*****************************************************************
11/01/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.282
*****************************************************************
RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE
*****************************************************************
Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject
line and first line of body
NUCLEAR POLICY
1 Canada lone NATO country to oppose U.S. nuclear policy*
2 Argentina Nuke Accord Stirs Protest
3 Pentagon Official to Visit Japan
4 Russia Leery of N. Korea's Nuke Info
5 Nuke watchdog wants talks with N. Korea
6 Canberra's plutonium plan lambasted -
7 Seoul sees long, slow diplomacy*
8 Senior Pentagon official to visit Seoul on N.K. nuke issue
9 INDIA: PM blasts West for its nuclear bias
10 Japan must be firm, tenacious and resolute.
11 Abraham Announces Uzbekistan Security Upgrades
12 [ANN]Those tricky axes of evil
13 UK: 'NEW NUCLEAR PLANT WOULD BE GREAT FOR US'*
14 US: UK: BNFL donates $1 million to Bush and friends
NUCLEAR REACTORS
15 US: TVA woos distributors for funds to restart nuke reactor
16 US: NRC to Hold Public Meetings in Mississippi on the Early Site
17 US: NRC Begins Special Inspection of Potential Safety Equipment
18 US: NRC Issues Interim Enforcement Policy For Fitness-for-Duty Issue
19 US: Test for leaks sought at Davis-Besse
20 US: FirstEnergy wants to simulate reactor start for leaks test
21 US: NRC Approves NNSA Tritium Production at TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear
NUCLEAR SAFETY
22 US: Radioactive material found behind store
23 Japanese nuclear safety agency plans fines for reactor safety breach
24 US: Shaw Pittman: DOD Allegedly Covered Up Medical Records
25 US: Study: No Cancer Jump Near Pa. Plant
26 US: Three-Mile Island cancer rates probed
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
27 Nuclear Waste poses a dilemma
28 US: Uranium-mill dispute spurs testing
29 US: PFS Deal No Answer
30 US: Utah: Yes on Initiative 1
31 US: "NUCLEAR CLEAN-UP: WE HAVE GOT TO GET RESPONSIBILITIES RIGHT" -
32 au: Council wants Fed Govt to keep hands off land.
33 LES would keep nuclear waste at site *
34 Rezoning sought for nuclear fuel plant *
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
35 Global nuclear stockpiles, 1945 to 2002*
36 US: Reflections on the golden jubilee of the first H-bomb test.
37 US: FILE UNDER "A" FOR ATOM
38 US: DOES SADDAM ALREADY HAVE A BOMB? by Thomas H. Lipscomb
39 Australia unprepared for nuclear attack warns official
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
40 Congresswoman wants treatment plant used at Livermore lab
41 Tauscher blasts DOE for not opening plant
42 Confusion the word in DOE whistleblower case
43 Superconductivity at ORNL scores breakthrough
44 DOE suit: Allegations affirmed -
OTHER NUCLEAR
45 [radiation-survivors] File - radbooks.txt
46 Experts Question New Energy Sources
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
FULL NEWS STORIES
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
1 Canada lone NATO country to oppose U.S. nuclear policy*
The Globe and Mail /globeandmail.com
By JEFF SALLOT
Friday, November 1, 2002 ? Page A5
OTTAWA -- Canada alone among the NATO allies is voicing
opposition to key elements of U.S. nuclear policy, including
ballistic-missile defence.
Canada supports a United Nations draft resolution that says
development of missile defences could be a setback to nuclear
disarmament and "lead to a new arms race on Earth and in outer
space."
The resolution condemns the development of new types of nuclear
weapons.
U.S. President George W. Bush's administration announced this
year that it intends to develop nuclear warheads that can
penetrate deeply underground before exploding.
The draft resolution, to come to a vote at the General Assembly
this year, calls on the United States and the four other major
nuclear powers to speed efforts to rid themselves of nuclear
weapons.
The original nuclear powers -- the United States, France,
Britain, Russia and China -- have a longstanding commitment under
the nonproliferation treaty to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.
The draft resolution won overwhelming support from UN member
countries at the disarmament committee in a preliminary vote last
Friday.
Canada was among the 118 countries that supported it.
Only seven countries voted against the resolution, including the
three North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries with nuclear
weapons -- the United States, Britain and France.
All the other NATO countries abstained rather than vote against
the three nuclear-armed allies.
The resolution is unlikely to come to a vote at the General
Assembly before the end of November, thus setting the stage for a
possibly divisive debate on nuclear policy at a NATO summit
meeting in Prague on Nov. 21-22.
It is rare for countries to switch their positions between the
committee stage and a General Assembly vote.
Senior government sources in Ottawa said this week that Prime
Minister Jean Chrétien has strong antinuclear views, and is not
inclined to alter Canada's position at the UN.
Officials, however, also said that Canada is not seeking a
confrontation with the United States on nuclear issues at the
NATO summit.
However, some U.S. and Canadian antinuclear activists are drawing
attention to Ottawa's position.
"Canada has a lot to be proud of because it has made a very clear
statement last week at the United Nations" in the disarmament
committee, Jonathan Granoff, president of San Francisco-based
Global Security Institute said this week.
"As an American citizen, I offer my heartfelt gratitude to the
people of Canada," said Mr. Granoff, who was a member of a
delegation of prominent nuclear-disarmament activists, including
former prime minister Kim Campbell.
© 2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
2 Argentina Nuke Accord Stirs Protest
Las Vegas SUN:
October 31, 2002
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina- Hundreds of protesters rallied Thursday
outside Congress against a proposed Argentine nuclear accord with
Australia.
The demonstrators from Greenpeace, Amnesty International and
other groups used their bodies to spell the oversized word "NO"
on the ground.
The protesters charge that the pact will allow nuclear wastes to
be imported, but proponents deny the charges.
Legislative passage is needed to finalize a contract awarded to
an Argentine company, INVAP, by the Australian government in 2000
for the treatment of its nuclear byproducts.
INVAP has argued the proposed law does not violate the
constitution because the byproducts to be sent are not
radioactive and will eventually be returned to Australia.
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
3 Pentagon Official to Visit Japan
Las Vegas SUN:
October 31, 2002
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON- A senior Pentagon official will visit Japan and South
Korea next week to consult on various issues in the aftermath of
North Korea's admission that it has been pursuing a clandestine
nuclear weapons program.
Officials said the weeklong trip by Doug Feith, the
undersecretary of defense for policy, reflects the Bush
administration's interest in coordinating its North Korea policy
with its two closest allies in the region.
The United States military has about 37,000 troops stationed in
South Korea and an additional 47,000 in Japan, but Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has not visited either country since
he took office in January 2001.
The North Koreans' acknowledgment this month that they were
pressing ahead with a nuclear weapons program has unsettled
relations with the United States.
The administration is urging North Korea to abandon the program,
which it considers a violation of North Korea's international
non-nuclear commitments.
Some U.S. experts regard the North Korean acknowledgment as a
strategy to gain new economic and other concessions for the
impoverished nation, and the United States and other powers are
attempting to address the issue diplomatically with the North
Koreans.
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
4 Russia Leery of N. Korea's Nuke Info
Las Vegas SUN
October 31, 2002 By JUDITH INGRAM ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW- In a sharp change of course, Russia on Thursday accused
North Korea of being insufficiently forthcoming about its alleged
nuclear weapons program, the Interfax news agency reported.
The United States said earlier this month that North Korean
officials acknowledged they had a nuclear weapons program during
talks with visiting Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly in
Pyongyang on Oct. 3-5. A U.S official then went to Russia to
present Moscow with evidence of the alleged uranium enrichment
program.
Moscow reacted with caution, saying it would like to
independently check the information before making any definite
conclusions.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said that
Moscow had received an explanation from the North Koreans,
Interfax reported. But he said it was insufficient.
"There is some ambiguity in the statements by North Korean
representatives," Losyukov was quoted as saying in an interview
with the news agency. "In our view, such ambiguity is very
dangerous because it leads to mutual suspicions and can
negatively affect the situation on the Korean peninsula."
But Losyukov said that the United States, too, had to present its
position more clearly, "insofar as the Russian side has not yet
received any convincing evidence of the existence of such a
program."
He said that North Korea, through diplomatic channels, had
provided its version of the talks with Kelly and that there was
no public admission that North Korea had continued its uranium
enrichment program.
Losyukov added that it was unclear whether such an admission had
been made in the meeting with the American, saying it was
"probably expressed as neither admission nor denial."
Pak Ui Chun, North Korea's ambassador to Moscow, said Thursday
that the United States had broken earlier agreements with
Pyongyang by declaring it part of an "axis of evil" along with
Iran and Iraq, freeing his nation of any previous obligations,
Interfax reported.
Despite warmer relations with the United States, Russia has
maintained close ties with North Korea - which President Bush has
dubbed part of an "axis of evil" because of its alleged efforts
to obtain weapons of mass destruction and sponsorship of
international terrorism. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il visited
Russia in August for the second consecutive summer.
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
5 Nuke watchdog wants talks with N. Korea
Friday, November 1, 2002 Posted: 9:31 PM HKT (1331 GMT)
A satellite image of North Korea's suspected nuclear facility
near Yongbyon
Story Tools Save a link to this article and return to it at
www.savethis.comSave a
N. Korea nuclear facts
# North Korea launched a medium-range "test" missile over Japan
in 1998.
# The 1994 Agreed Framework was signed by North Korea with the
Clinton administration.
# In return, an international consortium is building new nuclear
reactors in North Korea.
*VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) --* *The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on
Friday that reports North Korea had a secret nuclear weapons
programme were shocking and that it wants talks with Pyongyang as
soon as possible.*
"The new revelations or reports that they have in addition to
plutonium also a uranium-enrichment programme were quite shocking
to us," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed
ElBaradei told Reuters in an interview.
The United States said North Korea had admitted to having a
secret nuclear weapons programme during a visit to Pyongyang
early last month by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James
Kelly.
ElBaradei said that the reports, if true, were not a complete
surprise as Pyongyang had been in violation of its Safeguards
Agreement with the U.N. agency since 1993.
"They have been in violation of their agreement with us since
1993 when we came to the conclusion that that they have developed
more plutonium than was declared to us," he said.
After learning North Korea might have a uranium-enrichment
programme that could be used to make nuclear weapons, the IAEA
requested immediate talks in Pyongyang or Vienna.
"We have received no response," said ElBaradei.
Earlier on Friday, Pyongyang's Ambassador to China defended North
Korea's right have to nuclear weapons, without saying whether his
country actually had any.
U.S. President George W. Bush has labelled North Korea part of an
"axis of evil" with Iraq and Iran and unveiled a doctrine of
pre-emptive strikes against states allegedly developing weapons
of mass destruction.
Although the IAEA has been carrying out very limited inspections
in North Korea since the early 1990s, it has never been able to
conduct intrusive inspections under the Safeguard Agreement
needed to flush out any secret weapons programme.
Copyright 2002 Reuters
*****************************************************************
6 Canberra's plutonium plan lambasted -
smh.com.au
By Clinton Porteous, in Santiago and agencies
As Argentina's politicians prepare to vote on whether to accept
spent fuel from the new $300 million Sydney research reactor, the
nuclear deal has attracted international criticism.
Two United States academics have urged Australia to reconsider
the Argentine option, saying it could lead to a build-up of
material and expertise for the development of nuclear weapons.
Hundreds of protesters from Greenpeace, Amnesty International and
other groups demonstrated outside Argentina's parliament
yesterday against the legislation.
They claim the legislation violates Argentina's constitution,
which forbids "the entrance of dangerous or potentially dangerous
residuals and radioactive materials".
If Australian spent fuel was sent to Argentina the contract would
partly open a plant designed to separate plutonium that was shut
in 1990 due to international pressure and a lack of funds.
"Australia is facilitating the creation of a possible source of
weapons-useful material," said Frank von Hippel, of the Science
and Global Security Program at Princeton University. "I think it
is an unnecessary extra burden to the world nuclear security
system."
Under the nuclear treaty, the Australian Government will have the
right to demand Argentina oversee treatment of spent fuel from
the new Sydney reactor that its state-owned company, INVAP, is
building.
Argentine nuclear authorities plan to process the spent fuel at
the Ezeiza atomic centre on the outskirts of Buenos Aires before
it is returned to Australia as radioactive waste in glass and
concrete blocks.
While Argentina would only partly open the $540 million Ezeiza
plant, and not separate plutonium, Professor von Hippel said
Australia was creating an unnecessary risk.
"If Argentina wanted to acquire plutonium for weapons again, this
is the plant it would use. It would be a very minor change to
their process to separate out the plutonium. Australia, being
holier than the Pope as far as non-proliferation, really should
take this into consideration."
Matthew Bunn, a nuclear terrorism expert and research associate
at Harvard University, said the Australian contract could help
develop expertise useful in weapons production.
"Anytime you are chemically processing spent fuel at a big
facility, you are gaining valuable experience. I believe
Argentina is committed to a non-nuclear weapons path, but one
never knows about the future."
Not all US nuclear experts are critical of the deal. Fred
McGoldrick, a former senior executive with the US State
Department's non-proliferation branch, said he was not concerned,
as long as plutonium was not separated. The US State Department
declined to comment.
The head of nuclear fuels at the Argentine National Commission of
Atomic Energy, Pablo Adelfang, said that although the Ezeiza
plant was originally built to separate plutonium, this was no
longer an option. "At that time, being a reprocessing plant, it
was designed to produce plutonium. Nowadays that is impossible.
Now we have modified everything."
Copyright © 2002. The Sydney Morning Herald.
*****************************************************************
7 Seoul sees long, slow diplomacy*
*by Kim Young-sae *
November 01, 2002
While humanitarian aid to North Korea will continue, Seoul hinted
yesterday at a drawn-out process as it prepared for a flurry of
diplomacy to mold a multinational strategy to contain
Pyeongyang's nuclear program.
Speaking to reporters, a senior Foreign Ministry official said
yesterday that contrary to some reports about abandoning the 1994
Agreed Framework and suspending civilian aid, no decisions have
been made, and none may come even after the upcoming meeting of
the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group, a U.S., Japanese
and South Korean consultative group, or foreign ministers'
meetings during the Community of Democracies meeting that begins
here Nov. 10. The oversight group meeting is tentatively set for
Nov. 8 in Tokyo.
The official emphasized that there is no plan to suspend the
shipments of heavy fuel oil to the North that are part of the
U.S.-North Korean agreement reached in 1994 that was to have
halted Pyeongyang's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The
construction of two nuclear power reactors in North Korea,
similarly, will continue for the time being.
In Washington, as the Bush administration repeated calls for the
North to dismantle its nuclear program, five lawmakers urged
President George W. Bush to take tougher measures, including a
suspension of funding for the reactors and a permanent
termination of oil shipments. Senators Jesse Helms, Jon Kyl and
Bob Smith and Representatives Chris Cox and Ed Markey said in a
letter to Mr. Bush that the administration must begin preparing
for a new regime in North Korea. Mr. Markey is the sole Democrat
of the five.
The Seoul official brushed aside the North's repeated call for a
nonaggression pact with the United States, saying only that it
was "interesting" that the frequency of the North's statements
has picked up considerably recently. "The issue is the North's
nuclear program, not the pact," he said. "And the correct order
is for the North to resolve the nuclear issue before there can be
any discussion about a pact." Seoul, he said, considers Mr.
Bush's statements that the United States had no plans to attack
North Korea to have been a political assurance, which is "perhaps
more important than any legal assurance on a piece of paper." He
reminded reporters that the North has violated several signed
commitments to suspend its nuclear program.
South Korean Red Cross officials arrived in Mount Geumgang for
talks that are expected to include calls for information about
South Koreans missing since the Korean War.
¨Ï 2002 JoongAng Ilbo , Joins.com
. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
8 Senior Pentagon official to visit Seoul on N.K. nuke issue
Korea Herald!!_National
http://www.koreaherald.com
A senior Pentagon official will visit Seoul next week to discuss
North Korea's nuclear weapons program and a planned meeting
between South Korean and U.S. defense chiefs, the Defense
Ministry said yesterday.
U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith will
arrive here Wednesday for a two-day visit and then travel to
Japan the next day, the ministry said.
Feith will meet Defense Minister Lee Jun and Foreign Minister
Choi Sung-hong and will visit U.S. Forces Korea headquarters and
the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.
"Top on the agenda will be the tension over the North's nuclear
program," Brig. Gen. Hwang Yeoung-soo, ministry spokesman, said.
The two sides will also fine-tune the agenda for the annual
Security Consultation Meeting (SCM) to be held in Washington in
December, he added.
They are also expected to discuss additional contributions from
Seoul to the U.S. war against terrorism. Seoul officials have
recently said that they are considering dispatching Army
engineers to Afghanistan.
Washington wants to fill a military void in the central Asian
nation, as it is pushing to relocate forces to the Middle East
for a possible strike on Iraq.
(jjhwang@koreaherald.co.kr)
2002.11.02
(C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved.
<#> * Dubai:Friday, November 01, 2002*
Mumbai |By Pamela Raghunath | 01-11-2002 *
In a hard-hitting speech on the west's biased attitude, Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee yesterday said India's peaceful
nuclear power programme needed to be emphasised because in some
circles abroad atomic energy seemed to raise only visions of the
atom bomb or of nuclear war.
On a sarcastic note and without naming any country, he urged "the
high priests of non-proliferation to look around and tackle the
clandestine, illegal development and transfer of nuclear and
missile technologies, rather than targetting countries which
played by the rules.
"They might then be persuaded to look at atomic energy in India
as an engine of growth and progress and not through the prism of
nuclear weapons," Vajpayee told the scientific establishment at
the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Department of Atomic
Energy.
He added that ever since India conducted its first nuclear tests
in 1974, the country has been denied technologies and scientific
equipment on the "unfounded suspicion that they may be applied to
a weapons programme".
Vajpayee was speaking at the celebration of the Founder's Day,
the 93rd birth anniversary of Dr Homi Bhabha, who is often called
the father of India's atomic energy programme.
While inviting foreign partners to join India in this important
development sector, he urged them to dispel any misconceptions
about the country's weapons programme which was limited in scope
and developed totally indigenously without violating
international obligations.
"We have been transparent about it. The reasons for our nuclear
testing in May 1998 are well known. We emphasise our nuclear
doctrine on minimum credible deterrence."
The Indian nuclear power programme has an entirely different
development objective and "we have repeatedly said that every
cooperation project in nuclear power would be open to
international safeguards".
There are eight nuclear power plants under construction that will
add around 4000 MW to the installed power capacity by 2008 and an
ambitious goal targets generation of 20,000 MW of nuclear power
by the year 2000. Calling nuclear power environment-friendly, he
said nuclear power meets just two per cent of overall electricity
needs and this, it is hoped, would change soon.
Vajpayee's criticism was not just relegated to atomic energy but
also referred to the environment. "Even as I speak here,
environment ministers of the world are gathered in Delhi to
discuss action to promote the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol on
Climate Change. It is truly ironic that we are lectured on our
moral obligations to clamp down on emissions while being denied
international technological cooperation."
During his visit to the BARC, the prime minister, through remote
control, inaugurated BARC's new facilities that included the
Sprout Control in Onion and Conservation of Agricultural Produce
(a radiation processing facility) at Lasalgaon, Nashik, the
Nuclear Desalination Demonstration Project, Kalpakkam, Tamil
Nadu, the Medical Cyclotron - Positron Emission Tomography
Facility at the Radiation Medicine Centre, Parel, Mumbai, and the
refurbished 40 MW Thermal Research Reactor called the Cirus at
the BARC complex in Trombay.
He also gave away awards of the Indian Nuclear Society (INS) and
DAE to scientists and technologists who have made major
contributions in their fields. The INS Homi Bhabha Lifetime
Achievement Award (2001) was presented to Dr M.R. Srinivasan,
former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
Urging scientists and engineers to continue on the path of
innovation and invention, he said that despite denial of
technology by certain regimes after India conducted its nuclear
test, "our scientists in atomic energy, space and other high
technology areas achieved success with indigenously developed
expertise".
Paying tribute to Dr Bhabha who shaped the scientific temper of
the country, he said because of visionaries like him, India was
at the forefront of the knowledge revolution which drives the new
economy. Even though India owed a huge debt to the excellence of
its scientific and technical personnel, "much of this talent
found its way abroad. We need to retain some of these skills in
our country for our own accelerated progress".
Al Nisr Publishing LLC
*****************************************************************
10 Japan must be firm, tenacious and resolute.
asahi.com : ENGLISH
Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com [http://www.asahi.com/] JAPANESE
EDITORIAL: Tokyo-Pyongyang talks
Two days of talks on establishing formal diplomatic relations
between Japan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(North Korea), suspended for two years, have ended in Kuala
Lumpur.
North Korea refused to budge on the matter of Japanese abducted
by North Korean agents and insisted that its nuclear weapons
program was open for discussion only with the United States.
Pyongyang's attitude was dismaying.
The meeting of senior Japanese and North Korean officials in
Malaysia-the first significant diplomatic contact the two
countries have had since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's
groundbreaking Sept. 17 visit to Pyongyang-seems to suggest a
rough road for Japan's negotiators. The tone of North Korea's
responses to Japan's positions has cast considerable doubt on its
resolve to honor the commitments made in the Pyongyang
declaration.
In the Kuala Lumpur meetings, Japan told North Korea it wants the
families of the five surviving abducted Japanese, now in Japan,
come join them, and asked North Korea to arrange the schedule for
their visit to Japan. North Korea's representatives, clearly
antagonized by the request, said Japan had reneged on assurances
the homecoming for the five would be temporary.
As the Japanese negotiators correctly noted, however, this is an
issue created in the first place by North Korea's criminal
abductions. Since Pyongyang had earlier pledged to let the
abductees and their families come to Japan, it should cooperate
in the effort to make that possible.
The abductees followed the negotiations anxiously. They were
probably concerned that they might not see their families in
North Korea again for a long time. The government should make
every effort to ensure those people will suffer no more.
Regarding bilateral security talks specified in the Koizumi-Kim
declaration, Japan proposed an initial meeting in November. We
welcome North Korea's agreement to that proposal.
But North Korea's insistence that its clandestine nuclear weapons
program is a matter that can only be negotiated with the United
States is totally unacceptable. The country's nuclear arms
program is a matter of grave concern for Japan as well.
Even if North Korea hopes to negotiate with the United States on
its weapons program, President George W. Bush has made it clear
he has no intention of talking to North Korea. North Korea's
leaders should realize they cannot hope to sort out this problem
without help from Tokyo.
The abandoning of North Korea's nuclear ambitions is as key to
normalization of relations with Japan as is cooperating to
arrange visits to Japan by families of the abductees. Delaying
normalization would prevent Japan from making any serious
``reckoning with history'' by compensating for its colonial rule
of the Korean Peninsula-the top North Korean priority.
Japan doesn't want that either. Japan must face its past, and
that involves sorting things out with North Korea.
The meetings in Malaysia underscored the chasm between Japan and
North Korea. Even so, considering previous discussions with the
reclusive regime, it is clear that the landmark Koizumi-Kim
summit dramatically changed the climate between the two
countries.
The previous normalization talks broke down in acrimony and left
the two sides infinitely distanced after North Korean negotiators
spelled out their demands, leaving Japan to think talks were just
a waste of time.
This time, though, North Korea's delegates have dropped many
hints that they do not want to see the process break down, even
though they stick to their old official line. While rejecting the
Japanese demand to immediately scrap the nuclear weapons program,
for instance, the North Koreans said they understood Japan's
concerns and were willing to discuss the issue. They also
proposed holding the next meeting in November.
There is probably no hope for having all these intractable issues
resolved quickly, despite the breakthough the leaders made in
their joint declaration. Japan should be tenacious in talks,
saying its piece clearly and making no unnecessary concessions.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 31(IHT/Asahi: November 1,2002)
(11/01)
[Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction
*****************************************************************
11 Abraham Announces Uzbekistan Security Upgrades
NNSA Press Release - NA-02-25 -
October 21, 2002 Download the Official
Press Release
Secretary Abraham Announces Completion of Security Upgrades at
Uzbekistan Nuclear Facility
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration
(NNSA) and the U.S. Department of State have completed a
cooperative effort with the Republic of Uzbekistan to install
additional physical security improvements at a nuclear facility
near Tashkent.
NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency of the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE), recently completed the improvements at the Institute of
Nuclear Physics in Uzbekistan. Personnel from NNSA’s Office of
Nonproliferation and International Security, the State
Department’s Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund, Sandia
National Laboratory and the Uzbek Institute of Nuclear Physics
participated.
DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham said that the recent upgrades are
part of an overall nonproliferation effort that is among his
highest priorities. “The efforts of Uzbek officials were crucial
in furthering international nonproliferation and counter
terrorism efforts. By increasing security at this location we
have contributed to improving the national security of the United
States and others in the international community,” he said.
NNSA Acting Administrator Linton Brooks agreed, adding, “Nuclear
materials security is a worldwide problem. While the
responsibility for progress in nuclear and radiological security
falls on the shoulders of individual nations, NNSA will continue
assisting in improving security and fostering nonproliferation.”
The upgrades advance the Bush administration’s nonproliferation
goal of increasing the security and control of nuclear materials.
Better security at the Institute became an urgent concern when
terrorism risks escalated in the region.
The improvements include an enhanced security perimeter that
contains special fencing, exterior intrusion detection sensors,
cameras, and lights installed around the research reactor at the
Institute of Nuclear Physics.
Media Contacts: Bryan Wilkes (202) 586-7371
Release No. NA-02-25
*****************************************************************
12 [ANN]Those tricky axes of evil
welcome to Korea Herald!!_Oped
http://www.koreaherald.com
DawnAsia News Network
KARACHI, Pakistan - Never trust an axis of evil. First, when
President George W. Bush threatened to invade Iraq if it didn't
readmit U.N. arms inspectors, that tricky Saddam immediately
agreed. "Welcome back to beautiful Baghdad," he told U.N.
inspectors, leaving the Bush administration gnashing its teeth in
frustration.
If the U.N. didn't give him a green light to re-bomb Iraq back to
the Stone Age, Bush thundered with stunning illogic, he would
ignore the U.N. Security Council and take action unilaterally.
The very same Bush had a few days earlier vowed to invade Iraq
because it was ignoring the Security Council.
As this tragic farce was unfolding, a new bombshell erupted when
that other tricky axis of evil, North Korea, revealed it had
nuclear weapons. Now, the CIA has known since 1993 that North
Korea had at least 2-3 nuclear weapons and 5,000 tons of poison
gas and germs, plus the missiles and artillery to deliver them
onto Seoul, the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, all of Japan,
and U.S. bases in Okinawa and Guam.
Faced with the choice of removing North Korea's weapons of mass
destruction through war, or pretending that they didn't exist,
the Clinton administration chose to buy North Korea's silence
with 4 billion dollars in oil, food and nuclear reactors. The
Bush administration followed the same see-no-evil policy until
last week's hugely embarrassing revelation from the North
Koreans.
And what was Bush's response? He lamely called for "tough
negotiations" with North Korea. This from the same president who
refuses to have any negotiations with Iraq over the very same
issue. So, the Bush administration is rushing plans to invade
Iraq, which has zero offensive capability, while calling for
talks with North Korea, which has 100 intermediate ranged No-dong
missiles pointed at South Korea, Japan, and U.S. Pacific bases,
100,000 crack commando troops whose mission is to launch suicide
assaults on all U.S. military bases in the region, and is about
to deploy an ICBM that can deliver a nuclear warhead to the
continental United States.
Confronted by this glaring contradiction, Bush claimed war
against Iraq was necessary because Saddam was a "uniquely evil"
dictator who had gassed his own people.
North Korea's "Dear Leader," Kim Jong-il, with his weird bouffant
hairdo, pot belly, and ill-fitting khaki jump suits looks and
acts like a hostile alien from outer space in a Japanese science
fiction movie. Kim's Stalinist regime, with whom Bush wants to
negotiate, has just allowed two million of its citizens to starve
to death in order to amply feed and supply the communist party
and the military, and conduct secret nuclear and missile
programs. Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are in prison
camps. North Korea has kidnapped Japanese, bombed civilian
airliners, and committed many acts of aggression and terrorism.
As for Saddam gassing his own people - meaning Kurdish rebels
during the Iran-Iraq War - Bush's outrage is utter hypocrisy. The
United States and Britain supplied Iraq with its chemical and
biological weapons, financed Saddam's aggression against Iran,
and made no protests when Saddam used such weapons.
Rather than calling for war against Iraq for events that occurred
in the 1980s, President Bush would do well to do something about
the current use by his closest ally and mentor, Israel, of
U.S.-supplied tanks, helicopter gunships, ground attack aircraft,
and heavy anti-tank missiles against Palestinian civilians, a
brazen violation of American laws which forbid the use of U.S.
weapons against civilians.
Why does Bush continue to fulminate against Iraq while
pussyfooting around North Korea? Because North Korea has no oil
and is not the target of the powerful pro-Israel lobby.
As former New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis writes, where
would Bush, who has "the most dismal record of any president in
memory," be without his Iraqi crusade? Facing soaring deficits,
financial scandals, and a world that sees his bellicose
administration led by a cabal of Pentagon extremists, rather than
Iraq, as the real international menace.
The Pentagon estimates it can crush Iraq's feeble armed forces in
a week and totally occupy the nation in 30 days with only modest
casualties. Bush's jolly little war in Iraq promises to be short
and, he hopes, sweet.
North Korea is a different matter. The North has a tough,
million-man army that has considerable defensive power in spite
of obsolete equipment. North Korea has repeatedly threatened to
"burn" Seoul and its seven million inhabitants, as well as the
U.S. 2nd Infantry Division on the DMZ, with chemical and perhaps
biological weapons. In 1993, the Pentagon estimated that a
full-scale war with North Korea would cost U.S. forces 250,000
casualties.
Better to create a straw bogeyman in Baghdad, reckons Bush, and
then triumphantly knock it down, than to tangle with those scary
North Koreans.
By Eric S. Margolis
2002.11.02
(C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
13 UK: 'NEW NUCLEAR PLANT WOULD BE GREAT FOR US'*
*****************************************************************
15 TVA woos distributors for funds to restart nuke reactor
By Duncan Mansfield, Associated Press
November 1, 2002
The Tennessee Valley Authority is turning to its distributors for
help raising millions of dollars for restarting an Alabama
nuclear reactor and other big-ticket expenditures.
Memphis Light, Gas &Water Division, TVA's largest customer, made
the initial offer - a $1.5 billion deal that would guarantee the
Memphis distributor TVA electric rates at a discount for 15
years.
TVA officials liked the idea enough to fashion it into a
"discounted energy unit" program now being offered to the 157
other distributors in the seven-state TVA service area.
"We are enthused about it, and I would think so would TVA and the
rest of the valley," Herman Morris, MLGW's president and CEO,
said Wednesday. "It appears to benefit us and them at the same
time."
"This is a win-win plan," TVA Chairman Glenn McCullough said
during a TVA directors' briefing Wednesday with the news media.
The nation's largest public utility faces major capital expenses
in the next few years, while trying to continue reducing a $25
billion debt that has been trimmed some $2.5 billion since 1997.
The agency will spend $1.8 billion to return to service the
mothballed, 1,250-megawatt Unit One reactor at the Browns Ferry
nuclear station in north Alabama by 2007 - beginning with $353
million in fiscal 2003.
TVA also plans to spend about $1 million a day through the end of
the decade on new pollution controls for its 11 coal-fired power
stations - including some $527 million in fiscal 2003.
A Boston-based consultant is reviewing private financing options
for the Browns Ferry reactor to help TVA avoid borrowing. Chief
Financial Officer David Smith said proposals could be presented
to the TVA board in the next few months.
"I know there is considerable interest, but it is more at the
concept level (now)," McCullough said.
Meantime, the Memphis utility has asked the U.S. Treasury
Department to approve the use of tax-exempt bonds for what would
be a $1.5 billion prepayment on the utility's electric bill and
the biggest bond issue in Memphis history.
Morris said he is encouraged that federal regulations already
permit similar deals involving natural gas suppliers.
The Memphis utility estimates it could lock in rate savings that
could amount to $225 million, or about $15 million a year, over
the 15-year life of the contract.
McCullough said such an arrangement would be an investment in the
TVA system that would provide the agency with "cash flow to run
our business" while giving the distributor "a discount against
the future price of electric power."
"Even without restarting Browns Ferry One, I think it would make
good business sense that TVA have a program like that," said Bill
Baxter, who serves on the three-member TVA board with McCullough.
"In the larger scheme of things we couldn't possibly finance the
whole thing (Browns Ferry), but it might be a small part of it,"
he said.
TVA officials presented the discount rate plan in September to
the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, the
Chattanooga-based trade group that represents TVA distributors.
The association took no position on the program, saying it was
"an individual distributor's prerogative to support it or not
participate," spokesman Phillip Burgess said.
Greg Fay, general manager of Clinton Utilities Board, praised the
program. "What better way to invest than in the family," he said.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
16 NRC to Hold Public Meetings in Mississippi on the Early Site
Permit Process for the Grand Gulf Site
NRC: News Release - Region IV - 2002-045 -
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs,
Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011
www.nrc.gov
No. IV-02-045 October 31,
2002 CONTACT: Roger Hannah Phone: 817-860-8128 E-mail:
[opa4@nrc.gov]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold two public
meetings on November 14, 2002, in Port Gibson, Mississippi, to
discuss its review process for an early site permit application
from Entergy Inc. at its Grand Gulf site. Entergy has notified
the NRC that it expects to file an application in June 2003 for
one or more new reactors at that site. The meetings scheduled for
November 14 are designed to provide information on the NRC Early
Site Permit review process, as well as outline future
opportunities for public involvement in that process. Additional
information on the early site permit process is on the NRCs web
site at
www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/license-reviews/esp.html.
The meetings will be held in Port Gibson City Hall, 1005 College
Street in Port Gibson, and parking will be available in the rear
of the City Hall Building. The two meetings will be similar with
one in the afternoon at 2:00 and one in the evening at 7:00. In
addition, the NRC staff will host an open house beginning one
hour before each meeting. During the open house period,
individual NRC staff members will be available for informal
discussions about the early site permit process.
Although only very limited construction activities would be
allowed by the NRC under an early site permit, the permit would
allow the applicant to resolve many environmental, site safety
and emergency planning issues before beginning actual
construction of a new reactor facility. If the NRC approves the
new reactor site, Entergy could hold or bank the Grand Gulf
site for up to 20 years before filing an application with the NRC
for approval to begin construction of a new facility.
Friday, November 01, 2002
*****************************************************************
17 NRC Begins Special Inspection of Potential Safety Equipment
Problem at Point Beach Nuclear Power Station
NRC: News Release - Region III - 2002-059 -
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs,
Region III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 www.nrc.gov
No. III-02-059 November 1,
2002 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Viktoria Mitlyng
(630) 829-9662 E-mail: [opa3@nrc.gov]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun a special team
inspection of a potential problem with an auxiliary cooling
system at the Point Beach Nuclear Power Station. The two-reactor
facility, located near Two Rivers, Wisconsin, is operated by the
Nuclear Management Company. On October 29 the company reported
that the auxiliary feedwater system might fail to function under
certain abnormal conditions. Normal plant operations would not be
affected by the problem. The utility took prompt corrective
actions to revise procedures and train reactor operators to
address the immediate safety concerns. Both reactors remain in
operation.
Plant personnel found the problem on October 24 during testing of
one of four pumps in the system. The auxiliary feedwater system
is used to safely shut down the reactor if problems occur during
plant operations and to continue removing heat from the reactor
after shutdown.
When the pumps are operating, they require a minimum flow of
water to prevent damage to the pumps. Each pump has a
recirculation pipe that provides a continuous flow of water
through the pump.
When plant personnel evaluated the test results, they found that
the flow in this recirculation pipe was reduced by foreign
material in the pipe. The other three pumps in the auxiliary
feedwater system were subsequently tested, and no problems were
found.
The auxiliary pumps are designed to start automatically, when
needed, but the pump flow must be subsequently adjusted by
reactor operators to meet reactor cooling requirements.
As reactor operators reduce the flow from one or more of the
pumps, according to standard emergency procedures, the pumps
could be damaged because of the lack of adequate water flow due
to the buildup of foreign material in the recirculation pipe.
Friday, November 01, 2002
*****************************************************************
18 NRC Issues Interim Enforcement Policy For Fitness-for-Duty Issues
NRC: News Release - 2002- 128 -
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs
Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail:
opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov
No. 02-128 October 31, 2002
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is publishing an
interim policy regarding enforcement discretion for certain
fitness-for-duty issues that affect employees at nuclear power
plants and workers performing activities related to strategic
special nuclear materials. "Fitness for duty" refers to a 1989
NRC rule that requires licensees authorized to operate nuclear
power reactors and licensees authorized to possess, use or
transport formula quantities of these special nuclear materials
to establish programs to deter and detect employee substance
abuse.
As a result of rulemaking activities, the NRC learned of licensee
practices in two fitness-for-duty areas, "suitable inquiry" and
"pre-access testing," that did not meet current regulations.
Current regulations require licensees to conduct a "suitable
inquiry" into an individual's employment history for the past
five years to identify any substance abuse problems.
The discretion policy allows licensees to forego a suitable
inquiry for individuals being reinstated or transferred after an
interruption in authorization of 30 days or less. Based upon
industry experience, the NRC has concluded that there is limited
risk from individuals who have established a work history within
the nuclear industry, have previously met the access
authorization and fitness-for-duty regulations for granting and
maintaining authorization, and have a short break in
authorization due to a vacation or a transfer to a different
site.
The fitness-for-duty regulations require self-disclosure of any
drug- and alcohol-related problems that may have occurred during
the period of interruption prior to reinstating authorization to
provide additional assurance that any developing substance abuse
problems are detected for the period in which authorization was
interrupted.
The policy allows licensees to rely upon the information
gathered by previous licensees, and by contractors/vendors with
licensee-approved, fitness-for-duty programs, to meet the
suitable inquiry requirement.
The discretion policy also allows licensees to forego a
pre-access test for individuals being reinstated or transferred
with an interruption in authorization of 30 days or less,
provided the individual was favorably terminated and provides a
self-disclosure. In addition, no pre-access test is required for
individuals being reinstated or transferred with an interruption
in authorization between 31 and 60 days or less, provided they
were covered by a contractor/vendor fitness-for-duty program
during that period and the program includes the same elements as
an NRC-approved program.
The NRC does not intend to pursue past violations of the
fitness-for-duty rule by licensees who followed practices now
permitted by this interim policy. The NRC believes this exercise
of enforcement discretion is appropriate.
The interim enforcement policy will be effective on December 30,
60 days after publication in the Federal Register today, and will
be used until final amendments to the fitness-for-duty
requirements become effective.
A copy of the interim enforcement policy will be available on the
NRC's Web site at www.nrc.gov [http://www.nrc.gov] , What We Do;
Enforcement; then Enforcement Policy, or by sending an e-mail to
fitnessforduty@nrc.gov [ fitnessforduty@nrc.gov] .
Comments on the interim policy may be sent to Michael Lesar,
Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative
Services, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: T6D59, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001.
Friday, November 01, 2002
*****************************************************************
19 Test for leaks sought at Davis-Besse
The Plain Dealer
11/01/02 John Mangels and John Funk Plain Dealer Reporters
With two rounds of lab trials still unable to determine whether
the bottom of Davis-Besse's reactor is leaking, FirstEnergy Corp.
plans a much larger-scale test - taking the reactor up to
operating conditions to see if any coolant seeps out.
The possibility of cracks and leaks in the nozzles that
carry instruments up through the bottom of the reactor into the
core emerged as a concern at Davis-Besse last month.
Before that, the Toledo-area plant had been dealing with
cracks and leaks in the nozzles atop the reactor's lid, which led
to a large rust hole.
The damage has kept the plant shut down nearly nine
months and has prompted federal regulators and the nuclear
industry to re-think how they deal with corrosion.
The seven-day power-up test, which the company wants to
do in late December, involves reloading the fuel rods, bolting
down the reactor's new lid, and turning on the
coolant-circulating pumps. The pumps' heat and the natural decay
of the radioactive fuel will bring the reactor to its normal
operating temperature and pressure.
The control rods will remain in the core, however,
preventing the nuclear reaction from starting, said FirstEnergy
spokesman Todd Schneider.
After a week of simulated operation, the reactor will be
shut down and its fuel removed. Inspectors will look underneath
the reactor for any sign of the rust stains that initially
triggered the leak fears.
Although FirstEnergy informed investors of its testing
plans yesterday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not yet
approved the approach.
"We have not said, 'Yes, that's the thing to do,' or,
'No, it's not,' " said NRC spokesman Jan Strasma. "We expect
there will be additional discussions on this and other possible
options."
If leaks are found, FirstEnergy believes it can make
repairs and stay on schedule to restart the plant early next
year.
That presumes, though, that such cracks won't raise a new
set of regulatory and research issues for the company to
overcome. No utilities have ever found cracks in the bottom
nozzles, where metal stresses are supposedly less because of the
lower temperature there.
"We don't think we do [have leaks]," Schneider said.
Instead, the company thinks the rust stains were caused by
workers power-washing the rusty lid, or from runoff when the lid
was removed for refueling. Though chemical tests couldn't trace
the stains back to the lid, he said, the low level of
radioactivity in them suggests that the coolant that caused the
rust did not leak from the core through the reactor's base.
The corrosion that has scarred Davis-Besse's reactor
continues to erode the NRC's confidence that 68 other similar
reactors are rust-free. This week the agency ratcheted up the
pressure on those plants to prove that they are doing thorough
corrosion inspections in vital parts of the reactor other than
the lid.
The NRC is unsatisfied with the plants' responses so far
to a Davis-Besse-inspired bulletin this spring warning of
corrosion danger and seeking assurances that the utilities are
doing proper checks.
The agency's concerns are twofold: that it can't tell
whether some operators are doing adequate inspections throughout
their plants, and that the engineering code that guides
inspections isn't thorough enough in light of Davis-Besse.
"Davis-Besse threw into question the efficacy of
[corrosion] inspection programs," said Brian Sheron, the NRC's
associate director for licensing and technical analysis. "We have
confidence there are no plants with any kind of corrosion [on the
lid] like Davis-Besse, but we want to . . . make sure the
industry has a program in place so that we know there is not
going to be corrosion" elsewhere.
To reach these reporters:
jmangels@plaind.com, 216-999-4842
jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138
© 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.
Advertise With Us © 2002 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
20 FirstEnergy wants to simulate reactor start for leaks test
AP Wire | 11/01/2002 |
BEACON JOURNAL
CLEVELAND - FirstEnergy Corp. wants to run a test through a
simulated restart in late December to determine if there may be
leaks near the base of the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant.
The possibility of cracks and leaks in the nozzles near the
bottom of the reactor into the core emerged as a concern at
Davis-Besse last month.
Workers at the plant in Oak Harbor, near Toledo, were already
involved in fixing the reactor's lid's corrosion. FirstEnergy
wants clearance for a restart of power generation next year.
Davis-Besse was shut down for routine maintenance in February.
But investigators in March found that leaking boric acid had
nearly eaten through the 6-inch steel cap on the reactor vessel.
The planned seven-day test involves reloading the fuel rods,
securing the reactor's new lid and turning on coolant circulation
pumps, The Plain Dealer reported Friday.
Control rods will remain in the core, however, preventing the
nuclear reaction from starting, said FirstEnergy spokesman Todd
Schneider.
After a week of simulated operation, the reactor will be shut
down and its fuel removed. Inspectors will look for any sign of a
problem.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not approved the test, said
NRC spokesman Jan Strasma.
"We expect there will be additional discussions on this and other
possible options," he said.
ON THE NET
www.firstenergycorp.com
Information from: The Plain Dealer
*****************************************************************
21 NRC Approves NNSA Tritium Production at TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear Station
October 21, 2002 Download the Official
DOE and NNSA Announce Partnership Between Sandia and Cray Inc.
for Innovative Supercomputer Supporting Stockpile Stewardship
Program
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy’s National
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Sandia National
Laboratories and Cray Inc. signed a contract for a multi-year
project, valued at approximately $90 million, to develop and
deliver a massively parallel processing supercomputer for the
Advanced Simulation and Computing program (ASCI).
Named “Red Storm,” the supercomputer represents another step
forward toward meeting the science-based simulation requirements
of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Stockpile Stewardship
Program, to assess and certify the safety, security, and
reliability of the nation’s nuclear deterrent.
“The Department of Energy has a successful history of advancing
high performance technical computing through mutually beneficial
partnerships with the U.S. computer industry,” said Secretary of
Energy Spencer Abraham. “Red Storm will serve the nation’s
security mission and be instrumental in assuring continued
confidence in the nuclear stockpile.”
Acting NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks stated, “Computational
modeling and prediction are integral to every activity within
Stockpile Stewardship. ASCI’s state-of-the-art computer
simulations and supercomputers are fully utilized in our daily
stewardship responsibilities. This next supercomputer is an
important step towards extending our computational capability and
towards meeting computing capacity demands of nuclear weapons
stewardship.”
With a theoretical peak performance of 40 trillion operations per
second, Red Storm is expected to be operational in Fiscal Year
2004. Red Storm will be the latest in a sequence of world-leading
supercomputers following NNSA’s strategy to provide computational
capability for simulating complete operations of nuclear weapons
and to provide computing resources necessary to ensure the
continued health of the nuclear stockpile. NNSA’s ASCI program
partners with U.S. computer manufacturers to accelerate the
development of the larger, faster computer systems and software
needed for the demanding stewardship simulations.
NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency of the DOE. It enhances U.S.
national security through the military application of nuclear
energy, maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, promotes
international nuclear non-proliferation and safety, reduces
global danger from weapons of mass destruction, provides the U.S.
Navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion, and oversees
national laboratories to maintain U.S. leadership in science and
technology.
Media Contacts: Bryan Wilkes (202) 586-7371
Release No. NA-02-24
*****************************************************************
22 Radioactive material found behind store
Denver Post.com
Denver Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 01, 2002 -
Low-grade radioactive material was found near a garbage bin
behind a Denver sandwich shop Thursday evening, forcing a street
to be sealed off and the store closed as a precaution.
Workers at the Subway store at 472 Broadway found a box about the
size of a cooler chest bearing a radioactive-material warning
about 6:30 p.m. and called the Denver Fire Department, said
assistant chief Larry Williams.
The source of the radioactive material had not been determined as
of Thursday night, but officials said it did not pose an
immediate threat.
Brandon Low, who works at the Subway, was smoking a cigarette
behind the store when he saw a man running away from the garbage
bin. He took a closer look.
"I just got close enough to where I could see it," Low said. "I
knew anything like this shouldn't be near a business."
Low told the store's assistant manager, Laniece Redwine, and she
called the Fire Department.
"I think about kids," Redwine said. "Kids can totally get to it
and bring it home."
Hazardous-material team members took Geiger-counter readings of
the material and determined it was no immediate threat, said
Williams.
Still, Williams told Redwine to close the store. East Fifth
Avenue between Broadway and Lincoln Street was shut down until
the material could be safely removed.
All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post
*****************************************************************
23 Japanese nuclear safety agency plans fines for reactor safety breaches
Hoover's US, France, Italy, Spain, Germany |
November 1, 2002 7:41am
Tokyo, 1 November: The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said
Friday [1 November] it has drafted law revisions featuring fines
of up to 300m yen and imprisonment to prevent a recurrence of the
recent reactor damage cover-up scandal at Tokyo Electric Power
Co. (TEPCO).
The agency, a unit of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry, plans to get cabinet approval next Tuesday for
submitting the bills to the ongoing extra Diet session, agency
officials said.
When enacted, the revised Electric Utility Law and Nuclear
Reactor Regulation Law will have new penalty clauses, including
prison terms of up to three years for violators.
The penalties would take effect within three months of enactment,
the officials said.
A 300m yen fine would be applicable if a power company failed to
meet government orders to repair facilities or equipment that has
been found out of compliance with technical safety standards
under the law, the agency said.
A mechanism to fine companies 100 times the amount usually
imposed on individuals - up to 3m yen - for such serious breach
will be introduced to prevent systematic violation of law, it
said.
To strengthen nuclear safety regulations, the agency will
legislate for utilities' voluntary facility inspections to be
carried out regularly, and require the firms to retain such
records.
When utilities find cracks and other faults that pose no
immediate threat to the reactor's safety in the course of such
inspections, they will be required to measure the possibility of
the faults developing and endangering safety, it said.
When it needs to look into cases in detail, the government will
be enabled to require non-utility companies that have undertaken
facility maintenance and inspections to submit their records.
Utilities are currently required to do so.
To enhance the government's double-check system of safety
regulations, the agency will be required to report annually to
the Nuclear Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office from fiscal
2003 on what it has examined in all facility phases - from the
planning and construction to maintenance and operation.
The agency will set up a new administrative body called "the
nuclear safety foundation organization" within a year of
enactment of another law to examine whether utilities are
carrying out voluntary inspections properly, it said.
The creation of such an independent administrative body has been
planned under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administrative
reform, but it now may be reinforced following the TEPCO scandal,
the officials said.
Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 0942 gmt 1 Nov 02
/© BBC Monitoring
Copyright 2002. All Rights Reserved.
Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Africa Intelligence
*****************************************************************
24 Shaw Pittman: DOD Allegedly Covered Up Medical Records
U.S. Newswire 30 Oct 13:29
Shaw Pittman: Vietnam-Era DOD Secretary Robert Mcnamara, Current
VA and DOD Officials Allegedly Covered Up Medical Records
To: National Desk Contact: Nicole Quigley, 202-973-1328, for Shaw
Pittman, LLP, or nquigley@levick.com
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Former Defense Secretary
Robert S. McNamara is among 11 defendants named in two
first-of-their-kind class action lawsuits for allegedly covering
up medical records without which veterans of atomic, biological
and chemical warfare testing cannot receive needed medical and
other benefits. The plaintiffs include veterans, their families,
and the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), who allege a
deliberate and ongoing cover-up by U.S. government officials to
conceal and ignore relevant records, many of which are personal
medical records that would allow them to seek proper benefits
from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the often
devastating long-term health effects of the government's testing
of weapons of mass destruction.
Brought by the law firm of Shaw Pittman, LLP, the complaints --
one for veterans exposed to atomic detonations and the other for
veterans exposed to biological and chemical tests, as well as
their survivors -- aim to hold the government officials
personally responsible for their involvement in illegal and
unethical activities and to obtain justice for aging veterans.
The complaints tell disturbingly similar stories of government
and military officials protecting the government and themselves
from liability for the effects of cold war atomic, biological,
and chemical experiments on their own troops, sailors, airmen,
and marines.
The complaints point to several smoking guns, including a White
House memo that describes the classification of records as a
tactic to minimize public relations risks and ultimately limit
the government's legal liability. The veterans and their families
also cite original test documents and reports that record
large-scale radiation overexposures and medical test procedures
that directly contradict government and military official
statements that veterans were not used as test subjects and were
not exposed to unsafe levels of radiation.
The "Atomic Veteran" plaintiffs consist of approximately 415,000
surviving veterans exposed to radiation as part of the
government's atomic testing and military programs in the
1940-1950s and their survivors. The plaintiffs in the second
complaint are the approximately 10,000 military personnel used as
involuntary test subjects in biological and chemical warfare
tests in the 1960s known as "Project SHAD" (Shipboard Hazard and
Defense). Additionally, VVA serves as a named plaintiff in the
SHAD case on behalf of the thousands of Vietnam-era veterans
affected by the government's actions
"The VA has a statutory mandate to advocate for and protect the
interests of these veterans, but instead VA officials have
purposefully failed them. This is the age of Enron, when the
government contends that you are personally responsible for your
unethical decisions. We're holding up a mirror and expecting them
to practice what they preach," said Shaw Pittman partner David
Cynamon, who filed the complaints.
"America's veterans deserve proper health care for illnesses that
may be due to exposure to harmful agents as a result of their
military service," said VVA National President Thomas Corey.
"Veterans deserve to be told the truth about their military
service, as well as accountability from senior bureaucrats and
other government officials. Justice for our nation's veterans is
at the heart of VVA's mission. This class action will help
veterans obtain the justice to which they have long been
entitled," Corey added.
Former Navy crewmember of the USS Navarro in 1963 and plaintiff
Robert Bates said, "I wasn't asked if I wanted to be a human
guinea pig. I wasn't told that I was part of an experiment until
thirty years later. And now, I can't get my complete medical
records from the government so that I can get needed benefits."
Bates suffers from congestive heart failure and joint problems
thought to be related to the chemical warfare tests.
The Shaw Pittman complaints allege a policy that government and
military officials began in the 1940s and current officials
continue to carry out in order to keep veterans from claiming
their just medical benefits. For example, government and military
officials admit that Project SHAD medical records were and remain
"classified" and unavailable to veterans attempting to claim VA
benefits for health problems arising from biological and chemical
agents used on them by their own military. The government
contends that other relevant records disappeared, were destroyed,
or never existed.
"They tell you that they can't give you benefits until you prove
you were involved, but they keep the documents that can prove it
in a sealed vault behind their desks. This is not the government
my husband intended to serve," said Pat Broudy, whose husband
died due to lymphoma, a cancer known to be caused by radiation
exposure. Her husband had served in the occupation of Nagasaki,
Japan, trained on a radioactive target ship, and participated in
mock assaults on ground zero following atomic detonations in the
Nevada desert but was denied VA benefits.
Shaw Pittman began representing veterans as a result of a pro
bono project that relied on the firm's litigation and scientific
expertise. "As Americans, we expect our government and military
officials to adhere to a basic standard of legal and ethical
conduct. We've seen Congress and the Administration rightly
insist that corporate officials be held legally accountable for
their actions. They need to know that they can't hide behind
their organizations anymore," said Shaw Pittman attorney Douglas
Rosinski.
The complaints were filed October 29, 2002 in the United States
District Court for the District of Columbia.
Shaw Pittman, LLP has offices in Washington, D.C., New York,
Northern Virginia, London and Los Angeles. The firm provides
business and technology legal services on a global basis. It can
be accessed online at http://www.shawpittman.com
[http://www.shawpittman.com] . Copyright 2002, U.S. Newswire
*****************************************************************
25 Study: No Cancer Jump Near Pa. Plant
Las Vegas SUN:
Today: November 01, 2002 at 5:30:25 PST
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON- People who live near the Three Mile Island nuclear
plant show no significant increase in cancer deaths more than 20
years after an accident at the plant released low amounts of
radiation.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh studied deaths
between 1979 and 1998 among people who reside within five miles
of the Pennsylvania plant. Their findings are reported on the Web
site of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
"This survey of data, which covers the normal latency period for
most cancers, confirms our earlier analysis that radioactivity
released ... does not appear to have caused an overall increase
in cancer deaths among residents of that area," principal
investigator Evelyn Talbott said in a statement.
The researchers did note that overall deaths among the residents
near the plant were higher than would have been expected, but
most of the increase was the result of heart disease, not cancer.
The researchers looked at 32,135 people who lived near the plant
at the time of the accident in 1979 and who were interviewed by
the Pennsylvania Department of Health at the time.
The new findings are similar to those reported earlier in an
analysis of the same population covering 13 years, except that an
apparent increase in breast cancer at that time was no longer
evident in the 20-year study.
After adjusting for smoking, educational level and other factors,
the researchers say there was no significant difference in the
number of deaths in the plant area population compared with the
expected number of deaths in the general population.
The researchers studied causes of death that included heart
disease and cancers, in particular cancers known to be sensitive
to radioactivity such as bronchial, throat and lung, breast,
lymph system, blood-forming organs and the central nervous
system.
The only elevated risk of cancer, they said, was a slight
increase in the risk of lymphatic and blood cancers among men,
which the researchers said was related to radiation exposure from
the accident, and an increased risk of death from lymphatic and
blood cancers in women, which they said was related to everyday
background radiation exposure.
"While these findings overall convey good news for TMI residents,
the slight increased risk of death from lymphatic and
hematopoietic (blood) cancers may warrant further investigation,"
the team said in a statement.
On the Net: Environmental Health Perspectives:
http://www.ehponline.org [http://www.ehponline.org]
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
26 Three-Mile Island cancer rates probed
BBC NEWS | Health |
Friday, 1 November, 2002,
[Three-Mile Island]
Three-Mile Island: America's worst nuclear accident There has
been no significant rise in cancer deaths among residents living
near the site of America's worst nuclear accident, report
scientists.
It was feared that the release of radioactive gases from the
plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1979, might trigger a rise
in cancer cases in subsequent decades.
However, an analysis of statistics for the following 20 years
suggests this is not yet the case.
Information gathered by the Pennsylvania Department of Health
from residents within a five-mile radius of the plant was
compared with mortality data for the area.
Small rise
The overall number of deaths from cancer among the "exposed"
population was not significantly different from the general
population.
There was a small rise in the number of lymphatic and blood
cancer deaths among women in the exposed group.
There are number of cancers known to be sensitive to
radioactivity, such as lung, breast and some lymph cancers, as
well as thyroid cancer.
The far more serious accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine caused
a large increase in the number of thyroid cancers.
However, among the Three Mile Island population, there was only
one case.
It was suggested that the amount of extra radiation to which
nearby residents were exposed was much less than the annual safe
recommended dose for nuclear workers.
However, the long-term effects of low-level radiation exposure
are still not fully understood.
'Good news'
Professor Evelyn Talbott, from the University of Pittsburgh, who
carried out the study, said: "The study, which covers the normal
latency period for most cancers, confirms our earlier analysis
that radioactivity released during the nuclear accident at Three
Mile Island does not appear to have caused an overall increase in
cancer deaths among residents of that area over the follow-up
period, 1979 to 1998."
However, while this is overall good news for people who may have
been exposed to low levels of radioactive contamination, other
analysis has spotted an upwards trend in breast cancer related to
exposure on the day of the accident itself.
Professor Talbott said that the increased death rates from
lymphatic and blood cancers might warrant further investigation.
The study was published in the journal Environmental Health
Perspectives.
© MMII | News Sources | Privacy
*****************************************************************
27 Nuclear Waste poses a dilemma
* /Thursday, October 31, 2002 - 08:00
Local news * - Elizabeth Dowdeswell is involved in her own
version of mission impossible.
The recently formed Nuclear Waste Management Organization
appointed Dowdeswell, a former UN environment program executive
director, as its president. Her task will be to lead the effort
toward finding the safest and most effective way to store nuclear
waste in Canada.
Regardless of what side of the nuclear debate you’re on, it’s in
everyone’s interest to support Dowdeswell’s efforts.
Those who want to see the nuclear industry shut down can’t ignore
the fact that radioactive waste exists and must be dealt with.
Supporters of nuclear power are all too aware that the question
of what to do with waste is the most important and frustrating
issue they face.
Dowdeswell’s organization has three years to develop and
recommend a plan for handling the mounting volume of spent fuel
and other radioactive wastes from the country’s 22 reactor sites.
We hope all interested parties are consulted. It’s important to
involve people outside the nuclear industry in the decision
making process. If this doesn’t happen any conclusion will
undoubtedly be considered a whitewash. We also hope there’s
substantial international co-operation among nations dealing with
similar problems.
In the meantime, prejudging or disrupting the organization’s
efforts is in no way helpful. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s
got to do it.
Hope you enjoyed reading Owen Sound Sun Times online. Click here
to order convenient home delivery
© 2002, OSPREY MEDIA GROUP INC.
*****************************************************************
28 Uranium-mill dispute spurs testing
Denver Post.com
By Joey Bunch
Denver Post Environment Writer
Friday, November 01, 2002
- CANON CITY - State health department officials said Thursday
they will take new samples to determine, once and for all, if the
nearby Cotter Uranium Mill secretly burned plutonium and
contaminated nearby communities.
Residents previously demanded plutonium testing based on claims
made in 1994 by lawyers representing a group of people suing the
mill's owners. The tests, which were later rejected by the courts
as biased and unscientific, found plutonium dust in the attic of
the home of one of the plaintiffs, James Dodge.
Even without the plutonium evidence, Dodge and 15 other
plaintiffs were awarded more than $16 million in damages for
their health problems.
The state health department was notified of the findings at the
time but never followed up.
With new complaints raised by Concerned Citizens Against Toxic
Waste, the department plans to take 20 samples from the area
around Cotter Mill to look for traces of the dangerous
radioactive material.
"We're willing to do the tests to see if there is any fire behind
the smoke," said Marion Gallant, spokeswoman for the health
department's Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division.
The citizens group formed this year and successfully turned back
a plan by Cotter to dispose of 470,000 tons of mildly
contaminated soil from the Maywood Chemical Co. federal Superfund
site in New Jersey.
About 30 local residents met with health department officials
Thursday, about concerns that the mill had secretly disposed of
plutonium in an incinerator at night.
Cotter Corp. official Steve Lan
dau characterized the allegation as pure fiction.
"We've never had an incinerator to burn anything for disposal,"
he said in a terse exchange with local residents aligned against
the mill.
Three health department tests through 1997 found that Canon City
residents have not had any more cases of cancer, a possible
result of plutonium exposure, than any other community of its
size.
Residents at the meeting said the state hasn't tested for other
health problems, such as bone disorders or gout.
"We know there is a problem, and this community is suffering
because of that problem," said Jeri Fry.
A 30-day public comment period, a citizens advisory committee and
a public meeting Nov. 14 at the Fremont County Courthouse will
determine where the health department takes the samples.
Cotter, which opened in 1958, is one of the few remaining
operating uranium mills in the country. This year, the state
health department rejected its plan to take on 470,000 tons of
radioactive material from New Jersey.
Cotter and the nearby Lincoln Park community became Superfund
contamination sites in 1984 because of contaminated soil and
groundwater at the mill and in the Lincoln Park area.
All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post or other copyright
*****************************************************************
29 PFS Deal No Answer
The Salt Lake Tribune --
Friday, November 1, 2002
A solution isn't a solution if it causes another problem. The
people on the Goshute Indian reservation in Utah, like on most
Indian reservations across the country, live on property that we
like to think doesn't exist in the United States. When Private
Fuel Storage was looking for a community that would accept their
40,000 tons of nuclear waste in exchange for a large sum of
money, they specifically looked at Indian reservations because
they knew those communities were the most desperate for money.
Tribal Chairman Leon Bear of the Goshutes saw PFS's proposal as
an opportunity to rescue his tribe from the poverty they had
always known.
The problem with this solution is that it puts not only the
Goshutes in danger, but also the thousands of people who live in
neighborhoods that the nuclear waste will be traveling through
for the next 40 years if the deal goes through. One accident on
the thousands of miles that the 40,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel
rods will travel on its way to the West Desert could cost
billions of dollars to clean up. And since PFS is a limited
liability corporation, the burden to clean up an accident could
fall on the taxpayers.
There is no question we need to find a solution to the
problem of poverty on the Goshute reservation, and all other
reservations, but the PFS deal is not the answer. Paying the
Goshutes for not accepting nuclear waste makes a lot of sense to
me. This could solve the problem of the Goshutes' poverty at the
same time ensuring no nuclear waste is found in their back yards.
MARY KIMBALL Salt Lake City
© Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on
*****************************************************************
30 Utah: Yes on Initiative 1
The Salt Lake Tribune -- Utah's Statewide Newspaper
Friday, November 01, 2002
Many voters are confused about Initiative 1, the Radioactive
Waste Restrictions Act. But while the initiative is lengthy and
its language complex, its aims are logical, serve the public
interest and are worthy of voter support.
The measure appears on Tuesday's ballot statewide.
The initiative is confusing because it attempts to accomplish
so much. That is the fault of a state Legislature that repeatedly
has refused to deal responsibly with taxation and ethical issues
that long have roiled the state's low-level nuclear waste
industry. In frustration, the initiative's sponsors turned to
this process to clean up the mess.
So here's a primer.
Utah is the home of Envirocare, a unique business that
disposes of low-level nuclear wastes and other hazardous garbage
in a sophisticated burial mound in Tooele County. It is one of
only three commercial sites in the nation that performs this
service, and the only one on private land.
Since nuclear wastes have long lives and pose health hazards,
most places want to be rid of them. The proponents of Initiative
1 believe that if Utahns are willing to accept the stuff from all
around the nation for disposal, together with the associated
health risks, remote as they may be, Utah should be compensated
with fees and taxes that substantially benefit the general
population.
While there are state taxes and fees levied on the waste that
goes to Envirocare now, initiative proponents do not believe they
are high enough, particularly in comparison to those charged at
the other two commercial disposal sites that accept low-level
nuclear wastes. Initiative 1 would raise those taxes and fees
considerably. The amounts differ, depending on the type of waste.
The Legislative Fiscal Analyst estimates that if Envirocare
continues to receive waste volumes at current levels, the
initiative's fees and taxes would raise substantially higher
state revenues, including $208 million annually, 80 percent of
which would go to public education, and the other 20 percent to
an endowment that would assist the homeless and impoverished.
An additional $13.8 million would go to Tooele County, and a
like amount toward a perpetual care and closure fund for the
Envirocare site.
Envirocare argues the entire scheme is a pipe dream because
the new fees and taxes are so high they would put the waste
facility out of business. These new costs would make disposal at
Envirocare economically unattractive, the company argues. Many
government and private clients of the company either would
dispose of their wastes at government sites or at the competing
commercial sites, or would store them rather than ship them off
to Utah.
Admittedly, this is the most difficult dispute associated
with the initiative to evaluate independently. But the operators
of other nuclear waste facilities have made the same argument in
other states, and they have continued to do business after their
legislatures have imposed higher fees and taxes.
Initiative 1 also would prohibit Utah government from
approving new waste facilities or licenses for hotter classes of
low-level nuclear waste. Envirocare has obtained regulatory
approval for these classes of waste, but has not yet sought
approval from the governor and Legislature. The initiative would
prohibit those approvals.
A common misconception is that this provision would outlaw
the storage of spent nuclear fuel rods on the Skull Valley
reservation of the Goshutes. It would not. Spent fuel rods are
high-level waste that fall under federal authority and are not
subject to state regulation.
The initiative's other measures are overdue reforms of Utah's
nuclear waste regulatory process. These are necessary to close a
revolving door that has been used by state environmental- and
radiation-control regulators who have left public service to take
management or lobbying jobs with Envirocare. To prevent these
conflicts of interest, the initiative would prohibit officials
from taking jobs in the radioactive waste disposal or storage
industries within three years of leaving their state positions.
The initiative also would prohibit state environmental
regulators from receiving gifts or loans from radioactive waste
disposal site operators. It also would prohibit those operators
from serving on the Radiation Control Board.
All of these provisions arise because of past incidents.
Envirocare's owner, Khosrow Semnani, also has a long history
of making substantial contributions to candidates for Utah
elective offices. While there is nothing improper about this
under Utah's wide-open election finance laws, Semnani's influence
with the Legislature is one reason the sponsors of the
Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act, who are veteran political
insiders themselves, turned to the initiative process.
In addition to contending the initiative's tax increases, if
enacted, will run Envirocare out of business, the opponents claim
some of its provisions are unconstitutional. While that may or
may not be true, there is no question that if voters pass it, the
act will land the state in court, and its defense will be
expensive.
The opponents charge that the act unfairly singles out
Envirocare for crippling taxes. We agree that in principle,
targeting a single corporation is unjust. But Initiative 1, like
the existing state law that it modifies, sets tax rates for the
nuclear waste disposal industry. Envirocare is the only such
business in Utah now, largely because it has maneuvered through
the years to create a monopoly for itself.
Initiative 1 also establishes two new funds to receive the
education and charitable revenues, and two new boards to oversee
them. The opponents charge this is confusing and infringes on the
Legislature's constitutional authority to oversee state funds.
These issues will have to be litigated.
But the bottom line is this: The act is complex and
far-reaching because of the Legislature's repeated failure to
deal responsibly with ethical conflicts in the regulation of the
nuclear waste industry in Utah and to set tax rates that fairly
compensate Utahns for hosting a nuclear dump.
In answer to that, the sponsors of Initiative 1 have written
a law that raises taxes on low-level nuclear waste, devotes the
proceeds to worthy public causes, bans two classes of low-level
waste that would further impact the state for hundreds of years
and addresses conflicts of interest that long have plagued Utah's
regulation of this industry.
All of these provisions serve the public interest and deserve
voter support on Tuesday.
© Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on
*****************************************************************
31 "NUCLEAR CLEAN-UP: WE HAVE GOT TO GET RESPONSIBILITIES RIGHT" - SAY
INDEPENDENT EXPERTS
Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) | DEFRA
Press release 1 November 2002
A committee of independent experts has welcomed Government
proposals for a new organisation - the Liabilities Management
Authority (LMA) - to decommission and clean up some of the UK's
older nuclear sites, a programme that will cost billions of
pounds of public money. But the experts say that the LMA's use of
contractors to manage the sites, including dealing with the
resulting radioactive wastes, raises questions of how some
important legal responsibilities will be discharged. These
arrangements, the Committee stresses, must be carefully thought
through.
The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC)
provides independent advice to Ministers on management of the
UK's radioactive waste. In its Annual Report for 2001-2002,
published today, the Committee includes its formal response to
the Government's "Managing the Nuclear Legacy" White Paper that
sets out the LMA proposals.
The RWMAC Chairman, Professor Charles Curtis of the University of
Manchester, said:
"RWMAC welcomes the creation of the LMA as a key step by
Government in getting to grips with some of the older nuclear
sites such as Sellafield and Dounreay. But creation of a new
body, however well intended, is not, by itself, the answer. The
need is to establish real drivers and incentives to carry forward
historic nuclear site clean up work more rapidly than in the past
without compromising safety. Without these drivers to progress,
the LMA could become just another layer of bureaucracy.
The Committee's response highlights other important requirements.
The LMA must have the skills and resources to manage its
contractors in a coherent and effective manner. The potential
skills shortage needs to be tackled early. Responsibilities and
accountabilities for ensuring safety must be clearly allocated:
this is a matter that cannot be left to fall somewhere between
the LMA and its contractors. The Government must provide clear
policy guidance on the way it wishes the LMA to conduct its
business: our response indicates the requirements for doing so,
not all of which are currently met.
Lastly, given the large sums of taxpayers' money for which it
will be responsible, the LMA must account, in a way that is
readily understandable, for the progress it achieves. In this,
the commitment to openness and transparency contained in the
White Paper is key."
RWMAC was disappointed that the LMA has not been given a remit to
deal with some of the historic used radioactive sources that are
still held at hospitals and educational establishments because
the money for their disposal has not been planned for in NHS and
university budgets. As a radioactive waste liability falling to
the taxpayer, RWMAC believes that the LMA should have been
allocated responsibility for dealing with this problem.
The Annual Report also describes the work that RWMAC has
undertaken during the year, and the resulting advice it has to
given Ministers. This includes the process by which policy on the
long-term management of radioactive wastes should be decided and
the standards to which intermediate level radioactive waste
should be conditioned, packaged and stored. The Committee also
provides comments on a wide range of proposals by the Government
and the regulators in relation to protection of the public and
the environment from the harmful effects of radioactive waste. In
line with RWMAC's policy of openness, all this advice is either
set out in full or summarised in the report.
Notes for editors
RWMAC is the independent body that gives advice to the UK
Government on policy and practices relating to the management of
civil radioactive wastes. The 22nd RWMAC Annual Report
incorporates its response to the Government's White Paper
"Managing the Nuclear Legacy - a strategy for action", published
in July 2002. This sets out the Government's proposals for
nuclear clean-up to be funded by the taxpayer, in effect the
liabilities of British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) and the United
Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).
By law, responsibility for the safe operation of nuclear sites
rests with site licensees, currently BNFL and UKAEA. This is
regulated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE, with
the support of the two environment agencies, has called for
long-lived radioactive waste to be stored under conditions of
"passive safety", without the need for human intervention, until
a permanent management route is developed. In RWMAC's view, this
will form one of the LMA's responsibilities.
The text of the Annual Report can be found on the RWMAC website.
Copies of the report, price £15, can be purchased from: DEFRA
Publications, Admail 6000, London SW1A 2XX (08459 556000).
Press Enquiries: 0207 944 6260/6254 (RWMAC secretariat)
*****************************************************************
32 au: Council wants Fed Govt to keep hands off land.
1/11/2002. ABC News Online
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> [http://abc.net.au/]
Broken Hill City Council is to ask the NSW Government to make it
virtually impossible for the Federal Government to acquire any
land around Broken Hill to dispose of nuclear waste.
It has also decided to write to the Federal Government saying it
does not want any waste transported through the city.
Councillor Jeff Cullenward says the waste would be going to
federal land like Woomera in South Australia because there is
none in NSW.
"It's all Crown land that they're talking about and that land is
owned by the state, not the Federal Government," he said.
"I think probably we stand a little more success with that than
we would with getting the Federal Government to take notice."
© 2002 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
*****************************************************************
33 LES would keep nuclear waste at site *
* *Friday, 11/01/02* | Middle Tennessee News & Information*
By KELLI SAMANTHA HEWETT
/Staff Writer/
*/Temporary storage at Hartsville called safe/*
Low-level radioactive waste would best be stored for several
years at a $1.1 billion proposed Hartsville uranium processing
plant, the company CEO says. But opponents say storage risks are
one of their biggest concerns.
''We would like to keep it there as long as possible'' in case a
market opens up to sell it for reprocessing, said George Dials,
CEO of the LES consortium, or Louisiana Energy Services. ''It's
very safe.''
Dials sent a letter dated Oct. 22 to Trousdale County officials,
pledging that the leftover materials known as tails ? called
waste by some ? would not remain in Hartsville or Tennessee.
But the letter doesn't spell out the length of ''temporary.''
Most of the tails at other uranium processing plants have been
there for decades, according to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
At the LES plants in Europe, most of the tails are stored at the
plant sites, Dials said.
But because LES is a new, private project, it might qualify for
new options for storage.
''This is something LES and the Department of Energy will have to
work out, but we have to approve the health and safety aspects of
whatever they want to do,'' said project manager Tim Johnson, who
is handling the Hartsville proposal for the NRC.
Johnson said the NRC is still trying to spread the word that it
isn't pushing the project and that all safety issues will be
covered before permits are issued for the plant.
Dials and other LES officials say they aren't talking about
details because they haven't finalized any plans for storing or
removing tails.
LES will have to submit the plan with its government application
in January, but residents are critical of LES for what they call
secrecy.
''We don't want it there for one day, one hour or one minute,''
said Barbara Crossman of the residents' group Citizens for Smart
Choices. ''We are looking out for our future generation.''
Despite some differences in the project details, some opponents
point to the history of nuclear and uranium waste in the United
States.
''There are always these promises that things are going to be
done,'' said Will Calloway of the Tennessee Environmental
Council.
''I don't have any doubt about their intent, but that intent has
been around for decades.''
<#TOP> | HOME | LOCAL NEWS
*****************************************************************
34 Rezoning sought for nuclear fuel plant *
* *Friday, 11/01/02* | Middle Tennessee News & Information*
By KATHY CARLSON /Staff Writer/
*/Planning commission to consider proposal/*
The industrial development authority that owns the potential site
for a $1.1 billion uranium enrichment plant yesterday took a step
toward rezoning the site to allow the facility.
Officials from the five counties of the Four Lake Regional
Industrial Development Authority voted unanimously to seek
rezoning. The authority's proposal goes to the Trousdale County
Planning Commission, which makes recommendations on zoning issues
to the county commission, which decides zoning issues.
International energy group Louisiana Energy Services announced in
September it had chosen the Four Lake site for the plant. The
Four Lake area covers Trousdale, Macon, Smith, Sumner and Wilson
counties.
LES' preferred site is in Trousdale County and is zoned for
agricultural uses. It must be rezoned before LES can build its
facility.
LES and Four Lake staff met last week to hammer out a rezoning
proposal, said Robert Rochelle, an attorney and former state
senator whose Lebanon law firm represents the Four Lake
authority.
The authority's goal, Rochelle said, was to craft a
classification that would give it ''very broad latitude'' on whom
it could recruit to the site. Its recommendation would allow
manufacturing, processing and warehousing, for example, plus
support services.
Trousdale planning officials had ''raised justifiable concerns''
about the broad discretion the Four Lake authority would have
under its recommendation, Rochelle said. Four Lake and planning
staff were to meet today to try to compromise on zoning language.
Trousdale planners couldn't be reached for comment yesterday
afternoon.
/ Kathy Carlson can be reached at 259-8047 or at
kcarlson@tennessean.com . /
HOME | LOCAL NEWS
*****************************************************************
35 Global nuclear stockpiles, 1945 to 2002*
*November/December 2002*
Vol. 58, No.6, pp. 103?104
The five major nuclear powers currently have more than 20,000
nuclear warheads in their arsenals, as shown in the table below.
But this does not include a number of intact Russian nuclear
warheads of indeterminate status?possibly as many as 10,000. Of
the more than 30,000 intact warheads belonging to the world?s
eight nuclear weapon states, the vast majority (96 percent) are
in U.S. or Russian stockpiles. About 17,500 of these warheads are
considered operational. The rest are in reserve or retired and
awaiting dismantlement.
We estimate that since 1945, more than 128,000 nuclear warheads
have been built worldwide?all but 2 percent of them by the United
States (55 percent) and the Soviet Union or Russia (43 percent).
Since the Cold War ended, more and more warheads in U.S. and
Russian stockpiles are being moved from operational status into
various reserve, inactive, or contingency categories. The
destruction of warheads is not required under current arms
control agreements. For example, the 2002 Moscow Treaty (the
Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty) contains no verification
provisions and completely ignores non-operational and
non-strategic warheads. The result is that stockpiles are more
opaque and more difficult to describe with precision.
The *United States* has produced some 70,000 warheads since 1945,
of which, 60,000 have been dismantled (more than 12,000 of them
since 1990). The U.S. arsenal contains approximately 10,600
intact warheads. Of this number, nearly 8,000 are considered
active or operational. In addition, several hundred warheads
await disassembly at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas,
including the W56 and W79 warheads, around 36 B53 bombs, and some
excess non-strategic B61 bombs. These warheads should have been
dismantled by 2000, but for various reasons, the schedule has
been extended.
As detailed in the Bush administration?s Nuclear Posture Review
(NPR), the plan is to reduce the number of ?operationally
deployed strategic warheads? to 1,700? 2,200 by the end of 2012.
With the possible exception of the Minuteman III W62, there will
be no further dismantlement of warheads beyond those specified in
the 1994 NPR. The reduction of operationally deployed warheads
will be accomplished by transferring warheads from active
delivery vehicles to either a ?responsive force? or to ?inactive
reserve.? An example of inactive reserve warheads are those that
do not have limited life components, such as tritium. Any
additional disassembly before 2014, according to the Energy
Department?s National Nuclear Security Administration, would
compete with planned refurbishments of the nine warhead types in
the enduring stockpile. If current plans are fulfilled, by 2012
we estimate that the United States will have approximately 10,000
intact warheads?essentially the same number as today.
*Russia* has not released information about the size of its
stockpile. We estimate that since 1949 the Soviet Union/Russia
has produced about 55,000 nuclear warheads, and that about 30,000
warheads existed in 1990?1991. The U.S. Defense Department and
CIA estimate that Russia dismantled slightly more than 1,000
warheads per year during the 1990s, so that its remaining
stockpile of intact warheads may be around 18,600. Only around
8,600 of these are thought to be operational. As many as 10,000
nuclear warheads are believed to be in non-operational status: in
reserve for possible redeployment or retired and awaiting
dismantlement.
The Moscow Treaty limits Russia?s operationally deployed
strategic warheads to no more than 2,200 by 2012, but because of
limited resources and funding, it is unlikely that Russia will be
able to sustain that many. Russia had pressed for a limit of
1,500 warheads, and if significant numbers of warheads are not
refurbished and returned to operational forces, the stockpile
could shrink to as few as 1,000 strategic warheads and no more
than 1,000 tactical warheads over the next 10 years.
*Britain* is estimated to have produced approximately 1,200
warheads since 1953. Its current stockpile is thought to consist
of some 200 strategic and ?sub-strategic? warheads on
Vanguard-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines
(SSBNs). The government declared in July 1998 that there would
?be fewer than 200 operationally available warheads,? of which 48
warheads would be on patrol at any given time on a single SSBN.
The British arsenal peaked in the 1970s at 350 warheads.
*France* maintains approximately 350 warheads, down from 540 in
1992. France has produced more than 1,260 nuclear warheads since
1964. It has dismantled its land-based ballistic missiles and
retired its nuclear bombs for delivery by naval-strike aircraft.
The M51 sea-launched ballistic missile scheduled for deployment
in 2010 was initially slated to carry an entirely new warhead
(the TNO, or /tête nucléaire océanique),/ but will instead be
equipped with a more robust version of an existing design
(probably the TN-75).
*China* is estimated to have an arsenal of around 400 nuclear
warheads, down from 435 in 1993. China is thought to have
produced some 600 nuclear warheads since 1964, and U.S.
intelligence and defense agencies predict that over the next 15
years China may increase the number of warheads on primarily
U.S-targeted missiles from 20 to between 75?100.
*India* and *Pakistan,* the world?s two newest declared nuclear
powers, have fewer than 100 nuclear warheads between them, most
of which are not yet operationally deployed. We estimate that
India has produced enough fissile material for 45?95 nuclear
warheads but may have assembled only 30?35, and that Pakistan has
produced fissile material sufficient for 30?52 weapons and
assembled 24?48 warheads. Both countries are thought to be
increasing their stockpiles.
*Israel* has neither confirmed nor denied possession of nuclear
weapons, although U.S. intelligence reports for many years have
labeled Israel a de facto nuclear power. Some unofficial reports
estimate Israel?s arsenal to have as many as 200 warheads, the
first of which reportedly was assembled in 1967.
Year* U.S. Russia U.K. France China Total*
1945 6 6
1946 11 11
1947 32 32
1948 110 110
1949 235 1 236
1950 369 5 374
1951 640 25 665
1952 1,005 50 1,055
1953 1,436 120 1 1,557
1954 2,063 150 5 2,218
1955 3,057 200 10 3,267
1956 4,618 426 15 5,059
1957 6,444 660 20 7,124
1958 9,822 869 22 10,713
1959 15,468 1,060 25 16,553
1960 20,434 1,605 30 22,069
1961 24,111 2,471 50 26,632
1962 27,297 3,322 205 30,824
1963 29,249 4,238 280 33,767
1964 30,751 5,221 310 4 1 36,287
1965 31,642 6,129 310 32 5 38,118
1966 31,700 7,089 270 36 20 39,115
1967 30,893 8,339 270 36 25 39,563
1968 28,884 9,399 280 36 35 38,634
1969 26,910 10,538 308 36 50 37,842
1970 26,119 11,643 280 36 75 38,153
1971 26,365 13,092 220 45 100 39,822
1972 27,296 14,478 220 70 130 42,194
1973 28,335 15,915 275 116 150 44,791
1974 28,170 17,385 325 145 170 46,195
1975 27,052 19,055 350 188 185 46,830
1976 25,956 21,205 350 212 190 47,913
1977 25,099 23,044 350 228 200 48,920
1978 24,243 25,393 350 235 220 50,441
1979 24,107 27,935 350 235 235 52,862
1980 23,764 30,062 350 250 280 54,706
1981 23,031 32,049 350 274 330 56,034
1982 22,937 33,952 335 274 360 57,858
1983 23,154 35,804 320 279 380 59,937
1984 23,228 37,431 270 280 415 61,624
1985 23,135 39,197 300 360 425 63,417
1986 23,254 40,723 300 355 425 65,057
1987 23,490 38,859 300 420 415 63,484
1988 23,077 37,333 300 410 430 61,550
1989 22,174 35,805 300 410 435 59,124
1990 21,211 33,417 300 505 430 55,863
1991 18,306 28,595 300 540 435 48,176
1992 13,731 25,155 300 540 435 40,161
1993 11,536 22,101 300 525 435 34,897
1994 11,012 18,399 250 510 400 30,571
1995 10,953 14,978 300 500 400 27,131
1996 10,886 12,085 300 450 400 24,121
1997 10,829 11,264 260 450 400 23,203
1998 10,763 10,764 260 450 400 22,637
1999 10,698 10,451 185 450 400 22,184
2000 10,615 10,201 185 470 400 21,871
2001 10,491 9,126 200 350 400 20,567
2002 10,600 8,600 200 350 400 20,150
/Nuclear Notebook is prepared by Robert S. Norris of the Natural
Resources Defense Council and Hans M. Kristensen of the Nautilus
Institute. Inquiries should be directed to NRDC, 1200 New York Avenue,
N.W., Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 20005; 202-289-6868./
©2002 /Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists/
*****************************************************************
36 Reflections on the golden jubilee of the first H-bomb test.
The biggest bang
[http://www.nature.com]
1 November 2002 TOM CLARKE
The mushroom cloud reached 17 km in 90 seconds. © U.S. DoE.
"It's a totally different scheme and it will change the course of
history," mathematician Stanislaw Ulam told his wife. Fifty years
ago today his scheme - the hydrogen, or thermonuclear bomb - was
tested. Ulam was right on both counts.
Now, however, the experiment is seen as having been a step too
far. The power of a runaway thermonuclear reaction shocked those
who witnessed it.
The secret US test - codenamed Mike, for megaton - took place on
remote Elugelab Island in the Pacific on 1 November 1952. In an
instant, the experiment yielded more explosive power than all the
bombs dropped by Allied forces during the Second World War - the
equivalent of 10.4 million tons of TNT.
Mike produced a fireball 5 kilometres wide. A mushroom cloud
sprouted 17 kilometres high within 90 seconds. After five
minutes, the cloud had reached the top of the stratosphere (an
altitude of 41 km) and had a stem 13 kilometres wide.
"It would have eliminated a metropolis," says physicist Phil
Morrison, who worked on the wartime development of the first
nuclear bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Elugelab Island was
vaporized; only an underwater crater remains.
Of the 11,650 personnel - 2,300 of them civilians - involved in
project Mike, only 408 were later said to have received no
radiation following the explosion.
Fusion of ideas
The H- bomb was a natural extension of the 15- and 20-kiloton
atom bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in 1945. An A-bomb's power comes from heavy atoms of
uranium or plutonium splitting into lighter ones, releasing vast
amounts of energy in the process.
In a thermonuclear bomb, light hydrogen nuclei fuse to form
helium. Because the fuel is much lighter, and the nuclear
reactions more efficient, hydrogen bombs are vastly more powerful
than atom bombs.
The test vaporised Elugelab Island.
movie
Morrison recalls a meeting at Los Alamos in 1946 to discuss
whether to build Mike. When it became clear that development was
to proceed, he and many others left the project. "One nuclear war
was enough for me," he says.
The Russians, British, Chinese and French all followed with
H-bomb tests, but the nuclear arms race soon turned to smaller,
more sophisticated atomic bombs. Unlike Mike, which was 22 feet
long, these could sit atop a rocket.
Morrison now advocates nuclear non-proliferation. Mike, and
similar demonstrations of nuclear might, were for some, but not
all leaders, the beginning of the realization "that unlimited
power will not preserve you for ever", he says.
© Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002
*****************************************************************
37 FILE UNDER "A" FOR ATOM
[http://www.oregonlive.com The Oregonian
11/01/02
"Special Bulletin" (1983): Presented "War of the Worlds"-style as
actual televised news coverage, this cautionary tale from the
creators of "thirtysomething" culminates in the detonation of a
nuclear device in Charleston, S.C. A low budget works against
realism, but it still packs a punch, and has some prescient
things to say about the media. B+
"The Day After" (1983): Immensely controversial when it aired --
with good reason -- this powerful landmark TV movie follows
various Kansas residents as the unthinkable occurs. The sequence
showing the Russian missile strikes is still affecting, and a
fine cast (Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams) make the human
dimension real. A-
"Radio Bikini" (1987): Nothing on this topic can possibly compare
with reality, as captured in this haunting documentary about the
consequences of atomic tests conducted at Bikini Atoll and their
effects on the Marshall Islanders and Navy personnel exposed to
radiation. A-
"Black Rain" (1989): Again, reality trumps fiction as Japanese
director Shohei Imamura graphically re-enacts the bombing of
Hiroshima. This destruction, though, serves as only a starting
point for his terribly sad documentation of the effects on
survivors, from radiation sickness to cancer to guilt.
Unforgettable. A
© 2002 OregonLive.com. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
38 DOES SADDAM ALREADY HAVE A BOMB? by Thomas H. Lipscomb
Oregon Magazine
[http://oregonmag.com] | Table of Contents
[http://oregonmag.com/OregonMagPageTwo.htm]
“The bookkeeping of the former Soviet states makes Enron’s
accounting look scrupulous ... "
In looking for international support the Bush Administration
continues to argue that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq may be close to
creating a nuclear weapon. But after revelations about the extent
of the North Korean atomic weapons program a more likely
assumption may be that Iraq already has one or more.
Forgotten in the current speculation over progress in Iraq is the
history of the United States’ own atomic bomb program. Los Alamos
wasn’t even opened until April of 1943. At the time, under the
comparatively primitive computing and measuring systems
available, there was barely enough fissionable uranium 235 or
plutonium to weigh on a scale.
A mere 28 months later, the United States had not only dropped
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was producing bombs at the
rate of three a month for additional use if necessary. Perhaps
most amazingly, the two bombs dropped on Japan were based on
entirely different systems of ignition and fissionable material.
The Hiroshima bomb, “Little Boy” was ignited by a very simple
“gun” mechanism, achieving critical mass by firing two masses of
U235 into one another. It was so “low tech” it was never even
tested before being dropped on Japan. The second bomb, the
Nagasaki bomb “Fat Man,” was based upon the far more difficult to
extract plutonium imploded by highly sophisticated explosive
lenses. It was the basic model used in the first atomic bomb test
at Alamagordo, New Mexico, and established the direction of the
American atomic weapons program for years to come.
The basic physics of a possible atomic bomb was quickly
understood by the leader of the Nazi atomic effort, Werner von
Heisenberg, as well as Enrico Fermi at Columbia University as
soon as the news came out about the Germans’ success in achieving
nuclear fission at the end of 1938. They could both see that if
the fission of one atom could make a grain of sand jump, one
kilogram of U235 could have the explosive effect of thousands of
tons of TNT.
What was missing were the experiments and engineering that would
enable the production of a nuclear weapon. But today the elements
required for the production of a simple Hiroshima-type U235 based
bomb are well understood and generally available. The problem
remains getting the fissionable U235. Can Iraq can either produce
or gain access to U235?
In the aftermath of the Gulf War in 1991 the coalition force
inspectors estimated that Iraq had spent over $8 billion dollars
trying to duplicate the 50-year-old American U235 extraction
program devised by Ernest Lawrence back in the early 40’s. That
is almost as much as the entire American atomic bomb project cost
in World War II. And it is now eleven years later and UN
inspectors haven’t even been in Iraq since 1998. And the Iraqis
have been working on this problem for more than 20 years, as the
Israeli’s acknowledged by destroying the Iraqi nuclear reactor at
Osirak in 1981. By comparison it is estimated that North Korea
had enough plutonium on hand for at least two bombs eight years
ago.
But even assuming after eleven years of playing shell games with
the West and UN inspectors and spending billions more on the best
computers and finest minds they could hire, the Iraqis somehow
still haven’t managed to produce enough highly enriched uranium
(HEU), much less plutonium, to make one bomb. Does that make an
Iraqi bomb unlikely?
Unfortunately not. The collapse of the Soviet Union has left the
location of hundreds of kilograms of weapons grade fissionable
material in doubt. As Berkeley physicist Richard A. Muller
pointed out in MIT’s latest Technology Review: “The bookkeeping
of the former Soviet states makes Enron’s accounting look
scrupulous. How much more HEU is still out there, undocumented?
Nobody knows.” According to Muller, one of the former Soviet
states, Kazahkstan alone, is missing 205 kilograms. And the
International Atomic Energy Agency regards any quantity of HEU
above 25 kilos a “significant amount” which could be the basis of
an effective bomb.
Intercepts have already taken place over the past 11 years of
fissionable materials bound for Iraq. Is it prudent to assume
through incredible luck they have all been intercepted?
Unfortunately the low tech HEU approach to producing a bomb
Muller describes Iraq as following is not easy to discover by
passive monitoring. And it is possible to transport a finished
weapon by low tech means as well. The West may feel comforted by
current evidence that Iraqi missile delivery systems haven’t the
range or throw weight required to deliver the kind of atomic
bombs Saddam may be able to build. But the best anti-missile
defense in the world is useless against trucks and shipping
containers.
How hard would it be to move one the short distance from Iraq to
critical American forward bases like Kuwait and Qatar? Or any
major seaport from London to New York?
When the Nazi atomic scientist interned in England in August of
1945 were informed of the Hiroshima bombing, British intelligence
agents eavesdropping on their conversation learned a lot about
why the German program failed. Von Heisenberg scoffed at the
possibility of an airdropped bomb because according to his
calculations it would require dropping two tons of U235 and a
nuclear reactor. But another scientist understood the real
American advantage: “It shows the Americans are capable of real
cooperation on a tremendous scale.
That would have been impossible in Germany.”
With all the questions still facing those Nazi scientists in 1945
solved, there are far fewer problems for Saddam Hussein’s
scientists in 2002. The only real question remaining may be just
whose graveyard the Bush Administration is whistling past.
Thomas H. Lipscomb, whose columns appear in major U.S.
publications, is Chairman of the Center for the Digital Future
in New York, founder of InfoSafe, a multi-media software firm,
former president of the New York Times book division, Oregon
Magazine's Berlin Bureau Chef and as a boy scout used to
distribute programs in Civic Stadium so he could see Portland
Beaver baseball games for free.
© 2002 Thomas Lipscomb Photos link to their source where known.
*****************************************************************
39 Australia unprepared for nuclear attack warns official
"Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> [http://abc.net.au/]
A senior officer in the Federal Attorney-General's Department has
conceded Australia does not yet have the capacity to respond to a
nuclear attack.
Department protective security coordination committee director Ed
Tyrie has told a national security conference in Canberra efforts
are underway to improve Australia's readiness for a nuclear
attack.
"With regard to nuclear threats, we're building them into our
national exercise program," Mr Tyrie said.
"As I say, we're improving our preparedness in that regard but
certainly if one was to happen at this present time, one would
have to doubt that we are ready to handle the situation," he
said.
2002 ABC [http://www.abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm] | Privacy
*****************************************************************
40 Congresswoman wants treatment plant used at Livermore lab
Friday, November 1
The Associated Press
-- An East Bay congresswoman wants the Department of Energy to
let Lawrence Livermore Lab start using a new radioactive
wastewater treatment plant.
That radioactive water is now being treated at an old plant
outside the lab -- using World War Two technology.
To replace that facility -- the lab built a 60 million dollar
plant to treat the water on the lab's grounds. But it has been
idle for a year.
Representative Ellen Tauscher says the D-O-E won't give the new
plant the green light.
Energy Department spokesman John Ballardo says there are very
strict requirements that must be met before the plant can
operate.
The department says the plant is scheduled to open next August.
Ballardo says Tauscher's involvement may get that date moved up.
(KCBS)
Last modified: November 01. 2002 8:17AM
heraldtribune.com
/Serving the Herald-Tribune newspaper and SNN Channel 6 / ©
Sarasota Herald-Tribune. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
41 Tauscher blasts DOE for not opening plant
Tri-Valley Herald
Friday, November 01, 2002 - 2:57:30 AM MST
Officials say they won't use nuclear waste facility
By Ian Hoffman STAFF WRITER
Rep. Ellen Tauscher lashed the U.S. Energy Department on Thursday
for dallying over safety studies while radioactive vapors waft
from an old treatment plant, waste barrels pile up in tents, and
a new, $62 million nuclear waste plant sits partly unused.
"They have been loath to tell us what the problem is," said
Tauscher, D-Alamo. "This is about a bureaucracy that doesn't seem
responsive to practicality and common sense."
Tauscher called reporters to Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory to shed light on its Decontamination and Waste
Treatment Facility, a complex designed as a one-stop treatment
and storage plant for the weapons lab's waste.
The congresswoman opened part of the plant Thursday, an aluminum
warehouse for storing mostly plutonium-contaminated garbage --
gloves, wipes, tools and the like -- destined one day for a salt
cavern in New Mexico.
"It's hard for me to be here after more than a year of trying to
get this facility open," Tauscher said, drawing attention next
door to a gleaming yet unopened treatment plant for liquid
radioactive waste. Its construction ended more than a year ago.
"This situation has been a nightmare to say the least," she said.
Energy Department officials both praised Tauscher for getting the
warehouse open and cringed under her assault. They said the waste
tents and the older, open-air liquid radioactive waste plant
remain safe and in compliance, though the latter releases low
levels of radioactive vapor.
Its replacement is entirely indoors and heavily filters its air.
DOE officials defended keeping the newer plant closed nonetheless
until it is proven safe. "DOE is not willing to compromise
safety," said Energy Department spokesman John Belluardo. "Our
primary mission is to ensure the safety of employees and the
public."
The flap arises partly from a steady clampdown on nuclear safety
since the 1989 shutdown of Rocky Flats, a Boulder, Colo.,
nuclear-weapons factory that was infamous for plutonium fires,
accidents and environmental violations.
Some of the tighter rules were imposed after engineers already
designed Livermore's liquid waste plant. It is categorized one
rung below a nuclear power plant and on par with a fortress-like
plutonium facility such as the one inside Livermore's
top-security Superblock.
Such places face a DOE requirement for a vigorous "safety
analysis report" that contemplates a universe of potential
threats, from failure of pneumatic controls on the plant's waste
tanks to internal explosions to a plane crash into the building.
"Obviously, after Sept. 11, that was something that got
everybody's attention," said Sam Brinker, DOE manager for the
plant. "The question is, is that possible? What are the
consequences? What can we do to mitigate those consequences?"
It's unclear, he said, that crashing a plane into a soft tent
full of nuclear waste is more dangerous than crashing it into a
metal building that's closer to houses and would scatter
explosive fuel.
Studies put the odds of a plane crash at roughly one in a million
but prompted DOE to require the staging of fire-retardant foam
nearby and notify firefighters.
When Tauscher heard "the waste was still sitting in tents because
they didn't know if the building could sustain a direct hit from
an airplane," she said, "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry."
"We need to expedite this process. We need to do the right
thing," Tauscher said. "DOE needs to get out of the way."
Livermore engineers just sent a revised safety analysis to DOE
last week. Brinker expects DOE and the lab will settle safety
questions by April, and start up the plant next September.
"The idea is to get as safe as possible without restraining
operations, and that's a negotiation process," Brinker said.
Contact Ian Hoffman at papers.com">ihoffman@angnews- papers.com
©1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
*****************************************************************
42 Confusion the word in DOE whistleblower case
The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News --
Thursday, October 31, 2002
by R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff
Confusion seems to be only sure word on whether the Department of
Energy has settled the Janet Westbrook whistleblower case.
Westbrook thinks she's won. The DOE's Office of Hearings and
Appeals has backed up that contention by listing on its Web site
that it has dismissed UT-Battelle's appeal; and George Breznay,
director, this week sent letters to that effect to Westbrook's
and UT-Battelle's attorneys.
However, the DOE secretary's office says the issue is still
under review by its general counsel. And a spokesman for
UT-Battelle, which has appealed Westbrook's claim of retaliation
for her layoff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, says the company
is "confused."
"We're confused by the process in which Mr. Breznay appears to
have reviewed and upheld his own ruling, and until we hear from
the secretary's office we'll refrain from comment," said Billy
Stair, spokesman for ORNL, which is managed by UT-Battelle.
"We've asked the secretary's office to clarify the procedure,"
noted Stair, adding that the company's chief counsel on Wednesday
sent a letter requesting that clarification.
The dismissal of UT-Battelle's case was listed on the DOE's
Office of Hearings and Appeals Web site Tuesday, under the
heading "daily decisions."
DOE spokesman Joe Davis said in a phone interview from
Washington, D.C., this morning that the Westbrook case is still
under review.
"DOE's general counsel is reviewing the process for a decision
on this case," said Davis.
Westbrook said Wednesday that she had won her case, and that she
would be reinstated and receive back pay of about $80,000, plus
attorneys' fees of about $36,000.
An Oct. 3 supplemental order from the Office of Hearings and
Appeals concurred, but the order was subsequently stayed.
Westbrook said this morning "this is all very disturbing." She
asked, once a final decision has been made, "How can they
introduce new discussions?"
UT-Battelle's appeal comes after a series of hearings where
Westbrook lost her claim in the first round, then subsequently
won.
Davis said the Westbrook case is the only one nationwide that is
appealed to the energy-secretary level.
Westbrook worked at ORNL as a radiological engineer from Nov.
13, 1989, until she was laid off as part of a large workforce
reduction implemented by UT-Battelle. She told The Oak Ridger at
the time that she was the "most experienced, qualified and
senior" person in her group when she was let go.
She has master's degrees in physics and in nuclear engineering
from Purdue University, is a certified health physicist and a
registered professional engineer.
On several occasions while working at ORNL, Westbrook says she
disclosed to lab officials, DOE and the Defense Nuclear
Facilities Safety Board, a federal watchdog agency, her belief
that radiation safety reviews were not performed in cases where
procedures required them, or that reviews were performed but not
in accordance with requirements.
Westbrook first filed her complaint Dec. 21, 2001. UT-Battelle
appealed on Jan. 17, 2002, and won. Westbrook appealed and won
May 9, 2002. UT-Battelle then appealed to the energy secretary.
R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or
danielsrcd@oakridger.com [danielsrcd@oakridger.com] .
[http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger
*****************************************************************
43 Superconductivity at ORNL scores breakthrough
The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News --
Thursday, October 31, 2002
by R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff
The measurements are in, and researchers at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory are celebrating.
"For superconductivity, this is the first big success story
since we started in 1989," Bob Hawsey, manager of the
superconductivity program at the lab, said of verification Friday
that a company has pushed an ORNL technology one giant step
closer to reducing U.S. energy costs by fiscal year 2005.
American Superconductor, one of five U.S. companies racing to
commercialize ORNL's high temperature superconductor wire,
succeeded in loading super conductivity onto unprecedented
10-meter lengths of the oxide-buffered sheer-metal tape, and at
double the expected current, or 100 amperes per centimeter of
width.
Earlier tests had achieved much smaller increments, the best
being at 1-meter lengths. The goal for December 2003 had been
10-meter lengths at 50 amperes of electric current per
centimeter.
It's only the first giant step, though, said Hawsey, as
commercialization companies will need 100-meter lengths at
200-300 amperes of current per centimeter.
Patrick Martin of the Metals and Ceramics Division took the
measurements Friday, and the company issued the findings Tuesday.
"This verifies that the private sector can take technology like
this substrate of ours and scale it up," said Hawsey. "For years
we've been talking about the potential of the Oak Ridge
substrate, so this is very exciting to us."
Hawsey noted that not only is this an ORNL success story, but
also "the first success in 10-meter lengths in the U.S. of any
company, and it's also significant globally.
"A couple of weeks ago a German firm announced 10-meter lengths
on another (substrate), so this is a real international horse
race," said Hawsey.
With that in mind, and a milestone met almost a year early, ORNL
officials, the private sector, other national laboratories and
several U.S. universities will huddle for a workshop in January
to reassess goals.
Transmitting and using electricity with near perfect efficiency
and much higher capacity has become a high Department of Energy
priority, as an agency study found electricity grid losses have
grown to more than 10 percent of all electricity generated,
costing hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
"American Superconductor has shown that our technology can be
scaled up using a very cost-competitive process," said Hawsey.
"We intend to have a little celebration -- this doesn't happen
often."
R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or
danielsrcd@oakridger.com [danielsrcd@oakridger.com] .
[http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger
*****************************************************************
44 DOE suit: Allegations affirmed -
[http://www.paducahsun.com/] The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky
Friday, November 01, 2002
Whistleblowers want latest extension to be final delay
By Bill Bartleman
bbartleman@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650Copyright 2002, The
Paducah Sun
Those who filed a whistleblower suit against the former operator
of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant want a federal judge to
order the U.S. departments of Justice and Energy to decide by
Dec. 17 if they will join in the suit that seeks hundreds of
millions of dollars in refunds to the government.
The latest deadline expires today, but the Justice Department on
Thursday filed a motion asking for the 13th extension since the
suit was filed in June 1999 against Lockheed Martin Corp. The
plantiffs are three current and former employees — Ronald B.
Fowler, Charles F. Deuschle and Garland E. Jenkins; the Natural
Resources Defense Council, and Thomas B. Cochran, a member of the
defense council.
Lockheed and its predecessor companies operated the plant for the
energy department from 1982 until 1992. The suit claims Lockheed
made false statements involving storage and disposal of
radioactive waste, exposure of workers to contaminants, and
contamination of groundwater and soil with plutonium, neptunium
and other radioactive materials.
The suit contends that because of the false statements, Lockheed
was paid hundreds of millions of dollars in operating fees that
it didn't deserve. It wants Lockheed ordered to refund those
fees. If successful the whistleblowers would receive up to 25
percent of the money.
Lockheed strongly denies the claims.
The suit has been delayed while the Department of Justice and DOE
have spent more than $1 million investigating the claims.
Government attorneys and experts have reviewed thousands of pages
of documents, tested the contents of landfills, and interviewed
current and former plant workers.
Attorneys for the whistleblowers contend in a court document they
filed Thursday that the investigation has "largely affirmed the
allegations" made in the suit. However, it said DOE has failed to
make a decision on whether it wants to get involved.
In Thursday's filing, Joe Egan, the lead attorney for the
whistleblowers, said that he didn't think another extension was
justified, but reluctantly agreed to support it. But he made it
clear that they want this to be the last delay. He asked U.S.
District Judge Joseph McKinley Jr. to grant the delay "with
instructions that this extension shall be the last."
Egan said further delay will harm their case because one of the
clients has cancer, another has heart problems and potential
witnesses may not be available later.
Having the government join the suit would be significant because
with it comes almost unlimited resources to litigate the claims.
Still, Egan said the plantiffs would be willing to litigate the
case on their own because of what he says is overwhelming
evidence to back the claims.
William F. Campbell, leader attorney for the federal government,
said in his request for an extension to Dec. 17 that additional
time is needed because of continued internal discussions.
"These discussions have involved the exchange of documents among
agencies, and ... discussion down to a relatively fine level of
detail, as well as discussion of legal theories and potential
defenses that might be involved in the ... should the government
get involved," he said.
He said that he and other government attorneys "anticipate the
matter will be processed for a final decision on intervention" by
Dec. 17.
Previously, Campbell said there had been negotiations with
Lockheed to reach an out-of-court settlement and avoid lengthy,
expensive court proceedings. His latest motion did not mention
whether or not those discussions continue.
*****************************************************************
45 [radiation-survivors] File - radbooks.txt
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2002 13:41:41 -0600 (CST)
Exposure: Victims of Radiation Speak Out
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
Chugoku Newspaper,Kirsten McIvor (Translator),Foreword by Robert J. Lifton /
Paperback / Kodansha America, Inc. / April 1996
Our Price: $12.00
--------------------
Radiation Injury and the Chernobyl Catastrophe, Vol. 2
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
N. Dainiak,O. A. Aleinikova,W. J. Schull,L. Karkanitsa / Paperback /
AlphaMed Press / March 1997
Our Price: $49.
----------------------
Demanding Democracy after Three Mile Island
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
Raymond L. Goldsteen,John K. Schorr / Hardcover / University Press of
Florida / August 1991
Our Price: $49.95
---------------------
Radiation and Health
Thormod Henrikson David H. Maillie
Retail Price: $32.00
Our Price: $25.60
You Save: $6.40 (20%)
Readers' Advantage Price: $24.32 Join Now
Not Yet Available:Preorder Now
This book will be available on September 2, place your advance order
now and we will ship it when it arrives!
Format: Paperback, 1st ed., 240pp.
ISBN: 0415271622
Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Pub. Date: September 2002
---------------
www.barnesandnoble.com books..
The Treatment: The Story of Those Who Died in the Cincinnati Radiation Tests
Martha Stephens
Format: Hardcover, 350pp.
ISBN: 0822328119
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pub. Date: January 2002
---------------
The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold
War
Eileen Welsome
Format: Paperback, 592pp.
ISBN: 0385319541
Publisher: Dell Publishing Company, Incorporated
Pub. Date: October 2000
---------------------------------------------
The Human Radiation Experiments: Final Report of the President's Advisory
Committee
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments Ruth R. Faden (Editor)
Format:Textbook Hardcover, 1st ed., 620pp.
ISBN: 0195107926
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Pub. Date: March 1996
-------------------------------------------
Effects of A-Bomb Radiation on the Human Body
Itsuzo Shigematsu H. Sasaki C. Ito N. Kamada M. Akiyama Hideo Sasaki
(Editor) Nanao Kamada (Editor) Mitoshi Akiyama (Editor) Chikako Ito
(Editor) Brian Harrison (Translator) B. Harrison (Translator)
Format:Textbook Hardcover, 1st ed., 432pp.
ISBN: 3718654180
Publisher: Gordon & Breach Publishing Group
Pub. Date: April 1995
-----------------
Effects of Atomic Radiation: A Half-Century of Studies from Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
William J. Schull / Hardcover / Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated / August
1995
Our Price: $89.95
--------------------------------
Effects of Ionizing Radiation: Atomic Bomb Survivors and Their Children
(1945-1995)
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
Leif E. Peterson (Editor),Seymour Abrahamson (Editor) / Hardcover / National
Academy Press / November 1997
Our Price: $79.95
---------------------------
Hereditary Effects of Radiation: UNSCEAR 2001 Report to the General
Assembly, with Scientific Annex
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
Staff of United Nations / Paperback / United Nations / November 2001
Our Price: $39.20, You Save 20%
-----------------------------
Low Level Radiation and Immune System Damage: An Atomic Era Legacy
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
Joseph J. Mangano / Hardcover / Lewis Publishers / August 1998
Our Price: $54.95
-----------------------
Multiple Exposures: Chronicles of the Radiation Age
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
Catherine Caufield / Paperback / University of Chicago Press / May 1990
Our Price: $18.00
--------------------
Radiation in Medicine: A Need for Regulatory Reform
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
Institute of Medicine,Gary Penn (Editor),Kate-Louise D. Gottfried (Editor) /
Paperback / National Academy Press / January 1996
Our Price: $49.95
-------------------------------
Radiation Therapy of Benign Diseases: A Clinical Guide
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
Stanley E. Order,S. S. Donaldon / Hardcover / Springer-Verlag New York,
Incorporated / June 1998
Our Price: $139.00
--------------------------------
147.
Guidelines for the Radiation Protection of Workers in Industry
(Ionising Radiations): Requirements for Control of Exposure to Radiation of
Workers in Specific Installations
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
Labour Office International / Paperback / International Labour Office
/ November 1989
Our Price: $8.00
--------------------------
151.
Handbook of Radiation Effects
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
Andrew G. Holmes-Siedle,Len Adams / Hardcover / Oxford University
Press, Incorporated / August 2001
Our Price: $110.00
----------------------------------
Potential Radiation Exposure in Military Operations: Protecting the Soldier
before, during and After
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
Institute of Medicine Staff, Institute of Medicine, Instit,Susan Thaul
(Editor),Heather O'Maonaigh (Editor) / Paperback / National Academy Press /
May 1999
Our Price: $34.95
-----------------
Radiation & Human Health
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
John William Gofman / Hardcover / Sierra Club Books / June 1982
Our Price: $29.95
----------------------
Radiation Protection of Workers in Mining and Milling of Radioactive Ores
In Stock:Ships within 24 hours .
UNIPUB (Editor) / Paperback / Bernan Associates / January 1983
Our Price: $35.00
----------------------
More books on radiation at this website.
http://www.radiation.org/fourwalls.html
------------
Newletter avaiable from NARS
www.radiationsurvivors.org
National Association of Radiation Survivors
PO BOX 1587
Marysville CA 95901-1587
800-798-5102
They put out a great newsletter for fifteen dollars a year.
NARS is NOT associated with this list. They gave us the incentive to move ahead.
-------
You can find more information in our archives. And on my home page under health/ radiation/
http://tahomagirl.com
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Plan to Sell a Home?
http://us.click.yahoo.com/J2SnNA/y.lEAA/jd3IAA/6xSolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
radiation-survivors-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
-----
Are you looking for a good computer help list?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ComputersForSeniors/
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
*****************************************************************
46 Experts Question New Energy Sources
Las Vegas SUN
October 31, 2002 By PAUL RECER ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON- None of the known alternate energy sources are
technically ready to take the place of fossil fuels, suggesting
the need for a crash energy development program if the world is
to avoid the threat of global warming, experts say in a new
study.
The study by 18 scientists and engineers in university,
government and private labs evaluated technologies that would
make energy without burning oil, coal or natural gas and found
that no single system or combination of systems could replace
these fossil fuels, based on the present level of development.
The study appears Friday in the journal Science.
A few centuries from now society will have to wean itself from
fossil fuels because the supply will run out, said Martin I.
Hoffert, a professor of physics at New York University. But
because burning the fuels at an increasing rate is putting enough
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to cause global warming, the
nations of the world must confront the issue of developing clean,
renewable energy sources in this century or face a climate
disaster, he said.
"What our research clearly shows is that scientific innovation
can only reverse this trend if we adopt an aggressive, global
strategy for developing alternative fuel sources that can produce
up to three times the amount of power we use today," said
Hoffert, first author of the study. "Currently, these
technologies simply don't exist."
Hoffert said U.S. government policy favors increased domestic oil
production and shortchanges energy technology research that might
lead ultimately and economically to replacing fossil fuels.
He said a combination of renewable energy sources - such as wind
and solar power generation, or electrical power beamed from
orbiting solar satellites, and nuclear fusion power plants - "are
theoretically capable of keeping our civilization going into the
future, but the problem is that we haven't taken the challenge
seriously enough to do research in it. We are putting practically
nothing into really, seriously studying the problem."
Joel Darmstadter, an energy researcher at Resources for the
Future, an energy think tank, said the study by Hoffert and
others is a useful review of the technical status of the world's
alternate energy systems. The study, he said, could prompt policy
discussions because it gives an evaluation of what is possible to
replace fossil fuels.
But Darmstadter said the study failed to draw a clear picture of
which of the alternative systems should have the highest priority
and bases some of the discussion on "far out and highly
speculative" technologies, such as the power satellite.
Currently, the world's power consumption is about 12 trillion
watts, with 85 percent of it produced by burning fossil fuels. To
stabilize the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere
by the middle of the century while still permitting the current
level of global economic expansion would require production of
about 30 trillion watts of power worldwide using power systems
that do not emit carbon dioxide, the study found.
For that to happen, said Hoffert, the United States and other
countries need a crash program of alternate energy technology
development.
The study surveyed the entire field of alternate energy and found
most systems have serious technical problems still unsolved.
Among them:
-Nuclear fission: It is not the final answer because of a
shortage of uranium fuel. The proven reserves of uranium would
last less than 30 years if nuclear fission was used to make 10
trillion watts of power, about a third of what will be needed by
the end of the century, the study found.
-Solar power: To meet the current U.S. needs with solar power
would require sun collectors covering some 1,000 square miles. To
make the equivalent of 10 trillion watts of added power would
require surface arrays covering almost 85,000 square miles, an
area larger than the state of Kansas, the study found.
-Wind power: These systems must operate from remote areas and the
current power grids could not manage the load, the study found.
New grids, perhaps using cooled superconducting cables, might be
needed to harvest power from wind and solar systems.
-Solar power satellites: Orbiting solar arrays could make
electricity, convert it to microwaves and then beam that energy
to a ground antenna where it would be converted back to
electricity. But to make 10 trillion watts of power would require
about 660 space solar power arrays, each about the size of
Manhattan, in orbit about 22,000 miles above the Earth.
-Hydrogen energy: Hydrogen does not exist in pure, natural
reservoirs and has to be extracted from natural gas or water. The
study found that more carbon dioxide and less energy is produced
by the extraction of hydrogen than by burning natural gas
directly. Extracting hydrogen from water using solar or wind
power is not now "cost effective," the study found.
-Nuclear fusion: After decades of study, science still has not
learned how to extract power from the fusion of atoms. The study
said additional research could lead to breakthroughs, but it
would require political resolve and heavy investment.
On the Net: Science: www.sciencemag.org
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
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:
*****************************************************************