleader for the project and over the years has hired a number of lobby firms to promote it. NEI had 10 lobby firms on an "active" list in 2000, paying them about $815,000, according to congressional records. NEI has retained Winston &Strawn since 1995, although the firm has been one of its lowest-paid lobbyists, according to congressional records. NEI paid the firm "less than $20,000" in each of the last six years except 1998, when it paid it $28,950, records show. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 Energy giant plans nuclear comeback Exelon plots first new U.S. nuclear plant in decades The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Plant in Arizona, the largest in the nation, received its construction license in 1973. No plant licensed after it has ever been built. By Michael Moran MSNBC For years now, anyone who spoke of a revival in the American nuclear power industry has been dismissed as either a zealot or a crank. No American energy company had the stomach to propose a new power plant since the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island. But new technology may bring nuclear power back into play. MSNBC.COM HAS learned that America’s largest nuclear energy company, Exelon, is talking to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission about building a new generation of safer, smaller nuclear reactors and has told the NRC it may begin the application process as early as December. Sources close to these talks say Exelon hopes to win approval for construction of a series of mini-reactors of the experimental “pebble-bed modular” design, which even opponents of nuclear power concede would be a huge step forward in producing nuclear power safely. No company has applied for a construction license from the NRC since 1978. At the NRC — the agency charged with monitoring the nuclear industry — spokesman Victor Dricks confirmed that Exelon has notified the NRC it may ask for a “pre-application review” before Christmas. “We’ve had some preliminary discussions with Exelon about what we want to see if and when they deliver a plan. They say they may come to us with something in December. They now have a very clear sense of what our expectations are.” Another government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the company is exploring the idea of putting one or more of these advanced reactors in Zion, Ill., a town about 40 miles north of Chicago. Chicago-based Exelon Nuclear operates 17 older reactors across the country, as well as two retired reactors in Zion. MOVING CAUTIOUSLY [Eye on Energy] Craig Nesbit, an Exelon spokesman, would not confirm that a new plant would be built on the Zion site, but did say, “If Exelon or any other company does go ahead with a new plant, it’s likely to be on an existing site.” Nesbit said Exelon wants to move quickly on licensing issues, in part to help the NRC adapt its own regulations to new technology and to ensure construction could begin as soon as possible if a decision to build a new plant were made. “Exelon is being prudent in investigating what’s out there and in looking at what regulations exist and what changes would have to happen to proceed beyond the developmental stage,” he said. REVOLUTIONARY NEW DESIGN Pebble-bed reactors are under construction by Exelon and several partners in South Africa. The reactors produce only about one-tenth the power of nuclear plants operating in the United States, but their small scale and modular design make it possible to mass produce them more cheaply than traditional plants. Exelon says up to 10 of these modular plants can be run off a single control room. Most importantly, given the political cloud hanging over the nuclear industry since the 1979 Three Mile Island, the pebble bed reactors are considered safer by all sides in the debate. Even nuclear skeptics tend to agree with that assertion. “Because there is not as much fuel packed into the core, if there is a problem and the cooling is interrupted, the natural convection of heat rising is enough to cool the fuel,” said David Lochbaum, the top nuclear safety engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group that monitors nuclear issues. “On paper, this design should be far safer than the existing fleet of reactors. It looks very credible.” SMALL, MODULAR CONSTRUCTION If a pebble-bed nuclear plant were built in the United States, it would mark a major departure for the American nuclear industry. Existing American plants are all variations of light-water reactors, both to generate the steam that turns electrical turbines and to cool the white-hot reactor core. The NRC has spent the past few decades “pre-certifying” three specific light-water designs under the assumption any future plant construction would be along those lines. The pebble-bed design is radically different, not only in scale, but also because it uses gas, not water, as a coolant. The pebble-bed concept employs helium heated by small, tennis ball-sized “pebbles” of graphite-coated uranium to turn the turbines. What makes the pebble-bed technology revolutionary is not that gas is used as a coolant, but the small-scale and modular design of the reactors. Their small size not only makes them more attractive business propositions and less volatile politically, it also makes them far safer than the behemoths of the 1960s and ’70s. In short, existing nuclear plants use “active” reactors where the nuclear fission is continuous and any shutdown requires a painstaking, dangerous procedure to avoid meltdown and radiation release. Pebble-bed plants, on the other hand, would be “passive reactors” where fission could not begin unless heated helium is added to the reactor core. What’s more, the core itself cools naturally when the flow stops. THE RADIOACTIVE DOWNSIDE Nothing about the pebble-bed modular design, however, addresses the most serious problem associated with nuclear power: What to do with the highly radioactive waste that is produced as a byproduct. The U.S. government’s preferred solution — a huge underground storage area at Yucca Mountain, Nev. — is stuck in court once again. That means the “temporary solution” of holding such waste on plant property is the only option. Because of these uncertainties, the pebble-bed reactor in South Africa, expected to be on line in a few years, is designed to store its nuclear waste — the contaminated “pebbles” — on site for 40 years. Opponents of nuclear power — even those who concede the design may make a Three Mile Island-style radiation release or Chernobyl-style meltdown impossible — still point out that the waste can remain radioactive for up to 23,000 years. “It’s the other 22,960 years (critics) are worried about, I guess,” Lochbaum said. Some studies suggest that while they will produce less nuclear waste overall than existing reactors, they will produce more of the most dangerous waste — the spent fuel itself. “So the volume of (radioactive) waste is reduced, but the amount of the most radioactive waste increases,” said Lochbaum. “And for that, so far, there’s no solution.” David Roe, a nuclear power expert at Environmental Defense, a Washington-based watchdog group, said he remains unconvinced that anyone has solved the three basic dilemmas of nuclear power: the high costs involved, the danger of another Three Mile Island and the disposal of waste. “The real test of the technology is whether companies like Exelon are willing the insure these plants without the Price-Anderson Act,” he said, citing the 1978 law that made the federal government the insurer of the nuclear industry. “Until that day, I’d say their talk of safety is just that — talk.” A NEW LEASE ON LIFE? A variety of changes and new developments have helped revive interest in nuclear power in America after decades in which the industry has been regarded as little more than a failed experiment — and a bad investment. Flickers of interest began to appear about three years ago, roughly coinciding with the deregulation of the electrical industry and a sudden spike in the price of natural gas that made nuclear reactors far more competitive than they had been since the early 1980s. This year’s power shortfalls in California and elsewhere, plus the Bush administration’s favorable view of nuclear power in its energy policy blueprint, certainly helped put the issue back on the map for most people. But, in fact, the nuclear revival predates the Bush election victory by several years. Its most notable feature has been a sweeping consolidation of the nation’s 103 nuclear reactors into the hands of about a half-dozen large companies, the biggest of which is Exelon. A look at the changing economics of nuclear power In fact, Exelon is just one of five large energy companies that has recently submitted questions or met informally with NRC regulators about building more plants. The others, according to NRC sources, are the Southern Co. of Atlanta, Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Power, Duke Power of Charlotte, N.C., and Entergy of New Orleans. All, sources say, appear to be interested in adding large, new reactors to existing sites. These would be “pre-certified NRC designs” for liquid-cooled, light-water reactors that Dricks called “evolutionary improvements” over the 1970s designs. Whether pebble-bed reactors or traditional light-water reactors are the first to be built remains in question. But even with the continuing dilemma of what to do with the nuclear waste these plants produce, the industry appears poised for a second generation of nuclear power plant construction driven by technological progress, a more favorable economic and political climate, and an environmental movement taking a new look at an energy source that produces no greenhouse gases. Rising from the nuclear ashes 8 of 8 1. American power failure: no quick fix 2. Inertia pays for some in power 3. America's energy power brokers 4. Energy funds and campaign 2000 5. Preaching the green-power gospel 6. OPEC is in the driver's seat, for now 7. Energy giant plans nuclear comeback 8. Rising from the nuclear ashes ***************************************************************** 7 A dollar short: Ailing Piketon workers left in lurch The Columbus Dispatch Opinions / Letters A dollar short: Ailing Piketon workers left in lurch Thursday, July 26, 2001 How many times can a person in this country be skewered by his own government? Tim Gannon is still counting. As a young man, his government lied to him. In 1980, Gannon started working at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, where he helped produce weapons-grade enriched uranium, a key component in manufacturing nuclear bombs during the Cold War. There, he and colleagues unknowingly worked in an environment where plutonium-laced uranium and other hazardous materials were handled for an indefinite time. Plutonium is thousands of times more radioactive than the uranium normally handled at the plant; even one- millionth of an ounce can cause cancer. Nearly two decades later, Gannon learned his work at the plant likely had sickened him. He was diagnosed with cancer, which spread from his colon to his liver, kidney and rectum, leaving him largely confined to his bedroom. Now, even as Congress finally has approved a compensation package for nuclear workers like him who have become ill, Gannon finds his government has created a financially devastating loophole that will leave him with nearly $100,000 in medical bills uncovered by the federal benefits. But his claim for state workers' compensation to cover those bills is expected to be difficult to win. Whereas workers' compensation systems require solid proof of the cause of medical problems before benefits are paid, Gannon and other nuclear workers are unable to produce definitive histories of their exposures and work conditions because of government secrecy. Moreover, USEC, the privatized federal corporation that runs the Portsmouth plant, is a self-insured company that pays its own state workers' compensation claims and won't automatically certify an occupational- disease claim filed by someone, such as Gannon, without medical exams and an Ohio Industrial Commission hearing. So, the government that failed to protect Gannon and lied to him about the safety of his workplace now offers some degree of help but saddles him with enough medical debt to cripple most families financially. No wonder people lose faith in the institutions that are designed to protect and help them. Copyright © 2001, The Columbus Dispatch ***************************************************************** 8 CHENEY'S SCHEDULE (7/27/2001) Published: Friday, July 27, 2001 Cheney will discuss energy policy with reporters at 11:05 a.m., followed by a meeting with state GOP leaders. After his noon speech to the Midwest GOP leadership, he will attend a fund-raising lunch for U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy. MINNEAPOLIS Cheney visits Twin Cities today BY BILL SALISBURY Pioneer Press Vice President Dick Cheney will come to Minneapolis today to promote the Bush administration's plan for a new energy policy and give a pep talk to Republican activists from a 12-state region, the White House announced Wednesday. In his first visit to Minnesota since the November election, Cheney will meet with a farm group to discuss energy policy and then kick off a three-day Midwest Republican leadership conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Cheney, who made two campaign stops in Minnesota before last year's election, will address about 1,100 GOP activists at noon during the opening ceremonies for the leadership conference. The vice president's first stop at 10:40 a.m. will be an invitation-only meeting at the convention center to discuss energy policy with a "farm leadership roundtable." President Bush first outlined his energy policy in a speech in St. Paul on May 17. Since then, Cheney has been traveling across the nation promoting the administration's plans for producing more oil, coal and nuclear power. He will discuss energy policy with reporters at an 11:05 a.m. news conference, followed by a closed-door meeting at 11:30 a.m. with Minnesota Republican leaders. After his noon speech to the GOP leadership conference, he is scheduled to attend a private fund-raising luncheon for U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, the freshman Republican from Watertown, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel before returning to Washington, D.C. Cheney's appearance at the Republican leadership conference, along with those of several top White House and national GOP leaders, will make this the "strongest lineup" at the party's annual Midwest gathering in several years, said Minnesota Republican Party spokesman Bill Walsh. Other featured speakers include White House senior adviser Karl Rove; White House political affairs director Ken Mehlman; Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, the Republican National Committee chairman; and Republican National Committee Co-chair Ann Wagner. The conference will also highlight rising women and minority leaders in the party. "It will showcase Minnesota to the rest of the Midwest and to the country as a state in play, a state where Republicans do well," Walsh said. The event is billed as a boot camp to train Republican operatives how to win the 2002 elections. It includes sessions on the "secrets of smart campaign tactics," and how to take the pain out of fund-raising and win public relations wars. On Saturday, Minnesota Republicans will showcase their lineup of likely 2002 candidates when they break away from the conference for an off-election-year state convention. Among the likely candidates scheduled to speak are St. Paul Mayor and U.S. Senate contender Norm Coleman, entrepreneur and gubernatorial candidate Brian Sullivan and state House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty, who also may run for governor. Other speakers include state House Speaker Steve Sviggum, Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, St. Paul City Council Member and mayoral candidate Jerry Blakey, Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, the state's GOP congressmen and possible candidates for state auditor and attorney general. Eagan Mayor Pat Awada is scheduled to speak at the convention as a potential candidate for state auditor. Bill Salisbury can be reached at bsalisbury@pioneerpress.comor (651) 228-5538. © 2001 PioneerPlanet / St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press / ***************************************************************** 9 NRC Plans Additional Inspection at Callaway Nuclear Power Plant Due to Performance Deficiency Region IV -- 2001- 40 - UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 No. IV-01-040 July 27, 2001 CONTACT: Breck Henderson Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227 e-mail: bwh@nrc.gov The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided to increase its inspection activity at Union Electric's Callaway nuclear plant because of a finding related to an inoperable safety-related pump. The NRC determined that the situation at the Fulton, Missouri, facility had a low to moderate safety significance and was assigned a color of "white." In February, one of Callaway's essential service water pumps was found to be inoperable for 132 hours while the plant was at full power. This condition occurred when a 20-foot-long piece of reinforced hose fell into the pump's suction bay, ultimately restricting the flow of cooling water through the system. The problem was corrected shortly after it was discovered; however, NRC safety requirements were violated since the condition had existed for nearly five days. Essential service water pumps send cooling water to numerous plant safety components, and the inoperable pump therefore could have affected the availability of key safety components in the event a plant emergency occurred. Union Electric did not contest the proposed NRC action and declined a regulatory conference on the issue. Under the NRC's performance assessment process, the safety significance of each NRC inspection finding is characterized by a color -- green, white, yellow, or red. The agency response to the inspection findings is based on the significance of the items. A green finding receives normal NRC oversight, while white, yellow, or red assessments result in increasing NRC involvement, including additional inspections. Last summer the NRC identified three "white" findings concerning Callaway's occupational radiation protection program. The extent of that problem (three white findings) resulted in a degraded cornerstone of safety under the NRC's inspection program and, as a result, increased NRC inspection. This most recent "white" finding, while not associated with the occupational radiation protection program, occurred within a year of the previous findings. As a result, the NRC will again increase inspection at Callaway. The additional inspection will focus on Callaway's ability to identify the causes of the essential service water pump inoperability and the adequacy of the corrective actions taken. The NRC cited the Callaway plant for a violation related to the finding, and Union Electric has 30 days to respond to that notice of violation. Callaway's safety performance and applicable inspection reports can be viewed on the NRC's website at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/CALL/call_chart.html. ***************************************************************** 10 Business:Progress crawls on proposed MOX plant 07/27/01 Augusta Georgia: Web posted Friday, July 27, 2001 by Brandon Haddock Staff Writer NORTH AUGUSTA - Federal officials and a private contractor worked Thursday to cut another ribbon of red tape surrounding a proposed plutonium-fuel plant at Savannah River Site. Staffers from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Duke COGEMA Stone &Webster LLC met for several hours at the North Augusta Community Center. The two sides were trying to resolve questions about Duke COGEMA's request to build a mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel fabrication plant at SRS. Duke COGEMA filed a request March 1 for the commission to authorize construction of the plant. The facility, which would cost more than $1 billion, would dispose of weapons-grade plutonium by using it in fuel for nuclear power plants. The commission submitted a list of 239 questions about Duke COGEMA's application. Thursday's meeting was intended to allow the two sides to discuss the questions before the contractor submits its responses, which it must do within 60 days. ''This is an opportunity to come back to the commission and ask for clarification on their questions,'' said Todd Kaish, a spokesman for Duke COGEMA Stone &Webster. ''We're working toward getting the responses in, but this gives us an opportunity to make sure we're doing the right thing.'' The commission's questions dealt with topics ranging from the proposed plant's radioactive processes and safety analyses to its computer software and crane design. The commission is not expected to rule on the construction request until October 2002. Current schedules call for the plant to begin operating in 2005, assuming it is built and licensed for operation. Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or bhaddock@augustachronicle.com. All contents ©1996 - 2001 The Augusta Chronicle. All rights ***************************************************************** 11 Caring knows no bounds By Brian McGrory, Globe Staff, 7/27/2001 We bicker in this city, we hold pointless grudges that go back to the beginning of time. Our politics are bare-fisted, our sports are damned by the fickle hand of fate, and complaining seems to be the currency that gets us through most days. And then someone like Dmitri comes along, Dmitri and the other 129 kids who came here with him, and you realize what a truly glorious place Boston can be. They're from Chernobyl, this group. They are sick with thyroid cancer or brain cancer or some form of sarcoma, all because they were born in the wrong place and breathed the wrong air and drank the wrong milk long after the nuclear disaster that is still claiming innocent lives. Most of them have horizontal scars across their necks where their thyroids were removed. The hospitals back home barely have fresh water to wash the blood off the surgical gloves that are used again and again. Hope is as scarce as money. And now they're in Boston for a month of intensive medical treatments that end today, all courtesy of a group of generous families, doctors, and nurses who have crashed through language and cultural barriers to fill a desperate need. It's called the Chernobyl Children Project (www.ccpusa.org). It was launched six years ago by a parish priest in Milton, the Rev. Bob Bowers, who is now having an impact around the world. After seeing a similar program in Ireland, Bowers began by bringing a handful of children from the Chernobyl region to Boston for medical treatments. Since then, it hasn't so much grown as exploded. Money has poured in, volunteers - Catholics, Protestants, Jews, whoever - have raised their hands. Local companies have lined up to help. Here's how it works. A medical team from Boston visits Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus each year to choose 100 to 130 kids who have radiation-related diseases from the Chernobyl disaster. Those kids are flown to the States en masse each June with money raised across Greater Boston, their nervous parents bidding them farewell in hopes they'll return in better health. They're placed, two at a time, with 70 host families in towns and neighborhoods from Dorchester to Duxbury, Holbrook to Haverhill. Translators are on call. Phrase books are distributed. ''It's an outbreak of goodness,'' Bowers says. Adds Patricia Lutch, a host mother from Milton: ''It's been wonderful. The heart doesn't know any language.'' Week in and week out, the Floating Hospital at the New England Medical Center is an amazing place, a venue of daily, even hourly miracles where the sickest kids and the most frightened parents are given heavy doses of hope along with world-class care. Then for one month each year, the doors open wide to the Chernobyl kids, free of charge. The doctors perform elaborate surgeries. They give radiation and chemotherapies and provide evaluations and therapy programs for their doctors back home. ''It's gut-wrenching,'' says Dr. Larry Wolfe of the Floating. ''They are the most beautiful children you'll ever see. And they are bowled over by the care.'' But it's not all about medicine, even though that's the focus. The kids are given a steady diet of good food and kindness outside of the hospital. Delta Air Lines flew them to Washington for a day. The Red Sox gave them tickets, as did the Revolution. The Sheraton Boston hosted them for a massive sundae party, and Odessa, a Russian restaurant in Dedham, threw them a feast. Dmitri, 15, has already had three major surgeries on his young heart, though his condition is improving by the day. Standing in the intensive-care unit yesterday, his mother, Raisa, one of the few parents to make the journey, said simply, ''These people have helped us survive.'' Tomorrow, most of them head back home. Some will die too soon from cancers that can't be fully treated. But most will live longer, better lives because, quite simply, thousands of people in Boston take the time to care. Brian McGrory can be reached by e-mail at . This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 7/27/2001. © Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company. ***************************************************************** 12 FORATOM: New data endorses nuclear energy option [M2 Communications Ltd.] Story Filed: Thursday, July 26, 2001 5:07 AM EST Brussels, Jul 26, 2001 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- Latest research results published by the European Commission show that nuclear electricity is an important low-cost option for power generation in terms of impact on the environment and public health. The new findings of the ExternE research project, undertaken by researchers in all EU member states and the US, have been welcomed by the European Atomic Forum, FORATOM, the trade association of the nuclear industry in Europe. Commenting on the new findings, FORATOM's Secretary General, Dr. Wolf-J. Schmidt-Kuster, said: "The latest results from the ExternE project are a welcome reminder for decision-makers that the atmospheric pollution from burning fossil fuels must be properly taken into account in determining our energy future in Europe. The figures demonstrate the need for EU member states to reassess their energy options, as recommended by the Commission's Green Paper on security of energy supply." The Green Paper called for the use of nuclear to be viewed in relation to its contribution to security of supply and greenhouse gas avoidance. Nuclear power plants provide 35% of the EU's electricity and emit virtually no greenhouse or acid rain gases. Dr. Schmidt-Kuster added: "With the agreement reached this week at the climate change talks in Bonn, the need for clean energy will become more and more of an imperative. Nuclear electricity is a clean, safe, reliable and cost-effective option. It must have a place in any balanced energy mix that takes proper account of environmental protection, public health and concerns about climate change." The ExternE project, which has been running for the past ten years, is the first ever to quantify the external costs (i.e. impact on the environment and public health) of the different forms of electricity production - fossil fuels, nuclear and renewables. One of the main findings is that the cost of producing electricity from burning coal or oil would double if external costs were taken into account in EU countries. Making the same adjustment for gas would mean a 30% increase in electricity production costs. Nuclear electricity is highly competitive on liberalised EU markets. This is partly due to the fact that, in many cases, the initial investment costs for nuclear power plants have already been paid off. In addition, separate projections for production costs, made by the European Commission itself, show that future reactor types, such as the European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR), would also be competitive on open markets, even assuming low gas prices and heavy subsidies for wind power projects. According to FORATOM, the latest ExternE figures are yet another indicator of the significant economic and environmental benefits that Europe is gaining from the use of nuclear technology for power generation. Waste management and decommissioning costs are included in the price of a nuclear kilowatt-hour, while no account is taken of the environmental and public health damage resulting from the use of fossil fuels to produce electricity. The research results give the external costs in Euro cents per kilowatt-hour. In Belgium, where 60% of all electricity is nuclear-generated, the costs are 4-15 for coal and lignite, 1-2 for gas, and 0.5 for nuclear. In France (about 75% nuclear), the figures are 7-10 for coal and lignite, 2-4 for gas, and 0.3 for nuclear. The corresponding figures for Germany (30% nuclear) are 3-6, 1-2 and 0.2. The external costs for the UK (22% nuclear) are 4-7, 1-2 and 0.25. Further details can be found on the website of the European Commission: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/press/2001/pr2007en.html. CONTACT: Jack Ashton, Media Relations Manager Tel: +32 2 505 32 26 e-mail: ja@foratom.skynet.be Karen Daifuku, Communications Director Tel: +32 2 505 32 20 e-mail: kd@foratom.skynet.be M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.neton the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com. Copyright 1994-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD Copyright © 2001, M2 Communications Ltd., all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH: Govt launches second energy review -- PM's office sidelined as DTI struggles to bring back nuclear [M2 Communications Ltd.] Story Filed: Friday, July 27, 2001 4:45 AM EST Jul 27, 2001 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- Friends of the Earth reacted with surprise and dismay today as the Government launched a second energy review running in parallel with one announced by the Prime Minister only last month. The DTI today announced that an "Energy Security of Supply Working Group",chaired by Energy Minister Brian Wilson, will look at the risk to Britain's future gas and electricity supplies. The new group will repeat much of the work already underway in the Cabinet Office's Performance and Innovation Unit. Friends of the Earth strongly suspect this is a clear attempt to build the case for a new UK nuclear power programme by the back door. Mark Johnston, Energy Campaigner said: "A second energy review makes no sense at all. Why repeat the work the Cabinet Office is already doing very well? It looks very much like the old guard at the DTI has been panicked by the fresh thinking at the Cabinet Office and are now worried there will be no come back for nuclear power. The Prime Minister needs to explain why the Cabinet Office Energy Review is being undermined by the vested interests of the nuclear lobby. NOTE: Two years ago through state-owned BNFL, the DTI approved the purchase of the Westinghouse Corporation, the biggest nuclear reactor design and build company in the world. However BNFL/Westinghouse has a steeply declining market, no new major orders, and no effective plans to diversify. FOE believes it is counting on its influence with the DTI and Downing Street so a framework that enables new nuclear build will emerge. M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.neton the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com. Copyright 1994-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD Copyright © 2001, M2 Communications Ltd., all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 14 UK Government: Sellafield MOX plant -- government publishes consultant's report [M2 Communications Ltd.] Story Filed: Friday, July 27, 2001 10:21 AM EST Jul 27, 2001 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- The Government today published for consultation the latest report on the economic case for the operation of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd's Sellafield MOX plant. Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Margaret Beckett, and Secretary of State for Health, Alan Milburn, are asking for public comments on the report by Arthur D Little Ltd (ADL) on the economic case for operating the Sellafield Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication plant. Comments are invited by 24 August 2001. This follows an earlier eight week consultation which began on 28 March 2001. When the Secretary of State for DEFRA and the Secretary of State for Health have considered all relevant information, including the ADL report and public comments on it, they will decide whether BNFL's proposed MOX manufacture is justified. BNFL submitted a revised economic case for the MOX plant earlier this year. The Government launched a consultation into this case on 28 March. It also commissioned ADL in April to evaluate the economic case, taking account of public comment. The ADL report, published for consultation today, says that the MOX plant, if allowed to go into operation, would give a financial benefit with a "net present value" of over GBP200m to the UK over its lifetime "Net present value" represents the value of a project in today's money, calculated from its expected future costs and revenues. The published version of the ADL report excludes information that the Government judges would cause unreasonable damage to BNFL's commercial operations, or to the economic case for the MOX plant. Notes to Editors 1. The MOX Plant at Sellafield is valued by BNFL at a cost of around GBP460 million. Its purpose is to manufacture a mixed oxide fuel for use in nuclear power stations. The fuel would be made from uranium and plutonium material separated from spent fuel which is reprocessed mainly at the THORP (Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant) plant at Sellafield. 2. Before the plant can start operations it needs to pass a test of justification required by European law: the benefits of a practice involving ionising radiation need to outweigh any environmental or other detriments. BNFL applied to the Environment Agency in November 1996 for approval to operate the plant. The Environment Agency, after two rounds of public consultations, concluded its consideration in October 1998. 3. The Agency published draft decisions at that time that uranium commissioning, plutonium commissioning and the full operation of the plant should be given the go-ahead. The issue was referred to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in November 1998 because of their statutory responsibility to consider requests that had been made to them to decide the application themselves. The Government's provisional view, in a consultation paper published in June 1999, was that full operation of BNFL's MOX Plant would be justified, but a final decision would depend on the outcome of further consultation on the economic assessment of the practice and on the market for MOX fuel. On that occasion too, a report by PA Consulting on the economic case was published excluding commercially sensitive information. 4. A data falsification incident at BNFL's MOX Demonstration Facility in 1999 led to an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive and a loss of customer confidence in BNFL. BNFL submitted a revised economic case in 2001 and the Government invited views on this on 28 March in its consultation paper British Nuclear Fuels PLC - Sellafield MOX Plant. (DETR press notice 193). It appointed Arthur D Little on 23 April to review the economic case (DETR press notice ENV-009). 5. Ministerial responsibilities have changed during this period. In 1999 the Food Safety Act established the Food Standards Agency and amended the Radioactive Substances Act 1993. And in June 2001, the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) was reorganised with responsibility for environmental protection passing to the new Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). As a result justification decisions that would have been taken jointly by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and the Minister of Agriculture are now taken jointly by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Secretary of State for Health. 6. copies are available from Radioactive Substances Division, DEFRA, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6DE. The consultation paper is also available on the DEFRA website at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/consult/frm.htm M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.neton the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com. Copyright 1994-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD Copyright © 2001, M2 Communications Ltd., all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH: British nuclear folly -- Plutonium plant to lose millions, official report confirms Story Filed: Friday, July 27, 2001 11:51 AM EST Jul 27, 2001 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- Following a legal challenge from Friends of the Earth, the Government today released a report effectively confirming that its mixed oxide fuel plant at Sellafield in Cumbria will lose hundreds of millions of pounds. The report, prepared for the Government by consultants Arthur D Little, estimates that the 'net present value' of the plant only amounts to around GBP200 million. However, the plant's owner British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) has already spent GBP460M on construction and other costs, therefore giving an effective loss of around GBP260M. The plant was built by state-owned BNFL 4 years ago. But its operating licence has been withheld because of the significant lack of orders. BNFL has asked the Government to ignore construction costs when considering if the plant is justified under radiological protection law. Environment Minister Michael Meacher commissioned the new study in April following the data falsification safety scandal last year which severely damaged customer confidence in BNFL. As a result of the scandal, Friends of the Earth understands there are still no orders signed with Japan, potentially the biggest of the client countries for MOX. Mark Johnston, Friends of the Earth Nuclear Campaigner commented: "Today's report confirms the plutonium plant will loose hundreds of millions of pounds.We consider it would be unlawful for the Government to give the plant the go-ahead,and it is a scandal it was ever built in the first place. Ministers must dismiss BNFL's application or risk further legal challenge. There needs to be an independent enquiry into why the Government's supervision of BNFL has failed so badly. "There must also be a full debate about how to manage the legacy of long-lived radioactive wastes and in particular plutonium. It would be premature for the Government to authorise a dangerous and expensive process for plutonium waste management when other safer and less expensive options have not been explored. CONTACT: Mark Johnston Tel: +44 (0)20 7566 1672 Friends of the Earth Tel: +44 (0)20 7490 1555 Fax: +44 (0)20 7490 0881 e-mail: info@foe.co.uk WWW: http://www.foe.co.uk M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.neton the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com. Copyright 1994-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD Copyright © 2001, M2 Communications Ltd., all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Friday, July 27, 2001 State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects ADAMS - Items of Interest Recent Released Documents Added - Friday, July 27, 2001 These documents and others may be retrieved at the NRC PERR web site ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item ID: 012070013 Accession Number: ML012050161 Date Added: 7/26/01 9:11:27 AM Title: 03/22/1988 - 03/24/1988 Minutes of the HLW Licensing Support System Advisory Committee Meeting. Author Affiliation: NRC Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070123 Accession Number: ML011630355 Date Added: 7/26/01 10:11:33 AM Title: 06/07/01 Meeting Summary With Callaway To Discuss Electrosleeved Steam Generator Tubes. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD4-2 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070014 Accession Number: ML011990402 Date Added: 7/26/01 9:12:12 AM Title: 06/12/01 Pre-application meeting between US NRC & Exelon Generation regarding Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR). Author Affiliation: Exelon Generation Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070135 Accession Number: ML011990253 Date Added: 7/26/01 10:13:18 AM Title: 07/18/2001 Memorandum Regarding Summary of June 13, 2001 Meeting with Consolidated Edison Company to Discuss Performance. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-I/DRP/PB2 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070195 Accession Number: ML012070107 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:15:34 PM Title: 08/02/01 Meeting Notice: Forthcoming U.S. NRC and U.S. DOE Technical Exchange and Management Meeting on Range of Operating Temperature. Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/DWM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070238 Accession Number: ML012070208 Date Added: 7/26/01 4:11:41 PM Title: 08/09/01 - Meeting with Exelon and Other Interested Stakeholders Regarding Licensing Approaches for PBMR. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/ADIP/NRLPO Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070237 Accession Number: ML012010357 Date Added: 7/26/01 4:11:31 PM Title: 08/13/2001- Meeting with Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, Inc. (CCNPP1) Regarding Steam Generator Replacement Project. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD1 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070022 Accession Number: ML012000579 Date Added: 7/26/01 9:13:23 AM Title: Army, Dept of, US Army Yuma Proving Ground, AZ; Amend No 09. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-IV/DNMS/NMLB Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070121 Accession Number: ML012060552 Date Added: 7/26/01 10:11:18 AM Title: Concerns Expressed with the NRC's Electronic Document System. Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/FCSS Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070131 Accession Number: ML011970251 Date Added: 7/26/01 10:12:53 AM Title: Ltr. to D. Crawford, Invitation for a Discussion between Potentially Impacted Native AmericanTribes and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on a Possible High-Level Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070129 Accession Number: ML011970237 Date Added: 7/26/01 10:12:37 AM Title: Ltr. to Multiple Addresses, Invitation for a Discussion between Potentially Impacted Native American Tribes and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on a Possible High-Level Radioactive Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070130 Accession Number: ML011970241 Date Added: 7/26/01 10:12:44 AM Title: Ltr. to R. Holden, Invitation for a Discussion between Potentially Impacted Native American Tribes and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on a Possible High-Level Radioactive Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070075 Accession Number: ML011990066 Date Added: 7/26/01 9:21:58 AM Title: Maine Yankee - Fuel Storage Pool Dismantlement. Author Affiliation: Maine Yankee Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070163 Accession Number: ML011380017 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:13:00 PM Title: Memo to C Luke from D Nussbaumer re: Review of Amendment Application for Shipment of Uranium Oxide Powders, etc. Author Affiliation: AEC Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070177 Accession Number: ML011380115 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:14:03 PM Title: Memo to C Luke from D Nussbaumer re: Shipment of UO2 Fully Enriched in U-235. Author Affiliation: AEC Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070181 Accession Number: ML011380124 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:14:19 PM Title: Memo to D Nussbaumer from C Luke re: Shipment of Enriched UO2 in LASL Containers. Author Affiliation: AEC Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070246 Accession Number: ML012050071 Date Added: 7/26/01 5:12:19 PM Title: Minutes of 07/20/2001-07/21/2001 HLW Licensing Support System Advisory Committee Meeting. Author Affiliation: NRC Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070242 Accession Number: ML012000513 Date Added: 7/26/01 5:11:22 PM Title: Minutes of February 20, 1986 Meeting of the DOE/NRC Licensing Support System Interagency Coordinating Committee. Author Affiliation: US Dept of Energy (DOE), Office of Geologic Repositories Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070241 Accession Number: ML012000475 Date Added: 7/26/01 5:11:03 PM Title: Minutes of the HLW Licensing Support System Advisory Committee Meeting for September 16-17, 1987. Author Affiliation: NRC Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070154 Accession Number: ML012050127 Date Added: 7/26/01 10:14:49 AM Title: NUREG/CR-6732, Zinc- Zircaloy Interaction in Dry Storage Casks. Author Affiliation: Argonne National Lab, NRC Document/Report Number: ANL-01/18, NUREG/CR-6732 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070119 Accession Number: ML012060540 Date Added: 7/26/01 10:11:04 AM Title: Press Release-01-078: NRC Extends Comment Period to September 6 for Turkey Point License Renewal Draft Enviornmental Impact Statement. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA Document/Report Number: Press Release-01-078 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070189 Accession Number: ML012070046 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:15:03 PM Title: Press Release-01-079: NRC Order Halts Shipment of Large Radioactive Sources by JL Shepherd & Associates. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA Document/Report Number: Press Release-01-079 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070190 Accession Number: ML012070057 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:15:08 PM Title: Press Release-01-080: ACRS Subcommittees on Materials and Metallurgy and Plant Operations to Meet in Rockville, Maryland, on July 10. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA Document/Report Number: Press Release-01-080 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070192 Accession Number: ML012070080 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:15:18 PM Title: Press Release-01-081: NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Meet in Rockville, Maryland, on July 17 - 19. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA Document/Report Number: Press Release-01-081 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070193 Accession Number: ML012070087 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:15:23 PM Title: Press Release-01-082: NRC to Begin One-Year Evaluation of a Revised Program to Assess Physical Security at Nuclear Power Plants. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA Document/Report Number: Press Release-01-082 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070194 Accession Number: ML012070096 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:15:28 PM Title: Press Release-01-083: NRC Approves Power Uprate For San Onofre Nuclear Facility in California. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA Document/Report Number: Press Release-01-083 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070196 Accession Number: ML012070114 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:15:38 PM Title: Press Release-I-01-044: NRC to Meet with PSEG Nuclear to Discuss Performance at Salem and Hope Creek Nuclear Plants. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-I/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-I-01-044 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070199 Accession Number: ML012070152 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:15:52 PM Title: Press Release-I-01-045: NRC Assigns New Sr. Resident Inspector to Seabrook Station. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-I/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-I-01-045 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070200 Accession Number: ML012070164 Date Added: 7/26/01 2:15:56 PM Title: Press Release-I-01-046: NRC to Meet with Entergy Nuclear Northeast to Discuss Performance at Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant. Author Affiliation: NRC/OPA:RGN-I/FO Document/Report Number: Press Release-I-01-046 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070120 Accession Number: ML012060549 Date Added: 7/26/01 10:11:12 AM Title: Speech-01-017: Remarks of Dr. Richard A. Meserve, Chairman, U. S. NRC at the 16th Annual KAIF/KNSC, Seoul, Korea, April 17, 2001. Author Affiliation: NRC/Chairman Document/Report Number: Speech-01-017 _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070151 Accession Number: ML012010293 Date Added: 7/26/01 10:14:31 AM Title: State of Utah's Brief on the Question Certified in LBP-01-19: The Regulatory Standard for Aircraft Crash Hazards at the PFS Site - Contention Utah K (Credible Accidents). Author Affiliation: State of UT Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070128 Accession Number: ML011970165 Date Added: 7/26/01 10:12:32 AM Title: Summary of Telecommunication with NEI to Clarify RAIs Regarding the New License Renewal Demonstration Project. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DRIP/RLSB Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012070223 Accession Number: ML011860143 Date Added: 7/26/01 3:13:00 PM Title: Viewgraphs from Technical Working Group Mission Statement. Author Affiliation: NRC Document/Report Number: ***************************************************************** 17 Congo Nurses an Old Nuclear Reactor July 26, 2001 KINSHASA, Congo- A hand-held Geiger counter tapped out a steady beat as Patrick Kanyinda - looking decidedly uneasy about having a visitor in his small, windowless workroom - stood at the edge of a circular pool and pointed into the water. Above him, fluorescent lights buzzed and flickered, casting a faded light onto moldy walls. Below, submerged in the brackish water, beneath a padlocked metal grate and splotches of floating scum, about two dozen metal rods were lined up in neat rows. "It's safe," insisted Kanyinda, chief technician in this all-but-forgotten facility on the fringes of the University of Kinshasa. The water, he explains, cools the rods; heavy locks keep burglars at bay; armed guards keep watch outside, just in case. He paused, then added: "But I wouldn't suggest staying here long." Few would disagree. The rods, about 2 feet long and triangular, hold one of the most dangerous substances on the planet: uranium. In a crumbling concrete building on the edge of one of the world's most dysfunctional cities, in a program that traces its roots to a Belgian priest and America's Cold War "Atoms for Peace" program, a few Congolese scientists nurse along Africa's oldest nuclear reactor. In Congo - a nation savaged by decades of inept, deeply corrupt rule, poverty and a long stream of wars - the reactor is a point of pride, proof that, for all its problems, this Central African nation can also harness the atom. But elsewhere, the reactor is a concern. The reasons are evident. The reactor sits on an erosion-prone hill, the electricity gives out regularly and the decades-old control panel looks as if it was stolen from the set of a 1950s Buck Rogers movie. Gardens are sprouting out back, right next to a garbage pit. The front entrance is marked only by a poster taped to the door advising: "How to Recognize and Quickly Treat Accidental Radioactive Burns." And all this is in Kinshasa, a city famed for its sprawling slums, car-swallowing potholes and paucity of regular services, from fire departments to telephone wiring. The past decade has seen the city engulfed twice by military pillaging. The facility's budget is confidential, but cannot be very large. The Congolese government is broke and ensnared, yet again, in war. The reactor is small, capable of producing less than 1 percent of the energy of a nuclear power plant, and the uranium is not believed to be sufficiently refined for weapons manufacturing. But an accident could spray radioactivity across a good part of the university, or poison the water supply for much of the city. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. organization that monitors nuclear facilities, won't discuss specifics, but makes clear the Kinshasa facility is in trouble. "It's in poor condition because of the economic conditions down there," said David Kyd, spokesman for the Vienna, Austria-based agency. "It's not a high priority," for the Congolese government. American officials have repeatedly tried to get the fuel, both used and unused, shipped to the United States for storage. The scientists who run it, though, have no intention of stopping their work. They insist they are doing important peaceful research: creating nuclear isotopes and looking at atomic uses tied to agriculture and mining. "This isn't just prestige," grumbled Felix Malu wa Kalenga, who has headed the facility for decades. "It's real work." But he and his staff seem to view that work with a surreal combination of hyperbole and despair. At one moment Malu celebrates Congo - incorrectly - as "the very first to have a nuclear reactor," then switches to a grim lecture on the state of the facility's finances. "Our means are very precarious," he said. "We don't have the means - zero!" But later he concludes: "We'll continue, despite the problems." The program took root in the late 1950s when Congo was a Belgian colony. Monsignor Luc Gillon, a Belgian priest and nuclear physicist based in Congo, devoted much of his energy to bringing a reactor here, according to Malu, his protege. He succeeded just before Congo's 1960 independence. TRIGA-Mark I was built in 1959, but is now used to store the spent fuel. TRIGA-Mark II has been operational, on and off, since 1972. While stories differ on the facility's history, both the reactors and the fuel apparently came from the United States, compliments of President Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" plan. That program traded U.S. help for peaceful atomic research for agreements not to develop nuclear weapons. Although Congo's soil holds enormous uranium reserves, the country turned to the United States for the fuel in refined form. These days, though, America wants the uranium back, and U.S. Department of Energy officials have been negotiating with the Congolese government for permission to remove the nuclear fuel. The Congolese, though, have little interest in turning it over. Fortunat Lumu, a nuclear chemist, hints that America might get back some of the fuel as long as it buys Congo another reactor. If not, Lumu said there's enough fuel for another 10 to 15 years of Congolese atom-splitting. "They can't take it," he said. "It would be a loss for the country ... This program is known all over the world." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 18 Compensation offered nuclear workers Worcester Telegram &Gazette Online Friday, July 27, 2001 By Shaun Sutner Telegram & Gazette Staff BOSTON-- Achilles Savas, a retired machinist from Marlboro who worked with radioactive uranium, has suffered from tumors that have attacked his face and his colon. Last night, Mr. Savas, 80, came to a briefing here to see if he is eligible for a $150,000 payment and medical expenses, as compensation for the years he worked at the Watertown Arsenal on nuclear weapons projects during the Cold War era. Federal energy and labor officials have been on a 19-state tour to inform former weapons workers and their families of a law passed last year by Congress authorizing up to $2 billion in payments for workers who have cancer and other diseases. “We machined and carried the pieces of uranium in our hands,” Mr. Savas told the officials at the meeting at the Boston Marriott Copley Place Hotel. An earlier daytime session yesterday drew about a dozen workers who handled radioactive weapons materials and beryllium at the Norton Co. in Worcester in the 1940s and Wyman-Gordon Inc. in Grafton from 1959 to 1965. One 74-year-old former Norton employee at last night's session, who declined to give his name, worked with radioactive pellets in the grinding department and later came down with prostate cancer. “It could have been” caused by the work, he said. The U.S. Department of Energy so far has identified 20 plants in Massachusetts and one in Rhode Island whose workers may be eligible for payments under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. Under the law, workers, contractors and subcontractors for the Department of Energy -- the former Atomic Energy Commission -- who became ill from exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica are eligible. All cancers are potentially covered, as well as chronic beryllium disease and chronic silicosis. Instead of compensation, medical monitoring is provided for workers with beryllium sensitivity. The Department of Labor, which had claim forms available at yesterday's sessions, will start processing claims on Aug. 1, but there is no deadline. Officials said payments will be issued if diseases are shown to have at least a 50-percent chance of being caused by the exposure to radiation or beryllium. Spouses and other surviving kin of deceased workers also are eligible. “We have great respect for the work you have done, and in some cases, for what your parents did,” Douglas Dettling, a Labor Department outreach worker, told the audience of about 30 last night. “Because of people like you and your parents, we won the Cold War. “It is essentially over, and we owe you a debt of gratitude,” he said. Jeff Eagen, a compensation program specialist for the Energy Department, acknowledged the secrecy that surrounded weapons research during the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. “Some workers suffered, and some of you paid the ultimate price,” Mr. Eagen said. “That's why we're here tonight.” Mr. Eagen said federal officials are continuing to research other factories and locations where weapons were produced. Former workers and family members can call (866) 888-3322, a toll-free number, for more information. Information and claim forms that can be downloaded also are available on the Labor Department's Web site: www.dol.gov. Mr. Savas said he has suspected for a long time that his tumors were connected somehow with the work he did from 1960 to 1963, surrounded by Geiger counters and vacuums to suck up radioactive dust. In a sense, though, he was lucky, Mr. Savas said. “There were a lot of guys who worked longer than me,” he said in an interview. ***************************************************************** 19 Press Release: Private Fuel Storage Report Public Citizen Ohngo Guadedah Devia Awareness Nuclear Information and Resource Service For immediate release: July 26, 2001 Beware of "Private Fuel Storage" New Report Criticizes Industry Plan for Nuclear Waste WASHINGTON, D.C. – National public interest and consumer advocacy organizations today released a Public Citizen report criticizing the "Private Fuel Storage" (PFS) consortium, which is seeking to build a privately owned dump for high level nuclear waste. The report was also released by local advocacy organizations in Utah, Nevada and ten other states where the eight nuclear energy companies in the PFS consortium operate. Entitled "Another Nuclear Rip-off: Unmasking Private Fuel Storage," the report raises concerns about the record of the utilities proposing the dump, and addresses public safety, environmental justice, and national energy policy issues related to the project. Private Fuel Storage (PFS) intends to establish a facility, licensed for 20 years, to store high-level nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in Utah. The PFS facility would store 44,000 tons of high-level waste above ground in 4,000 "dry cask" canisters. Eight hundred and twenty acres of the Goshute’s 18,000 acres would be used for the PFS facility, including a 99-acre restricted-access area where the casks would be located. The Reservation is located approximately 45 miles west of Salt Lake City and 27 miles away from Tooele, Utah. The casks would be located just two miles from the closest resident on the Skull Valley Reservation. "The nuclear utilities are attempting to use this as a "half-way house" for nuclear waste in order to circumvent the course of action, which includes more public participation, for establishing a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. They don’t want to wait for a national public process, Executive Branch action and a vote by Congress, they just want a place to dump their deadly waste without being slowed down by democracy," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. The utilities promoting this scheme have established reputations for excessively and unlawfully polluting the air, land, and water; targeting poor communities and people of color for environmentally damaging projects; and lying to residents, workers, and the federal government about the safety of energy projects. "Trusting this corporate conglomeration—a collection of corporations that has more often than not betrayed the public trust by both contaminating the environment and ripping off consumers—with responsibility for a project of this magnitude is bad public policy." said Ralph Nader. "Masquerading this as a solution for the nuclear waste problem just helps them promote the idea that more nuclear plants should be built and relicensed, rather than transitioning into a sustainable energy future," Nader went on to add. The licensing process for the dump is moving quickly and could have implications for communities around the country. If the PFS license application is approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission next spring, cross-country radioactive waste shipments to Skull Valley could begin as early as 2003. Up to 200 radioactive train casks per year would travel to the PFS facility. This unprecedented transportation scheme would put hundreds of communities in up to 43 states at risk of an accident and exposure to radiation. Moreover, the project has been criticized from the perspective of environmental justice, since the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes would be disproportionately exposed to these risks. Unfortunately, some members of the small Skull Valley Band of Goshutes support the dump, including its Chairman, Leon Bear. He signed a lease with PFS without a vote by the General Council, which is comprised of the 70 adult members of the Skull Valley Goshutes. There are 130 Band members with approximately 30 living on the reservation. The opponents of the dump say that if a vote were taken today at the General Council, the lease would not be signed. The Chairman’s legitimacy has been challenged in a lawsuit by members of the Band against the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who were instrumental in helping get the lease signed without a vote by the Council. Ohngo Guadedah Devia Awareness, a Skull Valley community group, has also intervened in the NRC licensing proceedings with an environmental justice complaint. "PFS is a large corporation targeting our small, traditional Native American Reservation for this dangerous project and taking advantage of our sovereignty," said Margene Bullcreek, a resident of the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation and member of Ohngo Guadedah Devia Awareness. "It’s not our responsibility, as traditionalists, to sacrifice our land for the problem of nuclear waste that U.S. companies have created." Members of the Goshute Band are not the only critics of the dump in Utah. The Utah Congressional delegation is also opposed to the dump, but with the exception of Representative James Matheson, support opening a permanent repository in Nevada. Governor Leavitt signed an executive order opposing the PFS project in April 1997, creating the Task Force Opposing High Level Nuclear Waste. At the end of last year, Leavitt appropriated $50,000 to a new office of High-Level Nuclear Waste Opposition and pledged to ask the legislature for $1 million annually to hire attorneys in this effort. The Nevada legislature went on to pass a law that taxes business transactions that bring radioactive waste into the state, but exempts shipments of waste going to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The state is also intervening in the PFS licensing process at the NRC. Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service concludes, "To allow this damaging corporate agenda to drive national energy policy is democratically unacceptable. PFS amounts to yet another instance of the nuclear industry gambling with public health and safety. It’s time to turn away from nuclear power and invest in energy efficiency and sustainable, renewable energy options." The report is available online at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/RAGE/radwaste/reportpfs.pdf Critical MasS ***************************************************************** 20 MoD limits details of nuclear accidents Seven incidents involving weapons admitted, but record incomplete Rob Evans Friday July 27, 2001 The Guardian The Ministry of Defence has admitted for the first time some details of seven politically sensitive accidents involving British nuclear weapons. But the MoD conceded that the information released was limited, provoking accusations of a continuing cover-up. In one accident, a torpedo was dropped on top of a nuclear weapon on HMS Tiger which was anchored off Valetta harbour, Malta. If the torpedo had exploded or caused a fire, it could have detonated the high explosive within the nuclear weapon, scattering radioactive debris for several miles around, said Shaun Gregory, a Bradford University academic who has studied the hazards of nuclear accidents. The Maltese government, whose relations with Britain were then strained somewhat, was not told about the accident in February 1974. The Guardian understands that a hoist carrying the torpedo on board collapsed, sending it clattering on to the nuclear weapon. According to one sailor, two crew members were injured. An official inquiry criticised crew training and the design of the hoist. The ministry has only admitted a "handling incident" involving a nuclear weapon, which produced "some scratching of protective material." There was another "handling incident involving a Polaris missile" at a nuclear weapons depot at Coulport, Argyll and Bute, in August 1977. According to leaks from military sources, the Polaris missile was dropped while being hoisted on to a submarine. Military convoys carrying nuclear weapons on British roads were involved in three crashes - in Wiltshire in January 1987, on the M8 near Glasgow in August 1983, and near the Coulport depot in April 1973. The ministry also disclosed that the protective casing around Polaris missiles was "compressed" on two occasions, in 1981 and 1974, on board submarines at sea, but gave no other details. The carefully worded list has been published following pressure from the Guardian, which requested the information more than three years ago under the open government code. The MoD decided that full descriptions of the accidents could not be released to protect the operational security of the weapons, but some information could be disclosed to allay public worries. The ministry insisted that the accidents had not endangered public safety since none of the weapons was damaged or leaked radioactive material. But the MoD has refused to give any details of other mishaps because they did not "involve any threat to public safety". An inquiry by the then MoD chief scientific adviser, Ronald Oxburgh, in 1992 found that since 1960 there had been around 20 mishaps. Nigel Chamberlain, a spokesman for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: "Any relaxation of secrecy is to be welcomed, but it has been nine years since the Oxburgh report, and the MoD still has much ground to make up on this front. "If public safety was their major concern, they would stop sending unmarked nuclear warhead convoys out on our congested roads". The list confirms for the first time the speculation surrounding the well publicised 1987 accident in Wiltshire, when a 20 tonne MoD truck carrying nuclear weapons skidded off an icy road and turned over. Armed troops sealed off the crash site and stopped peace campaigners from approaching. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 21 Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Bruce Babbitt Published on Friday, July 27, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Bruce Babbitt by Alexander Cockburn No better case for cynicism about politics is currently available than the career of Bruce Babbitt, the Interior secretary in Clinton time--an era now bodied forth by major green groups in their fund-raising material as a time when stewardship of the nation's natural resources can contrast finely with the pillage supposedly ushered in by the Cheney-Bush crowd. Before leaving the Department of the Interior, Babbitt promised that he wouldn't cash in on his years of government service by becoming a high-priced D.C. lawyer. Then he promptly took a job with Latham and Watkins, a large Washington law firm whose client list includes some of the roughest environmental pillagers in the business. Babbitt defended his about-face by saying that he needed to make money to pay his legal bills stemming from an independent counsel investigation into whether he committed perjury when he said he did not try to shake down Indian tribes for campaign contributions. Within days of landing his new job as a counsel in the firm's environmental litigation shop, Babbitt could be found at the annual gathering of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the $3-billion lobbying arm of the nuclear industry, cheerleading for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump on Shoshone lands in the state of Nevada. The Clinton administration opposed the dump, acting more out of a desire to keep Nevada Sen. Harry Reid happy than any sudden seizure of ecological conscience. "It's a safe, solid geologic repository," Babbitt proclaimed, evoking a standing ovation from the massed nukers, something even Dick Cheney had failed to do when he spoke to the group earlier that morning. Among Babbitt's present clients are two of the biggest developers on the California coast: Washington Mutual, developer of the Ahmanson Ranch in Ventura County, and the Hearst Ranch at San Simeon below Big Sur. In his last year as Interior secretary, Babbitt resisted protective measures for the endangered red-legged frog and San Fernando Valley spineflower as endangered species. The spineflower, an ankle-high plant with delicate white flowers that resemble baby's breath, was considered extinct until botanists found several thousand plants growing where many of the shops and homes in the Ahmanson ranch development are scheduled to be built. The red-legged frog similarly flourishes on Ahmanson property. If Babbitt's Interior Department had rated the species as requiring critical habitat, it would been another serious block against development plans. Babbitt's association with the Hearst Ranch presents an equally unattractive picture of yesterday's supposed protector of the environment abetting a scheme either to wreck the coastline below Hearst Castle or extort staggering sums from the feds and the state of California for leaving it alone, at least for the time being until, 25 years down the road, the costly conservation easements are forgotten and development begins. During his tenure at Interior, Babbitt ushered through hundreds of complex land swaps and federal buyouts of private property where potential development plans had been stymied by environmental restrictions. The deals often ended up with the developers getting much more money than their property was worth. The most high-profile example was the Headwaters Forest bailout, where corporate raider Charles Hurwitz ran off with more than $480 million for land that an Interior Department land appraiser concluded had a market value of less than $100 million. A Los Angeles Times news story described how lawyers for the Hearst family are taking advantage of a new, entirely legal, scam whereby 19th century records known as certificates of compliance are used to create oceanfront parcels and subdivisions, overriding existing zoning restrictions, even though the original parcels may have been inland and worthless terrain. As the news story made clear, developers have been using this law as leverage to extort huge sums from conservation groups as the price for easements protecting the land. Hearst lawyers have amassed documents that could allow the corporation to chop the 83,000-acre ranch into 279 parcels and create oceanfront subdivisions. According to The Times, Stephen Hearst has suggested that the Hearst Corp. may be willing to forgo such plans if the government will pony up $300 million or more to buy it out. Babbitt defends the use of certificates of compliance to maximize the value of the land. "I would advise any client who is considering alternative uses to perfect their rights," he told The Times. "It's good, proper and correct to do that." Yes, this is the Interior secretary who, with Vice President Al Gore, railed against developments eroding America's natural treasures. Is there a better argument than Babbitt for the Naderites' case that on the practical level the two parties are one, that the despoliation continues whether Babbitt or Gale Norton is running Interior and regardless of which one of them spins through the revolving door and goes to work for a firm like Latham and Watkins? Before leaving the Department of Interior, Babbitt promised that he wouldn't cash in on his years of government service. Alexander Cockburn writes for The Nationand other publications. Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times ***************************************************************** 22 Envirocare Sham Friday, July 27, 2001 Should it be a surprise to anyone that Envirocare has decided to postpone the shipment of dismantled nuclear reactors to Utah? Envirocare was recently granted a license by Utah's Environmental Quality Division (DEQ) to import this lethal waste. Although he vehemently opposes the Private Fuel Storage proposal to "store" spent fuel rods at the Goshute Reservation, Gov. Mike Leavitt has yet to voice concern about the safety of his constituents who are threatened by this lethal debris that Envirocare admits will be highly radioactive for at least 500 years. No one in the Utah Legislature has stepped forward to seriously question the Envirocare proposal, and few people seem to care. So then, why did Envirocare elect to postpone the ratification of the DEQ permit by the Utah Legislature, the final stepping stone in the approval process? Well, this may help. If you recall, Envirocare's only competitor for Class C nuclear waste was a Texas company. However, the Texas Legislature, the most environmentally lenient anywhere in the country, has determined that Class C waste will no longer be accepted. Fellow citizens of Utah, the message is clear and simple: This debris is so hot, so radioactive, so lethal and so bad that even Texas won't accept it! Wake up, Utah. Call your representatives as their vote is our last possible recourse. Otherwise, nuclear debris transport through your community is virtually a foregone conclusion. Texas has rejected this sham. Envirocare's postponement is but a thinly veiled smoke screen, a terribly false sense of security. Insist on a consistent nuclear waste policy from Gov. Leavitt. JAMES D. WEBSTER Salt Lake City © Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 23 Utilities Spent Millions to Lobby For Nuclear Waste Site in Utah Friday, July 27, 2001 BY JUDY FAHYS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Nuclear-power opponents said the eight utilities that want to store nuclear-fuel waste in Utah spent $37 million lobbying Congress in just 18 months as part of a broad campaign to promote the plan. Ralph Nader's government-watchdog group, Public Citizen, described the lobbyist spending as part of a sweeping public relations pitch for nuclear energy that obscures politicking, safety problems, environmental violations, price-gouging and environmental racism at the eight companies proposing a high-level nuclear waste storage site 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Private Fuel Storage, LLC, the utility consortium, said the information is nothing new from those opposed to its plans for the $3.1 billion storage site on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation. "This is a repackaging of old arguments that Public Citizen and others have used for years to oppose anything nuclear," said Sue Martin, PFS spokeswoman in Utah. But Utah-based Citizens Against Radioactive Waste had a different take. "Utah should see what we are up against," said Anne Sward-Hansen, whose group is part of a coalition of government leaders and citizens trying to stop the PFS-Goshute proposal . "We've got to start fighting this thing," she said. "It's not David and Goliath. It's David and 10,000 Goliaths." Public Citizen, a group headed by 2000 Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, released its 42-page report at a press conference in Washington, D.C., thrusting the issue into the national political arena for the first time. The report highlights information about the PFS member utilities from government documents and news articles that have been in circulation for years. It said, by pushing policy-makers to expand the use of nuclear power, the industry may force Utah to become a permanent "parking lot" for spent fuel even if long-term storage is approved for Yucca Mountain, Nev., because the permanent site cannot hold all the waste utilities propose sending there. "It's a pretty shocking record," said Lisa Gue of Public Citizen, which worked with environmental groups in two dozen states where PFS companies have operations. "This report makes it clear that, if history is any indication, this is going to be a cash cow for industry before it benefits the American public or the people in Utah." The report said GPU Nuclear Corp. had been doctoring reactor-coolant-leak data for six months before the Three Mile Island disaster and has been fined since then by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for continuing safety violations. Goshute tribal Chairman Leon Bear discounted the report as old news and vowed t make sure PFS runs a safe facility. "We are going to monitor it," he said. "They are not going to come out and dirty our reservation. That's the bottom line. They had better be friendly neighbors. They had better be clean. They had better take care of business." The report also accuses some member companies of gouging consumers while profiting from the energy crisis. As an example, it points to Southern California Edison, which said deregulation might force the utility into bankruptcy although its parent company spent more than $10 billion on non-California investments since 1999, including $300 million on a Swiss telecommunications network. The group also tallied the political expenses of member companies and the trade associations that represent their interests in Washington. It showed nearly $5 million in campaign contributions and "soft-money" donations to political organizations during the 1992-2000 election cycle. Public Citizen noted that the consortium had hired former Idaho Sen. James A. McClure to lobby its cause for $200,000 a year. "Lobbying is something all industries do," said Martin, pointing out the member utilities have public-policy objectives related to their coal and oil plants, in addition to nuclear plants. "I can't tell you how much of that was for Private Fuel Storage, [but it was] probably not much." The report is online at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/RAGE/radwaste/reportpfs.pdf. © Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Rival law firm sues over DOE selection July 27, 2001 By Benjamin Grove (c) 2001, LAS VEGAS SUN WASHINGTON -- Winston &Strawn, a Yucca Mountain project law firm, is not a stranger to conflict-of-interest charges. Two years after the Energy Department awarded the Chicago-based law firm a $16.5 million contract to review Yucca Mountain documents, it is still fending off allegations on several fronts. A rival law firm that lost a bid for the DOE job in 1999 filed a lawsuit alleging that Winston &Strawn could not independently review the DOE license application for Yucca because the firm helped prepare it in the first place. The application was drafted for the DOE by what was then its top Yucca contractor, TRW Environmental Safety Services Inc. But it was Winston &Strawn that TRW hired to review the application to make sure it addressed all legal points required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Critics say the firm can't fairly critique its own work. Nevada lawmakers protested to the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. The GAO dismissed the complaint. So the rival firm, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene &MacRae, sued the DOE and Winston &Strawn, alleging the firm had an "organizational conflict of interest" and could not represent the department. Winston &Strawn would not comment for this story, but its lawyers have mounted an aggressive defense in U.S. District Court in Washington. The case is pending. Both Winston &Strawn and LeBoeuf earned a perfect score on the DOE's bid evaluation. LeBoeuf's bid was $3.7 million higher than Winston's. Meanwhile, Nevada has objected to Winston &Strawn, too. Most recently, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa asked the courts to clarify whether Winston &Strawn had previously worked for the DOE. If so, the firm should have disclosed that before making its bid. Del Papa said that Winston &Strawn represented Flour-Daniel, another DOE contractor at its Hanford, Wash., facility, a site that once produced nuclear weapons. Hanford's wastes could one day come to Yucca Mountain. DOE acted against Flour-Daniel in May 1999, so if Winston &Strawn represented both DOE and TRW at the time, there could be a conflict of interest, she said. And the state's DOE watchdog, Bob Loux of the Agency for Nuclear Projects, this month submitted an affidavit alleging other problems ahead for Winston &Strawn. Loux notes the NRC, among other observers, is going to be scrutinizing the DOE's license to bury waste at Yucca. He said the NRC will inevitably question some of TRW's work. Loux said Winston &Strawn is required to tell the DOE about any flaws in TRW's work that would affect the license. But to do that, the law firm may have to betray former client TRW. "If Winston cannot give independent advice to DOE about TRW's performance, problems with TRW's work may never be discovered and resolved," Loux wrote. "When issues about TRW's performance are raised by NRC, DOE or any other party in the licensing process, Winston will have a conflicting duty to avoid advice to DOE that would penalize TRW." Sun reporter Mary Manning contributed to this report. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 OC Weekly: News: Anti-Nuclear War NEWS | FEATURE Vol. 6 No. 47 July 27 - Aug. 2, 2001 Linda McLandrich says she lost her husband to San Onofre but swears she won’t lose again by Nick Schou The time: 1985. The place: inside the Unit 3 containment building at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Several nuclear engineers are eating lunch, unaware that invisible particles of radioactive fuel are leaking from the plant’s plutonium rods, filling the air inside the building and clinging to their unprotected clothing—perhaps even the sandwiches they’re wolfing down. In 1989, one of those engineers, Gregory McLandrich, begins to feel a sharp pain in his belly. Diagnosis: leiomyosarcoma—abdominal cancer. McLandrich didn’t drink or smoke; he jogged several miles each morning. Doctors slice a milk-carton-sized tumor from his stomach. The tumor is invincible; it reappears and keeps growing. Two years later, it kills the 42-year-old McLandrich, leaving behind a wife and two kids. McLandrich dies so young that he’s ineligible for a full retirement package. Southern California Edison (SCE) cuts his pension from 70 percent of his wages to just $255 per month. Flash forward 10 years. Thanks in part to California’s power crisis, the Bush administration is pushing nuclear energy again. Never mind Gregory McLandrich: nuclear power’s reputation has never recovered from Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. But the Bush administration sells nuclear as a safe, clean, cost-effective way to satiate the nation’s energy appetite. The stakes are so high that the U.S. attorney general’s office recently joined forces with SCE to battle a years-old lawsuit filed by the McLandrich family and five others who claim their loved ones died because they worked at San Onofre. Linda McLandrich says she won’t rest until SCE acknowledges responsibility in the death of her husband and other sick or deceased plant workers. Though the company has acknowledged that faulty fuel rods regularly leaked radiation in the mid-1980s, none of the survivors’ families has seen a penny in compensation. "My battle with San Onofre has been ongoing for years," McLandrich told the Weekly. "In my case, there is documentation of a radioactive particle of unspent fuel—which has a half-life of 50,000 years—being detected on my husband. Edison never made any effort to track whether these particles were going out into the community and affecting workers’ families and other people." The McLandrich family’s claim is just one of five being considered by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Diego. The joint lawsuit also includes a claim filed by the family of Ellen Kennedy, whose husband, Joe, worked at San Onofre when the fuel rods were leaking. Ellen died of chronic myelogenous leukemia at the age of 43, leaving behind four children. Another plaintiff is Glen James, an electrical designer who worked at the plant from 1982 to 1986 and now suffers from chronic myelocytic leukemia. Vicky Rock, who changed the facemasks of workers inside the containment unit, performed her job without protective gear. Over the years, she has suffered from a string of mysterious illnesses, and her son has leukemia. Finally there’s Jason Mettler, a San Onofre plant operator who suffered from acute myelogenous leukemia. He died in 1995, just days after filing a personal-injury lawsuit against SCE alleging the company exposed him and other workers to radiation and then conspired to cover it up. SCE doesn’t deny that its fuel rods leaked radiation into the plant or that radiation particles likely "migrated" off-site via its workers. But SCE does deny responsibility for any of the deaths or illnesses suffered by its own workers, arguing that cancer kills one in three Americans and that plant workers’ families are simply blaming San Onofre without any real evidence. Three years ago, SCE won the first lawsuit, which involved Ellen Kennedy. Los Angeles-based attorneys Suzelle Smith and Don Howarth appealed that verdict, won, and re-filed the lawsuit on behalf of all five families. The appeals court ruled that the plaintiffs need only prove that radiation leaks inside the plant "significantly contributed" to a higher cancer risk. In March, all five lawsuits finally went back to court. That’s when the Bush administration’s Justice Department stepped in to defend SCE. The federal attorneys filed a brief on behalf of the company, requesting the court adopt a new, much tougher standard of proof—specifically, that radiation leaks caused a 51 percent or greater increase in cancer risk among San Onofre workers. "With nuclear power, the stakes are apparently so high that the attorney general felt he had to send lawyers in to help defend SCE from these families," Smith concluded. San Onofre spokesman Ray Golden says SCE is confident that it will prevail in the ongoing lawsuit. "We believe the facts and science have and will continue to demonstrate that San Onofre did not cause any employee or family member of an employee to contract cancer," he said. Four months after the March hearing, the court still hasn’t issued a ruling. But McLandrich says her battle against San Onofre will continue whatever the outcome. Describing the San Onofre leaks as a radiation "epidemic," she recently attended a meeting in San Clemente and argued against SCE’s plans to keep radioactive waste buried on-site for the foreseeable future. "They are trying to present this myth to the public that there haven’t been any accidents at San Onofre," McLandrich said. "My husband had stomach pains for three years before we found out that he had cancer. We had no idea he had been exposed to radiation because they never told us. Had they said something, my husband would have received the medical care he needed much earlier. He’d still be alive to see his children grow up." Copyright © 2001, O.C. Weekly Media, Inc. All rights ***************************************************************** 3 U.S. Offers Russia a Blueprint for Talks on Nuclear Weapons July 27, 2001 By MICHAEL WINES MOSCOW, July 26 — Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, offered President Vladimir V. Putin an American blueprint today for talks on building a new nuclear- weapons framework, a process she cast as part of a broader White House plan for "transforming" the relationship between Washington and Moscow. Ms. Rice said that President Bush hoped to meet Mr. Putin twice this fall, in Shanghai and in Washington, and that members of Mr. Bush's cabinet were planning trips here in the coming months. Two of them — Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans — were in Moscow today, meeting with Mr. Putin and other senior officials. "What we are trying to do is to change the nature of the strategic relationship, but also to change the nature of the political and economic relationships," Ms. Rice said. Russian enthusiasm for the American embrace was mixed. Mr. Putin, who met with Mr. Bush last weekend at the summit meeting of industrial nations in Genoa, Italy, expressed hope that the talks would imbue the two nations' relations "with new content free from the problems inherited from the past." In Hanoi, Vietnam, where he was meeting with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other Asia-Pacific foreign ministers, Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov solidly endorsed the new dialogue. But the Kremlin's chief arms negotiator reacted coolly, saying Russian opposition to upsetting the existing arms-control framework was unchanged. And unidentified Russian officials told Russian news agencies that the meetings produced nothing new. Ms. Rice said that in meetings with Mr. Putin and his top security aides, she discussed a schedule for talks on winnowing stockpiles of nuclear weapons and developing limited defenses against nuclear missiles. Mr. Putin and Mr. Bush agreed last weekend to link the two issues while seeking a new basis for strategic relations between Moscow and Washington. Russian officials said the Kremlin expected to receive the first substantive proposals from American experts next month. Ms. Rice said today's meetings dealt far more with missile-defense issues than with the Russians' principal concern — reducing nuclear arms. The Kremlin has long proposed cutting the number of warheads held by each side to 1,500 from the current level of about 6,000. Ms. Rice said the Joint Chiefs of Staff were still preparing a report for Mr. Bush on how few nuclear warheads the United States could hold and still maintain a deterrent. In a news conference, she was alternately tough and flexible in laying out the United States' hopes for a new partnership with Russia. Ms. Rice said the White House's central demand in any weapons talks was all but nonnegotiable: the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which effectively prevents the United States from building a limited defense against missiles, must be scrapped. She called the treaty a cold-war artifact, an accord drafted in an era when "the only thing the two sides had in common was a desire not to blow each other apart." "The U.S.-Russian relationship is considerably different now," she said. "We are not strategic adversaries." But the treaty remains so restrictive, she argued, that it has become a hindrance rather than an aid to security in a post-Soviet world. The White House insists that a limited ability to knock down incoming ballistic missiles will not upset the balance of nuclear power among major nations, but that it is essential to counter emerging threats from terrorists or rogue states and to protect against accidental missile launchings by other nations. Russia and China have strongly opposed those plans, accusing the Bush administration of dragging the world headlong into a new arms race. Today, Ms. Rice said those fears were overblown. While the Pentagon has reported that its research program is just months away from technically violating the ABM treaty, the terms of the accord make almost any work on a missile defense a potential breach, she said. Whatever the legalities, she argued, a workable defense system remains many years away, and there is ample time for the world's nuclear powers to agree on its specifics. "At this stage, we are just talking about a robust testing and evaluation" of a defense system, she said. "There is no system that the United States can just pull off the shelf and deploy." In an era when superpowers suspected each other of plotting surprise attacks, Ms. Rice said, suspicion of a missile-defense plan like the one offered by Mr. Bush might have been justified. But today, when neither Moscow nor Washington considers a nuclear attack to be a likely prospect, such fears only block a basic restructuring of the American- Russian partnership, she said. Ms. Rice said that despite the Kremlin's remarks against changes in the arms-control framework, Russia was moving closer to that view. "There is a recognition that the United States intends to move forward with missile defense," she said. "You've got a discussion now about how you move forward, not if you move forward. That's considerable progress in the last several months." Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information ***************************************************************** 4 Nuke workers come to listen by Eric Convey BostonHerald.com - Business Friday, July 27, 2001 Slowed by age and in some cases brutal diseases, men who developed and built strategic weapons that armed the United States during the Cold War turned out yesterday to find out how far Washington will go to compensate them for illnesses related to that work. The former workers, mostly machinists and laborers, were joined by dozens of people whose loved ones are veterans of the nuclear weapons industry but were either too sick to attend or dead. ``Under cover of extreme secrecy, (New Englanders) worked with some of the most hazardous materials known to mankind,'' said Jeff Eagan of the federal Energy Department. Similar programs are being held around the country as the government seeks the identities of workers, dead and alive, who developed cancer from handling uranium or conditions associated with beryllium. To be eligible for benefits of up to $150,000, the employees must have worked for the old Atomic Energy Commission or for one of its contractors. Surviving spouses or children, depending on their age at the time of workers' deaths, can also receive cash benefits. Defense Department workers are not eligible. Of 300 weapons plants around the country that may have exposed workers to health-threatening conditions, 20 are in Massachusetts. But the government would consider adding more to the list, based on what kind of work occurred there, Eagan said. Bradley Ragaini of Sutton, who spent decades working around hazardous materials, said employers often failed to inform workers. ``I'd like to express how little the worker knows about the material he's working with,'' Ragaini said. Mathew Savastano of Attleboro, who worked in a plant that developed nuclear products for the U.S. Navy, echoed many workers when he asked, ``What kind of recourse do I have?'' Some advocates who have followed the issue fault the government for failing to provode aid to workers who, like Savastano, have not developed any job-related illnesses. They say the government should offer tests and other screening services, at a minimum. But the program offers no benefits to workers who haven't shown signs of diseases related to their employment. To qualify for benefits, workers and survivors must meet relatively relaxed standards. Employees who have become ill must provide evidence of the sickness. They also need to show they worked in an area where they were likely to be exposed to uranium or berrylium related to an AEC project. Since many companies closed decades ago, the government has a broad standard for evidence. For instance, affidavits from former co-workers can suffice. Some advocates say $150,000 isn't enough. ``(The) Department of Labor regulations do not establish an equitable way for workers who are ill...to benefit from the fund as intended by Congress,'' said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health. Copyright by the Boston Herald and Herald Interactive ***************************************************************** 5 Ill nuclear workers get help filing for funds The Seattle Times: Local News: By Linda Ashton The Associated Press YAKIMA — People made ill by exposure to radiation or dangerous substances while doing national defense work can get help filing for federal compensation at a new resource center. The center was established under a 2000 law that provides defense workers who contracted radiation-related cancer, beryllium disease or chronic silicosis with a $150,000 lump-sum payment. If the worker has died, the payment could go to relatives. The Hanford resource center will be open from 8:30 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Some after-hours appointments will be available. The center can be reached at 509-783-1500 or toll-free at 888-654-0014 U.S. Department of Labor: www.dol.gov U.S. Department of Energy: www.energy.gov The Hanford resource center in Kennewick — officially called the Energy Employees Compensation Resource Center — will be open for business Monday, though staff were taking calls and assisting walk-ins this week. "Our goal is to take care of the men and women who were harmed as quickly as possible," said Labor Secretary Elaine Chao in Washington, D.C. "These workers gave their labor — and many of them gave their health — in the service and protection of our country during the Cold War." The Hanford resource center is one of 10 opening around the country, operated jointly by the U.S. Energy and Labor departments. People can also get assistance at some federal Labor Department district offices, including the one in Seattle. Between 650,000 and 750,000 workers nationwide may have been exposed to radiation and the toxic materials beryllium and silica, the Labor Department said. An undetermined number of workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation, where plutonium was made for nuclear bombs for 40 years, and at the Energy Department's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are among those eligible for compensation. Eunice Godfrey, office manager for the new Hanford center, said that based on calls to the Energy Department, several hundred claims may be filed in south-central Washington. "We will be open as long as we have people that need us — that could be anywhere from six months to 10 years," Godfrey said. Under the Energy Employees Occupational Injury Compensation Program Act, workers who became seriously ill from exposure to radiation from beryllium or silica while working in the nuclear-weapons industry for the Department of Energy and its contractors could be eligible for $150,000 plus additional payments for related medical expenses. The workers also will be assisted in applying for benefits that may be available through state workers' compensation. "We're going to help folks understand the criteria of the law, help them fill out their forms and gather the information they might need to help support the claims," Godfrey said. ***************************************************************** 6 Hanford construction must start or Energy Department will pay The Seattle Times: Local News: By Linda Ashton The Associated Press YAKIMA — The state will begin assessing thousands of dollars in penalties next week against the U.S. Department of Energy for missing the construction deadline on a radioactive-waste-treatment plant at the Hanford nuclear reservation. The fines will stop if the department comes up with a plan by Oct. 1 showing it will be ready to begin treating the lethal waste by 2007, Tom Fitzsimmons, director of the state Department of Ecology, said yesterday. "Ultimately, the start of construction isn't the most important milestone — it's the start of treatment that counts more than anything else," he said. The Energy Department has a credible plan to begin processing waste by 2007, said Harry Boston, manager of the agency's Office of River Protection, which oversees management of Hanford's tank farms and the glassification-plant project. "The state Department of Ecology and the USDOE share the same sense of urgency to clean up Hanford's tank waste and protect the Columbia River," Boston said. "We're doing what we promised to start waste processing by 2007." The federal agency and its contractors plan to begin building the glassification plant in December 2002 to convert 10 percent of nearly 54 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste into glass logs for long-term storage. The waste is stored now in aging underground tanks. Some have leaked, spilling nearly 1 million gallons into the soil, contaminating the groundwater and threatening the Columbia River. Under the 1989 Tri-Party Agreement, the legal pact governing cleanup at Hanford, the Energy Department was to begin construction on the glassification plant by Tuesday. On Wednesday, Fitzsimmons said, the state will levy a $5,000 penalty against the Energy Department. Fines will be assessed at a rate of $10,000 every week thereafter until construction begins or an acceptable plan is submitted. No decision has been made on whether to appeal the state's decision, Boston said. The Energy Department has 30 days. "We understand the Department of Ecology's urgency and their desire to hold the Department of Energy accountable. We want to be accountable, and we want to work to get this job done," Boston said. Fitzsimmons called the Energy Department's history on the glassification project "one of many delays and broken promises." In recent months, Fitzsimmons said, the Energy Department and its contractors have done "a great job" of getting ready to build the plant. Last year, the Energy Department hired Bechtel-Washington to take over the project after it fired contractor BNFL when cost estimates on the project skyrocketed. "But we've seen them gear up before, only to have the DOE headquarters pull out the rug from under all of us," Fitzsimmons said. Washington and several other states have been frustrated by Bush administration cuts in the national cleanup budget for Energy Department sites over the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. The U.S. government is legally and morally obligated to provide sufficient funding to clean up Hanford, the most contaminated nuclear site in the country after 40 years of making plutonium for the nation's nuclear arsenal, Fitzsimmons said. If the Energy Department wants the penalties to stop, it will have to show it can get adequate funding for next year, he said. The state is sending a message to the Bush administration. "It is either the last time we are at odds because they produce a plan that is fully supported and provide the leadership necessary, or they wiggle around all of these issues and signal to us that they aren't committed," Fitzsimmons said. "This is a test — this is a measured, metered approach, a first step with this new administration." Boston said he believes with budget markups in the House and Senate, there should be full funding for the 2002 phase of the glassification project in the next fiscal year. seattletimes.com home ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************