***************************************************************** 04/03/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.84 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: Westinghouse seeks OK for new nuclear plant design 2 US dismayed by possible Russia - N.Korea project 3 US grants N Korea nuclear funds 4 Spain: Nuclear power day NUCLEAR REACTORS 5 Germ: E.On's Grafenrheinfeld Nuke Plant Shut Down Since Late Tuesday 6 US: FirstEnergy Keeps Price, Time Targets For Nuclear Outage 7 Kungliao residents say nuclear plant threatens tourism 8 Jap: Two nuclear reactors report minor problems 9 Jap: Kungliao residents say nuclear plant threatens tourism 10 US: NRC to Meet with Exelon Generation Co. April 9 to Discuss Byron 11 US: NRC to Meet with Exelon Generation Co. April 10 to Discuss 12 US: NRC to Meet with Nuclear Management Co. April 9 to Discuss Point 13 US: NRC To Meet with American Electric Power April 12 to Discuss D. 14 US: NRC to Meet with Entergy to Discuss Fitzpatrick Plant Performanc 15 US: NRC Revises Skin Dose Limits for Workers at Nuclear Facilities 16 US: NRC to Sponsor International Conference on Wire System Aging 17 Reactor shut down after problem found with pump 18 US: Millstone operators state case for expanding on-site nuclear NUCLEAR SAFETY 19 UK: Thieves steal nuclear plant keys 20 UK: Iodine tablets will be late arriving through letterboxes NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 21 US: County puts off proposal to fund Yucca fight 22 US: Guinn to address Yucca veto 23 UK: Ali attacks Tesco over protest snub 24 US: Editorial: Nevada shouldn't let up now 25 US: Yucca funding debate bogs down 26 US: Debate rages about safety of shipping nuclear waste 27 US: Nuclear waste may pass through ports - 04/03/02 28 German authorities give permission for new nuclear waste 29 US: Gov. Guinn to address Nevadans before making historic veto on Yu NUCLEAR WEAPONS 30 Bush, Putin Discuss Nuclear Arms 31 Washington's Secret-Busters Tested 32 US: 'The Rest of the Story' 33 US: Change in nuclear policy raises fear: What's next? 34 U.S., Russian Presidents Discuss Middle East, Nuclear Arms 35 Russian Supreme Court says President untouchable 36 Russia: Secrete military decrees to exist until May US DEPT. OF ENERGY 37 Report blames contamination on equipment 38 Our View: SNS job well done merits high reward OTHER NUCLEAR 39 France to spend 10 bln euros on boosting wind power 40 Atomic rockets: Those were the days ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Westinghouse seeks OK for new nuclear plant design USA: April 3, 2002 WASHINGTON - Westinghouse Electric Co has asked U.S. regulators to approve a new design for nuclear power plants which would rely on gravity and pressure differentials to safely shut down the reactor in an accident, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said yesterday. The company's proposal comes amid the Bush administration's urging to the U.S. nuclear industry to build several new plants by 2010 to boost electricity supplies. Westinghouse is a unit of Britain's state-owned BNFL Plc. Westinghouse wants U.S. regulators to certify the company's new AP1000 standard plant design for new plants able to produce about 1,100 megawatts of electricity, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a statement. The design would use modular construction to speed up construction of a nuclear plant to just three years from start to finish. Each would have an operating life of 60 years. The Westinghouse AP1000 is similar to the company's AP600 design approved by regulators in 1999, except larger and more economical to operate. The AP1000 design would use natural forces such as gravity to ensure safe operation, as well as fewer valves and less piping, control cable and pumps. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has certified three other standard reactor designs for utilities to use in designing a new plant. The agency said its review of Westinghouse's application would require several steps, including a draft safety evaluation report as well as technical analysis. In February, BNFL and British Energy agreed to study whether the Westinghouse AP1000 could replace British Energy's existing nuclear power stations in England. British Energy is also consdering a rival design known as the Canadian CANDU. Makers of both designs have set an informal target of trying to get the construction cost down to about $1,000 per kilowatt. Another proposed design - known as the pebble bed modular reactor - is also being developed by a consortium that includes Exelon Corp . That design would produce much smaller plants with a capacity of 120 to 130 megawatts. The Bush administration said in February that it would help pay for studies of three federal sites in Ohio, South Carolina and Idaho for potential new nuclear power plants being considered by Exelon and Dominion Resources Inc . Critics say they are concerned about safety issues - such as the recently discovered corrosion at an Ohio nuclear plant - and the growing volume of dangerous radioactive waste generated by plants nationwide. No new U.S. commercial nuclear power plants have been built since the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. In that $1 billion accident, the plant's water cooling system failed and led to the partial melting of a reactor's uranium core. Nuclear power currently provides about 20 percent of U.S. electricity. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 2 US dismayed by possible Russia - N.Korea project USA: April 2, 2002 WASHINGTON - A Russian move to build a nuclear power plant for "axis of evil" state North Korea after already constructing one in "co-axis' Iran could threaten Moscow's improving relations with the United States, a senior U.S. official said last week. "For the Russians to do this is a very, very bad sign and would add one more burden to the relationship on non-proliferation and one more important topic we've got to get straight with them," he told Reuters. The move would leave only Iraq among the three countries President George W. Bush branded an "axis of evil" in his State of the Union message in January without an active nuclear relationship with Russia. "This is very bad news at a time when we were expressing our doubts about North Korean compliance with the Agreed Framework," the official said, referring to a 1994 accord under which Pyongyang pledged to freeze its nuclear program. Russian Nuclear Energy minister Alexander Rumyantsev told a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday Russia would complete a nuclear power plant reactor in Iran despite U.S. opposition. And, in what would be an expansion of Russian nuclear activities, he said Moscow was also considering a tentative North Korean request for a similar plant. A day earlier, a senior U.S. official told Reuters that while the Bush administration has made little progress in persuading Moscow to end nuclear assistance to Iran, this was unlikely to disrupt U.S.-Russia ties that warmed considerably since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. "Now is it (Russia-Iran nuclear cooperation) enough to derail the (U.S.-Russia) relationship? Not if the Russians don't expand cooperation and proliferation with this and other countries," he said in an interview. EXPANDED COOPERATION OPPOSED If the status quo holds, "it's possible it would simply be a continuing problem," said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. However, if Russia "expanded their (nuclear) cooperation ... it would be a big problem," he added. Rumyantsev predicted the $800 million Iranian plant at Bushehr would be finished in the year 2005. As for the North Korean project, "We are holding discussions and trying to find out whether it would be economically feasible," he said. "But these are only discussions without any specific foundation," Rumyantsev added. The comments surprised and dismayed U.S. officials who have been discussing nuclear and other matters with Moscow. Bush has toughened the rhetoric toward all three "axis of evil" states, saying they are determined to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the means to deliver them. The administration maintains that after Sept 11, there is a much greater threat that extremists would try to acquire a weapon of mass destruction to strike America. Bush recently broke with the preceding Clinton administration and told Congress he could no longer certify North Korea as complying with the 1994 Agreed Framework. Under that accord, Washington guaranteed regular U.S. oil shipments plus construction in North Korea of two advanced nuclear power reactors that cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium if Pyongyang froze its alleged nuclear arms program. Bush aides have demanded that Moscow halt work on the Bushehr project, which they view as a way to "mask" Russian cooperation with Iran's nuclear weapons program. Russian officials have long argued they are not abetting Iran's nuclear weapons program and there should be no prohibitions on their work since Iran eschewed nuclear arms as a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. COMPROMISE OPTIONS If Iran ended its nuclear weapons program, Washington might withdraw its objections to Russia completing the Bushehr power plant. But "that's a big if" to be dealt with only in the future, a senior U.S. official said. Despite the differences, Rumyantsev told reporters Russia viewed U.S. concerns with "great attention" and hoped for a compromise that could benefit Russia economically. While non-proliferation concerns may be raised when Bush meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow May 23-25, U.S. officials said their current focus is on ensuring a harmonious summit that would enshrine an agreement that would slash both sides' offensive nuclear weapons. After that, the Bush administration plans to place more emphasis on resolving non-proliferation differences, which could prove more contentious, officials said. Story by Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 3 US grants N Korea nuclear funds BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC | 3 April, 02 [Hammer and sickle flag in Pyongyang] Pyongyang threatened to pull out of the nuclear deal The US Government has announced that it will release $95m to North Korea as part of an agreement to replace the Stalinist country's own nuclear programme, which the US suspected was being misused. Under the 1994 Agreed Framework an international consortium is building two proliferation-proof nuclear reactors and providing fuel oil for North Korea while the reactors are being built. In releasing the funding, President George W Bush waived the Framework's requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any weapons-grade plutonium from the original reactors. President Bush argued that the decision was "vital to the national security interests of the United States". Deal under threat North Korea has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the agreement in recent weeks. [South Korean solider (l) and North Korean soldier (r) on the Korean border] The row has heightened tensions on the peninsula It has been angered by President Bush's accusation that Pyongyang was part of an "axis of evil" producing weapons of mass destruction. This annoyance was compounded by Washington's decision to withhold this year's certification that North Korea is keeping its side of the Agreed Framework. It has systematically refused to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors into its nuclear facility at the Yongbyon research base north of the capital. Delayed Pyongyang has justified its refusals by pointing out that the reactors are way behind schedule. They were originally expected to have been completed next year, but now construction is not expected to even begin until August. Another issue is the different interpretations of the inspections' timing. According to the Framework, North Korea should be fully compliant with IAEA safeguards when "a significant proportion" of the project is completed. The builders say that will be around May 2005, and given the inspections will take at least three years, this means that North Korea should start admitting inspectors now. But Pyongyang believes that they should only allow the inspections to start, rather than finish, by that date. The head of the Non-proliferation Policy Education Centre in Washington, a critic of the Agreed Framework, has warned that even when the new reactors are completed they may not be tamper-proof. "These reactors are like all reactors, They have the potential to make weapons. So you might end up supplying the worst nuclear violator with the means to acquire the very weapons we're trying to prevent it acquiring," Henry Sokolski told the Far Eastern Economic Review. ***************************************************************** 4 Nuclear power day (Jornada sobre la generacion electrica de origen nuclear) Expansion; Apr 3, 2002 Electricity generated by nuclear power is one of the pillars of Europe's electricity supply. With this in mind, a Spanish industry, technology and mining association is organising a special day to discuss matters of power policy, regulation and business strategy. The event will take place on 8 April in the Ritz hotel in Madrid, and will be attended by Loyola de Palacio, the vice chairperson of the European commission, Antonio Colino, chairman of Enresa, Jose Luis Gonzalez, chairman of Enusa and Jaime Segarra, director of nuclear power in Europe for US industrial group General Electric. Abstracted from Expansion ***************************************************************** 5 E.On's Grafenrheinfeld Nuke Plant Shut Down Since Late Tuesday Yahoo! News - Wed Apr 3, 4:13 AM ET HANOVER -(Dow Jones)- E.on AG's (EON) Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant shut down unexpectedly late Tuesday due to a defect. The utility company said in a press release Wednesday the 1,275-megawatt plant was brought off line automatically at 2013 GMT following prescribed safety measures. E.On added it will take longer than usual to get the reactor back on line because the shutdown happened just prior to planned maintenance work. The company could not be immediately reached for further details. -By Elizabeth Souder, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 659 29725-500; elizabeth.souder@dowjones.com Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2002 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 FirstEnergy Keeps Price, Time Targets For Nuclear Outage Yahoo! News - Tue Apr 2, 6:13 PM ET By: Jon Kamp, Of Dow Jones Newswires CHICAGO -(Dow Jones)- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE - news) (FE) is maintaining its estimates for the cost and time needed to repair and restart its damaged Davis Besse nuclear plant in Ohio , a company spokesman said Tuesday. Akron , Ohio -based FirstEnergy found significant corrosion damage four weeks ago on the Davis Besse's reactor vessel head. The company, which wants to bring the plant back in service by late May or late June this year, must get U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for plant repairs. FirstEnergy wants to patch the 6.5 inch vessel head cavity, and will present specific repair plans to the NRC next week, company spokesman Richard Wilkins said. "That's really the crux of this project," he said. If the NRC approves FirstEnergy's repair plan, the utility still believes it can get the plant back on line as planned by late spring or early summer. But the NRC, which must also give the plant final restart approval, could require FirstEnergy to completely replace the vessel head before resuming operations. Installing a new head would take much longer. FirstEnergy has already ordered a new head from French manufacturer Framatome ANP (F.FRM), estimated at $20 million, but it won't arrive until February 2004 . FirstEnergy could also buy a head from another defunct power plant, potentially shortening that timeframe. The company ordered the new vessel head for Davis Besse in October last year after cracks in control rod drive mechanism tubes, which cross through the vessel head, were found in other plants. "It looked like potentially a chronic problem," Wilkins said. Indeed, five of Davis Besse's 69 tubes were found to be cracked during the inspection last month, and it's possible that boric acid from the plant's cooling system leaked through one cracked tube and caused the vessel head corrosion. FirstEnergy still plans to replace the reactor vessel head whether or not the NRC approves repairs on the damaged one, Wilkins said. That's because the company intends to apply for a 20-year extension to the plant's current operating license, which expires in 2017. FirstEnergy hasn't yet specified how it plans to repair the vessel head cavity at Davis Besse, which displaced about 40 pounds of carbon steel. The company will explain its repair plan to the NRC in detail next Wednesday, and may issue a report on the plan at the same time, Wilkins said. NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said the agency has made no decision at this time on whether it will approve repairs or require installation of a new vessel head. He said NRC staff will make a decision on the repairs at an undetermined time after reviewing FirstEnergy's information. Though the utility will replace the vessel head in early 2004, Dricks said that's not likely to sway the NRC's decision about whether to approve short-term vessel head repairs. The NRC won't approve any repair that isn't deemed completely safe, and the plant would still need to operate for a substantial amount of time with those repairs before installing a new head, he said. "Two years is a long time," Dricks said. Root Cause Meeting Planned Next week's meeting between the NRC and FirstEnergy is one of two upcoming Davis Besse events. The two groups will also meet this Friday to discuss the NRC's investigation into the root cause of the Davis Besse corrosion problem. The NRC has said that the corrosion didn't cause safety concerns, but the agency has still launched investigations on multiple fronts in response to the problem. Along with its ongoing probe at the plant, the NRC has asked owners of 68 other pressurized water reactor plants, which are of similar design to Davis Besse, to respond to a questionnaire that will help the NRC determine whether other units are susceptible to corrosion problems. If it believes corrosion is of wider concern, the NRC could order inspection outages at other plants. The NRC is expecting replies to its questionnaire on Wednesday, Dricks said. Thus far, FirstEnergy is the only company to find such significant vessel head corrosion. The industry recently performed its own survey of other pressurized water plants, and found that about one-third have recently done full vessel head inspections with no problems found. Other plants in the survey, put together by California research group EPRI and the Nuclear Energy Institute industry association, said they were planning inspections during upcoming outages, and ruled out any problems. Alex Marion, director of engineering at NEI, said in an interview last week that the survey results show there isn't a widespread problem in the industry. The NRC said it would take the NEI survey into account when making decisions about inspections at other plants. "I feel comfortable in saying I don't believe the other plants have experienced the kind of corrosion that existed at Davis Besse," Marion said. FirstEnergy is also maintaining cost estimates for the Davis Besse repairs and outage. The company first said two weeks ago that it will cost $5 million to $10 million to repair the damage, and $10 million to $15 million a month to buy replacement power while the unit is off line. As a result, the outage could trim after-tax earnings for 2002 by 5 cents to 10 cents per share. -By Jon Kamp, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4129; jon.kamp@dowjones.com Dow Jones) Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2002 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 Kungliao residents say nuclear plant threatens tourism The Taipei Times Online: 2002-04-03Wednesday, April 3rd, 2002 By Chiu Yu-Tzu STAFF REPORTER Residents of Kungliao, Taipei County, where the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is located, said yesterday that construction of the plant would harm eco-tourism plans for the area. Fourteen months after the Cabinet announced it would resume construction of the plant, residents of Kungliao say they feel betrayed by President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó). "It's been two years since he took the leadership. We've never heard a word from him about the promises he made in late 1999," said Yang Kuei-yin (·¨¶Q­^), a 57-year-old woman who has been part of the anti-nuclear movement since the late 1980s. Yang made the comments at a panel discussion following the screening of a Public Television Service (PTS) documentary detailing Kungliao residents' opposition to the plant. Yang's words reminded residents of unfulfilled promises made by Chen in 1999 of turning the declining township into an eco-tourism zone and restoring the status of Taiwan's indigenous Katagalan culture (³Í¹F®æÄõ¤å¤Æ). Although the government explained that the decision to resume construction was done to ensure political stability and calm industry, Kungliao residents said yesterday that the process of formulating a nuclear policy had never been done with sincerity. Since the Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association (ÆQ¼d¤Ï®Ö¦Û±Ï·|) was established in 1988, dissenting voices from the small fishing town of 13,000 have rarely received attention from the mainstream media. After construction was resumed, even vocal anti-nuclear activists had trouble being heard. The ups and downs of Kungliao anti-nuclear activists over the past 14 years, however, have been now been examined in the PTS documentary, Uncle Ching-tang's 14 Summers (¼y¶í§Bªº¤Q¥|­Ó®L¤Ñ). The film was produced by Jin Liao (¹ùÀA®Û) and is based on the lives of Kungliao's anti-nuclear activists. "I felt heart-broken when seeing the images of vanished comrades and capricious political figures," said Chen Ching-tang (³¯¼y¶í), a 70-year-old anti-nuclear activist at the panel discussion. In the documentary, the audience can see the golden sands of the beach at Yenliao Bay (ÆQ¼dÆW), once a popular tourist spot on the north coast, which has been gradually destroyed by the plant's construction. In addition, the audience can hear promises from 1994 when Chen, as a legislator, asked governmental officials, "can you say it is necessary to build the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant?" "We don't judge things. We just let images tell stories," said Chen Li-fong (³¯¥ß®p), a documentary cameraman. Activists have questioned the negative impact of the project and now look forward to Chen Shih-nan (³¯¥@¨k), the newly elected township chief and Chen Ching-tang's son, continuing to challenge the project and preserve the precious marine resources needed for developing future eco-tourism. The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) says it is keeping an eye on the impact of the project. "We will strictly monitor environmental impacts made by any public construction to eco-tourism spots selected by the government," said Liu Tsung-yung (¼B©v«i), an EPA official. The documentary Uncle Ching-tang's 14 Summers will be broadcast at 10pm tomorrow on PTS, channel 53, and repeated at 10am on Friday. This story has been viewed 172 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/04/03/story/0000130309] Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Two nuclear reactors report minor problems Japan Today Japan News - News - Wednesday, April 3, 2002 at 09:30 JST TOKYO Two Japanese nuclear reactors reported minor problems on Tuesday and one shut down for further checks, but company officials said no radiation had leaked. Hokuriku Electric Power Co Inc temporarily shut its 540,000-kW reactor in northernwestern Ishikawa Prefecture after finding a pump problem during regular maintenance checks. A spokesman at the utility said no radiation had leaked into the outside environment. Later in the afternoon, water seeped from a pipe during a trial operation at Tohoku Electric Power Co Inc's Onagawa nuclear plant in northern Miyagi Prefecture. The problem at the No. 2 unit was fixed after a bolt was tightened and no radiation was leaked to the outside environment, a Tohoku official said. The pipe was attached to a tank in a building that housed a turbine for a 825,000 kilowatt (kw) reactor. The reactor did not stop operation, Tohoku added. Japan has 52 commercial nuclear reactors providing a third of the country's power. The nuclear industry has been criticized after a series of accidents, including Japan's worst-ever in 1999 at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, north of Tokyo, where two workers were killed. (Reuters News) © Reuters 2001 ***************************************************************** 9 Kungliao residents say nuclear plant threatens tourism The Taipei Times Online: 2002-04-03 Wednesday, April 3rd, 2002 By Chiu Yu-Tzu STAFF REPORTER Residents of Kungliao, Taipei County, where the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is located, said yesterday that construction of the plant would harm eco-tourism plans for the area. Fourteen months after the Cabinet announced it would resume construction of the plant, residents of Kungliao say they feel betrayed by President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó). "It's been two years since he took the leadership. We've never heard a word from him about the promises he made in late 1999," said Yang Kuei-yin (·¨¶Q­^), a 57-year-old woman who has been part of the anti-nuclear movement since the late 1980s. Yang made the comments at a panel discussion following the screening of a Public Television Service (PTS) documentary detailing Kungliao residents' opposition to the plant. Yang's words reminded residents of unfulfilled promises made by Chen in 1999 of turning the declining township into an eco-tourism zone and restoring the status of Taiwan's indigenous Katagalan culture (³Í¹F®æÄõ¤å¤Æ). Although the government explained that the decision to resume construction was done to ensure political stability and calm industry, Kungliao residents said yesterday that the process of formulating a nuclear policy had never been done with sincerity. Since the Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association (ÆQ¼d¤Ï®Ö¦Û±Ï·|) was established in 1988, dissenting voices from the small fishing town of 13,000 have rarely received attention from the mainstream media. After construction was resumed, even vocal anti-nuclear activists had trouble being heard. The ups and downs of Kungliao anti-nuclear activists over the past 14 years, however, have been now been examined in the PTS documentary, Uncle Ching-tang's 14 Summers (¼y¶í§Bªº¤Q¥|­Ó®L¤Ñ). The film was produced by Jin Liao (¹ùÀA®Û) and is based on the lives of Kungliao's anti-nuclear activists. "I felt heart-broken when seeing the images of vanished comrades and capricious political figures," said Chen Ching-tang (³¯¼y¶í), a 70-year-old anti-nuclear activist at the panel discussion. In the documentary, the audience can see the golden sands of the beach at Yenliao Bay (ÆQ¼dÆW), once a popular tourist spot on the north coast, which has been gradually destroyed by the plant's construction. In addition, the audience can hear promises from 1994 when Chen, as a legislator, asked governmental officials, "can you say it is necessary to build the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant?" "We don't judge things. We just let images tell stories," said Chen Li-fong (³¯¥ß®p), a documentary cameraman. Activists have questioned the negative impact of the project and now look forward to Chen Shih-nan (³¯¥@¨k), the newly elected township chief and Chen Ching-tang's son, continuing to challenge the project and preserve the precious marine resources needed for developing future eco-tourism. The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) says it is keeping an eye on the impact of the project. "We will strictly monitor environmental impacts made by any public construction to eco-tourism spots selected by the government," said Liu Tsung-yung (¼B©v«i), an EPA official. The documentary Uncle Ching-tang's 14 Summers will be broadcast at 10pm tomorrow on PTS, channel 53, and repeated at 10am on Friday. This story has been viewed 173 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/04/03/story/0000130309] Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 NRC to Meet with Exelon Generation Co. April 9 to Discuss Byron Nuclear Power Station Safety Performance NRC: Press Release Region III - 2002 - 13 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 www.nrc.gov No. III-02-013 April 2, 2002 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Pam Alloway-Mueller (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov [opa3@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with representatives of Exelon Generation Co. in Byron, Illinois, on Tuesday, April 9, to discuss the results of the agency's annual assessment of safety performance at the Byron Nuclear Power Station. The two-reactor facility is located near Byron. The meeting, which will be the open to the public for observation, is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in the Jarrett Prairie Center at the Byron Forest Preserve, 7993 North River Road, Byron. Before the meeting is concluded, NRC officials will answer questions from members of the public. The performance period to be discussed is April 1 through December 31 of last year. A letter sent from the NRC Region III office to Exelon addresses plant performance during the period and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/byro_2001q4.pdf. Current performance information for the Byron facility is available on the NRC web site at: (Unit 1) http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BYRO1/byro1_chart.html and (Unit 2) http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BYRO2/byro2_chart.html. ***************************************************************** 11 NRC to Meet with Exelon Generation Co. April 10 to Discuss Braidwood Nuclear Power Station Safety Performance NRC: Press Release Region III - 2002 - 14 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 www.nrc.gov No. III-02-014 April 2, 2002 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Pam Alloway-Mueller (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov [opa3@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with representatives of Exelon Generation Co. in Wilmington, Illinois, on Tuesday, April 9, to discuss the results of the agency's annual assessment of safety performance at the Braidwood Nuclear Power Station. The two-reactor facility is located near Braidwood, Illinois. The meeting, which will be the open to the public for observation, is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in the Exelon Services and Training Center, 36400 South Essex Road, Wilmington. Before the meeting is concluded, NRC officials will answer questions from members of the public. The performance period to be discussed is April 1 through December 31 of last year. A letter sent from the NRC Region III office to Exelon addresses plant performance during the period and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/brai_2001q4.pdf. Current performance information for the Braidwood facility is available on the NRC web site at: (Unit 1) http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BRAI1/brai1_chart.html and (Unit 2) http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BRAI2/brai2_chart.html. ***************************************************************** 12 NRC to Meet with Nuclear Management Co. April 9 to Discuss Point Beach and Kewaunee Nuclear Plant Safety Performancee NRC: Press Release Region III - 2002 - 15 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 www.nrc.gov No. III-02-015 April 3, 2002 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Pam Alloway-Mueller (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov [opa3@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with representatives of Nuclear Management Company on Tuesday, April 9, to discuss the results of the agency's annual assessments of safety performance at the Point Beach and Kewaunee nuclear power stations. The two-reactor Point Beach facility is located near Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and Kewaunee is located at Kewaunee, Wisconsin. The Kewaunee meeting will be at 10 a.m. in the Carlton Town Hall, N2196 Town Hall Road, Kewaunee. The Point Beach meeting will be at 2 p.m. in the Two Creeks Town Hall, 5128 East Tapawingo Road, Two Rivers. Both meetings will be the open to the public for observation. Before each meeting is concluded, NRC officials will answer questions from members of the public. The performance period to be discussed is April 1 through December 31 of last year. Letters sent from the NRC Region III office to Nuclear Management Co. discuss performance during the period and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. The letters are available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/poin_2001q4.pdf for Point Beach and http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/poin_2001q4.pdf for Kewaunee. Current performance information for the facilities is available on the NRC web site at: (Point Beach 1) http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/POIN1/poin1_chart.html (Point Beach 2) http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/POIN2/poin2_chart.html (Kewaunee) http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/KEWA/kewa_chart.html. ***************************************************************** 13 NRC To Meet with American Electric Power April 12 to Discuss D. C. Cook Nuclear Power Station Safety Performance NRC: Press Release Region III - 2002 - 16 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 www.nrc.gov No. III-02-016 April 3, 2002 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Pam Alloway-Mueller (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov [opa3@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet on Friday, April 12, with representatives of American Electric Power Co. in to discuss the results of the agency's annual assessment of safety performance at the D. C. Cook Nuclear Power Station. The two-reactor facility is located near Bridgman, Michigan. The meeting, which will be the open to the public for observation, is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. in the Hampton Inn, 5050 Red Arrow Highway, Stevensville. Before the meeting is concluded, NRC officials will answer questions from members of the public. The performance period to be discussed is April 1 through December 31 of last year. A letter sent from the NRC Region III office to American Electric Power addresses plant performance during the period and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/cook_2001q4.pdf. Current performance information for the D. C. Cook facility is available on the NRC web site at: (Unit 1) http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/COOK1/cook1_chart.html and (Unit 2) http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/COOK2/cook2_chart.html. ***************************************************************** 14 NRC to Meet with Entergy to Discuss Fitzpatrick Plant Performance NRC: Press Release Region I - 2002 - 27 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 www.nrc.gov No. I-02-027 April 2, 2002 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov [opa1@nrc.gov] Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with representatives of Entergy Nuclear Northeast on Tuesday, April 9, to discuss the results of the agency's annual assessment of safety performance at the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plant. The facility is located in Scriba, N.Y., and operated by Entergy. The meeting, which will be open to the public for observation, is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at the Joint New Center for the plant. The center is located at the Oswego County Airport, 40 Airport Drive, Fulton, N.Y. Before the session is adjourned, NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the safety performance of the plant, as well as the role of the NRC in ensuring safe plant operation. The performance period to be discussed is April 1, 2001, to December 31, 2001. In addition, NRC staff will provide an overview of the agency's Reactor Oversight Process. A letter sent from the NRC Region I office to Entergy addresses the performance of the plant during the period and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/fitz_2001q4.pdf Current performance information for the FitzPatrick plant is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/FITZ/fitz_chart.html [http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/FITZ/fitz_chart.html] ***************************************************************** 15 NRC Revises Skin Dose Limits for Workers at Nuclear Facilities NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 39 - 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. 02-039 April 2, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is revising its regulations for dose limits to the skin of the whole body and extremities. This changes the method used for calculating the amount of radiation to the skin that workers could potentially receive when conducting certain licensed activities. The agency's final rule revises Part 20 of the Commission's regulations and is based on recommendations from the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP Report No. 130 and Statement No. 9). It establishes a more risk-informed limit for potential doses received from small radioactive particles, sometimes known as "hot particles," which can result in doses to very small areas of the skin. Publication of the proposed rule appeared in the Federal Register on July 12, requesting public comment. Nine letters were received, all supporting the proposed action. Under the final rule, the dose to the skin will be averaged over the most highly exposed, 10 square centimeters instead of being averaged over one square centimeter, as is currently required. This change is based on scientific studies that demonstrate that risks from doses to small areas of the skin are less than risks to larger areas from the same dose. Previously, rules required frequent monitoring of workers to detect hot particles and small area exposures that had insignificant health implications. To avoid exceeding the skin dose limit, workers were required to wear multiple layers of protective clothing and cumbersome gloves that resulted in workers being subjected to non-radiological hazards, such as heat stress. In addition, workers' mobility and dexterity were hampered by the excessive use of protective equipment and clothing which required them to spend more time completing a job in radiation areas. This increased the workers' whole-body dose. The health effects from small-area skin hot particle exposures, such as reddening of the skin, are considered by the NCRP to be very small when compared to the increased external dose and risk from frequent monitoring. Therefore, the excessive use of protective clothing and other equipment to avoid skin contamination may in fact expose workers to more significant hazards than are being avoided. The agency's revision of the skin dose limit establishes a risk-informed approach for all sources of shallow radiation exposures, including hot particles and small area skin contaminations. The rule also lessens physical stress and reduces whole-body doses to workers by reducing the frequency of monitoring for hot particles. This rulemaking is expected to result in a decrease in the use of protective equipment used by nuclear power plant workers and others potentially exposed to skin contamination which will in turn lead to a reduction in an external occupational dose to workers onsite. This would be expected to result in an increase in worker safety, as well as a cost-effective reduction in unnecessary regulatory burden with little to no impact on worker safety. For more information on the final rule contact Alan K. Roecklein, at 301-415-3883, or via e-mail at [AKR@nrc.gov] ***************************************************************** 16 NRC to Sponsor International Conference on Wire System Aging April 23 - 25 in Rockville, Maryland NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 40 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-040 April 2, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will sponsor an international conference on the issue of wire system aging in the nation's infrastructure on April 23 - 25 at the DoubleTree Hotel, located at 1750 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland. The conference, which will begin at 8 a.m. each day, stems from a recent White House National Science and Technology Council study that concluded wire system safety is an important public health and safety issue that transcends government agencies. The conference will review current practices and programs for understanding and managing wire system aging, enable the exchange of information on the current status of research related to the issue, and identify technical issues and programs of interest for collaborative research. The three-day conference will focus on four specific topics relating to wire system aging: reliability physics modeling; fire risk assessment; the risk significance of wire system aging; and prognostics and diagnostics for installed wire systems. The conference will feature technical presentations and a summary on all four topics. In addition, exhibits will show state-of-the-art techniques for monitoring wire systems. A panel of experts will close the conference with a discussion of the future direction for research and collaboration. To register for the conference, please contact Susan Monteleone of the Brookhaven National Laboratory at 631-344-7235, (fax) 631-344-3957, or e-mail at susanm@bnl.gov [susanm@bnl.gov] . For information on exhibits or technical information, please contact Jit Vora at the NRC at 301-415-5833, or via e-mail at jpv@nrc.gov [jpv@nrc.gov] ***************************************************************** 17 Reactor shut down after problem found with pump Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun Hokuriku Electric Power Co. shut down a nuclear reactor Tuesday at its plant in Ishikawa Prefecture after an unusual vibration was detected in one of its recirculation pumps connected to the reactor, company officials said. No radiation was leaked because of the irregularity, which was discovered at 10:30 a.m. during regular checks of the 540,000-kilowatt No. 1 reactor of the Shika nuclear power plant in Shikamachi, according to the officials. The cause of the problem was not immediately known, they said. The officials said the pump in question would be examined for defects and there was no prospect of the reactor returning to normal operations by Tuesday evening. According to the officials, employees at the nuclear power plant decided to manually shut down the reactor after a high level of vibration was detected in the pump's axis, and they gradually reduced the power level from about 11 a.m. Since March 11, the company has been conducting regular tuning of the reactor, which began generating electricity on March 14. Power output reached maximum capacity of 540,000 kilowatts on March 17. However, the irregular range of the pump's vibration--320 micrometers, almost double the usual level--had been detected since the tuning operation began. The range of vibration began to increase at 1 a.m. Tuesday and reached 345 micrometers before the reactor's condition became unstable. Alarms automatically go off if the vibrations reach 380 micrometers, the officials said. "It's safe, but we decided to manually shut down the reactor," the officials said. They said the problem was considered "level 0 minus," the least serious level of accident according to international nuclear accident evaluation standards. The officials said the company was investigating the cause of the incident, including the possibility that some parts may have come off. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 18 Millstone operators state case for expanding on-site nuclear waste storage TheDay.com: Local and National News Opponents point to case of two missing fuel rods By Paul Choiniere - More Articles Published on 04/03/2002 Mystic — Despite losing two nuclear fuel rods from the closed Millstone 1 nuclear plant, Millstone Power Station operators are ready to safely handle the storage of more such nuclear waste at its Millstone 3 unit, company attorneys and federal regulators said at a hearing Tuesday. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board held the hearing at the Best Western Sovereign Hotel. At issue is whether Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, owner and operator of Millstone station in Waterford, should be given a license amendment to increase by 21/2times the amount of spent nuclear fuel it can place in the Millstone 3 storage pool. Getting the license amendment is critical to the company because it needs the space to store the highly radioactive spent fuel Millstone 3 will produce over the 23 years remaining on its current operating license. And the company has said it intends to seek a license extension allowing the plant to operate another 20 years beyond that time. Eighteen months ago it appeared Millstone officials had the license amendment for more fuel storage sewn up, with the licensing board recommending Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval. But that was before news came that two spent fuel rods could not be accounted for at Millstone 1, which last operated in 1995. The licensing board agreed to reopen the proceedings to hear arguments as to whether the mistakes at Millstone 1 mean station operators are not prepared to handle more spent fuel at Millstone 3. The anti-nuclear groups Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone and the Long Island Coalition Against Millstone are opposing the license amendment. The groups' attorney, Nancy Burton, told the board that the misplacing of two nuclear fuel rods is “almost unbelievable.” She argued that the licensing board needs to take a close look at how Millstone conducts its business, at its current work culture and at the nature of operations since Dominion took ownership from Northeast Utilities a year ago. Burton is seeking a full evidentiary hearing on the issue, something Dominion wants to avoid. It would require the calling of witnesses, cross-examinations and would allow Burton access to Millstone documents under the discovery process. Dominion attorney David A. Repka argued that Burton had failed to present any evidence suggesting a connection between fuel-handling problems at Millstone 1 and the plans at Millstone 3. She has the legal burden of proving that a full evidentiary hearing is called for, Repka said. “To meet that burden one has to have facts, (they've) offered a lot of arguments, a lot of bluster, but no facts,” Repka said. “It's time to bring this case to a close.” NRC staff attorney Sarah Brock agreed, saying Burton had presented only general allegations and no factual evidence proving a link between the Millstone 1 incident and the operation of Millstone 3. The fuel rods at Millstone 1 were discovered missing during an inventory that was conducted prior to the sale to Dominion. Former Millstone-owner Northeast Utilities conducted a nearly yearlong investigation, followed by an NRC review. It was determined that the fuel rods were last documented in 1980. Investigators concluded that they were most likely mistaken as power monitors, cut into pieces in the storage pool, and buried at the low-level radioactive waste facility in Barnwell, S.C. Investigators ruled out the possibility they were stolen or could have been diverted for illegal purposes. Repka said the standards used at Millstone 1 two decades ago have no connection to the procedures now in use at Millstone 3. The Millstone 3 storage pool, for example, has a special box where any spent fuel rods are stored. There is only one rod in the box. Normally fuel rods remain bundled together in assemblies containing up to 300 rods. Operators will use a computer program and detailed procedures to carefully place the additional fuel in the Millstone 3 storage pool so as to avoid any unplanned atomic reactions, Repka said. Burton questioned how much things have really changed at Millstone. She noted that though it was first discovered on Sept. 12, 2000, that the Millstone 1 fuel rods were not where they were supposed to be, yet no report was filed for three months. On Sept. 12 the licensing board was still considering whether to grant the license amendment at unit 3, said Burton, and should have been informed about the problems handling spent fuel at Millstone 1. The NRC has indicated that the company could be fined for delaying the report for three months and for losing control of the fuel rods. Perhaps it was understandable the licensing board was not immediately informed, said Administrative Judge Richard F. Cole. It took time for Millstone officials to realize that the fuel rods were really gone, not just misplaced somewhere in the storage pool, he said. He likened it to his wife misplacing her slacks. “We wouldn't immediately assume they were stolen and contact police, we'd look for them,” said Cole. “I'm struggling to relate your wife's slacks to missing nuclear fuel rods,” said Burton after a long pause. The board's decision is expected in about a month. p.choiniere@theday.com © 1998-2002 The Day Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 19 Thieves steal nuclear plant keys by Justin Davenport Crime Correspondent A blunder involving one of Britain's biggest nuclear and chemical research facilities has sparked a major security alert. Thieves stole keys and secret documents relating to labs at the Atomic Energy Plant at Harwell, Oxfordshire, after a key employee left his briefcase in his car in a station car park. The black attache case also contained evacuation plans for the research centre as well as phone numbers of senior personnel. A shortwave radio and mobile phone also went missing. The stolen keys are believed to have given access to highly sensitive areas at the base where nuclear and chemical materials were kept. They are thought to have been stolen several hours before the authorities were alerted and locks at the facility changed. British Transport Police confirmed the theft of a briefcase from a car in a multi-storey car park at Reading railway station between 4pm and 10pm on Saturday 23 March. None of the items has been recovered. The theft comes amid heightened security around British nuclear and chemical installations following the 11 September attacks in the United States. Last year the International Atomic Energy Agency, based in Vienna, warned of the dangers of terrorists targeting nuclear facilities. Experts believe Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network are trying to obtain nuclear material-for a strike on the West. They fear even tiny amounts of radioactive material could be attached to a normal high explosive device to create a "dirty bomb" that could contaminate whole cities. A spokesman for the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) said the briefcase was in a car belonging to a key member of the facility's emergency team, which deals with alerts and accidents at the centre. The employee would be expected to have access to the centre's most sensitive research laboratories. He said a "small amount" of nuclear material was kept on the site, which is surrounded by alarmed fences and patrolled by police round the clock. All relevant locks were changed immediately the incident became known, he said, adding: "The briefcase contained an emergency response log but it did not contain any confidential information that could have been of value to anyone. The mobile has been deactivated and the theft was reported to the police. We are not taking any further action." He said the employee involved was expected to be given "advice" about security and the risk of leaving briefcases in cars. Police believe the theft was carried out by an opportunistic thief who may not have been aware of the significance of his haul. But it raises new concerns over security at Harwell, headquarters of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. Earlier this year the authority was fined £4,000 for breaching health and safety regulations after a chemical experiment at its Didcot site led to fears of a major explosion. Two members of the Army bomb disposal unit were awarded the George Medal for outstanding bravery in preventing a blast. The incident also follows a series of briefcase thefts from MI5 agents, which led to a major overhaul of security involving cases containing laptop computers. UKAEA was created in 1954 to pioneer nuclear energy in the UK, and today is responsible for managing the decommissioning of its nuclear reactors, including one at Harwell, and other nuclear facilities. It also does research on harnessing nuclear fusion at another site in Oxfordshire. The spokesman added that the theft was also being handled by the atomic authority's own internal independent police force, which recently received extra powers from Home Secretary David Blunkett to deal with the increased fear of a terrorist attack. The force, which includes armed officers, now has the power to mount patrols and stopand-search for up to three miles outside atomic bases. © Associated Newspapers Ltd., 03 April 2002 This Is London ***************************************************************** 20 Iodine tablets will be late arriving through letterboxes online.ie : News The Irish Examiner 03 Apr 2002 By Fionnán Sheahan, Political Reporter IODINE tablets won't be dropping into letterboxes in the coming days as promised by the Government. The Department of Health has yet to finalise arrangements for distributing the iodine - despite previously stating the tablets would be in homes by now. The latest in a series of delays adds to the farcical nature of the Government's handling of nuclear planning to-date and will do little to avert public concerns. Announcing the distribution of nuclear emergency information leaflets last month, Nuclear Disaster Minister Joe Jacob's office in the Department of Public Enterprise said the iodine tablets would be following within weeks. "Once the information leaflet has been made widely available, the Department of Health and Children will commence distribution of iodine tablets at the end of March," the department said in a statement on March 7. Now into April - more than six months after the household distribution was first promised - there is still no sign of the tablets arriving in every home. Health boards now have the tablets in stock, according to a Department of Health spokesman, but plans for distribution have yet to be hammered out. The closing date for receipt of tenders for the distribution of the tablets ran out last week. The move to distribute the leaflets and tablets followed last September's controversial radio interview with Mr Jacob, which raised fears over the State's ability to deal with a nuclear emergency. In the wake of that infamous interview on the Marian Finucane show, Health Minister Micheál Martin was then forced to apologise for incorrectly stating that there were sufficient stocks of tablets for everyone in the State. In fact, some health boards had destroyed stocks after they went out of date. Arrangements to order new stocks and distribute to every household were in train, the minister said. The pre-distribution to homes confirmed in September was aimed at correcting an inherent flaw in the 1992 nuclear emergency plan, whereby tablets were being stockpiled by health boards, according to Mr Martin. In February, the Department of Health said the tablets would be distributed in March as part of the upgrading of the National Emergency Plan for Nuclear Accidents. But even at that stage a decision had yet to be made on whether the tablets would be posted directly to people's homes or distributed through health boards. The nuclear emergencies information leaflet itself said stable iodine being made available in tablet form reduces uptake by the thyroid gland of radioactive iodine, and also referred to the distribution. "Arrangements have been made by the Department of Health and Children to make stable iodine tablets, together with the necessary instructions for use, available to every household in the country," it said. ***************************************************************** 21 County puts off proposal to fund Yucca fight Wednesday, April 03, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By FRANK GEARY REVIEW-JOURNAL After calling on state lawmakers to "put their money where their mouth is," the Clark County Commission on Tuesday put off contributing $3 million to the state's campaign against the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Moments after approving $33 million to cover cost overruns at two construction projects, commissioners said they want to review the budget and see whether state lawmakers contribute more money before spending any more than the $1 million the county chipped in last year. "If we are all going to be united, we all have to put our money where our mouth is," Commissioner Erin Kenny said. A county budget workshop is scheduled Monday, and the state Legislature's Interim Finance Committee is scheduled to meet April 10. The commission will consider the matter again at its April 16 meeting. Gov. Kenny Guinn is expected to ask the committee for $3 million for a national advertising campaign opposing a repository at Yucca Mountain. Overall, $10 million is needed for the media campaign, Guinn said last week. Commission Chairman and Democratic congressional candidate Dario Herrera requested the commission allocate $3 million for legal expenses, which would free state funding for a media campaign. State law prohibits the county from contributing funds to a political campaign. Herrera said it's vital that the county contribute to the fight even if it means the county will have to put off replacing outdated computers. However, Kenny and Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates called upon state lawmakers, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and other officials to contribute to the fight. "If this is such an important issue for the state of Nevada ... then why is it Clark County is the only one that put up revenues?" Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates asked. Commissioners Bruce Woodbury and Chip Maxfield said they oppose the expenditure, and Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey said she needs more information about the effect the allocation would have on the county budget. "As much as I share the outrage and unfairness (of Yucca Mountain) ... I really cannot in my own mind justify us allocating more money for this," Woodbury said. webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 22 Guinn to address Yucca veto Wednesday, April 03, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal REVIEW-JOURNAL Gov. Kenny Guinn will address Nevadans on Monday about his plans to veto President Bush's recommendation that Yucca Mountain be developed as the nation's nuclear waste repository. The public address will begin at 9 a.m. at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Tam Alumni Center. Guinn will depart for Washington, D.C., immediately following the speech to submit his veto in person. The veto power was granted to Nevada by the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Guinn's veto of the Yucca Mountain Project will prevail unless both the House and Senate vote by simple majority to override it within 90 legislative days. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 23 UK: Ali attacks Tesco over protest snub Irish Newspapers - TESCO is still refusing to stock postcards calling for the closure of Sellafield, despite criticism from Bono's wife Ali Hewson yesterday. The Stop Sellafield campaign fronted by Ms Hewson has already been forced to scrap a €200,000 TV and radio advertising campaign, which included celebrities Ronan Keating and Samantha Mumba, because of rules on political advertising. And yesterday a spokesperson for Tesco reiterated its stance saying it was the group's policy not to facilitate political pressure groups fundraising or campaigning in its stores. The supermarket giant was reacting to Ms Hewson's comments that it was a "pity" and a "shame" that it was refusing to stock the postcards which are addressed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles and Norman Askew, chief executive of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). The pre-paid postcards, which are available in rival supermarkets Superquinn and Dunnes Stores, are to be posted out to every household. And the plan is that people will post them off to arrive on the 16th anniversary of Chernobyl on April 26. "Tesco have refused and they've refused based on the fact that they say it's a pressure group, which it's not. I don't know how you can call a whole nation a pressure group, but that's their basis for refusing," she said on RTE's Liveline yesterday. "We consider it to be a health or environmental issue, not political at all." Martha Kearns © Copyright Unison ***************************************************************** 24 Editorial: Nevada shouldn't let up now Las Vegas SUN Today: April 03, 2002 at 8:45:11 PST The nuclear power industry spent $25 million on lobbying and campaign contributions in 2000, the last year that Congress voted on legislation that would have sent nuclear waste to Nevada. That legislation would have become a reality if it hadn't been for President Clinton's veto and the ability of Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan to gather enough votes to sustain it. Sometime within the next few months Congress will consider a plan that would permanently bury nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain -- a plan endorsed by President Bush -- and money again is no object for the influential industry. Nevada's congressional delegation and state leaders want to counter the years of deceptive lobbying in which the industry has falsely claimed that the transportation and burial of nuclear waste was safe. So Nevada's current U.S. senators, Reid and John Ensign, asked Gov. Kenny Guinn to call a special session of the Legislature to allocate $10 million for television advertising and a grass-roots campaign. The media blitz would seek to generate public opposition to the Yucca Mountain project in order to increase the pressure on senators from states through which the waste would travel on its way to Nevada. Guinn has run into trouble, though. He declined to call a special session after he couldn't get enough support from lawmakers. Now Guinn is turning to the Interim Finance Committee, which meets when the Legislature isn't in session, to come up with $3 million for the media campaign. Incredibly, some committee members have indicated they won't go along with the governor's request, even though Yucca Mountain poses the gravest threat to our state. It also was disappointing to learn that County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera's bid to get the commission to allocate $3 million to the anti-Yucca Mountain efforts hit a snag Tuesday when fellow commissioners postponed a decision. Our state can't match the nuclear power industry dollar-for-dollar, but it is crucial that Nevada's officials have enough money to get out the word about the dangers posed by a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. Instead of dithering, our local and state officials should immediately give our congressional delegation some of the ammunition it will need to fight the Yucca Mountain project. It's now or never. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 25 Yucca funding debate bogs down Las Vegas SUN Today: April 03, 2002 at 10:52:57 PST By Adrienne Packer Territorial politics crept into the state's fight against the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository as Clark County commissioners Tuesday withheld a decision to contribute an additional $3 million to fund the campaign against the dump. Commissioners, angry that state officials are asking Clark County to tap its coffers again, opted to delay further contributions until their budget is scrutinized and state legislators show they too are financially committed to the Yucca battle. Clark County has already given $1 million to the state's $6 million fund to fight the dump. "We need to send a message to the Legislature that three-fourths of the state's population lives in Southern Nevada," Commissioner Myrna Williams, a former state lawmaker, said. "If they want to be states people, they need to represent the entire state. Nevada cannot exist without our being healthy." Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, called it "preposterous" that the Yucca Mountain funding issue has become a north-south battle. But he said if Clark County doesn't think the funding is useful, that doesn't help the drive to get state money. Seeing Nevada outgunned by the nuclear industry, which spent $25 million lobbying Congress in 2000 -- the last time Yucca Mountain came before that body, Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., asked Gov. Kenny Guinn to call a special legislative session to appropriate $10 million for a television and grass-roots campaign. Guinn said he will instead ask an interim legislative committee for a portion of the money, and he has called on local governments to pitch in. Raggio said the state is not able to come up with $10 million and other parties have to chip in. He said he spoke to Reid about getting money from other sources. Nevada already has a $6 million fund to cover lobbying and legal expenses related to fighting the proposed dump, but state leaders say they need more to fight the nuclear industry's powerful lobbying efforts. Clark County officials were frustrated by reports that Guinn intends to request only $3 million from the Interim Finance Committee, a combination of the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly's Ways and Means Committee. If Guinn asked for all the funding that's available -- about $8.8 million -- the county would be more willing to pitch in the remaining $1.2 million to reach the goal, county leaders said. "If this is such a critical issue that is going to damage and hurt the state of Nevada, why are we the only ones ever asked to support it?" Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said. State lawmakers have shown little support for appropriating the money as the state budget has a $100 million shortfall. Raggio said the finance committee will look at the issue and determine whether the program is "useful." The plan by Guinn to take half of the money from an emergency fund in the state Transportation Department and the other half from the Interim Finance Committee's emergency fund "is not an issue," he said. The question, he said, is whether the $3 million will be useful in fighting plans for the dump. Guinn, who on Monday will veto President Bush's decision to approve the dump 90 miles outside of Las Vegas, has said it would be easier to get the 21-member committee to approve his request after local governments agree to add more money to the fight. Several committee members have agreed, saying they would need a "buy-in" from Clark County before going forth with the state funding. Guinn was ill Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. His spokesman, Greg Bortolin, said the governor will still seek $3 million from the committee when it meets April 10. "There are only so many windows of opportunity," Bortolin said. "The governor has decided on the course of action to take regardless of what Clark County or anyone else does." The county's portion, according to an opinion issued by the district attorney's office, could only be used for legal fees. However, the state can contribute more money to marketing efforts if the county helps defray legal costs. After agreeing to spend $33 million on overrun costs at the Regional Justice Center and Detention Center, commissioners questioned whether the county -- already hurting from the Sept. 11 attacks -- could afford to free up $3 million. Commissioner Bruce Woodbury expressed concerns about scraping up the money when the county is struggling to provide basic services. "I can't in my mind justify allocating this kind of money to do this project," said Woodbury, who had been lobbied on the issue by fellow Republican Ensign. "There are many, many areas where we are underfunded. The money won't just reappear; it has to come from somewhere." County officials have said $3 million would become available if the county put off projects -- most significantly replacing outdated computers in the County Government Center. Commissioner Erin Kenny emphasized that the commission's concerns about spending more money on efforts made by Reid and Ensign should not be misinterpreted as not being opposed to Yucca Mountain. "Do I support our senators? Absolutely. Do I believe this boards supports our senators? Absolutely," Kenny said, referring to the senators' proposals to raise $10 million for an informational campaign and to pay legal fees. "This is a funding policy." Commission Chairman Dario Herrera, who pitched the funding proposal, said freeing up more state money to educate communities along the transportation route could prompt residents to pressure their representatives and "move senators (into) Nevada's column" on the issue. He cited an Ispos Group survey of 1,000 adults nationwide that shows the country is evenly divided over storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Nevada has an opportunity to win support if it informs residents across the country that the project will affect more than Nevada citizens. Energy Department officials have said in a worst-case scenario, two accidents with radiation leaks will occur every year during the program, Herrera said. "The question is the how, when and the where," Herrera said. Commissioners, who last year approved contributing $1 million to the state's efforts, wondered why they were the only government body willing to invest. Kenny suggested that county administrators write letters to all governments in Southern Nevada to determine how much money they are willing to contribute. "We need to ask other local entities to make an actual commitment that is time-certain to when those monies will be delivered to (be) put in the pot so we're not alone," Kenny said. "If we are all going to be united, we need to put our money where our mouth is." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 26 Debate rages about safety of shipping nuclear waste - 04/03/02 Wednesday, April 3, 2002 [Image] Joe Cavaretta / Associated Press Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, center, climbs Yucca Mountain -- the possible site of nuclear storage -- along with Lake Barrett, left, director of the office of national civilian radioactive waste management. U.S. expects few accidents moving waste to Yucca Mt.; Nevada skeptical By Doug Abrahms / Gannett News Service WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department estimates the worst accident in transporting nuclear waste across the country would be five deaths from radiation leaks. Officials in Nevada, where the waste would come to a proposed national nuclear waste dump, say the agency is low-balling the number and not taking into account real-world rail and truck wrecks. Over the past 30 years, more than a dozen U.S. rail and traffic wrecks were so severe they could have breached the container casks designed for spent fuel from nuclear power plants, Nevada officials say. They include: * A train derailment that ignited propane tankers in Weyauwega, Wis., in March 1996. * The freeway collapse over the San Francisco Bay during an earthquake in October 1989. * A train derailment and explosion of 18 boxcars carrying military explosives in Roseville, Calif., in April 1973. * A train fire last July in a tunnel in downtown Baltimore that burned for four days. These are all accidents Nevada has called to the attention of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is studying whether they could have breached a nuclear cask. "The fact that it has a low statistical probability of occurrence doesn't mean it won't happen tomorrow," said Robert Halstead, Nevada's transportation consultant. Nevada lawmakers are using the safety issue to try to persuade Congress to vote against the Bush administration's plan to make Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear waste dump. The Energy Department is proposing moving 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel stored at power plants across the country to Yucca Mountain by truck or rail over the next 50 years. If Congress and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agree, starting as early as 2010, truck or rail shipments of nuclear waste would pass almost daily through cities like Nashville, Des Moines and St. Louis on their way to Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Crash estimates vary Scientists and politicians have been debating for more than 15 years the dangers of moving and storing nuclear waste at one site compared with leaving it where it is. Even now that the Bush administration has made its choice, the question of just how likely a serious transportation accident involving radioactive waste would be remains in the realm of theory. The Department of Energy projects 10 accidents if the nation's nuclear waste is moved to Yucca Mountain by train and 66 if it's moved by truck over the span of 24 years, according to its Yucca Mountain environmental impact study. Nevada officials have different estimates: 131 accidents if the nuclear waste is moved by truck and 400 if by rail. The Energy Department would prefer to ship the nuclear waste by rail cars because they carry six times more waste than trucks and are thought to be safer. Over 38 years, it would take 105,685 trucks to move the waste from 72 power plant sites to Yucca Mountain. In comparison it would take 18,243 rail cars, supplemented by 3,122 trucks, to move the waste to Nevada. The maximum reasonably foreseeable accident -- Energy Department lingo for worst-case scenario -- would result in five cancer deaths caused by radioactive materials that leak out. The agency's cost estimate for a worst-case accident ranges from $300,000 all the way to $10 billion depending on location, weather conditions and other variables. Chances of a more dire accident are less than 1 in 10 million, said Pam Adams, a consultant to the Energy Department on transporting nuclear waste. "It's so remote that it's not reasonable to imagine," she said. Nevada's transportation consultant does imagine it. "All of us, on both sides of the issue, say that in 99 percent of the accidents we don't have to worry about radioactive materials escaping from the cask," Halstead said. "We're arguing about that 1 percent." Experts agree that nearly all truck accidents or train derailments would not release radiation from casks with shells of steel and lead at least five inches thick. Even if a cask ruptured, the nuclear material inside is embedded in clay-like material that would have to be melted by a fire before releasing radiation. When the Department of Energy did a major shipment of radioactive material -- 26 rail shipments from Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania to an Idaho storage area between 1986 and 1990 -- there were no accidents, but two scares. A train hit a car on railroad tracks, but no radiation was released. And a boxcar labeled flammable was hooked up to nuclear-waste train, although it later turned out the car carried no combustible material. ***************************************************************** 27 Nuclear waste may pass through ports - 04/03/02 Wednesday, April 3, 2002 The Detroit News. Shipping plan includes both coasts, 3 major rivers, Lake Michigan By Faith Bremner / Gannett News Service WASHINGTON -- Highly radioactive nuclear waste could pass through the nation's sea and river ports on its way to a proposed waste dump in Nevada, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report. If Congress this spring endorses President Bush's decision to open the Yucca Mountain dump in 2010, thousands of radioactive shipments could be shipped by barge from nuclear power plants through 15 commercial ports during a 38-year shipping campaign, an environmental impact statement the agency prepared for the Yucca Mountain project shows. The ports are on both coasts, Lake Michigan and on three major rivers. The plants, 17 in all, are far from railroad lines. When waste shipments reach the ports, they would be placed on railcars and sent to Nevada. The proposal would bring 21,572 tons of nuclear waste -- or 19 percent of all the commercial power plant waste destined for Yucca Mountain -- into commercial ports. Critics say ports are the last place the federal government should be placing radioactive waste, given their vulnerability to terrorist attacks and their proximity to large population centers. Environmental groups reacted with alarm when told the federal government is considering shipping by barge the nuclear waste. The revelation caught activists unprepared to discuss the science of the proposal. Nonetheless, they worried that moving waste over waterways could be more dangerous than trucking it over land. Great Lakes groups upset Putting nuclear waste on Lake Michigan would jeopardize the drinking water supply of 10 million people, said Cameron Davis, executive director of the Lake Michigan Federation. A total of 453 shipments from the Kewaunee, Point Beach and Palisades nuclear power plants in Michigan and Wisconsin could be shipped into the ports of Milwaukee and Muskegon, according to the federal report. "Having the power plants there is risk enough already; we don't need to compound it," Davis said. "If this proposal is taken seriously, it could well be one of the most controversial issues the Great Lakes region has seen since the nuclear power plants were built." Steve Thorp, transportation manager of the Great Lakes Commission, said: "If it were anything but moving nuclear waste, I'd be all in favor of it." But, the federal government "should be very, very careful before they do it this way and look at land truck transport as an alternative." The commission is a lobbying organization that represents the eight states and two Canadian provinces that border the Great Lakes. Since the months leading up to the year 2000 rollover, the federal government and port officials have been scrambling to make ports more secure. Because they are so big, ports have a difficult time controlling public access. Some contain acres of stacked shipping containers -- some empty, some loaded -- awaiting shipment. Oil tankers, cargo ships, pleasure boats, commercial fishing vessels and Navy ships intermingle in some harbors. In December, Congress gave ports $93 million to increase security. Environmentalists have long argued the nuclear waste shipments would make for inviting terrorist targets. Although the waste is not explosive and does not dissolve in water, environmentalists say unhealthful levels of radiation could be released into the environment if a waste shipment were involved in a major fire or terrorist attack. "We should not be using our ports, which are in the most densely populated parts of the state, as rest stops for nuclear material," said Debra DeShong, spokeswoman for Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J. "When we figure out where this waste is going, we need to get it there in one trip. You're asking for trouble if you move it several times." Supporters fight back Supporters say the lead-lined, stainless steel shipping containers, called casks, are strong enough to withstand severe accidents and terrorist attacks. The casks are designed to withstand, among other things, a 30-foot fall onto a hard surface and 30 minutes' exposure to fire at 1,475 degrees. Since 1964, the industry has had more than 3,000 shipments of used nuclear fuel without a major accident. "It's easy to get people alarmed about spent nuclear fuel shipments and in fact the anti-nuclears do it with precision," Jones said. "They invented this term 'mobile Chernobyl.' Everybody admits Chernobyl was a horrible accident, but to suggest somehow that the casks that will be rolling around the country are these Chernobyls waiting to occur is preposterously wrong." The nuclear power industry, which poured $18.4 million into federal campaign coffers two years ago, dismisses environmentalists' fears and says science is on its side. Several years ago, Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico deliberately shot a missile into the side of a loaded nuclear waste shipping cask and negligible amounts of radiation escaped, said Robert Jones, an engineering consultant to the industry. ***************************************************************** 28 German authorities give permission for new nuclear waste transport to disputed dump Tue Apr 2,11:38 AM ET BERLIN - German authorities said Tuesday they have approved a new shipment of radioactive waste this year to a dump in the north of the country that has been a focus of protests by the country's vocal anti-nuclear lobby. The Federal Office for Radiation Protection gave permission for the transport of 12 containers of waste from a reprocessing plant at La Hague in France to the dump at Gorleben before the end of this year. No date has yet been set. Anti-nuclear activists argue that neither the waste containers nor the dump, at a disused salt mine, are safe. During the last shipment of waste to the site in November, demonstrators repeatedly defied some 17,500 police to stage sit-down protests on the rails and the road along the shipment's route through Germany. Spent fuel from Germany's 19 nuclear power plants is sent to France and Britain for reprocessing under contracts that oblige Germany to take back the waste. Germany resumed waste shipments a year ago, following a three-year break imposed by the previous government after radioactive leakage was discovered in some containers. Also last year, the government and power companies signed an agreement to phase out nuclear power within about 20 years. Anti-nuclear activists hope that protests against the shipments will push up the security bill and force a quicker shutdown. (gm) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. ***************************************************************** 29 Gov. Guinn to address Nevadans before making historic veto on Yucca Mountain FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2002 CONTACT: Greg Bortolin PHONE: 775-684-5670 LAS VEGAS: 702-486-2500 CELL: 775-230-3302 FAX: 775-684-7198 EMAIL: Bortolin@gov.state.nv.us CARSON CITY - Gov. Kenny Guinn will address Nevada citizens about his Notice of Disapproval ("Veto") of President Bush's decision to recommend Yucca Mountain as the nation's Nuclear Waste Repository, Monday, April 8, 9 a.m., at UNLV's Tam Alumni Center. The Governor will depart Las Vegas immediately following his address for Washington D.C. where he will make history with the first state veto of a President. In 1982, Congress gave Nevada this unprecedented right in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. + What: Address to Nevada Citizens on Yucca Mountain veto. + Who: Gov. Kenny Guinn supported by elected officials past and present. + Where: UNLV Tam Alumni Center (Harmon &Maryland Parkway). + When: Monday, April 8, 9 a.m. + Media Parking: Television trucks will have access to Tam Alumni Center. ### ***************************************************************** 30 Bush, Putin Discuss Nuclear Arms Las Vegas SUN April 02, 2002 WASHINGTON- President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Tuesday for the second time in less than a week as the White House reported progress toward agreements on offensive nuclear weapons reductions. The two presidents, in their 15-minute phone conversation, also "said they were satisfied that negotiators had signed an interim protocol to resolve the Russian ban on U.S. chicken imports," White House spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. Bush, who meets Putin in Russia for summit talks next month, spoke to him just Wednesday about the nuclear weapons agreement and U.S. concerns over the chicken ban that is so damaging to American poultry farmers. In their conversation Tuesday, Bush and Putin agreed that discussions on a new NATO-Russian relationship also were making progress, McCormack said. State Department officials said last week that U.S. and Russian negotiators had made so much progress on a new strategic framework and how to codify promised nuclear weapons reductions that agreements on both may be ready for signatures when Bush and Putin meet next month in Moscow and St. Petersburg. "Discussions are progressing," McCormack said. Among the issues still to be worked out are the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and a U.S. proposal for a new way to count warheads as the United States and Russia reduce their strategic arsenals to 1,700-2,200 each. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 31 Washington's Secret-Busters Tested Las Vegas SUN April 02, 2002 WASHINGTON- Washington's secret-busters are used to long odds - it's always Big Government vs. Little Them. Even so, they've been able over the years to make the CIA budget public (a battle won, then lost), get the government to share information on environmental hazards and keep White House officials from pressing the delete button on e-mails in the last days of the Reagan administration. But these are especially tough times for exposing what government is up to. The Bush administration is secretive by nature and even more so by circumstance: Defining the boundaries of openness and secrecy has gotten more difficult since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In the 1980s, Gary Bass won accolades for helping get a right-to-know law passed, giving the public access to environmental information on government databases. Since Sept. 11, he's been getting hate mail from people who think he is aiding terrorists by trying to keep the information spigot open. One person wondered "how much blood will be on your hands," said Bass, director of OMB Watch, which keeps an eye on the White House Office of Management and Budget. "The biggest battle now is the slippage from right-to-know to need-to-know," said Bass. Steven Aftergood once helped persuade the government to detail the CIA's budget, only to see the victory reversed. He says prying secrets from the feds is like detective work without the gumshoe glamor or shootouts. "There's not much sex and violence, but there are unexpected discoveries and leads to track down," said Aftergood, who is with the Federation of American Scientists. "That's what makes the work exciting." The excitement comes in measured steps, though. "You need to have the endurance to get past the first obstacle - the glacial pace," he said. "Beyond that, you have to be a kind of library rat." The secret-busters are well aware of the David vs. Goliath nature of what they do. Kate Martin is still amazed that she and a fellow lawyer, armed with a word processor and a lot of nerve, were able to face off against a dozen government lawyers in 1989 and win. The two succeeded in stopping White House officials from deleting e-mails on President Reagan's last full day in office. They argued these records should be preserved along with the rest of Reagan's papers. Martin, now director of the Center for National Security Studies at The George Washington University, today is a lead attorney in a Freedom of Information Act case seeking the disclosure of the identities of hundreds of individuals who were arrested and jailed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Because of the clampdown, there's a lot people don't know, on top of the volume of material they haven't been able to squeeze out of the government in the past. "The objective of this administration is to cut back as far as it can on openness," said David Vladeck, director of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, which has fought some 300 lawsuits challenging government secrecy since 1972. "You see it with respect to Congress, the public," he said, "and much of it predates 9-11." Even the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has trouble getting information out of the White House. The GAO has sued to get access to records showing who met with Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force as it developed energy policy. Even the secret-busters, though, are taking a second look at what they're making it easier for the public to access. Aftergood, who has posted a trove of online information about U.S. weapons and strategic installations, deleted floor plans of nuclear weapons storage sites from his group's Web site after the attacks. "I take the administration's actions to be mostly in good faith," Aftergood said. "There are people out there intent on killing Americans and they are trying to respond accordingly." But the wider goal of getting out the most information remains. "Information is power, and if you want to participate in the political process, access to information is a prerequisite," he said. Over the years, hundreds of millions of pages of government records have been released as the result of federal law, freedom-of-information lawsuits and other dogged pursuits. Greatest hits include President Nixon's papers and tapes and records about the assassination of President Kennedy. There are hundreds of other lesser-known examples: grand jury records in the spy case of Alger Hiss; thousands of pages from notebooks kept by Lt. Col. Oliver North of the Iran-contra scandal; documents revealing the risks of silicone breast implants; names of companies that made shoddy air bags. Steven Garfinkel was once a gatekeeper of government information as director of the office that oversees security classification programs. Just before he retired in December, he joked he was a "government hack defending the right of the government to keep information secret." "I leave government most proud of having protected every bit of the classified information in which I have been entrusted," Garfinkel said. But he conceded: "No one can be expected to take secrecy seriously if far too much information that is no longer sensitive remains classified." On the Net: Center for National Security Studies: http://cnss.gwu.edu [http://cnss.gwu.edu] Public Citizen: http://www.citizen.org [http://www.citizen.org] OMB Watch: http://www.ombwatch.org [http://www.ombwatch.org] Information Security Oversight Office: http://www.nara.gov/isoo/about/what.html [http://www.nara.gov/isoo/about/what.html] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 32 'The Rest of the Story' Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:36 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3, 2002 "The Manhattan Project: The Rest of the Story ... ," a two-person storytelling with a background of over 150 photographic images, will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the American Museum of Science and Energy. Tickets for the production, the first American Museum of Science and Energy public fund-raiser, can be reserved with auditorium assigned seating for $19.95 for the first six rows and $15.95 or the remainder of the auditorium. Museum members receive a $4 discount with their reservation. Tickets are available now in the museum's Discovery Shop, which is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 1 to 4:45 p.m. on Sunday. Ticket purchasers should come to the Discovery Shop to select their assigned seating preference. Tickets will also be available at the door. The story of the Manhattan Project and Oak Ridge will be told in a dialogue between Will Minter and Steve Stow, who will present a verbal and pictorial account of events, stories and facts never before shared in this format. Witness the secret science, an entire town rising up almost overnight, masses of people finding a new home and new lifestyle, a unique diversity of people and cultures, and the love stories of a wartime city. Theater goers will hear both sides of the good, the wonderful and the funny events and circumstances surrounding the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, according to information from the museum. Both performers are students of the Manhattan Project and employees of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Minter is manager of the Office of Small and Minority Business Outreach for ORNL, and Stow is ombudsman for ORNL. [http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 33 Change in nuclear policy raises fear: What's next? [St. Petersburg Times Online: World&Nation] By DAVID BALLINGRUD, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times published April 3, 2002 It has been 57 years since nuclear bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and 11 since the collapse of the Soviet Union eased the world's worry over nuclear annihilation. Was the respite a brief one? Today the U.S. is planning new uses and new targets for its nuclear arsenal -- changes that critics say could ignite another arms race and make it easier for terrorists to get their hands on nuclear bombs. Evidence of new thinking on nukes has come in bits and pieces in recent days. A Pentagon document leaked last month revealed that the Bush administration is considering new rules to guide the "nuclear priesthood," the handful of people who draw up the super-secret lists of nuclear targets. The new targeting logic would give greater emphasis to potential use against China and North Korea, and Middle Eastern states including Iran, Iraq and Syria. The document, called the Nuclear Posture Review, also suggests new roles for smaller, more precise nuclear weapons -- nukes that might be useful in facing down a chemical or biological threat from a desperate despot like Saddam Hussein. They also might come in handy as a way to incinerate a storehouse of such weapons, or bust open an underground bunker concealing them. Last week, the Bush administration directed its Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories to begin designing a bunker buster, a nuclear bomb that would penetrate deep into hard soil before exploding. In theory, the soil would contain the release of radioactive materials. The device is to be called the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator. With these developments, an intense, behind-the-scenes debate has been pushed into the sunlight: Are nuclear weapons -- in particular small ones -- just another tool in the tool box? Or are they much more than that? Are they, by their nature and their history, doomsday weapons? Will the next usage of a nuclear weapon begin an inevitable escalation that can only end in massive destruction, sickness and death? Administration spokesmen have said the United States is just exploring its full range of options, the kind of thing any prudent government does in deciding policy. "We think it is best for any potential adversary out there to have uncertainty in his calculus," said Secretary of State Colin Powell. Yet some policymakers and analysts consider the Bush plans misguided and worry that post-Cold War gains in nuclear security are about to be lost. "We, the world's juggernaut, are (saying) we might have to resort to the use of nuclear weapons," said Bruce G. Blair, president of the Center for Defense Information, an independent, nonprofit military research organization. "How is the rest of the world supposed to perceive this? "They will say, if the U.S. needs to adopt this as a policy, then so do I." Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, agreed. "We try to persuade India and China, don't test. We try to persuade countries, don't try to acquire," he told the Wall Street Journal. "By appearing to move toward a greater reliance on nuclear weapons . . . that gives us less standing to argue other countries should not test nuclear weapons." And, with more small nuclear devices in operational use, it is much more likely they will fall into the hands of terrorists or unfriendly nations, critics say. And once the first one is used, they ask, where will it end? "They're trying desperately to find new uses for nuclear weapons, when their uses should be limited to deterrence," John Isaacs, president of Council for a Livable World, told the Associated Press. "This is very, very dangerous talk. . . . Dr. Strangelove is clearly still alive in the Pentagon." "The Bush administration appears unaware that its policies will stimulate nuclear proliferation," said Dr. Kurt Gottfried, a physicist at Cornell University and chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The U.S. has conventional military forces that dwarf those of all possible adversaries combined. If the U.S. plans to resort to nuclear weapons to fight far weaker opponents, what does that tell those who do not yet have nuclear weapons?" It's too late for those worries, said Jack Spencer, a defense analyst with the Heritage Foundation. "We are not starting an arms race, we are protecting ourselves from a proliferation already taking place," he said. "The spread of chemical and biological weapons is what is lowering the threshold for (nuclear weapon) use, not us. "Critics talk about this as though it is some kind of sea change. It's not," he said. "I wish we had stopped building weapons with the moat, too. But we didn't." Smaller nukes, mobile warfare During his campaign, President Bush stressed that he wanted to slash the number of strategic nuclear weapons -- the intercontinental missiles in silos and the huge bombs in the bellies of bombers. But he also said he wanted to develop a military that would be more flexible, one able to deal with the post-Cold War world, a military that could quickly identify and counter new threats around the globe. One of the most sensitive portions of the Nuclear Posture Review is a discussion of potential targets. "North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libya are among the countries that could be involved in immediate, potential or unexpected contingencies," the report states. Plans to quickly target "new" enemies in a crisis have been evolving since the early 1990s, said Janne Nolan, director of programs for the nonprofit Eisenhower Institute. What's new, she said, "is the explicit naming of states -- even if they are non-nuclear states." But just because a nation lacks nuclear weapons does not mean it lacks weapons of mass destruction, said Spencer of the Heritage Foundation. Chemical and biological weapons now have to be figured into the nuclear balance, he argued. "The real purpose of any nuclear weapon is deterrence," he said, "but the deterrence is only as good as the threat is credible." In the mind of Saddam Hussein, Spencer said, "it is more credible that we would use a small nuclear weapon than a huge one of the type built during the Cold War. "I don't know that the U.S. would kill 20-million Iraqi people due to the actions of one man. If Hussein makes that same calculation, then Cold War weapons do not deter him." But no one has ever been able to test a limited nuclear strike, Nolan points out. "So there can be no basis for confidence about a limited strike, whatever the yield of the weapon. There can be no confidence that it would be containable, that it would not kill many, many innocent people." Small, easily portable nuclear weapons are not new to the battlefield. In the 1970s and '80s, "they were scattered around the world like marbles," said Stephen Young, a senior analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists. Most, he said, were pulled off the "front lines" in the early 1990s -- the result of a decision made by the first President Bush -- as an incentive to the Russians to do the same. They were not popular with the commanders who would have used them, Young said. "They were more trouble than they were worth. If used, they would contaminate a battlefield with radiation, and it took a lot of resources to control and maintain them. Commanders were happy to be rid of them." There is really nothing "small" about a small nuclear weapon, most of them, anyway. The smallest probably was the 51-pound warhead used on the Davy Crockett, a battlefield bomb launched from a tripod-mounted tube. Before it was removed from service, the Davy Crockett had a maximum range of little more than 2 miles, and an explosive force of .01 kiloton -- about two to four times greater than the bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. (The power of a nuclear explosion is measured in kilotons or megatons. A kiloton is equal to the explosive force of 1,000 tons of TNT. A megaton equals 1-million tons of TNT). The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were in the 12-22 kiloton range. Many Cold War warheads were huge, fearsome weapons in the 350-kiloton to 10-megaton range. One, the Mk-41, was the most powerful U.S. weapon ever deployed, according to the U.S. Strategic Command. Two parachutes slowed its descent to Earth so the aircraft that dropped it could clear the area. It exploded with the force of 25-million tons of TNT. The Mk-41 was retired in 1976, but there are plenty of others nearly as large still deployed by a number of nations. China has 5-megaton warheads atop some of its missiles, according to Spencer of the Heritage Foundation. Digging deeper holes to find protection More and more nations are digging deep holes for the things they most want to protect. "There's a race on between people who want to hide their stuff or themselves underground and the people they're hiding from," said Robert Hewson of Jane's Air-Launched Weapons in the Kansas City Star. "Right now, the people who are hiding have the edge." Tunneling and hole digging may sound primitive, but nations are better at it than ever before, thanks in part to improved techniques that come from the digging of the "Chunnel" beneath the English Channel. More than 10,000 such underground facilities exist in more than 70 countries, according to the Pentagon, and about 1,400 are considered potential protective sites for weapons of mass destruction or military command stations. Since many of these sites are probably impervious to conventional bombs, the Pentagon, in its Nuclear Posture Review, asked for a weapon to deal with this developing "hole gap." The U.S. actually has a bunker busting nuclear bomb in its arsenal, but it's problematic. The B61-11, with a super-hardened shell, was designed to penetrate deep into the earth and direct most of its blast downward. Powerful shock waves would travel through the earth, collapsing and sealing off tunnels and caverns. Some B61-11s were produced and deployed in the late 1990s. The bomb's test performance has been poor, however. Even if the angle of entry into the earth is correct, it only penetrates about 20 feet of soil, according to Young of the Union of Concerned Scientists. That's far too shallow to ensure that radioactive soil and materials would be contained in a blast. Last week, the Bush administration told the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos laboratories to begin a competitive effort to build a better bunker buster. At present, however, the technology is not very far along, said Nolan of the Eisenhower Institute. "It's the same old problem," she said. "How do you get precise enough, deep enough . . . to avoid blowing up the whole region, killing thousands of innocents, and contaminating a bunch of proximate countries for decades to come? "Think of the pretty small emission from one nuclear reactor in Chernobyl -- everyone from there who's alive is deformed and cancerous, and the food chain was poisoned for years all the way across Scandinavia." (The 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine released radiation that killed thousands, contaminated food and raised fears over genetic damage that could play out for generations.) In a March 17 op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, noted Stanford physicist Sidney Drell called the notion that nuclear weapons could destroy hardened, deeply buried targets without contaminating the atmosphere "a myth. "There are problems with this myth: Its validity is doubtful and its consequences are dangerous," he wrote. "Low-yield nuclear weapons have limited effectiveness against buried targets and they would disperse significant amounts of radioactivity." Drell, with co-authors Raymond Jeanloz and Bob Peurifoy, offered this rationale: Yields greater than 1 kiloton are required to damage hard targets deeper than about 200 feet. Much larger yields -- in the range of 100 kilotons or more -- are needed to create enough ground shock to destroy a hardened structure at 1,000 feet. "Taking into account realistic limits on material strengths, 50 feet is about the maximum depth a warhead can dig and maintain its integrity in dry, hard soil, the likely locations for buried targets. Even a 1 kiloton warhead . . . detonated at a depth of 20 feet would eject about 1-million cubic feet of radioactive debris from a crater about the size of ground zero at the World Trade Center." Better, the authors wrote, to pound a target with a number of conventional bombs. The administration, however, wants to keep its options open. "We are seeing a new threat emerge," Spencer said. "Countries are burrowing command control and even production facilities for weapons of mass destruction underground, both for protection and to avoid satellite detection. "Once we acknowledge that is the case, we have to have a way to kill them, and a low-yield nuclear weapon may be the way to do that. "The best way might also be a conventional way, but as a last resort we have to be able to destroy them" -- with nukes if necessary. -- David Ballingrud covers science for the St. Petersburg Times. He can be reached at (727) 893-8245, or by e-mail at ballingrud@sptimes.com. ***************************************************************** 34 U.S., Russian Presidents Discuss Middle East, Nuclear Arms Xinhuanet 2002-04-02 01:41:56 WASHINGTON, April 2 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks by telephone on Tuesday on the situation in the Middle East, nuclear arms reductions and NATO-Russian relationship, the White House said. They discussed negotiations on a new strategic framework, including agreement to codify a strategic offensive nuclear weapons reductions, which they hope to sign during their summit meeting in Moscow and St. Petersburg next month, White House spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "They also discussed the situation in the Middle East, both of them expressing concern about recent developments there," McCormack said. The two presidents, in their 15-minute phone conversation, agreed that discussions on a new NATO-Russian relationship, an agenda of NATO's foreign ministers meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, on May 14-15, were making progress, McCormack said. And they were satisfied that negotiators had signed an interim protocol to resolve the Russian ban on U.S. chicken imports, the spokesman added. Enditem Copyright © 2000 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 35 Russian Supreme Court says President untouchable Violation of the right to have access to environmental information is becoming a regular practice in Russia. This section covers these alarming developments. (Moscow:) The Russian Supreme court ruled Tuesday that private citizens have no right to challenge presidential decrees in court, which essentially puts a temporary end to human rights groups seeking the exclusion of secret evidence used against defendants by prosecutors. Aleksandr Nikitin in front of the Russian Supreme Court. Photo: Thomas Nilsen/Bellona Charles Digges, 2002-04-03 11:04 The Russian Supreme court ruled Tuesday that private citizens have no right to challenge presidential decrees in court, which essentially puts a temporary end to human rights groups seeking the exclusion of secret evidence used against defendants by prosecutors. Bellona Ecologist and human rights campaigner Aleksander Nikitin, who brought the appeal, said the ruling does nothing less that put the president above the law. "In the existing legal environment our president has become untouchable," Nikitin said addressing court Tuesday. "This is against citizens' constitutional right to challenge any decision of the state bodies in court." In a heated debate following the ruling, Judge Aleksander Fedin destroyed any notion of a balance of power for those assembled. "We have joined European conventions, but show me a country in Europe where presidential or governmental decrees are challenged in court," Fedin told journalists. "Do you think that Russia must rush headlong to get ahead of Europe?" Russia’s legal experts said that the court essentially turned-tail and ran when refusing to consider Nikitin’s appeal, which is a hallmark of his ongoing campaign to stop secret decrees from being used to accuse academics, environmentalists and journalists of spying. Nikitin had asked the court to consider three articles of the 1996 presidential decree No. 763, which explicitly permits secret orders to be used in criminal prosecution. Nikitin said the decree violates the Constitution, which says citizens' rights may not be infringed upon by laws that are not made public. Nikitin was acquitted in December 1999, but military Order No.055 has continued to be used against other high-profile defendants, including military journalist Grigory Pasko. A former navy officer, Nikitin was arrested in 1996 on charges of treason and espionage after writing a report for Bellona that exposed information about the navy's dumping of nuclear waste into the North Sea. The case against him was based largely on the Defense Ministry's secret Order No. 055, which gives a list of data the military considers to be state secrets. Nikitin first challenged presidential decree No. 763 in December, when he filed a complaint to the Constitutional Court asking it to consider whether the decree was constitutional. A ruling later that month said that private citizens do not have the right to challenge presidential decrees in the Constitutional Court; adding that such a privilege belongs to lawmakers, governors, prosecutors and to the Supreme Court. Citizens can only challenge laws in the Constitutional Court. Nikitin took the case to the Supreme Court, which ruled against him in January saying that it also cannot rule on presidential decrees. Nikitin then appealed to the Supreme Court Collegium that hears appeals, which issued its ruling Tuesday. Nikitin's lawyer Leonid Saikin said the Supreme Court was not asked to rule on the constitutionality of the presidential decree but on whether it was in compliance with two federal laws, one on state secrets and one on citizen’s rights to obtain and disseminate information. The Civil Procedural Code gives the court the authority to do this, Saikin said. Judge Fedin, however, refused to consider the case, saying there were no federal laws allowing the court to consider a citizen's challenge of a presidential decree. Moscow-based human rights lawyer Karina Moskalenko, whose own clients have long battled against secret decrees, said the Supreme Court was wrong not to consider Nikitin's appeal. "Even if there is a gap in legislation, the court must follow the Constitution," Moskalenko said. "The Supreme Court was obliged to consider Nikitin's complaint, but it just didn't want to take the responsibility of considering this decree." Amendments to the Civil Procedural Code now before the State Duma give the Supreme Court the right to judge whether presidential decrees conform to federal law. The amendments are expected to be approved by the end of the year, Saikin said. But Nikitin doesn’t plan to wait that long. Once the Supreme Court issues its written statement indicating which laws it based its decision on, Nikitin said he will go back to the Constitutional Court to challenge these laws. A second option would be to ask the chairman or deputy chairman of the Supreme Court to file the appeal asking the Constitutional Court to consider presidential decree No. 763. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 36 Secrete military decrees to exist until May The Pasko Case Gregory Pasko, an investigative journalist who worked for the Pacific Fleet's newspaper, was arrested on 20 November 1997 by the FSB and charged with high treason for his writing about the nuclear safety issues in the Russian Pacific Fleet. (Moscow:) The Russian Supreme Court postpones hearing on secret military decrees, which form the basis for Pasko conviction and allow the Federal Security Service to prosecute people on bogus spy charges. The Russian Supreme Court closed doors for the secret decrees until May. photo: Vlad Nikiforov/Bellona Charles Digges, 2002-04-02 23:56 Lawyers for Grigory Pasko were frustrated this Tuesday in their quest to free their client whose conviction is based on secret Defence Ministry decrees. The court hearing was postponed until May 7th due the fact that the highest authority within the Russian Supreme Court, the Presidium, considered similar issue on Wednesday last week and its decision will be made ready only next Monday. At issue are two Defence Ministry decrees — nos. 055 and 010 that have been on the books since August 10th 1996 and August 7th 1990 respectively. The Supreme Court, after having nullified decree No. 055 this fall, last Wednesday overturned the earlier ruling that invalidated part of a secret Defence Ministry document used to prosecute high-profile espionage suspects such as environmentalist Aleksandr Nikitin, military journalist Grigory Pasko and arms analyst Igor Sutyagin. The 11-member Presidium of the court last week said the court should give another look at decree No. 055, which gives a list of data that the Defence Ministry considers to be state secrets. In a separate ruling in February this year the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court nullified the whole decree No. 055 and decree No. 010, but refused to make the decision retroactive. The Soviet era decree No. 010 forbids servicemen and all other people with access to state secrets from having contacts with foreigners if it is not a part of their service responsibilities. At this Tuesday’s three-judge hearing, Pasko’s Lawyer Ivan Pavlov was seeking to make the court’s ruling from February this year on the Defence Ministry decrees retroactive from the date of decision. That would have legally freed his client and made hash of any of the treason charges that were previously levied against Nikitin — who was acquitted in 1999 — and Sutyagin Both were accused of their espionage activities in the late 1990s. Nikitin, whose appeal led to the original September ruling, said that what he and his supporters are demanding is a clear legal playing field. "As an ecologist exploring nuclear issues, at any moment I can once again run into a fact that this decree considers a state secret," said Nikitin, who now heads the St Petersburg-based Bellona office in Russia. Russia has a federal law on state secrets, but its categories of classified information are very general and it allows ministries and other federal agencies to draw up their own lists of secret data. In annulling the 10 articles that fall under the rubric of Decree No. 055 in September, the court said the decree was not issued solely for the Defence Ministry's internal use and thus should have been registered with the Justice Ministry and made public. But the ministry's representative, Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Rusanov, said in a telephone interview — as he sad to the presidium in September — that decree 055 was a mistake. "This decree is just a list of information, it is not a law and it is dedicated for internal use," he said. But Rusanov conceded that the decree should not have been used by prosecutors from a different agency — for instance, the Federal Security Service, which filed charges against Nikitin, Pasko and Sutyagin — or against civilians. He warned that if the court, after its review, upholds the September ruling, then the Defence Ministry would issue a new decree that would be equally strong. If the court continues to consider such decrees to apply to other agencies, the ministry would register the new decree and then it could indeed be used to prosecute civilians as well as members of the military, Rusanov said. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 37 Report blames contamination on equipment Amarillo Globe-News: Local News: -->Web posted Tuesday, April 2, 2002 By JENNIFER LUTZ jlutz@amarillonet.com Pantex Plant officials now claim to know how two solvents found their way into monitoring wells north of the plant. The failure to wash the sampling equipment before installation is to blame, they concluded. On Monday, researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Savannah River Technology Center and the Pantex Plant presented their findings of an independent study of the monitoring well data. "It's a fairly firm consensus," said Randall Charbeneau with the University of Texas and part of the independent review team. "The bottom line is the Ogallala Aquifer isn't contaminated with benzene." In early August, officials found levels of benzene in several monitoring wells including one at 11 parts per billion. The Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory standard is 5 parts per billion. The EPA classifies the solvent benzene as a known carcinogen. Results The independent review team presented four reasons on how it concluded the sampling equipment caused the benzene and some toluene hits. Samples detected a 4-mile-wide and 500 feet deep area of similar concentration hits. A single or multiple source benzene spill would have varying detection amounts radiating from the possible contamination source. The liners and tubes used in the sampling equipment were tested by themselves and found to have some levels of benzene and toluene. Water purged from well sample tubes showed a decreasing amount of benzene indicating the water coming into the tubes did not contain the contaminant. Water samples were taken using the multilevel sampling equipment and with a different type of sampling device. Benzene was detected with the multilevel sampling equipment and none was found with the different pumps. Low levels of toluene also were detected. Toluene can cause kidney, liver, nervous and circulatory effects, according to the Safe Drinking Water Act. Dennis Huddleston with BWXT Pantex said there could be low levels of toluene in the Ogallala Aquifer as well as in the sampling equipment. "We're still looking," he said. The independent review team studied the data from the samples. In all cases, the researchers found benzene was released from the well sampling equipment's tubing. Some of the toluene detections came from the liner and spacer material used inside the wells, Charbeneau said. A similar event occurs when a person buys a new car. The new-car smell is the result of the plastics used. Over time the odor wears off, and eventually the benzene and toluene leaking into the sample from the equipment will also end, said Terry Hazen with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the review team. "Had these liners been fully washed, the material might not have been leaching out," he said. Officials still found 23 parts per billion of toluene after making allowances for the sampling equipment. Toluene's health-based standard is 1,000 parts per billion. The Ogallala Aquifer beneath and next to the plant is not contaminated with benzene, Charbeneau said. Pam Allison with Serious Texans Against Nuclear Dumping questioned the review team's results and Charbeneau's conclusion about the absence of benzene during Monday's Pantex Groundwater Public Meeting in Panhandle. "That statement is too broad to be supported by your evidence," she said. "Which makes the report a little bit less compelling." After the detections of benzene and toluene in August, the city of Amarillo began testing its water wells north of the Pantex Plant monthly. Monday's announcement prompted Emmett Autrey, the city's water production superintendent, to say those city wells will be tested quarterly instead of monthly. "It confirms what I thought before and makes me more certain our water is not contaminated by benzene and toluene," Autrey said. "It's good news for us to get the confirmation about the sampling device. It sounds like bad news, in a way, to Pantex, but I'm sure they'll find a way to not have this happen again." During the Panhandle Groundwater Meeting, Doris Smith, a Pantex Plant neighbor, said she too hopes the tubing and liners are to blame. "We would very much like to believe this," she said. "It's such a low concentration, but it's the fact that it's there and it shouldn't be." Pantex officials continue to use the same sampling equipment, which tests for dozens other solvents, chemicals and radionuclides. Officials will keep track of the benzene and toluene results. They expect the levels of the two solvents found in the water to decrease over time, Charbeneau said. "We celebrate the conclusion that there isn't any groundwater contamination," said Dennis Ruddy, BWXT Pantex president and general manager. ***************************************************************** 38 Our View: SNS job well done merits high reward The Oak Ridger Online - Opinion - Wednesday, April 3, 2002 U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp is bullish about Oak Ridge's opportunity to play a leadership role in new fields of scientific endeavor, and particularly the nanosciences which promise to redefine the nature and pace of scientific breakthrough. If, as the saying goes, success breeds success, then Oak Ridge should be well-positioned for some time to come. The $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source stands as a testimonial to political, scientific, engineering and contracting will. It is a project, now more than half complete, which is magnificent both for what it has achieved and for the pitfalls it has avoided. How does a project so big and so mysterious survive the oversight? Clearly that SNS has done so, and done so successfully, is an honor to all of those who have labored in so many capacities to make it happen. Their determination in containing costs while fully explaining and sharing the science of these projects helps in gaining the needed public support for them to continue. During his visit to Oak Ridge last week, Rep. Wamp, who has worked tirelessly to gain the multi-year funding for SNS' completion, credited SNS and Oak Ridge National Laboratory managers for making his difficult job a whole lot easier. They did so, he explained, by their "superb management" skills in keeping costs in check while explaining in layman's terms the scientific rationale for SNS, a neutron-scattering device which will provide new capacities for measuring and determining the makeup of the most minute items. Rep. Wamp believes, and we heartily agree, that Congress should look favorably upon Oak Ridge's past achievement when making future decisions pertaining to the evolution of the nanosciences. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 39 France to spend 10 bln euros on boosting wind power FRANCE: April 3, 2002 PARIS - France, a European wind power laggard, said yesterday it planned to invest 10 billion euros ($8.81 billion) to build 10,000 megawatts of wind generating capacity by 2010 to boost its dependence on renewable energy. France wants to increase its renewable energy sources to 21 percent of total demand in 2010 from the current 15 percent, mainly by tapping wind power, Industry Minister Christian Pierret told a conference. "Wind power will be the largest contributer to this growth, because it has great potential in France," Pierret said. "It is reasonable to estimate 20 to 30 terawatt hours (TWh) of windpower will be required to keep to our (European Union) commitments, which means about 10 MW of installed capacity or 10 billion euros of investments," he added. France is hosting a global conference this week on wind power, a growing source of clean energy, amid fears of continued high oil prices and international concern about so-called greenhouse emissions blamed for warming the atmosphere. The conference comes on the heels of tension within France's centre-left ruling coalition over the place of nuclear power in supplying the country's energy needs, less than three weeks ahead of elections. Although Europe's top electricity exporter, France is still only the region's fourth smallest generator of wind power since it currently relies on nuclear reactors to supply nearly 80 percent of its needs. By the end of last year, France had 78 MW of wind power generation, just a fraction of Europe's wind powerhouse Germany with 8,754 MW of windpower capacity. Wind power is also a tiny part of France's total generating capacity of 115,000 MW, with the rest of its renewable energy supplies coming from hydroelectric dams. By contrast, one single nuclear reactor produces 1,000 MW. To allay fears that wind farms can be an eyesore, France says it is planning to develop wind farms offshore. For now its wind farms are all on dry land. "We need to call for tenders for at least 1,500 MW of offshore windpower generation as soon a possible," Pierret said. In a report in January, the industry ministry said it would have to boost investment in renewable energy and curb energy demand to prevent power shortfalls over the next nine years. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 40 Atomic rockets: Those were the days SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — George Dyson has just clarified what's wrong with the technology industry. If a business plan called for going to Jupiter in a rocket ship propelled by atomic bombs, it would never get funded. That's it. That's the problem. Tall and gangly, Dyson sprawls in a chair in a quiet lounge area of the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess conference center here. Behind nearby double doors, 500 tech leaders are engaged in PC Forum, a high-end gathering run by Dyson's sister, Esther. The stars of the PC Forum are on stage talking about Web services, network-attached storage and other eyelid-drooping stuff. The industry just isn't popping with anything cool. I'd get more excited at a presentation on new bristle patterns at a toothbrush industry convention. Out here in the lounge, with an audience of one, George Dyson is recalling how a group of scientists and engineers threw themselves into Project Orion, a serious effort to build a spaceship literally driven by exploding A-bombs. They were doing this in 1957. "The message is — what did we have in the 1950s that we don't have now?" Dyson says in his languid, gentle voice. "We had the freedom to think big." The folks inside are wondering which business model works and whether so-and-so had identified the right market. What a bunch of wimps. Try standing around during the Eisenhower presidency and deciding to get humans to Saturn by 1970. Yes, Orion got government money. For a while, the only burn rate it had to worry about was how fast the bombs would roast the humans in the ship. But Orion was, in fact, a business project of a division of General Dynamics called General Atomic. Dyson's book is due out this month. Dyson wrote a book, Project Orion, that's out this month. But his intimacy with Orion runs deeper than anything in the book's 300-odd pages. His father, the renowned physicist Freeman Dyson, was a key member of the Orion team. "Imagine being 5 years old, and your father comes in and says, 'We're moving to La Jolla (Calif.) to build a spaceship,' " Dyson says. But that was all Freeman Dyson could say. The project was top secret. Little George, tingling with curiosity and excitement, kept pestering his father. Then Freeman Dyson would take George outside under the night sky, point to Jupiter, and say that "we" were going to go there. Sheesh. My dad would take out a map and point to Wildwood, N.J., and say we were going there, and I'd about wet my pants. Few people know about Orion. George Dyson collected documents as they were declassified over the past decade or so, but much of the project remains classified. Some of Orion's design forms the basis for creating small, directed-energy nuclear bombs — the kind the Bush administration has considered building, even though their use would escalate until Earth looked like the inside of a Weber charcoal grill. Orion got going in 1957, just as the Soviets were launching Sputnik. The United States needed to figure out the best way to get satellites into orbit and nuclear warheads into Moscow. Orion, employing Dyson, Ted Taylor and other scientists out of the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos National Laboratory, took the atomic route. For a few years, the government gave equal consideration to Orion and chemical rockets. The latter won, and it's still what lifts shuttles and satellites into space. Basically, Orion was supposed to work like this: + The ship would be wider and flatter than today's rockets, more like the top half of an egg. So it would be pointy at the top, and have a wide base. + The flat base would be mounted on giant shock absorbers. People would ride in the nose cone. Around the edge of the base would be large guns, pointing backward. + Alternating guns would shoot small nuclear bombs behind the ship. Each bomb would explode, exerting tremendous energy on the flat base, driving the ship forward. About 800 such explosions would get the ship into orbit. A few thousand could get it to a planet. + The shock absorbers would keep the G-forces from turning the passengers into something resembling a banana dropped from a 50-story building. At first Orion seems like a spaceship dreamed up by a second-grader. Maybe the backup plan, you think, was to first build a robot as tall as Mount Everest, and then have the robot pick up the ship and throw it into space. But the Orion group, which included some of the greatest physicists and mathematicians of the 20th century, figured out the technology and physics, and knew it would work. Well, except for the small problem of nuclear explosions, radiation and other things that humans don't like very much. You know how people are about even airport noise. "They thought that by the time Orion would fly, they'd have clean bombs," Dyson explains, referring to nuclear bombs that leave behind no radiation. Obviously, that didn't happen: There are no clean bombs now. The project grew and built momentum through the late-'50s, lost steam as the world became increasingly concerned about nuclear proliferation and World War III, and was ended in 1965. But Dyson believes the U.S. should keep Orion-like research alive. NASA remains interested and, in fact, bought some of Dyson's documents back from him. Why continue something so fantastic? Matter-of-factly, Dyson says it's the best chance of saving Earth if a giant asteroid were coming. Nuclear missiles couldn't blow it apart. An Orion-style ship would go many times faster than conventional rockets — fast enough to slam into an asteroid and alter its path, causing it to miss Earth. If astronomers saw an asteroid coming from light-years away, "We could build it in time," Dyson says. People in the technology industry often say they're in it to change the world. But compared with the ambition of Orion, they aren't doing squat. 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