***************************************************************** 03/28/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.78 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Nevada stance a threat to dump 2 Scientist links cancer to nuclear power 3 Physicist Deplores Millstone Dumping 4 Renewal of German Atomic Waste Shipment Spawns Massive Protests 5 Vice President's Views on Nuclear Energy Are Misguided 6 Biased Process Promotes Exposure to Nuclear Waste; Could Lead to 7 Oak Ridge National Lab Collaborates on Six Energy Efficiency Grants 8 Waste not, what not: Environmental wisdom 9 Westinghouse Launches New Website 10 Uranium Institute News Briefing 01.13 | 21 - 27 March 2001 11 Dominion utility chief says nuke waste site long overdue 12 Lucas Heights reactor a step closer after nuclear exports deal 13 CHINA EXPANDS CIVILIAN ROLE FOR ITS NUCLEAR INDUSTRY 14 The DPP lacks basic political sensibility 15 Musharraf to open nuclear power plant on Thursday 16 Pakistani leader urges strengthening of country's nuclear program 17 Norway demands closure of Sellafield 18 German Nuke Train Retreats Amid Riot 19 'Trainstoppers' gather to halt a deadly cargo in its tracks 20 German protesters halt atom waste train 21 German Nuclear Cargo Moves Thousands to Protest 22 German Nuclear Waste Train Back on Move 23 Protesters harry German nuclear waste cargo 24 German Nuke Waste Transport Arrives 25 Russia's Putin Makes Cabinet Changes 26 Adamov fired 27 West Valley prepares to ship out high-level nuclear waste 28 GREENPEACE WELCOMES DISMISSAL OF ADAMOV AND CALLS ON RUSSIAN 29 Nuke waste to head to Idaho NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Workers exposed to plutonium 2 Report on Rocky Flats released 3 DOE, Fluor Hanford fined for violations 4 Fluor extends Duratek work 5 Congressman cites concerns over INEEL cleanup funds 6 Audit critical of Bechtel Jacobs cleanup contract 7 Hatch supports ill-worker program switch 8 K-33 cleanup proceeds ahead of schedule 9 Editorial: Congress once again adds insult to injury 10 Nation's uranium supply in danger, Strickland says 11 Editorial: Depleted Uranium: A slow, silent killer 12 Group Wants Vieques To Secede 13 S. Korea Agrees To Missile Rules 14 Uranium miners waiting for checks 15 Chao gains powerful ally in effort to dump entitlement program 16 Letter from Glenn Bell to Secretary of Labor Elain L. Chao - Re: ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Nevada stance a threat to dump March 28, 2001 By Benjamin Grove LAS VEGAS SUN Nevada's dogged opposition to opening a nuclear waste tomb in the state is a serious threat to the program's success, a Senate leader on energy issues said Tuesday. "We have a political problem with the state of Nevada that is serious with reference to the state's fighting the federal government," Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., told the House Energy and Power subcommittee. Domenici, a leading nuclear energy advocate, appeared as a witness during a House hearing on the role of nuclear power in America. His comments seemed a change from prior views about the likelihood of constructing a nuclear waste burial ground at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Last year he predicted the nuclear waste could be bound for Nevada within months if George W. Bush was elected president. "What he (Domenici) was probably alluding to was the campaign by Republicans and Democrats from the Nevada delegation to put the brakes on this thing," said Nathan Naylor, a spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. "Before we talk about the future of nuclear power, we need to figure out what to do with the waste," Naylor said. At one point in the hearing, Domenici said a long-running feud between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over safe levels of radiation release at Yucca Mountain also threatened the project. "So long as you have two differing opinions ... I don't think it can be built." Domenici said. "That's the hangup as I understand it." Despite waste complications, several lawmakers said the current "energy crisis" made this a perfect time for nuclear power to make a comeback. Nuclear power generated at the nation's 104 nuclear reactor plants produce roughly 20 percent of the nation's electricity and is an important part of "energy mix," which also relies heavily on coal and natural gas, lawmakers said. But no new nuclear plants have been commissioned since 1979 in the United States. That's partly due to strict licensing rules and public fears over nuclear accidents following the Three Mile Island disaster, which happened on March 28, 1979. A key focus of the hearing was the significant obstacle to nuclear power expansion -- waste. Congress in 1987 selected Yucca Mountain to be the final resting place for 77,000 tons of the nation's high-level waste. The mountain has been the subject of years of safety studies, scheduled to be released this year. Many nuclear energy officials consider Yucca's completion, slated for 2010, key to their future because the nation's nuclear plants are "choking" on their nuclear waste stored on site. House Energy Subcommittee chairman Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said he planned to hold hearings on Yucca's completion during the "first half" of this year. Barton is an active proponent of the Yucca plan and nuclear energy. "If a federal solution is not found soon, some plants will be forced to close -- not because of problems with the plants but because of laws dealing with waste," Barton said. "That means our electric reliability is threatened." Barton called nine panelists to testify at Tuesday's hearing -- eight were government or industry officials who support nuclear power. "They hammered me on nuclear waste," Anna Aurillo, of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said after her testimony. She was the lone anti-nuclear activist invited to speak at the hearing. "I told them I didn't like the industry's proposals, that they ignored health and safety standards and are not based on honest or sound science." Nevada lawmakers have long opposed burying waste in the state. In her latest strike, Rep. Shelley Berkley. D-Nev., on Tuesday compiled a list including members of Congress who will have nuclear waste traveling on trains and trucks through their districts. Berkley's move was designed to build political opposition to the Yucca plan. She posted the routes on her website, www.house.gov/berkley. Berkley and Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., this week also sent "Dear Colleague" letters to fellow House members urging them to back the EPA in its turf battle with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over which agency should set radiation safety standards. The EPA standards are more strict: nuclear utilities support the more lax NRC standards. "Radiation protection standards should be based on the most stringent requirement of human health and protection of the environment, not the lowest common denominator of the nuclear industry," Gibbons and Berkley wrote. Gibbons and Berkley were not invited to testify at the hearing, despite Berkley's request to appear. Nuclear energy officials said they were enjoying renewed interest in nuclear power among government officials and Congress. "I don't believe it's an overstatement to say that a foundation is being put in place for a renaissance in nuclear power," said Alfred Tollison, vice president of the Atlanta-based Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, an industry group formed after Three Mile Island to promote safety and reliability. Department of Energy officials have been working "somewhat behind the scenes with the NRC and the (nuclear) industry" to expand nuclear power capacities, said William Magwood, director of the DOE office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology. Several industry officials spoke about futuristic designs already drafted for a new generation of nuclear power plants. Nuclear power produces "safe, reliable and low-cost" energy, but the industry needs government help to make it cheaper and easier to construct and license new plants, said C. Randy Hutchinson, vice president of Energy Nuclear Inc. "Will new nuclear plants be built? Yes, we think so." Hutchinson said, "but only if and when we can bring some certainty to the industry. And you, as our nation's policymakers, can help to establish that certainty." Tuesday's congressional hearing was one in a series examining proposals for a comprehensive energy policy for America. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 Scientist links cancer to nuclear power Denton Record-Chronicle 314 E Hickory Denton, TX 76201 www.dentonrc.com By Tom Reedy Staff Writer The cancer rate in north central Texas has increased alarmingly since the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant started up in 1990, the keynote speaker at a University of North Texas conference said Monday. The Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Region chapter of the American Association for the Advancement of Science is holding its 76th annual meeting along with the three-day Natural Philosophy Alliance conference at UNT, which started Monday. The alliance is a group of dissident scientists who challenge and seek to improve contemporary theories in physics and astronomy. Ernest J. Sternglass of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Monday's keynote speaker, read his paper, "The Health Effects of Nuclear Fallout and Releases from Nuclear Power Plants." Dr. Sternglass said his research has uncovered convincing evidence of a large increase in cancer rates since the dawn of the nuclear age. He also said studies in the north central Texas area indicate large increases in cancer rates since the start-up of the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant in Somervell County southwest of Fort Worth. The Texas Cancer Center and the Texas Department of Health compared statistics for the first five years of the plant's operation, 1990 to 1994, to the previous five-year period, 1985 to 1989. Dr. Sternglass said the data indicates that cancer mortality in the counties surrounding the power plant - Somervell, Hood, Johnson and Erath - increased dramatically, 27 percent, during the second five-year period while the rate for the state increased 15 percent for the same period. In Hood County, breast cancer increased 190 percent over the previous five-year period, and total breast cancer deaths for all four counties increased by 51 percent while the statewide increase was 12 percent for the same period. Using charts and graphs to illustrate his data, Dr. Sternglass began his talk by tracing the infant mortality rates and cancer rates in both infants and adults since 1935. Infant mortality rates had been dropping steadily until about 1950, Dr. Sternglass said, when nuclear testing in the atmosphere along with government-sanctioned releases from nuclear power plants increased the amount of radiation in the atmosphere and caused the rate to level off. It has since returned to its rate of decline since nuclear testing in the atmosphere stopped in 1980, he said. Dr. Sternglass said the cancer rate for children ages 5 to 9 was very low before 1945, one case in 10,000, even in states such as Texas that have high rates of chemical pollution because of the oil and gas industry. The rate has since climbed to 100 in 10,000, "overwhelming evidence" of the link between childhood cancer and radiation, he said. The partial meltdown in 1979 at Pennsylvania nuclear plant Three Mile Island, which released radiation into the air, resulted in the premature deaths of about 50,000 people, Dr. Sternglass said, despite the government's claim that no one died as a result of the accident. He said a study of the increase in death rates showed a direct relation between the death rate and proximity to the plant. Dr. Sternglass said the infant mortality rate within 50 miles of seven nuclear power plants dropped dramatically when the plants were shut down in the 10-year period from 1987 to 1997. The rate decrease ranged from 15 percent around a nuclear plant in Wisconsin to 54 percent around a plant in Michigan. Dr. Sternglass said that Texas now has a higher death rate than California because it has opened new power plants while California has shut its down. In total, Dr. Sternglass estimates that 19 million adults have died prematurely and that an additional million children have died as a result of radiation in the air from nuclear bomb tests, nuclear plant accidents and radiation released into the atmosphere from power plants. He said the existing nuclear power plants should be converted to fossil fuels. "It's in our hands to end this terrible chapter of the mistakes we made because we failed to understand this technology," he said. The conference will continue at the UNT student union through Wednesday. TOM REEDY can be reached at (940) 381-9593. His e-mail address is treedy@dentonrc.com ***************************************************************** 3 Physicist Deplores Millstone Dumping By AL LARA The Hartford Courant March 28, 2001 A Welsh chemical physicist flown in by former supermodel Christie Brinkley alleged in court Tuesday that the operators of Millstone Nuclear Power Complex in Waterford are dumping potentially dangerous levels of radioactive chemicals into Long Island Sound. Lawyers representing the plant operators and the state vehemently denied the claim. They argued that scientist Christopher C. Busby and another witness were using anecdotal information and had never been to Millstone or tested its waste discharges. They said that nothing the witnesses said could be directly linked to operations at Millstone. Plant spokesman Pete Hyde said the facility's discharges are within the guidelines of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The testimony came during a hearing Tuesday in Hartford Superior Court on a motion by a coalition of anti-nuclear activists to prevent the transfer of Millstone's permit to discharge waste to Dominion Resources Inc., which through a subsidiary is buying the plant. On Monday, a lawsuit by the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone seeking to block the plant's sale was dismissed by a New Britain Superior Court judge. The coalition, through counsel and member Nancy Burton, claims the permit is expired, was extended illegally by the state, and should not be transferred. At Tuesday's court proceeding, Busby was placed on the stand as a witness to the dangers posed by the discharges. Busby, of Wales, is a scientific director of an environmental research company who was hired by the Irish government to investigate discharges by British nuclear power plants into ocean waters around Ireland. In his studies, he said, he found that the radiation risk posed by such discharges is greatly underestimated because of faulty risk models. He said models of radiation risk are based on external radiation as might be suffered from an X-ray machine or the flash of a nuclear detonation. Busby said internal radiation, as might be suffered through ingestion, is far more harmful. He cited studies of infant leukemia in children in the womb during the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. The rate of incidence was 100 times worse than suggested by the risk models, he said. "This is like comparing the energy transferred when warming oneself in front of a fire with eating a hot coal," Busby said. The court hearing was continued without a judgment. Brinkley is a Long Island resident and member of the island's activist group, the STAR Foundation. In 1999 Brinkley participated in a flotilla of boats protesting the Millstone plant. Copyright © 2001 Myway Corp. Portions © 2001 ctnow.com. ***************************************************************** 4 Renewal of German Atomic Waste Shipment Spawns Massive Protests Nuclear Information and Resource Service 1424 16th Street NW, #404, Washington, DC 20036 202.328.0002; fax: 202.462.2183; nirsnet@nirs.org;www.nirs.org *March 27, 2001* U.S. Groups Say Similar Protests Could Happen Here* WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States could see protests similar to those now occurring in Germany if the federal government approves a plan to transport high-level nuclear waste across the country to a Nevada storage site, two U.S. public interest groups said today. Thousands of protesters are demonstrating throughout Germany as the first high-level radioactive waste is transported through that country since 1998. Approximately 15,000 people demonstrated peacefully in Leuneberg, Germany, on Saturday, while others are protesting at the French-German border and all along the 300-mile transport route. Tens of thousands of police have been mobilized to protect the lethally radioactive shipment. "The protests in Germany are so large and the people so determined because they know these transports are not necessary," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS)who has been present for previous transports in Germany. "They are being done simply for the convenience of the nuclear power industry." Lisa Gue, a policy analyst with Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, agreed. "The nuclear industry should not be permitted to evade liability for its most dangerous byproduct," she said. "Around the world, concerned citizens are mobilizing to protest this unacceptable trade-off and the serious risks that transporting high-level nuclear waste imposes on their health and safety. I predict Americans will do the same." Mariotte and Gue drew parallels between the well-organized protests in Germany and mounting citizen opposition to proposed nuclear transport schemes in the United States. The U.S. Department of Energy is preparing to recommend Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, as a permanent repository for high-level radioactive waste. If this proposal is approved, 77,000 tons of nuclear waste from the nation's commercial reactors and weapon's sites would be transported through 43 states en route to Nevada starting in 2010. Another proposal by a consortium of nuclear utilities known as Private Fuel Storage would involve transporting 44,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste to an interim storage facility on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in Utah. Under this scheme, cross-country shipments could begin as early as 2003. Opponents of the Yucca Mountain repository and Private Fuel Storage proposals have concerns about both the suitability of the sites and the safety of transporting high-level radioactive waste. Containers that would be used to ship the waste have not been subjected to full-scale physical testing, and an accident involving a release of radiation could have catastrophic consequences. "Transporting high-level nuclear waste is inherently dangerous because it increases the risk of radioactive release and disperses this risk along transportation routes where emergency responders may lack the capacity to respond effectively to a radiological emergency," Gue said. Even without an accident, high-level nuclear waste shipping containers routinely emit low doses of radiation, which could elevate the risk of cancer among vulnerable aspects of the population. Also, property values would decline along nuclear transportation routes. "High-level waste should never be transported to inappropriate sites, and neither Yucca Mountain nor Skull Valley are scientifically or publicly acceptable," Mariotte said. "We can expect similar protests—over much longer transport routes—if high-level atomic waste is attempted to be moved to such sites." The German shipment left a reprocessing center in Valognes, France early Monday morning. It is expected to arrive at a relay center in Dannenburg in northern Germany on Tuesday. There, the 100-ton waste casks will be transferred from train cars to large trucks. On Wednesday, the trucks are to drive the final nine miles to an "interim" storage facility at Gorleben. Thousands of protestors are expected to block the trucks’ departure from Dannenburg. The protests this year are particularly significant, since the ruling Social Democrat/Green Party coalition has endorsed the transports as part of an agreement to close the country’s nuclear power plants within the next 30 years. That endorsement, however, does not seem to resonate with the grassroots activists, farmers, and people from all walks of life who have consistently opposed the transports and radioactive waste storage at Gorleben. Many Germans remain strongly opposed to transporting high-level nuclear waste, citing risks to the environment and human health and safety. In 1997, similar demonstrations at the same location brought out more than 20,000 protestors and more than 30,000 police. Again in 1998, well-organized demonstrations disrupted a nuclear shipment to the Ahaus storage site in northern Germany. ### Updates on the protests at Gorleben can be found at http://www.greenpeace.de/castorand http://www.x1000malquer.de(While most of the information will be in German, some will be in English.) First person accounts of the 1997 and 1998 German transports, with photos, can be found in the International News section of NIRS’ Web site, www.nirs.org. ***************************************************************** 5 Vice President's Views on Nuclear Energy Are Misguided [pclogo.gif (4633 bytes)] *March 26, 2001* Nuclear Power Is Incapable of Addressing Global Warming * WASHINGTON, D.C. – Vice President Dick Cheney’s views on nuclear power, espoused Wednesday on CNBC, are ill-informed and misguided, according to Public Citizen. Contrary to the vice president’s assertions, nuclear power is not capable of combating global warming because of the exorbitant cost of reactors and the long lead time needed to build them. Further, the steps needed to generate nuclear power -- mining uranium, enriching radioactive fuel and constructing reactors -- add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. "The nuclear industry, a major political funder, wants to leverage the energy crisis to get a second chance at a boondoggle technology," said Joan Claybrook, Public Citizen president. The nonprofit energy research group Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) 10 years ago debunked the nuclear industry’s claims that reactors could ease global warming. RMI figured that if we were to replace coal-fired power plants with nuclear reactors in an attempt to reduce greenhouse emissions by 20 to 30 percent by 2050, we would have to complete one nuclear reactor every one to three days for 40 years. RMI analysts found that every dollar spent on energy efficiency is approximately seven times more effective in reducing carbon dioxide than a dollar spent on nuclear power. And nuclear power generates nuclear waste. There is no known way to safely dispose of nuclear power’s most dangerous byproduct -- high-level radioactive waste. "Clearly, nuclear power is too expensive and has too long a lead time to effectively counter carbon dioxide emissions," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "The vice president can't solve global warming with nuclear power, and any further reliance on nuclear energy will only increase the risk of a major atomic catastrophe and create additional radioactive wastes that will remain dangerous for 240,000 years." Public Citizen ***************************************************************** 6 Biased Process Promotes Exposure to Nuclear Waste; Could Lead to Contamination of Consumer Goods [pclogo_small.gif (4096 bytes)] *March 26, 2001* Materials Could be Released Into Consumer Goods, Building Supplies* 119 Groups and Individuals Protest Lopsided Agenda of NAS Committee Meeting* WASHINGTON, D.C. – The process used by a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee to determine how to dispose of radioactive waste is skewed toward reaching one recommendation: use the waste to make common household goods and building materials, according to a "Statement of Concern about Balance and Perspective"issued today by 119 public interest groups and individuals. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee, enlisted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to provide recommendations for the dispersal of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, is biased and designed to lend legitimacy to releasing the waste into regular commerce, the groups said. The NAS committee holds its second meeting today through Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The groups and individuals include singer Bonnie Raitt, the Sierra Club, the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility and the United Steelworkers of America. The groups are concerned that radioactively contaminated materials could be widely distributed throughout the environment and end up in a wide array of consumer goods. Should such releases be allowed to continue and increase, the radioactive legacy of America’s nuclear power and weapons industry could end up in everything from cooking utensils and bicycles to homebuilding materials such as concrete, wood, metal and glass, the groups say. They are also concerned that radioactive soil could be used in landscaping or school playgrounds. In short, our overall environment could see a dramatic increase in radioactive contamination, according to David Ritter, a policy analyst for Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. Radioactive materials have been released from Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons and commercial sites for some time, and they continue to get out. Last year, as a result of pressure from citizen groups, unions and the steel industry, then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson placed a moratorium on the release of radioactive metals from DOE sites. However, the moratorium didn’t apply to commercial sites. Also, contaminated materials that aren’t metals still may be released from DOE sites, providing that the DOE believes that releases will result in "authorized doses" of radiation to the population. The NAS is advising the NRC on how to proceed to set a standard for the amount of radiation that the public can be exposed to from products containing recycled materials from the nuclear fuel chain. The NAS committee (called the Committee on Alternatives for Controlling the Release of Solid Materials From Nuclear Regulatory Commission Licensed Facilities) was formed in September and has 18 months to issue recommendations about how the NRC should deal with radioactively contaminated waste. The committee has invited "stakeholders" to present their views on the release, reuse or recycling of the materials from NRC-licensed facilities. The statement of concern issued today protests the composition of the speakers and the agenda for the meeting. The groups’ statement reminds the committee that "the public’s right to protection from unnecessary radiation exposure should be the pre-eminent concern" and that the signatories are "disappointed that the stakeholder presentations are so heavily skewed towards the nuclear industry." Not a single public interest organization will have the chance to address the whole committee. "This is blatantly unfair and biased," said Diane D’Arrigo, project director at Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). "It discredits the supposedly scientific process that should be independent of powerful business interests." The first day of presentations, which will be made to the full committee, has been allotted solely to nuclear industry representatives. On the second day, the committee will split into two sections and hold simultaneous sessions. Only three of the 25 scheduled speakers will represent the general public, and just one organization – representing a nuclear industry – has been given two time slots for presentations. The public interest sector wanted better representation at the meeting. According to D’Arrigo, "numerous others requested the opportunity to present, but were refused, some with unique and comprehensive knowledge of the very issues with which this committee must contend." The nuclear industry stands to reap great benefits from selling radioactive waste to be recycled into consumer goods. Selling, dumping or donating radioactive materials under the green-washed guise of "recycling" would be much more cost-effective for the companies that own and operate nuclear power plants than responsibly isolating and maintaining the waste for the many years they will be hazardous. "What’s good for the bottom line of the nuclear companies is bad news for the public," Ritter said. "The entire country could become a laboratory where people would be the guinea pigs for an experiment to discover the long-term health effects of repeated and unavoidable exposures to radiation." The protest letter urges that "this bias be corrected in all future sessions and that the expertise of this committee focus seriously on practical mechanisms to isolate radioactively contaminated materials from the public and the environment." The impact of any decision by the committee, which will influence the NRC’s rulemaking process, could set a precedent that would affect the release of similarly contaminated materials from nuclear weapons and other fuel chain sites within the Departments of Defense and Energy. "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is hoping that the National Academy of Sciences will give them much-needed credibility for letting nuclear power wastes into our daily lives," D’Arrigo said. "We are calling on the NAS Committee to really listen to critics and public sentiment and to reject this dangerous plan." Public Citizen ***************************************************************** 7 Oak Ridge National Lab Collaborates on Six Energy Efficiency Grants OAK RIDGE, TN, March 27, 2001 - The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has announced that out of 13 university-led projects that have received funding from the Energy Department's Energy Efficiency Science Initiative, it is collaborating on six of them. The Energy Efficiency Science Initiative looks to promote more-efficient production and use of energy. The projects, their total budgets (combined university/laboratory awards) and their ORNL collaborators include: + New Processing and Characterization Approaches for Achieving Full Performance of High Temperature Superconducting Tapes, University of Wisconsin. The university will address key issues needed to improve the performance of superconducting tapes to increase their energy efficiency and make them more economical. Estimated grant amount is $350,000. Eliot Spect of the Metals and Ceramics Division is the ORNL collaborator. + Atomic Scale Investigations of the Structure and Dynamics of Complex Catalytic Materials, Drexel University, Philadelphia. Drexel University is performing research to advance the understanding of atomic-scale structure and dynamics of complex catalytic materials that produce reactions to improve energy efficiency. Estimated grant amount is $599,922. Steve Pennycook of the Solid State Division is the ORNL collaborator. + Adaptive Full-Spectrum Solar Energy Systems, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada. The university will conduct research to demonstrate that solar energy systems can be made at an affordable cost for commercial buildings. In addition, the university will demonstrate that complex hybrid reactors used for emissions reduction at power plants can be made to compete favorably with existing technologies. Estimated grant amount is $1,824,574. The University of Nevada will provide $355,391 in matching funds. Jeff Muhs of the Engineering Technology Division is the ORNL collaborator. + High Temperature Ceramic Coatings for Energy Efficient Heat Engines, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern will conduct research that enables high temperature ceramic coatings to be used in energy efficient heat engines, such as microturbines and industrial gas turbines. Estimated grant amount is $814,215. Northwestern will provide $143,215 in matching funds. Matt Ferber of the Metals and Ceramics Division is the ORNL collaborator. + Enhancement of Closed Chamber Reactors in Agriculture. Washington University, St. Louis. The university will conduct work to promote energy efficiency through design, scale-up and operation of anaerobic digesters (closed chamber reactors) that convert animal manure into chemicals and energy for use in agriculture and other industries. Estimated grant amount is $737,150. Dave DePaoli and Tom Klasson of the Chemical Technology Division are the ORNL collaborators. + High Temperature Fiber Optic Sensor for Energy Intensive Industries, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. The university will develop and demonstrate the application of self-calibrating temperature and pressure sensors for several energy-intensive industries where conventional, commercially available sensors fail prematurely. This emerging technology will provide for improved reliability and durability in commercial applications. Estimated grant amount is $647,417. Mark Janney of the Metals and Ceramics Division is the ORNL collaborator. EarthVision ***************************************************************** 8 Waste not, what not: Environmental wisdom ContraCostaTimes.com *Published Tuesday, March 27, 2001 * By Esha Nagle Solar energy is the most abundant energy available on the planet. Imagine what the world would be like if research and development funds had been earmarked for solar electric energy instead of nuclear, coal and various other polluting materials. Most homes and businesses could easily be converted to solar (photovoltaic) panels. Given that our government invested billions of dollars in nuclear energy research and not solar energy research, the cost of converting to solar is still high. However, if you consider the rising cost of natural gas and, in most places, of electricity, combined with the fact that those energy sources have helped us pollute ourselves off the planet, converting to solar is relatively cheap. To make your purchase more palatable, there are incentives, rebates and tax write-offs as well as federally sponsored reimbursement programs and energy buy-back options. There are also many low rate loans available for renewable energy options. The installation of solar panels usually requires a licensed contractor to ensure safe and efficient operation of the system. While cost will vary greatly as solar panels come in various output configurations, a starting point for reference is to figure approximately $1,500 per Kwh/day for a direct intertie system, or $15,000 to $20,000 for a typical residence (prior to rebates, etc.). To include battery back-up against utility blackouts, figure a minimum of an additional $3,000 for batteries and system equipment. The national average is approximately 15-20 Kwh/day, so you may be able to find some ways to reduce your overall usage through conservation measures such as low-watt full spectrum fluorescent lighting. To figure out actual power usage requirements, you can approach it two ways: Your utility bill may show average usage over a given period. PG bill has most recent month usage in terms of Kwh/day, or you can contact your local office to request your 12-month consumption history. Alameda Power &Telecom has your 12-month history located on the most recent bill; or you can go the long way and count every appliance and fixture's power consumption over a given time and how much time it is actually used over the period. (This method is recommended, as it will aid you in finding places to conserve and be more efficient.) You can also go to Alameda Power &Telecom to borrow a meter and determine the actual amount of energy that your appliances use. We are fortunate because Real Goods Trading Corporation is right in our backyard in Berkeley. They are available to answer questions about converting your home or business to solar energy, and they also sell PV panels. There are many other companies that offer PV panels and installation; many of them can be located on the Internet or in the Yellow Pages. By converting to solar and purchasing energy efficient appliances and light bulbs, you are reducing the overall pollution in the world, eliminating high cost energy bills, and taking a step away from being dependent on utility companies. You are one step closer to sustainable living. The sun shines on the order of a hundred trillion watts or so and hurtles light across the vacuum of space at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. Various solar panels, composed primarily of silicon (a primary ingredient of sand) can be positioned on your roof top for maximum exposure. When the natural light of the sun touches the panels, the silicon produces an electric current through the release of electrons. The direct current can be upgraded to usable power through an inverter, so it can be used to run appliances, lights and even your hot water heater. To get more information on converting your home or business to solar or to locate rebate programs, etc., call Real Goods in Berkeley at 558-0700.* Contact Esha Chelle Nagle, c/o Waste Not, What Not, 2515 Santa Clara Ave. #207, Alameda, CA 94501 or 510-521-4129.* ***************************************************************** 9 Westinghouse Launches New Website Tuesday March 27, 2:00 pm Eastern Time Press Release *SOURCE: Westinghouse Electric Company* PITTSBURGH, March 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Westinghouse Electric Company launched a redesigned and expanded World Wide Web site at www.westinghouse.comThe redesigned Web site incorporates changes to the Company's organization, including integration of the Combustion Engineering and Atom nuclear businesses into Westinghouse. It also permits Westinghouse customers to more readily communicate with key Westinghouse personnel and to reference the Company's product and service capabilities more effectively. Kerry Hanahan, director of e-commerce for Westinghouse said: ``The redesigned site will reduce loading times, improve navigation, and provide more information for our customers and for people considering a career with Westinghouse. It will be a convenient reference point for viewing new publications, press releases, and a comprehensive history of Westinghouse Electric. And we view the launch as a key step in building our electronic commerce capabilities.'' The Westinghouse Electric Company Web site was redesigned by Agnew Moyer Smith, Inc., located here. Agnew Moyer Smith (www.amsite.com) provides information architecture, interactive design, environmental graphic design, branding and identity, marketing support, and packaging design services to clients throughout the United States. Westinghouse Electric Company, wholly owned by BNFL plc, offers a wide range of nuclear plant products and services to utilities around the world, including fuel fabrication and fuel management, engineering and field services, repair and replacement services, instrumentation and control products, and advanced nuclear power plant designs. Westinghouse supplied the world's first pressurized water reactor commercial nuclear power plant in 1957, and has designed the world's largest installed base of operating nuclear power plants. BNFL (www.BNFL.com) is a leading specialist in nuclear technology and a global supplier of nuclear fuel, products and services. Currently, around a third of BNFL's sales comes from Westinghouse; a quarter comes from the recycling of UK and overseas customers' fuel; a further quarter of sales comes from operating the UK's Magnox power stations. The remainder of BNFL's business is in waste management and decommissioning, which is expected to grow significantly in the years ahead. *SOURCE: Westinghouse Electric Company* Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy ***************************************************************** 10 Uranium Institute News Briefing 01.13 | 21 - 27 March 2001 A weekly summary of international news relevant to uranium and the nuclear energy industry. [NB01.13-1] 'One or more of five US utilities' will announce applications seeking site location approval for a series of new nuclear power plants by the end of April 2001, according to Joe Colvin, chief executive of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). He said that 'all but one' of the proposed locations would be at existing reactor sites, while one would be a 'greenfield' location. The utilities involved are Constellation Energy, Dominion Resources, Entergy, Exelon and Southern. The applications would be made to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which, once approved, the utilities could return to the NRC at a later date to request a construction and operating licence for a pre-approved nuclear power plant design. *(NucNet News, 99/01, 21 March; see also News Briefing 01.06-6)* [NB01.13-2] France: A consignment of six casks, each containing 28 canisters of vitrified German radioactive waste, began its journey by rail from Cogema's La Hague reprocessing plant to the interim storage facility at Gorleben, Germany, on 26 March. The cargo - under tight security and facing protests - was expected to reach Danneberg, Germany, in the evening of 27 March, where it will be transferred to trucks and taken by road for the remainder of the journey to Gorleben, where it is due to arrive on 28 March. Around 15 000 German police have been mobilised to ensure the cargo reaches its destination. *(NucNet News, 105/01, 26 March; SpentFUEL, 26 March, p2; see also News Briefing 01.06-3)* [NB01.13-3] South Africa: A contract to design a fuel fabrication plant for the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) has been awarded to a consortium consisting of NUKEM Nuklear GmbH of Germany, British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) of the UK and Engineering Management Services of South Africa. The feasibility study for the fuel fabrication facility is expected to be completed later in 2001. A demonstration PBMR is scheduled to start operations in 2005. *(Nuclear Market Review, 23 March, p3; see also News Briefing 00.36-5)* [NB01.13-4] Spain's nine nuclear power plants generated a record 62.2 TWh of electricity in 2000. Nuclear generation represented 27.8% of the country's total electricity production of 223.4 TWh in 2000, down from 28.3% in 1999. The average load capacity for Spain's nuclear plants also reached a record 90.9%, up from 87.4% in 1999. Spain's total installed capacity, as of 31 December 2000, was 7798 MWe. *(NucNet News, 101/01, 21 March; see also News Briefing 00.10-14)* [NB01.13-5] Nuclear power production within the European Union (EU) increased 2% in 2000 to about 828 TWh, according to the Association of German Electricity Suppliers (VDEW). Nuclear energy accounts for one-third on electricity generation in the EU. *(Reuters, 27 March; see also News Briefing 99.21-2)* [NB01.13-6] Japan: Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) is 'uncertain' whether it will be permitted to load mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa-3 nuclear power reactor, in Niigata prefecture, in April 2001, as originally planned. The company is concerned that the timing of the operation may be affected by the 'negative attitude' of the governor of Fukushima prefecture. The governor had criticised Tepco's plans to suspend some non-nuclear projects and has held up plans for the first use of MOX in Fukushima. However, the governor of Niigata prefecture accepted the use of MOX, provided his prefecture was not the first to do so. Meanwhile, four casks containing 28 assemblies of MOX fuel produced by Cogema of France arrived in Japan by ship. The cargo was unloaded and transported to the storage facility at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. *(NucNet News, 107/01, 27 March; see also News Briefings 01.12-6 and 01.09-11)* Meanwhile, a Fukushima district court judge rejected calls by anti-nuclear groups for a temporary injunction against the use of Belgian MOX at Tepco's Fukushima I-3 reactor. The injunction request argued that Belgonucleaire's checks of the outer diameters of MOX fuel pellets were improper. However, the judge ruled that checks conducted on the MOX fuel were ' sufficiently reliable'. *(NucNet News, 108/01, 27 March; see also News Briefing 00.33-4)* [NB01.13-7] US: A feasibility study on completing construction of WNP-1 will be undertaken by Energy Northwest. The move follows a request from two US Representatives - Doc Hastings (R-Wa) and George Nethercutt (R-Wa) - urging the public consortium to do so. Vic Parish, CEO of Energy Northwest, hopes to have the study conducted within 100 days. Parish earlier estimated that it would cost US$3-4 billion to complete the 1250 MWe reactor, which was two-thirds complete when construction was suspended in 1982. *(Ux Weekly, 26 March, p2; see also News Briefing 01.04-11)* [NB01.13-8] Japan: Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) remains committed to constructing a new two-unit nuclear power plant near Higashidori, Aomori prefecture. Tepco plans to build two 1385 MWe advanced boiling water reactors (ABWRs) - Higashidori-1 and -2 - north of Tohoku Electric Power's existing plant of the same name. The company plans to make a formal application to Japan's Electric Power Development Co-ordination Council in fiscal 2002 to start construction in fiscal 2005. *(NucNet News, 102/01, 21 March; see also News Briefing 99.12-10*) [NB01.13-9] North Korea: A bipartisan group of US foreign policy experts have urged President George W Bush to consider possible revisions to the nuclear accord which has frozen North Korea's nuclear programme since 1994. While stressing that 'no unilateral changes by any party' should be made, the group said that 'circumstances require a fresh look' at the pact, under which North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear programme in return for US$5 billion worth of new nuclear power reactors and heavy fuel oil. *(International Herald Tribune, 27 March, p9; see also News Briefing 01.09-4)* Meanwhile, the international consortium (KEDO) formed to build two new reactors in Kumho, North Korea, has hired 207 Uzbeks to work on the project. They are expected to start work in late March 2001. *(Far Eastern Economic Review, 29 March, p13; see also News Briefing 00.04-10)* [NB01.13-10] Ukraine: Long-term plans indicate that construction of Khmelnitsky-3 and -4 will be completed in 2010-2014, according to Victor Stovbun, executive director of Energoatom. The units will be Russian-designed VVER reactors, he said, but was uncertain whether the VVER-1000 or its more advanced modifications will be installed. *(Ux Weekly, 26 March, p4)* [NB01.13-11] China's tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005) incorporates the construction of nuclear power plants, government officials attending the fourth session of the ninth National People's Congress (NPC) announced. Although three provinces - Shandong, Zhejiang and Guangdong - have applied for permission to build new nuclear units, the exact number of new reactors has yet to be determined. In 2000, China was reportedly considering imposing a moratorium on reactor orders in its five-year plan. *(FreshFUEL, 26 March, p6; see also News Briefing 99.20-2 and 01.08-11)* [NB01.13-12] An international convention covering the safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste will come into force on 18 June 2001. The convention will be the first international instrument to address the safety of management and storage of radioactive wastes and spent fuel in countries both with and without nuclear programmes. The convention establishes a binding reporting system for contracting parties to address all measures taken by each state to implement the obligations under the convention. This would include reporting on national inventories of radioactive wastes and spent fuel. The text of the 'Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management' is available on the IAEA website *(). (IAEA, 20 March; see also News Briefing 97.40-3)* [NB01.13-13] Russia: The Duma postponed the second reading of three draft bills which would allow the import of spent nuclear fuel for storage and reprocessing. Deputies voted in favour of delaying the measure until further hearings have been held. The bills will probably be voted on again after 9 April 2001. *(NucNet News, 104/01, 23 March; SpentFUEL, 26 March, p2; see also News Briefing 01.08-13)* [NB01.13-14] UK: A fourth public consultation on the future of British Nuclear Fuels plc's (BNFL's) Sellafield mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel processing facility is reportedly expected to be announced by environment minister Michael Meacher in the next few weeks. The 460 million UK pound (US$660 million) MOX plant was completed in 1996 but is still awaiting authorisation to start commercial operations. *(Financial Times, 23 March, p2; see also News Briefing 01.08-15)* [NB01.13-15] Taiwan: The power failure incident at the Maanshan nuclear power plant on 18 March has been provisionally classified as the equivalent of level 2 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) by the country's Atomic Energy Council (AEC). Details of the incident have been sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A malfunction of a power distribution system caused a loss of outside power to reactor 1 of the two-unit plant and emergency diesel generators at the plant failed to operate. No application for permission to restart the two units will be made until all the facts surrounding the incident have been established. *(NucNet News, 103/01, 23 March; see also News Briefing 01.12-8)* [NB01.13-16] The South Korean government plans to invest 23.5 billion won (US$179 million) in 2001 in a project to upgrade key technologies for nuclear power generation, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) announced. *(Ux Weekly, 26 March, p4; see also News Briefing 00.35-6)* [NB01.13-17] US: The benefits of nuclear-generated electricity must be re-examined as part of a 'serious' attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, vice-president Dick Cheney said in an interview on MSNBC's 'Hardball' programme on 21 March. Cheney is heading a special White House task force assigned to prepare detailed recommendations for ways of resolving the country's energy crisis. The group's recommendations are expected to be published in about six weeks. *(NucNet News, 100/01, 22 March; Nuclear Energy Overview, 26 March, p1; see also News Briefing 01.08-18)* Previous News Briefing NB01.12 *Prepared by the Uranium Institute Information Service. All news and views are those of the publications cited.* ***************************************************************** 11 Dominion utility chief says nuke waste site long overdue March 27, 2001 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top executive of Dominion Resources, a Virginia-based utility, said Tuesday that the Department of Energy should move ahead in building a permanent repository for thousands of tons of waste from nuclear power plants. The permanent repository is important to Richmond, Va.-based Dominion, which agreed to buy the Millstone nuclear unit of Northeast Utilities for $1.28 billion in a deal that was expected to close in April. "The federal repository was supposed to be up and running more than three years ago," Thos. Capps, Dominion's chief executive officer, said in a speech at a meeting of business economists. "To date, the government has spent $6.8 billion and no repository is in sight." Some 40,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods are now stored at scores of commercial power plants despite a federal requirement that the Department of Energy build a permanent repository. The Energy Department has been studying a site known as Yucca Mountain in Nevada to determine its suitability for storing the waste. If the site is eventually approved by Congress, the spent nuclear fuel would be moved there by truck and rail as early as 2010. Capps said the nation faces a dangerous imbalance in electricity supply and demand, with few new coal-burning plants and no nuclear plants on the drawing board. "Nuclear energy supplies one-fifth of the nation's electricity with no emissions," he said. "But the expansion of nuclear energy is comatose." Capps remarks echoed the sentiments of Republican head of the House Energy and Commerce committee who earlier Tuesday said nuclear power was on its way back. Vice President Dick Cheney said last week that nuclear power could help alleviate environmental concerns about global warming. Coal-fueled power plants spew various emissions, including carbon dioxide, that have been linked to climate change by scientists. Republican lawmakers are taking a closer looks at the industry although no new nuclear plants have been built in 25 years. Dominion provides electricity or natural gas to nearly 4 million customers in Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The company had net profits of $436 million last year on sales of $9.2 billion. www.excite.com ***************************************************************** 12 Lucas Heights reactor a step closer after nuclear exports deal - smh.com.au - National March 28, 2001 By Andrew Clennell in Canberra and Clinton Porteous in Buenos Aires *Australia yesterday secured in-principle agreement for the export of spent nuclear fuel rods to Argentina, as the Federal Government indicated the French Government may overrule any court decision to stop the unloading of Australian nuclear waste there. The developments came as the Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Downer, said Labor secretly supported the planned new nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights and its construction by Argentinian company INVAP. A French court decided earlier this month that French company Cogema could not unload 360 spent fuel rods from the current Lucas Heights reactor at a Cherbourg dock because it had not produced the correct licences to do so. A higher court, hearing an appeal by Cogema, on Monday night Australian time, heard evidence and reserved its decision until next Tuesday. The original court decision raised concerns over plans for the new nuclear reactor because plan A for reprocessing spent fuel included sending it to Cogema. Plan B involves taking the rods to Argentina, where environmental groups will claim in court the constitution would be breached if the waste was taken into the country. But the Science Minister, Senator Minchin, told the Senate yesterday: "The French Government have indicated they strongly support Cogema on this. "If after appeal and all legal processes have been duly met there is any technical difficulty, they [the French] have indicated their willingness to ensure that impediment is overcome." Meanwhile, Mr Downer, visiting South America for the first time, announced the new Nuclear Safeguards Agreement. Initialled yesterday by Mr Downer and his Argentine counterpart, Mr Rodriguez Giavarini, the agreement guarantees Australia can ship spent fuel rods across the Pacific. "The agreement facilitates the transfer of spent fuel to Argentina, should that prove necessary, and its return to Australia in the form of waste," the document says. Mr Downer claimed Opposition frontbenchers had told Argentine officials they would not scrap the INVAP contract. Labor's science spokesman, Mr Martyn Evans, admitted last night that he had met the Argentinian ambassador and said to him that Labor had "never been in the business of simply cancelling contracts". But he said Labor would examine the contract if it got to power and decide what to do then. ***************************************************************** 13 CHINA EXPANDS CIVILIAN ROLE FOR ITS NUCLEAR INDUSTRY Story Filed: Tuesday, March 27, 2001 11:50 PM EST SHIJIAZHUANG, Mar 28, 2001 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- China's nuclear industry is accelerating efforts to expand civilian application, and is rapidly becoming a major powerhouse in the national economy. The nuclear application has become a new growth factor in China's economy, Huang Guojin, deputy manager of China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC), told a recent press conference. Since the early 1980s, the nuclear industry has been expediting the process to change from military production to civilian application and becoming an important impetus for the national economy, according to Huang. The industry, with 80 per cent of the revenue coming from civilian application, has established a large number of enterprise groups covering over 1,500 products for civilian use, according sources from CNNC. Sources also indicate that 1,200 hospitals across the country have adopted isotope diagnosis and therapy effective for malignant diseases. Still, the technology has been used in a wild variety ranging from breeding seeds, automatic fire alarm system, food preservation and antisepsis, mine prospecting, non-contact inspection devices and so on. The nuclear technology for civilian use is benefiting people in every aspect if under secure operation, said Zhang Xiang, senior engineer with Development Center for Radiation Technology at Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei province. The development of nuclear energy represents a major factor enabling the industry to introduce strategic adjustments focusing on civilian application, said the expert. China is planning to provide central heating system using nuclear power in the city of Shenyang in northeast China's Liaoning Province as an attempt to curb the worsening air pollution. Currently, coal accounts for 75 per cent of China's energy consumption, creating serious environmental problems nationwide. Also, the country, plagued by the lack of clean and efficient energy, decided to spur the development of its own nuclear power plants. So far, China has its huge projects like the Qinshan Nuclear Power Station in Zhejiang Province of East China and the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong Province of South China, both having exemplary safety records. The power plants, with technologies imported from foreign countries, including France and Russia, have not only alleviated power shortages in east China and Guangdong, but have also supplied substantial quantities of power to Hong Kong. Construction of second and third phase projects at Qinshan, andat the Ling'ao and Lianyungang nuclear power stations also is progressing smoothly. In spite of that, the government is still earnest to develop advanced, safe, and economical nuclear reactors with its own intellectual property rights rather than merely relying on foreign technologies. The country's nuclear power generating capacity is likely to reach 20 million kilowatts by the year 2010, with the figure expected to rise to 40 million kilowatts accounting for 5 per cent of the nation's total power output by 2020. (XIC) (C) 2001 Asia Pulse Pte Ltd ***************************************************************** 14 The DPP lacks basic political sensibility The Taipei Times Online: 2001-03-28 Wednesday, March 28th, 2001 By Wang Chien-chuang ¤ý°·§§ A-bian (ªü«ó) has called the government's ban -- subsequently lifted -- on Yoshinori Kobayashi (¤pªLµ½¬ö) visiting Taiwan "outrageous." But in fact, this is hardly the only outrageous thing the government has done. When A-bian met with Lien Chan (³s¾Ô), his guest had no sooner departed than the Executive Yuan announced the halting of construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (®Ö¥|) -- a slap in the face that nearly knocked Lien out. From that point on, there hasn't been a moment of peace between the ruling and opposition parties. This was one outrage. Whether or not Feb. 28 would be a public holiday this year was originally a minor and routine matter. But in the end, nobody raised the issue and nobody made a decision, leaving the entire country in doubt about whether or not to take the day off. This was a second outrage. Regarding the issue of whether or not Penghu should build tourist casinos, A-bian could adopt one of only two possible attitudes -- acceptance or refusal. But the result has ended up resembling Akira Kurosawa's *Rashomon* (ù¥Íªù), with A-bian engaged in utterly senseless word games trying to distinguish the difference between "approval" and "agreement." This was a third outrage. Every penny of public funds spent by the chairman of a bank should be related to bank business, but the chairman of First Commercial Bank, Jerome Chen (³¯«Ø¶©), managed to spend over NT$400,000 of public funds on postage to send a personal letter recommending a candidate in the primary election of his political party. If this incident hadn't come to light, the money might very well have been incomprehensibly written off by the chairman. This was a fourth outrage. Kobayashi's *On Taiwan* (¥xÆW½×) blatantly altered the facts of Taiwan's history and seriously slandered former comfort women. Our president and vice president, however, have spoken on Kobayashi's behalf several times in the name of free speech. Of course, the defense of free speech by our nation's leaders is worthy of respect and admira-tion. Not long ago, however, the vice president filed a slander suit against some members of the Taiwan media. This two-sided approach of our leaders -- being tolerant of a Japanese cartoonist while slighting the Taiwanese media -- was a fifth outrage. Many people say that the DPP is accustomed to being the opposition party and therefore is only capable of the discourse of opposition and not the discourse of government. Some people also say that the DPP only has experience with local power and lacks experience with central power. Therefore, they say, in the early period after the change in ruling parties, the country will be chaotic for a while. Even more people note that the DPP is a minority party in the legislature. The opposition alliance impedes their every effort, causing the DPP to constantly find itself in the awkward position of desiring to act but lacking the power to govern and implement policy. These arguments all make sense. But among the above mentioned outrages, not one has anything to do with administrative experience, the discourse of government, or having a ruling majority. The vast majority came about because the DPP lacks political sensitivity. Political sensitivity involves knowing instinctively whether or not certain statements and certain actions should be said or done, as well as knowing what the consequences of those statements and actions would be. If the ruling party lacks even this most basic sensitivity and keeps on saying or doing outrageous things, who should be blamed for the administrative mess we now face? *Wang Chien-chuang is president of *The Journalist *magazine.** * Translated by Ethan Harkness This story has been viewed 292 times. Copyright © 1999-2001 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Musharraf to open nuclear power plant on Thursday 28 March 2001 : The Times of India ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani nuclear power plant built with Chinese assistance will be opened by military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Thursday, the Atomic Energy Commission said. The Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (CHASNUPP) in central Punjab province was a "model of cooperation" between Pakistan and China, the commission said in a statement on Tuesday. Built with the collaboration of the Chinese National Nuclear Corporation, Pakistan's second nuclear plant will supply 1,840 million kilowatts per hour of electricity to the government's Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA). Chinese companies supplied the equipment and helped with the design and manufacture of the plant, which was connected to the national grid in June last year and tested until September. The International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Association of Nuclear Operators will provide technical support for the plant. Another smaller nuclear plant, built with Canadian assistance, has been in operation at Karachi in southern Sindh province since 1971.(AFP) ***************************************************************** 16 Pakistani leader urges strengthening of country's nuclear program [Daily News] Pakistan's Military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has urged his country to consolidate the Pakistani nuclear programme with new vigour. General Musharraf told scientists from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission that he expected them to carry forward what he called the "momentous work" of their predecessors. Pakistan conducted a series of tests in May 1998 in a tit-for-tat response to India, triggering international condemnation and sanctions against both. General Musharaff told the scientists that Pakistan's interest was not solely confined to defence but also aimed to harness nuclear technology to bring prosperity and socio-economic upliftment. This service includes material from Pacnews, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reuters which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. ***************************************************************** 17 Norway demands closure of Sellafield Wednesday March 28, 10:39 AM *By Erik Brynhildsbakken* OSLO (Reuters) - Norway has urged Britain to close its Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant following reports that radioactive pollution along Norwegian shores has increased. "We are putting pressure on British authorities to put an end to emissions from Sellafield," Environment Minister Siri Bjerke told Reuters. "The Sellafield plant should be shut down." The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority said it found the concentration of the radioactive substance technetium-99 along the country's coastline had risen sixfold since 1996. State-owned British Nuclear Fuel (BNFL) has been under sustained international pressure to close down its Thorp reprocessing plant at Sellafield after a number of safety scares, but so far Britain's Labour government has not budged. Norway's Labour government now fears that the country's fishing industry will be hit by the increases in the emissions of technetium-99 from Sellafield. Bjerke said she brought up the high levels of radioactive emissions from Sellafield in a meeting with British Environment Minister Michael Meacher in February. "And Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will also address the issue when he meets with (Prime Minister) Tony Blair this summer," Bjerke said. "Norway depends on a clean ocean and a productive coast, and the government finds it unacceptable when nuclear waste problems are leading to pollution of Norwegian coastal and ocean areas," she said. Bjerke said current emission levels did not represent any immediate health risk or threat to the environment, but that the long-term consequences remained unknown. "Therefore it is of vital importance to use the precautionary principle," she said. Bjerke said she was optimistic that British authorities would eventually bow to the pressure to shut Sellafield. "Although our demands to British authorities have so far not resulted in any concrete advances, it is obvious that reprocessing of used reactor fuel is faced with an uphill struggle, politically as well as commercially," Bjerke said. Norway says that traces of technetium-99 from Sellafield have turned up in marine life along its coasts ranging from seaweed to lobsters. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 German Nuke Train Retreats Amid Riot March 28, 2001 DANNENBERG, Germany- A train delivering 60 tons of nuclear waste to a German storage site was forced to retreat Wednesday after protesters clashed with police and some chained themselves to the rails. The buzz of heavy drills echoed through the North German woods as police tried to dislodge three protesters who chained themselves across the tracks on blankets overnight. The train remained stuck, 28 miles from the waste dump. After sporadic protests Tuesday along the route across Germany, the blockade further delayed the shipment's journey to the Dannenberg train depot. Once there, the six waste containers are to be loaded onto flatbed trucks for the last leg of a 375-mile trip from a French reprocessing plant. Earlier, police said they had removed all but one protester from the tracks, but they then discovered three were chained together. Meanwhile, the train backed up a few hundred yards to the nearest small-town station for refueling and a crew change. Riot police sent reinforcements to this northern German town after militants threw stones, fired flares and set a police car afire Tuesday night. Police replied with water cannon and baton charges. Police said five officers were injured in the clashes, one seriously. About 600 protesters were taken into custody. The protesters said dozens on their side were injured. About 20,000 police were in action in Germany's biggest security operation in years after protesters turned the last transport in 1997 into chaos. Clashes died down overnight, partly because freezing temperatures forced the protesters to retreat. Demonstrators across the country sought to block the train's progress Tuesday by chaining themselves to the tracks. The protesters object to what they say is highly dangerous radioactive waste being transported through Germany, and hope to make the transports so costly the government will call them to a halt. Officials expect more clashes during the final stage of the journey, when trucks will bring the containers - each with about 10 tons of radioactive waste sealed in 28 glass casks - to the Gorleben nuclear waste dump. "We'll sleep in the open tonight and come back in the morning," protester Jascha Luedeke, 17, said Tuesday. "The government has got to see how many people are against this." The approach road to the Gorleben dump was sealed off with barbed wire and police vans were stationed at 40-yard intervals. Officers on horseback patrolled the nearby forest and heat-sensitive cameras were used. Throughout the day Tuesday, the convoy was greeted by sporadic protests as it chugged northeast from France, where the waste from Germany was reprocessed. It took a detour to avoid the university city of Goettingen, where hundreds of people briefly occupied the tracks. Dozens were arrested along the route. German and French leaders agreed on a resumption of nuclear waste traffic last January, with the German government saying it has tightened safety rules for the transports since the previous administration suspended shipments in 1998 because of radioactive leaks on some containers. Spent nuclear fuel from German power plants is sent abroad for reprocessing, but the contracts oblige Germany to take back the resulting waste. Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, a member of the Greens party which has enraged some its core supporters by agreeing to the transport, played down the demonstrations. "I think we had to expect there would be protests on this scale," he told SWR radio. But "we can't leave our trash at our neighbors' front door." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 19 'Trainstoppers' gather to halt a deadly cargo in its tracks Independent By Imre Karacs in Dannenberg, Germany 28 March 2001 DE Velt Online Slumped bleary-eyed on a bale of straw, Eduard Schösser looked as though he had been run over by a train, but that possibly still lay ahead. He was exhausted, he explained, because he had been sleeping rough for three frosty nights and he was obviously getting too old for this kind of thing. They call it "trainstopping". Mr Schösser, a 61-year-old retired clerk, and thousands of like-minded people were gathering yesterday on the windswept plain of northern Germany in an attempt to prevent a particularly nasty cargo reaching its destination. Six very special wagons containing the bitter harvest of German nuclear power were coming home, encased in glass at a French reprocessing plant, but still hot with radioactivity. Germany is legally obliged to take back its spent fuel and, under pressure from France to ease a backlog of German waste at its La Hague plant near Cherbourg, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder lifted a transport ban imposed on safety grounds in 1998. About two cargoes a year are now planned. The train was approaching Dannenberg, an ancient town but thoroughly insignificant except that this is where the railway tracks end. If all goes to plan, the shipment will be transferred today to flat-bottomed lorries, to be whisked to the storage facility at Gorleben, 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the east. The unresolved fate of radioactive waste is an Achilles heel of the nuclear industry, and Dannenberg its most vulnerable point. And so Mr Schösser has returned, four years after the last battle, for another tilt at the nuclear industry. The train was running late. It had set off on schedule, at dawn on Monday, crawling on branch lines across northern France. Its route was kept secret to keep the opponents of nuclear power guessing. They had threatened to chain themselves to rails and be cemented to the sleepers. The train's meanderings through southern Germany were undisturbed but protesters had prepared a fiery welcome on the tracks that they thought lay in the train's path. They were right, but the authorities had a surprise up their sleeve. Instead of sending it through Göttingen, a university town and bastion of Green power, they diverted the unwanted consignment towards Paderborn, a staunchly conservative Catholic town. They lost three hours but saved themselves a lot of aggravation. They had less luck further down the line. Everybody knew that after reaching Lüneburg lay only a single option. This is where thousands of protesters had set up camp, along the 50km (31 mile) stretch linking Lüneburg and Dannenberg. As the six containers pulled into Lüneburg yesterday afternoon, some 1,500 demonstrators stormed through the cordons and sat down on the line just outside the town. The authorities' new secret weapon ­ "conflict managers" ­ unsurprisingly failed to get them to move. Riot police were then sent in, helicopters appeared and a convoy of water cannons menacingly trundled past. One by one, protesters were lifted and carted away. Some were injured by police truncheons. Meanwhile, forests along the length of the line were teeming with youths in black parkas, some sporting balaclavas. As police vans raced from one trouble spot to the next, demonstrators would reappear elsewhere to occupy another section of the railway line. The vast majority of demonstrators, such as those singing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" as they sat on the tracks, were peaceful. But police feared the unseen anarchists in black. The day had begun peacefully enough with a spectacular stunt. At dawn, Greenpeace activists managed to cross the river Jeetze near Dannenberg in rubber dinghies, ramming one police boat that tried to head them off. Attaching ropes to the pillars of a bridge, they abseiled and unfurled anti-nuclear banners. Police eventually prised them away and arrested about 40 of the protesters. One person was reported to have been injured in the incident and a policeman was drenched in the river. The demonstrators were clearly outnumbered by the forces ranged against them, which included German border troops. Every railway bridge was being guarded and police vans stood by at most road intersections. Officials said that 15,000 police were being deployed in the region. Dannenberg felt as if it was under martial law, with just a few hundred demonstrators visible, while dozens of armoured cars and water cannons were massed at the railway station. Mr Schösserhas been protesting against nuclear power for three decades and was under no illusion. "Of course we can't stop the train, but at least we can make this whole operation so expensive that we price nuclear power out of the market," he said. The cost of this delivery to Gorleben of six "Castors" ­ an acronym for "Cask for Storage and Transport of Radioactive Material" ­ is expected to exceed 10m German marks (£3.2m). Each "Castor" contains 168 cannisters of reprocessed waste embedded in glass and weighs about 100 tonnes. In the next 10 years, Germany will have to dispose of an estimated 120 Castors filled with its nuclear refuse. That these trains are again rolling, two years after the Greens entered government, makes environmentalists very angry. Mr Schösser comes from Frankfurt, where Joschka Fischer and other Green politicians shot to prominence. Mr Schösser was once a Green, but no longer. He is disgusted with the metamorphosis in his old friend. "There's no Joschka any more," he said. "There's only Herr Fischer now. He has forgotten who he was. When a pacifist starts to shoot, as he did in Kosovo, when an environmentalist strikes dirty deals with the nuclear mafia, then the movement is dead." The sense of disaffection is palpable. Far fewer people came to protest this time than four years ago. Mr Schösser says the protesters lack leadership. "The Greens always used to be at the head of the march. At our demo today, they marched at the back and then tried to confiscate our banners." But even at his age, Mr Schösser refuses to miss these protests. If he gets through the coming days in one piece, he will be back again for the next shipment. ***************************************************************** 20 German protesters halt atom waste train ISSUE 2133 Wednesday 28 March 2001 By Toby Helm in Dannenberg, northern Germany A TRAIN carrying the first nuclear waste to travel through Germany was halted last night as protesters tied themselves to the line and others fought police. The 60-ton consignment, which was reprocessed in France, was on its way to a nuclear dump at Gorleben under the protection of 30,000 policemen. During its journey through Germany it had had to stop repeatedly as campaigners blocked the line. As it approached its final destination, Dannenberg, police removed eight Greenpeace protesters who had tied themselves to the track. Other officers used water cannon on thousands of demonstrators. Several officers and protesters were hurt and in nearby Dahlenburg several police cars were set on fire. Movement of nuclear waste across Germany , but the French and German governments agreed early this year that they should resume. France had complained that reprocessed German waste was piling up at its plant in La Hague. ***************************************************************** 21 German Nuclear Cargo Moves Thousands to Protest Environment News Service: HAMBURG, Germany, March 27, 2001 (ENS) - In the biggest operation of its kind since World War II, Germany has deployed more than 15,000 police to prevent protesters from blocking the path of a nuclear waste shipment travelling from France to Gorleben in Germany. The shipment left French government owned Cogema's La Hague nuclear reprocessing complex by rail Monday morning. It is expected to reach an interim storage building at Gorleben, 90 kilometers (56 miles) southeast of Hamburg, Germany by Wednesday. [protest] Greenpeace activists unveil their banner from a bridge over the River Jeetzel. (Photo courtesy F. Dott/M. Fink/Greenpeace) It is the first such shipment between the two countries since 1998. Shipments were suspended when it emerged that a 125 year old bridge on the route needed repairs. Today, the newly replaced US$3.2 million Jeetzel bridge, between Lüneburg and Dannenberg, was the flashpoint for protest. About 45 Greenpeace activists from 15 countries were arrested after occupying the 13 meter (43 feet) bridge over the River Jeetzel. Unnoticed by police, the environmentalists had climbed from inflatable boats using ladders and ropes at about 7 a.m. Another 30 activists remained in the boats and helped unfurl a banner saying "Stop Castor," before being arrested about six hours later. The six nuclear fuel containers, known as castors, were due to be unloaded at Dannenberg and transferred to trucks for transport to Gorleben. "As long as nuclear power plants produce radioactive waste by the tonne, which is then shunted all over Europe, people will go on the streets to demonstrate peacefully against it," said Greenpeace's energy specialist, Veit Bürger. "The many protests accompanying the nuclear shipment are a clear sign that nuclear energy is not socially accepted," added Bürger. "The consensus on nuclear power has not changed this." Protests have dogged the shipment, beginning with its departure yesterday from the French coastal town of Valogne, to its destination, Gorleben, where several hundred demonstrators confronted police. In Lüneburg, more than 1,000 demonstrators occupied the railtrack. Germans have questioned the risks of nuclear energy for decades. Worries over radioactive contamination from transport, storage and disposal of nuclear materials, as well as fears of the effects of an accident at a nuclear reactor, have fueled numerous public protests. [map] Map of nuclear power plants in Germany. (Map courtesy Virtual Nuclear Tourist) Last June, the German government and the country's utility companies agreed to phase out the generation of electricity from Germany's 19 nuclear reactors. But some reactors will be allowed to continue operating for another 30 years - 30 years too long for groups like Greenpeace. In the meantime, Germany must look beyond the geological salt formations in Gorleben for somewhere to store its nuclear waste permanently. Cracks rarely appear in rock salt, which is why Gorleben's salt dome, far from groundwater, is favored for interim storage. Across Europe, demand for new sites to accept nuclear waste is increasing as more nuclear facilities are decommissioned. Decommissioning is the final phase in the lifecycle of a nuclear installation, covering all activities from shutdown and removal of fissile material to environmental restoration of the site. Technical operations include decontamination, dismantling and waste management. About 200,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel has been produced by the world's nuclear reactors, a figure that increases by about 12,000 tonnes a year. Currently, almost half of this is reprocessed, 38 percent is disposed of and 15 percent is in long term storage. Within the 15 countries of the European Union, more than 110 nuclear facilities are at various stages of the decommissioning process. It is forecast that at least a further 160 facilities will need to be decommissioned over the next 20 years within the present 15 member states. © Environment News Service ***************************************************************** 22 German Nuclear Waste Train Back on Move March 28 11:25 AM ET By Alastair Macdonald DAHLENBURG, Germany (Reuters) - A train laden with atomic waste resumed its journey to a north German waste dump on Wednesday after anti-nuclear activists had forced it to a halt by chaining themselves to the tracks. With police running alongside to check for further sabotage on the line, the train -- pulling six casks of radioactive waste -- edged out of Dahlenburg station where it had retreated following an overnight blockade lasting 15 hours. Police said that with the threat of further actions from thousands of protesters it was unclear when the shipment would reach the Dannenberg depot some 16 miles away from which the waste will be transferred to the nearby Gorleben facility. ``We have time and we won't allow ourselves to become unsettled,'' said a police spokesman. ``The main thing for us is to bring the transports in,'' he said of so-called ``Castor'' shipments of German waste which set out from a French reprocessing plant Monday. By 4 p.m. GMT it had reached the small country station of Leitstade, roughly halfway between Dahlenburg and Dannenberg. Freezing Temperatures A handful of anti-nuclear activists who had forced the train to halt by chaining themselves to the tracks were earlier removed by police who used pneumatic drills and heavy bolt cutters to dislodge them. One of the protesters from the anti-nuclear group Robin Wood was a 16-year-old girl who was carried away on a stretcher to receive urgent medical care following her night on the tracks in near-freezing temperatures. ``She looked in a bad way,'' said one onlooker at the scene. After two days of violence that have seen 110 arrested and 80 charged with offences ranging from endangerment of rail traffic to insulting a police officer, authorities stepped up one of Germany's largest peacetime security operations. From Leitstade it was possible to see riot police stationed every few meters (yards) into the distance on both sides of the track, while three water cannon stood in the station and several helicopters buzzed overhead. From Dannenberg, the shipments of waste are due to be unloaded onto trucks for a final 25-km journey by truck to the Gorleben dump on the Elbe river. Activists say they are unlikely to stop the waste reaching Gorleben but aim to make the transports economically and politically unviable, given the huge security presence needed to safeguard them. Some 20,000 police have been drafted. ``If they can't send their waste to France then the reactors will have to be shut down,'' said Matthias Hofmann, a 27-year-old student from Hanover. He described the blockades as ''strangulation tactics'' on German nuclear plants which do not have their own reprocessing facilities. Under pressure from France to reduce a backlog of German waste at its La Hague reprocessing plant near Cherbourg, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 1998 lifted a transport ban that had been imposed on safety grounds. Two cargoes a year are now planned. The transports are part of a deal struck with industry last year to phase out Germany's 19 reactors by about 2025 -- a timeline considered too long by anti-nuclear activists. Germany has no reprocessing facilities of its own. Most people in the European Union (news - web sites)'s most populous country are opposed to or at least wary of nuclear energy. The German media have struck a neutral tone toward the blockade, noting that the overwhelming majority of protesters were peaceful. Copyright © 2001 ., and Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 23 Protesters harry German nuclear waste cargo [Guardian Unlimited] Hit and run attacks keep 20,000 police engaged John Hooper in Wendisch Evern Wednesday March 28, 2001 Thousands of protesters were gathering in the north German town of Dannenberg last night as a heavily guarded train carrying nuclear waste edged its way towards the point where the waste will be transferred to lorries for the remainder of its journey to the nuclear dump in Gorleben. A group in masks dragged large concrete cylinders across roads leading to Dannenberg in an attempt to disrupt the security operation mounted by the biggest police deployment since the second world war: up to 20,000 officers equipped with water cannon, helicopters and night-vision aids. The campaigners formed a long line along a ridge overlooking the Dannenberg terminal. Opposite them were ranged police officers in full riot gear, flanked by a water cannon. Throughout the day demonstrators in various parts of Germany managed to break on to stretches of the railway line on the train's tortuous 375-mile journey from the French border. They succeeded in delaying, but not stopping, its progress. The 60 tonnes of nuclear waste in six sealed containers was diverted to avoid the university city of Göttingen, where hundreds of people briefly occupied the tracks. Dozens of people were arrested along the route. The biggest confrontation of the day occurred at the village of Wendisch Evern, where several hundred protesters broke through the police lines to occupy part of the railway. Within seconds they had linked arms. On the field above the police succeeded in wrestling some of them to the ground, blocking others. Among those dragged away by the police was a young child clutching a teddy bear. Protesters chanted "Is this democracy?" One police officer lost his patience and shouted "Just walk!" Veit Bürger of Greenpeace said the protesters, adopting new tactics, were divided into small scattered groups, "all of whom are trying to get at the line". The police claimed that the protesters numbered only 2,000. The authorities had tried to stop them getting on the tracks, the police spokesman, Wolfgang Klages, said, but the route was too long to have hundreds of officers at every point. "In some places, we have to react." Watched by Franziska Lohmann, 25, and her infant son, who live near by, police special forces in black face masks were trying to disengage a group of Greenpeace activists dangling in harnesses from the underside of a bridge over a tributary of the Elbe. Eventually they resorted to a chainsaw to sever the steel wires, and one of the protesters fell with a loud splash into the shallow water below. For the most part the police were restrained, and appeared reluctant even to draw their batons. But last night they said that two demonstrators had been injured. The protest organisers put the figure at five. France and Germany agreed in January to resume the shipments, and the German environment minister, Jürgen Trittin, a leading member of the Green party, has defended the decision on the grounds that safety precautions have been tightened since the previous administration suspended the shipments in 1998 because of radioactive leaks from some containers. From the end of the rail line in Dannenberg, flatbed trucks will take the six containers, each with about 10 tonnes of radioactive waste sealed in 28 glass casks, to the hotly opposed Gorleben nuclear waste dump. Unloading of the containers is expected to take up to 12 hours, during which time they will be measured for radioactivity. The shipment contains waste left over when spent nuclear fuel from German power plants was reprocessed at a French plant. The decision to allow the shipment put the Greens, the junior partners in the coalition federal government, in a tough position, facing accusations of betrayal from some of their core supporters. [UP] ***************************************************************** 24 German Nuke Waste Transport Arrives March 28, 2001 DANNENBERG, Germany- Police cleared protesters with water cannons on Wednesday as a train laden with 60 tons of nuclear waste arrived in this town a day late after being blocked by demonstrators who chained themselves to the tracks. With seven helicopters hovering overhead, the train entered the northern German town of Dannenberg as night fell, just before 7.30 p.m. Protesters along the route whistled and screamed "Get away!" Nearly 1 1/2 hours later, the wagons carrying the waste reached Dannenburg's heavily protected depot, where the six containers are to be tested for radioactivity before being loaded onto flatbed trucks for the last leg of a much-disrupted 375-mile trip from a French reprocessing plant. As the waste containers passed through the town, more than 1,000 police officers started pushing demonstrators back from several directions. Police repeatedly charged the crowd and surrounded the protesters' makeshift camp. Organizers broadcast repeated appeals for calm over loudspeakers, while police countered with accusations that the demonstrators had ripped up paving and attacked officers. The camp was surrounded by a five-deep cordon of police as a tense standoff started. A group of schoolchildren was crying. "Everything was peaceful here until the police charged in," complained one protester, Alfred Skallweit, from the nearby town of Muetzingen. "It seems like a war zone." The protesters object to what they say is highly dangerous radioactive waste being transported through Germany, and hope to make the transports so costly the government will call them to a halt. Spent nuclear fuel from German power plants is sent abroad for reprocessing, but the contracts oblige Germany to take back the resulting waste. The final 12-mile stretch by truck to the dump at Gorleben, through a thickly wooded area, was the scene of clashes between police and protesters during the last such shipment four years ago. The waste is expected to make that trip Thursday. The train had been stuck some 16 miles short of Dannenberg since Wednesday night. It got under way at about 5 p.m., after an 18-hour delay during which it retreated to a small-town station. Police and medical crews worked through the night to dislodge four chained protesters who laid across the tracks in freezing temperatures, removing the last one early Wednesday afternoon. Engineers had to repair tracks after cutting deep into the foundations to free the demonstrators. About 500 people who had gathered during the operation to support the group sat down on the rails, and were eventually pushed away from the track by police with batons. More small groups staged occupations on the tracks throughout Wednesday and several hundred protesters skirmished in Dannenberg with police, who cleared away makeshift roadblocks. Riot police sent reinforcements to Dannenberg overnight, after militants threw stones, fired flares and set a police car afire Tuesday night. Police responded with water cannon and baton charges. Police said five officers were injured in the clashes, one seriously. Some 600 protesters were taken into custody. The protesters said dozens on their side were injured. About 20,000 police were in action in Germany's biggest security operation in years after militants turned the last transport into chaos. The convoy set off from France, where the waste was reprocessed, Monday morning and was greeted by sporadic protests Tuesday as it chugged northeast through Germany. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 25 Russia's Putin Makes Cabinet Changes March 28, 2001 MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday made his most sweeping Cabinet changes since becoming president a year ago, naming his Security Council chief as Russia's first civilian defense minister. The changes came amid a growing climate of distrust with the United States as well as signs that Russia's modest economic upswing is slowing down. They were likely to further consolidate Putin's power after a year in which he has brought freewheeling regional leaders to heel and seen the end of major parliamentary opposition to the Kremlin. Changes in Putin's Cabinet, which is made up largely of holdovers from former President Boris Yeltsin's administration, had been expected. However, Putin did not remove Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, whose position has long been reported in doubt. Putin put close allies in charge of two key security positions: the Defense Ministry and the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police and a special force of ministry troops. In the most crucial move, Putin replaced Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev with Security Council chief Sergei Ivanov, a longtime KGB veteran and a general in the KGB's successor, the Federal Security Service. The service in which Ivanov is a general is distinct from the military - making him the first civilian to hold the defense position in post-Soviet Russia. Putin touted Ivanov as someone who will be able to "demilitarize" Russia's public life. "While conducting military reform it's necessary to appoint a civilian to the job of defense minister," Putin told a government meeting in the Kremlin. "The time has come for personnel changes, which would be a logical conclusion of the modernization of the military structure." Critics have accused Sergeyev of lagging on reforms of the 1.2 million-strong Defense Ministry force, which has suffered from funding shortages, dismal conditions and low morale since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Sergeyev had also been mired in a bitter dispute with the chief of the general staff, Anatoly Kvashnin, over the course of military reform. Sergeyev advocated spending more defense funds to maintain Russia's nuclear forces, while Kvashnin aggressively pushed for more funds for the conventional forces. Putin also said the shake-up is linked with the changing situation in and around breakaway Chechnya, after car bombs in southern Russia this weekend killed at least 23 people. Putin recently put the Federal Security Service - which is similar to the FBI in the United States - in charge of running the military operation in Chechnya, and Ivanov's appointment was likely to strengthen that. Ivanov, 48, who was posted to several foreign countries during his KGB career and speaks fluent English, has long been close to Putin. As head of the Security Council - an influential advisory body roughly similar to the National Security Council in the United States - he is broadly considered the No. 2 figure in the Russian political establishment and has played a key role in shaping Russia's foreign and security policy. His appointment came amid a tit-for-tat spy scandal with the United States in which up to 50 diplomats from each country are being expelled. "Putin wants to place his people in key positions in order to strengthen control over the situation to a much larger degree," said Yevgeny Volk of the Heritage Foundation's Moscow office. "Putin wants the military to be led by a person who is fully loyal to him and would not allow any hesitation or discord." In a surprise announcement, Putin named Boris Gryzlov, a leader of the pro-Kremlin Unity party and a newcomer to Russia's political elite, as the new interior minister. He replaces Vladimir Rushailo, was named chief of the Security Council. The other changes included replacing embattled Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov with Alexander Rumyantsev, head of the Kurchatov Institute, the leading nuclear research center. In an unprecedented move, Putin named a woman, former deputy finance minister Lyubov Kudelina, as deputy defense minister. While the capricious Yeltsin reshuffled his governments and fired prime ministers with increasing frequency in the late 1990s, Putin has been praised for his predictability and for bringing a measure of stability to Russia for the past year. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 26 Adamov fired Putin Appoints New Minister for Atomic Energy President Putin said on Wednesday that he has dismissed Yevgeniy Adamov from the post of the head of Atomic Energy Ministry (Minatom). Executive Director of the Kurchatov Research Institute Aleksandr Rumyantsev has been appointed to this post. Adamov has to look for a new job. Hopefully it will not be in the nuclear waste import buisness. Adamov was not the only change in the Russian Government. Putin did also appointed a new Minister of Defence, Sergey Ivanov. Boris Nemtsov, the leader of the SPS (Union of Rightist Forces) faction in the State Duma said on Wednesday that “the most sign” of all appointments made in the Russian government on Wednesday is the change in the upper echelon of the Nuclear Energy Ministry. Nemtsov reminded that information about corruption in the ministry has been spread in the State Duma during discussion of nuclear waste imports. This was the main reason for Yevgeny Adamov’s dismissal from the post of the Nuclear Energy Minister, Nemtsov said in an interview with Radio Echo. Nemtsov predicted serious changes in Russia’s nuclear policy – in particular, he said that the draft law on nuclear waste imports would be frozen and Russia’s attitude towards Iran would be changed, writes Gazeta.ru. Details about new minister Until today Alexander Rumyantsev has worked as Director of the Russian Nuclear Research Centre ”Kurchatov Institute”. His duties included: - organising and coordinating the activity of the Centre’s Directorate and of its collegial bodies; - organising and coordinating the execution of decisions and orders of Centre’s Management Board, President and Vice-President, addressed to the Directorate and its Divisions; - organising and coordinating the Centre’s research activity and the interactions with the Centre’s Scientific Council with regard to forming scientific programs, organizing scientific contests within the Centre, etc. - financial, economic and other activities requiring a complex solution - interaction with state administrative bodies, - general administrative direction of Centre’s management apparatus, etc. Born in 1945 Moscow Institute of Engineering Physics, 1969 since 1969 - at the RRC Kurchatov Institute- engineer, 1973 - junior researcher, 1982 - senior researcher, 1989 - head of Solid State Physics Division, 1993 - Centre’s Director of Research Development, 1994 - Director of the Centre Corresponding Member of Russian Academy of Sciences (Physics), 1997 Academician of Russian Academy of Sciences (Physics), 2000 Professor. Scientific activity Experimental physics. Main interests are studies of structural and dynamics of solids crystal lattice by neutron scattering methods. USSR State Prize Winner (1986). Head of Solid State Physics Division of the Superconductivity and Solid State Physics Institute. Carries on active cooperation with Russian and foreign colleagues in the field of thermal neutron scattering. Student teaching. Scientific and public activity Member of Centre’s Scientific Council Member of specialized councils for conferment scientific degrees at the RRC "Kurchatov Institute", Joint Nuclear Research Institute (Dubna), Moscow Institute of Engineering Physics Member of Social Science Council of the Education and Science Committee of RF State Duma Member of RF Nuclear Society Board Member of Editorial Boards of journals "Poverkhnost"(Surface) and Neutron News Member of a number of commissions and councils on studies of condensed media by nuclear physics methods. Publications Author of more than 70 scientific papers and articles. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 27 West Valley prepares to ship out high-level nuclear waste By Associated Press, 3/27/2001 19:33 WEST VALLEY, N.Y. (AP) A satellite-monitored train will carry a large shipment of high-level nuclear waste from western New York through 10 states to Idaho over the summer as part of the $1.6 billion cleanup of the West Valley Demonstration Project. Plans still being completed have the 125 spent fuel assemblies, used to power nuclear reactors, traveling 2,360 miles over four days through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and an Idaho Indian reservation before reaching its Idaho Falls, Idaho, destination. While low-level waste has been moved off the site for several years, the rail shipment would be the first involving high-level waste since 625 other assemblies were returned in the 1980s to the power companies that sent them. The $16 million shipping project, two years in the planning, involves an agreement with the state of Idaho, extensive talks with states the train will go through and negotiations with four railroads. ''This is not easy,'' West Valley Nuclear Services spokesman John Chamberlain told The Buffalo News. ''We are shooting for a June-July shipment. Certainly, in the next two months, we have to get those negotiations concluded.'' The private Nuclear Fuel Services reprocessed nuclear fuel rods at the West Valley site 35 miles south of Buffalo from 1966 to 1972. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed the West Valley Demonstration Project Act making the state and federal governments partners in the cleanup. The fuel assemblies are destined for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, where they will be stored until the federal government builds permanent storage. Idaho agreed to accept the material as part of the settlement of a lawsuit it filed against the U.S. Navy, which sends its spent nuclear fuel to the Idaho lab, and the Energy Department, which also has sued the site to store nuclear waste. In exchange for accepting more waste, Idaho received commitments from the Energy Department to eventually move all waste from the laboratory. If any of a series of deadlines for moving the waste from the laboratory are not met, Idaho could file suit to block the West Valley shipment. This was the first year under that 1995 agreement that the West Valley waste was eligible for shipment to Idaho. At the same time the federal government is well behind schedule for meeting the agreement's deadline of shipping 3,100 cubic meters of plutonium-contaminated waste to a New Mexico dump by the end of next year. ''We're following that issue to make sure they're in compliance,'' said Kathleen Trever, who runs the state INEEL Oversight Office. Trever said the Energy Department must show that it can get back on schedule for moving that plutonium-contaminated waste to New Mexico before the New York shipments will be permitted to enter Idaho for temporary storage. That will require New Mexico regulators to expand the types of wastes that can be dumped at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad and the department to come up with $35 million to keep its waste characterization and processing operations running around the clock so the schedule can be kept. Trever said no deadline has been set for doing either, but ''it is something that needs to be done in the near term and before these shipments into the state.'' Carol Mongerson of East Concord, who has pushed for the West Valley cleanup for 25 years, said that while the planned shipment is a positive step forward, she remains concerned. ''We're always very nervous when they start shipping spent fuel around, especially since there isn't someplace to put it that isn't somebody else's back yard,'' she said. In Germany Tuesday, about 1,000 demonstrators tried to stop a rail shipment of nuclear waste, blocking train tracks with bales of straw. Diane D'Arrigo of the Nuclear Information and Research Service, a Washington-based organization opposed to nuclear waste shipments, said she knew of no plans to protest the West Valley shipment. ''But I wouldn't be suprised if there was opposition (by) certain people along these transport routes,'' she added. The nine-inch-thick, steel casks in which the waste will be shipped are engineered to withstand a variety of accidents, including a drop from 30 feet, a 30-minute immersion in 1,475-degree heat and a 40-inch drop onto an eight-inch steel rod at the cask's most vulnerable spot. They will be shipped one cask per rail car with combined weight of 120 tons. Chamberlain said the train's route has been chosen, but is ''not cast in stone.'' The train would move from the Cattaraugus County site to a connection at Machias Junction, then head south toward Olean and Pennsylvania. At Driftwood, Pa., the train would head west through Butler, Pa.; Youngstown, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Springfield, Ill.; Kansas City, Mo.; Topeka, Kan.; Kearney, Neb.; Julesburg, Colo.; Cheyenne, Wyo., and Pocatello, Idaho, before reaching the laboratory. The train's movement would be monitored by satellite. ***************************************************************** 28 GREENPEACE WELCOMES DISMISSAL OF ADAMOV AND CALLS ON RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT TO REJECT HIS RADIOACTIVE WASTE IMPORT SCHEME 28 March 2001 Moscow - Greenpeace welcomed the dismissal of Russian Atomic Energy Minister Evgeny Adamov today by President Putin following corruption allegations and called on the Russian parliament to reject Adamov's proposed radioactive waste import scheme. The dismissal of Adamov follows the release by Greenpeace on March 3 of a confidential report from the Russian Parliamentary Anti-Corruption Commission detailing large-scale illegal business activities. Adamov will be replaced by Alexander Rumyanzec, head of the Kurchatovskiy nuclear research institute. "At last enemy number one of Russia's environment has been fired," said Tobias Muenchmeyer of Greenpeace International. "Adamov's dismissal represents a major victory for Greenpeace and the rest of the Russian environmental movement. He represented one of the most serious threats to the Russia environment in recent years with his proposed $20 billion scheme to turn the country into the world's nuclear waste dump." "However the dismissal of Adamov does not remove the taint of corruption nor the environmental hazards of his radioactive waste import scheme, which must now be totally rejected by Duma members," said Muenchmeyer. "The activities of Adamov's atomic energy ministry must now also be investigated given the corrupt activities of its minister." The Anti-Corruption Commission report listed dozens of illegal business activities by Adamov since the early 1990s. Adamov set up at least 10 companies both inside and outside of Russia. For example, on August 24, 1994, he set up the consulting and management company "Omeka, Ltd". Registered in Pennsylvania, USA, at the end of 1999, the company had assets valued at US$ 5,080,000, of which $3,150,000 were owned privately by Adamov and a further $1,500,000 by his wife. Currently Omeka has consulting contracts with Tekhsnabexport, the wholly owned import arm of Minatom, the company which would most likely benefit from any imports of spent fuel from overseas. As an employee of Minatom, Adamov is forbidden to have any private business interests, however, the report reveals a complex business portfolio which for example earns him some $US15,000 per month via Omeka. Adamov worked from 1962-1986 as an engineer at Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, under Minatom, from 1962-86, as director of the secret NIIKET Institute, Moscow, under Minatom from 1986-98 and as Minister of Minatom since March 4, 1998. On April 23 1999 Adamov declared during question time in the Duma: "...since I'm minister I have never received any business revenues on my private bank account" . Given the conclusions made, the Committee recommended that all information related to Adamov’s activities be submitted to the President, Security Council, Russian Federation Government, Federal Security Service and Prosecutor General’s Office. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: - Tobias Muenchmeyer +49-30 440 58 960 Ivan Blokov +7 095 257 41 22 www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/waste/russianwaste.html ***************************************************************** 29 Nuke waste to head to Idaho IdahoStatesman.com Wednesday, March 28, 2001 Government negotiates details for shipment The Associated Press Despite prospects that it may not meet its deadlines for processing and moving waste out of Idaho, the Energy Department is acting as quickly as it can to take advantage of provisions in the 1995 agreement to ship more waste to the eastern part of the state. The government is negotiating the final details of shipping 125 spent fuel assemblies cross-country by rail this summer from western New York to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. That amount of highly radioactive material is what was contemplated when the state and federal governments reached the unprecedented agreement that called for nearly all nuclear waste being removed from INEEL by 2035. But while the federal government met the first key deadline of actually moving some plutonium-contaminated waste to the underground dump in New Mexico before April 30, 1999, it has fallen far behind the schedule to meet the Dec. 31, 2002, deadline for removing 3,100 cubic meters of waste. It has shipped less than 400 meters to date, more than 200 behind schedule. "We're following that issue to make sure they're in compliance," said Kathleen Trever, who runs the state INEEL Oversight Office. Trever said the Energy Department must show that it can get back on schedule for moving that plutonium-contaminated waste to New Mexico before the New York shipments will be permitted to enter Idaho for temporary storage. That will require New Mexico regulators to expand the types of wastes that can be dumped at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad and the department to come up with $35 million to keep its waste characterization and processing operations running around the clock so the schedule can be kept. Trever said no deadline has been set for doing either, but, "It is something that needs to be done in the near term and before these shipments into the state." Gary Richardson, executive director of the Snake River Alliance in Idaho, a statewide nuclear watchdog group, said additional nuclear waste being shipped to Idaho isn't unusual. But coupled with the feds' recent decision to cut 1,200 jobs at the INEEL, he says it shows that the original agreement will never be honored. "It gets profoundly more ridiculous the more you look at it," Richardson said, referring to the governor's 1995 agreement and the current decision to cut jobs despite the continued shipments of nuclear waste to Idaho. "There's a question if there was any intention of them (government) to live up to the agreement." Under the governor's agreement, a fine could be imposed if the spent fuel waste isn't shipped out of the state before 2035. "It's much cheaper for them to dump it here, and pay the fine," Richardson said, "than pay to have it shipped to a planned repository in Nevada." The New York shipment, expected in June or July, will be the only one from the West Valley Demonstration Project, where nuclear fuel rods were reprocessed from 1966 to 1972. Energy Department spokeswoman Alice Williams said it is the only shipment that will be made to INEEL from West Valley. The 1995 agreement precluded that waste from being moved before this year. The $16 million transfer will be made on a satellite-monitored train that will cross eight other states in four days. The nine-inch thick, steel casks in which the waste will be shipped are engineered to withstand a variety of accidents, including a drop from 30 feet, a 30-minute immersion in 1,475-degree heat and a 40-inch drop onto an eight-inch steel rod at the cask's most vulnerable spot. They will be shipped one cask per rail car with a combined weight of 120 tons. Carol Mongerson of East Concord, who has pushed for the West Valley cleanup for 25 years, said that while the planned shipment is a positive step forward, she remains concerned. "We're always very nervous when they start shipping spent fuel around, especially since there isn't someplace to put it that isn't somebody else's back yard," she said. Diane D'Arrigo of the Nuclear Information and Research Service, a Washington-based organization opposed to nuclear waste shipments, said she knew of no plans to protest the West Valley shipment. "But I wouldn't be surprised if there was opposition (by) certain people along these transport routes," she added. The DOE also revised its timetable for operation of a waste processing plant at INEEL well past the agreement's deadline, and earlier this month the department asked to extend for up to 12 1/2 years the deadline for completing cleanup at INEEL's notorious Pit 9. Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, is concerned whether there will be enough money to pay for nuclear site cleanups next year, including those efforts at INEEL. Simpson said on Monday that $670 million, or about 5 percent, more is needed than last year in the environmental management portion of the Department of Energy's budget to keep the cleanup projects on track. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Workers exposed to plutonium DenverPost.com - News: Colorado and Denver By Denver Post Environment Writer Mar. 28, 2001 - Eleven cleanup workers at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant most likely breathed in plutonium dust dislodged during demolition work at the highly polluted Building 771 last fall, a new report has concluded. The report, issued by cleanup contractor Kaiser-Hill, identified a number of potential causes ranging from crews handling items in the contamination area without respiratory protection to lax housekeeping and dusting practices. It also identified a range of training and procedural recommendations designed to limit future exposures, but concluded that it's impossible to completely prevent workers from coming in contact with some radioactive waste. The amount of radioactivity to which the 11 workers were exposed was within federal and Department of Energy guidelines, Kaiser-Hill spokeswoman Jennifer Thompson said. "Kaiser-Hill takes any worker exposure very seriously, and we remain fully committed to the safe, accelerated closure of Rocky Flats," said Marc Spears, vice president for Kaiser-Hill's engineering, environmental, safety and quality programs. Still, Thompson said that given the nature of the job, workers must expect they'll be exposed to small amounts of radioactivity. "We're not going to be able to get the job done with zero exposure," Thompson said. "There are things we can do to reduce the dose. But we're not going to eliminate exposures from nuclear decommissioning work." The radioactive dose received by 10 of the 11 exposed workers fell between 6 and 60 millirems, the report concluded. Results for the 11th worker are not yet available. The federal limit for radiation workers is 5,000 millirems a year. Thompson said Kaiser-Hill's internal guidelines specify workers should receive no more than 500 millirems in a single year. By contrast, people are ordinarily exposed to about 400 millirems of radiation from natural sources every year. Workers were tested as a precaution after safety inspectors noted a minor paperwork error involving an air monitor. Tests on 11 employees working in the area revealed they had been exposed to radioactivity. The company said all 11 were wearing "the required level of personal protective equipment," including respiratory protection. The report also identified other factors that may have contributed to the problem, including a lack of adequate ventilation, the reuse of respiratory equipment by workers, and monitoring equipment not designed to detect the low levels of contamination that led to the dose received by the workers. Dave Abelson, director of the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments, said his members had not had time to review the report, which was submitted March 15 and made available Monday. Abelson's group has urged the Energy Department and KaiserHill to vigorously investigate the source and scope of the problem. "We certainly intend to examine this report, as well as other investigations that are ongoing," he said. The type of protective equipment that workers wear was clarified on March 29. Copyright 2001 The Denver Post. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 2 Report on Rocky Flats released [www.TheDailyCamera.com] By Beth Wohlberg *Camera Staff Writer* Several minor radioactive releases at Rocky Flats are responsible for the contamination detected in 11 workers at Rocky Flats last year, according to a report released Tuesday by the company in charge of the site's cleanup. "It's not that there is a steady elevated rate (of contamination) in the air," said Jennifer Thompson of Kaiser-Hill Co., the cleanup contractor. "Through the course of doing nuclear decommissioning, intermittent events occurred that caused small amounts of radioactive contamination." Workers can release small amounts of radioactive dust as they deconstruct and decommission buildings at the former nuclear weapons plant, the report said. Dust trapped in ducts, for example, can accidentally be released. These releases can be too small to set off an air monitor, but several small releases of plutonium contamination inhaled by workers can accumulate in their bodies. Kaiser-Hill began an investigation into the source of the workers' contamination in early December. They found 15 areas of previously unknown plutonium contamination in the building, but they did not think those areas caused the workers' intake of radioactivity. Kaiser-Hill's final report on the investigation was submitted to the Department of Energy on March 15. In October, the workers submitted fecal samples — which revealed plutonium inside their bodies — after a routine surveillance in the building found an air sampler had not been calibrated on time. Results of those tests were contained in the report. Nine workers are contaminated with between 6 and 60 millirem of plutonium, which is far lower than the site's maximum limit of 500 millirem a year and the annual federal limit of 5,000 millirem. One worker, who was involved in an event that set off an air monitor on Oct. 20, has a dose less than 100 millirem. A final dose has not been assigned to the 11th worker, but it could be higher than 100 millirem. Fecal samples from other workers who were in Building 771 are still being analyzed. "The big thing we are trying to do is make sure we look at our work practices, and make sure the work practices are consistent with work that we are doing," said Mark Spears, director of safety and engineering for Kaiser-Hill. "Our overarching goal is to make sure any risks are as low as possible." Spears said the report recommends personal protective equipment, such as full-face respirators, be worn when handling waste materials and working in overhead areas, even if supervisors don't think any contamination exists in those areas. The company also is looking into the safety of reusing respirators and the air sampling process. The Department of Energy is reviewing Kaiser-Hill's report and preparing to release an independent review of the situation in several weeks. *Contact Beth Wohlberg at (303) 473-1364 or wohlbergb@thedailycamera.com.* Copyright 2001 The Daily Camera. All rights reserved. Any ***************************************************************** 3 DOE, Fluor Hanford fined for violations This story was published Tue, Mar 27, 2001 By John Stang Herald staff writer The state fined the Department of Energy and Fluor Hanford $57,800 Monday for not properly labeling and losing track of small amounts of a potentially explosive chemical. The new violations echo the chemical waste storage troubles that plagued Hanford with an explosion and huge fines in the late 1990s. Those problems supposedly were fixed. The repeated troubles are why the Washington Department of Ecology levied such a high fine, said Bob Wilson, a state ecology department inspector. "We've been here before, and we're disappointed to keep seeing the same problems," Wilson said. Mike Schlender, DOE's deputy manager for site transition at Hanford, said, "In this case, with these chemicals, we were not up to snuff." A Fluor employee spotted a suspicious solution of the chemical Collodion and reported it up Hanford's chain-of-command in mid-January, Schlender said. Hanford's fire department and the Richland police bomb squad then detonated the chemical. Since then, DOE and Fluor have been working to find out how some potentially explosive Collodion escaped notice for at least a few years. Meanwhile, an overhaul of the site's chemical management system is to be completed by July 1, Schlender said. Fluor referred questions to DOE. Collodion is a liquid, usually 75 percent ether or alcohol, commonly used in radiological chemistry. If left alone for a few years, parts of the chemical crystallize and can become "shock sensitive." That means the chemical can explode with at least the intensity of a firecracker -- breaking its glass container and shooting shards of glass -- if it is bumped or jostled. If the chemical crystallizes in the threads that hold the cap on a vial or bottle, unscrewing that cap could trigger an explosion. Central Hanford's 222-S laboratory studies numerous types of radioactive wastes and routinely uses Collodion. In mid-January, a 222-S lab employee handled some Collodion and noticed a strong ether smell from it, Wilson said. A strong ether smell indicates something might be wrong with the chemical liquid. The state learned of the problem Jan. 18 and inspected the 222-S lab. The investigation expanded to two other central Hanford laboratories -- a lab at the Plutonium Finishing Plant and the Waste Sampling and Characterization Facility, or WSCF. Wilson said the state's investigation found: -- More than two quarts of years-old Collodion should have been labeled and stored as waste at the 222-S lab and were not. -- Slightly more than 2 ounces of Collodion were found in a vial at the WSCF. No one knew the vial was there, and it had apparently been there at least five years. -- About 4 1/2 ounces of Collodion were found improperly stored at the PFP. The last time the PFP used Collodion was in the late 1980s, and this amount was kept as an active chemical for at least 10 more years until it was declared a waste in 1998. -- The labs could not tell whether ether, alcohol or water had been added to the Collodion solutions, which handicaps any attempts to tell how volatile those liquids were. Hanford had major problems with inventorying and storing chemicals in the late 1990s. A watery mixture of nitric acid and hydroxylamine sat somewhat forgotten for years in a PFP tank until enough water evaporated to create a volatile 20 gallons of liquid that exploded in 1997 -- wrecking the tank and its room, punching a hole in the roof and exposing 10 workers to chemical fumes. About $200,000 in federal and state fines were levied because of the explosion. In 1998, the Environmental Protection Agency conducted a site-wide inspection of Hanford's chemical storage activities and found numerous violation resulting in a $367,078 fine. And in early 1997, the state fined DOE and Fluor $90,000 for safety violations pertaining to the storage, labeling and control of wastes at the 222-S lab. Schlender said much of Hanford's remedial work after the PFP explosion and EPA inspection tackled large storage containers, such as tanks, and did not track down all the small vials of chemicals in labs. The state, DOE and Fluor now are working jointly on inventorying all potentially volatile chemicals at Hanford's labs. DOE has 30 days to appeal the fine to the state Ecology Department or to the State Pollution Control Hearing Board. DOE hasn't decided if it will appeal, Schlender said. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 4 Fluor extends Duratek work This story was published Tue, Mar 27, 2001 By the Herald staff Fluor Hanford has extended the contract of Duratek Federal Services by five years. Consequently, Duratek's subcontract will run the duration of Fluor's term as Hanford's lead contractor -- going to Sept. 30, 2006. "It is good to see this level of confidence from our Fluor Hanford and Department of Energy customers," said Duratek Federal President Ed Aromi in a news release. Duratek Federal was originally Rust Federal Services, a subsidiary of Chicago-based waste industry giant Waste Management Inc. Rust was also a subcontractor of Fluor Hanford when Fluor became lead contractor Oct. 1, 1996. Rust's name was later changed to Waste Management Hanford. Last summer, GTS Duratek Inc. of Maryland bought Waste Management Inc.'s two Richland-based companies, Waste Management Hanford and Waste Management Technical Services. Duratek Federal Services is in charge of Hanford's studies, temporary storage, burial and shipments of low-level radioactive and transuranic wastes. It also manages some of the site's analytical waste labs, handles some permit matters and tackles other duties. Duratek declined to say what the dollar value is of the new contract. Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 Congressman cites concerns over INEEL cleanup funds Casper Star-Tribune Casper, Wyoming Wednesday, March 28, 2001 POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) - Congressman Mike Simpson is concerned whether there will be enough money to pay for nuclear site cleanups next year, including those efforts at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Idaho's 2nd District Republican representative said on Monday that $670 million, or about 5 percent, more is needed than last year in the environmental management portion of the Department of Energy's budget to keep the cleanup projects on track. "It's imperative that we have enough money for the cleanups and that we meet time lines set up in governors' agreements," said Simpson, a member of a congressional nuclear caucus. Getting the money may be a hard sell. President George W. Bush has said he wants to keep discretionary spending at 4 percent or in some case, reduce budgets. "We could live with a 4 percent increase, but nothing less than that," Simpson said. INEEL announced plans on Monday to cut its work force by 1,200, nearly 15 percent, by the end of next year to keep costs in line with federal support for environmental management and other operations there. Budgetary concerns will be at the top of Simpson's list as Congress moves toward its Easter adjournment in another week. Simpson added that he is working to amend legislation that expanded the Craters of the Moon Monument designation and eliminated hunting in the newly designated area. The latter ban could be lifted with correction to the bill. He and Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo also are trying to protect the state's water rights by mandating that any federal claim on a water right comply with all state laws, including the need to pay filing fees. Meanwhile, Simpson and Idaho Congressman Butch Otter are working on a bill that would split the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The federal appeals court has grown to encompass too many states and is no longer an effective voice for the western states, Simpson said. ***************************************************************** 6 Audit critical of Bechtel Jacobs cleanup contract Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:23 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff The Department of Energy could have saved $44 million in fiscal year 2000 if its environmental manager had subcontracted more work and reduced staffing levels as proposed. Though that's the conclusion of a recently released audit from the Department of Energy's Inspector General Office, local federal officials and Bechtel Jacobs Co. insist otherwise. Bechtel Jacobs has been responsible for cleanup activities in Oak Ridge, Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky., since December 1997 when DOE awarded the company a $2.5 billion contract. A primary objective of the contract was to accelerate cleanup and maximize cost-effectiveness through the use of competitive, fixed-price subcontracts. But things haven't gone as planned, the audit states. "Bechtel Jacobs stated that it would subcontract 93 percent of the work and reduce staffing by about 82 percent within the first two years," according to the audit. "The contract was awarded to Bechtel Jacobs based, in part, on these commitments." However, as of Sept. 30, 2000, nearly three years after the contract was awarded, Bechtel Jacobs had subcontracted less than 60 percent of the original work and reduced staffing through transition to the subcontractors by only 58 percent, the audit states. The audit was performed from Sept. 14, 2000, to Jan. 8, 2001. DOE spokesman Steven Wyatt declined to comment on the audit, stating the "management reaction" section of the document speaks for the Oak Ridge Operations office. That section states that management disagrees with the audit's conclusions. "The [Inspector General] failed to take into account that the Bechtel Jacobs contract was a 'first of a kind' award for the department with significant and unique subcontracting and workforce transition provisions, and that the department's policy decisions impacted the contractor's ability to meet its subcontracting goals," the section states. In the audit, DOE officials stated the Oak Ridge Operations office would include definitive requirements, as appropriate, in future contracts; direct Bechtel Jacobs to complete a review of planned fiscal year 2002 work to identify any additional opportunities for subcontracting; and conduct a review of Bechtel Jacobs' staffing levels to determine if there are opportunities for additional workforce transition or staffing reductions. Plans are for the review to be completed by the end of May. Bechtel Jacobs issued an official comment on the audit, stating it has met and continues to meet the commitments of its contract. "We agree with [DOE's] Oak Ridge Operations office that the audit would have painted a truer picture of our performance if it were focused on our compliance with the contract, rather than statements made during the selection process," the statement reads. "We will work with DOE to respond to the audit's recommendations and will evaluate opportunities to competitively bid additional work when it is in the best interest of the government." In its statement, Bechtel Jacobs points out that currently 86 percent of the total dollars provided under its contract is going to other firms. This includes some contracts previously established by DOE at Oak Ridge, Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky. "Some continuity in certain areas was necessary for what DOE and we believe are sound business reasons," according to the statement. "For example, extremely high quality work was under way at the cleanup of the Gunite Tanks at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by then contractor Lockheed Martin and others. It made sense to utilize that existing talent and experience. "Also, we found it also made business sense for a number of reasons to perform more work ourselves than originally anticipated, such as fire protection and security." All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 7 Hatch supports ill-worker program switch Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:24 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28, 2001 from staff and wire reports Labor Secretary Elaine Chao gained a powerful ally Tuesday in her quest to shed responsibility for setting up a program to give cash and medical care to job-sickened nuclear workers. But Oak Ridge sick workers say enough is enough. Along with Chao, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, says he supports having the Justice Department, and not the Labor Department, run the compensation program. Hatch is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, so his opinion on what the Justice Department ought to do carries considerable weight. In a letter to the White House, Hatch said the Justice Department is best qualified to handle the new compensation program. The Justice Department handles a decade-old program giving one-time payments to uranium miners, millers and people who lived downwind of nuclear test sites. However, Oak Ridge resident Glenn Bell, who was diagnosed with chronic beryllium disease in 1993, sent a letter to Chao this week saying the switch would be a bad move. "To change direction at the eleventh hour will almost certainly cause more delay and confusion," Bell stated in his letter. "Many of the ill workers may not survive to see the bickering resolved." Last week, the White House got letters from Sens. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., George Voinovich, R-Ohio, Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, and eight members of the House of Representatives opposing having the Justice Department run the program. The government is expected to be ready to accept applications for the program by July 31. Congress gave the Department of Labor a $60.4 million appropriation to set up a compensation program for job-sickened nuclear workers because the Labor De partment was viewed as the government's expert on occupational illness and compensation programs. Several members of Coalition for a Healthy Environment told The Oak Ridger this week that the Department of Labor was the right choice to run the program. The Department of Labor handles worker compensation claims for federal employees, overseas employees of U.S. military bases, coal miners seeking compensation for black lung disease, harbor workers and outer continental shelf workers. In addition to this latest problem, many Oak Ridge sick workers still insist the compensation plan is inadequate. "This bill is only going to help a few of the sick workers," said Harry Williams, president of Coalition for a Healthy Environment. The compensation plan will offer free medical care and $150,000 to sick workers who suffer from cancers or lung diseases caused by exposure to radiation, silica or beryllium. Coalition for a Healthy Environment serves as a support and research group pertaining to the illnesses of workers at Department of Energy facilities and the citizens of Oak Ridge and the surrounding areas. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 8 K-33 cleanup proceeds ahead of schedule Last motor removed March 28, 2001 By Frank Munger, News-Sentinel senior writer OAK RIDGE -- BNFL Inc. reached a significant milestone Tuesday in its Oak Ridge cleanup project, removing the last of 640 process motors from the K-33 Building. The 16,000-pound motor was loaded immediately onto a truck bound for a nuclear landfill in Utah, where the other motors already have been sent for disposal, BNFL spokesman Norman Hammitt said. "This is substantial progress for us in that it happened 65 days head of schedule and highlights our commitment to complete the project," Hammitt said. "We're very pleased." BNFL, the American subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels, is cleaning up three old uranium-enrichment facilities as part of a six-year, $238 million contract with the U.S. Department of Energy. K-33 is the first and largest of the buildings being decommissioned and decontaminated, to be followed by K-31 and K-29. The K-33 building is big enough to fit 64 football fields within its walls. BNFL is removing vast tons of old equipment and scrap metal -- much of which is contaminated with uranium and other hazardous elements. The process motors once powered the converters and compressors in the gaseous diffusion process that separated isotopes of uranium and concentrated the amount of fissile U-235. The enriched uranium was used in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. Frank Munger can be reached at 865-482-9213 or twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. ***************************************************************** 9 Editorial: Congress once again adds insult to injury March 28, 2001 It is unconscionable that the federal government has let funding go dry for a program that compensates former uranium miners for illnesses they may have developed decades ago for their work on behalf of U.S. nuclear weapons programs. The Justice Department-run program also provides assistance for those people who developed illnesses from radioactive fallout because they lived downwind from nuclear test sites in Nevada. But as the New York Times reported Tuesday, Congress last year never debated the Justice Department's request for more money. This means that claims from hundreds have been halted, with many applicants having received IOU letters from the Justice Department. "It's been a bureaucratic travesty," says Rep. Scott McGinnis, R-Colo., who is seeking $84 million to fund the program again. Congress also shouldn't forget that it was the federal government's own carelessness regarding safety in its uranium mining and atomic testing program that allowed these people to become seriously ill in the first place. Not only should Congress quickly restore this money, but it also should revamp the way it funds this program. Currently Congress must debate every year how much money to set aside. Congress instead should make this a permanent fund, ensuring that embarrassments such as this never occur again. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 10 Nation's uranium supply in danger, Strickland says *Wednesday, March 28, 2001* Jonathan Riskind *Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief* WASHINGTON -- Rep. Ted Strickland yesterday lashed out at a top official of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, accusing the agency of shirking an obligation to safeguard the nation's domestic supply of enriched uranium. Strickland said during a House hearing that the commission is allowing southern Ohio's uranium-enrichment plant to be shut down in June without a guarantee that the country's only other enrichment plant can be counted on to do the job. That could leave the nation without a domestic supply of enriched uranium for the nuclear-power plants that supply more than one-fifth of the United States' electricity, Strickland said. "We have an agency of the federal government charged with a huge responsibility to protect the energy security of this nation, and I believe they are being negligent and willfully so,'' Strickland said. The Lucasville Democrat made his comments during a nuclear-energy-policy hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee's subcommittee on energy and air quality. The Ohio lawmaker spent much of his allotted question period grilling one of the hearing's witnesses, William D. Travers, Nuclear Regulatory Commission executive director for operations. The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, and a sister facility in Paducah, Ky., are run by a company called USEC, known as the United States Enrichment Corp. until the federal corporation's privatization in 1998. For decades, the two plants have produced enriched uranium, first for the country's atomic defense program and now for use as commercial-grade nuclear power plant fuel. While the Piketon plant was built to carry out the entire enrichment process, the Paducah plant was designed to handle just the initial phase of the enrichment. USEC says that it is in the final stages of upgrading the Paducah plant to carry out the entire enrichment process and that the plant will be ready to carry out that process by the time the Piketon plant is shut down in June. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently said the Paducah plant upgrade satisfied safety requirements. But critics say the Paducah plant will not have proved itself a reliable producer of the material by June. They say the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is ignoring a provision in the privatization law requiring the agency to ensure the country has a reliable domestic supply of enriched uranium. Strickland said yesterday that the agency appeared to recognize that obligation in a 1997 staff memo, but flip-flopped in another memo last year asserting that the domestic-supply provision was based on a foreign entity buying the plants. Strickland asked Travers to justify the apparent change of heart. "I'll tell you what really bothers me,'' Strickland said. "You received a '97 memo and a 2000 memo. They both reference the same law, but they draw remarkably different conclusions about NRC's legal obligations. Is that true or not?'' Travers said he wasn't sure. But he added that the agency's primary regulatory responsibility is to ensure that nuclear facilities are run safely. jriskind@dispatch.com Copyright © 2001, The Columbus Dispatch ***************************************************************** 11 Editorial: Depleted Uranium: A slow, silent killer The Daily Star - Volume 3 Number 559 Wed. March 28, 2001 Perspectives Depleted Uranium: A slow, silent killer *Brig (Rtd) M Abdul hafiz* *President Kostunica of Yugoslavia has characterised the use of Depleted Uraniun (DU) weapons as a crime against humanity. He wants the International War Crime Tribunal in the Hague also to look expeditiously into this matter and apportion blame. After the disaster caused by DU weapons both in the Gulf and Balkans, countries like Russia had repeatedly warned NATO about the dangers of using DU. * The trail of the devastation left by the Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons the US and other western countries deployed in the gulf war failed to stir the emotions in the offending countries let alone the question arousing the conscience of the perpetrators of the crimes. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis had already fallen victim to the deadly effects of DU munitions used in profusion during the gulf war. After the war thousands of Iraqis developed the symptoms of memory loss, headaches, muscle pain, abdominal pain, dissiness and respiratory problems. The incidence of cancer has increased rapidly and at abnormal rates. Leukaemia in children is especially rampant: it has shown a fourfold rise after the gulf war. The incidence of breast cancer among the women is around four times higher than it was before 1990. Abnormal births have drastically increased since the war. Many American and British veterans of Gulf War also developed syndromes that were euphemistically called the 'gulf war syndrome'. But the DU's primary victims were the people of Iraq where some 300 tonnes of uranium from the spent munitions lay scattered across the battlefields of the Gulf War. A confidential report prepared in 1991 by United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority described the presence of DU in Iraq and Kuwait as a 'significant problem' which would cause "tens of thousands of potential deaths." Yet the danger of DU evoked no reaction from the Western circles which kept turning it down. The Pentagon, despite mounting evidences to the contrary, continued to insist that the DU was only "very, very mildly radioactive." But there are indications that the US military establishment did have some clue about the lethal nature of DU. An US Navy instruction manual noted that the teams recovering Tomahawk missiles during the test rounds must have radiological protective gadgets. The DU munitions developed by the Pentagon during the late 70s was, in fact, a radioactive byproduct of the enrichment process used in producing atomic bomb and nuclear fuel rods. The material was provided free of cost to weapon manufacturers by nuclear arms industries. During the Gulf War the armour piercing rounds made of depleted uranium were used in a big way. The Tomahawk missiles which went into action from the very first day of operation desert storm were all tipped with DU. The US Army reported that a total of 14000 DU tank rounds were used during the course of Gulf War while another 7000 rounds were fired during the training in the sands of Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon could not but be aware of the resultant concentration of the DU and its potential dangers. The choice of DU for use in munitions manufacturing was made primarily for its effectiveness and economy. But at no stage the users could have been ignorant about its inherent danger both for the civilians and combatants. Because the US Army Armaments, Munitions and Chemical Command itself states: "When a DU penetrator impacts a target surface, a large portion of the Kinetic energy is dissipated as heat. The heat of the impact causes the DU to oxidise or burn momentarily. This results in smokes which contains a high concentration of DU particles. These uranium particles can be ingested or inhaled and are highly toxic". Even before the gulf war the armament experts in US had warned that the combat conditions with the new weaponry will lead to the uncontrolled release of DU-aerosol. They also warned that the DU exposures to soldiers on the battle field could be significant with potential "radiological and toxicological effects". The US administration, however, did not care and tended to give clean chit to the use of DU. The scientists close to the Pentagon are at pains to prove it innocuous. The former US secretary of state Ms Madeleine Albright even administered the Europeans not to be "excessively nervous and hysterical about DU." The west woke up only after its own soldiers started dying of the complications believed to have originated from the exposure to the DU. It was only after the complaints of the European government that the eyebrows were raised in the west as to the dangers of the use of DU munitions. Last year soon after the Balkan wars the Italian soldiers started developing "mysterious illness" while seven of then already died of cancer. French and Portuguese peacekeepers in the Balkans were also diagnosed with cancer. As a result, the Norwegian soldiers refused to sign contract to go to Balkans for peacekeeping duties. A group of Belgian soldiers sued their government for the health problems caused to them by service in the Balkans. Five Belgian soldiers who served in Bosnia and Croatia died of cancer. Bernard Kouchener, the UN administrator of Kosovo brought up the issue of the dangers that DU posed to the region. In the mid-1990s the US combat aircraft used limited amounts of DU ammunitions against former Yugoslavia. But in 1999 during the war over Kosovo NATO resorted to blanket bombing of Yugoslavia using the DU weapons despite documented evidence of extremely harmful effects of the DU piling up in the gulf region. More than 100 places only in Kosovo are littered with DU particles. Kouchener forced the NATO to urgently address the issue but it seemed worried only about the health of its soldiers stationed in the region and not the local people. Only in early January last signs were put up by the UN and NATO warning civilians also to exercise caution while approaching areas in Kosovo where DU were dropped. NATO has, of late, admitted to dropping of 12 tonnes of DU in Kosovo alone. In all an estimated 31,000 DU shells were dropped over Yugoslavia. President Kostunica of Yugoslavia has characterised the use of DU weapons as a crime against humanity. He wants the International War Crime Tribunal in the Hague also to look expeditiously into this matter and apportion blame. After the disaster caused by DU weapons both in the Gulf and Balkans, countries like Russia had repeatedly warned NATO about the dangers of using DU. Boris Alexeyev, the head of Russia's environmental department in the Defence Ministry said that by using DU ammunition NATO has wilfully violated the agreement on radiation security. However, the most significant development with regard to increasing clamour against the DU weapons took place on 4 January last. On that day European Commission President Romano Prodi became the most important European leader to demand an investigation into the claims that the DU used in the NATO munitions had caused death or illness among Balkan peacekeepers. The German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that it was not 'right' to use such munitions. The pressures are being built up even in the United States against the use of DU by the Gulf and Balkan wars Veterans. But there is little likelihood that Pentagon and arms manufacturers would take it in right spirit. The Pentagon, the EU and the UN have all set up Commissions to investigate the risks posed by the DU but at the same time the efforts are afoot to whitewash the investigations. In the US where the public opinion carries considerable weightage a number of scientists and academics have already joined the campaign to justify the use of DU. According to the UN half a million Iraqi children have died as a direct result of decade long sanctions. When asked about the cruelty, former US secretary of state Ms Madeleine Albright memorably replied "It is a price worth paying". With this state of cynicism prevailing in some quarters of US administration and elsewhere it is not surprising that a virtually invisible killing agent like DU has so far been disregarded by the US authorities as well as NATO. But perhaps the tide has turned now when it will be increasingly difficult to ignore the protests against DU ammunitions. The development and use of DU weapons, however, is yet another example of how the nuclear industry in the west works together with military industrial complex to support its military ventures around the world regardless of the consequences. The Daily Star Internet Edition, is jointly published by the ***************************************************************** 12 Group Wants Vieques To Secede March 28, 2001 VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (AP) - When U.S. Navy warships gather off the coast of Vieques for training, Isabel Perez watches them with pride and hangs an American flag from her balcony overlooking the sea. The arrival of the ships is a ritual that has been part of life for decades on the small Puerto Rican island of 9,400 people. "When the Navy boats come, it's all boats out there," she says, motioning to the turquoise sea. "I feel proud the Navy is on Vieques." While Navy opponents press for an end to the military's use of the island's eastern tip as a bombing range, Perez and other supporters want the Navy to stay. Last week, four Vieques residents traveled to Washington to present pro-Navy petitions signed by 1,780 of the island's adults who want Vieques to secede from Puerto Rico and become a separate U.S. territory. Luis Sanchez, a pro-Navy activist who led the lobbying trip, says the Navy has broad support on the island and that many people see secession from Puerto Rico as the best way to ensure financial backing from the U.S. government through a continued Navy presence. Sanchez, a civilian security guard for the Navy, worries that without the bombing exercises, Vieques would lose precious jobs and federal funds. About 200 Vieques residents work for the Navy in the area. Vieques' average unemployment last year was 12.3 percent, as compared to 10.1 percent on the main island of Puerto Rico. "The future of this land depends on the Navy," Sanchez said. "The moment the Navy goes away, the federal funds go too." Anti-Navy sentiment flared in Puerto Rico in 1999, when two off-target bombs killed a civilian guard on the bombing range. Protesters invaded the range, preventing exercises for a year until U.S. Marshals forcibly removed them last May. Since then, the Navy has been using only inert ammunition and has scaled back the frequency of training, but it says live-fire exercises provide vital training for U.S. troops. U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma who advocates the use of live fire, welcomed the petitions presented by Sanchez. "The people of Vieques should be provided with the opportunity for self-determination," he said. "I will bring it forward in the Congress." Vieques residents are to decide in a referendum on Nov. 6 whether they want the Navy to leave in 2003 or to remain and pay $50 million to be used for economic development, housing and infrastructure. While previous polls have suggested a majority of the people on Vieques want the Navy to leave, both sides claim they'll win the referendum. Opponents of the exercises, including Puerto Rican Gov. Sila Calderon, have cited health concerns, but Sanchez - whose house overlooks Navy land - says he thinks there is no reason for concern. The Navy has vehemently denied that its activities cause any harm. The Navy owns two-thirds of Vieques, and the bombing range is nearly 10 miles from the civilian sector. Some relatives of security guard David Sanes, who died in the accident in 1999, say Sanes is unfairly being used by Navy opponents as a martyr. "It was an accident," said Sanes' elder brother, Enrique Sanes Rodriguez, 59, who now works repairing fences for the Navy. Angel Cruz Sanes - who also works as a security guard on Navy land - says his late cousin would never have wanted the Navy to leave. "If he were alive, he would be 100 percent with us, because he liked his job, just like we do." All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 13 S. Korea Agrees To Missile Rules Tuesday March 27 3:28 PM ET ** SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea has signed a global agreement restricting the transfer of missiles, joining 32 other countries seeking to limit nuclear proliferation, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. South Korea's entry to the Missile Technology Control Regime was approved Monday at a meeting of the world organization in Paris, said Moon Dong-hoo, an official at the ministry's arms control bureau. Under the guidelines, South Korea agrees not give any other country technology to build missiles with a range longer than 187 miles. Other countries that have signed the 14-year-old agreement include the United States, Russia and Japan. Holdouts include Middle Eastern countries, India, Pakistan, China and North Korea (news - web sites). South Korea's acceptance has been anticipated since January, when it obtained U.S. approval to develop missiles with a range of up to 187 miles. Under a 1979 accord with the United States, South Korea had been barred from developing missile with a range longer than 112 miles. Washington agreed to revise that accord if South Korea joined the Missile Technology Control Regime. Missiles with a 187-mile range are capable of striking Pyongyang and other key North Korean cities. North Korea is believed to be armed with missiles capable of hitting all of South Korea and most of Japan. The North is also believed to have longer-range missile that can reach Hawaii and Alaska. ***************************************************************** 14 Uranium miners waiting for checks [deseretnews.com] March 27, 2001 Congress raised payout for sick but didn't fund it By Michael Janofsky New York Times News Service GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Of all the reminders of Bob Key's Cold War effort of mining uranium for U.S. nuclear weapons programs, none stands out more than the tank of oxygen tethered to his throat. Key, 61, has pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs that is often fatal. A recent tracheotomy helps air flow to his lungs through a tube connected to the tank. A decade ago, Congress recognized the contributions of Key and other uranium miners and passed the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act of 1990. Signed by President George Bush, the law established one-time payments of up to $100,000 to miners or their families and to people who lived downwind from the nuclear test sites in Nevada. Last year, Congress increased the payout to $150,000, added new medical benefits and expanded the number of workers eligible. But after years of smooth operations, the program is broke. Scrambling last year to pass President Bill Clinton's final budget, lawmakers never debated the Justice Department's request for additional money to cover the expanded program even as new applications were pouring in, and by May, nothing was left. And Congress has been reluctant to act until it decides how to apportion the surplus and how much to cut taxes. As a result, for the first time, claims from hundreds of eligible applicants like Key have been put on hold, with many of them receiving IOU letters from the Justice Department, which administers the program, saying that their requests would be processed only after Congress appropriated more money. And the demand is increasing. Claims from 1,600 applicants under the original law are pending, and the department estimates that as many as 1,050 new applicants are expected to file for benefits this year, a number that would raise the cost of the program to more than $80 million. "It's been a bureaucratic travesty," said Rep. Scott McInnis, a Republican from Grand Junction, who introduced legislation this year seeking $84 million to restore the program. "These people are due their compensation. There is nothing to be adjudicated. The money is owed. The debt is due." For now, Congress has not decided how or when to continue the program. Lawmakers are discussing the possibility of legislation as part of the current year's budget to provide money right away. Meanwhile, almost 200 people who have been approved for the money are still holding the IOUs, including relatives of some miners who died of their illnesses while waiting. "Just since January, we've lost five clients, and I'm sure there are more we're not aware of," said Keith Killian, a lawyer here who represents former uranium miners and their families. Rebecca Rockwell, a private investigator in Durango, said she represented the families of at least 10 clients with IOU letters who had died. Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, both Republicans, have introduced legislation similar to McInnis', asking for enough money to pay all claims through this year and to make the program a permanent entitlement so Congress does not have to authorize spending each year. They have urged President Bush to include money for the program in a supplemental budget proposal for the current fiscal year. But miners and their families have been told that no new spending is likely until Congress resolves its fiscal issues, a process that could delay payments for up to a year. "I'm bitter about it," said Key, who worked in the mines from 1959 through 1963 and, like other mine workers, said he was never warned of the health consequences of exposure to uranium. "I wonder how well those guys in Washington would do, see how they would like it, tied to a chain like I am 24 hours a day," Key said. "I know I owe taxes this year. I'm just going to tell them to take it out of my IOU." Worried that he will not live long enough to receive a check because of his lung disease, Jack Beeson, 67, a former miner from Moab, said: "We worked in those mines, waiting for our golden years. Well, now it's our golden years, and it's done nothing but cost us gold. This is no way to live. I felt I was doing the government a service. Now I feel they're doing me a disservice." To many of the former miners who extracted uranium from hundreds of mines in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, the IOUs are insulting. From the 1940s through 1971, when mining for the nuclear weapons program ended, they regarded themselves as patriots, equal to servicemen. The relatively high wages paid by the mines were a lure, but so was the idea that uranium mining was crucial to national security. Lorna Harvey's father, Loren Wilcox, was a cattle rancher. But he disliked Russia so much, Harvey said, that he took a mining job in 1954 and worked at it for 2 1/2 years. "He felt we needed to protect ourselves," she said. Wilcox died of lung cancer in 1969 at 62. Most workers had no idea the yellow ore they were mining could eventually destroy their health. Wayne Hill, 69, who has lung cancer, said a tin cup hung at the entrance to one mine for miners and drivers to drink water dripping out of the rocks. "It was cool, clear water," he said. "I didn't know it was going to make me light up." So little was known or revealed about the health consequences of uranium exposure — some miners contend that companies withheld information — that workers used uranium dust for fertilizer and uranium rocks for doorstops. "My mother made earrings out of it," Harvey said. With deaths and illnesses mounting and ample evidence to show that uranium exposure was a cause, Congress passed legislation to compensate the miners in 1990. For nearly 10 years the Justice Department's annual requests for financing the program were met. To date, $268.7 million has been paid to 3,595 people. About the same number of people were denied compensation because they lacked proper medical records or copies of company logs that showed how long they had worked in the mines. Rockwell, the investigator, said many of her clients who were denied were still searching for records that would allow them to apply again. The financial crunch arose when Clinton expanded the program at a time when Congress appropriated only $10.8 million to cover existing claims, an amount that was exhausted quickly. Efforts by Domenici and others to cover the shortfall, as well as the new applicants, failed. Some of the IOU holders have lost hope of seeing the money. Darlene Pagel's husband, Duane, died of pulmonary fibrosis in 1986 at 55. Since then, Darlene Pagel said, she has worked two jobs to pay off his medical bills, which still amount to $26,922. "He didn't know uranium could kill him," she said. "If he'd have known he would have been dead at 55, he never would have taken the job." ***************************************************************** 15 Chao gains powerful ally in effort to dump entitlement program March 27, 2001 BY KATHERINE RIZZO *Associated Press Writer * WASHINGTON (AP) -- Labor Secretary Elaine Chao gained a powerful ally Tuesday in her quest to shed responsibility for setting up a program to give cash and medical care to job-sickened nuclear workers. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he wants the program to be run by the Justice Department, not the Labor Department. Hatch is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, so his opinion on what the Justice Department ought to do carries considerable weight. In a letter to the White House, Hatch said the Justice Department is best qualified to handle the new compensation program. The Justice Department handles a decade-old program giving one-time payments to uranium miners, millers and people who lived downwind of nuclear test sites. ``They already have the infrastructure and experience to handle these types of claims,'' Hatch wrote. ``It makes no sense to duplicate this effort by creating a whole new administrative function at the Labor Department.'' Last week, the White House got letters from Sens. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., George Voinovich, R-Ohio, Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, and eight members of Congress making the opposite argument -- that the Labor Department runs several worker compensation programs and has the expertise to best assume the new duties. Though pushing in different directions, all the letters had the same bottom line: handle things wrong, and contaminated workers with incurable illnesses will have to wait too long for the compensation they've been promised. ``Our fear is that they're going to argue about the jurisdiction and because of this, the workers this program is designed to help are going to suffer,'' said Lowell ``Pete'' Strader of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers. PACE represents workers at 11 sites in the nuclear weapons complex. The union's president, Boyd Young, sent Chao a five-page letter on Tuesday responding point by point to comments the secretary made in a weekend television interview. Chao ``seems confused'' about the new law that promises $150,000 and medical benefits to job-sickened nuclear workers, Boyd wrote. She also seems ``poorly informed about the largest single workers' compensation program in the country -- a program she is charged with administering,'' his letter said. On the program ``John McLaughlin's One on One,'' Chao did fumble a few dates. She said there's a May 31 deadline for setting up the program. The May 31 deadline actually is for issuing the regulations for the program; the government doesn't have to be ready to accept applications until July 31. She got that second date wrong, too, saying: ``There's also a July 1st deadline for getting out the checks ... We cannot meet the deadline of July 1st in terms of sending all those checks.'' In fact, the July 31st deadline is to be ready to process claims. Chao also said, ``I want these workers to be taken care of, and I have very serious concerns that the Department of Labor is unable to take care of these workers.'' Congress gave the Labor Department $60.4 million to set up the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. It's an entitlement program for workers exposed to health-robbing levels of radiation, silica or beryllium while doing work in the nuclear weapons complex. Money could be transferred to the Justice Department if that's where the Bush administration wants to run the program. If Chao succeeds in moving the new program out of her department, it would mean less bureaucracy for the uranium miners eligible for compensation under the smaller Justice Department program, but a curious double standard for some other sick workers. Those who contracted chronic beryllium disease while on the government payroll would continue to ask the Labor Department for benefits. Those who contracted the same disease while employed by a contractor would have to go to the Justice Department to have their claims evaluated. The Justice Department's compensation program has reviewed about 9,000 claims in a 10-year period. The Labor Department-runs compensation program for government employees considers about 19,000 new claims a year. AP-CS-03-27-01 1754EST --> ***************************************************************** 16 Letter from Glenn Bell to Secretary of Labor Elain L. Chao - Re: Rejection of Compensation Bill March 26, 2001 The Honorable Secretary Elaine L. Chao United States Department of Labor 200 Constitution Ave., NW Washington, DC 20210 Dear Ms. Chao: I am a 53-year old machinist at the Oak Ridge (TN) Y-12 National Security Complex, where I have been employed since 1968. I was diagnosed with Chronic Beryllium Disease in 1993, after several years' diagnosis with adult asthma. My condition is worsening, and varies from mild to quite severe. I have been quite active in the issues of beryllium and other health-altering contaminants in and around the Department of Energy sites. I have attended a number of DOE-sponsored health conferences as an affected worker, and found some surprising allies. I have been involved in the Energy Employees Illness Compensation Plan since its inception as simply a beryllium bill over two years ago. The series of DOE public meetings, and trips to Washington by ill present and former workers, such as myself, has brought fifty years of America's dark side to the public eye. Admission has been made that workers were unknowingly placed in harm's way. A bi-partisan compensation plan was offered by the Senate, almost destroyed by the House, and resulted in a bill which is quite unfair, but will at least help some of those who desperately need at least the very basics of medical assistance. I have attended many meetings in the last year and a half, including public meetings, DOE conferences, lobbying efforts with Washington contacts, and any other attention we could draw to our plight. All of these exercises have insisted that the Department of Labor implement the proposed compensation plan. The Black Lung and Longshoremen's' compensation efforts have been used as comparison. All seemed to agree that this was the logical path to follow, including the Executive Order of December 7, 2000. To change direction at the eleventh hour will almost certainly cause more delay and confusion. Many of the ill workers may not survive to see the bickering resolved. In your March 23, 2001, Federal News Service interview, you answer that there are "hundreds of thousands" of potential victims. With the information I have seen over the last year or so, this number is unrealistically high. Downwinders are also mentioned as comprising about half of this number. Downwinders are certainly an issue, and are as deserving as the workers, but this legislation is the "Energy Employees" compensation plan. The Downwinders' issues should be considered immediately, but are not addressed in the EEOICP. The May 31 deadline for having an implementation plan will probably not be met, but shifting the program to DOJ will guarantee delay. Also, the July deadline is the 31st, not the 1st, and is the date that the applications are to be ready, not a deadline for payment. This is an admittedly complicated legislation, as those of us who are depending on it know, all too well. We found even the legislators in support of the bill to have incomplete knowledge. Affected individuals and groups across the country have provided input, and are eager to do the same, to find some semblance of true justice. We ask that the Department of Labor accept this challenge, and draw on the experience of the Cold War wounded who have lived the injustice for far too long. We are your best resource. Respectfully, Glenn Bell, Y-12 Machinist, and CBD Victim 504 Michigan Ave. Oak Ridge, TN 37830 ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************