***************************************************************** 07/02/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.168 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Legions of Police Assigned to Siberian Nuke Protestors 2 Ambivalent Krasnoyarsk Court Kicks Big Decision to Moscow 3 US: Federal judge finds anti-nuclear activist Burton guilty of conte 4 U.S. Billions Begin to Corral Russia's Loose Nukes 5 Russia backing out of Iran nuke deal 6 US: Is Unicoi County on short list for uranium enrichment plant? NUCLEAR REACTORS 7 N.K. officials here for nuclear reactor training 8 Control Yuan set to question four in power-plant case 9 US: San Onofre reactor shuts down - 10 US: NRC Accepts Application For Design Certification of Westinghouse 11 US: Southern California Edison Says Nuclear, Other Plants Are on Hig 12 Thailand denies control over nukes is lax* 13 US: Pilgrim Nuclear Station vulnerable 14 AU: Leakage at reactor NUCLEAR SAFETY 15 US: [radiation-survivors] Government suspects irradiated mail may 16 US: Dirty Bombs: Assessing the Threat 17 Nuclear agency downplays risks over lost items 18 US: Montgomery County works on walking plan for nuclear evacuation. 19 UK: City to hear nuclear safety debate 20 Australian nuclear authority not concerned about radioactive leak 21 Thailand denies control over nukes is lax 22 Terror fear over lost nuclear parts NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 23 Dump Orchid Island waste at sea 24 US: Utah senators favor keeping nuclear waste out of Skull Valley 25 US: NUCLEAR REPOSITORY: Arguments against Yucca Mountain waste shipm 26 US: Group shows visual awareness of nuclear waste's dangers 27 Nuclear shipment gets go-ahead 28 US: DEEP UNDER YUCCA MOUNTAIN 29 US: NLV will consider anti-Yucca measure 30 US: Letter: Keep nuke waste where it is now 31 US: Michigan senator goes anti-Yucca 32 US: Cheney energy papers may have Yucca policy answers 33 US: Nuclear storage opponent held in contempt* 34 US: Dodd, Lieberman face tough call on Yucca vote 35 US: *Official accused of backtracking Nuclear waste opponents: Secre 36 US: Hatch, Bennett mull over Yucca votes* 37 High Court Bid over 'Weapons Fear' Plutonium Shipment 38 High court bid over 'weapons fear' plutonium shipment* NUCLEAR WEAPONS 39 AMEC survives despite lack of liability agreement 40 UK: BOMB IS FOUND IN SILT NEAR NUCLEAR SUB BASE 41 Russia: Institute Loses Enriched Uranium 42 Georgia to Search for Post - Soviet Nuclear Material US DEPT. OF ENERGY 43 DOE not getting news issued in a timely manner 44 ORNL investigates parking lot contamination 45 Hill named director of ORNL division 46 *Livermore Lab Sees More Changes With Departure of Administrator* 47 Deputy lab manager, passed over for chief, issues farewell OTHER NUCLEAR 48 Reid urges release of Cheney reports 49 Dreaming the possible dream: Scientists strive for elusive fusion 50 Editorial: A super mistake to gut Superfund 51 Nuclear plant to supply fluoride for water ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Legions of Police Assigned to Siberian Nuke Protestors Reprocessing at Zheleznogorsk The Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk still operates one of its three plutonium-producing reactors. This section also delivers information on spent nuclear fuel handling and the incomplete reprocessing plant RT-2. NEAR BERYOZOVKO, CENTRAL SIBERIA - Under the surveillance of some 50 uniformed and plainclothes police, an equal number of environmentalists pitched a camp to protest ever more likely radioactive imports to Russia, whose final destination would be the RT-2 plant, 36 kilometres from this village. Protestors gather in a tent city outside the village of Beryozovka in the Kransnoyarsk Region near a road leading to Zheleznogorsk. photo by the author Charles Digges, 2002-06-30 22:06 The pitching of the environmental protest camp falls on the eve of a hearing during which the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court will her appeals from environmental groups on whether to honour the approximately 40,000 signatures collected by Krasnoyarsk Region residents last winter to force a referendum whether they wanted to accept the import of some 20 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) to this region. In the Krasnoyarsk region, 35,000 signatures are required for a referendum. Last February, the Krasnoyarsk electoral commission disqualified 31,700 the signatures on a number of technicalities and threw the referendum out — similar to the referendum that was scuttled a year ago when environmentalists collected 2.5 million, 500,000 more than needed for a national referendum, for million signatures to force the radioactive waste import laws into to a vote, only to have 800,000 of them shot down for such things as incorrect street addresses written down by the signatories. The camp is scheduled to stand for a week, during which organizers say its size should grow to as many as 150 tent-dwelling protestors. This Saturday, shortly after the protestors began putting up the first of the tents and hanging a banner that said "A new Chernobyl? No Thanks," the camp — which is in a glade some 400 meters from the road to the closed nuclear city of Zheleznogorsk — was visited by Colonel Alexander Bychkunov of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Police. Flanked by three lieutenants, Bychkunov asked to meet with protest leaders and spoke for some minutes with Ecodefence! co-chairman Vladimir Slivyak. Colonel Alexander Bychkunov, in white, speaks with protestors. photo by the author According to Slivyak, Bychkunov spoke to him in a familiar manner, as if the two were acquainted — although the two have only ever spoken on the telephone. Slivyak characterized Bychkunov's familiar manner as "intimidating." "It was obvious that he knew much more about me than he could have from a few phone calls," said Slivyak in an interview with Bellona Web. "It was evident [from our conversation] that he had looked deep into whatever file he has on me. The morning before protestors occupied the site, Alisa Nikulina, co-chairman of Ecodefence! had received a similar, personally specific, telephone call from Colonel Bychkunov, Slivyak said. After Bychkunov left, a patrol of some 40 officers was brought by bus and posted across the highway from the campsite. Another 10 officers were posted in vehicles on the other side of the campsite and some even patrolled the woods surrounding it. Throughout the day, at least five patrols of plainclothes or uniformed officers entered the camp to inquire, once again, as to the gathering's purpose. Some campers reported being tailed when they went across the highway to a roadside cafe to use the bathroom. And in the late afternoon, a busload of police officers drove into the campground and copied down each protestor's passport information. The camp, as organized by Ecodefence!, has a strong anti-liquor policy, and all biodegradable waste is buried in landfills dug by campers. Other waste, plastics and metals are taken out of the campsite to dumpsters several times a day, so, say organizers, there is no reason to account for such heavy law enforcement presence — other than that the protest involves the environment. Ecodefence! Co-chairman Vladimir Slivyak speaks to ORT national Russian television. photo by the author It was difficult for many of the younger campers — many of whom are of university age or below and new to Russia's environmental movement — to understand why the police would take such an interest. "There are enough police out there that you would think they are expecting [Osama] Bin Laden to show up, but we understand it's a peaceful demonstration," said Slivyak in a talk to the group to assuage fears. "But we have understand that, by standing up against imports of nuclear waste to Russia, we are to some degree talking a stand against the state and its laws, that's why they are scared of us." Protestors attending the camp have come from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, St Petersburg, and even the United States. As the week progresses, Slivyak said other Russian cities as well as other eastern European countries are likely to be represented. Olga Podasenova, a veteran protestor of Yekaterinburg's Ecological Union was not surprised by the police presence that seemed to put many of the younger protestors on edge. "I think many see greens as being hand-fed by the West. The secret services and the police are not against us because we oppose nuclear power plants, but because they think we are in the pocket of the West — many of my own friends call me a spy," she said. "On the surface it's a joke — but deeper, they're dead serious." Zheleznogorsk background The entire nuclear plant at the Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk is well shielded 250-300 metres underground. The plant is located about 10 km north of the residential area. Read more in Bellona's working paper » Moscow's Nina Nikulina, who brought her 12-year-old son to the protest agreed, saying that if attitudes toward the environmental movement in Russia are to change, "the hope is to bring your children into it and make it change." Among the younger protestors holed up in tents near Beryozovko were the Dubinina sisters, Darya, 18, and Olga, 16, who had grown up in the closed city of Seversk, home to two of Russia's last remaining three plutonium reactors — the other one at Zheleznogorsk. The daughters of now-unemployed nuclear workers, they became involved with the environmental movement when the bottom fell out of their hometown. "We saw the depression of the people and of the environment settle in our city and we wanted to find out more," said Darya. "Our parents used to work in the nuclear industry [in Seversk] and when they lost their jobs, not only was there no money, but we found out the cheaper pleasures like swimming were off limits because the water was too polluted from the nuclear reactors." "It's as if," her sister Olga rejoined, "everything became known at once — there's no money to pay your parents — who used to be respected in this society — and the land and the water are polluted, so you can't even enjoy that." To the people of Beryozovko, down the road from Zheleznogorsk — which is experiencing changes similar to Seversk — the ravages caused to the environment, an particularly the central Siberian Yenisey River, by the closed nuclear city are an open secret, and have been for years. "Swimming in the Yenisey?" said one villager who identified himself only as Vladimir, "Forget it — unless you know of the two or three places you can go around here." But worse, said Vladimir is the fishing. "I drove in a 2000 kilometre circle trying to find a place on the Yenisey or one of its tributaries to fish, places my father an I once caught pike, salmon," he said. "I got nothing on this trip — guppies mostly — and worn tires." Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 2 Ambivalent Krasnoyarsk Court Kicks Big Decision to Moscow Reprocessing at Zheleznogorsk The Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk still operates one of its three plutonium-producing reactors. This section also delivers information on spent nuclear fuel handling and the incomplete reprocessing plant RT-2. KRASNOYARSK, CENTRAL SIBERIA - The Regional court in this city handed down a paradoxical decision regarding a referendum to build nuclear waste internment tomb, honouring the plaintiffs' arguments, but deciding that where to dispose of nuclear waste was a federal decision and beyond the competence of the local court. Judge: Krasnoyarsk Region Judge Sergei Polentsin sends decisions about nuclear waste to Moscow while reading his decision. Charles Digges, 2002-07-01 16:26 The court also said that local referendums on such questions were not outlawed, as the February decision had stipulated — and in the verdict, the court even encouraged such grassroots activity. But in the end, the hot potato of what to do with spent nuclear fuel (SNF) — be it of domestic or foreign pedigree — was handed off to Moscow. On Monday, Krasnoyarsk Region Judge Sergei Polentsev deliberated for more than two hours before reading an approximately 10-page decision in which he defended the rights of Russian citizens to seek referendums regarding the import and storage of radioactive waste, But Polentsev found, de facto, for the local election commission — which had challenged the referendum — writing in his decision that the storage and disposition of nuclear waste was the prerogative of the federal government. It is expected that a storage facility for upwards of 20 tonnes of foreign and domestic spent nuclear fuel (SNF) will be built by Russia's Ministry for Nuclear Energy, or Minatom, somewhere in the Krasnoyarsk region over the next several years. The group initiating the class action suit against the building of the nuclear waste tomb — which included members of the environmental group Greenpeace as well as local citizens — said they would appeal the decision to Russia's Supreme Court, "seeing as it falls under federal jurisdiction, " Ivan Blokov, of ‘Greenpeace', said. At issue is the construction of the underground cask for the storage of some 20 tonnes spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from foreign or domestic sources. Russia's ministry of nuclear energy, or Minatom, has long lobbied for a permanent storage facility for high-level radioactive waste, likely in Krasnoyarsk. But when the question came up last December, concerned local citizens and environmentalists embarked on a signature-collecting campaign to force the question to a regional referendum — a process that has a dark history following last year's attempted referendum to scuttle a national law allowing the import of radioactive waste. That referendum was put down by the national election commission, which disqualified 800,000 of the 2 million required signatures on technical grounds, such as inappropriate street abbreviations. Activists had collected 2.5 million signatures — an indication of the import law's unpopularity. It was passed, however, by a comfortable margin in the Duma, thanks largely to the 11th hour lobbying of then-nuclear minister Yevgeny Adamov — who was accused by some Duma deputies of outright bribery, but who nonetheless promised the country $20bn over the next 10 years for their services in reprocessing and SNF storage. To put the question to a vote in Krasnoyarsk, 40,000 signatures were required, but the local election commission disqualified 31,748 of them. Of those, 2,550 were contested by neither side as invalid. But the remaining 29,198 fell into a grey area between what — and what is not — considered a legal referendum. Of those disputed signatories, most signed their names, followed by the date — an acceptable format for a regional referendum, but which was at dissonance with federal guidelines that require passport information, addresses and the like. Local laws now correspond with that format, said Yelena Kurzmiskyaya, who appeared Monday as the Krasnoyarsk election commission's legal counsel Also mentioned in the election commission's case against Krasnoyarsk anti-import petition collectors was trouble at the bank. According to the local election officials, the "initiating group," or group of citizens running the petition drive, did not open a bank account with Russia's state Sberbank in time to print their petitions. By law, this must be done within 40 days of the proposed referendum. "You try opening a bank account with Sberbank," commented Ivan Blokov of Greenpeace to Bellona Web. "It takes at least two weeks to get anywhere." Compounding the bank account problems was the appearance of stickers and flyers urging voters to take part in the referendum that were printed and distributed by other local political groups prior without agreements with the initiating group with any local print houses. This, too, qualified in the election commission's eyes as early agitation — or campaigning — about which there are strict laws in Russia. Sweeping these complaints aside, Judge Polentsev supported the right to collect signatures for a referendum — bank complexities and the participation of outside parties — notwithstanding. It was a moment in the 10 minute reading of the decision that caused brief smiles to flicker back and for between environmentalists gathered for the case. But the tide abruptly changed when the judge passed decisions regarding the import and storage of fissile materials to Moscow. Greenpeace and Vladimir Besedin of the Krasnoyarsk branch of the Union of Righteous Forces (SPS) — one of the groups that printed up stickers urging Krasnoyarsk residents to the polls — said they would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court in Moscow. "Paradoxically, this decision supports referendums, and, paradoxically, the Regional court has sent us to Moscow in order to get expert opinion there," said Besedin after the verdict was read. Putting a brighter spin on the events was Andrei Ozharovksy, President of the non-government Initiative for International Development and Cooperation, who currently is occupying a camp near Zhelznogorsk protesting the import of radioactive waste to Russia. "The judge agreed with everything the [environmental] petitioners said and lifted the ban on conducting a referendum," he said after the hearing. "But they can only be on the federal level, and no one is going to ask Minatom if they want to build a nuclear site here or there — that is the level of democracy we are talking about." Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 3 Federal judge finds anti-nuclear activist Burton guilty of contempt /CY sought charge over suits against waste dump / By Paul Choiniere - More Articles Published on 07/02/2002 U.S. District Court Judge Alan H. Nevas found anti-nuclear activist and attorney Nancy Burton in contempt of court Monday for filing a series of state lawsuits that sought to block plans to create a nuclear waste storage facility in Haddam, an issue that Nevas ruled is now strictly a federal matter. The motion leading to the contempt decision was filed in federal court in Bridgeport by attorneys for Connecticut Yankee, which is building the storage facility for the highly radioactive spent fuel created during three decades of reactor operations. The nuclear plant closed in 1996. Last January, the Board of Selectmen in Haddam voted 2-1 to settle a lawsuit filed by Connecticut Yankee against the town for blocking zoning approval of the project. The settlement cleared the way for nuclear waste, now kept in a storage pool at the plant, to be moved into 43 steel-reinforced concrete canisters. The company has begun clearing the land. The canisters will stand on a hockey-rink-size pad about three-quarters of a mile from the plant. Under the agreement, Connecticut Yankee made an $800,000 up-front payment to the town and will pay it $1 million a year for 10 years. Nevas issued an order at the time of the settlement, saying all matters to do with the issue had to come through his court. Burton, however, has continued to pursue the matter in state courts. She has argued that Nevas lacked the authority to override local and state land-use regulations. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has backed that argument in a friend-of-the-court brief. With Monday's decision, Nevas reaffirmed his position in no uncertain terms. In an unusual move, the contempt charge was aimed at Burton, who lives in Redding, but not at her clients. It forecloses her ability to pursue any of the legal issues in state court, where opponents of the waste facility feel they have a stronger case. The federal judge said Burton will be forced to pay Connecticut Yankee's legal fees, which a spokeswoman for the company said will be in excess of $100,000. Burton said she would file an appeal of Nevas' contempt ruling. She already has four federal appeals pending in which the central issue is whether Nevas has the authority to order that all litigation come through his court. ?This is a tax on First Amendment speech and the right to petition and as such it is clearly antithetical to our democratic process,? said Burton, who expressed confidence the decision would be overturned. Kelly Smith, Connecticut Yankee spokeswoman, said the company reluctantly took the step of charging contempt of court. It had become apparent, Smith said, that Burton was willing to take any step to try to delay the nuclear waste project, a strategy that Connecticut Yankee contended violated Nevas' order. On behalf of several clients, including a group calling itself NORAD (Neighbors Opposed to Residential Atomic Dumps), Burton has fought the planned waste facility on a variety of legal fronts. She has: # Filed a lawsuit in Middletown Superior Court, alleging that Connecticut Yankee supplied ?false, deceptive and incomplete? information in gaining a wetlands permit for the project, including failing to provide details about a 10-acre beaver pond and planned road. # Written to Haddam selectmen asking them to rescind their vote settling the federal case on the basis of the alleged misleading wetlands information. She also has questioned the legality of the permits issued by the town's wetlands commission. # Filed a Middletown Superior Court suit contending that the project would damage the historical and archaeological value of property once owned by Venture Smith in the 18th century. Smith was a freed slave who defied the prejudice of the day to become a successful businessman. The cases have been moved to Nevas' court under his order. The judge told Burton Monday that he would deny the motion for contempt if Burton would agree to immediately withdraw the lawsuits and stop fighting the issue in venues outside his court. ?I simply couldn't accept that,? Burton said. ?I had a complete right to bring this through state court.? The attorney said the initial lawsuit brought by Connecticut Yankee coerced the town into settling for fear it would face costly damages if it lost. Now the company is trying to force her and her clients out of the picture through its contempt motion and threat of costly legal fees, said Burton, who is offering her services free of charge in the cases. ?That's the whole strategy of this company, to use bullying tactics to get its way,? Burton said. ?The lawsuits I have brought have exposed the underbelly of the nuclear beast in this state,? Smith, however, said that Nevas has left the door open to federal litigation. It was Burton's abuse of the judicial system that led to the censure, she said. * * * * 1998-2002 The Day Publishing Co. FAQs ***************************************************************** 4 U.S. Billions Begin to Corral Russia's Loose Nukes [http://www.moscowtimes.ru Tuesday, Jul. 2, 2002. Page 14 By Charles J. Hanley The Associated Press Mikhail Metzel / AP The Kurchatov Institute has heightened security to prevent theft of nuclear material. In islands of secrecy across Russia, American experts and American money are fitting locks and installing cameras, hardening walls, powering up databases, training guards in a vast, costly effort by one old foe to defend the weapons of another. Before the Americans came to Moscow's Kurchatov Institute, home to 10 tons of bomb uranium, a guard behind a lobby desk simply waved scientists and technicians through. Now the traffic is controlled by "man trap" entrance cages, surveillance video and radiation detectors. Far to the east, at a former weapons complex beyond the Ural Mountains, hundreds of one-ton concrete blocks are slowly being positioned over open receptacles holding bomb plutonium -- more U.S. dollars at work to foil nuclear thieves. "Threat reduction," a historic U.S.-Russian effort that has ballooned to a $1 billion-a-year enterprise, is steadily locking down more of this country's "loose nukes," the warheads and bomb material whose security began to loosen in the disarray after the Soviet Union's collapse. But the new security is far from total. Many doorways to plutonium and highly enriched uranium still lack detectors and cameras. More than half the 600-plus tons of Russian bomb material that isn't inside warheads still lacks even basic security upgrades -- improved locks, hardened windows, reliable inventories. And all still depends on imperfect humans. Behind walls topped with barbed wire, Kurchatov Institute staff detected a critical flaw in the software of their new U.S. accounting system, one that stalled the computer inventory of their uranium for more than a year. The programming was making batches of bomb material "disappear" from the database list. Simple human glitches, in the realm of nuclear arms, can lead to catastrophe. Bomb material has, in fact, been disappearing from the former Soviet nuclear complex, as seen in reported cases in which traffickers have been caught. The most serious was the attempted theft in 1998 of 18.45 kilograms of nuclear material, including bomb-grade uranium, from a Urals facility by two insiders conspiring with outsiders. It was probably enough to build a weapon. No information has emerged about ultimate buyers. "They were caught before they got off the property," said Yury Volodin, nonproliferation chief for Gosatomnadzor, the nuclear regulatory body. Have serious losses occurred in which the material was not recovered? "This is sensitive information," Volodin replied in an interview in Moscow, "and I am not authorized to discuss such things." Such things have been high on the discussion list worldwide since Sept. 11, and the talk in Washington and Moscow is of quickening the effort to keep nuclear weapons out of unfriendly hands. The man in charge of the Russian nuclear arsenal, Colonel General Igor Valynkin, underlined the threat when he announced that twice last year terrorists -- he didn't say who -- had been detected reconnoitering Russian weapons storage sites. From small pilot projects in 1994, the U.S.-Russian security effort has evolved into two dozen major programs operated by the U.S. Defense, Energy and State departments and other U.S. agencies. The U.S. Energy Department's work alone accounted for some 2,000 U.S. travelers to Russia last year. The Pentagon helps finance the Russians' dismantling of unneeded warheads, along with computerization, fence-building, alarm systems at warhead storage sites. It is also upgrading Russian nuclear transport with armored railcars and trucks. The U.S. Energy Department deals with the Nuclear Power Ministry's "loose" fissionable material -- plutonium and uranium not in weapon form. The Americans finance security upgrades ranging from personal identification systems to the reinforcement of gates and walls at nuclear research institutes, fuel production facilities, naval fuel storehouses and other sites. The U.S. State Department works, through subsidies and jobs programs, to keep former Soviet weapons experts, financially strapped in a changed Russia, from accepting tempting job offers from governments or others with nuclear ambitions. A U.S.-Russian agreement last September cooled some friction over the Americans' demands for access to more sensitive locations. But disagreements persist over a handful of warhead assembly and disassembly sites, noted Yury Fedorov, a Moscow nuclear security expert. "If you had access to material just released from nuclear weapons, it's possible you'd find out the particular composition. That's sensitive information," said Fedorov, of the Center for Policy Studies in Russia. Those warhead sites are one gap in the U.S. security plans. Another is represented by almost 200 decommissioned Russian nuclear-powered submarines, docked for years waiting to be dismantled. Everyone concedes the security is erratic for the subs' tons of uranium fuel -- both fresh and spent, some of it weapons-usable. But the huge estimated cost of full security, approaching $1 billion, has largely kept the Americans away. For all the U.S. accomplishments on loose nukes, nonproliferation specialists say the effort must be doubled -- at least. A U.S. Energy Department advisory task force last year concluded that nuclear leaks from Russia are "the most urgent unmet national security threat to the United States today." It advised a multiple leap in budget for the Russian programs -- to up to $3 billion per year for the Energy Department alone. At the Group of Eight summit in Canada last week, U.S. allies took one step forward, committing to spending up to $10 billion over the next 10 years on the security of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons material in Russia. Submarine dismantlement operations will be a special focus. Some Russians object that Western media overstate the threat and say that the number of trafficking cases has declined since the mid-1990s as security improvements have taken hold. But the thefts that go undetected or unreported remain a dark statistic, especially in a nuclear complex without a reliable, full inventory of bomb material. ***************************************************************** 5 Russia backing out of Iran nuke deal WorldNetDaily *STRATFOR GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE UPDATE* Moscow heeds U.S. warning, ends construction of reactor Posted: July 1, 2002 5:00 p.m. Eastern /Editor's note: In partnership with Stratfor, the global intelligence company, WorldNetDaily publishes daily updates on international affairs provided by the respected private research and analysis firm. Look for fresh updates each afternoon, Monday through Friday. In addition, WorldNetDaily invites you to consider STRATFOR membership, entitling you to a wealth of international intelligence reports usually available only to top executives, scholars, academic institutions and press agencies./ © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com There are growing signs Russia may not finish constructing the $800 million Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran, says Stratfor, the global intelligence company. Although the plant would be a lucrative deal for the cash-starved Russian government, pressure from the United States, due to concerns that Iran may be trying to acquire nuclear weapons, may be too much for the increasingly pro-West Russian president to ignore. Iran will try to keep Russia engaged as long as possible, but in the meantime will be looking for Moscow's replacement. Stratfor sources inside the Russian government say President Vladimir Putin has decided to gradually end Moscow's involvement in building a 1,000-maegawatt nuclear reactor at Bushehr, 500 miles south of Tehran. In bending to enormous U.S. government pressure, and yet not wanting to appear subservient, Putin will act quietly but surely. This strategy is already evident in the deliberate leaking of recent internal government documents, including those detailing the failure of Russia to secure a guarantee that Iran will return spent nuclear fuel from the reactor ? which could be converted into weapons-grade plutonium ? to Moscow, the Guardian reported June 24. The Middle East Newsline also reports that Tehran is opposing a Moscow proposal to institute a stronger inspection regime for the Bushehr plant. The future of the reactor has become a critical geopolitical issue for the United States, Iran, Russia, Israel and other Middle East and international players. Washington's efforts to block construction of the Bushehr plant come from a desire to prevent Tehran from gaining the ability to produce nuclear weapons. The Iranian government denies the charge that it will use the plant to produce weapons-grade plutonium but believes it has the right to obtain and keep a nuclear arsenal until the current nuclear powers ? the United States, Russia, France, Britain, China, Israel, India and Pakistan ? agree to liquidate their arsenals. Iran is especially concerned about the nuclear capabilities of its two major geopolitical foes: the United States and Israel. Moreover, if a conflict did break out with the United States, Washington's huge advantage in high-tech conventional weapons capabilities would quickly become apparent. Tehran thus believes it must acquire nuclear arms as a weapon of last resort, either to help counter Washington's military dominance or serve as a deterrent. In Israel, the national security priority has been to make sure no Islamic nation can develop a nuclear capability. Israel wants to keep its strategic military edge over Muslim states in the Middle East, which is why its air force destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. With Iraq weakened by its Gulf War defeat and the resulting blockade ? and awaiting a possible U.S. military attack ? Israel's main concern about an Islamic atomic bomb rests with Iran. During U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Russia last May, Israel sent a high-level government delegation to Moscow to make its case to both the Americans and Russians about shutting down construction on the Bushehr reactor. After the end of the Cold War, and before Putin started changing his geopolitical orientation toward Washington post-Sept. 11, Russia enjoyed close military, technical and political cooperation with Iran. For instance, Moscow secured contracts and promises totaling almost $5 billion to sell conventional arms to Iran. But the single-most lucrative contract came when the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry reached the agreement with Iran to build the Bushehr plant for $800 million. Unlike vague promises made by Washington to encourage U.S. investment in Russia, these deals brought Moscow immediate and much-needed cash. This is why the Russian government has been hesitant to bow to the U.S. demand to stop building the reactor even amid the growing U.S.-Russian alliance. But intensifying pressure from Washington in the last few weeks forced Putin to make the hard geopolitical choice of gradually phasing out Russia's involvement in the Bushehr project. Iran will still try to finish the nuclear plant's construction ? projected to be about two years off ? with Moscow's help. Its tactics for buying time and keeping Russia engaged could include indefinitely delaying any new Russian-Iran agreements that would force Tehran to return spent fuel to Russia. Tehran will use the fact that there is no clearly spelled promise by Iran to return all spent nuclear fuel to Russia in the current agreement. It will also point to the fact that the International Agency for Atomic Energy recently made an inspection of the Bushehr reactor and said that there has been no violation of the non-proliferation agreement found. However, Washington will not relent in its pressure to stop the construction and has made it clear that no matter what Putin has already done, he should quit helping the Iranians with the Bushehr plant now. For instance, John Bolton, the U.S. undersecretary of state on arms control, has said the future of Washington's relationship with Moscow depends largely on whether Russia stops exporting dangerous weapons materials to Iran, Reuters reported June 11. So although he will call for continued Russian-Iranian cooperation on the nuclear plant in public, Putin will quietly cooperate with Washington by first advancing new proposals on tighter international control over the nuclear reactor and then by sticking to his request to have all spent fuel returned. The number of Russian nuclear engineers and scientists working on the reactor will also be reduced to the minimum, and those remaining will not be able to complete the construction and secure the desired launch of the plant. This will still not stop Iran's determination to have the reactor built and working. But Tehran will look to countries whose expertise can replace the current Russian effort. In fact, even though Russian nuclear expertise is by far the most advanced compared to all potential candidates, the government is already quietly talking with several nations on the matter, according to Iranian diplomatic sources in Europe. Since Washington has made its position on Bushehr clear, many countries are not likely to help Iran with its construction, no matter how much they may be convinced that it is a peaceful project. Still, there are some states that might be willing to take the risk for either geopolitical or economic reasons, or both. Among them could be China, France, India, Brazil, South Africa, Belarus and Malaysia. WorldNetDaily.com © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 Is Unicoi County on short list for uranium enrichment plant? Elizabethton Star - Online Edition By Kathy Helms-Hughes STAR STAFF [khughes@starhq.com] The announcement that Unicoi County is in the running for a $1 billion gas centrifuge uranium-enrichment facility has prompted speculation about who the unnamed backers might be. According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, only two groups currently are in the pre-application phase for gas centrifuge facilities: Louisiana Energy Services -- a partnership made up of Urenco, Exelon, Duke Energy, Louisiana Light & Power, and Fluor Daniel; and U.S. Enrichment Corp., of Bethesda, Md. USEC and Urenco are competitors on the world market for enrichment services. U.S. Enrichment Corp., which processes and markets uranium for nuclear fuel used by electric utilities worldwide, was created by the Energy Policy Act of 1992. That same year the former Bush administration agreed to purchase weapons-grade uranium from Russia under a program which came to be known as "Megatons to Megawatts." USEC, formed as a quasi-government corporation before being privatized in 1998, took over DOE's Uranium Enrichment Enterprise in July 1993 and in 1994 entered into a contract with the Russian Federation to purchase 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium converted to 15,260 metric tons of low-enriched uranium over the next 20 years. Volume of the transaction was equivalent to three years' world demand for enriched uranium. According to the NRC, USEC will locate its "lead cascade" testing facility at either Portsmouth or Paducah, though final selection has not been made. Urenco last year announced plans to build a $1 billion gas centrifuge plant in the United States. The company originally said it expected to locate the facility at a current nuclear site and was considering possible locations at Portsmouth, Ohio, where USEC had closed down one of its plants, and at Paducah, Ky., home of USEC's only remaining enrichment facility. LES plans to use Urenco gas centrifuge technology now used at Urenco's three plants in The Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany. The as-yet unnamed company considering Unicoi County also plans to use gas centrifuge technology from "the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and elsewhere," according to Unicoi County Executive Paul Monk. On May 29, representatives from Louisiana Energy Services and the NRC held a pre-application meeting to discuss codes and standards, security, and topics previously reviewed for an enrichment project LES had planned to build near Homer, La. Though LES will be the entity making application to the NRC, Rod Krich of Exelon is the designated contact person for the project. Krich told the NRC that it had narrowed its selection of sites to three, however, until appropriate notifications are complete, LES is not ready to identify the sites. The announcement is expected to come within the next month. Krich also said the plant would be based on Urenco's Almelo facility in the Netherlands and indicated that the facility will not be located at a nuclear plant site. At the May meeting, NRC representatives presented a summary of their visit to Urenco gas centrifuge plants at Capenhurst in the United Kingdom, and Almelo. They cited pluses, such as the simplicity of plant operation and how few staff were required to operate the facility. The NRC staff also was impressed with how maintenance and decontamination is performed, cleanliness of the plant, and how Urenco disposes of its tailings by shipping it to Tenex in Russia for enrichment back to natural uranium levels. The NRC's main concern about the U.S. site was the possibility of radiological sabotage and the bulk quantity of uranium hexafluoride which would be handled at the facility. Staff members also raised concerns about the possible theft and diversion of nuclear materials. In January 1996, Urenco in cooperation with governments in the Netherlands, Germany and Britain, began an internal security investigation after it was learned that an expert diverted highly classified gas centrifuge design blueprints and sold them to Iraq sometime before 1991 for less than $350,000 in U.S. dollars. The expert, Karl-Heinz Schaab, a former Urenco scientist, was believed to have removed blueprints and documents over a period of time and had left Urenco before contacting Iraq. Schaab was convicted in 1993 of having exported a number of carbon fiber centrifuge rotors to Iraq prior to the Gulf War and was given a suspended prison sentence. He later sought political asylum in Brazil. Another ex-Urenco centrifuge program expert, Bruno Stemmler, also reportedly helped Iraqi engineers. Louisiana Energy Services was denied a license by the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) in 1997 for the Claiborne Enrichment Center near Homer, La., based on an environmental justice contention aimed at protecting minorities from disproportionate exposure to pollution. According to the NIRS Nuclear Monitor Extra, the ASLB previously ruled that LES had underestimated its likely decommissioning costs by about 50 percent and that the LES consortium was not financially qualified to build and operate the plant, but was essentially a shell corporation apparently intended to avoid potential liability for its parent companies. Efforts by the Star to locate a home page for Louisiana Energy Services on the World Wide Web were unsuccessful. In December 1997, the NRC reversed the ASLB decision on financial qualifications and found LES financially qualified. However, LES withdrew its application in 1998 after seven years of review and $34 million in costs. NRC granted the motion to withdraw the license in 1998. According to information from the May 29 meeting, the NRC is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement for the LES project "on an aggressive 18 month schedule," based on assumptions that the facility will be constructed on an existing nuclear site and that the design will be similar to the previous Homer, La. project. The NRC plans to use applicable material from the Homer project EIS. The NRC is expected to receive LES's environmental report in December, which will be followed by scoping meetings in February 2003 and publication of the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in October 2003. The final EIS is anticipated in June 2004. The proposed plant will have a total capacity of 3 million Separative Work Units (SWU) vs. 1.5 million SWU for the Homer plant, and an assay level of 6 percent enrichment vs. 5 percent for the Homer plant. The same centrifuge type will be used in the new plant as was previously proposed. Tim Johnson of the NRC said, "For a commercial enrichment facility an Environmental Impact Statement is required under our regulations. As part of their application, they'll have to submit an environmental report that will contain information that we will use to prepare an EIS." Should U.S. Enrichment Corp. decide to build a test facility, Johnson said, "Our Office of General Counsel doesn't think an EIS will be needed, but we'll still have to do an environmental review." Copyright © 1996 - 2002 Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc. [webmaster@starhq.com] Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc., 300 Sycamore Street Elizabethton, Tennessee 37643 - 423.542.4151 ***************************************************************** 7 N.K. officials here for nuclear reactor training Korea Herald!!_National http://www.koreaherald.com A 25-member North Korean delegation arrived in South Korea yesterday to participate in education programs on the safety of two light-water reactors currently under construction in North Korea, Unification Ministry officials said. Headed by Director Kim Yong-il of the North's State Nuclear Safety Regulatory Commission, the North Korean officials in charge of supervising safe operation of the nuclear power plants will attend classes on nuclear facilities for 26 days beginning today. The education program will be offered by the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) in Daedeok Valley, the South's epicenter of advanced science and technology near Daejeon. "The North Korean delegation will stay at the KINS and they will also visit nuclear power plants in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province, during their stay," said an official at the ministry's Bureau for Policy Coordination Office of Planning for Light-Water Reactor Project. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), an international consortium led by the United States and South Korea, is building the two 1,000-megawatt light water reactors in the North under the 1994 Agreed Framework, in which North Korea promised to freeze its suspected nuclear weapons program. The official said KEDO entrusted KINS, the safety advisory agency for the consortium, with training the North Korean personnel, who will leave the country July 27. "North Korea and KEDO agreed on the education schedule two months ago and North Korean officials expressed their willingness to follow the schedule during a meeting with our officials in Beijing on Monday," the ministry official said. The visit by the North Korean delegates comes at a time when militaries of the two Koreas are on high alert following the inter-Korean naval clash on Saturday in which at least four South Korean sailors were killed. The official said the naval clash would not affect the training of the visiting North Koreans since it is reached between the North and KEDO. A group of 10 North Koreans visited South Korea in May to inspect the Yangyang and Gimhae International airports in preparation for the proposed opening of a direct inter-Korean air route which will be used to transport workers and materials for the construction of the power plant. Another group of 123 North Korean technicians will travel to the South in the last quarter of the year to receive training regarding the operation of the nuclear power plants when they complete the on-the-job training in North Korea in October. (shj@koreaherald.co.kr) By Seo Hyun-jin Staff reporter 2002.07.03 (C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Control Yuan set to question four in power-plant case The Taipei Times Online: 2002-07-02 DANGEROUS FLAWS: The investigative body will question four current and former high-ranking officials about the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant's construction defects By Lin Miao-jung STAFF REPORTER The Control Yuan is due to question four high-ranking incumbent and former officials today about construction defects in the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and charges that contractor China Shipbuilding Corp (¤¤²î) used inferior materials in one of the power plant's reactor pedestals. Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (³¯·ç¶©), Atomic Energy Council (AEC) Vice Chairman Chiou Syh-tsong (ªô½çÁo), Taiwan Power Company's (Tai-power, ¥x¹q) former president Lin Ching-chi (ªL²M¦N) and China Shipbuilding's former general manager Chiang Yuan-chang (¦¿¤¸¼ý) are scheduled to be questioned. Control Yuan member Huang Wu-tzu (¶ÀªZ¦¸) yesterday said in a news release that he, along with his colleagues Chao Chang-ping (»¯©÷¥­), Chao Ron-yaw (»¯ºaÄ£), and Leu Hsi-muh (§f·Ë¤ì), have gone through related documents and government papers and will begin the interrogation today. According to Huang, Control Yuan members will investigate how the government takes bids for construction work, how contrac-tors and subcontractors fulfill their contracts and how construction contracts for the nuclear plant were allocated to the subcontractors. The interrogation will also touch on administrative mistakes made by officials involved, Huang said. Last month, after construction defects in the plant were reported by the media, the Control Yuan formed a four-person task force to probe the allegations. After a one-month review of related documents and government papers, the task force found that nine of 32 samples taken from the pedestal had defective materials. In addition, there's a 20cm-long crack in the plant's reactor pedestal, according to a report released by Huang. "The quality of construction work on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant appears to have drawbacks," Huang said. In addition, Huang cited media reports that said China Shipbuilding may have improperly benefitted from a commission during the process of subcontracting construction work. "They apparently did shoddy work, but the related government agencies are not aware of that or pretended it does not exist," he said. Not long after the allegations came to light, the Ministry of Economic Affairs released the names of officials to be given demerits over the flaws. Twenty-two of officials are from Taipower and China Shipbuilding. China Shipbuilding subcontracted New Asia Construction and Development Corp to build the pedestal. The punishments, in the form of demerits imposed on Taipower by the ministry, drew immediate media criticism, as not a single high-ranking official has been asked to step down over the errors. This story has been viewed 175 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/07/02/story/0000146673] Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 San Onofre reactor shuts down - 7/2/02 - North County Times NCTimes.net PHIL DIEHL Staff Writer SAN CLEMENTE ---- A San Onofre nuclear reactor automatically shut down Sunday as operators were returning it to service after 41 days of refueling and maintenance. A problem with the Unit 2 reactor's "steam dump valves" is suspected and could be corrected in time to return the reactor to service later this week, said Ray Golden, a spokesman for San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station operator Southern California Edison Co. The unexpected shutdown damaged nothing, injured no one and released no radiation, Golden said Monday. Edison had budgeted 45 days for the refueling and maintenance work and still could meet that goal, he added. "We were doing the turbine overspeed test," he said, in which the reactor's main turbine is spun at high speeds. During the test, two steam bypass valves opened unexpectedly, reducing pressure in the reactor's cooling system and causing control rods to automatically drop into the reactor core, stopping the nuclear reaction. The rods contain boron, which absorbs the neutrons emitted by radioactive material. The problem with the valves should be solved today, Golden said. Each time the reactor returns to service, it goes through a series of tests and procedures lasting 28 to 72 hours as it gradually returns to full power. San Onofre refuels each of its two operating reactors about every two years. Each time, about half of the fuel rods are replaced with fresh ones, and the rods removed are stored in underwater pools at the plant. The current work included the first complete visual inspection of the top of the reactor vessel since it was installed 20 years ago, Golden said. The insulation that had obscured portions of the reactor's head was removed and replaced. "It was a very complex and challenging outage," Golden said. "There was more work than usual." The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered more detailed inspections for all commercial reactors after extensive corrosion was discovered in March at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Toledo, Ohio. No similar corrosion turned up in the head of the San Onofre reactor, Golden said. Other maintenance work completed at San Onofre included detailed inspections of the reactor's two steam generators for cracks, dents and corrosion. The steam generators work like radiators in cars, exchanging heat between the reactor's primary and secondary cooling systems. They have about 18,000 pencil-thin tubes that water heated by the reactor passes through. Hundreds of other inspection and maintenance jobs were completed, Golden said. The same work is scheduled to begin on San Onofre's Unit 3 reactor in early January. A third reactor, Unit 1, was retired in 1992 and is being dismantled. Work continues 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the plant during refueling and maintenance outages. Edison and San Onofre's other owners ---- San Diego Gas &Electric Co. and the cities of Riverside and Anaheim ---- lose about $600,000 a day in revenue each day the plant can't provide electricity to the Southern California grid. Contact staff writer Phil Diehl at (760) 901-4087 or pdiehl@nctimes.com [pdiehl@nctimes.com] . 7/2/02 [webmaster@nctimes.com] 1997-2002 North County [http://www.nctimes.net] ***************************************************************** 10 NRC Accepts Application For Design Certification of Westinghouse AP1000 Advanced Reactor Design NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 80 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-080 July 2, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has accepted a design certification application submitted by the Westinghouse Electric Company for its AP1000 standard plant design after determining that it contains sufficient information to be formally "docketed" and processed. The AP1000 design is a nuclear power plant capable of producing about 1,100 megawatts of electricity. The plant features enhanced safety systems that rely on gravity and natural processes to safely shut down the reactor or mitigate the effects of an accident. It is designed for a 60-year operating life. If certification is granted, a company that wished to build and operate a new nuclear power plant could choose to use the design and reference it in a license application. Safety issues resolved within the scope of the design certification are not subject to litigation with respect to that individual license application, although site-specific design information and environmental impacts associated with building and operating the plant at a particular location could be litigated. NRC has certified three other standard reactor designs. In submitting its application for design certification on March 28, Westinghouse referenced the AP600 standard design, which was certified by NRC in 1999. It made changes necessitated by the requirements of the larger size of the AP1000. Additional details are available in a notice published in the Federal Register on June 28. The staff will now start to review the application, request any additional information if necessary, and then issue a draft Safety Evaluation Report to address any technical and safety questions. A final Safety Evaluation Report will be issued when all technical and safety questions have been resolved. The design can then be certified through NRC's rulemaking process, which includes an opportunity for public participation. The certification process is described in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 52, Subpart B. ***************************************************************** 11 Southern California Edison Says Nuclear, Other Plants Are on Highest Alert July 2, 2002 3:33am Jul. 2--ROSEMEAD, Calif.--Recent reports about possibilities of cyber terrorism attacks against the nation's public utilities has raised questions about the preparedness of Southern California Edison Co. facilities, including a nuclear power plant the utility runs in San Onofre. A report last week in the Washington Post said that last fall the Mountain View Police Department has started investigating a suspicious pattern of surveillance against Silicon Valley computers. From the Middle East and Southeast Asia, unknown browsers were exploring the systems used to manage Bay Area utilities and government offices, according to the Post. Findings of an ensuing investigation revealed that the cyber visitors studied electrical generation and transmission, nuclear power plants and gas facilities, in some cases suggesting planning for a conventional attack, the article stated. But Edison officials in Rosemead say their facilities, including the San Onofre power plant, are already on the highest state of alert. "Since, 9-11, we have been at our highest state of security levels," said Steven Conroy, a spokesman with Edison. "We have taken steps at San Onofre, as well as other Edison facilities." Because of security concerns, Conroy would not comment specifically on what steps have been taken to increase security at SCE facilities. But Conroy did say steps have been taken to keep an eye on the utility's computer systems. "We have always had an extensive measure of security levels for our computer systems," he said. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, security personnel have been added to Edison facilities, and SCE has stepped up coordination with local state and federal law enforcement agencies to share information on the latest alerts. Conroy wouldn't say how many personnel will be added or how much Edison has payed for beefed up security measures. "Certainly, there's additional cost consideration of stepping up security measures," he said. "It is cost that is well spent and is prudent." He added that while terrorist threats continue to echo throughout the nation, there has been no mention of any Edison facilities among those threats. "We've had no direct threats to San Onofre," he said. "We have no direct threats to any of the Edison facilities." Shares of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, on Friday closed up 25 cents to $17 on the New York Stock Exchange. To see more of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sgvtribune.com © 2002, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. ***************************************************************** 12 Thailand denies control over nukes is lax* thestar.com. *Tuesday, July 2, 2002* BANGKOK: Thai energy officials denied yesterday reports that the nation?s stores of radioactive material were unsafe and open to theft by terrorists intent on constructing a ?dirty bomb.? /The Bangkok Post/ said that Thailand had been placed on a ?security-risk list? by the International Atomic Energy Agency and cited diplomatic sources as saying that the agency told Thai officials to tighten controls. But an Office of Atomic Energy for Peace (OAEP) official dismissed the allegations that Thailand has lax nuclear controls. The official said measures were in place to prevent illicit acquisition of radioactive material. ?We do not have much radioactive material and we have measures to prevent any of it from going missing,? he said. The official conceded, however, that the makers of a dirty bomb ? conventional explosives wrapped in radioactive material ? could use Thailand as a transit point for the deadly components of such a device. ?It is possible for them to bring the material from outside, like Russia, and pass through Thailand to go to another country,? he said. Last week the IAEA issued an alarming report which stated that more than 100 countries may have inadequate control and monitoring programmes necessary to prevent or even detect the theft of these materials. ? AFP Copyright © 1995-2002 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd ***************************************************************** 13 Pilgrim Nuclear Station vulnerable Worcester Telegram & Gazette - World/Regional Tuesday, July 2, 2002 By Jennifer Peter THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON-- The greatest vulnerability to terrorist attack at Plymouth's nuclear power plant is not its hot nuclear core, but its above-ground cooling pools that store spent fuel rods, according to experts who spoke yesterday at the Statehouse. “While reactor cores are often encased in reasonably thick, protective shells, the storage of spent nuclear fuel is laughable,” said Dr. David Rush, a physician and professor emeritus at Tufts University. The experts gathered at an impromptu symposium, convened by Rep. Matthew Patrick, R-Barnstable, to discuss the dangers of terrorist attacks on nuclear plants as the Independence Day holiday approaches. U.S. intelligence officials have received unverified information that terrorists may attack a nuclear plant on July Fourth. “It's no secret that nuclear plants are on a short list of terrorist targets,” said Robert Alvarez, director of the Nuclear Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and former senior adviser to the energy secretary from 1993 to 1999. “After Sept. 11, it dawned on me that we were entirely too complacent about this threat.” The physicists and doctors portrayed the nuclear industry as woefully unprepared to defend against terrorism, because regulators and owners have been more concerned with profits than with public safety. The same conflict has deterred the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from taking any kind of meaningful action since the fall attacks, the experts said. “As we approach 10 months after Sept. 11, the NRC is still in limbo in terms of strengthening security at nuclear power plants, because security is expensive,” said Dr. Ed Lyman, a theoretical physicist and director of the Nuclear Control Institute. The Pilgrim Nuclear Station stores 2,278 rods in cooling pools 100 feet over the ground, compared to 580 rods in the nuclear core, where energy is generated. If there were to be any type of disaster at the plant, Patrick said, Cape residents would not be able to evacuate to the mainland. “It would be physically impossible,” Patrick said. “On Cape Cod, we are very concerned about the risks from nuclear power plants.” Pilgrim spokeswoman Carol Wightman said that the plant has been at a heightened state of security since Sept. 11 and that “the fuel stored inside the nuclear plant would be protected from any kind of threat from terrorism.” “Pilgrim has an excellent security force. They have been trained in resisting terrorist forces,” Wightman said. She noted that there has been no specific threat against any particular plant. Officials at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not immediately return calls seeking a comment. Possible safeguards presented by the panel included the installation of anti-aircraft missiles near the plant, a hardening of the plant's shell and transferring the spent fuel from the cooling pools to dry cask storage, a process that could take two years. If an attack were to occur, Rush warned, the health care systems would be quickly overwhelmed. “There is no way there can be adequate preparation for any extensive exposure,” he said. copyright.html] Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp. ***************************************************************** 14 AU: Leakage at reactor news.com.au - [02jul02] By Joe Hildebrand A radioactive water leak at Australia's only nuclear reactor has sparked further concerns about the safety of the facility and prompted accusations of government secrecy. The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) today said there had been a water leak from a pond used to cool nuclear fuel rods at the Lucas Heights reactor, in Sydney's south, last year. An ARPANSA spokesman said several litres of radioactive water seeped through an inner stainless steel pond into a concrete catchment designed to catch any such leakage. ARPANSA and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) said there had been no contamination of the area, and bores dug in the ground around the facility had picked up no traces of radioactivity. Both groups played down the event, saying radioactivity levels in the water were insignificant and never presented a threat to public safety. But neither organisation could say exactly when the leakage occurred or how much water had been discovered in the catchment. And ANSTO spokesman Peter Russell said the problem was so minute, nothing had been done to address it. Mr Russell said there was no precise point of leakage, it was more a matter of "seepage" which was an inherent aspect of the facility. "The bottom line is that there's nothing to fix," he said. But Mr Russell could not explain why, if it was a normal occurrence, the water had been picked up in an inspection by ANSTO last year, which justified the organisation reporting it to the Federal Government's nuclear safety watchdog. The ARPANSA spokesman said there was no threat to public safety and the incident did not justify the agency making the matter publicly known. The revelations come just weeks after the discovery of an earthquake fault line beneath the new nuclear reactor being built at Lucas Heights - another incident that was not made public by ARPANSA or ANSTO. Green groups have accused both organisations of being too secretive, saying it should be up to the public to decide what constitutes a threat to its safety. NSW Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon said today's revelations showed the Government had kept the public in the dark. "People's right to know is paramount and the first responsibility of the Federal Government is to ensure all nuclear agencies are open and responsible in how they carry out their operations," she said. Greenpeace spokesman Stephen Campbell said it wasn't good enough for government organisations to say the public was not at risk. "I think that it's up to the public to determine whether or not it's significant to them," he said. And environmental scientist Garry Smith, who works for the Sutherland Shire Council, which covers Lucas Heights, said the leakage was ominous, even though it had been contained. "It implies that there are structural deficiencies and it reflects that there may be other structural deficiencies," he said. AAP ***************************************************************** 15 [radiation-survivors] Government suspects irradiated mail may Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 10:59:38 -0500 (CDT) Hello, The following story was sent by: Lona (lona@tahomagirl.com) And Lona had this to say: Government suspects irradiated mail may have harmed Capitol Hill workers --------------------------------------------------------------- Government suspects irradiated mail may have harmed Capitol Hill workers WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional employees were still reporting health problems such as headaches and nausea months after the Postal Service began irradiating all mail following the anthrax scare, according to a report being released Tuesday. You can read the full story online at: http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/453429p-3629576c.html --------------------------------------------------------------- This article is protected by copyright and should not be printed or distributed for anything except personal use. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: radiation-survivors-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com ----- Together we can make a difference.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 16 Dirty Bombs: Assessing the Threat (washingtonpost.com) By Mohamed El Baradei Tuesday, July 2, 2002; Page A15 A new term has entered our lexicon of fear: the so-called "dirty bomb." But giving the new threat a name has only heightened panic; the crucial step is to improve public understanding of what a dirty bomb is and of how the threat is being addressed internationally. A dirty bomb would be made of ordinary explosives -- such as dynamite -- packaged with radioactive material, which would be dispersed when the bomb went off. As with any explosion, people in the immediate vicinity could be killed or injured by the blast itself. The radioactive material that was dispersed, depending on the amount and intensity, could cause radiation sickness for a limited number of people nearby if, for example, they inhaled large amounts of radioactive dust. But the most severe tangible effects would likely be the economic costs and social disruption associated with the evacuation and subsequent cleanup of contaminated property. Packaging explosives with other toxic substances could cause equally severe public health effects and social disruption, with less effort and risk for the terrorist. Radioactive material is hard to handle: The bomber would have to choose between being directly exposed to a concentrated clump of material -- which could be lethal -- or using large amounts of lead shielding, which would hamper bomb assembly and transport. But a dirty bomb could be a terrorist's weapon of choice simply to play on public fears of all things nuclear and radioactive. Panic and chaos are a terrorist's primary objectives. Around the world, radioactive materials have been widely used for decades to benefit humankind -- to diagnose and treat illnesses, to monitor oil wells and water aquifers and to irradiate food to eliminate microbes. But a lack of control over the thousands of radioactive sources worldwide makes their acquisition and use by terrorists a real possibility. In Kabul, Afghanistan, in late March, my organization -- the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- secured a powerful cobalt source abandoned in a former hospital. In Uganda a week later, we helped to secure a source that appeared to have been stolen for illicit resale. And as I write, a team of IAEA and local experts is searching through remote areas of the Republic of Georgia to locate and recover a number of powerful strontium sources that have been outside official control for years. Even in the United States and Europe, where regulatory controls are relatively stringent, thousands of radioactive sources have been lost or stolen, their whereabouts unknown. Providing security controls for radioactive material is not a new concept. Common-sense measures have been required for many years -- such as strict inventories, locked storage facilities and security guards, depending on the type or amount of material. But the primary focus in the past has been on safety hazards and the prevention of inadvertent (rather than deliberate) exposure. The terrorist attacks of last September catapulted security to the forefront. The sophistication of the attacks, the evident will to create large-scale panic and destruction, and the willingness of the terrorists themselves to risk their lives to achieve their ends made the dirty bomb threat far more realistic. The degree and nature of the threat vary significantly from one country to another. National governments are redoubling their efforts to prevent and to counter nuclear terrorism, both at home and abroad. The IAEA is serving as a catalyst for these efforts. We have provided equipment and training to hundreds of border guards and other law enforcement officials, to help them detect illicit trafficking of radioactive material across borders. We have held dozens of workshops to help governments and operators in assessing the threats to their nuclear facilities, raising their standards of security, maintaining proper control of nuclear and radioactive material and being prepared to respond to any related emergencies that arise. And we recently forged a trilateral partnership among the United States, the Russian Federation and the IAEA to locate, secure and dispose of powerful radioactive sources that were lost or abandoned during the breakup of the former Soviet Union. The good news, in brief, is that governments and the IAEA are working overtime on this problem, and we have every intention of continuing until the threat has been vastly reduced. But this will not happen overnight; bringing the global inventory of radioactive material under proper controls will require a sustained and concerted effort. The writer is director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 17 Nuclear agency downplays risks over lost items Thestar.com/ Jul. 2, 2002. 01:00 AM By Peter Calamai SCIENCE REPORTER OTTAWA — Five of 11 containers of dangerous radioactive material that have disappeared over the past 12 months in Canada are still missing. The sealed containers — ranging in size from a thimble to a golf ball — were all inside industrial devices which used the radioactive rays to measure everything from the density of concrete roadwork to the soundness of pipeline welds. Multiple locks and lead shielding guard the radioactive material from tampering and protect users from exposure, said a senior official at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission "In several cases these emit gamma rays. They're pretty dangerous if someone doesn't know what they're doing," said Tom Viglasky, the official in change of regulating nuclear substances at the commission. But the agency says there is no evidence that either organized crime or terrorists are behind the disappearance of any of the 31 devices containing radioactive material reported lost since 1996. All but seven of those have been recovered, a total that includes the five from the past year. "The devices are generally stolen from construction sites or trucks by someone who has no idea what's in that suitcase-sized box. When they see the yellow-and-black radioactive trefoil symbol, they usually dump the devices by the side of the road," said Viglasky. The nuclear safety officials were responding to recent warnings from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog that the radioactive materials needed to make a "dirty bomb" can be found in almost every country around the world because of the widespread use of radiation-emitting devices in industry and the health field. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is pushing for mandatory cradle-to-grave controls over the most powerful radioactive materials to thwart so-called dirty bombs, which would use conventional explosives to spread small amounts of radioactive material over a wide area. Currently, there is no binding international agreement for regulating such radioactive materials, as there is for the much more powerful substances inside nuclear reactors. U.S. authorities recently claimed to have foiled a plot to explode a dirty bomb there. The materials of most concern to the IAEA are cobalt-60, strontium-90, caesium-137 and iridium-192. Two of the missing Canadian radiation devices held small amounts of caesium-137 and three others contain krypton-85, a gas considered less dangerous. Canada's track record stacks up well internationally. Since 1996, American companies have lost track of almost 1,500 sealed radiation sources, compared to 31 over the same period in Canada. www.thestar.com ***************************************************************** 18 Montgomery County works on walking plan for nuclear evacuation. From The Morning Call -- July 2, 2002 By Frank Devlin Of The Morning Call Montgomery County's plan to have the Perkiomen Trail double as an evacuation route in case of a nuclear plant disaster is more complicated than simply having people walk out of harm's way. When county Commissioner Michael Marino recently announced the plan, he noted that survivors of the World Trade Center attack walked out of Manhattan on Sept. 11. But county Public Safety Director Thomas Michael Sullivan said that an evacuation from the area of Exelon Corp.'s nuclear plant in Limerick Township would not involve a throng of thousands walking several miles along the 19-mile trail. Instead, Sullivan said, evacuees would walk short distances to predetermined ''pickup points'' along the trail, where they would hop into buses or vans that would drive them out of the 10-mile danger zone that rings nuclear plants. It will be several months before the final details of the plan are worked out, Sullivan said, but it's safe to say it will not involve residents of Collegeville and other towns close to both the trail and the plant outpacing radiation on foot. And the trail, Sullivan said, would be just a small addition to an already existing system of vehicular evacuation routes, an alternative for people who live or work near it. Still, the idea that even relatively few people will walk only short distances as radiation looms a few miles away worries David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists. ''I think we can do better in 21st century America,'' said Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Cambridge, Mass., environmental advocacy group. Sullivan said authorities would only use the trail if they were sure the wind was blowing radiation from a terrorist strike or accident away from sections of the trail that would be used for an evacuation. But if the wind isn't measured properly or it changes direction, Lochbaum said, ''you're going to be in a radioactive cloud.'' Being stuck in a car on a crowded highway when radiation arrives also would be a danger, Lochbaum said, but cars provide at least some protection. And in a car, ''your breathing rate is going to be lower'' than if you were walking, he said, so the ''potential for radiation levels in your lungs is less.'' But if using the Perkiomen Trail as an evacuation route is what the county wants, that's what the county will get, said Lochbaum and spokesmen for the Pennsylvania and federal Emergency Management agencies, because counties have the final say on evacuation plans. Sullivan said the trail could be added to the official evacuation routes, which are printed in phone books, within a year. Official trail or not, Lochbaum said, people have such a fear of radiation that, no matter what assurances they get from the government, ''I don't think you'd get too many people heading down that trail.'' frank.devlin@mcall.com 215-529-2614 Copyright © 2002, The Morning Call © 2002 THE MORNING CALL Inc. ***************************************************************** 19 UK: City to hear nuclear safety debate BBC - Devon - Tuesday 2nd July 2002 [Trident submarine] Devonport Dockyard is to refit the Royal Navy's Trident nuclear submarine fleet Anti-nuclear campaigners and industry representatives are to gather in Plymouth for a debate over nuclear safety in the city. The debate comes because of concerns about the refit of Trident submarines at Devonport Dockyard and the granting of permission to increase radioactive discharges into the River Tamar to allow the work to be carried out. HMS Vanguard, the first of the Trident submarines to be refitted at Devonport Dockyard, arrived in February. [Devonport Dockyard] DML successfully applied to increase discharges of radioactive tritium into the River Tamar by 500% For DML, which runs the Dockyard, and for the local economy, her arrival signalled a multi-million pound bonanza. But environmentalists maintain there is a cost. To allow it to carry out the refit work, DML successfully applied to increase discharges of radioactive tritium into the River Tamar by 500%. There has been concern, both locally and nationally, over the safety of tritium. Scientists at the University of Plymouth claim new research shows tritium could pass into the food chain and could adversely affect human health. However, the Environment Agency says the increased discharges are within safe levels. As well as discussing the levels of tritium, the meeting will also be addressing the future storage on land of radioactive compartments from decommissioned nuclear submarines. [Submarine in dock] DML's submarine refit contract signalled a multi-million pound bonanza Currently stored at sea, the MoD is running out of available space and has had to look at on-shore alternatives. The public meeting, which has been organised by the Nuclear Free Coalition, takes place in the Lower Guildhall tonight (Tuesday) at 7pm. Meanwhile, the county's defence industry has had another blow with the news that the Royal Navy's next generation of aircraft carriers will not be based at Devonport. Armed Forces minister Adam Ingram has announced that the £3bn carriers will be based at Portsmouth. However, Mr Ingram confirmed that Devonport would instead be the base for major amphibious warships. He also said it was clear that Britian needed to retain all three of its naval bases at Devonport, Portsmouth and Faslane. Devonport is also still in the running to build the aircraft carriers in partnership with French defence company Thales. ***************************************************************** 20 Australian nuclear authority not concerned about radioactive leak Radio Australia News - Australian nuclear authority not concerned about radioactive leak The Australian Government's nuclear safety agency says it's not greatly concerned about a leak of radioactive water from a pond at a nuclear reactor. The leak occurred at the Lucas Heights facility in the city of Sydney. Lauren Purdie reports. ARPANZA says the water contained low-levels of radio-activity... several litres seeped into a purpose-built leakage pump last year. When the agency found out about the leak it ordered ANSTO - the operator of the reactor to drill bore-holes and test the ground around the pond for radio-activity. ARPANZA spokesman Brenden Elliot says so far, no contamination has been detected. THE AGENCY ISN'T GREATLY CONCERNED AT THIS STAGE THE SIGNS ARE ENCOURAGING. IT WOULD APPEAR THAT THE LEAK HAS BEEN CONTAINED. Sutherland Councillor Genevieve Rankin says ARPANZA is being too optimistic. She says the ramifications of a radioactive leak are huge. THE GROUNDWATER FROM THAT SITE RUNS TO BOTH THE WORONORA AND THE GEORGE'S RIVER IT'S A VERY SENSITIVE PART OF SYDNEY. 03/07/2002 03:11:01 | ABC Radio Australia News ***************************************************************** 21 Thailand denies control over nukes is lax thestar.com.my Tuesday, July 2, 2002 BANGKOK: Thai energy officials denied yesterday reports that the nation’s stores of radioactive material were unsafe and open to theft by terrorists intent on constructing a “dirty bomb.” The Bangkok Post said that Thailand had been placed on a “security-risk list” by the International Atomic Energy Agency and cited diplomatic sources as saying that the agency told Thai officials to tighten controls. But an Office of Atomic Energy for Peace (OAEP) official dismissed the allegations that Thailand has lax nuclear controls. The official said measures were in place to prevent illicit acquisition of radioactive material. “We do not have much radioactive material and we have measures to prevent any of it from going missing,” he said. The official conceded, however, that the makers of a dirty bomb – conventional explosives wrapped in radioactive material – could use Thailand as a transit point for the deadly components of such a device. “It is possible for them to bring the material from outside, like Russia, and pass through Thailand to go to another country,” he said. Last week the IAEA issued an alarming report which stated that more than 100 countries may have inadequate control and monitoring programmes necessary to prevent or even detect the theft of these materials. — AFP Copyright © 1995-2002 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D) Managed by I.Star. ***************************************************************** 22 Terror fear over lost nuclear parts Guardian Unlimited Observer | International | [UP] [http://www.observer.co.uk/waronterrorism] Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow Sunday June 30, 2002 [http://www.observer.co.uk] Hundreds of deadly nuclear batteries are missing across the former Soviet Union and could be used to create a lethal 'dirty bomb'. The International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) has learnt that the devices were originally installed in some of the most inhospitable parts of the Soviet Union as a cheap energy source, and used to power remote weather stations or beacons. The slim portable cylinders are, experts fear, an ideal component for a dirty bomb - radioactive metal blown up by a conventional explosion and used to contaminate large areas. After 11 September US officials have repeatedly warned of the massive civilian casualties that would result if such a device were detonated in a major city. The Russian government has been unable to supply the whereabouts of the batteries, or an inventory of how many were produced. Foresters who found two devices last December in north Georgia suffered severe burns after coming into contact with them. The IAEA later received intelligence of two more devices in the area and led a multinational mission to find them. Last week the G8 nations agreed to fund a clean-up programme in Russia costing a total of $20 billion over 10 years. Britain is committed to funding £70 million, the second largest contribution after the United States. Chilling details have been emerging in the past month of the sheer scale of Russia's dishevelled nuclear programme. In the Far Eastern region of Chukotka, investigators discovered that controls in over 85 generators placed along the coast by the Soviet Union had broken down. It is feared that a lack of wages and supervision has led workers to smuggle out nuclear material for sale on the black market. Last year saw a marked rise in smuggling of 'source materials' - radioactive metals suited to a dirty bomb. And trafficking in more refined materials has remained at an alarmingly high level. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 23 Dump Orchid Island waste at sea The Taipei Times Online: 2002-07-02 By Frank Yiin ¤¨³¹µØ The debate on the issue of finding a final repository for nuclear waste has returned to square one since rumors emerged that Tai-power (¥x¹q) had been looking into what it should do if its plan to store waste on an islet in Wuchiu (¯QËú) township was scrapped. If those in power cannot break out of the mode of thinking that centers on land-based sites, it may be impossible to find a more suitable location due to Taiwan's limited land resources. However, I recommend that consideration be given to the use of semi-marine and marine environments as storage sites. This might prove to be a solution to the problem. Semi-marine means marine areas that exist between high tide and low tide. Taiwan proper and its offshore islands are small, with population densities that rank among the highest in the world. Finding uninhabited areas that don't have any effect on the surrounding environment is virtually impossible. If, however, "semi-marine" space is taken as a possibility, there can be a breakthrough. Take Penghu, for example. Penghu is Taiwan's only island county. "Penghu" commonly connotes the more than 60 islets that remain visible at high tide. But over 100 islets in the Penghu marine area become visible during low tide. The question of whether these "tidal islets" can be used as nuclear waste repositories still awaits investigation. If the government can locate a geologically stable tidal islet, "double-bottom" nuclear waste storage ships or reinforced concrete storage containers could be transported to the island at high tide. In addition, Taiwan proper acts as a screen for Penghu, weakening the force of typhoons before they reach the archipelago. Compared to Taipower's previous plan to dig 500m deep in a Wuchiu islet -- and otherwise carve out numerous tunnels extending in every direction -- placing nuclear waste on a tidal islet is clearly a stable, practicable option. Apart from this, Taiwan is surrounded by ocean, with a multitude of oceanic trenches, valleys and depressions. Generally speaking, it is difficult for life to survive in underwater depths exceeding 4,000m, due to the high pressure and lack of sunlight and oxygen. At these depths, because of proximity to the earth's core, radiation levels may even be higher than the nuclear waste itself. If a suitable location is found, using the principle of man-made satellite power (directed at the earth's core) to bury nuclear waste in oceanic trenches, valleys and depressions deeper than 4000m is also something worthy of consideration. Looking from the perspective of international oceanic law, regarding the issue of international dumping of radioactive materials, in the 21st Consultative Meeting of the London Convention in 1999, signatories discussed the application of standards to the De Minimus (exemption) concept with regard to the dumping of radioactive materials. At the 21st consultative meeting, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) proposed the "Application of Radiological Exclusion and Exemption Principles to Sea Disposal." Among the issues raised were the control and intentional dumping of radioactive waste. The IAEA is drawing up the criteria for special assessment. If a country wishes to dump materials in deep-sea areas based on this special assessment, that country should submit a report to the secretary of the London Convention indicating what assessment standard it is using. In addition, according to the London Convention's 1996 protocol, on the issue of how to regulate dumping of radioactive waste in the ocean, there was a significant change. Apart from adopting preventative methods and the principle that the polluter pays, with regard to the question of dumping radioactive materials on land or in the sea, the protocol should not be set completely in terms of the nature of the materials involved, but should also assess the environment where materials are being deposited. In fact, ever since humans have lived on the earth, the ocean has ultimately been the receptacle for human waste products. International law doesn't absolutely prohibit the "safe placement" of nuclear waste in oceanic trenches, valleys and depressions at extreme depths. When an impasse is reached over the question of where to put nuclear waste, the departments in charge should approach the problem from a different perspective. Academic institutions should be commissioned to conduct geological, hydrological and marine facies surveys and objectively assess the feasibility of dumping radioactive waste in the oceans. Experts and scholars from the UN, Europe, North America and Japan should be invited to a Taiwan-sponsored international symposium on the dumping of radioactive waste. This would be helpful in terms of analyzing the feasibility of using the oceanic trenches, valleys and depressions near Taiwan and also in in terms of demarcating dumping areas according to international law. Perhaps an answer will at last emerge from the stalemate. Frank Yiin is a professor at the Institute of the Law of the Sea at National Taiwan Ocean University. Translated by Scudder Smith This story has been viewed 346 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/07/02/story/0000146730] Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 Utah senators favor keeping nuclear waste out of Skull Valley Associated Press [online@rgj.com] 7/2/2002 06:25 am Utah's senators still don't know how they will vote on the proposed national storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nev., because they are unsure whether it would help or hinder the Goshutes'plan to store such waste on their Skull Valley reservation in Utah. Defeating the proposed Utah storage is the prime concern of Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, both Republicans. Yucca Mountain supporters tell them the national repository would make a temporary facility in Utah unnecessary. "You can either move the waste to Yucca Mountain or have these private sites like the one proposed at Skull Valley popping up all over the country,"said Joe Davis, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy. Yucca Mountain opponents say the national repository would increase the likelihood of a Utah site. They say nuclear power plants anxious to move their stockpiles would look at Skull Valley as a place to unload their waste until Yucca Mountain is finished in 2010 or 2011. "There are implications all around,"Hatch spokeswoman Heather Barney said."Sen. Hatch wants to do what's best for Utah; his top concern is he is very opposed to Skull Valley." Bennett communications director Mary Jane Collipriest said he might feel compelled to vote for Yucca Mountain and thousands of shipments of nuclear waste through the state as the best alternative to waste storage in Utah. "He's completely opposed to any of it coming to the state,"Collipriest said."What Utahns need to consider is this may come down to nuclear waste coming through the state or to the state. That may be what we're faced with." Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. ***************************************************************** 25 NUCLEAR REPOSITORY: Arguments against Yucca Mountain waste shipments sway Michigan lawmaker Tuesday, July 02, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Arguments against Yucca Mountain waste shipments sway Michigan lawmaker By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., whose state has five nuclear power reactors, has decided to vote against moving their radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain. Aide David Lemmon said Monday that Stabenow has become concerned that spent nuclear fuel may travel on Lake Michigan by barge on the way to the proposed Nevada waste repository. That is one of the points Nevada's senators have been raising in a lobbying campaign against the project. Stabenow, a Senate freshman, is the second senator in recent days to come out against the Yucca Mountain Project, joining fellow freshman Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., who announced Friday. Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., still face a steep climb to persuade 51 senators to kill the repository plan. With a week to go before expected Senate votes, Nevada and its environmental allies began running television commercials Monday in three more states: Pennsylvania, Georgia and Missouri. Airtime in six Missouri markets costing $82,000 was bought before Carnahan declared her position. With money running low in the state's Yucca Mountain fund, Nevada officials began trying on Monday to pull ads from that state to spend the money elsewhere. Evidence of dwindling coffers also was evident in the other purchases. In Georgia, 30-second ads costing $56,000 will run in Macon, Savannah and Augusta aimed at swaying Senate Democrats Zell Miller and Max Cleland. "Atlanta was too expensive," said Jaya Tiwari, legislative director of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were passed over in a Pennsylvania buy that concentrates on Harrisburg, Wilkes Barre and Altoona markets. Anti-Yucca groups are trying to persuade Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. Fellow Republican Sen. Rick Santorum is believed to be solid in support of the Nevada repository plan. A pro-Yucca Mountain coalition led by the Nuclear Energy Institute is running 60-second radio spots in Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia and Vermont. In explaining Stabenow's stance, Lemmon cited an Energy Department study that raises the possibility that waste from the Palisades nuclear plant in southwestern Michigan might be barged north on Lake Michigan to Muskegon, Mich., where it would be transferred to rail cars destined for Nevada. Barge shipping on Lake Michigan also was raised as a possibility for two nuclear power plants in Wisconsin, and "that raises a huge amount of concern for Stabenow," Lemmon said. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham sent Stabenow a letter Thursday saying the study "in no way commits the department to using barge transport, nor does it indicate any current intention to do so." Aides said she called state officials, Michigan energy executives and environmentalists Friday to notify them of her decision. Many had assumed that Stabenow would vote for the Nevada repository. Michigan is home to four active nuclear reactors and one inactive plant on the Upper Peninsula that still holds spent fuel. The state draws almost 19 percent of its electricity from nuclear sources. The chairman of its Public Service Commission, Laura Chappelle, testified before Congress in April in favor of the repository. The state's senior senator, Democrat Carl Levin, voted for the repository in 2000; and a spokeswoman said Monday he planned to do so again this year. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 26 Group shows visual awareness of nuclear waste's dangers Journal and Courier Online - In the News posted Tuesday, July 2nd 2002 By Marc B. Geller, Journal and Courier From a distance, the cargo moving down Second Street looked like a barbell the Jolly Green Giant might use for arm curls. But as it approached Riehle Plaza, the lettering on its side became clear and the words "nuclear waste" practically screamed for attention. DEMONSTRATING: Chris Williams, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, talks Monday about a proposed highway route for nuclear waste that would go through Lafayette. (Tom Leininger, Journal and Courier) No need to worry, though. It wasn't a potential terrorist target on wheels that was rolling through downtown Lafayette on Monday. It was, however, the kind of scenario the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana was hoping to get people thinking about by bringing its "mock nuclear waste cask" to Lafayette. The gigantic prop was part of a presentation CAC leaders gave to highlight the ostensible dangers of transporting high-level nuclear waste through communities such as Lafayette to a proposed permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The CAC's Chris Williams and Grant Smith delivered their message to a small crowd of fewer than a dozen people. Comments and questions from those in attendance suggested most, if not all, were in support of CAC's message or at least receptive to it. "This is a highway cask, a replica of a highway cask, that would hold two irradiated fuel bundles," said Williams, CAC's executive director. "Two irradiated fuel bundles contain more radiation than the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in World War II." The government also has proposed transporting high-level waste by train, Williams said. A rail cask would hold 22 fuel bundles, with many times the radiation of a highway cask. "The proposal for Indiana, and specifically for Lafayette, that's been raised over and over again by the Department of Energy and the federal government, would bring those rail casks right through the city of Lafayette on a constant basis for 30 years after the opening of the repository at Yucca Mountain," Williams said. "This high-level radioactive waste is about the nastiest substance human beings have ever devised and produced." Mamoru Ishii didn't attend the presentation and doesn't share CAC's concerns. He is the Walter H. Zinn Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering at Purdue and heads the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's project on nuclear safety at the university. With existing technology, he is confident nuclear waste can be safely transported to Yucca Mountain. "It's hard to say it's the best solution. There may be a better solution," he said. Nevertheless, Ishii supports the Yucca Mountain proposal. "I think we understand everything, and we can do it safely," he said, adding most nuclear engineers agree. "There is nothing in this world which is 100 percent (perfect). Maybe 99.99, and for us that's good enough." CAC charges that "science has taken a back seat to politics" in the federal government's approach to the problem of disposing of this waste. As the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on the Yucca Mountain proposal, CAC is urging Indiana residents to express opposition to the plan to Sen. Dick Lugar, a supporter of the proposal. On the Net •Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana: http://www.citact.org/ [http://www.citact.org/] •Citizen Alert, a Nevada environmental group opposing the Yucca Mountain proposal: http://www.citizenalert.org/ [http://www.citizenalert.org/] •U.S. Department of Energy's Web site for the Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov/ [http://www.ymp.gov/] Other News Headlines from Tuesday, July 2nd 2002 Copyright © 2001, Federated Publications, Inc. A Gannett Site. ***************************************************************** 27 Nuclear shipment gets go-ahead BBC News | ENGLAND | Tuesday, 2 July, 2002, 14:20 [Sellafield nuclear plant] The fuel is to be sent to the Sellafield plant in Cumbria The Environment Agency has ruled that a shipment of nuclear Mox fuel due to be returned to the UK from Japan is not radioactive waste. The decision means that British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) does not need special authorisation for the cargo, as Greenpeace has claimed. I'm not surprised to hear that Greenpeace is likely to challenge this Environmental Agency chairman Sir John Harman The environmental group says it will ask the High Court for a judicial review of the decision to try to block the shipment. The Mox fuel was sent to Japan in 1999 for use at a reactor site, but rejected because Japanese authorities were concerned about the falsification of quality-control data by BNFL. The controversial fuel, which Greenpeace calls "faulty, rejected plutonium", is due to be sent to Sellafield's Mox plant in Cumbria later this week. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Greenpeace's chief scientist Doug Parr said his group was challenging the decision in court. But he added that the legal system seemed stacked in the nuclear industry's favour. "Matters like the fact that this is the first plutonium-based shipment to go on the high seas since September 11th doesn't seem to be a legal way of challenging the ruling," he said. [protester at Sellafield] Protesters have regularly targeted Sellafield Environment Agency chairman Sir John Harman defended the ruling, but welcomed a court challenge. "I'm not surprised to hear that Greenpeace is likely to challenge this," he told the Today programme. He said security concerns about the shipment were not considered in the agency's decision and is covered by other regulations. "If we had said it was waste, and it needed to obey, so to speak, the transfrontier shipment rules, it's hard to see how the security measures could have been very much greater," he said. Foreseen use The ruling hinged on whether Mox fuel, which is short for mixed oxide plutonium/uranium, had any foreseen use. If it did, it could not be classified as waste. Mr Parr argued that the fuel should not be classified as useful, since BNFL plans to extract plutonium from it - something he said the UK already had too much of. A statement from the Environment Agency said the fuel would be loaded on to two ships and sent to the UK from Japan soon. ***************************************************************** 28 DEEP UNDER YUCCA MOUNTAIN The Miami Herald | 07/02/2002 | [http://www.dfw.com] Posted on Tue, Jul. 02, 2002 [story:PUB_DESC] A SHORT COURSE IN NUCLEAR-WASTE SANITY intro The question is beguilingly simple -- and so, too, is the answer. What should we do with our nuclear waste? We should, of course, put nuclear waste in a place where it will do no harm. The stuff should be buried deep inside a mountain where the chance of an accident or deliberate mayhem would be nearly zero. Then we should do everything humanly possible to reduce even those odds to zilch. This is the easy part of the Bush administration's plan to deposit the nation's nuclear wastes at a central storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The plan is reasonable and practical. The Senate should approve the proposal when it reconvenes after the July 4 holiday. But there's another, controversial dimension to the easy execution of this plan. Some people question the safety and politics of the proposal and the need for transporting 154 million pounds of radioactive waste across the country. Critics fear accidents, terrorism attacks or radiation leaks. The good people in Nevada, in classic NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) tradition, say put it someplace else -- any place except ours. That's understandable. But it begs the question of a solution. None of the concerns should be dismissed out of hand; the criticisms are valid. But none of the issues raised poses an insurmountable problem. Each objection, in fact, pales in comparison to the larger, strategic goal of a secure, permanent storage site for the nuclear-waste products of more than 100 nuclear reactors in 31 states, including three in Florida. The best data from scientific studies reject the idea that the radioactive materials would be vulnerable to volcanoes, earthquakes, floods or other disasters -- natural or man made -- as the critics claim. However, the idea that terrorists would target train and truck shipments of the spent fuel as it traversed the country must be taken as real. Defensive schemes, including decoys and preventive actions, can minimize such threats. Nothing will eliminate them altogether. As for accidents, specially designed protective containers can prevent spillage when accidents occur, as they inevitably will. The well-justified reasons for storing the waste in a central facility mustn't be lost in the hubbub of cautionary dissent. Removing these materials from nuclear-power plants will encourage the construction of new power plants, which will enable us to meet our power needs into the future. Transporting the radioactive materials to a central facility follows the everyday practice of hospitals collecting biological and radioactive materials and having it transported for safe disposal. Admittedly, transporting nuclear waste poses far greater challenges and risks. But the risks are manageable, and the result -- safe storage of nuclear waste -- is well worth the effort. ***************************************************************** 29 NLV will consider anti-Yucca measure Las Vegas SUN July 02, 2002 City would join 10 other Nevada communities voting against dump By Mary Manning < [manning@lasvegassun.com] > If the North Las Vegas City Council approves a resolution Wednesday opposing a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, the city will join 10 others on the record rejecting the dump. North Las Vegas City Manager Kurt Fritsch asked the council to consider the resolution at Wednesday's meeting, which begins at 5 p.m. If approved, the resolution will be sent to the Nevada League of Cities and Municipalities, based in Carson City, said Kimberly McDonald of the manager's office. The league is a nonprofit organization that aims to represent the best interests of Nevada's cities. League Executive Director Douglas Dickerson said he had set a deadline of July 8 to receive resolutions opposing the high-level nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. About 10 cities of 18 had already approved resolutions by Monday, Dickerson said. Among the cities were Las Vegas, Boulder City and Henderson. "I expect most of the resolutions to oppose it," Dickerson said. Once all of the resolutions are received, Dickerson said he will hand them to Gov. Kenny Guinn and the Nevada congressional delegation. The House has voted to override Guinn's veto of the nuclear waste project. The vote now moves to the Senate. Most observers expect the Senate to approve the repository this month. Between 48 and 62 senators will vote for it, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a Yucca supporter, said. A simple majority of 51 senators is needed to pass the resolution approving Yucca Mountain. Congress could take action on the nuclear waste project next week, after returning from a weeklong holiday break. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 30 Letter: Keep nuke waste where it is now Las Vegas SUN July 02, 2002 There are about 300 scientific questions yet to be answered regarding plans to store nuclear waste in Nevada. Why can't they wait till we find answers? Why the hurry to dump before we get the answers? What is the very purpose of searching for the answers? Is it not to find the risks involved among others in the dumping? One obvious reason for the undue hurry is that if any answer shows the extreme dangers involved, the whole program will have to be scuttled. The supporters want to avoid such a chance. Once it is dumped we cannot undo it. We hear warnings every day of possible terrorist attacks; terrorists will use all opportunities to cause accidents involving nuclear waste, endangering lives and property of as many people as possible. Is it not better to keep the waste where it is now? Even when the waste is removed, they still have the active nuclear reactors which continue to produce wastes, and thus they still face the risk as before. Is it not better to keep the wastes there until facilities are constructed to convert the waste to useful materials and less harmful wastes? M. C. CHACO All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 31 Michigan senator goes anti-Yucca Las Vegas SUN July 02, 2002 By Benjamin Grove WASHINGTON -- Nevada senators have picked up another ally in their fight against Yucca Mountain -- Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. Stabenow in recent weeks had said she was likely to vote for the proposed nuclear waste repository. But she reconsidered as she closely examined waste transportation plans that could involve shipping waste by barge on Lake Michigan, spokesman David Lemmon said. As many as 431 barge shipments of waste could be made on the lake as the waste begins a journey to Nevada, according to the Energy Department. Transportation routes have not been finalized. Stabenow has led an effort to prohibit oil drilling in the lake and has made protecting it a signature issue, Lemmon said. "I cannot support any plan that would include a transportation option that endangers one-fifth of the world's fresh water supply, and the source of safe drinking water for the entire Great Lakes region," Stabenow said in a statement. Stabenow supported Yucca as a member of the House, but she said Sept. 11 terrorism concerns also forced her to reconsider shipping the nation's nuclear waste to Nevada. She wants more testing of the steel nuclear waste shipping containers, she said. Michigan is home to four operating nuclear reactors where nuclear waste is stockpiled, and numerous state leaders have supported Yucca as the nation's permanent national waste dump. Stabenow defeated former Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., now Secretary of Energy, who this year recommended the Yucca site to President Bush. Stabenow left the ranks of Democrats who had been undecided on Yucca, joining Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., who announced Friday she would oppose the project. Carnahan is also worried about waste transportation. Much of the waste now temporarily stored at waste sites in the East would travel across Missouri's highways and railroads on its way to Nevada. But with a Senate vote on Yucca expected next week, Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., are still struggling to corral 51 votes needed to kill the project. Reid and Ensign are calling their colleagues this week in a final lobbying effort, as Congress takes a week-long recess. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 32 Cheney energy papers may have Yucca policy answers Las Vegas SUN July 02, 2002 WASHINGTON -- Energy policy documents that Vice President Cheney has kept under wraps may indicate why the Bush administration switched its position on Yucca Mountain, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday as he joined a legal effort to unlock the documents. Nevada lawmakers have voiced concern that a White House task force led by Cheney met privately last year with nuclear industry officials -- but sought little input from Yucca critics -- as they developed a national energy policy. Those meetings may have led Bush to abandon a promise to allow "sound science" guide his decision about the planned high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Reid said. Bush broke his promise when he approved Yucca in February, before important scientific studies were complete, Nevada lawmakers say. "The administration needs to stop hiding the truth," Reid said. "They should tell the public which executives the Vice President met with and when he met with them." Reid on Monday filed an amicus "friend of the court" brief in federal court in support of the General Accounting Office's lawsuit to make certain energy documents public. Many lawmakers want to know who White House officials met with as they drafted the administration's sweeping energy policy released in May 2001. The policy endorsed a national nuclear waste dump amid other far-reaching proposals. White House officials have declined to release the documents because they say they have a right to solicit information in the protected confines of a private meeting. Bush wants the ability to get candid views outside the government, aides say. The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress. The White House's position of hiding information about U.S. policy threatens the ability of Congress to do its job, Reid said. "This administration is systematically pursing a policy of hiding this information from the people -- something which should not be tolerated in a democracy," Reid said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 33 Nuclear storage opponent held in contempt* By JIM HICKEY, Middletown Press Staff July 02, 2002 *HADDAM -- A federal judge held an environmental attorney in contempt of court on Monday for continuing to file lawsuits against the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company (CY) despite a standing court order banning her from doing so.* U.S. District Judge Alan H. Nevas found Nancy Burton in contempt of an order he signed in March, which restrained her from filing any more legal challenges to the company's plans to build an above ground nuclear waste storage facility. The nuclear power plant was shut down back in 1996, and is currently in the process of being decommissioned. CY wants to build a football field-sized platform for 43 steel-lined concrete casks, which would hold as much as 6,000 tons of old fuel, within 500 acres of wooded property. The spent fuel is now stored in a circulating water pool. Back in January, the Haddam Board of Selectmen agreed to allow CY to build the new facility in a residential zone, where such use is prohibited, in return for a $13 million payment. It was Nevas who approved that agreement when he ordered the town to issue the building permit. According to Burton, Nevas did so even though the local zoning commission unanimously denied an application by CY to rezone its residential property to permit an industrial use. Since Judge Nevas signed the order against Burton back in March, she has filed two additional lawsuits against the company. A suit filed last month claims the company failed to legally obtain an Inland and Wetlands permit from the town. Burton brought suit on behalf of Neighbors Opposed to Residential Atomic Dumps and the Connecticut River Watershed Council. The suit alleges that the company misled the town Inland and Wetland Division into issuing a permit without properly identifying a beaver pond and failed to properly identify the boundaries of an area where radioactive soil was routinely stored. The other claim, filed back in April, alleges the proposed site infringes on the property of Venture Smith, a former slave and historical figure that bought back his freedom and built several homes in Haddam Neck. In that suit, Burton claimed the site contains a number of items of historical and archeological significance, and a full survey of the land should be done before construction of the facility begins. The lawsuit also contends that the ongoing project will damage and indefinitely restrict study of the more than 100 acres Venture Smith owned during the late 18th Century. The Connecticut Historical Commission is preparing to formally nominate the Venture Smith site to the National Register of Historic Places, Burton said. Following Monday's hearing, Burton called the injunction a violation of her first amendment rights and said she was being denied a chance to represent the interests of her clients. "This is a tax on First Amendment speech and the right to petition and as such it is clearly antithetical to our democratic process," said Burton. According to CY spokesperson Kelley Smith, there is no merit to either of Burton's two most recent claims. Smith said that the site Burton claims was once owned by Venture Smith is not near the storage facility site. "I don't know where (Nancy) Burton gets her information, but we have conclusive evidence that the (storage facility site) does not have historical or archeological significance. There may be other areas of the property that might, but those areas will not be disrupted," Smith said. CY's plan is to preserve a majority of the site as open space and leave much of the property open to future archeological surveys, Smith said. She said the site was determined to the best location after extensive research, because it met all safety requirements and was out of public view. The permanent injunction was necessary, Smith said, because it was costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. That cost, Smith said, was actually passed along to the power company users. Prior to the two most recent suits, Burton filed a number of other claims against CY and the project on behalf of a number of other residents living close to the site. The injunction Burton is accused of violating was signed by Nevas after he determined the suits Burton was filing amounted to harassment. However, Burton said that she has every right to file lawsuits on behalf of her clients. "The lawsuits I have brought have exposed the underbelly of the nuclear beast in this state," Burton said. Judge Nevas's decision on Monday directed attorneys for the company to submit a bill for their fees by Tuesday. He stated he would order Burton to pay the fees for defending the company in the two lawsuits. Judge Nevas is also expected to levy an additional fine on Burton for violating his previous injunction. The cost of the attorney fees is estimated by Smith to be well over $100,000. During Monday's proceeding, Burton claimed that Judge Nevas also stipulated that she would have to stop writing letters to Haddam town officials on behalf of her clients, and could not participate in public meetings and hearings concerning the storage facility site. "I've never even heard of such a thing," Burton said. "It's ridiculous." During Monday's proceeding, Judge Nevas also proposed "an agreement" between Burton and the power company that would have denied the motion for contempt if she would agree to immediately withdraw the two recent lawsuits. That offer, however, was perceived very differently by the two sides. "The judge was very patient with (Nancy) Burton, and offered her a way out," said Smith. "They're trying silence me," Burton said. Burton added she was not in a position to even consider the offer, because she was not able to consult with all of her clients at the time. It was when Burton explained that she was ethically bound to consult with her clients before accepting or rejecting such a proposal that the judge found her in contempt, she claims. Burton maintains the project violates the National Environ-mental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act and requires a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission before it can operate. Once Burton is issued the monetary penalty, she will have 10 days to review the penalty and 30 days to respond to it. Burton said that she will appeal the judge's decision, and said that she is confident that the decision will be overturned. /©The Middletown Press 2002/ *Date: Jul, 02 2002 * ***************************************************************** 34 Dodd, Lieberman face tough call on Yucca vote Nuclear waste plan carries pressure on both sides of issue / By Paul Choiniere - More Articles Published on 07/02/2002 /Waterford First Selectman Paul B. Eccard/ Voting whether or not to ship nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain will be no easy call, scientifically or politically, for Connecticut's two Democratic senators. With a vote expected in the next two to three weeks, Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman face pressure from groups on both sides of the controversial issue. The nuclear industry argues that taking the waste to a central storage facility is a federal obligation. Anti-nuclear activists and environmentalists contend that the science does not support the planned move to Yucca, 100 miles from Las Vegas in the Nevada desert. Then there are the political considerations. Both Dodd and Lieberman have acknowledged an interest in running for the presidency. Lieberman, having run unsuccessfully for vice president in 2000, is considered the more likely candidate. A vote for moving the 77,000 tons of nuclear waste across the country over rails and highways is certain to anger some Democrats. These are many of the same people who voted for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, an opponent of nuclear power, in the 2000 presidential election. Though it is a state with only four electoral votes, Nevada was critical in the last election and could be again. Had Al Gore captured Nevada instead of Bush, he would be in the White House with Lieberman as his vice president. Since Bush's endorsement of the Department of Energy plan to move the waste to Yucca Mountain, his popularity in Nevada has plunged. While a vote for the move to Yucca could hurt any Democrat with national aspirations, a vote against would counter the wishes of some people at home. The Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments, representing towns in the region, has unanimously endorsed the Yucca plan. The Connecticut Senate and Republican Gov. John G. Rowland are on record as supporting the plan to get the nuclear waste out of Connecticut. *Requirements of law* By law, the plans for a national storage site can only be carried out with the support of the president, which Bush has given. That law also gave the host governor a chance to veto the proposal. Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, did just that on April 8. Now, Congress could override Guinn's veto. The House of Representatives did so overwhelmingly. U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons voted in favor of the Yucca storage site, calling it a sound scientific solution to the nuclear waste problem. Noting the increased terrorist threat, Simmons said it makes more sense to store and protect the waste in one location, rather than at the 72 plants where it is now. The Senate has until July 26 to vote. In official statements, the staffs for both Dodd and Lieberman say they are continuing to weigh the pros and cons and are meeting with those on both sides of the issue. Among the aspects they reportedly are considering are the practicality of moving nuclear waste throughout the country and the ability to safely store it for thousands of years. ?This is a decision he will be making on the merits and substance of the issue,? said Lieberman press secretary Adam Kovacezich. ?This is a complicated issue, and Sen. Dodd wants to look at it from every angle,? said Dodd's press secretary, Marvin Fast. ?That's why he continues to speak to a variety of people, to listen to varying perspectives, (and) to ensure he has all the relevant facts to make an informed decision.? Waterford First Selectman Paul B. Eccard, whose town hosts the Millstone Power Station and the nuclear waste it has generated over three decades, said he sees politics as the only explanation for the waffling of Connecticut's two U.S. senators. Take the politics out of the equation, and what is best for Connecticut is obvious, said Eccard. ?Would you rather have the waste in population centers around the country ... or would you rather take it to a central facility where it can be protected?? asked Eccard, who is an independent. ?I think it's an easy answer.? Eccard has made five trips to Washington since January to lobby for the Yucca proposal. He has met with the senators and their staff, as well as with Simmons. Waterford officials never counted on having to deal with the waste for so many decades. Millstone officials have announced tentative plans to move their spent nuclear fuel into a storage facility next to the plants. The nuclear station is rapidly running out of room to store the waste at Millstone 2. Haddam officials are dealing with the problem of storing the radioactive waste of the Connecticut Yankee plant, which ceased operations six years ago. Plans to move the waste into concrete and steel containers on a pad three-quarters of a mile from the plant has generated much debate and a court fight. Haddam's first selectman, Anthony Bondi, said that only Simmons has expressed an interest in the town's nuclear waste problem. Bondi, a Democrat, said fellow Demo-crats Lieberman and Dodd have so far turned a deaf ear. ?I'm a good Democrat, but as an elected official I have to represent the people and forget political labels,? Bondi said. ?This is probably the most important issue facing this country, and they have not been heard. We got some hot, mean stuff laying around.? * 1998-2002 The Day Publishing Co. FAQs ***************************************************************** 35 *Official accused of backtracking Nuclear waste opponents: Secretary of Energy sw* HarkTheHerald.com TAD WALCH The Daily Herald on Tuesday, July 02 PROVO -- Four years ago, Michigan Sen. Spencer Abraham worried about a proposed nuclear waste shipment through his state. Today, Abraham's role as U.S. Secretary of Energy has him pushing for thousands of cross-country shipments of high-level nuclear waste, most of which are expected to pass through Utah. Opponents of a national nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev., accused Abraham on Monday of flip-flopping on the issue. Meanwhile, the final hurdle for approval of Yucca Mountain is a U.S. Senate vote that must be held by July 27. The Senate is in recess until next week, when Republicans might push for an immediate vote, according to a published report in the Las Vegas Sun. As a senator, Abraham appeared to criticize the Department of Energy in August 1998 in a letter sent to then-DOE secretary Bill Richardson. The letter was released Monday by the Environmental Working Group, which is funded by anti-Yucca Mountain foundations. EWG President Ken Cook said Abraham's statements on Yucca Mountain are hypocritical in light of the letter. Abraham complained to Richardson because the DOE had not informed local Michigan officials about the shipments and transportation routes. Abraham also wrote that federal officials needed to prepare local emergency response teams in case of an accident. Cook said Abraham and the DOE have not been forthcoming about transportation routes. In fact, EWG created a Web site -- www.mapscience.org -- to provide detailed maps of roads and railways that might be used for Yucca Mountain shipments. "Senator Abraham seems to have been much more sensitive to the concerns of people living along transportation routes than Secretary Abraham has turned out to be," Cook said. "It is hypocritical now to dismiss the very types of concerns he once raised about waste shipments, high traffic routes, poorly informed citizens and local officials and lack of preparation for accidents." DOE spokesman Joe Davis, who also worked for Abraham in Michigan, called EWG a "radical environmental group swimming against the tide." "I think they're full of crap, and you can print that in your paper," Davis said. "The letter simply asked the DOE to appropriately coordinate with local officials and safety providers. That's the same position we have today and the same position we're going to continue to work on with Yucca Mountain." Davis said lawmakers didn't require the DOE to supply the amount of transportation information it did in its 10,000-page study of Yucca Mountain's feasibility. EWG extrapolated from that information to create its Web site. "The routes could change, too," Davis said. "In 10 years, when we move this waste, Utah could have a new highway and six new rail routes." Abraham recommended Yucca Mountain to President Bush in February. Bush approved the site, but Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn exercised his right to veto the project. Congress has 90 days to overturn Guinn's veto. On May 8, the House voted 306-117 to override the veto. The Senate is expected to approve Yucca Mountain despite an extensive lobbying campaign waged by Nevada in opposition. /Tad Walch can be reached at 592-3122 or at twalch@heraldextra.com./ This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A4. *Post Your Comments* Energy sw' | *1* comment Threshold *Re: Official accused of backtracking Nuclear waste opponents* (Score: 0) by Kevin Kamps on Wednesday, July 03 @ 09:23:11 MDT Dear Editor, Not only did then-Senator Abraham call for emergency response preparedness, he also expressed concern about exposure time of the waste shipment to the eastern Michigan community he represented. He also called the Energy Dept.'s lack of holding meaningful public hearings "irresponsible and offensive". It should be mentioned as well that as Senator from Michigan, Spence Abraham proposed legislation that would have eliminated the department he now heads. Abraham is now asking Senators to ignore the exposure time of many tens of thousands of shipments of high-level atomic waste, by truck and train, through over 100 major cities (including Salt Lake City and Provo) and 45 states, including Utah, second only to Nevada in numbers of shipments. Utah would see 45,919 of the 52,786 truck shipments bound for Nevada (87%) or 9,134 of the 9,646 train shipments (95%), according to the US Dept. of Energy's Final Environmental Impact Statement on Yucca Mountain. Contrary to Abraham spokesman Joe Davis' contention that the Environmental Working Group is "full of crap," EWG's website (www.mapscience.org) is full of valuable information that the DOE and nuclear industry do not want citizens living along nuclear waste transport routes to know. Go there, type in your address, and see how close you live to these targeted routes. Then get on the phone to your U.S. Senators (Sen. Hatch, 801.375.7881; Sen. Bennett, 801.379.2525) and urge them to vote against Yucca Mountain, to stop the "dirty nuclear bombs on wheels" before they start rolling through Utah. If anyone has been "irresponsible and offensive," it has been Abraham and his underlings at DOE, who have kept Utahans and the rest of America in the dark about the true risks of the proposed Yucca Mountain Project. Utah's Senators should fight the Yucca dump just like Nevada's elected officials have fought the Private Fuel Storage nuclear waste dump targeted at the Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah. Either Utah and Nevada "hang together" and fight both dumps, or else they'll hang separately. In fact, in shameless fashion, Abraham and Davis at DOE have taken to trying to scare Utahans. If Yucca doesn't open, they have stated repeatedly in recent weeks, then "all roads lead to Utah." Actually, if Yucca opens, all roads lead to Utah. We must fight and stop both dumps, and together, we can do it. Sincerely, Kevin Kamps Nuclear Waste Specialist Nuclear Information & Resource Service 1424 16th Street, NW, Suite 404 Washington, D.C. 20036 ph. 202.328.0002 (a concerned citizen from Michigan, who as a former constituent of Abraham's got tired of Abraham's repeated pro-Yucca votes as Senator, so decided to move to D.C. to fight the ill-conceived dump at the national level) © 2002 by HarkTheHerald.com HarkTheHerald.com is a product of Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc. ***************************************************************** 36 Hatch, Bennett mull over Yucca votes* HarkTheHerald.com TAD WALCH The Daily Herald on Tuesday, July 02 Orrin Hatch PROVO -- A potential nuclear waste dump in Utah's West Desert weighs heavily on the minds of the state's senators as they prepare to vote on the proposed national storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nev. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett don't yet know what they'll do, but they want to make sure their votes don't lead to storage of nuclear waste on the Goshute Reservation at Skull Valley. The problem is Hatch and Bennett aren't yet sure how burying the nation's nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain might impact Private Fuel Storage's proposed facility at Skull Valley. On one side, Yucca Mountain supporters say the national repository would make a temporary facility in Utah unnecessary. "You can either move the waste to Yucca Mountain or have these private sites like the one proposed at Skull Valley popping up all over the country," said Joe Davis, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy. However, Yucca Mountain opponents say the national repository would increase the likelihood of a Utah site; nuclear power plants anxious to move their stockpiles would look at Skull Valley as a place to unload their waste until Yucca Mountain is finished in 2010 or 2011. "There are implications all around," Hatch spokes-person Heather Barney said. "Senator Hatch wants to do what's best for Utah; his top concern is he is very opposed to Skull Valley." Bennett's communications director, Mary Jane Collipriest, said Utah's junior senator might feel compelled to vote for Yucca Mountain and thousands of shipments of nuclear waste through the state as the best alternative to waste storage in Utah. "He's completely opposed to any of it coming to the state," Collipriest said. "What Utahns need to consider is this may come down to nuclear waste coming through the state or to the state. "That may be what we're faced with." This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A4. © 2002 by HarkTheHerald.com ***************************************************************** 37 High Court Bid over 'Weapons Fear' Plutonium Shipment Scotsman.com Press Association Tue 2 Jul 2002 /By Amanda Brown, Environment Correspondent, PA News/ Greenpeace today said it will apply to the High Court to try to prevent British Nuclear Fuels shipping weapons-usable plutonium half-way around the world, from Japan to the UK, later this week. Greenpeace claimed the fuel, a mixture of plutonium and uranium oxides, contains 255 kg of plutonium ? enough to make 50 nuclear weapons. The environment group claims it would be relatively easy to separate out the plutonium in the discarded fuel to create a nuclear weapon. Lawyers acting for Greenpeace are to apply to the High Court for judicial review of the Environment Agency?s decision not to treat the material ? known as MOX ? as radioactive waste and not to follow the required procedure for nuclear waste imports. Greenpeace will also apply for a High Court injunction to stop the shipment leaving Japan on Thursday July 4. Greenpeace believes that the MOX ? which gets its name from ?m(ixed) ox(ides)? ? is radioactive waste, since no use for it is foreseen. British Nuclear Fuels has told the Environment Agency that it intends to recover the plutonium and uranium within the MOX, but Greenpeace said the UK already has huge stockpiles of both of these materials. The movement of radioactive waste around the world is regulated by international law and requires the agreement of en-route countries. Greenpeace Nuclear Campaigner Pete Roche said: ?To send highly radioactive materials on a six week trip on the high seas was a stupid idea before September 11. In today?s context it can only be described as insane. ?They would be a floating target for terrorists. ?If this faulty fuel is returned to the UK, it will simply be added to our already vast stockpile of radioactive waste. It makes far more sense for the faulty fuel to be stored as radioactive waste in Japan.? Two BNFL ships, the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, are en-route to Takahama in Japan to collect the consignment of MOX to transport it to the Sellafield nuclear complex. The rejected fuel caused a diplomatic incident between the Japanese Government and BNFL in 1999 when it was revealed that BNFL workers had falsified key safety data. The Japanese rejected the MOX and insist it must be returned to the UK before they will sign any contracts with BNFL to buy more fuel from the new £470 million Sellafield MOX plant. Greenpeace said it believed the rejected MOX shipment is dangerous, unnecessary and unlawful. Other countries have expressed concern about the vulnerability of the shipment to catastrophic accidents and terrorist threats. ***************************************************************** 38 High court bid over 'weapons fear' plutonium shipment* Ananova Greenpeace is applying to the High Court to try to prevent British Nuclear Fuels shipping weapons-usable plutonium half-way around the world. It claims the fuel, a mixture of plutonium and uranium oxides, contains 255 kg of plutonium - enough to make 50 nuclear weapons. The consignment, which had originated in the UK more than 2 years ago, but which Greenpeace claims was rejected as faulty, is due to be shipped from Japan back to the UK later this week. The environment group claims it would be relatively easy to separate out the plutonium in the discarded fuel to create a nuclear weapon. Lawyers acting for Greenpeace are to apply to the High Court for judicial review of the Environment Agency's decision not to treat the material - known as MOX - as radioactive waste and not to follow the required procedure for nuclear waste imports. Greenpeace will also apply for a High Court injunction to stop the shipment leaving Japan on Thursday July 4. Greenpeace believes that the MOX - which gets its name from "m(ixed) ox(ides)" - is radioactive waste, since no use for it is foreseen. British Nuclear Fuels has told the Environment Agency that it intends to recover the plutonium and uranium within the MOX, but Greenpeace said the UK already has huge stockpiles of both of these materials. Greenpeace Nuclear Campaigner Pete Roche said: "To send highly radioactive materials on a six week trip on the high seas was a stupid idea before September 11. In today's context it can only be described as insane. "They would be a floating target for terrorists." Story filed: 14:19 Tuesday 2nd July 2002 /Copyright © 2002 Ananova Ltd/ Terms and conditions of use ***************************************************************** 39 AMEC survives despite lack of liability agreement International cooperation on naval clean-up This section covers international efforts to tackle the challenges deriving from inactive nuclear subs and nuclear waste. The US, Norway and EU have been main contributors to on-going projects. OSLO - The US, Russian and Norwegian Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) will continue its work on nuclear safety in the north. United Kingdom may join the successful team. A pad for storing casks with naval spent nuclear fuel is under construction at Atomflot in Murmansk with AMEC money. Photo: Thomas Nilsen Thomas Nilsen, 2002-07-02 11:13 The current US involvement in the AMEC programs runs out on September 31st this year, and previous signals from the US State Department suggested pulling out of the co-operation due to the lack of the infamous umbrella agreement on tax and liability issues with the Russian Federation. Norway, who has its own bilateral liability agreement with Russia through its plan of action for nuclear safety, has said a continued US involvement is essential for its own participation in AMEC. Ministries of Defence in Norway, Russia and the USA manage the programs under AMEC. Most of the programs are related to nuclear safety, including the development of a prototype 40 tonnes cask for submarine spent nuclear fuel, storage and transportation containers for solid radioactive waste and currently a facility for compacting radioactive waste from decommissioned Northern Fleet submarines. While the uniform-officials from Pentagon and the Russian Navy have a good working relation, their civilian dressed colleges in the US State Department and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been arguing for years about the liability and tax issues, without coming to an agreement. Senator Richard Lugar at the Oslo conferance in June. Photo: Thomas Nilsen Senator Richard Lugar urged State Department At late April NATO-conference in Moscow on issues related to decommissioning of Russian submarines, US officials involved in the AMEC programs were not too optimistic about the future. This issue was of great concern to the representative from the Norwegian Ministry of Defence. The future of the AMEC programs was also highlighted at a conference held in Oslo on June 1st, where US Senator Richard Lugar and former Senator Sam Nunn met with Norwegian officials and NGOs, among them the Bellona Foundation. Senators Nunn and Lugar initiated the first US support programs to aid Russia with securing its nuclear material and decommissioning of strategic submarines in the early 1990s when the collapse of the Soviet Union was a fact. The Nunn-Lugar program has been working closely with AMEC. For instance, the prototype storage container for naval spent nuclear fuel and the pad for their storing at nuclear powered icebreakers base Atomflot in Murmansk are developed with AMEC money, but will be used by the Nunn-Lugar program. Coming back to Washington after his Oslo meetings, Senator Richard Lugar wrote to Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage urging the State Department to maintain a leadership role in the AMEC. Lugar said it was important for the US to continue to participate with technical support, even if an umbrella agreement on tax and liability with the Russian Government could not be reached. Then, on June 26th, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage replied to Senator Lugar saying: — The State Department is committed to maintaining a leadership role in the AMEC program. I wish to assure you that the United States will remain an active participant in the program providing leadership to the trilateral process and the sharing of technical knowledge, even if the negotiations do not produce an acceptable trilateral agreement in the near term. The United States will continue to work closely with Norway to meet common challenges posed by former Soviet military equipment and installations in northwest Russia. Positive change The positive change of minds in the US State Department opens for an even more active military cooperation in the north to secure spent nuclear fuel, radioactive waste and to solve other military related environmental challenges. So far, Norway has donated $10 million, US has contributed with $25 million and Russia has put in $6.5 million into various AMEC projects. The three countries have also had talks with the United Kingdom aimed to expend the success with yet another country. In March 1999, British foreign minister Robin Cook visited Murmansk and stated: — The British Government is determined to tackle the problem. We are keen to work with them. So, too, is the British nuclear waste management industry. Later the same year, Cook announced a £8 million commitment to nuclear safety in northwest Russia. So far, this money is still on account in London, and Great Britain sees the AMEC cooperation as a good way to involve itself into the ongoing nuclear safety programs. 2002-07-02 International cooperation AMEC survives despite lack of liability agreement Publisher: [bellona@bellona.no] , President: [frederic@bellona.no] Information: [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 40 UK: BOMB IS FOUND IN SILT NEAR NUCLEAR SUB BASE Jul 2 2002 ** Thomas Smith A MAJOR recovery operation was under way last night after an unexploded bomb was found just yards from Britain's nuclear submarine fleet. The 1000lb aircraft bomb was found by a team of Royal Navy divers on a routine training mission at the Faslane Naval Base, on the Clyde. They found the explosive on Friday embedded in silt, just 20 metres from a jetty where two nuclear-powered subs were berthed. The divers carried out an immediate check to see if the bomb was likely to detonate. After an examination, it was decided that the bomb was safe in its position. Navy bosses then started drawing up an action plan to tow the bomb out to sea and detonate it safely there. Nuclear submarines will be moved out of the Faslane Naval Base until the operation is completed. It's thought the bomb may have been accidentally dumped during World War II when Faslane was used as a military port for munitions. Last night, Navy bosses moved to calm fears that there could be a nuclear disaster on the Clyde if the bomb was disturbed. Commodore John Borley, Director of the Naval Base, said: "Plans are being made to move the bomb out to sea for detonation. "It has probably been there for decades and is perfectly safe in its current state. "However, bearing in mind the close proximity to the berths, it is prudent to move it using the skills of the Northern Diving Group based here on the Clyde." He added: "Public safety and that of our personnel and all nuclear assets at the base is paramount. "We are liaising with all appropriate public authorities, including the police, and, once a plan to lift and transfer the ordnance has been finalised, further details will be given. "That might take a day or two. "This is a routine task for our divers and this type of bomb has been successfully and safely disposed of in the past. "Submarines may have to be moved temporarily while the work goes on. "In the meantime, work goes on as normal." Gordon Leaves to Join National Security Council *By KELSEY DEMMON* Contributing Writer Tuesday, July 2, 2002 While adjusting to a new director and coping with an ambiguous Homeland Security plan, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will be without a national nuclear security administrator, officials announced last week. General John Gordon will be stepping down from the position, which sets and determines the policy and budget for the Department of Energy and oversees Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories. Gordon is leaving to join the National Security Council to advise President Bush on terrorism. President Bush has yet to appoint Gordon's replacement which will require the approval of Congress. The Department of Energy will provide an acting administrator. "As difficult as it will be to find a replacement for John at the (National Nuclear Security Administration), it is imperative that the White House act quickly to appoint a new administrator and a deputy administrator to further the National Nuclear Security Administration's important work," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher in a statement. Livermore lab spokespersons maintain that Gordon's departure will not negatively impact the lab or the National Nuclear Security Administration. Gordon was the first national nuclear security administrator and was credited with the department's success. "The great accomplishments in establishing the National Nuclear Security Administration and executing its missions are a direct result of General Gordon's extraordinary leadership," said new Livermore lab director Michael Anastasio in a statement. "His commitment to national security and the people across all of National Nuclear Security Administration has been tireless. We will greatly miss him." In the past months, Livermore lab saw several major changes. A new director was appointed and Bush announced that the lab, pending Congress' approval, will be working closely with the Homeland Security Department, which is meant to centralize counterterrorism operations. Gordon assured the nation that the Department of Energy will remain secure following post-Sept. 11 inquiries, and supports President Bush's homeland security plan. "The president has made a strong proposal that will significantly improve the way in which the government responds to threats against the United States," Gordon said in a statement. "Centralizing homeland security responsibility in one cabinet-level department will improve our response to weapons of mass destruction by leveraging resources currently spread across the government." Gordon is replacing retired General Wayne A. Downing who will return into retirement after serving on the National Security Council for only nine months. UC President Richard Atkinson wished Gordon luck in his future post. "I have been very pleased to work with John Gordon during his remarkable tenure as administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration," Atkinson said. "He has been an effective and insightful leader, and I am sorry to see him leave the National Nuclear Security Administration. I wish him the very best in his new career at the National Security Council." Gordon will advise President Bush on counter-terrorism and nuclear safety. Gordon is a retired Air Force general and a former CIA deputy. (c) 2002 Berkeley, California Email: dailycal@dailycal.org ***************************************************************** 47 Deputy lab manager, passed over for chief, issues farewell Tri-Valley Herald Tuesday, July 02, 2002 - 2:58:42 AM MST By Ian Hoffman Staff Writer A polished and engaging top executive at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has given his resignation, just weeks after he was passed over as lab chief. Jeffrey Wadsworth, long a highly regarded lab manager, will join Columbus, Ohio-based federal contractor Battelle Corp. as a senior executive in technology development and commercialization. He leaves Livermore next month. "Our loss is Battelle's gain," said lab director designate Michael Anastasio, the nuclear-weapons veteran who prevailed in Livermore's oddly careening search for a new leader. In his resignation letter to outgoing lab director C. Bruce Tarter, Wadsworth mentioned nothing about disappointment, instead thanking co-workers for their support "during the uncertainties of the last several months" of the director's search. A Brit by birth and metallurgist by training, Wadsworth has been honored as a fellow by two scientific societies and had authored or co-authored a textbook and 260 scientific papers. He was recruited to Livermore as an upper-level chemistry and materials research executive in 1992 and in four years ascended management ranks to deputy lab director for science and technology, one of three executives immediately under the lab director. As deputy director, he oversaw Livermore's internal seed-money program for promising research, all non-nuclear interactions with the Defense Department, the lab's part of the Energy Department's Joint Genome Project as well as lab strategic policy and planning. Wadsworth wrote in his resignation of his 10 "wonderful" and "special" years at "one of the greatest laboratories in the world." "The work was stimulating and exciting, the challenges were immense, the achievements were significant; I hope that in some small way my contributions helped in this regard," the letter stated. It was clear lab officials had prepared for the announcement of his resignation for some time; Friday's employee newsletter featured an expansive and admiring spread of stories on Wadsworth's departure. Tarter called him "a wonderful asset" to Livermore and "invaluable to me on a personal and professional level." "I found him to be one of the most classy, high-integrity individuals I've ever met," said former deputy lab director Bob Kuckuck, now acting deputy administrator at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the lab. "He was a great team player. We were able to work together and put lab resources where they belonged. He was just an incredible partner to work with." Lab financial officer Phil Schultz said, "Jeff is a bit of a rarity -- a scientist with a keen business sense." The University of California's search for a new Livermore director narrowed to a handful of candidates in late spring -- Anastasio, Wadsworth and two "outsiders." One of them, Los Alamos National Laboratory weapons executive Ray Juzaitis, was named by university officials as their choice, apparently in hopes of bringing the two competing weapons labs into a more cooperative relationship. A loud and angry response among Livermore scientists forced the retraction of Juzaitis' selection, and university officials designated Anastasio last month as the lab's new leader. "The opportunity offered by Battelle...was simply too good to pass up," Wadsworth said in the lab newsletter. "So while I have regrets about leaving the laboratory, I'm very excited about the challenges that lie ahead." ©1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers ***************************************************************** 48 Reid urges release of Cheney reports Tuesday, July 02, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Senator: Bush expanding executive privilege By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Monday jumped into the fight over whether Vice President Richard Cheney should turn over documents to Congress on the workings of the energy task force Cheney headed in 2001. Reid filed a legal brief urging a federal judge to force the vice president to hand over material requested by the head of the General Accounting Office, a congressional agency. "No adventurous theories of constitutional law are required to resolve this case in the comptroller general's favor," Reid said, referring to the agency chief. If the courts rule for Cheney, Reid said, lawmakers would not be able to gain information from the executive branch "even if that information were crucial to Congress's performance." "This is not the way separation of powers is supposed to work," Reid said in the brief. The National Energy Policy Development Group, led by Cheney and consisting of a half-dozen Cabinet members and other Bush administration officials, put together a broad report that formed the basis for the president's energy plan unveiled in May 2001. Some documents that already have been released through lawsuits against the Energy Department and other agencies suggest Bush officials favored industry executives over environmental leaders in terms of their meetings and input allowed into the report. But claiming executive privileges, the White House has declined a GAO request for documents on the workings of Cheney task force. The Bush administration has said the secrecy is needed to protect advice given to the president. In his brief, Reid said the Bush position would "most severely and systematically threaten Congress's authority to conduct investigations." He said the White House is claiming "absolute executive privilege" that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected in the historic 1974 case where President Nixon sought to shield Watergate-related activities. Reid said the present case goes even further in that Bush is trying to expand executive privileges to include the vice president. The case is being heard by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates in federal court in Washington, D.C. Reid said the documents may show ties between Bush administration officials and the nuclear power industry leading to the president's decision to approve Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste storage. "There is no question that Vice President Cheney met on several occasions with nuclear power executives," Reid said in a statement. "The administration needs to stop hiding the truth." The brief was written and filed on the senator's behalf by Georgetown University law professor Lisa Heinzerling, who donated her time; Reid's son Leif Reid, an attorney in Reno; and Reid staff lawyer Lisa Moore. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 49 Dreaming the possible dream: Scientists strive for elusive fusion energy KRT Wire | 07/02/2002 | [http://www.macon.com] BY ANDREA WIDENER Knight Ridder Newspapers LIVERMORE, Calif. - KRT NEWSFEATURES (KRT) - In the spring of 1952, Dick Post was deciding where to focus his budding research career. Then this handsome, talented young physicist heard about Project Sherwood, a secret research program that, if fulfilled, could change the world. Inspired by the exciting science and its immense applications, Post joined a team of bright young scientists starting a brand-new laboratory. He moved with them to an abandoned naval air station in Livermore, where Post set up shop in an old barracks to search for what has since been called the "possible dream" - fusion energy. Fifty years later, Post has the same dream and infectious enthusiasm, only slightly dampened by the still fruitless search for fusion. "It becomes a truly inexhaustible source of fuel, and that really gets to you," said Post, who at 83 is still brimming with new ideas and enthusiasm. He retired after years as a scientific leader in the lab's fusion program, but keeps coming back because the scientists continue making steady progress toward that elusive goal. Since its founding in 1952, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has been a leader in the search for this clean, nearly unlimited, energy source. Scientists have used magnets and, later, lasers of constantly expanding size to bring the power of the sun and stars to Earth. The lab's main mission has always been nuclear weapons research, but some of its most important discoveries have had nothing to do with bombs. Its broad, basic research program has led to discoveries in everything from climate change to mouse genetics to massive computers. Fusion funding has waxed and waned, but always has been among the most active lab programs. The magnetic fusion program grew and prospered in the early years and into the 1980s, when it was the facility's second-largest program. Now, laser fusion has taken over the role as the lab's largest fusion initiative, with a new $4 billion laser being built. Compared with research at other sites, Lawrence Livermore scientists have been fusion renegades, constantly dreaming up creative - some would say outrageous - ideas to overcome the immense problems of containing high temperatures and pressures needed for a fusion reaction. "Livermore, as an institution, has always been extremely creative, innovative, on the cutting edge," said Anne Davies, head of the Department of Energy's fusion energy sciences. Both inside and outside the lab, fusion scientists have made steady progress toward the goal of getting more energy out of their work than they put in. But everyone from fusion skeptics to devotees like Post says they are far from creating the power plant they once predicted was only a decade away. After 50 years of expectation - "Fusion is 30 years away and always will be" became the motto - the nation's fusion program has cast predictions away. "Fusion is not going to be an answer to some short-term crisis," said David Baldwin, a former Livermore fusion scientist now at General Atomics. "It is a longer-term solution for people concerned about the future." --- It's easy to see how such idealistic scientists as Post are drawn to the research. The prospect of limitless power, without climatic change or international conflicts over fossil fuels, or the radioactive-waste and weapons-proliferation concerns of nuclear fission, draws dreamers today. "When we get into this program, we have stars in our eyes for one energy source," said John Perkins, a Lawrence Livermore fusion scientist. "It is like cancer research. The payoff for humanity will be immense if we crack this problem." The ability to create massive amounts of energy through fusion is explained by Albert Einstein's famous equation E=mc2, which shows that by destroying even a small amount of mass, one can create immense amounts of energy. But harnessing and controlling the power that fuels the sun and stars are very difficult tasks. Scientists have known for more than 50 years that shoving two heavy hydrogen atoms together produces a helium atom, a neutron, and a large burst of energy. But heavy hydrogen atoms, whose nuclei are filled with extra neutrons, don't join easily. They repel each other like similar poles of a magnet. Scientists must use high-temperature, high-pressure conditions, such as those in the sun or a nuclear bomb, to force them together. The key to controlled fusion is creating the requisite conditions - temperatures greater than 180 million degrees and immense pressures - long enough for hydrogen nuclei to collide. Scientists have two approaches: to pack hydrogen together very densely for fractions of a second, or to hold it loosely for a long time. That, in essence, is the difference between laser fusion and magnetic fusion. And, as 50 years of research have shown, neither is as easy as it sounds. --- Before the labs began, future director Herb York envisioned weapons problems and fusion energy research as the lab's two major focuses. Fusion research is an "important field for investigation per se, but also valuable as a drawing card for some necessary personnel who might not be attracted purely by weapons research," York wrote. "It replaces as a drawing card the pure (experimental) programs. … It is probably better at getting first-class personnel and idea men." Dick Post was one of those men. After working on the Manhattan Project, he got a doctorate at Stanford University and took a job at the UC Radiation Laboratory, later Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, when a York talk on controlled fusion ignited his interest. Scientists had already tackled what they thought was an equally difficult problem, building a nuclear (fission) bomb and, later, a hydrogen (fusion) bomb. The hard part was over, or so they thought. The idea was to build a "magnetic bottle" of strong magnets, which would constrain a gas of the heavy hydrogen atoms, called a plasma. The closer this mix got to fusion temperatures, the harder it was to keep fast-moving atoms from flying out. If the plasma touched the container's side, it cooled off immediately. When Post arrived, he set up a small project to work on what became Livermore's most famous idea, a magnetic mirror. This attempts to contain a tube of hot gas using strong magnets on each end like bottle caps. With support from the Atomic Energy Commission, the magnetic fusion project grew, attracting young scientists and fresh ideas. Soon the lab had three magnetic fusion programs. In 1956, Post wrote the first U.S. paper explaining fusion power. He left out classified details because the project was still highly secret, but it "stirred up a hornet's nest," he remembers. Later that year, he was invited to speak on the subject at a Venice meeting of international scientists. The Russians "would keep asking questions I couldn't answer, and I would ask questions they wouldn't answer," he said. "It was fascinating but not very productive." Soon after, it was obvious that fusion power wouldn't be attained soon. "Just dumping the plasma in and watching it cook like water in a pot is not going to work," explained General Atomics' Baldwin. So, in 1958, the United States declassified its magnetic fusion program. The sudden openness fueled new research and further expanded Lawrence Livermore's work. Soon, with new funding prompted by the 1970s energy crisis, they built bigger fusion projects, with names like Felix, Toy Top, Alice, Baseball, Levitron, Astron and Q-Cumber. "Everything was new. It was so exciting. Every day we were getting new science," said Don Correll, who came to the lab fresh from graduate school in 1976. "This went on for years and years and years. Every time we found what we thought was an obstacle, we came up with a new idea." The excitement died in 1986, as construction ended on the lab's largest experiment, the Magnetic Fusion Test Facility. As usual, the lab's idea was out of the fusion mainstream - creating a tube-shaped magnetic bottle rather than the popular doughnut shape, called a tokamak - but promising enough to warrant a new $380 million facility. The day it was dedicated, the DOE announced funding cuts forcing its closure. Future research would focus exclusively on the tokamak. Later that year, the lab acquired a small tokamak from MIT, and some of its staff went to work with General Atomics scientists in San Diego. The lab has maintained a small magnetic fusion program, which is beginning to sprout. But it was never the same. --- At the same time, laser fusion was just starting to show real promise. In fact, the idea of laser fusion came from Lawrence Livermore before lasers were invented. In 1957, John Nuckolls was given an assignment: Discover if it is possible to use nuclear explosions to create commercial power. That led the 26-year-old theoretical physicist, later the lab's seventh director, to decide the cleanest, simplest way was to create a pure fusion explosion, without the high explosives and fission reactions of atomic bombs. "I thought, 'How small a nuclear explosion can you make?' " Nuckolls recalled. Using early computer models, Nuckolls and colleagues were surprised to find that a pellet of heavy hydrogen atoms, less than a milligram in size, could spark fusion if slammed hard enough. The question remained how to create the immense pressures needed to make fusion in this pea-size part. Nuckolls and others thought of high-pressure guns or particle accelerators or pulsed power sources, but nothing seemed plausible. "It wasn't obvious that this wasn't entirely crazy," Nuckolls said. The idea was put aside until 1960, when the laser was invented. It had all desired characteristics: an intense energy source that could travel long distances and be focused into small spaces. So Livermore scientists again took up laser fusion and began to believe it would work. They built lasers to hit minuscule targets. They learned to manipulate the light and shape it into pulses. These developments helped laser fusion, and helped scientists understand nuclear weapons. Defense funding, which dwarfs science dollars, helped push the program faster than it could have gone with energy funding alone. Because of that, the laser fusion program remained classified until the 1970s. John Lindl, now head of Livermore's laser and magnetic fusion programs, came in 1972, drawn by the excitement of this new, now mostly open research. "It seemed like the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a whole new approach to fusion," Lindl said. "What the lab is good at is bringing together multidisciplinary teams to tackle really hard problems, and this was a good one." The 1970s energy crisis spurred more research. With the help of weapons program funding, lasers got bigger and bigger. It has culminated in the National Ignition Facility, a $4 billion, Rose Bowl-size laser under construction that scientists hope will be the first to, for an instant, get more energy out than they put in. Through the years, some people have thought the program was moving too fast or promising more than it could deliver. Some still question if such a massive machine can be a practical power source. The National Ignition Facility can only fire once or twice a day, while any power plant would need to fire 10 times a second. "NIF is a real proof of principle," said Steve Dean of the advocacy group Fusion Power Associates. "If it works, then they will have to be taken seriously as a power plant candidate." --- For now, though, neither laser nor magnetic fusion is taken seriously as a power source, mostly because both are too expensive to compete with fossil fuels, natural gas or traditional nuclear power. But scientists are confident that with funding, fusion could be a viable alternative. "If there were no other energy sources, you could have a fusion reactor in 10 years' time," Perkins said. While there is friendly competition between magnetic and laser fusion, funding comes from different places. Most experts agree that magnetic fusion is closer to being produced in a power plant; the process has produced power for seconds at a time. A proposal to build an experimental power plant to far exceed that output is on hold while the United States decides if it wants to be involved. On the other hand, the National Ignition Facility is under construction, and, as one scientist says, "There is nothing like a bunch of cranes and dirt outside your window. That's worth more than a thousand papers and studies." "We are trapped because developing fusion is not inexpensive," said Davies, the DOE fusion sciences head. "Until people are willing to commit the money, we cannot commit to a date." Meanwhile, lab scientists are already looking to the future with its $50 million budget for fusion. In the lab's Mercury project, researchers are making the next-generation laser, one that can fire many times a second without overheating or cracking the laser's glass. "This is a demonstration of all of the technologies required to scale up," said lead scientist Andy Bayramian, as he shows specially designed filters and new amplifiers to boost laser power. "This is really a huge step for fusion lasers," said Steven Payne, laser group leader. "It is an enormous culmination of activity right now." Magnetic fusion is making a comeback, too. In recent years, the country's fusion program has expanded and includes programs such as a science fiction-looking "spheromak" machine that tests new concepts on how to contain doughnut-shaped hot gasses without the complex configuration of a tokamak. The $2 million spheromak promises to be simpler to build and more likely to work as a power plant, said David Hill, who returned to Livermore to work on it after several years at General Atomics. Dick Post hasn't given up on his ideas, either. He's received some internal lab dollars to look at new angles on his early ideas. "What is tantalizing is that some of these predictions I think could come true if (fusion) was really tackled as a national priority," Post said. "Just look at the fusion budget. It's pretty tiny. It won't even buy (an aircraft) carrier." © 2002, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.) ***************************************************************** 50 Editorial: A super mistake to gut Superfund Las Vegas SUN July 02, 2002 Congress created the Superfund program in 1980 to clean up toxic waste sites across the nation. The important program, supported by a tax on chemical, oil and other potentially polluting companies, lost its source of funding in 1995 when Congress -- due to partisan bickering -- let these corporate taxes expire. Next year there will only be $28 million available in the Superfund account, quite a fall from its high of $3.8 billion in 1996. President Bush only seems too happy to let the Superfund wither away. The New York Times reported Monday that the Bush administration has targeted 33 toxic waste sites in 18 states for reductions in funding. That means the cleanup will stop at some of the worst sites in the nation, including work at a manufacturing plant in New Jersey that once made Agent Orange. The administration says it's willing to continue the Superfund program -- on its terms. The president wants all taxpayers, not just the companies that historically have contributed to creating toxic waste sites, to fund the program. But changing the funding this way would be a terrible departure from the program's beginnings, which is that the polluter should pay. President Bush's willingness to let the Superfund program die is but one of many concessions he has made to polluting industries, including, as Nevadans know all too well, his plan to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. The White House's refusal to protect the environment today just means that another president a few years or a decade from now will inherit environmental disasters that will be that much harder -- and much more expensive -- to clean up. That is hardly the legacy of a president who cares about the environment. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 51 Nuclear plant to supply fluoride for water June 29 2002 at 08:13PM Sunday Independent By Tony Carnie The Pelindaba nuclear and chemical complex is to become the major supplier of fluoride, which will be added to drinking water throughout the country from next year. The complex was set up by the apartheid government in the 1960s to produce atomic bombs and enriched uranium fuel. In terms of health department regulations, water suppliers will be compelled to add fluoride to tap water in a bid to reduce tooth decay. In its concentrated form, fluoride is highly toxic but it has been added in diluted form to the drinking water of many Americans for 50 years to harden tooth enamel. However, most European countries do not allow the fluoridation of water because of mounting evidence that it may do more harm than good to human health. http://www.iol.co.za ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************