***************************************************************** 06/05/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.142 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR REACTORS 1 US: NRC Names Mark A. Sitek Resident Inspector at San Onofre Nuclear 2 DPRK Denounces Japan Over Nuclear Remarks NUCLEAR SAFETY 3 US: NRC Staff to Meet with Northern Engraving on Possible Safety 4 US: Erwin businessman sues Nuclear Fuels over contamination NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 5 US: Actor and Activist Mike Farrell Delivers Letter from Celebrities 6 US: N-waste resolutions get a mixed reaction 7 US: Shipping nuclear waste 8 US: `M-A-S-H' Star Lobbies Congress 9 US: Senate Backs Plan to Dump Nuke Waste 10 US: County officials head to D.C. for YMP vote* 11 US: Yucca: Health and safety at risk 12 US: North Carolina Sued Over Rejected Waste Dump 13 US: Concerns voiced about shipping spent nuclear fuel 14 US: Nuclear recycling 15 US: Senate panel passes Yucca 16 US: Letter: 'Home cooking' served up on waste transport 17 US: Nuclear Panel Likely to Focus On Quake Risks 18 US: *Yucca vote moves to full Senate* NUCLEAR WEAPONS 19 Japan's A-Bomb Survivors Fear War 20 US: Bush Seeks to Ratify New Nuke Treaty 21 Pakistan leader: We may use nuclear arms first 22 Fukuda's nuke comment sparks widespread fallout 23 US: Mushroom cloud rejected for proposed license plate 24 Fukuda Says Japan Maintains Non-Nuclear Principles 25 Nuclear worries follow comment 26 EDITORIAL: Japan's nuclear policy: Fukuda's `background' remarks 27 Kiss My Nuclear Arsenal 28 US: Terrible (fake) accident to hit test site today* 29 Hiroshima, Nagasaki protest U.S. subcritical test plan 30 US: Bush Seeks to Ratify New Nuke Treaty US DEPT. OF ENERGY 31 Anastasio to Head Livermore Lab 32 DOE program enjoys widespread support 33 Bechtel Jacobs gets new chief 34 DOE Employment illness comp program 35 OakRidge The Mayor's View: Abraham makes good impression 06/05/02 ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 NRC Names Mark A. Sitek Resident Inspector at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station NRC: Press Release Region IV - 2002 - 28 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 www.nrc.gov No. IV-02-028 June 4, 2002 CONTACT: Breck Henderson Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227 E-mail: opa4@nrc.gov [opa4@nrc.gov] The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has named Mark A. Sitek Resident Inspector at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, a nuclear power plant near San Clemente, Calif. He joins Clyde C. Osterholtz, the Senior Resident Inspector at the plant. Mr. Sitek graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a bachelor of science degree in nuclear engineering in 1996. Following graduation he was selected for the NRC's graduate fellowship program and subsequently joined the NRC at its headquarters office in Rockville, Md. As part of the fellowship program, he earned a master of science degree in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999. While at NRC headquarters, Mr. Sitek held the positions of general engineer and health physicist in the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. Mr. Sitek is also a qualified materials health physics inspector. Mr. Sitek resides in Mission Viejo, Calif. with his wife Samantha. Each U.S. commercial nuclear power plant has at least two NRC resident inspectors. They serve as the agency's eyes and ears at the facility, conducting regular inspections and monitoring significant work projects. ***************************************************************** 2 DPRK Denounces Japan Over Nuclear Remarks (Beijing Time) Wednesday, June 05, 2002 The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's official news agency published a commentary on Tuesday denouncing a Japanese official's recent remarks about revising its decades-old non-nuclear principles. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's official news agency published a commentary on Tuesday denouncing a Japanese official's recent remarks about revising its decades-old non-nuclear principles. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) commentary said Japan's possession of nuclear arms would bring nuclear calamity to Japan, and pose threats to world peace and security. Japan's three non-nuclear principles include not possessing, manufacturing or introducing nuclear weapons on Japanese territory. "An endless string of remarks made by the Japanese authorities about having access to nukes clearly suggests that the Japanese reactionary forces are becoming more undisguised in their moves toturn Japan into a military power and go nuclear," the commentary said. The Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yasuo Fukuda, on Friday told reporters that Japan could have nuclear weapons. Another senior Japanese official also said the era to replace the existing constitution by a new one had arrived. Japan could revise the three non-nuclear principles and possess nuclear arms in the future, he added. Deputy Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe made a statement two weeks ago that it might be acceptable for Japan to possess nuclear weapons "as long as they are small". "Official figures representing the Japanese government called for having access to nukes at a time when the nuclear issue, danger of nuclear war in particular, is under serious discussion in the international community. This is a blatant challenge to global peace, security and stability," the KCNA commentary said. "Japan should discard its nuclear ambition, and not be oblivious of the lesson of history drawn from the nuclear disastersuffered by it in the past. If Japan persistently opts for nucleararmaments, it will only invite an unimaginable nuclear disaster," the commentary said. Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 3 NRC Staff to Meet with Northern Engraving on Possible Safety Violations NRC: Press Release Region III - 2002 - 32 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 www.nrc.gov No. III-02-032 June 5, 2002 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov [opa3@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet June 6 in Lisle, Illinois, with officials from Northern Engraving, based in Sparta, Wisconsin, to discuss possible safety violations associated with the unauthorized transfer of generally licensed material and providing inaccurate or incomplete information to the NRC. The meeting, called a Predecisional Enforcement Conference, will begin at 1 p.m. in the Third Floor Conference Room of the NRC's Region III office, 801 Warrenville Road, in Lisle. Visitors should register with the receptionist in Suite 255. The public is invited to observe the business portion of the meeting and will have an opportunity to ask questions of the NRC staff before the meeting is adjourned. On March 13, 2002, Norther Engraving submitted documents to the NRC that stated that no generally licensed devices were in its possession. On April 12, the State of Wisconsin reported to the NRC that a static eliminator, which was later determined to belong to the company, containing about 11.25 millicuries of americium-241, was found at Alter Scrap Processing in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. After the licensee transported the device to its facility in Sparta, Wisconsin, the NRC determined that it was damaged and that a second static eliminator, also belonging to Northern Engraving and also containing about 11.25 millicuries of americium-241, was missing. The NRC conducted inspections at two licensee facilities in Sparta and Galesville, Wisconsin, at Alter Scrap Processing and at a transportation contractor facility in Melrose, Wisconsin, to review the circumstances surrounding the loss of control of the two static eliminators. After the NRC site inspections, Northern Engraving informed the NRC that eight static eliminators had been found but ten static eliminators were missing. NRC inspectors found two apparent violations of NRC regulatory requirements: the licensee's failure to transfer a generally licensed device to an authorized entity and the licensee's incomplete and inaccurate responses to the NRC's request to identify generally licensed devices in its possession. The decision to hold a predecisional enforcement conference does not mean that a determination has been made that a violation has occurred or that enforcement action will be taken. The purpose is to discuss apparent violations, their causes and safety significance, to provide the company with an opportunity to provide additional information on the situation, and to enable the company to outline its proposed corrective action. No decision on the apparent violation or any contemplated enforcement action, such as a fine, will be made at the conference. Those will be made by NRC officials at a later time. ***************************************************************** 4 Erwin businessman sues Nuclear Fuels over contamination Elizabethton Star - Online Edition By Kathy Helms-Hughes STAR STAFF khughes@starhq.com The owner of Impact Plastics Inc. and Preston Tool and Mold Inc. of Erwin has filed suit against Nuclear Fuel Services Inc., a Maryland corporation doing business in Erwin, over potential cancer-causing contaminants found in groundwater underneath his property. Gerald M. O'Connor Jr. has hired attorney James Gentry Jr. of Chattanooga -- subject of the movie, "A Civil Action," starring John Travolta -- and Kingsport Attorney Gorman Waddell to represent him. The complaint was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Greeneville with copies also sent to the attorney general of the United States and to the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The complaint alleges that contamination from NFS's processes of recycling irradiated uranium in spent nuclear fuel has led to substantial contamination of the NFS property, causing radionuclides and hazardous chemicals to impact groundwater beneath O'Connor's property, located at 1070 Industrial Drive, adjacent to NFS. The complaint states that groundwater beneath NFS is contaminated with volatile organic compounds such as chloroform, 12 dichloroethylene (1,2 DCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), vinyl chloride, and tributyl phosphate (TBP). Groundwater also is contaminated with radionuclides including: depleted uranium, technetium-99, 129-Iodine, uranium 233/234, uranium 235/236, and uranium-238; plutonium 238 and plutonium-239/240; and thorium 228, 230, and 232. Depleted uranium is an isotope of uranium-236 and is not naturally occurring in the environment. According to a nuclear expert, depleted uranium is an indicator of a type of nuclear fuel enrichment process or the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Technetium-99 is a fission product and is produced during the process of recycling irradiated uranium in spent nuclear fuel. The complaint alleges that 129-Iodine also is unique to NFS's facility and its manufacturing operation. The suit contends that NFS, which is situated in a 100-year floodplain, "has committed a public and private nuisance by discharging the contaminants into the waters of the State of Tennessee," and that NFS has committed negligence by discharging the hazardous substances. ... "Specifically, [NFS] has knowingly discharged the contaminants into the groundwater which has migrated into the plaintiff's property and [possibly] into the Nolichucky River." Attorneys Gentry and Waddell allege that O'Connor's property would be of substantially more value than it is now if the contaminants were not there, and that the property has become "stigmatized to the extent that there has been a substantial diminution of the value of the property." The presence of the contaminants "will probably prompt the plaintiffs to move their operations away from all of the dangers created by the hazardous substances in the groundwater," the attorneys state. They also claim that moving the operations, along with diminution of the property value, creates a "substantial amount of damages" to O'Connor and his companies. It also is alleged that O'Connor "demanded" that NFS take immediate steps to stop the flow of contaminants from its property in an expeditious manner to prevent devaluation in the fair market value of O'Connor's property. NFS recently completed a six-month pilot study of a new "molasses" technology which it is hoped will stop the spread of contamination of the volatile organic compounds. NFS plans to begin a full-scale project this month with the drilling of 17 to 20 injection wells. But even if NFS abates offsite contaminants, according to the complaint, O'Connor's property will continue to suffer as a result of having been impacted by hazardous substances in the past, as well as the threat of future possible impact from NFS. The complaint alleges under CERCLA, the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, that O'Connor "is an innocent purchaser of the property" and was only recently advised of the hazardous substances which have traveled to his property. As a result, he has been forced to expend money to determine the extent of contamination. O'Connor is seeking recovery of all necessary costs incurred as a result, and a declaratory judgment as to liability on any future costs arising from the contamination. According to NFS sampling results from monitoring wells located along the property boundary line, radioactive plutonium was detected in groundwater samples as early as September 1993. In November 2001, plutonium, thorium and uranium were observed in monitoring wells located on Impact Plastics' property, and technetium-99 was detected in two of nine offsite wells. All were within levels considered safe by the EPA. Copyright © 1996 - 2002 Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Actor and Activist Mike Farrell Delivers Letter from Celebrities Opposing Dangerous Nuclear Dumps* */June 4, 2002/* */Celebrities Urge Senate to Reject Yucca Mountain and Skull Valley Projects/* WASHINGTON, D.C. ? Mike Farrell, well known for his lead role on M*A*S*H and for his long-time commitment to human rights and environmental issues, delivered a letter to Congress today signed by more than 50 celebrities urging the U.S. Senate to reject two nuclear dump proposals. One is for a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada; the second is by a private consortium that wants to store 44,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste above ground at the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah. "Transporting tens of thousands of tons of deadly nuclear waste over our railways, highways and waterways through virtually every state presents the potential for a disaster of astonishing proportions," Farrell said. "The industry?s right to profit from the creation of energy stops when it chooses to slough off the responsibility for its garbage onto us." Farrell delivered the letter in advance of a Wednesday vote on Yucca Mountain by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Celebrities signing the letter include Ed Asner, Alec Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Ossie Davis, Jamie Farr, Ken Howard, Melissa Gilbert, Danny Glover, Tess Harper, Marilu Henner, Judd Hirsch, Norman Lear, Paula Poundstone, Bonnie Raitt, Rob Reiner, Tim Robbins, Loretta Swit and Alfre Woodard. While in Washington, Farrell met with lawmakers, including Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.). Farrell and other celebrity signatories to today?s letter join mounting opposition to these dangerous proposals to transport deadly waste across the country to unsuitable sites. Farrell and fellow actor and activist James Cromwell ? who spoke out last week against the dumps at a press conference organized by Public Citizen ? contacted other celebrities and invited them to join in urging Congress to reject the Yucca Mountain and Skull Valley proposals. In the letter (click here to view on the Web), the celebrities called for congressional oversight hearings and the rejection of the "Department of Energy's technically unfounded Yucca Mountain site recommendation." ### Public Citizen ***************************************************************** 6 N-waste resolutions get a mixed reaction [deseretnews.com] Wednesday, June 5, 2002 By Josh Loftin and Stephen Speckman Deseret News staff writers A proposal to transport nuclear waste through Utah on its way to Yucca Mountain, Nev., drew mixed reactions from local leaders Tuesday. The West Valley City Council voted unanimously in favor of a resolution opposing a proposed nuclear-waste dump at Yucca Mountain, which would increase the amount of hazardous nuclear material passing through Salt Lake County. But a divided Salt Lake County Council rejected a similar resolution. With a 5-4 vote, the County Council voted down a proposed resolution that would have opposed the dump. Because the resolution was presented by Steve Erickson, an activist opposed to the dump, council members voting against the resolution said they wanted to hear both sides before making a decision. "There's another side to the story," Councilman Winston Wilkinson said. "I want to hear that side before I make a decision on this resolution." Councilman Jim Bradley, who supported the resolution "without passion," said both sides of the Yucca Mountain debate had valid points but that arguing the merits of a resolution was nothing more than a resume-builder for elected officials. "This is the most politically correct thing we will vote on, although it may not be the most intellectually honest vote," he said. In West Valley, the vote was clearly decisive. The City Council on Tuesday voted 6-0 to support a resolution that formally opposes the transport of nuclear waste through Utah. City Councilwoman Margaret Peterson brought the resolution forward with the idea of passing it along to Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch. The resolution also opposes transfer of waste on its way to the proposed Skull Valley repository in Tooele County. The waste would come from a consortium of power companies in the eastern part of the country. Peterson fears that a spill would put residents, as well as the city's emergency responders, in harm's way. The waste, some four trucks per week carrying 6,000 pounds and five rail cars per week carrying up to 63,000 pounds, would pass through or near West Valley. Information given to City Council members says the Department of Energy estimates that 50 to 310 accidents could occur during shipment of radioactive waste. "I just felt like instead of a letter or telephone call, this would be more of a major statement to our Senate," Peterson said. "I don't want nuclear waste going down I-15," said County Councilman Michael Jensen. "But I'm a lot more concerned about a Stinger missile hitting a truck with chlorine gas. That could wipe out half of the county." County Councilman Russell Skousen, who voted for the resolution, said that it was a state's-rights issue as much as a safety issue. While admitting that the resolution "may be meaningless," he wanted the council on the record as opposed to the site because of the lack of respect the U.S. Congress was giving to the Intermountain West. "This plan doesn't tie the benefits of nuclear power to the burden," he said. "It is tying that burden to the Western states because we don't have enough votes." Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson has already voiced before Congress his opposition to the transport of radioactive waste through his city. E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com [jloftin@desnews.com] ; sspeckman@desnews.com [sspeckman@desnews.com] © 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 7 Shipping nuclear waste Rocky Mountain News: Opinion June 5, 2002 The issue: Is there a risk to Colorado? Our view: Senate candidate's fears are exaggerated In love and in nuclear materials, if you're going to get a little, you have to give a little. Colorado is intent on shipping leftover weapons-grade plutonium from Rocky Flats to the Savannah River site in South Carolina, where it will be converted into fuel for nuclear power plants. We'll be glad to see the last of it. But if we're going to ship our nuclear stuff east, are we in a position to object to the shipment of nuclear stuff west -- some of it, possibly, through Colorado? We don't think so. Democratic Senate candidate Tom Strickland, however, says yes. He held a news conference with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the other day, saying he's opposed to having any spent nuclear fuel that's headed for Yucca Mountain, Nev., come through Colorado. Each shipment could be turned by terrorists into a "dirty bomb, creating unspeakable devastation," Strickland said. That puts Strickland -- surprise -- in conflict with Republican Sen. Wayne Allard, the man he's challenging this fall. When the Senate decides in July on whether to ship nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, Allard will vote yes. Colorado can't have it both ways. Nobody, of course, wants nuclear materials being shipped past their back yard, but it's too late for such innocence now. We want the plutonium at Rocky Flats gone, and it makes sense to ship it -- via our own Interstate 70 if not by rail -- to South Carolina, where it can be converted into a peaceful use. Meanwhile, spent nuclear fuel is sitting above ground at 130 different sites, mostly in the East. Sure, they're guarded, but in this age of terrorism the fuel would be a lot safer if it were buried in one deep place. The federal government has already spent at least $4 billion preparing the Yucca Mountain site. Strickland argues that the shipments from Rocky Flats are very different from those to Yucca Mountain. The former will clean up a site for good and be of limited duration. Plus, he says, Rocky Flats is a federal facility, not a commercial reactor, for which the nation as a whole is responsible. And he suggests that perhaps U.S. nuclear plants should follow the example of those in Europe and resort to "dry cask" storage on site. These are serious arguments, to be sure, and we also appreciate his contention that Sept. 11 raises the possibility that terrorists could target a shipment of spent rods. But aren't they at least as likely to target the rods in storage at one of the scores of reactors, many of which are near large Eastern and Midwestern population centers? How safe is nuclear transportation? Nothing is foolproof, but there have been thousands of shipments of radioactive materials since the 1960s and nobody has been hurt by them so far. Shipments to Yucca Mountain, which aren't expected to begin until 2010, would be accompanied by armed guards through heavily populated areas -- and throughout the entire state, if the governor of that state so demanded. And here's even better news. Even though Interstate 70 is a theoretical route between the East and Nevada, it's not likely to be used much, if at all. Nuclear materials aren't allowed through the Eisenhower Tunnel, and it's hard to see the Energy Department sending the trucks over Loveland Pass. Interstate 40 through New Mexico and Arizona, and even Interstate 80 through Wyoming, are likely to be far more popular routes. They don't involve major mountain passes. Those materials shipped by rail are also likely to go along the tracks that parallel I-40 than they are through the Moffat Tunnel and Glenwood Canyon. The House voted 306-117 in May in favor of shipping nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. We hope the Senate is equally enthusiastic -- although Colorado's Republican Sen. Ben Campbell has indicated he'll vote against the plan. We appreciate Strickland's and Campbell's concern for Colorado's safety, but long-term national policy surely must involve the permanent disposal of most of this waste in a centralized location rather than its continued dispersal in 130 above-ground sites. It's safer to start moving it to Nevada as soon as possible. The risk to Colorado is minimal. ARCHIVES PHOTO REPRINTS FAQ 2002 © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 8 `M-A-S-H' Star Lobbies Congress Las Vegas SUN June 05, 2002 WASHINGTON- Actor Mike Farrell, armed with a letter signed by 70 fellow celebrities, urged senators on Tuesday to vote against a plan to bury the nation's nuclear power waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Calling claims of safety for the Yucca site "technically unfounded," the former "M-A-S-H" star said transporting the 77,000 tons of waste to Nevada would create "an enormous target for someone who has an ill intention." Farrell, who now plays a veterinarian on the NBC series "Providence," delivered the letter a day before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee plans to vote on whether to override Nevada's objections to the proposed waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The full Senate must approve the resolution by July 26, or the project will come to a halt. The House overrode Nevada's veto in May. Co-signers of the letter include actors Alec Baldwin and Tim Robbins, comedians Paula Poundstone and Rob Reiner, and singers Barbra Streisand and Harry Belafonte. On the Net: Senate Energy Committee: http://energy.senate.gov/ [http://energy.senate.gov/] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 9 Senate Backs Plan to Dump Nuke Waste Las Vegas SUN June 05, 2002 WASHINGTON- The Senate moved closer Wednesday to overturning Nevada's opposition to a waste dump for thousands of tons of radioactive material to be buried in the desert 90 miles from Las Vegas. A resolution supporting President Bush's proposal for the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository advanced out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee by a 13-10 vote. The Senate must act by July 25 on the resolution if the Yucca Mountain project is to continue. The House already has voted to override Nevada's veto of the Bush plan. Three Democrats joined 10 Republicans in support of the resolution, while only one Republcian - Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado - voted against it. Supporters of the project said that if Nevada's veto were left to stand it would leave the government - and the nuclear industry - without a way to dispose of the growing tons of used reactor fuel building up at sites in 31 states. Critics of the project argue the waste can safely be kept at reactor sites across the country, avoiding the need to transport the material, in many cases cross-country. The Yucca facility, which would still have to receive construction and operating permits from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission even if Congress gives the go-ahead, is being planned to hold 77,000 tons of commercial reactor waste and nuclear waste from the Energy Department weapons program. Bush in February gave the Yucca project the go-ahead, saying that 20 years of study has shown the site - a ridge of volcanic rock 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas - safe to keep nuclear material that will remain highly radioactive for more than 10,000 years. The waste would be placed 900 feet below ground and eventually closed in. But Nevada filed a formal objection in April, requiring that Congress decide whether to proceed with the site or abandon it. Several senators expressed concern before Wednesday's committee vote over whether it has been adequately shown the Nevada mountain can contain the waste for tens of thousands of years without radioactive material getting into groundwater. Concern also was expressed about transporting so much waste, a majority of which is now located at reactors in the eastern third of the country. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., called the science on Yucca "premature" and said it will not solve the nation's nuclear waste problem. For example, current plans call for only 13 percent of the waste from the DOE's Hanford weapons facility in Washington to go to Yucca if it is opened, she said. But Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, reflected the views of Yucca's supporters when he said that the government is obligated, under contractual agreements with the nuclear industry, to dispose of the waste. "We have an obligation to keep this process going," said Murkowski. "If (this resolution) doesn't prevail, then Yucca is not going to be considered a site." Nevada's two senators - Harry Reid, a Democrat, and John Ensign, a Republican - have been scrambling to try to garner enough votes to block the Yucca project. They argue that the waste would be safer kept at reactor sites, instead of being transported in thousands of truck and rail shipments to Nevada over a 24-year period. Even after the Yucca site were filled, Ensign has argued, thousands of tons of waste will remain at power plant. The nuclear industry has generated about 45,000 tons of highly radioactive waste - generally spent reactor fuel - that is kept in pools and in concrete containers at reactor sites. The nation's reactors produced about 2,000 tons of such waste a year. The Energy Department has said the earliest the Yucca facility could open is 2010, and many nuclear experts believe that timetable is too optimistic. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 10 County officials head to D.C. for YMP vote* By HENRY BREAN, Managing Editor June 05, 2002 *Override of governor's veto expected to be voted out of Senate committee this morning* The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will vote this morning on a joint resolution that would clear the way for the burial of 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, and Nye County Commission Chairman Jeff Taguchi plans to be there. Here's what he expects to see: The committee will approve the joint resolution to override Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the repository. The joint resolution will be brought to the floor of the Senate for a vote sometime before the end of July. It will pass by a comfortable margin. "The inevitability is becoming more and more apparent," Taguchi said. So why go to Washington, D.C., at all? That's easy, Taguchi said. "We're in a fight against what I call irrelevant insignificance - of being continually brushed aside. We're positioning ourselves to make sure the health, safety and welfare of Nye County is taken care of." In other words, Taguchi believes it is time - or soon will be - for those who stand to be impacted by the repository to turn their attention away from stopping the project to finding some way to soften its impact. And no one will be impacted more severely than Nye County. In addition to actually housing the repository, the county will bear the heaviest burden when it comes to transporting the waste. "Like they say, all roads lead to Rome," Taguchi said. "Well, all high-level waste roads lead to Nye." But even though the repository site is located entirely within Nye County, and sits roughly 20 miles away from the communities of Amargosa Valley and Beatty, there has been alarming little mention made of the county in Congress thus far, Taguchi said. "This disregard is very troubling." Taguchi and fellow commissioner Henry Neth were slated to leave for Washington late Tuesday night, after the commission meeting in Tonopah. Traveling with them is Les Bradshaw, manager of Nye County's Department of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities. This will be Taguchi's second trip to the capital in less than a month. A few weeks ago, he and Bradshaw sat in on the Senate committee hearings on Yucca Mountain. Actually, they did more than sit; they requested an opportunity to testify on the county's behalf. And just as it was during similar committee hearings in the House earlier this year, their request was "politely denied," Taguchi said. "Nye County, which has a legitimate reason to testify, was not allowed to do so. I find that disappointing. Don't you?" While they were in Washington, Taguchi and Bradshaw also distributed several dozen copies of a Community Protection Plan, which details the county's safety concerns relative to Yucca Mountain and how those concerns should be mitigated. To date, more than 200 copies of the plan have been delivered to state and federal officials. Taguchi figures he's traveled to Washington on county business about 20 times in the past three years. Like a lot of Nevada residents, Taguchi opposes Yucca Mountain, and when he talks about why, it brings out a bit of the reverend in him. "I just don't believe that imperfect beings can create a perfect system (for disposing of radioactive waste)," he said. And despite the way he has been painted lately by some Nevada leaders, Taguchi does not consider himself an enemy of those who are fighting to stop the repository. "I hope that they win," he said, "but I don't think they will." Ultimately, Taguchi believes Nye County must be ready for what happens after the fight is over - something that, by some accounts, could come in a matter weeks with Senate approval of the joint resolution. "It's absolutely foolish not to have a plan B. Who's going to fight for us if we don't?" Taguchi said. "That's what Nye County is doing; we're exercising our plan B." /©Pahrump Valley Times 2002/ ***************************************************************** 11 Yucca: Health and safety at risk Got $50 billion? Well, that's how much the Department of Energy wants to spend to finish the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste project in Nevada -- and that's if it can remain on schedule and under budget. Given the energy department's track record, that's a big if. The Oregonian Letters 06/05/02 The project is being steered by incredibly flawed science. Numerous independent scientists, the General Accounting Office, the National Academy of Sciences and the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board have found major flaws with the Yucca Mountain proposal, including hundreds of unanswered questions that must be dealt with before a license may be obtained. Despite an estimated $50 billion construction cost, studies show that the site is not guaranteed to keep the nuclear waste from the surrounding environment. Let's just end this now before we risk the health and safety of millions of Americans. ANTHONY SAN MARCO Southeast Portland © 2002 OregonLive.com. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 North Carolina Sued Over Rejected Waste Dump By Cat Lazaroff RALEIGH, North Carolina, June 4, 2002 (ENS) - Four southern states and a regional waste commission are suing the state of North Carolina for its opposition to a planned low level radioactive waste dump within North Carolina's borders. The suit accuses North Carolina of failing to meet its obligations as a member of the Southeast Compact Commission, a group charged with building the regional radioactive waste repository. [medical] Many medical and scientific procedures produce low level radioactive wastes that require proper disposal. (Photo courtesy University of Maryland Environmental Health and Safety [http://www.ehs.umaryland.edu] ) The states of Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, and the Southeast Compact Commission (SCC) for Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management, filed suit Monday in the U.S. Supreme Court to enforce $90 million in sanctions against the State of North Carolina. "North Carolina did not live up to its promise to Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia and the other two states in the Compact," said James Setser, chair of the SCC. "The member states and the Compact Commission have a moral and a legal responsibility to ensure that North Carolina fulfills its obligations to all of the members of the Southeast Compact and the citizens of our region." The lawsuit is the latest action taken by the Compact members to enforce sanctions imposed against North Carolina by the SCC in December 1999. "North Carolina must be held accountable for its failure to provide a site for disposal of low level radioactive waste for the southeast," said Alabama attorney general Bill Pryor. "Alabama is committed to live up to its obligations and we expect nothing less from North Carolina." The Southeast Compact is an agreement among seven states - Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia - to jointly manage the region's low level radioactive wastes. South Carolina, originally a member of the Southeast Compact, withdrew in June 1995. [wastes] Everything from medical wastes to smoke alarms to certain kinds of old glass and ceramics can contain low levels of radiation. (Photo courtesy Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection [http://www.dep.state.pa.us] ) These wastes include byproducts of research and industrial processes that have been exposed to radioactivity, including discarded containers, tools and uniforms from nuclear power plants, hospitals and universities. Congress passed a law in 1980 making each state responsible for disposing of low level radioactive wastes generated within its borders. The Low Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act authorized the creation of regional compacts under which states can combine their wastes at a single site to save resources. Three existing waste sites in Nevada, South Carolina and Washington were told they could stop accepting radioactive wastes from outside their compact regions after other regions had time to build their own disposal facilities. The SCC chose North Carolina as the host state for the southeastern region's low level radioactive waste disposal site in 1986, and planning was begun to build the dump along the border of Wake and Chatham counties. In July 1999, North Carolina lawmakers decided to withdraw the state from the Southeast Compact, and end construction at the proposed radioactive disposal site south of Raleigh. The SCC had cut off funding for the project in 1997, and North Carolina officials said they had concluded that the region no longer needed its own radioactive waste dump. [compaction] Supercompaction technology can compress barrels of radioactive solid waste to one-fifth their original size for easier disposal. The photograph shows this technology in use at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. (Photo courtesy Department of Energy [http://www.doe.gov] ) By 1999, about $130 million had already been spent on the North Carolina project, including $80 provided by other SCC member states, but little concrete progress had been made at the site. The SCC now wants its $80 million back, along with another $10 million in penalties for North Carolina's abandonment of the Compact. The SCC first asked North Carolina to pay $90 million to the Southern Compact in December 1999, but North Carolina refused. In July 2000, the SCC asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, but the nation's highest court denied the Compact's motion, saying the Compact's member states would have to file suit themselves. On Monday, four of the member states did just that. "The decision to file a lawsuit against another state is not one to be made lightly," said Virginia attorney general Jerry Kilgore. "But, the circumstances here have left us no choice. The size of the sum involved, the refusal of North Carolina to make payment and the need for an environmentally safe, long term answer to the problem of low level radioactive waste, make this dispute appropriate for a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court." The Southeast Compact members say the North Carolina dump site is needed to handle the wastes common to the region's nuclear power plants, medical needs and other industries. But that argument has failed to sway other proposed hosts of compact disposal sites across the nation. [Ward Valley] Protests by California cancer patients helped end plans to build a low level radioactive waste dump in Ward Valley. (Photo courtesy Greenaction) In California, for example, plans to build a low level radioactive waste dump at Ward Valley were turned back in 1999 by a combination of activist encampment at the site and court action. Just three licensed disposal sites for low level radioactive wastes now exist in the U.S. Barnwell, located in Barnwell, South Carolina, accepts waste from all U.S. sites except those in Rocky Mountain and Northwest compacts. Hanford, located in Hanford, Washington, accepts waste from the Northwest and Rocky Mountain compacts. Envirocare, located in Clive, Utah, accepts waste from all regions of the United States. "There is a growing national crisis in LLRW management. North Carolina, Nebraska and California have all failed to build a waste site," said the SCC's Setser. "People want the benefits of radioactive materials, such as medical procedures and smoke detectors, but politicians lack the will to put the needed facilities in their states." Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All Rights ***************************************************************** 13 Concerns voiced about shipping spent nuclear fuel Charlotte Observer | 06/05/2002 | BRUCE HENDERSON Charlotte Observer Shipments of used nuclear fuel from Charlotte-area power plants to the federal government's proposed disposal site in Yucca Mountain, Nev., would expose the public to unacceptable levels of radiation, an advocacy group claimed Tuesday. Accidents, sabotage or exposure to radiation from inside shipping containers threaten the public, said the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. The group exhibited a full-size model of a huge, dumbbell-shaped container in which spent fuel is transported. A Duke Power spokesman defended the safety of used-fuel shipments. Citing a 1995 study by the state of Nevada, which opposes the Yucca Mountain project, the Blue Ridge group said an estimated 193 rail shipments would leave Duke Power's Catawba nuclear plant on Lake Wylie over the life of Yucca Mountain. An additional 211 rail shipments would leave the McGuire plant on Lake Norman, it said. Used fuel could also be shipped by trucks, it said. People stuck in traffic alongside a shipping container could be exposed to 30 to 50 millirems of radiation, the group said. "This waste is too hot and too deadly to travel through our communities," said the group's Louis Zeller. Used-fuel shipping containers are designed to limit radiation to 10 millirems per hour at a distance of about two yards, said Duke spokesman Tim Pettit. A typical dental X-ray exposes patients to about 10 millirems, he said. Any number of shipping container designs, with different capacities, could ship used fuel to Yucca Mountain, Pettit said. Duke safely shipped 300 used-fuel assemblies from its Oconee plant near Seneca, S.C., to McGuire in the 1980s, he said. Despite years of such shipments nationwide, Pettit said, no accident has ever resulted in the breach of a used-fuel container. ***************************************************************** 14 Nuclear recycling BYU NewsNet - 4 Jun 2002 Dear Editor, Your editorial about recycling nuclear waste was exactly correct. In an average spent fuel assembly (such as those to be buried at Yucca Mountain), there is an energy equivalent of about 90,000 barrels of oil remaining in it! This is in the form of unused fissile materials U-235 and Pu-239. The burying of such energy is simply shortsighted driven in large measure by public fear and energy illiteracy. Fear and its awful consequences have been a disheartening, costly, and dangerous aspect of human activity for centuries. Will it ever end? Michael R. Fox, Ph.D. Richland, Wash. Copyright ©2002 BYU NewsNet ***************************************************************** 15 Senate panel passes Yucca Las Vegas SUN June 05, 2002 By Benjamin Grove WASHINGTON -- A key Senate panel approved Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository today, leaving one final congressional hurdle for the project: the full Senate. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the controversial plan, 13-10, sending the measure to the full Senate for a vote by the end of July. The 23-member committee voted mostly along party lines to approve Yucca Mountain as the permanent burial site of the nation's nuclear waste. Only one Republican, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, voted against Yucca. Three Democrats voted for Yucca: Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Bob Graham of Florida and panel Chairman Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham cheered the committee's "bipartisan" vote. "The Senate must now decide whether to leave nuclear waste stranded at 131 sites in 39 states or allow the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make the independent determination that Yucca Mountain is suitable to serve as a geological repository," Abraham said in a written statement. Nuclear industry officials also hailed the committee. The site is "a key element of U.S. energy security, our national security, environmental protection and the future growth of our economy," said Joe Colvin, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's top lobby group. Bingaman, who had not publicly discussed how he intended to vote, said the Energy Department had amassed enough scientific evidence for a congressional site recommendation. He added that experts at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would have the final say. It's unclear when that vote will happen. By law, the Senate must vote by July 25, a committee staff member said today. The Senate's leading Yucca advocate, Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Democratic and Republican leaders would work out a timetable. It's possible senators could vote this month, he said. The committee vote was an important victory in the long history of the project, he added. "It's a big one, relative to what the taxpayer's have invested in Yucca," he said. When asked about how he felt about the upcoming full Senate vote, Murkowski said, "Good. We'll prevail, despite the lobbying of our good friend, (Nevada's Democratic) Sen. (Harry) Reid." Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., have been lobbying colleagues against Yucca Mountain with limited effect. The House overwhelmingly voted to approve the measure, and so far, Reid and Ensign have struggled to get much support, especially among Republicans. Today Ensign revealed a parliamentary tactic he and Reid plan to use to try to block a vote. Under unique rule in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, any senator can bring the resolution to the floor for a vote. That breaks with Senate tradition that only the Senate majority leader -- currently Democrat Tom Daschle of South Dakota, -- can call for a vote. Daschle, who opposes Yucca, has said he would not call for a Yucca vote. If another senator brings the resolution forward, Reid and Ensign plan to challenge the action on the grounds that only the Senate leader can do that -- despite what the Nuclear Waste Policy Act says, Ensign said. History is on their side, Ensign said. In five other rare cases in the 1990s when rules allowed any senator to bring a bill forward, the legislation was not voted on without the majority leader calling for the vote, Ensign said. "It's a very dangerous precedent to set for Republicans or Democrats," he said. Ensign and Reid are putting great faith in the planned procedural maneuver. "That's our last bag of tricks," Ensign said. "It's our best hope." Reid said, "We need some Republicans to help us, and we'll take that help procedurally or substantively." The resolution passed with only brief discussion from the committee. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., a nuclear power advocate, said he had wrestled for a long time on how to vote. Today he voted against Yucca. But he said if it came down to a close full Senate vote, he would not cast the deciding vote against it. "I've struggled with this. I'm almost in anguish on this vote. I didn't sleep much last night. As we approach this vote, I still struggle," Carper said. Also voting against Yucca was Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. She cited the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which said that scientific study had not proved Yucca sound. "This is a complex problem in which we need to see the answers and the science," she said. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a Yucca advocate, said scientific studies at Yucca Mountain would be complete in a few years, by the time the Energy Department applies for a waste-dumping license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The full Senate vote will mark another historic milestone in Yucca's history. The Energy Department has been studying the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas for 20 years and spent roughly $6 billion to determine if the site could safely isolate the nation's most radioactive high-level nuclear waste for 10,000 years. Abraham recommended the site to President Bush in February, and Bush quickly approved it. The House approved Yucca on a 306-117 vote May 8. If the Senate passes Yucca, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would have to approve the site, which could take several years. No waste would be shipped to Yucca Mountain until 2010 at the earliest. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 16 Letter: 'Home cooking' served up on waste transport Las Vegas SUN June 05, 2002 Sun reporter Ben Grove's fine June 3 article, "Reid wants probe of Abraham Yucca aide," is worthy of revisiting. Over the next decade, government contracts dealing with nuclear waste projects will be in the neighborhood of about $300 billion. Of this, the number of contractors now set up to receive this work can be counted on one hand. Of those includes Undersecretary Card's alumnus CH2M Hill and Kaiser-Hill. In a rush to judge Yucca Mountain suitable as a site for long-term storage, the 1982 Nuclear Waste Act is always quoted. The fact, however, is that said law also and equally mandated in Section 222 that while study is under way, alternatives to geologic storage would be pursued -- which has not been the case. Is this, too, by design so that small handful of contractors be set up to benefit from their tunnel vision approach to push Yucca Mountain for specific special interests? A small handful of contractors will be beginning to vitrify, encapsulate and transport this nuclear waste at costs to be made in the billions that include among the few, CH2M Hill and K-Hill. Of course they want Yucca Mountain to go forward. Sen. Harry Reid is correct in his suspicion of "home cooking" being served up by our department officials and their rush to pick and choose just what part of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Act and its 1987 amendment that bests suits their own self-interests, while purposely disregarding sections of that very mandate that was intended to meet the needs of our society in the long term -- that being Section 222. WILLIAM SIMMONS All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 17 Nuclear Panel Likely to Focus On Quake Risks The Salt Lake Tribune -- Wednesday, June 5, 2002 Nuclear Waste Quake Risks Likely Focus of Panel The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board convenes in Salt Lake City the rest of this week to consider permits that would allow the utility coalition Private Fuel Storage to store nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation. It is the panel's sixth week of fact-finding on such issues as the proposed facility's resistance to earthquakes, its impact on proposed wilderness and its susceptibility to jet-fighter crashes. A final decision on the license is not expected until year's end. In the meantime, the state of Utah, the project's most bitter opponent, continues its attack on the plan. Earthquake risks are expected to be the focus of discussion at the downtown Sheraton hotel before the hearings wrap up in Washington in early July. If federal regulators approve the license, PFS will use about 100 acres of the reservation for storing up to 44,000 tons of lethally radioactive waste. Up to 4,000 steel-and-concrete casks full of the waste would sit aboveground on 3-feet-thick concrete pads over an earthquake fault. While PFS insists the casks will survive even the worst temblor Skull Valley might deliver, the state's lawyers contend the 175-ton containers have not undergone adequate testing. -- Judy Fahys © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 18 *Yucca vote moves to full Senate* United Press International By Scott R. Burnell UPI Science News From the Science & Technology Desk Published 6/5/2002 2:17 PM WASHINGTON, June 5 (UPI) -- In a surprisingly close vote, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved Wednesday a resolution overriding Nevada's objections to the proposed nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain, setting up the final vote in the next few weeks. The 13-10 tally ran primarily along party lines, with Colorado's Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell the only Republican voting against the site. Committee chairman Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., broke from their party in approving the measure. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was pointed in her opposition to what she called a less than complete proposal. Cantwell's position hinged not only on doubts about the science behind Yucca, but on her crusade to clean up the Hanford nuclear reservation in her state. "It's critically important for the state of Washington that we have a comprehensive solution that will take more than 13 percent of Hanford's waste," Cantwell said. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, told Cantwell and the committee the scientific issues would have to be resolved before the site could be licensed. Craig also called on his colleagues to vote objectively, a veiled reference to efforts by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to garner votes with personal pleas. Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., said his struggle to come to a decision on the matter led to a sleepless night, as he balanced his advocacy for nuclear power against a desire to fairly treat fellow senators, including Reid, who came to Capitol Hill the same year as Carper. "I'm not as smart as Solomon. If I were, I could figure out better how to cut this baby," Carper said. "This resolution won't be discharged today with my vote ... this resolution won't be defeated on the Senate floor because of my vote." Committee staffers said the timeline for dealing with the resolution would have the committee reporting the measure to the full Senate no later than June 17. For the Department of Energy to submit a Yucca licensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Senate must approve the resolution and President Bush must sign it before July 25. Despite losing battle after battle on Capitol Hill, Nevada officials have made plain their intention to carry the war into the legal arena. At least two lawsuits have been filed to contest Department of Energy's site characterization process and the provisions of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which set up the legislative path for Congress to veto the state's objections. Earlier in the meeting, the committee approved S. 1768, a bill permitting the Department of the Interior to implement the Calfed Bay-Delta program, which deals with water usage in the Southwest, including California. The bill authorizes $1.6 billion for the initial federal costs in the projected 30-year program of dam expansion, ecology monitoring and related issues. The committee also voted to recommend the full Senate confirm the nomination of Guy Caruso to be administrator of the DOE's energy information administration. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 19 Japan's A-Bomb Survivors Fear War Las Vegas SUN June 05, 2002 TOKYO- Firestorms that cast midday darkness beneath a sooty ceiling of ash. Victims' skin peeling off like chunks of orange rind. Naked, blackened bodies shuffling like zombies, their clothes blown off in the blast. After the mushroom clouds cleared, there was more misery. Months of radiation sickness - vomiting fits, hair loss, oozing sores. Those are the horrific memories from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where survivors of the world's only atomic bomb attacks look on aghast as Pakistan and India find themselves on the brink of a war that could possibly go nuclear. India has said it won't use nuclear weapons first, but Pakistan has not ruled out a first strike. "Both countries don't understand the real horror of atomic bombs," said 77-year-old Sunao Tsuboi, a Hiroshima native who was in Tokyo on Tuesday for the annual meeting of Japan's largest association of A-bomb survivors. Tsuboi wants no one to forget the horror. He was about a half-mile from ground zero when the 9,700-pound U.S. atomic bomb dubbed "Little Boy" exploded over downtown Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The bombing killed more than 140,000 people. Scientists estimate the warheads being readied by India and Pakistan are roughly the same size as that bomb. But a nuclear conflagration between the South Asian neighbors could quickly escalate, since both sides are armed. By some estimates, as many as 30 million people on both sides could die. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki - and throughout Japan - many people worry the lessons of the 1945 atomic bombings have faded into history and lost their cautionary impact. "People are beginning to forget the nuclear threat. Only the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had the experience," said Minoru Hataguchi, director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, where exhibits brim with the gruesome details of atomic attack. Leaders in India and Pakistan play down the risk of their conflict going nuclear. But worries are fueled by missile tests in Pakistan, promises of retaliation on both sides and the refusal of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to meet his Pakistani counterpart, President Pervez Musharraf, at this week's summit in Kazakhstan. The United States has advised 60,000 Americans in India to leave, while a host of nations have called back embassy staff and diplomats' families. Hiroshima mayor Tadatoshi Akiba highlighted the human cost of atomic showdown in a plea for peace sent Saturday to Vajpayee and Musharraf. "The suffering inflicted on innocent civilians in both countries would be immense, devastating environmental destruction would ensue, and humanity would be thrust closer to the brink of self-obliteration," Akiba wrote. Anti-nuclear sentiment runs high throughout Japan, which has pledged neither to build or possess atomic weapons. The nation's sensibilities were tested this week when the Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's chief Cabinet secretary indicated that the international situation might someday change enough that Japan would abandon that doctrine. The statement generated protests in Hiroshima and prompted opposition parties to call for the aide's dismissal, despite quick assurances from Koizumi that Japan has no intention of changing its policy. Hiroshima mayor Akiba summarized what many felt. "For a government leader in such an important post to say such a thing denies the terrible experience of the victims," Akiba said. "It stamps out the belief of Hiroshima that nuclear weapons are evil and cannot coexist with humanity." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 20 Bush Seeks to Ratify New Nuke Treaty Las Vegas SUN June 05, 2002 WASHINGTON- President Bush pressed key senators Wednesday to approve a new nuclear arms reduction treaty that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed late last month. Bush summoned Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., a senior member of the panel, to discuss the new treaty. The president and Putin signed the pact May 23 during Bush's trip to Russia. It calls for the United States and Russia to slash their nuclear arsenals by two-thirds over the next decade, to 1,700-2,200 warheads each. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush would urge Lugar and Biden in the closed-door meeting to move to ratification before the Senate adjourns Oct. 4. Afterward, Biden said he envisioned a half-dozen Senate hearings on the three-page treaty. He said it should reach the full Senate by fall. Both senators said they were concerned about where the Russians will store nuclear material from the warheads. The speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house said last month he sees no obstacles to Russian ratification of a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States, and said that it probably will not happen until autumn. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 21 Pakistan leader: We may use nuclear arms first The Seattle Times: Wednesday, June 05, 2002, 12:22 a.m. Pacific ALMATY, Kazakstan — Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said yesterday he would not surrender first use of nuclear weapons against India in their dispute over the Kashmir region. Efforts by Russia, China and other nations failed to get Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to hold face-to-face talks. Musharraf, asked at a news conference to state Pakistan's nuclear policy and explain why it will not join India in renouncing first use of nuclear weapons, said, "The possession of nuclear weapons by any state obviously implies they will be used under some circumstances." He said, however, it would be irresponsible for a leader to discuss such things and Pakistan's "deeper policy" is for denuclearization of South Asia. India's national-security adviser, Brajesh Mishra, responded: "We will not be the first to use nuclear weapons. India hopes the enormity of the use of nuclear weapons is understood by the president of Pakistan." Despite diplomatic maneuvering, some of the 1 million Indian and Pakistani soldiers posted along both sides of the 1,800-mile frontier unleashed fresh artillery and gunfire at each other in Kashmir yesterday. Pakistan reported that India shelled four sectors of Kashmir, killing one civilian and injuring nine. The Pakistan army said it retaliated by destroying at least four Indian bunkers, causing some casualties among Indian soldiers. India and Pakistan have gone to war twice over the mainly Muslim region of Kashmir, which is divided between the two nations. Militants have been seeking to either create an independent Kashmir or unite the Indian-controlled sector with mainly Muslim Pakistan. India's Hindu nationalist-led coalition government is threatening to take military action unless Pakistan stops Islamic militants based on its side of Kashmir from joining the insurgency in India's portion of the Himalayan region. Musharraf has threatened to retaliate for any Indian attacks. The United States and other countries are pressing him to stop the cross-border infiltration to prevent a war. But Musharraf faces a potentially dangerous backlash at home if he curtails Pakistani support for the 12-year uprising in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The guerrillas have considerable support among ordinary Pakistanis, armed Islamic opposition factions and the military. While speaking at a summit of Central Asian leaders attended by Musharraf and Vajpayee, Russian President Vladimir Putin likened their impasse over the Himalayan province to the 1961 Cuban missile crisis between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Today, as then, world leaders have to take responsibility to quash the risk of nuclear war, Putin said. Musharraf said he accepted Putin's invitation to attend possible talks in Moscow. He said he did not know whether Vajpayee, who also met Putin, would go to Moscow for talks. But the Kremlin press service said Putin did not plan to bring Vajpayee to Moscow since the Russian leader already is scheduled to visit India in December. The two leaders were among the 16 participants in the first Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, which adopted a declaration condemning "all forms and manifestations of terrorism" and promising "to strengthen cooperation and dialogue." But even though they sat for hours in the same room and then went to a joint lunch, Musharraf and Vajpayee managed to avoid talking to each other during the two days of the conference. At the security conference yesterday morning, the Indian and Pakistani leaders sat across a long, horseshoe-shaped table and angrily blamed each other for more than five decades of conflict. The countries have fought three wars since 1947: two over Kashmir, which both countries claim in its entirety. Vajpayee repeated his willingness to talk with Pakistan but said there first must be a halt to cross-border terrorism in India-controlled Kashmir, such as the deadly assaults on the Indian Parliament in December and an Indian army base in Kashmir last month, which left 34 dead, mostly wives and children of army officers. India says the terrorism is carried out by Pakistan-based Islamic militants fighting the past 12 years for Kashmir's independence or merger with Pakistan. Alluding to Pakistan, Vajpayee said, "Nuclear powers should not use nuclear blackmail." Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is expected in the region this weekend, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is due to visit Pakistan and India this week. Before arriving in South Asia, Rumsfeld will attend a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, a defense meeting in Estonia and will visit the Persian Gulf countries of Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, which have allowed U.S. troops and equipment to be based in their territory for strikes in Afghanistan. Rumsfeld said he expects to discuss the India-Pakistan crisis with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov in Brussels on the sidelines of the first meeting of the new NATO-Russia Council. The group gives Russia a limited role in the defense alliance. The United States cut military ties with Pakistan after Pakistan and India conducted nuclear tests in 1998. Cooperation with Pakistan began again after Musharraf cut ties with the Taliban and allowed U.S. troops to use his country's territory as a staging area for attacks on the regime. Pakistan was the Taliban's chief ally and patron before the Sept. 11 attacks. The United States signed a limited military-cooperation agreement with India last month. While attending an international conference in Barbados, Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday pledged "a full-court diplomatic press" on the two nations, saying, "It would be absolutely horrible in the year 2002 for any nation to use nuclear weapons in a situation such as this." Compiled from The Associated Press, Chicago Tribune and Knight Ridder Newspapers reports. Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company ***************************************************************** 22 Fukuda's nuke comment sparks widespread fallout Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda's recent remark regarding the nation's three nonnuclear principles has created quite a stir. Increasing numbers of opposition members are calling for the top government spokesman to resign, and some of his fellow Liberal Democratic Party members have openly criticized his comments as "careless." At a meeting of chairs of the ruling parties' Diet affairs committees Monday, Fukuda said: "I'd like to apologize for (the comment) sparking a controversy in the Diet while it was in the final stage (of deliberations over various important issues)." Fukuda, 65, apparently chose his words carefully to imply that the media had misrepresented him. At a press conference Monday, he said, "It's regrettable that media reports have led people to believe that I indicated that it's possible the government will revise the principles." The nation has three nonnuclear principles of not possessing, not producing and not allowing nuclear arms on its soil. The controversy arose after Fukuda, speaking as an unnamed source, said: "Given that there're calls to revise the Constitution, calls also may arise (for Japan) to possess (nuclear arms) should major changes occur on the international scene." Reports of the comments immediately evoked criticism among LDP members. "Now is a crucial time (for Diet deliberations) and he should be careful to make appropriate comments at such an important time," Tadamori Oshima, chairman of the LDP's Diet Affairs Committee, said. The ruling bloc is concerned that the confusion created by Fukuda's comment may derail its plan to have key bills passed by the ongoing Diet session, scheduled to end June 19. The legislation includes a package of bills designed to enhance the nation's preparedness for a foreign armed attack. On Tuesday, Fukuda told Cabinet members, "This also is a caution to myself, but I'd like everybody to appreciate the seriousness of the situation and focus on getting the bills passed." Fukuda, known as a prudent government spokesman, apparently let down his guard while speaking informally with journalists following a press conference Friday, because they had promised to attribute his remarks to a top government official. During the press conference he had commented on a magazine article that reported Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe is in favor of the nation possessing nuclear weapons. Asked about the possibility that Japan could possess intercontinental ballistic missiles, Fukuda reportedly said, "Japan currently doesn't have long-range missiles (ICBMs), but theoretically it could." A reporter then asked, "The government has been saying that the country is not allowed to possess ICBMs." Fukuda was quoted as replying: "The Constitution doesn't stipulate that 'the country is not allowed to have (them).' We don't have them because of the government policy on the issue." The reporters sought to have Fukuda clarify his words, but Fukuda's secretary interrupted and read the government's official explanation on the matter. "ICBMs are considered as beyond minimum-required armament for the country's self-defense," the secretary said. Fukuda dodged further questions by saying, "Therefore, Japan isn't allowed to have them." However, he went on to make the controversial remark during the informal talks after the conference. Fukuda admitted Monday that he was the "top government official" that had been quoted and went on to speak in scathing terms of the media. "I don't know how the media representatives misunderstood what I meant to say, but they should be more careful," he said Monday. During the administration of former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, Fukuda was named the "exculpatory chief cabinet secretary" among the government and ruling parties, for his role in offering government explanations of Mori's frequent gaffes. It therefore is ironic that Fukuda is now offering explanations of his own words. The controversy has come at a bad time for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who apparently had hoped to take advantage of the hype surrounding the soccer World Cup finals to boost the popularity of his administration. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 23 Mushroom cloud rejected for proposed license plate Las Vegas SUN: June 05, 2002 Department of Motor Vehicles officials rejected a new Nevada license plate design featuring an atomic mushroom cloud as insensitive to the times, the DMV said today. In a letter to the Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation, which will benefit from specially designed license plates, DMV director Ginny Lewis rejected the design because of current events. "In light of the intense efforts Nevada is making to prevent our state from becoming the country's nuclear waste dump, the present threat of nuclear war between India and Pakistan and the fear of new terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, any reference on a license plate to weapons of mass destruction is inappropriate and would likely offend our citizens," she said. The 2001 Legislature passed a bill allowing the foundation to raise money through sales of a special license plate. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 24 Fukuda Says Japan Maintains Non-Nuclear Principles Xinhuanet 2002-06-05 17:09:07 TOKYO, June 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a parliament panel Wednesday that the government has no intention of abandoning the "three principles" on nuclear arms, Kyodo News reported. "The government's continuing position to maintain three non-nuclear principles remain unchanged. It is also my conviction," Kyodo quoted Fukuda who caused an uproar by saying Japan's ban on nuclear weapons could be reviewed. Fukuda told the panel of the House of Representatives Committeeon Health, Labor and Welfare that he intended the remarks to mean there was the possibility of diverse opinions existing concerning national security policy in accordance with changes in international circumstances. "It is very regrettable that I have troubled many quarters by various news reports," Fukuda said. Enditem Copyright © 2000 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 25 Nuclear worries follow comment Calgary Sun - TODAY'S NEWS Calgarysun.com [http://www.calgarysun.com/] > News > Wednesday, June 5, 2002 By AP ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Pakistan's president said yesterday having atomic weapons implies they will be used -- once again raising fears that the conflict over Kashmir could explode into a nuclear war. Gen. Pervez Musharraf traded angry accusations with India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was seated at the same conference table. Musharraf, asked at a news conference to state Pakistan's nuclear policy and explain why it will not renounce first use of nuclear weapons as India has, said: "The possession of nuclear weapons by any state obviously implies they will be used under some circumstances." Efforts by Russia, China and other countries failed to get India and Pakistan to hold direct talks. But Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to see progress toward such negotiations. In a speech at an Asian security conference attended by both leaders, Putin compared the explosive impasse over the Himalayan province to the 1961 Cuban missile crisis, which put the world at risk of nuclear war. Today, as then, world leaders have to take responsibility to quash that risk, Putin said. After holding separate talks with Musharraf and Vajpayee, Putin said he saw progress. "In any case, both leaders expressed their interest in direct contacts." Despite the diplomatic manoeuvring, soldiers unleashed fresh artillery and gunfire at each other in Kashmir. Pakistan said India shelled four sectors of Kashmir, killing one civilian and injuring nine. The Pakistani army said it retaliated by destroying at least four Indian bunkers, causing some casualties among Indian soldiers. Previous story: No leads on escapees Next story: Investigators ID 9/11 architect Copyright © 2001, Sun Media Corporation / Netgraphe inc. All ***************************************************************** 26 EDITORIAL: Japan's nuclear policy: Fukuda's `background' remarks were out of line. Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com [http://www.asahi.com/] Japan cannot complain if people in other countries suspect Japan has designs on again becoming a military power. Comments by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda on the government's three non-nuclear principles have stirred a hornet's nest both at home and abroad. At a regular press conference, Fukuda addressed the government's interpenetration of the Constitution that Japan can possess nuclear weapons. In a subsequent not-for-attribution briefing, Fukuda said, ``The times have changed to the point that even revising the Constitution is being talked about. Depending upon the world situation, circumstances and public opinion could require Japan to possess nuclear weapons.'' Fukuda later said he had not meant to suggest the government would consider changing the three non-nuclear principles. Even so, his remarks were ill-considered. The three non-nuclear principles-no manufacture, no possession and no approval of introduction of nuclear weapons-were established in 1967 during the administration of Prime Minister Eisaku Sato. Since then, they have become a fundamental national policy. For a nation that suffered the devastation of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is a firm commitment. While there is some doubt about whether the government has strictly observed the principle of not letting nuclear weapons be brought in, no administration has ever even hinted the possibility of changing that policy. Japan has always been under suspicion from abroad that it might eventually arm itself with nuclear weapons. But public opinion would not permit such nuclear armament. Nor would nuclear arms be a strategically viable option. Nuclear weapons would need a huge financial outlay. Topographically, the Japanese archipelago is not suited to be defended with nuclear weapons. If Japan were to embark upon a nuclear arms program, the nation would be left out in the cold in diplomatic terms. Relations with the United States would deteriorate hopelessly. These points have been taken for granted by Japan's experts in foreign policy and military affairs. We wonder how well-informed Fukuda was on these points when he made his comments. The international community is now at pains to prevent a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. Beyond that, the FIFA World Cup, held jointly by Japan and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) opened as Fukuda made his ill-considered remarks. What could he have been thinking of? Asian nations have been suspicious of Japan's intent for the government having submitted bills to deal with military emergencies soon after sending a Maritime Self-Defense Force flotilla to the Indian Ocean to help in the fight against terrorism. Fukuda made his remarks in this setting. Japan cannot complain if people in other countries suspect Japan has designs on again becoming a military power. The economy remains sluggish; scandal after scandal has been unearthed involving suspected misdeeds of Diet members. The staff of the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang bungled its handling of five people from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) who sought asylum there. On top of all that, the Defense Agency has been found to have put together a list and background of people who sought information from the agency under the Information Disclosure Law and circulated the list within many sections of the agency. The current Diet session is about to conclude with the status of important legislation still uncertain. The political climate does not allow for any carelessness among the leaders of government. It is incomprehensible that a leading figure in the inner circle of government could make such boneheaded remarks. It is also stunning that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would respond to the situation by observing, ``I have no problem with that.'' The prime minister said his administration will stick to the three non-nuclear principles. But his statement has not imparted a sense of concern that Fukuda's remarks have jeopardized his administration's credibility on the question of adhering to the three non-nuclear principles. Fukuda's comments have been criticized even within the ruling parties, and the opposition wants his head. Koizumi must make his administration's stand clear or witness its downfall. The Asahi Shimbun, June 4(IHT/Asahi: June 5,2002) (06/05) ***************************************************************** 27 Kiss My Nuclear Arsenal Much macho swagger as India and Pakistan threaten annihilation, and the U.S. feels totally left out By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist [mmorford@sfgate.com] Wednesday, June 5, 2002 And then PM Vajpayee snickered at President Musharraf and President Musharraf scowled at PM Vajpayee and both met separately with President Nazarbayev to pule about how there is no way on Vishnu/Allah's shattered green earth either of them will stand down until the other backs off, and no way will they back off until the other stands down and hey if he doesn't like it I've got a freshly armed nuclear warhead with his country's name all over it so there. Just another brink of another potential nuclear holocaust wrought by another pair of politically unkempt and piously volatile countries that really really hate each other due to very complicated and long-standing issues regarding land and religion and culture and power and ego and who has the cooler formal robes and smarmier dignitaries and more pious frowns. And where's the U.S.? Not even invited to throw our weight around, ram our political agenda into the mix. And boy are we steamed. Of course we mean India and Pakistan, although maybe you thought we meant the U.S. and Egypt or the U.S. and Iraq or the U.S. and any number of recently named newly minted enemies we just so happen to be pointing major nuclear weaponry toward at this very moment shhh, but no. No, it's another pair of bitter warring nations full of enmity and vanity we don't even have major multibillion-dollar economic or oil pipeline interests in. No wonder Bush is so flustered and baffled and resentful and Rumsfeld now has to learn that Kashmir doesn't mean a really soft sweater. Two nations who seem more than willing to obliterate each other over largely trivial reasons, and if you're right this second saying hey buddy their reasons are far from trivial I say wrong, they're threatening more than just war, they're waving around nuclear arsenals like big macho sticks and promising they won't ever use them no really we promise just don't mess with us or we just might, even though we won't. They're threatening human annihilation and massive karmic destruction and violent fatuity on a scale many of us thought had perhaps receded into history once and for all. After all, as the old adage goes, no one wins a nuclear war. But now here it is again, threatening to devolve the planet and regress the human species a few hundred millennia and once and for all prove that Muslims are just as ignorant as Hindus who are just as ignorant as Christians who are just as ignorant as the fill-in-the-blank. These are nuclear warheads. Any reason they can possibly muster is, wholly and inarguably, trivial. Of course the superpowers are up in arms and Bush is flustered and feeling rather impotent as in rush China and Russia and the U.S. to try and calm things down, and please stop giggling at the painful irony of those Three War-Happy Stooges playing nuclear peacekeeper. But it is rather funny. It is rather painfully and bitterly ironic. Let us now recall how George "Nukuler" Bush and Vladimir "Plutonium Leak" Putin just recently agreed to temporarily unplug a few hundred long-range nukes and promised not to use them against each other unless they really really need to, as meanwhile Cheney and the flying monkeys at the Pentagon quietly work to crank up our arsenal of short-range nuclear warheads aimed at Iran and North Korea and Libya but for some reason not Florida. And now here we are, along with fuzzywarm pacifist Russia, trying to assuage India and Pakistan, stomping in with our jackboots of cultural ignorance and political strong-arming, trying to prevent them from escalating their ongoing battles into something far, far worse, like we know better. Here we are, acting like we are really just completely horrified and morally shocked that anyone would actually consider using nuclear missiles besides us in this day and age. Isn't that cute? Doesn't it make you proud? Ah, blatant hypocrisy. It's an American political institution. Of course neither India nor Pakistan is going to launch a full-scale nuclear strike. Of course it's all macho posturing and swaggering cold-war maneuvering, which is why it's not splashed in 200-point bold on the front page of the paper every day and headlines aren't screaming from every media orifice and no one's really paying all that much attention. They wouldn't really do it, would they? Of course they wouldn't. Probably. What's on ESPN? Besides, India and Pakistan have warred before, ever since those pesky Brits cleaved colonial India into messy Islamic and Hindu states, and have done so sans much American intervention or concern. Really, what's a little deeply complicated and tribally intricate cultural war between countries with histories and belief systems we don't fully or even partially understand, battle lines drawn down the middle of Kashmir, one of the more beautiful places on the planet? Happens all the time. Except this time, they have nukes. They have serious issues. Which explains the U.S. response, shot through, it seems, with pangs of frustration and ego and a decided lack of our usual power to let it be known who the real obliteration-ready nuclear power is on this planet. This is what it feels like. How dare these political brats threaten nuclear war without us. How dare they ignore our indignant demands for them to stand down. After all, we veritably invented violent egomaniacal macho end-game stratagems in the name of political and cultural bile under the threat of total human obliteration. Darn right we did. Darn nuclear punks. Don't they see we've got a hollow war-that's-not-really-war to wage over oil and money and future presidential elections over here? We don't have time for this serious deeply ingrained cultural messiness involving genuine, passionately felt issues. How dare they show us up, steal our spotlight, ignore us completely. What do they think this is, a game? Thoughts for the author? Email him [mmorford@sfgate.com] . Mark Morford's Notes &Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday on SF Gate, unless it appears on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which it never does. He also writes the Morning Fix, a deeply skewed thrice-weekly email column and newsletter. Subscribe at sfgate.com/newsletters/ ©2002 SF Gate   ***************************************************************** 28 Terrible (fake) accident to hit test site today* By HENRY BREAN, Managing Editor June 05, 2002 *Official says participants in disaster drill should expect to find themselves in 'deep doo-doo'* There will be terrible accident today at the Nevada Test Site, but it's OK; test site officials have known it was coming for almost a year. The accident - or terrorist attack, or natural disaster, or whatever it turns out to be - is being staged as a test for emergency personnel both on and off the 1,350-square-mile federal installation about 40 miles north of Pahrump. The Nye County Hazardous Materials Team will be among the agencies taking part. For obvious reasons, the specifics of the disaster scenario are a closely guarded secret, but it is expected to happen at the low-level radioactive storage facility at Frenchman Flat and involve some simulated nuclear waste. "No (real) hazardous material will be used," said Mike Petullo, emergency manager for test site contractor Bechtel Nevada. Petullo and other officials from Bechtel and the U.S. Department of Energy have been planning today's exercise for the last 10 months or so. DOE is required to conduct an exercise to test the readiness of both on- and off-site emergency agencies every three years. During an organizational meeting in Pahrump last week, Petullo explained how the scenario would unfold. It will begin sometime this morning with a distress call that will be initially fielded by emergency personnel from DOE and Bechtel. "Our guys will respond, and they'll realize very quickly that they are in deep doo-doo," said Petullo. "That's when they'll call for mutual aid." The Nye County hazmat personnel will already be staged just outside the test site gate at Mercury, but to keep things realistic, they will be held there for 30-40 minutes to simulate their travel time from Pahrump. Though the exercise will not involve any real hazardous materials, it will be conducted not far from some low-level radioactive waste. Petullo said that at least part of the "incident" would take place in a waste pit that was empty when the exercise was first being planned but that now contains "two or three rows of actual low-level waste." "But you won't be able to get anywhere near the waste," said Petullo, who added that the waste pits are "pretty long" and the radiation levels there are no higher than background levels typically found elsewhere at the test site. Roughly 300 "players" are expected to take part, including employees of Bechtel Nevada and DOE both on the test site and at offices in Las Vegas. Nye County will send 12-15 participants, including about 10 hazmat personnel and the rest local HAM radio operators who will assist with communications just as they would in the event of a real disaster. With that in mind, Petullo warned area residents who monitor scanner traffic to expect some alarming transmissions from the test site this morning, though whenever possible, such transmissions will be followed with an announcement that what they are hearing is only a drill. There will also be participants from the Nye County Sheriff's Office and Wackenhut security, which patrol the test site; Mountain View Hospital in Las Vegas; and from the journalism school at UNLV, which will be supplying a few students to pose as reporters. The Pahrump Valley Fire-Rescue Service will not take part because of "internal problems," Petullo said. Roving teams of controllers, evaluators and controller/evaluators, identified with different colored hats, will monitor the exercise. Petullo will serve as the head controller. There will also be actors on hand to portray accident victims, and the number of victims could grow should an emergency worker make fatal error or get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Petullo noted that during one of his previous exercises, he earned the nickname "Dr. Death." Though Petullo would not say exactly how long the exercise would last, he did say, "There's a good possibility that we'll go through lunch." That, too, may become part of the exercise, since "just like a real response, it will be up to the incident commander to decide when to feed his people." A critique, which Petullo called a "hot wash," will be held immediately following the exercise, with a more detailed review to follow. /©Pahrump Valley Times 2002/ ***************************************************************** 29 Hiroshima, Nagasaki protest U.S. subcritical test plan Wednesday, June 5, 2002 at 09:30 JST HIROSHIMA ? The U.S. announcement that it will on Wednesday conduct a subcritical nuclear test has sparked criticism from government leaders of two Japanese cities that were attacked by atomic bombs in World War II. Hiroshima Gov Yuzan Fujita sent a letter Tuesday to U.S. President George W Bush calling on the United States to cancel its planned test, Hiroshima prefectural government officials said. Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito said he sent a protest message to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo over the U.S. announcement. (Kyodo News) ***************************************************************** 30 Bush Seeks to Ratify New Nuke Treaty *Las Vegas SUN <../>* June 05, 2002 WASHINGTON- President Bush pressed key senators Wednesday to approve a new nuclear arms reduction treaty that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed late last month. Bush summoned Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., a senior member of the panel, to discuss the new treaty. The president and Putin signed the pact May 23 during Bush's trip to Russia. It calls for the United States and Russia to slash their nuclear arsenals by two-thirds over the next decade, to 1,700-2,200 warheads each. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush would urge Lugar and Biden in the closed-door meeting to move to ratification before the Senate adjourns Oct. 4. Afterward, Biden said he envisioned a half-dozen Senate hearings on the three-page treaty. He said it should reach the full Senate by fall. Both senators said they were concerned about where the Russians will store nuclear material from the warheads. The speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house said last month he sees no obstacles to Russian ratification of a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States, and said that it probably will not happen until autumn. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 31 Anastasio to Head Livermore Lab Las Vegas SUN June 04, 2002 LIVERMORE, Calif.- Michael Anastasio was named Tuesday to head the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Anastasio, 53, currently is deputy director for strategic operations at the lab, and has been nationally recognized for his leadership in the design and safe stewardship of nuclear weapons during his 22 years there. "There is no question, he is the right person to take on the job at this time," said Richard Atkinson, president of the University of California, which operates the laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. The leading candidate for the job, Ray Juzaitis, dropped out of the running last month, saying his unwarranted link to the Wen Ho Lee debacle would have made it difficult to lead the lab. Juzaitis, who leads nuclear weapons research at the laboratory, supervised Lee. Lee became the focus of a federal investigation and was indicted on 59 felony counts alleging he transferred nuclear weapons information to unsecured computer terminals and tapes. Lee eventually pleaded guilty to a felony count of downloading sensitive material and was set free as the government's case collapsed. Anastasio will take office July 1, replacing C. Bruce Tarter. "I think the lab's in really excellent shape with a clear national security mission," Anastasio said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 32 DOE program enjoys widespread support The Oak Ridger Online -- Feature: Business -- 06/05/02 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff Oak Ridge did it. So did Kingston, Maryville, Oliver Springs, Anderson and Roane counties and the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership. In fact, more than 20 municipalities, counties and organizations recently voiced their support for the Department of Energy's reindustrialization program. All it took to generate the support was a simple request. "We asked them to do it," says David Bradshaw, mayor of Oak Ridge. The letters and resolutions of support, according to Bradshaw, were the result of concerns that DOE's plan to accelerate cleanup efforts in Oak Ridge could have negatively impacted reindustrialization -- a program that essentially brings into play unused DOE property and equipment as tools to recruit new industries. A good deal of that property is located at the Oak Ridge K-25 site, which is now referred to as the East Tennessee Technology Park or the Heritage Center. Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, agrees that those were legitimate concerns. Her organization closely monitors DOE's local environmental activities. When Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham took office in early 2001, he suggested that changes needed to be made in the federal agency's cleanup-related efforts. He then launched an almost year-long comprehensive review of DOE's Environmental Management program. Released this February, the review basically labeled current Oak Ridge cleanup efforts as "mediocre." It pointed out that Oak Ridge has focused on the "easy work," not on higher-risk activities. In response to the review, DOE headquarters launched an $800 million, fast-paced cleanup project in hopes of overhauling its entire Environmental Management program. In March, DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office submitted its proposal to participate in the program. The proposal emphasized the accelerated cleanup of the Melton Valley waste burial grounds at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and K-25, which was built in the 1940s to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons. According to the proposal, the completion date for K-25 would be shifted from 2016 to 2008, with the end result being a self-sustaining private industrial park. It took about two months, but DOE and its regulators -- the state of Tennessee and the Environmental Protection Agency -- finally agreed in May that Oak Ridge's proposal was workable. "It now looks like the accelerated cleanup may help the reindustrialization process," Bradshaw said. Paul Parson can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or pparson@oakridger.com [pparson@oakridger.com] . All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 33 Bechtel Jacobs gets new chief The Oak Ridger Online -- Feature: Business -- 06/05/02 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge cleanup contractor is getting a new manager. Effective next week, Steven Liedle will replace Joe Nemec as president of Bechtel Jacobs Co., which oversees environmental restoration projects locally as well as in Paducah, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio. The change is due to Nemec's appointment as Bechtel National Inc.'s new environmental operations chief, overseeing projects worldwide. When announcing the management change Tuesday, Tom Hash, president of Bechtel National, stated: "Joe has compiled a record of success in managing Bechtel's environmental restoration work for the Department of Energy at Hanford and Oak Ridge. Joe is extremely qualified to oversee BNI's (Bechtel National Inc.'s) domestic and international remediation business." Hash added that "Liedle's technical expertise, management skills and extensive experience in the DOE complex make him extremely well qualified to lead our team at Oak Ridge." Liedle joined Bechtel in 1982 and has held management positions on government and private sector remediation projects. His DOE experience includes serving as president and general manager of Bechtel Nevada, the managing contractor for the Nevada Test Site, and working as a project manager on the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, which was initiated in 1974 to remediate sites contaminated during the 1940s and 1950s as a result of work with uranium and thorium. As for Nemec, who also joined Bechtel in 1982, his new role gives him line management responsibility for implementing and improving the Integrated Safety Management System used at all the company's sites. This system is a process that incorporates safety into management and work practices at all levels, addressing all types of work and all types of hazards, to ensure safety for the workers, the public and the environment. In November, DOE revoked validation of Bechtel Jacobs' Integrated Safety Management System after the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a federal watchdog agency, pointed out that several year-old deficiencies had not been remedied. Dennis Hill, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs, said this morning that the company's safety system has yet to be revalidated. DOE initially awarded Bechtel Jacobs a five-and-a-half-year, $2.5 billion contract in December 1997 to oversee cleanup activities in Oak Ridge, Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky. Following a transition period, the company began work in April 1998. The company's contract is set to expire by October 2003, but DOE headquarters has yet to announce whether it will extend it or seek another company to tackle the cleanup projects. U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, has said that the pursuit of a new contractor could interrupt plans to accelerate the cleanup of high-risk sites, including the Oak Ridge K-25 site. Paul Parson can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or pparson@oakridger.com [pparson@oakridger.com] . All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 34 DOE Employment illness comp program Letter: Comments on 6-3-02 Comp Meeting - Glenn Bell Letter to the Editor Oak Ridger Comments on 6-3-02 Comp Meeting On Monday, June 3, a meeting was held in Oak Ridge to discuss the shortcomings of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Plan Act . This plan was enacted almost a year ago to provide compensation and medical benefits for those made ill in the production of America's nuclear arsenal. The very fact that the meeting was necessary provided both a warning sign and a chance to correct the shortcomings of this important Act. Comments and testimonies were little different from the DOE Public Meetings held two years ago. The details of where the EEOICPA falls short are well documented through a number of sources, including the government agencies which put the package together. Citizen comments from the Public Meetings of 2000, the Thompson Senate hearings of March 2000, the National Economics Council report of March 2000, Workers' Compensation hearings in Columbus, Ohio in May 2000, and scores of written comments point out the inadequacies. Labor unions, such as PACE, the Machinists' Union (IAM), AFL-CIO, and others have presented workable routes to resolution. Professional organizations, such as the Physicians for Social Responsibility have provided input. All follow a common thread: the EEOICPA, in its present form, is inadequate, and will cover only a small minority of deserving claimants. I have collected several thousand pages of supporting documents which verify these opinions. We are faced with two challenges: one, to make the present plan work as well as possible, and two, to expand both coverage and benefits. The present plan has shown resolution for a small percentage of claimants. However, even Special Cohort Cancer and Chronic Beryllium Disease claimants have been denied or delayed, when their cases were obvious, documented, and within the guidelines of the Act. Other sites are experiencing similar problems. I became personally involved in establishing communication with the powers involved, and resolving some of the stalled cases late last year. I will give much credit to our local office, and the Director of the Jacksonville regional office, in helping resolve some of these cases. However, the extremes taken by these claimants should have been unnecessary. It took requesting Congressional intervention, input from several medical experts, support of a number of the DOE team which helped develop the bill, my request for Contempt of Congress proceedings against the Department of Labor's Adjudication Board, and almost a year of frustration to reach this point. If this "most-provable" of the illnesses meets these kinds of obstacles, claimants with other illnesses will never live to see resolution. The original, "as likely as not caused by the workplace", intent of the EEOICPA must be followed. As a Chronic Beryllium Disease victim, I do not feel fortunate as a qualifier for this compensation. This is not a lottery prize. I have devastated my attendance record at work, cannot make even short-term plans for family or social events, see my own health worsening, and wonder about the future. However, I do not feel I, or any other person or group, should qualify, while others, who may have even worse health conditions, do not. All sites, and all illnesses, should receive equal compensation. Testing should be made available for every employee or former employee who believes his or her condition is work-related. Special aid should be provided to those who are seeking survivors' benefits, and may have little to no knowledge of a deceased spouse or parent's work exposures. I am emphatically opposed to writing everyone who drove by one of these sites a check, but if the claimant reaches the "as likely as not" qualifier, then the compensation should be theirs. We all know State Workers' comp will not work in these cases, I have no discussion here. Neither will dose reconstruction, in its present form, records, classification, and time will prevent it. It is being said that this is another program which was designed to fail. I truly hope this is not the case, and through further Congressional action, justice will prevail. One speaker at the meeting rightly compared the EEOICPA to the environmental laws of the 1970's, which were a good first effort, but had to be revised to work properly. The Cold War veterans deserve no less. Glenn Bell Beryllium Victims Alliance 504 Michigan Ave. Oak Ridge, TN 37830 865-482-7641 ***************************************************************** 35 OakRidge The Mayor's View: Abraham makes good impression 06/05/02 On May 28, I had the opportunity to visit with Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham in the Forrestal Building in Washington, D.C. on behalf of the citizens of Oak Ridge. Also attending the 45-minute meeting were Jessie H. Roberson, Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management and Michael W. Owen, Director of the Office of Worker and Community Transition. In the days leading up to the meeting, I prepared two main messages for Mr. Abraham. My first message was that the citizens of Oak Ridge appreciate the efforts underway to modernize Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex, to complete construction of the Spallation Neutron Source, and to clean-up and reindustrialize East Tennessee Technology Park. Even as we attempt to diversify our city's economy, we understand and appreciate the importance of strong federal programs in Oak Ridge. As a corollary to DOE's modernization efforts, I wanted Mr. Abraham to hear firsthand how our citizens are being asked to financially support (via property taxes) important city modernization initiatives in new housing development, industrial recruitment, infrastructure repair and upgrades, retail recruitment, and improving already excellent schools. As the host community to many of DOE's emerging and growing programs, Mr. Abraham now knows that the City of Oak Ridge will continue to uphold our end of the partnership with DOE to make these programs world-class. My second message was more sobering. I indicated to Mr. Abraham that as a local host city, Oak Ridge needs DOE, the largest landholder in the city, to provide more equitable support to our local tax revenue stream. As an example, we talked specifically about TN Eastman's property tax payment to Kingsport, which annually is about $9 million for facilities on 6,000 acres, compared to the DOE's payment-in-lieu-of-tax (PILT) to Oak Ridge, which is just over $1 million for facilities on more than 33,000 acres. The bottom line is that if DOE paid in PILT what TN Eastman pays in true property tax, Oak Ridge's tax rate would plummet from one of the highest in the state ($2.94 per hundred) to one of the lowest in the state ($1.49 per hundred) for full service cities. I emphasized my honest belief that the Oak Ridge City Council will not achieve an acceptable balance of services and tax rate without more equitable participation by DOE. So, you may ask, how was the message received? First, after meeting the Secretary face-to-face, I believe that Spencer Abraham is the right person at the right time to hear our two messages. He is widely viewed by his colleagues as having a keen understanding of the importance that partnerships play today in any successful endeavor, and I think that the partnership between DOE and our city is stronger than it has been in many years. I also believe that Spencer Abraham is truly interested in Oak Ridge as a community in addition to his obvious interest in the federal facilities here. Mr. Abraham is intelligent and engaging, and he asked many questions about our city and its economy. As a former elected official himself (U.S. Senator from Michigan), he quickly grasped the challenges we face in Oak Ridge. I believe he understood that our approach of engaging Baker Donelson was not adversarial, but designed to methodically work toward a solution to our revenue problem by utilizing existing laws and legislation. He acknowledged the importance of maintaining a first-class host community so that DOE and its contractors can recruit the thousands of new workers needed in Oak Ridge over the next decade. He even asked for local input into what our community sees as important traits in the next DOE-Oak Ridge Manager -- input that may never have been asked of the city before! I will be working with my fellow council members to provide this feedback soon. In summary, Oak Ridge now has a firmer foundation on which to build support for enhancing remuneration from our largest landholder within the city. I believe that Mr. Abraham and his staff are beginning to understand the key issues. I frankly acknowledged to Mr. Abraham that this is not an easy issue to resolve; however, I now firmly believe that if the issue can be resolved equitably in a true win-win fashion for DOE and the City of Oak Ridge, Spencer Abraham is the man who will make it happen. David Bradshaw is mayor of Oak Ridge All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************