***************************************************************** 08/08/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.202 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: Nuclear agency unaware of complaint on security 2 US wants N Korea to hold up its end of nuclear bargain 3 US: World Wide And Nuclear Fuel Resources Report On Decision Of US 4 Nuclear Reactor Project in N. Korea 5 US helps North Korea's nuclear station 6 KEDO tells North to allow IAEA inspections 7 US: Government Trying To Decide FEMA's Fate: 8 Work Starts on North Korea's U.S.-Backed Nuclear Plant 9 Decoding North Korea NUCLEAR REACTORS 10 US: Iowa nuclear plant closed for cleanup work 11 US: Strike-hit Dominion gets NRC scrutiny -- 12 UK: ONLY ONE OF CALDER HALL REACTORS IN OPERTION 13 UK Letter: No plausible basis for Chernobyl claims 14 UK: INDUSTRIAL ARTIST CATCHES UNIQUE ATMOSPHERE 15 US: Nuclear Plants' Safety Not Compromised in Strike, NRC Says 16 US: SEABROOK, N.H. Nuclear plant reopens science, nature center NUCLEAR SAFETY 17 US: Customs Wants Containers Detailed 18 US: Gov't to Reverse on Illness Claims 19 US: Meeting held for ill nuclear workers 20 US: Isotope supporters successful in D.C. 21 US: Rule eases way for nuclear workers' compensation over exposure 22 US: Radioactive-material theft is 2nd within four months 23 US: DOE told to give up fight on sick-worker claims 24 US: Whitfield drafting bill to force insurers to pay workers' claims 25 US: DOE Issues Regulations for Program to Help Employees of DOE 26 US: Radiation pills flying off shelves 27 US: Investigation of nuke sites' vulnerability encouraged House NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 28 US: *Nevada hurting Nevada on YMP* 29 Site list for LES plant to be announced next week 30 US: West-siders voice concerns over Hanford waste dump 31 US: Senator's impartiality on lawsuit issue questioned 32 US: Radioactive mess dumped on taxpayers 33 US: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Ethics policy tangles anti-dump strategies 34 US: Reid had opportunity to cut off Yucca funds 35 US: Highly radioactive waste Hanford-bound 36 UK: 'GOLFBALL' WORK AT CRITICAL STAGE 37 UK: WORKERS' ANGER AT BNFL 38 UK: MP DR JACK (BNFL privitization) NUCLEAR WEAPONS 39 US: Powerhouse H-Bomb Heads For Graveyard 40 US: 'Dirty Bombs' Drop Dilemma on West 41 US: Amanda Rich: Buildup of nuclear weapons brings us closer to disa US DEPT. OF ENERGY 42 Cleanup plan, budget 'in pretty good shape' 43 Work starts on Hanford disposal plant 44 RICHLAND 45 Fumes sharpen Hanford dispute 46 Work begins on Hanford nuclear-waste glassification plant 47 Former Army plant scientist wants data released 48 Cleanup contract back on track 08/08/02 49 Clement visits OR, stresses security 50 Remarks by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham World Nuclear OTHER NUCLEAR ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Nuclear agency unaware of complaint on security Denver Post.com [msoraghan@denverpost.com] Denver Post Washington Bureau Thursday, August 08, 2002 - WASHINGTON - Federal officials in charge of nuclear security said Wednesday they haven't yet been contacted by congressional investigators about a complaint that they're not doing enough to protect nuclear shipments from terrorists. "We haven't received any new allegations," said spokesman Anson Franklin of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Denver Post reported Wednesday that a Department of Energy employee is seeking whistle-blower status to go public with allegations about "vulnerabilities and deficiencies" of nuclear weapons convoys, laboratories and plants. The House intelligence committee found his charges about convoys to have merit, but handed the case over to the House Armed Services Committee in June. An Armed Services Committee spokesman on Wednesday would say only that staffers "are looking into it." Nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons waste are routinely hauled around the nation by the DOE. The agency recently began hauling 6 tons of weapons-grade plutonium from the decommissioned Rocky Flats plant northwest of Denver to South Carolina. The worker's name and the details of his charges have not been made public. His lawyer wants him to be granted whistle-blower status to keep him from being fired. But Ron Timm, a former contract adviser to senior DOE officials on security who has since become a vocal agency critic, said he believes he knows who the whistle-blower is. Timm declined to name the employee and said he hadn't talked to him directly. But he said the circle of DOE whistle-blowers is small and he is certain the author of the recent complaint is a senior agency employee who helped evaluate the agency's nuclear weapons transportation program. The evaluations found weaknesses and deficiencies in nearly every category of preparedness, Timm said. Timm said he and the employee were both in a 1998 meeting when DOE security director Joe Mahaley was told that the division could not meet the "low risk" standard the government uses to measure the security of nuclear transport. The "low risk" standard represents the level of risk the government accepts, Timm explained. After that meeting, Timm said, the transportation security program won a "war games" test in 1999, but was later found to have "cheated" by obtaining the mock terrorists' attack plan. Those allegations were included in a blistering 2001 report by the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C., watchdog group. Officials at DOE and the National Nuclear Safety Administration say the report is misleading and based on poor information. Mike Soraghan's e-mail address is [msoraghan@denverpost.com] . ***************************************************************** 2 US wants N Korea to hold up its end of nuclear bargain The Taipei Times Online: 2002-08-08 REUTERS, KUMHO, NORTH KOREA A US envoy attending a ceremony in North Korea to mark the start of work on two western-financed nuclear reactors, told Pyongyang yesterday it must now honor its side of the bargain. Pouring concrete for the power-plant foundations had symbolism well beyond the remote construction site at Kumho, on North Korea's east coast. The multinational Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) consortium is building the two light-water reactors under a 1994 US-North Korean deal which froze the North's suspected nuclear-weapons program in exchange for the reactors and annual supplies of fuel oil. "Today's concrete-pouring is a milestone which shows that this project, essential to establishing peace on the Korean peninsula, is firmly set on its course, despite having faced many difficulties and setbacks," Chang Seung-sup, chairman of KEDO's executive board, said in a speech. US delegate to KEDO Jack Pritchard, the most senior US official to visit the North since late 2000, said it was now the North's turn to deliver. Pritchard said yesterday's ceremony and the work completed were hard evidence of US seriousness, and that of KEDO, in keeping their end of the 1994 Agreed Framework. "It is now time for us to see the same kind of tangible progress by the DPRK in meeting its commitments," Pritchard said. DPRK is the acronym for the North's official title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Under the 1994 agreement, North Korea undertook to allow in International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors but has yet to do so. KEDO will only deliver key nuclear components to the plant in mid-2005, if North Korea has fulfilled its obligations to allow inspections of frozen sites and atomic material. This story has been viewed 245 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/08/08/story/0000159398] Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 World Wide And Nuclear Fuel Resources Report On Decision Of US Federal Court Of Appeals In US$1.0 Billion Lawsuit NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CCNMatthews [http://www.ccnmatthews.com] FOR: WORLD WIDE MINERALS LTD. AUGUST 7, 2002 - 17:31 EDT WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA--World Wide Minerals Ltd. and its subsidiary, Nuclear Fuel Resources Corporation, announced today that the US Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. issued a decision on Friday, August 2, 2002 in the US$1.0 billion lawsuit against Kazakhstan and Nukem, Inc. The Court found that the trial judge's earlier dismissal of the Company's civil conspiracy claims against Nukem for lack of personal jurisdiction had been based on the judge's misunderstanding of certain facts. The Court of Appeals remanded those claims to the trial judge for further deliberation. The Court of Appeals also affirmed the trial judge's dismissal of the Company's claims against Kazakhstan, albeit on somewhat different grounds. The Court disagreed with the trial judge's opinion that Kazakhstan had fully waived its sovereign immunity. Instead, the Court agreed with the judge that the case hinged on Aacts of state" (namely, refusal to issue export licenses, and confiscation of assets without compensation), which were acts with which the Court would not interfere. The Company is reviewing with its legal counsel the further steps that can be taken in the lawsuit, including applying for leave to reargue the appeal before the full bench of the Court of Appeals, applying for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States and continuing to pursue the claims against Nukem before the trial judge. The Company will also consider further steps to be taken to collect the sovereign debt owing to it by Kazakhstan arising out of a loan made in 1996-1997 to revitalize the uranium industry of that country. That loan, with accrued interest and collection costs, now amounts to over US$29 million. Paul Carroll, President and CEO of World Wide, reiterated that Awhat happened to us, with our good faith investment of millions of dollars and with our operations in Kazakhstan, should be a warning to all international investors. The effect of this is that, if the Court decision is allowed to stand, a sovereign state can refuse to repay its debts and can cancel commercial contracts, without paying compensation. This would be a scandalous result. We certainly hope that other international investors, such as in the petroleum sector, will look long and hard at this result before making investments in emerging countries such as Kazakhstan." - 30- FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: World Wide Minerals Ltd. Paul A. Carroll President and CEO (416) 369-7217 (416) 369-6088 (FAX) pcarroll@worldwideminerals.com ***************************************************************** 4 Nuclear Reactor Project in N. Korea Las Vegas SUN August 08, 2002 By PAUL SHIN ASSOCIATED PRESS KUMHO, North Korea- In a remote northeastern enclave where a U.S.-led consortium is building two nuclear reactors, South and North Korean workers mix freely and talk about their work. But some things are still off-limits - like any discussion of politics. Kumho, the coastal region in North Korea where U.S. and South Korean nuclear experts began building the reactors in 1997, is now a test ground for the North's willingness to cooperate with and open up to the outside world. But the restrictions surrounding the $4.6 billion project are a reminder of how vulnerable the operation is to Cold War-era mistrust. Political tension and funding problems have already delayed the project, originally scheduled for completion in 2003, by several years. On Wednesday, North Korean and the international consortium held a ceremony to mark the pouring of concrete into a reactor foundation. The construction of the reactors to alleviate North Korea's energy shortages was agreed upon in a 1994 U.S.-North Korean deal that averted the threat of war on the Korean peninsula. In exchange, the North said it would freeze its suspected nuclear weapons program and agree to international inspections. Jack Pritchard, a senior U.S. official and a board member of the consortium called KEDO, said the North must allow inspections at once to ensure completion of the reactors. The North, in turn, has complained about the delays and demanded compensation. Work on the project continued this year despite President Bush's comment that North Korea was part of an "axis of evil" bent on developing weapons of mass destruction. Washington also continued to channel food aid through the United Nations to the impoverished communist nation. The governments of both countries appear poised to resume negotiations, with North Korea saying it is willing to accept a visit from a U.S. envoy. Talk of such things is taboo between South and North Korean workers at Kumho, and the North's fear of contact with the outside world was evident to foreign journalists who attended the ceremony on Wednesday. About 60 North Korean workers attended the ceremony, but quickly left afterward. Journalists were repeatedly told not to talk to or photograph North Koreans. Cameras with long lenses were banned. Kim Hui Moon, a Cabinet-level North Korean official, dodged all sensitive questions. But he raised his voice when he proudly explained how the late leader Kim Il Sung chose Kumho as a potential site for nuclear power plants. "Geographically, this site is perfect for nuclear plants. Great Leader Kim Il Sung knew this decades ago," Kim said. Current leader Kim Jong Il took over power and a personality cult after Kim Il Sung, his father, died in 1994 after nearly a half-century of totalitarian rule. Some 800 South Koreans work alongside 96 North Koreans. The consortium had to bring in 630 Uzbek workers when many North Koreans withdrew after the consortium rejected their demand that their $110 monthly pay be doubled. A South Korean government official at the ceremony on Wednesday described an incident in which a South Korean worker was irritated by militaristic songs on the radio that extolled Kim Il Sung and his son. The South Korean worker asked a North Korean colleague to turn off the radio, saying South Koreans didn't like the lyrics, according to the official. The North Korean ended up punching the South Korean, who was later forced to leave the construction project. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 US helps North Korea's nuclear station news.telegraph.co.uk - By Damien McElroy in Beijing (Filed: 08/08/2002) Work started on an American-backed nuclear power station in North Korea yesterday, despite the country's status as part of President Bush's "axis of evil". North Korean engineers at the foundation laying of the future nuclear power station To the accompaniment of fireworks at the site at Kumho, where a mountain has been levelled to make room for the plant, concrete was poured into the foundations with delegates from America, the EU, South Korea and Japan looking on. The project was agreed eight years ago as part of a deal in which Pyongyang promised to renounce its ambitions to build weapons of mass destruction. North Korea also pledged to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to examine its existing nuclear plants but has never done so. The Bush administration has criticised construction of a Russian-backed nuclear power plant in Iran, another "axis of evil" state, and has expressed grave reservations about the North Korean facility but so far has continued supporting it. Nonetheless, Jack Pritchard, the American delegate to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation, which is overseeing the work, indicated that Washington's patience with Pyongyang was wearing thin. The agency estimates that its checks on other North Korean plants will take three to four years. "That means North Korea must start meaningful co-operation now and must comply with all of its obligations," Mr Pritchard said. The Stalinist republic is believed to have stockpiled enough plutonium to build two nuclear bombs but key components for the reactor will be delivered only if the North makes good its outstanding promises. The Kumho plant will produce much less weapons grade material than an old nuclear power station built during the Soviet era. © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002. ***************************************************************** 6 KEDO tells North to allow IAEA inspections By TETSUYA HAKODA, The Asahi Shimbun KUMHO, North Korea-Construction on two light-water nuclear reactors being built with the help of Japan, the United States and South Korea began here Wednesday. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) is supporting the project in exchange for Pyongyang freezing its suspected nuclear arms program. KEDO member nations called on Pyongyang to quickly open its facilities to inspections as well as every item being used to build the plants. KEDO officials stressed the project's success and the future of the so-called Agreed Framework between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) depend on Pyongyang's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Virtually all of the machinery for the facilities will be manufactured in Japan and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and transported to North Korea from 2005. But under the Agreed Framework, signed in 1994, IAEA officials must be allowed to inspect parts for the plant before they are shipped. KEDO member nations are urging Pyongyang to begin the inspections as soon as possible since they likely will take three to four years. (08/08) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction or ***************************************************************** 7 Government Trying To Decide FEMA's Fate: From The Tampa Tribune By KIRSTEN B. MITCHELL Media General News Service Published: Aug 7, 2002 WASHINGTON - In Kenneth O. Burris Jr.'s world, a powerful hurricane slamming into the Atlantic Ocean coast isn't very different from a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' exploding in downtown Atlanta. ``One of the problems that's risen since Sept. 11 is the belief that you have to respond differently to a hurricane than you do a terrorist attack,'' said Burris, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Southeast region. ``There's not much unique about a terrorist attack vs. a hurricane.'' If a bomb blasts the port in Tampa, for example, local, state and federal emergency management officials would use the same evacuation and public shelter plan they would for a hurricane, Burris said. FEMA, the agency everyone turns to in the wake of a catastrophe, shifted focus after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. FEMA workers were reassigned to homeland defense. Part Of Security Move Nine months after the attacks, President Bush asked Congress to create a new federal Cabinet agency, the Department of Homeland Security and proposed moving FEMA into the new bureaucracy. ``It provides state and local governments with a one-stop shop for emergency preparedness,'' said Burris, who previously ran FEMA's U.S. Fire Administration. But James Lee Witt, FEMA's director for eight years during the Clinton administration, doesn't believe the new department should swallow the entire agency. ``It's going to be bogged down in red tape and too much bureaucracy,'' said Witt. Among his concerns is that the process for tapping federal resources after a disaster would be stalled. After a hurricane or other catastrophe, a governor and the president must declare a state of disaster in devastated counties for federal aid to begin. Added bureaucracy could slow the process, Witt said. ``When you take in an independent agency like FEMA, and you put it in an agency of that magnitude and that large, then I think you lose some of the direct partnerships that FEMA has developed over the years with local and state governments.'' The divisions of FEMA responsible for fighting terrorism would fit well in a new Department of Homeland Security, Witt said. But the sections of FEMA that respond to disasters should remain independent, he said, and FEMA's top officials should continue direct communication with the president after a catastrophe. Congress Says No The full House ultimately rejected committee efforts to keep FEMA separate. The Senate is expected to resume debate on the department when it returns after Labor Day. A Senate plan, sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., would move FEMA to the new department. During hearings on the issue, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge told Congress FEMA can tackle both natural disasters and homeland defense in a new department. Armand Mascelli, who directs disaster services for the American Red Cross, agreed. ``There is going to be some reshuffling,'' Mascelli said. ``I don't see how that would proceed without them paying the attention they need to pay to natural disasters.'' Although Witt believes FEMA is stretched thin by its homeland security responsibilities, he said the agency is well prepared to help local and state governments respond to hurricanes. Witt took over FEMA after delayed federal response to Hurricane Andrew in August 1992 hurt then-President Bush, in that fall's election. Witt is credited with transforming FEMA from a Cold War-era civil defense agency to an agency whose name became synonymous with hurricane cleanup and recovery. FEMA's budget for hurricane preparedness swelled from $835,000 in 1993 to $5 million in 2000. That does not include money in FEMA's disaster relief fund, which the agency taps after a catastrophe, or money Congress earmarks if the fund runs dry. Stephen P. Leatherman, director of the International Hurricane Center, said this spring that congressmen from Southern states should band together to push for more hurricane preparedness funding for FEMA, as the California delegation successfully did two decades ago for earthquake funding. He said the sixfold increase in preparedness money ``is just a drop in the bucket of what it should be.'' LB: WHAT IS FEMA? * Joe M. Allbaugh is director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. * The agency has 2,600 employees and nearly 4,000 stand-by disaster reservists. * The agency spent $5.8 billion in 2002. * The costliest disaster FEMA dealt with was California's Northridge earthquake in 1994, when $6.9 billion was spent from FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund. * Spending on the Sept. 11 terror attacks reached $724.9 million, as of April. * Field offices are located at Atlanta; Boston; Bothell, Wash.; Chicago; Denton, Texas; Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; New York; Philadelphia and San Francisco. * Online it is found at www.fema.gov Gil Klein of Media General News Service contributed to this report. Reporter Kirsten B. Mitchell can be reached at Gil Klein of Media General News Service contributed to this report. Reporter Kirsten B. Mitchell can be reached at kmitchell@mediageneral.com TBO.com IS Tampa Bay Online © 2002, Media General Inc. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 8 Work Starts on North Korea's U.S.-Backed Nuclear Plant The New York Times August 8, 2002* *By HOWARD W. FRENCH* KUMHO, North Korea, Aug. 7 ? With the first Bush administration envoy to visit North Korea joining in a rare ceremony, work began today on the foundation of a long-planned nuclear reactor, by far the largest Western aid project in this Communist nation and one on which its future cooperation with the outside world will hinge. The $4.6 billion reactor to be built here was first envisaged in 1994, when the United States and North Korea were edging toward war over suspicions that this country was trying to build nuclear weapons. It has been repeatedly delayed by North Korea's jagged relations with the United States and other nations. Today, a succession of Western diplomats mounted the podium to declare the project the best hope for preventing nuclear proliferation ? and to urge North Korea to take convincing steps to comply with the pact that undergirds relations with the United States. Under that pact, the so-called Agreed Framework, negotiated in 1994, Washington committed itself to organizing an international consortium to build two light-water nuclear reactors for this poor country. In exchange, North Korea agreed to abandon and dismantle two existing graphite reactors, as well as a third that was under construction. North Korea ? which President Bush this year identified as one of three nations belonging to an "axis of evil" ? was also required to account for all plutonium it had produced and place it under international supervision. Time and again today, American and European officials hammered home the point that any hesitation now on the part of North Korea to open itself up to inspectors would result in a freeze in construction, leaving two coreless reactor shells in place and North Korea no closer to meeting its energy needs. North Korea "must begin meaningful work with the energy agency right now," the United States special envoy here, Jack L. Pritchard, said. "The Agreed Framework has been a key component of U.S.-North Korean policy," he said. "When we agreed to the terms of the Agreed Framework, we did so with the full expectation that all aspects of our concerns over North Korea's nuclear program would be resolved finally and completely." Critics of the agreement have said that it is folly for the United States and its allies in the European Union, Japan and South Korea to give nuclear power plants to a country that remains technically at war with South Korea and maintains one of the world's largest armies, even while its economy collapses. They also complain that North Korea has failed, so far, to allow unhindered inspection of its nuclear facilities by experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency and warn that North Korea may simply use the powerful light-water reactors to produce new supplies of plutonium. Officials of the consortium building the plants, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, however, dismissed concerns that North Korea would be given operable nuclear power plants before it had cooperated fully with international inspectors. Furthermore, they say, the design of the new reactors would make it far more difficult, albeit not impossible, for North Korea to produce weapons-grade plutonium. If the North Koreans do not cooperate with the international energy agency, "there is no chance whatsoever that they will get delivery of the critical components for these reactors," said Charles Kartman, the executive director of the consortium. "What they will end up with instead is a big hole in the ground, a lot of concrete and some steel fixtures. Do you want a completely uncontrolled nuclear program here, or do you want the agreed framework? You have to choose." The international energy agency has said that it would require about three years to complete a survey of North Korea's nuclear-related plants and laboratories. Western diplomats said here today that this put a premium on timely cooperation from North Korea because the reactors under construction here would also be ready to receive their nuclear materials in about three years. Mr. Pritchard said his presence reflected the Bush administration's continued support for the Agreed Framework, which has been criticized by some in Congress, as well as by members of both the Clinton and Bush administrations. Almost from its inauguration, the Bush administration has sent mixed signals about North Korea and has reacted skeptically toward South Korea's efforts toward reconciliation with the North, through President Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine" policy. Washington's reaffirmation of the nuclear project under the Agreed Framework, however, is regarded by many diplomats in Asia as an expression of continuity in American policy toward North Korea. The graphite-style reactors built here in the past are regarded by scientists as optimal for the production of weapons-grade plutonium. North Korea is suspected of having produced two nuclear weapons and is known to possess enough plutonium for an additional 10 bombs. North Korea closed those reactors in 1994 and has allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to post monitors to safeguard the nuclear material from the plants. North Korea must also account for an unspecified amount of "missing" plutonium, which diplomats say may already be incorporated in weapons. "The Agreed Framework is not appeasement," said one official who is close to the construction project here. "It takes away rights that the North Koreans had, to possess a reprocessing plant and graphite reactors, and it has placed I.A.E.A. inspectors on the old reactor site 365 days a year. "The critics would have us throw this away, but this is a real source of stability." Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 9 Decoding North Korea The New York Times *August 8, 2002* After years of delay, construction began yesterday on one of the two nuclear reactors that a Western consortium is building for North Korea, capping an encouraging few weeks in that country's erratic relations with the outside world. Although President Bush called Pyongyang part of an "axis of evil" in January, Washington has wisely decided to explore diplomatic avenues to the extent that the North's unpredictable behavior permits. North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, has sounded reasonable before only to reverse course and embarrass advocates of engagement in Seoul and Washington. The wisest American course for now is to keep open the lines of communication to learn more about Pyongyang's true intentions. Earlier this summer the Bush administration was preparing to resume talks on North Korea's missile program and other issues that had been suspended after Bill Clinton left office. Then a North Korean gunboat opened fire on a South Korean vessel, killing five sailors. Seoul and Washington understandably broke off diplomatic contacts. Two weeks ago, Pyongyang issued a statement of regret over the naval incident. That cleared the way for cabinet-level talks next week between the two Koreas, the first in nearly a year. It also helped bring about a brief but cordial meeting last week between Secretary of State Colin Powell and North Korea's foreign minister. The only consistent theme in North Korean policies over the past several years has been the increasingly desperate effort by top leaders to maintain control in the face of a catastrophically failing economy. Pyongyang's best hope lies in opening its economy to market forces and outside investment and abandoning an unconventional-weapons program that frightens South Korea, Japan and the United States, all of them potential targets. Yet the North's leaders hesitate, fearing that market liberalization would undermine Communist Party control. Rather than abandon unconventional weapons, the North has continued selling missiles and technology to Pakistan and the Middle East and demanding large payoffs from Washington as a condition of cutting off these lucrative exports. America should not submit to extortion, but should avail itself of serious and verifiable opportunities to eliminate real threats. That is a difficult path to follow, but the 1994 nuclear agreement that led to yesterday's start of construction is a good example of the benefits that can result. In that accord North Korea abandoned Soviet-era reactor technology that made it relatively easy for nuclear waste to be reprocessed into bomb fuel. Before the new reactors come into operation three years from now, Pyongyang will have to allow all its nuclear plants and laboratories to be monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency and will have to account for the plutonium it produced before 1994. The Bush administration showed support for that nuclear agreement by sending a special envoy to yesterday's foundation-laying ceremony. Provided that Pyongyang avoids any new provocations, the next step should be reopening talks to discuss similar solutions to other security issues. ***************************************************************** 10 Iowa nuclear plant closed for cleanup work Omaha.com August 8, 2002 PALO, Iowa (AP) - Iowa's only nuclear power plant was taken out of service Tuesday to clean an algae buildup on a river water strainer, plant officials said Wednesday. The Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo uses river water to support plant operations. "The plant was shut down to remove the algae from plant cooling water systems," said Mark Peifer, site vice president. The plant generates 580 megawatts, enough to serve an estimated 432,000 homes. It is owned by Alliant Energy-Interstate Power and Light Co., Central Iowa Power Cooperative and Corn Belt Power Cooperative. Omaha World-Herald: ***************************************************************** 11 Strike-hit Dominion gets NRC scrutiny -- The Washington Times August 8, 2002 By Marguerite Higgins The Washington Times The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sent inspectors to check out Dominion Resources' nuclear plants while the power company faces a strike by 3,700 of its workers. The government agency that regulates and monitors nuclear reactors wants to verify that the North Anna and Surry nuclear power plants are being operated by authorized workers, agency spokesman Ken Clark said. "The emphasis is on making sure there are NRC-licensed operators on duty who are handling the controls," he said. The plants each have two full-time inspectors, but an undisclosed number of additional inspectors came to both plants when workers with the Local 50 chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers went on strike last Friday afternoon, Mr. Clark said. The added inspectors would remain at the plants until the strike is resolved, he said. Local 50 workers make up one-third of the 800 workers at both plants. "So far, from a reactor-safety standpoint, [Dominion] has progressed favorably," in following NRC regulations, Mr. Clark said. "But we will continue monitoring these plants until there is a resolution." Dominion spokesman Dan Genest said the plants have been operating smoothly since the strike began, with the company initiating the second part of its contingency plan to relieve contract workers. "We are now able to rotate workers and give some time off, begin doing more routine maintenance and preventive maintenance and move into a better routine," Mr. Genest said. "We are having good weather this week and no problems as far as power distribution goes." Dominion's Virginia Power is the largest electric company in the state, with 2.1 million customers. Security workers at the nuclear plants did not go on strike, and contractors working at the plants are trained through Dominion, he said. A reactor operator at the Surry plant, in Surry County on the south bank of the James River southeast of Richmond, said NRC inspectors were coming into the plant before the strike started. "There were at least four NRC guys I saw that were new coming in there two or three days earlier," said the operator, who was on strike and asked not to be named. The North Anna plant is 60 miles northwest of Richmond. Negotiations could restart today, as both sides contacted a federal mediator for a meeting this week. "We want to get back in the negotiation process," said Brad Stevens, senior business representative for Local 50. "But the strike will continue until we reach a definitive agreement with Dominion." The union went on strike after refusing Dominion's last offer, citing problems in the pension and medical-benefits plans. The strike came as U.S. power companies set an electric-output record during the hot spell last week, with Dominion Resources listed among individual companies breaking records, according to the Edison Electrical Institute, an industry association. All site contents copyright © 2002 News World Communications, Inc. ***************************************************************** 12 UK: ONLY ONE OF CALDER HALL REACTORS IN OPERTION [The Whitehaven News] [http://www.cumbria-online.co.uk] [You're smiling now, but wait till you see the queue for the ladies in the next pub] ONLY one of the four reactors at Calder Hall - the world's first industrial-scale nuclear power station - will operate until it closes for good in eight months' time. After 46 years' operation, BNFL is shutting Calder in March 2003 because it no longer pays to produce electricity from the reactors. Now the company has also decided it is no longer viable to run all four reactors due to the cost of preventing radiation-induced graphite shrinkage - a potentially serious problem which develops in the chargepans used to guide the highly-radioactive fuel rods into place. Calder's sister station at Chapelcross, Annan, opened three years later and has already experienced the chargepan problem. Both stations are of the same Magnox design type. Calder Hall was shut down for about six months while investigations were carried out and it was estimated to be costing BNFL an estimated £30,000 per day in lost production for each reactor. Reactor 1 was returned to power last month and BNFL planned to bring Reactor 4 and possibly Reactor 2 back on line as well. However, BNFL announced this week: "This plan relied on developing an engineering solution to the chargepan issue first identified in one of the Chapelcross reactors. "This solution will not now be ready on a timescale that will make it economically practical to return them to service before next March." Reactor 3 is already shutdown for maintenance and this will not be re-started either. A Sellafield spokes-man said it was practical to operate Reactor 1 because, having been off line for a time in the earlier years, its core had not been exposed to as much radiation. Investigations showed there has been some movement in the reactor chargepans but not on the same scale as Chapelcross [http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk ***************************************************************** 13 UK Letter: No plausible basis for Chernobyl claims [The Whitehaven News] Sir - You report (Team to probe Sellafield terrorist risk, WN August 1) that "the number of fatal cancers produced by the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 has been estimated to be around 45,000". Estimated by whom? Perhaps you should point out that there is no factual or even plausible basis for such a figure, which evidently stems from taking a precautionary supposition far outside its useful context. To quote (my translation from a French article, so I don't vouch for the precise words), paragraph 136 of the report to the UN by UNSCEAR on 6 June 2000 says:- "Apart from an increase in thyroid cancer among exposed children, there is no evidence for a major impact on public health 14 years after the Chernobyl accident. No increase in the frequency or mortality of cancer has been observed that might be attributed to ionising radiation. The risk of leukaemia, a major preoccupation, has not increased even among the 'liquidators.' Neither has there been any scientific proof of non-malign, somatic or mental disorders linked to ionising radiation." There have of course been plentiful mental disorders arising largely from the mismanagement of the emergency, but that is a different matter. Whatever the source of your report, it is thus an ill-founded exercise in scare tactics. P. D. Wilson, MA PhD Wasdale Park Seascale [http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk ***************************************************************** 14 UK: INDUSTRIAL ARTIST CATCHES UNIQUE ATMOSPHERE [The Whitehaven News] [ON CANVAS: Terry Benest, project manager for the Windscale advanced gas-cooled reactor, with Mark Steele, of BNFL, and the paintings of George Large] A LEADING industrial artist has captured the unique atmosphere of the tricky work going on inside Sellafield's giant golf ball - the Windscale advanced gas-cooled reactor. George Large spent hours inside the containment "dome" of WAGR, the UK's lead nuclear decommissioning project. He drew and then painted what he saw while a 90-tonne neutron shield was being removed. During the reactor's operations, the shield absorbed radiation and helped protect workers. Terry Benest, the UKAEA's WAGR project manager, said: "These pictures are a unique record of work on the poject and perfectly capture the essence of what is going on. They will be properly put on show for everyone at Windscale to enjoy them." http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk ***************************************************************** 15 Nuclear Plants' Safety Not Compromised in Strike, NRC Says TimesDispatch.com | [Richmond Times-Dispatch.com] Aug 07, 2002 The federal agency that oversees Dominion Virginia Power's two nuclear power plants says the current labor strike against the company hasn't compromised the plants' safety. "From a safety standpoint, the plants are being operated correctly," said Ken Clark, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Virginia Power's North Anna Power Station is located in northern Louisa County roughly 40 miles northwest of Richmond. Its Surry Power Station is less than 25 miles northwest of Newport News and Hampton. Both plants operate two nuclear reactors, and together they produce 32 percent of the electricity the utility sells in Virginia. ***************************************************************** 16 SEABROOK, N.H. Nuclear plant reopens science, nature center Boston Globe Online: After Sept. 11, new security rules set By Meredith Goldstein, Globe Staff Correspondent, 8/8/2002 The Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant's Science and Nature Center is open for the first time since Sept. 11, but getting inside is no easy task. There are new security rules at the plant. No person or group can just stop in to visit the science center, a museum-style educational building that is visited each year by more than 20,000 students from around New England. Groups and families who want to stop in must give notice at least 48 hours in advance. All visitors over 18 must have their pictures taken at the gate and must give the plant their Social Security numbers to the plant 48 hours in advance. Security guards will conduct extensive searches of all vehicles entering the plant site, including buses carrying students. They will also use the Social Security numbers for background checks. ''It's much more serious,'' said Alan Griffith, spokesman for the plant. ''There are very severe limitations and restrictions.'' New barriers make it impossible to drive in a straight path down the road leading to the plant. The access road off Route 1 has new security barriers, so cars must stop, check in with one of a group of guards assigned to the posts, and weave slowly around the checkpoints. Visitors will still be able to tour the building unescorted once they are inside. The plant has also kept one of the entrances to the site closed. The south road, farther down Route 1, is still off-limits to the public. All vehicles must use the north road to enter. There was a temporary no-fly zone enforced by the government just after Sept. 11, but since then, planes are allowed to pass over the property. Griffith said that because the Seabrook station is not close to a major commercial airport, and because the planes that fly by are generally small, the plant is not a likely target for an attack from the sky. ''The planes that fly around here wouldn't be able to cause much damage to this plant,'' he said. The Science and Nature Center closed last September, just after the terrorist attacks. For several months, many visitors centers at power plants around the country remained closed for safety. So far, no one has taken advantage of the reopening, but Griffith said schools that used to regularly bring students are already contacting the science center to schedule tours. ''We've had many requests to reopen,'' he said. ''We've been open for about a week, and already people have been calling. If anything, the new security gives them a sense that they can be safe here.'' David Toothaker, an industrial technology teacher at Massabesic High School in Waterboro, Maine, has used the nuclear plant's science center as a staple for his class that focuses on ecology, energy, and the environment. He said the center gives students a better understanding of nuclear energy, one that involves hands-on learning. ''In the class, we do things like building solar-powered machines, we make a wind generator and race solar-powered boats,'' he said. ''There is no way for me to show them how nuclear energy works in a hands-on way, so the center is great for that.'' Last year, an staff member from the Science and Nature Center drove to Toothaker's school in Maine to give a presentation to students in place of their regular plant visit. This story ran on page N1 of the Boston Globe on 8/8/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. ***************************************************************** 17 Customs Wants Containers Detailed Las Vegas SUN August 07, 2002 By JEANNINE AVERSA ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON- The U.S. Customs Service, seeking to prevent terrorists from bringing nuclear and other deadly weapons into the United States, wants details on the contents of sea containers destined for this country 24 hours before the cargo is loaded onto ships at foreign ports. The proposed regulation, unveiled Wednesday, marks the agency's latest effort to improve the security of cargo entering the United States from the world's seaports. Currently, many U.S. and foreign sea carriers voluntarily provide customs with advance cargo information, but customs may not get the information until a few days before a ship carrying the cargo reaches a U.S. port, said Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner. In order to effectively evaluate and identify cargo that may pose a risk to U.S. security, customs must have timely and accurate manifest information, Bonner said in an interview. That information also is crucial to another cargo security effort spearheaded by Bonner - the customs container security initiative - which plays a key role in President Bush's homeland security strategy. Under that initiative, U.S. customs officers would screen high-risk U.S. bound cargo containers before they leave foreign seaports. So far this year, agreements have been reached with Canada, Singapore, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany to station U.S. customs inspectors at specific ports in those countries for the first time. U.S. inspectors are already in Canada, but they will soon be stationed in select ports of the other participating countries, Bonner said. With 5.7 million cargo containers entering U.S. seaports each year, Bonner says it is critically important to prevent terrorists from using sea containers to smuggle nuclear, chemical, biological or other deadly weapons into this country. Approximately 90 percent of the world's cargo moves by sea containers. The issue of improving the security of sea cargo took on heightened importance in the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks. "It is a matter of urgency that customs knows in advance what is in the containers destined for the United States," Bonner said. The proposal doesn't specify how companies would provide the advance manifest information to customs, but most of those that voluntarily provide the information do so electronically, customs officials said. A final regulation could be adopted as early as this fall. A provision contained in a sweeping trade bill signed into law by Bush on Tuesday would eventually require advance information on all cargo - not just sea containers - be to electronically provided to customs, Bonner said. He said that provision would be implemented on a separate track. Under the proposal, companies that don't provide accurate manifest information 24 hours in advance could be subject to fines. But Bonner pointed out that customs has the authority to prevent a company from unloading a cargo container, a possible option at its disposal to penalize violators. Some of the information that would have to be provided in advance under the proposal includes a precise description of the containers' contents, date of scheduled arrival in the United States, the foreign port of departure, shippers' name and address and vessel name and number. Generic descriptions, such as freight of all kinds or general cargo, won't be accepted. On the Net: Customs Service: http://www.customs.gov [http://www.customs.gov] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 18 Gov't to Reverse on Illness Claims Las Vegas SUN: August 08, 2002 By NANCY ZUCKERBROD ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON- The Bush administration is reversing course and telling government contractors not to fight claims from Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers who got sick on the job from exposure to toxic chemicals. Final Energy Department regulations, obtained by The Associated Press and expected to be issued Thursday, state that the government will advise contractors not to contest medical panels' findings that workers' illnesses were related to job exposure. That reverses a decades-old policy and differs from a draft proposal circulated earlier this year that enabled contractors to contest the medical panels' findings and seek reimbursement for those appeals. The regulations, which are to be published in the Federal Register, could affect more than 12,000 workers currently seeking help from the Energy Department in getting compensation. Most of the workers affected live in states with large DOE facilities, such as California, Colorado, Kentucky, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. Lawmakers from some of those states said the administration's original proposal ran counter to the intent of a bill Congress passed two years ago. Richard Miller, a policy analyst with the Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based watchdog group, said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham "overrode his own staff and really deserves some credit for reversing some of the flaws in the previous rule." The rule is aimed at helping workers who were exposed to toxic substances at Energy Department facilities run by government contractors. They were not included in a year-old federal program that provides medical care and $150,000 each to weapons plant workers made ill by exposure to radiation or silica and beryllium, which cause lung diseases. Instead, Congress told the Energy Department to help the chemical-exposed workers file claims under state worker compensation systems. "Under this program, we will help remove bureaucratic barriers that currently confront deserving contractor employees when they seek to obtain state workers' compensation benefits," Abraham said. Under the new rule, the Energy Department will establish a uniform standard for physicians to consider when determining what made a worker sick. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said that was a big improvement over the draft regulation. "A single causation standard rather than 50 different state standards is a major help," Voinovich said. Lawmakers also praised the uniform standard for being generous rather than restrictive. It says a claimant should be reimbursed if exposure to a toxic substance on the job was a significant factor in aggravating, contributing to or causing the worker's illness or death. The new regulations also state only a majority vote is needed to find in favor of a claimant, compared with a unanimous vote needed under the draft rule. The potential cost of the claims is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Many weapons plant contractors are self-insured and are reimbursed by the Energy Department for worker compensation costs. But a problem exists in cases where contractors have private insurance policies. The Energy Department has no contractual relationship with the private insurers and cannot instruct them to pay claims. Similarly, if contractors are covered by a state insurance fund, the Energy Department has no authority to instruct the state fund to pay a sick worker claim. On the Net: Energy Department site: http://www.energy.gov/ [http://www.energy.gov/] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 19 Meeting held for ill nuclear workers This story was published Thu, Aug 8, 2002 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer Federal officials came to Richland on Wednesday to explain complicated new rules proposed to compensate ill nuclear workers. But they were met with a crowd of 350 at a public hearing, many of them already angry, confused and frustrated with the year-old program and not in a mood to listen. "How come you have to have cancer to be compensated? What if your body is full of heavy metal?" shouted one man as the presentation began, then stomped out. "What will it take to make Congress stand up and listen?" yelled another. Under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, Hanford nuclear workers, former workers or their survivors can receive $150,000 if they are determined to have cancer caused by radiation exposure. Related medical expenses also would be paid. By looking at their medical records, their work history and radiation exposure, the federal government will decide if there is at least a 50 percent chance that their cancer was caused by working at Hanford. But Congress decided to treat workers at some other sites differently. At three gaseous diffusion plants and a nuclear testing site in four other states, workers are automatically compensated if they have one of 22 cancers and worked in jobs where they should have had their radiation exposure monitored. At those sites, radiation records are presumed to be too poor or incomplete to adequately determine how much radiation individuals received. Representatives of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said Wednesday that they could not explain why those sites were singled out for special treatment. "Congress made the determination," said Ted Katz of NIOSH. "We cannot find a legislative history that fleshes out how that was gone about." However, now NIOSH is following congressional instructions to determine if there are other groups that don't have adequate records of radiation exposure. But rather than being named by Congress, those groups will have to petition to be included. The government will try to get a general idea of the radiation they might be exposed to and use epidemiological formulas to determine what the chances are their cancer was caused by radiation. "What we will determine is pretty crude facts," Katz said. Each recommendation eventually would be sent to Congress, which would have 180 days to make a determination. "This proposal does seem to be complicated and difficult to understand," said Hank Hartley, of the Hanford Building Trades Medical Screening Program. But many of the building trades workers applying for compensation may need to petition to get compensated despite the complexity. "Records for construction workers don't exist," he said. "I've asked for my dose records and never got them." Making reconstructing doses even more complicated, many of the construction workers moved from nuclear site to nuclear site across the nation as projects started and finished, Hartley said. There is one disadvantage of being included in groups getting automatic compensation, Katz warned. Those groups are limited to compensation for 22 cancers, which does not include prostate or skin cancer. If a worker is put in the group and has one of those cancers, he cannot be compensated even if he can show extraordinary radiation doses. However, all cancers, except one type of leukemia, are considered for Hanford workers who don't become part of a special group. Many at the hearing, which was made more confusing by microphone problems and too few chairs, had other concerns than the rules for compensation. Some were fed up with the bureaucracy involved in trying to reconstruct work histories and past doses. Gary Switzer of Pasco said his father had died of cancer after being exposed to a large dose of radioactive cobalt at Hanford. "Why don't we dig him up and if he's hot, you pay for the digging," Switzer said. "If he's not, I'll pay for it." Those wanting to apply for compensation can call 783-1500 or 888-654-0014. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 20 Isotope supporters successful in D.C. This story was published Thu, Aug 8, 2002 By Mike Lee Herald staff writer Supporters of medical isotopes got a much-needed booster shot Wednesday night when Benton County Commissioner Claude Oliver returned from Washington, D.C., aglow with success. Greeted by a cheering crowd at the Tri-Cities Airport, isotope champion Oliver said he and others have turned the attention of the Department of Health and Human Services toward medical isotopes that could be produced at Hanford's dormant Fast Flux Test Facility. "We hit home run after home run," said Oliver, part of a team lobbying for restarting the experimental reactor. "This issue is turning into a national issue." Over the last week and a half, Oliver met with several high-level officials in the nation's health agency, which he said appears far more interested in isotopes than the Department of Energy, the agency planning to shut down the reactor for good. Oliver said he expects public support from high up in Health and Human Services, perhaps including Secretary Tommy Thompson, who will get an invitation to the Tri-Cities hand-delivered this week by state Rep. Jerome Delvin, R-Richland. But that isn't the only information presented to the Bush administration. Two Columbia Basin College students -- Rachael Aeling and Brandie Didier -- joined Oliver in the nation's capital last week, carrying a petition with more than 7,500 signatures from around the world in support of FFTF restart. It was delivered to the White House, although the women weren't able to take it inside themselves, as hoped. "I just felt God told me to do it, so I did," said Aeling, 19, of Basin City. "It was something worth fighting for." "I think we made a difference," said Didier, 19, of Pasco. Supporters of the nuclear research reactor want it restarted for new research and to make isotopes for medical and other industrial uses, such as irradiating food and sterilizing medical equipment. However, President Bush and former President Bill Clinton have said there is not enough federal need to restart the reactor. Those decisions are still a long way from possible reversal; however, Oliver also reported making strong ties with big labor and getting union lobbying support. "They see this as a health issue for the rank and file and they see it as another technology that is going overseas," he said. The goal now for FFTF supporters is to slow the Energy Department's shut-down process long enough for other agencies to weigh in. "We've got a lot of work to do," Oliver said. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 21 Rule eases way for nuclear workers' compensation over exposure The Seattle Times: Thursday, August 08, 2002, 12:00 a.m. Pacific The Bush administration is releasing a new rule intended to make it easier for federal nuclear workers — including those at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington — to gain compensation for illnesses caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. "These folks were on the front lines of the Cold War and made sacrifices," said Tom Carpenter of the Seattle office of the Government Accountability Project, a watchdog group that backed the new rules. "They have endured a lot of hurt and suffering, and they deserve to be compensated." The Associated Press obtained a copy of the rules, which are expected to be released today. The rules are a rewrite of an earlier draft, which was criticized for failing to carry out congressional intent to help the workers. The rules instruct contractors who employed workers at federal nuclear facilities not to contest medical panels' findings that illnesses are related to job exposure. The rules are expected to affect an estimated 12,000 workers nationwide, with a significant portion of those workers from the Hanford site. Many nuclear-weapons workers have faced significant health risks due to exposure to radiation at Hanford and other federal plants. But over the decades, health officials have recognized that many workers also were put at risk by exposure to solvents and a wide range of other toxic chemicals involved in nuclear-weapons production. For more than half a century, the federal government rarely conceded that nuclear workers who became sick merited compensation. A 1994 General Accounting Office report found that the Energy Department had spent as much as $40 million a year contesting the claims of workers who blamed their illnesses on exposure to radiation, beryllium or toxic chemicals. Then two years ago, Congress approved legislation to make amends to those who had helped produce nuclear weapons. The legislation noted that more than two dozen scientific reports have indicated that federal nuclear workers suffered increased risks of cancer and that a large number of workers were put at risk "without their knowledge or consent." The legislation authorized payments to any worker whose radiation exposure had at least a 50 percent chance of triggering a cancer. It also authorized payment for beryllium disease and silicosis. And in a third section, the legislation instructed the Energy Department to assist workers seeking payment through state workers'-compensation benefits. A draft regulation was circulated last spring, and some members of Congress weren't pleased by what they read. It allowed contractors to contest such findings and even said the Energy Department would help pay for appeals. "That regulation was interpreted by the Bush administration to be more hostile to contract employees, and so it was more difficult for the contract employees to get compensated," said Todd Webster, a spokesman for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "Now the administration is reversing its policy. ... This is what Congress intended two years ago, and the administration is finally recognizing and implementing that." Richard Miller, a policy analyst with the Government Accountability Project, said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham took heed of the criticism. He "overrode his own staff and really deserves some credit for reversing some of the flaws in the previous rule." Abraham said the rules are shaped to help workers exposed to toxic chemicals gain the benefits they deserve. Under the new rules, the Energy Department will establish a uniform standard for physicians to consider when determining what made a worker sick. "A single causation standard rather than 50 different state standards is a major help," said Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio. Lawmakers also praised the uniform standard as generous rather than restrictive. It says a claimant should be reimbursed if exposure to a toxic substance on the job was "a significant factor in aggravating, contributing to or causing the worker's illness or death." The potential cost of the claims is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Many weapons-plant contractors are self-insured and are reimbursed by the Energy Department for workers'-compensation costs. But a problem still exists in cases where contractors have private insurance policies. The Energy Department has no contractual relationship with the private insurers and cannot instruct them to pay claims. Similarly, if contractors are covered by a state insurance fund, the Energy Department has no authority to instruct the state fund to pay a sick-worker claim. Miller said his group now wants Congress to pass new legislation to make the federal government pay those claims as well. Others say that even with the new rules, workers exposed to toxic chemicals still face a tough road. "It doesn't really open the door," said Gerald Pollet, executive director of Heart of America Northwest, a Hanford watchdog group. "We're not talking about making it easy, unfortunately." Pollet criticized the government for putting the burden on workers to prove their illnesses were due to their exposure at Hanford. "Congress expected it to be really easy, but it's been nothing but hurdle after hurdle," he said. Seattle Times staff reporters Hal Bernton and Gina Kim contributed to this report. Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company ***************************************************************** 22 Radioactive-material theft is 2nd within four months | The Winston Salem Journal - Journal Now Thu, August 8, 2002 Gauge may pose biggest risk to children, official says By Victoria Cherrie JOURNAL REPORTER For the second time in four months, authorities are searching for radioactive materials stolen from a parked truck. Thieves used bolt-cutters Tuesday night to remove a case containing a moisture-density gauge from the bed of a contractor's truck. The gauge contains small amounts of Americium 241/Beryllium and Cesium 137. The materials are radioactive and are a potential health and safety risk if handled improperly or broken open. The biggest danger is to children, who might find the gauge and not realize its potential hazards, said Don Reuter, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The gauge, which is used to test conditions of soil and asphalt during construction, was reported stolen about 10p.m. from a pickup parked outside the Super 8 Motel at 200 Mercantile Drive. Bunnel-Lammons Engineering Inc., a licensed contractor in Arden, owns the truck. The gauge was properly secured, officials said. The company is offering a $250 reward for the return of the gauge, which is the second of its kind to be stolen in the area this year. In April, two men were charged with stealing a truck that had the same kind of gauge inside. The truck, owned by a Greensboro paving company, was stolen while parked on U.S. 311 in Forsyth County. Investigators found the truck and gauge a few days later. The gauge stolen Tuesday has an orange case with a radioactive-materials label on its base. Reuter estimated the gauge's worth between $8,000 and $10,000. The greatest health risk would occur if a person were directly exposed to the sealed radioactive material inside the gauge, Reuter said. Being exposed to the material at a distance of 5 to 10 feet would be similar to being exposed to gamma rays from an X-ray, Reuter said. "The biggest problem would be if children found it in a ditch somewhere and started playing with it, possibly exposing themselves at a greater level," he said. DENR is working with local investigators to find the gauge. The agency has been more focused on the handling of hazardous materials since the theft in 1998 of 19 tubes of radioactive material from a cancer clinic at Moses Cone Memorial Hospital, Reuter said. DENR has also been on alert even more about hazardous materials since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. It is unlikely that the material in the gauge could be used for any kind of weapon or other dangerous device, Reuter said. Still, it could be dangerous if used the wrong way, he said. Anyone with information about the missing instrument is asked to call the Winston-Salem Police Department at 773-7770. • Victoria Cherrie can be reached at 727-7283 or at vcherrie@wsjournal.com ***************************************************************** 23 DOE told to give up fight on sick-worker claims The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- Thursday, August 8, 2002 by R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff The Department of Energy has changed course and seems to be laying down arms in the fight against sick-worker claims. According to The Associated Press, the Bush administration is "reversing course and telling government contractors not to fight claims from Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers who got sick on the job from exposure to toxic chemicals." "This is a positive step for the administration and we applaud Secretary Abraham in taking this action," said Harry Williams, president of the Coalition for a Healthy Environment, which consists of sick and disabled DOE workers who say their conditions resulted from work at the federal agency's facilities. Williams is a resident of Knoxville. "We are very pleased the Secretary has seen fit to adjust the final rule, but this is not in any way a complete fix of the bill," said Williams. The year-old Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program is divided into two parts, one which compensates sick workers or their survivors with $150,000 if the workers were exposed to cancer-causing radiation or to silica or beryllium, which are linked to lung diseases. The other part of the bill deals with workers exposed to heavy metals and toxic chemicals and who are required to go through the state workers' compensation program for assistance. "That's the largest group of sick workers, and there's a disparity in how the two groups are treated," said Williams, noting that the dose construction requirement for gaseous diffusion plant workers is also flawed. Janet Michel, a longtime local advocate for sick workers' rights, said this morning that she is pleased and surprised by the move. "I'm pleased," said Michel. "We've been working toward this for a long time, and while it's not fairness and justice for all, it's a small step forward. It's really amazing when DOE does something that's logical." The final Energy Department regulations, which were obtained by The Associated Press, are expected to be issued today. Under the final rule the government will advise contractors "not to contest medical panels' findings that workers' illnesses were related to job exposure." That would reverse policy and differ from an earlier draft proposal that enabled contractors to contest findings and seek reimbursement. The regulations are to be published in the Federal Register and could affect more than 12,000 workers, most of which are from states with large DOE facilities such as those in Oak Ridge. According to The Associated Press, Richard Miller, a policy analyst with the Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based watchdog group, said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham "overrode his own staff and really deserves some credit for reversing some of the flaws in the previous rule." "Under this program, we will help remove bureaucratic barriers that currently confront deserving contractor employees when they seek to obtain state workers' compensation benefits," Abraham said in the report. Under the new rule, the Energy Department will establish a uniform standard for physicians to consider when determining what made a worker sick, according to report. The standard requires reimbursement for a claimant if exposure to a toxic substance on the job was a significant factor in "aggravating, contributing to or causing the worker's illness or death." Also, according to the report, the new regulations state that only a majority vote is needed to find in favor of a claimant, compared with a unanimous vote needed under the draft rule. R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or danielsrcd@oakridger.com [danielsrcd@oakridger.com] . [http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 24 Whitfield drafting bill to force insurers to pay workers' claims - The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Thursday, August 08, 2002 DOE says it has no legal authority to force payment of claims. By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield is drafting a bill to force insurers to pay workers' compensation claims to people sickened from jobs at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant and other nuclear facilities. Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville, said the effort is designed to fill a big void in a federal law whose final Department of Energy regulations are expected to be released today. "I'm pleased that the final rule issued by DOE to help workers who were exposed to toxic substances contains changes I recommended that are more favorable to the claimant," he said. But DOE acknowledges it has no legal authority to force payment of claims once a physicians' panel determines workers are eligible for state benefits, so "my colleagues and I are working on separate legislation to address that shortcoming," Whitfield said. Whitfield's staff obtained a final draft of the regulations Wednesday. He had written Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in May saying DOE "appears to have misinterpreted the intent of Congress" in helping the workers. He also pointed out flaws in an earlier draft of the rules. The letter said the rules did not ensure that people exposed to workplace toxins are compensated by DOE contractors "without a legal battle." The rules did not compel contractors to hold private insurers, state plans and predecessor contractors blameless if they pay claims, and the rules provided for no means of compensation if a contractor does not exist, Whitfield complained. As a result, claimants could be approved by the panel "and have no way to get paid," his letter said. Legislation passed in 2000 provides $150,000 and medical benefits through the Department of Labor to uranium enrichment workers with chronic beryllium disease, silicosis and certain radiation-induced cancers. Those sickened from other workplace toxins may seek state workers’ compensation benefits by providing medical evidence to DOE, which decides whether a claim should be reviewed by the physicians’ panel. Whitfield said the new version of the rules has these improvements: + The panel must apply a uniform federal standard of illness causation, rather than widely differing standards in various states. + If the panel approves a claim, DOE will not oppose it and will direct its contractors to do likewise. + The three-member panel will make determinations by majority rather than unanimous vote. + DOE will not reimburse contractors' costs of contesting claims or awards based on panel findings. Contractors must pay the costs if they choose to contest despite DOE opposition. The earlier draft allowed for reimbursement of legal costs to contest all issues except cause of illness. ***************************************************************** 25 DOE Issues Regulations for Program to Help Employees of DOE Contractors Obtain Workers' Compensation Benefits for Work-Related Illness "These Are Our Workers And We Are Going to Take Care of Them" energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: August 8, 2002 WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today issued final regulations that set forth the procedures it will use in providing assistance to DOE contractor employees who have become ill from exposure to toxic substances while working at DOE facilities in seeking and obtaining state workers' compensation benefits. The regulations implement the program established by Part D of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA) of 2000. "Employees of DOE contractors have performed important work for their country," Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said. "Even though they may have worked for a government contractor, these dedicated individuals are our workers and we are going to take care of them." "We will assist current and former contract workers by helping them verify employment history, establish levels of exposure to toxic substances and verify causes of illness. Under this program, we will help remove bureaucratic barriers that currently confront deserving contractor employees when they seek to obtain state workers' compensation benefits." "This rule is directed at ensuring that DOE assists as many of those contractor employees, who may have been exposed to toxic substances while working at DOE facilities, as possible in obtaining the state workers' compensation benefits they deserve," added Abraham. Under the program governed by the regulations issued today, applicants may submit to DOE an application for a determination of whether a worker's illness or death arose from exposure to toxic substances at a DOE facility. All applications that meet a certain minimum threshold, by including verification of work history and showing that their illness may be caused by exposure to toxic substances while working at a DOE facility, will be referred to an independent, non-DOE physician panel for a determination of whether exposure to a toxic substance during employment at a DOE facility was a significant factor in causing the worker's illness. If the panel finds in the applicant's favor, DOE will assist the applicant in filing and supporting a claim for state workers' compensation benefits. DOE will also direct the worker's contractor employer not to contest the applicant's state claim with respect to the health condition that was the subject of the physician panel's finding. DOE's program under Part D of EEOICPA is separate and distinct from, and contains different standards, requirements and benefits than, the program managed by the Department of Labor (DOL) that was established by a different part of EEOICPA. The DOE program is open to DOE contractor and subcontractor employees, and provides for assistance to qualified workers in obtaining benefits that they may be entitled to receive under state workers' compensation programs. The DOL program, on the other hand, is required by law to address workers with certain illnesses (beryllium disease, radiation-induced cancers, and silicosis), and provides direct federal payments to eligible workers, which may include federal employees. DOE and DOL have established a network of Resource Centers at all major DOE sites where workers and their families can get help filling out claim forms for both the DOE and DOL programs and learn about EEOICPA. DOE also has established a network of contacts at its sites who are working to locate workers' employment, exposure and medical records so that important records required for the DOE and DOL programs can be located and processed. A list of those site offices and contact information is available on the web. Approximately 10,000 workers have filed applications with both the DOE and DOL programs; an additional 2,700 applications have been filed with only the DOE program. In addition, in its recent budget, DOE has requested the necessary funds to ensure that this new program is conducted successfully. The final regulation issued today is the result of a federal rulemaking process that began more than one year ago. DOE published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in September 2001 and subsequently received numerous comments from workers, their families, Members of Congress, state governments, labor unions, DOE contractors, and the insurance industry. DOE considered all of those comments in preparing its final rule, and incorporated into the final regulations a number of the commenters' suggestions and proposed changes. Workers who are interested in applying to the Department of Energy for assistance should contact the DOE Toll Free Hotline at 1-877/447-9756. Additional information, including a copy of the Final Rule, a Frequently Asked Questions document and other resource material, is available through the Internet at http://tis.eh.doe.gov/advocacy [http://tis.eh.doe.gov/advocacy] . Media Contact: Joe Davis, 202/586-4940 Release No. PR-02-159 ***************************************************************** 26 Radiation pills flying off shelves Residents take advantage of state-funded program Boston Globe Online: Print it! By Wendy Killeen, Globe Correspondent, 8/8/2002 When Brooks Pharmacy in Amesbury got a shipment of potassium iodide pills, which protect the thyroid from radiation released in a nuclear accident, pharmacist Bob Berman didn't expect them to fly off the shelf. He was wrong. Within a week, all 1,000 pills supplied to the store by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health had been given out, one free pill per person. ''I was very surprised at the interest,'' Berman said. ''It's been a lot busier than I expected.'' Michael Polzin, a spokesman for Walgreens, agreed. ''There's been a surprisingly strong request,'' he said, adding the pharmacy in Newburyport also gave out close to 1,000 pills in a week. The state program to distribute free potassium iodide pills - known as KI - in Massachusetts communities within the 10-mile evacuation zones of nuclear power plants started July 26. Locally, pills were distributed to Walgreens and Lynch Pharmacy in Newburyport, and Brooks drug stores in Newburyport and Amesbury. The program is scheduled to run through Sept. 30. One free pill is available to people who live within the 10-mile evacuation zone of Seabrook Station - Amesbury, Salisbury, Newburyport, Newbury, West Newbury, and Merrimac. They must show proof of residency and sign for the pill. Schools, day care centers, and businesses will also have access to the pills through the state program, which they can distribute, one per person, to students and employees. Potassium iodide is a salt-like, over-the-counter drug that protects the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine released during a nuclear accident. To be effective, it should be taken shortly before or after exposure and is protective for 24 hours, according to the Department of Public Health. The department emphasized KI does not protect other parts of the body from other types of radiation. It said the pill should be viewed as an adjunct to protective measures such as evacuation and sheltering. Still, the free availability of the pill enticed a good number of people to pick it up. Kim Duford of the Stop and Shop Pharmacy in Amesbury said she was getting five requests a day for the pill, despite the fact the pharmacy is not participating in the state program. Dave Sencabaugh, a Brooks spokesman, said in addition to the 1,000 pills distributed through its Amesbury store, about 140 were handed out in its Newburyport store. Jim Andriotakis of Lynch Pharmacy in Newburyport, said he had not been overwhelmed with requests, only about 50 households, the first week of the program. But, he added, he has been selling KI for a while, at a cost of $1 a pill. He said purchases of the pills were up in October, following the Sept. 11 terrorist acts. Demand slowed, then picked up again just before July 4. ''Every time there is a big warning,'' about the vulnerability of nuclear plants, requests for the pills increase, Andriotakis said. ''It's the one thing you can do,'' for protection, he said. But, he added, ''You still have to `get out of Dodge.''' Sandra Gavutis, executive director of the C-10 Research and Education Foundation, a nuclear plant watchdog group based in Newburyport, said the group has been lobbying for distribution of KI for two years. ''I am happy about the state's [action],'' she said. ''But I don't think it's enough.'' Gavutis said a nuclear accident could force people into shelter for two or three days, and each pill is protective for only 24 hours. ''The state should have allowed six per person,'' she said. And, because the pills have to be taken before or shortly after an accident, each person should have them stored in a variety of places from home to their car to their office. She said the pills come in packs of 14 for $10 and have a shelf life of 5 to 7 years. Gavutis said C-10 is also lobbying the state to extend the pill distribution program to people outside the 10-mile evacuation zone. ''Radiation doesn't have any bounds. It doesn't stop at the 10-mile circle,'' she said. ''It's playing with numbers. They say people within 10 miles are more at risk, but that doesn't mean the rest of the population isn't at risk. It depends on the prevailing winds.'' Gavutis added it's important to provide schools with KI because children are especially at risk for thyroid cancer associated with radiation exposure. Several local school systems said they are waiting for guidelines from the state before making plans to distribute the pills. ''It's just a matter of coordination so we can take care of it in the fall,'' said Roseanne Pawclec, spokesman for the Department of Public Health. At least one local day care center has taken action. ''We're in the process of getting [the pills] now as a precaution,'' said Jennifer Mysliwy of Children's House in Newburyport. Bill Piercy, executive director of the Newburyport Chamber of Commerce, said he hadn't heard of any businesses taking advantage of the state program for their employees. Meanwhile, residents of communities in the 10-mile zone can continue to pick up their KI pill at local pharmacies, depending on availability. After Sept. 30, they can obtain their one pill by mail from the Department of Public Health website, www.state.ma.us./dph or by calling 617-727-6214. ''I encourage people to get it,'' Gavutis said. ''One tablet is better than none at all.'' Wendy Killeen can be reached at "> killeen@globe.com This story ran on page N1 of the Boston Globe on 8/8/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. ***************************************************************** 27 Investigation of nuke sites' vulnerability encouraged House committee pushes Congress to probe whistle-blower's claims Tri-Valley Herald Thursday, August 08, 2002 - 3:00:08 AM MST By Lisa Friedman WASHINGTON BUREAU LIVERMORE -- Top members of the House Intelligence Committee want Congress to investigate a whistle-blower's claims that nuclear weapons facilities such as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are vulnerable to terrorist attack. The Department of Energy whistleblower, whose name and position within the agency were not identified, has made allegations that are "serious" and "specific," according to a sensitive Intelligence Committee memo. Reps. Porter Goss, R-Fla., and Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, who lead the committee, said staff members have reviewed the whistle-blower's information and "assessed his concerns to have merit." "We believe that the gravity of the information contained in this notification could require legislative changes and budgetary reallocations within the Department of Defense and Energy," Pelosi and Goss wrote on June 27 to leaders of the House Armed Services Committee. The memo asks members of the Armed Services Committee to investigate the claims. Department of Energy leaders maintained that nuclear weapons labs as well as transportation facilities are tightly safeguarded. "We have received no new allegations about security concerns," said Anson Franklin, spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration that oversees the DOE's nuclear arsenal. "NNSA's facilities and transportation assets are secure." Livermore spokeswoman Susan Houghton says security at the lab is top notch. "We are very proud of our security record here and the recent reviews have been quite good," Houghton said Wednesday. Both NNSA officials and lab leaders have dismissed claims from arms control groups complaining about lax security throughout the Department of Energy. An October report from the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, watchdog group that found federal agents posing as terrorists in mock exercises were able to breach security more than half the time drew anger and outrage from the agency. Former NNSA Administrator John Gordon called the report "false and misleading," while Livermore lab officials called it "alarmist" and "untrue." Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Livermore has taken extra measures, including posting armed guards at the facility perimeter and erecting road blocks near buildings that may contain sensitive material, Houghton said. The lab also has closed off public areas at Livermore to nonlab employees and no longer allows employees to "vouch" for visitors. The October POGO report did not attack Livermore specifically for security failures. It did give a series of damning illustrations of security breaches at other sites -- including one instance in which Navy SEALs conducting a mock terrorist exercise were able to make a big enough hole in a chain link fence surrounding the Rocky Flats nuclear production facility in Colorado that they could "steal" enough plutonium for several bombs. In another case, Army commandos walked out of the University of California-managed Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico with a Home Depot garden cart filled with nuclear material. The report broadly attributed security breaches to myriad problems including "conflict of interest, protection of the contractor, embarrassment, protection of the program, political sensitivities and bureaucratic survival." Ted Devine, an attorney with the Government Accountability Project, another whistleblower watchdog group, said the information Congress is reviewing is a "detailed account from inside the belly of the beast" explaining exactly why the DOE fails so many mock security tests. "The heavy hitters in Congress are taking this seriously, and they ought to," he said. Devine said the whistle-blower goes into specifics about exactly how and why breaches occurred. Ryan Vaart, spokesman for the House Armed Services Committee, said he and other staff members are reviewing hundreds of pages of documents on the matter but had no timeline on when, or even if, the committee would launch a separate investigation. "We're looking into this thing. We're looking into the entire package of stuff that was sent over to us by the Intelligence Committee." In the meantime according to Goss and Pelosi's memo, the Office of Special Counsel -- an independent federal agency that reviews whistle-blower's allegations -- is looking into the DOE employee's claims. If they find it has merit the agency can order the DOE to look into the security allegations. OSC spokeswoman Jane McFarland would not discuss the case but noted that "public health and safety claims take ultimate priority. Those kinds of reviews are done very quickly." ©1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers ***************************************************************** 28 *Nevada hurting Nevada on YMP* By PETE O'NEIL August 07, 2002 *08-07-02* Sen. (Harry) Reid and Nevada's other political elite told us that no benefits would ever come to our state from Yucca Mountain. What they didn't say is benefits won't come because Nevada's elected officials won't let them. Starting in 1987, Congress and the nuclear industry had nearly begged our state to accept benefits. Then Sen. J. Bennett Johnson (D-La.) introduced a bill that would have granted our state a $100 million dollar annual "incentive payment." That same year, our Reid called this offer "nuclear blackmail," and strong-armed colleagues to get the bill killed. Reid's posturing now seems to have seriously damaged the people of Nevada. If Reid had supported that bill in 1987, it probably would've passed. What would that have meant to Nevada? It would've meant $100 million per year times fifteen years. So far. For those as math challenged as Harry, that works out to $1.5 billion dollars. To those of us outside government, $1.5 billion is a lot for Nevada to give up - particularly since Harry's obstructionist tactics won't stop Yucca Mountain. They'll just stop any chance of Nevada getting paid. Nevada could use the money. It is time to begin a serious and responsible dialogue with the federal government and private industry aimed at protection and compensation for Nevada. I think Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is totally right: Nevada is going to lose the Yucca Mountain lawsuits. In that case, trusting our future to Harry's legal strategy and the federal courts is suicidal. After the Senate vote on Yucca Mountain, Reid said, "I want the record to be clear. There is no deal to be made now, nor will there be a deal to be made in the future." Well, Sen. Reid, let me make something perfectly clear to you and others in our state. Nevada officials have lost on every major Yucca Mountain tactic they've advanced. You keep losing, but never learn from your mistakes. I have initiated discussions with the Department of Energy, and will be discussing options regarding compensation for Yucca Mountain - and safety programs for its operations - with them. The results of those discussions will be forwarded to Gov. Guinn for action. I have also begun work on The Las Vegas Valley Protection & Comprehensive Compensation Act. Under current federal law, the State of Nevada is entitled to "impact authorization." Yucca Mountain has passed Congress, opening up our way to make a claim. We need to wise up and get to work. The law established in section 302 (c) [42 U.S. C. 10222 (c)] states that such payments should be made available entirely from funds held in the Nuclear Waste Fund. This fund has over 17 billion dollars in it today paid by ratepayers nationwide who use nuclear power. This fund provides the financial assets necessary and the proposed Las Vegas Valley Protection & Comprehensive Compensation Act addresses the safety concerns of the Yucca Mountain operation. It's time to manage the Yucca Mountain problem, not grandstand. Sen. Reid's posturing hasn't generated one victory since 1987, and is about to cost Nevada any voice in what ultimately happens at Yucca Mountain. Any strategy that hasn't worked in a decade and a half ought to be scrapped in favor of other methods. They're unlikely to produce a worse track record. We need to get intelligent about this issue. Nevada citizens need to show that they've got more sense than their present elected officials have. (O'Neil is the commissioner of the Professional Bicycle League, a candidate for Nevada's new third congressional district, and a foster dad with three children. He can be reached at pete@oneilforcongress.com) /©Pahrump Valley Times 2002/ ***************************************************************** 29 Site list for LES plant to be announced next week Elizabethton Star - Online Edition By Kathy Helms-Hughes STAR STAFF khughes@starhq.com [khughes@starhq.com] Concerned citizens from Unicoi County who expected to learn Tuesday whether their community is on the "short list" of prospective sites for a $1.1 billion uranium enrichment facility will have to wait another week, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Following a meeting Tuesday with members of Louisiana Energy Services, the consortium which plans to build the plant, Tim Johnson of the NRC in Rockville, Md., said LES indicated it will announce a short list at the end of next week, with final site selection coming at the end of August. The proposed gas centrifuge facility, the first of its kind in the United States, will employ technology now used by Urenco -- the world's leading supplier of enrichment services based on gas centrifuge technology -- and will be modeled after its Almelo plant in The Netherlands. The LES consortium is made up of Urenco, Fluor-Daniel and affiliates of three utility companies: Exelon, Entergy and Duke. Cameco Corp. of Ontario, Canada, and Westinghouse Electric Co. recently reached an agreement to negotiate partnership status with the consortium, however, they have not been admitted as formal partners. "LES did indicate today that their goal is to do the negotiations [with Cameco and Westinghouse] for the partnership by the end of the calendar year," Johnson said Tuesday. NRC and LES representatives also discussed instrumentation and controls and LES's approach to doing an integrated safety assessment. "Instrumentation and controls is basically how they plan on controlling the plant and controlling the equipment that is needed for safety of workers and the public. An integrated safety assessment is an analysis that factors in chemical safety, industrial safety, and radiological safety all together," Johnson said. There was no discussion on procedures for the transfer of technology from the United Kingdom to the United States, according to Johnson. Though land near BWX Technologies in Lynchburg, Va., and Global Nuclear Fuels in Wilmington, N.C., have been mentioned as possible locations for the plant, in addition to approximately 100 acres near Nuclear Fuel Services Inc., in Unicoi, Johnson said LES has not mentioned anything specific other than "they're going to look at non-reactor nuclear facility sites." LES also wants to locate in a moderate climate with low seismic hazards, he said. "One of the advantages of going to a nuclear site is a lot of the site data has already been generated. The farther you move away from that site, the less the advantages are from that standpoint." The NRC is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement for the LES project "on an aggressive 18-month schedule" based on assumptions that the facility will be constructed on an existing nuclear site and that the design will be similar to one previously proposed for Claiborne Enrichment Center in Homer, La., but never built. Johnson said that while some of the accident analysis from the Homer environmental report possibly can be used to prepare the new EIS, "most of that stuff was very site specific. Certainly all of the characterization data at that site would not apply to another site. A lot of the accident analysis evaluates impacts to populations that are a certain distance away. In that respect, a different site would have different population densities and distances to the nearest residence. Those kinds of things would all be very site specific." The NRC and LES representatives will hold another preapplication meeting either at the end of the month or the first of September, according to Johnson. Copyright © 1996 - 2002 Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc. Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc., 300 Sycamore Street Elizabethton, Tennessee 37643 - 423.542.4151 ***************************************************************** 30 West-siders voice concerns over Hanford waste dump This story was published Thu, Aug 8, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer SEATTLE -- Most, if not all, of about 160 people at a hearing Wednesday in Seattle opposed plans to bring additional radioactive wastes to Hanford for permanent or temporary disposal. "We are here to tell (the Department of Energy) that the solid waste (environmental impact study on Hanford importing wastes) is a farce," said Clare Gilbert of the Government Accountability Project. "No dump. I want cleanup," Carolyn DeWitt said. At least 40 people spoke at Wednesday's hearing, many charging that DOE hasn't provided adequate information to the public or adequately studied problems with transporting wastes across the country, including potential terrorist threats. "It (DOE) fails to consider the impacts of buried radioactive wastes to the ground water," Heather St. John said. DOE is looking at transferring much of its transuranic wastes, mixed radioactive and chemical wastes and low-level radioactive wastes to permanent storage sites. As part of the plan, the department is considering shipping low-level wastes -- mildly radioactive clothes and junk in barrels -- to Hanford for burial. The agency plans to eventually send all of its transuranic wastes -- highly radioactive material with extremely slow decay rates -- to a permanent storage site in New Mexico. However, DOE wants to send transuranic wastes from its small sites to Hanford to be checked, repacked and temporarily stored until they're sent to New Mexico. Meanwhile, mixed chemical and radioactive wastes have somewhat stumped the United States so far because of limited technical expertise to neutralize that material. DOE is seriously looking at storing its mixed wastes at Hanford as a potential solution. In April, DOE unveiled a draft environmental impact study report on the consequences to Hanford if it accepted wastes from other DOE sites. The state, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Hanford Advisory Board have all criticized that draft for being too skimpy to be useful in analyzing the environmental consequences to Hanford. "We feel there are environmental standards that are going to be violated (if DOE follows its recommendations)," said Chris Gephart, who reviewed the study for the EPA. Max Power, a nuclear specialist for Washington's Department of Ecology, said: "We need the same confidence that any additional wastes brought to Hanford will also be managed safely, both day-to-day and in the long term. Unfortunately, this (study report) falls short on all counts." DOE tentatively expects to release a final draft of the study in November and make its final decisions on the wastes a month later. Wednesday's hearing was part of the study's public comment process. Three Washington U.S. representatives -- Democrats Brian Baird, Jim McDermott and Adam Smith -- have voiced opposition to Hanford importing outside wastes. U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is also critical of importing wastes and of DOE's draft environmental study. On Wednesday, she sent a letter to DOE that said: "Without specific data on how much and what types of wastes DOE is proposing to import, and precisely how this waste will be treated and stored, it is unclear to me how the agency can justify its conclusion that the (environmental and health) harm will be relatively small, and would not be expected to contribute substantially to the of other activities at Hanford." Meanwhile, Gerald Pollet, director of Heart of America Northwest contended a recent discovery of carbon tetrachloride vapors in a west-central burial trench means it is illegal to use that trench area to bury new wastes. He called for the state to immediately shut down that system of trenches. Power said the state has no intention of closing that site in the near future. Hanford needs to do more studies on that area to get a better grasp on carbon tetrachloride pollution in that area. The carcinogenic solvent was used extensively in Cold War plutonium production and massive plumes of the chemical have spread under the Hanford site. Also, the trench with the high readings contains transuranic wastes that the state wants Hanford to dig up to prepare for eventual shipment to New Mexico, Power said. The state is keeping close tabs on the new carbon tetrachloride situation and will take legal action if specific violations occur, he said. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 31 Senator's impartiality on lawsuit issue questioned The Associated Press The propriety of a state senator arguing against Nebraska spending more money in defense of a federal low-level nuclear waste lawsuit is being called into question. If Nebraska loses, it could be ordered to pay millions of dollars to Lincoln Sen. Mike Foley's employer. "That's a problem," said Jack Gould, spokesman for Common Cause of Nebraska. "He should be excusing himself from any kind of a vote or a decision." Foley is a member of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee and also works as a planning analyst for the Nebraska Public Power District. Foley said Wednesday there is no conflict because he does not personally stand to gain financially if Nebraska loses the lawsuit filed over the licensing of a nuclear waste dump in Boyd County. NPPD is not a party to the lawsuit against Nebraska, but it could benefit if the state were to lose. Nebraska is being sued by a multistate compact that includes Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The states joined with Nebraska in the 1980s and then voted to locate a low-level nuclear waste dump near Butte in Boyd County. The lawsuit, which concluded earlier this month in federal court, alleges that Nebraska officials acted in bad faith to block licensing of the facility. If Nebraska loses, it could be forced to build the dump and pay up to $200 million in damages. NPPD contributed $14.7 million to the compact. Foley sat through most of the nine-week trial for NPPD and provided updates to his employer. He has been vocal about expressing his opinion that the state will lose the lawsuit. Foley on Wednesday made a motion in the Appropriations Committee to spend only an additional $2 million in defense of the lawsuit instead of the $4.1 million Gov. Mike Johanns proposed. The committee voted 7-2 in favor of reducing the amount, with Sen. Roger Wehrbein of Plattsmouth and Sen. Lowen Kruse of Omaha voting no. Wehrbein said he was aware of Foley's potential conflict. "I think he should be thinking about how his actions might be viewed," Wehrbein said. Foley denied that he was trying to undermine the state's defense. "The suit's over. We've put on a Mercedes Benz defense," he said. "No expense was spared." Copyright © 2002, Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved. This content may not be archived or used for commercial purposes without written permission from the Lincoln Journal Star. 926 P Street Lincoln NE 68508 402 475-4200 ? feedback@journalstar.com ***************************************************************** 32 Radioactive mess dumped on taxpayers HoustonChronicle.com - Aug. 8, 2002, 8:01PM Cleanup could cost millions, but officials see no health threat By TONY FREEMANTLE Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle A local company in bankruptcy abandoned two industrial buildings full of highly radioactive materials, leaving the federal government and taxpayers with a $8.5 million tab for cleaning up a virtually unprecedented and dangerous nuclear mess. For more than 20 years, Gulf Nuclear of Louisiana Inc. manufactured radioactive materials in a nondescript building in the heart of Webster's medical center and in an equally unremarkable facility near Hobby Airport. When the company filed for bankruptcy in 1992, it essentially closed the doors and walked away from the Webster location without cleaning its mess, and conducted a cursory cleanup at the other site. Last year, because Gulf Nuclear still had not done anything to clean the heavily contaminated Webster site, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was called to tackle the difficult and dangerous task, using emergency Superfund money. Some material from the Webster building is so radioactive it cannot legally be disposed of at any existing facility in the United States. It will have to be stored and most likely deposited in the government's proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. Moreover, while it poses no immediate threat to public health and safety, the contamination at both sites is bad enough to warrant the destruction of the buildings, which have a combined appraised value of more than $620,000. RESOURCES Americium-241 • Americium (chemical symbol Am) is a manmade radioactive metal produced in nuclear reactors and in nuclear weapons detonations. Americium has several different forms, all of which are radioactive. The most important is Americium-241. • The most widespread use of Americium-241 is in household and industrial smoke detectors. Other commercial uses include: medical diagnostic devices, research, fluid-density gauges, thickness gauges, aircraft fuel gauges, and distance-sensing devices. • Exposure to Americium-241 is unlikely, but it poses a significant cancer risk if swallowed or inhaled. • Its radioactivity decreases by 50% -- also known as its half-life -- in about 432.7 years. Michael Dunn, chief of industrial licensing for the Texas Department of Health's Bureau of Radiation, said there was no indication that any radiation had escaped the building and threatened the surrounding communities. He said for 15 years the department has monitored the perimeter of the Webster building, but despite occasional readings higher than "ambient levels, we do not have reason to believe that there has been a large" amount of radiation that has made it off-site. On Wednesday, cleanup operations at the Webster site continued with a team comprising workers from the EPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a private environmental cleanup company. Temporary offices have been established on site, where security is now present 24 hours a day. Greg Fife, an EPA veteran who is the on-site coordinator for the cleanup, said when he and other federal officials first entered the Webster building in January, they expected to find most of the contamination confined to the "hot room," a sealed, lead-lined area where the radioactive materials were kept and handled. They also expected to find the radiation was coming from about 12 sources. Instead, they found more than 360 sources, and contamination so widespread that workers almost certainly were exposed to very high, very dangerous levels of radioactivity. In one area outside the "hot room," Fife said workers would have been exposed to one year's worth of acceptable radiation in 38 minutes. "Anybody that's been in there would have no reluctance to call the operation sloppy and unprofessional," Fife said. Gulf Nuclear began operations at the two sites in 1971, initially supplying radioactive tracers for the oil industry. Over time it began making devices using Americium-241, beryllium, cesium-137, irridium-192 and other isotopes that were used for a variety of purposes -- medical diagnostic devices, aircraft fuel gauges, fluid-density gauges. Americium-241 is by far the worst isotope, with a half-life of 432.7 years, meaning that it takes that long for the substance to lose half its radioactivity. Fife said Americium contamination in the Webster building is widespread. About $10,000 of it was found lying in an open box. Glove boxes (the devices used by workers standing outside of the hot room to manipulate chemicals inside) are coated with radioactive powder. Raw materials were spilled on the floor. There was evidence that workers used plastic coffee cups to mix radioactive chemicals, which were stored in plastic ice trays. Investigators even found a sealed room with fake walls in which was entombed thousands of dollars worth of contaminated equipment, Fife said. "I've done this for 15 years," the veteran federal environmental regulator said. "I've seen nasty sites where things fell apart because of a lack of money. I've seen cases where the owners of a facility couldn't cope with the problem. But I have never seen such total disregard for the neighbors or the workers." Virtually all the contamination at both sites occurred between 1971 and 1992 -- the year that Gulf Nuclear filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, seeking protection from its creditors while it reorganized. The company then filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2000, seeking to liquidate and close. From 1992 to 2000, little was done to clean up the Webster facility, Fife said. "Basically they just walked off," he said. "They got their money during the oil boom and then they just walked off." The company made an effort to clean up the Hobby Airport site, located in the 9300 block of Tavenor, Fife said. It erected a building to store the hazardous waste from the facility and partially demolished the existing buildings. Through the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Texas Department of Health regulates and licenses companies that handle nuclear materials. Dunn said department inspectors visited the facilities once or twice a year. The reason nothing alerted inspectors to problems that according to Fife were evident, could be that "they weren't told some things," Dunn said. The Gulf Nuclear operation is one of only two of its kind in the state licensed by the health department, Dunn said. "This is a rare one," he said. Carl Shaw, president and CEO of The GNI Group, the parent company of Gulf Nuclear, did not return a phone call to his home seeking comment. Neither did two attorneys representing him. But in an affidavit filed in support of his company's 2000 bankruptcy petition, he states GNI has five wholly owned subsidiaries, including Gulf Nuclear of Louisiana Inc. On Sept. 12, 2000, a year before any regulatory agencies were involved in the cleanup, Shaw states under oath, that Gulf Nuclear's properties are "currently undergoing decontamination" and that once that is completed they will be "released for sale by the appropriate regulatory authorities." The EPA's Fife said nothing of any substance had been done to decontaminate the Webster facility before the EPA's involvement in October 2001. Bill Reeves is a former officer at Gulf Nuclear who now works as vice president for regulatory affairs at Texas Molecular, a Deer Park-based company that bought some of the Gulf Nuclear's assets. During the eight years the company was in Chapter 11, he said, "for whatever reason, they couldn't sell that building." "Those two buildings are not glow-in-the-dark buildings," Reeves said. "They're not a danger to the community. But there is no doubt they need to be cleaned up. And I'm real glad I never had anything to do with that part of the business." ***************************************************************** 33 YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Ethics policy tangles anti-dump strategies Thursday, August 08, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Employees who quit after working on project face restrictions By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- A new government ethics advisory could complicate Nevada's legal campaign against the Yucca Mountain Project, state officials say. The Office of Government Ethics said on July 31 that employees who leave their jobs after becoming "substantially" involved with the nuclear waste repository program should be barred from representing outside interests in Yucca licensing matters. With the Nuclear Regulatory Commission preparing to review a repository license application, ethics office director Amy L. Comstock said the advisory clarifies the federal law that restricts post-government employment by top bureaucrats. Nevada officials said the ruling could hinder efforts to recruit former Energy Department and NRC insiders to help build their case against licensing the repository proposed to be built 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It also might affect the state's relationship with John Bartlett, the former head of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, who might now be covered by the law, they said. Bartlett had been contracted to advise on the Yucca program for $150 an hour. Joe Egan, an attorney hired by Gov. Kenny Guinn to head the Nevada legal and licensing efforts, called the ethics ruling "thinly credible." "It's clear they're going to start strengthening all the requirements that will make it harder for us to do our job," he said. Bob Loux, head of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the state is examining whether the advisory can be challenged in some way. A spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, which also is expected to play a role in Yucca licensing, said the group viewed the opinion as "normal business." Comstock said DOE and NRC ethics officials asked for advice on how to apply the conflict of interest law now that the Yucca Mountain Project is moving from site characterization and pre-licensing work to a licensing phase that will involve formal hearings before administrative judges. The conflict law, a criminal statute, seeks to block officials from switching sides when their knowledge of confidential information or inside-agency deliberations might compromise a government effort. "The post-employment law goes back to the concept of not serving two masters," said John Szabo, a senior attorney at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "It's the idea that employees who have been specifically involved in specific areas should not go out and argue against the government." Comstock told the ethics officers her office determined that former employees "who participated personally and substantially in the site characterization or any other efforts pertaining to the licensing of Yucca Mountain are permanently barred from representational activity in connection with the license application and related NRC adjudication." Others could be subject to a two-year waiting period. There are exceptions for workers who leave one agency to work for another or who are called to testify under oath or who might write scientific papers under specific conditions. Otherwise, the conflict law bars former government employees from taking roles in which they "represent" a client through phone conversations, appearances and most writings "with intent to influence the government" on Yucca licensing. Covered employees could take Yucca-related jobs that would keep them "behind the scenes," officials said. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 34 Reid had opportunity to cut off Yucca funds [online@rgj.com] 8/7/2002 10:33 pm Harry, Harry, Harry, what did you mean when you said in Comstock Business Magazine “nuclear waste could have been stopped by one man, and that was George W. Bush.” Harry, you have been in Washington for almost 20 years. You are on numerous committees, including chairman of the Appropriations Committee that controls the governments purse strings. Where did you think the billions of dollars have been going for the past 20 years that you appropriated for Yucca Mountain? Were these appropriations simply “pork”? Did you really think Yucca would never happen, and, if so, why keep spending taxpayer money? Harry, you and your buddies Slick Willie and Puff Daschle had eight years before George W. Bush to stop Yucca Mountain. Why didn’t your appropriations committee stop funding Yucca? Then you make a statement that Nevada will never be able to obtain federal dollars for storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. Harry, you’re the chairman of the appropriations committee. I think you owe the citizens of Nevada an apology for being involved in funding Yucca Mountain for the past 20 years. You have no one to blame for Yucca, except yourself. Bill Fleiner, Reno © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 35 Highly radioactive waste Hanford-bound Wednesday, August 7, 2002 SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES RICHLAND -- Waste so radioactive that it can only be handled remotely with special equipment could start coming to Hanford from out of state as soon as in the next few months. The Department of Energy wants to speed cleanup of contaminated locations around the nation, and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is being considered to receive waste from smaller places, facilitating their closure. About 200 barrels of waste tainted with plutonium and other isotopes that are radioactive for thousands of years -- called transuranic waste -- would be trucked in from two places. There is no permanent repository for remotely handled transuranic waste. Protocols for disposing this kind of material are being developed at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a DOE facility in southeastern New Mexico. That facility could start receiving the waste in one to three years. Critics of plans to ship remotely handled transuranic waste to Hanford are concerned that once it arrives, it won't leave. The document permitting shipment to Hanford makes clear that it will be there temporarily, DOE officials said. Authorities in Richland are expecting approval from DOE headquarters for the plan in coming weeks. After approval, there is a 60-day waiting period before the waste shipment would start. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to [newmedia@seattlepi.com] ***************************************************************** 36 UK: 'GOLFBALL' WORK AT CRITICAL STAGE [The Whitehaven News] ENGINEERS have reached the critical stage in taking out the highly radioactive graphite core of the Windscale advanced gas-Cooled nuclear reactor (WAGR) - better known as Sellafield's giant golf ball. WAGR was built at Sellafield, then Windscale, to pioneer a generation of electricity-producing advanced gas cooled reactors for the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The plan is to have it completely dismantled and returned to a greenfield site in the next 40 to 50 years. WAGR worked for 18 years from 1963 until 1981. But the UKAEA admits that because of high radiation levels the next stage of decommissioning is the most critical. Because of the levels, the reactor core will have to be removed by remote control. The 210-tonne core is made up of 3,344 rectangular bricks. Its removal involves eight layers of interlocking graphite blocks held together by steel restraint bands and interlaced by thermocouple wires and flux scanning tubes. Each layer of core will be dismantled brick by brick using a ball grab deployed from a remotely-operated overhead crane. And the steel restraint bands will be cut into pieces by a reciprocating saw deployed by a specially-adapted manipulator being used to its full extent for the first time during the decommissioning programme. Already removed is the 90-tonne neutron shield which during the reactor's operation absorbed the radiation and helped to shield workers. "This stage of the programme represents a milestone for the project and the people working on it," said Windscale site chief, Peter Mann. He added: "We have made good progress recently, particularly on the neutron shield. We can approach the removal of the reactor core with renewed confidence." http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk ***************************************************************** 37 UK: WORKERS' ANGER AT BNFL [The Whitehaven News] FEELINGS are running high over the closure of BNFL's machine shop on the Lillyhall industrial estate. The closure decision, which will see the work being done in France, has angered the machine shop workforce who say the work should be kept in West Cumbria. About 30 people are affected and one of them told The Whitehaven News: "Don't you think we are losing enough jobs in the area without us handing work to another country? It really sticks in the throat. Although we have been offered other jobs, we all feel upset about this situation." For the last 20 years, the Lillyhall shop has manufactured graphite components for use in nuclear fuel rods, but BNFL say it is no longer economically viable. The company blames "a combination of environmental and technical changes" but adds: "The machine shop workforce has worked hard to maintain the plant's competitiveness. It is a tribute to their success it has continued to operate for so long. All those currently employed will be offered alternative employment within the company." Workers think that BNFL preferred to shut the plant rather than invest £3 million in a new furnace. "We've been ditched at a time when another £5 million has been spent on Sellafield Visitors Centre. You wonder where BNFL's priorities are with regard to keeping jobs in West Cumbria. It's the thin end of the wedge. Are we being used as guinea pigs to see how smoothly the company can get away with something like this, setting a precedent and then doing the same with other services? It's not just us being affected but the kids of the future if they are going to carry on with this sort of policy," said the same employee. Sellafield spokesman Nigel Monckton said it was wrong to make comparisons with the money spent on the Visitors Centre. "Maintaining stakeholder confidence is essential for the future of the industry." He added: "It is not a popular decision or one that has been taken lightly. Because of changes in the way the raw material is manufactured and the environmental impact, a lot of extra engineering investment would have been needed at Lillyhall, but at the end of the day the customer doesn't want to pay, a decision has to be made and in this case it was not viable." Discussions will take place with Lillyhall machine shop employees over other job prospects but voluntary severance packages may also be available. http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk ***************************************************************** 38 UK: MP DR JACK (BNFL privitization) [The Whitehaven News] [http://www.cumbria-online.co.uk] THE government is still intent on part-privatising BNFL now the costly nuclear clean-up factor is being handed over to the state-funded Liabilities Management Agency (LMA). Copeland MP Jack Cunningham revealed the government still wants to part sell-off BNFL during press interviews as he accompanied the Prime Minister on his holiday in Cumbria. Dr Cunningham said he had been lobbying hard for the new LMA to have its headquarters in West Cumbria. "I was in the car with the Prime Minister for some 45 minutes and I repeated to him the case for siting LMA here. "We have to win the argument it won't just drop into our lap,'' he said. He said Harwell and Risley were rival bidders. On the issue of a sell- off Dr Cunningham said: "Part privatisation is an aim, a goal, for someobody to buy a minority share, which is what is being proposed. "Although it is true to say the rail sell-off was a social and economic disaster we are not looking at anything like that in terms of the nuclear industry. "When the circumstances are right, if they ever are because we shouldn't assume there will be people queuing up to invest. "So it will only be if the circumstances are right.'' [http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk ***************************************************************** 39 Powerhouse H-Bomb Heads For Graveyard (washingtonpost.com) By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 8, 2002; Page A10 The United States will soon begin to dismantle the 35 remaining B-53s, the most powerful thermonuclear bombs it ever built, 40 years after the weapons first became operational and five years after they were withdrawn from active service, according to Energy Department officials. With a yield of 9 megatons (the equivalent of 9 million tons of TNT), each B-53 has the power of more than 400 Hiroshima atomic bombs. The weapon was originally designed to destroy the Soviet Union's deeply buried bunkers built during the Cold War to protect top Communist Party leaders and Moscow's military command posts. The 9,000-pound bomb remained in the active stockpile until 1997 because it was the only giant thermonuclear weapon, or H-bomb, that Strategic Command planners felt confident could destroy Russian, North Korean and Iraqi hardened targets hidden in mountains or buried underground, according to active and retired Defense and Energy department specialists. It was only in 1997, when the newer B-61 Mod 11 nuclear bomb, with a special earth-penetrating warhead, became operational, that the Strategic Command during the Clinton administration put the B-53 into secure storage warehouses. An unplanned lag has developed over the years in the Energy Department's ability to dismantle its older, retired nuclear weapons at its Pantex plant in Texas, the only facility where U.S. nuclear weapons have been assembled and disassembled. Like the B-53, a line of other nuclear weapons has developed waiting to be taken apart in a highly technical and potentially dangerous process. This little-publicized delay, along with the growing number of refurbished nuclear bombs and warheads in line to go through the Pantex plant and be returned to operational status, is the reason there will be no immediate dismantling of the warheads removed under the new Bush administration strategic reduction treaty with Russia. For example, the W-79, the eight-inch nuclear artillery shell that in the 1970s was to provide a neutron radiation effect that would kill people but leave buildings intact, still has not been completely dismantled. The 500 so-called neutron artillery shells were retired in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush, but there still is "ongoing dismantlement work" on the W-79 "that's been under[way] for several years," Everet H. Beckner, deputy administrator for defense programs of the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. The W-79 program was supposed to have been completed in August 2000 but was held up when complications developed. Another weapon retired by Bush and still being dismantled is the W-56, the warhead for the Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The 500 W-56 warheads were supposed to have been dismantled by September, but Beckner told the committee the process "will continue through fiscal year 2005." Also in line to begin disassembly soon are the tactical B-61 nuclear bombs that first came into the inventory in 1963. Dismantling nuclear bombs and warheads takes years of planning, Beckner told the committee, "since we must safely and securely handle the thousands of parts that will be generated by the process." Radiation hazards must be analyzed and safety standards approved. Transportation from secure storage areas must be programmed; storage at Pantex arranged; and each weapon radiographed to see if its critical safety components are operational, all before any dismantling. Each weapon has to be taken apart in a separate, secure work bay. The primary chemical high explosive must carefully be separated from the plutonium and special radioactive materials that cause the thermonuclear blast. The chemical high explosives are burned at Pantex and the plutonium is stored there because no plant exists to take that section apart. Other special nuclear materials can be disposed of under the existing material disposition programs. Some other subassemblies can be retained for use in other weapons, while highly enriched uranium from the dismantled bombs and warheads could be sent to the Energy Department's Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn., for storage or further processing. The dismantling system is so complex and the plans for refurbishing weapons so large that the Pantex plant, with its limited number of secure work bays, will not be able to take on new dismantling without expanding the workforce, Beckner told the senators. "We have some room . . . between now and about 2005," Beckner said. "From about 2005 to 2012 or so, we have a large workload in the life extension program," he added. The B-53 experience shows how weapons needs can affect the dismantling process. In the mid-1980s, plans were made to retire and dismantle the B-53 and replace it with the lower-yield B-83. But in 1987, after accidents caused the Pentagon to deactivate the Titan II liquid-fueled ICBM force, which used a 9-megaton warhead, the decision was made to halt B-53 retirements and keep 50 operational. At the time, it was disclosed that the giant bomb was the only weapon with the ability to destroy deeply buried hard targets. A life extension program for the B-53 was undertaken in the late 1980s to give it additional safety equipment. But even when the Cold War ended, Strategic Command planners continued to need a giant nuclear warhead to attack underground facilities. As the 1990s progressed, additional "target sets" required retention of the B-53, which was no longer considered as safe as other nuclear weapons. Even when the new earth-penetrating B-61 became operational in January 1997, the B-53 was initially to be retained as part of the hedge stockpile, according to an announcement at the time. © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 40 'Dirty Bombs' Drop Dilemma on West Los Angeles Times - latimes.com COMMENTARY * Moral and other questions encircle this new threat. By SAM COHEN, Sam Cohen is a retired nuclear weapons analyst who invented the neutron bomb concept. The United States nabbed a U.S.-born citizen who converted to Islam, joined Al Qaeda and, so the government claims, plotted to attack the U.S. with a primitive radioactive device--a high explosive encased in a radioactive shell that upon detonation would spread radioactivity over a limited but densely populated area. There are other ways that a terrorist state can cause the same--or worse--mayhem. Iraq, for example, could deliver a specific radioactive agent--produced in a simple, cheap nuclear fission reactor--via a ballistic missile that deposited pinhead-size radioactive pellets over a vastly larger area. Not only is this diabolical scheme technically simple, but there are no international treaties forbidding or constraining it. (Nuclear arms control treaties have focused solely on nuclear explosives.) There would be no massive urban devastation and no long-lasting contamination. The purpose would be to force the evacuation of a city for weeks or months, with no significant level of casualties. The aim would not be to destroy the city and kill its inhabitants, as happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unless the offensive missile is attacked before the radioactive pellets are released into a certain pattern, the effectiveness of the radioactive material is virtually assured. The pellets will float toward the surface and will be invulnerable to defensive "kill" mechanisms. Such a strategic radiological attack is greatly more moral than the primitive Nagasaki-type fission bombs that Iraq purportedly has been building. During the Persian Gulf War, Iraq attacked Israel with a number of short-range Scud ballistic missiles armed with large payloads of high explosives. Not much damage was done, and Israel was pressured by the U.S. to not retaliate in any form. Now let's suppose that sometime soon, in response to U.S. military actions, Iraq conducts radiological attacks on Israeli cities. This could be provocative for Israel and would pose the problem as to whether it should use its high-yield nuclear weapons against Iraq regardless of possible U.S. (and international) objections. From a moral standpoint, would the temporary evacuation of Tel Aviv justify the obliteration of Baghdad? Resolving such a dilemma in advance would be hideously complex and perhaps not even possible, but nevertheless this is a matter that should receive the most serious consideration. Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times ***************************************************************** 41 Amanda Rich: Buildup of nuclear weapons brings us closer to disaster *****************************************************************