***************************************************************** 12/31/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.308 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 Austrian minister says Czech nuclear plant not yet ready for 2 Leaking fuel rods could lead to early reactor shutdown 3 North Korean nuclear officials return home tomorrow after 4 NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste To Meet January 8 - 9 in 5 Reno, Vegas chambers split over U.S. group's nuke dump stand 6 NRC May Resume Plant Status Report on Nukes 7 China-built nuclear plant runs at full capcity 8 Yucca fight one of year's major local stories 9 Completion of North Korean reactors delayed by six years 10 U.S. Lacks Stockpile of Special Drug 11 N-fuel pool in Aomori leaked water for 6 months 12 Russian TV looks at Kazakh nuclear waste storage activity 13 Russia's Siberia may stop nuclear waste import next year 14 Armenia, Russia do not discuss nuclear station handover NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 Fighting Clowns - Spectre of Nuclear War Worries US 2 DTSC Decision 12.28.01 3 Request for Proposal: Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride Conversion Project 4 USA to allocate 200m dollars to eliminate Kazakh nuclear arsenal 5 Russia pledges progress in scrapping of nuclear submarines 6 NZ - Nuclear test veterans on last lap to lawsuit 7 INDIA: Fernandes rules out nuclear war 8 NZ - British investigation could help NZ nuclear veterans' case 9 PAK: Nuclear scientists ready to defend country: Dr Samar 10 Scientists confirm bin Laden weapons tests 11 Nuclear test veteran's pensions victory reveals MoD 'cover-up' 12 N-Waste Burner: Allard backs EPA ombudsman 13 S.C. governor opposing Flats waste shipments 14 Editorial: Weapons of mass destruction 15 Scotland Yard probes Aussie nuke tests 16 Chemical tests at Maralinga: veterans 17 Guilty Plea in Nuclear Trigger Case 18 Korean nuclear tour ends 19 Nuclear test veteran's pensions victory reveals MoD 'cover-up' 20 Any mistake can trigger a nuclear war -- 21 Pak-India poised to exchange lists of nuclear installations 22 Stop Iran's nuclear plans, Israel urges UN leader 23 New Zealand Peacekeepers Undergoing Nuclear Warfare Training 24 Maralinga chemical warfare test claims 25 AU: N-tests: why the fallout could be murder 26 AU: Documents to prove servicemen used in nuclear testing 27 2001: A year of big changes for DOE 28 AU: Medical researcher wants nuclear investigation to include Pacific 29 UK - Widow fights for justice 25 years after suicide of her RAF husband 30 Deadline presses Colo. plant: S.C. OPPOSES ACCEPTING WASTE 31 Israel Accuses Iran Plan to Destroy Jewish State with Nuclear Weapons 32 NUCLEAR INCIDENTS - NUCLEAR TESTS: HISTORY OF COVER-UP CLAIMS **************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Austrian minister says Czech nuclear plant not yet ready for commercial use BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 30, 2001 Vienna, 30 December: Austrian Environment Minister Wilhelm Molterer (OeVP) said today that he did not consider the nuclear power plant in Temelin, south Bohemia, to be ready for commercial use and that it was very important for the Czech Republic to strictly keep to the agreed timetable of safety measures. "Preconditions for the commercial operation of Temelin have not yet been created because the agreement says that safety measures must be taken before the commercial operation is launched," Molterer told the Austrian news agency APA. The nuclear power plant in Temelin, south Bohemia, situated 60km from the Austrian and German borders, is opposed by Austria as well as environmentalists in the Czech Republic and Germany. They say Temelin, which started to be launched in October 2000, is not safe because it combines Soviet design and western fuel and safety technology. Molterer said he did not expect the referendum against Temelin, which will be held in Austria in January on the initiative of the government far-right [Austrian] Freedom Party (OeFP), to threaten the government coalition of his [Austrian] People's Party (OeVP) with the OeFP. "I base my opinion on that we follow a common line with the coalition partner [OeFP] where the implementation of safety measures (in Temelin) is concerned," Molterer said. He however pointed out that the OeVP did not support the anti-Temelin referendum. "It is a move by one party, it is an action of the OeFP. Here the OeVP's opinion is very clear: this action is counter-productive," Molterer said. He said he was afraid that the referendum could result in a situation "which would not benefit safety, that is that Temelin would be put into operation without any modifications and the Czech Republic would not become a EU member." Molterer said that thanks to the Czech Republic's EU accession negotiations, Austria reached agreement with the Czech Republic in Brussels one month ago, in which the latter had pledged to promote the safety of Temelin in exchange for Vienna not preventing the country from joining the EU. He added that it would be possible to incorporate in a binding way this result in the Czech Republic's EU accession treaty... Source: CTK news agency, Prague, in English 1456 gmt 30 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to ***************************************************************** 2 Leaking fuel rods could lead to early reactor shutdown By Associated Press, 12/29/2001 13:40 VERNON, Vt. (AP) The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant may have to shut down sooner than its next planned outage to replace two fuel rods leaking radioactive material into the circulating water system, officials said. The rods, in two separate fuel bundles, have tiny imperfections that allow radioactive gases from inside to escape through their outer layer. The plant had similar fuel problems in 1993 and 1997. Plant spokesman Rob Williams said Vermont Yankee officials are monitoring the situation constantly and ''there's always that possibility (an unscheduled shutdown), but it will depend on the performance of the fuel.'' Officials say the amount of radiation going into the atmosphere through the ventilation stack at the plant is too small to register on the stack's radiation monitors. But exactly what's going up the stack is not available to the public because effluent reports come out only once a year; the last one was in May. ''If it got to the point where it approached our operating limits, obviously we would (shut down),'' Williams said. The next refueling outage is scheduled for fall 2002. Williams said Vermont Yankee's effluent releases are currently one-third of 1 percent of what's allowed by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- so low that they're not even reportable. Fuel leakage is of concern because it could cause a small amount of radioactivity to be released into the plant or the environment. The circulating water is in a ''closed loop,'' moving as steam from the reactor core to the turbines, and returning to the reactor core, theoretically without reaching the outside environment. But water and gas do leak out of this closed loop in tiny amounts and can raise radiation levels inside the plant. ''It always has some radiation in it and when there's fuel failure you get some more,'' said State Nuclear Engineer William Sherman. Sherman said Yankee is mitigating the leaks by inserting control rods into the reactor core near the leaking uranium rods. Control rods absorb neutrons and slow fission in the uranium near them, which in turn reduces the amount of radioactive material that can be leaked from the defective rods. Boston Globe ***************************************************************** 3 North Korean nuclear officials return home tomorrow after two-week trip welcome to Korea Herald!!_National http://www.koreaherald.com A group of 20 North Korean officials will leave for Pyongyang tomorrow, after their two-week tour of nuclear power plants, parts factories and a high-tech science town in South Korea. Seoul officials did not provide the press with any details of the North Koreans' activities during their stay. But the officials said the North Korean mission, led by a cabinet-level official, visited the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) in Daedeok Valley, the South's mecca for advanced science and technology located near Daejeon. It is the first time that North Korean officials and nuclear experts have come to the South to observe South Korea's nuclear power facilities and equipment, including the same light-water reactors as those being built in the North. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), an international consortium that is funding the $4.6 billion construction of two light-water reactors in the North, organized the North Koreans' trip. In 1994, North Korea and the United States worked out an accord, in which Pyongyang agreed to freeze its suspected plutonium production program and Washington promised to provide the twin-type light-water reactors with a generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts each. "The North Korean officials were extremely cautious in making any evaluation of the standard of our nuclear technology, but they were very serious in observing related facilities," a senior KEDO official said on condition of anonymity. Today, the delegation will visit the Korea Power Engineering Company in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, which is responsible for designing the reactors destined for the North. Earlier this week, the North Korean delegation also visited Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction, which is building reactor vessels and other key parts to be used for the North Korean power plants, in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. They had also visited nuclear power plants in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province, and training centers in Gori, near Busan. The two sites will be among those used for the training of about 290 North Korean technicians, scheduled for the second half of next year, according to KEDO officials. Ahead of the training program in the South, another 529 North Koreans will take similar training programs at the nuclear reactor construction site in Sinpo on North Korea's East Coast. KEDO is led by South Korea, the United States, Japan and the European Union. Washington has provided interim oil to the energy-starved North, while the others will finance the $4.6 billion project, with Seoul covering 70 percent of the cost. (jihoho@koreaherald.co.kr) By Kim Ji-ho Staff reporter 2001.12.29 (C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste To Meet January 8 - 9 in Rockville, Maryland NRC: Press Release - 2001 - 137 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] Public Affairs Web Site No. 01-137 December 31, 2001 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) has scheduled a meeting on January 8 - 9 in Rockville, Maryland, to discuss, among other items, issues relating to the proposed high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The meeting, which is open to the public, will be held in Room T-2B3 of the agency's Two White Flint North building, at 11545 Rockville Pike. It will begin at 8:30 a.m. each day. A complete agenda is attached. For additional information or schedule changes, contact Howard Larson at 301-415-6805. ACNW AGENDA TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2002, CONFERENCE ROOM 2B3, TWO WHITE FLINT NORTH, ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND 8:30 - 8:40 A.M. Opening Statement/Planning Procedures (Open) The Chairman will open the meeting with brief remarks, outline the topics to be discussed, and indicate several items of interest. 8:40 - 10:45 A.M. ACNW Planning and Procedures (Open) The Committee will discuss the following items: -- Commitments from the ACNW 130th meeting -- Issues for the 131st ACNW meeting -- Topics for February 2002 ACNW meeting -- Topics for March Commission Briefing -- Potential Workshop Group/Workshop Topics -- EDO responses to Committee reports -- EDO's list of future meeting topics -- ACNW Calendar for 2002 -- DOE/BSC Meeting Status 10:45 - 11:00 A.M. BREAK 11:00 - 12:00 Noon Proposed Amendment to 10 CFR Part 63 (Open) The staff will provide an information briefing on the proposed amendment to 10 CFR Part 63 that would clarify the types of features, events, and processes that must be considered in performance analyses of human intrusion and groundwater protection at the Yucca Mountain repository. 12:00 - 1:00 P.M. LUNCH 1:00 - 4:45 P.M. Preparation of ACNW Reports (Open) The Committee will discuss proposed reports on the following topics: -- ACRS/ACNW November 14 Joint Subcommittee Meeting on Risk-Informed Regulation in NMSS -- Annual Research Report to the Commission -- Proposed Amendment to 10 CFR Part 63 4:45 - 5:00 P.M. BREAK 5:00 - 6:00 P.M. Planning for ACNW Retreat (Open) The Committee will finalize plans for its February 27 - March 1 retreat. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9 8:30 - 8:35 A.M. Opening Remarks by the ACNW Chairman (Open) The Chairman will make opening remarks regarding the conduct of the day's sessions. 8:35 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. Discussion of Key Technical Issue (KTI) Status (Open) The Committee will be briefed on the status of the key technical issues for the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. (12:00 Noon - 1:00 P.M.) LUNCH 5:00 P.M. - 6:00 P.M. Miscellaneous (Open) The Committee will discuss matters related to the conduct of Committee activities and matters, as well as specific issues that were not completed during previous meetings, as time and availability of information permit. 6:00 P.M. Adjourn 131st Meeting (Open) NOTE: Presentation time should not exceed 50 percent of the total time allocated for a specific item. The remaining 50 percent of the time is reserved for discussion. Thirty-Five (35) copies of the presentation materials should be provided to the ACNW. ***************************************************************** 5 Reno, Vegas chambers split over U.S. group's nuke dump stand Las Vegas SUN December 29, 2001 RENO, Nev. (AP) - Despite the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's push for a nuclear waste dump in southern Nevada, the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce plans to maintain its membership in the national group. The move puts the Reno chamber at odds with the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, which last month dropped its membership in the national organization over the dump issue. The Las Vegas chamber opposes the proposed Yucca Mountain dump site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, saying it could hurt tourism. David Howard, public policy director of the Reno chamber, said his group decided to maintain its membership in the national chamber to ensure it has a voice on future issues. "When you withdraw your membership, you're not at the table," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal. But the Reno chamber has formed a task force to consider whether it should take its own stance on the dump issue. The chamber is particularly concerned about the transportation of nuclear waste through Reno, Howard said. Officials with the Carson City and Sparks chambers of commerce say they also plan to maintain their membership in the national chamber. Larry Osborne, chief executive of the Carson City chamber, said his group suports the efforts of Nevada state and federal lawmakers to keep the dump out of Nevada but hasn't taken its own position. He said resigning from the U.S. chamber wouldn't accomplish anything. He compared such a move to someone canceling their newspaper subscription because they disagreed with an editorial. Mary Willett, president of the Sparks chamber, said her group had just paid its U.S. chamber dues when the dump issue flared up last month. The Sparks chamber decided to maintain its membership in the national chamber and hasn't taken a position on the dump, she said. The U.S. chamber has argued that nuclear energy should play a role in meeting the nation's energy demands, but the lack of a nuclear waste dump has discouraged its use. Yucca Mountain has been under study for 14 years and is the only site being considered by the federal government for a possible repository. All contents copyright 2001 and 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 NRC May Resume Plant Status Report on Nukes LCG, Dec. 28, 2001--The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said yesterday that it was considering resuming publication on the Internet of its daily plant status report, but no decision has been reached. The report, withdrawn for security reasons following the September 11, listed all U.S. commercial reactors, their current output as a percentage of capacity (but not the capacity), dates of outages, dates of expected return to service of idle plants and a very brief explanation of why any plant was not at 100 percent of capacity. Victor Dricks, an NRC spokesman, said "We're still evaluating. It's a Catch 22. Our concern is a security issue. We're trying to balance that with the public's right to know." Diverse segments of the public miss the report. Members of the general public living close to reactors followed the plant status report to see how their local nuclear power plant was doing, investors and financial analysts used it to stay up to date on plants that represented the largest investments of owner utilities and energy traders avidly devoured the report in an attempt to stay one step ahead of their competitors. Nuclear power plants produce about 20 percent of U.S. electricity and are among the cheapest sources of power. When a reactor trips off line or is deliberately shut down it makes a very large dent in its owners' power supply and replacement power must be purchased, often at a cost much higher than that of producing it at the nuclear plant. The utilities owning nuclear plants are often loath to provide plant information for competitive reasons, but the NRC assembled the data daily in order to encourage acceptance of nuclear power. It would like to continue to do so. "We understand the plant status report is sorely missed," Dricks said, "not just by the trade press but by John Q. Citizen who likes to log onto the Web site and find out if the plant he lives near is up or down." A case in point was provided Wednesday by Entergy Corp.'s Indian Point Unit 2 reactor near Buchanan, N.Y., for reasons not yet reported. The outage came to light only because Entergy alerted Westchester County, N.Y., to say that no safety problems were involved. Under its previous owner, Consolidated Edison Co. of New York, Indian Point Unit 2 provided many surprises, some of them safety-related, and residents are justifiably nervous about the plant. Energy traders also kept a close watch on the reactor because when it went off line it meant that Con Edison was in the market for 961 megawatts of wholesale power. Without the NRC's daily plant status report, both groups have been kept in the dark, as have journalists who report these matters to the dwindling number of people who don't have access to the Internet. EnergyOnline News is published independently. Any views Copyright © 2001 LCG Consulting. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 China-built nuclear plant runs at full capcity (12/29/2001) (Agencies) Late Friday evening, the No.1 reactor of the second phase project at the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, which was independently designed and built by China, reached its critical capacity for the first time. The nuclear plant, the first such facility with a capacity of 600,000 kilowatts, is now able to join the national power grid and operate at full scale, according to official sources. This means China's nuclear technology and civil nuclear power industries have entered a new stage, the sources stressed. The second-phase project at Qinshan, in Haiyan County of east China's Zhejiang Province, started construction on June 2, 1996, with an investment of 14.8 billion yuan. Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant was the first nuclear power plant built with China's own technology. When the second-phase project begins to operate at full capacity June 1, 2002, it is expected to generate four billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year for the east China power grid. Copyright 2001 By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Yucca fight one of year's major local stories Las Vegas SUN December 31, 2001 By Jean Reid Norman The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the aftermath were undoubtedly the biggest news of the year, but they weren't the only stories of 2001. The Las Vegas Sun responded to the early-morning plane crashes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon with a special edition that went out to newsstands only hours after the attacks. That day's newspaper included bylined stories covering all of the local aftershocks: the closure of McCarran International Airport, Hoover Dam and many government buildings, the immediate shift to high alert at Nellis Air Force Base, and the shock Las Vegans felt along with the nation. In the following days and weeks, the Sun continued to examine the local effects: from canceled conventions to casino layoffs and National Guard callups, from the terrorists' paths through Las Vegas to the backlash on the Muslim community. But the Sun this year brought its readers many other important stories such as a law firm's conflict of interest on the Yucca Mountain Project, an investigation of the Summit View youth prison and a proposal to cut the state high school championship game to save money. As a reminder of what normal life was like in Las Vegas before terror shook the nation, we review some of the Sun's other top stories of 2001. Yucca Mountain Two stories this year have shifted the fight over the Yucca Mountain Project, giving Nevada more ammunition in its battle to keep a nuclear waste dump from being built 90 miles outside Las Vegas. In February an anonymous letter, apparently written by an insider, was sent to Senate Majority Whip Harry Reid, D-Nev., Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and other members of Congress. The six-page letter warned that the project was on the brink of failure. It alleged gross mismanagement at the site where the DOE wants to bury the nation's spent nuclear power plant fuel. The letter came on the heels of a December 2000 Sun story that cited evidence of an Energy Department bias in favor of building the repository, when federal guidelines mandate the DOE remain unbiased. The evidence: a memo attached to a draft overview on Yucca Mountain research that said the document could be used to persuade members of Congress to approve a repository. The research has not been finished. The memo prompted an internal investigation, and the letter brought a General Accounting Office audit. The first report could not substantiate the bias in the memo. The GAO report, however, said the DOE should postpone recommending Yucca Mountain as a repository site, because too much scientific information is missing. That conclusion was considered a victory for Yucca Mountain opponents in Nevada. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, since that finding became public, has said he has no time line for making a recommendation on a repository. In July Sun reporters found that the law firm that was helping the Energy Department prepare for licensing of a repository had also been lobbying for Yucca Mountain. An internal investigation confirmed in November that Winston &Strawn had a conflict of interest and, before the month was out, the company had withdrawn from the $16.5 million contract. Nevada's congressional delegation may pursue criminal charges against the firm, and state officials plan to file a complaint with the Illinois State Bar Association hoping to get the firm disbarred or otherwise punished. More important to the fight over Yucca Mountain, the Energy Department now faces a possible delay while it finds a new law firm to shepherd its licensing application before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Summit View Before the terrorist attacks the Sun had begun to investigate reports of mismanagement at Summit View Youth Correctional Center, the state's year-old high-security juvenile prison. The investigation, published in September, found evidence of sexual and physical abuse by staff members against inmates, suicide attempts, escapes and escape attempts, drug and alcohol use and poor maintenance of the facility. Before the Sun could complete the investigation, the private operator of the prison, Youth Services International, pulled out of its $4.3 million annual contract with the state two years early. The company never responded to the Sun's request for comment on alleged improprieties cited in the internal documents the newspaper obtained. It said it was pulling out of the contract, because the prison never reached its full capacity of 96 young inmates. The state has not determined where the juvenile offenders who remain will go when the prison closes next month. Many of them will be paroled, state officials say, and those who are not eligible will be screened for Rite of Passage, a program for youth offenders, or may be sent to out-of-state facilities. The Legislative Interim Finance Committee turned down a plan for the state to take over Summit View. Nevada Power Co. Nevada Power Co. of Las Vegas was embroiled in the turmoil in electricity markets in 2001. Soaring wholesale electricity prices, California's energy shortage and high capital costs to keep up with population growth contributed to a big rate hike and huge losses for the utility and its parent, Sierra Pacific Resources of Reno, early in the year. Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific received a record rate hike of $300 million or 17.7 percent in 2001. Sierra Pacific had reported a loss of $83.5 million for the quarter ending March 31, and blamed the West's power crisis and the lack of a mechanism that would allow it to hike rates fast enough to keep up with soaring wholesale power costs. Under Sierra Pacific's warnings of bankruptcy, the Nevada Legislature passed a bill that allowed the company to keep track of losses from power sales to customers, then recover these losses at a later date through rate hikes. By posting these accumulated losses as assets, Sierra Pacific was able to return to profitability. The year also was marked by the cancellation of Sierra's planned purchase of Portland General Electric for $3.1 billion, the temporary suspension of Sierra's stock dividend, the end of electricity deregulation in Nevada and the cancellation of power plant sales, rolling blackouts in Las Vegas and a controversial proposal at the end of the year for yet another massive rate hike -- this one for $921 million. All contents copyright 2001 and 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 9 Completion of North Korean reactors delayed by six years BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 29, 2001 Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap Tokyo, 29 December: The light-water reactors the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) is building in North Korea, originally set to come on line in 2003, won't be finished until 2009, a local daily here reported Saturday [29 December]. The US-led international consortium tried to unofficially notify the North of the delay, but the North showed a strong backlash, demanding compensation, the daily Tokyo Shimbun said, citing a Japanese government source. As a consequence, the North might threaten to abandon the nuclear freeze it made in return for the reactors as part of the North-US 1994 Agreed Framework. But the construction delay was caused directly by North Korean authorities which pulled their workers out of the reactor construction site when the KEDO refused to increase wages. Some 1,000 construction workers are needed at the site, but only 100 North Korean workers have returned. KEDO has made up for the labour shortage by bringing in Uzbeks. The delay will subsequently increase the burden on South Korea, the United States and Japan, KEDO executive members, who are sharing most construction costs. Source: Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 0043 gmt 29 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 10 U.S. Lacks Stockpile of Special Drug (washingtonpost.com) Anti-Radiation Doses Goal Unmet Since '79 By Justin Gillis Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 31, 2001; Page A01 A generation ago, as a nuclear disaster unfolded in central Pennsylvania and 140,000 people fled the area, pharmaceutical executives were rousted from bed in the middle of the night by a plea for help. At the federal government's request, they cranked up a production line in Illinois at 3 a.m., and hours later, thousands of bottles of potassium iodide, an anti-radiation drug, were secretly rushed to Harrisburg by military jet. Ultimately the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island was brought under control and the drug was not needed, but it was a close call. When it was over, policymakers in Washington vowed to stockpile the drug, saying they would not be caught short again. It never happened. Terrorists have spoken longingly of their desire to blow up the United States' nuclear plants and poison the land with radiation. But if a nuclear disaster were to occur today, whether by terrorist strike or otherwise, the government might well be in the same position it was in1979, trying to scare up supplies of the drug on short notice. Potassium iodide is often billed on the Internet as a panacea for a nuclear emergency. It is nothing of the sort, offering no protection for most types of radiation exposure. But there is strong scientific evidence that it can protect the thyroid gland, the most radiation-sensitive part of the body, from absorbing trace amounts of radioactive iodine, particularly in young children. Despite that finding, there has long been a serious debate about how valuable stockpiles of the drug would be in a real-world emergency, since it is most effective when taken within a couple of hours of radiation exposure. Unless people already had it in their houses, skeptics argue, getting it to them that quickly would be difficult, at best. Most European countries and four U.S. states stockpile the drug for general public use, while the rest of the states and the federal government do not. That policy is under renewed scrutiny since the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax scare that followed. The federal government was better prepared for the anthrax emergency, in fact, than it would be to distribute potassium iodide for radiation. It had stockpiled millions of doses of antibiotics and was able to draw on those stores when thousands of exposed people needed preventive medicine. The lack of a potassium iodide stockpile irks many doctors and other experts who have delved into the issue. "The first thing is, there ain't none available," said David Becker, a Cornell University specialist in thyroid diseases. "Some of us in organizations like the American Thyroid Association have been yelling and screaming for 15 years about this. It seems to me it doesn't make any sense for the U.S. not to have any at all." Potassium iodide is not expensive, nor is it difficult to manufacture or store for long periods. The drug is approved for thyroid protection by the Food and Drug Administration, a position the agency reiterated earlier this month. One reason for the lack of a stockpile is that, however cheap it may be, potassium iodide is also controversial. The nuclear power industry, which stocks potassium iodide to protect workers in its plants, has long opposed a large public stockpile, carrying as it would the implication that nuclear power might be unsafe. Some experts charged with protecting the public from radiation oppose it, too, fearing the drug would be seen as a cure-all. These experts contend that evacuation and careful monitoring of the food supply would be better ways to protect public health. In the halls of Congress and elsewhere in the nation, these arguments are being scrutinized anew. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, after going back and forth for years, has adopted a policy that is mildly favorable toward potassium iodide. The Health and Human Services Department is considering whether to add the drug to its national anti-terrorism stockpile. Under the new NRC policy, states must decide whether to tap NRC funds to create regional or local stockpiles. This means a public discussion of the drug and its potential usefulness is likely to occur in virtually every state over the next year. The drug is a hot political issue in some communities. Alabama, Arizona, Maine and Tennessee already have some form of stockpiling. The citizens of Duxbury, Mass., who live near a nuclear plant, passed a stockpiling plan last year. Vermont recently pledged an expanded stockpile, and a vigorous debate is underway throughout New England and in some towns in New York. The World Health Organization recommends stockpiling for every country with nuclear reactors operating within or near its borders. Ireland just announced plans to send the drug to every household in the country. Potassium iodide availability is one of those issues that rarely rises to public awareness, but it has a long underground history that has played out in Washington and in state capitals over decades. The arguments being heard today are familiar ones to participants in that debate, with fear of terrorism as the new twist. "In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, it's déjà vuall over again," said Jerome Halperin, the man who rousted pharmaceutical executives from bed during the Three Mile Island crisis. He was then an officer of the FDA, and he has a hard time believing the nation has no stockpile 22 years after the federal government promised to build one. "It's the appropriate, rational, public-health-preparedness thing to do," he said. "Why wouldn't we expect it?" But others are skeptical of the value of stockpiling. Illinois, for instance, has 11 nuclear reactors operating on six sites, more than any other state, and it has made some of the most elaborate plans in the nation for responding to a radiation emergency. They call for people to evacuate or take shelter when necessary to escape a radiation plume, but they do not call for potassium iodide. Most other states that have considered the issue have adopted the same position. The Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade association for the nuclear industry that has long opposed stockpiling, says it can live with the new NRC policy, but its experts remain skeptical of the real-world value of potassium iodide. "Concern No. 1 is that people not get confused that this is some sort of panacea for any kind of radiation exposure," said Ralph Andersen, chief health physicist at the nuclear institute. The value -- and the limitations -- of potassium iodide have been known to researchers for decades, and there is little dispute on the scientific points. Nuclear reactors produce many radioactive substances that can harm people. One, radioactive iodine, poses a particular worry because the human thyroid gland uses iodine as a fundamental building block of hormones that play critical roles in metabolism. The body cannot distinguish the safe form of iodine present in food and table salt from the radioactive form that comes from nuclear reactors. It has been known since the 1950s that young children are acutely sensitive to radioactive iodine, but the point was illustrated dramatically when the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine blew up in 1986, scattering radiation across hundreds of miles. For those living at a distance from the plant, virtually the only known health effect has been a huge spike in cases of thyroid cancer among children. At least 2,000 "excess" cases in Ukraine, Belarus and nearby areas have been attributed to Chernobyl radiation. Thyroid cancer can usually be treated, but that may require surgery, regular monitoring and lifetime medication. The idea behind potassium iodide is that the thyroid gland can store only so much iodine. A potassium iodide pill given near the time of radiation exposure floods the gland with safe iodine and reduces or eliminates the absorption of radioactive iodine. Potassium iodide is the same chemical used to add iodine to table salt, but the pills contain higher doses. Anyone can buy the pills, though they are not widely available in stores and most people do not know about them. Potassium iodide can protect people only from radioactive iodine, not other kinds of radioactive fallout. Bearing that in mind, skeptics say the much-preferred course, in an accident, would be to get people out of the radioactive plume or into shelters. Advocates of the drug tend to agree, they but argue that if evacuation plans went awry, potassium iodide would be better than nothing. Whatever the merits of these positions, there is no doubt that during Three Mile Island, the nation's closest brush with nuclear disaster, the government wound up scrambling to round up supplies of the drug at the last minute. In that episode, a partial "meltdown" at a nuclear plant led to the release of small amounts of radioactive material, including iodine. For several days there was fear the reactor would explode, and state evacuation plans turned out to be woefully inadequate. Given the prospect of widespread radiation exposure, the FDA decided midway through the disaster to rush a supply of potassium iodide to Pennsylvania. Hunkered down at an FDA emergency center, Halperin and colleagues spent the evening of March 30, 1979, desperately calling pharmaceutical and chemical companies. Finally Mallinckrodt Inc. of St. Louis said it had bulk drug on hand and could package it at a plant in Illinois. The first bottles were flown to Harrisburg the next evening by Air Force jet. To forestall a riot, no public announcement was made about the drug. The emergency passed without it being used, and eventually the stockpile grew old and was discarded. A presidential commission that investigated the accident, appalled by this frantic episode, recommended broad stockpiling of the drug in the areas around nuclear reactors, and the NRC agreed. But as memories of the emergency faded, the agency backed out of that commitment, and the issue has been periodically debated ever since. Many opponents of stockpiling acknowledge that Chernobyl provides compelling evidence of the risk of thyroid cancer from a radiation disaster, but they say a comparable degree of exposure would be unlikely in this country. When Chernobyl blew up, the Soviet Union spent days lying about the accident and failed to halt distribution of contaminated food. There is evidence that much of the radioactive exposure came from this failure. The radioactive iodine fell on fields, cows ate the grass, and children drank milk from the cows. Safety experts say the United States, by contrast, would almost certainly move quickly to block radioactive food. The most recent federal policy change on potassium iodide came before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, but the issue has taken on a new urgency since those attacks. The change was initiated from within the NRC itself. Peter Crane, then a lawyer on the agency's staff, was a thyroid-cancer victim who thought the failure to stockpile could not be defended. He filed a petition as a member of the public in 1995, then spent years prodding the agency. It eventually adopted a compromise under which it has pledged to pay for potassium iodide for states that want it. The NRC is still finalizing plans to implement that policy. Meanwhile, the Health and Human Services Department is considering buying some of the drug to add to its own anti-terrorism stockpiles. However, there is debate about whether the drug could be distributed from these regional stockpiles quickly enough to do any good. The most aggressive plan would be to follow several European countries in distributing the drug to every household. But American experience suggests that would be a difficult policy to maintain over the long term. Tennessee launched such a program in the early 1980s for people living near nuclear plants, but participation has dropped to about 5 percent of households. Tennessee maintains stockpiles near its emergency shelters, however, and is confident it could make the drug available quickly to large numbers of people. "It doesn't seem like very much of a burden, what we're doing," said Ruth Hagstrom, the state health administrator who would give the order if potassium iodide ever had to be used in Tennessee. "We're sort of happy with the way we do things, and we wonder why everybody else doesn't do it, too." © 2001 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 11 N-fuel pool in Aomori leaked water for 6 months Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun About four kiloliters of water may have leaked since July from a spent fuel storage pool at a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkashomura, Aomori Prefecture, the operator of the center said Friday. The Japan Nuclear Fuel Service Co., which failed to locate the leakage for nearly six months, said it would transfer spent fuel to another pool sometime in or after January to determine the exact location of the leak. Leakage from a storage pool of spent fuel is considered very rare. The pool is for the temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel, which is cooled in water in the pool before reprocessing. The pool is made of stainless steel plates welded together inside thick concrete walls. Since the plant went into operation in 1996, several dozen liters of water have leaked out during a three to four month period every summer due to condensation between the concrete walls and steel plates. This year, however, the leakage is believed to have gone on for six months starting in July. The amount leaked has also been much larger than usual. It is strongly suspected that the water leaked from the junctures where the stainless steel plates are welded together. Copyright 2001 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 12 Russian TV looks at Kazakh nuclear waste storage activity BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 29, 2001 Text of report by Russian NTV on 28 December [Presenter Natalya Zabuzova] Like Russia, other states of the former USSR are facing problems with radiation safety. The Mangyshlak Peninsula in Kazakhstan is threatened by an environmental disaster. The uranium ores mined here for decades are turning into dust now. Radioactive substances are blowing in the wind of local towns and villages. The local authorities want to generate money needed to clean up contaminated areas by burying imported nuclear waste. The public strongly opposes the idea. Our corespondent Sergey Ponomarev reports. [Correspondent] Over 200m tonnes of radioactive waste lie in the open in Kazakhstan. In Soviet times, uranium was mined in the Mangyshlak Peninsula. Now, the wind takes radioactive dust from abandoned open-cut mines all across the region, including the city of Aktau, former Shevchenko. Local janitors are covering their faces thoroughly when working to prevent radioactive beta-particles from getting into respiratory system. Health officials are carrying out regular radiation checks around the city. Five kilometres outside Aktau, dosimeters indicate irradiation dozens of times above the norm. Kazatomprom specialists say that over 1bn US dollars are required to stop the dangerous spreading of radiation in Kazakhstan. The state budget does not have that amount of money. [Askar Kasabekov, captioned as president of the Kazatomprom national atomic company, speaking in Russian] All these "tails" keep on dusting up to now. We must clean it up anyhow. In order to do this, we propose the following. We say: we shall bring here a little bit of alien [waste] and bury it over here, however, for the same money [received] we shall reconstruct what used to be here before the uranium mining started. We shall recultivate the land the way it used to be. For the same money, we shall also recultivate many other sites in this country. [Correspondent] This smoke is an obvious sign of a uranium stratum coming up to the surface and getting in touch with the air moisture. The uranium ore has been mined over here for over 30 years. The open-mine has been abandoned since 1995. This is the very place where the Kazakh authorities are planning to store imported radioactive waste. Camels wearing winter pea-jackets are grazing here now while local stalkers are digging radiation contaminated soil in search of copper and aluminium cables. Residents of the village of Kyzyl-Tube next to the uranium open-mine categorically oppose the idea of importing nuclear waste itself. [Unidentified local resident, speaking in Russian] Why should we store it here? Don't they have other sites, or what? We have enough of radiation of our own here. [Correspondent] Nevertheless, the Kazakh government is mooting the issue of importing nuclear waste. Several countries, such as [South] Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, have stated their wish to pay up to 7,000 dollars for each cu.m. of low-radioactive waste to be stored in Kazakhstan. Source: NTV, Moscow, in Russian 0900 gmt 28 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 13 Russia's Siberia may stop nuclear waste import next year BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 28, 2001 Text of report in English by Russian news agency Interfax Novosibirsk, 28 December: The import of nuclear waste to Siberia may stop in 2002, Valeriy Denisov, head of the state nuclear safety supervision inspectorate's Siberian District, told Interfax on Friday [28 December]. The inspectorate is checking compliance with safety procedures in moving nuclear waste from Bulgaria's Kozloduy station to the mining and chemical plant in Krasnoyarsk Territory, he said. Rods with burning absorbers that are part of fuel elements, but are not fuel and pose radiation threats, are reported by the Krasnoyarsk media to have been found in nuclear waste containers. "Until the check is over there is no question of moving new lots of nuclear waste to Siberia," Denisov said. Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English 0659 gmt 28 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 14 Armenia, Russia do not discuss nuclear station handover BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 28, 2001 Text of report by Armenian news agency Mediamax Yerevan, 28 December: Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan said today that the Armenian side is not discussing with Moscow the issue of adding the Armenian nuclear power station to the list of enterprises to be handed over to Russian management in repayment of Armenia's debts. A Mediamax correspondent reported from parliament that Markaryan said that the Russian side is showing an interest in Armenia's electricity transmission lines. Source: Mediamax news agency, Yerevan, in Russian 1400 gmt 28 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 Fighting Clowns - Spectre of Nuclear War Worries US Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 22:58:16 -0600 (CST) Fighting Clowns - Spectre of Nuclear War Worries US Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [In 1980, when the Russians were lured into invading Afghanistan by Pres Jimmy & Zbig, The Firesign Theater released "Fighting Clowns," a hilarious audio parody of the war in Afghanistan. It's eerily apropos right now; only the personnel have changed. And there's one major clown missing: The Dim Sonofabush who, with his VP hiding in the tunnel, is hopelessly incapable of handling the hornets' nest he's now stirred up. His officials are scrambling to deal with the hazards he's unleashed, but Junior seems to be blissfully ignorant of the how dangerous his "Year of War" really is. We don't know if "Fighting Clowns" is still available -- it was fetchable from the late lamented Napster last year -- but if it is, we recommend it for your New Year's Eve party entertainment.] SPECTRE OF NUCLEAR WAR WORRIES U.S. by Chidanand Rajghatta Times of India News Network WASHINGTON, Dec 28--Harried U.S officials are muddling through a Christmas vacation trying to head off what is widely seen here as a spectre of war-- possibly nuclear war -- in the region and the consequent derailing of the American hunt for Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorists. Unmistakable signals from Pakistan that the heightened tensions on its eastern flank will result in it pulling its troops from the Afghan border has had Washington scrambling to defuse the situation. There has been a flurry of phone calls ordering Islamabad to take decisive action against terrorist groups and advising New Delhi to ease the rhetoric. Washington is also considering sending a special envoy to the region, possibly State Department's Director of Policy Planning Richard Haas, for talks. Despite repeated assertions that it is concerned about terrorism everywhere, the American viewpoint that its effort to stamp our Al Qaeda and snare Osama bin Laden comes foremost is evident in pronouncements by senior officials. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld addressed the issue at some length at a Pentagon briefing on Thursday, saying it would be "it would be difficult for us and unfortunate" if Pakistan moved its forces from its western flank because it would result in a poorer monitoring of Al Qaeda infiltration. Pakistan has seven, eight or nine battalions on the Afghan front and so far there is no sign that they are shifting forces, Rumsfeld said. "We have clearly made the interests we have in this subject known to both sides very carefully and with clarity," he added, without any suggestion that Pentagon is bearing down Pakistan to control its domestic terrorist groups to maintain focus on its U.S war aims. That job has been left mainly to the State Department. The State Department on its part believes the job should be done delicately without excessive pressure on military ruler Pervez Musharraf. While advising caution to India, it has undertaken the task of getting Islamabad to meet New Delhi's benchmarks - freezing accounts of terrorist organisations and shutting them down - because Pakistan has indicated that a US diktat in this regard is more palatable to it than India's. As part of this roundabout way of getting things done, US officials have endorsed the proof India has provided to it on Pakistan's complicity in terrorist attacks and passed it on to Islamabad. Where India and U.S begin to differ is on the time frame and the nature of action. U.S officials say Musharraf should be given time, at least weeks, to execute a turnabout in its policy of feeding insurrection in India. The sense here is that the Musharraf regime cannot execute the quick 180 deg turnaround on Kashmir like it did on the Taliban because of the way it has inextricably linked its foreign policy and national fortunes to the Kashmir issue. Washington has also not addressed Pakistan's plea that India should be made to talk about Kashmir as a quid pro quo to its crackdown on extremism. The message from the U.S is you cannot use violence or terrorism achieve ends, even legitimate ends. Privately though, US officials are suggesting that India has to address the Kashmir problem, even if internally. A senior Indian diplomat told this paper that there had been no pressure on India from the U.S in its effort to make Pakistan accountable for its backing of terrorism and Washington had in fact appreciated New Delhi's restraint so far. But the preponderant tone in the US media - picked up from some official briefings -- is beginning to portray India as the bellicose party and not the aggrieved party. There appears to be an inadequate recognition of the fundamental shift of mood in Indian political and policy circles following the attack on the foundations of its democracy. Pakistan has also quickly played to the gallery by conducting groups of journalists to the front and giving its spin on events. The Indo-Pak spat has leapt up center-stage in the U.S media with front-page reports in major newspapers and consistent coverage on television networks. For once, the message emerging from India and being read here is that India is prepared for any nuclear eventuality and will not blink in the face of Pakistani bluster. Television commentators are increasingly beginning to focus on the nuclear scenario. Only some media, including the influential New York Times, has pointed out that India has a policy of no-first use of nuclear weapons. Therefore, only Pakistan can initiate a nuclear war. The dominant feeling in the U.S strategic community is that in the event of a war an economically enfeebled Pakistan won't be able to hold out too long in a conventional conflict and will be forced to consider the nuclear option. "Even in that case they will be flattened. It's a lose-lose situation but India will be hurt too in the process," says Barry McCaffrey, a former US army general. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcov-12.29.01-08:05:54-26987 ***************************************************************** 2 DTSC Decision 12.28.01 Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 17:44:39 -0800 (PST) What do we do now? I expected this from those scumbags. Leuren Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 16:41:53 -0800 From: "Joseph Smith" | Block Address | Add to Address Book To: www.berkeleycitizen@care2.com, Abyrne@uclink4.berkeley.edu, Leurenmoret@yahoo.com Subject: LBNL Treatability Study Attached please find a copy of DTSC's December 28, 2001, response to LBNL's request for reconsideration. Also attached are two letters that we believe address the concerns that you raised in your communications with DTSC on this matter. A hard copy of these documents will be mailed to you next week. I want to genuinely thank you for your participation in this process. Please be assured that we valued your input and carefully considered each of your concerns. Joe Smith DTSC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attachment LBNLTS.wpd Type .wpd Save to my Yahoo! Briefcase Download File View Attachment -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attachment Sihvola_ltr.wpd Type .wpd Save to my Yahoo! Briefcase Download File View Attachment -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attachment Al_Hadithy_ltr.wpd Type .wpd Save to my Yahoo! Briefcase Download File View Attachment Remember: You need to scan and clean your attachments every time you download or open them. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send your FREE holiday greetings online! http://greetings.yahoo.com Attachment Converted: "c:\lib\news\attach\LetterLBNL.doc" Attachment Converted: "c:\lib\news\attach\LetterSihvola.doc" Attachment Converted: "c:\lib\news\attach\LetterAl-Hadithy.doc" ***************************************************************** 3 Request for Proposal: Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride Conversion Project Acquisition of Services for Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Conversion Project Introductory Comments to Prospective Offerors The purpose of this procurement is to obtain the services of a contractor to convert the U. S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) inventory of Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) to a more stable form for beneficial reuse and/or disposal. The contractor will be responsible for the design, construction and operation of conversion facilities to be constructed in Paducah, Kentucky and Portsmouth, Ohio. This Web site is designed to provide as much usable information as possible to prospective offerors and other interested parties as soon as the information is available. The information presented will be expanded and updated as necessary to provide users with the most current and complete information possible. This Web site provides direct links to information available through other Web sites, as well as to release information specific to this procurement effort. The RFP, as well as all amendments, will be released through the Internet via this Web site. Prospective offerors are cautioned to read and rely solely on the specific RFP when it is issued. ***************************************************************** 4 USA to allocate 200m dollars to eliminate Kazakh nuclear arsenal BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 28, 2001 Text of report by Kazakh Commercial TV on 28 December Next year, the USA intends to considerably increase financing of projects for the final elimination of the nuclear arsenal in Kazakhstan. According to a White House statement released today, America is committed to eliminating weapons of mass destruction and will finish this matter. On President George Bush's personal instructions, Kazakhstan will be allocated several hundred million dollars [according to the news headlines, 200m dollars] to implement five antinuclear programmes. The experts link the American initiative with the White House's intention to improve the peacekeeping image of their country after the USA opted out of the ABM treaty. Source: Kazakh Commercial Television, Almaty, in Russian 1230 gmt 28 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material ***************************************************************** 5 Russia pledges progress in scrapping of nuclear submarines BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Dec 28, 2001 Text of report in English by Russian AVN Military News Agency web site Moscow, 28 December: The problem of Russian nuclear submarines scrapping must be solved by 2007, Vladimir Pospelov, director general of the Russian shipbuilding agency, said on Friday [28 December]. The pace of scrapping written-off submarines is growing with each year, Pospelov told Interfax-Military News Agency. Several difficulties related to the problem have been resolved thanks to assistance of foreign partners, including the United States, the director stressed. Foreign partners understand that Russia's nuclear technologies are an element of security in the northwest Atlantic and Pacific regions. The four facilities directly involved in the scrapping were modernized in the late 1990s. The Ministry of Atomic Energy provided assistance in the modernization. Development of installations processing solid radioactive waste is among the agency's main tasks for the near future, Pospelov said. "The submarine scrapping cycle is not closed. The three-section variant is not the best. We must adopt a single- section scheme and settle issues pertaining to stockpiling points. Money is needed for all that, and there is no chance to solve all problems in one or two years, but the dynamics is positive," he stressed. Source: AVN Military News Agency web site, Moscow, in English 1141 gmt 28 Dec 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All ***************************************************************** 6 NZ - Nuclear test veterans on last lap to lawsuit New Zealand News - 31.12.2001 By FRANCESCA MOLD AND NZPA A representative of New Zealand veterans involved in nuclear tests in Australia during the 1950s will meet a London legal team next month to discuss a lawsuit against the British Government. The meeting comes as British police begin an investigation into claims that military staff were deliberately exposed to deadly radiation levels during nuclear tests on Pacific islands in the 1950s. The investigation was prompted by the widow of Royal Air Force pilot Squadron Leader Eric Denson, who was ordered to fly his plane several times through a mushroom cloud from a nuclear bomb detonated on Christmas Island in 1958. Several thousand British service personnel took part in the nuclear tests at Pacific atolls in the 1950s. In some cases, men were ordered to walk and crawl through fallout dust after a bomb had been detonated. The British Government says personnel involved in the tests gave informed consent, and denies they were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation. The New Zealand Government has not yet been briefed on the British investigation. But the duty minister, Trevor Mallard, said if there was anything in the allegations, it would be looked at by Veterans Affairs officials in the New Year. New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans Association spokesman Roy Sefton said he was uncertain if the police investigation would strengthen New Zealand veterans' case against the British Government. Mr Sefton said the association was almost ready to begin its fight for compensation for servicemen who say they suffered ill health after radiation exposure during tests at Christmas and Malden Islands in 1957 and 1958. New Zealand naval personnel serving on the HMNZS Rotoiti and Pukaki were told to stand on ships' decks for nine nuclear blasts. Pukaki also sailed through the radioactive area within hours of at least two blasts. The veterans claim their exposure has led to cancer and hereditary diseases among themselves and their families. The group pursuing the lawsuit represents 220 known survivors of the 551 New Zealand servicemen involved in Operation Grapple, about 50 veterans' widows, 735 children of veterans and 2000 close relatives. A decision has been made about how much they would sue the British Government for but Mr Sefton would not reveal the figure yesterday, saying only that it was "substantial". He said preparing the case was a "painful and exacting" process. He will meet a legal team in London next month on his way to a nuclear conference in Paris. The veterans' association is using half of a $200,000 Government grant to pay for preparing the lawsuit. The remaining $100,000 is being spent on medical research on veterans caught up in the tests. ©Copyright 2001, New Zealand Herald ***************************************************************** 7 INDIA: Fernandes rules out nuclear war The Frontier Post From Peshawar Pakistan Updated on 12/31/2001 10:33:30 AM NEW DELHI (Online): There will be no nuclear war between New Delhi and Islamabad, but Pakistan will be wiped out if one does break out, warns Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes. “Those who deal with (nuclear) weapons are sensible. Pakistan can’t think of using nuclear weapons despite the fact they are not committed to the doctrine of no first use like we are,” Fernandes told the Hindustan Times.“We could take a (nuclear) strike, survive and then hit back. Pakistan would be finished. I do not really fear that the nuclear issue would figure in a conflict.” Fernandes’ comments come amid mounting tensions between India and Pakistan following the December 13 terrorist attack on Indian Parliament here that have fuelled fears of a war between them. New Delhi blamed Pakistani terrorists for the Parliament storming. Although India hopes that its diplomatic efforts would bring pressure on Pakistan and force it stop aiding terrorism, Islamabad is showing no “desire” to make amends, the minister said. Fernandes, who returned to the cabinet in October after being kept out for nearly seven months following a bribery scandal, indicated that New Delhi was still away from deciding on war against Pakistan. “The government is hoping that something emerges out of the diplomatic efforts, but Pakistan has to make amends,” Fernandes said. “As of now, there seems to be no desire on their (Pakistan’s) part to do so. War is a decision that will have to be taken at the appropriate time. We have yet not taken a decision of that nature.” War clouds have been massing in South Asia with India and Pakistan moving troops to their winding border. Fernandes, a frequent visitor to border outposts, said Indian troops at the border were “raring to go” and wage war against Pakistan. Fernandes fumed at the U.S. for not putting enough pressure on Pakistan to give up its support to terrorists. “How can they (U.S.) see Pakistan as an ally? You (U.S.) are a big power therefore you will decide what is acceptable and what is not acceptable,” he said. The minister pointed out that Pakistan’s complicity in terrorism was an open secret and yet the U.S. was not forcing it to back off. “The resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council explicitly stated that countries could not harbour terrorists. “But what about the fact that Pakistan sent its units to fight alongside the Taliban even when the war on terrorism began? So, at the end of it all, what does the U.N. resolution mean to the U.S.? My anger and concern is rooted in this.” Fernandes admitted that Indian military preparedness was not complete. “As things stand we are vulnerable in Rajasthan (state) as it is a long march for us. Logistics are a problem. Pakistan can just drive into the area.” © Copyright 2001 The Frontier Post ***************************************************************** 8 NZ - British investigation could help NZ nuclear veterans' case New Zealand News - HMNZS Pukaki crewmen, in protective gear, watch the Christmas Island test 29.12.2001 A British police investigation into claims military staff were deliberately exposed to deadly radiation levels will help a legal case by New Zealand nuclear test veterans against the British government, their spokesman said today. British police said yesterday they were investigating a complaint that military personnel were intentionally exposed to high radiation levels during nuclear tests on Pacific islands in the 1950s. The investigation was prompted by the widow of Royal Air Force pilot Squadron Leader Eric Denson, who was ordered to fly his plane several times through a mushroom cloud from a nuclear bomb detonated on Christmas Island in 1958. The New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans Association said today the investigation would strengthen its own case against the British government. "We may very well both end up benefiting from what each is doing..." association chairman Roy Sefton told NZPA. "It'll give a lot of heart to a lot of veterans. It will alert the British government even more. This is the sort of thing they don't want to lose." The association launched the bid in the United Kingdom High Court in August after receiving legal advice. Compensation is being sought for the New Zealand servicemen who say they suffered ill health after radiation exposure during the British nuclear tests at Christmas and Malden Islands in the 1957-58 program, Operation Grapple. It also includes compensation for veterans' widows. New Zealand naval personnel serving on the HMNZS Rotoiti and Pukaki were present at the Operation Grapple tests. The crews, totalling 551 men, were told to stand on ships' decks for nine nuclear blasts. Pukaki also sailed through the radioactive area within hours of at least two blasts. The veterans claim their exposure has led to cancer and hereditary diseases among themselves and their families. The group represents 220 known survivors of the 551 New Zealand servicemen used in the program, about 50 veterans' widows, 735 children of veterans and 2000 close relatives. Mr Sefton was unsure when the New Zealand veterans' case would be filed as there was still a lot of work to do, but the association would seek urgency. He would have legal discussions when he travelled to Britain on his way to a nuclear conference in France in early January. Speaking on BBC radio, Alan Care, the lawyer for Eric Denson's widow Shirley, said: "The claim is that he...clearly in effect was being used as a human guinea pig." Newspapers said Denson fell ill after the flight and became depressed before he committed suicide in 1976. Several thousand British service personnel took part in the nuclear tests at Christmas Island and other Pacific atolls in the 1950s. Protective equipment was scarce as full knowledge of the deadly effects of radiation sickness was only slowly coming to light after the nuclear bombs dropped by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Britain reportedly exploded 21 nuclear bombs between 1952 and 1958. In some cases, men were ordered to walk and crawl through fallout dust after a nuclear bomb had been detonated. The British government says personnel involved in the tests gave informed consent and denies they were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation. Meanwhile, world-first research at Massey University on the DNA of New Zealand nuclear test veterans is to get under way shortly, Mr Sefton said. The research would inspect the DNA of test veterans to determine whether they suffered harmful effects after Operation Grapple. The research is funded from a government grant of $200,000 given to the association for research on the veterans and to consider the possibility of legal action. Previous New Zealand studies have been inconclusive about the health effects of the tests. - NZPA / REUTERS ©Copyright 2001, New Zealand Herald ***************************************************************** 9 PAK: Nuclear scientists ready to defend country: Dr Samar Updated on 2001-12-30 11:09:28 ISLAMABAD, Dec 30 (PNS): Renowned nuclear scientist and Chairman National Institute of Scientific Commission Dr. Samar Mubarik Mand Saturday cautioned that security conditions in South Asia are sensitive adding nuclear scientists are ready to defend the country. "God would safeguard Pakistan and we are here to do our best for the country," the top Pakistani nuclear scientist said in his first ever comment since Dec 13 attack on Indian parliament to reporters after presiding over the closing ceremony of the National Workshop on Industrial Vacuum organized by Pakistan Vacuum Society. Earlier addressing to the participants of the workshop he said: "Economic development lies in the progress of science and technology." Huge developments have been made in the field and the day is not far when Pakistan would be an economic prosperous state, he maintained. Elaborating the importance of vacuum technology, he said, advancement without vacuum technology is impossible." He said, if the sun, stars, and others things of the universe could not survive without space then how can our industry sustain without vacuum technology. Vacuum technology is also relevant to missile technology, as missile warheads are tasted in vacuum. It also controls chemical reactions, he pointed out. Appreciating the efforts of Pakistan Vacuum Society and A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories, he said that they were contributing to the development of the country. Although we have no technical support from anywhere in the world, yet the laboratory is able to produce essential products locally, he added. Dr Javed Mirza Chairman AQ khan Research Laboratories at the occasion said that the workshop was a great success. It was a great source of information to the participants. Such kind of workshop would be held in future in other cities of the country to benefit all the industries of the country, he said. Pakistan Institute of Vacuum Technology would be setup in the twin cities in the near future, he informed and added, land has been acquired for this purpose. At the end, the honorable guest distributed certificates among the participants of the gathering. Dr Samar was also honored with a shield by the organizers. ***************************************************************** 10 Scientists confirm bin Laden weapons tests The Times SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 2001 BY ANTHONY LOYD, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT OF THE YEAR OSAMA BIN LADEN and his terrorist organisation were not only investigating the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons against the West, they had conducted preliminary experiments on animals. These unnerving revelations are the conclusion of detailed examination of documents discovered by The Times in abandoned al-Qaeda houses in Kabul last month. The documents, which have been translated in full, prove that among other atrocities, al-Qaeda was studying how to produce botulin poison in batches strong enough to kill 2,000 people. The hundreds of pages of photocopied, handwritten and printed matter were in a mixture of Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Mandarin, Russian and English. They came from a number of al-Qaeda houses in the Afghan capital a day after it fell to Northern Alliance forces on November 13. Samples were photographed and sent to British-based professional translators with scientific qualifications, and to experts in the field of weapons of mass destruction, including John Large, a British nuclear consultant. They confirm that al-Qaeda cells were examining materials to make a low-grade, “dirty” nuclear device; they had an understanding of bomb-related electronic circuitry to a level that matched, and in some areas exceeded, that of the Provisional IRA’s experts; they were investigating “supergun” theories; and they were training terrorist units to assassinate Middle Eastern leaders sympathetic to the West. According to Mr Large, while the organisation would not have been able to make a large-scale missile or nuclear device from the documents found, “it was obviously prepared to consider the use of such weapons, so that if it could not manufacture such for itself then, given the opportunity, it would acquire such for use”. Among the documents obtained by The Times pertaining to nuclear physics was a chart showing a portion of a periodic table dealing solely with radioactive materials. “It contains all the elements you would need if constructing a ‘dirty’ domb. This type of table is only of interest to a nuclear scientist,” Mr Large said. The experts’ reports reinforce claims by the British and American Governments that bin Laden had been looking into ways of making a nuclear bomb. On November 9, President Bush said of al-Qaeda: “They are seeking chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.” Days later, after the discovery of the documents in Kabul, Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, dispatched specialist units to Afghanistan to conduct their own studies. Subsequently, American intelligence services learnt that earlier this year a member of al-Qaeda had left Afghanistan after flourishing a canister containing what he claimed was radioactive material at a meeting attended by bin Laden. The breadth and detail of al-Qaeda’s aspirations have taken the security services by surprise. At one point the documents discuss creating an explosion using 500kg of TNT — almost twice the amount that killed two people in the London Docklands bomb in 1996. Similarly, al-Qaeda’s plans for chemical weapons were drawn up with large-scale production in mind: each recipe contained a step-by-step guide explaining how to produce batches that would kill thousands of people. Many of the pages had the feel of teachers’ handouts, such as photocopies explaining how a device or chemical could best be put to terrible effect. Others asked questions about terror techniques that they themselves used. Only time will tell what they have been able to learn. The experts concluded that in the field of chemical and biological warfare, al-Qaeda’s studies were so far crude, but that their intent was clear. Although the dispersal of chemical and biological weapons was difficult, they said, some of the terrorists’ literature about their manufacture was easily available in public libraries. However, they observed that the documents showed that al-Qaeda had gone so far as to manufacture and test certain types of chemical weapons on rabbits, including cyanide gas, which was used by Saddam Hussein to kill hundreds of Kurds in Halabja in 1988. As disturbing as the substance of these findings is their context. The documents did not come from a single source of expertise. They included material produced by men of several nationalities at different stages of education, varying from recruit to degree level student and professor, and were being reproduced for wide distribution. They were the work of a variety of autonomous cells, who conducted their own experiments, without collusion. “Rather than being assured by al-Qaeda’s diversity, in fact this proves a huge problem to the Western security forces,” one intelligence expert said. “What we can see is the work of different, potentially self-replicating cells, united only by an ideal. They will be far more difficult to extinguish than a centrally organised terrorist force.” Another source revealed that although the public in the West may be encouraged by the success of the war in Afghanistan, intelligence agencies estimate that as many as 70,000 recruits may have passed through al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in the past six years before dispersing to countries that include the US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Russia. “Even were bin Laden to be killed or captured soon,” the source added, “he is only a figurehead, and the worst may yet be far from over.” Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided ***************************************************************** 11 Nuclear test veteran's pensions victory reveals MoD 'cover-up' Sunday Herald home Exclusive Secret report uncovers lies told by government over atomic tests on Christmas island By Neil Mackay Home Affairs Editor IT took eight years for Tommy Duggan to win a war pension. Just a few days ago, riddled with a terminal form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and confined to his sick-bed at his home in Monifieth near Dundee, Duggan was told that the Ministry of Defence was finally going to honour its debt to him. The Pensions Appeal Tribunal in Edinburgh ruled that Duggan, a nuclear test veteran who had taken part in Britain's first A-bomb programme on Christmas Island in 1958, had contracted lymphatic cancer following exposure to radiation. The tribunal's decision should have been significant enough for the thousands of veterans currently suffering ill-health and cancers from nuclear tests, but Duggan's pension hearing could finally prove to be the case which overturns decades of claims by the government that the Christmas Island explosions could not have harmed British servicemen. During the hearing, one critical piece of evidence emerged which could prove very damaging to the government. When Duggan was first refused his pension one of the key documents which worked against him was an MoD scientific paper which said that Duggan could not have been exposed to radiation on Christmas Island. But Duggan's solicitor, Ian Greenhalgh, later discovered another MoD report -- written by the same scientist -- making it clear that there was measurable radiation on Christmas Island. To Duggan and some 2000 other members of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association this was the smoking gun they had been looking for all these years -- proof that the British government had been deliberately covering up the effects which taking part in the A-bomb tests had on servicemen. 'The two reports conflicted,' said Greenhalgh. 'I'm not saying there was a deliberate cover-up but there is certainly the possibility that information which could have been put forward wasn't put forward. This could have been a genuine omission or it may have been for other reasons. 'It appears that someone was playing fast and loose with the facts. We know that if you are exposed to even the smallest amount of radiation you'll get ill.' When Greenhalgh discovered the second document, Duggan was able to to successfully appeal against the decision to turn down his war pension. Thousands of other British veterans could now be in line for similar pension pay-outs. The MoD responded to allegations of a cover-up, saying: 'There can be no suggestion that the MoD suppressed or covered up evidence. Without knowing the history of the case or the facts we can't comment further.' When asked how the MoD could defend itself against allegations of suppressing evidence, while also admitting that it knew nothing of the facts of Duggan's case, a spokesman simply reiterated the statement. The cover-up claims came on the same day that the Metropolitan Police revealed it had begun an investigation into Britain's nuclear test programme in the 1950s. Scotland Yard says it has now started a criminal investigation against the MoD and some scientists involved. The inquiry has been under way for three months. One of the main focuses of the investigation will be the case of RAF squadron leader, Eric Denson, who fell ill and committed suicide after being ordered to fly his bomber through a radioactive mushroom cloud. Alan Care, a solicitor acting for Denson's widow, Shirley, said: 'In effect, he was being used as a human guinea pig.' Shirley Denson claims the government 'knowingly and maliciously' exposed her husband to 'deadly and legally prohibited levels of radiation which ultimately led to his death'. Tom Duggan was 21 when he was called up for National Service and posted to Christmas Island with the RAF in 1957. 'Watching the nuclear tests was the most horrific thing I've ever seen. You wouldn't wish that sight on anyone,' he said. 'When the bomb went off I was standing on the beach in my shorts and sandals -- there was no protective gear. I watched four bombs go off in total from a distance of about 10 or 12 miles. Later I swam in lagoons there and ate fish from the sea. 'The military knew what they were doing to us -- that they were treating us as guinea pigs. Over the years I've lost many friends who served with me from illnesses like cancers. 'All have suffered and none have been given any justice. Since 1992 when I first found the lump in my groin I've undergone chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. Nothing has worked. 'I'm more glad for the men who are still alive than myself. This pension won't change my life -- it just shows the government were lying -- but what it might do is provide the first steps on the road to getting justice for all the men whose lives were destroyed in the pursuit of nuclear bombs.' Sheila Gray, the secretary of BNTVA, said: 'Of course there is a cover-up. The suppression of evidence has been going on for years.' Gray's husband Frank, another test veteran, died nine years ago. 'His bones had crumbled, his testicles had been removed and he was suffering from a rare eye disease linked only to radiation. The average veteran dies aged 55 -- anyone who gets past that age is an old man, and lucky. 'Children have been born to veterans deformed and damaged. All of this is related to radiation -- but not one of our men has ever won civil compensation.' Greenhalgh, who acts for the BNTVA, said: 'More than 22,000 men took part in these tests and they are suffering because they served their country. The government has consistently said there was no exposure to radiation, and claims that these men would have got cancer regardless of taking part in tests. The government's claims just aren't true. The veterans believe they were there as guinea pigs as we needed to test the effects of our new weapons on man. 'The odds are seriously stacked against the veterans as well. They need to prove they were exposed to radiation but the only organisation to test levels was the MoD. Many documents are now missing or destroyed. This allows the government to say what it wants. ' Sue Rabbitt Roff, a medical sociologist with the University of Dundee who has spent years investigating the effects of A-bomb tests on veterans, said: 'There is evidence to demonstrate criminal liability both on the part of the UK government at the time of the tests, and on the part of the present government which is perpetuating the criminal liability. 'Tom Duggan's decision is vital. His case shows that it is now accepted that low levels of radiation can cause cancers. Put simply, the government was in violation of its own standards and knew it would cause injury to these men. The truth is finally catching up with them.' ©2001 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088. all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 N-Waste Burner: Allard backs EPA ombudsman Denver Post.com By Mike Soraghan msoraghan@denverpost.com] Denver Post Washington Bureau --> Monday, December 31, 2001 - WASHINGTON - Sen. Wayne Allard is changing sides in the increasingly heated debate about whether to transfer the Environmental Protection Agency watchdog who helped a group of Denver residents get radioactive waste removed from their neighborhood. Allard had originally supported EPA Administrator Christie Whitman's decision to transfer the EPA national ombudsman to the agency's inspector general's office. But he came out against the move Friday after receiving information from the EPA that ombudsman Robert Martin will not be given control over his budget, staff or cases in the move. "He believes this is a move to weaken the ombudsman's office and he's not going to stand by and let that happen," said Allard spokesman Sean Conway. He is asking for the move to be delayed "until we can have assurance that the independence that the ombudsman currently enjoys is retained." Whitman says she's moving Martin to the inspector general's office to give him more independence, and agency officials said Friday they're moving ahead with the transfer, which is set to occur in mid-January. But Martin has denounced it as a ruse to dissolve his office, because he won't have control over his staff, budget or cases. He also alleges that the inspector general's office has interfered in his cases in the past. Martin worked with residents of Denver's Overland Park neighborhood to get the EPA to reverse its decision to leave radioactive waste on-site at the Shattuck Superfund site. The removal is to start next year, and neighbors of the site want Martin to monitor the process. But Martin's investigator, Hugh Kaufman, has said that won't be possible if he's moved to the inspector general's office. A grievance filed on Martin's behalf alleges that Whitman is dissolving the ombudsman's office to protect Citigroup Inc., Shattuck's owner. She has family financial ties to the banking conglomerate. EPA officials have declined to respond on the record to the allegation. When Whitman announced the transfer in November, Allard said it made sense to move the ombudsman to the inspector general's office, which operates independently of the EPA. But he sent a list of detailed questions to the EPA about how the move would work. He got the answers back Thursday, and they indicate someone else higher up in the inspector general's office will control Martin's budget, staff and which cases he pursues. For Allard, that was the wrong answer. He was trying to reach Whitman on Friday to ask her to stop the transfer, Conway said, and his staff was also drafting a letter to her. Allard also is renewing his effort to pass legislation that would order the EPA to give the ombudsman more authority and independence. Conway said that when the Senate returns next month, the senator will push again for hearings on his bill to strengthen the ombudsman's office. All contents Copyright 2001 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 13 S.C. governor opposing Flats waste shipments Denver Post.com By The Associated Press --> Friday, December 28, 2001 - Plutonium must start leaving Rocky Flats next month to meet a 2006 deadline to close the former nuclear weapons plant, according to the head of the cleanup company. But a January departure is becoming less likely with South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges still threatening to lie down in front of the trucks to stop the shipments of the highly radioactive material. The Energy Department must give South Carolina 30 days notice before shipments begin. Unless the notice goes out by Monday, the earliest the shipments could begin is Feb. 1. The plutonium is supposed to go to the Energy Department's Savannah River Site in South Carolina, but Hodges first wants a written promise that the plutonium will not be stored there permanently. The Energy Department had plans to convert the plutonium to reactor fuel or to immobilize it in glass, but neither plan was funded by Congress. Energy Department officials have said they'll start looking for alternative places to put the plutonium unless Hodges cooperates. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., is threatening to push for the closure of Savannah River if South Carolina refuses the plutonium. Hodges has dismissed the threat, saying he doubts any other state will want the plutonium without a long-term disposal plan. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said lawmakers are working to find enough money to resurrect the programs to immobilize the plutonium. Theoretically, midspring is the latest the shipments could begin and still meet the 2006 closure date, said Alan Parker, president of Kaiser-Hill Co., the firm conducting the Rocky Flats cleanup. But the Energy Department's entire fleet of specially designed trucks would have to be assigned to the Rocky Flats cleanup to ship the material in time, Parker said. All of the plutonium has been moved to a single building so that the rest of the plant can be demolished. Once the plutonium is gone, the last structure can come down. All contents Copyright 2001 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 14 Editorial: Weapons of mass destruction Rocky Mountain News: Opinion The Bush administration, which before Sept. 11 was unsure how enthusiastic it was about financing weapons-destruction programs in Russia, has finished a review of them and has found them mostly worth expanding. The United States will send more money, along with experts, to aid Russia in destroying some of its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. This move probably does reflect in part the results of an assessment of the effectiveness of the U.S.-backed programs, but it obviously also reflects the realities that were made inescapable by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Terrorists, we all now know deep in our bones, are eager to kill vast numbers of Americans, even if it means they will lose their own lives in the process. Keeping these weapons out of their hands is absolutely crucial. Because Russia built so many nuclear weapons during the Cold War, it is one of the chief places where terrorists could obtain what they want. And Russia, it has been noted, has not had the wherewithal even to make sure its stockpiles are kept secure. There have, in fact, been frightening reports indicating that terrorists may already have walked off with some of what they need for the murder of thousands. It would be next door to madness for the United States to do anything less than to support preventive measures in which it has reasonable faith. The Russian programs will not be enough, however. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., an author of legislation establishing the Russian programs, has pointed out in an incisive op-ed piece that weapons of mass destruction are to be found in any number of countries all over the world. He notes that programs akin to the ones in Russia are nonexistent. He insists that countries with weapons of mass destruction must "account" for what they have and show that steps have been taken to store the weapons safely, out of the reach of other nations or terrorist cells. The Bush administration no doubt understands that the war on terrorism does require a sweeping weapons-control approach along the lines suggested by Lugar. As Lugar concedes, none of this will be easy. But easy or not, a confident American future could very well depend on the administration's making its expansion of the weapons programs in Russia only the first step in putting together a weapons program with a global reach. December 31, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 15 Scotland Yard probes Aussie nuke tests The Mercury: 29 December 2001 From AAP THE Australian and British governments could face compensation bills of millions of dollars or even claims of murder after police revealed they were conducting a criminal investigation into nuclear testing in the 1950s. London's Metropolitan police are examining claims from widow Shirley Denson that her husband Eric was ordered to fly his plane through a mushroom cloud several times following a test on Christmas Island in 1958. Scotland Yard's specialist crime squad is investigating whether it was legal for British military chiefs to send Mr Denson and his RAF aircrew through the cloud. If Ms Denson's case gets to court, it could open the way for similar claims from thousands of Australian, New Zealand and British servicemen who were exposed to radiation fallout both in the air and on the ground. More than 22,000 British, 14,000 Australian and 500 New Zealand servicemen were involved in the 21 nuclear explosions conducted in South Australia and several south Pacific islands from 1952 to 1958. Ms Denson won a war widow's pension in 1998 with help from expert evidence from British researcher Sue Rabbitt-Roff. She was encouraged to take further action when the family of a British airman killed in 1953 by tests on biological and chemical weapons at Porton Down convinced police to open criminal inquiries nearly 50 years later. "Shirley Denson has achieved a Scotland Yard police investigation on the same basic principles, in this case for the murder of her husband," Ms Rabbitt-Roff said. "There was knowledge aforehand, repeated exposure and an attempt to cover it up. "If she can find individual scientists who perpetrated the tests still alive, she could take them to court for murder. If not, the governments could be liable." The Australian government of Robert Menzies supported the tests until 1957 when scientist Hedley Marston revealed radioactive fallout was widespread. The tests were then moved from Maralinga in South Australia to Christmas Island where the last six explosions of the program were set off. Ms Denson said the British government "knowingly and maliciously exposed my late husband to deadly and legally prohibited levels of radiation which ultimately led to his death". "If you use a knife to stab someone and they die it's murder. What's the difference here?" She said her husband was extremely healthy before the tests but, soon after being exposed to what she claimed was 20 times the recommended safety limit, developed respiratory and psychological illnesses. He committed suicide on his third attempt in 1976, suffering from depression. Ms Rabbitt-Roff said there had been hundreds of cases of cancer and other illnesses among nuclear test veterans and defects in the children of some servicemen. The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) today said it was cooperating fully with police but refuted claims that servicemen were fodder. "The allegations that servicemen were used as guinea pigs are not true, we are strongly denying those allegations," a ministry spokeswoman said. "We've been looking at it for many years but our line remains we look at things sympathetically but don't believe there are major problems. "The standards at the time were complied with but standards now are very different." Early in the new year, the MoD expects to publish a two-year study by the National Radiological Protection Board into multiple myeloma (a form of cancer) among veterans. Since servicemen began complaining of cancers and other illnesses in the 1970s, the MoD has consistently denied any link to the tests. The ministry claims scientific studies showed there were no more health problems among those involved in the tests than a comparable group of veterans. New Zealand nuclear test veterans are currently pursuing a case against the British government. © 2001 Davies Bros ***************************************************************** 16 Chemical tests at Maralinga: veterans Daily Telegraph: [ 30dec01 ] VETERANS involved in Britain's nuclear tests at Maralinga in South Australia during the 1950s say they have proof chemical warfare tests also occurred. The claims came after reports that the Australian and British governments could face compensation bills of millions of dollars or even murder charges after Scotland Yard revealed it was conducting a criminal investigation into nuclear testing in the 1950s. Ex-service Australian Atomic Survivors' Association president Max Kimber today said he had documents which showed that chemical warfare tests were also carried out at Maralinga. "It (chemical warfare) was tested in relation to the effects of it in water with radiation," Mr Kimber told ABC radio. He said he would release the documents this week, which he claimed were the actual files dealing with the results of the tests. Mr Kimber, who has cancer, also called on the Australian and British governments to release information about the testing that took place on the Montebello Islands, off the north-west coast of Western Australia. The British Government conducted three nuclear tests on the Montebello Islands between 1952 and 1956. Mr Kimber said the British government's admission it used Australian soldiers for trials at Maralinga vindicated his claims soldiers were used as guinea pigs at the Montebello Islands. "We have been completely hoodwinked and used by these governments and (they) never recognised the service that we gave," he told ABC radio. He said the Australian Atomic Survivors' Association was willing to assist the Scotland Yard investigation of Britain's nuclear testing program. Scotland Yard is investigating claims from widow Shirley Denson that her husband Eric was ordered to fly his plane into a mushroom cloud in 1958 at Christmas Island off Western Australia's northern coast, after scientists detonated a nuclear weapon. The pilot committed suicide in 1976. Ms Denson claims military leaders knowingly and maliciously exposed him to illegal levels of radiation. She said her husband was extremely healthy before the tests, but soon after being exposed to what she claimed was 20 times the recommended safety limit, developed respiratory and psychological illnesses. Scotland Yard is investigating whether it was legal for British military chiefs to send Mr Denson and his RAF aircrew through the cloud. If Mrs Denson's case gets to court, it could open the way for similar claims from thousands of Australian, New Zealand and British servicemen who were exposed to radiation fallout both in the air and on the ground. © 2001 Mirror Australian Telegraph Publications ***************************************************************** 17 Guilty Plea in Nuclear Trigger Case Las Vegas SUN December 29, 2001 LOS ANGELES (AP) - A physicist accused of exporting potential nuclear triggers to Israel pleaded guilty to two federal counts as part of a deal with prosecutors. Richard Kelly Smyth, a fugitive for 16 years until his July arrest in Spain, entered the plea Friday after prosecutors said they would drop the 28 other counts against him. Smyth, 72, was first charged in 1985 with exporting devices known as krytrons to Heli Corp. in Israel. The two-inch devices can be used in photocopying machines, but because of their potential as nuclear triggers, they cannot be shipped without State Department approval. On Friday, Smyth pleaded guilty to making false statements or false documents by signing or approving invoices to send the material to Israel in 1982. He also pleaded guilty to exporting the devices without a license. He will be held without bail until his sentencing on Feb. 28. He faces a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a $110,000 fine. Smyth's attorney, James D. Riddet, refused to comment on his client's motives for shipping the devices, saying he would address the issue during sentencing. At the time of the illegal exports, Heli Corp. was owned by Arnon Milchan, an Israeli-born arms trader who became a successful Hollywood film producer. His credits include "Pretty Woman" and "L.A. Confidential." In an interview on television's "60 Minutes" last year, Milchan denied any involvement in the krytron deal but said he had allowed the Israeli government to use his company as a conduit for trading with the United States. Israel returned most of the krytrons after Smyth's indictment and claimed they were never intended for use in a nuclear weapons program. All contents copyright 2001 and 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 18 Korean nuclear tour ends BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC | 30 December, 2001, Wolsung nuclear power station, South Korea More North Koreans will visit the South's nuclear stations A delegation of 20 North Korean nuclear engineers has ended a tour of South Korea to learn how to build and operate nuclear power plants. The visit was part of a 1994 agreement between the United States and North Korea under which an international consortium will build two light-water reactors in the North and train hundreds of workers to operate them. In return, the North has promised to freeze its nuclear weapons programme. The engineers were the first North Koreans to go to the South since Cabinet-level talks between the two countries broke down last month. By the end of next year, 290 more North Koreans are due to have been trained at South Korean facilities. Weapons-grade plutonium The delegation - led by Kim Hui-moon, a Cabinet-level official - visited Ulchin, an east coast village where four French-built nuclear reactors are in operation, and Kori on the south-east coast for a tour of four US-built reactors. They also visited the headquarters of South Korea's state utility, Korea Electric Power, the main contractor of the reactor project. The US-led consortium building the reactors, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), includes Japan, South Korea and the European Union. It has completed about 15% of the reactor project. The two US-designed 1,000-megawatt reactors will replace the North's Soviet-designed, graphite-moderated reactors, which experts say produce greater amounts of weapons-grade plutonium. Compensation call However, consortium officials say the completion of the $4.6bn reactor project in North Korea, originally scheduled for 2003, will have to be delayed for several years. As its energy crisis worsens, the North has threatened to abandon the 1994 accord and has demanded that Washington pay compensation for the delays. Consortium officials say the delay was caused by North Korea, which pulled workers out of the construction site and demanded that they be paid higher wages. The Korean Peninsula was divided in 1945. About 37,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War between the North and South. ***************************************************************** 19 Nuclear test veteran's pensions victory reveals MoD 'cover-up' Sunday Herald Exclusive Secret report uncovers lies told by government over atomic tests on Christmas island By [neil.mackay@sundayherald.com] Home Affairs Editor IT took eight years for Tommy Duggan to win a war pension. Just a few days ago, riddled with a terminal form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and confined to his sick-bed at his home in Monifieth near Dundee, Duggan was told that the Ministry of Defence was finally going to honour its debt to him. The Pensions Appeal Tribunal in Edinburgh ruled that Duggan, a nuclear test veteran who had taken part in Britain's first A-bomb programme on Christmas Island in 1958, had contracted lymphatic cancer following exposure to radiation. The tribunal's decision should have been significant enough for the thousands of veterans currently suffering ill-health and cancers from nuclear tests, but Duggan's pension hearing could finally prove to be the case which overturns decades of claims by the government that the Christmas Island explosions could not have harmed British servicemen. During the hearing, one critical piece of evidence emerged which could prove very damaging to the government. When Duggan was first refused his pension one of the key documents which worked against him was an MoD scientific paper which said that Duggan could not have been exposed to radiation on Christmas Island. But Duggan's solicitor, Ian Greenhalgh, later discovered another MoD report -- written by the same scientist -- making it clear that there was measurable radiation on Christmas Island. To Duggan and some 2000 other members of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association this was the smoking gun they had been looking for all these years -- proof that the British government had been deliberately covering up the effects which taking part in the A-bomb tests had on servicemen. 'The two reports conflicted,' said Greenhalgh. 'I'm not saying there was a deliberate cover-up but there is certainly the possibility that information which could have been put forward wasn't put forward. This could have been a genuine omission or it may have been for other reasons. 'It appears that someone was playing fast and loose with the facts. We know that if you are exposed to even the smallest amount of radiation you'll get ill.' When Greenhalgh discovered the second document, Duggan was able to to successfully appeal against the decision to turn down his war pension. Thousands of other British veterans could now be in line for similar pension pay-outs. The MoD responded to allegations of a cover-up, saying: 'There can be no suggestion that the MoD suppressed or covered up evidence. Without knowing the history of the case or the facts we can't comment further.' When asked how the MoD could defend itself against allegations of suppressing evidence, while also admitting that it knew nothing of the facts of Duggan's case, a spokesman simply reiterated the statement. The cover-up claims came on the same day that the Metropolitan Police revealed it had begun an investigation into Britain's nuclear test programme in the 1950s. Scotland Yard says it has now started a criminal investigation against the MoD and some scientists involved. The inquiry has been under way for three months. One of the main focuses of the investigation will be the case of RAF squadron leader, Eric Denson, who fell ill and committed suicide after being ordered to fly his bomber through a radioactive mushroom cloud. Alan Care, a solicitor acting for Denson's widow, Shirley, said: 'In effect, he was being used as a human guinea pig.' Shirley Denson claims the government 'knowingly and maliciously' exposed her husband to 'deadly and legally prohibited levels of radiation which ultimately led to his death'. Tom Duggan was 21 when he was called up for National Service and posted to Christmas Island with the RAF in 1957. 'Watching the nuclear tests was the most horrific thing I've ever seen. You wouldn't wish that sight on anyone,' he said. 'When the bomb went off I was standing on the beach in my shorts and sandals -- there was no protective gear. I watched four bombs go off in total from a distance of about 10 or 12 miles. Later I swam in lagoons there and ate fish from the sea. 'The military knew what they were doing to us -- that they were treating us as guinea pigs. Over the years I've lost many friends who served with me from illnesses like cancers. 'All have suffered and none have been given any justice. Since 1992 when I first found the lump in my groin I've undergone chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. Nothing has worked. 'I'm more glad for the men who are still alive than myself. This pension won't change my life -- it just shows the government were lying -- but what it might do is provide the first steps on the road to getting justice for all the men whose lives were destroyed in the pursuit of nuclear bombs.' Sheila Gray, the secretary of BNTVA, said: 'Of course there is a cover-up. The suppression of evidence has been going on for years.' Gray's husband Frank, another test veteran, died nine years ago. 'His bones had crumbled, his testicles had been removed and he was suffering from a rare eye disease linked only to radiation. The average veteran dies aged 55 -- anyone who gets past that age is an old man, and lucky. 'Children have been born to veterans deformed and damaged. All of this is related to radiation -- but not one of our men has ever won civil compensation.' Greenhalgh, who acts for the BNTVA, said: 'More than 22,000 men took part in these tests and they are suffering because they served their country. The government has consistently said there was no exposure to radiation, and claims that these men would have got cancer regardless of taking part in tests. The government's claims just aren't true. The veterans believe they were there as guinea pigs as we needed to test the effects of our new weapons on man. 'The odds are seriously stacked against the veterans as well. They need to prove they were exposed to radiation but the only organisation to test levels was the MoD. Many documents are now missing or destroyed. This allows the government to say what it wants. ' Sue Rabbitt Roff, a medical sociologist with the University of Dundee who has spent years investigating the effects of A-bomb tests on veterans, said: 'There is evidence to demonstrate criminal liability both on the part of the UK government at the time of the tests, and on the part of the present government which is perpetuating the criminal liability. 'Tom Duggan's decision is vital. His case shows that it is now accepted that low levels of radiation can cause cancers. Put simply, the government was in violation of its own standards and knew it would cause injury to these men. The truth is finally catching up with them.' ©2001 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088. all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 Any mistake can trigger a nuclear war -- The Washington Times December 31, 2001 By Anwar Iqbal UPI South Asian Affairs Analyst WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- India and Pakistan are not ready to fight another war. At least not yet. Leaders on both sides want to take their nations as close to a war as possible without actually fighting it. By doing so, they hope to force the other to capitulate. The objectives are obvious. India wants to settle the Kashmir issue. Pakistan does not want to settle this 53-year old dispute at this stage when India is in a better position to influence the outcome. Instead it wants to weather the storm and seek a solution when it is in a position to negotiate a more favorable deal with India. However, such eyeball-to-eyeball situation is always fraught with dangers. Indian and Pakistani leaders may not want a war yet but such excitement and tensions always increase the chance of an accidental war. In a situation like this even a minor incident can lead to, what both governments call the "unthinkable," a nuclear catastrophe. The current crisis in the Subcontinent is linked to the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States. The Indians believe that the 9/11 tragedy has created a strong dislike in the world for guerrilla wars and armed struggles. They want to take advantage of this atmosphere to end insurgency in Kashmir where, according to one estimate, more than 30,000 people have been killed in clashes between Pakistan-backed militants and Indian security forces during the last 10 years. This is why India responded so quickly and strongly against the Sept. 11 terror attacks, offering logistical support and even military bases to U.S. forces for operations into Afghanistan. By doing so, India hoped to isolate Pakistan, a nation that helped the Taliban militia capture Kabul and remain in power for more than five years. Since several Kashmiri militant groups were trained by the Taliban and al Qaida network of Osama bin Laden, the Indians hoped that with some efforts they could turn the war against the Afghan and Arab terrorists into a war against the Kashmiri militants too. The Indians were further encouraged when a U.S. bomb hit a building in Kabul, killing 16 fighters of Lashkar-i-Toiba, one of the two groups New Delhi blames for attacking the Indian parliament on Dec. 13. But they were surprised and annoyed when Pakistan changed its Afghan policy overnight, dumped its Taliban allies and offered military bases to the United States for operations against the Taliban. To India's dismay, Washington not only accepted Pakistan's offer but also removed economic and military sanctions imposed after the May 1998 nuclear tests by the two South Asian neighbors. Washington further annoyed India by also removing the so-called democracy sanctions imposed on Pakistan when President Gen. Pervez Musharraf toppled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in October 1999. Disappointed that Pakistan was so easily able to walk out of a situation that India hoped to exploit for its benefit, New Delhi continued to remind the world that "militants in Kashmir are also terrorists." "We refuse to accept this distinction between terrorists on Pakistan's western border (Afghanistan) and those on its eastern border (Kashmir). Terrorists are terrorists," says India's Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh. As the Americans crushed the Taliban and al Qaida and installed a new government in Kabul, the Indians felt that the U.S.-led forces may pull out of the region without helping them crush "the Kashmiri terrorists," as India's former foreign secretary, S. K. Singh said. The Dec. 13 suicide attack on the Indian parliament rekindled India's hopes. India's parliament is recognized as a symbol of democracy around the world. As the legislative body of the world's largest democracy, it enjoys a universal respect. An attack on this symbol of political stability was condemned across the globe. Aware of its symbolic importance, the Indians decide to use the attack on their parliament to portray Kashmiri militants and their Pakistani backers as terrorists. Demanding that Pakistan ban Lashkar and Jaish-i-Mohammed, the other group allegedly involved in the Dec. 13 attack, and arrest their leaders, India recalled its ambassador from Islamabad. It also decided to sever rail and road links with Pakistan and later banned Pakistani airlines from flying over its territory. India also decided to halve its diplomatic staff in Islamabad and asked Pakistan also to do the same. It also banned Pakistani diplomats from traveling outside New Delhi. Combining its diplomatic offensive with military maneuvers, India's Defense Minister George Fernandes reported moving tens of thousands of troops and "strategic missiles" along its border with Pakistan. "Strategic missiles" are capable of carrying nuclear warheads. India's military and diplomatic offensive put Pakistan on the defensive. It took away the initiative from Pakistan and forced it to merely react to Indian moves. Pakistan copied India in slapping similar restrictions on the Indian mission in Islamabad. It also imitated India in banning Indian airlines from flying over Pakistan. Pakistan also was forced to move thousands of troops and "strategic weapons" to the Indian border. In doing so, it informed the United States that it may no longer be able to keep its troops along the Afghan border deployed there to catch al Qaida and Taliban fugitives. Most of these measures will hurt Pakistan more than they will hurt India. Indian airlines do not fly over Pakistan but the Pakistan International flies over India. Now it will have to fly hundreds of extra miles for destinations in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The Indian restriction was so effective that Pakistan had to seek exemption from India to allow its president to fly over to Nepal next month for attending a regional summit conference. Similarly, travel restrictions hurt the Muslims of the Subcontinent more than they hurt India's majority Hindus. India has almost 200 million Muslims. Many of them have relations in Pakistan. Travel restrictions will prevent them from visiting each other. India also has another card to play. It has already said that it is reconsidering the Sindh Basin Agreement that allows unrestricted flow of Indus and one of its tributaries to Pakistan. If India decides to cancel this agreement and stops the rivers from flowing into Pakistan it will play havoc with Pakistan's agriculture-based economy. Seen against this backdrop, it seems that Pakistan has few options against India and fewer sympathizers around the world. India has made it obvious that it will continue to increase its pressure on Pakistan unless Islamabad, 1) bans Kashmiri militant groups, 2) arrests their leaders, and 3) puts an end to armed struggle in Kashmir. Pakistan can either accept this demand or go for the obvious, i.e. a war. Many in Pakistan realize that this time a war with India will not be as "civilized" as the wars of 1965 and 1971 when both sides avoided civilian targets. They know that this time the Indians will go for major economic targets, such as the Tarbela and Mangla dams near Islamabad. The combined effect of destroying these two dams and blocking the rivers from flowing into Pakistan can trigger the beginning of the end for Islamabad. India can also attempt to capture Pakistani Kashmir, merge it with India and thus settle the Kashmir dispute to its satisfaction. The other option will be to enter Pakistani Kashmir, destroy militant camps and go back to Indian Kashmir. Yet another option for India is to attack Pakistan's soft-belly, a narrow corridor in the south that joins the southern Sindh province with the rest of Pakistan. Occupying this corridor will also sever Islamabad's links with its economic hub and the main port of Karachi. Any of these attempts will trigger the process that will lead to the demise of the Pakistani state, as it exists today. Faced with this scenario, any government in Pakistan can be forced to go for "the unthinkable" and use the nuclear weapon for protecting the state. However, the chief spokesman for the Pakistani president, Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, told journalists in Islamabad recently that "both India and Pakistan are responsible states and for them the nuclear option is unthinkable." Pakistanis hope that the fear of a nuclear war will prevent the Indians from pushing Islamabad to the brink. They believe that the Indians will continue increasing the pressure on Pakistan as long as they think they can reap political benefits from it. They argue that the moment the Indians realize that the situation could actually lead to a nuclear conflict, they will relax their pressure. "And once this pressure is relaxed, the two governments can then engage in useful talks for settling their disputes," said a senior Pakistani diplomat in Islamabad. Reports from New Delhi suggest that while the Indians are not yet willing to reduce their pressure on Pakistan, they also do not want a war. At least not yet. Instead, they believe that they are in a position to force Pakistan to accept their demands without going to war. But neither Pakistanis nor the Indians say what can prevent an accidental war in such a feverish situation. 2001 News World Communications, Inc. ***************************************************************** 21 Pak-India poised to exchange lists of nuclear installations rediff.com: December 30, 2001 India Abroad K J M Verma in Islamabad Amid growing tension between India and Pakistan, both countries are poised to exchange a list of nuclear installations under a special agreement which prohibits Islamabad and New Delhi from attacking each other's nuclear facilities. Under the accord, both the countries annually exchange fresh lists containing locations of nuclear installations, Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said. He said Pakistan would send a new list to India shortly. "Let me say that the list is unlikely to contain any new facilities. We have not undertaken construction of any new facilities this year. They have to provide a list from that we have to see whether or not any additions were made to the old list." Asked whether Pakistan would go for the nuclear option if the war broke out, Sattar said nuclear weapons were weapons of defence and deterrence. He said the use of nuclear weapons was too serious an issue to be taken lightly. "This is a grave issue and it should not be lightly discussed." Sattar said Pakistan did not want a local or conventional war, leave alone a nuclear war with India. PTI (c) Copyright 2001 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or ***************************************************************** 22 Stop Iran's nuclear plans, Israel urges UN leader December 29, 2001 Stop Iran's nuclear plans, Israel urges UN leader 'No room for any doubt': Peres Irwin Arieff Reuters UNITED NATIONS - Israel said yesterday it feared Iran was out to acquire nuclear arms in order to destroy it and called on the United Nations to pressure Tehran to abandon plans to develop atomic weapons. Shimon Peres, the Israeli Foreign Minister, said a Dec. 14 speech by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran's still powerful former president, "leaves no room for any doubt as to Iran's hatred of Israel and its declared goal to destroy it." The speech "clearly contradicts the Iranian claim that its plans to acquire nuclear technologies are designed only for peaceful purposes," Mr. Peres says in a letter to Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General. Although Mr. Rafsanjani is no longer an elected government official, he still wields considerable influence as the head of Iran's expediency council, which sets major policy, including foreign relations. He is also a top advisor to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mr. Peres said Mr. Rafsanjani told a crowd in Tehran two weeks ago the Islamic world was seeking nuclear weapons to destroy Israel and undermine Western interests in the Middle East. "When the Islamic world acquires atomic weapons, the strategy of the West will hit a dead-end -- since the use of a single atomic bomb has the power to destroy Israel completely, while it will only cause partial damage to the Islamic world," Mr. Rafsanjani said, according to Mr. Peres. "The West's support for Israel is liable to bring about World War III, which will be fought between those believers who seek a martyr's death, on the one hand, and those who represent the epitome of arrogance, on the other hand. "The establishment of Israel is the most hideous occurrence in history. The Islamic world will not tolerate the continued existence of Israel in the region and will vomit it out from its midst." In his letter, Mr. Peres says he is appealing to Mr. Annan "to demand that Iran abandon its plan to arm itself with unconventional weapons, and that immediate steps be taken to ensure that a plan of this kind is not put into effect. "I fear that it might be too late to deal with the danger we could face," his letter says. Iran holds marches every year on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in solidarity with the Palestinians. The rallies are organized by conservatives who take a tougher line against Israel and the West than reformers allied with Mohammad Khatami, the current Iranian President. The United States, Britain and other Western nations have urged Tehran to help end 15 months of Middle East violence by stopping its backing for militant Palestinian groups targeting Israeli civilians in suicide attacks and for Hezbollah, which attacks Israeli military targets from southern Lebanon. But Mr. Rafsanjani defended the militants as freedom fighters waging a legitimate struggle against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. "Israel, which is crushing innocent people with all kinds of weapons, is defended [by the West], but the Palestinians who strike blows on Israel with empty hands and at the expense of their lives are called 'terrorists,' " he said. "Israel should not be fooled by its modern weapons and atomic bombs. Palestinians have found a stronger weapon, and that is suicide operations." Copyright © 2002 National Post Online ***************************************************************** 23 New Zealand Peacekeepers Undergoing Nuclear Warfare Training Xinhuanet 2001-12-29 09:52:58 WELLINGTON, December 29 (Xinhuanet) -- New Zealand peacekeepers going to Afghanistan are to be drilled on how to deal with nuclear, biological and chemical warfare, the New Zealand Press Association(NZPA) reported Saturday. It said 25 army and air force troops for the British-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan met on Friday in Auckland, the biggest city of the country, for two days of training before flying to Britain. NZPA quoted Captain Jules Lovelock as saying the training would be a shortened version of what British soldiers received before going on operations. "They'll learn how to put on their masks and suits ... and where to go when the siren goes," she said. Stockpiles of uranium and chemicals, including cyanide, have been found at an al Qaeda base outside Kandahar. The low-grade uranium could be used to make "dirty bombs," which would spread radiation over a large area, according to the captain. Captain Lovelock said the troops might not now be leaving on Sunday as was planned. The delay could last two weeks. She disclosed the New Zealand troops would be split into two groups. One group, with logistics, engineering and communications skills, would work at the staff headquarters in Kabul, and the other would help with loading and flight planning at a nearby air base. They are due to be away for three months, but the New Zealand government is to review this in the new year, she said. Enditem Copyright © 2000 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 Maralinga chemical warfare test claims theage.com.au, Breaking News MELBOURNE, Dec 30 AAP|Published: Sunday December 30, 6:20 PM Veterans involved in Britain's nuclear tests at Maralinga in South Australia during the 1950s today claimed they have proof that chemical warfare tests also occurred. The claims came after reports that the Australian and British governments could face compensation bills of millions of dollars or even murder charges after Scotland Yard revealed it was conducting a criminal investigation into nuclear testing in the 1950s. Ex-service Australian Atomic Survivors' Association president Max Kimber today said he had documents which showed that chemical warfare tests were also carried out at Maralinga. '); "It (chemical warfare) was tested in relation to the effects of it in water with radiation," Mr Kimber told ABC radio. He said he would release the documents this week, which he claimed were the actual files dealing with the results of the tests. Mr Kimber, who has cancer, also called on the Australian and British governments to release information about the testing that took place on the Montebello Islands, off the north-west coast of Western Australia. The British Government conducted three nuclear tests on the Montebello Islands between 1952 and 1956. Mr Kimber said the British government's admission it used Australian soldiers for trials at Maralinga vindicated his claims soldiers were used as guinea pigs at the Montebello Islands. "We have been completely hoodwinked and used by these governments and (they) never recognised the service that we gave," he told ABC radio. He said the Australian Atomic Survivors' Association was willing to assist the Scotland Yard investigation of Britain's nuclear testing program. Scotland Yard is investigating claims from widow Shirley Denson that her husband Eric was ordered to fly his plane into a mushroom cloud in 1958 at Christmas Island off Western Australia's northern coast, after scientists detonated a nuclear weapon. The pilot committed suicide in 1976. Ms Denson claims military leaders knowingly and maliciously exposed him to illegal levels of radiation. She said her husband was extremely healthy before the tests, but soon after being exposed to what she claimed was 20 times the recommended safety limit, developed respiratory and psychological illnesses. Scotland Yard is investigating whether it was legal for British military chiefs to send Mr Denson and his RAF aircrew through the cloud. If Mrs Denson's case gets to court, it could open the way for similar claims from thousands of Australian, New Zealand and British servicemen who were exposed to radiation fallout both in the air and on the ground. Copyright © 2001 John Fairfax Holdings Ltd. All rights ***************************************************************** 25 AU: N-tests: why the fallout could be murder The Age: By PAUL MULVEY LONDON Sunday 30 December 2001 The Australian and British Governments could face compensation bills of millions of dollars or even claims of murder after police revealed they were conducting a criminal investigation into nuclear testing in the 1950s. London's metropolitan police are examining claims from widow Shirley Denson that her husband Eric was ordered to fly his plane through a mushroom cloud several times after a test on Christmas Island in 1958. Scotland Yard's specialist crime squad is investigating whether it was legal for British military chiefs to send Mr Denson and his RAF aircrew through the cloud. If Mrs Denson's case gets to court, it could open the way for similar claims from thousands of Australian, New Zealand and British servicemen who were exposed to radiation fallout both in the air and on the ground. More than 22,000 British, 14,000 Australian and 500 New Zealand servicemen were involved in the 21 nuclear explosions conducted in South Australia and several South Pacific islands from 1952 to 1958. Mrs Denson won a war widow's pension in 1998 with help from expert evidence from British researcher Sue Rabbitt-Roff. She was encouraged to take further action when the family of a British airman killed in 1953 by tests on biological and chemical weapons at Porton Down convinced police to open criminal inquiries nearly 50 years later. "Shirley Denson has achieved a Scotland Yard police investigation on the same basic principles, in this case for the murder of her husband," Ms Rabbitt-Roff said. "There was knowledge aforehand, repeated exposure and an attempt to cover it up. "If she can find individual scientists who perpetrated the tests still alive, she could take them to court for murder. If not, the governments could be liable." The Australian government of Robert Menzies supported the tests until 1957, when scientist Hedley Marston revealed radioactive fall-out was widespread. The tests were then moved from Maralinga in South Australia to Christmas Island, where the last six explosions of the program were set off. Mrs Denson said the British government "knowingly and maliciously exposed my late husband to deadly and legally prohibited levels of radiation which ultimately led to his death". She said her husband was extremely healthy before the tests but, soon after being exposed to what she claimed was 20 times the recommended safety limit, developed respiratory and psychological illnesses. He committed suicide on his third attempt in 1976, suffering from depression. Ms Rabbitt-Roff said there had been hundreds of cases of cancer and other illnesses among nuclear test veterans and defects in the children of some servicemen. The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) yesterday said it was cooperating fully with police but rejected claims that servicemen were fodder. "The allegations that servicemen were used as guinea pigs are not true, we are strongly denying those allegations," a ministry spokeswoman said. "We've been looking at it for many years but our line remains we look at things sympathetically but don't believe there are major problems. "The standards at the time were complied with but standards now are very different." Early in the new year, the MoD expects to publish a two-year study by the National Radiological Protection Board into multiple myeloma, a form of cancer, among veterans. Since servicemen began complaining of cancers and other illnesses in the 1970s, the MoD has consistently denied any link to the tests. The ministry claims scientific studies showed there were no more health problems among those involved in the tests than a comparable group of veterans. New Zealand nuclear test veterans are pursuing a case against the British Government. - AAP Copyright © The Age Company Ltd 2001. ***************************************************************** 26 AU: Documents to prove servicemen used in nuclear testing ABC News - 30/12/01 : Sun, Dec 30 2001 10:47 AM AEDT The Australian Atomic Veterans Association says it will release documents in the coming week proving that chemical warfare was tested in Australia as part of Britain's nuclear tests in the 1950s. Experts are currently verifying that the documents are authentic. The association's president, Max Kimber, says the documents will show that chemical warfare tests occurred at Maralinga in South Australia and the chemicals were developed in Victoria. "It was tested in relation to the effects of it in water with radiation," he said. "They were developed at a place called the Defence Standard Laboratories in Victoria." Mr Kimber claims the documents are the actual files dealing with the results of the tests. He will not say how the documents were obtained, but admits it was not easy. "Let's just say we've obtained them through various means and had them examined by experts to make sure that what we're saying is right," he said. Investigation The association says it is willing to assist a Scotland Yard investigation of Britain's nuclear testing program. British police are looking into the case of a pilot ordered to fly into a mushroom cloud in 1958 at Christmas Island off Western Australia's northern coast after scientists detonated a nuclear weapon. The pilot suicided in 1976. His widow claims military leaders knowingly and maliciously exposed him to illegal levels of radiation. Mr Kimber says both British and Australian pilots were exposed to radiation during the tests. "The pilots that flew into these clouds, they had no monitoring equipment at all," he said. "The planes which were supposed to be decontaminated after use were never decontaminated properly, because I think they were washed over with a hose." The planes used in the program were stationed at Broome in Western Australia, Woomera in South Australia and Amberley in Queensland. © 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 27 2001: A year of big changes for DOE Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:01 a.m. on Monday, December 31, 2001 In January 2001, the Department of Energy indicated it was planning to reduce security at two Oak Ridge facilities. However, following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the federal agency implemented increased security measures on several occasions. by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff The appointment of Spencer Abraham as the federal government's 10th energy secretary kicked off 2001. It was a year in which two major science efforts -- the construction of the Spallation Neutron Source and a new Mouse House -- received full funding requests totaling around $303 million. It was also a year of controversy for the Department of Energy's fiscal year 2002 cleanup budget. Talk of funding cuts fluctuated for most of the year and, to this date, no one has provided a definitive answer as to how much money for cleanup efforts was actually received. DOE started the year talking about reducing security at the Federal Building and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. However, following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the federal agency began implementing several increased security measures -- everything from parking restrictions and random searches to shutting off public access to a five-mile stretch of Bethel Valley Road leading to ORNL. One significant project occurring this year was an investigation into historic contaminations of the Oak Ridge K-25 site's water supply. Just as a draft report was issued in August stating contaminations did exist, DOE opted not to fund the project any more. Through the whole process, the K-25 project was hit with a number of controversies. In fact, some members of the project's Community Input Team unsuccessfully tried to get a legal investigation started because computer hard drives turned up missing and no information was saved following the demolition of Building K-1001, a facility several sick workers say they worked in. Other notable events of 2001 include the following: * On July 31, a national compensation program for job-sickened DOE workers went into effect. As of Dec. 12, around 2,666 claims were filed from Tennessee with 34 of those people receiving checks for $150,000. * Thom Mason replaced David Moncton as head of the Spallation Neutron Source project. Moncton returned full-time to his job at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. * Around 13,000 DOE contractor retirees received an increase in their pension checks of 4 percent to 23 percent, depending on date of retirement. A coalition of retired employees worked for more than five months on getting the pension increases implemented. * Several new union contracts were approved, including deals for Oak Ridge security guards and employees of the Y-12 National Security Complex. Paul Parson can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or pparson@oakridger.com. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 28 AU: Medical researcher wants nuclear investigation to include Pacific sold Radio Australia News - Medical researcher wants nuclear investigation to include Pacific sold A New Zealand medical researcher says an investigation into claims British military staff were deliberately exposed to radiation in the 1950s, should be applied to all servicemen involved. Scotland Yard has begun a criminal investigation into the case of Squadron Leader Eric Denson, a Royal Air Force pilot ordered to fly through a mushroom cloud in 1958 after scientists detonated a nuclear weapon. Professor Sue Rabbitt Roff, from Dundee University Medical School, says she has extensive evidence showing thousands of servicemen on the ground were also exposed to radiation. Those include 551 New Zealand, 22,000 British, 14,000 Australian and 300 Fijian servicemen. Professor Roff claims there is enough evidence that the British government knew of the hazards of exposure to radiation when they detonated 21 nuclear bombs in Australia and the Pacific. 31/12/01 17:11:27 | ABC Radio Australia News ***************************************************************** 29 UK - Widow fights for justice 25 years after suicide of her RAF husband The Scotsman - Saturday, 29th December 2001 A mushroom cloud rises above the Ocean. Gethin Chamberlain IT TOOK Eric Denson three attempts before he managed to kill himself, aged 44. In truth, Squadron Leader Denson had been as good as dead since the Royal Airforce made him fly his Canberra aircraft through a nuclear mushroom cloud 18 years earlier. It was simply a matter of time. Within hours of landing on Christmas Island, he had started vomiting; soon he had developed skin and stomach problems. It was in his head, however, that the The noise was deafening, like 1000 horses thundering towards you - KEN McGINLEY real damage was done. Sqdn Ldr Denson was a changed man, trapped inside his own mind and prey to bouts of depression which would haunt him for the rest of his truncated life. Now his widow, Shirley, wants the Ministry of Defence to admit that what happened that day over a tiny coral atoll in the Indian Ocean led directly to her husband’s death. She wants the MoD to pay for depriving her of a husband and their four children of a father. The police want to know whether it was legal for Sqdn Ldr Denson’s commanding officers to order him to make such a perilous flight. They have launched a criminal You couldn’t touch it or anything, but you knew damn well it was a killer - ERIC DENSON investigation under the auspices of their specialist crime unit, and promised Mrs Denson a totally impartial inquiry. Their interest centres on the details of Operation Grapple Y, which took place on April 28, 1958, over the ocean off the coast of Christmas Island. On that day Britain was due to test a new three-megaton nuclear weapon, and 26-year-old Sqdn Ldr Denson had been detailed to fly through the billowing mushroom cloud to measure the levels of radiation inside. Sqdn Ldr Denson, with eight years in the RAF under his belt, was deeply unhappy about his mission. He was not issued with protective clothing and his Canberra jet, while it held several speed and altitude records, had no special protection from the effects of a nuclear weapon. Despite his misgivings, however, he climbed into the plane - the RAF’s first jet bomber - and took off to circle the blast site. Back on the ground, Sapper Ken McGinley was sitting on the beach when the bomb was detonated out over the ocean. He remembers the noise and a flash of light so bright that when he opened his eyes a fraction he could see the bones of the hands he had jammed into his eyes as clearly as an X-ray. "The noise was deafening, like a thousand horses thundering towards you," he said. "The man next to me broke down and cried." Above him, rising relentlessly into the air, the mushroom cloud continued to grow. Above him too was Sqdn Ldr Denson, swooping in for the first of several passes through the cloud. In the years that followed, Sqdn Ldr Denson talked little about what had happened; his wife only discovered what had occurred when she overheard him talking to her father about the struggle he had to keep the Canberra on course as it was buffeted by the tremendous forces at work inside the mushroom cloud. Before he entered that cloud, one colleague had described Sqdn Ldr Denson as "full of life, confident, kind, thoughtful with a keen sense of humour, and unflappable". As he entered the cloud, however, it was the words of Tennyson’s paean to the Charge of the Light Brigade that coursed through his head. "Into the jaws of Death, into the mouth of Hell," he thought to himself, over and over again. It was another 40 minutes before he was able to land and those on the ground noticed the change in him. A statement from Ken Sutton, an electrical fitter, recorded: "We gave the pilot a wave as he came in to land, but he seemed a bit concerned." If Sqdn Ldr Denson was concerned, it was with good reason. The next day he had to get back in the contaminated plane - codenamed Sniff Two - to retrieve the data recordings, and another exposure to radiation was not a task he relished. "You couldn’t see it, you couldn’t smell it, you couldn’t touch it or anything, but you knew damn well it was a killer," he said later. Official records for 76 Squadron showed that the radiation levels in the plane "slightly exceeded the permitted dose on single penetration". The reality was that the plane was the most contaminated to ever land on Christmas Island - Sqdn Ldr Denson’s widow claims he was exposed to roughly 20 times the recommended safety limit. When he was taken ill a few hours later he was sent back to Britain. Dogged by ill-health, Sqdn Ldr Denson became detached and withdrawn. According to Mrs Denson: "He experienced dreadfully deep depressions and mood swings. He knew something was happening to his head, but he did not know what." In 1976, he finally succeeded in killing himself, leaving behind four children, three still at school, but it was not until nearly 20 years later his wife began to make the connection with the nuclear test. Reading about the plight of other test veterans, she came to realise the effect that the events of that day in 1958 had on her husband. Her research into how radiation could cause depression resulted, three years later, in the government’s decision to award her a war widow’s pension. Instead of leaving it at that, however, Mrs Denson hired lawyer Alan Care to help her prove that the government was responsible for her husband’s death, claiming it "knowingly and maliciously exposed my late husband to deadly and legally prohibited levels of radiation which ultimately led to his death". The police have also taken up the case, launching a criminal investigation into whether it was legal for Sqdn Ldr Denson’s commanding officers to order him to fly through the mushroom cloud to gather radioactive samples. Sqdn Ldr Denson may have been one of the few people ordered to fly through a mushroom cloud, but more than 22,000 British servicemen were involved in the 21 nuclear tests in Australia, Christmas Island and other islands in the region between 1952 and 1958. By the early 1990s, many were suffering from illnesses such as cancers which they associated with the tests and they were beginning to make their voices heard. Since coming to power the present government, which backed the veterans while it was in opposition, has been reluctant to admit a connection between the tests and the levels of illness. Successive legal challenges have failed to make any headway but it is just possible that now, 43 years on from the original test, the suicide of a man who flew through a nuclear mushroom cloud could be about to change all that. ©2002 scotsman.com | contact ***************************************************************** 30 Deadline presses Colo. plant: S.C. OPPOSES ACCEPTING WASTE [charlotte.com] Published Friday, December 28, 2001 Rocky Flats must start shipping plutonium;Hodges still balking Associated Press DENVER -- Plutonium must start leaving Rocky Flats next month to meet a 2006 deadline to close the former nuclear weapons plant, according to the head of the cleanup company. But a January departure is becoming less likely with S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges still threatening to lie down in front of the trucks to stop the shipments of the highly radioactive material. The Energy Department must give South Carolina 30 days' notice before shipments begin. Unless the notice goes out by Monday, the earliest the shipments could begin is Feb. 1. The plutonium is supposed to go to the Energy Department's Savannah River Site near Aiken, but Hodges first wants a written promise that the plutonium will not be stored there permanently. The Energy Department had plans to convert the plutonium to reactor fuel or to immobilize it in glass, but neither proposal was funded by Congress. Energy Department officials have said they'll start looking for alternative places to put the plutonium unless Hodges cooperates. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., is threatening to push for the closure of the Savannah River Site if South Carolina refuses the plutonium. Hodges has dismissed the threat, saying he doubts any other state will want the plutonium without a long-term disposal plan. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said lawmakers from his state are working to find enough money to resurrect the programs to immobilize the plutonium. Theoretically, mid-spring is the latest possible date the shipments could begin and still meet the 2006 closure date, said Alan Parker, the president of Kaiser-Hill Co., the firm conducting the Rocky Flats cleanup. But the Energy Department's entire fleet of specially designed trucks would have to be assigned to the Rocky Flats cleanup to get the shipments done in time, Parker said. All of the plutonium has been moved to a single building so that the rest of the plant can be demolished. Hodges ***************************************************************** 31 Israel Accuses Iran Plan to Destroy Jewish State with Nuclear Weapons [http://www.middleeastwire.com/newswire/] [http://www.voanews.com] Posted Saturday December 29, 2001 - 05:49:44 AM EST Israel says it fears Iran is planning to develop nuclear weapons to annihilate the Jewish state. In a letter Friday to Secretary general Kofi Annan, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said an influential group of Iranians is planning Israel's destruction. Mr. Peres referred to a December 14 speech by former Iranian President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani when he said the Islamic world was seeking atomic bombs to destroy Israel and undermine Western influence in the Middle East. Mr. Peres says the speech is a clear sign of Iranian hatred for Israel and its declared goal to wipe it out. He is asking for U.N. help in pressuring Iran to give up its nuclear program. Iran has not yet responded to the Peres letter, but has always said its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes. © 2001 VOA News. This news item is distributed via Middle East News Online ***************************************************************** 32 NUCLEAR INCIDENTS - NUCLEAR TESTS: HISTORY OF COVER-UP CLAIMS NEWS.scotsman.com - Sat 29 Dec 2001 GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN THE government has frequently been accused of cover-ups over the effects of its nuclear and chemical weapons programmes. More than 22,000 British servicemen were involved in the 21 nuclear tests in Australia, Christmas Island and the Pacific between 1952 and 1958. Two years ago, research conducted by Dundee University suggested that one may have died from fatal bone cancers or leukaemia from Britain’s nuclear tests. The Ministry of Defence has consistently denied the allegations, and attempts to seek redress through the courts have ended in failure. In Australia, however, the government has ordered a review by an independent epidemiologist to examine the incidence of bone cancer. In January this year, the British government launched a new inquiry into the effects of depleted uranium following suggestions that uranium-tipped shells and bullets were responsible for so-called Gulf War syndrome. Test firing of armour- piercing shells tipped with depleted uranium took place on MoD land at Eskmeals in Cumbria and Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway. The inquiry was asked to look at the possible role of depleted uranium in cancers and other serious illnesses occurring in veterans of the Gulf War and Balkans conflict. The Ministry of Defence has repeatedly denied that depleted uranium presents a health risk. The government is also considering an investigation into chemical warfare tests carried out on more than 20,000 service personnel used as human guinea pigs in the laboratories of Porton Down since 1916. The experiments have involved nerve gas and mustard gas, chemical weapons and drugs. Wiltshire police launched an investigation into the death of one 20-year-old airman, Ronald Maddison, in a 1953 nerve gas experiment. The Ministry of Defence has denied that those involved in the tests were placed at risk. Britain has also had an unfortunate track record in terms of nuclear safety. After years of denials the Ministry of Defence recently came clean over seven serious accidents involving nuclear weapons, including an incident in 1977 when a Polaris missile was dropped while being hoisted on to a submarine at Coulport in Argyll and Bute. There were also three road crashes involving vehicles carrying nuclear weapons, including one on the M8 near Glasgow in 1983 and another near Coulport in 1973. ©2002 scotsman.com | contact ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************