***************************************************************** 08/28/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.207 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Report finds dump has radioactive leak 2 Daily Events Report 3 DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Study of Potential Sites for the Deployment 4 NRC staff OKs Indian Point plant license transfer 5 Company still pushing nuclear dump 6 Letter from Bob Loux to Lake Barrett, Deputy Director, DOE, OCRWM 7 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Tuesday, August 28, 2001 8 Hodges delays training to block federal trucks 9 NRC Staff Approves Transfer of Operating Licenses For Indian 10 Governor delays exercises to block plutonium shipments 11 Nuclear waste shocker 12 CBC News: Toxic waste leaking into Lake Ontario: report 13 NRC Cites Clinton Plant for Emergency Preparedness Violation of 14 Shipment of waste nears at W. Valley 15 Questions Abound as Nuclear Regulator's Extortion Trial Opens 16 Sides Face Off in Extortion Trial 17 LETTERS: Ex-governor vilified for nuke dump stance NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 USPS issue to honor Fermi 2 Plaintiffs seek money for land used in Manhattan Project 3 White House moves into danger zone on plutonium 4 Rich ties with Richland 5 No K-25 investigation for Roane DA 6 Our View: Mangano study provides lessons in flawed science 7 Dick Smyser: An invite to kibitz ORNL's $200 million 8 Your Views: DOE holds all the cards in 'whistleblower' cases 9 DOE lab's closing raises concern ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Report finds dump has radioactive leak By MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT Monday, August 27, 2001 – Page A6 PORT GRANBY, ONT. -- Uranium, other radioactive waste and arsenic are seeping into Lake Ontario from an abandoned nuclear-waste site here, with liquid discharges so toxic they kill test animals exposed to it, a report being released today by an independent environmental watchdog says. "Liquid radioactive wastes are constantly entering the lake. These wastes leave the Port Granby site in the form of intentionally discharged treated effluent and as 'fugitive' seeps," says the report by the Lake Ontario Keeper, an environmental group monitoring pollution hot spots on the lake. The organization tested water seeping from the dump and found the material killed up to 97 per cent of the water fleas exposed to it for 48 hours. It also contained arsenic and cadmium at levels hundreds of times the federal standards. Toxicity testing using fleas is a standard practice in Canada for checking the safety of effluent from industrial facilities. "This isn't clean water coming out. It's come into contact with waste," said Mark Mattson, a lawyer and spokesman for the group. He is calling on Environment Canada to investigate the discharges to see if leaks from the dump violate the federal Fisheries Act, which prohibits the release of pollutants at concentrations that kill aquatic organisms. The dump was used by Eldorado Nuclear Ltd., a federal Crown corporation, to hold more than 300,000 cubic metres of low-level waste from its uranium-processing facility in Port Hope, 15 kilometres to the east. Regulators ordered the dump to close in 1988 and since then it has been managed by Cameco Corp., one of the successor companies to Eldorado Nuclear. Cameco defended its handling of the site and disputed the report's findings, saying the dump's effluent meets all regulatory standards. "On all the things that we are measured against, we're well below regulatory limits, with a wide margin of comfort," said Rita Mirwald, Cameco senior vice-president. She said the report's claim that the site is leaking dangerous waste is wrong. "That information you have is contradictory to what I think is coming from the company and from the regulator," she said. Cameco is responsible for a maximum of $25-million of the cleanup costs for the Port Granby dump and several other contaminated sites in the Port Hope area. Taxpayers have unlimited liability. A collection system at the dump intercepts radioactive groundwater as it flows to the lake. The system captures about 80 per cent of the groundwater, which is treated to remove arsenic and radium. When cleaned, the water is discharged into the lake. The rest flows into the lake untreated or evaporates. Testing done for the group showed even the treated water contained more than 300 times the federal water-quality guidelines for both arsenic and cadmium, according to the report, titled Port Granby: Leaking Radioactive Hazardous Waste Site. On a recent tour, there was little to suggest it is one of Canada's biggest radioactive-waste dumps. Black locust trees swayed gently from the onshore breezes from Lake Ontario and waves crashed along the nearby beach, making the land near the site look like a prime waterfront development plot. But signs on the fence around the dump have been riddled by bullet holes and a marker warns against trespassing because of the hazard from gamma radiation. Mr. Mattson said the contaminants the group found are oozing out of the dump from the eroded, buff-coloured hillside overlooking Lake Ontario. "The fear has always been that the wave action from the lake is constantly eroding away at the toe of the bank. It means the bank is crumbling and if the bank crumbles, the waste is all going to flow into the lake," he said. Cameco has piled rocks to slow erosion. Globe Poll_ Post your company's new appointments on globeandmail.com. ***************************************************************** 2 Daily Events Report Daily Events Report U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Operations Center Event Reports For 08/27/2001 08/28/2001 ** EVENT NUMBERS ** 38235 38236 38237 38238 38239 38240 + |Power Reactor |Event Number: 38235 | + | FACILITY: BRAIDWOOD REGION: 3 |NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/27/2001| | UNIT: [1] [2] [] STATE: IL |NOTIFICATION TIME: 14:20[EDT]| | RXTYPE: [1] W 4 LP,[2] W 4 LP |EVENT DATE: 08/27/2001| + +EVENT TIME: 12:33[CDT]| | NRC NOTIFIED BY: JIM ROYSTON |LAST UPDATE DATE: 08/27/2001| HQ OPS OFFICER: FANGIE JONES + +PERSON ORGANIZATION EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY |PATRICK HILAND R3 10 CFR SECTION: | APRE 50.72(b)(2)(xi) OFFSITE NOTIFICATION | UNIT |SCRAM CODE|RX CRIT|INIT PWR| INIT RX MODE |CURR PWR| CURR RX MODE 1 N Y 97 Power Operation |97 Power Operation 2 N Y 97 Power Operation |97 Power Operation | EVENT TEXT OFFSITE NOTIFICATION FOR FISH KILL IN COOLING LAKE This notification is being made pursuant to 10CFR50.72(B)(2)(xi), Braidwood Station Technical Specification Appendix B 4.1 and Exelon Reportability manual section SAF 1.9. At 1233CT on 08/27/01, it was communicated to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources that a large number of primarily Gizzard Shad perished in a fish kill in Braidwood Nuclear Station's cooling lake, due to increased temperature (current lake temperature of 89 degrees with a 3 degree increase in a relatively short period of time on 8/26/01). The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector. Power Reactor |Event Number: 38236 FACILITY: COOPER REGION: 4 |NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/27/2001| | UNIT: [1] [] [] STATE: NE |NOTIFICATION TIME: 14:49[EDT]| | RXTYPE: [1] GE 4 |EVENT DATE: 08/27/2001| + +EVENT TIME: 09:41[CDT]| | NRC NOTIFIED BY: DAVID KUNSEMILLER |LAST UPDATE DATE: 08/27/2001| HQ OPS OFFICER: FANGIE JONES + +PERSON ORGANIZATION EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY |DALE POWERS R4 10 CFR SECTION: | HFIT 26.73 FITNESS FOR DUTY | UNIT |SCRAM CODE|RX CRIT|INIT PWR| INIT RX MODE |CURR PWR| CURR RX MODE 1 N Y 100 Power Operation |100 Power Operation EVENT TEXT POSITIVE FOR CAUSE TEST FOR ALCOHOL A licensed operator supervisor tested positive on a for cause test for alcohol. The operator's access to the plant was suspended. A review of work performed found no threat to plant safety. The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector. Power Reactor |Event Number: 38237 FACILITY: COOK REGION: 3 |NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/27/2001| | UNIT: [1] [2] [] STATE: MI |NOTIFICATION TIME: 14:53[EDT]| | RXTYPE: [1] W 4 LP,[2] W 4 LP |EVENT DATE: 08/27/2001| + +EVENT TIME: 14:30[EDT]| | NRC NOTIFIED BY: DUANE COBB |LAST UPDATE DATE: 08/27/2001| HQ OPS OFFICER: FANGIE JONES +PERSON ORGANIZATION EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY |PATRICK HILAND R3 10 CFR SECTION: | DDDD 73.71 UNSPECIFIED PARAGRAPH | UNIT |SCRAM CODE|RX CRIT|INIT PWR| INIT RX MODE |CURR PWR| CURR RX MODE 1 N Y 82 Power Operation |82 Power Operation 2 N Y 100 Power Operation |100 Power Operation | EVENT TEXT SECURITY REPORT Unescorted access granted inappropriately. Immediate compensatory measures taken upon discovery. The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector. Contact the NRC Operations Center for additional details. Power Reactor |Event Number: 38238 FACILITY: BROWNS FERRY REGION: 2 |NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/27/2001| | UNIT: [1] [2] [3] STATE: AL |NOTIFICATION TIME: 16:05[EDT]| | RXTYPE: [1] GE 4,[2] GE 4,[3] GE 4 |EVENT DATE: 08/27/2001| + +EVENT TIME: 08:35[CDT]| | NRC NOTIFIED BY: TERRY KNUTTEL |LAST UPDATE DATE: 08/27/2001| HQ OPS OFFICER: FANGIE JONES + +PERSON ORGANIZATION EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY |EDWARD MCALPINE R2 10 CFR SECTION: | HFIT 26.73 FITNESS FOR DUTY | UNIT |SCRAM CODE|RX CRIT|INIT PWR| INIT RX MODE |CURR PWR| CURR RX MODE 1 N N 0 Refueling |0 Refueling 2 N Y 100 Power Operation |100 Power Operation 3 N Y 100 Power Operation |100 Power Operation EVENT TEXT POSITIVE TEST ON RANDOM TEST FOR ALCOHOL A supervisor tested positive on a random test for alcohol. The employee's access to the plant and clearance was suspended for a minimum of 14 days. The employee is being referred to the Employee Assistance Program. A review of the employee's work is being performed. The licensee has notified NRC Region 2 (Jon Wallo) and intends to notify the NRC Resident Inspector. Fuel Cycle Facility |Event Number: 38239 FACILITY: PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT |NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/27/2001| | RXTYPE: URANIUM ENRICHMENT FACILITY |NOTIFICATION TIME: 23:34[EDT]| | COMMENTS: 2 DEMOCRACY CENTER |EVENT DATE: 08/27/2001| | 6903 ROCKLEDGE DRIVE |EVENT TIME: 18:10[EDT]| | BETHESDA, MD 20817 (301)564 3200 |LAST UPDATE DATE: 08/27/2001| CITY: PIKETON REGION: 3 + COUNTY: PIKE STATE: OH |PERSON ORGANIZATION LICENSE#: GDP 2 AGREEMENT: N |PATRICK HILAND R3 DOCKET: 0707002 |JOHN GREEVES NMSS + NRC NOTIFIED BY: GARY SALYERS | HQ OPS OFFICER: FANGIE JONES | + EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY | 10 CFR SECTION: | NONR OTHER UNSPEC REQMNT | EVENT TEXT 24 HOUR REPORT 'Q' COMPONENT ACTUATION "At 1810 hours on 08/27/01, Autoclave #1 in the X 344 facility experienced a UF6 Cylinder High Pressure Alarm. The alarm indicated a high cylinder pressure condition had occurred and the 'UF6 Cylinder High Pressure Autoclave Steam Shutoff System' actuated, which caused the autoclave steam containment valves ('Q' components) to close. The autoclave was in TSR Operational Mode II (Heating) at the time of the alarm actuation. Operations personnel immediately responded to the alarm in accordance with the approved Alarm Response Procedures and confirmed no release of UF6 had occurred. Autoclave #1 was placed in TSR Operational Mode VII (Shutdown) by operations personnel and declared inoperable by the Plant Shift Superintendent. "Instrument Maintenance was requested to perform 'as founds' on the system instrumentation. An Engineering Evaluation has been requested to investigate the circumstances surrounding the safety system actuation. "This event is reportable as a valid Safety System Actuation, a 24 hr. NRC Event Notification." The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector and the DOE representative. Power Reactor |Event Number: 38240 FACILITY: OYSTER CREEK REGION: 1 |NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/28/2001| | UNIT: [1] [] [] STATE: NJ |NOTIFICATION TIME: 02:10[EDT]| | RXTYPE: [1] GE 2 |EVENT DATE: 08/28/2001| + +EVENT TIME: 01:50[EDT]| | NRC NOTIFIED BY: JERE FREEMAN |LAST UPDATE DATE: 08/28/2001| HQ OPS OFFICER: JOHN MacKINNON + +PERSON ORGANIZATION EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY |DAVID LEW R1 10 CFR SECTION: | APRE 50.72(b)(2)(xi) OFFSITE NOTIFICATION | UNIT |SCRAM CODE|RX CRIT|INIT PWR| INIT RX MODE |CURR PWR| CURR RX MODE 1 N Y 100 Power Operation |100 Power Operation EVENT TEXT OCEAN COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT NOTIFIED Oyster Creek Generating Station notified the Ocean County Sheriff's Department of a failure of six (6) out of 42 emergency notification sirens. Repairs to the sirens are underway. A thunderstorm passed through their area before the emergency sirens were found to be inoperable. The NRC Resident Inspector will be notified of this event by the licensee. ***************************************************************** 3 DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Study of Potential Sites for the Deployment of New Nuclear Power Plants in the United States [FedNet Government News] Story Filed: Monday, August 27, 2001 3:13 PM EST Washington, DC, Aug 27, 2001 (FedNet via COMTEX) -- The U.S. Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office, is seeking applications from U.S. nuclear utilities/power generating companies to conduct an Early Site Permit scoping study of potential sites for the deployment of new nuclear power plants in the United States. The intention of this study is to determine the activities, schedule and resource requirements for demonstration of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Early Site Permit Application licensing process at the preferred site. DATES: The deadline for receipt of applications is 4:00 p.m. EST on October 15, 2001. AGENCY: Idaho Operations Office, Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of availability of solicitation. Copyright 2001 FedNet *Copyright © 2001, FedNet Government News, all rights reserved.* ***************************************************************** 4 NRC staff OKs Indian Point plant license transfer [Reuters] _Monday August 27, 4:28 pm Eastern Time_ WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday said agency staff has approved transferring the operating licenses for the Indian Point nuclear generating units 1 and 2 from Consolidated Edison Company of New York, a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison Inc. (NYSE:ED - news), to subsidiaries of Entergy Corp. (NYSE:ETR - news) The reactors are located in Buchanan, New York. The staff's approval of the license transfers becomes effective immediately, although the NRC granted hearing requests from several groups against the change. Citizens Awareness Network, Hendrick Hudson School District and the town of Cortlandt Manor, New York, asked for hearings on Entergy's financial ability to operate and maintain the Indian Point plant safely. Following hearings, the commission said it could decide by early 2002 to reverse the license transfer authorized by its staff. The key issues considered by the NRC staff in the license transfers included Entergy's technical and financial qualifications to maintain Indian Point 1, which shut down permanently in 1974, and also to safely operate Indian Point 2. Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy ***************************************************************** 5 Company still pushing nuclear dump Casper Star-Tribune Casper, Wyoming Tuesday, August 28, 2001 CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - A company still wants to build a nuclear waste storage site north of Shoshoni despite a lack of funding and opposition from environmentalists. Robert Anderson, a Riverton lawyer and president of Newcorp, pleaded his company's case before the Joint Interim Revenue Committee last week. He told the state lawmakers that the proposed Owl Creek project 10 miles north of Shoshoni would bring in $14 million to $35 million in state revenue each year for 40 years. But Newcorp still has no firm plans. It is largely hampered by its need for about $100 million to cover environmental and economic impact studies, engineering work, legal bills and construction. "There is nothing immediate. There's nothing tomorrow or five months from now," Anderson said late Wednesday. Still, Anderson feels the national mood is changing and more people, including environmental organizations like the National Resource Defense League and England's Green Party, support nuclear power over other types of energy. "It's simply a fact that nuclear power is environmentally clean. All the other types of fuels we burn put their waste in the air," he said. He conceded that nuclear energy carries a lot of political and emotional baggage but said those who are undecided will support nuclear power when they realize the nation's energy needs and the limits of fossil-fuel pollution controls. "You can only put so many scrubbers on lawn mowers, cars and power plants," he said. "People who are better schooled in the global picture conclude that nuclear power will continue to have its place in the world." Christine Lichenfels, associate director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council in Lander, said on Thursday that problems with nuclear power, like storage of spent fuel, never have been addressed. "I don't think the mood has changed," she said. She predicted that most Fremont County residents will fight having to live near a "nuclear garbage dump." And while the Bush-Cheney national energy plan supports nuclear power component, she said, that doesn't mean the public supports it. She pointed to the opposition in Jackson to a nuclear waste incinerator at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho Falls. Under threat of a $1 billion lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Energy suspended the proposal. As for Anderson's persistence through the years, Lichenfels said, "I guess that's his vision of dollar signs." Anderson said Wyoming is the only state that has a law spelling out the process of application for fuel rods storage. The 1995 law involves two steps. One would require the project sponsors to go to the governor and the Legislature's Management Council for an interim study. The second step is to file a final application. Anderson said his group went through step one but not step two because of a lack of funds. Tuesday, the Joint Revenue Committee decided to consider several revenue options to look at later, including various fees and taxes for a fuel rod storage project. Anderson said the Newcorp project would pay a $5 per kilogram, up-front, one-time fee that would amount to $62 million for the state. There would also be a $1 per kilogram annual storage fee and a hazardous waste transportation fee. The state Senate last winter killed a bill that framed a tax structure for storing spent nuclear fuel rods in Wyoming. ***************************************************************** 6 Letter from Bob Loux to Lake Barrett, Deputy Director, DOE, OCRWM re: Use Existing Siting Guidlines to Evaluate Yucca Mountain _KENNY C. GUINN_ *Governor* _STATE OF NEVADA_ [State Seal] _OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR_ _ AGENCY FOR NUCLEAR PROJECTS 1802 N. Carson Street, Suite 252 Carson City, Nevada 89701 Telephone: (775) 687-3744 • Fax: (775) 687-5277 E-mail: nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us_ _ROBERT R. LOUX_ *Executive Director* August 24, 2001 Lake Barrett, Deputy Director Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management 1000 Independence Avenue, S.E. Washington, D.C. 20585 Dear Mr. Barrett: On August 21, 2001 the Department of Energy issued a notice in the Federal Register on the planned Yucca Mountain "Site Recommendation Consideration Hearings and End of Public Comment Period", together with an announcement of the availability of the Yucca Mountain Preliminary Site Suitability Evaluation (PSSE). The announcement states, on page 43851, that, " The PSSE contains a preliminary evaluation of the suitability of the Yucca mountain site for development as a geologic repository based on the Department's _proposed_ (emphasis added) site suitability regulations, to be codified as 10 CFR 963." Since the Department has an existing set of site suitability regulations, codified as 10 CFR 960, please explain why the Department of Energy is not evaluating the Yucca Mountain site under those regulations, and providing the public the opportunity to see the Department's evaluation of the site under those regulations. We find that basing an evaluation of the Yucca Mountain site on proposed regulations, when there are existing regulations that have gone through the public notice and comment process and have been codified since 1984, is unethical and violates not only the Administrative Procedures Act, but also the public trust that this program is supposed to engender. Nevada is, therefore, insisting that the Department immediately suspend the current notice that is in the Federal Register, conduct an evaluation of the Yucca Mountain site under the 10 CFR 960 guidelines, and publish the results of that evaluation in the Federal Register for public review and comment. The only possible reason why the Department would not conduct an evaluation of the Yucca Mountain site's suitability under the existing site suitability guidelines is that such an evaluation would almost certainly disqualify the site from further consideration. Changing regulations for the Yucca Mountain site at the eleventh hour not only violates the public trust, but it also shows the lengths to which the Department is prepared to go in attempting to salvage a project that, under any truly objective and scientific criteria, would have long since been abandoned. It is this type of manipulative and duplicitous action that continues to undermine the efforts of this country to find a credible and workable solution to the nuclear waste problem. It is wholly unacceptable for DOE to utilize a set of proposed site suitability regulations that have no legal or substantive basis as the vehicle for evaluating the Yucca Mountain site. This action only serves to reinforce the perception that DOE's sole concern is to support its predetermined and technically flawed conclusions about the site's suitability while reflecting DOE's willingness to cast fairness and objectivity aside in its single-minded attempt to make Yucca Mountain work at any cost. I urge you to reconsider this course of action and, instead, commit to evaluating the site against the existing regulations. Sincerely, --/s/-- Robert R. Loux Executive Director cc: Governor Guinn Nevada Congressional Delegation Commission On Nuclear Projects State of Nevada Office of the Governor Agency for Nuclear Projects 1802 North Carson Suite 252 Carson City, NV 89701 (775) 687-3744 voice (775) 687-5277 fax nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us- e-mail * ***************************************************************** 7 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Tuesday, August 28, 2001 ADAMS - Items of Interest Recent Released Documents Added - Tuesday, August 28, 2001 These documents and others may be retrieved at the NRC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item ID: 012390320 Accession Number: ML012390144 Document Date: 8/23/01 Title: 08/30/2001 - Notice of Meeting With Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Regarding National Fire Protection Standard NFPA 805 Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DRIP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012390322 Accession Number: ML012360478 Document Date: 8/27/01 Title: 09/07/01 Forthcoming Meeting with Duke Energy Corporation, Oconee Nuclear Station Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD2-1 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012390125 Accession Number: ML012290270 Document Date: 8/2/01 Title: 37-30062-01 130135 Defense Logistics Agency. Final survey reports for buildings & outside storage areas at Jacksonville, Florida, San Joaquin, California, & Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania depots. Author Affiliation: US Dept of Defense, Defense Logistics Agency Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012390235 Accession Number: ML012340087 Document Date: 8/8/01 Title: Comment (265) submitted by Wendy and Stanley Marsh opposing NRC proposed rules PR-1, 2, 50, 51, 52, 54, 60, 70, 73, 76 and 110 as described in Federal Register, 04/16/2001, Vol. 66 to change licensing hearing process for nuclear power reactors. Author Affiliation: - No Known Affiliation Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012390130 Accession Number: ML012320006 Document Date: 8/16/01 Title: Decommissioning Financial Assurance Statement of Intent. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-II Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012390083 Accession Number: ML012290113 Document Date: 8/9/01 Title: Emergency Plan Changes for Three Mile Island Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations. Author Affiliation: US Dept of Energy (DOE), Idaho Operations Office Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012390245 Accession Number: ML012350139 Document Date: 8/23/01 Title: Request for Assistance for Expedited Rulemaking to Revise 10 CFR Part 72 - "Geological and Seismological Characteristics for Siting and Design of Dry Cask Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations" Author Affiliation: NRC/OGC Document/Report Number: ***************************************************************** 8 Hodges delays training to block federal trucks [charlotte.com] Published Tuesday, August 28, 2001 plutonium shipments Hodges delays training to block federal trucks _*S.C. governor says `small step forward' made to resolve issues*_ _By HENRY EICHEL _ *Columbia Bureau * _COLUMBIA_ -- South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges Monday postponed a Wednesday training exercise in which state troopers were to practice blocking federal shipments of plutonium into the state. He said he called the plans off after U.S. Department of Energy officials agreed to talk about a strategy for making sure the state doesn't get stuck with the plutonium slated to come to the state for processing. Hodges said he is encouraged "that finally, the federal government is recognizing that we're serious about this and that they are willing to sit down and discuss resolution of these matters.'' He made the comments to reporters after a day of telephone conversations with S.C. members of Congress and exchanges of letters with Department of Energy officials. He said he will reschedule the training closer to the mid-October date that federal officials had set for sending the first tractor-trailer load of what is to be about 55 tons of radioactive plutonium scrap and powder to the Savannah River Site, the former nuclear weapons complex near Aiken. "In the event we fail to reach some agreement here in the next few weeks," Hodges said, "then we'll move forward with our plans to both be prepared and also to take action to block any shipments to South Carolina." Hodges is trying to get a binding written agreement from the Department of Energy about when the plutonium will have to leave the state to ensure it doesn't stay in South Carolina indefinitely. South Carolina had agreed to a deal with the Clinton administration to allow the Savannah River Site to become a facility to convert about 36 tons of surplus plutonium, left over from bomb-making, to fuel for nuclear power plants. Roughly 19 more tons, not pure enough for fuel, would be immobilized in glass containers and shipped to Nevada, where it would be buried inside a mountain. But the Bush administration now says it may drop the fuel project because of new estimates it would cost $6.6 billion, three times the original estimate. Also, objections from Nevada could prevent the proposed Yucca Mountain plutonium burial site from opening. "It sure looks to me like the whole policy related to what's going to be done with plutonium is in a state of flux," Hodges said. "For us to agree to let plutonium come here before there is a clearly defined strategy would be foolish on our part." Hodges released a letter from Undersecretary of Energy Robert Card restating DOE's promise made last week to delay shipping the plutonium "providing that good faith discussions would rapidly commence to gain agreement on a strategy for processing and shipping out the new material" out of South Carolina. Card's letter said, "We believe that there is every opportunity to reach agreement before mid-October." Hodges said he took that to mean that the energy department still plans to ship the plutonium to South Carolina by mid-October whether plans for shipping it back out are finalized or not. The governor said he responded with a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham asking for written confirmation the plutonium won't be shipped until the question of where it would go next is settled. Hodges said he regarded Monday's developments as "a very small step forward. All that today's actions has done is allow us to reenergize discussions. But clearly, the real test is going to be whether or not those discussions will lead to some positive resolution." *Henry Eichel (803) 779-5037; heichel@charlotteobserver.com* Hodges "For us to agree to let plutonium come here before there is a clearly defined strategy would be foolish on our part." _Jim Hodges _S.C. Governor ***************************************************************** 9 NRC Staff Approves Transfer of Operating Licenses For Indian Point 1 and 2 to Entergy Corporation _U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION_ _Office of Public Affairs_ _Telephone: 301/415-8200_ _Washington, DC 20555-001_ _E-mail: _ _Web Site: _ No. 01-106 August 27, 2001 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has approved the transfer of the operating licenses for Indian Point Nuclear Generating Units 1 and 2 from Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., to subsidiaries of Entergy Corporation. Indian Point 1 and 2 are located in Buchanan, N.Y. As provided by NRC regulations, the staff's approval of the license transfers becomes effective immediately, even though the Commission granted hearing requests on August 22, from the Citizens Awareness Network and jointly from the Town of Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., and the Hendrick Hudson School District. The groups sought hearings regarding Entergy's financial ability to operate and maintain the Indian Point plant safely. The Commission's August 22 order lays out a schedule for the hearing which could result in a Commission decision in early 2002. The Commission's decision could reverse the action now being authorized by the staff. On December 12, 2000, Consolidated Edison and Entergy jointly submitted an application to the NRC requesting approval for the license transfers. The key issues considered by the NRC included the prospective licensees' technical and financial qualifications to maintain Indian Point 1, which shut down permanently in 1974, and safely operate Indian Point 2, as well as decommissioning funding assurance. A copy of the NRC staff's approval letter and accompanying safety evaluation report will be available on the NRC's web site at: under the heading "News & Correspondence." ***************************************************************** 10 Governor delays exercises to block plutonium shipments Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:06 p.m. on Tuesday, August 28, 2001 _by Amy Geier _ Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A week after threatening to lie down in front of trucks to stop shipments of plutonium to South Carolina, Gov. Jim Hodges said he would hold talks with the federal government and postpone roadblock exercises. "All we're asking for is that the federal government honor their prior commitment," Hodges said Monday. "We're not going to be the plutonium dumping ground." Hodges wants a binding written agreement from the U.S. Energy Department specifying when shipments of the radioactive metal will arrive in South Carolina and more importantly when it will leave. The state had an agreement with the federal government to bring 50 tons of weapons-grade plutonium beginning in mid-October to the Savannah River Site, where it would be converted into fuel for commercial power plants or immobilized in glass rods for storage in Nevada. Hodges' staff said they're afraid the Bush administration may back out of the deal, leaving the plutonium unprocessed and kept at SRS, which is not designed for permanent storage. "It sure looks to me like the whole policy related to what's going to be done with plutonium is in a state of flux with the Department of Energy," Hodges said. "For us to agree to let plutonium come here before there is a clearly defined strategy would be foolish on our part." Hodges said by keeping plutonium out, he is looking after the well-being of South Carolinians and doing the nation a favor. "I really do believe that by forcing their hand on this, we're helping the nation move forward to deciding what's going to be done about plutonium." Hodges had ordered state troopers to practice blocking roads Wednesday in anticipation of the shipment. He made the decision to hold off on the exercises after receiving a letter from the Energy Department on Monday, saying it would delay shipments until further details are worked out. Energy Undersecretary Robert Card wrote that the agency will suspend the October shipment "providing good faith discussions would rapidly commence to gain agreement on a strategy for processing and shipping out the new material." Card said he thinks there is "every opportunity" to reach agreement before the shipments are scheduled in mid-October. Hodges said he would like to see talks start as early as Tuesday. "DOE delaying the plutonium shipments and the governor canceling exercises around the site are very encouraging steps," said Republican U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham, who represents the area around SRS. "It's a clear sign that cooler heads are prevailing." Hodges, Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler, House Speaker David Wilkins and Attorney General Charlie Condon will send a bipartisan letter to the department stating their position. "South Carolina must speak with one voice and without regard to partisanship or political party in this matter," Condon said in a prepared statement. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 11 Nuclear waste shocker Tuesday, August 28, 2001 Lake Ontario leak _By DAVID GAMBLE, OTTAWA BUREAU_ OTTAWA -- Federal officials are probing an alarming report that dangerous amounts of uranium, radioactive waste and arsenic are seeping into Lake Ontario. The report by environmental group Lake Ontario Keeper says an abandoned nuclear waste dump near Port Granby is spewing a toxic soup into the lake -- so deadly that it killed water fleas within 48 hours of exposure. The report also says arsenic and cadmium are present in levels hundreds of times above federal standards. Environment Canada official Edwina Lopez said yesterday scientists will check the watchdog group's complaint that the seepage from the dump is in violation of the federal Fisheries Act. "Environment Canada is reviewing the report," Lopez said. PROCESSING PLANT The dump was used by Eldorado Nuclear Ltd. -- a federal Crown corporation -- for waste from its uranium processing plant in nearby Port Hope. It was ordered closed in 1988. It is now managed by Cameco Corp. which has categorically denied the group's claims, insisting it meets all requirements demanded by its federal regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Lake Ontario Keeper has purposely chosen to complain to Environment Canada because it is unhappy with the safety commission, a lawyer for the group said. "When you speak to the nuclear industry, they like to pretend that there's no other authority," Mark Mattson said. "Our contention here is that there are other laws in Canada that have to be complied with," he said, adding the regulator seems to believe that "as long as there's no dead fish floating, everything's fine." But commission spokesman Jim Leveque said that while Cameco's quarterly reports show its effluent is "below regulatory limits," the commission takes the new report seriously. _Previous story:_ Courthouse confrontation _Next story:_ Students feeling the tuition pinch Copyright © 2001, CANOE Limited Partnership. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 CBC News: Toxic waste leaking into Lake Ontario: report [CBC.CA News}] *WebPosted Tue Aug 28 17:03:10 2001 * TORONTO - Toxic radioactive chemicals are leaking into Lake Ontario from a dump site east of Toronto, says an Ontario environmental group. Lake Ontario Keeper (LOK), a Toronto-based group concerned with protecting the waterfront community, released a report on Monday that says a waste dump at Port Granby is leaking into the lake. The report says the group found uranium, arsenic, radium, and cadmium in pools of water near the site. The water is treated to remove dangerous chemicals before it reaches the beach. But the report says samples of treated water show high amounts of the chemicals, sometimes 300 times the maximum allowed by federal water standards. LOK wants Environment Canada to investigate the leaks. The dump was used by Eldorado Nuclear Ltd. for more than 30 years until 1988. Since then, it's been managed by Cameco Corp., which was formed in 1988 by the merger of Saskatchewan Mining Development Corp. and Eldorado Nuclear. The company denies the report's findings, saying its quarterly tests show there's no risk. Soil erosion around the site could lead to more seepage. A $260 million federal cleanup project is in the works. Sue Stickley of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. said concerned citizens do not want the waste dump moved, but they do want the problem fixed. The cleanup job will take at least 10 years. In the meantime, LOK says up to 20 per cent of raw radioactive waste is seeping out. Environment Canada says it will look into the Lake Ontario Keeper report. Written by CBC News Online ***************************************************************** 13 NRC Cites Clinton Plant for Emergency Preparedness Violation of Low to Moderate Safety Significance Region III -- 2001 - 042 -- _UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION_ _OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION III_ _801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532_ No. III-01-042 August 28, 2001 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630)829-9663/e-mail: rjs2@nrc.gov Pam Alloway-Mueller (630)829-9662/e-mail: pla@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has determined that a violation of NRC emergency preparedness regulations at the Clinton Nuclear Power Station near Clinton, Illinois, should be characterized as "white," meaning that it is an issue of low to moderate importance to safety. The plant is operated by Exelon Nuclear Generating Co. During an inspection in May and June of this year, NRC inspectors found that the company had failed to promptly correct deficiencies in the performance of control room communicators during drills in late 1999 and in August of last year. The role of the communicators is to provide information to offsite governmental agencies during a possible emergency. Eleven members of the plant staff failed to meet the drill requirements in 1999, and ten failed to meet the requirements in 2000, including three who had failed in the previous year. Under its safety significance determination process, NRC officials classify certain conditions at nuclear power plants as being one of four colors which delineate increasing levels of safety significance, beginning with green and progressing to white, yellow or red. A preliminary "white" finding was described in an inspection report issued June 29 of this year. The letter transmitting the report provided the company with an opportunity to either request a regulatory conference to discuss this issue or to respond in writing. Exelon sent a written response, indicating the company did not contest the characterization of the safety significance of this finding. In February of this year, Exelon determined that it had not taken sufficient action to address the previous drill failures. The workers were retrained and retested. All but three successfully demonstrated they could make the required notifications. Those three were removed from the emergency response organization. These actions were reviewed during the NRC's inspection. The company has increased the depth of its training program and increased the frequency to semiannual training to preclude future drill failures. and the company revised its notification procedures. A white finding may result in future NRC inspections, but sufficient information was gathered in the June inspection at the Clinton plant to determine that the corrective actions were effective. The performance of the control room communicators will be reviewed in future emergency preparedness inspections. ***************************************************************** 14 Shipment of waste nears at W. Valley Buffalo News - The rail shipment of high-level nuclear waste from the West Valley Demonstration Project is expected to begin soon, but authorities said they won't give any advance notice to the public about when it will occur. Contracts with all four railroads that will carry 125 highly radioactive nuclear waste fuel rods from West Valley to Idaho have been signed, according to site spokesman John Chamberlain. That eliminates the last major stumbling block to a planned shipment. But Alice Williams, the Department of Energy's director at the site, said federal guidelines for past nuclear shipments block disclosure of the departure date. "The safeguard approach has been one that has served the department well," she said. She added that the shipment will take place before Oct. 31, the day the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's certificate for compliance for the shipment ends. Williams said security concerns - specifically the threat of a terrorist attack or a demonstration that would disrupt the 2,360-mile rail journey - were chief among the reasons for not disclosing the date the material will leave West Valley. She said the government has no indication that a terrorist act is being planned. "If we did, we would not make the shipment," she said. The prospects for protests along the way may be greater, although two opponents downplayed the possibility of any activities that would halt the shipment. In fact, Chris Trepal of the Earth Day Coalition in Cleveland said she's advising opponents in Ohio not to get near the train, which will be protected by a high level of security. "Because of the security, I would not encourage anyone to actively protest on the tracks," she said. "I just think it's a risky proposition." Dianne D'Arrigo, the Buffalo native and activist who works for Washington-based Nuclear Research and Information Service, said there are no plans "at the moment" for her group to protest along the way. "I can't predict what will happen," she said. "I know there are very serious concerns about the unnecessary transport of nuclear waste, and that's what this is." Two specially designed casks containing the waste will be placed on rail cars and transported through 11 states to its temporary destination, the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho Falls. It will be the first rail shipment of nuclear waste from the West Valley site, which started out as the country's only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing center but is now mainly a dump and storage spot for a variety of radioactive wastes. Even after the shipment, a large amount of radioactive material will remain at West Valley. Copyright © 1999 - 2001 The Buffalo NewsTM ***************************************************************** 15 Questions Abound as Nuclear Regulator's Extortion Trial Opens August 27, 2001* _BY JUDY FAHYS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE _ The federal extortion trial of former state regulator Larry Anderson opens today, with some of the most puzzling questions in the long-running case still unanswered. Why did the former director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control expose himself to criminal charges by taking money and a condominium from a businessman he regulated? Why, after being forced from his $65,000-a-year state job, did he take the audacious step of suing landfill owner Khosrow Semnani over a consulting contract no one had seen? And why did he snub a plea bargain that would have slashed his possible jail time and penalties? As Anderson's jury trial opens in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, the case has ramifications well beyond the pride of a retired bureaucrat. Semnani hopes for testimony and a verdict that will exonerate him and his multimillion-dollar company, Envirocare of Utah. And the public will be looking for assurance that a renegade state employee, and not the state's entire environmental program, operated for personal profit rather than the public good. However, defense attorney Jerry Mooney predicts the two-week trial will not provide much for people seeking broader meanings. "They come in expecting some truth-seeking," he said, "but often it is a disappointment." The trial will be the first public exploration of these knotty questions since 1987, when Anderson, as division director, began working with Semnani on starting and growing a hazardous waste business. Anderson holds that it was a legitimate business arrangement that made Semnani enormously wealthy. The businessman insists he ponied up only to avoid the regulator's wrath. In any case, both profited handsomely from the relationship. Two years into the arrangement, Semnani purchased a condo on the Park Meadows golf course in Park City that he soon deeded to the regulator. The condo sold for $400,000 a few years later, shortly before Anderson and his wife, Carolee, settled into a townhouse overlooking the Oasis Golf Club in Mesquite, Nev. Money changed hands under the table. Anderson set up a Swiss bank account. Semnani had money wired into the account from a Paris bank. And along with the coins and piles of cash he received from the businessman, Anderson collected consulting fees through a contractor he had referred to Envirocare. Semnani's business blossomed apace. Anderson helped him secure an exception to federal law to operate a radioactive waste facility on private property -- still the only exception of its kind in the nation -- and also helped Semnani buy, at a bargain price, state-owned land essential to any growth at Envirocare's 640-acre Tooele County site. Anderson steered government-surplus shipping equipment to Semnani -- personally delivering the check to state surplus officers -- although another company wanted to bid on it. Anderson oversaw many changes to Envirocare's operating permits that added to the list of lucrative services it could offer. At the same time, he actively fought radioactive waste proposals advanced by Envirocare's rivals in Utah and elsewhere. The relationship prompted two investigations. The first, ordered by then-Department of Environmental Quality Director Ken Alkema, was deemed "inconclusive" and ordered destroyed. The second, requested by lawmakers and conducted by the Legislative Auditor General's Office, noted Anderson's ferocious support for Envirocare and concluded "that Utah goes too far in supporting its waste-disposal facilities." That sentiment lingers today. As Envirocare seeks to update its permit and expand its business, activist Chip Ward often raises the Anderson-Semnani scandal. "People assume their regulators protect them," he said. " Regulators [in Utah] don't regulate. They mediate." Brent Bradford, assistant director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, agrees the impact lingers despite all the department's added checks and controls. "There is a question in folks' minds, 'Could it happen again?' " he said. "We certainly don't want to see this kind of thing recur." With Dianne Nielson's appointment as DEQ director in 1993, Anderson, the first manager asked to go, was allowed to linger at DEQ long enough to qualify for a pension. It was almost four years later when the scandal exploded into public view. Anderson sued Semnani for nonpayment of $5 million; Semnani countersued alleging extortion and demanding $2.4 million in damages. In the ensuing legal firestorm, Anderson and Semnani were pummeled with lawsuits by Envirocare rivals enraged over being excluded from radioactive-waste opportunities worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The Radiation Division's oversight of Envirocare was double-checked internally, as well as by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy Department, Envirocare's biggest customer. The reviews turned up no evidence that the Anderson-Semnani relationship had compromised public safety or health, but the suspicion has endured. In a December 1998 deal with prosecutors, Semnani pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge and was ordered to pay $100,000. He also promised to testify against Anderson. It was the most lenient sentence allowed under federal guidelines. In turn, prosecutors charged Anderson with extortion, tax evasion, tax fraud and mail fraud -- six criminal counts that carried up to 37 years of jail time and fines of more than $1 million. The former regulator agreed to a plea bargain last February, but withdrew at his June sentencing hearing. For Tom Cochran, a nuclear specialist for the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council, the outcome of the scandal is dubious. Anderson "will take the heat, and Semnani gets off with a misdemeanor and a $100,000 fine, which he probably makes in a few minutes," said Cochran, whose group tried unsuccessfully to get federal officials to revoke Envirocare's license. "I don't believe for a minute it was extortion." After suffering two heart attacks and battling prostate cancer, Anderson pleaded indigence to the court. Mooney, a court-appointed defender assigned to the case last year, said his client no longer expects to see the financial rewards of the radioactive waste business he helped build. The money is no longer the issue, Mooney said. "He wants the credit." fahys@sltrib.com ***************************************************************** 16 Sides Face Off in Extortion Trial August 28, 2001* _BY JUDY FAHYS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE _ The extortion trial against former state regulator Larry Anderson had a swift start Monday. "This is a case about power and greed," said Nancy J. Newcomb, one of the federal attorneys prosecuting Utah's former director of radiation control. "This is a case of corruption and self-dealing." Defense attorney Jerry Mooney quickly maneuvered to wedge doubt into that sinister scenario. He warned jurors that prosecutors would lay out a sweeping version of events before Anderson has a chance to explain what was merely a soured consulting arrangement. "You are going to have to decide who is telling the truth," said Mooney, adding that Anderson was instructed to conceal the arrangement -- including the $600,000 in cash and property he received. These dueling explanations, conveyed through exhibits and the testimony of more than a dozen witnesses, will be grist for another two weeks or more in U.S. District Court Judge Tena Campbell's courtroom. Anderson is charged with extortion, mail fraud, tax fraud and tax evasion, charges filed after investigators discovered he had taken money, coins and real estate from landfill owner Khosrow Semnani between 1987 and 1993, when Anderson regulated Semnani's radioactive waste venture. The former regulator insists the two had a valid business contract, but Semnani contends he only agreed to pay because of the trouble Anderson might make for Semnani's radioactive waste landfill, a multimillion-dollar business now called Envirocare of Utah. Anderson was set to accept a plea bargain two months ago that would have forced him to give up property and sent him to jail for a year. By deciding to go to trial on the six charges, he faces as much as 37 years in jail and fines exceeding $500,000. Several state employees are expected to take the stand, including Tim Osterstock of the Legislative Auditor General's office, Hazardous and Radioactive Waste Division attorney Ray Wixom and Air Quality Compliance manager Jeff Dean. Anderson also is likely to take the stand, said Mooney. But it was Semnani who sat before jurors first Monday and began telling his side of the story, beginning with his arrival in Utah more than three decades ago as a student from Iran. The businessman's testimony was required as part of a 1998 plea bargain with federal prosecutors that allowed him to escape jail time in exchange for pleading guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge and paying a $100,000 fine. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Elizabethanne C. Stevens began by characterizing Semnani as a savvy businessman. Semnani is expected to dispute Anderson's claims that the regulator was being paid for a business plan he developed for the landfill. In opening statements, prosecutors said Semnani made his first payment by leaving an envelope of cash in Anderson's grandmother's mailbox, where the regulator later picked it up. Later, payments were made by rolling up bills in magazines and handing off cash while the two were alone in elevators. fahys@sltrib.com ***************************************************************** 17 LETTERS: Ex-governor vilified for nuke dump stance [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Tuesday, August 28, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal _To the editor:_ The recent action by former Gov. Robert List is the man's last hurrah. He had faded from the public view, a frustrated person who couldn't make it as a governor. To get back into the headlines, he has decided that the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste site is good for Nevada. He believes the lobbyists and DOE employees who have an interest that does not include the health and safety of the people of Nevada. He has joined a team who thinks they can beat Mother Nature. Nobody can beat Mother Nature and in time Mother Nature will win at the expense of future generations. I have attended and spoken at a significant number of the hearings on the suitability of the project. I never have seen Mr. List at any of them. I assume it was because he wasn't being paid. Now as a member of the oldest profession, he will be paid. To call Mr. List an ex-governor of Nevada is an insult to the office. I suggest he move out of Las Vegas because his "new" profession isn't allowed in Las Vegas. I hope the Republicans in Nevada do not rally to his side, as he is on a sinking ship and no one except rats will be on the ship. Goodbye, Mr. List, and good riddance. _LOU deBOTTARI CARSON CITY_ ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 USPS issue to honor Fermi Daily Southtown: Serving Chicago area's Southland August 27, 2001*_ _By Syd Kronish__* The Associated Press*_ The U.S. Postal Service will honor Enrico Fermi, one of the pre-eminent physicists of the atomic age, with a new commemorative postage stamp. The stamp will be issued Sept. 29 at the University of Chicago. Fermi was born on that day in 1901 in Rome. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1938 for his discovery of nuclear reactions caused by slow neutrons. After accepting the prize in Stockholm, he emigrated to the United States. In 1942, he supervised the design and assembly of the first nuclear reactor as part of the secret Manhattan Project to make plutonium for nuclear weapons. That year, Fermi and his team achieved the first controlled and self-sustaining, man-made nuclear chain reaction. The stamp features a picture of Fermi and a model of the carbon atom. The picture was taken in 1948 when Fermi was a professor at the University of Chicago's Institute for Nuclear Studies. Fermi died of cancer in 1954. The stamp will be available Sept. 29 at Chicago post offices and Oct. 1 nationwide. First-day covers are available from the Stamp Fulfillment Services by calling (800) STAMP-24. The deadline for requests is Oct. 29. www.dailysouthtown.com ***************************************************************** 2 Plaintiffs seek money for land used in Manhattan Project Hispanic heirs claim government didn't compensate everyone The Dallas Morning News: Texas/Southwest 08/28/2001 _By JIM YARDLEY / New York Times News Service_ SANTA FE, N.M.  The story handed down in Jose Gonzales' family is that his father was working in a field on the day the government men came to take away his farm. Up and down he worked the field until they told him to hitch his team and drive it off the property forever. At the time, Mr. Gonzales was serving in the Army in World War II, so he cannot document the story. But land records confirm that his family was among the small group of Hispanic homesteaders whose property was used for the Manhattan Project, the secret program to create the atomic bomb. Now, nearly six decades later, Mr. Gonzales, 83, is suing the government, claiming bluntly "that we were taken for a ride." Mr. Gonzales and other heirs are asking for reparations, saying the government cheated their forebears, in some cases paying them nothing, even as nearby non-Hispanic landowners received far more money for their property. Andrew Smith, the Justice Department lawyer handling the cases, said he is confident the government could win in court, particularly since the claims are 60 years old, raising questions about the statute of limitations. "The issues become stale and the facts become cold, and the people who were present in the dispute are no longer around," Mr. Smith said. "It makes it about impossible for the court to get at the merits of the case." The dispute goes back to 1942, when government officials began looking for a site to develop a nuclear weapon. They needed 54,000 acres, and most of the land was taken from a national forest. But about 8,900 acres was in private hands, owned by the Hispanic homesteaders and by two enterprises, the Los Alamos Ranch School and the Anchor Ranch. The case is complicated. The heirs to the homesteaders, fractured by infighting, have split in two and filed lawsuits using different tactics. One group, pushing for a political solution, has lobbied the state's congressional delegation for a law on reparations this fall. The other group is bracing for a court fight. "We're asking for some of the land back," said Joe Gutierrez, the group's leader. "There was some discrimination in how they assessed these properties." _© 2001 The Dallas Morning News_ Privacy policy 2000 EPpy ***************************************************************** 3 White House moves into danger zone on plutonium [Thestar.com] Aug. 28, 01:45 EDT Stephen Handelman COLUMNIST NEW YORK - A few years ago, before Washington worried about rogue nuclear missiles, it worried about rogue nuclear bomb makers. The end of the Cold War left the world swimming in bomb-making expertise and surplus stocks of plutonium. The U.S. and Russia together harboured an estimated 300 metric tonnes of military plutonium alone, much of it in decommissioned warheads. (One metric tonne is enough to make 200 nuclear bombs similar to the one that pulverized Nagasaki.) There have, of course, been no "accidents," so far. And the few verified incidents of nuclear smuggling haven't justified the scare headlines of the early 1990s. So, time to relax, right? The Bush administration apparently thinks so. Last week the administration leaked word that it was considering abandoning an agreement with Moscow to eliminate 68 tonnes of plutonium from existing nuclear weapons - 34 tonnes on each side - by 2007. The deal had been struck a little over a year ago by former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin after more than five years of backroom bartering and study by officials of both nations. The plutonium would be disposed of either by turning it into fuel for civilian reactors or by immobilizing it through mixing the material with radioactive waste and embedding the mixture in glass "logs." Either way, it required a lot of money - as much as $8 billion (U.S.) for the entire program - and the U.S., along with European allies, was expected to underwrite a portion of Russia's costs. Money, if you believe the administration, is the principal reason the program is likely to be history. "There's no philosophical shift that says suddenly we're perfectly fine with surplus plutonium laying around - we're not," an official told The New York Times last week. But the new administration is cutting corners where it can. Last May it signalled that it would cut spending on other key nuclear non-proliferation programs, such as retraining Russian military scientists and bolstering security and safety at Russian nuclear military installations. Some of these programs haven't lived up to the hopes invested in them. (The less-than-committed guards at many of Russia's once impregnable nuclear storehouses are an open secret.) But others have: With better pay and increased scientific exchanges with the U.S., Russian nuclear experts are demonstrably less tempted to be recruited by labs in places like Iran. Nevertheless, the White House claims it needs to go back to the drawing board. One idea being floated: developing better American reactors to burn plutonium more efficiently. But that could take years and it's left some nuclear experts scratching their heads in confusion. "The administration appears ready to spend more in one year to try and defend against a North Korean missile that does not yet exist than it is willing to spend over 20 years to eliminate thousands of weapons' worth of plutonium in Russia and the U.S.," commented the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. However, Washington's turnabout makes sense if you consider another priority on this administration's agenda: energy. After years of declining use of nuclear energy, Bush analysts have elevated fission power plants to a key position on its must-have list for American energy security. Building nuclear reactors that can reprocess waste plutonium is attracting keen interest. The idea was roundly rejected 20 years ago by previous administrations on the grounds that it would encourage nuclear proliferation. But non-proliferation is evidently no priority for this administration. The nuclear test treaty is dead in the water and this week Washington signalled it was ready to resume relations with India after the chill caused by the duelling Pakistan-India bomb tests three years ago. Apparently, the mood in Washington is that treaties and sanctions do little to restrain would-be nuclear powers, so why bother? Russia, noticeably, couldn't be happier. It signed on to the plutonium agreement reluctantly to begin with and made it a key condition that Moscow would be able to use its military plutonium for energy use. Under the terms of the Putin-Clinton deal, either country can terminate the plutonium program if there's no mutual agreement on financing by March, 2002. That will probably happen. "It suits Russia perfectly well that an invaluable source of energy will be left alone," wrote Moscow analyst Yekaterina Kats last week. If the U.S. similarly accepts military plutonium as an "invaluable" energy source, that would lower the bar against using plutonium generated by civilian reactors - about 1,400 metric tonnes in the world now and counting. That's enough for 30,000 Nagasakis. ** Stephen Handelman's column appears every second Tuesday. Legal Notice:_- Copyright 1996-2001. Toronto Star ***************************************************************** 4 Rich ties with Richland KnoxNews: Sci/tech Battelle furthers Washington state-ORNL heritage _By Frank Munger News-Sentinel senior writer_ There is plenty of linkage between Oak Ridge and Richland, Wash., most of it historical. Both places hosted federal operations in World War II that helped launch the nuclear era. In fact, the Graphite Reactor at X-10 (which became Oak Ridge National Laboratory) was the prototype for the reactors at Richland that produced plutonium for the A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Both sites continued their nuclear roles during the Cold War arms race as military management gave way to the Atomic Energy Commission, which in turn was succeeded by the Energy Research and Development Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy. Now, though times are different in many regards, the ties between the two government towns are still there and may be strengthened by the common presence of Battelle. Battelle, best known for its technology development, is involved in management of four national labs for DOE. Those include Pacific Northwest National Laboratory at Richland and ORNL, which Battelle took over last year in partnership with the University of Tennessee. Bill Madia, director of the Oak Ridge lab, was Battelle's director at Pacific Northwest before he came to East Tennessee. He brought along a few other Battelle managers -- notably Jeff Smith, the lab's deputy director for operations. Battelle has strongly encouraged more cooperation among the labs in its management stable, with obvious benefits to the corporation and DOE also. That message took on new meaning with the recent announcement that Reinhold Mann, director of the Life Sciences Division at ORNL, will assume the No. 2 position at Pacific Northwest. Effective Oct. 1, Mann will become deputy director of science and technology, essentially becoming the Western lab's research chief. Battelle appears to be mixing the laboratory bloodlines. "It's a nice opportunity," said Mann, who holds a Ph.D. from Jonannes Gutenberg University in Germany. After 20 years at ORNL, Mann said, he and his family agonized over the decision to leave Tennessee. "We have deep roots here," he said. "Karen, my wife, is from this area -- Chattanooga -- and she's very well embedded in the professional world here. We have a lot of ties." The scientific challenges at Pacific Northwest were a big lure for Mann, even though he'll be leaving ORNL just as his efforts of recent years are bearing fruit. The lab is about to break ground on a new Mouse House for the thousands of mutated mice important to the Oak Ridge genetics research. Plus, Mann believes ORNL is primed for a key role in DOE's new biology program, Genomes to Life, and he said recruiting has paid off recently with the hiring of a couple of young research stars. The 48-year-old scientist is proud of ORNL's computational biology program, which got a boost recently with a new research agreement with IBM. He also noted new developments in biological mass spectrometry and projects that apply Oak Ridge's unique capabilities in neutron-based research to studies in structural biology. "We've made a lot of progress -- not just me but the whole team," he said. Of course, Pacific Northwest has its own special capabilities in biology and other research fields, and Mann noted that a growing number of partnerships among the national labs means he won't be leaving Oak Ridge behind forever. Over the past year Mann has headed a biology task force that included representatives from the Battelle-managed labs as well as some of DOE's other national research facilities. "The intent of our group is not to completely tie these programs together but to look at areas where we can in combination bring unique resources and capabilities to the Department of Energy," he said. Among his mentors at Oak Ridge were Alex Zucker and Dave Reichle, both of whom served time as associate lab directors. Mann demurred when asked if he aspires to becoming director of a national laboratory. He said he follows the advice he got years ago from Zucker. "One should not really look ahead with another position in mind," he said. "I don't have aspirations beyond getting to Richland, coming up to speed as quickly as I can and perhaps influencing things in a positive way." Senior writer Frank Munger can be reached at 482-9213 or by e-mail at twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. This weekly column on science and technology also is available on our Web site at http://www.knoxnews.com/science/munger/. The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 No K-25 investigation for Roane DA Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:33 p.m. on Tuesday, August 28, 2001 _by Paul Parson _ Oak Ridger staff For the time being, it doesn't look like the Roane County District Attorney General's office will be pursuing a criminal investigation into matters pertaining to historic water contaminations at the Oak Ridge K-25 site. Scott McCluen, attorney general for the Ninth Judicial District, said his office had been contacted about conducting an investigation concerning the Roane County facility, adding that the request has relayed to one of his investigators. But, McCluen pointed out that an investigation at a Department of Energy facility is technically a "matter of federal jurisdiction." He said that depending on the problems the site, the Department of Justice, the FBI or the Environmental Protection Agency may be more suited to do the investigation. McCluen's office was contacted by Coalition for a Healthy Environment and a group of sick workers, who are represented on the Community Input Team for the K-25 water project. This project is examining whether site workers were made ill by using contaminated water. Concerns have been voiced by these two groups over computer hard drives that have turned up missing and the fact that no information was saved following the demolition of Building K-1001, a facility several sick workers say they worked in. Additionally, members of Coalition for a Healthy Environment have raised the issue that at one point Rust Engineering workers at K-25 were supplied with water used for fighting fires as their drinking water source. These workers apparently have not been notified of that fact by DOE nor its contractors. Recently, the team conducting the K-25 examination issued a draft progress report indicating several problems with the plant's water system. One of these was that firefighting and recirculating cooling water systems were used as backup to each other and at times these systems were cross-connected with the sanitary system. However, funding for the K-25 water project appears to be running out. DOE has indicated that more money may be funneled into the effort, but the agency has not specified when or how much. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 6 Our View: Mangano study provides lessons in flawed science Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:39 p.m. on Tuesday, August 28, 2001 As a learning tool on how to evaluate an epidemiological study, it is hard to imagine a better case study than Joseph Mangano's 1994 finding on cancer mortality rates in the 94 counties surrounding Oak Ridge. The study purported to find that the death rates from cancer among whites in the 94 counties surrounding the Oak Ridge Reservation rose 34.1 percent between 1950-52 and 1987-89, compared to a 5.1 percent increase for the nation. Problem is, the Mangano study was virtually crushed at once under the weight of a sizable body of far more scientific and sound research. For example, an exhaustive study on cancer rates published by the Environmental Protection Agency and spanning the wider period of 1950-1979 found no discernible patterns of cancer rates. In Tennessee, for males, cancer rates were found to exceed the mean in 12 counties, scattered throughout the state. The U.S. Department of Energy has some continuing environmental cleanup operations in Oak Ridge, and the community and state must focus their radar on holding Washington to those commitments. At the same time, we should all be able to agree that this city is arguably one of the most environmentally monitored in the nation. If anybody thinks he, or she, is going to introduce startling new statistical revelations, they better possess a rather keen understanding of all that has gone here before. David Coffey, a local businessman and contributing columnist to this newspaper, wrote in 1997 about the P.S. (political statistics) which too often place the author's conclusions ahead of the available facts in these studies. "Remember Joseph Mangano's paper, 'Cancer Mortality near Oak Ridge, Tennessee,' released three years ago," Mr. Coffey asked in his column. "Many of our great local scientists pounced on it, showing that it was 'flawed science.' Actually, it was more P.S. (Political Statistics), with selected statistics. We did not believe it. "More people need to check politicians' statements to see if they pass the smell test and if they are real. The data are usually available. "We need not be cynical, just skeptical." he concluded. Come to think of it, that is pretty good advice still for anyone going about the task of evaluating epidemiological research. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 7 Dick Smyser: An invite to kibitz ORNL's $200 million 'revitalization' 08/28/01 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday, August 28, 2001 Editor's License _Dick Smyser_ For us Oak Ridge "civilians" -- my term for local residents who don't work at "the plants" -- Oak Ridge National Laboratory has become significantly more observable and accessible over the past 30-40 years. Bethel Valley Road has been open to all traffic. "Family Days" and "Open House" events have been held more frequently. Lay attendance has been encouraged at scientific lectures in the Eugene P. Wigner and Alvin M. Weinberg auditoriums. Daily tours have been conducted from the American Museum of Science and Energy and tourists have been urged to visit the National Historic Landmark Graphite Reactor. And thus the late Tony Pleasanton's swans swimming on "Swan Lake" in the shadow of the Holifield Accelerator tower have become a familiar sight. As was also that fascinating multi-pronged facility-initialed directional sign (HFIR, TRU, MSRE, NSPP and more) until its removal several years ago, why I'm not sure but perhaps in reaction to former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary's distaste for acronyms. Understood by at least most of us locals has been that some better known "parts" of ORNL are located not in the sweeping mix of variegated buildings one sees on passsing. Rather, the tens of thousands of mice of the Drs. William and Liane Russell's widely-known genetic studies are housed back at the equally vast complex of buildings called Y-12. Likewise, the heavy gear -- and those who persevere with it -- of the ORNL fusion energy effort. But things are about to change dramatically over the next five years. And all for the better, assures Tim Myrick, in his "What's Going On at ORNL?" presentation which he has been giving before local groups, most recently at the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge's luncheon at the Elks Lodge on Thursday. ORNL's still relatively new operating contractor, University of Tenneseee-Batelle, is in the beginning stages of a $200 million "revitalization." Over the next five years, Myrick assures, multiple construction projects will drastically transform "the lab": the solid and serviceable, if hardly imaginative, post World War II buildings remaining but many of the wartime temporary structures -- like the quonset huts -- removed and replaced. Some of the major steps: + The ORNL "footprint" (space occupied) will be reduced by 25 percent. + Approaches will be made more welcoming -- the vast, grim central parking lot at the eastern end eliminated and new parking areas paved at what ultimately will be eight different locations allowing many more employes to park closer to their work locations. + New construction will make maximum use of existing "brownfields" -- space previously occupied by older facilities -- rather than encroaching on present "green" areas. + Energy efficiency will be the watchword. New structures for ORNL's more powerful computer operations, a visitors center and a new cafeteria will "leap out of the ground," Myrick said, at the eastern end of the lab's acreage. The new "Mouse House" and the planned Joint Institute for Biological Sciences building will rise at ORNL's western extremity, where the Environmental Sciences Division buildings are now. And these new facilities will mean, of course, that the colony of now about 60,000 mice will be moved from their longtime home in the red brick building once part of Y-12's crucial World War II electromagnetic uranium separation process. Also moving from Y-12 -- and leaving that plant area without an ORNL presence for the first time in post-war years -- will be those fusion energy experiments. The "revitalization" will be paid for from three different sources: $125 million from federal appropriations; $25 million from the State of Tennessee; $50 million from private enterprise. UT-Battelle officials feel confident that the money will be there even in the current atmosphere of both federal and state budget uncertainties, Myrick said. Already under way, he said, are negotiations for transfer of the land on which the state will build the new facilities to which it is committed. Chief among these is an adjunct building to accommodate visiting researchers at the Spallation Neutron Source now under construction atop Chestnut Ridge to the north of the main ORNL area and a giant construction project separate from the "revitalization." Ultimately, Myrick said, there will be 1,400 to 1,500 "moves" of facilities and personnel. On completion of the sweeping "revitalization," he said, ORNL will be a noticeably more environmentally attractive and operationally efficient "research campus." And consistent with all of this, Myrick extended an invitation: "Come out and watch us build it." -- RDS *Dick Smyser is the founding editor of The Oak Ridger. All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 8 Your Views: DOE holds all the cards in 'whistleblower' cases _ OPINIONS_ Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:44 p.m. on Tuesday, August 28, 2001 _To The Oak Ridger: There appears to be a disconcerting double standard in the treatment of whistleblowers. An example that illustrates this double standard is a case involving a former PeopleSoft recruiting manager who reported the California company's practice of inflating the number of female and minority employees reported to the government. After a four-month trial, a jury awarded the PeopleSoft whistleblower $5.45 million ($1.95 million in compensatory damages and $3.5 million in punitive damages) for malicious and wrongful termination. Note the huge difference in this award compared with those recently won -- albeit now in the endless appeal process -- by three Oak Ridge whistleblowers found to have suffered retaliation, job stress, and health problems after reporting security concerns and fighting with management over the issues. The three Oak Ridge whistleblowers were awarded a paltry $50,353, $25,000, and $2,500. Considering the life- and environment-threatening nature of much of the work performed at the facilities in Oak Ridge, not to mention the significant role these facilities and workers play in national security, we must ask why such a huge differential that serves as a tremendous deterrent to whistleblowing exists. It is my opinion we should be encouraging and promoting whistleblowers -- not punishing them. Frankly, it seems to me that whistleblowing may be the only way DOE's broken culture is going to change, i.e., from the inside out. While those of us involved in oversight are trying to change the system from the outside, it is becoming more and more apparent that DOE holds all the cards in this game. In fact, it appears the agency recently tried to make the point that those who wish to oversee DOE activities must play by their rules. The message came through loud and clear to me that those who refuse to follow these rules will be threatened with loss of funding. So much for effective oversight! It seems to me like the fox is guarding the henhouse. Susan Arnold Kaplan Knoxville (Solway) All Contents ©Copyright* The Oak Ridger * ***************************************************************** 9 DOE lab's closing raises concern This story was published Mon, Aug 27, 2001 _By the Knight Ridder news service_ WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- The quiet closing of a Lawrence Livermore Laboratory research facility has spawned a national shouting match and international grumbling over 50 tons of plutonium no longer needed for nuclear weapons. Pushed by President Bush's budget cuts, the Department of Energy in March sacrificed the lab's $180 million program studying a way to immobilize excess plutonium to save a research project that turns excess plutonium into reactor fuel. The fuel project has since been criticized for rising costs and may be delayed as well. At stake are plans to clean up and consolidate the radioactive legacy of dozens of former nuclear weapons sites throughout the South and West, as well as tons of Russian nuclear materials. South Carolina's governor has threatened to "stand in front of trucks" to prevent the plutonium from coming into his state without a strategy to ship it out, a plan disrupted by closure of the Livermore lab facility and other delays. Originally, the DOE planned two plants at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to turn the weapons-grade plutonium into either tamper-resistant disks using the immobilization plan being developed by Lawrence Livermore or to convert the plutonium to fuel for nuclear reactors. The immobilized plutonium would then be sent out of state. But with both strategies being criticized, Gov. Jim Hodges fears the South Carolina lab will become a permanent dumping ground for this dangerous material. Western states and their nuclear facilities may need to postpone shipping the plutonium there if a resolution isn't found soon. The Rocky Flats site near Denver has plans to begin shipping excess plutonium in October. Lawrence Livermore also plans to ship part of its plutonium to Savannah River beginning next fiscal year, but details are stalled pending resolution of the conflict. Of further concern is an agreement between the United States and Russia that commits both countries to getting rid of 34 tons of the radioactive material, enough to make thousands of nuclear bombs. Neither country will move forward without the other, and Russia cannot afford to get rid of the material without assistance. The National Academy of Sciences selected the two approaches for dealing with excess plutonium in 1995 from dozens of options. The DOE later affirmed this two-track strategy with its own study and pushed plans for two large-scale processing facilities at Savannah River. One of the plans combines plutonium with uranium, then turns it into long rods that fuel nuclear energy reactors, a process known as MOX. . Livermore lab led research on the alternative: encasing plutonium in ceramic disks the size of hockey pucks. That immobilization process also makes it difficult for terrorists to turn the vital material into nuclear weapons. _Copyright 2001 Tri-City Herald. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************