***************************************************************** 08/31/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.210 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 North Korean officials attend nuclear training programme in 2 Scots firms missing out on £4bn Dounreay work 3 Dounreay clean-up 'a waste of money' 4 Ex-Regulator Will Tell His Side 5 CY moves on nuclear storage 6 Nuclear clean-up cash 'wasteful' 7 LETTERS: Nevadans should attend meeting on Yucca 8 Nevada officials appeal for time 9 UK NUCLEAR PLANT PLAN FATALLY FLAWED 10 HIDDEN CRACKS COULD PLAGUE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS 11 DOUNREAY is probably the safest industrial site in Scotland 12 Group: Feds underfund alternative energy 13 Beaver Valley 1 nuke to shut Sat. for refuel 14 Letter: Nuke dump too close for comfort 15 UNLV studies may aid Yucca fight 16 Nevada requests delay in hearings on nuclear dump 17 Daily Events Report 18 IAEA Daily Press Review 19 IAEA head suggests information centre on Chernobyl 20 Greenhouse Emissions Rose Less than One Percent in 1999 21 AEP shuts big Mich. nuke due silt buildup 22 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Friday, August 31, 2001 23 Russia reviews terms of Pu reprocessing reduction 24 Hodges catches flack for nuke plant 25 Don't dump on S.C. 26 Las Vegas Yucca Mountain Hearing Relocates to Prison-like Complex 27 Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste 28 German nuclear waste train crosses into France 29 Environmentalists: Nuclear fuel project will hurt South Carolina 30 NRC Announces Opportunity for Hearing on License Renewal for 31 NRC Names Leonard M. Willoughby Resident Inspector at Ft. Calhoun NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Rubin insists on Kursk being raised on September 15th 2 Russian admiral gives assurance on nuclear safety of Kursk 3 Interational Atomic Energy Agency to adopt resolution in 4 COMMENT & ANALYSIS: Putting nuclear weapons out of reach: Ivo 5 Gulf War makes 1 in 6 ill 6 IAEA to urge North to allow international nuclear inspection 7 Kazakhstan: Nuclear Fallout Still Signals Health Hazards 8 Will We Ever Get Russia Right? 9 Los Alamos National Laboratory Develops Colorful Beryllium 10 State officials split on plutonium letter 11 Plutonium ReductionAgreement Hits Snag - 12 EPA targets Scarboro for testing 13 Pantex gets mixed review in safety report 14 Wobbly Warheads 15 Russia Sub Raising May Be Delayed 16 Red alert declared at Islamabad airport 17 Checks in mail for ill miners with IOUs 18 Admiral testifies in Pasko's favour **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 North Korean officials attend nuclear training programme in Australia UK: Financial Times BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Aug 31, 2001 Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap Seoul, 31 August: New Australian Ambassador to South Korea Colin Heseltine said Friday [31 August] six North Korean officials recently attended a nuclear safety training programme in Australia. At a reception for local reporters at the Australian embassy, Heseltine said the North Koreans participated in the training programme from 13-24 August, focusing on how to control nuclear materials in accordance with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regulations. "Officials from South Korea, China and New Zealand also participated in the annual training programme," Heseltine noted. The North has reportedly dispatched officials to the nuclear safety training programme before. Heseltine said the training programme would help North Korea better understand about what steps are needed in order to enhance transparency in its nuclear activities. The 54-year-old Australian envoy also noted North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun said during his June visit to Australia that his country is willing to continue talks with South Korea. Paek was quoted as saying that his country will also engage with other countries further. On the possibility of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visiting Seoul for a second inter-Korean summit, Heseltine was undecided, saying the North's particular political system made it difficult to estimate whether Kim would come or not. The important thing is that there are no alternative options for North Korea to take (other than engagement) as its economic situation is difficult. He added Australia would continue providing humanitarian aid to the North. Source: Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 0602 gmt 31 Aug 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to ***************************************************************** 2 Scots firms missing out on £4bn Dounreay work The Scotsman Online - John Ross SCOTTISH firms are being slow to cash in on the unprecedented billions of pounds worth of work from the decommissioning of Dounreay. Contracts to help return the Caithness nuclear complex to a greenfield site will be worth £4.5 billion over the next 50 years, with £2 billion available in the next decade alone. However, figures show more than 80 per cent of contracts are going to firms in England. Over the past year, Dounreay spent £80 million on contracts, of which £66 million was won by English companies. Caithness is benefiting from the windfall, with local firms having won £4.2 million in direct contracts in the past year and £30 million through sub-contracting, while the area also pulls in an annual £23 million from Dounreay salaries. But the rest of Scotland picked up just £8.5 million in direct contracts, and firms were yesterday challenged by a government minister to grasp the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Wendy Alexander, the enterprise minister, who visited Dounreay with Brian Wilson, the energy minister, said: "There are a lot of UK firms at the moment winning the big deal and sub-contracting Caithness companies to do the work. "But Scottish firms have not been particularly active in bidding for the main contracting work. There is a real challenge to the Scottish engineering and construction industries in general, firms which hitherto have not been the sort of players that they should be." She said decommissioning is becoming a global industry, and it is hoped that expertise developed at Dounreay and elsewhere in Scotland can be exported to other sites around the world, in the same way as Scottish firms have become world leaders in the oil and gas industry. The minister announced that a task force has been set up by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to maximise the economic benefit from decommissioning. It will be led by Neil Money, former chief executive of Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise, who has spent six months investigating the potential and said his aim was to ensure existing and short-term jobs are followed by longer-term and equally highly-skilled employment. Dounreay operators, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), unveiled in 1999 its site restoration plan which presented the post-nuclear vision at the site within half a century. When Cecil Parkinson, then energy secretary, announced in 1988 the closure of the fast reactor by 1994 and the reactor processing plant by 1997, it was predicted the number of jobs would fall from 2,110 to 530 and unemployment in Thurso would rise to 36.7 per cent. In reality, the workforce has not dipped below 1,100 and now is up to 2,000, a figure which could double over the next ten years as decommissioning work intensifies. Local unemployment is currently 3.1 per cent. ***************************************************************** 3 Dounreay clean-up 'a waste of money' JAMES FREEMAN: Exclusive DOUNREAY is probably the safest industrial site in Scotland and the money being spent on cleaning and monitoring beaches beside it is a "huge waste", according to a leading expert on pollution. Professor David Mackay says the chances of being killed by a radioactive beach particle are immeasurably less than those of being struck by lightning. In an exclusive interview with The Herald, the former regulator of the nuclear installation in Caithness has criticised the anti-Dounreay lobby, claiming many of them are obsessive, and says much of the billions in decommissioning money will be wasted as a result of the small but well organised anti-nuclear campaign. The total cost of decommissioning is expected to be around £4.5bn over the next 50 to 60 years, but nearly half will be spent in the next 10 years alone. A government minister yesterday described it as the "biggest single economic opportunity in the Highlands for decades" but the professor insists this public money is being spent to allay perceived public fears that are not shared by many people in Caithness rather than to eliminate any real, fundamental threat. "If it comes to a question of actually saving lives, the money would be better spent on preventing the thousands of deaths annually on the roads or in the home," he said. He warned that if there were ever going to be a serious accident at Dounreay, it will come from emptying the controversial waste shaft. He believes it would be far better left alone. His views were not shared by a leading Dounreay safety campaigner. Lorraine Mann said: "The entire thrust of what he is saying indicates how much the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has been able to charm senior officers into walking hand in hand with them. "Secrecy has not diminished at Dounreay. During David Mackay's time his team was involved in one safety audit which alone identified 143 serious deficiencies. I find it very difficult to comprehend how he can possibly suggest that this is a safe site." "As for the waste shaft, he may be willing to gamble that a concrete plug secured by a metal pole at the foot of the shaft in 1958 is still going to have integrity after 500 or 700 years, but not many others would. If it does not, this waste would run out into the sea causing enormous radiation pollution across Europe." Brian Wilson, energy minister at the Department of Trade and Industry, and Wendy Alexander, enterprise and lifelong learning minister, visited Dounreay yesterday for the first time since Mr Wilson announced the end of all reprocessing at the plant. They agreed it would now be "an undisputed force for good in the Highlands" after decades of bitter controversy, providing unprecedented economic opportunities not just in Caithness but around the world. Mr Wilson said: "The worldwide market for decommissioning nuclear sites is already worth hundreds of billions of pounds and growing. It presents a huge opportunity for the local economy, which is why we must develop the right skills and infrastructure so that the UK in general and the Highlands, in particular, secure as much of this work as possible. "I don't think it is overstating it to say this is the biggest single economic opportunity in the Highlands for decades. Everybody can unite round the need for decommissioning." The professor has recently retired from the post as north region director of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), in which capacity he regulated Dounreay. Since retiral he has been offered a second visiting professorship, this time at Strathclyde University, in addition to his existing appointment at Stirling University. He has also become chairman of Envirocentre, a highly regarded spin-off company from Strathclyde University. "I started off at Dounreay with enormous suspicions and preconceptions about the whole set-up," he admits. "But by the time I retired I had learned to respect the people. They had changed in that they were willing to communicate openly about any problems at the site. "Sepa now exercises enormous control through four full-time nuclear experts monitoring Dounreay. These resources would, in my view, have been better employed monitoring the enormous expansion of salmon farming. "Some people have developed fixations about Dounreay. It is their life. They are clever and very well informed and they can be admired for that. But they are obsessed." He admits that, when he first became director of Sepa's north region in 1996, he went on television and said he would treat Dounreay "as guilty until it proved its innocence". However, he said yesterday: "My opinion has changed greatly over the years. I now see that a single, well-directed campaign has been allowed to damage this installation and through that the whole industry. "It is a very safe place indeed, with a better safety record than almost any industrial site in Scotland. There is less radiation present in the environment at Dounreay than the level of radiation coming from radon gas in the ground around my house in Aberdeenshire." He agrees that questions have repeatedly been raised about leukaemia clusters around Dounreay, but he points to recent scientific thinking which is tending towards the theory that, if people from different areas are moved to a new community, the likelihood of clusters increases. "Dounreay has been in existence for 60 years and the things which went wrong occurred 40 years ago. It is haunted, however, by the place's history." The professor said he was an admirer of some of the anti-nuclear campaigners involved, whom he regards as equally dedicated and well-armed with research and science, but he repeated his belief that they are obsessive. He said: "The result of these campaigns is that we are committed to spending £4bn, most of which is going to be wasted because it is being done to allay a perceived public concern, not to eliminate any real, fundamental threat." The professor added: "The possibility of erosion by the sea keeps being put further and further back. " It is now speculated at around 700 years, but by that time much of the radioactivity will have decayed. I would not rush this. "A very large amount of money is going to go into this to make some people feel more comfortable but you are not going to significantly reduce the risks." Professor Mackay said that many of the difficulties that have inhibited the growth of sea cage fish farming in Scotland, which he has also regulated, can similarly be laid at the door of a handful of single-minded cam- paigners who have secured a seriously bad press for what he views as a hugely-significant industry. "They have had a disproportionate influence on the development of salmon farming," he says, "and while they have exposed some examples of bad practice they have also demonised salmon farming. We have never treated another Scottish industry in this way." He believes that salmon farming's problems and impacts can now be managed. The industry, he said, has made enormous strides in the last three years in bringing in best practice. Kevin Dunion, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "We, I suppose, are some of the obsessive campaigners Professor Mackay speaks about and I have no doubt he has been bruised by some of the campaigning. "But we do not accept that salmon farming is an industry that has put its house in order despite the publicity offensive of recent years." Leader -Aug 31st ***************************************************************** 4 Ex-Regulator Will Tell His Side The Salt Lake Tribune -- August 31, 2001 BY JUDY FAHYS Former state regulator Larry Anderson has never publicly explained how his idea of a promising business venture became what prosecutors have been calling extortion in a trial this week in U.S. District Court. That will change today when Anderson tells his version of the story behind his complicated relationship with Salt Lake City businessman Khosrow Semnani. "This is his opportunity," said defense attorney Jerry Mooney. The retired regulator is charged with extortion, mail fraud, tax fraud and tax evasion for taking $600,000 in cash, gold coins and real estate from Semnani between 1987 and 1993, while Anderson was director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control and oversaw radioactive waste facilities, including Semnani's. Anderson faces up to 37 years in jail and $3 million in fines on six charges after scrapping a plea deal in June that would have given him a year in jail and stripped him of allegedly illegally obtained assets. The former regulator insists that he and Semnani jointly built Envirocare of Utah, a multi-million-dollar radioactive and mixed-waste landfill in Tooele County. But Semnani, the lead prosecution witness, claims he paid Anderson only to avoid regulatory trouble for his company. Federal prosecutors used Anderson's own words Thursday at the end of their presentation. They read for jurors from a deposition in which the regulator says he concealed money and gold coins Semnani gave him from the Internal Revenue Service. Jurors heard agent Gary Easley of the IRS review six years of Anderson's income-tax returns and show how the regulator allegedly broke the law by failing to report the coins and cash he accepted from Semnani as income. In 1991 alone, it appeared as though Anderson underpaid federal taxes by $30,805, Easley said. During cross-examination, defense attorney Tom Thompson confirmed that Easley had neither audited Anderson's taxes nor interviewed him or his wife about the dubious returns. His testimony followed witnesses on Tuesday and Wednesday who described a too-cozy relationship between Semnani and Anderson during Envirocare's early years. Among them were Ken Alkema, who was Anderson's boss at the time and who ordered an internal investigation of the relationship. "Our conclusion was we could find nothing in the report to suggest wrongdoing, criminal wrongdoing," said the former director of the Department of Environmental Quality. Now vice president of regulatory affairs for Envirocare, Alkema had all drafts and copies of the "inconclusive" report destroyed. One person whose complaints triggered Alkema's concern at the time was Dane Finerfrock, who oversees licensing in the Radiation Control Division. He told how Anderson had pressured Finerfrock to sign off on Envirocare's first permit in 1988 even though it was not complete. The reason? Anderson said then-Gov. Norm Bangerter had said he wanted the project to move forward, Finerfrock said under cross-examination. Finerfrock also told about a memo division employees got from Anderson in 1988 that directed employees to send to him all future inquiries about low-level radioactive waste. An attorney for the Hazardous and Solid Waste Division and one of two DEQ employees who conducted the internal investigation, Ray Wixom, said he could not pinpoint Anderson's motivations but saw evidence of his preferential treatment toward Envirocare. "I concluded that Larry Anderson had lost objectivity with regard to Envirocare." fahys@sltrib.com ***************************************************************** 5 CY moves on nuclear storage The Middletown Press By NANCY CUNNINGHAM, Middletown Press StaffAugust 31, 2001 HADDAM -- Connecticut Yankee is one step closer to the construction of a dry cask storage facility for highly radioactive used fuel. However, where the facility will be located has yet to be settled. The storage facility plans call for constructing a concrete pad, about the size of a standard hockey rink, on which 43 concrete canisters, lined with carbon-steel, would store 1,019 spent fuel rods in steel canisters. The carbon-steel liners, a major component of the cask, recently arrived at the Haddam Neck site from St. Louis, Mo., where they were manufactured by Nooter. The liners, designed to shield radiation, are about 16 feet tall and 10.5 feet in diameter. The company plans to transfer the used fuel rods, currently kept underwater, from the fuel pool into the steel canisters. To remove the rods, the canisters will be put into a steel-and-lead transfer cask, which will be submerged into the pool. The rods will then be placed into the canisters and removed from the pool. The water will be drained and the canisters will be injected with helium. The fuel canisters are being manufactured by the Japan-based Hitachi-Zosen and are expected to be completed within a year. Connecticut Yankee spokesperson Kelley Smith said the concrete pad and canisters will be constructed on site. However, she noted, until the ongoing legal battle with the town over where to construct the facility is settled, the company cannot move forward with the construction of the concrete canisters and pad. "We haven't finalized those plans yet because we need to know the location of the fuel storage facility or have that issue resolved before we determine where exactly we would be constructing the (concrete) casks," she said. Smith added in order to clean up the site properly, the fuel storage pool must be emptied. "We plan to complete decommissioning by 2004 and that includes putting the fuel into dry storage," she said. Smith contends Connecticut Yankee has chosen the safest site for the facility. However, the town rejected its request to rezone a 15-acre residential tract to store the spent nuclear fuel. The company filed a federal lawsuit which sought to overturn the Haddam Planning and Zoning Commission's December decision to deny the company's application. But U.S. District Judge Alan Nevas had ruled there was not "sufficient controversy" to force a ruling on whether federal law supersedes local zoning authority regarding the construction of a dry cask storage facility. The company has filed an appeal. First Selectman Tony Bondi said the town does not object to a dry cask storage facility. "It has always been the town's position not to interfere with decisions and storage of spent nuclear fuel," Bondi said. However, Bondi asserts the facility should be placed within the plant's original footprint, which is zoned industrial. The fuel must be kept somewhere at the Haddam Neck site until the federal government is ready to take it away. The Department of Energy is expected to submit a report on Yucca Mountain, the only site being looked at to store the nation's nuclear waste. The secretary of the Department of Energy will then decide whether to recommend Yucca Mountain, in Nye County, Nev., to the president. ©The Middletown Press 2001 Copyright © 1995 - 2001 PowerAdz.com LLC. All Rights ***************************************************************** 6 Nuclear clean-up cash 'wasteful' BBC News | SCOTLAND | 31 August, 2001, 12:17 GMT 13:17 [Dounreay] Prof Mackay claims Dounreay is "safe" Money spent cleaning beaches near to the Dounreay nuclear plant is a "huge waste", according to a former regulator at the Caithness site. Prof David Mackay claimed the plant was one of the safest industrial sites in Scotland. He said people were more likely to be struck by lightning than die after coming into contact with a radioactive beach particle. However, environmental campaigners said it was right that a "polluter" should pay for its actions. [Dounreay] Campaigners claim the plant is a major polluter Prof Mackay said the cash would be better spent on preventing the thousands of deaths on the roads or in the home. "It's a very safe place indeed with a better safety record than almost any industrial site in Scotland. "There is less radiation present in the environment at Dounreay than the level of radiation coming from radon gas around my house in Aberdeenshire." The professor accused anti-Dounreay lobbyists of being too "obsessive". In an interview with The Herald newspaper, he said: "Some people have developed fixations about Dounreay. It is their life. Nuclear experts "They are clever and very well informed and they can be admired for that but they are obsessed." Mr Mackay revealed that he too had been "suspicious" of Dounreay. But said that people at the site were willing to "communicate openly" about any problems. The professor, a former director of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency's (Sepa) north region, added: "Sepa now exercises enormous control through four full-time nuclear experts monitoring Dounreay. I now see that a single campaign has been allowed to damage this installation and through that the whole industry. Prof David Mackay "These resources would, in my view, have been better employed monitoring the enormous expansions of salmon farming." Mr Mackay admitted that he had once said that he would treat Dounreay "as guilty until it proved its innocence". He said: "My opinion has changed greatly over the years. I now see that a single campaign has been allowed to damage this installation and through that the whole industry." Kevin Dunion, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland said: "We believe in the principle that the polluter pays. Nuclear particles "There is no doubt that Dounreay has resulted in thousands of nuclear particles being left on the seabed in the north of Scotland and these are now starting to appear on the beaches." An estimated 17 radioactive particles have been found on Sandside Beach in Caithness since monitoring started in 1983. The particles, which are the size of a grain of sand, are believed to have come from the plant, although the exact source has never been identified. Mr Dunion said that the plant had polluted the area throughout 30 years of its operation and it should now pay for that damage to be cleaned up. Dounreay defends safety record 25 Jul 01 | Scotland Dounreay in golf club row 18 Jul 01 | Scotland Dounreay reprocessing to cease 24 Jun 01 | Scotland Campaigners hail Dounreay 'victory' 24 Oct 00 | Scotland Dounreay clean-up work awarded 12 Oct 00 | Scotland 'Slow action' on Dounreay safety 09 Oct 00 | Scotland Dounreay clean-up plans revealed 18 Aug 00 | Scotland Nuclear clean-up begins 16 Aug 00 | Scotland New radioactive 'grain' found on beach Internet links: ***************************************************************** 7 LETTERS: Nevadans should attend meeting on Yucca [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Friday, August 31, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal To the editor: I've heard the view expressed that because Nevadans express opposition to a Yucca Mountain nuclear dump they have the "not in my backyard" syndrome. The fact is that powerful politicians in Congress, in 1987, had the NIMBY syndrome and eliminated their states from consideration. There were eight possible sites to choose from, so Congress selected the politically weakest state. So this legislation started out as a political exercise, not a scientific one. If you attend the Sept. 5 meeting, from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. at the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration office on Losee Road in North Las Vegas, you'll meet scientists from the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Ask them about earthquakes, condensation in the tunnel system, flooding, terrorist risks, corrosive brine and microorganisms and transportation risks (as in the Baltimore tunnel fire which reached 150 degrees Fahrenheit and included a broken water main). Ask about truck accidents where fire was involved. Ask about the nuclear waste train from West Valley, N.Y., to Scoville, Idaho -- a 2,300 mile route through 12 states. Listen to the citizens who speak and they'll give you more concerns. You won't be satisfied with most of the responses because the Department of Energy scientists will minimize the risk of accidents, electrical and mechanical breakdown, seismic activity, flood and terrorism. If you don't attend the Sept. 5 meeting, you won't learn anything. FRANK PERNA LAS VEGAS This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Aug-31-Fri-2001/opinion/16882764.html ***************************************************************** 8 Nevada officials appeal for time [Las Vegas Review-Journal] Friday, August 31, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Letter requests comment extension on Yucca Mountain By TONY BATT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Nevada's governor and congressional delegation sent a letter Thursday to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that seeks a 90-day extension for the public to comment on whether Abraham should recommend Yucca Mountain as the site of a nuclear waste repository. Also, the letter requests Wednesday's public hearing, which was moved to North Las Vegas, be delayed. Nevada officials acknowledged that their chances of blocking that hearing are slim. The letter seeks postponement of all public hearings until 60 days after all relevant government documents are released. Abraham is expected to make a recommendation on the dump site to President Bush by the end of this year or early next year, Yucca Mountain Project spokesman Allen Benson said Thursday. The letter to Abraham expressed concern that the public would not have enough time to review the department's Aug. 21 report, which said a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, would perform well within radiation safety standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The public comment period is scheduled to run Wednesday through Sept. 20. "Providing less than 15 days for the public and others to review and prepare substantive comments on the most critical decision that the department will have made in this program, to date, is unreasonable and unnecessary, given that the program is already over 12 years behind schedule," the letter said. It was signed by Gov. Kenny Guinn; U.S. Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev.; and Reps. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said the department would not comment on the letter until it had been reviewed. "In any case, we are moving forward with the (Wednesday) hearing," Davis said. The department confirmed Thursday that the meeting had been moved to the Great Basin Room at the National Nuclear Security Administration facility, 232 Energy Way, North Las Vegas. The hearing is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Remote video teleconference sites will be provided in Reno, Carson City and Elko. Starting at 6 p.m. the hearing will be broadcast live via the Internet at www.ymp.gov. The meeting was scheduled for the Suncoast but was moved after Suncoast officials cited security concerns, Benson said. Guinn complained about the change and sought legal advice on the state's chances of blocking the hearing. Nevada Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said Thursday the state would face an uphill battle in obtaining a court order in less than a week. "We have not reached a conclusion on what we are going to do, but we may seek additional hearings," Adams said. So far, two more hearings are scheduled: Sept. 12 in Amargosa Valley and Sept. 13 in Pahrump. The Nevada attorney general's office sent a letter Monday to Lee Otis, the Energy Department's general counsel, that asked for a postponement of public hearings until an environmental impact statement on Yucca Mountain and other documents are released. The letter asked for a response within three days, but as of Thursday, none had been received, Adams said. Benson said the department already has released several documents on the proposed nuclear waste repository. "These documents enable people to give us their comments, and all of that information will go into consideration (of the secretary's recommendation)," Benson said. Yucca Mountain is being studied for the permanent storage of 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Aug-31-Fri-2001/news/16896581.html ***************************************************************** 9 UK NUCLEAR PLANT PLAN “FATALLY FLAWED” 31 August 2001 London - The British government is allowing itself to be duped by it's own advisors over the licensing of a controversial plutonium fuel plant. The Sellafield facility in Cumbria, which is run by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. (BNFL) is hoping to attract business from around the world, but a joint assessment by Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (1) concludes the very firm hired by the Government to make recommendations on the licensing simply doesn't know enough about the issue to draw credible conclusions. As preparations are made for the final submissions in the public consultation process, it is clear that the reality of awarding the licence has not been fully explained by the government appointed advisors Arthur D Little.(2) The Irish Government has already filed a demand for international arbitration over the future operation of the Sellafield Mixed Oxide (MOX) plant. Other countries on the shipping route from Europe to Japan, the main potential customer, have voiced their opposition to having MOX shipments in their territorial waters. Other clients for BNFL would include Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, but growing opposition to the use of MOX fuel in Japan and other non client countries has not been reflected in the report, making the potential income projections invalid. Other failures include: · Not pointing out conventional nuclear fuel is more economically viable. · Not recognising MOX fuel is essentially a waste management issue, not an energy efficiency one and more effective and cheaper methods exist for storing plutonium · Not taking into account the political gridlock in Japan, the biggest potential client country, over MOX fuel, and the potential impact that may have on decisions to use the facility. · Not taking into account "hidden costs" such as transporting MOX to Japan, or the £473million already spent subsidising the Sellafield plant, and how that distorts economic viability claims. "It is irresponsible of the British Government to continue with the process with such incomplete information, and irresponsible of any other countries to even think of becoming future customers when it is clear that Sellafield's MOX plant can not be commercially viable," said Greenpeace International nuclear campaigner Shaun Burnie. "BNFL has a history of deceiving it's customers, the British Government should not be sucked into a similar deception by accepting such flawed advice as is being offered," Burnie added. Mark Johnston, Energy Analyst at Friends of the Earth said: "If the British Government approves the MOX plant it would be acting unlawfully. It would certainly risk further legal challenges in the London and potentially the European courts. This is a crucial decision which will have repercussions around the world. It's vital BNFL's application is thrown out. The nuclear industry must instead begin to address responsibly how best to manage its deadly stockpile of plutonium and other wastes." BNFL completed the MOX plant almost five years ago but it has lain idle ever since. The law requires any new practice involving radioactive discharges to be "justified" - the benefits must outweigh the costs. To date, this unused facility has cost £473 million. Even BNFL's own projections of future value would not cover this initial outlay. The project will, therefore, make a substantial loss making it unlawful for Ministers to authorise. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Shaun Burnie - Greenpeace International: +44 (0) 1557 814 288 Mark Johnston - Friends of the Earth: +44 (0) 207 566 1672 NOTE TO EDITORS: (1) Full critique of the ADL report. For an executive summary and more information, visit Greenpeace's BNFL site. (2) Arthur D Little (ADL) was commissioned by the UK Government in April 2001 to evaluate the economic case for operating Sellafield MOX plant after BNFL's MOX safety data falsification scandal in 1999. ADL presented their final report to UK Ministers in June, who refused to publish it. However, Friends of the Earth UK launched proceedings in the High Court seeking a judicial review to force publication. On the 21 June, the Government conceded and a four-week public comment period ran from 27 July to 24 August. ***************************************************************** 10 HIDDEN CRACKS COULD PLAGUE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS Environment News Service: AmeriScan: August 30, 2001 AmeriScan: August 30, 2001 WASHINGTON, DC, August 30, 2001 (ENS) - The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) warns that many U.S. nuclear reactors could be susceptible to the cracking found in a South Carolina nuclear power plant this spring. For 10 years the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ignored a deterioration problem that affects the reactor vessels of two thirds of the nation's nuclear power plants, the UCS charges. While France and Japan moved to correct the problem in their plants soon after it first surfaced in 1991, the NRC has rejected efforts to replace the equipment in U.S. plants, even though the problem emerged this spring at a nuclear plant in South Carolina. "The federal agency entrusted to ensure that our nuclear reactors run safely should not turn a blind eye to a serious safety problem," said David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer at the UCS. "We're lucky an accident hasn't occurred." The deterioriation problem, found in the nation's pressurized water reactors, is in the joints between the reactor vessel and the tubes that house control rods. These joints, or nozzles, are subject to severe stress from heating and are susceptible to cracking - as was found in a French plant in 1991. If these cracks were to grow large enough, they could lead to an ejection of the control rod, leakage of reactor cooling water, and failure of emergency systems, which could lead to a reactor meltdown, UCS said. "Instead of a Band Aid fix, the NRC needs to follow the lead other countries have taken in protecting public safety by replacing the cracked reactor vessel heads." said Lochbaum. "Anything short of replacing this broken equipment needlessly endangers the public." Cracks discovered this spring at Oconee Unit 3 in South Carolina extended almost 45 percent of the way around two nozzles. With a crack this large, the pressure in the reactor could result in a catastrophic rupture, UCS charges. In 1994, the NRC wrote a report on this type of cracking, based on an inspection of a single U.S. nuclear plant, and claimed that cracks as large as the one at Oconee were not likely. In contrast, similar plants in Europe and Japan underwent aggressive safety precautions when the problem was discovered. "Waiting a decade until an expected problem crops up is bad enough," Lochbaum said. "Waiting until an accident occurs is worse." * * * DOE SEEKS COOPERATION FROM SOUTH CAROLINA OVER PLUTONIUM WASHINGTON, DC, August 30, 2001 (ENS) - The Department of Energy (DOE) has promised to delay plutonium shipments to South Carolina until the agency can address the state's safety and long term storage concerns. Earlier this month, South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges sent a memo to the state highway patrol ordering the agency to develop plans for blocking state roads to federal shipments of plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons. Hodges expressed concern that the plutonium would be left in South Carolina after it was converted into fuel for power plants or encased in glass at the Energy Department's Savannah River Site near Aiken. Energy Department officials met with Governor Hodges and Representative Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, on Wednesday to address South Carolina's concerns regarding the disposition of the plutonium. The DOE said there is "every opportunity" to reach agreement with the state of South Carolina before mid-October, when shipments are expected to begin. The agency said it has a "clear strategy" to dispose of plutonium materials now stored at the Savannah River Site, as well as other plutonium expected to be treated at Savannah River. The DOE added that it will continue to meet with any South Carolina elected official concerned about the plutonium disposition program. In a veiled warning, the agency said it also hopes to avoid any financial impact to South Carolina and the rest of the DOE complex resulting from the continued storage of plutonium at Rocky Flats, and to develop a strategy that helps ensure the "continued viability and mission" of the Savannah River Site. The DOE's ongoing work at the site provides significant economic benefits for the state of South Carolina. © Environment News Service (ENS) 2001. All Rights ***************************************************************** 11 DOUNREAY is probably the safest industrial site in Scotland and the money being spent on cleaning and monitoring beaches beside it is a "huge waste", according to a leading expert on pollution. Professor David Mackay says the chances of being killed by a radioactive beach particle are immeasurably less than those of being struck by lightning. In an exclusive interview with The Herald, the former regulator of the nuclear installation in Caithness has criticised the anti-Dounreay lobby, claiming many of them are obsessive, and says much of the billions in decommissioning money will be wasted as a result of the small but well organised anti-nuclear campaign. The total cost of decommissioning is expected to be around £4.5bn over the next 50 to 60 years, but nearly half will be spent in the next 10 years alone. A government minister yesterday described it as the "biggest single economic opportunity in the Highlands for decades" but the professor insists this public money is being spent to allay perceived public fears that are not shared by many people in Caithness rather than to eliminate any real, fundamental threat. "If it comes to a question of actually saving lives, the money would be better spent on preventing the thousands of deaths annually on the roads or in the home," he said. He warned that if there were ever going to be a serious accident at Dounreay, it will come from emptying the controversial waste shaft. He believes it would be far better left alone. His views were not shared by a leading Dounreay safety campaigner. Lorraine Mann said: "The entire thrust of what he is saying indicates how much the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has been able to charm senior officers into walking hand in hand with them. "Secrecy has not diminished at Dounreay. During David Mackay's time his team was involved in one safety audit which alone identified 143 serious deficiencies. I find it very difficult to comprehend how he can possibly suggest that this is a safe site." "As for the waste shaft, he may be willing to gamble that a concrete plug secured by a metal pole at the foot of the shaft in 1958 is still going to have integrity after 500 or 700 years, but not many others would. If it does not, this waste would run out into the sea causing enormous radiation pollution across Europe." Brian Wilson, energy minister at the Department of Trade and Industry, and Wendy Alexander, enterprise and lifelong learning minister, visited Dounreay yesterday for the first time since Mr Wilson announced the end of all reprocessing at the plant. They agreed it would now be "an undisputed force for good in the Highlands" after decades of bitter controversy, providing unprecedented economic opportunities not just in Caithness but around the world. Mr Wilson said: "The worldwide market for decommissioning nuclear sites is already worth hundreds of billions of pounds and growing. It presents a huge opportunity for the local economy, which is why we must develop the right skills and infrastructure so that the UK in general and the Highlands, in particular, secure as much of this work as possible. "I don't think it is overstating it to say this is the biggest single economic opportunity in the Highlands for decades. Everybody can unite round the need for decommissioning." The professor has recently retired from the post as north region director of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), in which capacity he regulated Dounreay. Since retiral he has been offered a second visiting professorship, this time at Strathclyde University, in addition to his existing appointment at Stirling University. He has also become chairman of Envirocentre, a highly regarded spin-off company from Strathclyde University. "I started off at Dounreay with enormous suspicions and preconceptions about the whole set-up," he admits. "But by the time I retired I had learned to respect the people. They had changed in that they were willing to communicate openly about any problems at the site. "Sepa now exercises enormous control through four full-time nuclear experts monitoring Dounreay. These resources would, in my view, have been better employed monitoring the enormous expansion of salmon farming. "Some people have developed fixations about Dounreay. It is their life. They are clever and very well informed and they can be admired for that. But they are obsessed." He admits that, when he first became director of Sepa's north region in 1996, he went on television and said he would treat Dounreay "as guilty until it proved its innocence". However, he said yesterday: "My opinion has changed greatly over the years. I now see that a single, well-directed campaign has been allowed to damage this installation and through that the whole industry. "It is a very safe place indeed, with a better safety record than almost any industrial site in Scotland. There is less radiation present in the environment at Dounreay than the level of radiation coming from radon gas in the ground around my house in Aberdeenshire." He agrees that questions have repeatedly been raised about leukaemia clusters around Dounreay, but he points to recent scientific thinking which is tending towards the theory that, if people from different areas are moved to a new community, the likelihood of clusters increases. "Dounreay has been in existence for 60 years and the things which went wrong occurred 40 years ago. It is haunted, however, by the place's history." The professor said he was an admirer of some of the anti-nuclear campaigners involved, whom he regards as equally dedicated and well-armed with research and science, but he repeated his belief that they are obsessive. He said: "The result of these campaigns is that we are committed to spending £4bn, most of which is going to be wasted because it is being done to allay a perceived public concern, not to eliminate any real, fundamental threat." The professor added: "The possibility of erosion by the sea keeps being put further and further back. " It is now speculated at around 700 years, but by that time much of the radioactivity will have decayed. I would not rush this. "A very large amount of money is going to go into this to make some people feel more comfortable but you are not going to significantly reduce the risks." Professor Mackay said that many of the difficulties that have inhibited the growth of sea cage fish farming in Scotland, which he has also regulated, can similarly be laid at the door of a handful of single-minded cam- paigners who have secured a seriously bad press for what he views as a hugely-significant industry. "They have had a disproportionate influence on the development of salmon farming," he says, "and while they have exposed some examples of bad practice they have also demonised salmon farming. We have never treated another Scottish industry in this way." He believes that salmon farming's problems and impacts can now be managed. The industry, he said, has made enormous strides in the last three years in bringing in best practice. Kevin Dunion, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "We, I suppose, are some of the obsessive campaigners Professor Mackay speaks about and I have no doubt he has been bruised by some of the campaigning. "But we do not accept that salmon farming is an industry that has put its house in order despite the publicity offensive of recent years." Leader -Aug 31st ***************************************************************** 12 Group: Feds underfund alternative energy Las Vegas SUN August 31, 2001 By Cy Ryan SUN CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- An environmental organization is complaining the federal government spends almost all of its research money for energy on nuclear power rather than alternative sources. "The government needs to make investments in new forms," said Dan Geary, head of the National Environmental Trust in Nevada. The trust is sponsoring a road tour, which stopped in Carson City Thursday, showing how people can conserve energy by using more efficient lighting, wind-powered electricity and solar energy. In Southern Nevada, Geary said, a thermal solar system would cost $1,500 to $2,000 but the investment would be recovered in six to seven months through lower hot water bills. State Consumer Advocate Tim Hay said the state Public Utilities Commission is holding a workshop today toward developing regulations for alternate forms of energy. A bill enacted by the Legislature this year requires electric utilities to produce or buy 5 percent of their power from alternate energy sources. Hay said that amount increases until 2013 when the utilities must have 15 percent produced from alternative sources. California, he said, requires 20 percent of its power be from sources such as wind, solar or geothermal. There is an excellent source of wind in Nevada, Hay said. And the cost of converting that into power has dropped by 90 percent since the 1980s. The trust says the United States spends $5 billion a year developing more oil, natural gas and coal and it complained President Bush wants to spend even more. The trust said this country needs a more balanced energy plan to stress efficiency, conservation and renewable resources. Geary said that for the last 50 years, 95 percent of the government money looking for non-fossil fuel alternates has gone to the nuclear industry. "There needs to be a revolution in alternative energy," Geary said. Research on solar and wind systems is now going on at the Nevada Test Site. And he praised the Legislature for "showing leadership" in requiring more alternative energy to be used in the future. The Environmental Trust is supported through private grants and none of its money comes from the oil or natural gas industry, Geary said. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 13 Beaver Valley 1 nuke to shut Sat. for refuel TheStreet.com UPDATE 1- 8/31/01 9:28 AM ET NEW YORK, Aug 31 (Reuters) - FirstEnergy Corp. (FE.N) said Friday its 810-megawatt (MW) Beaver Valley 1 nuclear unit in Pennsylvania will shut Saturday for a refueling outage and should return to service in mid-October. The unit, in Shippingport, Pa., dropped from full power Thursday to 48 percent of capacity early Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said in its daily plant status report. FirstEnergy said in a statement major work on the plant during refueling will include changing about one-third of the reactor's 157 fuel assemblies, routine maintenance to improve steam flow to the turbine and upgrades to various pumps and safety systems. The unit last refueled in April 2000. The adjacent 820-MW Unit 2 is expected to continue to operate at full power during the Unit 1 outage. Beaver Valley is owned by FirstEnergy and operated by its nuclear operating company, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co., which also operates the Davis Besse nuclear plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio and the Perry nuclear plant in Perry, Ohio. --Eileen Moustakis, New York Power Desk, 646 223-6074, fax 646 223-6079, e-mail Eileen.Moustakis@reuters.com REUTERS ***************************************************************** 14 Letter: Nuke dump too close for comfort Las Vegas SUN August 31, 2001 Even if Yucca Mountain was scientifically suitable as a nuclear dump, and it isn't, the massive growth in Nevada's population since 1987 is sufficient reason alone to disqualify Yucca Mountain. Our population in the Las Vegas Valley has more than quadrupled since the 1987 federal law that singled out Yucca Mountain for investigation, and our visitor population is now 90,000 a day. The Paiute Snow Mountain Reservation, 70 miles from Yucca Mountain, has grown into a tourist destination. Indian Springs, which is closer still, has grown. Closer still (18 miles away) is the Ponderosa Dairy Farm, an ostrich farm, several pistachio orchards, alfalfa ranches and citizens' home gardens in Amargosa Valley. This population and infrastructure growth is more than enough to disqualify Yucca Mountain as a nuclear dump. So attend the Department of Energy's public hearings on Yucca Mountain and send a message to President Bush and Congress. There should not be a nuclear dump close to population centers! FRANK PERNA All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 15 UNLV studies may aid Yucca fight Las Vegas SUN August 31, 2001 Transmutation could ease need to ship nuclear waste By Mary Manning Transmutation research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas could remove the need to ship thousands of tons of the nation's nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, a Department of Energy scientist said Thursday. Denis Beller, coordinator for DOE's Advanced Accelerator Applications program at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was the featured speaker during a UNLV seminar to explain the latest advances in transmutation, a process that decreases the toxicity of highly radioactive waste, including plutonium and uranium. Transmuted nuclear waste could be buried in landfills, which have been certified by the government for the storage of low-level radioactive waste. The processed waste also could be used again to generate nuclear power. Landfills in Utah and South Carolina are currently storing low-level nuclear waste. With four transmutation accelerators placed near the nation's 103 nuclear reactors, scientists could remove radiation from 1,000 tons of waste per year, Beller said. The first accelerator could be ready by 2015, he said, and the waste would eventually be stored in the landfills. However, if approved by Congress and the president, Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, could open by 2010. Congress this fiscal year allocated $6 million to fund research into transmutation accelerators. UNLV, which for the past two years has been part of an international network of research into transmutation technology, is scheduled to receive $3 million this year. The total federal budget for transmutation research this fiscal year is more than $30 million. Congress will consider the budget this fall. Scientists are asking Congress to include an additional $12 million -- UNLV's share would be $6 million -- as part of the 2002-2003 fiscal year budget to be used for transmutation research. UNLV plans to open a new $1 million laboratory, where scientists will test lead and bismuth -- the metals are used during the transformation process -- within the year, university officials say. Radioactive materials would not be used at the UNLV lab, UNLV associate professor William Culbreth said. Instead, chemists, engineers and physicists plan to study how the two metals react to chemical and mechanical stresses. If UNLV receives the anticipated funding, school officials will hire three additional scientists who will focus on the transmutation research, said Anthony Hechanova, director of UNLV's program and nuclear engineer at the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies. UNLV also has about 45 students working in the program. Scientists have been researching transmutation technology since World War II, Beller said. "The question is, Can you turn lead into gold?" Beller said. "Yes, you can. To do so, you need lots of neutrons and lots of money." Sen. Harry Reid supports alternatives to a Yucca Mountain repository, spokesman Nathan Naylor said, but the senator said he is concerned about shipping nuclear waste in any form. Reid prefers storing spent reactor fuel in dry casks at the reactor sites, which is currently being done around the country, until a permanent solution is approved. Mary Manning covers environmental issues for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4065 or by e-mail at manning@lasvegassun.com. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 16 Nevada requests delay in hearings on nuclear dump Las Vegas SUN August 31, 2001 By Mary Manning Meetings The Department of Energy announced a new location for a public hearing on Yucca Mountain on Wednesday in Las Vegas. All meetings begin at 5 p.m. with an informal session, followed by testimony from 6 to 9 p.m. + Wednesday: North Las Vegas, DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, Great Basin Room, 232 Energy Way, west of Losee Road. Remote video teleconference sites: Reno: Desert Research Institute. Carson City: Nevada State Legislative Building, Room 1214. Elko: Elko Convention and Visitors Authority. + Sept. 12: Longstreet Inn and Casino, Amargosa Valley. + Sept. 13: Bob Ruud Community Center, Pahrump. Gov. Kenny Guinn and Nevada's congressional delegation turned the heat up on the Department of Energy today, asking Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to delay hearings and extend a public comment period on the Yucca Mountain project. But state officials doubted whether they could get a court order to stop a series of three hearings that start Wednesday. The DOE also had not responded today to a letter Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa sent on Monday, asking for a delay. At issue for Nevada officials are the hearings, seen as the last step before DOE recommends Yucca Mountain as a national nuclear repository to the president. Guinn and other state officials believe the DOE is proceeding with public hearings before enough scientific evidence is available. "There are several key pieces of scientific evidence that the public has not had the opportunity to consider, so public hearings at this point would be a sham," Guinn said, noting that the DOE has not released final environmental impact estimates. Guinn, Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., with Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., also asked Abraham to extend the public comment period 90 days. The DOE is ending public comment on Sept. 20. By delaying the public comment period, the public hearings would be delayed, they said. "The senator wants to ensure Nevadans can make sure their stories are heard, because transportation concerns are nationwide," Reid's spokesman Nathan Naylor said. Reid has reserved time to speak at the meeting by satellite from Capitol Hill. The DOE changed the location of the first meeting scheduled for the Suncoast resort. The Suncoast canceled its contract to host the first of the three public hearings. Attorney Barry Lieberman said the resort could not accommodate the crowd expected to attend the hearing, which was scheduled at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The Suncoast's meeting rooms can seat up to 300 people, although the hearings could draw over 1,000 people, DOE and state officials said. The DOE moved the hearing to its National Nuclear Security Administration on Losee Road in North Las Vegas as an alternative to the Suncoast, DOE spokesman Allen Benson said. The DOE's auditorium can seat 200 with room for another 200 people in a cafeteria. The DOE's North Las Vegas complex is surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Armed guards patrol the grounds. The location is not on a public transportation route. Guinn had proposed that the DOE conduct the hearing at Cashman Center on Las Vegas Boulevard North. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 17 Daily Events Report U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Operations Center Event Reports For 08/30/2001 08/31/2001 ** EVENT NUMBERS ** 38249 38250 38251 38252 38253 Power Reactor Event Number: 38249 FACILITY: COOK REGION: 3 NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/30/2001 UNIT: [1] [2] [] STATE: MI NOTIFICATION TIME: 06:23[EDT] RXTYPE: [1] W 4 LP,[2] W 4 LP EVENT DATE: 08/29/2001 EVENT TIME: 22:55[EDT] NRC NOTIFIED BY: SCOTT RICHARDSON LAST UPDATE DATE: 08/30/2001 HQ OPS OFFICER: LEIGH TROCINE PERSON ORGANIZATION EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY JOHN MADERA R3 10 CFR SECTION: AINA 50.72(b)(3)(v)(A) POT UNABLE TO SAFE SD UNIT SCRAM CODERX CRITINIT PWR INIT RX MODE CURR PWR CURR RX MODE 1 N N 0 Cold Shutdown 0 Cold Shutdown 2 N Y 100 Power Operation 100 Power Operation EVENT TEXT DISCOVERY OF ABNORMALLY LOW ESSENTIAL SERVICE WATER FLOW TO DIESEL GENERATORS The following text is a portion of a facsimile received from the licensee: "This is Scott Richardson calling from the DC Cook Nuclear Plant with an [8] hour non emergency notification in accordance with 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(v) for 'Any event or condition that at the time of discovery could have prevented the fulfillment of the safety function of structures or systems that are needed to: (A) Shut down the reactor and maintain it in a safe shutdown condition . . . . . . ' " "While performing an Essential Service Water (ESW) surveillance test on Unit 2, it was noted that the ESW flow to each Diesel Generator was abnormally low. This condition could have prevented the Diesel Generators from fulfilling their safety function. This condition was caused by sand and sediment in the ESW system and impacted both units." "Subsequent system flushes and valve cycling [have] eliminated the low flow condition in both Unit 1 and 2 Diesel Generators." "We will continue to monitor ESW system performance. Further investigation of this event is in progress to determine the root cause of the low flow anomaly." "Unit 2 will be [shutting] down [and] going to [Cold Shutdown] beginning in the next 3 hours." (Refer to event #38253 for additional information.) The licensee plans to notify the NRC resident inspector. General Information or Other Event Number: 38250 REP ORG: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/30/2001 LICENSEE: WASHINGTON GROUP INTERNATIONAL, INC. NOTIFICATION TIME: 10:34[EDT] CITY: BAYTOWN REGION: 4 EVENT DATE: 08/23/2001 COUNTY: STATE: TX EVENT TIME: [CDT] LICENSE#: TX 02662 004 AGREEMENT: Y LAST UPDATE DATE: 08/30/2001 DOCKET: PERSON ORGANIZATION GAIL GOOD R4 JOHN HICKEY NMSS NRC NOTIFIED BY: JAMES H. OGDEN, JR. HQ OPS OFFICER: LEIGH TROCINE EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR SECTION: NAGR AGREEMENT STATE EVENT TEXT AGREEMENT STATE REPORT REGARDING A DAMAGED RADIOGRAPHY CAMERA AT WASHINGTON GROUP INTERNATIONAL, INC., IN HOUSTON, TEXAS The following text is a portion of a facsimile received from the Texas Department of Health: "Damaged Equipment 30 Day Report[ ]August 30, 2001" "1. Event Report Identification No.[:] Incident 7793" "2. License Number[:] Texas License 02662 004" "3. Licensee[:] Washington Group International, Inc." "4. Event time, date, location[:] 5:00 a.m., July 26, 2001, Job Site Cvaerner Calpine, 8605 FM 1405, Baytown, Texas 77520" "5. Event Type[:] Damaged Equipment Radiographic camera (Exposure device)" "6. Notification[:] 30 day report" "7. Event Description[: ...] On August 23, 2001, the licensee notified the Agency of a damaged radiographic camera which occurred on July 26, 2001. The device, containing 43 curies of Iridium 192, was damaged by a radiographer applying excessive force to the selector ring while attempting to connect the drive assembly. The device was returned to [its] transportation overpack and returned to storage as damaged. After disassembly, cleaning, and inspection, no visual signs of damage were detected and the gauge was reassembled. Upon reassembly, it was noted that there was play in the selector ring. A new storage cover was installed and the camera was returned to service. To prevent a recurrence: the radiographer involved was retrained on the equipment and informed to immediately notify the radiation safety officer of damaged equipment; both radiographers were reprimanded for failure to follow company Operating, Safety, and Emergency Procedures; all other exposure devices were inspected to see if the same problem existed none exhibited this problem; this incident was discussed at the licensee's biweekly safety meeting; and the 'old' device cover was sent for evaluation. No abnormal exposures were detected as a result of this incident." (Call the NRC operations officer for state contact information.) Power Reactor Event Number: 38251 FACILITY: MONTICELLO REGION: 3 NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/30/2001 UNIT: [1] [] [] STATE: MN NOTIFICATION TIME: 11:50[EDT] RXTYPE: [1] GE 3 EVENT DATE: 08/30/2001 EVENT TIME: 09:58[CDT] NRC NOTIFIED BY: PFEFFER LAST UPDATE DATE: 08/30/2001 HQ OPS OFFICER: CHAUNCEY GOULD PERSON ORGANIZATION EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY JOHN MADERA R3 10 CFR SECTION: ACOM 50.72(b)(3)(xiii) LOSS COMM/ASMT/RESPONSE UNIT SCRAM CODERX CRITINIT PWR INIT RX MODE CURR PWR CURR RX MODE 1 N Y 100 Power Operation 100 Power Operation EVENT TEXT LOSS OF OFFSITE RESPONSE CAPABILITY The loss of the Public Prompt Notification System(PANS) was discovered during the performance of a surveillance test. The Wright County Civil Defense was notified and is standing by to perform route alert if necessary. The NRC Resident Inspector will be notified along with state and local agencies. Other Nuclear Material Event Number: 38252 REP ORG: DOMINION NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/30/2001 LICENSEE: DOMINION GENERATION NOTIFICATION TIME: 11:55[EDT] CITY: MT. STORM REGION: 2 EVENT DATE: 08/03/2001 COUNTY: STATE: WV EVENT TIME: [EDT] LICENSE#: GLG 1105 AGREEMENT: N LAST UPDATE DATE: 08/30/2001 DOCKET: PERSON ORGANIZATION MARK LESSER R2 FRITZ STURZ NMSS NRC NOTIFIED BY: DAVE SUMMERS HQ OPS OFFICER: BOB STRANSKY EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR SECTION: NINF INFORMATION ONLY EVENT TEXT MISSING NUCLEAR GAUGE A Texas Nuclear gauge, Model 5197 (S/N B847), has been discovered to be missing from the Mt. Storm coal generating station. The gauge contains 100 mCi of Cs 137 and was purchased under a general license. The vendor notified the Mt. Storm facility on 8/3/2001 that the gauge had never been returned. The gauge was last inventoried in August of 1982. All attempts to locate the gauge have been unsuccessful. Power Reactor Event Number: 38253 FACILITY: COOK REGION: 3 NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/30/2001 UNIT: [] [2] [] STATE: MI NOTIFICATION TIME: 14:09[EDT] RXTYPE: [1] W 4 LP,[2] W 4 LP EVENT DATE: 08/30/2001 EVENT TIME: 12:48[EDT] NRC NOTIFIED BY: COBB LAST UPDATE DATE: 08/30/2001 HQ OPS OFFICER: CHAUNCEY GOULD PERSON ORGANIZATION EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY JOHN MADERA R3 10 CFR SECTION: ASHU 50.72(b)(2)(i) PLANT S/D REQD BY TS UNIT SCRAM CODERX CRITINIT PWR INIT RX MODE CURR PWR CURR RX MODE 2 N Y 3.3 Startup 0 Hot Standby EVENT TEXT INDIVIDUAL ROD POSITION INDICATORS(IRPI) BECAME UNRELIABLE AND INOPERABLE As the unit was shutting down per management direction from problems encountered with the ESW system (Refer to event #38249 for additional information.), several Individual Rod Position Indicators became unreliable and inoperable as a result of changing RCS temperatures. At 1248 on 8/30/01, more than one IRPI per group became inoperable which is beyond Cook TS 3.1.3.2. Action statement. This would require entry into TS 3.0.3 which requires initiating action within one hour to place the unit in a mode in which the specification does not apply. At that time Unit 2 was in mode 2@3.3% power and was expected to enter mode 3 at which time 3.1.3.2 would no longer be applicable. At 1347 the unit was shut down in mode 3 and exited both TS 3.1.3.2 and 3.0.3. The NRC Resident Inspector was notified. ***************************************************************** 18 IAEA Daily Press Review IAEA Daily Press Review Date 2001-08-31 Number 166 1. Non-proliferation Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iran to debate Caspian sea status in line with IAEA regulations and international obligations on non-proliferation. Iran, Russia to hold talks on arms and nuclear power deals. US scientist confounds Pentagon with his questions on MD. China supports establishment of nuclear-free zone in Central Asia. India expresses its displeasure to China over supply of arms and nuclear-capable missiles to Pakistan. (BBC; CNN; R; S - 30, 31/8) Azerbaijan; China; IAEA; India; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Kazakhstan; Pakistan; Russian Federation; Turkmenistan; United States of America 2. IAEA IAEA Director General discusses with Foreign Minister of Belarus technical co-operation and dealing with Chernobyl aftermath. (R - 30/8) Belarus; IAEA 3. Illicit trafficking Turkish customs officials confiscate osmium in Istanbul. US businessmen indicted on nuclear sales to India. UK businessman convicted on nuclear smuggling to Pakistan. (DAW; OSH; R - 30, 31/8) India; Pakistan; Turkey; United Kingdom; United States of 4. Nuclear power September construction commencement date set for DPRK's first light water reactor. (OSH - 28, 30/8) Dem. P.R. of Korea 5. Nuclear safety Russian Emergencies Ministry to search for lost generator with radioactive component in Far East. Article on danger posed by inadequately secured Russian plutonium. (IHT; R - 30/8) Russian Federation 6. Energy, environment UN forum in Brazil discusses 'environmental market' to fight global warming. Coalition of environmental groups takes legal action to delay preliminary work on MD programme on grounds that necessary environmental impact statement for the sites involved is not completed. French police block protestors during passage of nuclear waste convoy from Germany to France. (CNN; G; R - 30, 31/8) Brazil; France; Germany; UN; United States of America 7. R US nuclear arms data get new classification. (WP - 31/8) United States of America 8. UN Report on 'looming crisis' in US-UN relationship. Global weapons purchases are rising again, UN says. UN summit on racism opens in South Africa. (DAW; WP - 31/8) South Africa; UN; WORLDWIDE ***************************************************************** 19 IAEA head suggests information centre on Chernobyl [ITAR/TASS News Agency] Story Filed: Friday, August 31, 2001 5:55 AM EST MINSK, Aug 31, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohammed al-Baradei proposed to set up a joint international information centre on problems of radiation effects of the Chernobyl accident on humans. At a meeting with Belarussian Prime Minister Vladimir Yermoshin on Friday, the IAEA director-general noted that it is necessary to set up such a centre with the participation of Belarussian, Russian and Ukrainian experts for the world community to receive objective information. He said there is now varied information and there are various sources of information on problems of the impact of the Chernobyl accident and the data differs so much that it is not conducive to the revival of confidence in official information. Mohammed al-Baradei said the Chernobyl information centre can be patterned of the foundation for the study of radiation effects that was founded in Hiroshima after its nuclear bombing. By Andrei Fomin (c) 1996-2001 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 Greenhouse Emissions Rose Less than One Percent in 1999 Nuclear Energy Institute Aug. 28, 2001 The Environmental Protection Agency reported last week that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rose 0.9 percent in 1999. This is less than the average 1.2 percent annual rate of increase for 1990 through 1999. The EPA' 2001 Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks attributes the lower than average increase in emissions in large part (one of three reasons explicitly identified) to significantly increased output from existing nuclear power plants. The report notes that the increased electricity production (an 8 percent increase in 1999 from the previous year) reduced demand from fossil fuel plants. Notwithstanding nuclear energy' substantial role in protecting air quality, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported last June that U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels rose 2.7 percent in 2000 the highest growth rate in U.S. emissions since 1996. EIA attributed the large growth in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to a return to more normal weather, decreased hydropower generation that was replaced by fossil-fired generation, and strong economic growth. These facts underscore the significance of testimony given in July by the Nuclear Energy Institute' director of environmental policy, Maureen Koetz, to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Any plausible strategy to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions will require an expanded use of nuclear energy in the United States and around the world, Koetz said. The unique ability of nuclear-generated electricity to provide both energy security and protect the environment makes it one of the most important tools available to minimize the adverse economic and environmental impacts from foreign fuel supply limitations and disruptions, energy price fluctuations or environmental limits on production that can threaten U.S. growth and prosperity. Visit the Newsroom of NEI' Web site to view the testimony' full text. Copyright © 2001 Nuclear Energy Institute. ***************************************************************** 21 AEP shuts big Mich. nuke due silt buildup [Reuters] Thursday August 30, 4:01 pm Eastern Time (UPDATE: Adds details) SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 30 (Reuters) - American Electric Power Co. (NYSE: - news) was forced to shut its big 1,090-megawatt (MW) Cook 2 nuclear reactor in Michigan Thursday after a build-up of sandy silt from Lake Michigan clogged the power unit's cooling water system. The adjacent 1,020-MW Cook Unit 1 was already off line, shut Monday to replace a valve in a pump that expels water from the plant. The loss of more than 2,100 megawatts from the Midwest power network, however, was not expected to threaten the reliability of electric service in the region, power traders said. One megawatt can power about 1,000 homes. Power demand was expected to ease Friday ahead of the three-day holiday weekend to celebrate Labor Day Monday, with many offices and businesses closing early so workers could get a head start on the weekend that marks the unofficial end of summer. Weather conditions in the Midwest also were expected to remain mild, cutting electricity demand for air conditioning or heating, traders said. AEP, of Columbus, Ohio, said Cook 2, in Bridgman, Mich., was reducing power Thursday and expected to be taken off the grid late in the afternoon or tonight, according to Bill Schalk, a company spokesman. The unit was to remain in ``hot standby'', while plant operators look into what caused the silt buildup and figure out when they can put both reactors back in service. ``We don't know at this point how long the investigation or the work will take,'' Schalk told Reuters. Schalk declined to estimate when the units might reconnect to the grid. AEP does not comment on operating schedules for its generating units for competitive reasons, he said. The silt was drawn into the plant's water intake pipes and hurt the performance of cooling systems needed by safety equipment and back-up power systems. The Cook plant has three 16-foot diameter pipes that bring water from one-half mile out in Lake Michigan into the facility. Pumps use this water for cooling. The Cook station was closed in September 1997 for extensive upgrades to address safety concerns related to the plant's design. Unit 2 returned to the grid in June 2000 and Unit 1 in December 2000. Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy ***************************************************************** 22 ADAMS: Items of Interest - Friday, August 31, 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADAMS - Items of Interest Recent Released Documents Added - Friday, August 31, 2001 These documents and others may be retrieved at the NRC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item ID: 012420024 Accession Number: ML012330590 Document Date: 8/21/01 Title: 07/24/2001 Periodic Meeting with the State of Nebraska. Author Affiliation: NRC/RGN-IV Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420183 Accession Number: ML012350136 Document Date: 8/16/01 Title: 08/16/01 NEI Comments On Licensee Self Assessment (LSA) In the Reactor Oversight Process Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420145 Accession Number: ML012410424 Document Date: 8/29/01 Title: 09/10/01- Meeting Notice of Forthcoming meeting with Schlumbergersema. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD4 Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420258 Accession Number: ML012420166 Document Date: 8/30/01 Title: 09/11/2001 Public Meeting Notice, Management Review Board Meeting for New Hampshire Radiation Control Program IMPEP Review. Author Affiliation: NRC/STP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420142 Accession Number: ML012410378 Document Date: 8/29/01 Title: 09/13 - 14/2001 Notice of Technical Exchange & Management Meeting with U.S. Department of Energy on Range of Operating Temperature. Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/DWM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420256 Accession Number: ML012410220 Document Date: 8/29/01 Title: 09/13/2001 Notice of Public Meeting to Discuss Revisions to the Safety System Unavailability Performance Indicators Used in the Reactor Oversight Process. Author Affiliation: NRC/NRR/DIPM/IIPB Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420187 Accession Number: ML003698980 Document Date: 3/31/00 Title: G20000171/LTR-00-0224 - Comments and Recommendations on the Draft Final Rule, 10 CFR Part 63, "Disposal of High-Level Radioactive Waste in a Proposed Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada" Author Affiliation: NRC/ACNW Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420157 Accession Number: ML003734737 Document Date: 7/20/00 Title: G20000354/LTR-00-0485 - Ltr from Rep. Joe Barton re: Post Hearing Questions -- Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain Before the Subcommittee on Energy and Power on 6/23/00 Author Affiliation: US HR, Subcomm on Energy & Power Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420158 Accession Number: ML003746111 Document Date: 8/21/00 Title: G20000419/LTR-00-0555 - Robert Loux, State of Nevada Ltr. re: Potential Licensing of a Geologic Repository at the Proposed Yucca Mountain Site Author Affiliation: State of NV Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420159 Accession Number: ML003781321 Document Date: 1/12/01 Title: G20000570/LTR-00-0731 - Ltr to Garrick, ACNW re Alloy C-22 Corrosion Studies Author Affiliation: NRC/EDO Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420188 Accession Number: ML003776507 Document Date: 12/6/00 Title: G20000570/LTR-00-0731 - Ltr from John Garrick, Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste re Alloy C-22 corrosion studies. Author Affiliation: NRC/ACNW Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420162 Accession Number: ML010360083 Document Date: 2/2/01 Title: G20010024/LTR-00-0040 - Ltr. to D. C. Agarwal, Sub: Radwaste Containers for the Yucca Moutain Project: NiDI and Framatome Cogema Sponsored Workshop on the subject at Las Vegas on October 17 and 18, 2000 Author Affiliation: NRC/NMSS/DWM Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420189 Accession Number: ML010230112 Document Date: 12/26/00 Title: G20010024/LTR-01-0040 - D C Agarwal Ltr re: Radwaste Containers for Yucca Mountain Project: NiDI & Framatome Cogema Sponsored Workshop on Subject at Las Vegas on October 17 & 18, 2000 Author Affiliation: Krupp VDM Technologies Corp Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420190 Accession Number: ML010240436 Document Date: 1/16/01 Title: G20010029/LTR-01-0056 - Mel Silberberg, Ltr re: Revisiting NRC HLW Research - Management Strategy, Oversight, and Resources Author Affiliation: - No Known Affiliation Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420191 Accession Number: ML010940515 Document Date: 5/8/01 Title: G20010068/LTR-01-0101 - Ltr. to B. John Garrick re Waste Letter Report on Waste-Related Research. Author Affiliation: NRC/EDO Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420192 Accession Number: ML010440148 Document Date: 2/5/01 Title: G20010068/LTR-01-0101 - B. John Garrick, ACNW Ltr re: Update to Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste Report on Nuclear Waste-Related Research. Author Affiliation: NRC/ACNW Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420001 Accession Number: ML011340143 Document Date: 5/7/01 Title: G20010191/LTR-01-0249 - Ltr. Lake H. Barrett re: DOE's process regarding the evaluation of the Yucca Mountain site and the perspective of planned activities as the commission prepares preliminary comments required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Author Affiliation: US Dept of Energy, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420156 Accession Number: ML003715693 Document Date: 5/8/00 Title: LTR-00-0323 - Site Characterization Progress Report: Yucca Mountain, Nevada Author Affiliation: US Dept of Energy (DOE) Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420160 Accession Number: ML003781349 Document Date: 12/14/00 Title: LTR-00-0742 - Ivan Itkin Ltr re: Tthe Twenty-Second Semiannual "Site Characterization Progress Report: Yucca Mountain, Nevada" Author Affiliation: US Dept of Energy (DOE) Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420161 Accession Number: ML010050028 Document Date: 12/28/00 Title: LTR-00-0749 - Jared Cohon Ltr. re: Provision of Letter Report to Congress & Secretary of Energy Concerning Assessment of Yucca Mountain as Permanent Repository for Spent Nuclear Fuel & High-Level Radioactive Waste Author Affiliation: US Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420195 Accession Number: ML010390397 Document Date: 2/1/01 Title: LTR-01-0094 - Audrea Green Ltr re: Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository Project Author Affiliation: - No Known Affiliation Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420196 Accession Number: ML010440368 Document Date: 2/6/01 Title: LTR-01-0105 - Loretta Kreider Ltr re: Concerns About the Proposed Nuclear Waste Depository in Yucca Mountain. Author Affiliation: - No Known Affiliation Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420163 Accession Number: ML010740043 Document Date: 3/9/01 Title: LTR-01-0157 - Kaitlin Backlund Ltr re: Proposed EPA Radiation Standards for the Proposed Yucca Mountain High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository Author Affiliation: State of NV Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420164 Accession Number: ML010960129 Document Date: 3/26/01 Title: LTR-01-0189 - Sen.Harry Reid Ltr re: EPA to Publish Final Rule Establishing Regulations for Proposed Spent Nuclear Fuel Repository at Yucca Mountain Author Affiliation: US SEN Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420165 Accession Number: ML011000190 Document Date: 3/5/01 Title: LTR-01-0197 - Ltr. Rep. Shelly Berkley re: White House Referral. Author Affiliation: US HR Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420202 Accession Number: ML012340184 Document Date: 8/23/01 Title: OMB-3150-0011 and OMB-3150-0021, (Final) OMB Supporting Statement for Proposed Rule, 10 CFR Part 50, "Releasing Part of a Power Reactor Site or Facility for Unrestricted Use Before NRC Approves the License Termination Plan." Author Affiliation: NRC/OCIO Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420253 Accession Number: ML012410003 Document Date: 8/28/01 Title: Proposed Export of Radioactive Waste to Canada. ( XW007) Author Affiliation: NRC/OIP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ Item ID: 012420254 Accession Number: ML012410173 Document Date: 8/23/01 Title: XCOM01147 Letter to Executive Branch. Author Affiliation: NRC/OIP Document/Report Number: _________________________________________________________________ ***************************************************************** 23 Russia reviews terms of Pu reprocessing reduction (St Petersburg:) On Monday the Russian government approved the draft protocol composed by the Ministry for Nuclear Energy (Minatom), to make modifications on the Russia-US agreement from September 23rd 1997. The agreement concerns cooperation on plutonium breeder reactors. The government approved that Minatom signed this protocol with the US. The cooling towers at the plutonium production reactors site in Seversk. Nils Bohmer Rashid Alimov, 2001-08-31 14:24 The protocol particularly provides for prolonging the lifespan of three Russian nuclear plutonium breeder reactors, in order to solve the energy supply problems of several towns. According to the governmental decree, reactors ADE-4 and ADE-5 in Seversk, Tomsk region, will be operative till December 31st 2005, and the ADE-2 reactor in Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk region, will be operative till December 31st 2006. According to the Russia-US agreement, signed in 1997, breeding of surplus plutonium at these reactors should be terminated in 2002 and 2003 correspondingly. The goal of the agreement is complete termination of weapons-grade Pu breeding at Russian and American industrial reactors. In compliance with the first Russia-US agreement on Pu-production reactors, signed by then Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin and U.S. Vice President Al Gore in June 1994, ADE-2, ADE-4 and ADE-5 were to be shut down by 2000. In 1997 the terms were postponed, and now they are further postponed. The first proposal in the joint U.S.-Russian discussions was to convert the reactor cores, and fuel them with highly enriched uranium, preventing the spent fuel from containing weapons-grade plutonium after reprocessing. The U.S. Congress authorised $115 million for the conversion project. The proposal was heavily protested on by the Russian State Nuclear Regulatory, GAN, which claimed that such an alternative would pose a far to high safety risk for the ageing reactors. In 1999 the Russian-American conversion plan failed to attain GAN’s licence due to safety violations. Moreover, GAN refused to grant a licence for continued operation of these reactors. In February 2000, Minatom suddenly proposed shutdown of the reactors, admitting that building of fossil fuel would be a more expedient energy supply to the local areas, and an adequate substitute of the reactors. Later, however, the ministry changed its mind, and made a new proposal to prolong the lifespan of the reactors with 20 years, only modifying their reactor cores for low enriched uranium. To meet some of the GAN’s criticism, the new proposal included a 20 percent power reduction. Reduced power leads to less heat generating, and therefore less chances of the reactors' graphite components of deforming. The reactors are principally similar to the Chernobyl reactor that blew up in 1986, only far older. The ADE-2, ADE-4 and ADE-5 reactors breed 1,500 kg of Pu per year. That means, that while USA are buying Russian weapons-grade uranium under the HEU-LEU contract to prevent this nuclear substance from getting into terrorists’ hands and rogue states, and while a new storing facility is being built at the Mayak plant for storing weapons-grade plutonium, Minatom continues to breed this material from the cold war epoch. Reactors ADE-4 and ADE-5 (reactor facility of the Siberian Group of Chemical Enterprises, SGCE) were put in operation in 1964 and 1965. In 1973, a heat-main from the facility to the city of Tomsk was built, and at present time these reactors provide 30-35% of the heating of Tomsk, and 50% of the heating of Seversk. Present Minatom’s plans for conversion of the reactor cores are reported to include that ADE-4 and ADE-5 would be modified in order to work not on the natural uranium, but on the 90% enriched U-235 fuel. That would make breeding of plutonium impossible. ADE-2 (Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Enterprise, MCE) was put in operation in 1964. It is the main source of heat-supply to the city of Zheleznogorsk. After the state-sponsored defence order was invalidated in 1995, the enterprise had to begin storing plutonium dioxide at its territory in a temporary storage. According to the latest reports, in 2006 Minatom plans to shut down the reactor, and a fossil fuel operated heat power plant is to be completed by the beginning of 2007. According to RIA News, Minatom representatives said that the problems of energy supplies in Seversk and Zheleznogorsk will be solved in three years. Yuri Vishnevsky, the head of GAN, said earlier that the ageing Seversk reactors had already twice exceeded their service lifetime, and the safety risks posed by continued operation were rather obvious. Publisher: , President: Frederic Hauge Information: , Technical contact: Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway Menu system java script courtesy of Peter Belesis at the . [ (c) BELLONA -- Reuse and reprint recommended provided source is stated ] ***************************************************************** 24 Hodges catches flack for nuke plant [charlotte.com] August 31, 2001 Environment Activists say state only concerned with the jobs facility will create By KIM BACA Associated Press COLUMBIA -- S.C. environmentalists are hailing Gov. Jim Hodges for standing up to the federal government on plutonium shipments, but criticizing him for supporting the government to build a commercial nuclear fuel plant. "The plan to process plutonium to make fuel for commercial reactors (for mixed oxide fuel or MOX) will create more radioactive waste and increase the threat posed to our state by plutonium," state Rep. Joe Neal said. "You can't be opposed to more plutonium ending up in South Carolina and be in favor of MOX." The issue of plutonium shipments for some state leaders is more about jobs than safety, said Neal, D-Hopkins. Hopkins spoke Thursday at a news conference called by the S.C. Progressive Network, a coalition of several nonprofit organizations around the state. "What the South Carolina delegation is saying is, `We don't care if it's a bad decision and bad policy, it's jobs for South Carolina,'" said Henry Rogers, of the Carolina Peace Resource Center, which is part of the coalition. Hodges threatened to use state troopers as roadblocks to stop the 50 tons of plutonium headed for the Savannah River Site in mid-October. But the governor called off practice exercises earlier this week after the Energy Department said it would not send any plutonium to the site without an agreement in place for when it would be removed. Under the Clinton administration, the Energy Department had planned to ship the plutonium to SRS near Aiken and convert it into fuel for commercial power plants called the MOX and immobilize it in glass rods for storage in Nevada. But Hodges is worried the Bush administration may change its mind and provide no federal money to process the radioactive metal once it gets to the state. Hodges met with federal officials at SRS Wednesday to discuss a resolution. Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes also has joined the fight, calling for federal funding and a specific plan "by a clearly defined and agreed upon deadline" to move the processed plutonium from SRS. U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said if the Energy Department sticks with the plan to process the plutonium, then he and other congressional members should find the money in the federal budget for the project. Environmentalists say processing the plutonium in South Carolina still is a threat to the state. "There are 34 million gallons of nuclear waste at SRS," Neal said. "Thirty-four million gallons of waste can create jobs if we take seriously the process to clean up SRS." Hodges' spokeswoman said a majority of the state supports building a commercial nuclear fuel plant at SRS. "MOX fuel facilities will provide jobs for South Carolinians, as well as money for the state," said spokeswoman Cortney Owings. "The MOX program will convert a volatile material such as plutonium into a usable source of fuel." Kevin Bishop, Graham's spokesman, said MOX is a safe way for disposal and the process has been used in Europe for years. "We are taking surplus weapons-grade plutonium off the table forever," he said. ***************************************************************** 25 Don't dump on S.C. [charlotte.com] August 31, 2001 EDITORIALS Government did renege on deal to ship plutonium You'd think the feds would have learned a thing or two about getting South Carolina riled. That Civil War episode comes to mind. Sure, the government won, but more than a century later many South Carolinians are still ticked off. Now the Bush administration has kicked up South Carolina's ire again. This time, though, South Carolina may have a point. The federal government's plans to ship plutonium, set for Nevada, to South Carolina instead does indeed renege on a deal the state brokered during the Clinton administration to keep the radioactive waste out of the state. And though South Carolina has long been a plutonium destination, it's now being dumped on - figuratively and literally. Enough is enough, officials say. We agree. The government had planned to encase the plutonium in glass containers and bury it inside a Nevada mountain. But in the spring, the Bush administration decided to postpone the process because it was too expensive. The fuel would instead be stored at the federal Savannah River Site, a former nuclear weapons facility near Aiken - already scheduled for shipments of 36 tons of surplus plutonium to convert into fuel for power plants. The change so incensed S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges he threatened to lie down in the road to block the shipments. He then scheduled - later cancelled - training exercises for state troopers to practice blocking roads and gates into the SRS. S.C. Attorney General Charlie Condon, who plans to run against Gov. Hodges for governor, joined the fray threatening to sue the federal government over the shipments. South Carolina, of course, is not expected to win in a showdown with the feds. But this week Gov. Hodges and others at least got the government's attention. U.S. Energy Department officials agreed to discuss a strategy to ensure that South Carolina does not get stuck permanently with storing the excess plutonium. Gov. Hodges wants a written, binding agreement to that effect - and in fairness the state should get it. South Carolina is partly to blame for the mess it finds itself in. For years, the state sought and got nuclear waste facilities to foster jobs in the state. It was a repository for spent fuel rods from nuclear plants, and SRS manufactured plutonium for nuclear warheads during the Cold War. In recent years, though, officials have fought plans to ship or store nuclear material in the state, and residents have vehemently complained about the state's role as nuclear waste dump. Gov. Hodges calls the federal government's decision to talk about strategy on where the plutonium goes after its stay in South Carolina and how to ship it out "a small step forward" and worth delaying any protests. But given past experience, the governor hasn't abandoned plans. Trooper training to block the shipments is being rescheduled for mid-October, when the first loads of plutonium are set to arrive. Hodges ***************************************************************** 26 Las Vegas Yucca Mountain Hearing Relocates to Prison-like Complex Aug. 30, 2001 Kangaroo Court Countdown Alert Six Days to Yucca Mountain Hearing in Las Vegas NOTE: The U.S. Department of Energy is holding a Sept. 5 hearing in Las Vegas on the government’s intention to establish a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Public Citizen will issue "Kangaroo Court Countdown Alerts" each day until the hearing. For more information about Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste, visit www.citizen.org/cmep. WASHINGTON, D.C. – A Las Vegas hearing on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) intention to develop Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dump will now take place in a heavily guarded DOE building in North Las Vegas. The building, DOE’s support building for its atomic weapons testing program, is situated in an industrial area and is surrounded by a chain-link fence and armed security guards. The prevailing prison-like atmosphere hardly welcomes public participation. An Aug. 21 Federal Register notice announced that the hearing would take place at the Suncoast Casino, but earlier this week, the casino declined to host the event. Although an alternate venue has not officially been announced in the Federal Register, the DOE said today it intends to relocate the hearing to its Nevada Operations Office, which is a support building for the federal Nevada Test Site, where atomic weapons testing has been conducted for decades. "The DOE is making a mockery of the process for public participation " said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act mandates the DOE to hold hearings in the Yucca Mountain vicinity prior to recommending Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository. The DOE has come under attack in recent days for prematurely scheduling the hearings without a basis for recommending the site. A required environmental impact statement has not been released, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not issued licensing regulations, and the DOE is relying on proposed changes to siting guidelines that have yet to be finalized. In addition, the DOE has yet to make available detailed information about the massive nuclear transportation scheme that would be launched if Yucca Mountain were approved. Projected routing scenarios indicate that 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste from commercial nuclear reactors and the DOE weapons complex would be shipped through 43 states within half a mile of the homes, schools and workplaces of 50 million Americans. "The DOE is afraid to publicize the details of this dangerous and unprecedented plan for cross-country nuclear waste shipments," Hauter said. "The agency is trying to downplay the significance of this proposal to mute widespread public opposition." Adding insult to injury, the hearings – to be held in Las Vegas, Amargosa Valley and Pahrump on Sept. 5, 12 and 13, respectively – were scheduled at incredibly short notice during a time of year when many people take vacations. Residents of Las Vegas received only nine business days notice and, with just six days remaining until the hearing, the new venue has yet to be officially announced. Public Citizen has received no response from the DOE on its request yesterday to cancel the September hearings and discontinue all site recommendation activities until outstanding technical and regulatory issues have been resolved. Critical Mass ***************************************************************** 27 Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management; Site Recommendation Consideration; Suggested Topics for Public Comment Process Fednet Government News ( August 30, 2001 ) Washington, DC, Aug 30, 2001 (FedNet via COMTEX) -- The Department of Energy (the Department) provides suggested topics for public consideration regarding the possible recommendation by the Secretary of Energy to the President of the Yucca Mountain Site in Nevada for development as a spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste geologic repository, pursuant to Section 114(a)(1) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended (NWPA). DATES: As announced previously in the Federal Register (66 FR 43850-43851), written comments on the Secretary's consideration of Yucca Mountain for a potential site recommendation to the President will be accepted for consideration if received by September 20, 2001. Comments received after September 20, 2001, will be considered to the extent practicable. Copyright 2001 FedNet ***************************************************************** 28 German nuclear waste train crosses into France - 8/30/2001 - ENN.com Thursday, August 30, 2001 By Reuters STIRING-WENDEL, France — A train carried nuclear waste from Germany into France on Wednesday, defying environmental protesters who oppose the cross-border transfer of the cargo for reprocessing, officials said. The shipment of 12 radioactive spent fuel rods, weighing six-and-a-half tons, left Biblis nuclear power plant on its way for the La Hague reprocessing plant early Wednesday. Late Tuesday, 10 Greenpeace members chained themselves to the tracks at Biblis in the state of Hesse before being cut loose and held by police. As the train moved through Mannheim, four demonstrators were arrested for running onto the rails, while at Homburg an der Saar police removed protesters who delayed the train for half an hour by blocking the tracks. A Reuters correspondent said about 20 antinuclear campaigners gathered in Stiring-Wendel on France's northeastern border with Germany but did not try to physically stop the train as protesters have done in the past. The transport of nuclear waste for reprocessing abroad resumed in April after a three-year interruption. This followed an agreement between the German federal government and the power industry on the abandonment of nuclear energy by 2020. As part of the deal, the reprocessing of fuel rods abroad will be allowed until 2005. In return, Germany has agreed to take back the reprocessed waste. Wednesday's contentious delivery was held in one container on a train comprising a total of some 20 wagons. The specialist La Hague plant is near the northwestern French town of Cherbourg. The train was expected to arrive at Valognes near Cherbourg, but antinuclear campaigners said they planned to try to stop the convoy on its route through France. In the past, activists have chained themselves to the rail tracks ahead of the oncoming train, forcing it to stop and adding hours to its journey across northeastern France. They have so far not succeeded in stopping a delivery altogether. Copyright 2001, Reuters Copyright © 2001 Environmental News ***************************************************************** 29 Environmentalists: Nuclear fuel project will hurt South Carolina Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, August 31, 2001 The Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina environmentalists are criticizing Gov. Jim Hodges for supporting a plan to build a commercial nuclear fuel plant in the state. "You can't be opposed to more plutonium ending up in South Carolina," and be in favor of developing mixed oxide fuel for power plants, said state Rep. Joe Neal, D-Hopkins. The administration defends the idea because it "will provide jobs for South Carolinians, as well as money for the state," said Hodges spokeswoman Cortney Owings. The issue of plutonium shipments for some state leaders is more about jobs than safety, said Neal who spoke Thursday at a news conference of the South Carolina Progressive Network, a coalition of several nonprofit organizations around the state. Under the Clinton administration, the department planned to ship plutonium to the Savannah River Site and then either convert it into fuel for commercial power plants or immobilize it in glass rods for storage in Nevada. But Hodges is worried the Bush administration may change its mind and provide no money to process the radioactive metal once it gets to the state. Hodges had threatened to use state troopers as roadblocks to stop 50 tons of plutonium headed to Savannah River in mid-October. The governor called off practice exercises earlier this week after the Energy Department said it would not send any plutonium without an agreement on when it would be removed. Hodges met with federal officials Wednesday to discuss a resolution. He and Attorney General Charlie Condon also sent a letter Thursday to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, requesting funding for the fuel program and enforceable deadlines for when the plutonium would leave the state. Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes also has called for federal funding and a specific plan to move processed plutonium from the site. If the federal government sticks with the processing plan, then Congress should find the money for the project, said U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Yet, environmentalists say processing plutonium in South Carolina is a threat to the state. "There are 34 million gallons of nuclear waste at SRS," Neal said. "Thirty-four million gallons of waste can create jobs if we take seriously the process to clean up SRS." Kevin Bishop, Graham's spokesman, said the plant would be safe and the process has been use in Europe for years. "We are taking surplus weapons-grade plutonium off the table forever," he said. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 30 NRC Announces Opportunity for Hearing on License Renewal for Pennsylvania's Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station Press Release - 2001 - 107 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA No. 01-107 August 31, 2001 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced the opportunity to request a hearing on an application for renewal of the operating licenses for the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Units 2 and 3. The Peach Bottom station is a two-unit boiling water reactor located in York and Lancaster Counties in southeastern Pennsylvania. The current operating licenses for Units 2 and 3 expire on August 8, 2013, and July 2, 2014, respectively. Exelon Generation Company, LLC, the operator of the two units, submitted an application for the renewal of the two operating licenses on July 2. A notice of receipt was published by NRC in the Federal Register on July 25. The staff has determined that Exelon has submitted sufficient information for the NRC to formally "docket," or file, the application and conduct a detailed review. The deadline for hearing requests is October 1. By that time, requests must be filed by anyone whose interest might be affected by the license renewals and who wishes to participate as a party to the proceeding. Requests for a hearing must be filed with the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. They may also be delivered to the NRC Public Document Room at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. A copy of the request should also be sent to the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and to Michael P. Gallagher, Director-Licensing, Exelon Corporation, 200 Exelon Way, Kennett Square, PA 19348. Additional information about the opportunity for hearing may be found in the Federal Register notice. Copies of the license renewal application are available at the NRC web site at http://www/nrc.gov/NRC/REACTOR/LR/index.html,and are also available through the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). Help in using ADAMS is available by contacting the NRC Public Document room staff at 301-415-4737 or 1-800-397-4209, or by sending a message to pdr@nrc.govvia e-mail. The application is available for public inspection at the NRC's Public Document Room in Rockville, MD. In addition, copies of the license renewal application for the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station are available to local residents at the Collinsville Community Library in Brogue, Pennsylvania, and at the Harford County Public Library, in Whiteford, Maryland. ### ***************************************************************** 31 NRC Names Leonard M. Willoughby Resident Inspector at Ft. Calhoun Region IV -- 2001- 47 - UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 No. IV-01-047 August 31, 2001 CONTACT: Breck Henderson Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227 e-mail: bwh@nrc.gov The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has named Leonard M. Willoughby resident inspector at the Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Station. Mr. Willoughby joins senior resident inspector Wayne Walker at the nuclear power plant near Ft. Calhoun, Nebraska. Mr. Willoughby earned a bachelor's degree in engineering science from Colorado State University in 1978. Following graduation and further training in naval nuclear power plants, he worked as a civilian engineer at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard near Seattle. His duties included Nuclear Chief Test Engineer, Senior Nuclear Shift Test Engineer and Nuclear Project Engineer. He joined the NRC in May 1999, and worked in the Region IV offices in Arlington, Texas, as a Project Engineer and Reactor Engineer in the Division of Reactor Projects. Mr. Willoughby and his wife, Karen, will live in Omaha. Each U.S. commercial nuclear power plant has at least two NRC resident inspectors. They serve as the agency's eyes and ears at the facility, conducting regular inspections and monitoring significant work projects. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Rubin insists on Kursk being raised on September 15th Rus Eng Nor Northern Fleet incidents (St Petersburg:) I don't want to hear about the date being changed. I strongly object to that, said Igor Spassky, general director of the central design bureau Rubin, while answering the questions about a possible delay of the Kursk salvage operation, at a press conference in St Petersburg on Friday. Rashid Alimov, 2001-08-31 17:38 Thus, despite the previous statements made by vice admiral Mikhail Motsak, saying that force majeur circumstances may cause a delay of the operation until the end of November, Rubin is sure that the originally planned date of the Kursk raising will not be postponed from September 15th. According to the plan, Kursk will be raised, under conditions that sea remains relatively calm within eight hours. Getting the submarine off the sea bottom is planned to take about five hours, the director of Rubin said. Spassky says the necessary preparations for the raising are carried out in accordance with the schedule. Some works, in particular the drilling of 26 holes in the hull, have in fact been completed ahead of the schedule. At the same time, cutting off the torpedo compartment goes with a backlog. Today it can be ascertained unequivocally, reads Rubin's press release. Equipment for cutting off the torpedo compartment is already delivered to the destination onboard the barge AMT Carrier, and now installation and adjustments are being carried out. When speaking about possible detonation of missiles onboard the Kursk, Spassky guaranteed the impossibility of such scenario. He is positive the first compartment of the Kursk contains no "alive" torpedo fragments. In Spassky's opinion, nothing can happen with 22 launchers located on both sides from the second to the fifth compartment of the submarine. The Rubin director also thinks that there will not be any problems with the nuclear reactors. He goes on saying that should the Kursk flip over, as unreal as it is, the reactor would not be harmed. In any case, according to the Rubin director, radiation always quickly dissolves in seawater. "Though the British factory in Sellafield has been dumping radioactive waste in the sea for 30 or 40 years, the background radiation there is thousand times less than the norm," he says. Around September 8th, the barge Giant-4, which will lift the submarine, arrives at the place of the Kursk accident. "Obviously, we have reached the final stage of this operation," says Igor Spassky. Rubin is positive the dock for Kursk is ready Spassky says, the dock in Roslyakovo, where Kursk will be transferred, "is prepared and put in good condition." Earlier, there was information that the dock was not ready for this part of the salvage operation. Speaking about the problems of taking Kursk into the dock, Spassky noted that "against any force there is a larger force." He admitted, that though the total immersion of the barge, with the submarine connected to it, is about 23 meters. In order to enter the dock the immersion should be less than 13.5 meters. "The construction will be lifted upwards, and the barge will be put on air," he said. Spassky added that "after that the immersion will be determined only by the submarine." The pontoons are planned to reduce the immersion to the necessary point of 13.5 meters. The dock in Roslyakovo is situated in shipyard No.82 of the Russian Navy, based on German coastal repair factories from the beginning of the 1970s. The shipyard is specialized on docking and dock-surveys for strategic nuclear submarines. The dock bought in Sweden in 1980, has a record carrying capacity of 80,000 tonnes. The Rubin bureau preparing project for Kursk decommissioning Spassky says that a technical project for decommissioning of the nuclear submarine is being prepared. After the Kursk is being placed in the dock, a survey will be made, to take the final decision on transportation of the Kursk to Nerpa shipyard. "For this purpose the submarine will be converted, which means its damaged ballast systems will be sealed in order to draw Kursk onto a tow to the given area," added Igor Spassky. Nerpa specializes in repairs on nuclear submarines of the second generation. It has one dry, and one floating dock, and in addition Nerpa is equipped to transfer the spent nuclear fuel from the submarine to the project 2020 boat Malina class. So far, Nerpa has decommissioned nine nuclear submarines. The dismantlement of five of them was financed through American Co-operative Threat Reduction program. Project to raise the bow compartment to be prepared in November Answering the question whether the cutting off of the first compartment will hide the true reasons of the tragedy because the point of cutting goes right through the rupture hole in the hull of the submarine, Spassky said "there are no rupture hole because the nature of the explosion was different." In his opinion, the reason of the Kursk accident are unidentified "impacts on the torpedo device." The project of raising the torpedo compartment will be prepared in November, he said. The funds to purchase the necessary diving equipment have already been arranged. The lifting of the compartment is to be carried out in 2002. Spassky says that only fragments of the first compartment will be raised. "It is sufficient to find out the cause of the impact on the torpedo device. That way the operation will be simplified and costs reduced." 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 Menu system java script courtesy of Peter Belesis at the Dynamic HTML lab. [ (c) BELLONA -- Reuse and reprint recommended provided source is ***************************************************************** 2 Russian admiral gives assurance on nuclear safety of Kursk operation BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Aug 31, 2001 Text of report by Radio Russia on 31 August Designers are guaranteeing the nuclear safety of the area where the operation to raise the Kursk submarine is taking place, Rear-Adm Igor Zakharov said in St Petersburg today. Zakharov said all necessary investigations had been carried out to ensure nuclear safety. Studies focused mainly on factors affecting the state of the reactor - namely, the temperature of the water in the primary circuit, the reactor sealing and the possibility of active substance escaping, as well as the condition of components and their ability to withstand loading. For his part, the general designer and head of the federal state unitary enterprise, Rubin Central Design Office, Igor Spasskiy, noted that both the submarine's reactors were reliably shut down and secured. Source: Radio Russia, Moscow, in Russian 1000 gmt 31 Aug 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to ***************************************************************** 3 Interational Atomic Energy Agency to adopt resolution in September BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Aug 31, 2001 Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap Seoul, 31 August: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will adopt a resolution at its 45th session next month urging North Korea to comply with requests for inspection and implementation of a safety accord of its nuclear facilities, officials said Friday [31 August]. "During the session, the IAEA will express its concern at the North's continued breach of the nuclear safety accord and adopt a resolution calling for full implementation of the agreement," a government official said. The UN's nuclear watchdog has adopted similar resolutions each year since the nuclear crisis in the North in 1993 and will probably do so again, the official added. "Many experts say the IAEA inspection, which lasts at least two to three years, must begin next year at least in order for it to be completed by 2004, when North Korea is scheduled to accept the majority of the key components of light water reactors being constructed in the country." he said. "Accordingly, the tone of this year's IAEA resolution could be stronger than before." Source: Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 0749 gmt 31 Aug 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to ***************************************************************** 4 COMMENT & ANALYSIS: Putting nuclear weapons out of reach: Ivo Daalder andJames Lindsay set out a plan that would enable the US and Russia to achieve their defensive obje: Financial Times; Aug 31, 2001 By IVO DAALDER and JAMES LINDSAY In recent weeks, a succession of senior US officials traipsed to Moscow to begin consultations on deploying missile defences and cutting offensive weapons that Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin promised to intensify in Genoa last month. These early talks have illustrated the gulf that continues to separate the two sides. The Bush administration wants Russia to agree to a mutual withdrawal from the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty. It is easy to see why. Co-operation from Moscow would, in effect, undermine opposition at home and abroad to Mr Bush's plans for deploying a limited missile-defence system. So far, however, Russia has shown little interest in withdrawing. While it has signalled the possibility of amending the treaty, it insists that the treaty remains the cornerstone of strategic stability. Time is running out. The Bush administration has told Congress and its allies that in order to proceed with robust missile-testing, the US must withdraw from the ABM treaty within "months, not years". By next spring it wants to begin building a new test facility in Alaska. And it wants to conduct tests of sea-based and mobile land-based radar that the treaty currently prohibits. The US and Russia will avoid a collision only if they show greater flexibility. The key is to separate the issue of Washington's immediate testing programme from a final resolution of differences over future defensive deployments. Solving the testing issue should be straightforward. The ABM treaty permits the construction of additional test ranges by mutual agreement, provided these facilities do not constitute a basis for deploying a nationwide defence. Moscow should agree to the new Alaska site, while Washington should limit the number of missile launchers and interceptors at the site to make clear its purpose is for testing only. Moscow could also allow the US to conduct a limited number of tests using mobile and ship-based radar. In return, Washington would promise not to walk away from the treaty for now. Such a deal would buy time to devise a settlement on the broader issue of what kinds of offensive and defensive capabilities the two countries could deploy. The Bush administration has yet to decide what sort of defence it wants or how deeply to cut the US long-range nuclear arsenal. Serious negotiations are impossible until it makes up its mind. Even without these details, however, it is possible to sketch out the basic contours of a deal that could satisfy much of what both countries want. It would allow deployment of the limited missile defence that Washington seeks and give Moscow the much lower nuclear arsenals it wants. Such a deal would have four basic components. First, deep cuts in offensive nuclear forces need to be negotiated. A decade after the Soviet Union disintegrated, it is absurd that the US and Russia have nuclear arsenals larger than at any time in the first four decades of the cold war. Both sides should, therefore, immediately agree to reduce each arsenal to 1,500 weapons. Second, restrictions on testing and development of missile defences should be lifted. The provisions of the ABM treaty limiting testing and development of defensive technologies have been overtaken by events. Both countries should be allowed to investigate which technologies are most likely to work effectively in dealing with new missile threats. Third, deployment of a limited missile defence system should be allowed. The ABM treaty sought to ban strategically significant defences - those that could pose a threat to the other side's nuclear deterrent. That ban must remain in place. But each side should be allowed to deploy defences capable of providing some protection against rogue states. An agreement that allows the deployment of boost-phase defences capable of shooting down enemy missiles shortly after launch but that also strictly limits the number of mid-course interceptors and bans all space-based weaponry would strike the right balance. Last, each side should agree to a 10-year review. This is necessary to allow the US and Russia to propose modifications as circumstances change. Russia's recent public comments suggest that it could live with such an arrangement, particularly if the alternative were no treaty at all. Mr Bush's comments have been less reassuring. Last week he affirmed that he planned to "withdraw from the ABM treaty on our timetable, at a time convenient to America". Nevertheless, there are powerful political incentives for the White House to seek an agreement with Russia. Mr Bush would calm the growing impression in Europe that he is an unabashed unilateralist. Meanwhile, Democrats at home could hardly object to a defence system that Moscow can live with. Standing up to the Republican zealots bent on destroying all arms-control treaties in their pursuit of the chimera of invulnerability is a small price for such rewards. The writers are senior fellows at the Brookings Institution Copyright: The Financial Times Limited ***************************************************************** 5 Gulf War makes 1 in 6 ill The Scotsman Online ONE in six veterans of the 1991conflict in Iraq believe they are suffering from Gulf War syndrome. Researchers who sent questionnaires to more than 4,000 veterans found 17 per cent of those who responded thought the war had made them ill. Symptoms include extreme fatigue, muscle pain, numbness, and psychological distress. It has been blamed on exposure to chemicals or vaccination against biological weapons, but medical experts are still divided over whether the causes are physical or mental. The survey, reported in the British Medical Journal, involved 2,961 responses. They were asked about exposure to chemicals such as smoke from fires in oil wells and depleted uranium, and military stresses such as witnessing injured bodies or being under fire. If the sample was representative, it meant that about 9,000 out of 53,000 British service personnel believed they had Gulf War syndrome. ***************************************************************** 6 IAEA to urge North to allow international nuclear inspection Korea Herald http://www.koreaherald.com The U.N. nuclear watchdog is likely to adopt a resolution this month calling on North Korea to allow full international inspection of its past nuclear activities, a Seoul official said yesterday. "The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to express serious concerns over the delay in the verification of North Korea's nuclear activities and urge Pyongyang to implement its obligations under the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in its general conference," the official said. The IAEA meeting will be held in Vienna, Austria, from Sep. 17-21. The nuclear agency has lodged similar demands every year since the crisis involving North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons programs erupted in 1994. The official said that this year's IAEA resolution may have a stronger tone as international calls are mounting for an early inspection to confirm the North's compliance with NTP requirements. Under a 1994 deal with Washington, the North froze its nuclear weapons programs in exchange for receiving two safer light water nuclear reactors (LWRs) from a U.S.-led international consortium, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO). The agreement, known as the Agreed Framework, requires Pyongyang to allow a full inspection by IAEA before major reactor components arrive in the North. IAEA has demanded that the North allow the inspection next year because verification may take two to three years. North Korea rejected the demand because the completion of the reactors is likely to be delayed several years behind the target year of 2003. Pyongyang said that it will allow an inspection only when most of the reactor project has been completed. Charles Kartman, executive director of KEDO, reportedly said Tuesday that excavation work for the reactor project will begin in September. The progress will put renewed pressure on Pyongyang to comply with NPT requirements, he said in a forum in Washington. (jjhwang@koreaherald.co.kr) By Hwang Jang-jin Staff reporter (C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 Kazakhstan: Nuclear Fallout Still Signals Health Hazards By Bruce Pannier Ten years ago today, Kazakhstan announced an end to nearly 40 years of nuclear tests and the closure of all testing sites on its territory. The Kazakh government would later voluntarily give up all its nuclear weapons as well. The damaging effects of hundreds of nuclear tests had already been done, however, and Kazakhstan is still living with the fallout. So yesterday's announcement by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev that the country is considering allowing other nations to bury their nuclear waste on its territory came as something of a surprise. RFE/RL correspondent Bruce Pannier examines the issues. Prague, 29 August 2001 (RFE/RL) -- On 29 August 1991, Kazakhstan declared that it was ending nuclear testing at its northern Semipalatinsk range. The announcement halted nearly four decades of explosions that have left scars both on the landscape and the people of the region. The timing of the announcement by Kazakhstan was interesting, coming as it did eight days after the failed coup in Moscow. Kazakhstan would later receive more attention for announcing that it was decommissioning the nuclear arsenal it had inherited from the Soviet Union. The missiles and warheads are gone now, but the effects of the testing will be with the people of Kazakhstan for many years to come. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbaev spoke yesterday at a ceremony in Almaty marking the release of his new book about the topic of nuclear weapons testing, titled "Peace Epicenter." The title, Nazarbayev explained, comes from the fact that "Kazakhstan found itself at the epicenter of global confrontation...." There is a certain logic to the title. At the start of the Cold War, the Soviet government needed testing sites for its nuclear weapons program. Northern Kazakhstan was one of two sites chosen in the Soviet Union -- the other was the virtually uninhabited island of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Circle. And it was in northern Kazakhstan -- on 29 August 1949 -- that the first Soviet nuclear test was conducted. More than 450 nuclear tests had been carried out in Semipalatinsk -- most of them above ground -- by the time Mikhail Gorbachev declared a moratorium on such testing shortly after he became Soviet leader in 1985. A 1992 study estimated that 1.6 million people in Semipalatinsk had been affected by the radiation released during the nuclear testing. While Semipalatinsk -- an area roughly half the size of Switzerland -- was the most active nuclear testing site in Kazakhstan, Nazarbaev said yesterday that nuclear testing was conducted over almost half of present-day Kazakh territory. At his book launch, Nazarbaev said: "Kazakhstan was the only country in the world where an inhumane totalitarian regime carried out experiments without regard for the ecology or the health of the population, even though the problems were known." Studies of the region indicate higher rates of cancer and other diseases than in most of the rest of the world. Lakes near where the tests were carried out have an eerie glow. Television and photo-journalists traveling in the region, including those from "National Geographic" magazine, have documented shocking images of deformities among the local population. The respected U.S. television news program "60 Minutes" broadcast the image of a baby still-born with a Cyclops-like eye, which became a symbol of just how serious the situation had become in Semipalatinsk. Roald Sagdeev is the director of the center for space research at Kazakhstan's East-West Institute and attended yesterday's ceremony in Almaty. Sagdeev says the temperature in the Semipalatinsk region is now about 10 degrees Celsius higher than historic norms and has remained so for the last four years. He attributes this rise in temperatures to the nuclear testing. Despite the harm to the environment and the local population, Kazakhstan's decisions to close the testing sites and give up its nuclear arsenal were not easy to make. Its nuclear arsenal had originally been put into place to protect the Soviet Union from neighboring China. Some Muslim nations had even been quick to congratulate Kazakhstan on becoming the "first Islamic nuclear state." The United States helped Kazakhstan destroy its nuclear missiles. Russian technicians dismantled the warheads and sent them back to Russia, while U.S. specialists removed the weapons-grade uranium. Kazakhstan was nuclear-free by the mid-1990s. President Nazarbaev said yesterday that Kazakhstan will remain a nuclear-free zone and urged other Central Asian nations not to pursue their own nuclear weapons programs. Of course, for anyone who lived or still lives around Semipalatinsk, or near other former testing sites in Kazakhstan, the damage is done. Every common cold brings the suspicion of something much worse. Every pregnancy is a gamble. So it came as a surprise that at yesterday's presentation of his new book, President Nazarbaev announced that Kazakhstan is considering a plan to allow low- and medium-grade radioactive waste from other countries to be buried in Kazakhstan. Experts of the national Kazakhatomprom company believe the country can bring in $30 to $40 billion over the next 25 to 30 years by allowing the burial of such waste on its territory. Those experts say the waste could be safely buried in old uranium mines in western Kazakhstan's Mangistau region -- or, ironically, in the former Semipalatinsk nuclear testing range. (Edige Maguin of the Kazakh Service contributed to this report.) © 1995-2001 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc., All Rights Reserved. http://www.rferl.org ***************************************************************** 8 Will We Ever Get Russia Right? (washingtonpost.com) By Eugene Rumer Friday, August 31, 2001; Page A23 The Bush administration came into office vowing to put the U.S. relationship with Russia back on track. This meant progress in key areas where the Clinton team had dropped the ball: strategic arms and missile defenses, support for Russian reforms instead of coddling Yeltsin and his oligarchs, and pulling no punches on Russian atrocities in Chechnya and press freedom. Yet its actual policy bseems to be falling into the predictable pattern established by Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton -- a close personal relationship with the Russian leader, lip service to Russian reform and an all-out push to get Russia to accept U.S. terms on the burning issue of the day, with little regard for the long run. Russia is neither a friend, nor a foe. It is so big and so nuclear that it cannot be ignored, yet so weak that it cannot stand up to the United States short of brandishing its nuclear missiles. It has confounded three U.S. presidents -- Clinton and both Bushes -- with the choice between the right cause and a flawed Russian leader. Their choice -- always favoring the man over the cause -- has left growing numbers of Russians and Americans suspicious of one another and feeling that the relationship is in danger of being broken beyond repair. Vladimir Putin's record at home and abroad has been mixed at best. To his people he has delivered stability, but at a price. The new regime quickly reined in all potential sources of opposition. It has waged a ruthless campaign in Chechnya with no regard for civilian casualties. Abroad, Putin has made it his specialty to curry favor with rogues and dictators -- Saddam, Milosevic, Castro. The response from the White House has been curious. It has punted on issues such as press freedom and the war in Chechnya, and chosen to curry favor with Putin. U.S. influence over Russian behavior is, of course, limited, but it is disappointing to watch how missile defense is displacing all other issues from the U.S.-Russian agenda. This has a familiar ring to it. During his term in office, President George H. W. Bush embraced Gorbachev and ignored pro-democracy leaders and their causes. Boris Yeltsin -- then the leader of Russia's pro-democracy movement -- was treated by the Bush team as a nuisance. His domestic popularity undermined White House favorite Gorbachev. Unwavering U.S. support for German unity, for Eastern Europe's "velvet revolutions" and for democratic, peaceful change is what we remember as the hallmark of U.S. policy during that romantic period. But there were other chapters in the saga -- for example, the first Bush administration clinging to Gorbachev despite his alliance with the reactionaries in a hopeless bid to keep the Soviet Union intact. The low point came when, on a visit to Kiev, President Bush lectured independence-bound Ukraine about the dangers of nationalism. To be sure, keeping Gorbachev's Soviet Union together made sense in 1991. Gorbachev delivered -- on arms control, on getting his troops out of Europe, on the Middle East. It was easy for U.S. leaders to ignore his failings: the fact that he owed his presidency to clever manipulation of fellow Politburo members rather than a bona fide victory at the polls; that his domestic reforms were going nowhere; and that the country was teetering on the brink of starvation. But the narrow focus on Gorbachev obscured the truth that the people of Russia, Ukraine and Latvia had had enough of Gorbachev as their president and of the Soviet Union as their country. They were ready to move on, even though the U.S. administration was not. Clinton's dealings with Russia and Yeltsin followed the same pattern. After the first U.S.-Russian summit in Vancouver in March 1993, America's embrace of Russian reform became Bill Clinton's embrace of Boris Yeltsin. And Yeltsin delivered -- more troop withdrawals from Europe, missile and warhead dismantling, NATO enlargement and Kosovo. That again made it easy for the Clinton administration to overlook the crony capitalism in Russia; to compare the war in Chechnya to the Civil War in the United States; and to support pumping billions of dollars into the Russian economy as it careened out of control in the summer of 1998. The same get-rich-quick approach to diplomacy is responsible for the Clinton administration's embrace of Putin. What else can explain then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's thumbs-up assessment of Putin in January 2000 -- as Russian guns rained death on Grozny? Now a new Bush administration wants to "end" the Cold War for the third time in 10 years. The administration may well get a deal on missile defense and the ABM Treaty by the time Putin and Bush meet in Crawford, Tex., in November. But the kind of partnership the administration maintains it wants with Russia cannot rest solely on agreements about missile defenses. It needs to rest on shared values, which no amount of presidential camaraderie can replace. The writer is a senior fellow at the National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies. The views here are his own. © 2001 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 9 Los Alamos National Laboratory Develops Colorful Beryllium Detection Technology -- Test Will Help Protect Workers [AScribe Newswire] Summary: CHICAGO, Aug 30, 2001 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- Detecting beryllium on contaminated surfaces may become as simple as testing the acidity of a swimming pool, thanks to scientists at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory. Story Filed: Thursday, August 30, 2001 10:35 PM EST CHICAGO, Aug 30, 2001 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- Detecting beryllium on contaminated surfaces may become as simple as testing the acidity of a swimming pool, thanks to scientists at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos scientists have developed a colorimetric analysis -- comparison of a color change to known standards, similar to the common litmus test for measuring the pH of a water solution -- for real-time detection of beryllium contamination on surfaces. Researcher Tammy Taylor today presented details of the detection method at the 222nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago. Beryllium is widely used in industry and in nuclear weapons applications because of its unique materials properties. Breathing fine particulate beryllium is a health hazard to workers. Inhaled beryllium triggers an autoimmune response in an estimated 1 to 6 percent of exposed individuals that can result in Chronic Beryllium Disease, a debilitating and sometimes fatal disease. Currently there is no cure for CBD. Consequently, individuals working with beryllium must minimize exposure and establish rigorous housekeeping practices. Because of its use in nuclear weapons and its growing application in industry, Los Alamos researchers Taylor and Nan Sauer became interested in studying the chemical and environmental behavior of beryllium. Taylor and Sauer realized in order to do their research efficiently and with the highest degree of safety they needed to develop a rapid test to assess beryllium contamination. "When we began working with beryllium in our labs, we wanted to take every safety precaution because of the risks associated with beryllium work," said Taylor, who developed the beryllium swipe technique. "We wanted to develop a quick test to say whether our area was clean and it was safe to perform experiments. The beryllium swipe technique will permit beryllium workers to monitor surfaces in their work environment thoroughly on a regular basis at minimal expense and without delays or excessive lost work time due to waiting for test results." The beryllium detection technique involves wiping the surfaces of the lab with a prepared pad and then adding a solution. If the pad turns blue, beryllium is present; if it remains orange, then the surface is free of significant contamination. Keeping workplace surfaces clean helps minimize the potential for worker exposure. The present method for detecting beryllium in the workplace is costly and time consuming. It may take days or weeks to obtain results of laboratory analysis. In many cases work cannot be performed until results come back indicating beryllium levels are below the acceptable surface contamination limit. Taylor's beryllium colorimetric test is not meant to replace the existing method that can quantify the amount of beryllium on a surface, but to allow a worker to get a quick, qualitative result indicating the effectiveness of housekeeping efforts and contamination control. This method also will cut down on the number of samples sent for costly quantitative analysis. Gary Whitney, an industrial hygienist at Los Alamos who routinely conducts beryllium monitoring, said, "This test has the potential to give us preliminary information very quickly and at low cost. We are in the process of seeing if this could be developed into a more quantitative method and not just a quick screening method. I have conducted some preliminary side-by-side tests using Taylor's technique and the quantitative analytical technique. The initial results look promising." Preparing the pads and performing the detection test for beryllium are simple tasks. The pads are soaked in two solutions, dried and then used to wipe the potentially contaminated surface. After wiping, the pad is treated with another solution and formation of a blue color indicates beryllium. The whole process takes less than one hour and the materials for each test cost less than a dollar. "We've conducted this test with a variety of potential interferences like cutting fluids (used in machining metals), mineral oil, common household cleansers and dust to see if they interact with the beryllium and give a false negative," said Taylor. "We've also done the test with other metals that may be present in the machine shops or at beryllium contaminated sites to make sure that the pads don't register false positives." The beryllium colorimetric test developed by Los Alamos builds upon an earlier beryllium measuring technique developed by Russian scientists. Beryllium's unique properties make the metal an ideal choice for many industrial applications. It is lighter than aluminum, stiffer than steel, remains solid at high temperatures and can absorb large amounts of heat. Beryllium is used in the aerospace, computer, electronic and nuclear industries. Department of Energy rules on beryllium have established surface contamination limits for beryllium work areas and equipment. The detection technique developed by Taylor is sensitive enough to allow detection of beryllium on surfaces within established limits. But the technique has applications in any facility involved in beryllium work where surface contamination and potential worker exposure is possible. Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. ((AScribe - The Public Interest Newswire / )) (C)1999-2001 Ascribe News - Copyright © 2001, AScribe Newswire, all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 State officials split on plutonium letter Savannah NOW: Local News - 08/31/01 083101 loc 15 SavannahNOW - Savannah Morning News Despite pledging to present a unified front in talks with the federal government, South Carolina leaders began political bickering over a letter outlining the state's position on plutonium shipments.-->Web posted Friday, August 31, 2001 By KIM BACA and AMY GEIER The Associated Presss COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Despite pledging to present a unified front in talks with the federal government, South Carolina leaders began political bickering over a letter outlining the state's position on plutonium shipments. The first of 50 tons of plutonium is scheduled to arrive at the Savannah River Site in mid-October. State leaders are fighting the shipments, saying they would lead to South Carolina becoming a plutonium dumping ground. Under the Clinton administration, the Energy Department had planned to ship the plutonium to SRS near Aiken and convert it into mixed-oxide fuel called MOX for commercial power plants or immobilize it in glass rods for storage in Nevada. But Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges is worried that the Bush administration may change its mind and provide no federal money to process the radioactive metal once it gets to the state. Federal and state leaders have agreed that the October shipment should be delayed until DOE establishes a clear exit strategy, though many Republicans have criticized Hodges' confrontational attitude. The governor threatened to use state troopers as roadblocks to stop the plutonium shipment. But the governor called off practice exercises earlier this week after the Energy Department said it would not send any plutonium to the site without an agreement in place for when it would be removed. Hodges met with federal officials at SRS on Wednesday to discuss a resolution. He and Attorney General Charlie Condon also sent a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Thursday, outlining what they want from the federal government. Those items include funding for the mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, program and enforceable deadlines for when the plutonium would leave the state. The South Carolina congressional delegation plans to send a more detailed letter to DOE, Hodges and Condon wrote. But noticeably absent from the letter were the signatures of Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler and House Speaker David Wilkins, both Republicans. Wilkins said that while he generally agrees with the letter, the language was "too broad, subjective and overreaching." Wilkins said he wanted to draft other language to improve on the letter, making it less confrontational. Peeler's spokesman, Luke Byars, said they received a draft of the letter Wednesday but were not given time to make revisions. "I'm surprised," Byars said. "I thought we were under the understanding that we would be united." Hodges' spokeswoman, Cortney Owings, said Peeler and Wilkins had been asked to sign the letter, but refused. "We'd hoped for a bipartisan spirit," she said. "That was the intent." Condon and Peeler are both seeking the GOP nomination to challenge Hodges in next year's gubernatorial race. © 2001 Savannah Morning News. All rights reserved. PRIVACY ***************************************************************** 11 Plutonium ReductionAgreement Hits Snag - The St. Petersburg Times. General news from St.Petersburg and Russia Friday, August 31, 2001 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW - A long-discussed U.S.-Russian plan to stop production of weapons-grade plutonium in Russia has been stalled by funding shortages, and the government said Monday it had asked the United States to postpone its implementation. The agreement - signed in September 1997 by then-U.S. Vice President Al Gore and then-Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin - was hailed at the time as a historic event and a big step in U.S. efforts to ensure that Moscow safeguards and reduces its vast nuclear stockpile. But it already has faced delays because of disagreements over audit schemes that should ensure that the U.S. money committed to the project is spent properly. The latest plan envisaged that two nuclear reactors in the Siberian city of Seversk, formerly a closed city called Tomsk-7, were to end plutonium production in 2002 and 2003, Itar-Tass reported. The third reactor in the Siberian city of Zheleznogorsk, or Krasnoyarsk-26 in Soviet times, was supposed to stop producing plutonium in 2004. The cities, as their former names suggest, are located in the Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk regions, respectively. The money crunch has continued, and Monday the cabinet's information department said that Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov had ordered the Nuclear Power Ministry to negotiate an amendment to the deal with U.S. officials. It argued that Seversk reactors would have to keep working until the end of 2005, and the one in Zheleznogorsk until the end of 2006. The military reactors also provide electricity and heat for the cities' residents and the U.S.-Russian agreement called for the two countries to share the costs of building replacement power facilities. The agreement would convert the plutonium-producing plants to production of uranium for civilian power plants. The proposed amendment, authorized by Kasyanov, said that the United States would help modify reactors or build alternative power facilities if funds are available. Meanwhile, U.S. Republican Senator Richard Lugar was visiting Severodvinsk, a military port on Russia's northern coast that is the focus of efforts to dismantle scores of aging nuclear submarines with the help of U.S. funding. Lugar, who arrived in Russia on Sunday, has complained of massive cuts in the programs designed to help Russia secure its vast cache of nuclear weapons and material, which environmental groups have said pose a major threat to the surrounding area. He was inspecting a maintenance plant, U.S.-financed disposal projects and the shipyard before heading back to Moscow, then to Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to Ukraine, according to the U.S. Embassy. [Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2001 ***************************************************************** 12 EPA targets Scarboro for testing Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:02 p.m. on Friday, August 31, 2001 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff Mum's the word from the Environmental Protection Agency regarding upcoming activities in the Scarboro neighborhood. EPA spokesman Wesley Lambert confirmed the agency will be taking samples in that portion of Oak Ridge on Sept. 24. However, despite repeated requests this week, the EPA had not provided The Oak Ridger with any details about the sampling effort as of this morning. Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, said she has heard talk about EPA coming to Oak Ridge in September, but said her group has not officially been notified of any upcoming activities. "There are a lot of stakeholders with interest in this," she said. "It looks like they would've kept us informed." Fannie Ball, who lives in the Scarboro neighborhood, said she heard that EPA might be coming to town, but added that she was unsure of what they would be doing. In a letter to the editor on Monday, Al Brooks, an Oak Ridge resident, addressed EPA's upcoming sampling in Scarboro. He is on the Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee and the Citizens' Advisory Panel of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, among other groups. Brooks stated EPA initially indicated that the purpose of the samples was to validate work done earlier by the Department of Energy and Florida A University. He added that this would be impossible because "the sampled media, soil, is highly heterogeneous." Released in 1998, the study indicated the Scarboro neighborhood contained elevated levels of contaminants in the soil. The results showed consistently higher than normal levels of uranium 235 -- enriched uranium -- and uranium 238 in soil samples taken throughout the area that summer. The results also showed less significant traces of mercury in some soil samples, and one randomly selected sample showed a higher presence of lead, zinc and pesticides in the soil. Scarboro sits just across Pine Ridge from the Y-12 National Security Complex, a weapons production facility. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 13 Pantex gets mixed review in safety report Amarillo Globe-News: August 31, 2001 By Jim McBride The Pantex Plant now is rapidly repackaging plutonium into safer storage drums, but its program to ensure that other nuclear materials are stored safely is inadequate, a nuclear safety agency's report says.

A top National Nuclear Security Administration official on Wednesday praised Pantex contractor BWXT's plutonium repackaging program for "pits," the nuclear triggers in atomic weapons.

But the chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a nuclear safety agency, issued a letter last month, citing storage concerns about other nuclear weapons components housed in Pantex bunkers.

In 1999, the safety board recommended that Pantex move its plutonium into new, safer containers. Most Pantex pits now are kept in drums unsuitable for long-term storage because of corrosion problems.

Last year, Pantex, which stores more than 12,000 pits, repackaged 917 pits and expects to repackage more than 1,750 pits this year. Gen. John Gordon, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said Pantex has achieved a major safety milestone by repackaging 200 pits a month since April.

"Safely increasing the repackaging rate was a critical issue facing us. The BWXT Pantex team tackled it quickly and effectively," Gordon said in a statement.

Dennis Kelly, Pantex's assistant area manager for nuclear materials operations, said Pantex hopes to complete its $60 million pit repackaging task in 2006.

"We are at a point now in terms of our repackaging where we feel like we've got a sustained repackaging rate that exceeds the desired level," Kelly said. "We are meeting the defense board's commitment, and we believe we can sustain that commitment for some time."

Pantex, he said, also is working to correct other storage problems cited in the safety board's report.

Pantex officials will review potential storage hazards and try to determine how a container will hold up in a specific kind of accident, such as a forklift mishap or fire.

"For example, we would be looking at the fire hazard, if given a fire what temperature you expect in a facility and can the container withstand that," Kelly said.

John Conway, chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, praised Pantex contractor BWXT's plutonium repackaging work and said the project has reduced worker radiation exposures.

But Conway said the safety board now is questioning Pantex's storage programs for some uranium weapons components and nuclear batteries.

"Accidental dispersion of these materials has the potential for significant worker exposure, and in certain scenarios, may result in off-site radiological consequences. This review indicated that the program currently in place is inadequate," the report states.

The safety board's report also said Pantex has not clearly defined all nuclear material storage hazards and that safety analysis of some containers is minimal.

"If you are dealing with high explosives and nuclear explosives, you've got to be overly conservative," Conway said.

"Was it a major, major safety problem? No, not in my opinion, but again it's holding their feet to the fire, making sure you very vigorously apply safety procedures."

2001 Amarillo Globe-News ***************************************************************** 14 Wobbly Warheads Newsday.com - August 30, 2001 It was already clear that President George W. Bush's grandiose plan for a national missile defense system was riddled with potential problems. But now an ironic technical flaw has emerged that makes the rationale for Bush's plan almost laughable. Even as Bush keeps pressing to spend nearly $8 billion as a down payment for the plan, scientists and defense experts now say that the system is least able to deal with the very type of missiles it's intended to intercept: a rogue nation's relatively crude warheads, which would wobble in flight rather than fly stably. The rationale for Bush's missile defense is that the system would only be used to protect the nation against one or two missiles launched by an outlaw nation like Iraq or North Korea, not from the sophisticated multiple-warhead missiles that could be launched by a country like Russia or China. The sensors used to intercept an incoming missile may have a reasonably good chance to track the type of advanced, spin-stabilized warheads used by major powers, which rotate on their axis like a properly thrown football. But, scientists say, the sensors are not good at all at tracking and locking on to the fragmentary signals sent out by the wobbling, relatively inaccurate warheads of a less advanced missile - the type much more likely to be used by a rogue nation. Not that the wobbling nuclear warheads would do any less damage: Instead of hitting within a hundred feet of a target, they might hit within a few miles of it. But a city could be obliterated just as easily. Even the Pentagon's own experts reluctantly admit that tracking a wobbling warhead would present a nearly insurmountable problem at this time. Yet the Pentagon, following Bush's dictate, is getting set to clear 135 acres in Alaska in early fall to prepare for construction of the first anti-missile radar installation. That's just a bit premature, in light of the system's increasingly acknowledged limitations. No doubt, given enough research, this technical obstacle might be overcome. But as it stands, it puts in glaring perspective how unworkable the whole missile-defense enterprise truly is at this time. Anyone listening at the White House? Copyright © 2001, Newsday, Inc. Newsday.com User Agreement ***************************************************************** 15 Russia Sub Raising May Be Delayed Friday August 31 9:43 AM ET By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) - The raising of the sunken Kursk ( - ) nuclear submarine may be postponed for a week because rough weather in the Barents Sea has delayed preparatory work, a senior official said Friday. The statement by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who is in charge of the salvage operation, was the first official signal that the Kursk's lifting set for Sept. 15 could be pushed back. The government remains committed to raising part of the Kursk this year but, with weather worsening this month, even a slight delay could thwart the operation altogether. The Kursk sank in the Barents Sea on Aug. 12, 2000, killing its entire 118-man crew. Officials say they hope raising the Kursk will shed more light on the cause of the sinking. Klebanov said officials were still sticking to Sept. 15 as the target date for raising the Kursk and they expected to wrap up the operation by Sept. 20-21, when the submarine is to be put in dry dock near the Arctic port of Murmansk. However, he said the date for ending the operation could ``theoretically'' be pushed back to Sept. 25-27, Russian news agencies reported. The seas remained calm Friday, allowing the Dutch consortium in charge of the salvage effort to continue installing equipment for cutting off the Kursk's front section. A barge has lowered the first of two powerful anchors intended to fix a chain saw that will sever the front section before the rest of the submarine is raised to the surface. Work is now underway to install the second anchor, said Russian Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo. The first compartment, which was mangled during the explosions that sank the submarine, is being left on the sea floor because of concerns it could break away from the rest of the ship during the lifting. The Navy has also warned that the fore section could contain unexploded torpedoes. Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 Red alert declared at Islamabad airport -DAWN - Top Stories; 02 September, 2001 By Mohammed Asghar RAWALPINDI, Sept 1: The local administration on Saturday night declared a red alert at the Islamabad International Airport after it received a letter from an anonymous source threatening that the United Nations planes would be attacked, a government official said. "A red alert has been declared at the airport, and officials of the army's bomb disposal squad have launched a search operation," a Civil Aviation official told Dawn on Saturday night. He said the letter was received by the Civil Aviation Authority by post on Saturday afternoon. The source said the hand-written letter had told the authorities that the United Nations planes parked at the airport would be attacked. It had also warned that armed men would attack the airport. The official said the police had cordoned off the airport and its surrounding areas. "All entry and exit points have been completely sealed and are being searched," the source said. "The Commander of the Airport Security Force was also asked to reach Islamabad immediately from Karachi," the source, said adding that he arrived here on the next available flight. Ambulances and fire tenders have been called at the airport and Rescue-15 and Elite Force have been put on high alert. He said though the flight operations have not been cancelled but army and police have been deployed around the airport area. The DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2001 ***************************************************************** 17 Checks in mail for ill miners with IOUs Rocky Mountain News: Politics 71 Coloradans await payments that were approved in late July By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- The checks are finally in the mail for former uranium miners and others with radiation-related illnesses. The Department of Justice has started making electronic transfers to banks and mailing out checks to hundreds of families waiting with unpaid government IOUs under the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act. Congress approved emergency funds for the program in late July, and it has taken since then to complete budget transfers and process the payments, Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said Thursday. "Our Justice management division has put people on overtime to get these done as quickly as possible," Miller said. As of July, there were 486 outstanding IOUs totaling more than $30 million to former uranium miners, nuclear test participants, downwind residents or their survivors. That included 71 IOUs in Colorado, 191 in Utah, 42 in New Mexico and 68 in Nevada. Despite the congressional action, some activists worried the payments were being delayed by a computer glitch or the Bush administration's proposal to change qualifications based on pending studies of radiation workers who also smoked. There was no computer glitch, Miller said, and the administration proposal, if eventually enacted by Congress, would only apply to future claims, not those that have already been approved. August 31, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 18 Admiral testifies in Pasko's favour Gregory Pasko, an investigative journalist who worked for the Pacific Fleet's newspaper, was arrested on 20 November 1997 by the FSB and charged with high treason for his writing about the nuclear safety issues in the Russian Pacific Fleet. The defence-team continues to score points in the Pasko-trial. Meanwhile, the prosecutor's dissatisfaction with the frankness of the defenders seems to increase. Jon Gauslaa, 2001-08-30 18:42 On August 27, the Court examined the details of the search at Pasko's flat. The search took place on November 21, 1997 at a time when Pasko already had been arrested. Pasko's wife, Galina Morozova, told the Court about various violations committed by the investigators throughout the search. Thus, she fortified the impression of a search carried out under dubious and downright illegal circumstances. In the near future, the defence will launch a separate protest regarding these issues. Admiral supports Pasko Admiral Ivan Moiseyenko took the witness stand on August 28 and gave a testimony very much in Pasko's favour. Moiseyenko had known Pasko for many years and read his articles with great interest. Pasko had given an excellent coverage of the environmental situation in the Pacific Fleet, the admiral said. One of the key points in the charges against Pasko is that he has released information on the decommissioning of missies and thus, has committed treason. The admiral reputiated this, and said that he personnally had allowed Pasko to visit the base where the decommissioning took place and also had shown him the process of the decommissioning. He also denied that Pasko's articles had brought any damage to the State. On the contrary, both the funds allocated for the base and the decommissioning of missiles had increased after the articles were published. Besides, the personnel of the base started to get salary again. The admiral also rejected the allegation in the charges that the base was located in a closed area. The base is covered by international treaties on arms reduction and thus, American military representatives come to the base each year to check it, he said. Warnings from the prosecutor After the Court meeting, prosecutor Aleksandr Kondakov expressed his dissatisfaction with co-defender Ivan Pavlov's frankness with the press. If this was meant as a warning is not known. It is, however, not the first time that Mr. Kondakov has made remarks that could be understood this way. Only a few days ago he for instance addressed journalist Viktor Tereshkin with an enigmatic smile: -- You will not survive till the end of the trial in our climate, no you won't. Expert examination under way The experts from Moscow who are supposed to examine whether there are state secrets or not in the materials that allegedly were confiscated at the search of Pasko's flat, started their work yesterday and are expected to continue well into next week. Environmental journalist Grigory Pasko was accused with espionage by the Russian Security Police in November 1997. He was acqutted by the Court of the Russian Pacific Fleet on July 20, 1999, but was in stead convicted for 'abuse of official authority' - a crime that he was not accused with. The Military Supreme Court cancelled the verdict on November 22, 2000, and sent the case to a re-trial at the Pacific Fleet Court. The re-trial started on July 11, 2001 and may continue until early October. Case : News story | til toppen 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 Menu system java script courtesy of Peter Belesis at the Dynamic HTML lab. [ (c) BELLONA -- Reuse and reprint recommended provided ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************